Cedric eagerly raised his hand. Deciphering codes weren't that hard and he was sure that he and the others could do the task at ease so as far as he could tell, they would have a rather easy-to-understand lesson today.

"It's about studying magical codes, cyphers and symbols. It could be used as a means of hidden communications."

Codes... they could form their own codes, couldn't they? And that would be fun. Real fun.

Dianna raised her hand.
"Uhmm..Cryptomancy is the study of magical codes, cyphers and symbols. And uh.. is often tied in with runes and linguistics." she said.

Lucy was sure she knew a little bit of this as she loved to study numbers and hidden codes. She raised up her hand and said "Professor Cryptomancy means the study of hidden codes and was created by omens, the word Cryto comes from the Greek word kruptos which means hidden and mancy from manteia which means prophecy." she said and was happy to answer the question.

Listening to the first girl, Fina wasn't the least bit surprised that she was in Ravenclaw. It was - afterall - a very succinct answer. "Excellent and precisely correct" she said, putting a small smiley face next to the girl's name on her notepad.

"Good, good. I like how you mention the linguistic aspect." Fina nodded at the Hufflepuff. "After all, calculations are merely one aspect of Arithmancy, but to truly master the subject, you do need to be able to understand what those numbers mean. Linguistics, yes."

Linguistics and then moving on to more unique answers! Oh and how special that they were each in different houses thus far. Truly showed that each house was SO smart! "That is very true! The codes don't have to be numbers, but even letters to letters. Of course we'll be doing it with numbers today, but keep in mind that it doesn't have to be with numbers. Good."

Hidden communication. Cyphers and symbols and linguistics. Nothing new here, but nonetheless, "Good, good." She said to the two students.

Oh so this one was very root oriented in her meanings. "Yes ... hidden. Not so sure about the prophecy part, as its more dealing with messages than prophecies, but that's my opinion at least. What do you think? You think there is some reason to prophecy being in the word cryptomancy?"



"So as I may have hinted at, today we will be writing our own secret messages by assigning numbers in the Pythagorean System to letters, as demonstrated with message on the board at the start of the lesson." Josephina explained. "Once you've created your message, you will then give your message to a partner of your choosing and have them attempt to decipher it."

ooc: Remember to keep all sentences SS appropriate. Points loss, detention and/or possible site warning may be issued for inappropriateness.

Nia tilted her head. The '-mancy' question was interesting. Probably something that didn't have a definitive answer, but there must be some reason for that subtly. "Well, Cryptography is the science of hiding messages, by encoding and so on. It covers both the practice and study hiding information." She with that, she took a moment to collect her next thoughts. "So I'm guessing the '-mancy' part implies what is encrypted or hidden has some form of message. With meaning. Not just junk, but has something in particular to relay to another person. And the fact it has been hidden probably means it is secret and personal information, which may have led to the idea of it being a prophecy in the past...the mystery of it?"

Okay, so she wasn't sure about the last bit of her argument, but it was worth a try. As for a message, what did she want to write? Decisions...

Hmm, so they were able to create their own messages? Oh this was going to be brilliant. Perhaps she and Destiny could write coded messages to each other in classes. Mwaha! Or anywhere else if they didn't want someone reading it.

Now to just think of a message. Staring at the letters, her thought process was suddenly interrupted when she heard her name somewhere. Frowning, she looked around, only to have a paper airplane in her face. ACK! Snatching it angrily out of the air, she looked for the culprit. Her expression softened though when her eyes landed on Patroclus. How come she didn't notice him sitting there before?

Smiling, she opened up the parchment and looked at the numbers. Hehe. Working on translating it, it took a few minutes for her to work it out, but when she did, a small smirk appeared on her face. Quickly writing her own message down on the same parchment, before putting it back into it's paper airplane form, and throwing it back to her next to favorite Gryffie.

Alex sighed trying to decide on what to write, there was alot of choices and she couldn't make up her mind. She also had to chose who to give the message to.. and she knew only a few people who liked her, so that made it even harder.. She sighed having already thought of a way around that.. She could give hers to Selena.. Selena could give hers to Zane and Zane could give his to her.. but she wouldn't say it outloud.. this was hard to chose, Alex thought annoyed. Something about Witner maybe?.. hmm.. Alex thought hard, she was slightly confused, "Professor how long or short can this message be?" Alex asked raising her hand.

Lucy was happy to see that her answer was almost correct to the Professor, her eyes went wide open as she heard the Professor asking another question to her, she thought for a second and said "I think there would be some reason for writing the codes in an hidden manner, it may be the reason that the others not to know them, and as for the codes being Prophecy, prophecy means foretelling, prediction or forecast, maybe in early times they didn't wanted the others to know the secrets of the future and that's why the codes were in an hidden form" she said and stopped and thought on what she said she wasn't good at explaining at all and thought hope professor understood what exactly was she trying to say.

Eli raised his hand. "Prophecy is in the word cryptomancy because the messages have been used over history by prophets and seers to pass along secret messages that tell the future. My real father is an Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries and he says they use cryptomancy all the time in their most top secret secret work in the rooms. For security." This was not even a little bit true. Eli had no idea who his 'real' father even was, though he had read that the department of mysteries used cryptomancy in the hall of prophecy or something like that. But to just say he read it didn't sound as intriguing, and for some weird reason he really wanted to impress the arithmancy professor. He wasn't sure why.

Carter
 

So, they were going to make up their own code and give it to someone to figure out. Marie knew instantly who she was going to give hers to. She glanced over at Carter then back at her parchment where she wrote her code. She knew there would be no turning back once it was deciphered but this was something she felt had to be said.

Looking over at Carter she put her parchment on his desk. "A message for you," she said looking at him hesitantly. Now to sit back and watch the look on his face once he figured out what it said.

Carter got straight to work on a note when the assignment was given. Looking down at his textbook he wrote down a note he was going to give to Marie.

SPOILER!!: Carter's Code

4519 41995,

2891 91 1 5625

319259

He looked over when he was finished just in time for Marie to be putting her parchment on his desk. Smiling he said, "This one is for you." He then put his parchment on her desk.

He then started to get to work on the code on his desk. With his tongue just barely poking out of the side of his mouth he got to work.

SPOILER!!: Marie's Code and Translation

9 14 95 3645 5928 763 319259 78933971
i am in love with you carter phillips

Once he was done with translation he looked down and read the phrase. Instantly turning bright red he looked over at Marie. That was nothing like his code to her read.

Maybe he could just snatch it back and write a better one. He then began slowly reaching over for it.

Marie sat there watching as Carter deciphered her note. She didn't start on his yet because she didn't want to miss the look on his face once he read her message to him. She couldn't help but think how cute he looked sitting there with his tongue poking out a little as he worked. She really did love him, even when his tongue was sticking out.

Seeing his face turn bright red she knew that he had figured it out. She smiled and winked at him as he looked at her.

Turning back to his code now she was about to start deciphering it when he reached over like he was going to take it from her. "Oh no you don't," she said slapping his hand out of the way. She was now really curious about what the note said since he all of a sudden seemed like he didn't want her to read it.

Holding her left hand on the note so he couldn't take it, she started to decipher it.


Well that wasn't a bad message. Why wouldn't he want her to read that? She looked over at him, "Thanks for the note," she said smiling at him. "And you still can't have it back." Nope, it was her note, it had her name on it so she was keeping it.

Ann smiled and got to work trying to make a code. It probably wasn't going to work, knowing her. But she'd give anything a go, why not?



Then she got up and placed it on Eli's desk, hoping he'd decipher it right.

Eli picked out the message and grinned. Patronus lessons in the flower garden? Yes please!

He nodded and then sent her a note back:



He grinned and then sent one up to the teacher.

"Professor? I made one for you, too. Would you do mine, pretty please? And read it out loud?" He beamed at her sweetly.

Cela put her hand up, wanting to add her two cents on the prophecy/cryptomancy thing.

"Professor, I think the mancy/prophecy link makes sense because sometimes a message, even a simple sentence, can be translated with a cipher and turn out to contain a message that wasn't actually put there intentionally. Often these messages end up being prophetical in nature. Likewise, number patterns in nature, say a pattern of scattered stones, when transcribed to a number representation and then translated to English, can spell out a hidden message too. Thats where cryptomancy can actually become more related to divination." Cela was obviously very excited about the subject at hand. She'd always been interested in it and always been good at it. Her first year she and her brother had communicated with each other that way AND she'd helped to solve the riddles and codes that got Hogwarts back together in the first place.

"Professor, can I try to make my message a little more complicated, but still use the pythagorean numbers as a base? Its just that... well its a bit easy, thats all."

It was, it was.

Ah. Codes.

Well this would be fun. Kylie immediately opened her textbook and took out a piece of paper. She tapped her pencil, which she preferred to quills, and began thinking up a message. After a moment's pause, she began writing.



After writing a note to Evelyn, she sort of flicked it right in front of where Evelyn was sitting. It was in plain sight with 'Evie' written on it... She'd know it was from Kylie.

Next, she realized Patroclus looked... like, he was glowing. Totally psyched to be there. She chuckled a little bit and wrote...



She wrote "Patroclus -- Kylie" on the note and flicked it in front of him, just as she had with Evelyn. If he missed it... well, he would be blind to miss it!

She really hoped her notes made sense...

OK, a new code for her to decipher. Eeeep! This was going to be hard...



Haha. Yes, they would indeed.

Chizpurfle! The Head Girl was totally showing him up in front of Professor Hadley. His hand shot up. "I'd like to do that too. Make one more complicated with a pythonian-- erm, pythagorean-- base. Please?" he looked at her hopefully. Not that he was really sure how he was going to do what she was saying. Still. He was not going to be shown up by that... older smartypants Ravenclaw!

Seeing her airplane soar towards Patroclus, Evelyn smiled and turned back to her notebook, however, she raised a brow when she saw another note sitting there with her name on it. Evie? Who called her Evie?

Looking up and around once more to find who it was, she almost scoffed at herself when she realized who it was from. Kylie! Of course! Well, actually Marilyn did call her Evie a few times, but she didn't spot the Slytherin in class. Perhaps she felt ill?

Opening the note however, she stared at the numbers for a moment before starting on translating it.


Oh boy...

She forgot about giving Kylie's wand back. She was having too much fun playing with it though. The difference between it and her own wand, and how much more difficult it was for her to do a few spells with Kylie's instead of her own... it was intriguing! Perhaps she could keep it for just a bit longer? Ehhh...


Flicking the note back to Kylie, the Slytherin slouched low in her seat. Eesh. It's been, what, a few days since the Hufflepuff was without her wand? Hmm yes. Just blame it on memory loss!

Ok so Chris's head zoomed back and forth between his textbook and his parchment, his quill moving across the page at about the same pace. He really didn't know what his inspiration was but when it came to school work the Head Boy had always tried his hardest. Wait a second!.... that's why he got it.....OHHHH *duh moment*

Shaking his head Chris looked at his finished code and smiled. Now to just find a partner. Oh there was one! Standing up and pushing in his chair, the Gyrffindor boy walked over and plomped into the chair next to none other than Miranda, the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captian. Some would think this was odd on account of the blow-out Match between the Houses the day before but Chris liked Miranda alot and was good friends with her.

"Hey Miranda, good match! I was wondering if you wanted to decipher some codes with me?!" he said chuckling. Sliding the paper to her, he waited for her code.

Kylie looked at the note that had been flicked back at her. It came from around where Evelyn had been sitting, so... she figured it was from her.
Slowly, she opened it and began decoding the number system.



Great! Evie found it! Kylie began writing her second message. She'd seriously missed her wand... She still felt kind of empty without it.



She flicked the note over to Evelyn again. She was so happy!

So... the code was like...yeah. Um... A letter and a numberrrr....Yeah. That was....cool. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Miranda was sitting at her desk, looking at the previous litte test code with her tounge between her teeth, when suddenly someone sat next to her!
And it was Chris! Yaaaaay!

"Hi Chris!" She smiled broadly. "Oh, man, it was a good game. YOu had us on our toes!" Pshhhhhhh, fo reals. Codes! "Oh, yeah totally!" Smile still inplace.

She took his paper and quickly jotten one down for him to decipher. "There ya go!" She gave him her code. HEHEHE.

Chris smiled silently as he wacthed Miranda pour herself into concentration over his code. She was really nice to say that. Her team had crushed his in that last match but she was right though. Even if the score was what it was, the other Gryffindors and himself played hard and are all excellent players and people.

Ok enough with the sports talk Arithmancy mode, full force. Chris leaned over the small sheet of parchment Miranda had scribbled her note on and covered his ears as he thought over the possiblities. Each number had at the maximum of three letter possiblities, but whichever letter you chose created another variable which would limit your next choice since each word had to be an actual word. Deep stuff.

After a few minutes and things started to click in his head, the Head Boy removed his hands from the side of his face and his quill and looked down at the deciphered code.

He layed the paper in front of him on the desk, careful not to disturb Miranda and the other students and waited for the Professor to see and then to wait for further instructions.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooh my goooooooooooooooosh.

Blink.

This was like...tricksy. So many numbers and letters...and LETTERS. Heh.

Miranda squited at the code and got really close to the paper - so close her nose was almost touching it. It wasn't that she couldn't see Chris' handwriting, on the contrary, but she wanted to make sure she was fully concentrated and this closeness might help her. Haha.

She followed the numbers and scribbled down the letters, and got...

Sedenth? What the hell was a SEDENTH!?
Looking up from her paper, she glanced at the Head Boy and noticed he was done. Oh, he was such a smart boy, ofcourse he would be done so fast.

Allright...time to get back to this codeness.
Hmmm....

But then...like suddenly, everything started to fall in place. That number and the letters sort of rearranged themselves and it was as if she was Mister Robert Langdon himself and saw the letters switching places infront of her! Ohhhweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Quickly jotting down the words, she sat up straighter and read the sentence.

Quote:

47 1545528 7519 12 86751921 91 3765 45 My seventh year is upon me

And it totally made her sad.
Her lower lip jutted out and she almost threw herself at Chris, giving him a hug. "The term's not over yet, mister." Hehe.