Gold had been thinking what to do, when a piece of paper blew through the air and landed, right on to her desk. Mildly surprised, she picked it up and turned round to see who had blown it.

Dianna, wasn't her name? Gold could not be sure, of course. She had never talked to the girl. But she knew her from a lot of classes. Dipping her quill in PINK! ink, Gold decoded her message and, having translated it, added a coded message of her own beneath the translation.


Leaning forward, she slipped the note back to Dianna.

Encryption = fun!

Dianna was busy doodling on her notebook when a girl leaned over and slipped back the same piece of paper she blew a while ago. She watched as the girl (Prefect?) tuned back from her. She slowly opened the paper to see pink writings in it.
"Ohh!!" yay this would be fun..



And then added a small code at the bottom..



Off the paper went and landed perfectly on the prefect's desk.

Alex was getting a headache from trying to figure out Selena's message. She couldn't figure out the rest of the message past I don't..



Alex groaned loudly writting a message back to her quickly


She translated Zane's surprisingly easy, penning a quick reply as well.


Alex really wanted Selena to make sure she did it right for once.. seriously Alex was getting a headache from translating her message.. from her message if that made any sense.

YAY! Gold picked up the paper, smoothed it out and read what it said. Of course, it was only a bunch of numbers right now, but it would make sense, soon enough. Dipping her quill in PINK! ink again, she slowwwly but cheerfully started to decode the message.


Folding the paper into half, she gently tossed it back to Dianna. The paper soared above a few hands, to land on the girl's desk.

Rawr.

Evan took his notes. Wow, his hand got slower over the time he hadn't been to any classes! And now he was a bit late for the task at hand. Hopefully, they'd have some time. Finally finishing what he got to write, he turned to glance around for a partner. His eyes finally fell on a very familiar face, Mina. He moved next to her, trying to be as quiet as possible so as not to disturb the class. Just as he was trying to find something to say, she'd already got a note written. Opening his book, he got to work to translate.

Aww... Smiling again, he quickly got to replying.

It was like Merlin, himself, had come down and said, "Wesley, this is your destiny."

Oh yes! She could feel it, deep down, in her heart of hearts. Wesley was going to be a cryptomancier.

Who worked at Gringotts.

Pulling out of her reverie, the fourth year waved her short arm from the back, "Professor, maybe it's because Prophecies are secret until they happen, and secret messages are secret until you uh, decode them!"

This had to be one of the best lessons ever. It was just about tied with last year's History of Magic one on goblins.

Smile threatening to break her face, Wesley had to cover it with her hands, so she could be super sneaky and scout out a partner. Scooting down in her chair, she scanned the room, dark eyes narrowing as she picked them out.

Popping back up, the Hufflepuff set herself to work, breaking out in giggles every now and then. When she had finished, two pieces of folded parchment in her small hands, Wesley skip-shuffle-walked over to Nancy.

"This is for you," she announced, before placing one of the papers on the older girl's desk.



"And this," the brunette added, turning her attention to Cela,"Is for you!"

Looking bored Joshu had been playinf with his wand rolling it on the desk as he reluctantly listened to the professor and the boy was thinking of sleeping when the professor told them to write coded notes. Meh. This was boring to him so he now understood how Ryan used to find this subject interesting: they were both boring. However in order to not to die of boredom he decided to join the message sharing activity.

So he prepared a message for...Evelyn yet when he was about to send it he saw that she was already sharing messages with...Patroclus. Jealousy rose inside him again yet he did not make a move except throwing the message for Evelyn in his bag.


So, instead he wrote another message and sent it to the Gryffindor prefect. ''Hey Gold! That one is for you!''

Marie sat there watching as everyone was throwing notes around. Still holding her note from Carter she decided to write him another one.
Trying to hold back the laugh she knew was going to be escaping soon she handed the note over to Carter and watched for his laughter.

What's this? A new note? Carter took it and began translating it. Letting out a few chuckled he added a little extra to the note and handed it back.

Marie took the note Carter handed back to her and quickly translated it. Looking up at him she just smiled. Pfft, bring the cat, he should be bringing Destiny. She wrote down a new message and passed the note back to him.

Daisy sat there and tried to think what she could write. She didn't ahve anyone to give it to but she wasn't not going to participate in class. She finally decided and wrote it down and smile happily feeling slightly acoplished.



Now who was she supposed to pass it to. She looked arounf the room and saw everyone already preoccupied with their notes so sat there to think about what else she could write.

Oh these kids were sooo smart!! "Ah yes, very good points brought up, Nia. Which brings us to another question that I'll ask in a moment or two about prophecies and the past."

Watching the two third years passing notes back and forth with numbers on it, Fina had to overlook their parchment and a small smile formed on her face. "It seems you're doing better at this than you thought. I wouldn't underestimate your abilities as a cryptomancer, Mr Hudson."

"The messages can be as long or as short as you like. Sometimes, as you adjust to converting numbers to letters and vice versa, it might be best to start small." Josephina told the young, inquisitive Slytherin.

Ah yes, that was true. Prophecies were the foretelling of information and generally hidden, or secret. So were codes, so it would make sense now that she thought about it... See! Even teachers can learn still! "Oh yes, right...Prophecies are generally hidden information."

"You have quite the imagination, Mr Jarod." Josephina said, not entirely convinced by all his words. "But there is some truth in what you've said, as cryptomancy has been used over thousands of years. However, I'm not so sure about Unspeakables using it, since no one could really know for sure. If your father is truly an unspeakable, then he would not have been able to divulge that information to you on what sort of work he does." Which is of course, why she doubted some of his story.

Amused by one girl passing notes to a boy, Josephina had to admit this was a great way to learn and be laid back at the same time. "Love notes, Ms Salazar?" Fina raised her eyebrow at the Slytherin, as if daring her to offer an explanation. "Touching."

Oh wasn't he clever; sending her a note to translate! He was clearly just testing her to see if she could figure out these notes, which naturally she could. But it was supposed to be the students learning and practicing, not her! Nonetheless, she took the note and glanced it over, her eyes bulging slightly as she worked out what it meant.

Yet he had asked her to read it outloud and who was she to refuse? Heh. "Thank you, Mr Jarod. Aren't you kind?" Fina mused, prolonging her translation, as she cleared her throat. "Fifty bonus points to Ravenclaw for cleverness!" She paused, letting this sink in. "But, minus forty points for being a Smart Alec with the house points system." She beamed back at the first year, smugly.


"Yes, yes, Ms Toussaint. Very good!" Oh she had heard that this one was a know-it-all, but personally Hadley just found her to be rather booksmart. And not really in the annoying sort of way, but she knew that the girl would go on to do great things.

"Sure... Feel free to make your message as complicated or easy as you feel comfortable with." Because who was she to judge what kids found easy or hard? Some students did grasp onto things better than others.

Of course he would. Smart Alec Ravenclaw that he was... wanted to compete with his prefect / head girl. But he was so young, yet that didn't mean he couldn't handle something more challenging. "If you feel comfortable, then go for it. But I don't advise it for anyone younger than fourth year." Considering it was unlikely that they would be able to.

Looking back at the word in question, Hadley took a moment to rework her calculations before answering the Gryffindor Prefect. "Both words are very close in their numbers, aren't they?" Fina offered, initially at least. "But you can tell the difference by the fourth letter because 'e' and 'c' have different numbers corresponding to them. As the number I have written is '5', then you would know that quietly is correct." That was why paying attention to detail was very important.

"There are quite a few variations of Divination, it seems. But yes, good point about it simply indicating a reminder that this is a means of divination and foretelling future events." Josephina agreed with the Gryffindor.

"It could very well be that, Wesley. There are, as evident by yourself and peers, many possible reasons as to why prophecy is in the word 'cryptomancy'." This girl seemed quite eager when it came to this lesson, for which Josephina couldn't deny that it pleased her.


Anyway, as the students were working, now would be a good time to ask some more questions about the material. "So it was mentioned about cryptomancy perhaps being used by our ancestors in the past... as a means to get messages across secretly. In modern-day, however, things are different as we have more means to communicate. But yet cryptomancy is still alive and utilized by many throughout the world. What reasons can you think of as to why use this versus other ways to communicate? What uses can think of for using cryptomancy while a student at Hogwarts?"

Alex rose her hand, "You can talk to your friends during class without getting caught, unless the Professor knows Arithmancy." Alex stated amused, because well that was what it could be used for after all..

Daisy raised her hand,"Other than communication people could use it to decipher something from the past." It sounded like a good answer in her head but out loud she was unsure.

Chris raised his hand to answer the question Professor Hadley had brought up. "Well as a student here at Higwarts we are always in the Library, at least I know I am, and I have come across codes much like these in old texts that I had no clue how to decipher." the Head Boy nodded.

Another student had answered the question just before he had and Chris turned around in his chair to look at the girl with an amused grin. "Oh but the Professor coul still get you for passing notes even if they didn't know what it says." Que mischevious Head Boy smile.

He loved messing around with firsties. All in good fun though, with a kind wink Chris turned back in his chair to face forward.

Alex snorted at the.. Head Boy's reply, she could say something back to that, like using a placement or banishing charm to place it in that persons lap without being seen.. but she decided against it, after all He was the Head Boy.. and she would respect him despite he rarely was seen during classes, in fact this was on of the few he had attended so far. He also hadn't attacked a Professor so yeah respecting the Head Boy would be a good choice. He was just trying to mess with her anyway. Alex looked at her notes making sure it had didn't have any missing infomation.

Zane shot his hand up in the air, "You can leave messages where other students can find them and translate them in latter years, or, you can shout numbers at poltergeist and confuse them." he said, thinking about when he and Alex were attacked in the common room.

Nia raised her hand. "For ensuring your message is only read, and understood, by the intended viewer, perhaps," she said with a smile. "There are various types of cipher techniques, and so as long as both the writer and the intended reader know which key is applicable, it can make notes private. Even if it is intercepted, the message won't easily be read, because the intercepter won't know how to make sense of it. If nothing else it'll require work to crack the code - which takes time. Plus, it's just as quick to write, without the need for protective charms and the like one might use for important letters." It was fun too, of course. "Oh, and for extra security, the key to deciphering the code can change each time too. Again, as long as both parties know the link or trick." Was it getting obvious Nia used codes regularly herself? Hmm.

And for her own message, Nia still didn't have a clue. A random sentence to someone in the room, seemed, well, random. And perhaps awkward, since the Captain realised she didn't appear to know many people. Whoops.

And then she had a thought. She gave a smile, and wrote her message on her parchment before sending it across to Cela with a wink.

Arya was seated somewhere in the middle of the classroom near a window. She had planned on staring out the window for the duration of the class seeing how it was such a lovely day. The little puff had planned on skipping the class and going for a swim, but after doing the extra credit with Masterson and finding that some interpretations held true, she figured it couldn't hurt to attend the second class.

And listening intently to the conversation at hand, she was glad she did. This seemed like something she could use with Ivory or any of her other friends. Scribbling down a few notes beside the doodles of magical creatures, she slowly raised her hand to answer the question. "Its good for passing notes. Not just in class, but important ones as well. So if someone were to send an owl cross country that they didn't want other eyes to read then they could use the code. That way if the message was picked up by someone else, they wouldn't know what it was about." She, however, would be using it for passing notes in class. Not this one, that would be foolish. She could probably get away with it in Herbology though.

Ooooh! Oooh!

Wesley knew the answer!

Turning around from where she stood, the Hufflepuff raised her hand, "I think people still use cryptomancy because it makes them feel all warm-fuzzy inside. It's like a secret - that only you and some other people know. Only, the bad part is it could be a bad secret." She paused, frowning, her eyes drifting to the floor for a moment, before shooting back up, smile back in place. "Cryptomancy is useful at Hogwarts BECAUSE! SometimestherearebadpeopleliketheHufflepuffKillerS lashKidnapper,andyouhavetokeepthingslikelettersand noteshidden,sohewon'tfindout," Wesley breathed, "but it's okay because he's in Azkaban right now."

Then she nodded, relaxing with a pleasent look of contentment.

Marie felt her face instantly turn red when the professor asked her if she was passing love notes.They had been told to write secret messages and pass them to whoever they wanted to decipher them so why did she now feel like she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.

Sliding down in her seat she looked over to Carter then back to the professor. "Well you said we could write whatever we wanted," she said timidly.

Mina smiled as she noticed Evan beside her. Yes, she had a partner now and at least she could think of things to write to him. It would have been a bit awkward is she had worked with another person.

Noticing his reply in front of her, she went to work on translating it.

Text Cut: Translation

Mina,
I thank you! We will have even better time at the stadium.
Evan.

Smiling to herself, she grabbed her quill and started to another message.

Text Cut: More notes for Evan.

94 1395 933 8145 1 79512 2945 46957 15728957 11 3657 11 94 5928 763

With that, she passed the parchment back to him and looked up at Professor Hadley. Hearing what everyone else was offering for an answer, she just remained quiet and continued to take notes.

Kylie had gotten two notes at once! Eek! She immediately dove into the letters.



She began writing on the same piece of parchment..



She flicked the note in front of Evelyn before diving into Patroclus's note.



She, again, began writing quickly. It looked like the professor was about to begin talking.



She hoped he understood that she was referring to that she thought he was good at this. She was getting better.. kind of... It was a little tricky to decipher them still! She flicked it to Patroclus once more, the note still said "Patroclus - Kylie" on it.

Kylie raised her hand before saying anything, "Well, in my opinion, in the common day this could be used by spies. People in war... people who try to get their message to others without having others know what it says. Forms of cryptomancy were used in the American Civil War and American Revolution... Presumably, they've been used in every muggle.. possibly even magical war. In times of secrecy, I guess. Or in circumstances of secrecy..

While at Hogwarts... I guess it could be used to pass notes... Although, unless you could memorize the system that we've been learning in class so you would do it quickly and efficiently, it would be kind of difficult. I mean, I know I still have to look at the textbook to decipher them. Perhaps to report a student's behavior.. or professor's behavior... To leave notes around the castle for friends to find? Maybe a scavenger hunt between friends... You know, leave the notes in code and each note is a hint to some ending prize?

That'd kind of be a fun class activity."

She hadn't meant to say the last bit... it'd sort of just slid out. But, it was true.

Gold looked up, when she heard a familiar voice. "Thanks," she said politely, as she smoothed out the parchment Josh had given her, and started to try to decode the message.

The last word was pretty easy to figure out, when she had figured out those that preceded it. Two minutes later, Gold had written down the translation, and added a coded message of her own beneath it. Leaning over, she gave the folded-up parchment back to Josh.



That had been Gold's point. Some of the students had offered 'quickly,' and Professor Hadley had called it correct, too. "Right, professor," she said politely. AND she wanted to write a coded message for Marie. But the Slytherin looked pretty busy with Carter.

Sooo, Gold decided against it.

Gold raised a hand. "It's pretty useful in wars," she offered, after a moment's hesitation. "For spies and double-agents. Like in the First and Second Wizarding Wars." She paused, to think of those horrible times. Thank God she hadn't had to live through them. "When a side has a set code for the exchange of information, it makes it easier for it to circulate data and make plans without the fear of interceptors, or opposition parties. Even muggles made use of this in the World Wars."

She paused to ponder over Professor Hadley's next question. "I could probably slip Chris notes in the study sessions," she said, cheerfully. "Even if someone nosy tried to peek at them over his shoulder, they wouldn't be able to figure out what the notes say." She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out, at Chris. He was messing with kids, so she was messing with him. Hehehe. "... and we have had an example of it, at Hogwarts, in Harry Potter's message to Severus Snape. Harry couldn't speak plainly to Snape in front of Dolores Umbridge, so he used coded language to convey his belief that Sirius was being held, in the Department of Mysteries."

Gold lowered her hand, and then raised it again to add, "... and Salazar Slytherin. He used a completely unique code at Hogwarts, professor. One could only enter the Chamber of Secrets, if one knew Parsletongue. Slytherin, while at Hogwarts, was aware that no one except him had any knowledge of the language, there. That was his use of encryption."

Wonderful, really, how much variety there is in codes and ciphers. The many ways in which they can be put to use, sometimes without the people behind them even realizing it.

Well, that was fast. It seemed like she just threw the plane back to the Gryffindor when she suddenly got it back. Unless she was daydreaming and time went by faster. Eep! Class wasn't over was it?

....

No it wasn't. Good. Opening the airplane, she quickly decoded the message before smiling and replying her own.



Smiling, Evelyn folded the airplane back up before tossing it back to Patroclus.

However, her smile faded when she heard someone call out Gold's name. Of course it had to be a familiar voice. Pssh. Fine. If Josh wanted to give Gold a message, it's not like she was going to get jealous or anything..

...
...

Why would he give the Gryffindor a message!? Probably because she sat closer to him. Yup! That's all. She sat closer.

Listening to the Professor speak about...something on cryptomancy and ask a few questions, the words barely registered in her mind as everyone else started to answer. Hmm, passing notes, decoding past things, something about warm and fuzzy stuff...wait what? Who said that last one?

She agreed with Kylie however. A scavenger hunt would've been pretty cool. Random, but cool.

Having another note land on her desk, she remembered that she was also passing notes with Kylie. Bahaha! And here she thought it was from Josh Patroclus suddenly became super cryptomancer man!

Opening it up, she started to work on it while glancing at a certain dark haired Gryffindor every now and then. Meh.



Oh jeez. She forgot about Poof and the cuts! Gah! Why not just make her remember everything else she forgot! Paling slightly, she forced a smile over to Kylie before writing down her own message.


Folding it up, she flicked it back to Kylie before going back to paying attention to the lesson. Well, starting to pay attention now.