Though confused with what Professor Hadley had been talking about, Beatrice took down notes as she usually did. She had been listening intently, not giving her own opinions but she was very thinking all the things they had tackled over. She noticed how some of the other students tend to make the meanings of numbers complicated when the answers were almost right before their eyes. Yes, that all just needed the list of characteristics of the numbers the Professor had given them and they were good to go. The hard part was combining and that was what she wanted to learn now.

She focused herself on the list and specifically on the numbers 0 and 8. 0, 0, 0, 8 , 8 , 8.She raised her hand, "Does that spell don't give us authority to open the box Professor ?" she answered the Professor's question with one of hers.

Kourtney studied the numbers for a moment and then looked at the meanings again. Her forehead contracted in confusion. Hesitantly, she raised her hand. "Allowing nothing of wizarding origin to penetrate its defense mechanisms or change its original locking mechanism, like with the use of spells or potions?"

Orr thought for a few moments before raising her hand, "I think that the 080 means that it will probably take more than just a magical ability to open the box or that just using a spell will not open the box...maybe it has to do with the intent of the wizard or witch and how they interpret the numbers. How well they understand Arithmancy and how to interpret the numbers to their advantage."

She hoped that she made sense and added something constructive to the discussion. She was just guessing...she couldn't be sure.

"This is true... Yes, that's why one has cursed objects. Security." Yes, wizards and witches had their own version of a security system. Which was often way more potent than the systems muggles used.


Ah! One person got it! "Yes! Precisely, Miss Greenwell! The two zeroes plus the eight are indicative that this spell causes NO movement! Very good! Which is to say, as you saw demonstrated not too long ago, that it stops all movement of the target."

Before Hadley could go on though, there was a question coming from Kurumi. "It affects anyone trying to open the box, but in particular... well that brings us to the next question..."

"What do the characteristics of 2 and 8 tell us about what the spell affects?"

ooc: Jess' laptop seems to have decided last night will be a good night to die. So bear with her as she works through the rest of the lesson. Not much more to go! <3

Penny consulted her text book again looking for the characteristics of 2 and 8, making note of them on her parchment..



Penny thought about number 2 first - it contained Harmony, human/human magic .... then about number 8 which contained complex thought and reasoning, Authority and movement..

Then she had a thought - it was probably wrong, but it was worth a shot.. She put her hand in the air..

"Professor, looking at both characteristics... I think maybe the 28 part of the series of numbers suggest mind power effects the curse which hold the basis of the box - One needs to be of strong mind and of course magical, but then they must have thought and reasoning with Authority in order to break the curse on the box!", lowering her hand again...
She knew she was wrong - but she had to try.

Somehow, thinking about all the numbers, Kurumi had gotten herself turned upside down and sideways over the spell. No matter, at least she was still somewhat on the right track in thinking about the first two numbers.

Kurumi glanced back down at her notes. 2: Harmony, unity, relationships, collaboration, duality, humans/human magic... 8:Authority, finances, business, success, material wealth, self-mastery, complex thought/reasoning, fluidity... SEE! Humans and human magic! THEY DID NEED A HOUSE ELF TO HELP THEM OPEN THE BOX! She was sure of it.

Anyway, the 080 signified no movement. A light bulb went on in Kurumi's head - hopefully the right sort of light bulb.

The smile on Kurumi's face brightened even more as she looked back up at Professor Hadley and raised her hand. "That it affects living humans and human magic? Whenever someone tried to touch the box, or use another spell on it, they were hit with a stunning spell...literally their movements were stopped because of the spell cast on the box." Did that mean that perhaps...dead humans wouldn't be affected by it? That was kind of a morbid thought...

Louisa was starting to play with her quill and staring at the patterns it was making on her parchment. The class was long lost once the groupings of numbers stepped in. Maybe certain subjects were meant to be in Gibberish. Glancing casually up at the students as they gave their answers. Even the love-potion thief got it! Louisa would've asked for tutoring had they been BFFs still. Pity.

Jesifur raised her hand tentatively, "I think maybe the numbers 2 and 8 tell one that they must be a magic human with self mastery in order to work the spell." She hoped she was on the right track, Arithmancy was hard.

Listening to everyone's answers, Orr bit her lip as she thought about the numbers 2 and 8. Looking at their characteristics, Orr realized that the 2 has to do with relationships, unity, and human magic. While 8 had to do with authority and success. That was easy, she thought to herself-- 28 probably represents wizards or witches because of their relationship with magic and their success in manipulating it. At least that is what made sense to her.

Looking back at her parchment

She saw that the number is the basis and together with 080 which meant that nothing would happen as per the Prof.'s explanation so that meant that...

Orr raised her hand, "I think that 28 indicates that the spell will affect wizarding folk because of their relationship with magic but I don't understand why nothing would happen--does it mean that the spell won't work for them or that the box won't open? I just don't quite understand that part..." She trailed off. Why did she open her mouth? She was clueless about how the numbers worked together.

Eino raised an eyebrow. "Oh... okay." He turned to the Professor and considered asking her if he could assist the Hufflepuff boy to the infirmary. Clearly, something was wrong, maybe he had consumed some strange food or maybe all of the numbers were getting to his head. Eino hesitated. He didn't want to interrupt the professor or the class, and the boy was... tolerable. Strange, but tolerable. Eino nodded in response and kept quiet until the professor spoke again, because he really didn't know how to reply to that.

Soooo 2 and 8 together would say something about the spell? He quickly flipped through the pages, trying to find out which characteristics to look for, since there were many. Energy numbers? Life path? Core numbers? Destiny Numbers? Hart's Desire?!?!? He wanted to pull out his hair! He almost raised his hand, but he didn't have anything to say, he didn't have anything to say, so he kept it on top of the table. General Meaning of numbers? He searched for the numbers 2 and 8, and after combing his hair with his hand, he raised it and spoke. "Uh, it means it will unite the material wealth with the collaboration of magic through self-mastery successfully..." He finished rambling and looked up at the professor.

Yeah, he was dropping Arithmancy.

Alyssa was disappointed that her attempt at answering the question was wrong. "I guess we're back to square one again," Alyssa sighed to herself. She thought about the significance of the characteristics of the numbers 28 and knowing that despite the fact that THIS answer was going to be probably off target as well, she raised her hand and answered.



"Studying both the characteristics of each number, could it be that the spell affects the behavior of the object. For the spell to take effect, magic needs to work in harmony and unity with the object and the caster whose intent is to keep the box closed. The box will not open for anybody, not even another's spell, unless the original spell caster wants it to?"

As Alyssa sat down, she felt really discouraged about ever excelling innthis subject. "I so suck at this!!" she thought to herself. "I'm so sorry, Professor Hadley. I've let you down,"she silently apologized to her House Mistress.

Jenny gave a flustered sigh. Her mind seemed to go nowhere at all with this; arithmancy became more confusing than ever...

2 and 8. Jenny looked back at her textbook. 2 represents harmony, and 8 represents power, but what do those have to do with the spell?

Slowly a idea started to form in her head. Maybe. Or it could be another "blabbering" answer like last time...Jenny gave a sigh. Slowly she raised her hand.

"The 2 tells us that the curse tries to...um..." How to put this in words! Jenny pondered to herself. "...harmonize with our magic so that it tricks us into believing that the curse is a harmless spell. That's when the 8 comes in, telling us that the curse immediately exerts its power over our magic as soon as we let our guard down....which leads to the next part of the spell, the 'no-movement' phase?" She added meekly.

Jenny placed her head on her hands in shame. So much for an intelligent answer.

"The 2 and 8 tells us the caster must work in harmony with fluid movements of wand movements when casting the spell?'' Jory said frowning at his text book.

Simon looked at Eino and was wondering why he was quiet, maybe he was ill or maybe he was just sad about something he was about to ask when suddenly the Professor asked something about 2 and 8 and he had no idea so said the first think that came into his head. "It means that the person who was it will get the best luck ever and win 3,000 Galleons on the Lottery."

Ira was getting a bit bored and confused by all the number characteristics! Before today, she hadn't even the idea that some numbers would be the cause of stunning her! Now what had the professor asked? Oh right, about effects of 2 and 8 on the spell. She looked at her notes and thought about it.
"Professor, 2 signifies harmony and relationships and collaboration, while eight represents success and organization. So maybe 2 and 8 in this curse mean that to break it, there needs to be a successful or united collaboration. I mean, it has to be a combined effort, all in harmony with each other."
Ira hoped that she had got her point across. She didn't want to be seen as babbling something.

Move on? Couldn't Josh already see Ness was focused on the Professor and that she had stopped listening tom. She ignored him and walked back to her desk taking a seat trying to concentrate more. This Arithmancy was just too confusing, not something she really understood well. If only she was capable of reading minds then she'd understand the whole thing or at least she'd look like she understood everything.

All Nessie understood so far was that whatever those numbers were when divided they explained the spell on the box...or something like that. She looked at her text book trying to search for some sort of answer seeing as she obviously couldn't read the professor's mind for an answer.

She raised her hand when she thought she sorta had an answer. "Well the number 2 is showing that you have to use collaboration for the spell and that you need a relationship with magic." She just kept on rambleing she didn't even understand herself what she was saying. "Then the number 8 is that you will need to be authorized to open the box...and I actually have no idea what I'm saying." Ness felt her cheeks go red. She didn't mean to say the last part it sorta blurted out, she felt really embaressed and stupid.

"Now professor now this is just a guess, but I had just read something in my other class and the 28 or the 2 is making me believe that your wand and your words need to be in harmony. So could it maybe be rune magic that is keeping the box locked?" Minerva wasn't sure, but seeing the meaning of the numbers she thought maybe she would try.

She looked from the box to Professor Hadley. The numbers were the key to the curse. But numbers weren't friendly so it was a very big problem for her. However, she was doing her best to prove that she is trying to understand. "Professor, could it be that it affects human's reasoning ?" That was the best she could think of as she looked at the numbers characteristics. Oh, well.

Oh! She'd gotten it right? Awesome!

So now they had to figure out what the two and the eight said about what the spell affects. Movement seemed obvious since that was a key part in what the eight said about what the spell did. So for the two..."humans/human magic" stood out to her. Up went Vashti's hand again.

"It tells us that the spell affects the movement of humans when they try to use their magic?" So they'd need to find some different way to open the box.

"Not exactly..." Fina said, but at least she was trying. Today's topic wasn't the easiest to grasp and she knew that not everyone would figure it out.

"Well no, but close." At least she picked up on the human part.

"Yes and no. The two stands for humans, so this part of the spell is not particular to wizards alone..." However, that didn't mean any random muggle could be put at risk. "Nothing would happen if no magic or physical contact is made with the cursed object. Because therefore nothing is done to provoke the curse that's on the object."

"Not quite..." This was a hard topic in Arithmancy; having to keep track of the LARGE variety of number characteristics and such. But Fina was sure someone would figure it out. Evelyn? Kurumi? Vashti?

"Behaviors yes... I'll go with that one, but not the behavior of the object..." Fina smiled at the young Hufflepuff; she was young and the brunette knew at some point or another, the twelve year old would get it. Might not be for another year or two, but she would. This was advanced stuff and the fact that she was trying, meant a lot.

"Movements... yes. We'll go with that too." Fina smiled, slightly mysteriously. Though it wasn't quite what she was looking for just yet.

"Mister Simpson." Fina said, hearing his idea. "Where do you get anything about winning the lottery from these numbers?" That was an entirely DIFFERENT concept in Arithmancy and one that was foreign to even her.

"Not quite..."

Authorized? What were these kids on about? Did they think you needed permission to work with NUMBERS? Silly students.

"This is not runic magic, but just simple knowledge of number characteristics." Very simple too was this spell on the box.

"Humans... yes.. not so much human reasoning though," but something else about humans this affected.

"Yes! Yes!" Fina said, animatedly. "You're on the right track by mentioning their movements were stopped!"

Or more simply put by the sixth year Ravenclaw... "Precisely! The spell affects the movements of humans! The 28 doesn't show the magic part, but a different part of this number shows that..."

"So we have the basis, 28, which says that spell affects human movement. And the core, 080, which says the spell causes target to have no movement." Professor Hadley went over in review, just to catch some of the students up to speed. "The next part of the spell, which is the range says how the spell is activated. Which is to say, what sets off the spell. This number grouping is 527, so what about these numbers sets off the spell?"

At this point it was safe to say that Artihmancy was Jesifur's worst subject. Which was crazy because at primary muggle school she was so very good at mathematics. They were definitely not the same, not even related even so far as Jesifur could tell. She thought she had been catching on earlier in the class, but now she was just as lost as when she started. She supposed the only thing that could be done about it was to read all she could about the subject starting as soon as this lesson ended. Maybe her confusion will clear then.

Narrowing her eyes at her notebook, Evelyn had been listening to what everyone was saying, and she may have taken a few notes down here and there, yet...good Merlin. Could she get a replay on all those spells bouncing back and hitting their casters?

Ahahaha...

Anyways.

After keeping silent for most of the discussion, the Slytherin was taking her time in absorbing all of the information as well as looking up the next three numbers and piecing them together to discover what sets off the spell. Hmmmm....time to raise her hand. "The fact that they all point towards touching it in some way?" Well, that IS what happened in the demonstration. "By either hand or magic? The number five describes physical touch while the numbers two and seven both tells of either human or magic, not to mention the number two is all about unity...so...touching it physically or by magic would set the spell off."

THATMADESENSE! Maybe. At least that is still what she saw from people trying to get the chocolate.

Awesome, another correct answer! She was on a roll after completely zoning out for part of the lesson. Hopefully she could keep this up.

So the 527 said something about what set the spell off. Vashti looked back down at her notes, focusing on the two, five, and seven. So there was the "humans/human magic" again...glancing down at the seven, she spotted the word "magic" again. So...magic in general? Then she looked at the five and spotted "physical touch." Hm... She raised her hand again.

"It says that the spell is set off when someone tries to open it physically or magically?"

Penny had an idea, and she was probably wrong - again!.... but she put her hand in the air "Professor, if the 28 is means human and human magic.... and the 080 stops movement of said humans...Well maybe 527 is us to call non-human magic like a house elf or Unicorn..?"...lowering her hand again...Well you never know - she MIGHT be right

Hmm, yes, this one was a bit easier than the other ones. Or so she thought. Kourtney studied the numbers and their characteristics for a few moments, picking out certain things that they appeared to have in common. Her hand rose. "The spell seems like it'd be set off by human magic or human touch, like demonstrated earlier when a spell was attempted on the box and a freezing charm was the object's reaction...attempt of magic to open the box, which led to a freezing charm to the target object of a wizard...thus allowing no movement from said target." She put her hand down. Hopefully that was correct? She was still a little uncertain about this entire numbers business.