{Advanced} Arithmancy Three
 

It was one of the last lessons and times she would teach some of the students and Fina was feeling rather nostalgic. Though she didn't show it, as she stood quietly at the front of the classroom, one ankle in front of the other. She was casually, subconsciously flicking her way through the latest copy of Arithmancy and You, although she wasn't really reading it.

The door was open, as were the windows to allow the fresh, Spring air into the class. Written on the board was a brief scrawl: 'Take your seats. We'll begin shortly.'

ooc: Sorry I'm a bit late on posting this *hides* <3. depending on how many of you poke your way in, i may not actually start for another 8-9 hours. Reminder, this lesson is for fourth through seventh years only, with the exception one third year. You MAY attend even if you didn't do the Pre-Lesson Assignment.

Lesson Progression
Greetings & First Question: What does music have to do with your name?
What numbers provide information on a particular level of consciousness?
Which transit is associated with which name?

Find your Physical Transits along with what your current Physical Transit is based on your current age... (note: Physical Transits ONLY please! You have until ~6pm EST on Mar 30th before I continue the lesson)

Essence Cycles: How do you calculate them?
Calculate your Essence Cycles for your Current Age AND in Five Years

"Again with the Arithmancy magazines, Hadley?"

Ellie was here.

But...seriously. Like...seriously? There can't be THAT many updates of sorts with the subject could there? And the sixth year still didn't understand why it was interesting enough for a magazine to actually publish it and thrive. Unless the company wasn't really thriving, and they were just pretending everything's okay to hide the shame of the fact that no one cared about Arithmancy.

Except Hadley, of course. She was always an exception, though, right?

Right. Because that was why Ellie still attended these lessons.

As she walked to her usual seat, the redhead gave the professor a cheeky smile, that anyone else would see and realize she was joking about the magazine bit, but Hadley would probably think was just...cheeky. Because again, she was Hadley, and she was the exception.

But oh well. It was almost the end of the term. And Ellie didn't care. Summer couldn't come fast enough.

Vickers made his way down towards the second floor and turned towards the Arithmancy classroom "Good morning Professor Hadley" he greeted the Numbers Guru as he made his way towards his usual seat near the front. He gave Captain Ellie a small wave hello before settling down on his usual seat by the front, deftly taking his glasses out and putting them on.

Gwen wasn’t really sure how she felt about this lesson. She could have simply shut her mouth and she could have attended the basic lesson but nooo. Typical Gwendolyn. Pffft. As she made her way towards the Arithmancy classroom, the young Ravenclaw tried to hide her blue hair streaks, which after soooo much time still didn’t go away. It had been her fault for mistaking the incantation of the spell- but--- it had been enough. She wanted the blue in her hair to disappear already.

After taking a deep breath, the third year walked in the room and looked quickly around. ‘Hello Professor’, Gwen even tried to smile, but only a smirk came out. Pam pam pam. She picked a random seat and waited patiently for the lesson to start. As she glimpsed around for a couple of seconds, the third felt slightly odd for being the youngest one there. Ugh. She and her big mouth.

<33
 

Arithmancy. The LAST Arithmancy class of the term. It was kind of sad now that he got to think about it really. He'd come to like these lessons with his Head of House. But she was still going to be around next term too so. She...was, wasn't she?! At least he hadn't heard anything which would imply the opposite.

Advanced Arithmancy lesson. Which meant fourth years and up only. Which meant...

Lewis stopped outside the classroom to peek inside. Good, he was quite early and not a lot of students had arrived yet. Good. Also not the student he'd been secretly looking for. Even better. Finally stepping into the classroom the Hufflepuff even managed to force a smile onto his face as he passed his Head of House with a "Hello Professor." Now where to sit?

Letting his eyes roam the classroom once more, they fell on a familiar looking face. Gwen! With an actually genuine smile this time, Lewis walked up to the Ravenclaw and took a seat next to her. "Hi." And then, only now realizing he hadn't asked for permission before he hastened to add, "You don't mind if I sit here, do you?" Because he could leave again and sit somewhere else if she wanted him to.

Also, hang on, wasn't she a third year?!

Kurumi sprinted towards the Arithmancy classroom having somehow lost track of the time again and arrived panting and with her hair falling all over her shoulders and across her face. Composing herself, she attempted to smooth her hair down as best she could and proceeded towards the front of the class to her usual seat.

As she did, she caught Lewis' eye and smiled at him and decided to pause for a moment. "Lewis," she chirped. "I was looking at the star charts, and I think tomorrow night we might be able to see Mars, if you are interested." She tugged on the strap of her bag to make sure that it didn't fall off her shoulder. She glanced at Gwen and bowed her head towards the third year. It was always nice to see a younger student challenging themselves. She would have done the same had this option been available when she was a third year. Noticing the time, Kurumi's cheeks blushed and she knew she should be taking her seat...like now. "We can discuss this after class, okay?" she asked, more in a matter of fact sort of way than anything else as she hurried off towards her seat. Nothing at all had been awkward about her demeanor.

Finding her usual seat, Kurumi sat down and began to set her things out, only to find that her quill seemed to be missing. Odd. Kurumi looked up towards Professor Hadley, who was busy reading at the moment. "Good day, professor," she said, bowing her head while her hands continued to search her bag for her quill.

Lewis dropped his gaze the moment he spotted Kurumi literally sprinting into the classroom. She wouldn't come over here would she? If he could he would probably just get up and leave again, trying to stay away from her as far as possible.They both knew what had happened the last time they'd been in the same room together...though this was a classroom so they should be fine. Nothing could happen here.

So they could just go back to sitting at opposite sides of the room and ignore each other.

Only...Kurumi didn't. Lewis looked back up and just stared at the Gryffindor for a moment, an incredulous look on his face. Mars? But...that had been ages ago. Or definitely before all the weirdness. Why was she talking to him like that? WHAT was going on? Blinking rather rapidly at the girl, he turned to look at Gwen for a moment, confusion still plastered across his face. But then again, she wouldn't know either what was going on, would she? She wouldn't even realize something WAS going on.

There was, wasn't there? Or were they...supposed to act like this around each other now? But then again, the whole talk about Mars still didn't make any sense. He moved his gaze back to Kurumi and watched her take a seat, being her usual cheerful self. No sign of guilt or awkwardness.

Seriously, WHAT had just happened?

Glancing over the top of the magazines, Fina blinked in surprise at the first one to enter the lesson. She had not expected that. At all. Especially after the girl DOODLED a picture during her last lesson. NOT COOL.

And insulting a magazine that only game biannually. Hmph. That she wasn't even really reading this time because her mind was way too distracted.

"Yes and no, Eliana," Fina replied. She could be cheeky too. "Its a biannual magazine. There's a convention even this summer in some far away place called Florida that I'm considering attending." Maybe. She'd have to see.

"Good morning," Fina acknowledged the fifth year, turning her attention away from the redhead and toward other students who were now making their way into the classroom.

And another fifth year male entered - had they taken over the school ? Or just her Arithmancy lessons.

"Good morning," Fina nodded at Gideon, as she feigned defeat and closed the magazine. She hadn't been reading it anyway.


Ah and there was the one third year who had asked her to attend. Not that she minded; Gwen had always been quite alright with the numbers and she was sure the young Ravenclaw would be able to keep up. "Hello Gwen," Fina smiled at the girl. "Welcome." She wanted to say 'don't be nervous', but for some reason she didn't which might be cause she didn't want to pinpoint the girl's anxiety.

And another fifth year male. There was one in each house? Almost. Except none from Slytherin yet.

"Good morning," she said to Lewis, briefly as he took seat next to the third year. Good. Lewis can help her if she needed it, not that she suspected she would, but if she did.


Just as she was about to start the lesson, Fina raised an eyebrow at sight of another fifth year who seemed QUITE distressed. Could studying for her OWLs really have stressed out Kurumi so much that it made her run late for Arithmancy? As far as she knew, the Gryffindor enjoyed Arithmancy and wouldn't be late for it for anything. But .....

Oh, it was definitely OWLs. Those exams were known wizard killers after all.

"Good morning, Kurumi," she said, hoping the girl hadn't been up all night studying. Though judging from her appearance.... "Everything alright?" She asked, concerned, as she appeared to be searching for something.

Right then. She should start.

"So for those of you who challenged yourselves with doing a little exercise before this lesson," Fina began, "You had to create a musical score about your life. What does music have to do with your name?"

And no, this wasn't going to be a lesson about music. She wasn't by any means a specialist in music and after all, Tate did have Dr McNally come in this year and teach them far more than she ever could. But music was a good way to lead into the topics they'd be discussing.


ooc: yes you may attend even if you didn't do the pre-lesson assignment. Lesson has begun officially, so please pretend as though you've been there the whole time, though you're more than encouraged to join in the lesson at any time =)

oh, yes, we were here the whole time. and yes, we'll be quiet. *whistles*
 

As a matter of fact, Treyen had been sitting on the desk next to the one Kurumi usually sat. To the one he usually sat. And his eyebrow was raised as she invited Lewis to...what? Try and see if they could catch a glimpse of Mars?

Either way, he moved seats after she sat, and took the liberty to present her with her quill, which was on an outside pocket of her bag.

"This is yours." Eyes on the Gryffindor Prefect. "And you don't need to blush when you misplace your quill, by the way." Or were her cheeks still pink because of Lewis?


OH, MERLIN!

HE FORGOT! Now Treyen was the one who pretended to be looking for something he may have missed when he traded seats a few moments ago. Of course, he didn't forget something on his previous seat, but this will buy him some time instead of sitting there knowing he failed to do that assignment.

Well, sorry, Hadley, some of us have NEWTs to take care of. And...he didn't know how to answer that question either.

omg is this what i think it is? *flails*
 

Vickers was wondering about that, as he selected sheet music for the homework and went through each scale trying to find something that mirrored his life closely. As he pondered the question, he raised his hand slowly as he collected his thoughts "Professor, our homework had us looking at notes in a scale. Musical scales also have numerical equivalents. Are we going to match our names to the scale?"

Oh yes, he has been here the whole time! Clearly.
 

Ok, so it was possible that the whole Quidditch Championship thing had driven this assignment completely from his mind. And, judging from the shuffling going on over at the BigHead Boy's seat, this wasn't an unprecedented situation. He sighed. I hate to let down Hadley... Hopefully the shiny Cup in her possession is enough to defer her anger and disappointment away from me.

And as for the music bit... He didn't have a musical bone in his body, nor a gene in his family. The most I can do is whistle... and not that well. So would he even know if his name was related to anything musical? Most certainly not. He sat there uncharacteristically, silently waiting for others to answer and not contributing himself.

and a little Lewis in here too ^^
 

Kurumi continued to nervously search for her quill. Had she really forgotten it? She had been rather forgetful recently, and about things that she never really had been. Must be stress. The Gryffindor was under A LOT of that recently. The blush on her cheeks only intensified when, of all people, Treyen found her quill sticking right out of her bag and handed it to her.

"Oh...um...t-t-thank you," she stammered, accepting the quill and quickly setting it down on her parchment. His next comment had her confused, mostly because she had no idea that she had been blushing in the first place, and her violet eyes were back on him and her hands went to her cheeks. They were rather...warm. Why was that?

But before she could properly answer Treyen, Kurumi's attention was drawn to Professor Hadley. "P-Perfectly fine, professor," she chirped a little too loudly perhaps. It was turning out to just be one of those days.

Her body turned to the side a bit as she put her bag down on the ground, her eyes flicking momentarily towards Lewis who seemed...confused. Had she said something wrong? She had promised him that she would work with him to spot all the planets in the night sky before the end of the term and she had no intention of breaking that promise. Or...did he not want to do that anymore. Confused, Kurumi bit her bottom lip and turned her attention forward again.

Kurumi had never really thought of music in this manner, so she really had no idea where to begin. Music, playing the piano specifically, had been something that wasn't really tangible to anything else besides her mother. No, she wasn't going to get all emotional over that again, at least not during this lesson.

Kurumi listened as some of her classmates offered up answers, things she honestly would have never even thought of, and simply nodded her head. The only other thing she could think of was beats and counts, but her classmates' responses seemed like the much more logical answer, so Kurumi remained silent and waited for Professor Hadley to confirm their thoughts.

Josephina's gaze flickered around the room as no one really seemed to offer a suggest as to what music had to do with their names. Numbers. They were no doubt thinking too far into it. At least that's what Fina told herself.

Whatever Treyen had presented to Kurumi obviously placated her enough. But not Fina, even though the girl said she was perfectly fine, there was something in her tone that made her think otherwise. Except now wasn't really the time to consider those thoughts.

"Yes. Looking at musical notes in respect to your lives," Fina agreed, but not quite. "The way I see it, your life could be visualized in terms of a musical score." But no, they weren't going to put their names to the musical scale. That was sorta their homework.

"In regards to the fact that your name might be considered a musical piece throughout time," Fina said, agreeing with Amelia like she had Vickers, yet not quite. They were thinking too into this musical score thing. But at least they attempted the question.

Now addressing the whole class, Fina decided it was time to progress onward with the lesson. "Your name can be considered a musical piece that vibrates throughout time. Which in some way, your life is a musical score, whereas the letters make certain contributions, the notes in a musical piece are played at certain moments to give that music its rhythm." So that's how music related to their name and life, but how did that tie into today's lesson? Hm.

If she were Dr McNally, she'd have had them compose their own original piece, but alas, she was not. She taught the mysteries of numbers. Which is why ....

"Just as musical notes provide to a musical piece, each name - be it your first, middle, or surname, will provide information on a particular level of consciousness." Fina continued. "So today, we're going to be discussing the numbers that pertain to this. Any idea what number I'm referring to?"

It was probably good that the lesson was split like this. They were able to move on after only a few answers, and Vashti didn't have to sit and worry about her mind wandering while waiting for something to take notes on. She scribbled a few down once Professor Hadley continued the lesson then paused when she mentioned what the numbers they would be studying pertained to. Something to do with their first name, middle name, or last name... A particular level of consciousness...

It took a few moments, and she had a few that popped into her head instantly though they didn't seem like the type that would be worth teaching in an "advanced" lesson, but finally she raised her hand to offer an answer. "Could it be the Transit or the Essence Cycles?" The Essence Cycles seemed to have a little more to do with numbers than the Transits when she had studied about them for her NEWTs, but they both seemed fairly similar and fit what Professor Hadley was describing.

Hmm ok so its not quite what he had thought. Vickers was leafing through his textbook, wondering what the Professor could be referring to. He was reading through the later chapters when he thought that perhaps this is what the Numbers Guru meant, although really at this point he's taking a wild, albeit educated guess "Professor, are you referring to the Transit and Essence Cycles?" he uttered after raising his hand hesitatingly.

Oh and the Head Girl arrived to the same suggestion. Maybe he's not so far off after all?

Totally guessing here... XD
 

So 'Keefer' vibrates through time, eh? Is that like saying I'm going to be famous? He wasn't exactly following his Head on this line of thinking, but he wasn't sure that asking her to further explain herself would do any good. Anyways, she was now moving on to asking questions. And these were Arithmancy-related, so he actually had a chance.

Consciousness.. what number has to do with consciousness? Wait, she said numbers.. so it's like a group or something, right? He flipped through his textbook, trying to remember where he may have heard of numbers relating to consciousness from a previous lesson. It did ring a bell somewhere in the back of his head... The word appeared before his eyes. "Master numbers.." he murmured. He scanned the descriptions.



Well, it made two references to consciousness, and it was a group of numbers. Plus, he couldn't remember talking about them in class recently, which didn't hurt their chances. He figured the worst that could happen was that he'd be wrong. He stuck both hands in the air as usual. "Um, Professor... I was wondering if you may be referring to the Master Numbers? They seem to talk about consciousness quite a bit.." Which was truly all he was going off of.

Listening as students spoke their suggestions, Fina shook her head at her captain's suggestion of Master Numbers. "Not quite. Master numbers are numbers you look for in other numbers. They're not derived directly from your first, middle, or last name."

But oh look! Vashti and Vickers got it! Perhaps it was something with V names and making this easier to understand. Heh. OR not. Maybe just a coincidence.

"Precisely! Today we'll be talking about Transit and Essence Cycles. But first things first, we'll discuss the Transit Cycles." She paused, allowing them a chance to flick to the appropriate page in the textbook, if they hadn't already. "As I mentioned already, each of your names pertains to a particular level of consciousness, be it spiritual, mental, or physical. Who can tell me which transit level is associated with which name?"

Ok, so he had been way off. But this question... This one he was sure he could do... mostly because it was reading directly from the textbook. He raised both hands, confidently this time. "Professor, it says here that the Physical Transit comes from your first name, the Mental from your middle name, and the Spiritual from your last name." Except some people didn't have middle names or had two middle names, or other weird situations. He kept reading. "...Oh! It also addresses odd cases." He read aloud. "For those who do not have a middle name, the last name provides the Transit information for both the Mental and the Spiritual. For those who have more than one middle name, the middle names should be strung together into one long name. If you received more than one last name, string the last names together into one long last name." Yes, it made a lot more sense now.

Kurumi, still sort of flustered from the whole quill incident and...whatever else it was that had her distracted, was more focused on taking notes this time around than speaking. Not that she didn't really have an answer for what was being said, her reflexes just seemed to be slow...or nonexistent right now. Almost as if she was zoning out, only she really wasn't. Not intentionally anyway.

When the next question was asked, and after she had taken notes on the previous one, Kurumi was about to offer up an answer, but several people had already and she really didn't have much to add. The conversation about middle names was of interest to her since she did not have one herself and instead of flipping through her textbook for confirmation on the information given, she simply looked forward to wait for Professor Hadley to respond.

As she was waiting patiently for the lesson to start, Gwendolyn couldn’t help staring blankly at the things she had just arranged on the desk. Why… did she choose this? She could have done something remarkable in the basic lesson, right? So… WHY? She obviously wasn’t a pro in music or anything related to that. After all, she was the one who almost terrified everyone in the common room when borrowing Aki’s guitar to see if she had any talent at all. Ugh. At least people seemed to have forgotten of that. Hopefully.

The third year suddenly heard someone say something and as she turned her head to see who it was, a smirk appeared on her face. ‘Hi’, the young Ravenclaw replied. ‘No. Of course not’, the girl made an effort to smile, but even this time only a smirk came out.

She was about to say something, but stopped as she noticed the Gryffindor Prefect coming there. Oh. And the bow was completely unnecessary. However, Gwen started feeling a bit more eh… normal. ‘Hello’, the third year made a great effort to smile at Kurumi. All in all, the Gryffindor was always nice to everyone. Why? How…? Gwendolyn had no idea.

……………………………………………………………………………………..

As another question was asked, the third year looked around for a bit and took a few notes of what the other students had said. There was no need of mentioning the same thing twice, right? Mhm. She’ll get the next one. Maybe.

Josephina nodded at Keefer and then Amelia as they explained where each of the transits came from.

"Precisely right! And how do you know how long a transit number will last?"