Wait...what?

Had she just missed an entire question? How did they go from 'What is Arithmancy' to 'What is a curse'? *bliiiiiiiink* Sierra sort of shifted her position in her seat and glanced around the room. She listened to her classmates for a few moments then raised her hand.

"A curse is cast for evil intentions," she said. "The caster is trying to bring some sort of harm to the victim or control them in some way. I think you can definitely realize when somebody's been cursed, because they typically act far different from how they normally act." Or if they're dead... "Or they act like a puppet on a string waiting for an order from somebody else."

Emmanuelle had stayed silent for the last question, since everyone had already mentioned a lot of with she had been thinking. But she was afraid that if she didn't answer this one, Professor Hadley would start to think that she had checked out. So, she quickly came up with a different way of phrasing it. "A curse is spell that people use on other people that they don't really like that causes them irreparable physical or mental harm." There! Then, she realized that she sounded kind of like a textbook there. Yikes! I wasn't reading from the book, honest!

All Milton was looking for was a yes or no answer, but then Cookie Girl turned around and went into some deep explanation with personal day numbers and quite frankly, Milton was spaaaaaced out. He just heard the YES and that was good enough for him. When Kurumi was done talking, Milton just blinked a few times and stared at her for a couple seconds. "I have no idea what you just said."

Whoops?

Maybe he'd go to the library later and read a book or something. Or maybe he could just make Kurumi figure it out for him. Heh. Either way, Milton's brain was buuuzzzzzzing with ideas and he was far too distracted to realize another question had been asked.

Jory raised his hand. "A curse is something that is used to cause harm to someone,'' he said. "Mostly physical harm.''

He paused. "If it's physical harm,'' the Puff continued "It would be a bit easy to recognise since the cursed person would probably have gruesome body changes.''

She quickly thought about the curses she had read and how they harm people. She raised her hand at once.

"Professor, a Curse is one of the seven known spell types and the worst kind of Dark Magic. Curses are used with the intention of causing harm, control, or even bring death to the victim. Like hexes, students are taught them in Defense Against the Dark Arts for protective purposes", she said without taking a gap.

"Well, every curse has its own distinction. For example, when someone is under the Imperius Curse, you will notice the calm and trance-like state of the victim, and his blurry eyes.", Befelda exclaimed.

"On the other hand, if the curse was on a thing, let's say a bracelet or a ring, once it made physical contact on the victim, the curse would spread rapidly. If left untreated with the right counter-curse, it could lead to death.".

Befelda was so confident with her answers. Reading really could move mountains, she said to herself.

Interesting. Ness pouted. This was something she wanted to learn more about and washighly tempted to talk to Hadley about it, but before she could even think of what to ask, the Professor seemed to have dissaproved...or maybe not. Smirk Smirk. Nessie had heard that last bit, and this meant her Dylan spying plans were still on. With or without the help of Arithmancy. She still had Oakey as back up.

Back to focusing on Arithmancy.

Curses? Is that what they were learning about today? Seemed alright, maybe a little something scary to learn, but it definitely was something Ness felt was important to know about. "Professor, in my opinion. A curse is anything evil that has been put upon someone or something, usually using magic." That was the best she could say, and hopefully it was somewhat right.

Sarah beamed back... she had read the textbook after all! She wrote down notes on curses.
"Curses are one of the seven types of spells and the worst form of dark magic, or as I should say, the darkest. They are used with evil intention, mostly to harm, control or unfortunately kill"'
Then she went on "depending on the type of curse there are various symptoms, like in the curse of the bogies the victim has boogers running from its nose, while a Cruciatus curse victim show symptoms of being tortures. A person under the babbling curse will babble whenever they speak, a leg locker curse would lock legs together so the victim will probably be bunny hopping. A hair loss curse will make hair fall out and..." Sarah thought she had given enough examples, "if a person has been killed by avadra kadavra, there will be no signs of any trauma, but a shocked expression on their face"

Curses?! Yes! He had always known that his aunt's specialty was in curse breaking. But try as he might, he'd never been able to get her to tell him about it. "You're too young," had always been the response. But now... He was at Hogwarts and she was teaching about it. This was going to be good.

Smile wide, he raised his hand. "Curses are dangerous. They're spells, but not necessarily Dark Magic, I don't think." Because who would classify the Leg Locker Curse as Dark? "Most people think of them as spells cast directly on a person to harm them, but they can also be used as a sort of trap. Like, you can place a curse on an object that may lie dormant for years until the right conditions occur." And THAT is why they were incredibly tricky to spot.

Laura raised her hand. "Professor a curse is very evil and very powerful, it is said that many people will stay away from a place if they think it is cursed because they don't want to get killed or get cursed, people say living cursed is worse than being dead professor it's kind of like the dementors kiss." Laura stopped to think before continuing. "Many people say that is a curse worse than death." Laura didn't know if it was but she just had heard it. "Many Egyptians Pharaohs put curses in their pyramid to stop people stealing the treasure they were hoping to take with them to the afterlife." Laura stopped there she would let someone else speak.

Cassia straightened hearing something she did know about! This was part DADA right? After all, all subjects lead to each other somehow. The second-year raised her hand and spoke. "A curse is considered dark magic and it causes harm and damage." As for how to recognize someone cursed she wasn't sure but she was going to say what she knows, "Being cursed means being controlled by the one who cast the curse." She answered.

Curses...That is interesting. To learn about of course not to practice. Except when necessary.

What did curses have to do with this? Cora figured she really must not know what this class was all about, and immediately began taking more notes. She had two years to make up for.

What is a curse? Cora seemed to have a bit of trouble articulating her thoughts, but she tried her best, speaking quietly of course. "Well, a curse is something that gives control of actions, emotions, or feelings of someone or something to someone else." Cora thought about the unforgivable curses with a shudder. "It is meant to control or harm." Cora figured this out. She supposed not all curses were absolutely TERRIBLE, but if Cora brought that up, she would seem as if she sided with the use of curses. Which she DID NOT.

That got Cora thinking about how she must be the biggest waste of a witch ever. She would NEVER use magic to harm someone or something. She muttered to herself, "I'd never use a curse." There was no way the professor could hear that. She was good at being quiet and invisible.

"Much to some dismay, I'm sure, we won't be breaking any curses today." She waited for some groans before continuing on. "Instead, as several of you mentioned, human senses are very important to curses and even with Numerology, this is no different. So we're going to play a little game where I will extinguish one of your senses and you will have to use your other four senses to identify a series of seven objects. Ready?"

Without waiting for too much of a disagreement, Josephina pulled on night goggles over her eyes and tossed instant darkness powder into the air, and then removed box one from behind her desk. "Inside this box, which I will pass around and give you all the opportunity to identify it, you can feel inside the box if you wish or just use your sense of smell, or even taste it if you want, as its edible...." With that, she began walking around the room to give them all an opportunity to identify the object.

ooc: think about what that object smells and feels like.... and if your character would know it... feel free to be silly with your guesses if your character wouldn't know it... remember you can't see it.

Ella frowned a bit when Hadley announced that they wouldn't be breaking curses in class. Not that she thought she was even capable of that at this point...she was only a third year, after all. The subject did fascinate her though, hence the mild pouting.

The small badger perked up a bit when she heard they would be playing a game, her competitive side kicking into gear. BEAM. Games were fun...and definitely better than calculating numbers no offence to the Had-ster!

BLINK.BLINK. WHOTURNEDOFFTHELIGHTS?

Ella was frightened for all of two seconds, thinking she might have gone blind or something. She grabbed the hand of the person next to her before realizing that was quite silly. She wasn't in any danger! They were in class... It took her a minute to realize that this, the darkness, was part of the game. Cue a sigh of relief.

She listened carefully as Hadley then explained what they would need to do, sitting back in her chair and waiting for her to bring the object around. When she did get to her seat, Ella immediately smelled something quite strong...and citrus-y. Hmm..Well it was edible, so maybe it was fruit? Or um...pie? MMM. PIE. She then decided to feel the object, thinking that might help her narrow it down. She was a bit surprised that the object was hard...and plastic? HUH? Ella was puzzled. "Erm Professor, is it um...some kind of natural lemon-based cleaning product...that you can um..eat?" Yup. Cause that made LOADS of sense.

Sarah groaned when she heard that they were not going to be breakking curses that lesson. She was loking forward to the game... She had played a similar game at her muggle cousins once. They blind folded her and then gave her something to at and she had to guess what it was. Some things were disgusting... they made her taste Soya sauce and things.
Then it was dark... very dark. Pitch black... like blindness... must be the instant darknss podr.... presumed Sarah. Then she heard Hadey come towards her and Sarah felt the thing. It was not big, it could fit in the clasp oh hand... there was a paart that was almost spherical, yet it was bumpy dotted textured. Then she felt the shape change to a smaller thing and the texture changed as well, to a lined thing that had vertical lines.. then she fet a lid... She brought the thing to her nose (her dad said it was rude to smell food like that, yet Sarah did not think so) and smelt... it smelt like lemony. Then she decided to eat it... she fiddled with the lid and opened it and turned it over into the palm of her hand... If it were the sherbet thing that sold at the muggle sweet shop it would be powder. If it were the thing that her aunt used instead of sugar in her tea (sweetner) it would be pills.. yet to her surprise it was neither... it was liquid. She lapped it up like a dog... it tasted sour. 'I think it is lemon juice in a funny bottle... like a roundish bottle' she said

They weren't going to break curses? Laaaame. But that was kind of okay with Milton because he wasn't really up for exerting a whole lot of energy that day. He was saving it for the quidditch match!

Wait. Extinguish one of their senses? She could do that? Milton was about to question the legality of extinguishing someone senses (what was she gonna do - chop their ears off?), but then suddenly it was DARK. Milton blinked several times but he couldn't even tell because it was so dark.

After listening carefully to what Hadley was saying, Milton listened to her footsteps until he was pretty sure she was at his table. He kicked his foot out until he felt something that could have possible been Hadley's ankle. Whoops. "Sorry. It's... dark." Obviously. Milton fumbled around until he found the box and stuck his hand inside.

HMMM. It was... roundish. With a little nob-sort-thing at the top. It was kind of bumpy, too. "Can I take it out?" he asked, but he did so anyway without waiting for an answer. He used both hands to try and squish it. It was plastic, he assumed because he could kind of squish it. A plastic bottle. He shook it a few times. A plastic bottle with liquid inside! Milton played with the little nob thing on top before figuring out how open it. And Hadley DID say it was edible. Milton assumed it wasn't poisonous because Professor Hadley seemed like a genuinely nice person and poisoning students was something he could only see Professor Lafay doing. So, before even sniffing it (because he was kind of dumb), Milton dropped some of the liquid onto his finger and licked it.

WHEEEEW. "Ohbooooy!" Milton puckered up his lips and made a >__< face. He slapped the lid back on and tossed the LEMON JUICE bottle back into the box. "That's just mean." muttermuttergrumble.

Cassia wasn't actually expecting to be breaking any curses. Did the other students expect that? Well, surely Professor Hadley wasn't going to curse anyone just to show the other students how a curse is broken,right? Cassia thought that they might learn it in theory. But that too wasn't happening.

And before she decided if she was disappointed or not, Professor Hadley mentioned something about a game! Which immediately excited the second-year and made her shift in her seat eager to know about the game they were going to play.

And it was explained. A guessing game. Cassia didn't mind those but she almost NEVER guessed right. She didn't really care as long as she had fun. So when the lights went out, Cassia waited for Professor Hadley to get closer to her seat. And when she did, Cassia stretched her hand out and inserted in into the box clumsily for she wasn't seeing anything. She decided to feel it and then if necessary smell it. But NOT taste it. Eww...what if someone else had licked it before her. Ewwwww..she didn't eve want to think about that.

Running her finger on the surface of the object, Cassia waited for her brain to process something. It never did. She used both of her hands. The object had a circular shape and not so smooth surface. Feeling defeated, the second-year shook her head in the dark and spoke up, "It's something small," Well obviously considering it fit into the box. "And feels like rubber." She paused. "Is it a rubber ball?" Though it didn't feel like a sphere but maybe Professor Hadley squished it or something to trick them. Cassia wanted to ask if it was indeed a ball could she keep it as she guessed it but that would sound stupid and childish so she didn't. And the twelve-years old didn't bother to smell it. It didn't feel worth it, besides other students surely did so it didn't feel comfortable to do so.

What is a curse? Well that was simple enough right? It seemed like everybody had pretty much said everytung there was to say but Hannah had to participate...she would be getting it from her parents if she got so much as one bad mark from any class or professor.

"Professor a curse is when someone casts a spell that they intent to cause harm." That was simple enough yes?



Ok so they weren't going to be breaking any curses today. Hannah could deal with that. Play a little game? Truth be told Hannah was not in the mood to play any kinds of games especially with numbers...that was NOT fun.

Wait. What? She was going to do what? Take away her senses? Well which one? Before she had time to complain or really even to take in the information the professor threw some kind of powder into the room and everything went dark. Great they couldn't see. One of the worse senses to be taken away in her opinion. She had to feel and figure out what was in a box that she couldn't see? No, no, no. Hannah did not trust people. how many times would she have to make that fact clear?

She stuck her hand in the box. Hmm...it smelled strong of lemon, but it was hard. They were supposed to be able to eat this? Not that she would or anything. "Professor it's a super stale piece of lemon pie." Yup that explained the smell and the hardness!

Sutton hadn't entirely had a chance to prepare herself when the room went entirely black. She jumped and glanced around, looking for some shred of light, but there was none to be found. Then she heard Professor Hadley's voice from the front of the classroom explaining what they were to do, and Sutton calmed down a bit.

When the box came down the row to Sutton, she felt what was inside and her brow furrowed. This was familiar to her, she knew. As her hands felt the way to the top, she noticed there was a flip cap. Not everyone in the class would recognize this, probably. Did wizards have flip caps like this? Popping it open, she turned it upside down, but nothing came out. She gave it a little shake and heard that there was, indeed, liquid in it.

Curious...

Squeezing it, a good amount of the liquid came out in her hand. She gave it a sniff, and it had a faint smell... it reminded her of her mother's kitchen. Her very, very clean kitchen. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she brought her hand up to her face and tasted the liquid with the tip of her tongue. Her cheeks grew tight as her lips puckered at how sour it was.

Closing the flip cap, she put it back in the box and passed it down the line.

Yuck.

Lemon juice.

A game?

What sort of ga---POOF

Sudden darkness that only could have been from the use of Peruvian instant darkness powder. Sight must be the sense Professor Hadley decided to take away from them. So Gideon waited until it was his turn to try and identify the object within the box. He didn't hesitate but a moment before sticking his hand inside, feeling for what he would find there.

"Hard...maybe plastic. Ovoid shape." He heard what others had said about lemon and leaned his head closer to get a sniff. The smell was there though faint, though it got stronger as something he touched flipped open. "Certainly something lemony. A container of lemonade?"

Nigel was cautious about games in a math class. He closed his eyes think about what types of games they could be playing. and when he opened them again. He thought he had gone blind. This is crazy. But he did hear something about instant darkness powder. So he wait for the box.

Once the box was in front of him. It kinda of smelled lemony. But Nigel dismissed that because he had just drunk some lemonade. But it did feel like a ball or bomb of some sort and if he include the lemon smell. Maybe it was a bomb.

"Professor, is it a stink bomb"

They always smelled nice before they went off.

Laura was daydreaming when suddenly she realised that it was dark. "PROFESSOR HADLEY!!!!!!!!" Laura was a bit scared of the dark. "Your Lights are a bit broken." Laura really wanted the lights back on and she wanted them on now. "I...I...I We...Well it feels like a coconut." Laura wasn't sure if it was or not but well it might be.

Awww no curse-breaking via Arithmancy? There was a slight slouching from this Ravenclaw when the heard the Numbers Guru. But she did say something about a game-- which naturally he thought involved some ink, parchment and a whole of of number crunching.

So it took him completely by surprise when the room suddenly went dark, and a surge of panic welled up from within. Most people's senses when blinded would shift towards their hearing-- but for Vickers who was partly deaf on the left ear, the sudden darkness didnt just rob him of his primary sense, it also reminded him that he cant hear very well from the left side of his head.

Something was then shoved into his hands . It felt like a box, and through the confussion he fumbled with it, partly remembering the Professor's words that they have to use their other senses. His hand fell clumsily into the box and thats when he realized there was something else inside it. "Its... its plastic ba-- " he stopped mid sentence since his hand enclosed and lifted the circular thing feeling that it was filled with something liquid. He shook it a few times close to his good ear. A ball thats filled with water? That doesnt make any sense.

He fumbled a bit more with the plastic-y liquid filled ball. It had a flat bottom...and a screw/flip up top? It was almost like a bottle.

He drew his nose close to the top that he fumbled open. He wasnt about to taste it because that would risk having to ingest whatever it was. And no he wasnt about to risk that, not with almost two of his senses compromised.

The odor.... he recognized it immediately "Lemony..." pungent. It sure wasnt some kind of cleaning solution because it didnt smell fresh at all "Uhm... so its a lemon... juice.... ball?

Minerva listened as the others had responded to the curse question. She wasn't day dreaming, but she had just not felt like answering the question. Then Hadley started talking about senses and she threw something in the air. Before Min could think about what it could be everything went dark, a small yelp came from her lips before she could stop it. "Sorry Professor" she said quietly not meaning to scream like that, but darkness freaked her out a bit.

When she felt something in front of her went to reach for it, but then stopped, was this the professor or was it some nasty trick from someone who was near her. Thinking if she should trust or not she hesitated and then decided to reach out taking the objects. It was round, but felt plastic. Without thinking she squeezed to see if it would or not. Something leaked out onto her hand. Hmmm so whatever it was it had juice inside. Pulling her hand up she licked her hand and made a very sour face, "Yuck.. That is a lemon, it has to be." Oh she hated the taste of lemons. Why did she lick the juice off her hand. Handing the lemon back she cringed still tasting it.

Curse breaking? How does that work? The young eagle didn't quite see how finding a number could help you be able to break a curse. Wouldn't you still need to know the right spell to cast? She knew aurors did things like that, but they were so mysterious, she'd never really known how they did much of anything. This wasn't getting any clearer to her the more she thought about it, so naturally, she was intrigued. Her notebook for this class was sure to be full by the end of the term. There seemed to be a lot of ins and outs to it, from what she gathered at least.

She raised her hand, although her answer was fairly simple, she wanted to show she was trying. "A curse is a spell negative by nature that someone casts in order to cause harm. It could be directly cast onto another person or it could be cast on an object." She was pretty sure. They'd talked about curses in DADA earlier that year. "I'm not sure about objects, but a way to tell if a person has been cursed could be if they're acting out of character, like under the imperious curse..."





She thought that seemed logical, curses attacking certain senses. She wondered what some really strong curses were that could attack more than one at a time, just out of curiosity of course. Better to know about them ahead of time than to find yourself a victim of a severely incapacitating curse, right? She was still listening to the professor when the woman pulled something out of her pocket and told them briefly what she intended to do - and the room went dark. Pitch black, darkness. She was a little startled, but she knew this was all part of the lesson plan.

As the professor walked around the room with the object, Eliza knew one thing for sure. She was not going to taste it. Just because it was edible didn't meant she wanted to put strange tastes in her mouth. No thank you. When it was her turn to inspect it, she first leaned over to smell it. She took a small sniff at first, Smells...weird. Strong and...sour? She took another big whiff. Agh! Yep, definitely sour. She paused, debating her guesses, still not really sure. Okay, I guess I'll just have to touch it. Ugh. She reached a single finger into the box and jumped at the feeling of a rough hard material. Retrieving her hand quickly, she vexed over what it could be. What's solid like that and smells sour? Hmmm...

"Is it a...a sort of room freshener? A scented plastic or something? It smells citrusy. And she hated everything citrus. Yuck. Just yuck.

Alright Oakey you got this in the bag...or box, whatever it was that Hadley was passing around. When it came to be his turn to figure out what the mystery item was he reached his hand in the box and picked up the small round object that felt like it had tiny bumps going around it...a plastic golf ball maybe?

no...no...wait at the top there was...a top? Oakey placed his thumb and index finger around the lid and twisted it off. He placed his nose to it and smelled something sour that made his nose wince, No, definitely not a plastic golf ball.

As his final test Oakey decided to taste it. There was something in it and he could feel how the container was a bit heavy was it was filled with some kind of liquid. He put the container near his mouth and squirted the mystery liquid into his mouth.

It-it was really sour! Oakey puckered his face up and turned his head in the direction of where ever it was Ella was sitting. It was to dark to tell where anyone was. "That's lemon juice." Oakey said through his squinted face.