Soon enough the lesson began and it seemed that they were starting right where they left off when Myrtle had created chaos. Which was good, because Emmanuelle was still curious about how curse breaking was connected to Arithmancy and the only way she was going to get that answer was if that lesson continued. Her went up at the professor's question. "Our other senses are heightened when we lose our eyesight, even temporarily, and it's useful to get used to that fact so that if we do happen to have to break a curse in darkness, for whatever reason, we can use that to our advantage?"

Sarah raked her brain. "perhaps curse breakers get into situation where one sense or the other is compromised and they need to know how to work with their remaining senses." That was completly made up on the spot sort of a thing.

Soooooooooooooo excited! That's how he felt right now. Because they were continuing the curse breaking lesson finally, since Myrtle had so rudely interrupted their first crack at it. It was with an eager expression that Logan raised his hand. "Yes, Professor," he said purposefully. "I think it may help if you're actually cursed. I know a lot of curse breakers work like in old tombs or something. Even though they're professionals, they are bound to mess up and miss something sometimes." Except for Auntie Fina. She practically never made mistakes. "So it's good practice in still being able to think logically and not freak out when you've been cursed," like SOME people did when Myrtle showed up, "though I doubt it would ever be something so harmless as impairing only one of your senses."

He put his hand down. Then he set to scribbling all the other answers he was hearing, skipping anything that sounded like repetition of others' ideas. Logan squirmed in his seat a bit, unable to contain his excitement for the practical demonstration he just KNEW had to be coming in this lesson.

Ella thought about Hadley's question for a few minutes, stroking her imaginary beard. How could something like the activity they'd done last class relate to curse breaking? Hmm...

After a few minutes, the small blonde thought she had a semi decent answer and raised her hand. "Professor, perhaps because when you lose on sense, your other senses are kind of on high alert. It's like they make up for the lost sense and help you to figure stuff out even when you're not fully functional. I guess when you're curse breaking, you'd want to be able to use all your senses to help detect the signs that something is cursed. All your senses are important for that. Not just the obvious ones like sight and touch."

Vivi was still somewhat annoyed at the last lesson getting cut short, especially as this was a subject she enjoyed and the class topic had been one in which she'd been very interested. She propped her chin on her fist and gazed absently at the professor until the question was asked.

Oh! "Professor, Curse-breakers need to rely on their instincts, as well as their smarts, and instincts are often fed by the senses. Hearing or smelling something that doesn't seem right is a better indicator that just waiting to see that something is going wrong."

Thinking back, Sierra remembered that last lesson. It had been cut too short, but ehh...this was Arithmancy. Distractions were always welcome as far as Sierra was concerned. Nevermind that now, though. So how was it all important to the skill of curse breaking?

Sierra raised her hand. "I think it's because curse breaking often times requires you to think outside the box. Lots of times, when we see things with our eyes, we automatically decide we do or don't know what that object is and what it does," she said. "If we allow ourselves the chance to touch the object, smell the object, or use any of other senses, we're opening ourselves up to more perspectives and thoughts."

Nerida raised her hand and said not quite a hundred percent on her answer. "I think its important because when we're trying to break a curse a lot of things can happen and our senses can be messed with so it would be good to learn how to be able to use the others if the situation were to happen." She had said that way better than she had thought it.

Jory raised his hand. "Sometimes, for some reason, curse breakers may not be able to use their senses and will have to rely on instinct,'' he said. "For example, if they're in total darkness and Lumos cannot work,they'll have to feel around and touch objects and try to figure out what that object is by forming a mental picture.'' It all came down to their instincts and how good they were.

"So senses are important to curse-breaking because they allow you to perceive the world and its many choices. Curse-breaking, just like Law Enforcement positions, requires vigilance." Fina paused, glancing down at her notes and then back up at the students. "Your senses allow you to better perceive the curses and to be more successful in finding solutions to break those curses."

"Every curse and spell has a numerical basis to it. Which some of you may remember from a couple years ago, how we find the numbers associated with a curse... is a simple incantation, which is ....?"

Ira nodded. Senses were important for curse breaking. Like constant vigilance, as ex-headmaster used to say. And besides, she wanted to learn all about curse breaking. It was interesting to say the least. She really enjoyed it.

And finally they came to numerical part. Ira had revised this topic after the last lesson, when it was told that they would be studying about curse breaking again this term. So she did know the spell of course! Raising her hand up high in the air, she answered, "Arithmos Revelio. Thats the spell finding the associated numbers." And oh yes, Ira remembered that lesson in her first year, when the wrong spell had frozen her and many others. Looking back, that had been a fun lesson.

Kat smiled when Professor Hadley said she's got a point. She didn't actually expect it. She was just stating what she had in mind. Well... maybe Kat should answer some of her opinions soon, note to self.... But not the bad opinions. She's going to lose those points soon. Which is totally not worth it.

Spell. She wasn't even sure, but yeah. "I agree with the Gryffindor Ira, Professor," Kat said. "The incantation is Arithmos Revelio." Hmmm... yeah.

So....were they going to be trying to open up more walnuts this time? Walnuts...that reminded her of a certain feline that was still in the Gryffindor common room...PEEING on everything most likely as well. Merlin help her. And all of Gryffindor house. And...oh, right, class.

Nodding, Kurumi looked down at her notes again for a brief moment. She had brought up the spell last lesson and had been hoping then that they would get to apply it to something - Kurumi like analyzing numbers - but they all THAT had happened and...yeah. "Arithmos Revelio," she said after raising her hand. "And you move your wand down, then up, and finally flick it towards the object."

Hannah listened as the professor went on about senses and why they were important in curse breaking. She jotted down notes just in case she would need them later. She knew that she would need all the help that she could get when it came to this class.

Numbers associated with a curse. Little bells were going off in Hannah's head. Maybe she had actually retained something from a previous class. Then it hit her. She knew the answer. She actaully knew the answer. She raised her hand in the air. "Professor, the spell is Arithmos Revelio." She eyed the Gryffindor prefect...of course she would go futher explain something that the professor did not ask. Oh yeah...Hannah was very judgemental of others!

Sarah had not learnt this before, so she wrote down some notes and listened carefully to what the others said

So they were finally getting to the numbers part. YES! Except... he wasn't here a few terms ago. How was he supposed to know this incantation? Not fair! Now he couldn't show his aunt how much he knew and make her proud!

Pao pouted slightly, his poochy lip sticking out in a slight scowl. Nevertheless, he dutifully copied down the incantation into his notes. Though he wasn't quite sure how to spell it, he tried a few variations and finally settled on ARITHMOS REVELIO.

Ella listened to Hadley, taking notes as the Professor shared her own insights on curse-breaking and how it related to their activity last class. She smiled a little, happy her answer was an okay one.

The incantation question was one Ella didn't immediately know the answer to and by the time she'd thought of it, several other students had already answered. Rather than repeating the same thing over again, the blonde simply wrote down the incantation in her notes in bold letters, underlining it several times. There, she wouldn't be able to forget it now. Mhm.

Alex raised his hand. "Well, the incantation is Arithmos Revelio, which makes sense cause it sounds like Arithmancy Reveal!" he explained. He was also going to go in to detail about the wand movement, but of course the Gryffindor prefect had gotten to that first.

He quickly scribbled everything down in his notebook. He couldn't really remember WHY they needed to know the numerical base behind spells, but he was sure he would find out soon enough.

Arithmos Revelio? For some reason this Ravenclaw doesnt remember having studied that at Hogwarts or even anywhere else hence the hasty scribbling of his quill against parchment. He was* curious now what that spell can do how it could be used against curse-breaking and numbers divination...

Minerva listened to the next question and put her hand up, but others were called on first so she just placed her hand back down and decided to just let everyone answer and she would take notes on what they said.

She remembered doing that spell a few terms ago, well she thought she remembered it. Sometimes it seemed things got all mixed up and she couldn't remember if she just read about it or actually did it in class. Maybe she should stop reading ahead so much on things and just wait until they were taught to her.

Lex raised a suspicious eyebrow at everyone in the class. Yeah. They all got the look. Something happened in the last class and nobody bothered to mention what. It was like they were trying to keep her out of the loop or something--Not something she appreciated one bit.

She leaned forward, resting her head on her desk and listened to the Professor speak but while she did Lex couldn't help but snicker. If she didn't then she might have cried.

This. Was. Another. Number. Class.

Didn't they think it was important to warn a girl about these things before she chose whether or not to hide out in the bathroom during a class? Jeez. Yet another selfish act on all their parts--the Professor too. They'd had so many chances to talk and not once did she bother to say 'Oh and Alexa I teach a subject that's bestfriends with numbers, just giving you a heads up'. Hmph. Though she couldn't be too surprized. Over the summer Pao HAD told her his aunt taught numbers and she did say she wouldn't go to her classes. That just left her wondering...why was she sitting her without an answer to the question? Meh. She would sit there and wait to be asked something simpler. 2 + 2 would be well appreciated. Yup.

She couldn't have said it better herself? Well, of course she couldn't. Sierra was just that awesome, and that's all there was to it. Heh. Sierra sat back and listened as the professor went on about how curses related to numbers and how there was a simple incantation used to find the numbers associated with a curse. "That'd be Arithmos Revelio," she said, her hand raised. Not much else to say there. She looked up and waited for the lesson to continue.

Of course Josephina had not expected every student to know the incantation she was talking about, but a fair few of the older kids did remember, which pleased her. "Excellent. Yes, the spell to reveal the numbers associated with a curse is indeed Arithmos Revealo!"

"So in numerology, there are 10 single-digit numbers that have individual meanings when they stand alone, but when it comes to Curse-Breaking, we have to pay attention to compound numbers." Something that after the chaldean method last term, they'd surely get now, right?

"But instead of us learning the parts of spell numerization like some of you remember from a few years ago, we're going to discuss another, more basic form of curse-breaking which comes in the form of solving cryptograms!" Hadley explained, glad things were moving along finally. "Cryptograms are important to curse-breaking too, which is because .... well, first, what is a cryptogram?"

Jory raised his hand. "Cryptograms are like pieces of puzzles,'' he begn. "It is made up od of encrypted text.'' Really, it was all he could remember about cryptograms right now.

Kurumi was squirming in her seat a little bit more now. Did this mean that today they would actually GET to try out the spell today? Kurumi was really itching for some more practical applications of Arithmancy and some of her favorite lessons with Professor Hadley had been ones where they didn't just do calculations but also got to apply the subject to something - even if that something was a walnut.

Cryptograms. Easy enough to be defined, but the Gryffindor's thoughts sort of wandered elsewhere after Jory had already spoken. "Professor Hadley, in a sense isn't Arithmancy sort of one big cryptogram? I mean with the application of the Pythagorean and Chaldean methods of assigning letters to number values. They are, in a sense, substitution ciphers which is what cryptograms frequently use." It was way out of the box, perhaps a bit too much so, but she was feeling rather sheepish about her previous answer with tombs. You know, going for a literal reason instead of stepping back and seeing the big picture like everyone else had. Tunnel vision. She had it.

Well... At least Kat got it right. Now moving on to cryptograms.

Hand raised. "Cryptograms are some sort of puzzles with a little piece of encrypted text in it." Kat's answer was just so simple just like that. But her way of saying it didn't sound so scholar-like or smart. Kat is no perfect Ravenclaw, but she knows her stuff. And that's not something you're supposed to tell off about her. She just knows. Period.