Curiously Lux turned her attention to Toby as he was asked to pose a question to the class.

Honestly, it was a good question and something she could definitely see the need to discuss since so many people got married. When she got married one day, she would change her last name but obviously that wouldn't happen for a while.

Not having any real idea on how it worked, she remained silent and listened attentively to what her classmates had to say as she took out her notebook and textbook.

Admittedly, it was an interesting start to the lesson, and the topic was something that had previously crossed his mind. Perhaps his numbers would be better if he was Zeke Browne, instead of Rogers... but that was something he hadn't brought up at home just yet, in case the answer was no.

He listened to some of the answers, but was lost in his own thoughts for the most part... But, yeah, he put his hand up anyway.

"I think it makes sense for our life path numbers and everything to change, because if we change our names that's something important to us.. like, it's... SIGNIFICANT, so it's the type of thing that will leave a mark on you." Change you even if only a little bit and not dramatically, but, maybe dramatically by numbers??? He wasn't quite sure. "So I think having new numbers is okay, but I was wondering, Professor... if you had to do something with BOTH of your numbers... add them, subtract them, multiply them or something to get an in-between number out of them. Kinda so it's like part of your own self, but then part of the new influences in your life...." did that make sense?

It made sense to him.

But maybe not.

He'd just sit here now and wait to be told what the right answer was, and already his quill was in his hand ready to scribble down the answer on his page. He needed to know this stuff.

Ooh! That was a good question, Dima reckoned. Toby was a smart cookie.

He raised his hand. "I think you should use your married name, professor. Or if you chose to legally change your name for any reason, I think you should use that as well. Choosing to change your name is a decision that shapes who you are and your personality, so I think it's reasonable that you would use your new name in Arithmancy too. Since you didn't get to choose your birth name, it might not even be an accurate representation of you are, anyway."

It was like you were a different person, he thought.

Lucky HE was never gonna change his name, so it wasn't even a problem.

Nicole listened to the question by the Hufflepuff. She needed to think about it for a moment. She had skimmed through the Arithmancy textbook once, not paying much attention to it, and could not remember any information regarding family names in it.

Finally, she raised her hand and said, "I don't think it matters, really." Nicole paused to organize her thoughts. "Both your original name and and the new one would explain the characteristics you have." She said, wondering if this made sense.

Angel raised her hand. "Professor, I think you would use your birth name." Angel wasn't sure but thought it was worth a guess.

Soooo Ruby was alright with Arithmancy if it was discussing stuff, it was just that once she had to write or read things it got hard. This was an interesting question though and she was listening to other people's answers and nodding for the most part. Her turn? She put her hand up.

"Professor I think that you should choose what feels right to you but that you shouldn't discount the name you were born with either. Like how you can look at different parts of your life and the lessons you are supposed to learn and everything? If you took into account what your old name said about like... a future cycle, if that was like, your new name's current cycle, it might be good to compare them and take both meanings together." Well, she tried, even if she hadn't used proper terminology. There was hopefully a nod to effort though, right?

... maybe?

Uh. Well um Hady wasn't exactly sure on this. Her mind was going two different ways with a possible answer though in a sense she felt both her thoughts were correct. Chewing on her lower lip in thought she tried to figure out the best possible way to word what she was thinking.

Hand raised in the air she gave her answer slowly hoping it made as much sense out loud as it did in her head. "I'd think that maybe it would be some sort of combination of both life cycle calculations. Since your birth name is what was yours from the start it's basically who you are...and your married or adopted name is whom you're now becoming. Therefore wouldn't it be best to keep both or some form of both names..."

Blah! It sounded so much better in her head! The young girl hoped the Professor could make sense out of what she'd just said.

For now AJ was not making eye contact with anyone, and she was going to keep to her little lion self. Hopefully she would just melt into the background and this lesson would coast on by for her with little to no effort on her part. She didn't deliberately sit away from the group. It was more like her body just went and found a seat away from people, and that just happened to be away from the group as well. It was a good choice if you asked her.

Oh, marriage. That was not a good topic to be talking about. Granted, that really wasn't the discussion, but it was still something that she didn't want to think about too much when she wasn't even on speaking terms with her own boyfriend. They were still in a relationship, right?

Anywho, everybody else pretty much had the topic covered, and there wasn't much to add. AJ raised her hand. "I agree with your birth name being the one used because---" Well, you were born with that name, and what could be more directed to you than your own birth name? AJ's concentration was gone though, and she didn't even realize that she hadn't completed her sentence.

"Thank you, Mr. Lecium." There, now hopefully with half of the windows closed the students would be awake, but not frozen.


So it looked like there were several proponents of using one's birth name. "I'm not sure one would be any harder than the other, as Miss Valentine alluded to." Though that was more of an opinion question. "The main argument for this view is, of course, what most of you pointed out - the concept of fate, or whatever term you use for the idea." Karma, destiny, divine will, and surely many more, but she stuck with the term Miss Addison had mentioned. "There is also the fact that, as Mr. Newell brought up, many people are too inwardly focused to be able to correctly determine which would 'fit' them better. The prevailing choice of ancient Arithmancers, and therefore of your textbook, is to use your birth name for all calculations throughout your lifetime."


Hmm. She had definitely asked them to raise their hands. "Miss Holiday, kindly raise your hand when you wish to speak in my classroom." Tiara was all for maintaining order.

"However, new research by modern Arithmancers and muggle numerologists is making this a less cut-and-dried issue for the exact reasons put forward by Miss Holiday, Miss Kittredge, and Mr. Toussaint. People do not change their names lightly, as a name is a powerful thing symbolizing our very identity." Tiara was still getting used to her own name change, in fact. "Because name changes tend to correspond with big life changes or decisions, the new school of thought holds that your personality, values, habits, et cetera are impacted to an extent that would make calculations with your new name entirely appropriate."


This was by far the most supported view in the classroom. "The view put forth by the rest of you is somewhere in the middle, using both calculations to gain a better picture of how the name-changing event affects your life. No one has yet, to my knowledge, come up with a mathematical rule for combining calculations with both names." She gave a nod in the direction of Mister Rogers. "It is my opinion that, in time, research will land us in this category, with both names used interchangeably."

Well, the students really seemed to be getting into this. She had intended to cover something completely different, but... Tiara thought back to all the teaching pedagogy literature she'd read this summer. Flexibility was key, and perhaps this was the time to use it. "Let's scrap what I had today and do some looking into this matter, shall we? Does anyone have anything else they'd like to add before we dig in?"


OOC: Last call for input! We'll get to activity in a few hours.

He nodded at the professor's logic, as well as that of his classmates, feeling particularly proud of himself for contributing to a discussion of a topic that had nothing to do with bugs or art. This was progress! He was LEARNING! Woo hoo knowledge!

Dima had nothing to add, though, so he stayed quiet and waited to hear more from his fellow students or for Professor Tanner to continue the lesson.

Abby was pleased with her input so far but she had nothing else to add so she just stayed quiet waiting for the lesson to continue

Blushing deep red Margo bowed her head. She really wasn't doing so well in classes and now she couldn't even follow the simple out line of the rules. She had always raised her hand in every other lesson, so what in the world was her problem.

Margo just kept her head down........nope she had no further information to give.... nope, nope...

Kate listened to all the replies, all the while trying to piece together the sense of it all. Side A made sense, but so did Side B. What they didn't have was a set mathematical rule for the in-between. Thinking on this, Kate started to wonder why a mathematical rule was even needed. Did married people need that much guidance? She always thought interpretations were a loose guide and that a person had the power to change their own destiny no matter what the numbers said.

She sat back in her chair, though, and just waited for the lesson to move on. The professor seemed to have a plan in mind anyway.

Noel kind of really sucked in this class. So after putting on the tag that read NOEL WALLACE, OCT. 5, 2071, the boy had sort of zoned out. The professor was nice, but there was just something about this subject that Noel did not get. It was a pity really. Everyone was contributing, talking about birth names and married names -

- and Noel was sort of wondering something else.

So reluctantly he raised his hand and asked a question instead of giving any input: "there is the birth name, and then there is the after marriage name - what about your stage name? If it feels right to you, can you use that too?" He knew lots of rockstars who had changed their names and writers who used ghost identities to publish stuff.

So many opinions and arguments, Adi thought to himself though he failed to write down a single thing because he was busy looking at AJ. Did she realise she hadn't finished her answer? He knew she must be feeling the way he was in the days since their misunderstanding even though she didn't show it that much.

Pulling his eyes away from her, he forced his attention back to Professor Tanner. No... nothing to add. So, what was next?

Suddenly there was a whole lot of discussion going on and Zander was falling very, VERY behind. Oh Merlin. He had to get this all down as quickly as he possibly could. Ignoring his ALREADY cramping hand, the Gryffindor began scribbling down bits and pieces of what others said... focusing more on what Sophie's Toberson said himself because Sophie said he's real smart and good at things like Ancient Runes and Arithmancy too, so yeah. He probably had a good mind to listen to that guy.

As for a contribution to the discussion.... Uh. O_______O

"I'd take it kind of like the sorting hat, Professor... The hat tells you where it thinks you belong... But you're allowed to put your opinion into the matter too and the hat will always listen to you," Apparently. How accurate it was.. he didn't know. But apparently that was a thing okay. Also apparently the hat was never wrong. He learned that bit from Professor Flamsteed. But anyways, there was a point to all of this maybe. "So maybe our names can define us... But we can impact them with our own decisions... Like a married name-or-uh, a nickname... Or a stage name, like Noel said?" Yeah okay, that's all he had. Did that even make sense? Eh.

Oohhhh ooohhhh ooohhhh! She nod his way... that meant only god things right? Cause he mentioned calculation type things. Zeke grinned, pleased about his contribution to discussion.

Only, things just seemed to be getting better in this subject, THEY WERE SCRAPPING THE ORIGINAL LESSON IDEA?! Awesome. AWESOME. Cause he reallllyyy wanted to explore this more. He REALLY wanted to know his options where names were concerned.

As much as he raised his hand to demand that they get to play with calculating their names and possible names, he did have a legitimate question too, so he voiced that instead. "Professor, what if your name is a hyphen? So you have both names anyway? Is that better or worse than choosing one over the other?" Serious questions here - because he never could just stop at one.

Even though Janelle didn't respond to Professor Tanner's question she did have an opinion. She was in the birth name camp because.......you know, she would always be Janelle Guidry........no matter what. Other people's opinions mattered and were to be respected, but......birth name......yeah.

Janelle wondered what the Professor was going to have them do, especially since she'd changed her plans. In the meantime, she didn't have anything add so....no comment.

Whoa they weren't going to go on with the actually lesson that was planned?! That was strange but pretty awesome at the same time! Hady grinned a bit sitting up in her seat more.

What some of the others were saying around her made sense. There were a lot of good questions being asked as well. Hady picked up her quill and began to take down some notes that she thought may be needed later. Right now though she was content to just listen, there wasn't anything else she wanted to add.

Kace smiled and nodded when the Professor thanked him for closing the windows. He listened to the Professor intently when she was explaining the names and birth dates to the students. He just really wanted to dig into the lesson, he wasn't much for lectures. He loved the task of doing the lesson rather than being talked to.

The professor wondered if they had anymore questions and he looked around and no one piped up. He really didn't have any either. He waited quietly for the activity to begin.

Norah gave Professor Tanner a small smile. She liked how she took everyone's different opinions into account 'n all that, instead of just what she thought herself. It was a lot easier not to feel bad about being confused about Arithmancy when the professor was considerate, uh huh.

The third year sat swinging her feet silently, as she had nothing more to add, waiting for whatever came next. Hopefully not maths.

Her parchment was already covered in several notes on things to look up after the lesson...or maybe not since Professor Tanner was changing route on whatever lesson plan she had for today. Hopefully it was something simple. Merlin knows Arithmancy and a Beverly Wayne did not mix.

Setting her quill down, Beverly shook her head. Nothing to add on her part.

So, time for the exploration. "The best calculation I can think of to test our theories would be the Expression Number, also known as the Destiny Number. Let me give you an example calculation, though you have seen this before." She turned to the board, writing her own name upon it.

"First give each letter its corresponding number from the Pythagorean System, found on page three of your textbook." She wrote each number under its letter. "Reduce each word down individually," she paused here to add up each word and get three totals, "and then combine those totals and reduce." Of course, she wasn't the best example of this because she had a Master, but that was not a big deal. They had spent a great deal of time on them last term. "As you can see, my Expression Number is the 22/4 Master Number."

"So, let's do some investigation using the divide and conquer method! Gryffindors, I would like for you to calculate the Expression Number for Hermione Jean Granger. Hufflepuffs, calculate for Hermione Jean Weasley. Ravenclaws, please take Ginevra Molly Weasley. Slytherins, you have Ginevra Molly Potter." Two very famous witches of which a great deal was known. "Raise your hand if you get stuck and I'll be happy to assist you. Older students help the younger students if they need it!"


OOC: Feel free to work alone or pair up. Next post in approximately 12 hours.

Cilla grabbed her textbook, along with her quill and parchment and began to calculate.



Cilla hoped her calculations were correct. Anything involving maths made her frazzled.

Kate's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion as the professor announced that they had seen this method before. They had? Where? See, this was why Kate had predicted Arithmancy would be her worst subject. She hated math and dealing mainly with numbers. She got confused easily and felt really unsure of herself.

She got out her parchment and quill anyway and wrote on it the name of the witch she was supposed to be working with.

GINEVRA

MOLLY

WEASLEY

...and that was as far as she got.

Kate didn't like this at all. She flipped to page three of her textbook and silently got to reading. Maybe somebody else would come along soon and offer to work with her.