YEP. Focusing on the positive. If the whole cycle thing up to now was freaky accurate and made this much sense, then that meant the future things should live up to expectations too. Toby looking forward to it. "I will, Professor!" he replied, quite enthusiastic. Bright side, yEP.

Time to pair up with someone then? COOL. Toby wasn't too fussed about claiming a partner first, of course. He tended to be happy with whoever he worked with, so the urgency was taken out of the matter. Usually he liked pairing up with anyone who needed someone. Soooooo he made sure to take the time to write down the last of those little notes from Tanner, even though they were in the textbook, before doing any of that.



He was still writing when the voices nearby caught his attention. At first he didn't realise Zander was talking to him, though figured he'd been addressing Soph in the first place. It wasn't until Soph actually mentioned his name that Toby finally looked up.

"Huh?" Whawazzappening? OH. Trio. THAT COULD BE FUN. Toby beamed at the both of them and nodded his head just as enthusiastically as he'd said and done EVERYTHING ELSE this lesson. "Sure! Hold on." Luckily Soph wasn't sitting all that far away, so once Toby scribbled the last of his notes he just had to scoot his chair over a little and he was sorted.

"SO. How are we doing this? Everyone does a reading of the person to their right, maybe? Or are we mixing it up?" HMMMMMMMMMMMMM? Did he need to write down his full name? That was the question. Because Soph knew it but Zander probably didn't. Well... he'd write it down anyway JUST 'CAUSE. On a piece of parchment Toby quickly noted down 'Tobias Nestor Fuller-Thompson' and shoved forwards so it was easily visible. He already knew Soph's full name, BUT WHAT WAS ZANDER'S?

Toby bounced in his seat and waited to know who was working out whose cycle and fidgeted with his parchment and twirled his quill between his fingers and yes yes yes let's dO THIS.

Norah beamed at Lux as she approached. This was gonna be FUN, she could already tell. "Oooh awesome! Hiya, Lux." She glanced around quickly to see if anybody else looked like they were gonna join before tucking a curl behind her ear and picking up her quill again. Anybody could join if they wanted but the Puffer wanted to get started right way. Patience wasn't exactly her strong point but she was gonna learn, okay, her name said all sorts of things about learning new stuff. One day, anyways.

The Puffer wrote 'NORAH LILLIAN KITTREDGE' on a piece of parchment and pushed it in Lux's direction. "There's my name!" She sat back down in her chair and looked up at the older girl with a grin. "We've just gotta switch, right?"

So they were a group. The three of them. A TRIO. He could do that. Yeah! Wasn't really expecting to work with 'Tobes' when he first walked into the classroom, but there's a first time for everything, yeah? Anyways, Toby's huge smile (and Sophie's too-- not surprising) was very contagious today, and Zander found himself smiling a bit at the both of them too. Mainly he was just relieved that they were willing to work with him, since they were... You know, together and all.

And oh. That was a very good question Mr. Toberson. How would they be doing this exactly? Uh. Well... Zander didn't know a whole lot about Sophie's Tobes, but he did know that the boy had a very, VERY long last name. Only knew it 'cause every time a Professor called him something else, he went on to correct them. But very politely. Man, Hufflepuffs were really good at that. But anyways, Zander wasn't all too sure that he wanted to figure out that entire name. Especially seeing it written down on paper. How many letters was that!? Like five million? You'd think with a simple name like 'Tobias' the rest would--

Ahem.

"Oh, I-uh-anything works for me." Oh and he was going to take out a piece of parchment too. 'Zander Mathew Adair'. Yup. That's what he scribbled at the very top. Handwriting was miserable, but it wasn't impossible to figure out. There was totally a clear distinction between his e's and a's. Isn't that all that mattered? "What do you think, Soph?" 'Cause she was the Ravenclaw here. ALSO, did Sophie Brown have a middle name? HMMMM?

Simon stared at his notebook. Alright, he had found that number. Nine. So that number represented how long his physical transit cycle lasted for, right? Alright... That sort of kind of made sense. Now, it was time to determine the meaning of each letter in his name.


The boy paused and took a moment to try to fully comprehend his physical transit cycle. Alright, then...So apparently he went through and was still going to go through a very emotional period of his life. Interesting. He took the interpretations lightly.


Now he had to find a group. Alright, Simon looked around the room for a familiar face to work with. Well Zander, Toby, and Sophie had all teamed up and Ethan wasn't in sight so the boy decided to look for a new face. He approached a Gryffindor girl who was sitting a couple of desks over and asked her, "Hey! I still need a partner. Do you want to be in a group together? I'm Simon."

Wheeeeee, Tobes was GAME, which meant ALL OF HER DREAMS WERE COMING TRUE. She gave both of the boys' arms a pat as they joined her and beamed away as they started talking out the logistics.

"How 'bout... I take Tobes' stuff," and she gave Tobes a subtle, almost knowing look like, I don't want you to feel weird if your stuff comes out really personal and Zander has to tell you all about your life story. She didn't want things to get awkward, and Soph would sugarcoat stuff if she had to and tell Tobes what it really said later. To protect him and all, even though... it seemed like nothing could bring the Hufflepuff down today. "Then Tobes can do Zander, and Zander can do mine," she offered, writing Sophie Mae Brown neatly on a spare bit of parchment and sliding it over to the Gryffindor. "Everyone okay with that?" If not, they were gonna have to be because Soph already set to writing out Tobes' full name on her parchment. Hehehehe.

...But he'd written his new last name. Hmmmm. Soph peeked at the textbook - chewing very lightly on her bottom lip, she mentioned delicately, "I think m'supposed to use your birth name." Right? "'The Transits are the individual letters and individual influences derived from your first, middle, and last names at birth, the one that was recorded on your original birth certificate,'" she read aloud, gesturing to the paragraph in chapter twenty-eight, then cautiously followed Tobias on her paper with Nestor Tempus and looked up at him for confirmation. Was she wrong? Was this okay?

SPOILER!!: Musical Adi

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Yes, yesh, YEAH! Sports rocked, didn't it? Being at Hogwarts made him miss cricket and hanging out with the teams and what not at his club buuut hey, the summer was almost upon them. That meant he could get all caught up with the club then.

Speaking of getting caught up...

Partners, huh? Adi never had a problem working with person or persons and was surveying the class right now, wondering who he could grab to work with him. He needn't look far.

"Nah. I don't.'' Hehe. Adi still didn't get why Benny had to ASK. I mean, the two were besties. Benny should just be like 'You're my partner for this activity.' It was what Adi would have done, anyway. LOL. "Just kidding with you, Dragon.'' Already Adi was scribbling down the other boy's name in his book, just below where he had done the calculations for his own first name.

SPOILER!!: Adi's stuff for Benny!

Benjamin Finnegan Atreyu

Finnegan=

Atreyu=

Thank Merlin Adi did not have to do anything with Benny's first name. The middle one was long enough as it is. Hehe. Buuut the last one wasn't so bad. Oh, that reminded him. "I have a fun fact for you, Reindeer,'' Adi began as he found back the page with the Pythagorean system. "Atreyu is an American metalcore band. I could lend you a couple of their albums sometime if you're interested.'' Because they produced AWESOME music! Annnnnd Adi was suddenly envisioning a blond Chinese Fireball headbanging to rock music. LOLLL.

Shaking his head and smiling slightly, the Hufflepuff began to assign numbers to the letters of Benny's second and last name.

Benny was almost tempted to give Adi a look at his answer, getting the feeling that his best friend was entirely playing with him. A feeling that was confirmed by Adi himself moments later which got the Dragon to stick out his tongue at the Hufflepuff. It was best not to scare him like that given how he had been lately since he preferred not to see how he'd feel if he really had minded. Besides, he only asked because he didn't want to make his friend feel like he absolutely had to be his partner and had no choice in the matter.

With a partner picked, the Gryffindor added Adi's information down onto his parchment beneath the previously drawn line. He had it pretty easy seeing as Adi had no middle name which meant that he would be using Rehman for both the mental and spiritual transits of his friend. That was what the professor had said to do in such situations. Benny just had to make sure he got the one set of calculations perfectly right lest it mess both up in one fell swoop.

SPOILER!!: Aditya Rehman work

Rehman

R - E - H - M - A - N

Mental:
Spiritual:

Speaking of Adi, his attention was drawn back to his companion when his fellow fifth year spoke up again, mentioning his other nickname. "What?" he questioned half-curiously before Adi went onto explain on his own. "Interesting," Benny admitted before shrugging. "Maybe."

Now what were those numbers for Rehman?

Kidding, kidding, KIDDING.

Benny knew what Adi was like after three years of friendship surely. The Puffer could not... or would not, rather... refuse to help his friend out anytime. He laughed slightly at Benny and the stuck out tongue. "Reaaally mature.'' Why was he even of maturity? He was the one who had started that habit a while back. Poor Benny just picked up the habit.

Adi being the ever inquisitive Puff, peered over to Benny's parchment. "Just making sure you spelt my name right.'' Hehe. "And sure. Whenever I visit you over the summer I'll bring them along.'' Actually, Adi had not been invited by his friend but he was just letting him know that he would drop in. Just like how Benny was welcome to drop by his house anytime. Right! He should continue with his own work, yes? YESH!




Annnd calculations were DONE! Now came the tricky bit... interpretations. Adi decided he would do just what he did previously for his name. He would write down the respective letters' meanings then just put everything altogether. Time to get started on that!

SPOILER!!: Mature Hippogriff

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Kidding, kidding, KIDDING.

Benny knew what Adi was like after three years of friendship surely. The Puffer could not... or would not, rather... refuse to help his friend out anytime. He laughed slightly at Benny and the stuck out tongue. "Reaaally mature.'' Why was he even of maturity? He was the one who had started that habit a while back. Poor Benny just picked up the habit.

Adi being the ever inquisitive Puff, peered over to Benny's parchment. "Just making sure you spelt my name right.'' Hehe. "And sure. Whenever I visit you over the summer I'll bring them along.'' Actually, Adi had not been invited by his friend but he was just letting him know that he would drop in. Just like how Benny was welcome to drop by his house anytime. Right! He should continue with his own work, yes? YESH!

SPOILER!!: Adi's work for Benny!

The Guy Best friend A.K.A Benjamin Finnegan Atreyu

Finnegan= 6+9+5+5+5+7+1+5= 43= 4+3= 7

Atreyu= 1+2+9+5+7+3= 27= 2+7= 9

Annnd calculations were DONE! Now came the tricky bit... interpretations. Adi decided he would do just what he did previously for his name. He would write down the respective letters' meanings then just put everything altogether. Time to get started on that!

Benny managed a weak smile as Adi laughed at his antics. "Like you would know mature," he teased back without thinking about, something he hadn't expected. Adi had to be rubbing off on him. His best friend was certainly the more wild or energetic of the two of them though his role as prefect kept him from being truly immature. Case in point...peering over his shoulder and 'making sure he spelled his name correctly.' Like Benny couldn't spell Rehman after all these years.

"Sure," he said agreeing to said plan about the music. It wasn't like he expected his friend to have that all here at Hogwarts and neither had a player here anyway so over the summer it was. Speaking of which, they hadn't exactly spoken about any plans for the summer and Benny made a mental note to see his friend about it at some point after class. But alas, for now he had some calculations to do.

SPOILER!!: Aditya Rehman work

Rehman

R - E - H - M - A - N

9 + 5 + 8 + 4 + 1 + 5 = 32
3 + 2 = 5

Mental: 5
Spiritual: 5

"So your mental and spiritual transits are the same as my physical transit..." Benny absently mused aloud to his friend after he had done the calculation on them. He couldn't help wonder if that was even mildly significant or just random coincidence. It was neat at least and he would be checking to see what it all meant in just a moment, the Gryffindor turning to the page he needed.

"Okay, it's a plan!" Aight, COOL. All on board. Time to get STARTED the-

... Wait, what?

When Soph spoke, Toby blinked at his parchment, and then pulled his textbook towards him to see if it really did say that. He stared intently at the passage, completely still for a moment, eyes narrowing, until finally he looked up and started bouncing and fidgeting away just as cheerfully as before.

"Well, that's a pain," he practically chirped, giving the passage in his textbook a little flick. Then he gave a shrug like NBD DUDE. "I just automatically write this one now." But yeah, WHICHEVER. Toby was in TOO GOOD and TOO HYPER a mood to get upset by it. He'd decided today was a GOOD DAY after all.

"Okay, let's seeeeee here... Mister Zander..." Just get those number values down first, then work on interpreting thingies.



Toby leaned back from his parchment again and streeeeetched out his arms and FIDGETED around for a moment. HOKAY. All the maths part done, just a teeeeeeeeeeny break before the real THINKING part.

Enough time to fantasise about later when he would get his pogo stick and BOUNCE around the grounds.

Awesome, Norah wanted to work with her. But then why wouldn't she have? Hufflepuffs were NICE and Norah was NICE. Sometimes Lux was just plain silly.

Smiling, she took a seat as her partner wrote her name out on a piece of parchment before handing it over. Anyone else was more than welcome to join, but so far it seemed that everyone was content to form up with other partners or into little groups of three. It was fine though because her and Norah were totally rocking this thing.

Taking the offered piece of paper, Lux nodded. "LUX DELILAH CARRRINGTON" was scribbled on a blank piece of paper and slid over towards her partner. "And here is mine." Ewww about the middle name though; she hated having Delilah as her middle name.

Anyway.

They were supposed to calculate for the middle and last names, right? Below Norah's whole name Lux added a little bit:

SPOILER!!: Parchment

NORAH LILLIAN KITTREDGE

Lillian
L -
I -
L -
L -
I -
A -
N -


Kittredge:
K -
I -
T -
T -
R -
E -
D -
G -
E -

There. All she needed to do now was record the number equivalent to each letter and do the addition. Easy peasey lemon squeezy.

Angel was looking around when suddenly an older boy approached her. She smiled as she looked at him. "Hey Simon." Angel now had a partner which was great. "I'm Angel." Angel thought she might as well introduce herself if they were going to be partner. "So how are we doing this?"

Adi laughed. "You're right. I don't know what's that. Not much anyway.'' He winked. What? Being immature had its perks at times. Just as long you didn't take it too far. And did yal notice?! Benny was actually JOKING around The dude was creeping out of his shell even more! Awesomeee! Just don't change TOO much, Dragon.

The Puffer began making notes on the letters meaning but paused to look up when Benny mentioned something... about his spiritual and mental thingies being the same as the Gryffindor's physical thingy. Adi tilted his head then he peered over at his friend's work. "Interesting.'' Indeed. "And super cool!'' Hey, they matched in something numeric too!

And now... back to work.



Oh, goody! Oh, goody! Oh, GOODY! He was done. All Adi had to do was give Benny the interpretations. "Right. So for your Mental transit which you completed at age seven... I'd say that you developed your hard working attitude and sense of responsibility then thought there were times stress which caused you to feel lonely. That was probably caused by you being accident prone. Your parents probably decided a change of scenery was good for you so you guys moved and it was then that you started to feel inspired and started having a mental approach to practical situations.'' Adi paused for breath... and to ask the Dragon some VERYYY important questions. "Was that the approximate age when you started blowing up stuff? Was that when you guys got a fire proof house?" His poor bestie though.. being alone like that

Onto the Spiritual transit. "You still have that mental approach to practical situations attitude but there are also loads of other good stuff that happened in this cycle. You were eager to learn, helpful, insightful, inspired, motivated and helpful and possibly had some minor health problems.'' Adi had another question! "Were they caused by burns?" Hey, it was a logical question, okay?

Norah glanced down at the parchment Lux had handed her before beaming up at her. "Delilah is a cooool name." Her tongue felt all funny when she said it, it was like singing. Much cooler than Lillian, anyways. One day she was gonna change her middle name to McSparklez or something and then she'd really be cool. Heh.

The fourteen year old (that big number was STILL exciting to think about) wrote each letter of Lux's name with enough space for her calculations 'n all that, then pulled her textbook so it was right under her nose. She slowly added up the sums on her parchment according to the pytha-something thingy, then flipped all the way back to chapter 28 again. Phew. That could be all her exercise for the day, thank you very much. Her noodle arms felt all wobbly after all that flipping.

SPOILER!!: calculations

Physical transit:
L- 3
U- 3
X- 6
3+3+6=12

Mental Transit:
D- 4
E- 5
L- 3
I- 9
L- 3
A- 1
H- 8
4+5+3+9+3+1+8=33

Spiritual Transit:
C- 3
A- 1
R- 9
R- 9
I- 9
N- 5
G- 7
T- 2
O- 6
N- 5
3+1+9+9+9+5+7+2+6+5=56

Aaaaand phew AGAIN. 'Cause man, maths made her brain do all the hurting things. Norah paused to look around the room at all the other people doing their calculation thingies. Hi people. People were much more interesting than calculations, but Lux was still waiting for Norah to describe her whole entire life to her which was pretty darn important if you thought about it. It was like she was in charge of what happened! She was the queen of the world, or Lux's world anyways. Except really the numbers were in charge. Way to ruin the fun, numbers. They always did that.

The third year reread the letter descriptions slowly before looking at the older girl and grinning. "I guess I'll tell you about your life then. So, um, you already did the physical one so I can start with mental...right?" Her hazel eyes widened. That was okay, yeah? She was just over here trying to not make a fool of herself by looking dumb in front of a real live teenager. Not that Norah wasn't a teenager, 'cause she WAS, but Lux was even more of one so she was importanter. "So you're gonna do healthy type stuff for a few years." Sucks for her, that meant VEGGIES. "And then you're gonna be inspiring and helpful. Maybe you'll help people for your job! Or at school. And then you'll spend a lot of time considering your future, but after that you're gonna have a lot of emotions and stress but also success? So maybe your big decision was about a good but stressful job!" MAN, she could be a professional. "And theeeen some more considering and decisions, and after that you'll come up with a lot of cool ideas but also need a lot of love. I dunno why, though." she paused and squinted at her paper, " And now the spiritual one! You'll start out really creative and make some new friends." That made sense at the beginning 'cause people usually didn't start out with a lot of friends. "And after that you'll have even more creativity and new perspectives on life and stuff. Then you'll spend 18 whole years dealing with money and power and insight." Maybe she'd be in charge of something. "Then nine years of a lot more emotions. I think getting old is emotional or something. And then you're gonna be forgetful and need a lot of exercise! That definitely sounds like old people. Plus some adventures." Not that Lux was even gonna be thaaat old at that point, but old-ER so it counted. "After that you'll have a lot of emotions, but not good ones all the time. Next you're still gonna have a lot of emotions but also lots of learning. Maybe you'll learn to control your emotions. And fiiiinally at the very end you're gonna have even MORE emotional experiences, so maybe you didn't learn to control those yet. And then you'll do more forgetting and searching for love." Jeez louise, that took AGES. "And that's it." TA DAAA!

Zander was VERY relieved when Sophie opted to take Toby's calculations. Not that Zander had anything against Toby or anything-- he didn't-- but just something to do with the incredibly large amount of letters that the sixth year happened to have in his name. "Sounds great!" he smiled big at her before pulling the parchment that she had slid over, so that it was right in front of him. Sophie MAE Brown. Huh. He had never even known. Interesting.

It was a nice middle name, in Zander's opinion. Fitting, almost. And it was only three letters long so that was incredibly exciting. Meant less math and all. Just as he began to scribble out some of the calculations, Sophie went on to explain the whole combined last name thing versus birth name... And see, this is exactly why it was a good thing that Sophie Brown decided to take on Toby's calculations. Zander probably wouldn't have been able to catch that.

He also couldn't help but notice how Toby seemed to be slightly effected by the finding, but then the boy seemed to be fine and bouncy a few moments later, so the Gryffindor went back to work.

SPOILER!!: Calculations

Sophie Mae Brown

Mental Transit (Middle Name)

M 4 (ages 0-4)
A 1 (age 4-5)
E 5 (ages 5-10)

4 + 1 + 5 = 10

Spiritual Transit (Surname)

B 2 (0-2)
R 9 (2-11)
O 6 (6-17)
W 5 (17-22)
N 5 (22-27)

2 + 9 + 6 + 5 +5 = 27

"Alright, I think I've got this part done?" Now to figure out what it all means. 'Cause that's probably important and all. Probably.

...Oh. Eh hem. Sophie Brown absoLUTELY noticed the very brief change in Tobes' demeanor before he went back to bouncing, and she pressed her lips together in dismay and regret. Sorry, Tobes. But... he was okay, yes? He set right on ahead to do Zander's calculations, and Zander soon followed suit to start on her calculations, so...

Onward she went.

Text Cut: Parchment

Mental:

N = 5 (ages 0-5)
E = 5 (ages 5-10)
S = 1 (ages 10-11)
T = 2 (ages 11-13)
O = 6 (ages 13-19)
R = 9 (ages 19-28)
= 28

Spiritual:

T = 2 (ages 0-2)
E = 5 (ages 2-7)
M = 4 (ages 7-11)
P = 7 (ages 11-18)
U = 3 (ages 18-21)
S = 1 (ages 21-22)
= 22

When she finished with figuring out how long each cycle lasted, she peeked up to check on the others' progress. "Me too." They both seemed to be FINE and everything was ENTIRELY normal... but Sophie started giggling because she thought about how they were having TRIO TIME and all THREE OF THEM were WORKING TOGETHER. IN A GROUP. IN A UNIT.

SHE WAS SO HAPPY. And the happiness simply began to burst from her being in the way of giggles. Don't worry, team. She'd be fine in just a little bit. Probably.

Delilah was a cool name? Really? That was news to Lux. "Wanna trade names?" she joked while not really joking. Anyways... it was time to get to work, though Norah seemed to beat her to the punch.

Listening carefully, Lux tried to make sense of what her fellow Puff was telling her though it was hard to when it was INFORMATION OVERLOAD. "...So basically I'll have a lot of emotional things to deal with, be successful, have a good job, and need love?" Was she missing something here? And what kind of 'love' was this referring to? If romantic, she HAD Bay and they would end up getting married at some point...

Ugh, this Arithmancy stuff could be sooooo confuzzling.

Wanting to put her head to the desk and sleep from the headache that was this class, Lux instead consulted her textbook so that she could do Norah's reading. Hopefully it wouldn't be so convoluted.

SPOILER!!: Parchment

NORAH LILLIAN KITTREDGE

Mental Transit:
Lillian
L - 3
I - 9
L - 3
L - 3
I - 9
A - 1
N - 5
3 + 9 + 3 + 3 + 9 + 1 + 5 = 33

Spiritual Transit:
Kittredge
K - 2
I - 9
T - 2
T - 2
R - 9
E - 5
D - 4
G - 7
E - 5
2 + 9 + 2 + 2 + 9 + 5 + 4 + 7 + 5 = 45

Reading and rereading the descriptions, Lux tried her best to make this as straightforward as possible while not blathering on and on. "Your Mental Transit lasts until you are 33 years old. During this time you will go slowly and consider where you want to go in life and look into what you really desire. Travel and creativity are beneficial and you will make a lot of friends. It's also a good time for marriage." After pausing for a moment, she continued. "You will be very emotional, and prone to stress as well as accidents. Calmness, centeredness, and an acceptance will need to be developed. You will also be competitive and could achieve success and financial reward." So that was good at least?? "This will be a time of progress as well as change and you will see to practical matters with a mental approach. Independence and leadership will be developed." That wasn't too bad either. "You will search for love and fulfillment, and worry about money."

Now onto the next transit. "Your Spiritual Transit will last until you are 45 years old. During this time you will be very intuitive. You will have a stronger inner drive and more creativity as well as associate with new people and business endeavors. You will still be highly emotional and stressed." Again she paused for a moment before continuing. "Solitude and meditation will be good for you and you will be eager to learn and look for new things to do." Another pause before continuing. " It will be important to watch out for your health and look into your diet and eating habits. Sometimes you will feel lonely and spend time brooding. You will also be more impulsive than usual especially when it concerns emotional things."

Wow, that had been a mouthful. O_O

HOKAY, this break was over. Working in a group was turning out to be good because with the OTHERs getting stuff done it was sorta turning out to spur Toby on too. Probably partly because he DIDN'T WANNA LET ZANDER DOWN HERE or be the weak link or whatever. It would suck to be the only person in the group to not get their reading but Toby thought that knowing he was the person behind that would be MORE THAN HE COULD BEAR. He picked up his quill again and twirled it between his fingers, glancing at the parchment of the other two.

"Looking goooood so fa-..." Uhh... Soph? What? ... Toby squinted at the Ravenclaw for a moment.................... but then just shrugged. This was NORMAL Soph stuff. She was somethin' else. Toby just GRINNED to himself and shook his head and BOUNCED SOME MORE. Couldn't help it. Laughter and happiness was CONTAGIOUS okay. He may also have attempted to exchange a look with Zander but really probably looked like he was grinning manically at him. Oop.

Okay. BACK TO WORK.



Toby still wasn't sure just how he was supposed to interpret the mental or spiritual cycles from the physical ones, given the information with each letter, but hopefully he could wing it a little bit here. And hopefully Zander would understand.

"Sooooo, Zander Adair, here's what I have for you," Toby began, turning in his chair to face the Gryffindor prefect and straightening his parchment (pointless, really, because he immediately began fidgeting with it again). "So, mental transit first. Ages zero to four it says about there being some distance in relationships, needing to make the effort to express feelings. Then, ages five was a period of change and progress, like a breakthrough, and leadership and stuff. Age six and seven... Merlin... strain and high emotions, BUT eagerness to learn and gain knowledge. Makes sense for the mental transit. Then ages eight to fifteen-" Which... Zander would be fifteen now, right? No... sixteen. He'd had his birthday this year, Toby remembered Soph telling him. "-it starts looking up. You had a super active mind and unconventional thoughts. Ambition, advancement, and success." Which was ACCURATE, right? 'Cause he'd was a prefect and everything. "Ages sixteen to twenty, you're inspired and helpful, wanting new adventures and experiences like love affairs, and it's a good time for money. And finally, ages twenty-one to twenty-five, it's time to let go of the past and accept change and embrace more new exciting opportunities, but it also says you could be erratic and unpredictable - I know the feeling, bro - which you need to learn to control so you can avoid chaos. And then explosive growth, and need for self-discipline, but it looks like those years are gonna be good to you, dude."

WHEW. Okay, and that was just ONE of the transits. Hold the phone, Zander Mathew Adair, because you still have ONE MORE THINGY to go. But less letters this time, thank Merlin.

"AaaaAAAAND finally, your spiritual transit. For ages zero to one you had the one about a period of change and progress and everything, which makes sense 'cause first year of life is probably a big progress from before being born and all. Then for ages two to five it mentions watching your health, I dunno if that means anything to you, and working on expressing your feelings again." Was Zander the kind of person not to share feelings? Had Toby found a kindred spirit in him? "Age six, and more change and leadership. Lots of progress for your spiritual transit in those early years. After that, ages seven to fifteen, was a more emotional time with ups and downs and stuff, accident prone-" Could you be spiritually accident-prone? "-and insecurity, BUT a chance for success." Once again, it made sense, 'cause prefect. "Then, at last, ages sixteen to twenty-four, there's a time of understanding and insight, y'know? An opportunity for more personal growth. Says here something about this being a time where you'll meet the best and the worst, but you'll be cool if you're cautious and aware of your surroundings and stuff." That last part confused Toby a little, but EH. No big. "And that's it."

AAAAAAAAAND BREATHE. Toby looked up, more WILD GRINNING and bouncing. He'd been speaking at like a gazillion miles an hour, but most of that was written down too, so it was aaaaaaaall good. He was done then. MORE TIME FOR BOUNCING.

"Nice to meet you," he said politely with a grin. Angel was her name. That was a nice name. Great! Simon thought she had looked familiar. She probably had seen him around a couple of times over the years, but anyway- on to work!! "So how about we start writing down each other's names. Then we can work on calculating the numbers," he said with a grin. "My full is Simon Erik Holden. That's Erik with a 'k'. And your full name is?" He wrote down Angel's first name on his parchment paper and then readied his pen so that he could hear the rest of her name.

.

.

Apologies. Gabriel had completely spaced out for a moment there.

That was new.

Shaking himself out of whatever revere had momentarily taken hold, he focused once more on Professor Tanner. Luckily, she'd just been about to give instruction for the activity and Gabe hurried to catch up; quickly adding to his notes. Transit cycles. Yea, he was familiar; having read that chapter a few times. What was convenient about most Arithmancy practices...was that they insisted on using the Pythagorean number system...which was much more straight forward than the other. The Chaldean one. If you could count and say your ABC's from A to Z, you could easily figure out what numbers correlated to which letters. It certainly made the 'catch up' less time-consuming.


...but then...it was time to pair up. Gabe had to forcibly restrain his eye-rolling. He would've been more than happy to work on his own, thank you very much. Always with this...'let's force the awkward' from these professors. He was making an effort on his own to get over his own social issues.......buuuuut he supposed if it was an ABSOLUTE requirement......

His brown eyes immediately searched out Coral Bay. Naturally, Gabe would always pick her.

Picking up his notes and textbook, he moved to a seat closer.....Wow, did she realize how pretty she looked today. Did she know? "Will you work with me?" Yes? Please?

In her constant state of confusion that seemed to pair up very well with Arithmancy, Coral-Bay's hair sure was tucked behind those ears of hers.

She untucked and retucked as the professor proceeded to go through with the lesson, her head down trying to copy down all of the notes and figure it out later. Her nervousness radiated from her, the slightest hand tremors could be seen as her quill hurriedly copied down everything that was being written and explained.

As the first droplet of sweat trickled down her forehead, it was announced that groups were in order and the girl's head darted up.

Thank MERLIN.

But before she could gather her things to search for the one person who she wanted help from, he'd already arrived. Her all knowing superhero, a wave off his scent drifted close as he took the seat by her and she practically melted before his very eyes, comfort level growing.

"Please." Please, please, oh please help me Gabe.

She looked helplessly at him and leaned closer, her voice lowering. "I'm so lost. Could you... explain it all?" Her cheeks burned.

.......Um.

So, yes. CB was really....distractingly pretty today. Ooooooor perhaps it was just her looking at him in that certain way, imploring him to help her. Gabriel decided he didn't dislike it. Not one bit. Help her? Sure. Yes. Okay.

Leaning forward a bit so they could speak more freely, without people nosing in, he started from the beginning...explaining how calculating Transit Cycles worked. And about the correct number system to use. At some point during his speech, Gabe removed a piece of parchment and wrote out examples. Visuals helped him when words failed. And lets be honest, they failed quite often.


"....and the numbers represent years within the cycles. Your first number is 3...So, that's the equivalent of ages 1 through 3; three years. And with the six proceeding it, it'd immediately jump to...ages 4 through 9; the next six years."...with some hand gestures and fidgeting thrown in for spice.

"We'll use our textbooks to do the next bit...after we get the calculations settled."

So with the number 5 all picked out with the math done, Benny was onto the letters his friend's last name and deciphering their meanings. He had to admit, the definitions and supposed meanings given in the textbook weren't all that complicated to understand. But it was picking and choosing the ones that went for mental and the ones that went for spiritual were a little tricky. They both were kinda inward and not at all clear like the physical ones.

SPOILER!!: Aditya Rehman work

Rehman
R - E - H - M - A - N
9 + 5 + 8 + 4 + 1 + 5 = 32
3 + 2 = 5

Mental: 5

R - You are cautious in what you do; power and authority play a role in your life as you take it on
E - This is a time of change career or period of travel
H - Your year will be filled with creativity and success
M - Be careful in decision making
A - A period of change is likely; Progress is happening in your life
N - Concern over money ; There may be need of giving more of yourself for what matters most to you

Spiritual: 5

R - You are filled with insight and understanding on things;
E - You will be drawn to love and adventure
H - You might need a bit of love to get you through this period
M - Relationships are important to you
A - Progress is happening in your life; Insight on yourself might be achieved
N - This will be a time to expand your horizons; new relationships or directions in your life

The Gryffindor had just about rounded out his answers, including putting a couple on both sides of the inner battle, when Adi was clearly done and ready to give his thoughts on his own calculations and meanings. He listened intently as his friend spelled it all out before him, some seeming interesting and some...bizarre or unfitting. Accident prone certainly had some connection to him, but he shook his head at the Hufflepuff's question. "No...it was later." He had already been already been on school. But wait...then it was his second letter which was 7-14. "Well...maybe it was."

As for the health issues and the mention of burns, it was a definite no. "More prone to bruising." As in those gotten by flying and falling and being an all about rough child who likes to be outside. With creatures...or plants. There might actually be a bite or two in there but not really many burns.

Benny though was done with trying to look into his own mental and spiritual transits. Could he move onto trying to read Adi's?He was better thinking of others. Deciding to just go for it, he looked back at his notes and tried to pull together his own interpretations to voice to his friend. "Well I noticed in both your mental and spiritual transits that there is often periods of change in some form of another. " Whether it was new relationships or career or anything else.

"And here..." he started to say, pointing at the H under the mental transit on his parchment for his bestie's benefit. "This period of creativity and success is likely between your 10th and 15th year. If I'm understanding this stuff right." Benny wasn't even sure his brain fully wrapped around the concept they had learned today and were trying to work with for this activity. Surely that would impact his views and reading.

Ah, a question from Mister Lecium. "Well first of all, you don't have to know how to break down your reading, your partner does." 'It was a group activity does. "But for breaking down your partner's, it's mostly just your own interpretation of the textbook. Take what you know about the person - their interests, their gender, their strengths and weaknesses, etc. - and use that knowledge to shade the meaning of the textbook." Did that make sense?


Yes, this pairing was one she had expected. She perused their work briefly before spotting something to comment on. "Your transit here," she put her finger on the parchment, "is actually the full 32 years unreduced. If we go reducing down the numbers we get, everyone would have an extremely short life indeed, yes?" Tiara winked at the boys.


As she was walking by, she heard discussion about which name Tobias should use. "Actually, Tobias, I believe you were the one who brought up the topic of birth name versus legal name at the beginning of term, yes? If you feel that is more representative, I would encourage you to use your new name, at least for the mental and spiritual cycles, which take place after the change occurred." She didn't like to see the boy frown, and she had seen it from this topic. Turn that frown upside down!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The professor continued circling the room and checking on groups. "You have ten minutes left to finish!" she called to the room in general.

OOC: Try to finish up in the next 4-5 hours and I'll wrap up the activity.

Looking good so what???? The Gryffindor lifted his gaze from his parchment full of calculations to give a confused look to Toby who was looking confused at Sophie who was doing all sorts of grinny-beamy-smiley things. Uh? This was probably some weird Sophie Brown thing or something. Zander couldn’t imagine why anyone would look so happy to be doing Arithmancy calculations. But as he turned back around he caught Toby’s manic grin and ….. Uh. Was Zander Adair missing out on something? Was this some sort of inside joke or was he just…… Uh? Zander attempted at a big smile back at the two of them, though his looked more confused than anything. Oop.

Right, anyways. Calculation things. He finished his around the same time as Toby, but decided to wait for the sixth year to go ahead as he looked ready to share.

Oh man. That was a lot. Not just a lot, even. It was A LOT, A LOT. There was a common theme of expressing feelings, apparently and okay okay maybe just MAYBE he needed to improve on that a biiiiiit. He was very expressive, thank you very much, just wasn’t really up for sharing everything. You know? Just like reacting on the outside, but keeping the reasons on the— There was still MORE? He gave Toby a small smile— actually it was a normal smile but LOOKED small compared to the two other’s in the group— and nodded his head a bit trying to figure out what all that meant to him. ”I reckon that all makes sense….” Actually, to be completely honest, most of it was lost on him. He only really even remembered the last bits, but it was such a long explanation and there wasn’t much time to do it again because

TEN MINUTES???

SPOILER!!: la la la Arithmancy things

Sophie Mae Brown

Mental Transit (Middle Name)

M 4 (ages 0-4) [Time for hard work and a practical approach. Can create distance between you and who you are close to. Need to makes an effort to express feelings to those close to you.]
A 1 (age 4-5) [ You have a mental approach to practical matters. This is a period of change, activity, progress, and creativity. Independence and leadership . Promotion and opportunities. Awareness and perspective of life.]
E 5 (ages 5-10) [Feel inspired and helpful. Attracted to new and adventurous experiences.]

4 + 1 + 5 = 10

Spiritual Transit (Surname)

B 2 (0-2) [Emotional. A strong need for love. Increased sensitivity and diplomacy. Attraction of others.]
R 9 (2-11) [Understanding and insight. Dealing with power and authority. Meet the best and the worst.]
O 6 (6-17) [Strong emotional experiences. Worrying. Enhanced leadership abilities.]
W 5 (17-22) [Letting go of the past and accepting some change. New activities and exciting events. Unpredictable behavior. Explosive growth.]
N 5 (22-27) [Expending horizons with adventurous experiences and travel. Dynamic time. Searching for love and fulfillment. Sacrifice, adaptability, flexibility. More sensual.]

2 + 9 + 6 + 5 +5 = 27

TEN MINUTES.

They could do this.

Alright, Sophie Brown. You ready? Luckily, Sophie’s name wasn’t nearly as long as Zander’s was, so hopefully there wouldn’t be as much detail in this whole analysis. Though… It looked like there was going to be quite a bit of explaining either way. He held up his parchment, so that he could turn towards Soph while still reading off the paper. And AHEM. ”Alright so your mental transit stuff starts with lots of hard work and approaching things in a practical way… Which I guess goes along with mental thought process ’n all? And that’s supposed to last from when you’re born all the way up to age four…” Only two more stages to go…. How come her cycle was going to end so early? What was that supposed to MEAN? ”And then from four to five it’s all about taking a mental approach to practical matters, and I think that’s kinda like taking what you did before, but finding different ways to approach things? That’d make sense because there was supposed to be tons of creativity, independence, and change to things in the small cycle. And you’re leadership abilities kind of improved too.” La la la. Skimming through the book. ”Then the last one for the mental transit is from ages five to ten… So I don’t really know where that leaves you now? But, for that time it was all about being inspired and helping others. Having lots of adventures experiences too, which I guess could also inspire you like it said before.”

But wait, there’s more.

He looked up at her and gave her a small grin, before looking back down at his parchment again. ”And then we’ve got your spiritual transit thing. It starts out from zero to two where things are super emotional, lots of sensitivity, and a need for love. I reckon that makes sense since little babies need love and maybe the love is some sort of spiritual connection to things since you were only a baby and couldn’t really connect with things on a scholarly level yet or anything like that…” Woah. When did that word become a part of his vocabulary? Anyways. Next bit. ”Then you move into another cycle that’s supposed to last a little longer than the last one. It goes from two to eleven, so ends just about Hogwarts age. All about meeting the best things and the worst things, and dealing with power and authority and trying to understand it through further insight and stuff.” Did this even make sense? He wasn’t sure. Just kind of spewing out words at this point… Trying to make sense of them as he went.

Arithmancy was weird. ”And then you’ve got the stage you’re in right now from six to seventeen— woah that’s been lasting for a while. This one is all about strong emotional experiences and kind of finding your ground with them. It says that there might be worrying involved, just about the things around you and stuff, since this one is mostly about emotions. But also, you’re going to see a strong improvement in your leadership abilities, which makes sense considering you’ll be properly old by the time this stage is done.” Properly old being an of age witch and all. Seventeen was ANCIENT…. Was Toby seventeen yet? Merlin. ”Then from seventeen to twenty two, there’s going to be a lot of change and you kind of have to come to terms with accepting it all. This ones all about making the best out of what you’ve got in the now and letting go of the past. Even though there might be stuff you want to hold on to… It says there’s going to be new activities and exciting events ahead. Oh! And it’s a time of EXPLOSIVE growth too, which would make sense since you’ll be going through some changes and all that.” And then the last bit. Thank Merlin. ”And then from twenty two to twenty seven, it’s sort of a continuation of the last one with broadening horizons and accepting change and new adventurous experiences .There will also be sacrifice and a search for fulfillment, which in this case is the spiritual kind of fulfillment. Oh and love. You’ll be searching for that too, but on like a spiritual level, I guess?” He gave his parchment and one up-down, before sliding down in his chair a bit.

”Merlin. That was a mouthful.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpluvr037

Yes, this pairing was one she had expected. She perused their work briefly before spotting something to comment on. "Your transit here," she put her finger on the parchment, "is actually the full 32 years unreduced. If we go reducing down the numbers we get, everyone would have an extremely short life indeed, yes?" Tiara winked at the boys.

Wait....what?

Benny followed where Professor Tanner was pointed and tried to take in what she was saying and what it meant. Without letting his head start to spin at the complexity at the subject matter. Arithmancy was soooo not his subject, even moreso than Potion had not been at least before Culloden had worked him through it.

"You mean the mental and spiritual transits would only last for 32 years? With the changes by letter happening between birth and that year?" Not the letters changing every 5 years and perhaps repeating the cycle afterwards until death as he had believed the calculations to mean. Letters...numbers...all being used together. It was confusing to him.

Benny glanced over at Adi and thinking back to what the Hufflepuff had said. Hadn't he reduced too? His partner had said his mental transit had been 7 but that sounded like it was too small in comparison to the 32 that the arithmacy professor was claiming as his own proper answer. "Did you reduce?" he questioned his friend curious.