Clara couldn't resist smiling a little when the phone started ringing. It meant she was doing something right, and heavens knew she liked being able to do things correctly. That ringing also meant she wasn't overestimating her abilities.

How long was the ringing supposed to go o-- ..... A voice cut through, silencing the ringing. A message from Moxley.

This was the part when she was supposed to leave a message, yes?

.................. Uh. Her mind was blank, but, she forced herself to speak after a few awkward beats of silence. "Hello. Ravenclaw's Clara Wilde here. You, uh, have set up a lovely phone room here .......... uh, yeah. Yeah. Goodbye?" Wow, that was unnecessarily stressful. Cue more awkward silence as the redhead placed the handset back down. Phew.

This homework piece was nothing short of weird, something Grayson kept telling himself as he dragged himself over towards the phone room. Sure, it was educational or whatever but really? Using a phone that came from the age of the dinosaurs? Weird. Using a muggle device in a magical school? Weird. Calling your professor using said phone? Weird. And something that the board of governors might not be too happy about. Just saying, Moxley, just saying.

Reaching the door, the boy checked his appointment time once more before heading inside. The room looked.......... alright. A little cramped, actually. As if they were actually working in call centres or whatever. All he needed was a fake, overly chirpy personality and a desperate need to sell something meaningless and he would be perfect for the role.

Locating an empty cubicle, Grayson headed over and took a seat. Right. Directions. He made sure to read through that before doing anything else because Merlin knows, there could be some kinda trick hidden somewhere that he needed to be careful of. It was just a simple set of directions, really. Ones that told him that he needed to call Moxley first.

Lol. Alright. Because that was normal and all.

Picking up the receiver, Grayson started punching in the numbers, kinda wondering if this was Moxley's real number or not. Logic said no but a part of him wanted to think it was because lulz, how funny would that be? Prank calling might have happened if he happened to get bored.

RIIIIING RIIIIIIIIIIIING............. RIIIIIIIING RIIIIIIIIIIIIIING........

There was a string of numbers on the parchment that Dot was meant to type out on the little pad on the phone, and she carefully shoved the parchment next to the phone so she could see both at the same time. This bit wasn't so hard, really, just typing out the numbers in the same order...

Oh, that was too many of the four. Erm erm erm. Now what? Dot dropped the phone back into its cradle and glanced around wildly. Was there a giant phone button pushing erasing spell she could use? Or, no... Muggles wouldn't have a spell. She'd just... try again. Start over, and go slow, and only push the four ONCE.

This time, the number was typed successfully, and Dot carefully lifted the phone back to her ear again. OH A NEW NOISE. And it was Professor Moxley!

"HULLO PROFESSOR HU..." Wait. The woman was still talking. Oh, this was one of those recording things, right. The voiceowlmail.

Then when prompted, Zeke pressed 1 on the keypad - despite what some people thought, he WAS actually quite good at following instructions, like now, see, easy! And what was also easy, was setting a voicemail message... though this was one thing he hadn't done before. So, NEW EXPERIENCES!

After the BEEEEEEEEEP! Zeke spoke his message.

"Hi, this is Zeke Rogers - third year Gryffindor, I'm currently unavailable though if you'd like to leave your name and number I'll get back to you when I can. Bye."

Content with his recording, Zeke finalised it by pressing the # key and then hung up the receiver.

The moment the professor stopped talking, Dot just knew she was supposed to do something. Leave a message. It said so RIGHT THERE on the paper and the voice on the phone had said it too.

But she didn't know what to say, so Dot just envisioned the professor in the room. What would she say to Moxley if they were face to face?

"Hullo, Professor. This is Dot, and you sure fooled me with that message. I've never actually used a phone before today, but I bet you can tell that. I like your class. I mean, when we have class, I enjoy it. I think you're one of the very best professors, and thanks for being so nice. Also, maybe we can have cookies in the kitchen sometime? You can wear your nifty orange vest from last year. I liked that one a lot." Pause pause pause. "That's all, I guess. BYEEEEE."

Okay, so that was the first part done.

It was homework assignments like this that made Toby wonder if perhaps he had a bit of a major advantage in this class. A lot of other kids who took Muggle Studies didn't have any experience of muggle stuff. Not all of them, but most. Either way it made Toby sort of feel like he was cheating at knowing it already when it came to assignments. He'd considered intentionally failing the assignment, by not doing it or messing it up or whatever, to level the play field a bit (even though that wasn't how school worked... like at all).

But no. Toby was here, in his allotted time, his hard-working Hufflepuff trait winning over or something. He'd reasoned that, seeing as he'd heard that the phones they'd be using were super old, it wasn't like he'd used them at all before.

Stepping up to a free cubicle, Toby read through the intructions of what they had to do. It seemed easy enough, and he wasted no time in picking up the handset and holding it to his ear. As he listened to the dial tone, Toby eyed the rest of the phone, from the cord to the cradle to the number buttons. Actual buttons. Nothing like his personal phone at home where you just had to touch the screen. Amazing.

Clicking his tongue, he looked to the bottom of the directions sheet for the phone number, referring back to it after every time he'd pressed one of the number keys, to make sure he was getting the number right. After the last number, there was more beeping, and then... yep. It was ringing. Okay. Going well so far.

The three note song began to fade as the horrible feeling of nausea took hold of Cutty and his forehead was soon pressed into the dial pad resounding in one long, clear BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEP.

This finally annoyed him more than did the sickly feeling that gripped him and he lifted his head ceasing the noise in a serious of long off-key sounding notes. His bleary brown eyes caught sight of the phone number he was meant to dial and with a heavy finger, he sloppily applied pressure to the hang up button on the receiver. Focusing on the number in front of him, Cutty pressed each number button one by one slowly and deliberately. He then put his head down on the surface of the cubicle desk and lifted the phone to his ear.

Ringing. But it could've been his head. Could've been...

"Noel?" Pause. "I didn't know that was yer middle name. Heh. I've got two! Two names to me middle...Cuthbert Adonis Ali Mordaunt. Me moohmz a crazy cow." He didn't know what he was saying at this point for the filter was a bit thin from the extreme physical discomfort. He just wanted to not be in pain anymore and sleep.

Ringing... ringing... ring- *click*

Toby froze and blinked, waiting to hear who the mystery person on the other line was. He smiled a little when he heard Moxley's voice ring out, and a little more when he heard the contents of the recorded message. Moxley was a riot; he liked her.

But then there was a beep and... Toby realised he had no idea what he was going to say...

"Um..." he began, searching through his brain for something cool or fun or happy to say that would be enjoyable to listen to later, and coming up with nothing. "Uhhh... this is Toby. Um. Tobias. Tobias Nestor Fuller-Thompson. Leaving a message, 'cause... that's what you told us to do." Another... loooooooooooong pause. "Okaybyethen."

He hung up the phone in a hurry, already wishing he'd thought to think his message through before leaving it. Usually he never had a problem with thinking on the spot, but then when was the last time he'd had to leave a voicemail? It was fine, though, right? They had to leave a message and he'd done so. Yeah. Sure.

This part was much harder. Not really a surprise, but sort of disappointing, since Dot had struggled a bit with the first part of the assignment. She stretched out the twisting cord with her fingers, making the lines lay straight out from the phone. It was organizational work that was ruined the moment she picked up the phone, as the cord twisted round itself again.

Frustrating, but unimportant.

The voicemail button was poked, and then there was a voice talking in her ear again. Not the professor, this time, sadly, but some strangely flat one. Yuck. She'd much rather listen to Moxley. It told her exactly what the paper said... push the four. Listen a bit. Push the one.

And now the real test... she'd have to record her voicemail message thing. QUICK QUICK WHAT SHOULD SHE SAY?

Still recording, the soft sounds of Cutty's snore-breathing were coming through on the voicemail until he woke himself and finished with a pathetic sounding, "Hal beemkanek mosa’adati?" Helpz, plz. Slowly, he hung the phone back up on the receiver.

Was that all they were meant to do? Cutty glanced at the directions again and saw that there was still one more task, but that it seemed to, at least, involve much less buttons. He picked up the receiver and milisecond pressed the voicemail button on the telephone after searching for it for-damn-ever.

The ringing was getting boring, mkay?

Boring.

BORING.

Grayson let out a slightly frustrated sigh and even rolled his eyes as the phone kept ringing......... and ringing........ and ri--

Oh cool. Voicemail. Moxley's voicemail. Moxley, whose middle name was Noel, apparently. A small amused smirk spread across the seventh year's face as the message finished. Huh. Meredith Noel Moxley. Hogwarts Sweetheart, as well. It was kinda amusing to see teachers being big headed and all because they were usually meant to be professional and teacher-like but whatever.

Leave a message? K. "Man, Moxley, you're dead lucky that your initials spell out MNM. Kinda like the Muggle chocolate brand and all." Did he get bonus points for making a Muggle reference? Yeah? No? Well he SHOULD. "Yeah, it's Grayson Douglas Whitlock here, your most handsomest student. 'Sup and all. Just doing what you asked us to do for the homework." Most awkwardest voicemail ever? He thought so.

"So I'm gonna go now. Bye, 'fessor!" And he was about to put down the phone when........ "This room's kinda weird, by the way."

There. Done.

At the sound of the beep, Norah began her voicemail in a sing-song voice. "Hi peoples, you've reached Norah Lillian McSparkles Rainbownose Glitterbloom Kittredge!" It was her voicemail, she could be named whatever she wanted right? Right. "I'm probably not here right now because if I was here it'd be mean to not pick up, so yeah, I'm probably not here. Maybe I'm out taming lions or butterflies or something, I don't know but I bet it's not as exciting as talking to you, whoever you are! So leave a message after the beeeeeeeeep! The actual beep, not what I just said. Have a radical day!" BOOM. How good was THAT?

The fourth year beamed as she pressed the crissy crossy number sign button. Was that all? She gave the phone a little pat for being very nice even when she'd dropped it, then left the room. She really had to convince her mum to let her have a phone now. That was COOL.

Next order of business was to record a voicemail. Right then. Toby had never even done this even on his mobile back home, always too busy doing something or other and never really thought about it. He picked up the handset again and put it to his ear, using his shoulder to pin it there while one hand held the instructions and the other hovered over the number keys again.

Okay step one was to press the voicemail button. Sooooooo... where was it? Toby blinked at the buttons on the main hunk of phone and just sort of... stared for a while. The dial tone in his ear was distracting, but it was better than hearing a lot of extraneous noise, at least. After a good few moments of searching, Toby finally spotted the button he wanted and pressed it, but not before facepalming for having not seen it for so long.

He listened to the voice say all the things, though couldn't really focus for very long on what was being said. Fidgeting was happening, and in the end Toby didn't wait for the talking to stop before going right ahead and pressing '4'.

Impatient little badger today, apparently.

Benny picked up the headset again, holding it up to his ear once more as directed. He got the dial tone in his hearing so he knew he had the right piece at the right point on his face. Now he had to look for the voicemail button in the sea of buttons. It certainly wasn't as clear cut as the number ones were. Ah....there it was! Pushing it didn't get a response at first so he tried it again,, pressing firmer this time and getting a recorded message in response.

Success!

Now what was it he was supposed to do next? Out of the options he was give. The sixth year glanced over at the instructions once more and spotted the note to press number four. Another easy move and a press of said key got him to his voicemail. Except he didn't have a voicemail...or did he? No, wait, that was what they were doing here with the whole assignment...setting up a false voicemail to try and show how its done.

Not that he'd ever really use one.

The care was gone as Cutty continued on with his task feeling rather on the half dead side as he listened to the message. He looked up at the instructions once more and his index finger hunted and pecked before coming down on the number 4. He rested there for some undue time before dancing over to the number 1.

He rested his head on the desk whilst he listened for the beep.

Beeep.


"Hello this is Cuidightheach..." Nope. Hang up.

She'd been sitting here way too long, and that meant there was a long lull recorded for the professor. Not likely to guarantee Dot good marks on this assignment. She cleared her throat, twice, still not sure what she was meant to say.

"Erm, this is Dot Wojack-Gusey. I can't take your call right now because I'm not really here. You're talking to a recording of my voice! But I can call you back later, and I promise that I'll do that if you leave a message. Also, you should leave your call back number or I won't know how to reach you." Pause pause pause. "This is Dot's message, thanks for calling, okay bye."

The instructions said to push the # button, so Dot hit that one three times just to be sure before she put the phone back in its cradle.

The instructions going into Toby's ear from the handset were all confusing and stuff, mainly because Toby wasn't really listening to them. He squinted at the written instructions again as he chewed at the inside of his cheek. Where was he? Oh, right...

He pressed down on the '1' button, and heard a beep, and...

...

...

... OH. He was meant to. Oh, right. Yeah. It was his turn to record one of those greetings. After the long pause (again), Toby was suddenly jolted into action.

"Oh, right, okay. Well. This is, uh... Toby. And that's who you're probably trying to call. Except not really, 'cause this isn't my phone, so if you're looking for me, you probably found me by mistake. Otherwise, you probably weren't looking for me at all. But this is me. But I didn't answer. I'm sorry."

Toby paused again, mouth opened like he was about to say something else. He should probably add something else, right? But what else were people meant to say.

"... You can leave a message and tell me things if you want."

... Maybe he should... rethink this and record another message.

Alright, next step was to record a voicemail of his own. A task that, unlike the previous task, wasn't something he'd done a lot. Did that mean that e had to prepare something to say beforehand? Or could he wing it and hope for the best?

Wing it. Wing it goooooood.

Grayson read over the directions list again, one hand hovering over the handset. Seriously? This was a lot easier to do on his mobile phone that he sadly had to leave behind because of all the magic in the place. Problems of a wizarding student, man. Why couldn't magic and technology co-exist? All he wanted to do was use his phone in school and text people in other common rooms. Was that too much to ask for?

When he was ready, the boy picked up the handset and held it to his ear. Voicemail button...... he hardly had to use this so the dude was VERY good at ignoring this little part of the keypad. Locating it now was just plai--


THERE! PRESS.

Alright, what next, pre-historic phone.

Cutty lifted his head for a moment, but was quickly overtaken by the feeling of nausea and dizziness and so down it went again. He hit the voicemail button again and listened for the message. Once it began, he let the receiver slide down his face and pressed the number four, and then followed this with the number one.

Beeep.

"Hullo, this is Cutty....Hullo?........Hullo???.........I said hullo.......Yer not even going to hullo back? Oh, I see how it tis."

He promptly hit the pound key, hung up the telephone and slept at the cubicle.

No. No, it was fine. This message was totally fine, Toby decided. He didn't mind if it was all weird and confused, because that meant it was genuine, because that basically summed up Toby half the time. He liked leaving it as the first message, because that was sort of like the purest one. Unpracticed. Raw.

Yep. Keeping it.

With a decisive nod for nobody's benefit but his own, Toby poked the '#' key firmly and replaced the handset back to the main phone thingy. He fiddling with the twirling cord thing for a moment or two while he took another look at the instructions to make sure there was nothing else left to do, then put the sheet back down again.

Soooooo... he was done? Yes? Yes.

He left the room.

So honestly Tia was pretty sure she was one of the LAST people assigned to a call bank, which meant two things. One, she had to make her message count because Moxley no doubt listened to hundreds before her and therefore hers would be dull and boring and like the one before. But that also meant she had loads of time to prepare her messages.

She already knew how a telephone worked, being half-blood, so no need to review that. Although she did select a cubicle with one of the UBER ancient phones with the rotary style number system. Fortunately for Tia, she was aware of how these worked.

Getting comfortable, the fifth year used her pencil to insert it into the small circles for numbers and rotate around to punch in that number. Zero. One. Three. Eight. Two.... hold. One ... Nine ... Three... Eight ... Eight .... Nine.

Holding the headset to her ear, she listened as it was RINGING! Now mysterious person, pick up!

This phone was starting to test his patience. Seriously, he understood that it was old or whatever but this was far too slow and unacceptable. It just wasn't gonna do, mkay? And it made him miss his electronics way too much. Sure, they had their slow moments occasionally but nothing like this.

He deadpanned as he listened out to the greeting by the telephone lady. This had to be one of the worst parts about making phone calls. The options were confusing to listen out to and comprehend and once they got to the end of the options list, he was there in a state of complete confusion because he'd missed whatever it was that was said before.

Grumble.

Alright. Record own voicemail. The option for that was fourth so, he pressed down on the 4 key and waited.

And waited.

And waited for so freaking long, he--

Oh! New option! This time, the Slytherin pressed down on the 1 key and waited. Again. Because what else was he gonna do?

Now, for the second task, Clara was required to record a voicemail.

She read through the instructions once more to ensure she wouldn’t make a single mistake. The first task, though slightly awkward, had gone without a hitch and she wanted to keep up that ‘winning streak’ so to speak. All that was left to do was follow six simple steps.

The first step was to pick up the handset and place it to her ear. Easy enough, she’d done that in the first task, too. The next step involved locating the voicemail button on the telephone, and, honestly, if she’d not been told where exactly it was on the telephone she wouldn’t have found it. Clara pressed the button down, glanced back to the directions, and listened ….. apparently for a greeting?

Ring, ring, ring.

And then, in Professor Moxley's voice, Hello and congratulations!

"Hello?" Tia said into the receiver, but then ... You've successfully reached the voicemail of Meredith Noel Moxley, Muggle Studies Professor and Hogwarts Sweetheart! Leave a message after the beep!

Oh well that was embarrassing. It wasn't even a real live person there. Flustered, Tia tried to recall what it was she was supposed to say after the beep. Only a minute she had to spare, not even before she heard it....

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPP!!!

Swallow. "Uh ..." Okay, this was awkward. "Professor Moxley? This is Tia Mancini." So much for her AWESOME message. "So I just wanted to say how amazing of a Professor you are and thank you and ask you ... do these phones dial Italy? Because I'd totally love to call my parents if they do. Alright, thanks and have a great day! See you in class!"

Hang up. Clicking the handset down into the receiver Tia felt herself exhaling. Whew; leaving voice messages was NERVE-WRECKING. If she had to do that on her OWL exam she was surely going to FREAK. Not that it was difficult to do, but just ... stresssssssssfullll!

With the first two steps out of the way, Clara could focus on the next. So far everything was going perfectly.

As soon as Moxley’s voice sounded again with a greeting, she did as the instructions told her and pressed the number 4 on the keypad, which, for whatever reason, signalled that she wanted to create a voicemail …………… Oh. It then dawned on her that she hadn’t thought through what she wanted to say in this voicemail. Abort mission. Oh dear.

Well ………. it could be worse.

Clara ploughed on, deciding that she’d deal with that issue when she got there. Crossing the bridge when she got to it, and all that jazz. She pressed down number 1 on the keypad and held her breath, waiting for a beep.