When Cutty woke up, the side of his face carried the imprint of the telephone cord QUITE CLEARLY. How long had he been out? Still feeling quite nauseous, he lifted his head and peeked out of the cubicle to see the elbow and reddish hair of Clara Wilde, or someone who quite looked like her. He'd made a lot of red headed friends this year and the one before it. But her height looked appropriate to Clara's age.

Instead of getting up, though, he stayed put sinking into his chair and resorting to spying on and listening in to the conversations of the other students also in their cubicles. Weirdo.

BEEEEEEEEEEP.

Oh, for Merlin’s sake. Why.

Come on, Clara, what would you say to someone if you couldn’t take their call?

.............“Hello, this is Clara Wilde.”

So far, so good. “I can’t take your call at, uh, the moment. Please leave a message and …. uh, I’ll try and call back.”

There. Done. Was she done? …… Ah, yes, the final step. She pressed the # key to signal that her message was over and she placed the handset back. That hadn't gone as badly as it could have. In fact, aside from the fact that she ended up sounding immensely awkward, it had gone perfectly. Maybe she could make it in the muggle world, after all. Holding her head high, Clara exited the cubical and the room entirely, and went off to her next scheduled lesson which would be starting sometime soon.

The most final part of the assignment gave Benny pause. Like the message he had left Professor Moxley earlier, he had to record something by speaking into the phone handset when he got the prompt. Or in this case...another beep. The Gryffindor had talked awkwardly before so he tried to think fo something beforehand this time around, preferably something that didn't sound completely stupid.

He struggled for a few minutes but finally felt somewhat ready to do what he had to do. Since he had waited too long, his previous moves had negated and he had to start from the beginning. Annoying, but not too bad he supposed. Benny put the handset back down on its home before lifting it again to reset, pressing the voicemail button once he had it to his ear. Then pressing the numeral four button once more once he heard the greeting, he waited a second or two before pressing the one button as well.

Now he was onto new ground.

The sixth year soon heard the beep and took a breath before speaking. "Hey...this is Benn--Ben Atreyu. You've missed me. Um...leave a message." Making a small face, he pressed the # key to end the recording and keeping it, setting the handset down with a final move. Not entirely horrible. Satisfied with doing what he was supposed to do, Benny got up from his seat at the cubicle and gathered his belongings before heading back out of the room.

Task one was complete; Tia had successfully, albeit with some anxious bits, dialed the number on the direction sheet and left a voice message for the professor. Glancing at the next step, she re-read it thrice to make sure she fully understood it. Okay, so she had to make her own recording as if someone were calling her and couldn't reach her.

Easy enough.

Jotting down some notes as to what she was to say, Tia lifted the handset to her ear and then pushed the voicemail button. Bunch of automated talk and listening to the prompts, she pushed four on the keypad....

Cutty, sick as a dog, was listening in. He could hear soft beeps coming from the cubicle near his. One beep signalling one button, and then another. If this person did one more that meant they were going to leave a message for Moxley. And Cutty planned to be ready to jump up and interrupt that message. He was, on a regularly basis a fairly mean person (or at least ruthless), but being under the weather only amplified this.

He waited, and waited and the miniscule seconds felt like forever until he was finally impatient enough to stand up from his seat and see who it was. The dark haired boy stood tall, imprint of the phone cord still on his face because he'd fallen asleep at the desk and looking straight at Tia. "Mancini." He greeted her quietly and gradually sunk back down into his own cubicle.

Now just listen to the prompts again ... one to leave your recording, two to re-play the current recording, three to delete the recording, ...


... But just as she was focused and about to press ONE and leave her recording, she heard her name. In a quiet, somewhat sully voice. "Arrrrrrrghh,!" The fifth year spun around in her chair and caught glimpse of a certain Cutty Mordaunt slinking into the cubicle next to hers.

"Mordaunt. Thanks. You just made me lose my focus." Tia rolled her eyes and slammed the handset back down to reset it before picking it back up again.

Voicemail button. Number four.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Alright, that was his cue to record a greeting. A greeting that went something along the lines of..........

................... oh Merlin. Grayson froze. He should've put more thought into this and at least figured out a gist of what it is that he wanted to say instead of going with the flow. The flow wasn't even a flow at this rate. There was nothing smooth about sitting there and staring at the telephone while his brain failed to work.

Thanks, brain.

Once it was kicked back into gear, the boy started speaking, "Yoooo! 'Sup, this is Grayson Whitlock. I'm not around at the moment and probably won't be for a while so why don't you leave me a message after the beep saying how freaking fantastic I am? Or why you need me. Whatever. I'll get back to you later."

And down went the handrest.

And out went Grayson because that homework was DONE.

Sick as he was, Cutty sought the opportunity to lift his mood where possible. That included targeting his friends. The sickly snake popped his head out of his cubicle and toward Tia, look on his face like he was waiting for just the right moment. "It's because I'm dead attractive. Quit fliirtin' with me, Mancini and do yer wehrk." He was being a little punk.

Press one for recording. Then wait for the beep.

Tapping her foot idly on the floor while she waited for the beep, she mentally rehearsed what she was going to say on her recording. Lasting impact. She needed to be totally funny, yet serious at the same time. Not just the usual, 'Hi, I'm not here right now, leave a message.' No, Tia was not about that monotony.

Beeeeeeeeep.

"Hello, this is Tia. I'm not home right now, but I'd be more than happy to take a message. Hang on while I get my pencil...." Tia paused a moment and shuffled the papers around to make some noise and made a light tapping on the cubicle. "Alright, so what would you like to tell me?"

And pound key and Tia clicked the handset back into place. And she was done!

Reflecting on the work that he had done - if one could even call it that - Zeke felt fairly confident that he had earned his O for this homework piece. Really, it was EASY. If they had been given NO directions, then he might have found it somewhat challenging, but even then he was sure his experience in these matters would have helped him get through it.

Folding up his instructions sheet and making sure he had everything he walked in with, Zeke then vacated his booth for the next round of people.

Now he could go and... do other homework...

Sooooo, here he was again. Adi shuffled into the Phone room as he hummed an ANCIENT song by Chuck Berry. It was time to check out to see if he had been correct about his guesses with those phone numbers from that joint lesson homework.

Exactly what he had come up with? A Sports Club, A marriage counselling Center and a School. They were the first answers he had come up with after reducing the numbers and reading their meanings, okay? Sure, he had thought of more answers afterwards but he had decided to stick with those initial guesses.

The Huffie flopped down a cubicle just at the start of his assigned time. Let the calls begin! Too bad they would only be meeting voice mails. Adi would looooove to have a chat with... whomever he got in touch with at whatever the place may be. He reached for the phone.

Ugh, math was icky and she has just spend the last hour doing it. Actually, it wasn't the math that was giving her such a hard time... that was fairly easy. Even she could manage to add numbers together. It was the having to think about what those numbers meant that got pretty real. And if that wasn't enough, she had to think about what kind pf place the phone numbers belonged to. No, thank you. Don't put her down for that.

After a headache and a tantrum, she completed one part of the homework. Now came the easy part. All she had to do now was see if what she had guessed was correct. The good thing about this part was that there weren't technically any wrong answers. If she was wrong then... PFFT. Oh well. She had tried.

It was time to see if she had been close in any of her guesses. AJ eyed the phone. It was go time.

Adi keyed in to first number he had written down on a slip of parchment. Next to it he had scribbled 'Sports Club'. Was he going to be correct? WAS HE? He waited as the phone rang, tapping the desk with his right hand as his left one held the receiver.

Riiiiiiiing, Riiiiiiiiing, Riiiiiing!

More ringing and then voicemail!

Just as they had been notified by Moxley. The Hufflepuff listened to the voice telling him he had reached City Hall in London. He covered the bottom part of the receiver with his hand and started laughing. Man, he had been a LONG, LONG way off with his guess. City Hall was no where close to what a sports club did.

Adi decided not to leave a message after the beep so he simply replaced the receiver. But his mind was back home in Kent. He missed the sports club he was a part of and he wondered how the kids that he helped coach over the summer were getting along.

Having just finished the Arithmancy portion of the joint homework, Lux made her way down to the phone room so that she could dial some more numbers and listen to voicemails.

Wooooo.

Time to see if she had been correct in any of her guesses!

Not really caring where she sat, Lux chose the first cubicle she saw upon entering the room. After putting her bag down on the table, she took a seat and pushed her chair in. The phone numbers were on a piece of paper somewhere in her bag... Humming to herself quietly, she riffled through until she found it.

Taking the phone off the hook, she alternated between looking at the paper and the keypad as she punched in the first number.

Alrightey, he had a job to get done! Adi would just have to wait until the upcoming holiday break to see the ickle boys and girls of the Club. He eyed the next number. This one had reasoned this one belonged to a marriage/ family counselling place. "Time to test that theory, Rehman. Once again, he picked up the receiver to punch in the second set of number.

Riiiiiing, riiiiiing, riiiiiing!

Adi listened. IT WAS NASA'S HEADQUARTERS! In his excitement, he completely forgot how off he was again with his guess. He was only listening to the recording. Then there was the beep.

"NASA IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!''

Hehe. It WAS true! He liked the spacey place very much. And one could not contact them and not leave a message. After leaving his short but rather LOUD message to deafen the person who received it, the Hufflepuff replaced the receiver.

One more theory to test!

Time to put her theories to the test. AJ pulled out her notes and her finished Arithmancy homework. Okay, for the first number she had guessed it belonged to a principal's office in a muggle school. The numbers that she reduced sounded like it would fit a principal perfectly. It was everything that AJ wasn't. Well, she was hardworking, but the other things... not so much.

The fourth year picked up the receiver. Beep, Beep, boop went the numbers util she heard the sound that meant the calling was going through.

Ring, ring, ring. Apparently nobody was there. Oh, duh, it was kind of late for a principal to be there. A voicemail came on and... WHAAA? No principal. City hall... in London? Well then. AJ was going to leave a message. Oh yes she was.

BEEP.

"Hiiiii. Did you know I thought you were a principal's office? I guess you are way cooler than that and more important. Anyways, I hope you have super majestic day. Byeeee."

Feeling happy and excited about being in contact with NASA, Adi couldn't help but wonder which would be the next place he made contact with. In his hand went the receiver again, then the final number was punched in, sending the phone ringing.

Which establishment was it? Which establishment was-

What, what, WHAT?

Did that recording just say Tokyo Disney Sea Park? Or something like that... but Tokyo! How cool was that? Um, um, ummmm... should he leave a message? Adi didn't quite know what to say and he never got the obsession with Disney stuff that some persons had, like his muggle friend Divya.

But this was a SEA placey. "Sharks and dolphins rock!'' Hehe. Just a little something that popped into his head a second later. Did the place even have those? Well, sharks he could understand if they didn't.

Buuuut that was a wrap on this little activity! All three of his guesses had been a mile of but Adi didn't care. This had been fun! He replaced the receiver for the final time, stuffed parchment with the numbers back into his pocket this hummed his way out of the room.

Take me out to the ball game. Take me out with the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack, I don't care if I ever get back. AJ dialed the phone number that was next on her list. It was going to be a baseball stadium. She was absolutely sure of it.

Let me root, root, root for the home team. If they don't win it's a shame. For it's one, two, three strikes you're out at the old ball game.

It was ringing. Man, AJ really wanted to go back to a baseball game. She hadn't been to America with her dad in years it felt like. Maybe this summer she could talk him into it. The whole family could go.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the voicemail coming on. Oh? That didn't sound like a baseball stadium to here at all. How very disappointing it all was. NASA? What? Airey was behind this. She was sure.

AJ was so disappointed with this that she didn't even leave a message. Click went the phone on the receiver.

Angel had just finished the Arithmancy portion of the lesson and now she had to see if any of her guesses were right, she was really struggling on it and she had no idea if any of them were right though she hoped that she was wrong with her feelings but she had bad feelings.

Angel went into the room and looked around for a phone that she could use, her sister was there already, it would have been fun seeing how different their answers were but maybe lately they could talk after they had finished, she missed her sisters loads.

Angle now had to figure out which one she was going to do first, she decided that the best thing would be to start from the first one. She went over to the phone and picked it up being muggle she knew what she was doing.

Two down, and just one more to do. So far she had been wrong both times. Seemed like she had a nice little trend going here. Too bad she wasn't very hopeful in her third guess. It was weird to see how far off she was because based off the numbers and their meanings, what she guessed should have been correct.

Oh well.

The baseball stadium not being correct really gutted her. It wasn't as if she would be able to take a portkey over there, but still... that wasn't the point.

Anyways...

Next number was dialed into the phone. According to her notes, this one would be a travel agent service. What if it was her dad's number. Really AJ? She knew his number, and it wasn't this one.

Oh, the machine picked up. AJ listened and OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Did it say Disney Land and Sea in TOKYO? A screech erupted before she could contain it. Whoops. Were they recording?

"Erm. Sorry about that. This is AJ and I want to come and play. I'm going to talk to my dad and hopefully I will see you soon." She had never been to Tokyo. Now was as good of a time as ever, yeah?

Oh daddy dearest...

So, she had been wrong all three times. No big deal. The only thing that really mattered to her right now was that she was done. Free time.

Angel was looking forwards to seeing if she was right with this first number, She had her guess her this should be to a Leisure Centre, maybe it was the one that the Prime Minister or the Minister of Magic went to she would have to wait and see.

Angel looked at the phone and then she started to dial the number, please be right. "Hello!" Angel then realised that it was a voice mail obvious the place she though of was wrong. "Oh so your a Town Hall, sorry I got the wrong number." Angel giggled as she put down the receiver.

So, what Toby had come to understand from this homework assignment, was that they were being encouraged to kinda sorta make prank phone calls. Except not REALLY, because there would be nobody answering and they hadn't actually been instructed to leave messages, but STILL.

He headed on into the phone room and settled himself down at a free phone. In Toby's hand was his Arithmancy homework, where he'd written his predictions about what kind of places these phone numbers belonged to. It was all very EXCITING, wasn't it? Like some kind of BIG REVEAL.

So obviously he wouldn't wait another moment. First number then, Toby picked up the receiver, dialled in '+44 20 7983 4000', held the phone to his ear and listened.

Riiiiiiiiiiing... riiiiing riiiiiiiiiiing... riiiiing riiiiiiiiiiing... *click*

GASP.

WHO GOES THERE.

Sophie Brown hadn't had a lot of good, solid guesses for what these phone numbers were. She'd just made generalizations, really, because... trying to figure out a SPECIFIC place from number attributes seemed impossible and daunting, and if Tanner didn't like that... well.

She couldn't HELP it. Maybe it was a pride thing - it was safer to make generalizations and KIND of be right than to outright be wrong. It was stupid to be so prideful about such a thing though, she knew, for they were blindly guessing. It wasn't like she was stupid if she was wrong - she was just... wrong. But a lifetime of thinking she could never be wrong about anything made it instinctive to play it safe and leave room for her to be as correct as possible. Or, at least, as least WRONG as possible.

Couldn't be letting the people down, y'know?

Quite comfortable with this room by now, Sophie arrived at her assigned time and didn't hesitate to make herself at home - she felt very relaxed here, unlike she had for their last homework assignment. It had gone well enough and there was nothing too scary to do here today - it was mostly a fun thing and they were just getting to call these numbers for practice and see how their guesses aligned with the places they really were. So no pressure, really.

Except that whole... pride thing. What if even her vague guesses were miles off? Ugh. Terrible. But at least Tanner and Moxley were both good eggs - they both liked Sophie and Sophie liked them, so no matter what, she was pretty much all set. Picking up the receiver and putting it to her ear and mouth, she started to dial the first number from her assignment sheet: +44 20 7983 4000. Beeeep... beeeep.... beeeeep went the dial tone. EXCITING TIMES.

Kate had just finished all her calculations for Arithmancy and made her final guesses as to where she thought the phone numbers would lead her to when she used the phone. With a piece of parchment in hand, so she can remember what those guesses were and why, she made her way into the phone room. She'd never used this room before, so this should be interesting.

Kate took a seat near a few other students and laid her notes out before her. One glance at the phone told her she might be here for a while. Why were there were so buttons?! Better yet, which ones did she push?! Kate peered over her cubicle and surveyed her options for people to ask for help. Everybody looked so busy, though.

Okay, so she had to figure this out by herself. Kate cracked open the instructions manual, got herself comfortable, and began to read. Some time later, she thought she had some idea what to do, and so she closed the book, moved it off to the side, and got ready to dial the first number.

Now that he had done all the math, or rather Arithmancy, for the joint assignment, it was time to move onto the Muggle Studies portion of the homework. Time to find out just who belonged to the random phone numbers they had been given to reduce down to the single digits. And to see if one or more of his guesses, in reference to the resulting number meanings, had been correct or not.

Or even a somewhat close.

When it was his assigned time in the phone room, Benny stepped inside and walked over to on of the cubicles to work. He sat down and took out his notes so he had both the numbers to be used, or rather called, and what he had worked out about them. Taking a brief look down at all three before he moved to dial first, the Gryffindor couldn't help wonder the meaning of the difference between the two forms or number of numbers that were used. He had only noticed it now since they had been instructed to use the same number of base integers for all of them.

Whatever.

+ 4...2...0...7...9...8...3...4...0...0...0