Exciting times, they were, but it took her a second to realize the dial tone probably wasn't a good thing. What had she done wrong? Sophie ABORTED her mission, hung up the receiver to hang up the phone properly, and then... she picked up the receiver again and listened - nothing was happening, so she was good to start over. She pressed each number in a row, careful not to mess up the order, +44 20 7983 4000, and when she was finished, she held her breath... andddd...

THERE WAS RINGING ON THE OTHER END. Woooop. Success this time. She didn't even know what had happened the first time, but it didn't matter because she'd GOTTEN IT THIS TIME.

She waited, bouncing a little in her chair with excitement as she waited for it to reach SOMEONE or... SOMETHING, it seemed, as a voicemail started!

London's City Hall? Wicked. But... wait, were they supposed to like... SAY something? Leave a voicemail? What was the point in that? Couldn't she just, like, hang up now that she knew that she hadn't been COMPLETELY wrong? But-- in their last activity, Moxley had them leave a voicemail, so she probably expected them to do the same this time, right? But... SHE HADN'T THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT TO SAY.

Beeep.

"...Oh, uh, hi, sorry, I just called to say you guys are doing a great job and, uh, keep doin' what you're doin'. Love you byeeeeee," and she HUNG UP THE PHONE.

Ahem. Well. That had gone well.

Kate picked up the receiver and held it to her ear. With her other hand, she began to dial the number.

+44 20 7983 4000

The phone began to make a ringing sound signaling that she had dialed the number correctly and it was trying to connect her to whatever this place was. Kate checked her notes again to remind her about her guess. She'd made a wild guess that this number would lead her to a construction business. She had already imagined that a voice mail would come on, and it would be a man with a strong, deep voice announcing the name of a construction company. She was so caught up in what she'd imagined this number to lead to, that it actually surprised her when she heard the real recording.

The City Hall in London!

Well, that wasn't exactly a construction company, was it? At the sound of the beep, Kate decided to be polite and leave a message. "I'm terribly sorry. I have the wrong number," she said. "Thank you." Then she hung up the phone.

Literally shaking off the awkwardness that was her previous phone call, Sophie cleared her throat purposefully and peered at the next number and her guesses associated with it. A science laboratory of some sort, was her guess, and if she was right, she was going to be SUPER excited. Maybe it would be that place Flamsteed had taken them on a field trip, since there were fun hands-on experiments and stuff that went on there, right? And there had to be RESEARCH for that museum to BE there, so like... that would've been cool, too, and Soph hoped for something as cool as that place as she picked up the receiver again and got set to make another call.

+1 202 358 0000. That was a fun number - she'd never seen one with all zeroes at the end like that, though realistically she hadn't seen too many phone numbers in general. She typed it on the keypad, though, and gave a little hum when she was done, anticipating the worst, another dial tone - but she must've done it right on the first time again because it was RINGING ON THE OTHER END. Hoorahhhhh.

Back to bouncing in her chair with anticipation, the excitement on Sophie's face was real as she waited for the phone to stop ringing and give her a voice... and there it was. She listened intently to what it had to say, and then her mouth DROPPED.

THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTATION HEADQUARTERS. NASA. THE NASA. NO WAYYYYYYYYY. She didn't even know she was ALLOWED to get in contact with those kind of people and she immediately wondered if these people knew who ASTRONOMER ROYAL AIREY FLAMSTEED WAS. Meeeerlin. She didn't even have TIME to freak out any more because it was letting her leave a voicemail, and when the BEEP rang out, the floodgates opened.

"Hi, NASA! My name's Sophie Brown and I'm a future astronomer and Astronomer Royal Airey Flamsteed is my role model and he's the COOLEST and he's made me want to be interest in space travel and exploration and EVERYTHING you guys stand for, so if you guys know him you should tell him Sophie Brown talked really highly of him so he gives me a top grade in his class, okay? Thanks, byeeeee!!" And she HUNG UP THE PHONE TRIUMPHANTLY.

THIS WAS THE COOLEST ASSIGNMENT EVER.

Eden arrived at her assigned time and had written down what she THOUGHT each phone number was. This would be so cool...and she was an old hat at dialing the numbers by now...you know, being muggle and all.

First one...she thought was an office building of some sort. Maybe it was..like..a place were lawyers worked. What was that called? A LAW FIRM? Yes. Maybe. It sounded official and stuff.

She dialed the first number...and waited...for the person...to answer...ahem...? She doodled in her notebook while she waited, though...because well...boredom.

And suddenly...THE LONDON CITY HALL? Eden froze and her eyes widened...it was an answering machine service..MERLIN'S PANTS WHAT SHOULD SHE SAAAAY?

She wasn't even remotely right, either. So she scribbled down next to the phone number what the place actually was. London City Hall.

Still DYING over her last call, Sophie Brown had to take a few minutes to CALM DOWN. That was SO cool and she wondered who ELSE she could call - could she get in contact with, like, the HEAD of NASA or something? COULD she call Buckingham Palace and talk to ROYALTY? She'd never even known she could realistically get in contact with such cool places. WHO KNEW, RIGHT?

Once she FINALLY stopped bouncing and glowing with the utmost joy, she got back down to business and pulled her sheet back in front of her. She eyed the last number - THIS was the one she hadn't been sure about at ALL. The possibilities completely threw her for a loop and she had no idea, really. No guesses made ENOUGH sense to even be worth mentioning and she was certain that Tanner was probably disappointed that she'd hardly come up with anything meaningful at all. But she'd at least analyzed the numbers and made as great of an attempt as she could've, all right?

But now was the moment of truth. And she was dying of curiosity.

+81 570 008 632. She pressed each button carefully, her eyes darting back and forth between the keys and the paper, and once she typed the last number, she held her breath with the receiver up to her ear and waaaited... and there was a ringing. Goooood. She still didn't know what she'd done wrong the first time, but at least she knew she had it down now so that's all that really mattered. As it rang, she drummed her fingers on the desktop, considering what kind of message she would reach this time...

...DISNEY. IT WAS A DISNEY THING. And when she thought about it, THAT totally made sense - it WAS like a new city and beginnings and innovation and that stuff ALL MADE SENSE. WAY COOL. She had no idea what to SAY for this one, though, because realistically no one who worked for the Disney company would probably even care about anything she had to say, and as the recording neared an end... she ended up just hanging up the phone before it even beeped. Moxley hadn't said they NEEDED to say anything to them, right? She'd done her duty and found out what place the number was associated with and that felt good enough.

It would've been a totally different story if she'd have been able to get in touch with, like, the PRESIDENT of the Disney company, but she was pretty sure no one at that number could help her with that.

Sophie made some notes on her sheet, labeling which number went with what place, and spent a little bit of time noting the ties between what she'd speculated the phone numbers to be and what they really were. Once she was finished, she made sure everything in her cubicle was the way she found it, gathered her things, and headed on OUT.

And Maggie was back here. Here with that ancient phone.

At least this time she didn't have to leave any messages. Her first assigned timeslot was pretty late. Which made sense because she'd already identified the first phone number as a British one. So in order for her to only be directed to their voicemail she would have to call there pretty late. Or late-ish. It was already past dinner so it WAS quite late.

Luckily, she hadn't run into any spiders on the way here.

Which didn't mean that the phone wasn't covered in cobwebs when she sat down (after cleaning the seat of course). Ew. She then proceeded to use wand to scourgify the phone, paying special attention to the receiver. After that was finally clean, she dialed the first number.

Hopefully she was right in her assumption.

Toby squinted and listened hard. Even when he was at home and had his own phone with him at all times, he didn't really talk on the phone all that often. And when he was HERE, all communicating was done face to face (or through mirrors... or letters) which meant that the voices were all a lot clearer. On the PHONE it always sounded different and sometimes it was unclear and you had to really pay attention and-

... and, he'd forgotten to pay attention. Right. RIGHT. LISTENING NOW. WHAT WAS HAPPENING.

.......................... City Hall? In... London? Huh. Toby looked at his Arithmancy homework... and yeah, actually. That DID make sense. More sense than his idea of the building site, he supposed, but really, it totally COULD have been either. Toby was still thinking on this when suddenly there was a beeeeeeeep and he realised he was leaving a message. OOPS. Were they supposed to do that? Well... why, not?

He didn't have anything prepared, but Toby was the maaaaaster of talking without thinking. He just opened his mouth, and:

"You're doing a SWELL JOB."

And then Toby replaced the handset, and picked it up for the next number, casual as you like. He dialled in +1 202 358 0000, held the phone to his ear again, and waited.

It was ringing. But it was supposed to go to voicemail. It would be funny if it didn't though. Like. If they were to ask her where she was calling from. Did this phone have caller ID? Would someone try and see where the call was coming from? What would happen if they did? Hmm.

Oh. Nevermind. There was the voicemail message.

London City Hall.

HA! At least she'd been right about it being a British number. Not a construction firm but.....there was something...they probably did have something to do with construction too. Maybe they were renovating or something. Yes. That made sense.

Maggie put the receiver down before it asked her to leave a message.

Okay. One down, two to go. For now she left, to come back at a later time.

Toby wound the curly cord of the phone around his finger as he sat there, obviously instantly finding the thing in the room he could fiddle about with while he sat there doing his homework. The ringing tone blared in his ear, and then, after a few times, it suddenly stopped and there was in inhale of breath like someone about to talk. Toby sat suddenly still and listened closely once again.

... Wow. WOW. For REAL. This was NASA? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT. Toby had been expecting to call a school or a university; that's what his parchment even said. But... whaaaaaAAAAAAT.

Toby's jaw dropped as he sat there listening to the American sounding person telling him to leave a message, all the while wondering why he'd not even considered trying to call NASA in the past. To have a chat about space. He would have had the opportunity NOW except it wasn't business hours.

And there was the tone for Toby to leave a message, and all of a sudden he got ALL KINDS OF FLUSTERED, and there was only one thing in his head, so the boy yelled it out.

"VIVA LA PLUTO!" And SLAMMED down the receiver, a big ecstatic grin on his face. Oh yeah. He'd just said that to NASA. Kinda. Just wait 'til he told Airey that.

Giving a giddy little giggle, not unlike that of a school child, Toby dialed in the final number, +81 570 008 632, and waited in anticipation. Would this be another cool one??? What could be cooler than NASA?

The phone started to ring so it seemed like he had dialed the phone number correctly, so Ben simply sat there listening to go through the numerous rings it was before waiting to see it it was moving onto the next step. They had been told they were to be calling the places they were after said place was closed so they should get the voice mails. Right? Wait, there was a change in tone and before too long there was a pseudo-human voice speaking into his ear from the phone's receiver.

Quote:

Good day. You have reached London City Hall. Our offices are open from 9am to 4pm weekdays so feel free to call back then. Or leave a message and someone from the appropriate department with return your call. Thank you.

Benny listened to the message to its completion, forgetting the fact that they didn't have to leave a message this time around. So as it beeped, he was quick to hang up with a click. No, he did not want to leave a message anyway...he'd feel like a nutter. At least it fit his interpretation of the number meaning.

On to number 2.

Eden heard the little voice message reel and cleared her throat. She should leave a message or...hang up? Hmm. She might as well leave one. "Oh..um...hi? I think I actually dialed the wrong number but...yeah! Hope whoever listens to this has a good day!" and she hung up.

Was that super lame? It was super lame...hmm..

She sighed as she went to dial the next number, got it wrong, and had to hang the receiver up and dial again. How fun would it be if they had one of those REALLY old phones where you had to spin the little circle thing?! Eden should suggest that to Professor Moxley one day just for the LULZ.

Anyways. Second number pinned in. Ringing. Lots of Ringing. Eden doodled a bird on her notebook. Right.

Oh...this was...NASA? Flamsteed would have LOVED to leave a message for these guys, wouldn't he?! Eden smirked as she listened to very looooong voice message, telling her all these numbers she could press and whatever...hmm..

Once again, Kate put her hand on the receiver and picked it up. She balanced it between her ear and her shoulder as she began pushing numbers.

+1 202 358 0000

Kate kind of got excited as she heard the ringing of the phone. She'd dialed the number correctly, which she was getting kind of good at, and she'd soon be connected to whatever this business was. Looking back at her notes, Kate was reminded that she'd guessed that this phone number would lead to a church. As the phone continued to try and connected her, Kate was reminded of words such as remedy, spiritual rebirth, wisdom, and spiritual focus. Suddenly, the phone stopped ringing, and the voice mail picked up.

NASA!

Professor Airey would get excited over this one! Also, Kate couldn't have been more wrong about her guess. She really should start working on getting better with that. "Hello, NASA? My name's Kate, and I'm a student in Professor Airey Flamsteed's class. He knows lots about space. Well, I just thought I'd say hello!" she said. Then she hung up.

These businesses were sure going to be confused in the morning when they had all these voice mails from kids just saying hello.

...

......

.........

DISNEY? WHaaaaaat. That was SO COOL. ALMOST as cool as NASA, but Toby wasn't really sure anything could have beaten that. And sure, he didn't really watch movies and stuff so wasn't as into Disney as Soph always seemed to be, but he'd BEEN to Disney World before and then last summer they'd had plans to go to Disney LAND (until the cow incident had put a stop to all those plans, ahem), so he appreciated this.

As the voicemail machine did the thing, Toby looked at his Arithmancy homework again. Well, he'd been waaaaaay off with this one; this was certainly nothing like a president's house or whatever. It made him wonder if maybe he had his calculations wrong. Arithmancy was HARD, and Toby frequently caught himself making mistakes, so there was obviously there would be the odd few that went unnoticed. But when he glanced over the homework again, it all looked in order. Not that he'd try to recalculate, because the point of the homework was to interpret and guess BEFORE the phone call. So nah, he could just hand this in.

Suddenly, Toby seemed to remember he was in the middle of something, the phone still pressed to his ear. There was silence on the other end, and Toby realised he must be in the middle of recording a voicemail. He started as though given an electric shock or something, and fumbled with the receiver. "Oops!" was his exclamation, as Toby quickly returned the phone to its cradle, just as the beeeeeeep noise sounded on the other end, signalling that the time to leave a message had run out.

Haha. Oops indeed. That would be a fun message to listen to, ehehe.

Okay, so... that was Toby done then, wasn't it. Yeah, no more numbers left to call.

The Hufflepuff got to his seat and streeeeeetched out his arms and back. Rahhh, he felt like he'd been sitting for DAYS, so it was time to go RUN some of this energy awayyyyyy.

Making extra sure he had everything with him, including the Arithmancy homework he still needed to go hand in, Toby made his way out of the phone room. Hmm. Maybe a mad dash around the corridors for funsies, and then FOOD. Yes. Food sounded wonderful.

Putting the last of the grapes she'd brought from breakfast into her mouth, Maggie entered the Phone Room yet again. Seriously. This was going to get repetitive really fast. Like that potions homework where she had had to come back every day to check on the potion.

At least this homework required her to actually DO something.

After cleaning the cubicle and phone itself, Maggie sat down and immediately went to dial the second number. Which she thought was going to lead to a prison. Now that she got to think of it, that WAS a really weird place for them to call. Also they were probably open 24/7 so what if-

Oh.

Never mind.

That number belonged to NASA. Oh. Well. That was something like prison? No? Ish? Not really. She crossed it out on her notes and wrote NASA there instead. After setting down the receiver again of course. She really wasn't in the mood to leave any weird voicemails.

This was real life people they were calling after all.

Making extra sure he had everything with him had NOT gone to plan. No. Not at all. BECAUSE, OKAY, BECAUSE... Toby had got all the way to the second floor (ALL the way, an entire FLOOR) before realising that the last page of his Arithmancy homework was MISSING.



He'd backtracked, of course, because that was the logical thing to do, and sometimes Toby could be logical. Sometimes.

His journey had led him back here, and the second Toby pushed open the door into the phone room, he SAW IT. RIGHT THERE. ON THE FLOOR. Sneaky little leaf of parchment. Perhaps it really WAS wiser to write on scrolls instead of individual pages for homework. Too late now, though. Toby was nearing the end of his seventh year, and homework wouldn't be a concern for much longer.

Anyway. Yes. Homework. Toby grabbed the parchment from the floor and made his exit. Again. Except now everything was present and accounted for.

Finally. Maggie was back for the last time. Hopefully for the last time ever. This whole thing was just way too weird for her taste. They were taught how to use PHONES. Even if it was old phone but like ??? It was a phone. It wasn't that hard to handle.

You pressed the right buttons and spoke into the receiver. Easy as that. Not hard at all.

This time she was here some time after lunch for her last phone call. Maybe her third guess had been right. Unlike the first two. Ahem. This one had been really easy though. RIGHT? It was so obviously a birthing center or something. OBVIOUSLY. The textbook had said something about birth after all right? Yes.

So with as much enthusiasm she could muster for this task, Maggie dialed the last number and waited....waited for it to stop ringing and going to voicemail. Ah yes. There it was. And it was.......Disney.

.............................................okay she was leaving.

She had officially failed this homework.

Goodbye. Maggie out.

Angel decided it was time to ring the second number on her list, she had a feeling that this one should be a research facility, but would it be.

Angel rang the number and it turned out to be NASA, well she was sort of right it was a research facility, just not the one she thought it would be. She left them a message.

Alright so he had gotten one phone number down and he was onto the next. Benny had to remind himself that the number of digits was correct and didn't need to be fixed before he picked up the receiver once more in preparation to dial. First the 1...then 2-0-2...then 3-5-8 and finally four 0's. The sixth year working in groupings to make sure he read them all correctly and depressed the keys in the right order. He had already stumbled on that task during one of the earlier homework assignments.

With a sigh of relief, the phone was ringing once more and Benny waited for the message to reveal who was stationed on the other end of the telephone line. His guess had been something sciency and as more rings passed, he crossed his fingers hoping for 2 out of 2 in his interpretations. It might show he was actually getting better at this arithmancy subject, at least that he had gotten his calculations correctly.

Quote:

You've reached the National Aeronatics and Space Administration. If you know the extention of the party you wish to leave a message with, enter it now. If not, dial one of the following options. For Administration...press one. For Aeronautics, press two. For Air Support...press three. For Astrophysics...press fo----

That was enough for him, Benny letting the receiver come down softly on the cradle and ending the call. NASA. Yep, that was science and space and everything else associated with it. And also right in Professor Flamsteed's area of expertise like he had said. Looked like he had gotten a better connection with this reading than before, making note of the location in his homework.

Well, that was two phone calls out of the way and only one phone call left to make. So far, Kate wasn't doing very well with the guesses. She'd miss both of the first two she'd tried. If she missed this last one, then it was official--she wasn't good at all at guessing phone numbers and the establishments attached to them. She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear while she dialed the third number.

+81 570 008 632

A glance at her notes told Kate she'd guessed this number would lead to a hospital. She'd guessed that because of words like rework, renewal, rebirth, and beginning again. She hoped she was right, because missing all three of her guesses would be so disappointing. Getting at least one right would make her feel accomplished.

... DISNEY WORLD!

"Oh my gosh, HI, MICKEY MOUSE!" she yelled out. Oh. Oops. Maybe she shouldn't have yelled that. Kate felt like such a little kid now. "Hello, Mickey?" she said in a much lower voice. "I just love Disney World so much, even though I've never been! I can't wait to get to come visit you some day!"

With a smile on her face, Kate hung up. She hadn't gotten her guess right, but she'd made a recording at Disney World! DAY = MADE.

Eden smirked and followed the little lead through...pressing random numbers when they asked if she wanted to press 1 for....or 2 for....and Eden finally laughed to herself and hung up. She never got to an answering machine.

She quickly dialed the next number and waited....and someone answered in Japanese! No no...not a person. okay good. Eden was about to have a PANIC ATTACK because she had thought it was all answering machines--and it was, but for a moment there, she thought someone had actually answered.

And Eden had NO idea what she would have said...

And oh, look. English now. MICKEY MOUSE?! ICE CREAM? WHAAAAAT? Eden flailed so much that she accidentally hung up....

OOPS.

She wanted to leave a message, so she would call back--RIGHT NOW--

One final telephone number to use and find out just who would be on the other end of the line. The number Benny hadn't been able to pinpoint much other than designating it with a reduced number and what the textbook said the number meant. Oh and the two karmic numbers that he believed he found within the calculations. He could only hope he was right about them, at least one of them. The Gryffindor looked down his parchment and read off the final set as he pressed each of the number keys one by one.

+...8...1...5...7...0...0...0...8...6...3...2

Ring ring...Ring ring.

Quote:

Konnichiwa(Hello) and hello! You've reached Toyko Disney, the happiest place on Earth east of Europe. We're unable to respond at the moment, so please leave a message and a Disney crewmember will get back to you as soon as they can.

Now there was a surprise. Benny hadn't expected that from the number he had gotten, the sixth year putting the phone back all finished with the assignment. Toyko Disney....interesting to consider given the Karmic Numbers. Packing up his belongings, he planned on asking Adi or Angel what they thought of it, leaving the phone room to go hang out with them.

So Eden called back...putting in each number, and dialing..and she had the cuuuuuute Japanese Disney ice cream shop's number AGAIN.

HEHEHEHEH.

"HI I ACCIDENTALLY DIALED THE WRONG NUMBER--" she lied quickly, "BUT THIS IS SO CUTE I HAVE TO LEAVE A MESSAGE I LOVE MICKEY AND MINNEY AND UGH SO CUTE MAYBE I'LL VISIT ONE DAY--"

She screamed the entire message.

Not even sorry.