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“Good morning class,” Myrni murmured as she stepped out of her office, ready for her 7th year lesson. She opened the book that she was carrying and placed it up on the podium before settling into the stool that was there. She then looked out over the older students and smiled. She had only been teaching them for a year – same as the other years – but she felt like she had known them so much longer. She was saddened to know that she would not have them in her lessons after a few months.

“Well, since you are at the tail end of your studies in this class, I felt that it was fitting that we reflect a bit back on the early foundations of Arithmancy and also look ahead to the modern practical uses of the subject. I don't imagine many of you wishing to be an Arithmancy scholar for a living, but there are many ways that you can make a career here, should you have a deep appreciation for numbers.”

She glanced around at the group before continuing. “So, before I officially give you your final project assignment, I'd like to just have a little casual discussion with you lot about what has interested you about the subject. If you had to work as an Arithmancer, what would you want to do?”

Dion liked the fact this class was tiny and full of people who actually had their heads on right. It was a nice change from, say, Defense. It helped the teacher was easy on the eye, not that he would ever admit that out loud.

Of course, as an Auror Arithmancy would be...not that useful, most likely - of course, if some serial killer left their signature in number codes he'd be ahead of the game, but otherwise. But he enjoyed it. It was logical, straightforward; it didn't play with your head. It followed patterns and therefore wasn't that difficult to grasp.

It was also an aid in some Divination. That was useful too.

When Myrni addressed them, he straighted up, adjusting his yellow and black tie. A final project already - that was good. He'd be able to knock it out, hopefully, and have that out of the way...

His hand raised, after giving a moment's pause. "The Department of Mysteries makes use of Arithmancers, does it not? Especially in regards to Divination?" It was a question, more than a statement - looking to her to answer, since he honestly wasn't sure exactly what the Arithmancers in the DoM did.

Then again, did anyone really know what they got up to?

"The Department of Mysteries makes use of Arithmancers, does it not? Especially in regards to Divination?"

"If they took it to great extremes - they could calculate who was best to go on particular missions according to their arithmancy values, and create the best teams." Theta shrugged. "I wouldn't so much use it for divination - but for calculating proportions with best magical potential. In the way that it can be applied to potions for optimum proportion of ingredients and batch size against heat from flames, it can be used to calculate widths and diameters, weights and density." Theta explained.

Anywhere else but Arithmancy lessons and she'd sound like an epic geek, but here was a safe haven of higher thought, so much that Theta very much looked forward to these moments each week.

Arithmancy had never been Chance Ryker's favorite subject...however, at times it was his favorite class.  The Irish prefect of Gryffindor House had always had his eye on Professor Levartian, but his varying degrees of flirtations had all but completely vanished the past few months. 

The Professor had always been professional and standoffish to his affections, yet had never crushed his spirits.  In fact, she'd fostered a newfound passion for taking life by the horns.  It had been Myrni Levartian's idea to pair him up with Grace Eddy...which had led to the former "King of The Slackers" becoming a well respected prefect. 
Various setbacks in Chance's personal life forced the outgoing, lovable Irishman into seclusion for a lengthy amount of time...but while Ryker had seemingly returned to his "new and improved" persona...he still seemed uncharacteristically quiet in Professor L's class.

Why were all these smug little comments clouding Chance's mind?  He had to focus on the professor's question!  But something seemed to have his mind completely unfocused from the task at hand.  Lucky for him...Dion and Theta took some pressure off by speaking up, which gave him time to gather his thoughts.

" 'is might not really be all 'at 'elpful...but checkin' people's numbers can 'elp narrow down, maybe even weed out suspects.  If th' numbers say 'honest an' upright', s'not ruddy likely we're lookin' at a dark arts dealer?  Sometimes gut instinct jes' doesn' cut it.  If ah worked with Arithmancy fer a livin'...Ah'd 'aveta say ah'd wanna do m'best t'work with th' Aurors."

Chance's confidence in this class was by no means solid.  If this was because of his own perceived competency in the subject matter or his old feelings toward the professor was anyone's guess.  Perhaps it was a mixture of both.  Nevertheless...Chance figured Waker would pipe up any second now, and if not...Theta or Dion were always good to have around for a little backup.

Myrni nodded at the comments of the Hufflepuff, the Ravenclaw, and the Gryffindor in turn, but even she could hardly contain an amused grin as she realized that they, like many, still tended to see her subject as one dimensional, rather ironic considering it dealt with numbers.

"The Ministry does, indeed, employ the talents of many skilled arithmancers," she began lightly, pressing the palms of her hands together and resting the tips of her steepled fingers against her chin. Her expression was a thoughtful one as a rather lengthy pause ensued before she continued. "I know the typical professions that people associate with this subject are professors and cursebreakers but believe me, there are more options. And even those of you thinking the subject has no place in the fields you're looking to go into, I assure you it has more uses especially at the higher levels."

Myrni scooted off her chair and began to pace the isles as she spoke. “We know that Arithmancy is the study of numbers and their magical properties and we also know that it's one of the oldest documented forms of magic in the world. On the surface level, most witches and wizards tend to think of it as just a means of divination with numbers, and for the most part, that is how we focused our studies on it in this class. But it's much more complicated than that.”

Her eyes settled on Theta and addressed some of her inklings. "To the average person, Ms. Pepper's description of what an arithmancer could do might sound like speculative fiction. But it's actually not that far fetched."

The professor smiled at the student before withdrawing her wand and aiming it at the board. "Like many professions in our world, specialization is key. You pick an interest and you hone your talents further. And because this is a subject of numbers, it's no surprise that workers in this field tend to be quite exact in what they do. Let's look at one such specialization and discuss why it might be needed...and perhaps even helpful to a group like the Aurors, since it was brought up," her eyes flitted from Dion to Chance.

As she had talked, writing appeared on the board.


"In other words," she told them. "These people would study the the complexity of causality or the relationship between events. Those of you who have grown up in the Muggle world might have heard of something called The Butterfly Effect. But basically it means that an event (even trivial ones) has the potential to change a whole system of events."

She raised her brows. "So now....knowing this...how does it change your view about Arithmancy being useful while working with the Auror Corps?"