_{Friday, 12 February 2010 | 0900-1000 hrs | 6th floor classroom}

______________
[O+2] Joshua Harcroft
______________
[O+o] Zel Trumble
______________
[O+2] Alexandra Carstairs
[O+2] Katherine Beckett
[O+2] Avalon Roth
[O+0] Elijah Grimlish
[O+2] Sasha Schlagenweit
[O+0] Mason Hawkins
[O+0] Absinthe Darby
[O+0] Rohan Graham
______________
[O+0] Gracie Slant
[O+2] Theo Whitman
[O+0] Kitty Li 
[O+0] Warren Neifion
______________
[O+2] Aliya Grumman
[O+0] Leonardo Duarte
[O+0] Odessa Eisley
[O+0] Tracey Jones
[O+0] Cécile Fontaine 
[O+0] Vladlena Savitskaya

Welcome to Arithmancy
Come in and take a seat anywhere. We'll begin promptly upon the hour.
Today's lesson will be Matters of the Heart: An Arithmancer's Guide to Romantic Compatibility.

The students of Hogwarts had had a little over a month to get used to the grumpy pint sized antics of Professor Henry MacLeod. They’d been reviewed on the basics, drilled on their charting, and today they’d get to do something that Henry thought was deliciously fun. Fun wasn’t exactly a word that came up when speaking of Arithmancy, but today, they’d go hand in hand – at least, Henry hoped they’d go hand in hand. It was the last class before the Valentine’s Day Hogsmeade weekend, and the goblin-descended professor knew that if he couldn’t keep the class light and fun today, it would be a failed lesson.

The usual arrangement of tables had been completely disturbed. Little round tables replaced the blocky rectangular ones that were normally in the room. Dainty chairs (two per table) sat behind the tables and on the round tables were pink, red, and white table cloths. The surfaces were cluttered with scattered confetti, candied hearts, and small gifts. A live pygmy puff scurried across the top of one, an enchanted mirror (bestowing compliments on all who gazed into its depths) lay on another. Though Henry was a grumpy old man, none could say that he wasn’t caring and deep inside was a fluffy teddy bear.

He’d even gone as far as to ask the Grimlish gal if he could borrow some of her fairies… she always seemed to have plenty around her. After a grueling conversation about promising not to harm them and to ensure that they were set free directly after the class was over, she agreed, and so even fairies flittered around the room, twinkling in the dim lighting. A sigh escaped the professor’s lips as he shook a couple out of his beard and reached for his pipe… that he just happened to leave in his office that day. It wouldn’t help the ambiance of the room to have tobacco smoke permeating the air, so instead he just swung his arms by his side.

A gramophone sat in the corner, playing the tunes of Amortentia quietly. By the end of the second song, Henry was prepared to rip his beard out – if only to shove the copious amounts of hair into the noise amplification peace to stifle the sound.

---

Hi guys! Feel free to post your entrances. We’ll move the class along when a couple people have joined in. If you’re not on the class roster, but supposed to be in the class, feel free to post anyway, we’ll get it sorted for ya!

Avalon raced into class only to discover he was the first to arrive and apparently a lot earlier than his pocket watch suggested. Perhaps the gears on the devise were damaged, and he thought about writing home. There was nothing worse, he thought to himself, than being late to anything. With his books to his chest, his robes neat and put together, he entered the room with cool calm collected surface despite how his nerves made him chew his bottom lip nervously. This would be different.

The room was totally not what he was used to, and completely reminded him of one of Professor Kesali's art projects he often did with the younger years. It wasn't a bad thing, per say, but it certainly was different.

With a shy rather small smile to the Professor, Avalon dipped his head in greeting of the man, and respectfully took his seat. Had he even beat Sasha here? Now that was amazing, and he curled a little cat like grin in the corner of his lips. Enjoying the music he opened his book to doodle along with it, bringing an image to life on the page that followed in time with the song, and waited for the rest to get here.

Indeed, Avalon had beat Sasha to the sixth floor and Arithmancy classroom.  With a full schedule - and lunch already earmarked for editing and finalizing his History of Magic essay - Sasha had taken full advantage of the trek from the second floor Muggle Studies classroom to the sixth floor Arithmancy classroom.  He'd slipped into the library just long enough to drop his assignment off to the librarian from the previous evening and check out Advanced Herbological Techniques for the weekend. 

He trailed a few steps behind his fellow Ravenclaw and settled in the other chair at the boy's table.  The young man glanced around the room, eyeing the decidedly ... kitschy ... decor before looking towards Avalon and shrugging with an awkward half-grin. 

"At least it's not Potions, right?  What's the worst that could happen?"  Arithmancy class was unlikely to produce anything as problematic as love potions but professors were always trying to do something interesting around Valentine's Day.  Sasha glanced up at the board as he pulled his supplies from his bag and set them, carefully, on the table in front of him.

"Glad no one from Durmstrang takes this class."  Sasha said, aloud, though mostly for his own benefit.  He really wasn't eager to have a class assignment prove to him that Brunn was more compatible with Abby than he was.  He liked school!  Schoolwork wasn't supposed to work against him!

Aliya rushed into the Arithmancy classroom, surprisingly wide eyed and full of exuberance for such an early hour in the morning. It never surprised her that she was one of few who were enthusiastic about such a cerebral subject; she had been one of few back at her school to be proficient in it and here at Hogwart's, she was one of few Durmstrang students taking it with the other schools. Aliya looked forward to sharing a mutual enjoyment of it with others.

Only the professor and two other students had arrived before she did and though she didn't know the Hogwart's boys extremely well, she recognized them from other classes they had together, particularly Runes which was similar in mindset. There was a kinship in shared intellectualism, right?

Which was why she did not hesitate to move towards them to take a seat. In doing so, she overheard the one boy say something about being grateful that no one from Durmstrang was taking the class.

Sitting down at the table nearest to them, she raised her brows first at the Ravenclaw who had spoken and then to the one she knew did not speak. Then she looked down at her uniform which clearly rebuked his statement without any words at all. Aliya flashed both boys a kind smile and the words she spoke seemed to state the obvious in regards to her and her school. "It's easy to forget about me, I know." Then she lowered her voice to a playful whisper. "I can pretend I didn't hear that...."

Well....they didn't call him Schlawkward for nothing. As soon as the words left Sasha's lips Avalon wanted to throw his hand over the boy's mouth. He could see Aliya coming, out of the corner of his eyes, and wondered where Sasha's mind was. He was always so stressed out anymore, and especially when it came to school work that Avalon wondered if the boy wasn't just unwell. However, it was times like this he was rather thankful his words didn't get the better of him.


Girls.


With a small pinch to Sasha's arm in an attempt to alert his friend about the Dumrstrang student, it was too late.

It's easy to forget about me, I know. Avalon would have argued that, instead he made a rather indifferent face, and gave a little shrug. He was particularly fond of Aliya, especially when she sauntered away from things. Those were always good times.

Sasha had been right, about it not being potions class, and numbers never failed him when words would. This class was always a completely enjoyment when compared to the rest, and he didn't struggle as hard in it. He was eager for it to get started, but also rather interested in what Sasha had planned for the weekend. Did he have a date? What was the girl's name he took to the Yule Ball?

Biting on his lip he scribbled on a bit of paper, Speaking of love potions, any big plans for the weekend? and slipped it back to Sasha.

Simultaneously, Sasha spotted Aliya approaching their table and felt Avalon pinch him.  By the time the Durmstrang girl had taken her seat, Sasha's face had bloomed a bright red and he shook his head. 

"That's not-"  Except, it was.  He had forgotten about her.  Lying was unlikely to make the situation better.  Despite the girl's playful and wholly unconcerned tone, Sasha leaned forward and offered a profuse apology.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to insinuate I didn't think you were a Durmstrang.  I just meant-"  Offering an explanation wouldn't help, so the Ravenclaw focused on fine tuning the alignment of the quills and assuring his pot of ink was at a perfect 45 degree angle to the corner of his straightened parchment.

He'd just about completely smoothed out a small crease in the corner of his parchment when Avalon slid the bit of paper towards him.  Speaking of love potions.  The blush that hadn't quite left Sasha's face darkened, slightly, as the young man shrugged. 

"I'm hoping to meet up with Abby.  It's also my birthday the following week so I think we're hoping to do something fun."  And, it was Valentine's Day.  Sasha knew Abby was wanting to spend time with him; he didn't know if she had also made arrangements to meet up with Brunn. 

Sasha glanced, curiously, at Aliya wanting more than anything to ask if she'd heard anything along those lines.  Despite the temptation, Sasha opted for the less loaded question: "how about the two of you?  Any plans?"

Aliya bit her lower lip, trying not to laugh at the boy who was trying to his best to apologize for forgetting about her. In truth, he was quite lucky that she was neither ruthless or seemingly unfeeling like so many of her classmates from Durmstrang. Her joking was as genuine as her sweetness.

"It's okay," she attempted to assure him. She reached out to pat him gently on the hand, her attempt to sooth his worry away. "I will not hex you, I promise." Then she looked down at his perfect arrangement of writing tools and she exclaimed, "Oh I love your quills! I sometimes like to collect them."

She turned around and started to rummage through her own bag, missing the passed note from Avalon, but hearing Sasha speak about meeting up with an Abby. After she found her own quill to show, she faced the boys again and blurted, "Is Abby your Valentine?" And in response to his question, she replied, "I don't know yet. But then I've always had a Valentine. So I always just assume I will be with Fyetka."

Aliya swirled her quill with its fancy feather in the space between then all. And then, with no concern for boundaries or personal space, she reached out and dipped the quill into Sasha's inkwell and proceeded to draw a small, precise border of hearts on the parchment he had just smoothed out. Her brown eyes shot up to both boys again and she curiously asked, "Do you have cards for your ladies? Or gifts?"

Abby. That was her name. Professor Reid's sister he thought? They were suited well with each other, a perfect match if he did say so himself, and despite his overall jealous nature he felt towards Sasha it was good to see him turn a few shades of red. It made him human, and Avalon liked that. He liked to think of himself as a good friend, and though he was only ever good for listening, Avalon wondered if Sasha knew that his heart was always open for one more.

That's good! His expression spoke for him with his smile and raised eye brows, he was excited for the weekend himself, though he didn't have any plans yet or a date. Since holiday he considered asking Evelyn Grimlish out, but after their little hallway talk all of the nerves he'd built to consider it were crushed. He might just make it another guys weekend and drag Eli out instead. There was a band playing he liked, and knew that Phillip would want to go as well.

The conversation went on without him, they slipped through it so easily that Avalon felt a little more like the monkey in the middle, and just shrugged when asked if they had gifts. He did, his father helped make it, but he wasn't sure when he'd be willing to give it to Evelyn.

Avalon took up his own well worn quill and jotted down a quick little note to Sasha again, 'We will have to celebrate your birthday when we get back.'

She had one more day to survive through until the weekend, a weekend where Katherine could just relax without the added pressure of classes or a busy dorm room... She had found herself hoping that a majority of the upper years would be attending the Valentine's Day weekend, so maybe she could have some peace and quiet. If not, she decided she would crash the hospital hut again like she had done a few times before. Arithmancy was only going to be an hour long, hopefully, and then she had a short break before Charms. Her grandmother had convinced her to drop Ancient Runes after the headaches came more often, and everyone around her assumed the headaches were from the heavy course load that she had picked up. They were assuming right.

The classroom was quite astonishing - and it made Katherine stop in her tracks. There was just so much... she didn't know exactly how to describe it, but it was quite overwhelming. She looked into the mirror on a table near the door, and was about to admire herself in it briefly before the mirror started talking. "Lovely eyes you have, dear. The blue and silver in your uniform bring them out rather nicely." Katherine startled, and then smiled as she set the mirror down and continued over to where her classmates were. She sat down across from Aliya, the Durmstrang girl was rather intelligent; and it pleased Katherine to see that the students who had shown up so far were all people of intellect, or at least they seemed to be.

Katherine smiled as she set her bag down next to her, and realized the three were talking of Valentine's Day plans. No matter where she went, she couldn't escape the buzz that the holiday had sparked! But it was all well, mainly because she hoped that people her age weren't as hopeless as the little second years. While they had their quirks, she found that around Valentine's Day, the second and third years (and sometimes even the fourth years) were all so very awkward.

Avalon looked more absorbed in his own writing than in the conversation, and Katherine sympathized with that. Even though she internally criticized the younger years for being awkward, she was just as bad at romance as them. Even more so with this whole Mason and Alexa fiasco. One thing for sure, it was not going the way she had thought it would go. But then again, everyone romanticizes the idea of a first boyfriend or girlfriend, the whole idea of romance seemed to be idealized and romanticized.  "What about you, Aliya?" Katherine said, jumping into the conversation feet first. "Do you have anything special planned for this Fyetka?" She asked with a grin.  No matter how many reservations she had built up about Valentine's Day, there was nothing sweeter than some of these relationships.

Just beyond the doorway, Theo and Alex exchanged looks. “Egads,” he said mildly, before leading her inside[1]—where he was, amazingly, still surprised to realize it was even worse.

‘Kitschy’ wasn't even the half of it. It was quite apparent that an attempt had been made, but it was so much more obvious that the effort had missed its mark by some distance, leaving the room rather… wanting, in a very pink, hideous sort of way the Slytherin couldn’t quite believe.

Fascinated, Theo stopped by one of the vacant tables and fingered the table cloth with a vague, marveling smile. He only quit when Alex elbowed him sharply, familiar with his subtleties and obviously impatient. “Sorry,” he grinned, blinking innocently. With equal sincerity, he shot their stout Arithmancy professor that same, winsome smile in greeting as they moved on, to a table nearby the assembled group. Taking the other one beside Sasha and Avalon, Theo laughed quietly as they began discussing (or, not discussing, in one Ravenclaw’s case) their plans for the weekend.

How adorable.

“You would think there was a blight,” he murmured quietly to Alex, pulling out his own roll of parchment. (In eerie obedience it smoothed itself out, laying itself flat against the table. That was quality for you.) He pitched his voice just low enough to carry over to the next table—barely. “What next, do you think? Defense?”

1.	with hazel's permission bc she is the best

Reading the words on the board, Alex's lips pursed. She might expect this ridiculousness from Kesali, but she had hoped that arithmancy would remain safe. Merlin, why was it that professors felt the need to constantly interfere with the personal lives of students? If their influence was wanted so desperately, the students would approach the teacher, rather than being forced to endure embarrassing situations that such proactive behaviour created.

It took only a moment to confirm that Theo, at least, shared her sentiments, and she trailed after him, staring at the classroom with something approximating curiosity, now that the initial horror had subsided. A quick elbow stopped Theo’s molestation of the furniture; no matter how intriguing he found the altered décor there was no need to stroke it so.

Slightly disappointed, if not entirely surprised, to realise that the others had already fallen into the spirit of things, Alex only gave them a quick smile before sitting with Theo, uninterested in their affairs. “Never,” Alex said firmly, “Professor Storm would approach it with more... discretion,” not that it was in any way hard to achieve. “Professor Kesali, however,” her eyebrows lifted disapprovingly as she pulled her ink out of her bag, “is far more likely to enter the spirit of things.”

Johs groaned to himself when he read the board. Romance... He hadn't had much luck with the fairer sex, having had two girlfriends the past year, neither relationship lasting long. Needless to say, he was hoping that whatever thye did didn't show he'd always be single! He sat down, getting his ink and parchment out.

Aliya turned her attention to one of the other girls in the class. She was pleased that not everyone saw her as an evil Durmstrang outsider. She understood how easy it was for most of them to see her that way. To lump all the dark students together in one personality. Regrettably, most of her classmates did not do much to dispel that thinking and it was all Aliya could to to try.

She gave Katherine a welcoming smile but was hardly expecting to be asked about the particulars of her own plans with Fyetka. "I'm not sure yet," she said with a shrug as she absently continued to doodle. "I may have to do some shopping this weekend in Hogsmeade. I've thought about something to get him, but it's a little strange trying to buy something romantic for a guy. Do you agree?" She whipped around to Sasha and Avalon and asked, "What would you want for Valentine's Day?"

It certainly didn’t take long for the room to fill with students in various states of happiness. There’s nothing like a holiday about love to get angsty teen emotions running high – and Henry was loving every second of it. A wide, toothy smile split his features and a hearty guffaw burst forth unbidden from his open maw. Even the annoying sounds emitting from the gramophone wasn’t enough to dampen his mood, though the Arithmancer did take a moment to lower the volume even more with a flick of his wand.

Henry loved the NEWT classes. The students were there not only because they wanted to be, but also because they were good. All were sufficiently talented Arithmancers, and it was simply Henry’s job to teach them the finer points of the craft. He needn’t spend weeks on number interpretation or destiny numbers, he could work on fun things like divining the past through numerology and compatibility for those you love through the use of numbers. That, in itself, was cause for Henry to smile.

“Right then, looks like e’ryone’s more or less here. As ye can see from tha board, today we’re gonna be learnin’ how ta find yer one true love. No cupids or Aphrodites or nothin’ silly like that, just hard, unchangin’ numbers. Yer paired off so’s ye can read each other, tell tha other what their perfect number is, and then ye’ll switch out. If ye got a sweetheart, ye can calculate and figure out if ye and thee will be together forever, or at least what ye should work on to make things better in yer relationships.”

“Now pay attention, and ye might wanna take notes, I can’t promise this won’t be in yer exams. A detailed explanation’s in yer books, page 327[1]. Yer gonna use yer life path number, yer destiny number, yer balance number, and yer birthdate number. If ye have an erm… boy or girl… that ye want ta find compatibility fer, ye’ll need all their numbers too. All yer numbers play an important role in yer lives, and will play a major role in the lives of tha partner ye choose to spend yer life with, it’s important that yer numbers get along. After all, we all know that a seven and a nine are toxic together.” Henry paused and chuckled at his own number joke, even though it wasn’t even slightly humorous. Perks of being part goblin, being able to laugh at anything he wanted. Check.

The stout professor continued to lecture about the ins and outs and whys and hows of romantic numerology for several minutes thereafter. “Right, that oughta do it. If ye have any questions, I’ll be around. Remember, when ye’ve found out if one’s good fer the other, move on, find someone else ta poke at. Let’s get personal,” And with a wink, Henry was done.

---

Hey guys! This class is still completely [OPEN] for any interested parties. If you need any help, feel free to shoot me a PM. Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves, and Henry can step in if things need a little push. For a quick calculation, feel free to use this nifty Compatibility Calculator.

1.	Compatibility Chart

Bran entered the classroom with a bright smile on his face, only for his perfectly superb mood to be instantly, cruelly crushed by the abomination that passed for a classroom on this lovely, lovely day. And it wasn't even the candied hearts, the confetti, or the flattering mirror, or -dear God- was that a pygmy puff? Or even the fairies—fairies were actually lovely little things as long as they didn't really interact and just stood there and looked pretty. Fine accessories... Anyway, the complete and outrageous insult to Bran's terribly beautiful blue eyes, was the horrible, monstrous combination of pink and red. And whatever the bloody hell was that inhumanity screeching from the gramophone.

His smile disappeared instantly and for a second he fought the impulse to either turn back and exit with a flair of dramatics, pushing the door open and raising his hands over his head in complete frustration or just spell everything into either shades of red or pink. Not both. Warmer pinks with red? Maybe, but only if the situation truly called for it. Cold pinks with red? That was worse than insulting his family. Eventually he scowled and decided to move to a table. He was going for Aliya's table, because if anything was able to salvage this nightmare it was her completely adorable little self, but before he even took the first step in her direction, Beckett with her positively bland face plopped herself across his target. Rude.

He went for the next best thing and sat at an empty table close to Whitman and Carstairs. If nothing else at least he could amuse himself over Theo's many gorgeous aspects. Bran could never decide between bastard son of Adonis that suffers from amnesia and is therefore forced to live the miserly plebeian life, but still has remnants of his demi-god status and thus constantly behaves as if he were in the middle of a bourgeois tea appointment that suddenly got invaded by puny dirty peasants or cherubic blonde curly little thing that traded his divine life for a mortal one, but has since realized he actually hates the tiny humans and is constantly in pain when interacting with said tiny humans... and sometimes there was sultry yet innocent lady of the night with an aura of creepy.

Bran smiled at his housemate with the most adorable his face could offer and turned to listen to MacLeod. Whom he had lost all respect for after this atrociously poor decision. This lesson was both a nightmare and what would probably prove a constant source of entertainment for the next few weeks. This was the dream lesson of all prepubescent teenage girls that planned their perfect white-wedding with God knew whatever teen idol heartthrob was topping the charts or box office at the moment. One true love? Bran was instantly amused. He quickly pulled out quill and parchment and set to calculate his own numbers. He couldn't be expected to retain such information, could he?

As it were, Bran's life path was five, his destiny was three, his balance a four again and his birthday, obviously, seventeen. He had no sweetheart—well, not one anyway, but he was curious to see what Arithmancy had to say about his failed tryst with Tony, from years back. He could vaguely remember Anthony being born on March 1st. A five and an eight as far as relationships went were a pretty bad fit. Tony was authoritative, Bran was a social being... boundaries, jealousy, control issues. They all happened and Bran couldn't help but let out a tiny, surprised 'huh'.