Attending
(Just post and I'll add you in)

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OOC: Your character has already arrived unless prearranged, as late arrivals result in point loss and/or detention.

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The Third Years had already attended two Arithmancy lessons with Professor Duerr by the time they reached their third at the end of Wednesday they had become a little more acquainted. Once again, they arrived at the classroom to find it bright, welcoming and the table that they all sat at, strangely exactly the right size to fit them all.

It was rather exciting to be teaching them at the start of their studies of the subject, and in the previous lesson, the Professor had explained a few of her early memories of beginning her studies at Beauxbatons. Although her Flemish accent wasn't strong, she was still occasionally finding it tricky to remember the correct word in English for what she wanted to say.

"Good afternoon Third Years," Professor Duerr smiled at them, standing at the head of the table they sat around. She was dressed in a modest grey suit jacket with skirt, and with all the goings on, she hoped that the students wouldn't notice the repaired hem. (Her first teaching wage could not arrive soon enough.) The September sunshine streamed in the windows of the sixth floor classroom, and the lake in the distance reflected the late afternoon sunshine brightly. One of the windows was cracked open to let in some air, and the distant hooting of owls could be heard.

"I hope Charms was not too eventful today." Professor R Donovan had taken over this year from a Professor Kesali who the students still talked about. Professor Donovan was already receiving more than enough attention from some of the female students. She had given one sixth year detention already for calculating the romantic compatibility of herself and Donovan, and it was only the first week of term!

The third year students before her had sat three hours of lessons already this afternoon - Transfiguration, Astronomy and Charms. It was now four o'clock and their other classmates would have gone off to do other things. The slot was prone for restlessness, she might have to get them up on their feet during the lesson.

"Thank you for dropping in your homework at lunchtime so I had time to mark it before our lesson. I am pleased that you all appear to have a grasp of the basics of the addition of the numbers." She gave them a bright smile, clasping her hands before her as she spoke in a steady, slightly stilted but pleasant tone.

"It is very important that you present your work as neatly as possible. Keeping your work tidy helps you to spot mistakes and see important patterns." She reached for her wand out of her jacket pocket and rested the tip just above the pile of homeworks on the table. The pile split and made its way back to each of the students.

She gave them a moment to look over her comments as she looked to the board to recap.

"Last lesson, and for your homework we covered the life path number calculations using the digits of our full dates of birth." She reached for the chalk and recalled that Hufflepuff, Eta Pepper was born on New Year's Day.

"Taking Eta for example, her birthdate numbers are 1, 1, 1, 9, 9 and 7. These added are 28, but because we must have a number between 1 and 9, we add the 2 and the 8 together to make 10. Once more, we add together, 1 and 0 are just 1 which gives Eta a Life Path Number of 1." She turned from the blackboard a moment and looked about the group of students to check they all understood.

"Now, we shall move on to the Destiny Number which uses the letters in our names. Quills and parchment ready? Please copy down the grid carefully. As you progress through Arithmancy, you will need to be able to draw this out or recall it in your head absolutely accurately."

Her chalk flew over the board, quickly sketching out 9 columns and 4 rows.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

"Once you have copied this out, then you will each write out your full name given at birth, even if it has been changed since or if you go by a shorter name or nickname. None of you are yet married, either, but you would take your maiden name."

C

A

M

I

L

L

E

I

S

A

B

E

L

L

E

D

U

E

R

R

The Professor took a walk around the table, peering over the shoulders of the students to see what they were copying down, and occasionally reminding them of their quillwork to be sure everything was neat and tidy.

"Now, what might we do next, any guesses?" Professor Duerr asked the students from the back of the classroom, extending her arms out a little to either side to show she was open to suggestion and anyone to answer.

The start of her third year had kept Serenity unexpectedly busy. In the first week alone, she had scrambled to get all of her assignments done and almost forgot her most recent History of Magic essay because a fellow housemate kept going on and on and on about the new Charms professor! This morning had been rather stressful because her curtain of dark brown hair had decided to stay in her way, even with a headband. On her way to Arithmancy class, she had to stop by the bathroom and put it up in a ponytail (with a little help from her sister, Angerona) and rush through a secret passageway to make it to class on time. Thank goodness she wasn't late!

Serenity loosened the tie on her uniform to be able to breathe from her rush. Professor Duerr had started the class off with remarks about their previous assignment. Her homework had quite a few notes and comments on it, none of which she could read very well. She squinted and lifted the homework closer to try to see, but there was a dull throb starting up in her head already. Serenity sighed. She really hadn't wanted anyone to know that she had to wear glasses to read. Yet she could hear her mother's chiding voice in her head, reassuring her there was nothing to be ashamed of for having to wear glasses. 'The headache will only get worse,' she reminded herself.

Something was being written on the board and it was impossible for her to see it without her lenses. Serenity glanced anxiously around the room at her peers before reaching in to an inner pocket of her robes and withdrawing her square-framed glasses. She gave a deep, inaudible sigh and put them on. She could read the notes and comments on her paper and was pleased to see that she had got high marks. Next, she looked at the board and listened intently to Professor Duerr's instructions. Taking out her necessary things from her tattered bag, Serenity Lee began scribbling notes in a small muggle composition book labeled 'Arithmancy'. Once she had finished her notes, she began her lesson on a piece of parchment.

S E R E N I T Y

L E E

B L A C K T H O R N E

Her handwriting, as the comments on her former assignment had said, needed to be improved. It was legible, but untidy. Her 'h' and 'e' and 'n' frequently ran together in a single handstroke, sometimes making it difficult to tell if it was an 'n' or 'r'. She frowned at the few splotches where she had hesitated to continue one of these letters. The professor might not like that... There was a question asked which captured Serenity's attention and her hand reached into the air. When she was called upon, she answered.

"We form our name into a group of numbers," she said confidently. "Like on the board. An A will become a 1, or a Z will become an 8."

This class was exciting! She could understand why her sister loved it so much.

Minus the being indoors part this was almost like Herbology class: the students place along a long table and Philo was surrounded by Peppers.

So far there hadn't been anything in the class too challenging for Philo, whose main source of entertainment was various riddle books. His bag was slung over the back of his chair, books and parchment in a neat pile on his table space. Out of the corner of his dark eyes he was trying to keep track of the end of a tape measure that was sandwiched between his materials, keeping an unassuming resting hand on the table to try to block areas of its escape.

It had been over a year since the Egypt trip and still the now snake-like measuring type had been rejuvenated of its magical properties.[1] In some respects it was easier to control than usual measuring tapes that started to do things like measure your nostril length or elbow circumference when left alone. Philo was trying to keep it from measuring the full length of the table or something if it snaked out from his books. It wasn't the kind of numbers they were working on.

It was with a small grimace that Philo realized he would have to be working with his full name, a rarity in his life. There was some tradition to his middle name but whatever the importance had been was lost to the youngest Falkins. Philo would have happily taken Price, Brown or even Eglantine like his siblings compared to his middle name. Plus, the last time it got out a bunch of other students went around calling him 'PAF.'

So begrudgingly Philo set to writing, already numbering each bracket pair:

P H I L O
7  8 9 3 6

A S T A R O T H
1  1  2 1  9  6 2  8

F A L K I N
6 1  3 2 9 5

1.	June 26 2009, Egypt, Moving Mountains Long Before We Knew We Could

"We form our name into a group of numbers," she said confidently. "Like on the board. An A will become a 1, or a Z will become an 8."

"Correct Serenity! That is exactly so. Point to Ravenclaw." Professor Duerr offered her a warm smile and started off to the board to demonstrate with her own name.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I
J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

C	A	M	I	L	L	E
3	1	4	9	3	3	5

I	S	A	B	E	L	L	E
9	1	1	2	5	3	3	5

D	U	E	R	R
4	3	5	9	9

"Everyone matched their letters to their full name as per their birth?" The Professor asked, wandering back towards them and looking around the table, just out of the way so she wasn't blocking anyone's view of the grid on the board. She glanced about some of the workings of her students.
"Good Philo." She remarked, complimenting the Ravenclaw's accurate work. His neighbour, another Pepper, but by the name of Tim, leaned over to steal a glance at his classmate's work, mouth opening to comment. Her hand gently touched his shoulder.
"Careful Tim, Filius, your I and L pairings…"
"Oh."
"Concentrate on your own work." She lifted her hand and gave Philo a smile, continuing in her round.

"The name you are given at birth is not by coincidence. It sets out your destiny. You may not like your full name, and you may not use it - which we will cover as our lessons go on - but you may discover hidden strengths. Now, let's add these up."

She returned to the board and began to add up each of her names.

C	A	M	I	L	L	E
3	1	4	9	3	3	5	= 28

I	S	A	B	E	L	L	E
9	1	1	2	5	3	3	5	= 29

D	U	E	R	R
4	3	5	9	9	= 30

"You can either add each of your names in turn, which can help you keep track of where you are a little more easily, or the whole name at once. I've added each name in turn to show you the working - and it can help save a little time when performing a full reading." She gestured with her hands to the chalk on the board.
"Then add the totals together, or all the numbers together."

28 + 29 + 30 = 87[1]

"All of the letters in my name add up to the number eighty-seven. Each of you add up and get to the same point. Check your addition twice." She gave a pause, looked to one of the students who had come to a finish with their adding.
"And what do you propose happens next?" She asked.

1.	I have a feeling this may differ from a lesson from a previous professor, but let's ignore that!

All in all, Professor Duerr reflected as she eventually wrapped up the lesson, she had rather enjoyed that. The early stages of arithmancy were always filled with such relief from students that things would be easy and logical, straightforward even. It was when they reached the more challenging aspects of comparison and calculation that they started to wonder why on earth they had pursued the subject.

With new names learned, she set them a little homework to calculate for a five family and friends of their choice to bring to the next lesson and dismissed them all with a smile. She felt rather more optimistic about this teaching after all.


End