The lion wasn't exactly in a sharing mood so instead of offering up her reasons, AJ remained quiet. There were plenty of others students offering up information, and it was optional. Several people had mentioned Airey, and honestly she had almost put him down. He was a pretty awesome professor.

Once everybody had shared, or not shared, the lesson went on. Core numbers. What were they again? AJ had to think a minute. Might as well take a stab at it. She raised her hand. "Professor, aren't they the most important ones? They tell us about ourselves. Kind of like where we would start on a clean slate." Now she was just rambling, and she wasn't even sure if she was making sense.

This.

Was so.

Freaking.

EMBARRASSING.

When Lex had bumped into his shoulder, Grayson had tried his hardest to subtly hide the list from her but try as he might, the girl had already seen it. MAN. Whatever happened to being discreet, Whitlock? "Don't let it get to your head," he said quietly, right before a small smile started spreading across his face.

And where was her Mistress of All Evil mannerism? HMMMMM?

He'd had asked, too, but Domingo had started speaking and so, he shut himself up. Share who their admirable people were? LOL. No. Not when most of the class knew exactly who Alexa Christina Cambridge and Cassia Jane Somerlad were. And if they don't know who Grayson Douglas Whitlock was, then they're really missing out, man. Really.

But no. No sharing. Because sharing meant having a reason for why he chose these people and he didn't want to share that either. Keeping it private sounded like a MUCH better idea.

Thank Merlin Domingo was moving on, too. And moving on to Core Numbers? Simple enough. "Professor?" he started, raising his hand in the air, "See, I always thought Core Numbers were the starting point and some other numbers branch off from it. Like a little ball of light in your chest or your soul or whatever. It tells you what you're truly like and they're some of the dead interesting ones to find out about." Granted it was correct, of course. He hadn't forgotten about the birth chart in Divination that tried to tell him that he had issues with his mother and that he wasn't confident.

What a load of nonsense.

Whoa. Domingo’s on a roll today, yeah? Docking points off of a first year? Ethan was really surprised because the kid was just asking for Flamsteed’s middle name, and then shizz happened. The prefect wondered if Lex would have gotten a detention if she had her ‘Maleficent’ thing going on, right under Domingo’s class. That would have been epic though.

Anyway, onto Core Numbers. Ethan opened his book to the said chapter and contemplated on his answer. The Slytherin agreed with Grayson, and raised his own hand. “Professor? I believe it’s a set of numbers that make up one’s numerology. This is assigned to an individual based on his birth name and or date of birth.” Hence the list, yes? Well, that sounds right, because looking at his book there were lots of Core Number stuff going on, and each is assigned to a certain life aspect.

Core... what?

Arithmancy wasn't exactly something she'd paid a lot of attention to over the years. Bare minimum, and Gabriel fixing things and doing her homework for her and essentially keeping her afloat. The problem was the calculations and needing to read and write a lot of things. Arithmancy wasn't just number-y, it was word-y, and that was problematic. But she'd noticed there was some kind of... like appreciation? Or something, for people who knew things around here. She couldn't compete with the brainy girls, but she could still try and fake it or whatever. Participate as much as possible, not say anything extremely wrong, and make up the difference by bribing some egghead to do her homework for her? Sounded a plan. So she put her hand up. Core was like the middle, the inside.

"The ones in your centre?" Ruby hazarded a guess, and then sort of reasoned out, "The ones that make up who you really are."

"Yeah," what Ruby said. She was the most right so far in Z's opinion. "Like, you know. They're numbers that tell you .... about your belly. Your middle. What's in your middle, your heart and gut and stuff. It's probably what the Sorting Hat uses to Sort us. He saw a big ole LION in my belly."

Zander felt for the little Gryffindor firstie, he really did. One time he had gotten a 'not-so-detention detention' for a misunderstanding too. It wasn't fair! 'Cept they'd be making it even worse for Gryffindor by speaking out against it, so instead he just gave a reassuring nod to the kid. He looked pretty angry.

As for the core stuff, Zander just listened to the other answers. He really had no clue. He did know that Zahra was definitely off though. Really, that girl was always off, it was like in her nature or something. Or maybe it was just away to attract attention. That girl was seriously off her rocker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No other answers? Her turn, then. "The Core numbers are a set of four numbers, or calculations, that describe the very essence of your soul and how one can use that information to learn about oneself and influence one's life." Many of the students had already said as much. "The four calculations in the core are the Life Path, Expression, Soul's Urge, and Personality numbers." Did that answer the Ravenclaw's (carpediem) question from earlier?

"Today we will be dealing with the first of the four, the Life Path calculation." She flicked her wand and the definition from the textbook appeared on the board.

"But before we can dive in, I wonder if I could have three volunteers who have already taken at least a year of Arithmancy?"

OOC: I will take the first three people to post their character volunteering.

Volunteer? Did that mean they got to stand up and do things, or just stay sitting and have to use just their brains. It was a risky thing, not knowing what they were volunteering for, but Toby did it anyway.

"I volunteer-" AS TRIBUTE "-, Professor!" And he was grinning as well as waving his hand in the air. GRIN GRIN HIIIIIIIIII.

Marigold took a couple more notes, then set her quill down and debated. On one hand, she was dreadful at Arithmancy, she would embarrass herself if she volunteered, and she would make herself look bad to be a prefect. On the other hand, maybe if she volunteered she wouldn't need to say anything or participate in the rest of class, she would set a good model for younger students, and she did read a bunch of textbooks on numbers this summer. She raised her hand.

So she was right about the Core Numbers. It made Lux happy to know that she had remembered something from the textbook.

Jotting down the new information in her notes, she was happy to hear that volunteers were being asked for. "I volunteer! Professor!" she said as her hand shot up. Hopefully they weren't being asked to do anything too hard. She didn't want to look silly in front of the whole class.

Lovely. Three Hufflepuffs, two of them overly exuberant. But it could be worse... it could be all three of them overly exuberant. "Very well. Come on up, you three."

She waited for them to make their way forward before she began to explain their task. "I have put three numbers--," she flicked her wand once more, "--on the board. Please each pick one and demonstrate the reduction method."

"Everyone else, please practice on your parchment if you already know the method." It would be a good review for those returning to the subject this year.

Awesome, she had been chosen as a volunteer.

Eagerly Lux made her way to the board where the Professor had made three different numbers appear. They were supposed to demonstrate the reduction method, which meant reducing the numbers, right? Choosing the second number, Lux set about reducing it:

Quote:

734
7 + 3 + 4 = 14
1 + 4 = 5

Ah looky. Three awesome Puffers were the volunteers. So cool. Adi knew they'd do a great job. As for this reduction thingy, it was something he could do. So the Puffer dragged out parchment from his bag along with a quill and ink then set to work.



There. Had he done that correctly? Number 3 calculated to a Master Number so there would be no reducing there.

The volunteers volunteered and picked, Ben obeyed the accented professor as they moved to the board to demonstrate. A fresh piece of parchment on the table in front of him and a quill in hand, the fourth year copied each of the three numbers spaced equal around the clear space. Reducing them seemed easy enough or at least something he remembered doing in earlier classes. Hopefully it didn't prove to be more complicated then he thought.

Quote:

152
1+5+2 = 8
734
7+3+4 = 14
1+4 = 5
967
9+6+7= 22
2+2=4

Those were right...right?

Even if Layla HAD been at Hogwarts for over a year now she certainly wouldn't have volunteered anyway. For one because she didn't want to make a fool of herself and the second because quite frankly she didn't want to seem like an over-eager goodie two-shoes like most of this lot seemed to be. She was quite content sat at the back overseeing the rest of the students.

That was until they had been asked to do something and she sat up straight with her quill ready in hand.

Which reminded her, quills were such a weird thing to use. Why was everything so backwards at this place? Was there really anything wrong with pen and paper because it would make her life SO much easier.

The Ravenclaw for one was relieved that she had studied Arithmancy over the summer because otherwise she would've had no idea what she was doing. She had the textbook open anyway on the correct page just for backup should she need it. But Layla was always good at maths and she had a lot of confidence in herself that she would be able to do the task at hand and weirdly she was looking forward to the rest of the lesson. She assumed that it wasn't the same for everyone else. Very few people enjoyed arithmetic.

Text Cut: Layla's Notes

Arithmancy Lesson 1 - Core numbers

What is a core number?

A set of four numbers or calculations used to find more out about yourself. Can be used to discover more about your soul and the path in which you can take in the future.

Reduction Method

Method in which a number is reduced to a single digit by adding all the components in a number e.g.

152 -

1 + 5 + 2 = 8

734 -

7 + 3 + 4 = 14
1 + 4 = 5

967 -

9 + 6 + 7 = 22
2 + 2 = 4

She sat back and quickly inspected her work staring at the bottom one. Something wasn't quite right here. She tilted her head and then referenced to her textbook as the number 22 jumped out at her.

Oh THAT was it! 22 was a MASTER number. She corrected her work very swiftly.

Text Cut: Layla's Notes Revisited

Arithmancy Lesson 1 - Core numbers

What is a core number?

A set of four numbers or calculations used to find more out about yourself. Can be used to discover more about your soul and the path in which you can take in the future.

Reduction Method

Method in which a number is reduced to a single digit by adding all the components in a number e.g.

152 -

1 + 5 + 2 = 8

734 -

7 + 3 + 4 = 14
1 + 4 = 5

967 -

9 + 6 + 7 = 22
2 + 2 = 4

NOTE TO SELF - Eleven, twenty-two and thirty-three are MASTER NUMBERS. This means they do not need to be reduced.

There. That was better.

Aw yis. They got to get up out of their seat. Good move, Tobes. Risk paid off.

Toby wasted approximately zero seconds in getting up and BOUNCING walking totally and absolutely normally to the front of the room along with two girls from his house, one whom he knew and the other he did not. Okay. What are we doing. Leggo.

...

............... oh. Ah.

Right.

They had to do brain things. BUT THAT WAS OKAY. Reduction was a pretty basic part of Arithmancy, and Toby was moderately certain that he remembered what it was.

They were demonstrating this on the board, yes? Okay. He picked the last one and got to work.

A couple of crossing things out, like that little incorrect calculation, and then the part where he'd almost forgotten about it being a master number and not reduced. And THEN he'd been a bit iffy on how to present it, and so reduced anyway to show how to GET to that master number. Things were crossed out and rewritten a couple of times, but there. He'd done it. Hopefully. Right?

After crossing out his crossed out things even MORE so it was more clear which parts you were supposed to be looking at (and thanking his lucky stars that his writing was legible), the Hufflepuff bounced slightly on the spot and turned to look at Domingo, moving out of the way slightly so she could see his work.

Hadleigh had no clue what any of this meant but the young Slytherin took out a piece of parchment and a quill. As notes appeared on the board before her she jotted down what was written as well as a bit more to help her understand it all. When she had finished she set her quill down and watched the students at the front of the room to see if she could figure things out on her own from what they'd all written.

As of right now. She couldn't. Something was telling her this was going to be much harder then she'd thought it would be.

Marigold breathed a silent breath of relief. Maths, she could do those, because she had been educated at a muggle school for six years. She let Toby and Lux go first, just in case she didn't remember what she was doing, then took her number and wrote it a bit larger.

There it was. It was low to the ground, because she was short, but she still needed to go on her tiptoes to write the rest out.

Quote:

152
1 + 5 + 2
= 8

She aced that.

Volunteers, good one. The last time the Gryffindor had willingly volunteered for anything in a class she might have been 12. The appeal was long gone once she learned the demonstrations were usually nothing of epic proportions so she sat tight, content with Grayson's answer and her reply of, "Too late for that. Reckon you only admire epic people and I'm on that list. My head's huge."

Turning to the board again, she saw numbers and the Professor sending them right into the reduction method she'd covered last term. This was perhaps one of the only things Alexa didn't mind in Arithmancy. Simple math didn't bother her and this was easily breezed through.

Lex reached into her bag for her parchment and quill then got to work.



See? Not so hard at all.

This was possible one class that AJ wouldn't be volunteering in. The who numbers game wasn't her thing. She had a hard enough time keeping her head above water. No need to go and make a fool of herself in front of the entire class. Once she realized what they were doing, she realized that she could have tackled that. For once she didn't want to take a chance. It could have been a lot harder.

Pulling a piece of parchment paper to her, AJ began to scribble down what she thought was the correct reduction method. You couldn't really get this part wrong.

Oh. So that's what core numbers were. Heh. Norah recorded the information on core numbers in her notes and raised an eyebrow. Life path, eh? That sounded intense...and probably hard. The second year grinned at Marigold up at the board, and gave her a thumbs up! Go her. Yet another reason she was on Norah's list of admirable people.

She scratched her nose with her quill and recorded the three numbers on the board. Reduction seemed to ring a bell, so she decided to give the calculations a try, juuuust in case she knew more than she thought she did.

That was right, right? She looked at the answers on the board. They seeeemed to match. Wooh!

Jasmine took notes on the core numbers and was still writing when the Professor asked for volunteers. It looked like she would have to pass this time. copying the numbers that Professor Domingo put on the board, Jasmine prepared to practice the reduction method.



When Jasmine finished, she set her quill down and waited to find out what they would be doing next. She hoped hat it was something she could make sense of.

Ian watched as the volunteers went about reducing numbers. He was completely lost on what they were doing. He just observed, expecting the professor would make all of this make sense. He was good with the first two but didn't understand why the didn't reduce 22. He scribbled down the computations on his parchment.

Okay.... so these numbers were like a fortune cookie? Like tell you the path you were going to go on and such? And they were decided for oou? Ophelia didn't like the thought of not having control over this. Or did she? Wait, the eleven year old was getting into the whole fate/will dsicussion and it was not something the Ravencalw really even understood, so she just copied down the notes on the board. But seriously, WAS there was way to control this?

And how did numbers predict your life anyway? What calculations? The first year was not putting two and two together. And if she was, it was coming out to be five instead of four. Pout. Flipping her blonde waves over her left shoulder and sighing, she continued writing, annoyed that this was already hard. Classes shouldn't be this hard! Grr!

Also, reduction method.... like subtracting or dividing? They were supposed to write this down? Didn't her mom try teaching somethingl ike this to her, but it became such a mess of numbers and words that she started freaking out and had to lie down for the rest of the day? Ophelia was enver the greatest at math. This class was going to be awful!

Copying the numbers on the board --152, 734, and 967-- Ophelia got to work. What did her mother teach her again? Something about adding up the digits and then doing a thing with it. What was the thing? At least she didn't have to volunteer or anything. Maybe she would wait until soemone else said it and then copy it down and see if it made any sense to her. Yep. That sounded like the proper thing to do. Placing the quill on her desk and waiting for the first volunteer, Ophelia rubbed her brown eye to get an eyelash out then yawned. Math was a justifiable reason to do that.

Reduce those numbers? Easy peasy. They did so much homework and exercise on this one last term so this should be a piece of cake. Getting a clean parchment and his self-inking quill, Ethan started to reduce each of the number on the board.

Done…and done. Hmm. Was there anyone in the room who needed his help?