After spending a moment out in the corridor smoothing his hair and straightening his robes, Clifford Carden stepped into the Arithmancy classroom. Ah. There she was. Siiiiiiiiigh. Clearing his throat shyly, the Prefect smiled in Miss Shackleton's direction. "I hope you're feeling better than last lesson, ma'am." He said, choosing himself a seat right at the very front of the classroom so he could see her better.

With a somehow absent expression on her face, Willow Kovac stepped inside the Arithmancy classroom, chewing on her bottom lip thoughtfully.

Not paying any kind of attention to where she was going, the girl simply gave Professor Shackleton a polite nod, and went to seat -shockingly, but then again, she did have her reasons- in the front of the classroom, right next to Clifford Carden.

Surely he would not say anything? Not that she would stand up and take another seat if he did anyway. . .

"Good day, Professor Shackleton," Anna said, stopping briefly at the professor's desk. The professor seemed a bit on the busy side, though, so Anna turned from her desk and headed further into the classroom. As soon as she was seated, Anna took out her Arithmancy textbook and began to quietly read while she waited on the lesson to begin. Arithmancy had always been one of Anna's favorite subjects. She enjoyed finding various numbers and figuring out what they meant for her and for others in her life. As she read, Anna grew a bit curious about the letter the professor had been quickly writing. Hopefully it was no big deal, but it did seem rather important.

Qaz found a seat in the back. She was really exhausted from trying to keep up with everything...classes, homework, Quidditch... She just hoped that she could stay focused, as this was one of her favorite classes. Numbers, lovely numbers...

Copernicus took his seat and looked to the Professor. "Good afternoon, Professor. I hope you're well." He set about removing his quill and parchment from his satchel, wanting to be fully prepared for the class to begin.

Elizabeth made her way into the Arithmancy classroom, semi-excited about whatever they were going to be learning. It seemed odd to her, but she was relly starting to think the subject was interesting. As she then walked to a seat near the center of the front row of desks, she smiled at the professor. "Good afternoon, Professor Shackleton," she greeted her. "You look like you're feeling a lot better than last class." As she finished speaking, she sat down, rummaging in her school bag until she found her journal and a pencil. Placing both on the desk, she then took her textbook out before waiting for class to begin.

Professor Shackleton had waited long enough for students to enter her classroom. With a flick of her wand, the Arithmancy doors closed softly shut and Macadrian began the lesson, "Welcome again to yet another Arithmancy lesson. At the conclusion of our last lesson, we completed our study of the first name and the information it contains. Today we will be moving on to the middle name and the surname. Then, provided we have enough time, I am going to let the class vote on which other name-related assessments you want to study, perhaps Nicknames, things to consider when changing your name, naming a baby, your business, etcetera."

Professor Shackleton stood from her chair behind her desk and leaned her weight on her two hands, which were now flat against the desktop, "So, shall we begin with the middle name? Much of the information I am about to share with you is not in your textbook, so I suggest paying great attention and taking careful notes. Also, in order to assess the middle name, we will need to refer to the Basic Arithmancy textbook's detailed descriptions of the numbers. If you do not have your copy of your former textbook with you, I have several on the shelves behind me, so feel free to grab a copy at any point during the lesson."

It was hard concentrating on what Miss Shackleton was saying and sitting with his chin resting in his palm, Clifford heaved another small sigh as he stared doe-eyed at the Professor. Sitting right at the front of the lesson had definately been one of his best ideas ... he didn't even care that Bone Crusher had taken the seat beside him.

Although the difficulty he was having with concentrating, Clifford got the general gist of what Miss Shackleton was saying. They were gonna be looking at their middle names!? GAH! He hated his middle name.

Nickname? Naming a baby? A business? What was Shackleton talking about?! As concentrated in her own thoughts as Willow had been, she had failed to listen to the first part of the professor's little speech.

The fifth year really hoped that something was wrong with her ears, because one, she did not like nicknames; two, babies freaked her out; and three, she was far too young to start a business.

When had such a simple (please note the sarcasm) subject as Arithmancy become 'Planning your Future?'

Willow did not want to talk about her future. Not right now at least. She had enough preocupations on her plate without having to worry about that!

Ignoring the fact that Clifford Carden was literally swooning over Professor Shackleton (shameless! the woman, albeit pretty, could be his mother!) beside her, Willow retrieved her journal from her bag, and made a mental note to take one of those textbooks when she needed it.

Because she could not remember to save her life where was hers.

Tobi's last Arithmancy class hadn't gone so well, and he knew he was flirting dangerously close to burn out. There was a good reason he hadn't been placed in Ravenclaw. He had no natural affinity for academics, every grade he got, he laboured over. And it all was taking its toll.

All the same, he was intrigued about studying his middle name. It was his father's first name after all. The Avalons had a habit of carrying on names from generations previous; they weren't too creative that way.

Professor Shackleton took another sip of her water, cleared her throat and began the lesson, "Your middle name is thought to govern your emotional life and reveals your likes, loves, emotions, attractions to certain hobbies, and marriage suitability. It is a resource you can draw upon."

After giving the students time to write down that information, she inquired, "How do you think we calculate a number to provide us with this information from our middle name?"

Hmm . . . middle name, Elizabeth thought, before digging in her bag again. She didn't exactly know why she carried both Arithmancy textbooks around with her to class, but apparently it was coming in useful today. And watching Clifford mooning over the professor was quite entertaining. And as the professor spoke again, she started taking notes quickly.

Ack. Clifford had to look down at his parchment in order to sribble down his notes. That was no fair.. that meant he couldn't look at Miss Shackleton. Hmpf. He scribbled super duper extra fast though, before looking up and raising his hand.

"Uhm - do we do it the same way we figure out our growth number, Miss?" He tried unsurely. "Y'know, when we add up the numerical value of the letters?"

Anna narrowed her eyes as she studied Professor Shackleton. The Arithmancy professor didn't exactly have the greatest luck when it came to health, and the way she kept drinking water and acting suspicious worried Anna a bit. At the end of last school year, Anna and Professor Vindictus had practically saved Professor Shackleton's life---using chocolate syrup, of all things. Anna worried that the professor might be secretly having additional health problems now. As she thought about the professor and her health status, Anna jotted down a few notes about the information that can be gained from a person's middle name.

Raising her hand, Anna said, "Well, professor, judging by the manners in which we arrived at our Cornerstones and Capstones, I believe it might be helpful to add together the numerical value of each letter in our middle name, finally arriving at a reduced single digit," she said. She honestly had no clue what they'd needed to do to arrive at the number for their middle name. Anna had just taken a wild guess, of course. "Or maybe, since this name is in the middle, we add together the single digits we came to when we found our Cornerstones and Capstones."

Emotions, love, marriage, attractions to hobbies, likes. . . Arithmancy had definitely turned into Planning Your Future. Or something extrremely close to that.

Mental note: Must not take Arithmancy next term.

"Well, since you mentioned hobbies and likes, I would say that maybe it is calculated like the Personality number, professor?" Asked Willow hesitantly, her hand in the air, "As in, giving a number to each consonant of your full name and all that. . . " Yes, all that, because she could not remember what else you had to do in order to calculate the personality number. "Or maybe, since it involves all that marriage stuff, it could be calculated like the Heart's Desire number?" Uh-huh. Keep embarrassing yourself, Willow.

Without a word, the fifth year went to one of the shelves, took one of the books and after murmuring a quick thank you to the professor, she went back to her seat and read.

"Very good, Mr. Carden. Not only are you often the first to participate, you're nearly always correct! Three points to you."

"Ah, excellent thinking Anna. Thank you for mentioning the need to reduce to a single digit. That is very important. Two points to you."

Professor Shackleton directed her attention to the class as a whole and explained, "In order to get any information from your middle name, you must assign each letter of your middle name with the appropriate number, then add those numbers together. Finally, reduce that sum number to a single-digit, unless of course you come across a Master Number, in which case, we would not reduce. Shall we use my name as an example? Can I get a volunteer to assist me with my calculation and assessment?"

Artihmancy wasnt exactly Dans strongpoint, He aimlessley flicked through his textbook, before eventually reaching the revelent page.

Tobi raised his hand, "I will," What was the harm?

EEEEEE!!!!!

Clifford postitvely BEAMED at Miss Shackleton's words.. that sounded very much to him like a compliment. Teehee. "I'd like to volunteer, ma'am." The Prefect raised his hand shyly.

Okay, so Anna was pretty sure she'd already been beated to the opportunity, but she raised her hand into the air regardless. "I'd like to volunteer, Professor," she said, always ready to help a professor and demonstrate what she knew---or rather hoped knew. Maybe she'd luck out and get chosen to do just that at some point in the lesson.

Professor Shackleton clapped her hands together with a smile and invited Tobi up to the board, "Excellent! Come join me up here at the blackboard and take a piece of chalk. Please write my middle name large enough for all to see, which happens to be Ashling. Then assign each letter with the appropriate number and stop there."

Clifford dropped his arm back to the desk with a small pout. Avalon beat him and got to go up to the blackboard with Miss Shackleton. Resting his chin back in his palm, the sixth year watched jealously.

... life was so unfair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemondrop13

Professor Shackleton clapped her hands together with a smile and invited Tobi up to the board, "Excellent! Come join me up here at the blackboard and take a piece of chalk. Please write my middle name large enough for all to see, which happens to be Ashling. Then assign each letter with the appropriate number and stop there."

Tobi smiled as he stood. WHEEE! I get to help! OH BOY OH BOY!! Wait... How do you spell that?

Tobi had a moment of panic as he approached the blackboard. How terrible would it be to spell your teacher's name wrong? He decided to take a stab at it. What was the worst that could happen? Well, she could go spontaneously nutty like most of the rest of the staff and dock a bazillion points (and she probably knew just how much a bazillion was) from Gryffindor. Or she could be normal and just fix any mistake he made.

Tobi picked up a piece of chalk and went with spelling it like it sounds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

A S H L I N G
1 1 8 3 9 5 7

His writing was getting a little crooked. The blackboard and he were not friends it seemed.

"Did I spell that right?" he asked nervously.

Don't take a bazillion points from me, PLEASE!

"Spelled absolutely correct! And you've assigned the numbers correctly, as well. Now, please add those numbers together and reduce the sum to a single digit, unless of course you get a Master Number."