"Very good, you three. Points for your houses."

"Excuse me? I don't know if you think you're being funny, but you will either address me as Professor Shackleton or as ma'am. No more 'sir' stuff, got it?" Honestly! How many men had long curly blonde hair and these big lips? Sure, she was taller than the average female, but she was wearing a skirt for Merlin's sake!

Trying to get her head back in the lesson and not focus on how that student could possibly thought her male, Shackleton retorted, "Um, wrong actually, on the first account at least. But I do enjoy spiffy ties." She winked before addressing the next student.

Professor Shackleton shook her head slightly, "Not particularly. That information is better told by the Life Path Number."

Using her hands to push herself up onto the desk, Professor Shackleton took a seat in the middle of her desk with her legs crossed at the ankles and her hands folded in her lap. She elaborated, "If someone told you that by living a certain way, you were guaranteed success, you'd want to know how to do it right? Well, that is what the Destiny Number can do for you. It can tell you what the best direction will be to take in order to obtain your major accomplishments. Most importantly, it points the way to living a fulfilled life.

"As your classmates mentioned, it describes your purpose in life. Both opportunities and inner resources will come from this Core Number. It describes the area of your life that must be explored, developed, and embraced for your soul to grow to its full potential and for you to be whole. Sounds like a lot to live up to, doesn't it?"

Professor Shackleton twisted at the waist and leaned back so that she could reach the top drawer of her desk. She pulled out a large bag of peppermint toads and closed the drawer behind her. Arranging herself in her original position, Macadrian took one toad out of the bag and began eating. She spoke to the class after swallowing, "Now, how to do we calculate the Destiny/Expression Number? There is a peppermint toad going to the people who get it right!"

Demetria raised her hand. "Well first you write out your full name, then you use the codes to calculate which number is for each letter, then you add the numbers of each of your names together, reducing ofcourse, then you add all of the numbers together and whichever single digit number ends up being the product is your Destiny Number." she explained. She hoped that was right. Dem had said it off the top of her head. She reallllly wanted a peppermint toad.

Cedric raised his hand,"Using the full name listed on your birth certificate, lay out your name and assign the appropriate number to each letter using the chart given in Chapter Two of this text. Figure each name separately, then add the reduced total of each name - first, middle(s), and last, then reduce that number to its single digit root number."Cedric answered reading the details in his textbook

Sydney raised her hand.."The number is derived from all of the letters in our full name, Professor. To get our Destiny number, we take each name separately and add up the letter values using the chart shown in our textbooks. Then we reduce each name to a single digit or master number and finally add the results of all the names to arrive at a total which we once again reduce to a single digit." Sydney said with a smile..

Herminny raised her hand again hoping she would be recognized this and said, "You assign each letter of you're first, middle,and last name usinng the Pythagorian number system and add then reduce each name seperately, then add each of the reduced numbers of each name and reduce that number to a single digit and tou have you're expression/destiny number.".

Natka raised her hand once more, her mouth watering at the mention of Peppermints. Mhmm, more sweets, more lovely, cool, delicious peppermints...

She shook her head, forcing herself to focus on answering the question first. Then she could go onto daydreaming about peppermints.

"In order to work the Destiny Number out, you'd first need to write out your name, the way it's written in your birth certificate. Then, substitute each of the letters with a number using the chart in the textbook. Once you've done this, you add up the numbers in each part of your name seperately, and then add them together until you're left with the root number," Natka answered.

She was growing to like Arithmacy more and more these days.

Woops, Aaron hadn't even realized he said sir instead of ma'am.

"I'm REALLY sorry, professor," he said in the most apologetic way he could. "It's just that, my dad taught me to say 'sir' to all my professors. And, since all my teachers in primary school were men, I developed this bad habit." It was true, he did. He said sir to everyone. one time, Aaron's class had a female substitute and he said sir even then. UGH! HOW EMBARASSING!!!

"And ma'am, you can find it by using your full name and assign each letter it's number by using the chart in chapter two. Do each name seperatly, then add the reduced total of each name, then reduce it to the root number." Ugh, Another answer strait out of the book. Hey, i'm not cheating, I'm just using my resources.

Okay, okay, okay! Grace had studied this time. Because she really liked this lesson. So she knew the answer for the first time in this school! A big yay and congrats for her! Not caring the other students had already answered, 'cause she was dying to answer a question, she raised her hand very fast and shouted a muffled "Ouch!", she had hit it to the edge of the desk while raising it with that excitement, she said "We use our full name. Each letter has a number on a special chart which can be looked at chapter II of our book. First figure the number of each name, and reduce meanwhile of course, then add all the sums together and reduce again to single digit root number!" She had to control herself not to smile with pleasure. She may have some wrong parts, but she was positive that she understood the whole right.

Satine shot her hand into the air, "To calculate your destiny number, you first write out your certificate the way it can be found on your birth certificate. Then, substitute each of the letters with a number using the Pythagorian number system in Chapter Two of the book. And then finally, add up the numbers of each part of your name and reduce them down until you're left with the root number, thus equaling your destiny number." wow that was a mouth full she thought.

OOC: I don't accept edited answers because it is impossible for me to know if you had it correctly written before others posted or if it was added after. If you wish to earn house points (and peppermint toads), please do not edit your posts.

Professor Shackleton nodded and reached into the bag. Tossing out peppermint imps, Professor Shackleton announced, "Candy for you three! Nicely explained."

Professor Shackleton listened to the boy's explanation and thought it sounded honest enough. "Very well, I understand. Just be sure not to make that error again. There are quite a few female professors at Hogwarts and I'm sure most, if not all, would take offense to being called 'sir'. So be sure not to let that slip out again." She reached into the bag and tossed Aaron a peppermint toad, "And here's some candy for your answer."

Placing two peppermint toads on her hand, Shackleton flicked a toad toward each student and cheered, "Eat up! Good answers all around."

Placing the bag of candy in her lap, Macadrian began to explain, "Your birth name can give a wealth of information. Your first name gives you the most personal lessons; your middle name reveals hidden abilities that you don't necessarily like; your last name tellsof the characteristics you've inherited from your family. And all together, you get the Destiny Number, which is what we are focusing on.

"Now, your classmates mentioned that we use the name on our birth certificates when figuring the Destiny Number. What if the name on the certificate is different from how you've been spelling it all your life? What do you think you do then?"

Natka caught the peppermint imp in midair with a grin. Sweets! She had always had a sweet tooth as a child, like any other, but she was still as sugar-craving as any six-year-old out there.

Mmm, de-li-cious... she thought.

Oh, Professor Shackleton was speaking again...

Natka raised her hand, albeit a bit hesitantly. The situation the professor had just described sounded a bit... problematic.

"It would be up to the person which name they prefer to use, which they'd consider more 'real', so to say, which they would think suits them better?" she suggested. "After all, you can always change the name on your birth certificate, but it's much harder to get people to start calling you by a different name, or start thinking of yourself under a different name."

This one was obvious. "You would go with the name on your birth certificate because this is the name your parents chose based on their experiences. If you calculated a different name, it could effect your destiny or opprotunities and so on based on your destiny number." Did that make ANY sense at all?

Sarah had no idea what they were talking about so she decided to make something up, she wasn't very good at things like this. "Eh Professor did they make some sort of mistake on the birth certificates and then they couldn't be bothered to fix it." She giggled. "Or maybe they thought it would be funny to do it differently on the birth certificate."

Grace now did smile widely. Her very first answer was true. She caught the toad. Mmm... It was the most delicious sweet she'd ever eaten though she couldn't tell whether it was because a teacher's gift or a magic sweet.

Hmm... It was a tricky situation. With wrong names on birth certificate, there was only one explaination-that person was intended to be called something else. And everyone called you that way... So your name was it then. Nobody'd check your certificate, right? But then, the directions were clear. The name on your first certificate... Grace made up her mind and raised her hand. "Well, I'd say it depends on how people are called, but the book says it clear: The name on your birth certificate. So I think we still need to check our birth certificate." She hoped her answer was true. The Ravenclaw girl's answer made more sense to her, but many people had nicknames and their future couldn't rely on those. An offical paper was better. She hoped so.

Demetria raised her hand. "You would still use your birth name, wouldn't you?" she said. "It's the original name you were givin, therefore I think if you used anything else it wouldn't be accurate."

Professor Shackleton smirked as she listened to the class split fairly evenly down the middle, "Aha! You see the dilemma? It is important to remember that despite how you may spell your name, if it is different on your birth certificate, you go with what is listed on your certificate! For example, I had a classmate when I was here at Hogwarts who used to spell her name Ann, A-n-n. Then, we started taking Arithmancy together and during the winter holidays, she went home to see her parents. She decided to practice her Arithmancy calculations and asked her parents to retrieve her birth certificate. Lo and behold, her name was actually spelled with an 'e', as in A-n-n-e! She'd been spelling her own name wrong for years!

"Moral of the story? Be sure you know how to spell your name the way it is written on your birth certificate because that is the name that counts in Arithmancy."

Professor Shackleton hopped off the desk and began walking to her left across the front of the room, "Now, what about the situation where you've been adopted and you know your original birth name? Which one counts then when figuring your Destiny Number?"

Dem raised her hand. "I think you would still use your birth name. Even though you were adopted, the name you have is not your original name that was on your birth certificate." she said. "Like you said before, not using the name on your birth certificate when calculating your Destiny number could be crucial." Dem explained. She then began smiling at the stroy of the girl who spelled her name wrong. That's something I would probably do. Note to self: make sure I've been spelling my name correctly.

Herminny raised her hand and said, "The name on you're original birth certificate is the only one that counts regardless to figure out one's destiny/ expression number, isn't it professor?".

"I would say both Professor." Smiled Sarah . "You would surely just get the same name, since when you are adopted you still use your original name don't you?" She was confused. "But if you do change your name you would surely use your original name." She was realy confused.

Grace was right again. 'Okay, don't overwhelm much with excitement.' But it was hard. Now more confident, she shot her hand up again. "The first name we got. The original one." she said. It must be the right answer if she construed the previous question right.

Aaron raised his hand again. He liked this class. It wasn't too difficult and it was fun. "Ma'am, it would be your birth name because, like I said before, your birth parents gave you that name out of their experiences. If you chose a different name, you would get different answers when you calculated your destiny number." ALRIGHT!!!

"Professor,I think that you would use the name that you have been given, like in the case of Ann who had been misspelling her name for years." Ash said raising her hand

William had listened with intense interest as he began writing things down on his parchment, his blue eyes searching out more information. He nodded at one students answer but decided to throw his in as well. "Um professor, what if you were adopted at birth and you grew up with the name your foster parents gave you and you never found out what your real name is? If you use the name your foster parents gave you, you would never get an accurate account would you?" He paused in his question, thinking it over and trying to figure out if the question had been asked already. "I'm sorry if this has been addressed already ma'am.

Fyo had to agree that most of the students were right, but he had his own thoughts on the whole matter. Think out-of-the-box, yup, that was the way he'd been brought up.

He raised his hand, rather thoughtfully. "I believe one should use one's original name - the one on the birth certificate, that is," he began. "But I also think it might not be that bad an idea to use one's "new" name. I mean, ma'am, if names can have such a great effect on our personality, and we have a new name, wouldn't that somehow change our life? It's like.. If people keeping calling you 'soft,' you try to act that way, but if they've labelled you a bully and you like that, you're generally meaner in the future, just to keep up to that reputation. What I'm trying to say is that if you have a new name, couldn't you just use that for the calculations? Because in some ways, you have a new personality now - you just aren't who you once were: you have a new family, you're living with different people, maybe adopting lifestyle choices you might not have if your real parents were there. Wouldn't that make some sort of effect on the whole thing?"

Naomi raised her hand. "You would use the name on your birth certificate. IE the name you were originally given just like in the cases of misspelling."