Uhm... Raiden did not know the answer to this question. He was, by nature, not a math person, and he knew at the very least that the name related to math...

So he checked his book.

"He was a Greek philosopher sir..." he paused and reread a line. "Who apparently wasn't good at politics, as he managed to do things that led to the downfall of Croton."

Oh. And he'd done math. And stuff.

Marie raised her hand and said "I believe he was Greek philosopher who made important developments in mathematics and astronomy."
Short, sweet and to the point, yes that was the kind of answers she liked to give.

Well that answer was easy. Pythagoras was a person and that person did things. Destiny would have said that, but she seemed to think he was looking for a better answer than that. 'He was a Greek philosopher and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism.' she said with her hand in the air.

She didn't know what that meant, but it sounded intelligent.

Candy raised her hand. "He was a philosopher and mathematician, professah!" she said enthusiastically. HOW COOOLLL! "He was a Greek person thingie and he's the one behind the NIFTY Pythagoras theorem. His ideas have totally influenced Western philosophy."

Grids. That...didn't sound very fun. Numbers in general weren't fun.

And who was Pythagoras? Jack had never heard of him! He had heard of Plato, and Aristole...there were just too many Greek philosophers to keep track of! He raised his hand as he flipped through his book.

"Well, he was Greek, and a philosopher...he was really good at math and helped shape the way we look at mathematics today," he explained.

Hmmm. Treyen tilted his head to one side, "He's a man that invented or worked in a form of grid arithmancy...the Arrows of Pythagoras is one of those" he asnwered, after raising his hand, and nodded afterwards.

Not sure if that was entirely true, but it seemed to be, yes?

Lucille looked around the room as everyone else anwered. They all sounded so...clever. o_O

Clever cloggs. She DIDN'T laike it!

Ivory raised her hand timidly with the only fact she knew.

" He was 'the father of numbers.'"

”Father of Numbers. Triangles. Pythagoras Theorem. Sixth-century B.C.E. Greece. Yes, all of that. ” Crispy waved his hand impatiently and began to pace the classroom, hands clasped behind his back.

"Except that. You are thinking of Archimedes. Who sat in a bath and discovered how to calculate the volume of irregular objects." Anyone else? Crispy looked around and shot a somewhat withering look at a young Hufflepuff who practically repeated him verbatim.

"Do not forget the root of all the Arithmancy calculations you should have learned so far in your Hogwarts careers. The Pythagorean Number System, whereby value and meaning is assigned to different letters of the alphabet in a name or a word and their reduced sums. Each number from one through nine has a symbolic meaning associated with different life stages."

Crispy paced some more.

“The Arrows of Pythagoras are also known as Full Number Planes or Full Number Lines. They are similar to a form of Chinese Arithmancy known as the Lo Shu square and are, in fact, a refinement of this method. However we will keep things simple for now and cover the Lo Shu square in a separate lesson.” Professor Crispe glared around the class challengingly. “Assuming you are able to keep up during this lesson that is.” He had doubts, but he’d do his best.

And his best was very, very good.

”You will not need your regular textbook for this lesson and unless you have a genuine understanding of the subject matter, I do not want to hear any of you parrot at me what you may have read in other arithmancy texts. You will listen, you will pay attention and once I have explained what you need to know, you will show me you have understood. Are we clear?” Apparently Professor Crispe wanted a response. He stopped pacing and looked around the classroom, his eyes pausing almost approvingly on each student who happened to be in Gryffindor garb.

But, no.

Treyen didn't understand. He understood the thing about Pythagoras. He just didn't understand one thing. 'You will show me you have understood'.

That's why he raised his hand again. "What if we don't understand?" it was a good question, right?

Oh. Well, she was ALMOST right?

Yes?

Yes.

Was she clear? Lucille saluted to the scary teacher. "Yes, sir!" she said, and settled herself more in her seat.

Sidney writes down what the professor has said. "Yes sir Professor Crispe." This professor seems to know what he's talking about. I wonder if he will explain what a grid is.

Leaning back in her seat, she stared at her notebook as she listened to the Professor, writing down in small letters 'Full Number Planes' and 'Full Number Lines' for no apparent reason. She'll just remember it anyways since she was cool like that...

Assuming that they would keep up with this lesson? She was fairly certain that she could. If she were to admit it, she kinda liked Arithmancy, but...on the other hand, this was a different Professor. There was always the possibility that she wouldn't understand anything he was saying. Eh, that made her slightly nervous. She would actually have to ask for help if it came to that. Not something she wanted to do...

And no regular textbooks. Good. She didn't feel like taking hers out anyways. "Yes, Professor." she mumbled quietly, her words barely above a normal whisper as she twirled her quill slowly around in her hand. Yup. Looong class.

Jake wondered if this person was like an military personell.

well there was only one answer when a sargent asked you that "Yes, sir" he said with a salute. he quickly put his hand down realizing that they weren't in the military. This guy was scaring him

Giving a quick affirmative nod, Ivory decided that in this case silence was the best policy.

Her quill moving quickly across her notebook, she took down everything the Professor said verbatim.

Even if she didn't understand half of what he said she was smart enough to know that she could always review those same notes later.

Jack blinked. He glanced over at Treyen and wondered the same thing--what if they DIDN'T get it? Jack had never really understood Arithmancy, and since he didn't plan on becoming a mathematican anytime soon, he doubted that he WOULD understand them in the near future.

Surely he wouldn't object to question asking, right? He was pretty sure he wouldn't. After all, asking questions would indicate that they were paying attention and at least ATTEMPTING to.

"Yes Sir," he said softly.

"Yes, sir."

Gold didn't exactly say that out loud. The words were mostly said to herself, and accompanied by a little nod of the head. The fifth year then dipped her quill in ink, and began to write.

Not much, though. She would rather listen. Understand. Scribbling notes never had been her thing.

Huh.

Raiden watched the professor as he went about his business, talking and doing the whole... Professory thing.

Great.

This was going to be fun.

He started to tune out automatically. This wasn't a class he particularly enjoyed, and the man almost seemed... surly and unfriendly on purpose.

"Yes sir."

Yeah. We'll be over here, listening but not.

"If you do not understand, I will assign you extra remedial homework to be sure that you do understand. However we will cross that bridge when we come to it." Professor Crispe fixed his gaze on the small Hufflepuff and kept his tone reasonably patient.

For now.

”Alright.” Crispy made his way up to the front of the classroom. Slo-o-wly ”The Arrows of Pythagoras give us a quick insight into an individual’s personality and are indicative of specific traits. They are, when interpreted in conjunction with other Arithmancy calculations, a useful way of identifying strong positive traits and character flaws.” He paused and looked around the classroom, giving the students a chance to catch up with their note taking.

“For those of you who are familiar with divination, and in particular astrology, you’ll know that people with the same star sign often have very different overall personalities. If you compare the birth chart of two Leos however, you will see many differences in the details of that chart, based on the planets in the houses and signs. The Arrows of Pythagoras are like this for an individual’s Life Path number; the arrow path through the numbers on the grid, are like the planets moving through the houses. They give us more detail to work with. You’ll be relieved to know, it is far easier to calculate your Pythagoras arrows than it is to create an astrological birthchart Professor Crispe informed them.

"Now if you would each write on the top of your grid paper, your name, your year and house, and your birth date. If you did not bring grid paper there are rulers at the front of the room which you may use to mark up your parchment. Quickly now.”

Ok so he had to write his name house birthday and year.

Dylan Denver...5th year...Slytherin...7th September 2054

Sidney Lily Marlowe
First Year
Hufflepuff
December 12, 2058

Right. She could SOOO do that.

She started scribbling away

Lucille Beambrook...Fourth Year...Hufflepuff...16th August.

That was it?

This was easier than he was making it sound! But she was still pretty sure that he wanted to eat them.

So far, this was easy stuff. They only had to write some things down and it was all information Destiny knew!

Yes!

Easy!

Writing down a few key things that she might need to remember later, Evelyn tried to keep up with the Professor as much as she could. It was harder though, when you didn't have the words sitting there in front of you so you can read it over again if you didn't understand. But no matter...she would just have to be extra attentive in the class.

Thinking about just asking Destiny for a grid paper, she sighed and stood up, quickly walking to the front and grabbing one of the better looking rulers before heading back down to her seat. Who knows if the professor would be angry if she asked someone for a grid paper. Marking her lines neatly and quickly, she had her grid paper in the next five minutes before writing the information needed down at the top of her paper.

WHAT?! Extra homework?! Well, it was a good thing he wasn't in the Quidditch team.

Treyen nodded, and quickly walked to get the ruler and make his paper. No, he didn't have the grid paper with him either. He started to have a feeling that he was NOT going to enjoy Arithmancy at all!

Nevertheless, he was fast, and wrote whatever needed to be written in the paper.

Treyen Lockhart / 1st year / Hufflepuff / April 10, 2059