Alyssa thought about the possible answer to the question and raised her hand to answer,"Professor, the two major method are the Agrippan Method and the Chaldean Method. The difference between the two is that the Number 9 is not used in the Chaldean method for calculations."

Ella raised her hand. She had just read about this in common room. "Professor there's the Pythagorean method and the-the...Chaldean method? The difference is the use of the number 9!" Phew

Resting her chin on her hand, Louisa was observing the professor very closely as she greeted her students rather dutifully. Hmm. It seemed that the bad temper she had when she caught them at the library was still on. The clumsy ponytail she had behind her head proved it.

Oh well. She wasn't going to spend another night in that dungeon. Taking her eyes off the professor's face, Louisa busied herself with arranging her quill and parchment for when the lesson would start.

And it did.

Raising her hand, a bit lazily, at the usual first question, she spoke, "There are two systems to practice Arithmancy, professor. The Pythagorean method which includes the number nine, and the Chaldean method that doesn't include the number to represent letters." Easy.

Laura looked at the Professor. "Is that numbers and letter?" Laura had no idea what Arithmancy was.

Minerva put her hand up. "Professor Hadley the two systems of Arithmancy are Chaldean and Pythagorean. The difference between the two is the number 9."

Smiling at August and the Hufflepuff that set beside him, Kurumi also nodded her head in Gideon's direction as the lesson began. Sitting back for a bit, Kurumi listened as others answered and then raised her hand to try and add a little to the discussion. The main bits had already been said, so there really wasn't too much to add.

"The two methods are the Agrippan method and the Chaldean method. As everyone has already said, the major distinction between the two is the use of the number 9. Both are also based on the Latin alphabet, although the Arippan is based on an older version of it, and the Chaldean method partially equates Latin letters with letters of the Hebrew alphabet." Just, you know, a little random fact to add to the pot. "So, in a sense, the numbers do not line up as neatly as we are used to in the Agrippan method. For example, W, which as a value of 6 in the Chaldean method, is not immediately followed by X. Instead, it's value isn't 7 but 6."

Which is why she liked the Agrippan method a little better. It flowed easier and you didn't have to remember exceptions.

Beezus tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear as she watched the other students arrive, she did not have the chance to greet Professor Hadley when she came in for she was very nervous. Nervous of the fact that it was the first Arithmancy lesson of the term. But then again, when it has something to do with Arithmancy, she's always nervous for she's not in good terms with numbers.

As the first question was asked, she raised her hand and attempted to answer. She did try to study about the subject during the summer. "Professor, the two methods are called the Agrippan Method and the Chaldean Method. They are almost the same except for the fact that the Chaldean method doesn't make use of the number 9," the eaglet said.

Silvia was excited for Arithmancy class; it sounded so fun. She had already read up a little on the subject before school had started, and it was one of several classes that she had been looking forward to most.

She raised her hand, "The first is called Pythagorean method, and it assigns numbers one through nine to each letter. The other is Chald-something...oh yes, Chaldean method, I think, and it doesn't use the number nine."

Keefer began scribbling madly. He was not going to miss anything in this class this year. Not a single thing. Ok, maybe one or two things.

He wracked his brain, trying to remember five years' worth of Arithmancy lessons. He raised both hands as usual before replying. "Professor Hadley, I seem to remember the Agrippan and Chaldean methods, but for some reason the Pythagorean method rings a bell as well. I know that the Chaldeans had an issue with the number 9, for some reason. Perhaps it's somehow related to their use of a base-60 number system.." he trailed off. Struggling to find his train of thought, he finally continued. "And the Agrippan, or perhaps Pythagorean, method assigns the numbers 1-8 AND 9 to each letter of the alphabet."

So that was most likely at least partially wrong, but after all, it was the first lesson of term. He wasn't expected to know everything yet. Right?

Olivia coppied notes. Though she was a second year, this was her first ever arithmancy lesson. She wondered if it would be at all like math (equations with amounts of numbers)back in the muggle world!

Ira was a little excited for the Arithmancy class. Though a little hard work was required, it was okay-dokay. After greeting the professor, she settled herself on a desk in a little far corner of the room. However interesting the class may be, she better be out of the normal view of the professor's eye.

Then the first question was asked. Two methods for studying Arithmancy? Ira just knew the names of two methods but didn't remember how they actually worked. She raised her hand up and answered, "Professor, the two methods of studying Arithmancy are Agrippan and Chaldean.." Difference between them? She knew just one point. She added, "Also the main difference between the is that one uses number 9 and other doesn't." Ira didn't know which used and didn't!

Arghhh! WHY ME?!

That's what Sierra wanted to call out. Arithmancy was her least favorite subject, and it always ended with her wanting to either all pull all her hair out or scream out in agony one. She hated numbers. To her, they were about as interesting as a flobberworm. Why, oh why, had she signed up for another horrifying year again?!

Oh. Right. Her father's fiancee had thought being more well-rounded would make for a better Minister's daughter. She took a few seconds to mentally convince herself she was going to live through this, and then she raised her hand. "The two methods are called the Agrippan Method and the Chaldean Method. The Agrippan Method assigns the numbers one to nine to all the letters of the alphabet, but the Chaldean Method only uses the numbers one to eight," she explained.

Zhenya quickly thought back to what she had looked over the previous night before the lesson, to try and remember something for the lesson. She thought she would be here to learn, this time, not to participate, but already she knew something and raised her hand, glad to be able to participate, "Professor I believe the two methods are the Agrippan method which uses numbers 1-9 and then there is the Chaldean method which is similar to the former method, but only uses numbers 1-8, and some of the letters are assigned differently," she said.

Oakey was super happy to see his chocolates sitting on the Professor's desk. She must be eating them. Why else would they be there?

Oakey raised his hand to answer Hadley's question, Professor, the two types of Arithmancy are Agrippan and the Chaldean. I guess a major difference between the two would be that the Chaldean method doesn't use the number 9 He looked at his new quill, oh how he was excited to use it. He never felt this excited to take notes before.

No, he was not at the front, mainly because by the time he'd arrived the seat next to Kurumi was already taken, so he decided to seat next to Keefer instead. He would've taken a seat next to Ellie...but a little bit of focusing was required for the class, no?

Either way, his hand was raised, "The Agrippan method and the Chaldean method. The first uses the Latin alphabet AND the number 9. The second excludes the number 9...and it's not the exact same lettering either." So, yeah, they were different, but the assignment of numbers to letters was pretty much the same.

Justin had remembered from last term that they had studied about two different method to arithmancy. " Professor, There were two methods, the Pathagorean and Chaldean methods . "

Bah! Numbers and math and all that horrible, complicated, hard to learn, jazz. She didn't have a problem with numbers...just math. Jezzabelle sighed from her seat. At least she could try her best with the non math related questions. She raised her hand and said, "The Agrippan method is one of the two that uses all of the letters of the alphabet designating each of the to a number from one to nine. Then you have the Chaldean method, which is just like the Agrippan method except it uses the numbers one to eight." Wow that was all a mouthful, wasn't it?

Sophie was completely lost. She didn't have any idea about what Arithmancy was in first place. She was really excited to have her Head of House as her professor, though. Looking around as the other students answered the question, she thought it would be good to start taking notes of the things they were saying.

Answer to First Question: Two Methods Used in Arithmancy
 

Kennedy refrained from sighing. This wasn't one of his top courses because all the number thing confused him, but he figured that it would do well to come and hopefully benefit him in his O.W.Ls...which he couldn't wait to do.

He made a small dot on his parchment, ready to write down the first of what he expected to be long notes. After that, he raised his hand, "There's the Agrippan, which consists of the letters A through Z and the numbers one through nine," he said, pausing and then continuing, "Then there's the Chaldean method in which the number nine is not used and does not consist in using all alphabetical letters."