Well.. Types of family? Raven didn't know much about family. But she tried to answer. She raised her hand and answered.

"Well.. How about extended family, Professor." she said.

Types of families...

Anya listened to several examples before she raised her hand. "There's adoptive families." she offered. Like hers.

"A.. childless type of family. The parents may have had kids but didn't want them for the long run so either they do live with their parents and are greatly ignored... " Adam stopped himself as he said that, but he gained his speech back and continued, "Or the parents rely on other family to actually take care of their children."

He hated the idea of a irresponsable parents having kids and then not doing what they had decided to do and nurture and have their children grow. Why put someone through the pain if they knew they wouldn't be willing to attempt it.

Taylor raised her hand, "Isnt there groups of numbers called families?" She asked. Tay didnt want to do the obivious family is people answer especially since they were in Artihmancy of course. Taylor had a half grimace, half nervous smile on her face.

Alex wrinkled his eyebrows. He wondered what HIS family was classified as...it was certainly not your typical, average family. Not even close. He raised his hand anyways and decided to give it a guess.

"What about your step-family? That counts, right? Since you ARE related by marriage and everything," he said.

Wait, weren't they supposed to talk about numbers in this class? This was why Alex never did well in here. He had no idea WHAT they were talking about.

How odd that today's lesson was about families when so much had just recently happened with Sierra's own family. At first, she didn't realize what the professor was talking about, though. Types of family...members? What?

Then she heard some of the others answering and raised her hand. "There's families made possible through adoption," she suggested, and then she lowered her hand. Really though, adopted children, like Sierra, usually ended up seeing their adopted parents as their real parents. So in a way, if you looked at it like that, adopted families were more like traditional father-mother families.

Types of Family's? Oakey pushed his hand in the air to answer. They're are Foster Family's Yeah he could have said the typical Family or whatever but he went with what he grew up with.

Families? Strange, thought Silvia. What do families have to do with arithmancy? Unless they were going to calculate the life path number of the people in their family, but that still didn't explain why they were discussing types of families.

She raised her hand. "I think one of the most common types is when you just have the parents and children living together, no aunts and uncles or grandparents. I think it's called a...a nuclear family?" Just like her family; just her mom and dad and her brother.

A taxonomic rank? Well then, someone was bitter clearly when it came to discussing families. "Perhaps true, but a family is also one of the best taxonomic ranks you'll have." Even if they didn't appreciate their family now, which many didn't, they would.

Dysfunctional family? Yes, she'd go for that one. "In some sense... I think that every type of family is dysfunctional. It doesn't matter whether it's step family, adoptive, biological.... there is dysfunction to families. And I also think that it's this dysfunction that makes ... families more ... real."

"Nuclear family. Or in other words, the biological family." The main sort of family, in some sense. You've got the mum, dad, and kids.

"Yes. That is definitely a type of family. It can be a single parent family for any number of reasons too..." Maybe one parent had a job traveling all the time. Or their parent died. Or their parents split up. Who knew?

"Extended family...yes... Because it's not just your immediate family that is family." Your aunts and uncles were family too, even if sometimes you wished they weren't.

Adoptive. Yes. For some reason or other, that actually made Hadley think on Hogwarts family. "Like your family here, at Hogwarts. In some sense or other, your Hogwarts family is like your adopted family." Truth. Really.

Why did the Gryffindor Prefect seem soo.... depressed when he talked about that? What was up with BOTH Gryffindor Prefects actually? Were they neglected children? For whatever the reason, Hadley couldn't put her finger on it.

But she nodded. That was a type of family, after all. Both types. The neglectful parents and then the childless parents.


Well then. Someone was ready to start working on numbers. "There are. There are also plants called families too." See! Herbology and Arithmancy WERE linked! If nothing else than the fact they both had families in common!

"Step-families are a type of family, so yes," Fina said, nodding at the Hufflepuff, curiously wondering about that too.

Adoptive families. Yes. Someone mentioned that already, so Fina just nodded about that.

But foster families. Now that on the other hand, was slightly different from adoptive. Kind of the same idea, but not. "Yes, foster families is a type of a family."

Most common, yes, was probably the nuclear. "But that doesn't mean that the other types of families don't exist." Besides someone mentioned nuclear family already.


***

Right then. Now that they had some ideas and views about types of families that existed in the world .... "Family comes from the Latin word, familia and in essence it is a group of people affiliated in some way or another, either by co-inhabiting the same residence, biologically related through marriage, or sometimes even friendships can be construed as a family." Hadley paused a moment. "Families, yes, while traditionally speaking they are a mother, father, and children.... as your basic nuclear family, can be anything. They can be your role models. They can be your teammates. Your housemates. Your neighbors. Your pets. Family is, really anything you want it to be. It's not just about living under the same roof and sharing DNA, but it's about affiliation. Connection. Mutual love and respect for one another."

She paused again, looking around the room. "So before we get to the calculations involved in today's lesson, I want you to write your own surname down on your parchment and come up with a word or phrase for each each letter in your surname. In an acrostic style. Something that you think is important to you or your family. I'll put an example of my own name on the board."

Heartwarming
An Italian
Deliberate in actions
Lovely. Most of the time.
Even can relate to you.
Your turn now!

ooc: so yea, do a line-down acrostic with your surnames and traits that YOU think your character's family holds. No numbers .... yet. You'll have ... until sometime tomorrow, the 16th to work on this. At least 8 hours ....

Alyssa listened as the Professor pointed out what family was all about. She was still puzzled as to why knowing what families were had anything to do with Arithmancy, but Alyssa knew that the Professor always had a purpose to everything she did, so she obediently wrote down the letters of her last name and gave a word or a phrase to each letter. She thought long and hard about how she felt about her family and what she thought made them special

Kurumi didn't particularly like the tone in Professor Hadley's response to her. She felt judged...misjudged...and it did not help Kurumi's mood at all. Best ranks you'll ever have...yeah, family was one of those things...but it did not feel that way when a member of it was...

Kurumi stopped herself. Tears burning the corners of her eyes. Only Treyen knew what was going on with her right now, and she was glad that he was back to sitting next to her. This was going to be hard to get through and Kurumi had to force herself to stay in her seat instead of just picking up her things and running out of the room right then and there.

When someone mentioned a single parent home...Kurumi whimpered softly under her breath. That was going to be her home soon...and not by anyone's choice...
Kurumi winced when she heard the word that she knew would be coming: mother. It strung more than words could express. Kurumi had found herself unable to say it for over a month now, not even bringing it up when she had spoken to Treyen. It had always been she or her then, and Kurumi was afraid to say the word. Almost as if in doing so it would cause harm.

And then the assignment came and Kurumi's eyes flicked towards the door again. Did she HAVE to do this part? Yes, Professor Hadley had just said that a family didn't just mean your flesh and blood, but could be friendships and other such things...but Kurumi's mind just couldn't get away from her own.

Sluggishly, Kurumi picked up her quill and brought it down on her parchment. She pressed down so lightly that it was a wonder any ink came out of the quill at all.


Kurumi set her quill down and stared at her parchment...more specifically, she stared at the word 'restorative' that she had written. Yes, the support of her family - especially her brothers - had been what had healed her most and she chewed on her bottom lip. Too bad that the same thing that could happen with the spirit couldn't happen with the body.

Kurumi hung her head, eyes sort of coming in and out of focus, while she waited for class to move on. Hopefully the next steps would involve numbers...although, Kurumi had the sinking feeling they were going to do something with their Family Name number...which they had done a few terms back. That lesson had brought her to tears as well since she didn't know who she was then...who her father really was...now, she was on the verge of tears for another reason entirely.

They had to do a poem about their family? Well that didn't really sound too much like Arithmancy. Wasn't it supposed to be about numbers? Well, Indy didn't mind that much. This would be fun. Acrostic poems. Indy had gone them before, and she had thought she was pretty epic at them. So now she had to do one. With her last name? Oh dearie me. Why did she have such a long last name. Oh dear parents of mine. But then her frist name was really long too, so it didn't really matter that much. She'd get on with it now. So she wouldn't hold the class up hahaha

SPOILER!!: parchment

Herbolody
Understanding
Troublesome
Caw. Caw. Ravenclaw
Highly loyal
In it to win it. Quidditch that is. Obviously.
Not easily Scared Unless you're Lafay. Then I'm scared
Sporty
On the ball. The Qudditch Ball that is.
Needless to say. We rock.

Ooooh. Indy had done. She liked her poem. It seemed pretty epic. Indy smiled, putting down her quill. Task done. Yaay.

Hmm, Professor Hadley doesn't seem like she's in a very good mood, Stella thought, even as the discussion had started, about the different types of families. She had stayed quiet, not even really taking any notes even though her parchment from the earlier contemplation was still out on her desk. She still didn't see the connection between family and Arithmancy, unless they were going to study more about family numbers or something to that effect. She thought there was something like that, and reached down for her textbook to check. At least the ultimate definition that the professor had given about family seemed to work with her idea from earlier. That it wasn't just parents and siblings. She still didn'tknow what relevance that had to numbers.

She set her textbook down again, unopened, as they'd been tasked to write an acrostic with their own last name as the subject. Maybe Professor Hadley had heard about their Muggle Studies homework from earlier in the term. Although she hadn't done that part of it, so she wasn't really looking forward to trying it now. Especially not if it had to be with her own name. She started writing something on the parchment under her earlier scribbling, though, after a couple more moments of fidgeting with her ring, figuring she might as well get it over with. Hopefully they weren't going to be graded on what it said, because she'd much rather just focus on Arithmancy.

SPOILER!!: hehe

Generally loving
Artistic
Respect for each other
Discerning
Independent
Never too judgmental
Entertaining
Ready for anything

Jory began his acrostic. It was made up with qualities both of his families possessed and some about himself. Especially the "Always in a good mood'' part which he always was.

S- Stands up for what’s right.
T- Tolerable
O- Open minded
N- Never judges anyone
E- Eager mind
W- Weak at Arithmancy
A-Always in a good mood
L- Loves food
L- Lives with a perfect family

Sophie didn't really understand what Professor Hadley meant by first question, so just listened as her classmates replied. Oh, okay then. She played close attention to the next instructions. Aw, no numbers yet? At least they were doing something fun!

Pulling her parchment closer, she grabbed her quill and dipper it in her ink pot.

Ella liked this lesson already. She loved her family and any talk about them or families in general made her think of home. Now what would she say in her acrostic?

Meh, this sort of topic was not what Nessie felt like talking about. She didn't like her family, and she had her reasons for her hate. They always just pretended to be so perfect, and it bugged Nessie that they'd rather lie than be unperfect like everyone else.Once again the thought of March came back into Nessie's mind, she wasn't looking forward to it, it just meant more family trouble.

Half listeing, half not Nessie lay her head on her desk facing Adam, as he focused on Hadley. She knew he had it rough too when it came to family, probably even tougher than she did, but he seemed to be alright with the topic unlike herself. He was obviously tougher, in the inside where it mattered to be strong.

Anyway, everyone seemed to have started with their writing, which was why Ness decided to do the same. She peered over to see if Adam had started but seeing as he didn't she looked at the persons work behind her. So they had to write their family surname in acrostic style. Shouldn't be too hard, if you had nice things to say that was. Renesmee stared at her notes for a few moments and yes she had added an E before the X, but that was because there was not a single word she could think of that would suit X for her family.It didn't matter though, because what she had written, was all a lie, none of those things were true anyway. Her lips formed their usual pout, it wasn't good to lie and truthfuly Ness had had enough of her parents' rubbish, which was why she crossed out her work and started all over again.There that was how it really was, Ness frowned some more as she put her head back in her hands that we're now lying on the desk. Right now, all she wanted to do was get as far away from this topic as she could, but that wasn't very easy to do at the moment.

Tayla didn't get the chance to raise her hand and answer Professor Hadley's question about families, but she wrote down her ideas in her notebook. She smiled as she thought of her family. She missed her little sister April, and her parents, too, of course.

Finally done, Tayla left her quill in her ink bottle and got ready to show her work to the professor.

Harvey wrote down the types of families that existed on his parchment and listened to what the professor said about the answers and about family. He listened as she talked about how there other types of family who may not be related to him by DNA.. such as housemates, friends, pets, role models etc.. but the one that stuck with Harvey the most was friends.. his friends were his family while he was here.. and some were like family even away from school. He then listened as Hadley explained what to do in the next activity. Hmm.. an acrostic.. he could do that.. his name was not that long.. oh! his surname! well that was not long either.. he then watched as the professor did her own.. yeah he could do that.. not bad.. he then got to work and worked on that acrostic. He would write one for not JUST his biological family but also his family that included his friends.. at this he looked at Justin and Minnie.. and he smiled.. and his professors.. he looked at Hadley and smiled.. he then looked at his parchment and started writing.



He looked at his parchment.. there he was done.. that was what they were supposed to do.. right?.. a family acrostic.. and Hadley DID say family isnt just family that share DNA its other types of families too.. so he had in this acrostic.. his biological family, friends and professors. He then waited for the professor to continue the lesson

Oakey put his quill to paper. and wrote out his last name going down

Acrostic?

Well... Raven was not too good in words because she didn't like writing literature. But...

Yeah.. I'll try she murmured. Taking her note, she tried to write about her family.

She did miss her family now. But she tried to hide her unhappy face.

Amelia doodled a little in the margins of her notebook as she listened to Professor Hadley talk about the different kinds of families and what could make up a family. She already knew all this stuff, so she was patiently waiting for a part of the lesson that would be fun and informative. Then they were asked to make acrostics! That could be rather fun, she remembered the one she had to make for Muggle Studies a few months before.

A few lines below her definition of family, she filled out her acrostic:

Reliable
Elegant
Important to me
Nice
Happy
Andrew (my brother)
Rich
Trusting

When she was done, she went back to doodling while she waited for something else to be assigned.

Silvia wrote her last name on her parchment and then paused for a moment. What words could she use to describe her family? It was difficult to think of words off the top of her head, especially when they had to start with specific letters. After a few minutes however she started to write:



She wasn't entirely sure what this had to do with Arithmancy, but she was sure that the professor had a good reason for it.

Oh. So now they were supposed to write their last name and find words that described his family with the first letter of his last name. Adam sighed heavily, he kind of had difficult names but not to mention his parents were very harsh towards him.

B- Bad Tempered
U-UNLOVING
R-Rude
N-Neglectful

He wrote all of the words with such hate that he managed to rip out a small hole on unloving and neglectful the most. Looking over to his side he saw Nessie looking at his paper. Adam smiled awkwardly and tried to slyly move his paper to the corner of the table so she couldn't see so well.

Alex stared at his paper. He had to do an acrostic poem describing his surname...a surname that didn't seem to apply to him AT ALL. He toyed with the idea for a moment or two of possibly writing down his dad's last name, but not only did he not know how to spell it, he technically WASN'T part of that family. Not yet at least. GAH that was so complicating, and Sierra had it so much easier! She KNEW she was a Greingoth. No questions about it.

Still, for the purposes of this lesson, he'd just have to try and make the best of it. It was hard, though, when he didn't even really like this subject matter to begin with and now he had to define something he wasn't even sure he was part of anymore.

Quote:

Great Leaders
Rich
Elegant
Intelligent
Noble
Goal Oriented
Obsessed with Slytherin
Terrifying (to some)
High Achievers

Hehe. Terrifying. That was definitely one word to describe Alexander Greingoth II, current Minister of Magic.