Kurumi began to slowly pack up her things, her mind already lingering on the potential of her homework assignment. She just knew it was going to be something more relating to their family...more things to think about and probably cry about. Best to do this assignment in the girls' dormitory. Great, she was freaking out before she even saw what the assignment was. Not only was her family a sensitive subject because of...her mother...but for many other reasons to. Namely, she didn't even know where most of her family came from. Half of it to be exact. Her father's side was a complete and utter mystery to her, stopping only at a name: Charles Edward Gaunt. The man that she knew as Charles Edward Hollingberry, her father. Other than that...nothing.

With an obvious frown on her face, Kurumi placed the rest of her things in her bag. She didn't even have the heart to roll her eyes at the offer to help clean up when there had been nothing in the lesson to even merit the classroom as being dirty or unorganized. The Aparaecium actually seemed to be on track, for once.

With the faintest of smiles, Kurumi bowed her head towards Professor Hadley, but couldn't muster her voice to say good bye to the Arithmancy professor. Instead, the fifth year simply bow her head and slowly turned around to make her way towards the door.

Trying to jot down everything there was to know about Growth numbers, Lewis listened carefully to what his classmates and the professor were saying. First names. Right. He really hoped that they were going to have to calculate all of that for themselves too at some point. And even if they didn't HAVE to, he would. This was pretty interesting stuff.

But back to Lufkin, who happened to have a very beautiful first name.

SPOILER!!: Artemisia Lufkin's Growth Number

A R T E M I S I A
1 9 2 5 4 9 1 9 1

41 -> 4+1 = 5

FIVE (5): Your greatest growth will be around responsible use of freedom.

And the lesson was over already?! Aww. So they wouldn't calculate their own numbers? Hmm, maybe for homework or something. Packing up his things, Lewis got up from his seat and made his way over to the door. "Thank you, Professor." For the lesson and for being an awesome HoH and all. "And goodbye." And with that he left the classroom.

Minerva couldn't believe the lesson was over already. She put her parchment away and then took her book and placed it in her bag. "Thank you Professor for another fun lesson." She was going to head to the library with the few extra minutes.

Wow, the lesson was over already? That went by fast. Silvia was beginning to like arithmancy. She packed up her things into her bag and then headed towards the door. "Bye Professor," she said. "Thanks for the lesson."

The lesson was over already? Ella was surprised how quickly class had gone by but she had enjoyed the lesson-family being so important to her. She gathered her things and headed for the door. "Bye Professor Hadley, thanks for another great lesson!" She gave the Professor a shy smile and headed out the door, wanting to grab some food before her next class.

Lily looked down at her paper as the professor came by and pointed out her fault. Apparently, Lily's brain was on hold during this class... Nodding, Lily picked up her quill and went to work fixing it.


Once Lily was done redoing her math, the class was over... Quickly she raised her hand to get her work checked. As she left her parchment on her desk, Lily packed up the rest of her stuff so that when her work was checked, she would be ready to leave for her next class.

She had returned her attention to her calculation of her name and discovered what she had done wrong. Hurriedly crossing it out and rewriting it correctly, she had miswrote a number in it.

This was bad. Glenn really needed to focus more if she was going to pass her OWLs when they came around.



Glenn let her gaze slip from her own name onto her other calculation. Merlin. She had gotten it wrong again!

She crossed it out and rewrote it in her journal. As she wrote, she smudged the ink with the back of her hand; making it pool across the page and her calculation. "No! Nonononononono..." She murmured hurriedly while she tried to sponge it off with the sleeve of her uniform. Glenn's mother would kill her when she found she had ruined the sleeve but maybe, just maybe, if she got it into the wash soon enough the ink would come out of it.

Glenn looked down at her barely discernible work and blinked away a couple of frustrated tears. Wiping them away with her inked hand, spreading a smear of it across her cheek. She had to keep her emotions under check. Just because she had messed up a couple of calculations, didn't mean she had to lose it!

Josephina nodded politely as a few students thanked her for the lesson, after finishing up some last minute calculations. She then turned her attention on a few students still lingering... perhaps in need of help...



First up was a young Hufflepuff who seemed to be struggling, so Fina went over and had a look at her parchment.

And blinked. She "self-corrected" her Bridget Growth number, but for some reason, transcribing her numbers still seemed to be an issue. "Ms Reyes, dear... focus. Pay attention to how you're copying the numbers from one line to the next." Because if she did and re-checked her work, she'd find both numbers she wrote to be incorrect.

Eh? Cleanup? What was there to cleanup? Frowning for a moment, she glanced around at the other students still lingering and then turned back to Alyssa. "No, not really. Just go enjoy some fresh February air...." Yup. Maybe do some work outside. Enjoy being young.

As the Arithmancy Professor waved and said good-bye to a few others who departed, another student approached her. This one with a valid question. How the numbers apply to them. "I think knowing a bit about a person's life should help you to figure out application of the numbers to them. That's actually important part of interpreting numbers for historical figures. And in some sense, the fact that they've lived their life, it makes it almost easier to see how their growth number of .... " she paused, thinking on Stella's calculation. "Ms Fancourt, allowed them to use their way of words and creativity throughout their life. To help them achieve their goals along their life path..." Did that make sense? She wasn't sure. But she also wasn't entirely sure what Stella had been asking either.

Before her thoughts could linger too much about Stella's question, Fina caught glimpse of the Gryffindor Prefect. A frown. And a faint smile. And mostly the clear presence of something .... troubling her ... simply because for the first time (?) the girl did not seem content during an Arithmancy lesson. And that bothered Fina.

"Miss Hollingberry," she called after the fifth year, hoping she'd turn. "May I have a word with you, please?" If she didn't want to her, fine, but that wouldn't stop her from going to Seren to talk to her about her Prefect. Seren was her Head of House, after all.

"Okey doke, Professor. Yeah, I figured that there wasn't really much to clean up this time round. The question just slipped out without my even thinking about it. I guess it's because I'm so used to asking it. Well then I'll be on my way. Have a nice day."Alyssa smiled before picking up her bag and walking out of the classroom.

Class was over?

Whoops.

At least she didn't get in trouble for not paying attention this time. But she had been more discrete, hadn't she?

Ellie put her things away and rose from her desk. "Fantastic lesson, Hadley." She tried oh-so-hard to hide the sarcasm there. Then, as quickly as she could, before she got stuck 'having a word' with Hadley like Kurumi, the sixth year exited the classroom, leaving her work on her desk. She didn't need it, really.

Kurumi had just about made it to the door when she heard Professor Hadley call her name. Oh? Had she left something on her desk? Turning around, Kurumi looked at her desk and saw that it was completely empty and her eyes drifted upwards towards the professor with a hint of fear behind them. Kurumi's body posture made her appear a little bit smaller than she already was as she slowly made her way back towards Professor Hadley.

Kurumi stood by and waited as Professor Hadley finished saying her good byes to students and once everyone was gone, she spoke. "You...wanted to see me, professor?"

Glenn looked up to see the Professor coming over to her. Uh oh. Had she done something wrong or bad? Wait no. Just helping her. "Right focus." She muttered, nodding determinedly and being focused on doing it right this time.



"Is this right professor?" She asked, rereading the meaning to her family name. That was pretty cool.



"Is this correct too?" Glenn said. She pulled her curly hair from her face, revealing the ink that had smudged across her cheek that she was not yet aware of. The ink was a dark stain against her fair skin.

Hadley nodded. Of course the question just slipped out. Helpful young badger. She nodded politely though as Alyssa bowed her way out of the classroom before turning her attention back to the few remaining students.

Before she get to those students who needed her, Ellie decided to interrupt. With .... oh was that sarcasm? And wait a second.... "Uh, Miss Stone," Because Ellie was reserved for the innocent sixth year you LIKED her lessons, not the bratty one who used SARCASM. "You... uh...le--" but as she went over to pick it up, she frowned at the picture. Brat, she thought, folding the parchment up and making mental note to visit with a certain Head of House after she wrapped things up. "Nevermind. Good day."

Stashing the parchment in her robe pocket, she looked over to where Glenn had been calling from and glanced at the second year's correct work. "Um... well yes, except Bridget's number is actually master number eleven, because if you notice before you reduced to a two, you had an eleven." Yup. But other than that minor detail, good.


************

It wasn't until all the students had left that Kurumi spoke up. "Yes." She studied the girl quietly a moment, trying to formulate her thoughts. "You... well, I don't expect you to talk to me." She was just her professor, not even the girl's Head of House. "But well, you do know that I am aware that your behavior in today's lesson was very .... unusual. And should want to talk to me, I'm a good listener." She did it for four years in various countries. "And well... is there any sort of explanation about today's behaviors?" Because even if she didn't offer explanation, then she'd likely be visiting with more than just ONE Head of House after today's lesson.

Kurumi froze and turned her gaze down to the floor. Well...if Professor Hadley didn't expect her to talk...then that certainly provided her with an easy way out of this situation. So, thank you for that, professor. Tugging on the hem of her black shirt for a moment, Kurumi pondered just how exactly to respond to the Arithmancy professor. Somehow...her usual response of there being nothing wrong with HER wouldn't go over too well. "Unusual, professor?" she repeated, trying her best to put on a confused look but failing miserably. Currently, only three people at Hogwarts knew about what was going on in her life: Jonathan, Treyen, and herself. She...didn't really want those numbers to increase. "I...was just having an off day, professor," she continued with a forced smile. "I just was finding it hard to focus...that's all..." See, no lies. All truth right there.

Something about the way Kurumi looked at her gave the impression that the fifth year wasn't going to talk to her. And she HAD said that was okay. But now she almost regretted it. "Yes. And even now, I can tell ... there's something about your focus...Which is to say, unusual for my lessons," she paused... As she said, a hard time focusing. "Sometimes... talking about it ... makes it easier. It eases the burden." You know, just for the record and all.

Kurumi tried to keep her face as neutral as possible, but it was hard when Professor Hadley clearly saw past the wall she was attempting to put up. No plaster here, just glass it would seem. Was her hair changing colors as well? Kurumi idly tugged on her hair and attempted to pull it in front of her face without appearing too obvious. Nope. All black

"Sorry...I...I promise to be more focused next lesson..." She...felt bad, not being completely honest with the professor while still being honest at the same time. "I'll...be sure to keep that in mind, professor," she said, not really knowing what else to say.