Alex reallyyyyy needed to do this Arithmancy homework with someone. He hadn't been able to track down Sierra, so he was simply wandering around, trying to find someone, anyone, who'd be willing to do his puzzle. It was the first time in a long time that he actually knew what he was doing in this class and he was eager to try out his puzzle on someone. He wondered if anyone would understand the reference once they figured it out...

Vivi was heading down to the Great Hall for a chance to eat when she spotted a lone figure on the third floor. Much as she wanted to take every opportunity to enjoy the rich Hogwarts food before graduating, her curiosity in the case won out, and she approached the boy in striding steps.

"Hey. I know you. Or... sort of, I do. You're Sierra's brother. Why didn't you come to the charity ball my mother threw last summer? That's when I met Sierra the first time, but you weren't there." She talked toooooo much.

Alex almost jumped, since he didn't actually expect anyone to be in the third floor corridor at this time, when everyone had already headed down for food. He turned and saw...that girl. That one girl he'd talked to...once. He was pretty sure. She was definitely familiar.

Charity ball? Alex couldn't recall ever being invited to a ball. "Oh well...Sierra and I live in different households so sometimes stuff like that doesn't get communicated very well between us," he said with a shrug. Yeah, that was a good explanation.

"Sorry, what's your name again?" he said. He knew he'd met her before but he couldn't remember her name now and it was driving him crazy.

"Genevieve Branxton. You should have come. There are never enough boys to dance with. Men, really. Never enough." She offered her hand to him to shake. Now that he mentioned it, Sierra had mentioned they didn't live together, which meant he lived with the real mother that Sierra pretended she didn't have. He looked normal for it, too.

"What are you doing lurking about on the third floor? Aren't you afraid you'll miss the good puddings?" It was always a concern.

"Alex Greingoth," Alex said, shaking her hand in return with a smile. He didn't feel the need to bring up the fact that Alex + Dancing = quite a disaster, since she seemed to think that all men were great dancers and it was really a shame he hadn't shown up for that reason. If she thought that he wasn't about to argue with her!

"Well, I was looking for someone to test my Arithmancy homework on," he explained. "And it's ok, I'm not a big pudding person," he added with a shrug. He was more of the gummy slug type of person.

Not a pudding person? Puddings were so VERY British, and Vivi was shocked by that. "I'll look over your Arithmancy homework, but only if you're willing to look over mine." That solved two problems at once, didn't it? She got someone to check over her assignment and try to decipher it, and she got to meet Sierra's brother.

"How about I give it to you, and if you need a cypher, you can let me know? I have no clue how difficult it is, to be honest." She hoped it was really difficult.

Oh, how perfectly that worked out! "Sure," Alex said with a smile, rummaging around in his bag for the parchment he'd written the puzzle down on. He checked it over a few times, just to be certain it was written down correctly before handing it over to her.

"I'm not sure how difficult it is either...I don't think it's too bad though," he said. He had just sort of worked backward and gone from there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puzzle time!

CAZMSET CAZMSET EZCCET DUC, BFA Z AFMITQ ABUC SFY'QT UC

Vivi tugged the parchment with her coded message from her bag and traded it for the parchment the boy offered. Hopefully it was a bit tricky, because the Ravenclaw seventh year was bored and needed to exercise her enormous brain.

Clearly.

"Good luck!" Vivi settled on the floor nearby with the parchment and her quill in order to solve the puzzle Alex had created.

"Good luck to you too," Alex said with a grin as he took her puzzle. He headed over to the other side of the hallway and propped the puzzle up on his notebook and began.

Wait...WHAT.

These were not letters.

These weren't even runes.

This was just gibberish.

He stared at it...and stared...and stared a little bit mor. Finally after a while, he began to take a stab at it. He figured the single letters were A's...I's just didn't seem to fit in that puzzle. So he plugged in the A's at the other spots as well. Then...ok, what three letter words had A in the middle?

After multiple, multiple, MULTIPLE attempts with different variations of three letter words, he got it. MAN! That was what it was. From there, it was much easier and the words started to pop out to him. He cracked it and wrote out the completed answer with a huge grin.

SPOILER!!: ANSWER!

A SMART MAN ONLY BELIEVES HALF OF WHAT HE HEARS, A WISE MAN KNOWS WHICH HALF

He looked at his watch. It had only taken him...thirty minutes. GAH that had been a lot tougher than he expected! He looked up at Genevieve and wondered if she had been waiting on him long, because he was sure his had been easier to crack than hers.

Vivi wasn't particularly fast when it came to deciphering Alex's puzzle. Not because it was really challenging, although it had its challenges, but because she wanted to take her time and do it right. And she wanted to give him plenty of time too without feeling all pressured. She had questions for him almost immediately, and Vivi tried to work around her questions before having to interrupt him.

The easy one was the single letter, the 'Z'. It was either an I or an A. She tried an A first, since personal pronouns were less likely in puzzles like these, but once she started working on the other short words, it became obvious she needed her A back. So Z = I. And U = A... and so on.

She glanced up and spotted Alex looking at her. Vivi held up her parchment. "This is what I have so far."

SPOILER!!: Puzzle

Twinkle twinkle little cat, how I wonder what you're at

"The 'D' isn't repeated anywhere else in the cryptogram, so I had to guess it was a C. I suppose it could also be a B or V or something else not repeated."

Alex blinked. Wait she hadn't finished before him? That was crazy! He looked at her answer and then smiled. "Yeah, it's actually a B but I can see why you thought it was C, especially since it wasn't anywhere else in the puzzle. It's a saying from a Muggle cartoon movie I saw a long time ago...there was a tea party and a pink and purple cat who could disappear, I don't know why I thought of that but that part stuck with me," he chuckled. It was an odd saying, but that was why it had been perfect for this assignment!

"So, is mine correct?" he asked, handing her the paper. Please be correct, please be correct...

She took the paper from him and scanned the unencrypted message Alex had managed to decode from her message. It looked... word for word and letter for letter perfect. "You did it exactly. Good job! I was worried I'd done yours wrong at first, because it was so similar to a Muggle song I've heard, but I could make the song fit."

So he'd actually been quite clever to use something she thought she knew, because if she'd been less careful, she would have decoded it all wrong. "Thank you for decoding mine. I know the symbols are odd... it's an old code called Pig Pen that I learned from a book when I was a little girl."

Alex shrugged. "Letters, symbols, it's all the same when it comes to cryptograms, right?" he said with a chuckle. It was supposed to be confusing no matter what you used. "And awesome! It took me a while but I got it eventually. Thanks for helping me with mine," he added with a grin.

"I'm sure you'll get full marks on it," he added as an afterthought. "It was really creative."

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's--Sierra Greingoth, actually.

The sound of heavy footsteps, someone running to be exact, sounded down the third floor corridor. Yes, Sierra was fresh from Care of Magical Creatures class, and she was still under the effects of the Fwooper's song.

"ALEX!" she yelled out, spotting her brother down the corridor. She took off running in his direction. "ALEX!" she yelled again. Oh, and Vivi Branxton was there, too. "HEYYYY, VIVI! Happy Upcoming Graduation!"

She came to a screeching halt a few inches away from Alex, grinned at them, and wrapped him in the tightest hug she could manage. "Have a good day, Puffer Brother!" She gave Vivi and upward nod of the head as if to say 'Sup, Vivi?'

A second later, she was back to running down the corridor and away from the duo.

Laura was walking around looking for her friend Dylan, she had asked him to help her with her Arithmancy Homework, she was sure that Dylan would be good at solving Cryptograms after all she had taught him loads, and this was going to be awesome, she just hoped that he wouldn't mind her Cryptograms because they were all done in fun.

Laura had the parchment in her hands as she waited for him to come, she was going a bit restless, she wanted to get this over and done with because she wasn't very good at things like this and the sooner they were done the better it would be.

Dylan walked to the third corridor not sure if he wanted help with some homework since he disliked homework and classes, but he had agreed cause.. well.. he was hoping it would be a fun kinda homework.. with maybe a fun thing at the end if he worked hard enough for it. He saw her as he walked down the third corridor, he walked upto her

"Hey Laura.. I am here.. ready to do.. whatever it is that needs to be done" cause he wasnt sure what she had in mind when she told him she needed help with her homework, what sort of code had she got going? Well now was the time to find out of course.

Laura looked around when she saw that her friend Dylan had finally arrived, it was about time, she had just been about to get a drink out and some food because it had felt like ages, she had been waiting, even though it probably hadn't been long.

"Okay so I need you to try and decode this." Laura smiled, she wasn't going to let him down, she would give him some clues. "We are using the Chaldean System." Laura thought that was enough of a clue for now, she handed him the Parchment and hoped that his brain was in gear.

Dylan looked at the piece of parchment as she handed it to him he just blinked at it as all he saw were numbers .. well thats what it looked like to him anyways. Just numbers..

He nodded "Ok.. got it.." he said as he got out his book and sat down on the corridor floor.. with his quill.. he had never looked at a book that much but he didnt like books so to bring this one along was a job



He decided it would be easier to start with the smaller numbers first and figure those out



He smiled at his progress "One down.. three to go!" he said as he put quill to parchment again



He looked at that word and instantly knew that it was wrong.. but he decided to crack the rest and maybe that would help so he carried on



Right now just one more word to go



Ok he knew that one was wrong.. cause he could see it was HUFFLEPUFFS.. but that second word?

"Hey Laura.. can I ask.. is that one right? I dont know a word that means BUGE" he said as he looked at his parchment since he ended up with the following

HUFFLEFUFFS BUGE THE WORLD

Laura looked at Dylans work and almost giggled but that would upset him, she had never heard of anyone cald Hufflefuffs before and she could be sure that Buge wasn't a word but she was going to look it up anyway, she took out her dictionary, she was shocked when this came up. "The BugE is a one-passenger, three-wheeled battery electric vehicle designed by Mark Murphy of Blue Sky Design" Laura read it and then put it down, so it wasn't one of them she could tell Dylan that now. "Nope Dylan that isn't right, the first word is almost right and the second word begins with an R." Laura smiled, she was sure he would be able to get it. "I know you can do it Dylan." Laura cheered for her friend.

Dylan watched as she looked up the word Buge.. which was actually a word? wow who knew! Ahh well he knew battery and electric ... his mom being a muggle and all. He then listened as she told him where he had gone wrong.. he then got to work on amending his mistakes

"Ok.. here we go"



He looked up at Laura before writing out the words

HUFFLEPUFFS RULE THE WORLD

He chuckled.. and shook his head.. "They not the only ones that rule the world you know." he said this but meant that they DONT rule the world cause them Gryffies did but he didnt say this out loud of course he wasnt gonna upset her over a code that she believed to be true.

Laura looked at Dylan and giggled, she hoped that he wouldn't mind what she had said. "I know we can rule the world together Dylan." Laura thought it would be fun if they ruled the world together it would be awesome. "You did great Dylan." Laura hoped that Dylan wouldn't be angry with her. "Want to try another code?" Laura wasn't going to force him if he didn't want to do it.