The phone was beeping and AJ still hadn't come up with what she wanted to say on the message. This was the whole reason why she had completely started over, and here she was... still unprepared. This was so AJ. Looks like she was just going to have to wing it. Who was she kidding? This was how life worked for her pretty much in every situation. She wasn't the type to sit down and plan or think things through.

No more beeps which meant it was go time. Phone voice activated. AJ sucked in air and let whatever came to her mind come out of her mouth.

"You have reached the one and only AJ Valentine, but unfortunately for you I'm not here. Unicorns aren't going to walk themselves you know. So, if you can impress my unicorn with your message then I will call you back. Peace, love, and tacos."

All done. AJ pressed the # button and hung up the phone for the last time. Best message ever, and she was done. WOOT. Tacos were on the brain and she needed some in her belly like yesterday!

As Kace put the telephone near his ear, he began to push some buttons into the phone. He began to press some numbers into his telephone. He thought this was weird I mean he knew how to make a voice mail and all that junk. I mean why not mess around with it. He pressed the numbers ready to see what would happen. He heard the phone ringing and knew he punched in correctly. I guess first time the charm. He was gonna be taken to a mystery persons voicemail. Hmmm....as his phone ringing ended, he heard the mystery person's voice and man did it sound weird. In fact he sounded bored and uninterested. Man this dude sounded like he hated his job. As he listened he got the phone number for a pizza place. Out of all the numbers to have, he got a pizza place. That was epic!

He chuckled to himself and thought what voicemail to get. He cleared his throat and when he heard he needed to leave a voicemail after the beep, he began with.."Hi my name is Kace Lecium and I left an order for twelve pizza pies. I was hoping you could give me a call back because the party is going to start soon. You can reach me on cell that I gave you. Thanks..." he trailed off and hung up the phone.

He wondered what Moxley was going to think of that. Not his fault he got the voicemail for a pizza dude.

There was no answer, but Zhenya looked down at the directions card and it said she had to type in a number. Zhenya was almost about to huff in frustration, but maybe she wasn't supposed to hear anything just yet? She had to type the numbers into the keypad. Well that was pretty easy. There was only one bit on the telephone she could do that. She put the headset on her lap as she carefully dialled the number on the bottom of the directions card, and put the headset back against her ear. She heard a muted ring-ring, ring-ring, and pulled it back. She wasn't hearing it from the bit that was against her ear, but the bit against her mouth. She flipped it, putting the ear piece against her ear, and realisation dawned on her. Oops.

She waited until the ringing stopped, and she heard a voice on the other end. Having read the directions card, she saw it was a voicemail, and she realised it wasn't actually a person she could speak to. So, she didn't try and say hello.

It was Professor Moxley! Zhenya smiled to herself and when she heard the beep, she did what she had to do. Left a message. "Hello Professor Moxley," she said, very very clearly. "This is Zhenya Burton. I am doing my Muggle Studies Homework and have successfully dialled a number. Thank you, good bye," and she replaced the headset.

Rrriiiing Rrriiiing Rrriiiing....Click

'Hello and congratulations! You've successfully reached the voicemail of Meredith Noel Moxley, Muggle Studies Professor and Hogwarts Sweetheart! Leave a message after the beep!'

Beeeeeeeeep

Wait. Maybe she should have thought of WHAT to say before picking up the receiver. Errr. Errr. Errr. "Hi. This is Magdalena Natalie Traulton." Yes. That was a good start. Only what else was she supposed to say??? She didn't exactly leave a lot of voicemails. Like. People usually PICKED UP THE PHONE when she called them.

It was quite rude of the professor really.

"I think you need to get a......newer phone, professor." Yes. That. And before she could say more stupid things she put down the handset after saying, "Okay, bye. Have a nice day." That went well. Not.

Okay. What was next? She really had to get this over with.

Angel wasn't sure if she was going to enjoy this... it was an old fashioned phone. At home she had a mobile phone that she spent most of her time on texting her mates in fact they always told her off for not texting or ringing during the year but she had come up with a good reason as to why she never did and that included saying her school took the phones of them at the start of term.

Angel walked into the room and went to find out what they had to do she looked down at the phone and giggled. Seriously couldn't the professor have gotten them some better phones maybe a tablet or something with internet access. She wondered if that would actually work around here.

Angel then picked up the receiver like she was instructed to and then she looked down at the phone and started to press the numbers that she was told too, seriously this was like the 1980's now a day's not many people used the phone when you could chat online and do more exciting things.

*ring* *ring*

Angel smiled she must have got the right number because it was ringing, she wished that they could have put music on instead of a ringtone but the person who created the phone never thought about that.

Okay. Well that had only been half bad. Ish.

Well. She'd completed the first task anyway. Go her.

Onto the second one. Recording a voicemail. That actually sounded even WORSE.

Maggie groaned, then picked up the handset again and held it to her ear before pressing the voicemail button. Were they disinfecting it between students? She certainly hoped so. What if some gross student who'd just done something gross with their hands had touched it befo-

Oh. Hello. There was a voice.

Greeting her. How nice. Okay. Now. She had to press 4. Maggie reached out and gingerly pressed the number four button with her pinky finger.

Aside from the tin can phones in class, the only kind of phone Sophie had ever had experience with was a cell phone. First Tobes' phone, and then her own, once she got one for the summers to be cool and stay in touch with Tobes and send him a million pictures of herself. She wasn't really sure what to expect from the phones here today, but she felt pretty confident. How much different from a cell phone could it be? You just pressed the numbers, and she knew the additional lingo to place a call. So... she was pretty confident, honestly. SHE COULD DO THIS.

At her assigned time, Sophie made her way into the phone room and got settled into an empty cubicle, setting her bag down beside her chair and... faltering slightly at the sight of the phone.

Okay... so... it WAS pretty different. Hm. Okay. Well. Nothing Sophie Brown couldn't handle, right?

She picked up the parchment and read over the directions, her eyes narrowing slightly as she concentrated on every word and focused on making sense of them. Handset... must have been the thing that you hold in your hand, and thus the part that you talked into and listened from, right? So Soph picked that up and put the top part to her ear like she was instructed, and then... numbers. That was weird, that the numbers were physically there as buttons and not on a little screen the way hers was on her cell phone back home. Made things easier, though, and Sophie went ahead to press the numbers as instructed and waited...

And it began to ring.

..... And he was still OH someone was saying something. Or more like that robot voice operator thing was saying something. He sort of wasn't paying attention though... Oops? Instead Zander's thoughts were on the voice itself. He was just wondering whose voice that was. You know, like did someone have to sit behind a phone and record themselves for the ENTIRE world to hear. 'Cause that's a whole ton of pressure. Zander could hardly even record a message for just Professor Moxley to hear.

Talk about the whole world on your shoulders, right?

Ahem. Anyways, finally the greeting thing had run it's course and WAIT he had to press a button. Riiiight. Hit quickly hit the button between the three and the five, so FOUR. Anyways, he was trying to think of a greeting now. Moxley would probably appreciate something cool and original. So Zander was gonna try his absolute BEST, which in retrospect wasn't all that great of a best... But at least he was gonna try, okay? Oh yeah and he punched in the number 1 as well!

Angel was now waiting for the ringing to stop and the voicemail to come, because she knew that no one was going to answer the Professor had made that clear.

*ring* *ring* *ring*

Angel was getting bored now, seriously who decided when the voicemail was to be used.

*ring* *ring*

Angel smiled as the ringing finally stopped, she then listened to what the voice was saying to her.

*beep*

Angel took a deep breath before started. "Hello!" Angel started. "I'm Angel Valentine, did you know that it is important to brush your hair and to make sure that you smell nice?" Angel had no idea what else to say. "Oh and also some people say that the moon is made from cheese." Angel now had to figure something out. "Anyway I think I've talked long enough, if you ever want to talk to me you know my name." Angel stopped the message there by putting the receiver down. Now all she had to do was the next task what was it again.

RING... RING...

And then there was a voice. But it wasn't a mysterious voice at all - no, it was THE PROFESSOR'S. Mega lame. Wouldn't it have been cool if they could have reached the Minister for Magic's number or something? Still, Moxley had a jolly, enthusiastic voice that Sophie had an appreciation for, so the Ravenclaw just smiled to herself as the message went on.

Hello and congratulations! You've successfully reached the voicemail of Meredith Noel Moxley, Muggle Studies Professor and Hogwarts Sweetheart! Leave a message after the beep!

...Ruh roh. SHE HADN'T THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT SHE WOULD SAY. What was she SUPPOSED to say? Umm...

Beep.

"Hi, professor. It's Sophie Brown," she began, her eyes scanning the directions for any sort of instruction on what she was supposed to say or how long she was supposed to talk, but she couldn't find it while she was improvising. "I think this activity is really cool, and this phone is super weird and nothing like the cell phones I've played with. So thanks for the opportunity to learn more 'bout stuff, and... you're a great professor and I hope you stay at Hogwarts for a long time because we're lucky to have a professor like you."

Sophie Brown-nose indeed.

Was there anything else? "Oh, uh, and you're totally right about being Hogwarts' sweetheart, from your lil voicemail message there. Thanks for being cool. Hope y'have a good day." And she placed the handset back where she'd picked it up from to hang it up.

Heeeheheheeh. Moxley would LOVE that, wouldn't she?

So the Muggle studies lesson was really fun. She liked making the tin can phones. Thanks to Mercedes, Cinna pretty much knew her way around the telephone. Cedes had even bought her a cellphone a few years ago when she moved here. Which was very cool at the time being a fourteen year old which with a cell phone. And she used phones to talk to her when Cedes lived in New York. She wondered what the homework would be.

When it was her assigned time the Gryffindor headed down to the place where she was suppose to go to do the homework. Seeing the cubicles she found a empty one and plopped down in the chair. Wow wee that was an old looking phone that was in front of her.

She seen a paper with the directions, reading over them she got right to work. She picked up the phone and put it to her ear. Ohhh dial tone. She was good to go. She looked down at the bottom of the paper for the number and dial the number. Was it going to ring? Please ring.

Ring, ring.

Her voicemail present for Moxley had been beautiful and Sophie had no doubt that the woman would love it. She actually wished she could be there when the professor listened to it, but... it was probably best that she wouldn't be there because she didn't want to see Moxley cry over how lovely the message was.

Uplifted by her own good deed of the day, Sophie picked up the instructions and read over the directions on how to record a voicemail. There were... a lot... of things... to keep in mind. She got the handset part down, and... Sophie peeked at the phone console, squinting until she found the voicemail button - there, ah, yes. So she knew where that was, and the number 4 button was right there, too. Pretty easy and self-explanatory. The number 1 key and the # key were both right nearby also, so... Merlin, this wasn't going to be so hard at all, was it?

Feeling pretty confident now moving forward, Sophie picked up the handset again and put it up to her ear, just like she had before, then pressed the rectangular voicemail key on the right side of the console.

OOP. It was CALLING. Sophie bounced a little in her chair as she waited for the voicemail to greet her and realized... she needed to figure out what to SAY when she recorded her voicemail thing, too. It shouldn't have been such a big deal, BUT SHE WANTED IT TO SOUND GOOD as if it was the real thing. Of course, she'd already done this for her cell phone back at home, but... the stakes felt different here. This would be a thing Moxley heard, so it had to be eloquent and appropriate and win the woman's heart.

She could do that.

RIIIIIIING. RIIIIIIIIIIIIING. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING Norah pushed the phone into her ear as she listened to it ring and ring and ring forEVER. How long did it have to ring, anyways? Was there a specific number of rings or would it go on for ever and ever and ever until she turned old and gray and shriveled into a little raisin? Who got to choose the number, anyways? Right when she was about to hang up the phone so she could search for the answer to all these TOTALLY important questions, Moxley's voice came clear and loud through the squarish thingy mabob at the top of the phone, right into her ear. Well, right into her ear for the first fraction of a second before she dropped it on the floor in surprise. Was it that loud last time she'd used the telephone? Scrambling to bring the phone back to her ear (though not as close this time, she did LEARN), the Hufflepuff heard 'leave a message after the beep.'

Did she say the beep or what? Where was the beep? BEEEEEEEEEEP. Aha!

Sophie gave the directions a glance as she waited for the greeting, and a smile spread across her face when she read the part about keeping the greeting appropriate. Even MOXLEY Was telling them that, which was super funny. It wasn't hard for her to keep it appropriate, but a few choice people - namely a couple Slytherins - came to mind. She could do appropriate, though. No big deal. Hers would be the best voicemail to ever be a voicemail.

OH THERE IT WAS. It greeted her, and Soph had to glance at the instructions quickly to double check that it was the number 4 button she was supposed to press, and she did so. Then the voice gave her a little spiel about her voicemail options, and... ah, it WAS the number 1 button that she wanted next, the voice even told her so, just like her one at home!

Despite how old this phone seemed in comparison to hers, it was really just as simple, wasn't it?

Following the guidance, the Ravenclaw went ahead to press 1, thinking this task was quite simple so far, and waited as it gave her the spiel prior to the beep. She knew it was coming, the beep was, and the suspense built as she waited for it...

She really should've planned better and written something out for this if she really wanted to record a GOOD voicemail for Moxley. But, alas, here she was, about to wing it.

Okay, with that one done Zhenya had to now... *gulp* record a voicemail. She read through all of the dot points, starting to feel a bit of a panic coming along. How was she supposed to do the task if she'd never used a telephone before? Zhenya didn't really like the telephone much after all, she supposed the two-way mirror, sending letters via owl or, one day, patronus would be easier. But still, it was muggle studies and she had decided to do the lesson because she didn't know much about the muggle way of living. It was interesting, and she would just do it.

So, now that she knew the right way to put the headset against her head, Zhenya picked it up and put the ear piece next to her ear and the mouth piece next to her mouth. Okay, step one complete. Now she just had to press the voicemail button... "Where are you?" she muttered to the telephone, pressing her glasses up her nose a bit and leaning forward to look at all the buttons. "There!" She pressed the voicemail button.

What happened to the tin can? Cutty rarely experienced separation anxiety, but when he saw the complicated Muggle contraption he was meant to use to place a call he found himself wishing for it. Muggle Studies, you were supposed to be an easy O. What the heck happened?

Taking a seat, Cutty lifted the phone off the receiver, glanced at the instructions, didn't read them and began pressing random numbers quickly figuring out that he could make him a little three note song. He proceeded to do this for an indefinite amount of time.

Eden considered herself a PRO at using the phones. Since..you know..half muggle and all. She used a phone all the tiiiiiime, and they had one at her house. Granted, this one was a little outdated, but it was still the same general idea.

She had her notebook with the homework...and the directions sheet was there. Okay. This was..like...the easiest homework ever for Eden, right now. She just had to make a phone call first...right.

So, the Ravenclaw clicked the number on the directions, and waited. Merlin. Why couldn't all subjects be as easy, breezy and BEAUTIFUL as Muggle Studies? Really? So relaxing, so...so just comfortable for Eden.

She could hear the dial tone ringing...who would answer?! Eden wanted to know if she could sneak a call to her mam...hmmm...

Waiting for the beep after the voice's instructional spiel was agonizing, and Sophie held her breath as she tried to figure out how she was going to start. She didn't want to stumble over her words or say "like" and "stuff" and "super" like she usually threw into conversation far too frequently, and she didn't want Moxley to think she sounded stupid or that she wasn't taking the assignment seriously. She WAS taking it seriously, okay? Too seriously, perhaps.

But... no matter how the voicemail went, she was pretty lucky that this was Moxley's class because Moxley WAS super chill about everything and just liked people to try. So... that aspect on top of her sucking up in the voicemail she LEFT for the professor probably made anything that she said next acceptable before she even began.

BEEP.

"...Hey, you've reached the number of Sophie Brown! Sorry I missed your call, but I'm probably off doing important things like adventuring with Tobes and Zander or saving the world. Leave a message and I'll probably get back to you in a timely manner." Probably. "Thaaaanks."

Aaaand... it took her a moment to decide she was done, and then it took her an extra moment to remember what button she was supposed to push next - the one with the # symbol, right? So she pushed that and set the handset thing back down where it was before.

Well... that... hadn't been completely ridiculous, right? It wasn't as spirited as her cell phone voicemail was, but it had to be something that Moxley wouldn't totally hate, so... that probably sufficed. Proooobably.

So... ahem... she was done then, right? She would just caaasually gather her bag and leave and pretend like she wasn't disappointed that her voicemail hadn't been cooler. Though she TOTALLY WAS. Sigh. Poor Moxley, having to listen to that.

After his little incident, he grinned sheepishly and began to punch in the right numbers. It is not that he did it on purpose, he just wanted to see what would happen if he accidentally dialed the wrong number. I mean he knew how to work these things. He had one at home. He pressed the buttons on the machine and he heard it ring and then he heard Moxley's voice loud and clear speaking..."Hello and congratulations! You've successfully reached the voicemail of Meredith Noel Moxley, Muggle Studies Professor and Hogwarts Sweetheart! Leave a message after the beep!" Man she did sound a little bit too cheery about this assignment.

Now onto leaving his voicemail message, he cleared his throat beforehand and began to speak after the beep. "Hey Professor Moxley, this is Kace Lecium. I successfully dialed the number. Maybe next time in the near future we can try cell phones? Yeah this phone is ancient. On the other hand nice lesson you gave us. Erm alright...have a good day." Then he put his phone back on the headset.

Now what is the next step? Oh right making his own voicemail thing. This shall be interesting.

After pressing the voicemail button, Zhenya waited. There was a little voice in the ear piece, talking to her. "Hello? Who is this?" the voice kept talking. That was a bit... well, honestly it was a bit rude. "Excuse me, hello? My name is Zhenya Burton and I'd like to... HELLO? Can you please stop talking and listen to me?" It kept talking. "Excuse me, I need to record a... I NEED TO RECORD A MESSAGE!" Even talking up slightly, the voice kept speaking. Zhenya was frustrated and hung up on it. She took a few deep breaths, she didn't want to get angry and leave the room.

Okay, try again.

Zhenya picked up the headset, putting it against her face, and pressed the voicemail button again. The voice started speaking again, and it was the same voice, the same start of the greeting. Zhenya decided to just listen without speaking. It might get angry at her for not speaking, but it was just being rude to her. She listened as the voice told her there was no voicemail recorded, and gave her prompts to set a voicemail greeting up. Zhenya double checked on the directions card and, yes, that's what the task was to do. She followed the directions and saw that she had to press number 4. She had used the number pad before, so she knew what to do, and pressed number 4. It again told her that she did not have a voicemail message recorded. Yes yes, she knew that. But then the directions card prompted her, again, to press number 1, which Zhenya did. The same little voice continued speaking, telling her she had chosen to record a voice message, and gave her instructions.

Ring....riiiiiing.....ring....riiiiiiiing...

Eden waited veeery patiently for the ringing to stop. She heard Professor Moxley's voice and smiled a little. She was so cool and funny and quirky in the best of ways. Before Eden could think of what to say....the beep BEEPED and she.....panicked.

"UM--"

She hung up the phone.

GAH.

GAH.

GAH.

She took a deep breath. Right. She should probably write down what she wanted to say beforehand so that she didn't FREEZE like she just had. So she scribbled a little something down and dialed the number again, waiting, breathlessly, for the phone to finish the ringing and get to Moxley's voicemail.

She was prepared this time.

After the beep, Eden smiled, took a deep breath, and began. "Hi, Professor! This is really cool--it makes me feel more at home--I love it--hope your day is going well! Your class is awesome--bye! Oh--Eden--" and the thing cut her off.

Sigh.

SIGH.

She hoped Moxley would know it was her.

The voice on the other end was explaining to her what to do. She had to record a message after the beep, and then press the # button. Zhenya looked at the number pad and found the # button. Good thing she knew where it was for when she had to press the button. Zhenya remembered Professor Moxley's message, basically saying hello to whoever was calling, and that they weren't available to speak and to leave a message. Well, that seemed pretty easy. Zhenya was okay to speak into the phone and record a message, but she wasn't sure what to record. But what would the beep sound like? Was it really discreet that she couldn't actually hear it? Would it be really loud? Would it come from the ear piece or the phone itself? But there it was, a small beep that Zhenya heard from the earpiece. She hadn't actually thought about what message she would say, so she couldn't speak a pre-thought out message. Uh oh...

"HELLOTHISISZHENYABURTON," she blurted out quickly and loudly, just in case it disconnected for not speaking quick enough, giving her a fail. No, she didn't want that. "Er... you've um dialled my telephone number, I think, and now you're, er, you've got to my er... my voice mail bank. My message bank. Um... yeah. So, sorry I'm not here to pick up but it's only a homework assignment and it's not actually my phone, so I can't answer it if you call. Um... you can leave a message after the beep. I think there will be a beep. Otherwise just send me a letter with your owl, or if you know how to send a message with a patronus do that. I like those things. Um, anyway, I'm Zhenya Burton, as I said, and I'm graduating in a few months so if I'm not a student anymore, then you'll just have to owl me anyway. If you'd like, you can always two-way mir-" she tried to finish, but there was a beep. The voice told her the message was too long and had stopped. She quickly pressed the # button to save it, and hung up the headset.

Well, apparently that was the rest of it. She stood up, took one last long analysing look at the telephone and left.

Even if he spent most of his time nowadays in the wizarding world, Ethan was still familiar with muggle phones. He did spend his childhood in a muggle community, so yes, phones aren’t totally alien to the pureblood. Theirs back at his mother’s house was a wireless one but, the one in the room was like...super ancient. Its function and process should be the same though!

So yes, first things first. Make a call.

Ethan sat on the chair as he picked up the instruction, read it over and over again, then picked up the handset and placed it on his ear. There was a dial tone, so he knows that he’s all clear to punch in the numbers written on the card.

Once he was done punching the numbers in, he tapped the table with his forefinger impatiently. The Slytherin grinned though when he finally heard the ring! Now...someone should go pick his call...hmm.

So she now had to record a voicemail, she had wanted to do one at home but her parents wouldn't let her because they knew what she wanted to say on the voicemail and apparently it wouldn't be fair on her sisters if just she was allowed to do a voicemail though she also thought it would be fun to do a family voicemail but again that had been a no...no.

Angel smiled as she looked at the phone this was going to be amazing... she couldn't wait to get this started and to do the whole voicemail. She picked up the receiver and put it to her ear... she was so excited about this task. Why couldn't they sort things out.

Angel looked for the voicemail button and found it located on the right side of the keypad, she then pressed it... she wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Alright, so they were supposed to be working with actual telephones for their homework. Not the tin-can ones they had made in class. Benny wasn't too afraid of the prospect, even though he wondered just what tasks related to it Moxley would have them do. The homework announcement hadn't specified but he'd learn out soon enough as he arrived at the special room that had been deemed 'the phone room.'

Benny stepped inside when it was his allotted time and moved to one of the cibicles. As he took a seat, he noticed the telephone before him was like the one in the diagram so he took it out of his bookbag for reference. Hadn't been told they couldn't. "Still a lot of buttons," he mused aloud. And still looking far more complicated than anything he had used before from the current age.

With a soft sigh, he opted to read the given directions over once or twice, doing so in hopes that something would click and it wasn't tooo complicated. Can't make it too hard for the non-muggleborn...right? Making a call...leaving a message. Not too naf sounding but the second list had a lot of long steps.

Oh how he wished Angel or AJ had been assigned at the same time as he was to help if it was needed.