It was strange, how the subject he had initially thought he would struggle with, had turned out to be one of his best. The decision to take it for OWLs and NEWTs didn't take much time it was locked in as far as he was concerned.

With a spring in his step, Zeke meandered the corridors, his nose twitching slightly as a scent become stronger as he neared the classroom---- or, what WAS the classroom.

Hazel eyes panned the room, place, temple thing. Stepping into different worlds wasn't uncommon at Hogwarts, but this was... oddly surprising. He seldom liked smelly stuff, the lavender in Divination always made his nose itch, but this wasn't too bad, even if it was a little hazy.

"Hello, Professor," he greeted the Arithmancer as he moved further inside, pausing only to help himself to one of the stacked cushions. So... they could sit anywhere?

After skipping her last potions class, she figured it wasn't wise to skip Arithmancy too. Or rather, she knew this class was one that she couldn't afford to miss any lessons on. It was hard, okay? On second thought, maybe she should have skipped this one and went to Potions. No. OWL's were practically here and the last thing she needed to do was flunk those. Enough had happened to her this year.

As AJ rounded the corner, her nose was greeted with something weird. Actually, it didn't smell all that bad... it just sort of caught her off guard. Walking to where she knew the classroom to be, she stopped and blinked a few times. No classroom. This was cool.

Picking a cushion out for her own, she went and plopped herself down. "Hello professor. Hey Zeke." This was a nice cushion. A quick nap before they were due to start?

Arithmancy. At one time it had been her worst subject. As the years went by and more studying was done and a little guidance from some friends it wasn't so bad now. Most of it actually made sense so it was with no trouble that Hady found herself making her way towards the lesson as normal.

Nearing what was once the classroom the fourth year found herself stopping mid-step near the entrance way to take in the 'temple courtyard'. Now this was rather different especially for this lesson. For now though Hady wasn't about to make much of it as she grabbed herself a cushion from beside the door and stepped further into the courtyard. "Hello Professor," she greeted quietly with a light smile making her way to an empty spot and setting her cushion down. Not that it was all that hard being she was one of the first to arrive. She sent Zeke and AJ both a small nod in greeting before settling herself down on her cushion.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle!

This Hufflepuff was READY for another lesson! Bright eyed and with an extra side of happy, Adi had almost reached the Arithmancy classroom when he slowed down to sniff the air. He was all too familiar with that incense smell. Yup. It was no surprise when the smells lead straight to the room. But WOOOAH! It wasn't the classroom!

"Cool!" He surveyed the place some more before heading in. "Hiiiii, Professor! Very interesting setup today!" Indeed it was. Alrightey, time to find a seat... Er, cushion. Adi grinned at his friends as he found himself a cushion to flop down on.

Ready for the lesson, Professor!

Angel was totally looking forwards to this lesson with Professor Tanner, it was a lot better than the last lesson she had done with her, she loved soccer and nothing was going to beat that, saying that towards the end of the lesson she had started to enjoying flying around on the broomstick, but hopefully today they were keeping their feet firmly on the ground right?

"Hi Professor." Angel smiled as she walked into the classroom. "I hope your well today." Angel was totally looking forwards to seeing what they would be learning today. She saw her sister and after grabbing a cushion she went and plopped down next to her, her sister wouldn't mind, and there was Zeke and Hady who both got smiles from her.

"Woooooooooooooooow." First words as he walked into the Arithmancy classroom--er...was it still the classroom? Did it still count? Blaise paused by the door a moment, taken in the explanation for whatever it was he'd been smelling on the way over here.

"You just keep getting better and better, don't you Professor?" The little boy said in awe as he began walking around.

Don't ask him what this had to do with numbers, he had NO idea and didn't think he wanted to question it either. Who honestly cared? It was enough this wouldn't be the average run of the mill desks and chairs.

Ooo, what'd this thing do? Poke. Poke. Poke.

Tia would have been inside the "classroom" like five minutes ago, if she hadn't done a double-take as she walked past what she knew to be the Arithmancy Classroom but was befuddled by the aromas coming from it. She never would have pegged Arithmancy to be one to have a lesson smelling as such; Divination definitely, Defense maybe if Romanos was still around. But not numbers class.

Nonetheless, once she finally convinced herself this WAS where Arithmancy was meant to be, the sixth year stood just inside in awe at the transformations. So Professor Tanner not only was a skilled numerologist and flyer, but also skilled in the art of transfiguration TOO?!? Was there anything Tanner couldn't do?! Probably yes, but right now she was marveled over the woman's skills to care about her weaknesses. With good reason too.

"Morning Professor!" Tia exclaimed, finding a cushion near the front. "The room looks STELLAR!" Like she wanted to learn how to do such transfigurations, but she guessed it was actually several basic spells combined.

Um...was that something burning?

As Benny neared the Arithmancy classroom there certainly smelled like something, even if ti was more sweet than acrid. Upon stepping into the doorway more than the room was revealed. The source of the smells and the appearance of a transfigured location was very much present, complete with cushions to sit on. Alright then. A brief reminder of Professor Romanos' classroom...minus the smell.

"Good morning Professor," he greeted politely as he picked up said cushion. The seventh year moving to place it close to where Adi himself had posted his and sat down. "Hey..."

Errrr, what was going on here?

The weird smell was bad enough, but where had the classroom gone? Paulina was rather used to odd things from Professors at this point, but Tanner had always been rather normal in comparison to say Flamsteed.

"Hello, Professor." She was busy looking around the courtyard, but that didn't mean she had missed the teacher sitting on a mat. Seemed rather comfortable so she was glad that she would be able to sit on one of her own. Selecting hers from the pile, Paulina opted to sit by Adi and Benny. "Hey, guys!"

Janelle made her way to Arithmancy class and was surprisingly looking forward to it. She had never expected to find numbers interesting, but they kinda were. Suddenly, she got a whiff of something. Had she taken a wrong turn and gone to Divination instead of Arithmancy? Janelle's confusion increased when she got a look at the "classroom"

Well now this was different. After taking a moment to check out the scene, Janelle made her greetings. "Hello Professor Tanner, classmates." of course a special wave went to big bro Adi. Grabbing a cushion, Janelle found a spot on the floor and sat down. She could not imagine what they would be doing today. Janelle just guessed she'd have to wait and see like everyone else.

Arithmancy

Dante liked plain and simple numbers. The kind you would use in a business transaction. He did not really care about the magical implications. But yeah he wanted to take the OWL in this class next year. So yeah he had to care.

........Can you even call this a classroom. Were they suppose to be Buddhist monks or something. Probably wrong country there but whatever. It would be something different.

"Hey, Professor Tanner. Interesting set up."

After greetings he found a spot to drop his cushion and take a seat.

The sound of wind chimes in the distance called the class to order. Tiara began with a smile to her young charges. "Good morning, and welcome to what I believe will be an enlightening lesson." She had to pause for a moment to shift positions on her mat before continuing. "There are several reason why I have chosen to transform the room today, some related to the topic and others to practical reasons - I do not think a field trip to Asia would be approved by the Headmaster."

"Today's topic borders on Divination and was first used in the Jin Dynasty in third century China. The practice has evolved over the centuries and is now used throughout the region and in different religions." Twisting around, she picked up a black tube that was ornately decorated with red symbols. "These are the tools used for Kau Cim, a muggle form of Arithmancy, which is often called Chien Tung or Chinese Fortune Sticks on this side of the world."

Tiara was curious. "I know we have many varied backgrounds represented in this room. Some of you are muggleborn or may have religious or ethnic ties to this practice. Does anyone know anything about it?" It was always good to see what students knew before beginning; there was no point to repeating information they already knew. Plus she wanted to get to the activity as soon as possible, since that was the fun part.

A cushion, he had a cushion. Yep. And so with that he found himself a patch of floor to occupy, offering his peers greetings and nods as they too arrived to the lesson.

He was reminded of Professor Myers' meditation sessions, but was very conscious of the fact that this was not that, and so he was curious.

With the lesson underway, Zeke listened as Professor Tanner alluded to what they would be studying today. Chinese fortune sticks? Or something of the sort. He didn't have much faith in Divination, and so he hoped there would be some sense to be made of what they were practicing today, but as for the initial question... he didn't know much.

Hand raised, he offered all that he could. "Aren't there characters with meanings on these sticks? And so people derive meaning from those." Interpretation, everything was always open to interpretation. Just like their onions.

... Talk about a weird set up.

Zander Adair wasn't sure how he felt about it yet... Still trying to get a feel for the new layout... Y'know? It was all kind of distracting, though he assumed it was put in place to do the opposite. Wasn't stuff like this supposed to put you at ease or something? Made him think of meditation or something like that. But still... Not a traditional day in Arithmancy, huh?

As fore the question though.... Zander raised his brows. The only thing he knew about Chinese Fortune Sticks was that they were one word away from being Chinese Fortune Cookies. And he LIKED those. Though uh, didn't really sound like arithmancy so probably no connection to draw there.

As for the rest of this stuff.... He had know idea where she was going with this. How the heck did any of this relate to Arithmancy? It was starting to sound a lot more like divination in Zander's opinion. So he decided to stay quiet, noting Zeke's answer about characters... Characters and numbers were pretty similar actually. Maybe that was where the parallel could be drawn to Arithmancy? Zander wasn't all too sure but it was the most tangible idea he had at the moment.

So he wrote down some of his thoughts, before looking back up at Tanner.

People were being awfully quiet today.

First up to join him was the boyfriend. Adi grinned broadly as the Lion took up a seat beside him. "Heya, dragon! Thought you would have fallen asleep before this class.'' He was half serious, half teasing. So much studying had to be done and it was draining. Adi patiently watched the others trickle in. He waved happily to Janelle then greeted Polly right back. Awesomeee! She was sitting with him and Benny! The more the merrier!
....................

Ahh, if only they could have gone on a real field trip! One to Asia wouldn't be so bad. China would have been a fascinating place to see. Anyway, the Hufflepuff zoned in on the sticks before scurrying to make some notes on the topic. Surely this would be helpful for NEWTs. But he did know a little about this form of Divination solely from reading.

Up went his left hand. "Sometimes if more than one stick falls from the container after being shaken, they are replaced and the process redone until one stick falls.''

Chinese Arithmancy.

That went a great way in explaining why the classroom was set up so strangely. Paulina wished that they could REALLY go to China, because she liked it there. Living in Japan, it wasn't too far from home - all things considered.

At the question, she raised her hand. "The predictions formed by this practice of divination tell a person about opportunities in life as well as future prospects. They are considered to be precise and accurate." There was more to it obviously, but Paulina didn't want to hog the answer from other people.

Angel smiled at the professor and said she was, then it was time for a question and even though she wasn't sure of the answer, she raised her hand. "Professor, is it something to do with finding out about your future using pictures?" Angel thought the question merited a guess.

It was time for the mystery to be solved. Class was beginning and Janelle listened as Professor Tanner explained the topic for the day. Interesting. Janelle didn't know anything about Chinese Fortune sticks , but she decided to take a guess about them anyway.

Raising her hand, Janelle buried her comment in a question. "I'm not sure, but does each stick mean something specific? Like every tarot card means something different and you put them all together to interpret their meaning." Since this was Arithmancy, she figured they were related to numbers in some way. "Maybe each stick represents a number and each number represents.......something.". Well duh. Obviously they represented something. Way to make sense Janelle.

Chinese Arithmancy.

Well that was a little different. Still he had no answers to her question. Fortune Sticks sound like a muggle trick or something. But if she was talking about them. He guessed they had a real purpose other than tricking muggles and maybe even wizards and wtitches.

Well know to find out if anyone here knew anything about this. Seems like Adi did and another hufflepuff. Though he did not find that surprising at all.Dante would have said those sticks looked kind of like chopsticks.

But that is all he got.

He wanted to be that kid that suddenly had an epiphany the moment the Professor began explaining but that didn't seem to be happening right about now and he could only stare blankly as his quick quotes quill sought to scribble down whatever it saw fit.

Jin Dynasty? Chinese Divination? Sticks? Huh?

Perhaps more surprising was the fact people were actually giving up responses. Did he know anything about this topic? That was gonna have to be a big NOPE for him and a whole bunch of further staring.

Blaise didn't mind much. It wasn't like this was the frustrated sort of staring that occurred when magic was required. This was simply a matter or not knowing one answer in an entire class that could possibly be like Divination which made it still awesome. Kid was calm, perfectly calm and overseeing his quill jot down what his classmates said. He'd start his own writing when the Professor gave her answer.

The lesson began and Hady crossed her legs up under herself on her cushion. She set her hands on her lap listening silently to what Professor Tanner was saying. All the talk of Chinese Divination and how this lesson went with that didn't give her much to speak about.

Hady could somewhat understand how Divination and Arithmancy could go together but what those weird sticks were the girl just didn't know. Right now she'd just stay quiet and see what everyone else had to say about it.

Listening to Flamsteed's choice of words? What now? Oh, right cause she had said stellar, which was really just her trying to be unique in what she said as opposed to always using the same word such as great or superb.

Then Tanner jumped right into the topic of the day, which it seemed appropriate to the setup as intriguing hat it been had they been transported to Asia, it was not practical. Chien Tung. Chinese fortune sticks. Yes she knew a bit about that topic. Raising her hand after deliberating what to say about it, Tia spoke, "The sticks in that cup, there could be either 78 or 100 different sticks, depending on which version you have. The American version has a condensed version of only 78 sticks." Americans . . . always shortening everything.

Norah tore her eyes from the surroundings as Professor Tanner began to speak, but found her attention drifting back to the burning incense when it was clear that she really had no answer to this question. Her grandparents were muggles but she'd never seen any burning sticks in THEIR house before, which was a shame because they smelled pretty awesome. She busied herself with taking out a piece of parchment to write down the information once Professor Tanner told them all what was right. Were they gonna get to READ those symbols? They were much more exciting than the letters she knew how to read.

Davie liked the set-up here. It was refreshing to get out of the classroom, at least in a magical way, once in a while, and Arithmancy was a subject which was hard to imagine outside of the classroom.

But not today! Davie leaned forward on his cushion to get a peek at the cylinder thing. Oh! So that's what that was. No, he had no background relating to this type of divination, but he'd seen a picture of that cylinder before, and he knew there were numbers on the sticks.

"Are we going to use Arithmancy to interpret the numbers on the sticks that fall out of the container?" Davie raised his hand to ask curiously. Cool concept, if so.