Advanced Arithmancy: Lesson 2

[Rebecca Davenport]

Becca opened up the classroom and was pleased to see the tea service was already set up. She wasn't sure if the NEWT students cared one way or another, but it didn't matter to her much. She usually needed the tea break by that time of day anyway.

Hopefully the students had been working on their projects outside of class, and while she was always open for questions and guidance, she had a specific topic in mind to cover during that hour. On the other hand, it wasn't uncommon for her higher level students to come up with something more interesting to discuss. Wondering which way the class would go, willing to change her plans if the mood struck, Becca sat at the head of the table, poured herself a cup, and opened her book to pass the time as she waited for the students.

[Dante Vroom]

First into his Arithmancy class for the day? Now there was something that did not happen very often, but sure enough it was the case today. And the tea had already been set out, joy. Dante truly was not a fan of tea, but something was better than nothing, and he while he still preferred his coffee, a cup of tea would have to do for now. He had done just a little work on his project, but several questions had come up since his starting. Truly it seemed like the more he worked on the project, the more questions would probably come up.

He made his way to the front of the class to pour a cup of tea, then he'd figure out somewhere to sit. “Good day to you Professor” he said, not very loudly, if she was interested in that book much he didn't want to interrupt her thoughts. Now, he just wanted to find a seat, somewhere relatively in the middle of the classroom, perhaps the second row. Pulling out a chair and taking a seat second row dead center he took out his quill and parchment. Taking a sip of his tea and looking down at the paper he began to draw a lighthouse he had once seen in Italy, attempting to pass the time until class began.

[Connor Manning]

Connor was actually finding himself anticipating his arithmancy lesson. He had already begun to work on his project and was interested in seeing how far everyone else had gotten on their own projects. The Slytherin lad found himself humming a soft tune as he walked up three sets of stairs to the Arithmancy classroom. N.E.W.T.s lesson, and it was promising to be a rather interesting one from the way the others had gone so far.

" 'Ello, Professor Davenport, " He said, tipping his head in a short nod to the woman as he set his things down next to one of the chairs. Connor walked towards the front of the room and poured himself a cup of tea. A soft smile set onto his face as he returned back to his seat and set his cup of tea before him. Connor set out his book and a couple of other needed materials before taking a drink of his tea. It was only then that Connor noticed someone else seated in the room besides himself and Davenport. He wasn't sure who the guy was but nodded a small greeting anyway.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew came into the room and dumped his books on the table before slumping into a chair. The research project Davenport had assigned the first day of class had been going really well, but the Ravenclaw had recently hit a road block. He wanted to ask Davenport about it, but at the moment was too frustrated to do more than crab a scone, butter it up and shove it in his mouth. The sweet fruit in the pastry relaxed him a little and he managed to pour himself a cup of tea as he looked around and noticed he wasn't the only student in the room. Nodding a greeting to the other boys, Drew took a moment to pull out his books and notes for class.

[Rebecca Davenport]

"Mr. Manning," Professor Davenport greeted, having a moment of clarity considering her nose wasn't in a book. "Gentlemen, we're meeting up here, thank you," she called to the two sixth years, motioning to the chairs around the table she was seated at. Mr. Thornton joined the small group and looked less than thrilled to be there. No matter. If he had a problem, surely he would ask.

"So, gentlemen," she started, warming up her tea cup and adding a drop of cream. "If there is nothing you wish to discuss today, research projects or otherwise, I'd like to discuss Personal Years."

[cronon]

There wasn't enough information that Alexander could find on his particular topic and as he walked into the classroom, and down beside where Drew was as he heard Professor Davenport had asked as he walked in the door, he looked a bit worse for wear. His hair was a bit frazzled from his hand constantly filtering through it nervously, and the back of his neck was a bit red from Alexander's constant, involuntary scratching. There was nothing wrong with him, he just couldn't help himself, and as of late, his anxiety and OCD were becoming worse. He needed help with it, but unfortunately, asking for it would only be admitting to someone his issues, and that was something Alexander didn't want to do. He was already underestimated enough, he didn't want to throw an actual condition on top of his efforts.

Sitting down, he nodded at Drew, who looked just as excited a he felt, and smiled a small smile at Davenport. So, gentlemen, If there is nothing you wish to discuss today, research projects or otherwise, I'd like to discuss Personal Years. "Professional years, professor?" Alexander wasn't sure if that was apart of Arithmancy, or if this was about them personally and what they wanted to do after Hogwarts... Alexander knew he should have been asking about his project, but the question threw him off guard.

[Lucas Smith]

Lucas liked Arithmancy. It was one of the classes he enjoyed going to and it was actually starting to cheer him up as he walked toward it. He knew there were people in the class that he didn't like, but that bothered Lucas very little. The Ravenclaw wanted to avoid all the stupid conflict and just get his classes done. He knew he was good at this class too, and that was all that mattered.

[Rebecca Davenport]

Seeing no questions other than Mr. Cronon's on her planned discussion topic, Becca continued.

"Personal years are helpful in evaluating the trend of any given calendar year. They are found much like your Character Numbers where we will reduce the numbers we have to a single digit."

With that, she pointed her wand at the wall behind her and a chart appeared. On it was written:

March 15, 2008
3 + 1 + 5 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 8 = 19
1 + 9 = 10
1 + 0 = 1


"You will be adding up the digits that make up your birthday and add that to the digits of the year you are planning on working with," she explained. "My birthday is March 15 and I chose to figure out my personal year for this year, which is one. I could have picked any year though. For example, if I chose 2011 instead, my personal year number would be 4."

At this she paused for any questions and gave the young men the opportunity to figure out their own numbers before she explained what the numbers meant.

[Drew Thornton]

"Sooo... the number changes based on what year you're dealing with?" he asked, thinking it was different from Character numbers since those didn't change really. Not waiting for an answer, he got to figuring his own number, writing the date the American way as he was still prone to doing, and skipping the writing down of some of the more obvious calculations.

11/23/2008
1+1+2+3+2+8= 17
8

Pretty pleased with that much, he decided to figure out for next year as well.

11/23/2009
1+1+2+3+2+9= 18
9

"So... I'm an eight this year, but a nine next year?" he asked, wondering if he got it right.

[Dante Vroom]

Ah the joys of simple addition. Was there ever a time when something new could not be done with it? This was by no means complex math. Finally a class that had sparked his interest for the day. Figuring out one year meant you could figure out any of the years next to it Dante thought. But it was always best to try such theories out.

October, 2/2008
1+0+2+2+0+0+8= 13
2+0
4

10/2/2010
1+2+2+1=6
6

Nice, just as he thought it looked like this would continue. Even with the introduction of the ten, which he was thinking would be the problem. But perhaps it was just the years he was dealing with now, 2010 is a much simpler number for this addition than say, 1999.“So is the series a continuous cycle going from one to nine then repeating? Or is the series more random that it appears to be so far?” As he asked he began to do an equation for 1999 out of curiosity. 1+0+2+1+9+9+9=31 so 4. 1 threw 9 in a nine year cycle....so four sounded right...in theory.

[cronon]

Again a number per year, a number for this and a number for that... and yet, Alexander kept asking himself why it mattered. Did the numbers hold any significance at all? And if they did, was it relative depending on the person or the actions in which they took all that year long? Simple, yet complex questions that Alexander found himself asking about EVERY single theory, topic, and issue they discussed in Arithmancy. Alexander had done so well on the OWL for the reason that he could do the math and make up most of the correct answers... or so he thought that was how he had done so well.

Jotting down the numbers, Alexander's brows furrowed slightly and he shook his head. He felt like something wasn't right with them, though he couldn't quite explain what.

July 22, 2008
7+2+2+2+8
2+1
3

July 22, 2009
7+2+2+2+9
2+2
4

He listened to Dante's comments that came right after Drew's and he nodded. Seemed they did progress in a numerical and chronological order to him too..."And this means...?" Alexander looked up with his eyes only, not feeling well enough at the moment to be polite and proper and not frustrated with these personal number thingies. What the hell was the point any more? He scratched the back of his neck... he could be learning so much more from his mother and father than he was there in school...

Alexander then remembered what he told Seanna... he wasn't going any where. Not until graduation, any ways.