Advanced Arithmancy- NEWT level: Lesson 4

[Rebecca Davenport]

It was the last class of the year, but the tea service was set up as usual at the large table near the front of the room. She was hoping this would be an ideal review time, seeing as the seventh years had NEWTs within days. She also figured that it couldn't do the sixth years any harm either. On top of that, the students' research projects were due and she was hoping to get some good discussion going on those as well.

As she waited for the students she nibbled on a tea sandwich and checked over the essays on the Flooper that she had before her.



{you are not expected to actually have a project, but if you came up with a topic, I encourage you to discuss it }

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Henry ran down the hall on the third floor, and turned into the door into the Arithmancy classroom. He was sure that he was going to be the last one in there, and was thus quite surprised to find himself alone with the Professor in the classroom, at least for that moment. He nodded to the professor with a smile on his face, and took a seat at the table.

After considering the door for a moment, Henry decided that he could ask the professor a question without drawing a snigger from anyone else.

"Professor Davenport...I had a question going back to the Personal years subject." said Henry, the question had been eating at him all day, and he was glad of an opportunity to voice it. "When you get the number for the month, why don't you get the numbers for each of the letters of the name of the month based off of the Pythagorean or Chaldean systems instead of simply using the month's order number?"

Henry thought about his own words for a moment, and decided that his question might of been a bit confusing, he decided to illustrate his question.

"If I did it the way you explained, for instance, to get this year's Personal year number, it would look something like..." he drew out a parchment and quill, and wrote out the formula.

October 7th, 2009
1+0+7+2+0+0+9=19
1+9=10
1+0=1

"...Right?" he continued "But why wouldn't it be..."

October 7th, 2009
6+3+2+6+2+5+9+7+2+0+0+9=51
5+1=6

"...according to the Pythagorean System...or..."

October 7th, 2009
7+3+4+7+2+5+2+7+2+0+0+9=48
4+8=12
1+2=3

"...according to the Chaldean System?"

He pushed the parchment across the table to her, and hoped he hadn't miscalculated anything. It wasn't exactly the most important thing in the world, but it was a good question, Henry thought, while they waited for more of the class to turn up.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew entered the Arithmancy classroom as he usually did, full of energy and ready to eat. He had been in Davenport's NEWT Arithmancy class for two years now and he knew she always served a good tea. He had learned to count on another meal when sitting in on Davenport's lessons.

But this was his last one. While there was a sense of regret over it all, there was also a good deal of excitement and as Drew slid into the room, his research project tucked into his backpack, the Ravenclaw did a little happy dance before realizing there was already another student in the room. Normally, Drew wouldn't care, but he felt that things had ended awkwardly with Henry the last time they spoke and so the lanky Head Boy took a seat and quietly got a cup of tea and a sandwich. He wasn't even going to bother saying hello to Davenport. She was busy with something else and probably wouldn't notice him until the bell rang anyway.

[Connor Manning]

Research project? Check. Parchment? Rolled up nicely and neatly in his backpack, check. Excitement? Affirmative. Connor could hardly withhold his anticipationand excitement about this lesson, it was his last class in Arithmancy as a sixth year at Hogwarts. Next year when he would be returning, he would come back a seventh year and in his final year at the school. The Prefect ducked into the arithmancy classroom, noticing Professor Davenport, Henry, and Drew. He didn't exactly know any of the occupants that well but didn't pay much attention to that fact as he waved in the Professor's direction although she seemed to be occupied with a question of the Gryffindor boys.

As for Drew, Connor nodded slightly at the older boy and took his normal seat at the table, sliding his black back pack into the seat next to him and opening it up. The NEWTs class was usually a relatively small one, so he didn't feel bad about taking up an extra seat for his belongings. He pulled out his final project and smoothed out the parchment on the table, making sure it was nice and neat before he helped himself to a cup of tea. He glanced back over to he Head Boy and asked, " Excited for graduation? " It was the first time he had spoken to the Ravenclaw since they had fought, but as school was coming to a close Connor figured it would be better than not speaking to him. Afterall, Connor was still friends with Felicity and he didn't want the Gryffindor girl to harbor any bad feelings against him just because he had gotten into a fight with her boyfriend.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew had his sandwich in his mouth as he pulled his project out of his back pack. Tucked securely in a three-ring binder, he had spent more than a few hours checking facts, creating his charts, and diagraming some of the more complicated concepts. Of course, he didn't doubt Davenport would know what he was talking about; he just wanted to make sure she knew that he knew.

When the Slytherin prefect entered the room and started making his own preparations for class, Drew was a little surprised Connor spoke to him. The Ravenclaw didn't feel as much animosity towards the boy as he had after the fight, but still, he wasn't ready to laugh over butterbeers about the incident. Still, it didn't hurt to be cordial. The guy was a friend of Celina's after all.

"A bit," Drew answered with a small shrug and a smirk. It was probably not the answer Connor had expected, but it was truthful. He was anxious to start at the Accademy, get out into the adult world, and actually be on his own, but leaving Felicity behind put a huge damper on all of that.

"You think you'll get Head Boy next year?" Drew asked back. He didn't particularly like the guy much, but when it came down to it, the Ravenclaw thought he was a good Prefect and would be a good choice for the top badge.

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia strolled gracefully into the classroom, holding her books and her purse close to her small frame. She looked around and saw that she was the first girl to show up. Drew and Connor were chatting politely, and Henry, a Gryffindor boy Sophia didn't really know too much about, was talking with the Professor. She sneaked to a table and put her belongings down. Her heart was basically racing with the idea that this would be her last Arithmancy class of the year. The anticipation for the new school year as a 7th year was almost unbearable.

She sat down and pulled out a piece of parchment and a peacock quill, filled with a lovely violet ink. She had recently been thinking about all of the musicals her parents promised her that she could go see...especially The Light in the Piazza. The story line just seemed fantastic, and it was set in Italy, one of the most beautiful places in the world. She began to doodle a bit, her long dark hair hanging off her shoulders. It wasn't until several minutes had past that she realized she was humming the title song a little too loudly. She looked around the classroom to see if anyone had been disturbed.

[Connor Manning]

Connor looked to the entrance of the room, nodding slightly as he noticed it was Sophia coming into the arithmancy lesson. He turned back to Thornton, though, as he answered the Slytherin's question with a quite non-descriptive reply. Connor shrugged his shoulders, accepting the answer as it was. He wasn't going to ask for further information, figuring that might be pushing it for their new ground of... not hitting one another.

The question surprised him slightly and Connor wasn't really sure how to answer. Did he think he'd get head boy next year? If he did get it, he supposed it would be by default if nothing else. There weren't any other sixth year guys who were Prefects, and Connor was pretty sure that they picked former Prefects to be both the Head Boy and Head Girl.

He lifted his shoulders in a partial shrug. " Maybe. I'm not so sure if there's anyone else really up for the job, though. "

[Drew Thornton]

Drew shrugged again, knowing that Raynor was tougher than just giving away something like Head Boy by default. Some of the Heads of House might do that with the Prefect badges, but Head Boy was different.

"You know, they went one year without any Head Boy," Drew mentioned. Remembering that particular year made him pretty confident that Raynor trusted him with the badge even if he didn't think he was very deserving himself.

In the end, it boiled down to Drew not thinking anyone else was up for the job either. Connor had the experience and the patience to do the job well. Of course, the Ravenclaw wasn't about to tell him that to his face.

[Rebecca Davenport]

Professor Davenport, as engrossed as she was on her essays, hadn't even heard Henry speak to her, and didn't even notice that anyone had approached her desk. The Fwooper essays were fairly good, but nothing like she had seen from some of her stronger students in previous years. While she had given a decent amount of As and a fair amount of Es, there was only one O in the bunch. As she mused over speaking with the young lady about a future in Magizoology, the bell chimed and the Professor pulled her papers together, Henry's notes included, and put them into her desk with a snap of the drawer.

She looked up, expecting to see her students sitting at the table she had set, but instead saw the young Gryffindor standing in front of her. She jumped slightly at the surprise but smiled vacantly at him before waving him over to the table.

"We're starting now, Mr. Lordings," she told him as she stood up herself and walked over to the rest of the group who seemed to be chatting pleasantly and enjoying the tea. "Last class and I'd like to discuss some of the downfalls of Arithmancy and Numerology in general. Has anyone heard of the 23 Enigma?"

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

Slightly taken aback, Henry backed away from the desk, his eyes flicking between the teacher and the desk, and then made to join the others.

"Last class and I'd like to discuss some of the downfalls of Arithmancy and Numerology in general. Has anyone heard of the 23 Enigma?"

"You mean the belief that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23?" Henry offered

He took a seat and pulled out some parchment and a pen, then scribbled the heading: 23 Enigma across the top of the page in his neat, slanted, and spiky scrawl, underlining the title once he finished writing it. After he finished this, he looked up expectantly at the professor and waited for the answer.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew had heard about it, but didn't really think much about it. Arithmancy on the whole was pretty interesting, but the Ravenclaw didn't put too much stock into the Divination part of it. the whole 23 thing was along the same lines.

"What Henry said. That everything can be connected to 23 somehow. Like the World Trade Center towers were destroyed on September 11th 2001. If you add up the numbers, 9 + 11 + 2 + 1, you get 23. Same for the sinking of the Titantic on April 15, 1912. My birthday is on the 23rd. There are 23 letters in the Latin alphabet. The list goes on and on," Drew added.

"But the thing is, you look at some of these 'mysterious connections' and it's all kind of forced. I mean, some people get all obsessed with stuff like this, but isn't it just one of those things were if you're looking for it, you'll find it?" he asked. He knew Davenport was quick to caution her students about letting numbers dictate everything, so he had no problem saying right out that he didn't buy into it. Besides, she had said herself they were going to discuss the pitfalls. "I mean, you could do stuff like that with anything, it doesn't even have to be a number. Like I could say everything is connected to the color blue somehow and I could get it there if I really wanted to, right?"

[Henry Lordings Jr.]

"Indeed." said Henry, nodding in agreement "I'd be willing to wager that you could take any number imaginable and somehow link it to a similarly long list of events in some way, myself."

Henry leaned back and looked back at the teacher, for his eyes had rested on Drew whilst the Head Boy was speaking. He considered the points of the case; One could easily argue as Drew had said.

"I mean...like Drew's example for instance; Blue..." Henry continued "...Cyan, which is the base blue shade, is one of the primary colors; Half the colors in the world are related directly to blue, and almost everything in the world has a color to it, so there's an excellent chance that in some way...everything is related to blue."

[Sophia Crawford]

Sophia rolled out a piece of parchment and started writing all of these things down, just in case there was need for the information later on. She admired how much her fellow Gryffindor knew about...well...everything. In all of her classes, Henry had been more than knowledgeable on multiple topics, which was impressive. For example, Arithmancy had never been a strong point of hers, but he made it seem like it was nothing. It was insane. She dipped her peacock quill in the inkwell, scratching out Drew and Henry's observance of blue. Sophia wished she could contribute to the class as well as the two boys were, but she just couldn't find the words to make a solid point or argument. She simply sat there and took notes, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

[Drew Thornton]

"Well, yeah..." Drew answered, though he had been thinking on a much broader scale. "But I'm not just talking about colors, you know. Like... Oh, I don't know, let's say we connect... watermelon to blue."

Drew thought about it for just a second and then knew exactly where it would go. In fact, he wished he had picked something harder. "Well, it's water in the watermelon and water is genereally recognized as the color blue or a shade there of. Watermelon is connected to blue."

"I mean, I'm just saying anything can be connected to anything else like that if you go random like that. Hey, it's kind of like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon... and bacon and blue both start with the same letter, so that connects too!" He knew he was stretching the copnnections, but that was really his whole point. He gave a wide grin to Davenport before grabbing another sandwich and continuing. "And B is the second letter of the alphabet, followed by three letters, L,U,E... there's a 23!"

[Rebecca Davenport]

"Yes, Mr. Thornton," Professor Davenport answered vaguely, recognizing that the senior Ravenclaw was getting silly and probably had enough tea for the afternoon. On the other hand, he seemed to have hit the points she had wanted to make. She was quite impressed with the level of discussion and pleased that two of her students seemed to be paying attention.

"So in the end, we recognize that the numbers are everywhere and in everything," she told them. "We can use those connections, let our knowledge about them help us, but as with anything we don't want to let them take over." Becca knew that there were those out there that would not agree with her, but she firmly believed it.