Team: Kenmare Kestrals
Position: Chaser 2
Class: Arithmancy (the studies of magical properties of numbers, including predicting the future with numbers and numerology)
BETA: SpacesInMyMind
Prompts: Write about someone trying to master Arithmancy
- (dialogue) "This was the most fun I've ever had."
- (word) procrastinate
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Mastering the Future
The first time third year Hermione Granger entered the Arithmancy classroom, she was utterly shocked by the numbers decorating the classroom. She was also surprised by the size of the class. Most of the students in the room were Ravenclaws and Slytherins. She was the only Gryffindor and there were only two Hufflepuffs, totaling at fifteen.
Hermione was also disappointed to note that she knew nobody personally in her class. But she wasn't there to make friends, now was she? No, she was there to learn. She stepped forward and sat down at a table close to the front. Nobody sat beside her, not that she expected anyone to.
She pulled out her textbook, Numerology and Grammatica. The book was large and heavy, but Hermione didn't mind as she set it on the table. The book almost tumbled from her hands due to its weight. She clasped her hands together over her book and waited for the professor to arrive.
Septima Vector arrived wearing deep cinnamon robes. Her hair was a deep brown and reached past her chest in loose ringlets. Her face was wrinkled and her eyes were slightly narrowed, a deep chocolate brown. Hermione couldn't help but sit up straighter in the presence of such a noble and renowned witch. Professor Vector stepped to the board, quieting her third years with a glare.
"My name is Professor Septima Vector," her voice was calm and collected, tone almost cold. Her eyes swept over the class. "Most of you will not survive my class. Some of you may decide to drop it before this week is done."
Hermione refused to be the person who would let this chance go to waste.
"However, the select few of you will continue on with this class and find the magic in the numbers. You will be able to see the future with them and calculate their properties." Professor Vector stated, small smirk spreading across her face. "Now, take out your textbook and turn to chapter one."
She turned and wrote the words Bridget Wenlockon the board with a flick of her wand.
Hermione pulled out a quill and began to copy down the notes. Professor Vector turned to the class. "The next three weeks we will learn all there is to know about Bridget Wenlock. Now, does anyone know why she is so important?"
Hermione raised her hand immediately. Professor Vector turned to her and nodded. "She is important because she was the first witch to discover all the magical properties of the number seven." Hermione said, smiling as she lowered her hand and rested it on her open book.
Professor Vector nodded. "Good, good." She wrote this down and everyone copied it into their notes. And so began the lesson.
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After completing the Bridget Wenlock study, the class was assigned a number to study, similar to Bridget's study they had learned so much about. They would need to learn all the magical properties of this number, the future of this number and the past of this number. This project would take up most of the year and it was all they would be learning besides how to calculate the number's properties correctly. The year's exam was mainly on the whole study of the number. If completed correctly, it was almost impossible to fail the class, and Hermione was determined not to fail.
Hermione was assigned the number three hundred thirty eight.
She was already stressing about the project because instead of being able to do it all on her time, she was expected to do it during class time. Hermione sat in the Gryffindor common room, head bowed and eyes boring into the pages of the textbook. She was trying to master seeing the future of her number for Arithmancy, but it was proving to be more difficult that she had imagined.
"Hey, Hermione." She didn't bother looking up even though she could hear Ron and Harry walking over to her. It had been Ron who had spoken to her. "Hermione?"
She looked up and scowled at them. "What? I'm trying to do my homework here!"
Harry and Ron glanced at each other. "We were wondering if you could help us with our Potions essay." Harry stated, watching the bushy haired witch carefully, in case she snapped at them again. "Please, Hermione?"
"How much do you both have done? Because I have so much to do, Harry! You constantly procrastinate and I won't always be there to pick up after you!" said Hermione, trying to explain her predicament. "I've got my Potions, Charms and Transfiguration essays. And I have to read chapters three and four for History of Magic. Professor Lupin asked us to read up on-"
"We get it, you're busy." Ron sighed loudly, shaking his head. "I still don't understand how you can take so many classes, Hermione."
Hermione blushed slightly, the Time Turner burning against her chest. "I guess I can look over your essays…" She trailed off, shrugging her shoulders before looking down at the book in front of her. She swallowed slowly before looking up at her friends.
"Thanks, Hermione!" Harry grinned, looking relieved. Ron and Harry dropped their essays in front of her before hurrying off, waving over their shoulders as they passed her. She faintly could hear them talking about Quidditch as they turned away from her. "This was the most fun I've ever had." she figured that was Harry commenting about the intense Quidditch matches he had faced so far. Hermione watched as the two boys exited the common room.
Her face fell. She was now left alone with the boys' essays added to her already substantial homework load. She closed her Arithmancy textbook, telling herself that she would practice seeing into the future for numbers later.
She did technically have all the time in the world at her finger tips.
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There Hermione sat, listening as Professor Vector explaining how they would be able to see into the future of the numbers. She was dreading this part of the lesson. She was tired from all her running around with the Time Turner. Harry and Ron were beginning to notice her crazed moods, avoiding her gaze when they saw her Arithmancy textbook clutched in her hands.
Her stomach writhed with nerves as she watched as Professor Vector murmur a spell. Professor Vector's wand moved in a figure eight motion. Her eyes closed, then her hand flew across the parchment that was stationed beside her. Hermione watched in awe as Professor Vector finished and her hand slowed to a stop, trembling slightly.
Professor Vector looked down at the parchment. "And that is how you see into the future for your numbers. Now repeat after me,Quia."
Hermione repeated the hand movement and said firmly, "Quia."
Nothing happened. Hermione frowned when she looked down at her hand, expecting words to appear. She could see into the future for her project, but the words stubbornly refused to appear on her page.
"Good, good." Professor Vector drawled with an unimpressed expression on her face. "Now repeat after me and do your figure eight movement in the opposite direction. Praeteritum."
Once more Professor Vector's hand moved across the parchment paper gracefully and she could see into the past. Hermione watched carefully before she repeated what her professor had done. "Praeteritum." But still there was nothing. "What am I doing wrong?"
Hermione looked around the class, expecting people to have some trouble with the spells as well. Instead, a few Ravenclaws were writing down on their parchment in a similar trance to Professor Vector. Hermione raised her hand, huffing slightly. Professor Vector walked over. "Yes, Ms. Granger?"
"What am I doing wrong?" Hermione asked, fighting to keep down her hysteria. She cast the professor a pleading gaze. "Is it the hand movement? Am I pronouncing it incorrectly?"
Professor Vector raised an eyebrow. "Show me how you are performing the spell."
"Quia." Hermione mimicked the figure eight movement counter clockwise.
Again nothing appeared and she frowned, repeating the spell multiple times before Professor Vector extended a hand to stop her. "You're supposed to going clockwise for Quia and counter clockwise for Praeteritum."
It seemed that was Hermione's problem. In one swift motion she framed the spell with her lips and symbols scattered across her parchment, each forming the complex mysteries of the past, and in that moment Hermione knew that she had mastered Arithmancy.