Snape was on a roll with disposing of incompetent teachers, but now that Dumbledore had returned to Hogwarts getting rid of the others may not be feasible. He was able to deter most of his Slytherins away from the fortuneteller fraud, but there were always a few that were too dimwitted to understand the glare he sent them as they turned in their schedule choice. There also tended to be those that thought knowing the future would be helpful in achieving their ambitions. Those numbskulls refused to acknowledge that you are either a seer or you are not. Many did eventually figure it out and drop the class, but a few would stay in hopes of discovering the identity of a 'true' seer that they could "befriend".

Snape had used the glare on Harry that summer during the week Harry had spent in his home. The thirteen year old had quickly backtracked and wisely chosen to switch to arithmancy. Harry had mailed his friend and the red head begrudgingly switched courses as well so that the two of them wouldn't be separated. Apparently Snape's insists a few days earlier regarding relying on your own brain rather than others had gone straight through the brats empty skull. The annoying miscreant was maintaining their pattern of exchanging letters that Snape had unwittingly started that spring. This one he had found tucked in amongst the most recent homework assignments.

Dear S.,

History class is so cool! We learned a warding spell on Wednesday. Today we heard about some wizards that defeated a giant by tripping him up with invisible ropes. I didn't even know giants were real! Do they live around here? Professor Stewart doesn't go into much detail on the where and when of things. Anyway, our homework is to contrive a situation in which making an object invisible could help us solve a problem. What does contrive mean?

I'm not sure what to think of arithmancy. I always liked maths so the work is alright, but how can it be that a word or name has a magical number value? I mean, I understand how to do the math it's just I don't get why it should work. Is it like with spells, that the word you say has to match your wand movements? Plus, the first thing she had us do was tell her a poem like sentence about something that happened to us this summer. Then she demonstrated how to change it into a prediction. I told her, "Yellow eyes gleamed through the darkness." She did a bunch of stuff with it then claimed it means I'm going to die young. That just creeped me out. That can't be right, can it? I mean how can the spelling of things predict the future. I'm not sure I care much for this class. I'll try it for awhile, but I may switch to ancient runes.

The art class wasn't as fun as I hoped, at least not yet. According to the professor we need to learn things like the proper way to sketch and the proper way to hold a paint brush and the proper way to do this and that. Does she think we are all aiming to be professional artist? Perhaps there is something to that words matching people thing 'cause the teacher's name is actually Techne and she seems exceedingly technical about how things are done. I guess it will be awhile before we get to the spell casting part of art class, but hopefully next time we'll get to actually draw something rather than just practicing techniques.

Professor Lupin taught us how to deal with a bogart. Ron imagined a spider on roller skates. I've never been roller skating. Do wizards have skating rinks? The best one was when, ah, um, well never mind about that. But the class was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the next one.

Sincerely,

Mr. Fuss

P.S. I really like the sticky notes. They make it easier to follow the recipe.

Expenses:
3 Pumpkin Pasties 9 knuts
6 Chocolate Frogs 12 knuts
various other sweets on the train 2 galleons, 3 sickles

savings:
£32.11

Well at least the brat had the wits not to bring up the bogart emerging as a cross dressing Snape. People avoided saying anything about it directly to Snape, but it was impossible to not overhear the murmured conversations when so many of the students and staff were having a good laugh over it.

Dear Mr. Fuss,

You will order a dictionary from Flourish and Blots. I have attached an order form. You will not need to count the cost of the dictionary against your allowance unless you fail to procure (purchase) it within three days.

You are supposed to be contriving a plan for Fast Food Night. If you can't figure out its meaning from that then ask the bookworm.

Arithmancy is about the relationship between two people or events. Certain combinations have been found to be more beneficial than others. For example, you may use arithmancy to decide which night is best for Fast Food Night. Arithmancy is not typically used to make such clear predictions as what Professor Vector contrived with your sentence. You, being who you are, will attract attention and people will inevitably try to bring attention to themselves by making remarkable statements about you. Stick with the class, learn the math and use it to your advantage. Ignore or try to find ways to, in turn, use those who try to benefit from your fame.

As to art, you had to learn to count before you could add, and had to learn the alphabet before you could write, so to in art you must first learn to hold a brush before you can paint anything worth putting in a frame. Be patient.

Regarding roller skating, your dorm mates are a better choice for inquisitions regarding free time activities of teenagers.

Sincerely,

S.

P.S. They're called brewing instructions. Recipes are for food.

Harry found the response tucked inside the scroll of his returned essay. Though he tried not to show it, he was secretly thrilled. It had been difficult the first two years of school seeing everyone else getting and sending letters from and to family members. But now he had someone too that was curious enough to read about what he'd been up to and was willing to take the time to respond to it. He filled out the form and sent Hedwig to Flourish and Blots to retrieve a dictionary.

Techne: The Greek Personification of art and skill.