Illogical Information

[Tristan Collins]

Tristan Collins disliked many things. But as he sat at a library table with his Arithmancy book in front of him, open on a page that made no sense, he started to think he might actually hate this subject. He could still remember himself at the electives fair in his second year, smugly arguing with the Divination professor about why her subject was unreliable and fake. But then he had turned around and unknowingly picked a subject that was just as bad, if not worse. At least Divination never seemed to pretend to be any sort of science. Arithmancy had lured him in by being about numbers, which seemed to imply some sort of logic. But here he was, trying his best to wrap his mind around concepts like 'The Life Path' and 'The Heart's Desire' and how different calculations with one's name and the letters it consisted of had anything to do with these concepts. It was utter nonsense. But unfortunately it was utter nonsense he would be sitting his OWL for in just a few weeks, and failure was not an option.

He wished October had kept the subject, but he couldn't blame her for dropping it either. It was something he had considered himself, but it did seem to be a very respected subject in the wizarding community and one he might need. So he just had to power through and memorize this stuff. If he could just sound like he understood what he was talking about on the exam, and remember the different calculations for different concepts, he had a feeling he would pass. But he was still more nervous about this exam than any of the others, and that irritated him because he didn't want to care about this subject. He sighed and grabbed another reference book off a small pile, hoping it would help him understand it more.

 

[Stella Wright]

Stella knew she should be studying. Exams were looming, and though she was fairly certain she would do well, she knew her success would depend on thorough preparation. But ever since her discussion with Professor Harrington, she had been itching to go to the library and try again to find more information on the truth about the aurora. She had already searched here, but that was when she hadn't known what to look for, when she was searching blindly for something that would reconcile the science with the seemingly ridiculous magical claim. Now she knew that neither were wrong, that the secret was in the interaction between the two . . . she wanted more (she always wanted more), and since she emphatically lacked the wherewithal to conduct experiments on the aurora, she was left with searching for it in the books she had available. Not that she had much hope those books would help, but she needed a break from pouring over things she already knew, and a research project seemed a good way to achieve that while remaining in the right mood for studying later.

So Stella scoured the Astronomy section of the library once more, and came away with a small stack of books she hadn't already covered, or not in much detail, that looked like they might be promising. At this time of year, the library was full of students studying for the exams, so Stella couldn't find a table for herself. Instead, she set her books down opposite an older student who hadn't spread his study materials out all over the table like many people had. "Mind if I sit here?" Stella asked. The boy was a Hufflepuff prefect, she noticed, and he looked very discontented in his work. She glanced at his books. "Arithmancy. What's that like?" Stella couldn't think of anything good she'd heard about the subject, but if it was about numbers, surely it couldn't be too ad hoc.

 

[Tristan Collins]

Tristan looked through all the different numbers one could calculate, knowing deep down that he would never remember exactly which number served what purpose. He knew it would be easy for him to remember if he actually believed in it at all, but as he looked at terms like ‘The Life Path’ and ‘The Heart’s Desire’ all of which could apparently be calculated by adding numbers from birthdays or letters from his name, he couldn’t help think this was all utter nonsense. He was mentally quizzing himself on what exactly the ‘Growth Number’ was supposed to show, when someone distracted him. He honestly didn’t mind. The girl at his table didn’t look familiar, but she seemed polite enough and he nodded in response to her question. If he had to guess, he would say she was in her third year, or maybe her second. He was fairly sure she wasn’t in Kauri’s year. Her question took him off guard, and even though he wondered if it was the right thing to do, he couldn’t help being honest. “A nightmare, frankly.” He told her with a sigh. “If you still have to pick your electives, I’d advise you to stay away from it.” Unless, of course, she needed it for whatever career she wanted after Hogwarts. In that case, she would be stuck with it the way he was.