The next day came soon enough, and I found myself down in the Great Hall. I was barely paying any attention to everyone in the hall. Half of my focus was on the sheet of parchment in my hand that laid out my schedule for the year.

What was different about this year was classes were way shorter. Rather than being two to three-hour blocks, they were shortened to little more than an hour. I had a feeling we would be expected to do a lot more approved practicing on our own time. I guess being in our third year means they trust us to practice magic alone.

Whenever my eyes weren't on my schedule, they would flick to the ceiling, watching for the morning post. It was my fourteen birthday, and I knew from the compliment that Professor Dumbledore had given Mum during the summer, that she would probably be up to her old tricks. But, I was different now, I wasn't a first-year student with a limited repertoire of spells. I had been preparing for this moment.

A voice distracted me from my watch when it asked, "Alex, what courses are you taking this year?"

Tearing my eyes from the ceiling, I found a raven-haired face girl with blue eyes staring at me expectantly.

"Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures," I replied. "What did you end up selecting?"

"Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Muggle Studies," Jessica replied.

I raised an eyebrow, "Why Muggle Studies?"

"Studying Muggle culture is important," Jessica explained. "Look how far they have come in a century. A hundred years ago, they were using horses and carriages to get around. Now, they build flying aeroplanes and cars to get around."

Seeing how passionate she was on the subject, I held up a hand in surrender. "You don't have to convince me about the subject. Muggle technology is useful. Look at everything we've copied or modified."

I counted with my fingers as I said," The Hogwarts Express, The Knight Bus, The Wizard Wireless Network, and let's not forget the most important one of all."

Everyone looked at me with curiosity, so I announced with a grin, "Indoor plumbing."

As everyone either smiled or rolled their eyes, I continued, "I could go on and on. All were originally muggle inventions until we copied and improved them with magic."

Looking at Jessica, I said, "I just didn't know you were so interested in muggles."

"Did I ever tell you what my parents do?" Jessica asked.

"Sure, you said they are researchers," I replied.

"Technically, they are," Jessica explained, "They work for the ICW."

As I let out a whistle, Ryan, still learning about the magical world, looked from Jessica to me and asked, "What's the ICW?"

Wanting to buy time to mentally process that Jessica's parents worked for the highest wizarding organization. I turned to Ryan and explained, "It's the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW)."

Ryan leaned back while he took in what I said. After mulling it over, he said, "So, I'm guessing that it's like the U.N. But, for wizards."

Slightly confused, Roger interjected, "Wait, what's a U.N."

Ryan's face scrunched up as he mulled over how to explain. "After the second great war that tore Europe and the rest of the muggle world apart. Nations decided that they needed to create an organization that would help foster peace and prevents another world war."

Not being a big believer in the sincerity of governments, I sarcastically remarked, "I'll bet they have done the best job ever. There probably hasn't been a war since the U.N. was founded."

Hesitant, Ryan said, "Well…"

I waved him off and said, "Alright, It's not the worst comparison. In the late sixteen hundreds, magical governments worldwide got together and signed the International Statute of Secrecy. They realized that they would need an organization with members from every country to keep an eye on the situation. They created the ICW. Every country would send a representative. Their responsibility was to look after any issue that may break the Statute of Secrecy."

"Wait, who's our representative?" Ryan asked.

I nodded towards the front hall, where the professors were eating breakfast, "Who else but the headmaster. Currently, he is the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW."

While Ryan shot an impressed look towards the front of the hall, I turned back to Jessica and clarified, "So, your parents research muggles for the ICW."

She nodded, "They study muggles and their tech, then create new corresponding spells and programs that help wizarding governments stay ahead and keep the secret."

"Are you planning on going into the same field?" I asked.

Jessica shrugged, "I don't know," she said. "I just know it's an important subject."

Leaning in and lowering her voice, she added, "My Dad is convinced that within a century or two, it will be all but impossible to keep the secret."

Wide-eyed, Roger, whose Dad was an obliviator for the Ministry of Magic, replied somewhat skeptically, "Really? How are they going to manage that? We've successfully hidden from them for centuries. It's not like anything they have can penetrate our magic. Due to our protective spells, muggle technology doesn't even work around Hogwarts."

Jessica shook her head, "I never said they would find our places of refuge, merely that it would be impossible to keep the secret."

Siding with Jessica, Ryan said, "To be honest, I'm surprised the secret hasn't gotten out."

Everyone around the table paused as they tried to imagine a world where magic was back in the open.

Speaking up with his Scottish accent, William asked curiously, "Do you think muggles would be able to handle it?"

I shrugged, "Depends how religious they are, if you look at our histories, monotheistic religions were the reasons why we went into hiding. The common people could easily get worked up into a mob when they started hunting for witches."

Roger seemed a little worried, "Great, if the muggles learn about magic, we can expect more burning at the stakes."

I rolled my eyes, "Don't be so dramatic. If you paid attention in History of Magic, you would know ninety-nine percent of those charged with witchcraft were muggles themselves. We didn't go into hiding because we were in great danger. It was our muggle friends and families who were paying the ultimate price.

After a moment of silence, William said, "Well, this is a depressing topic. How about we change the subject?"

Across the table, Ryan took his advice and asked, "Speaking of changing the topic. Why are you both taking three electives? I thought we only had to pick two."

Roger rolled his eyes and answered before I could say anything, "They're just overachievers."

Turning to me, he warned, "Make sure not to bite off more than you can chew. If you take on too much, your grades could slip, and you could lose the top spot."

I smirked, "What, are you afraid of losing access to the apartment?"

A sheepish look appeared on Roger's face, "It's all your fault," He accused. "Now that I've been pampered, I can't go back to the normal dorms."

"I'm coming for the top spot this year," Jessica promised me with a grin.

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I let out a confident smirk, "I welcome all challengers."

The soft beating of wings and some shrill hooting turned my eyes from my friends back to the ceiling. The owls were here to deliver the morning post.

Seeing how focused I was on the mail, Jessica teased, "Are you expecting something. Should we be looking forward to another serenade?"

Unwilling to take my eyes off the ceiling, I decided a grunt was the only response that her question merited. Soon, I spotted what I had been waiting for, it was Hootie, our family owl. My eyes glared death at the suspicious envelope that it was carrying.

In preparation, I twisted my wrist, activating my dueling wand holder. Feeling the familiar aspen wood in my hand, I felt ready for what was coming. I had recently mastered a fifth level charm that would be perfect for situations like this.

When Hootie swooped down and landed in front of me, I tried to snatch the letter from her, but she hopped out of reach. Rolling my eyes, I bribed her with a treat from my plate. Satisfied with my offering, she dropped off an envelope with my name written in my mother's handwriting.

Once the letter was in my hand, it gave all the same signs that the one from my first year did. Looks of schadenfreude appeared on all my friends' faces. Traitors, the lot of them.

Not waiting a single moment, I pointed my wand at the letter that seemed to be preparing to start drawing attention and demanded, "Silencio."

As the letter burst into a silent song, I turned and gave Jessica a look of triumph. Anticipating my mother's plan, I had spent last week mastering the silencing charm. It worked like a charm. The letter seemed to be ramping up in a crescendo, and yet, not a peep was heard.

But, I discovered that I had underestimated my mother's cunning. While I had prevented my letter from bursting out into song, I hadn't anticipated that there would be additional celebrity aspects to the message.

Once the letter had gone silent, it seemed to unravel into pieces, sending ribbons into the air that formed the words Happy Birthday Alex. I glared at the eye-catching streamers celebrating my birthday, and comforted myself that at least it wasn't as bad as my first year.

It didn't take long for the magic powering the streamers to faded away and sink down and wrap themselves around my shoulders. I inwardly resolved to learn the vanishing charm sometime this year. I didn't care about the fact that it was an advanced transfiguration spell. I was tired of holding back in transfiguration. It was time to move ahead.

With my Mum's embarrassing birthday mail taken care of, I turned my full attention back to my fellow Ravenclaws, who all had on suspiciously blank faces.

"Not a word," I warned. "Or I'll make sure each of you has a similar birthday greeting."

I think my friends took my warning seriously because Ryan successfully changed the subject again by asking, "Who else is looking forward to the Hogsmeade trips? Did everybody get their parent's permission slip signed?"

Ryan's question set off a new round of conversation. Everyone was eager for the monthly weekend visit to the only entirely magical town left in Britain. Out of all my friends in Ravenclaw, Ryan was excited the most. He wanted to see what the only fully magical village was like.

I had my own plans for the visits, after some research, I discovered that Rita Skeeter has a small home in town. I still needed to contact her. I wasn't quite yet sure of the strategy I was going to use in dealing with her. If the books held true, the threat of turning her into the Ministry for being an unregistered animagus would be useful in controlling her actions.

Soon, breakfast was over, and it was time to get to my first class. I noticed on my schedule that my first class was Arithmancy. I was looking forward to the new elective and the small class size. Due to the rumored difficulty, it wasn't a popular class. But, I knew from Nicolas, Arithmancy would be useful to me in the future.

As I left the great hall, I saw a familiar flash of auburn hair headed my way. It was Lelah, a fifth-year Ravenclaw and one of my fellow duelers in the Silver Spears.

When she caught up to me, she whispered, "Saturday night, 6:30, you know where."

I nodded my agreement, "I'll be there."

"Good," she remarked. "I'll see you there."

Having said what she wanted, Lelah wandered off. From my experience last year, the meeting this Saturday should be us greeting potential recruits. I was looking forward to meeting back up with the other members of the Silver Spears. I hadn't gotten into much dueling since the portkey incident. It would be nice to dust off my wand and get back into it. I couldn't afford to let my dueling skills regress if I wanted to win it all this year.

Not wanting to be late to my first class in Arithmancy, I headed to the Seventh floor where the class was located.

After making my way to classroom, I found Jessica had already beat me here and had saved a seat. On the other side of the open seat was Cedric, he had also decided to take on the difficult subject. I had tried to get Anna and Alicia to take the class, but when they heard the class was involved mostly numbers, they had laughed in my face.

The only elective I had got them to agree to was Care of Magical Creatures. As for their other elective, both Anna and Alicia selected Divination. I had tried to tell them it was a useless class, but they refused to listen. Divination was widely known to students as a blow-off class that required minimal effort.

As I took a seat in-between Jessica and Cedric, the front of the classroom caught my eye. It had three enormous chalkboards full of complex mathematical calculations that I couldn't make heads or tails of. The calculations were obscure. It was like someone was annoyed that there weren't enough numbers out there and decided to add letters in a fit of pique.

It didn't take long for our teacher to walk in and close the door behind her. It was Professor Septima Vector. I hadn't really interacted with her before, but I had heard she brooked no-nonsense in her class. She strode through the room purposely, with her dark hair and burgundy robes flowing behind her.

She stopped at the front of the class, pulled out a list, and did a simple roll call. I thought I caught a gleam of satisfaction in her dark eyes as she finished the list.

"Who can tell me what Arithmancy does?" Professor Vector briskly asked.

Next to me, Jessica's hand shot up. When Professor Vector nodded to her, Jessica answered, "It's the study of the magical properties of numbers."

Professor Vector nodded and asked, "But, what does that really mean? What can one do with that knowledge?"

As she looked around the room, she enticingly whispered, "What if I told you that numbers could predict the future?"

Eyes wide with passion, Professor Vector explained, "Everything is mathematical, and understanding the magical properties of such allowed me to calculate where you all would choose to sit."

Seeing the skeptical looks around the room, she smugly smirked at everyone's disbelief and walked towards the corner of the room. She pulled out a rolling chalkboard and brought it to the front of the room and flipped it around.

Drawn on the board was a simple diagram of the seats in the classroom, each box had one of our names written inside. It took me less than a split second to realize that each position on the board corresponded with our actual location.

Professor Vector looked on in satisfaction as she watched my fellow class members come to the same realization.

"So, how did I do it?" She asked. "How could I predict where each of you would end up sitting?"

A bespectacled Hufflepuff named Lisa raised her hand, and once she got the nod, she said, "You could have divined it. Do you have any seer blood in your family?"

A hint of a frown appeared on Professor Vector's face, "There is always one."

With displeasure leaking from her voice, She asked with a slight frown on her face, "Does this look like the divination tower? You will find we will deal with facts and absolutes you can prove. Not some wishy-washy magical discipline that relies on tea leaves and smoke and mirrors to fool people."

Next to me, Jessica raised her hand and asked, "But, Professor Vector. There are real seers. It has been proven and documented."

Professor Vector nodded and countered, "While it is true that those who are real seers who have the inner eye that can divine the future. It is incredibly rare, perhaps one in ten thousand have the gift. Most diviners out there are merely clever fakes, who have learned to trick the gullible. Even then, true seers have trouble seeing into the future because of the complexities of every single action and the complexities they unleash. Only true prophecies are unchangeable."

Continuing, Professor Vector passionately said, "We will not be dealing in that which is murky and unreliable. You don't need any rare magical blood to predict the future. Here we deal with numbers, which are in the realm of reason. They are reliable and rational, and there is no guesswork. Any missteps or mistakes in your calculations shall be of your own making."

Professor Vector pointed at the board behind her that held mind-numbing calculations, and said, "Using certain formulas, I was able to predict where each of you would end up sitting."

As she paused to let that sink in, I raised my hand for the first time. "What are the limitations? There have to be some. Otherwise, there would be more arithmancers out there predicting the future."

Professor Vector nodded in agreement, "There are," She admitted. "The more variables that are introduced increase the difficulty at an exponential rate. There is an old tale of a talented arithmancer who was approached a week before a quidditch match and asked to predict the winner. Agreeing to the proposal, he locked himself away and began working on the calculations. He refused to see anyone until he had finished the calculations. Locked in his tower, he lost track of time as he worked the problem. When he exited his tower in triumph, he summoned the wizard who employed him. The Arithmancy was embarrassed to learn although he correctly predicted the winner, it had taken him weeks to finish the calculations, and the match was long over."

The class snickered with amusement as Processor Vector shook her head, lamenting the arithmancer's mistake.

"The most useful way to employ Arithmancy is in a careful and controlled environment. Such as this classroom. There were a set number of students and seats available and a set time for you to arrive. All of the set variables make it far easier to calculate things. The farther out you go, the more variables you have to factor, which makes it difficult to complete the calculations. The more talented you are, the further out you can predict. But, a word of warning, you will need to be careful. Pulling back the curtain of the universe and staring into its inner workings has been known to make more than one Arithmancer a little eccentric. And that's putting it mildly."

Sensing worry, Professor Vector steered the class in a new direction. "Now, this is just one application of Arithmancy. There are many more ways Arithmancy and Numerology can be used. Such as predicting how long a enchantment will last."

As Professor Vector further explained the different ways Arithmancy could be used, I understood why Nicolas Flamel said this was a critical class for someone who wants to push the bounds of magic. It would be life-saving to predict if an experiment is about to blow up in your face. It also made sense why curse breakers were also required to take this class. If you were breaking into a forgotten tomb filled with curses, it would be helpful to predict harmful actions.

I had a feeling I was going to like this class. I always did have a way with numbers.