Arithmency

Jack swept down to look at the scales, then said to Aminia, "See this little needle?" pointing at a little, silver point with a series of lines behind it. "This needs to line up to here," he said, indicating the centermost bar. He deftly pulled two discs from his pocket, and dropped them onto the first stack. "Either the first stack has to be brought up," he said, "or the second stack needs to be dropped." He flicked the four top discs into the air, which dropped onto the stack of discs already on Aminia.

"Jess." Jack strode over. "You're good. Very good. At the beginning, so brilliant," Jack said, his voice trailing off. "Well. Nice work."

"So you come from Salem, Elizabeth?" Jack drifted over, and peered at Elizabeth's work. "Could I have a chat with you after the lesson? I'd like to know what those Salem teachers are teaching." He grinned, a sudden infectious grin.

"Balance, people. Keep the balance," Jack said to the class in general, then walked back to his desk, seated himself, and watched the class.

The prof's little speach had ruined Jess' balance entirely. As his scales went entirely to on side he sighed.

Aminia did as she was told and she thought she finaly got it.

Jess concentrated hard and his work payed off as it worked.

"Jess, it's fairly simple to fix these. Just turn the knob on your side." Jack pointed at several small silver knobs on the side of his scale, and tweaked them, making the scale swing wildly.

Jess frowned as he had just succeded in aligning his scales, but did as the prof said and it went right again.

"Well, I think it's time for some house points. Five for Aminia, Jess, and Elizabeth for being on the ball, and an extra five for Elizabeth for being at Salem, five for Jess for demonstrating his resourcefulness and five for Aminia for learning very fast." Jack suddenly grinned his most infectious grin, then called towards the ceiling, "Twenty for Gryffindor, ten for Slytherin."

Jess raised ine eyebrow but looked at the prof and asked "Does that mean we can go?"

"Well, the bell should go in about a minute, so can we put the scales away?" Jack gestured, but was cut short by the sound of a bell ringing loudly, and the sounds of people stampeding along the corridor. "Off you go, then. Scales away." He pulled his mark-book out of his bag and filled in the day's roll and marks.

Jess smiled and put the scales away. He then walked out of the classrom without a word.