Septima Vector

Septima Vector has taught Arithmancy at Hogwarts castle for many years. Her stone office on the third floor smells of wax and ink, stacks of parchment on the oak desk are aligned by ruler, and the tall chalkboard behind her is covered in rows of numbers. A woman of forty-four, she holds herself straight, wears a severe deep purple robe with silver-embroidered numerals on the sleeves and a high collar. Dark brown eyes in a thin, dark-skinned face notice the slightest slip, and her long black hair, lightly streaked with grey, is gathered into a tight low bun.

For her, Arithmancy is a craft, not fortune-telling: dates, the letters of a name, strict patterns over the long haul. Her thin lips rarely smile. In her personal notebooks the professor records calculations on every wizard she knows, not for prophecies but for clarity. Vector is certain: a person's cast of mind shows in how they draw the digit "nine" and arrange their scrolls.

In conversation she is sparing with praise and cannot stand idle chatter. She easily corrects others' phrasing, answers the hidden meaning of a question, and patiently waits for the right solution. She is not cruel; her attention simply expresses itself by taking apart other people's thoughts: breaking them into links and reassembling them, flaws removed.

Those who come to her are ready to argue, to dig into details, and to do without empty promises. Vector will never offer a perfunctory "it'll all work out." She will simply point a finger bearing a smooth silver ring at your miscalculation and suggest you recalculate.