So, this is intended to be for the Arithmancy class at Hogwarts. Task #3: Write about someone who fits the arithmetic characteristics of the number seven perfectly.

"People represented by the number seven are said to be perceptive, understanding, bright, and they enjoy hard work and challenges. They are often serious, scholarly, and interested in all things mysterious. Originality and imagination are more important than money and material possessions. Sevens can also be pessimistic, sarcastic, and insecure."

Additional prompts used: Characteristics: Serious, scholary, interested; Object: invisible ink; Word: secrecy

...yeah. I'm pretty sure that that didn't work out as well as I wanted to, but I tried. *shurgs*

Word Count: 819

Sally-Anne Perks was well aware that a good part of her year had no idea she existed.

Despite expectations, that fact did not bother her in any way, shape, or form. Quite the opposite; being ignored meant that she was able to do her work in peace instead of getting mixed up in pointless drama.

Her work was very important for her future...should she survive that long.

Sally's parents had tried their best to exclude her from their job, but after she had followed them to a case the tenth time—before she had even entered Hogwarts—they had agreed that it would be better to prepare her.

The job as a Hunter was dangerous after all. The average life expectancy was about five years after starting the job. Claudine and Michael Perks were some of the rare exceptions; they had almost two and a half decades of experience at this point.

Sally wanted to be just like her parents. She wanted to save people by getting rid of the monsters that threatened the continued existence of humanity.

But of course she couldn't admit to such a thing when asked for her dreams. Especially not here, in the midst of witches, wizards, and ghosts, as all three were sort of on the list of creatures to be hunted. It was always a more sinister version with the same name, but that didn't mean that there wasn't any negative stigma surrounding Hunters.

Sally was well aware that the people in Hogwarts—well, most of them—were perfectly nice people, but she and her family had heard of the demon-dealing kind of witches years before her older sisters got their letters.

She knew that it was even worse for her parents. After hunting witches, ghosts, and werewolves for two decades they were suddenly expected to let their daughters live among them. All three of their children had turned out to be magical beings.

Given everything, they had reacted very well—way better than other people would have expected. Nevertheless it would be an outright lie to say that they weren't shocked.

But for Michael and Claudine Perks there was nothing more important than their children. They knew that their children were smart enough not to make a deal and didn't have the chance to do so either. Ergo, there had to be a natural, harmless version of witches.

It was as simple as that.

They hadn't even thought about giving up their work as Hunters; they just doubled the secrecy.

The Hunters couldn't know the Perks girls were magical and the Vixen—that was the only gender neutral term they had found so far—couldn't know they were Hunters.

Parts of their letters had always been written in code. Now they simply wrote the code in invisible ink. It had never hurt anyone to be cautious, at least not to their knowledge.

If they wanted to continue their lives like this—and they most certainly did—then their secret couldn't get out under any circumstances whatsoever.

Sally could clearly see the advantages several of her subjects would offer them. Potions, Defense, and her new electives Care of Magical Creature and Ancient Runes seemed especially useful, so he did her very best—and then some—in these subjects.

Others, like Charms or Transfiguration, while not useful at the first glance, had several useful spells. Plus, as a Hunter you never knew what might happen next. The live was just unpredictable like that.

Sally relished in that future. This was the path of her choice, the path she had wanted to choose for as long as she could remember. To be as brave as her parents were. It was only a matter of time until she, too, was a hero. She would be a better Hunter than anyone before her.

Maybe that was a bit insane, but their lives were so much more interesting and mysterious than any other job she had heard of. It combined the best parts of Unspeakable and Auror with the added benefit of the languages one tended to pick up over time. Sally was proud to say she was almost fluent in Latin already.

Being a Hunter meant that you never had to deal with boredom and that was the one thing she despised more than the fiery pits of Hell—and she was being literal here.

Her mother assured her that that was genetic, but Sally herself wasn't sure of that. Her parents and sisters enjoyed the breaks between cases, while she never knew what to do with herself during that time. She stared at the wall, feeling like her existence was pointless, unless there was something she could study that would suitably distract her.

Perhaps her mother was talking about some other relatives; she could not remember ever meeting her extended family, so it wasn't impossible.

And once you ruled out the impossible, whatever remained had to be the truth, no matter how odd it might seem.

Please tell me what you think!

~Marvelgeek42