HOGWARTS STUDENTS » ALMASY, RAINE » BAINSADOTTIR, AURORA » DAGON, GABRIELLA » FLICKWICK, SOPHIE » HARCROFT, JOSHUA » FOLEY, OLIVIA » NORWOOD, CAITLYN » VAILLANCOURT, ALFIE                                         » CANTERBURY, LIGEIA » CARSTAIRS, ALEXANDRA » CHURCH, COMER » SCHLAGENWEIT, SASHA » STRELNIKOV, DEMETRIA FOREIGN STUDENTS » ALKAEV, KATYA » SAVITSKAYA, VLADLENA » STRELNIKOV, FYETKA » FONTAINE, Cécile » MEDICI, TEODOSIO » NADGE, LEONARD » PARKER, LOUSIE     Class starts at 7PM. The astronomy classroom has now been remodelled to be 'indoors' (see post for details) and have windows that look outwards into an animated  image of space, similar to the Great Hall's ceiling enchantment. At the center of the room is a large sphere that is being used as a projector; underneath is the old armillary sphere. Desks are arranged in a circle around this globe and two alcoves (southwest and northwest) have small fireplaces to heat the room, which are raised slightly above the floor with steps leading to them.

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This wasn't how this week was to supposed to go! At all.

Tapendra's day wasn't going to plan, to say the very least. He'd had everything planned; he had, this year, everything he could want - a new crop of first years untouched by other teacher's lecturing styles, classes that took place at civilized hours and...well, okay, the foreign students were a bit of a wrench in the works, but he could deal with that. He'd laid out plans for tutoring and getting everyone on the same page, and now this!

The day hadn't been normal, exactly; he'd been sent out with Landis to take care of Tournament business. Namely, diplomatically requesting a Hag relocate from an area of the forest they'd earmarked for the tournament. The key term, in Tappy's mind, was diplomatically, which Landis seemed to have missed.

Served Landis right, in Tappy's mind; the librarian was just as holed up and trying to hide as Tappy was, in the aftermath of the hexing she'd given both of them for Landis's comments.  Luckily for Landis - that rat bastard - he didn't have a duty to teach classes. Also, he was still human.

But Tapendra could teach like this, he kept telling himself - often several times per minute. If only the students would get over his appearance...and stopped asking questions. At least he'd been able to get Landis to charm his glasses to still fit and stay on, because being a...whatever kind of horse he was...hadn't fixed his eyesight.

He sighed and stomped a hoof. The younger years had been the worst, as unprepared as he'd been and as worried as he'd been. He promised himself he'd run to Tulojow the moment he had time. Normally he'd write her a note, but...

The possibility of being able to fly on his own was an intriguing one, though. In the silence of the tower, he beat his wings a few times; they generated a surprising amount of lift, given their size compared to him. Maybe it helped he was quite small like this, too - only a bit larger than a very large dog, really.

The tower, whose large projector windows usually showed star fields, was now open to the late summer breeze. The view was certainly a good one, as the tallest of Hogwarts' towers had an excellent overlook of the moors and hills. Salem's dirigible was attached to the peak, much to his annoyance, and kept ruining the view by drifting in the breeze. It hadn't hit the tower yet though, which was his major concern. He took the time to stick his head and neck around one of the pillars and glare at it nonetheless.

Voices echoed up the stairs. Tapendra hesitated, considered just hiding until they went away - the first and second years were one thing, but this was just humiliating! But he didn't have anyone to substitute and he hadn't written his notes in an understandable way and -

The door below the tower floor opened, and students were coming up to the classroom proper. He stood behind the globe for a moment, knees - all four of them - shaking. Then he gave in, and snorted, flapped his wings - which seemed an automatic reflex - and wound up dancing on the spot as he vibrated with worry. He wanted to hide incredibly badly.

Alex had heard some students blathering on about a winged horse teaching astronomy, but, well, she had dismissed it as nonsence. To find out that it was true was slightly worrying, the fact that Professor Trishna had been turned into a minature pegasus more so. The temptation to say something was strong, but the look on Professor Trishna's (now equine) face was not one she wanted to anger, to say the least, so she walked up to the front and said to the small winged horse "Sir, won't it be a little difficult to teach the lesson from behind that globe?"

A little flippant, perhaps, but true. Other thoughts, such as the fact that in a few minutes a group of foreign students would arrive to find her trying to coax a small winged horse shaped astronomy professor out from behind a globe, that Professor Trishna would actually look quite cute as a horse if he didn't look so grumpy, that it was possible that he could now fly unaided, and that glasses- wearing horses were really creepy, swam through her mind, but she ignored them.

She was slightly relieved that she had come up two minutes early, it meant that at least she would have had time for the thought to connect before everyone else arrived.

"Sir, I really don't think that anyone will mind that you're currently in the form of a minature horse with wings. Just pretend that nothing's wrong, and everyone will assume that nothing is." With that helpful statement and a cheerful smile, Alex walked to her seat and sat down, placing her bag underneath her seat. The other students would be arriving in a minute, she really couldn't wait for the looks on their faces when they saw that the rumours were true.

She wondered if saying that he looked good as a horse would be pushing it too far. Regrettably, that was probably the case, but fortunately, the others seemed to be arriving, based upon the noises from the stairwell.

While looking forward to Astronomy class again, Church had to admit that some of the things he had heard the first years talking about piqued his curiosity. After all the hushed yet excited whispers of a horse teaching about planets and stars was... unique. Church couldn't think of a stranger occurrence happening in the castle. And that said a lot considering he was fairly certain a lot of strange things happened every day. So not wanting to miss a second of Tappy being a horse (if it were true) Church made his way up the tower, arriving only second after a fellow Ravenclaw. Interestingly one whom Chuch didn't know by name. Or if he did it currently escaped him. Not that it mattered much, he figured he would find out soon enough. And the girl had already managed to get Tappy out from behind the globe. Good now Church could see for himself.

Horse indeed! Or more accurately a pegasus. It was quite a sight to behold really. Professor Trishna had become something straight out of My Little Pony. Church smiled and bit his lower lip, doing his best to contain his laughter. This was simply wonderful.

"Just pretend that nothing's wrong, and everyone will assume that nothing is."

This time Church let out a few laughs before covering his mouth with his hand until they giggles died down. "At least the foreigners might not," he commented. "Everyone else will probably notice somethings up." Still smiling Church shrugged and shook his head slightly. He had the sudden urge to feed the head of Ravenclaw a carrot then hop on his back for a ride around the school. The image ran through his mind for a moment, causing another bout of laughter, only this time it was much more hysterical. "I'm sorry professor," Church said calming down. "I'm just imagining the prospect of you giving pony rides to students." He smiled again and let out a small sigh. This was certainly a fun way to start the term.

Finally getting over the fact that a teacher was a pony Church leaned against a nearby desk and crossed his arms. Truth be told he was fairly curious as to how this happened and whether or not it was permanent. Hopefully it wasn't, for as cute as he was being a horse for the rest of your life probably wouldn't be very enjoyable. But by the sound of things more students were arriving, which meant Church wouldn't have the chance to ask.

At least, not until later.

Sophie was learning a hard lesson on this particular evening, namely that one should not run after wolfing down mashed potatoes because they would bounce in your belly and make you queasy when you tried to take stairs two at a time. This whole class right after dinner thing was not going to be good for her, she could already tell. It wasn't so much that she worried about being late but that she liked to have enough time to situate herself, catch her breath, maybe gossip a bit (though really, why would she need to if she'd just left the Great Hall?). It would be the same thing every night too because Divination was right after supper as well, she would have to get used to a whole year of this feeling. Goodie.

By the time she walked through the classroom door she had a stitch in her side and was having a little trouble breathing (another reminder that being petite did not equate being fit and she needed to get off her skinny arse more). She didn't spot Ollie or Gabby, but she did see Alex so that was a good sign. She also heard Church choking on laughter and looked around the room puzzled. At first nothing seemed particularly out of place to the ever so observant Gryffindor, but then she spotted it...and almost died. Right there by the massive globe that so often stole her attention in lessons when the constelations got blurry from staring too long was a black and blue winged pony that just begged to be cuddled.

"Gordic's Garters," her voice was almost gleeful though tinged with mild alarm, trying her utmost best not to audibly squeal. Her thoughts went in exactly this order: He was adorable! She wanted to keep him for a pet! Sweet Merlin she had had a week of visions about this and chalked it up to Nana spiking her tea! There was not a single thing about this situation that she did not love (the vision aspect was mildly perpexling, she usually just knew when she "knew" something. Of course Professor Trishna did not look particularly pleased at the prospect of teaching a group of teenagers ranging in age from sixteen to eighteen while in the shape of something so adorable Sophie was having a hard time containing her urge to just snuggle him. Clearing her throat she tried very hard not to giggle as she grabbed a seat near Alex, and whispered lowly, "What'd you suppose happened"?

Jazelle Hawke was still a little groggy from her nap not an hour before dinner, so as she made her way to the Astronomy classroom, she had to work extra hard to pick up her feet so as to not trip over them.

Stepping through the door she stopped abruptly, dropping her school bag.  "Awwwww!" she squealed, covering her mouth and bouncing up and down on her heels.  "Oh my God!  Oh my God!  I want one!  Where do I buy the ticket?" she exclaimed, referring to Church's comment about pony rides; her squeals reaching a new high.  "Do you think it'd be okay to pet him?" she half-joked, looking at Church with doe-eyes and edging further into the room.  "Professor?" she asked, a few tears of laughter spilling over her lids as she knelt closer.  "I hold the utmost respect for you, but, I can't help it," she said apologetically, "Animals are my weakness and this is quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen." she added, trying very hard not to reach out and stroke his mane.

"Best first day ever." she said with a sigh to herself, straightening up and regaining control, though the bright smile never ceasing.  This lesson will be the death of me.

The desk would have been a good idea, he decided, and couldn't help but look sullen. Humiliation. Embarrassment. Resentment. Burgeoning dislike of skinny blond fairy men. Also librarians.

"...thank you, Miss Carstairs," he said finally, sighing. The resignation evaporated into shocked disbelief when the other three arrived, though. And started laughing. And talked about pony rides. And - and - laughing!

He tried to give them a weary, sullen look; needless to say, the contours of a horse's face didn't do this very well. He wound up looked more as if he was pouting, and the irritated stomp of his hoof did not help this impression, as he tried to cling desperately to some shred of his already tattered dignity.

"Ahem," he said, after a few awkward sounds as he found out horses can't clear their throats very easily. This just made him gladder the Hogwarts kids were the first ones up here; laugh they might, but at least he knew most of them.

"You can...find this siduation as...whatever you find it after class, all of you," he said, standing straight and arching his neck. There was one thing horses could do and that was look down their noses; he proceeded to do this with great success.

Aside from the 'down' bit, anyway. He had to settle for looking sternly over his glasses.

"I would like to have this be as...err, normal as possible, if you all wouldn't mind." There was a sense of a plea to his tone which wasn't accidental.

Vladlena was not late.  But, to be honest, nor was she early. She was the sort of person who arrived precisely on time, because to do otherwise would be rude or wasteful respectively. She climbed to the tower sedately, scarlet skirts shushing as she slid into an unoccupied seat and readied her parchment with the briefest of polite nods to those already in attendance.

There was a horse in the classroom.

Vladlena's expression didn't falter in the least, except for an abrupt, surprised blink of pale green eyes. A horse that was to teach them.

Well that was a bit…unorthodox, perhaps.

The Russian student carefully schooled her features to cool blankness. Well, Hogwarts was known for being a bit more liberal than Durmstrang, although it did make her wonder who—or what, more precisely—would be teaching Care of Magical Creatures, if—as all evidence suggested—this was, in fact, the Astronomy professor. At this rapid realization, Vladlena was appalled. The behavior of the students, at Durmstrang, would have gotten them all sent to the Dregs without so much as a by-your-leave. And the professor, gracious, who had ever heard of a professor pleading with pleases to his students? The faintest of shrugs shifted through her shoulders. She was not here to judge, she was here to learn and to embrace the differences in culture. A secondary mission to furthering her academic studies, but one that could be applied in tandem nonetheless.

Besides, she was far too busy being fascinated to be disapproving. From an academic standpoint, it was quite a study in transfiguration—a horse's muscles should not have been able to contract and vibrate in such a way as to make intelligible English speech possible, and yet, the magic allowed for it. Most advanced. Lena reached into a fold in her robes to remove a pair of enchanted glasses and allowed her curiosity, for the moment, to take over as she ran through a series of analytical possibilities for the nature of the professor's predicament, sketching some quick notes in Russian on what she observed regarding the distinctly unusual magic. Running through the encyclopedic store of facts in her mind, she also began to jot down some brief calculations on the necessary mathematical alterations that would allow for the proper vibration of throat chords in an equine form.

It wasn't astronomy, but it certainly was interesting.

“Ow! Gawd!” Taryn swore, and the sound echoed up and down the astronomy tower stairs. Said stairs being the cause of her pain – they were quite low, in her opinion, and way too close together, with the end result that she’d lifted her head see what everyone was laughing about and cracked her skull against the next flight up.

She scowled and rubbed her forehead, already half-regretting taking up astronomy here without knowing how the classes went. At Salem, astronomy was held in a separate-building planetarium with a roof that appeared and disappeared at the whim of their teacher, giving access to both wide-open skies and magical projections as needed. But here, it was in a blasted tower, which meant stairs and – worse – heights.

But, fool that she be, she’d signed up for this class and now she was stuck with it. After a short final climb (without looking down), she finally reached the classroom proper, where a laughing crowd still clustered. Taryn ducked under the doorframe. “What’s all the hubbub aba…”

She stopped. At the center of everyone’s attention was a small horse. With wings. A pegasus. A frickin’ pegasus.

Taryn’s mouth hung open in shock. She closed it, tried to think of something to say, opened it, closed it again, and sank against the wall. Flying horses. Frickin’ flying horses. The one living creature on god’s magical earth that she couldn’t stand, and she was trapped with it. In a tower. A dozen stories in the air. On pain of detention and/or a failing grade. Admittedly, it was a small flying horse, so it wasn’t as bad as a full-grown one,  and…wait, was it talking?

Taryn gaped, looked to the nearest student, and said, in a weak voice, “That’s the teacher? Seriously? …The hell?”

Even as Sasha climbed the stairs to the Astronomy tower, he could hear the varied outbursts and remarks from the students that had reached the classroom before him.  He'd been expecting ... something ... when he finally stepped into the classroom.  But, regardless of what he'd expected, he wasn't prepared to find a small, colorful winged horse where Professor Trishna should have been standing. 

A small, winged horse that shared Professor Trishna's poor eyesight, apparently. 

Sasha stared at the four-legged version of Professor Trishna, concern and uncertainty etched across his features.  This wasn't normal; what had happened?  Were they supposed to be doing something?  Was this some strange ... test? 

But, the reactions around the classroom ranged from infatuated to sympathetic - no one else seemed overly concerned.  Even Professor Trishna seemed more (understandably) embarrassed than particularly worried.  Sasha cast a scowl at the laughing girls.  "I ... it's not ... this isn't normal," he whispered back to the ... rather large girl next to him.  "I don't know." 

"Sir," Sasha asked.  He was seated but only just perched at the edge of his chair.  He hadn't, yet, set his bag on the floor.  "Are you okay?"  He winced at the stupidity of his own statement.  "Do you need ... should we get someone?"  There was no way he was going to try to transfigure a professor.  But ... the nurse or the Transfiguration professor might be able to help. 

Ligeia was very eager for Astronomy classes again. Late nights to gaze upon the sky during her favorite time of day. She couldn't wait for this Thursday for their first observation session. At least the next day she had no classes until late morning. Not that lack of sleep have afflicted the pale skinned Ravenclaw greatly.

Her good humor, however, was distracted upon just what it was the other students were gushing over. Seemingly it was Professor Trishna, but at a height manageable to everyone else. Lithe wings, dopy eyes, miniature hooves and stripes. And the abomination still used the professor's voice.

Ligeia Canterbury was not charmed by this transformation.

"Poor dear Professor Trishna! How injudicious of your plight! What a vulgar form they've left you in!" This was nearly faint worthy but Ligeia steeled herself against it, leaning on her shut parasol like a staff. "The unbearable cuteness! Why couldn't you have been transfigured into something sensible, like a thestral."

Ollie might normally have been a bit more enthused about classes had it not been for the fact her body just ached from head to toe. The last bloody thing she wanted to do was climb all the stairs to the Astronomy tower. "Why are there so many?" She had whined half way up from the Great Hall. "It just keeps going!" She was talking to nobody but herself. Perhaps when she neared closer to the full moon she ought to leave for her later classes earlier, but dinner was just too good. She bit into a dinner roll she had snagged for the walk up. She continued to trudge up the stairs. Worst of all, she had History of Magic after this. Would the day never end? All she wanted was to curl up in bed and sleep till she needed to wake up and drag her skinny butt to Hogsmeade and go back to Ministry for the full moon. Upside, she had Alex for the adventure now.

Finally she made it to the top of the stairs. She adjusted her robes before she looked up to hear all the talk and commotion. Her eyes went a little wide and she blinked a few times. That was a winged horse yes? She looked at the students and they two seemed to be in a sense of confusion. Okay so she was not seeing things. Not the only one. Good to know. Pain could do funny things to a person. She took another bite of the dinner roll as she sat down next to Sophie. "He doesn't always look like that right?" A weak smile came on her face. "Does this happen prior to every full moon? Didn't know there was such thing as winged horse transformation." She said as quietly as possible. At least this was something to keep her mind of the stiffness in her legs and the pain radiating in her joints.

Ollie looked over her shoulder taking note of a few others in the room. Taryn was there, which admittedly brought a smile to her face. Though she turned her attention back to Sophie and the horse like Professor before letting her eyes linger on Sasha. She would prefer to not witness his face upon her arrival. Or worse yet that he thought she was looking at him with a sense of wolfly hunger so close to the full moon. She finished the last of her dinner roll before she lay her head on her desk. "Is it bed time yet Sophie?" She would remain like this until she had to actually look up to be polite because the professor was teaching.

Why had coming back to Hogwarts been such a big deal? Oh because she could get a proper education and be a normal girl. Yes that was it. Suffer through, was all she told herself. Few more days and she would be right as rain.

Gabby didn’t particularly like Astronomy and neither was she particularly skilled in it. The exceeds expectations she’d received from her OWL examination had been a remarkable fluke, Gabriella was sure of it. Yet despite this, she was still pestered into continuing with the subject into her NEWTs by a Dad that in reality just wanted to torture her and a grandmother that was positive she knew what was best for her sixteen year old grandchild. Astronomy meant late boring nights stuck in a tower staring at the night sky and pretending you could see the star, planet or UFO the gigantically tall professor was harping on about.

Despite her feelings toward the subject, Gabby was actually looking forward to this particular class. Rumours had circulated around the school about a horse teaching Astronomy and the bizarre hilarity of the situation. Miss Dagon was highly intrigued as to what on earth was causing such a fuss and why the first years were in such an excited tizz about their first go at astronomy.

As Gabby climbed up the stairs into the classroom she was confronted with the reason. Dark eyes first stared in surprise at the black and blue four legged figure stamping its hoof in what must have been irritation. It wasn’t long before the Gryffindor’s silent questioning of why their professor had been replaced by a camp hippogriff horse mixbreed was answered by the glasses atop of the pony’s nose. Professor Trishna was the camp hippogriff horse mixbreed....

A laugh suddenly escaped Gabriella’s lungs before she clapped her hands over her mouth to conceal the giant grin that had very quickly twisted her lips. The concealing hand hadn’t however managed to block her smiling eyes as she continued further into the room. No wonder the first years had been so thrilled by the prospect of a year being taught by Trishna the Tiny Foal. Eyes still watching the professor pony with interest, Gabby lowered herself into the seat on the other side of Sophie to Ollie and began to dig a hand slowly into her satchel.

“Do you think he’ll mind if I take a picture for the paper?” She asked quietly, hands clasping the camera in her bag.

Their Astronomy lesson sounded slightly louder than Raine had expected it to be, or so she had thought upon climbing the tower and joining her classmates on the floor with a curious expression. She had, unabashedly, burst out laughing with the rest of them when they saw the equine Professor Trishna; a form that she thought better suited his persona than a human one.

"Merlin, that's genius..." The Gryffindor exclaimed (mostly to herself) and she absently dropped into her seat next to a handful of her housemates, eyes trained on their teacher with a sort of delight. She couldn't stop grinning. How on earth were they going to gaze up at the stars tonight when all stares were on the winged horse? Wings!

Everyone was calling out jokes (or concerns, apparently) and when Gabby mentioned taking a photograph, Raine immediately turned her head: "Take one!" she insisted with a laugh, unable to picture Trishna reprimanding anyone for it.  "But he's right you know," the redhead added as a thought occurred to her: "We should probably stop horsing around and get some work done after this..."

Oh, puns. She couldn't help herself.

"Hex? Or curse? Maybe some kind of creature?" Alex whispered to Sophie, shrugging. "Not particularly imaginative guesses, but logical."

"I would like to have this be as...err, normal as possible, if you all wouldn't mind."

"Normal?" she whispered to Sophie, beaming cheerfully and managing not to break into laughter, which was more than could be said for the rest of her classmates. "There is nothing easier to achieve than normal when your teacher has been transformed into a minature, adorable pegasus."

She sat back as the rest of the students arrived, her smile broad as she watched their varying reactions, rating each out of ten. Points went in for expression, comments, and general hilarity. At first, she had expected the girl from Salem to win, but then Sasha had come in, blathering about getting help. Who came up with something like that? Whatever happened to teasing their teacher? That boy never ceased to amaze her.

She beckoned to Ligeia with a smile on her entry. "Hey, Ligeia," she said, smiling, not even bothering to comment that only she would bemoan the cuteness, as if she commented every time her friend said anything unusual, she would never stop.

"Do you think it's reversible? I hope not," she said, "He looks really funny when he tries to look disapproving." Unfortunately, logic dictated the reverse was true. Drat.

As the rest of the class arrived Church had simply shoved a portion of his hand into his mouth to keep himself from laughing aloud at the reactions. Jazz's was particularly difficult to contain. She never ceased to amuse. Especially with how adorably childish she became at the sight of the admittedly cute ponyfied version of their teacher. Goodness Ravenclaw and Gryffindor would be in the negative by the end of the lesson if this kept up. Although Church would argue that it was worth it if that were the case.

"Do you think it's reversible? I hope not, he looks really funny when he tries to look disapproving."

Church let out another few laughs and shrugged. "I suppose that depends on the spell," he commented in the general direction of the girl. "It'll probably wear off after a while but... Personally, I'm with you on this one." Church smiled and made his way over to Jazz. "I'll give you twenty galleons if you pet his mane and ask for a ride," He whispered lightly to her.

Honestly he didn't expect her to do it. But it still never hurt to ask, or in this case, tempt.