This was going to be a pretty exciting night.

First of all, the sky was clear of any clouds at all and the stars were all visibly glimmering. It was the perfect night for an Astronomy club meeting. Jai packed his backpack full of his favorite books on the subject and a few cool Astronomy "toys" -- the magical constellation watch, that turned whatever room you were in into a sort of planetarium when you turned the different parts. He left behind his mobile of the planets, knowing that the professor probably already had one.

It was time to head down to Professor Trishna's office, where they would plot out the general schedule of the meeting. For Jai, this was the best part. Planning out the meeting was great, because you had all of these expectations and exciting topics to discuss. In the scheduling process, you could often get lost in thoughts about the many different aspects of astronomy. Some great conversations were often started that way.

He approached the office door and paused before it to take a momentary breather. Jai sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. Tonight would be good, he thought. This was going to be fun. He readjusted the weight of his backpack on his shoulder and knocked on the door.

He tapped his pen against his lips. It was a red pen, full of red ink - well, not so full, now. A long night of correcting essays lay ahead of him, aided by the bottle of whiskey that sat next to him on the desk. The 3rd years were doing much better than they had been at this time last year. The mistakes he was underlining now where the sort that came down to semantics or simple mathematical mistakes, not the kind they'd made last year. Last year, they'd been struggling with the very concepts he was trying to present to them.

Tapendra was screwing the cap back on the bottle of whiskey when the knock came, and he was quick to shove it into the lower drawers of his desk. He wasn't as bad a drinker as some other professors (he still blamed Ignan for how often he found himself at the pubs, not that he minded) but he wasn't about to set a bad example.

"Come in!" He called, shuffling the papers into a pile, folding over the corner of the in-progess paper so he wouldn't have to hunt for it. He looked up as the door opened, and smiled broadly. "Patil! Good evening. Here about the meeting, I assume?"

When his advisor looked up to respond to Jai's greeting, the very first thing Jai noticed was red dripping from his professor's lips. Immediately alarmed, Jai recoiled in horror. Was his professor a vampire? He'd admired his professor for so long, particularly his subject -- was his professor only a master of the night sky because he was a creature of the night? Jai was sincerely concerned and for a couple seconds, was completely frozen. After a few moments though, logic began to creep its way back into his mind. Jai squinted his eyes and realized that the blood dripping down his professor's chin was a little too red. Then he noticed the large stack of papers on the desk. Oh. Jai blushed at his own frantic silliness.

"Um, professor, you have a little..." How was he supposed to explain this without embarrassing his teacher? "...Ink." Jai gestured to his face and general chin area, moving his hand around in a circle to imply that it was kind of everywhere. Hopefully that wasn't too disrespectful. To ease the tension, Jai let his knapsack slip from his shoulder and pulled out a few rolled up pieces of parchment. Old astronomy posters, which were mostly incorrect. He liked them, though; it showed that no matter how intelligent and well-aware people thought they were, even scientists had things completely wrong -- and for decades, too. It often made him wonder what students in 100 years would think of students today. It also made the hope of discovering something new that much more feasible.

Tapendra looked at Jai in confusion as the boy recoiled - blast, his breath wasn't that bad, was it? - but the boy's gesturing made him notice the sensation of ink sliding down his chin, and he cursed. He reached up and wiped at it, looking at his arm - which now, of course, was stained with red ink. Damn!

"Oh - thank you, I didn't -" he said, as he sought to wipe it off and only succeeded in spreading the stuff around. This was the non-removable ink, too. He'd have to brew a potion to get it out. Just his luck.

When his sleeves were now thoroughly red and the ink on his chin was blended into his beard, he gave up and sighed, sitting back in his chair and tossing his arms up. "Sorry, Patil. It's been one of those days," he said, and laughed softly, wondering to himself if alcohol would get the ink out. It was worth a shot, right?

"What've you got there?" he asked, leaning in for a look.

(Sorry! Didn't see this 'cause I'm an idiot u_u)

Well, at least now the red ink was gone. Er... mostly gone. Jai did his best not to notice the smears still present on the professor's face and neck and refocused his attention back to his dioramas and posters. "No problem, Professor," he responded appropriately. At the very least, he understood what the professor was talking about when he said it was 'one of those days.' It seemed like it was less common to have super great days than it was to have mostly terrible ones.

"I just have some posters and things," Jai answered, blushing a little. He wasn't a big blusher, but he felt his face grow hot under this type of pressure. Even though he'd known Professor Trishna for quite some time, he still got nervous-- the man was his professor, and Jai still wanted to impress him. At least now he was a little more vulnerable, with ink all over his face. "I thought we could use them as visual aids."

He wasn't really sure what was going to happen with this Astronomy club meeting; while he was excited to plan it, he wasn't clear on what the plan should be to get students interested. Jai had a natural passion for the subject, so it had been an easy choice for him -- but not everyone comprehended his tiny obsession with stars. "What do you think we should do?" Jai asked the professor. "Have you talked to anyone about getting some snacks for tonight?"

"Mmm -" Tapendra leaned forward over the desk to get a better look, head tilted and lips moving slightly as he read the angled and faded writing on a few of the posters. Old, out of date, just plain wrong - they definitely were useful, he thought, since a few of them were showing layouts that some of the first years thought were true.

He sat back and tugged at his beard, habitually, as Jai spoke. "Snacks? Oh, yes - the elves know what to bring, I think. I can double check, if you'd like to make sure. They're pretty prudent, though."

Mostly. He tended to not like having the elves in the tower - they tried to clean things. Kepler, his kneazle, liked to try and chase them off when they tried that, and it had only made the messes worse.

"Well, since you've brought visual aids - what would you like to talk to the club about, or do? Discussion can be a good way to get people wanting to learn," he said. "Though it's also supposed to be clear tonight. Would you rather have a practical meeting, or have the club talk?" 

Jai considered some of the professor's questions. "If the elves say they have it, then it's fine," Jai answered. A low grumble in his belly reminded him that he actually was a little hungry. That was okay though, because the meeting would be starting soon. Jai sifted through his posters until he came across the one he was looking for. His favorite posters weren't here at Hogwarts, but of the ones that were available, this was probably his favorite. It was a map of the constellations. Constellations were an old science, but a cool one. In a way, it was almost art, but scientifically, they were like a map. Jai had briefly had an obsession with cartography and just liked being able to find things in general.

"I think it might be a good idea to look for the constellations," Jai answered. He brainstormed a little before adding, "Plus we can talk about the mythology, maybe? The stories might get people interested who might not normally be.... maybe," Jai didn't want to overstep the professor. He thought Professor Trishna was a wise person and he certainly knew better ways to conduct a group of students.

“Stories are often a good way to draw people in,” he said, chewing his lip as he considered. “There's a lot of different stories from a lot of different cultures – even differences between wizard and muggle, when it comes to the tales. The club might find talking through them an interesting exercise.” He smiled, suddenly, the expression sunny enough it lit up his features.

“Maybe you could have them postulate why the tales are different,” he said. “Or why different cultures saw different shapes in the same groups of stars.”