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The NEWT students eyed Professor Storm with some trepidation as he entered the classroom at the top of the astronomy tower. The response was likewise. They were wondering what by Merlin he was doing there, and so was he.

"Professor Trishna is unavoidably detained." He informed the older students, with the gruff manner of a man who had spent the day teaching from first thing until mid-afternoon, drowning the 4th years in the lake during their lesson, followed by writing another mock examination for the fifth years because he had been unsatisfied at their performance in the written examination he'd given them at two o'clock that afternoon.

The Professor had made a trip down to the staff room later than his usual afternoon visit to check on a few matters, only to find that he had drawn the short straw to cover Tapendra's astronomy lesson after dinner at short notice. Such a shame, as he'd really been rather looking forward to that third year detention. Instead they would probably be joining a larger detention polishing suits of armour without their wands or similar for Felinus, which in Professor Storm's opinion, was easier than they deserved.

"He has however left instructions for your lesson." The Professor elaborated without great enthusiasm, revealing in his hand a copy of their class textbook and also a sheet of parchment.

"Apparently you were due to revise some matters of Jupiter's moons." He was trying hard not to let on that astronomy had never been his favourite lesson at Durmstrang, nor his best, and that he'd blissfully forgotten most that wasn't used in his own subject area - and a good deal of Tapendra's teaching was certainly not on the Durmstrang curriculum. However, the way he peered at the parchment with a furrowed brow suggested to the students this was not exactly as the Deputy Headmaster wanted to spend an hour this evening doing.

"Fourty-two…" he uttered, drawing to the front line of student desks, dropping the book in his hand to the surface and leafing through it to the page before picking it up again.

Much as he would have loved to let the students read from the book, it was supposedly revision. Catching sight of some of the students looking to find the chapter in their own books, he quickly uttered,
"No, not you, me. This is revision for you - Merlin knows what it is for me."

Consulting Tapendra's instructions again, he trailed away from the students, and eventually deposited the lesson plan on Tapendra's empty desk, looking slightly bewildered before snapping to his usual teaching expression before the class. He had no bloody idea what half of those things on the list were.

There was only one option: wing it.

"Right." He addressed the class, trying to ignore that they were all wearing curious expressions of glee, suspicion or boredom. "Moons. Jupiter has lots of moons," his finger ran down the page quickly before lifting and pointing at one student, "how many, and how many of them are - " he read directly from the book, " - less than ten kilometres in diameter."

The questions continued, random students selected for a factual question about moons until Ignan realised he would fast run into those trickier questions and fished out the lesson plan again. He would be sure that if he was unavoidably detained from teaching, that whoever had to cover was given something equally incomprehensible to teach without preparation. 

"Says here that you should be able to explain what Laplace resonance is?" He scowled up at the students, for to him, that sounded like the moons sang to each other. Merlin's beard, in the book there was a line of symbols and numbers that looked like runes and arithmancy had collided headlong.

The first student to ask him a question would get detention, he decided.

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This lesson situation has been set up with Armiece (we have a plan), so feel free to make the Professor's life difficult for now...!

Astronomy was by far Zel’s worst class. There was something about that that just never clicked for him, and while the subject was interesting (he only took it to see if there were other things besides Earth’s moon that affected werewolves), every time he went to class, part of him died. Nothing made him feel more incompetent and stupid than a class that he was nearly failing.

Zelig was wondering if Storm teaching the class was a good thing or a bad thing. He decided that this was a good thing, as it meant that Storm was in a very similar boat to Zel—this wasn’t his area of expertise.

When Storm’s index finger pointed unmistakably at him, his heart dropped to his stomach. He hung his head low and thought.And oh, he thought so hard. His answer had been wrong, and he looked down at his desk in shame.

And now it was onto that ‘Laplace resonance’ thing.

“It just… Sounds French?” He gulped before throwing his hands up in exasperation. “I don’t even know anymore!"

Josh, naturally, piped up at the question. " it's quite simple- Io, Europa and Ganymede have orbits which are closely related- indeed, Europa is twice as far out as Io, with Ganymede being as far out again. It's curious, because the orbital phases are locked- they always stay in the same position relative to each other." Josh couldn't resist explaining.

"It just… sounds French?" Trumble offered. Had it been in Defence Against the Dark Arts, he'd probably have reprimanded this vague answer, but as the Professor was still skimming over the text himself to try and work out what it was, he offered a raised eyebrow.

"I don't even know anymore!" Trumble continued.

"Professor Trishna will be so very pleased to hear, Trumble." He responded, before looking about the sea of faces in the hope that one of these children would know the answer. Surely!

Harcroft! Harcroft, the boy who they said must eat text books for dinner! Ah, he did not let them down.

"It's quite simple -," Josh began, the Professor was hoping this was more a comment directed at Trumble than himself, even if he and Trumble were in the very same boat, "Io, Europa and Ganymede have orbits which are closely related - indeed, Europa is twice as far out as Io, with Ganymede being as far out again. It's curious, because the orbital phases are locked - they always stay in the same position relative to each other."

It sounded plausible. However, he could see a few faces still rather confused on this matter, so not to look like an idiot before one's own students, he directed attention to the blackboard, chalking up three concentric circles as it looked in the book with Jupiter a big blob of chalk in the middle.

"Point to Gryffindor," he hazarded. "As Harcroft says, simple." The Professor explained, feeling that the fact he'd managed to glean enough from the text book in those short moments the basics of this concept were easy enough - it was the arithmancy that he didn't fancy.

"Io, then Europa and out here, Ganymede. Now, Ganymede has the furthest to travel, Europa say half that, and Io has the shortest. For every time that Ganymede makes one … orbit, Io makes 4, and Europa does 2. So, if they begin here," he chalked all three in a line at 12 o'clock, and Io makes one circuit of Jupiter. Where will the other two be?" He held up the chalk to the students, seeking a volunteer from their spotty faces.

He just had to make it through some more of this and he could invent an essay for them to do, and for Tapendra to enjoy marking…   

Tapendra sucked his breath in, trying to restrain the coughing fit and failing. His head spun, and though it was only one flight of steps up to the tower proper it felt like a mile. He hadn't been this sick in years, and all the potions didn't seem to be helping. Of course, Tulojow could probably help, but the prospect of trying to get to her seemed incredibly daunting.

He stopped on the top of the stone stairs to press his forehead to the stone to reduce the nausea, and it didn't help much. The room spinning didn't combine well with spiral staircases. Why did they have to e going the same direction?

Still, he could hear voices from above, and damnit if he was going to stop doing his job because of some silly illness. He could lean against the globe and stay perfectly still, anyway. Ignan didn't know much about Astronomy so it wasn't like he'd be able to explain the concepts...Ignan didn't pay attention to him when he talked anyway...

He found the door and looked at it for a moment, working out where the handle was. He was barely dressed to teach a class, wandering up in a white sweater pulled over an undershirt and jeans, but it wasn't...horrendously terrible, right? Right.

Right.

The last flight of steps to the classroom he took as well as he could, stumbling on the dismount, leaning on a nearby occupied desk and tugging at the neck of his sweater. Was it supposed to be so hot in here? He took a deep, steadying breath, and smiled. His dark skin was flushed and his hair an utter mess.

"Oh," he said. "You're...lecturing?" He didn't sound as surprised as he actually was; mostly, he sounded tired. "Supposed to be Saturn's moons next," he added, as if this was helpful.

It was to great surprise to Professor Storm when Professor Trishna burst into the classroom, looking like he'd had better days. The students looked to be relieved to see their usual professor, but concerned. It wasn't beyond Professor Storm's notice that Tapendra Trishna had a much closer bond with his students than Professor Storm ever wished to entertain.

"Yes, I'm covering your lesson," The Deputy Headmaster explained to the Astronomy Professor. "Someone had to do it, since you're… " words to describe his colleague's state failed him and he gestured with a hand towards him instead, referring to his fevered state, clothing and confusion.

"And it was Jupiter's moons, according to the notes left. Thankfully, Professor Trishna, Harcroft was able to recall answers where the likes of Trumble were lacking." It was very easy to reveal this information, even though the Professor's own knowledge was even less than Trumble's given the situation.

He stepped away from the front of the class and towards Tapendra, gaze intent. Things had been rather prickly between them of late, but he could not deny that he was still somewhat fond of Trishna as a friend and shared family history. Though before the students, he had to keep up appearances. Still, the closer he got the less well Tapendra appeared to be.

"Are you sure, Professor Trishna," he began in a lower tone, "you are in a state to teach?" He turned so that his back was to the class, and added, "much as I have bugger-all knowledge of what they are meant to be studying, you wouldn't have requested cover for no reason..."




End due to timeline

Gryffindor

Joshua Harcroft +1 - participation, +1 correct answer

Hufflepuff

Zel Trumble +1 - participation