★ Linus Hughes ★ Michael Labell ★ Ted Lupin ★ Charles Harcroft ★ Mairead ó Fearghail ★ Felix Moss ★ Ambrose Pepper ★ Lua Taylor ★ Gabriella Dagon ★ Joshua Harcroft ★ Elian Harris ★ Roland Dylanis ★ John Windell ★ Duce Alyx ★ Moira McBoid ★ Winifred Oliver ★ Micah Gallagher ★ Zel Trumble ★ Jai Patil ★ Autumn Moore ★ Frank Sellaphix ★ Iris Ward ★ Philo Falkin ★ Alvis Norling ★ Juni Zamperia ★ Ligeia Canterbury ★ Alexandra Carstairs ★ Zia Piselli ★ Sasha Schlagenweit ★ Peyton Wentworth ★ Amara Báthory ★ Erin Dark ★ Bastian Desrosiers ★ Esther Morrel ★ Casey O'Doherty ★ Bran Blackwell ★ Xavier Tawse THURSDAY, MAY 13TH - 11:30PM - 12:30PM As with most stargazing classes this should be treated as an open thread - have your students get bored and cause trouble, chatter among themselves, drop their supplies off the tower, and so on!

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The rain had been intermittent, a soft drizzle and fog that clung to the castle for days on end, blocking out the night sky and dampening any parchment out in it for longer than a minute. It was this time of year he hated most when it came to scheduling star gazing times, and with weather changing spells made illegal, he really couldn’t just...fix the situation.

 And simulating the night sky inside was a...substitute. But it wasn’t something he could easily do and it didn’t teach them the skill they needed to have for the ministry’s tests - especially when the instructors actually watch the children chart. It was one thing to chart a blank starfield, quite another to chart the moving sky with clouds and hills and lights all around it.

Thankfully, it looked as though tonight would see a break in the weather. He had no regrets about rushing everyone upstairs to catch it, especially with exam season only a month away.

“1st years, be sure to watch the older students’ technique,” he advised, as he waved them through one of the curtains out onto the battlement outside. “6th and 7th years, tonight I’ll be looking at your for speed - chart as many of the significant stars as you can before our class ends. For your exams, you’ll be tested on both speed and accuracy.”

He looked up at the dark night sky. The clouds had retreated, but he could see them on the horizon. He hoped they didn’t blow in in the next hour or so.

Aoife watched only half with intent. The other half was slight boredom. Luckily, tonight seemed to be more about watching the older student's techniques. Exam sessions were fast approaching and Aoife wondered if she had really learned anything at all about Astronomy.

'Now mum will never let me get a cat...' She thought to herself before giving a small, barely noticeable sigh. 'Maybe I can pass with an A at least...' She began to lift her heels up, and then down while she watched the clouds move out of the way of the night sky.

This was now Ayla's fourth year of late night, outdoor star gazing classes and they really weren't getting any easier. At least Professor Trishna was a far better teacher than Woolfolk had been and she was getting much better at mapping stars, recognizing constellations and recalling facts about the planets and their associated moons. It almost made her wonder if she would have learned all this if she had gone to a muggle school. She could vaguely recall her muggle cousins talking about the planets and stars at some point.

She was perched in a corner, as from the sixth years as she could manage. Those from her own house were friendly enough and she knew a few of the older Gryffindors and Ravenclaws in passing but it had been the Slytherins mostly that had persistently bullied her in her third year and she had become rather distrustful of them. She loathed these combined classes but she couldn't fault Professor Trishna for it. The weather had been so uncooperative lately that she couldn't blame him for jumping at the chance for class when there was a clear sky for once. At least the older years were being watched for speed, it should keep them busy enough to leave the younger years alone.

It wasn't to say Amara particularly enjoyed Astronomy... In fact, it wasn't to say that she particularly enjoyed any of the subjects currently taught at Hogwarts. Boredom was the key word in all her classes as of recently. She just had to be patient for summer would come soon and that meant her private lessons back home in Romania would start.

But meanwhile, she was perched on a battlement, telescope in one hand and the other waving her wand, pointed towards a chart that was slowly filling itself with writing. She could be sleeping by now. or in any case doing something far more interesting than this. Taking a small break, she placed her telescope at her side and looked around curiously. She was sure all hell would break loose quite soon with all ages and creatures about at the same time.

A few ways to the left Bran Blackwell was very studiously focusing on something. Definitely not the sky, however, and more like someone than something. She never quite got the hang of that boy... Strange creature.

Raine was hastily pulling on an old Quidditch jumper over her clothes as she and Alex ascended the Astronomy Tower that evening. A halo of copper frizz laid seige to her typically temperamental hair. She pushed her arms out of the sleeves, glancing at the other girl as they emerged into the starry night.

"Twig~" she gestured at a bit of leaf and stem sticking out from behind Alex's ear. The two had been out - allegedly breaking curfew - in their animagus forms earlier, a pair of incomplete Nightshades without Slant. Raine picked the twig out of her friend's hair before glancing about to find a place to settle. It was... relatively congested.

While a NEWTs Astronomy lesson was routine, they certainly hadn't foreseen Professor Trishna corralling all the other years into class as well. She picked her way past a group of sleepy-eyed first years before finally dropping into a spot close enough to the battlements that they could catch sight of the grounds below as well. A neighbouring fourth year inched away from the pair.

Charting paper, pencils, quills and rulers toppled out of a satchel. "Bird's eye view, don't you think?" Raine commented, flattening out her parchment and giving Alex a dry smile. "I wonder how long before we're tempted to dangle a first year by their ankles..."

"Ye mean ye haven' bin thinkin it already?" Xavier gave Raine a wink when he set up his own work space close by the duo. Raine was easily his favourite Gryffindor and he didn't mind Carstairs either. Either way it beat being near the younger years. He had a hard enough time steering clear of girls that hated him, adding in the younger years made that a lot harder to do. He also didn't have his cousin to keep him company during Astronomy. Apparently star gazing wasn't a lady-like endeavor.

He set to work charting the stars as assigned. He wasn't too keen on the fact that the first years were told to watch them. He knew they'd be watched for speed, with their NEWTs coming up the following year, but there was a difference between having some Ministry crones judging them and having a bunch of snot nosed starry eyed brats hanging onto his every movement. He took a moment to scan their little faces wondering if he could find his little second year admirer, unfortunately there were too many faces for him to look through. 

With most of the students in attendance, Tapendra followed them out onto the battlement, sweeping the curtain shut behind them. It wasn't as terribly cold as it had been earlier in the year, but it was still rather brisk, and as the cool air came up the tower and found its way through the clean linen of his shirt, he wished he'd brought a jacket.

Ah well. It's help him stay awake.

He went to his usual routine, circling the large crowd of students, looking at their technique – smiling at Bathory's writing technique after he was sure she wasn't cheating. He'd had a broken pen almost cost him an exam, once; how he wished he'd thought of doing that instead...

He was walking by Raine, Alexandra and Xavier when Raine spoke. The tall man paused long enough to lean down, looking at her.

“No dangling first years, Almasy,” he said mildly, and smiled. “Unless they deserve it.”

Of all the classes Hogwarts offered, Astronomy ranked among the worst.  It was nothing but memorizing and math and words that, usually, went straight over the young Gryffindor's head.  It was a long climb up and a long climb down - all for something that really, as far as day to day existence went, was pretty unimportant. 

Reluctantly (and probably more than a few minutes late), Mairead tromped up to the Astronomy Tower classroom and dropped her bag in the corner with the others.  So, watch the older years.  Despite the drollness of Astronomy, that wasn't a bad model.  If more classes involved them watching the older students do all the work, Mairead might actually like more of the classes more. 

Mairead scanned the congregation of students and spotted a familiar and friendly older student.  She crossed the tower towards Raine and her Ravenclaw friend.  "Can I join?" she asked.  "All the fourth years are nerds." 

Honestly, Erin would prefer to be secreting growth pheromones right now.  As usual per the class, it was held in the middle of the night.  Not that she particularly cared about that fact, but Erin was pretty busy.  She figured she should make the best use of her time though, so she at least started the assignment.  As per usual though, she very quickly got distracted and bored.  Figuring that Tawse was probably a good person to kill some time with, she headed towards him.  He seemed to be searching for something.  Erin sort of recognized that look, it was the same one she had when she could not find the right accessory.  Still, Erin really did not care, but she had nothing better to do so asked him anyways.

"Are you looking for something?" Erin asked.  Had she heard the prior conversation about dangling first years, she probably would have made some comment about it.  She was just walking up to them, and did not really hear the prior conversation.  The professor filled her in though with his comment.  Still it seemed like Erin was slightly slow on the up-take on that one, so she resumed making her star chart.  It did not take long for Erin to distract herself though.

"Hey - have you ever flown around here before?  Come to think of it - why don't we bring brooms to this class.  It might actually make sense in this case.  What was I doing - oh right star chart.  How do you stay so focused anyhow?" Erin asked, unaware of the irony.

The thanks Alex offered Raine was somewhat grudging, but she was never in the best mood after transforming. The transformation itself was not particularly enjoyable, and the loss of flight wore on her mood. It was so much better than being on a broom, really, and although her form wasn’t so impressive Alex pitied the others for being unable to experience it. Not that she had ever said as much, but… it was unfortunate for them.

“Perfect,” she agreed, smiling at the description of their position. It was such a small thing, but secrets were always enjoyable and this one was particularly so, given the amount of work that had gone into it. Her smile disappeared as a poorly shaven Tawse felt fit to bless them with his presence. How sublime. Did he think he was amusing? Alex hoped not, for his own sake, but declined to comment, preoccupied with arranging her things and getting her work started.

It could have been unfortunate for a teacher to overhear such comments, but instead they’d practically been given permission to do so. If only Raine hadn’t specified first years, they could dangle Tawse as well.

"Can I join? All the fourth years are nerds."

“No. We’re nerds too,” Alex informed the younger student. She assumed she wasn’t actually a fourth year, so why she’d immediately shunned her own year, the Ravenclaw had no idea and didn’t particularly care to know.

Oh joy, another one. Was she touched in the head? Why the irritating children thought that congregating here, with people who didn’t know them and didn’t wish to talk to them, was a good idea, Alex didn’t know. Perhaps it was because they’d stayed up past their bed times and their brains were failing due to fatigue. Although it was a little hypocritical for Alex to accuse others of this, she wasn’t about to let it stop her – and she was managing hers far better than they were, in any case.

“Generally, I do it by sitting down and starting my star chart, rather than wandering around and forcing my tedious conversation upon uninterested parties who want to do their work,” Alex’s smile suggested an urge for violence rather than friendly helpfulness, “and since time is of the essence, I suggest you go to do your own work elsewhere.”

Thankfully, Gallagher was making his way over and so would save her from having to sit next to the younger students. She wouldn’t call him a friend, but he was less likely to say moronic things in class (or indeed say anything in class) than most, and at present he was by far the better option.

Looking somewhat lost and little bemused, Micah looked around, something close to alarm blanching his expression. It wasn’t that he was afraid of people, or put off by their presence when in large groups, but he was kind of thrown, because this was a lot of people for one class. And the tower, while the farthest thing from claustrophobic, wasn’t very big to begin with.

But, he liked Astronomy. Mostly it was just fresh air and stargazing, which was always peaceful, and Professor Trishna was kind of cool, or at least didn’t seem to care whether he spoke or not. Some professors did.

After eyeing Tawse a little warily – and the tiny Gryffindor a little less so, more curiously – he moved past the second year towards Alex instead, because of the two girls the Ravenclaw was considerably more intimidating; while he was kind of sure she didn’t hate his guts (–or at least, seemed to hate him less than she did others), it was also kind of hard to tell for sure. Did it really count if someone didn’t dislike you if you didn’t talk much, if at all?

But when he caught her eye, she didn’t look like she wanted him to go away, or that she was waiting for him to, so...

Huh. Maybe it did.

Shooting Mairead and Erin a curious look (Xavier a friendly flicker of a grin), Micah settled into the empty spot beside her, taking care not to step on any fingers or belongings (and handed over a pencil, even, when it rolled too far from its owner, offering it with a slight, bashful smile). Rolling out a sheet of parchment, the Hufflepuff began making lines, pencil scritching lightly against the surface.

"Steady now, you're doing good. Just keep the line smooth and straight and...there, see? You've got it."

Off to one side, Alvis had managed to collect a small knot of about half-a-dozen First and Second years, whom he coached through their occasional stumbles while he worked on his own, more elaborate charts. It wasn't that unexpected, really. Alvis was a long-term Astronomy Club member and (though he would never admit it) a bit of a mother hen, so he naturally gravitated towards tutoring those who would accept the help. After a full year of star-gazing, the ones he helped most often knew where and how to come find him.

Alvis loved star-gazing sessions. For all the late nights and freezing winters, they remained his favorite class sessions every week, bar none. There was just something peaceful about losing one's thoughts in the stars and the calculations and the endless gulf of night that helped him clear his head and relax for once, even while he was surrounded by people.

The Lupin boy -- whose hair tonight was so silver it was almost distracting -- sucked heavily on the tip of his quill and gave a miserable little groan. "I don't get it. How do you know which planet that is?"

"Don't get stressed," Alvis soothed, refreshing the ink on his quill. He would have leaned over for a look at the younger boy's parchment, only Lupin had his dog with him tonight, smelling of sulfur as always and lying with its head propped on Lupin's knee. The beast made Alvis nervous. He didn't want to get any closer to it than he had to.  "Check your notes from the previous nights, narrow down the possibilities, then extrapolate from your own observations. You'll figure it out. You already know how."

"No promises, Professor~" Raine feigned a melodramatic sigh, though really quite pleased that even teachers had their limits with the maddening first years.

Not that there would be any suspended children this night - the pair of them were attracting peers and sort-of-peers, an inevitable event as throngs of students began to settle down in what was customarily not a crowded space. But they were out in the cool night air and underneath the stars; it was difficult to feel cramped.

Alex was typically irate post-transformation and Raine, for the most part, let most of her cutting comments go by without comment. It was in the Scorpion's nature to sting the Frog. She smiled wryly at Mairead, nodding her head towards a free space next to her. "We are good at this so you're going to have to join our nerd club ó Fearghail." And the club members kept coming.

Somewhere up there, her late twin was laughing at the sight of Raine fenced in by an odd assortment of schoolmates.

"Thank you-" she offered Gallagher a fleeting glance as he rescued her pencil, and then glanced at Erin amusedly (on the receiving end of Alex's scathing but true remarks). "Broomsticks in Astronomy. You lot are getting sharper by the year, aren't they Tawse?" The redhead smirked at her classmate- in good humour, because she didn't mind Xavier at all. "Might we bring sunglasses and tanning potions, next?"

It was no secret that Astronomy was Jai's favorite and best subject. Unlike many of the people in his house, he actually looked forward to classes in general -- but this one most especially. The end of his seventh and final year at Hogwarts was rapidly coming to a close, and Jai was growing nostalgic for his younger years, where he'd still had years of Astronomy to study. He loved the stars even before attending school, but Hogwarts had truly helped him hone his skills.

The class tonight was a mix of students, and this being a core class that meant there was a wide variety of student archetypes. Though Jai didn't know many of the younger students, he could gather a sense of their personalities by the way they looked at the stars. You could tell a lot about a person by the way they star-gazed. Jai wasn't interacting with anyone in particular, focusing mainly on what the professor was saying. Most of the other students were already socializing, which is what many of the open gazing nights turned into. The first years were a mess.

Jai made his way over to the professor once he was finished speaking. "Professor -- will there be anything about cosmology on the exam?" It was a subject they hadn't talked too heavily about in their NEWT-level class, but an important one nonetheless. Jai was concerned about his Astronomy grade, despite the fact that he was so passionate about the subject. Exam-taking was not Jai's forte, not in the least; he was a stressed-out guy, and that did not bode well for test-taking. Jai was particularly concerned about proving himself in his favorite subject.

Something that Zia never really understood about Astronomy was why classes had to be so late. She understood the whole thing about it needing to be dark, that made sense. But wasn't it dark at 9pm as well? 10pm? Zia had tried pointing this out to her Astronomy professor during her first year, but the lack of schedule change reflected the professor's apparent opinion on that. Zia was more of a 'morning person' than she was a night owl, and to be honest, Astronomy was the least favorite of the subjects she was currently taking.

To make matters worse, Zia was coming down with... something. She'd been feeling crummy all day, fatigued with headaches. It could be the eyestrain from all the studying Zia had recently been up to, but in all her Ravenclaw glory, she could not accept this diagnosis. It had to be some sort of illness that always seemed to infect her right around finals time.

Since she was feeling so under the weather, Zia dress for comfort rather than style. She wore her biggest sweatshirt and wore the hood over her head. Not that you could really tell the difference, of course; the hood was the same shade as Zia's vibrant hair. Her ears buzzed as she listened to the professor talk on about stars and whatever nonsense they were supposed to be doing tonight. Zia was cheered slightly by the babies in attendance (in other words, the first years), but was not pleased by the attitude the younger students seemed to have taken up. They were getting a little too cocky, weren't they? Zia just wasn't in the mood tonight.

She looked vaguely at the sky, wondering when class would finally end, and suddenly let out a HUGE sneeze, so powerful her hood fell from her head, and then let out another three sneezes after that in quick succession. "Sorry!" Zia exclaimed, her voice much more nasally than usual.