1430 hours


Yavin Morgenthau stepped into the Space Chamber on level nine, his feet sinking into thin air as the door quietly shut behind him. He was floating amidst glimmering stars in the blackness as they danced around the slowly rotating spheres of their solar system. His plain grey robes lost all sense of draping and form. Carefully avoiding the dwarf planet Pluto and its many satellites, he swam through the dark towards the Unspeakable Trainee at the other end of the chamber. The nature of the chamber didn't encourage numerous occupants.

Legs crossed and golden head buried in a records books half his size, Virgil Carstairs was floating upside down - at least relative to where Yavin was. There was no up or down in this place, not really.

"I see Lucy has taken a, aha, a liking to you," he told the younger wizard as he dipped his head so that he could join Virgil in the same orientation. Keen blue eyes glanced up from the book, the quill steadied. A skeletal cat emanated a soft mreow from where she was curled over his shoulders.

            "Yes. I carved her a pair of ears and she's rather attached now. You're in formal robes?"
"Meeting, Unspeakable from MACUSA." Yavin answered, glancing around to find the source of Virgil's study. "They wanted to know about the, that is, the object."

It was quite close at hand. An oblong asteroid streaking through space like a shooting star in slow motion. Its white, fiery tale blazed between the two of them. Weird looking thing, they were usually round.

"Has Rosier figured out its exact trajectory yet?" Yavin pointed at it, "The Americans aren't, hm, aren't happy about it landing on this side of the pond."

"Of course they aren't." Virgil sighed, as if though the entirety of North America has somehow disappointed his brittle expectations. "Nothing from Rosier, he's told me to run down to a muggle university tomorrow. Needs to know how their computerised trajectory programme works so that he can construct a spell with the same function."

Never in all his time at Hogwarts did he think that taking Astronomy would come in handy on level nine. He wedged his quill into the big book to keep his place, shutting it with a thump! And then followed Yavin's wiggly gesturing - fingers passing through planets or pinpricks of starlight.

Working in Space Chamber had been punishment for nicking potions[1] from the Love Chamber the week before last. A lot of the trainees experienced nausea and disorientation in here so it was hard to convince them to take shifts helping the Space Unspeakables.

            "Not the Royal Observatory?" Yavin raised an eyebrow.
"No, that's where he's going. Is it true we had to bail out the Royal Astronomer?"
            "Mm. Tried to, the moron, tried to track trajectory himself and steal a map from the national museum."

Virgil laughed, pink in the cheeks, picturing a kind of mad wizard launching himself into conspiracy theories about space aliens. It wasn't anyone's fault. Lots of explorers and academics like to do things alone, not realising level nine were dabbling in the same fields.

"I'll let you know how tomorrow goes," he called out to Yavin, who was already swimming his way through the black abyss and towards the door. "Going to put my acting shoes on!"

The department head, in the middle of an impressive backstroke, shook his head amusedly at Virgil.

1.	In the Cellars of London - 6th Oct, Twue Wove.