Gryffindor Charles Harcraft Mairead ó Fearghail Keegan Kearney Hannah Harper Slytherin Noriko Wakahisa	Ravenclaw Eirene Antonopoulos Hufflepuff Venora MacGregor Dahlia Collins	Class starts at 11:30 PM. Today's Class Schedule: a. Introduction. b. Overview of Course Material. c. Short Lecture - Introduction to First Year Astronomy. Next Week: Solar System - The Sun Telescopes will not be nessisary for class unless otherwise noted. Remember to bring note taking materials with you to class (you will be excused from this for the Jan 10th session) Should you have any questions, feel free to visit my office between your daytime classes. For tutoring, please make an appointment with me prior. Feel free to ask questions!

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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; underneith 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 slighly above the floor with steps leading to them.
The original Astronomy classroom looked like this.

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He really should have worn a coat and shoes, Tapendra reflected. His blue vest wasn’t doing much to keep out the chilly winds gusting around the towers, and as sharp as his sister had assured him his black slacks looked, they weren't keeping his...well, they weren't too warm either. As for going barefoot when the tower was open to the elements during the snow season – does that really need elaborating on? At least by the time he’d finished melting away the snow his feet had done so numb he couldn’t feel them anymore.

Still, he had work to do if he wanted to make this classroom livable – it had been ‘cleaned’ over the holidays, apparently.  Based on the empty alcoves, he’d realized this meant they’d cleared out any objects of comfort Woolfolk might have added when he was professor. Tapendra had sent in a polite request for proper chairs, which were now stacked in the southwestern alcove, and desks. It was his last request that had gotten him strange looks, however - any spare white sheets they had. They’d been provided without question, though. For this is he was grateful.

“Mobillarbos!” he said, a bit louder than he had intended, and pointed his wand to the stack of sheets next to him. The top one lifted into the air and followed his direction, heading over the nearest of the big, open-air archways. “Expoximise!” The sheet attached itself to the stone arch, stretching tightly across the space. He repeated the process until the arch was covered completely from floor to ceiling. The room instantly felt warmer as the wind was cut off. One down, 5 to go – he finished covering the rest in a few minutes, and rubbed his arms to warm up. Yes, the room was getting warmer – it wasn’t his imagination. The snow blowing in might have been atmospheric, but it certainly didn’t make the tower his ideal place to spend the middle of the night.

He stepped backwards into the center of the classroom, his back hitting the large armillary sphere that dominated the space. He looked at it briefly, and then looked back to the room at large and made an unhappy sound under his breath. Warmer, yes, but now it looked like it was in the process of being renovated, and felt much smaller than it had before.  That certainly hadn’t been his intention, warmer or no.

He sat on the stone steps of the southwestern alcove for a few minutes, pondering the issue with his chin in his hands. Eventually, it hit him – there was a way to make the classroom look…well, not like it did right now. He drew his wand from his pants pocket, trying to remember the incantation he’d been taught years ago.

“Exhibeo!” he said, pointing his wand at the nearest sheet-cover arch. His wand glowed blue and the sheets immediately turned pitch black, and he thought for a moment he’d messed up the charm; then stars came into view on it, and he smiled. Much better – well, more scenic, anyhow. Once again he thought for a moment, liking his idea more and more, and he worked on relaxing, trying to summon the image he wanted to his mind. Then he pointed his wand at each of the covered archways in succession, repeating the charm.

Yes, he did like that effect. Now instead of sheets, the archways appeared to be windows, looking out into deep space – he’d even added glass panes on the image, so they looked like real windows, kind of. The first class was going to be first years, so he’d decided to go with a view of Saturn. He smiled as the huge planet slowly rotated outside the tower; the wind rippling the sheets slightly was the only giveaway it wasn’t really there, and he was sure he’d figure something out for that soon enough. 

Now, to figure out how to get this damned sphere out of the way…

He ran his hand over one of the broad metal bands. Beautiful machine, really; it was too bad it was useless, these days. His eyes drifted to the remaining sheets and he drummed his fingers on the metal, rubbing his beard with the other hand. The clock ringing 11 0’clock jolted him out of his thoughts, and he had to readjust his glasses as they slid down his nose.

Damn. He had half an hour until students would start filtering up here, and he still had to get the desks out of the alcoves and find out where the board had gotten to…he smiled as an idea suddenly hit him.

He pointed his wand to the remaining sheets, levitating several of them into the air towards the sphere. “Obvolvo,” he said, and watched as the sheets began to tightly wrap themselves around the sphere. They covered it almost completely; there were only holes at the top and bottom, where a shaft held the whole structure in place. He used Expoximise to get them to stay, and it certainly hid the sphere…but it now looked like a huge, cheap Chinese lantern. Not much of an improvement, really.

He tapped it with his wand and muttered “Exhibeo,” again, watching as it turned black, and again stars began to appear. It looked odd, though, as it was still clearly a large globe.
Tapendra chewed one of his lips thoughtfully, tapping the tip of his wand on his palm. He hadn’t done this spell on a globe like this. Still, no time like the present…

He pointed his wand at the globe, summoned up his imagination, and said, “Exihibeo Exibeo!” as clearly as possible. The globe turned black and then began to glow brightly as the Sun appeared, looking decendly 3D. He grinned and tried rotating it, walking slowly in a circle around the sphere; it took him a few minutes to get it right, but soon he got the image to look like the sphere was a clear globe instead of the old armillary sphere covered in spare bed sheets. Satisfied, he hit it with a standard projection, leaving it as the Sun. The bright glow certainly helped as he started moving desks into place in a circle around the sphere and lighting the small fireplaces in the alcoves, and the convection on the star's surface made the light shift and flicker.

That done and the classroom ready to go, he retreated down the stairs to the little office he’d been given, which he suspected had once been a large supply closet. The small space was filled to capacity with his books and papers, and as he more or less crawled over the mess he swore under his breath. He got to his desk after knocking over only a few piles of the damned things, and decided he was moving some of this up to the classroom regardless of whether he’d be allowed to keep it sealed off from the elements or not.

He pushed some books aside to try and get to the stack of papers that constituted the beginnings of his next book. The stack was mostly white printer paper, with parchment mixed in; he’d have to finish the book by hand.

The books he’d pushed aside tottered on the desk, and then slowly fell off the side. A loud yowl erupted from their impact point, alerting him to where Kepler had gotten to. The grey tabby half-kneazle gave him a dirty look as he dug his way out of the mess.

“Sorry, boy,” Tapendra said, sheepishly. He leaned down and held out his hand, and the cat jumped onto his hand and clawed up his arm to his shoulder, thankfully only gripping to his white shirt. Tapendra reached up and stroked the side of Kepler's face, and the cat purred.

Tapendra remembered himself, and hurriedly scooped up his paperwork and books. “Just using me as a lazy way to get upstairs, aren’t you?” he  said to Kepler good-naturedly, heading back up the stairs. Kepler jumped off his shoulder and headed towards one of the fireplaces the moment they reached the top, curling up on the warm flagstones in front of it. Tapendra sat on the short steps of the alcove, rolled up his sleeves, and spread out his paperwork, working on polishing off the next chapter.

Hogwarts had been rather wet the past few days.  Ever since the disastrous Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Monday, Noriko had wandered around in a bit of a daze, constantly sniffling and with her lower lip in a state of nonstop quivering.  She hadn't spoken to Eirene since she'd dashed, horrified, from the lesson, and had arrived early for every class period ever since, just so she could make sure to grab a seat in the back of the room where the cannibal Gryffindors usually sat so that the Ravenclaw girl wouldn't try to sit next to her.  Even getting eaten by Muggle-borns was preferable to having her bum inflated to epic proportions and then popped in front of the entire class.

Astronomy had become one of her favorite subjects at Hogwarts.  It was quiet, the tower was peaceful, and the class practicals involved looking at things through a telescope rather than hexing other students or mixing potions that were quite likely to kill her.  She had even done well on the midterm, which almost made up for the embarrassing 'Poor' mark that she had gotten on her final Flying exam.  Noriko didn't know much about the subject, but when her family had taken their trip to Japan to visit her father's relatives, she had gotten to watch while her cousin Toshiko worked on one of her calendars.  Watching the movements of all the planets and stars come together into exact dates and portents had been exhilarating; it was like seeing order arise from chaos.

Arriving early for Astronomy wasn't that out of character for her, but as she ascended the steps into the tower, it quickly became clear that something was out of place.  The space didn't look anything like she remembered it.  The open archways had all been enclosed, giving the tower a distinctly claustrophobic feel, and the desks had all been arranged in a loose ring around a giant model of what appeared to be the sun.

Noriko could feel panic rising in her throat as she stared, open-mouthed, at the transformation.  The desks were in a circle!  How was she supposed to sit in the back and hide from Eirene if there weren't any corners?!  Frantically, she looked from one side of the room to the other.  Could she drag one of the desks back into an alcove?  What if Eirene copied her and then tried to talk to her?  This was awful!

The Slytherin let out a terrified squeak, hovering in the doorway as she considered her conundrum.  Could she run all the way back down to the bottom of the Astronomy tower steps before any of the other students got here?  Then she could hide and wait to come up last, so that Eirene would have already chosen a desk.  But what if the only open seat was next to the Ravenclaw girl?  Noriko shuddered.  It was too much, especially for so late at night!  All she wanted to do was run back to the dungeons and crawl back into bed.

Eirene trudged up the steps to the Astronomy Tower as fast as she could, huffing and puffing as she went. In her arms she carried a large basket of fruit, and her full book-bag rested on her back, making her appear like a puffskein that had eaten too many sweets.

As she stepped through the doorway to the classroom she nearly collided with Noriko, and felt a burst of jealousy that the girl had arrived there first, and then guilt because the Slytherin first-year had been avoiding her ever since the 'balloon-butt' incident in Defense.

"Sorry!" Eirene whispered, maneuvering past the girl and avoiding her eyes. 'Sorry' was the last thing she had said to Noriko a few days ago, but it hadn't been good enough, and Eirene simply had no idea how to remedy the situation. So she decided to focus on what she did best: brown-nosing her professors.

Eirene paused and blinked around the room, suddenly understanding why Noriko had stopped in the doorway. "Wow!' Eirene breathed, amazed by the animated view of space and the array of lit fireplaces. This meant she didn't have to worry about the cold! This  meant that perhaps she would learn something from this class besides how best to scoot on the floor using pillows (while Mairead cackled evilly and disrupted the arrangement of Eirene's astronomy supplies).

"Hi Professor!" Eirene chirped, peeking over the fruit basket at the lanky man who sat writing professor-ly things, she was sure. She set down the basket at his feet and grinned brightly.

"This is for you! I wasn't sure what you liked, so I brought an assortment, and the house elves told me it should all be fresh, even though it's the winter, and-" Eirene paused for a second, remembering that she'd forgotten to introduce herself. Oh no! She was supposed to have done that first! What would he think of her now?

"I'm Eirene Antonopoulos. Ravenclaw. And I got an 'O' on my Astronomy midterm; did the last professor tell you?" Eirene looked at him hopefully, then threw a glance behind her at Noriko, wondering for a moment what mark she got on the exam.

"Oh, a kneazle!" She exclaimed suddenly, barely giving the poor man time to speak. Her face lit up at the sight of the creature cleaning its paws on the flagstones. It blinked at her in that imperious way that cats have, making it clear the humans are in their domain, not the other way around.

He'd gotten absorbed enough in his writing to not notice Noriko's quiet arrival, but Eirene's was certainly noticeable - enough so to make him jump slightly as she piped up. Blinking in surprise, he smiled at the eager girl. Eying the fruit, he was reminded he hadn't eaten dinner - but that could wait til later, of course. Even if that tangerine looked devilishly tempting.

"Thank you for the lovely gift, Miss Antonopoulus!" he beamed. "It's good to see a student interested in the subject," he added happily, gathering his papers and putting them aside, and hoping he wouldn't be asked to spell her last name.  "I'm afraid I never met Professor Woolfolk - he seems to have resigned over the holidays. I'm Professor Trishna - but you can call me Tappy. Everyone else does." He added the last part with a bit of a sigh, and laughed softly at Kepler's imperious look,  reaching over to stroke the cat's head.

"This is Kepler. Don't worry, he doesn't bite...often," he said, pausing as he thought of the fading bite marks on one of his toes. Still, he'd had that one coming, he was sure. He stood up, brushing off his slacks, and finally saw Noriko out of the corner of his eye. "Oh dear, are you alright?" he asked as he adjusted his glasses, noticing her nervous expression.

Noriko had clearly underestimated Eirene's commitment to adulation.  Before she could even try to sneak out, the Ravenclaw had already materialized from the stairway behind her and was hissing something at her as she pushed past her and into the classroom.  Whatever she said was lost in Noriko's squeak of panic; she jumped and clapped both hands to her bum, just in case the other girl got any ideas as she edged past.

Now what was she going to do?  Noriko hovered by the stairwell, trying not to look at Eirene as the Ravenclaw girl surged forward and began jabbering at the professor.  Tears threatened to sting at her eyes as she squinted at the circle of desks.  Which one should she pick?  No matter where she sat, Eirene would just sit next to her - unless, she thought as an idea occurred to her, she sat on the far side of the room, well away from their new professor.

All of the teacher turnover at Hogwarts was still making her very nervous.  She tried not to look the very tall, barefooted man in the eye as she attempted to scoot past Eirene to the other side of the room, but then he asked her a question.  Noriko froze, her eyes going wide.  She couldn't not answer, but he was already talking to Eirene.  If Noriko said something, then she'd be talking to the Ravenclaw girl again!

Confusion reigned across her face for a brief moment.  She frantically nodded her head, and then put on a burst of speed and dashed across the room to the furthest desk diametrically across from the professor, her hands still pressed protectively to her behind as she did her best to avoid eye contact with either him, Kepler, or Eirene in the process.

Eirene beamed at the professor when he thanked her for the gift, glad that it was appreciated. Sometimes, professors almost seemed uncomfortable when she went to the trouble of preparing a gift basket on their first day, but Eirene couldn't understand how that would be, since she was only trying to make a good impression, and professors were people too. They were even known to eat regular meals, like the students!

Oh, and he pronounced her name correctly! Eirene mentally added a point in his favor.

"Professor Trishna," she repeated, to show she could learn names quickly as well. She looked confused, then worried for a moment when he said she could call him Tappy. Was he one of those teachers who didn't care about rank and status? He'd actually teach them something, wouldn't he? Eirene took another look around the room, spirits sinking when she realized that the desks were in a circle. It had been her experience that the professors interested in being their friend and making them feel more like equals spent less time on the actual course material.

Hoping he'd prove her wrong, Eirene glanced back and fixed a smile on her face when he introduced the kneazle to her. She reached out tentatively, then drew her hand back as if burned when he added on 'often' to the statement that Kepler didn't bite. Eyeing the kneazle warily, Eirene looked back at Noriko when the girl nodded at him and ran to the other side of the classroom, claiming a desk.

Eirene noticed Noriko covering her bum as if she thought...

Oh no.

Both irritated and full of guilt, Eirene glanced at the professor, wondering if Ignan Storm had told him what a disobedient monster she was. But she wasn't! It wasn't true! She just wanted to do well, and had overcompensated, that was all.

"I'm going to pick a seat!' She informed the professor in a hushed voice, as if it were a race or a contest to choose the best desk before the others arrived. And to her, it was.

Eirene's first instinct led her to hover over the desk closest to where the professor currently stood, but then she paused, trying to figure out if he'd move, and then she'd be stuck in a less than ideal spot! Oh, how she missed front row seats already.

She glanced over at Noriko, and once again, felt bad.

On impulse, she scurried towards the girl and placed her bookbag on the desk next to her.

"The best seats are probably closest to the new professor," she advised her in a whisper that she thought was quiet. "We should move over there and get the best ones," Eirene continued, looking at her fretfully and toying with the strap of her bookbag.

Tapendra eyed Noriko curiously as the girl scurried away, and looked worried when Eirene went over to join her. He was beginning to regret having effectively locked himself in the Astronomy tower after he'd arrived; from what news had filtered up and the brief introductions he'd gotten from his colleagues, he'd gathered the school was a tad more chaotic than it had been when he'd attended...but then again, he'd graduated the year with all that Sirius Black nonsense, so perhaps chaotic was par for the course now.

"If you could pick your seats please, ladies?" he asked, filing away his papers in one of the alcoves. More students were filtering up, stopping at the top of the stairs and then heading for their seats, talking amongst themselves. His daughter was one of the last to arrive, and she paused for only a moment before rushing over to him.

"Hi Daddy!" Cyhirae piped up, before quieting down and putting on her 'school' face. "You're not going to make us use telescopes are you?'

He ruffled his daughter's auburn hair, a perfect match for his own, and smiled. "No, princess, not tonight. Maybe in the Spring, though. Now go take a seat, and try to show up earlier next time, please." Cyhirae nodded and grinned. She clutched her book bag and headed for one of the desks, plopping down and folding her hands neatly on her lap.

He waited until the class had more or less settled, though some of the seats were still empty - he made a note on his attendance sheet, and stepped down from the alcove, drawing his wand from his pocket.

Tapendra fidgeted with his wand for a moment, then seemed to focus. "Right, then," he said to himself, tapping the end of his wand on the palm of his left hand. Then he spoke up, his voice clear and confident. "Class, I'm sure you have plenty of questions, and I will do my best to answer all of them. First of all, I'm Professor Trishna, and will be your Professor of Astronomy from now on. I'm a Hogwarts graduate, a professional astronomer and was, until recently, teaching and writing out of the Muggle King's College Cambridge." He paced in a circle around the room's central globe as he spoke, still tapping his wand on his hand.

"I'm sure most of you are wondering where Professor Woolfolk is," he added, his deep voice echoing slightly in the circular room. "I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that myself. The Headmistress has made it clear that I -" he paused and cleared his throat, "That it's none of my business. Now, based on the lesson plans he was kind enough to leave behind, he would seem to have focussed quite a bit on Astrology and his lesson seems rather...loose. I should warn you that knowledge of the Zodiac, although it has its uses, will not be necessary for my class." He tapped his wand on his palm sharply. "As for the state of the room, it will remain this way at least until the Spring, as I feel I teach better when I'm not freezing my - er - my toes off."

He strode forward and tapped his wand on the large globe that dominated the center of the room. The Sun's image faded and was replaced with a rotating diagram of the Solar System, causing the room to darken considerably.

"We will be focusing largely on the Solar System for the first half of this term," he said. "I apologize for springing such a change in curriculum on you right after the holidays, but I'm afraid I'm much more of a stickler for Astronomy than Woolfolk apparently was.  You will not need telescopes unless noted, though if you wish to finish any star charts he had you working on, I'll gladly accept them as extra credit."

He went back to pacing, passing most of the desks. "I should also say that I encourage you to take notes, as you will be allowed to use them on both the midterm and final exam. Now, before we move on, do any of you have any basic questions I can answer?"

It was rather unlike her to be late for class but since she was heading up to the Astronomy tower she had taken extra time to make sure she was bundled up properly. She knew that Woolfolk was crazy enough to have them sit out in the snow looking at the stars but had no idea what this new Professor would be like and figured it was better to be prepared. Not to mention the fact that her body still felt stiff after her horrid crash before the holidays. She was convinced that it was all mental, after all Madame Nadge had managed to mend all her bones in a matter of moments.

As she entered the Astronomy tower, like many before her, she had paused in the arching doorway. However unlike her classmates it wasn't the drastic change to the tower or the spectacular view the sheets provided of the solar system. It was the man standing in front of the class with such a commanding presence that had given the petite Hufflepuff pause. She had knew his face very very well but had never expected to see it in person. She had spent many nights studying and researching while his fine angular features smiled up at her out of the covers of his books. Dahlia had been given the Child's guide to the Universe when it had first come out. She had been so enraptured by it that she had begged her parents to buy her the entire collection. When that wasn't enough she had made it a mission to collect everything she could find that Trishna had published.

She was beyond fascinated by his works. It was so refreshing and enlightening to find a wizard researcher that fully embraced and even respected the amount of work that muggle scientists had put into astronomy and physics. She didn't think that anyone else in the room knew who their new Professor was. She quickly moved aside letting the other students into class. She felt as if her cheeks were burning and quickly removed the extra layers she had bundled herself in, throwing it on the nearest desk. She sub consciously ran her fingers through her hair and over her uniform to make sure she was presentable.

She listened to his deep steady voice as if it were a siren's song as she settled into the desk that held her winter garments. She had never expected his voice to be so melodic. She felt dizzy and had no idea why she was feeling this way but when he asked if there were any questions she couldn't resist from throwing her hand into the air, "Professor Trishna, if you'll permit me?" Her cheeks burned again, a deep blush was present on her cheeks although she was unaware of it, "I know it's not quite relevant to the class at the moment but I was wondering when your next book was going to be coming out? I've got your entire works and I find it absolutely fascinating and well . . ." She glanced around the class, her hands twitched desperate to touch her cheeks and find out why they were burning so much, "I just wanted to say that it's an honour to be learning under such an accomplished scientist." She suddenly dipped her head touching her cheeks and hoping she hadn't come across worse than Eirene usually did.

"Woah.  Hogwarts has a planetarium?"  Mairead breathed to whoever happened to be close enough to hear her.  She hadn't really bothered to look to see who it might be - that was irrelevant.  She was too distracted by the change of scenery in the Astronomy classroom to notice.  "Me and me mates snuck into one when we were in Armagh.  It was brilliant!"  At least, it had been until they'd gotten herded back out. 

She wasn't too distracted by the new surroundings to give Wakahisa her customary, predatory stare as she crossed the room.  It had become as routine as shaking a friend's hand by now, the hungry stare usually punctuated by some random embellishment: a sudden pouncing-feline like lurch in the girl's direction, a random and loud comment about her favorite condiment or a simple casual hungry rub of her belly.  It wasn't her fault the Slytherin was stupid enough to keep thinking mudbloods were cannibalistic; she was only guilty of doing anything she could to further that misconception.  This time, it was a subtle little licking of the lips the Gryffindor offered the Slytherin as she found a spot.

Rather than sitting in it, she settled herself on the floor in front of it.  She'd done enough star gazing to know you couldn't get a good view from a chair.  One had to lie on their back and gaze upwards so all they saw were pinpricks of lights.  And, none of the desks seemed to be those cushie reclining chairs they had in the real planetariums so sitting on the floor would have to do.

To Mairead, the new professor had been infinitely less attention-catching than the room or her paranoid and gullible classmates.  Still as of yet oblivious to the man, she turned back to her cohort.  "I wonder if Wizarding planetariums show spaceships and aliens."  And, it wasn't ever really the professor that caught her attention.  It was the bloody cornucopia of blatant bribery.  "Ye gotta be kiddin' me," she breathed, making no efforts to prevent her voice from carrying as she watched Eirene present the basket to the Professor like a peasant gifting the king.  "He so doesn't look gullible enough to be bought by a ruddy rotten apple.  I left me bribe back in me dorm.  I'll have to bring it next week."  The last bit she'd made certain to project well enough to carry to the man she was only now taking note of.

Tappy started speaking and Mairead laid back, cushioning her head on her arms.  She didn't need to take notes.  She'd grown up learning oral history, after all and in fact, note taking was still so arduous that she'd quickly discovered she retained more by just listening than if she took notes.  Even the promise of using them on midterms didn't help.  What good would it do her if she only had 10% of the material in notes and hadn't even heard the other 90%?  Better to remember 70% of the material and, maybe, pass the class than fail royally.

Before they could get much further, though, the room was filled with the noxious fumes of more brown-nosing.  Mairead pushed herself upright, glaring across the room at Dahlia with a you got to be kidding me expression.  "Where's yer fruit?" she asked the Hufflepuff, impatiently.  "The sooner ye give it to him, the sooner we can get to bed."

"It should be released shortly, M-" He stopped when it occurred to him he didn't know their names yet. He flushed slightly, kicking himself for forgetting to look at the roster properly. "In March," he said quickly. "It'll come out in March." He looked at her and noted a flush on her face; with the dim light from the projector, he couldn't see her too clearly and she looked feverish. He opened his mouth to say something, and was interuppted by Mairead.

His look of confusion must have been obvious to anyone who could see his face directly, as he blinked several times with his mouth slightly open. Then he realized what Mairead was on about and snapped his mouth shut and put on a quick smile. Not knowing their names was going to be trouble.

"Whatever you wish to say to your classmates can be sorted out after class, young lady. Please take your seat properly," he said firmly. He tapped his wand in his palm again sharply, and it made an audible thwack.

Cyhirae, from her seat across the room, switched her gaze from Dahlia to Mairead. Dahlia she'd been glaring at, but Mairead she made a face at, sticking out her tongue. Still, she kind of hoped the girl would make trouble - there was something about Mairead being punished for, well, being Mairead that was entertaining and made the little Ravenclaw happy.

Tapendra cleared his throat. "If no one has any questions, we'll continue..."

"Woah.  Hogwarts has a planetarium? Me and me mates snuck into one when we were in Armagh.  It was brilliant!"

"Brilliant..." Keegan repeated absentmindedly, following close behind Mai with his narrow blue eyes uncharacteristically wide with wonder at the changes in the room. He didn't want to admit it to Mai, but he was already looking forward to the class. It looked much more like something you would see in a muggle science museum and Keegan felt something akin to excitement spark in his stomach. He had been apprehensive about yet another new teacher as they started towards class, but that worry begin to fade the moment he stepped in the classroom.

He was so distracted by the dancing stars that he nearly bowled Mai over when she stopped to stare at Wakawaka, licking her lips. Keegan quickly remembered the plan of action when it came to torturing Noriko. Reaching into his worn satchel, he pulled out a worn and dogeared cookbook with the title How to cook Duck, duck being crossed out with scarlet ink and "witch" scribbled in childish scrawl. Opening it, he stared at Noriko and acted as though he was considering which one was the best recipe. Clearly marking one with yet another dog ear, Keegan snapped it shut and returned it to his bag, smiling.

"I wonder if Wizarding planetariums show spaceships and aliens."

"Probably not..." Keegan muttered, taking the seat right behind where she laid down. The teacher begin to talk and Keegan half listened, the other half of his attention span focused on exploring every star on the ceiling, counting how many he could name from memory. Mai's comments about brown-nosing were largely missed since he was too engrossed in finding his favorite constellation amongst the hundreds of glittering stars. He only came back to earth when he found Orion amongst them and heard Dahlia gushing about the professors newest book. Mentally, since he had a feeling Mai would tease him relentlessly about it if he said it out loud, he made a note to find the professors other books in the library and read them.

The teacher scolded Mai and Keegan tried not to roll his eyes. Normally he would have said something sarcastic in return and lose a few house points in the process, but for some reason he didn't feel like getting on the new teachers bad side. Sure he wasn't going to bring bribes or flatter like the girls were, but he wasn't going to get detention on the first day either. Sitting back, he just kept his mouth shut and grinned at Mai with laughter in his eyes. The mirth in his eyes faded when he glanced over and saw that not everyone thought Mai was hilarious. Some Ravenclaw across the room was glaring holes through Mai. She even stuck out her tongue! Keegan's brow furrowed slightly and he quietly murmured to Mai "What the 'ell is 'er problem?"

Wednesday’s were such long days, with Astronomy closing off the day.  With the cold days she was not entirely looking forward to the draftee classroom, if you could call the tower a classroom. Euphemia felt like it was barbaric having to learn like that. So it was safe to say when she got to the classroom to find desks, rather than pillows, and a covered star like ceiling she was extremely pleased. Now this was definitely more civilized.

Euphemia had taken her seat near Eirene, which was admittedly a bit pointless since she was still not talking to the girl. She figured it was safest to sit next to her friend when forced to sit in a circle. Euphemia had removed all she needed from her bag and got ready to take notes as the Professors started speaking. It was much easier to learn when you didn’t have someone trying to talk to you, or the urge to talk to them. Eirene quite deserved the silent treatment for what she foolishly did that day in the library potions class.

A sense of approval flooded the young Slytherin as she listened to the new professor. So it was yet another replacement, which did worry Euphemia, but he seemed to be much more focused than the previous Professor. Finally she could dump that pathetic knowledge of the zodiac and sink her teeth into something real. Finally real astronomy. So far this new professor was leading his way to a stamp of approval from Euphemia Grissom-Dolohov, but it was funny to see how quickly that could be taken away.

As he continued to talk she let her eyes dart around the classroom, a sour look on her face. She stared up at the fake stars, an enchanted ceiling much like that of the Great Hall she supposed. She was curious what it was made of, and how it came to be there as it most certainly had not been like that before. A short time later her eyes were back scanning the classroom, and she watched Keegan from afar. As annoying as he was, the way he teased Norkio her fellow housemate amused her greatly. Euphemia would have died of laughter if someone had told her she would find something Keegan did amusing, but this just made her smirk. Noriko was such a pathetic baby.

“Please get on with it,” she said under her breath. She wanted to take her notes, get some useful knowledge from this class for once, and head on to bed. The sooner she got to bed the more tolerable she would be in the morning. Many were getting used to an extremely grumpy and almost intolerable Euphemia on a Thursday morning.

Images:

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Milky Way  |  Orion Spur   |   Makemake   |   Haumea    |   Ceres   |   Eris   |  Lander   |   Europa   |   Heliopause

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“No one? Very well then,” he said, hoping this meant they were paying attention rather than being half-asleep. He cleared his throat and tapped the globe again.

“Now, to start with, this course is unlikely to be like any other Astronomy course you have taken, unless you’re Muggle-born and attended school previous to this,” he said, beginning to stride once more. “We will be focusing on scientific fact and most, if not all, of the information we have comes from the efforts of Muggle scientists. In the field of astronomy, they have far surpassed us.” He smiled happily. “We will be studying both the findings, but also the techniques and history of Muggle astronomy. By the end of this course you will know plenty about the solar system, but also about the history of its discovery and the beginnings of not only astronomy, but of aeronautics.”

A tap from his wand and the globe changed again, an image of the galaxy coming into view. It turned slowly, the many stars gleaming. 

“We will start at the beginning next week, with the Sun. Our Solar System is located in what we call the Orion Spur, which is here –“ the Galaxy zoomed in to the spur, jutting out from one of the large spiral arms. “We are located in a fairly quiet area of our galaxy, and next week we will be discussing why that is a very good thing when we look at our star. We will be looking at each of the eight planets in turn, and –“ he paused. “I feel I should explain one thing quickly, as you where working on star charts.” He tapped his palm again, then changed the projector back to the Solar System.

“Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet,” he said. “It has been reclassified as a dwarf planet, now belonging to a group containing several others in our solar system, including several objects in its own region of the Kuiper belt like  Makemake –“ as he said the names, the images changed, showing each object in turn – “and Haumea. Ceres and Eris are the other two official dwarf planets. We will be covering why this decision was made later in the course when we talk about these objects in detail. This has no effect on Astrology, of course.”

“Any how - We will be looking at history in the second half of the term, including the theories of Einstein and the Space Race, and the first Lunar landings – events more wizard really should be aware of. We will finish with a discussion of current exploration, including the Mars landers, New Horizons, and the Phoenix missions.”

The globe began changing again as he spoke, showing the objects in question, including the Martian surface with one of the landers. “Your first set of homework will be assigned on the 21rst, and the midterm will be on the 1rst of April. We will finish the Solar System on the 25th of March and by then, I will have expected you to begin on your essay project.” He noted a few groans from the class and smiled. “Don’t worry; it won’t be too long. The essay will be assigned next week but be due with the midterm . As we go through the class, I want you to pick an object from the Solar System, such as the Sun, a planet or a dwarf planet, which will be the focus of your essay. The official assignment will have the required outline for it, but it shouldn’t be difficult for you to write with the time provided. If there is another astronomical subject you want to write about that we don’t cover in class, talk to me – I am willing to allow you to do other subjects and will help you do if you need me to.”

“Now, then – We will be looking at several theories about our solar system and whether it hold life other than us,” the image switched to Earth, “and discussing theories on how it began and where in the galaxy it can and has occurred. For example, Europa –“ the image changed again – “Is believed to have a 60 mile deep ocean beneath its ice floes. There is a distinct possibly life has developed there. Likewise with Mars, and Mars holds the possibility of future terraforming and colonization, which we will cover in detail. Currently Muggle are planning expeditions to the planet beginning with a permanently manned outpost on the Moon.”

He stopped pacing and cursed himself for not bringing a glass of water. “However, there is one thing that must be made clear to all who study astronomy and that might mock Muggle ambition when it comes to making it to Mars,” he continued. “Space is big. Space is so large our human brains are simply not able to comprehend the vastness of it. We are a very tiny dot in a vast, vast universe. Therefore, we will be working with two major measurements as we discuss our Solar System. The first is the Lightyear.” The globe changed, and this time text appeared as he spoke. “The lightyear is, as I’m sure you’re smart enough to guess, the distance travelled by light in a year. This distance is approximately 10 trillion kilometers, or 9.4605284 × 1015 meters. That translates to a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second. While this might seem extremely fast, it sadly is not fast enough. It takes 8 minutes for light to reach us from our own star – if the Sun where to vanish, we would not know until several minutes later. The closest star system to us, Alpha Centauri A and B, is approximately 0.21 lightyears away.” He sighed. “Our fastest spacecraft take 12 years to reach the edges of our solar system, and the closest stars are 50 years away. Something is needed to get us to distant areas of the cosmos, but what that could be is still up in the air. Magic could possibly do it, but…” he paused, and cleared his throat. “Anyway.”

“The speed of light is the fastest anything in the universe can travel. Nothing can exceed light’s speed, and to achieve light’s speed takes nearly unfathomable amounts of energy. Needless to say, this makes star travel quite difficult if we wish to reach stars in a human lifetime.” He looked saddened for a moment, then pepped back up.
“The second major unit of distance we will be dealing with is the AU, or astronomical unit. This is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or about 92,000,000 miles. We use this unit inside the Solar System as a common frame of reference.”

The globe changed, this time showing the solar system again. “Feel free to stop me at any time should you have a question, by the way. Now then – our solar system is divided into several sections, all of which we will be looking at. The first section is the Sun itself –“ the image zoomed in as each article was named,-“Then the Inner Planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These are the smaller, rockier planets. Then the Asteroid belt, which is much more dispersed than television and movies would have you believe. The Gas Giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and the Ice Giants, Uranus and Neptune. Then the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto and Eris reside, and finally the Scattered Disc, the Oort Cloud and the Heliopause. The Heliopause’s boundaries mark the official beginning of interstellar space.”

  Tapendra stopped to pop his neck; looking up at the globe wasn’t helping it much, then changed the globe to show a diagram of the Heliopause. “Now, the last two are the ones I am assuming you have little knowledge of.  The Heliopause is not an object, but rather a zone of space where our Sun’s solar wind hits the interstellar wind in the interstellar medium, which was discovered when the Voyager space probes passed through it. Can any of you tell me what the Solar Wind is?”

Following her set plan of sitting next to someone different in every class, tonight Hannah had snagged a seat next to Mairead. She'd slipped in unnoticed during Eirene's gift-giving session, a habit of the Ravenclaw's that was quickly becoming tradition with every new professor they gained. This turnover rate was apparently really weird - she might never have known if Erin hadn't told her this wasn't usual for Hogwarts. But Hannah was okay with it, especially since the old professor had been a little hard to follow, whereas this one had a cat. Animal. Kneazle? Something. And Hannah, while more practical and mature than some of her classmates, was a fairly stereotypical 11 year old girl in her love of the color pink, sparkly objects, and furry animals. It was the first thing she'd noticed after the newly renovated tower, and even now she watched with a sort of indulgent interest as it washed itself. It was at least more interesting than Mairead and Keegan's usual taunting of Noriko, although she did reluctantly turn her attention on the professor once he actually started the lecture.

Solar wind. Wind in space? Hannah blinked at the professor, but didn't raise her hand.

Dahlia was hanging onto every word he spoke purposely ignoring the quips that were coming from her classmates. Was it really that horrible that she had read his books? She had been doing it for years never suspecting that he would one day become her Professor. She wasn't trying to brown nose or anything, besides she just wasn't as good at it as Eirene was, it was like meeting your favourite actor or Professional Quidditch player, that was all. She was meeting her idol and had every right to gush.

She carried on with everything he was saying more or less understanding it. Most of the things he said she already knew having read his books and plenty others but it was rather refreshing to hear such a muggle take on all of it. Growing up half muggle half witch she always got the muggle view on things and found it so hard to think about people not having those influences in their lives.

When he finally paused in his lecture to ask a question Dahlia's hand shot into the air, "Solar winds are made up of a collection of protons and electrons that have been so charged with energy they break free of the Sun's atmosphere and travel outward throughout the solar system."