Astronomy - 3rd and 5th Years - Jan 12th

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Class starts at 11:30 PM. Today's Class Schedule: a. Introduction. b. Overview of Course Material. c. Short Lecture - Introduction to Fifth Year Astronomy. Next Week: Stars (Section 1) 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! 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.

Images
Eagle Nebula  |   Whirlpool Galaxy

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The lesson with the first years had gone…better than he had expected, and worse than he’d hoped. Still, the lesson he’d be quietly dreading as this one…the 5th years had a reputation among the teachers and it was not a good one. The first years were tame as kittens in comparison, from what he’d heard.

The room was now nice and warm after several days of being enclosed, and his bare feet where nice and comfortable on the areas the flagstone where still exposed. He’d gotten some nice rugs on the floor now, and their soft texture certainly made walking around the room much more pleasant than it had been last week.

He ran a hand through his hair and let his breath out. He’d moved more of his office into the classroom; his desk now sat in one of the classroom’s alcoves and the other alcove held many of his books, packed in bookshelves tightly to the wall. Both fireplaces were going, and the room was warm and somewhat inviting. The image in the windows today was the Eagle Nebula, with the Pillars prominent in the northern windows. He watched them and drummed his fingers on his desk, stroking his beard as he worried himself into a tizzy.

His eyes drifted downward to the poster sitting on his desk. Someone had very kindly nailed it to the door of his office the night before. Sasha Schlagenweit, huh? Tapendra wished he read the Daily Prophet more often, as he’d have a better perspective on the boy’s history. The teachers had been less than kind in talking about him, certainly, but he’d read the article on the break in and didn’t understand what the big deal was about him killing his attacker – seemed to be a fully justified killing, in his mind.

Oh, well. He’d just form his own opinion of the boy – provided he got the chance tonight.

Tapendra stood up suddenly, dumping Kepler to the floor, and marched across the room to the projector globe. He was honestly hoping for a small class today –  what Professor Storm had had to deal with wouldn’t happen to him, if he was lucky. If it did, he’d have to be prepared to discipline them quite thoroughly – which he had to admit he might be more prepared to do than he would have expected. The thought worried him more than the upcoming class did, in a way.

He shook his head to clear it and tapped his wand on the room-dominating globe. “Exihibeo Exibeo,” he said, and the globe turned black, the Whirlpool Galaxy appearing and floating inside the globe and rotating slowly. He smiled at it; for some reason looking at images of the stars always calmed him down.

The desks were in their now normal circle around the globe, with a clear path between them and the display globe for him to pace in. He readjusted them all anyway, adjusting their positions into an exact circle. He knew he was fussing, but he couldn’t help it.

Tapendra looked at his collection of books and pulled out one at random. How he wished he’d been able to pick a textbook, he thought, as he strode to his desk; still, that would be a good summer project for him, he supposed. It would certainly help with teaching if he could write the book himself…

Actually, that was an interesting idea. Mulling it over, he found himself at his desk again, an annoyed Kepler crawling up his arm to wrap over his shoulders and sleep there. Book put aside and forgotten, he started writing a basic outline, chewing on the end of his quill.

It was a shame Astronomy was so late in the evening. Kit was defiantly one of those 'early to bed, early to rise people' and she found it considerably more difficult to get up at five in the morning after an Astronomy lesson the night before.

But besides that small set back, Kit very much enjoyed Astronomy. Of course sometimes it ventured into astrology and divination, but the beauty of it was that in here, the results were more concrete. Reliable. And didn't require a natural inborn talent to get decent answers and good marks. All that was required as basic brain function and a willingness to work. The latter of which was sadly lacking in many of Kit's classmates.

"Hello Professor," Kit said politely as she entered the new room, noting at once another change of staff. And the cat. Kit disliked cats. Mostly because people tended to assume Kit's nickname was Kitty. Kit detested being called Kitty, which eventually transfered to a dislike for felines in general.

However, she was not allergic, so as long as the cat did not seek out a 'kindred spirit' or got in the way of the lesson and no one called her Kitty, everything should be fine.

She took her seat around the globe, quite fascinated by the set-up. As she waited for the lesson proper to begin, she took out her quill and parchment and other things she would need for the lesson. Including wiping down her desk with a sanitary wipe from her bag. Nothing personal, just general germphobia.

Erin walked in, and despite all the new changes, the first thing his eyes were drawn to was Kit Branwell, wiping down her desk before she touched it. Okay... bizarre. He tore his eyes away from her and took a moment to digest the rest of the room - the newly indoor state, the constellations swirling outside the "windows," the rugs, the new professor, everything.

Well, it was certainly warmer now, and while Erin was dismayed to think he might not be able to slide by with good grades merely by doodling things the professor found entertaining on the side of his parchment, he was faintly intrigued by the cat-thing draped over the new professor's shoulders. Erin liked animals much better than people, and had his own feline besides. He was trying to train Cat to do the same thing, actually, but the kitten didn't seem very interested in staying still long enough to learn. As he dumped his school bag in one of the desks near Kit, he wondered idly whether this animal - not quite entirely a cat, unless it was really weird looking one - would be able to smell his on him, and then whether it was going to be staying on the professor's shoulders the entire time. A barefoot professor teaching with a cat draped over him... interesting prospect. But despite the dubiously hippyish vibe such an image presented, the new professor seemed nearly as prim and proper as Erin's brother. No mistaking him for an easy touch. Made Erin sort of want to muss 'im up a bit.

He also sort of wanted to know the cat's name, but that wasn't a mistake he was going to make. It was all right for girls to like animals, but Erin knew the kind of ribbing he'd face from Knight at least if he let show that sort of weakness. It was enough that his kitten had free reign over the 5th year Slytherin dorm without anything else.

When Megan heard that they had yet another new Professor, she was quite surprised. Either Snark was firing anyone who didn't agree with her, or she liked hiring tough Professors. At any rate, she hoped that the new Astronomy Professor wouldn't be nearly as tough as some of the other Professors happened to be. Of course, she assumed that there were plenty of things Snark might had disliked from Professor Woolfolk, but she had no real idea on the reason.

Walking into the room, Megan smiled as she noticed that they were no longer set outside in such a cold environment. Now, the room was enclosed, and actually warm! At least now, she had one less thing to worry about before going back to bed after class. With the 5 am wake-ups in the morning, having a late Astronomy class certainly didn't help.

Noticing their new Professor at his desk, and thankfully not trying to slip around on the floor like a child, Megan smiled to him. "Good evening Professor," she greeted him. She figured that with the fifth year's reputations, it could be helpful to at least show this new Professor that not every fifth year was about to go off on wild tangents.

Turning to the classroom at large, Megan noticed Kit and Erin already arrived. "Hi Kit," she greeted her classmate with a smile, and gave Erin a polite nod, before sitting down at one of the desks in the circle. She took out her quill and some parchment for the impending lesson.

"Good evening, Miss Branwell, Miss Ruiz," he said cheerfully, pleased with himself for having gone through the roster to memorize their names. He stood up, shoving his papers into a drawer and brushing his pants off as students began to filter into the room. Kepler struggled to remain on his shoulder and dug in his long claws, causing Tapendra to wince. He straightened up and the keazle got purchase on his broad shoulders finally, sitting in a way the grey cat seems to think looks dignified. Tapendra was sure he was bleeding; he raised his wand to his shoulder and tapped it, closing the small cuts with a spell.

"You're too much of a showoff for your own good, Kepler," he muttered to the keazle, who ignored him. "We'll begin once you've all taken your seats," he said to the room at large, stepping down from the alcove.

Climbing the tower, Sasha was exhausted; Mondays were just so exceptionally long.  He still wasn't sleeping well; it took forever for his mind to relax and nightmares still disrupted his sleep with unfortunate regularity.  Despite the long nights, his internal clock still had him waking much earlier than most of his housemates though, now more than ever, he was coming to appreciate the (very cold) early morning runs and time spent tending to the nurse's mare and the orphan foal.  These days it was the only real opportunity he had to be alone. 

But, it also meant that he'd been up and going for almost nineteen mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting hours by the time he found his way to the Astronomy tower.  Though memorization came easy to him, he wasn't looking forward to a long evening of staring through the cold eye piece of his telescope and naming the moons of Jupiter. 

It had been almost exactly two months since the last time Sasha had found himself in the Astronomy tower and there was nothing recognizable about the classroom.  The tower room, itself, had been drastically changed - even more so than the Professor.  Sasha stood just inside the door, his eyes moving slowly over the room before he turned towards his closest classmate.  "How long has it been like this?" he asked, in a hushed tone before scanning the room once more.  More importantly, how were they going to go about staring at Callisto for an hour?  "Sir," he offered the professor with a reserved nod of his head. 

Readjusting his bag on his shoulder, he forced himself to stop staring and crossed the room to settle himself at a desk.  Five new professor appointments since Sasha had left school and, so far, he'd managed to botch his first impression with four of them.  He didn't even bother trying to hope that this would be any different; lately it seemed the harder he tried to do the right thing, the more dramatically it blew up in his face.  Ambivalence was the best he could hope for.  He quickly read the board, arching a curious eyebrow at the 'telescopes will not be necessary' comment but thought better of asking.  Instead he turned to pulling a quill and some parchment from his bag and arranging them carefully on his desk. 

another day, another new proffessor. Honestly, what was with so many new professors these days? Josh could only reacll the transfiguration professor being the same as last year. Still, the remodelled classroom ought to be an improvement, since the old one was draughty in the extreme. Heading for his desk, he puled out a quill, ink and parchment. Then having noticed his ink bottle had seemed light, he grabbed his ink bottle, and held it up to the light. It was running low on ink. " oh damn, good job I brought two ink bottles" he muttered under his breath. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a second ink bottle.  Putting the second ink bottle on his desk, he looked to the indows. That looked to be a nebula, but he wasnt 100% sure on which one. he knew it as soemthing avian, the hawk nebula? eagle? pidgeon?

Late night astronomy class was not Jordyn’s favorite thing in the world.  She liked stars, she thought they were pretty, but she certainly didn’t care about how they existed or why they existed or anything of the sort.  It wasn’t fascinating to her.  She spent most of the time daydreaming – or trying to stop herself from falling asleep on her desk.  She was not the type who stayed up until all hours of the evening.  Being efficient made her able to finish her homework at a decent hour (unlike some of her roommates and housemates) and then she could get to bed at a decent hour, except for nights where Astronomy took place.

And then there were all the stairs!  Really, who thought this was a good idea?  Wrapping her cloak tighter around her body with one arm, she had to grip the rail on the way up, trying not to trip over herself in her exhaustion before she finally made it all the way up, surprised that the night sky did not greet her.  Instead… they were indoors?  There were plenty of windows, but this was so…. strange. 

She nodded to the professor at his desk, not wanting to disrupt him, noticing that once again, there was someone new.  She had liked Demitrius – he was rather dreamy, but she’d give the new professor a chance.  He certainly wasn’t going to be fun to stare at during class, but he couldn’t help that.  It’d just have to fall to someone else to be her distraction.  A very prominent seventh year boy occupied most of her thoughts currently. 

Yawning softly, she blinked several times, adjusting to the lighting of the room, and glanced around.  She was too tired to care too much about where she sat, but she did want to find a decent seat.  It was a well-known fact that students who sat closer to the front, as Jordyn liked to do, performed better, and she was lucky enough to find something.  She sank into the seat after she dropped her messenger bag on the floor.  She glanced at Kit who seemed to be cleaning off her desk with a wipe.  Jordyn raised her eyebrows at her and smiled a bit.  “Glad to see you have not changed,” Jordyn laughed gently.  “That is a good idea though; never know what firsties bring up here to contaminate everything.”

Jordyn wore gloves everywhere for a reason. Even if they were only the black half-gloves that she was in love with, they covered her palms and allowed for her to touch things without a care.  Kit usually wore gloves too, she noticed.  It was perfectly fashionable at the moment.  “What do you think of the new room?”

Well the new professor seemed polite enough. Kit gave him a smile after he greeted her and some other students back. She was actually quite eager to begin the lesson to see what sort of professor he would actually turn out to be. But that would of course have to wait until it was actually time for the lesson's start. In the meantime, students were still coming into the room and taking their seats.

Although it appeared Sasha already had a question. Well, he was the studious sort, even more than to be expected from a Ravenclaw. Hardly a bad trait, really. And certainly useful to balance out the lack of caring from certain other classmates.

Her attention was turned from Ravenclaw to Slytherin as Ms. Dimbleby sat next to her and commented on Kit's pre-lesson cleaning ritual.

"My thoughts exactly," Kit said with a smile. "The amount of traffic these desk get. It's impossible for them to not be carrying something. Would you like one?"

She reached into her bag and pulled out another wipe, handing it to the other girl. Who was also wearing gloves. Maybe not as covering and protective and covering as Kit's, but still gloves both fashionable and sanitary. Kit approved.

Since the students seemed to be mostly settled in, Tapendra cleared his throat. "If you're all ready, we'll begin," he said, his deep voice carrying in the tall room.

"Now, as you're all no doubt aware, Professor Woolfolk has appearently decided to retire rather suddenly. I do not know the details of this, though if the rumors are at all accurate, squid may be involved, though I'm not sure I wish to know how..." his normal small smile flickered slightly. There where a lot of ways squid could get a Professor fired, when one thought about it. Which is why he wasn't going to think about it.

He 'ahemed' and continued. "I'm Proffessor Trishna, a Hogwarts Graduate and scientist. Unlike Woolfolk's classes, we will not be bothering with the zodiac or other such whimsical constructs. Should you still wish to study Astrology, I'm sure Professor Cuthbert will happily accomodate you - and any homework you have not turned in that Woolfolk assigned, I will happily accept as extra credit. Now, I must warn you - this class will involve some math." The groans made him smile reassuringly. "However, I'm well aware wizards are not expected to have a particularly high level if mathematical expertise, so what we will be dealing with is mostly the theory that drives the mathematics." He pointed his wand at the projector and the Whirlpool Galaxy was replaced by the Sun.

"Most of the scietific theory presented in this class - alright, I'll be honest, all of the scietific theory - will be Muggle based. Dispite what many wizards may claim, we have not gotten nearly as far as they have. I will be bringing magic into this class on a theoretical level later in the course, when we get to General and Special Relitivity, and when we talk about Wormholes." His eyes scanned the class carefully as he spoke. "I'm sorry if you have issue wtih being presented with Muggle theory, but the simple truth is they're better at Astronomy than we are."

He beamed, clearly proud of this fact. "Now then - feel free to ask questions at any time, as I prefer classes to be a bit discussion based. I also strongly encourage you to take notes - you'll be allowed to use them on tests. The homework in this class will primarily consist of simple question and answer papers, but I do expect essays - two of them. The first years got the easy one," he grinned," and you get the harder one. I'll allow you to pick the subject for both of them, but it must be a topic covered in class and contain diagrams and drawings. You will get the full information on these essays the week after next, when I assign the first one."

Sophie was still rubbing sleep from her eyes as she trounced up the tower stairs. She was freezing and tired but determined to make an excellent impression on the new Professor. Astronomy played a keen part in her use of Astrology. Divination was her one passion but for all her inability in things like Defense Against the Dark Arts, she was stellar at note taking and absorbing theory in classes like Astronomy. She didn’t have to think on her feet lightening quick, she could mull and process - which meant that she wouldn’t end up in a circle with idiots casting hexes at her and get her head blown up. If she could relax she was a fair student.

Also if she was warm, most of the Castle and grounds left her absolutely frozen stiff - but walking into the newly…decorated? Was that the word she wanted? Anyway, walking into the new Astronomy classroom she was greeted by warm air that subsequently made her shiver from how absolutely miserable and cold she was. Rubbing her hands together she blew on them, offering the Professor what she hoped was a winning smile as she grabbed a nearby seat and hunched into her jumper waiting for her bones to defrost.

He seemed nice enough - no obvious bias right off the bat like some of the other Professors. Of course some of the bias was well deserved, the fifth years were currently being a notoriously difficult class to deal with. Sophie was mostly back to her bright sunshiny self, having cut the excess drama from her life. She was ready to focus on school and being happy. Fluffing the plume of her quill she dated her parchment and chewed on her bottom lip. Muggle theory, that would be interesting. They most they had been exposed to that outside of home was in Muggle Studies. This might just prove to be her favorite class yet.

Xavier rushed into the newly decorated Astronomy tower huffing and puffing. He was running late and he knew it. He was slightly taken aback by the change in scenery. He was kind of hoping to burst out into the night air, fresh cold crisp air. Unfortunately the new Professor saw fit to make the Astronomy tower enclosed. Xavier looked around rather confused. He was well aware of the distraction he had caused in coming to class late not to mention the way he looked. He had gotten absorbed by his nightly workout and forgot that he was supposed to be in class. He was only wearing his slacks from his school uniform having gone down to them and an undershirt to work out in. His rippling muscles were slathered in a fine layer of sweat and his shaggy brown hair was plastered to his forehead. His mangled hands had a fresh set of bandages wrapped around them covered in fresh blood.

He gave the new Professor a nod and an apologetic look, "Sorry Professor, loss track o' time." He wiped a bit of sweat off his brow before settling into the nearest desk that wasn't surrounded by other students. He figured he didn't smell all that great right now and he didn't want anyone to bug him about his current appearance. He did however manage to grab his book bag as he raced out of the Slytherin dorms. He pulled his quill, ink well and a roll of parchment out. He hung his head slowed his breath and began to take notes trying to ignore the countless eyes that had turned in his direction. He had noticed that Kit was there already and made sure his cold grey eyes hadn't gone over to her. He didn't think the prim and proper Gryffindor would approve of his current state of undress.
 

Ayla had managed to slip into the nice and toasty new classroom before the new Professor made his opening speech. She was slightly annoyed at the fact that she had to spend yet another Astronomy lesson with the fifth years. Hopefully this new Professor - who looked ridiculously familiar - was better at quelling the taunts and teasing the Slytherins did than Woolfolk had been. She didn't think she could stand another lesson in the tower listening to Callum and Bellatrix make fun of her. She was doing everything she could to ignore the rumours that had been circulating the previous term. It didn't help that the new term only brought about a whole new set of rumors about her but at least no one was talking about her sleeping with Professor Frasier anymore - or at least not that she'd heard of.

She was settled in her desk on the other side of the classroom from the door. She had her parchment and quill out but hadn't begun to take notes. She was racking her brains trying to figure out why the giant of a Professor was so familiar. She knew she had never met him before, that was just absurd, but she knew his face and needed to know why.

When he introduced himself Ayla's green gold eyes widened and she made a small yelping excited noise. That explained everything! The new Astronomy Professor was Dr. Tapendra Trishna, Dahlia's idol. After she had gotten his complete children's collection one year for Christmas from their parents Ayla had been charged with helping Dahlia track down the rest of his works. At least now she knew why his face was so familiar. He had been looking up at her from the back of all those books Dahlia was crazy about.

As he continued to talk Ayla couldn't help but giggle. She had her hand over her mouth to stifle the noise but she feared they'd be able to hear her anyway. She wished the third years could have been teamed up with the first years for Professor Trishna's first class. What she wouldn't have given to see the look on Dahlia's face when she finally met her idol in person. No doubt the miniature version of her had been scarlet blushing from ear to ear. The only thing that had caused her to stop giggling was the arrival of the last Slytherin on earth she wanted to see wearing only an undershirt and covered in sweat. She turned her eyes quickly to the projection orb in the middle of the classroom. She hated Xavier with every fibre of her being but damn he was still hot.

Peyton had come into class alongside his friend and room mate Sasha. He shrugged at the other man's inquiry regarding the reorganization of the Astronomy tower, "This is the first I've ever seen." He didn't think the change had been something that Woolfolk had done. The loopy Astronomy Professor seemed to be completely unaffected by the cold night air, in fact he seemed to enjoy it over being in an actual classroom. Whoever this new guy was seemed to prefer warmth over being able to actually see the night sky, although the enchanted windows and spherical projector were a nice touch.

Peyton patted Sasha on the back before finding a seat for himself. He felt bad for his best friend. He knew the suspension had been hard on him and he was working himself like a dog just trying to keep up with all the work he had missed. It didn't help that while he was gone half of their teachers had been replaced and the replacements hadn't been the nicest of people. Unfortunately Peyton didn't take Divination which happened to be the only new appointment that seemed to be decent (although he knew a lot of the more strict pureblood types didn't like the way the Irish Muggleborn taught)

He pulled out his supplies using the battered and well worn pheasant feather quill Helena had bought him. He was rather intrigued by the new Professor's take on the subject. He loved muggle studies and pretty much anything muggle. It was nice to see another Professor actually give credit to what could be learned from them.

Unfortunately just as things were getting interesting his brooding troublesome brother burst into the room hardly dressed. He felt an awkward flush run through him. He hadn't realized that Xavier was so fit and didn't like to be reminded of it. He shook his head trying not to focus on such an obvious distraction. He quickly tried to think of something else. As his mind desperately tried to find a soothing thought it finally settled on the rough and tumble look of Edmund Klint in his Quidditch uniform. A soft smile crossed Peyton's lips as he turned his cool grey blue eyes back to the Professor.

Astronomy was one of the most annoying classes that Callum had to attend. It was late at night, which interrupted his usual sleeping pattern. (Or his usual goofing off/doing homework pattern, whichever.) And there was yet another new professor, he noticed, as he entered the classroom and dropped into a desk- one which was noticeably disjointed from the other fifth years who were gathered. Callum knew that most people did not like him, and that he did not get along with them in return. No need to cause problems in the first class for a new professor.

And it was immediately insinuated that Astrology was not going to overlap. That sucked. Callum enjoyed astrology. He had a special inclination toward any type of divination related subjects. And on top of that they were going to be learning muggle based theory? Callum scoffed loudly.

"Yeah, I've got a question," Callum piped up. "If this is a wizarding school, and we're in the wizarding world, what makes you think that Muggle theories are applicable or that we have any reason to learn them? This isn't muggle studies. If I wanted to learn about them, I'd have taken that elective- but I didn't. Because wizards haven't got anything to learn from them- they're inferior to us in every imaginable way." At least, that was what Callum believed- it was what he had been raised to believe. Truth be told he didn't know a damn thing about the muggle world and didn't care to.