Penelope had intended to make the meteorite a pet rock since the moment that she had found it, but the extra credit was a good bonus. The supplies that Professor Flamsteed had put out were a good resource for the making of the pet rock. Setting the meteorite on a table, Penelope got to work with the supplies to give the meteorite googly eyes, fuzzy hair, and a painted mouth. Putting the finishing touches on the meteorite, Penelope withdrew her hands to admire her work. "Welcome to the world." The new pet rock needed a name. She thought for a moment before deciding on a name. "I'm going to call you Petra." Petra was a suitable name for a rock because it meant little rock in Greek. Perfect for a small meteorite turned pet rock.

If there was anything that Hattie loved in the world it was art. She loved drawing and painting, and generally just creating anything that her heart desired. So when she found out that they could give their pet meteorite's facial features she was all over it. She was so excited. She loved decorating, and arty stuff. So she was really excited.

With her pet meteorite in her hand she headed to the astrophysics lab. She couldn't wait to decorate and make her meteorite look more like a human. Smiling, she placed the space rock onto a bench, and went to find some pipe cleaners and googly eyes. Sticking her tongue out a little, she decorated her pet rock, making it look more like a human.

She carefully stuck two googly eyes on. "Now you can see" She murmured with a smile. Now to carry on. She smiled, as she added a little smiley mouth. It wouldn't be her pet rock if it wasn't smiling. Hattie was always smiling. And after putting the pet rock a little bit of pipe cleaner hair she was done.

"Aaah. Perfect" She beamed, as she looked down at her pet rock. "Now... Zoom. You will be called zoom. Cause like you zoom around space to get here" She mused with a laugh. "Now... let's go and have fun" And after tidying up, she left the lab, with pet rock tucked into her pocket.

Juno quietly walked into the Astro Lab. They had an extra credit assignment and she was totally participating in it! But first she needed to decorate her awesome little meteorite. She had already decided on the name Firefly for it. The word Firefly has many different meanings. It wasn't just a bug, it also meant Stardust as well. She thought it was very fitting seeing as that was what her little rock was.

She quickly found an empty table and grabbed all the supplies she thought she would need. She had 4 different colors of paint and a couple different sized paint brushes. She got straight to work. Her little rock needed a face! A lot of people were using googly eyes, but she wanted her rock to have more personality...she wanted her rock to have an eye color. Which was why she was using paint!

She started with the eyes first. She painted big white circles in the middle of the rock. Letting that dry she made a cute little mouth using the white as well. When the white paint was dry enough, she grabbed the light yellow paint. This was going to be the color of her rock's eyes. She painted a medium sized circle in the middle of each of the larger white circles. She waited a few minutes for that paint to dry as well. While she waited she cleaned out the two brushes she had used for the other two colors. She didn't want to leave a mess.

After she was done cleaning the brushes she went back and grabbed the black paint. She used it to make the pupils for the eyes. She smiled down at her little rock. But...something was missing.....

She quickly grabbed the purple paint and made her little rock some little purple eyelashes! NOW HER ROCK WAS PERFECT!

Juno quickly cleaned up her mess, allowing the paint to dry. "C'mon Firefly, let's have an adventure!" She grabbed her little rock, paint dry, and headed out of the lab! Oh, the adventures!!!!!!!

Soooo Rocky the pet space rock needed a face before things could REALLY get started. Nothing like adding some personal touches and making things more REAL. Pebbles came to Esme's mind as she made her way into the Astrophysics Laboratory. Professor Flamsteed's pet rock was rather adorable and hopefully Rocky would be too. Pfft. OF COURSE he would be; that much was obvious from the start.

Smiling, she set her little meteorite onto one of the tables before heading over to see what supplies had been left out for them. Hmm... Pipe cleaners... googly eyes... little cotton balls... Esme grabbed a little bit of this and that and then got started on her wonderful artwork. This was going to be so much fuuuuuuun!! Could they do this kind of assignment more often??? Pleeeease.

First things first, she gave Rocky his googly eyes. Sure they weren't all that realistic - or realistic at all - but she thought that they were cute and added a sort of... charm to him. Yep. Next, she cut a small piece of red pipe cleaner before forming it into a smile. Now he had a little mouth. Awww, he was so cute! Lastly, she stuck some yellow cotton balls on top of his head. Now he was blonde like she was!!

"There you go, Rocky! Now you look perfect." Standing back, she admired her handy work. Perfect. Happily she cleaned up the small mess that she had made and made her way out of the laboratory.

So here was Vivian, skipping her way to the Astrophysics Lab with her baby pet rock cradled on her arm. Lucky enough to still be young and eleven and a firstie, she had more spare time than most of the older students. Most especially those who were dealing with those hard examinations at the end of the year, OWLs and NEWTs. The first year life was sort of the chill life at the moment, or so she believed.

Once she reached the laboratory, Vivian went to find a place where she could work and focus on Rockefeller in peace. "Y'know what being here means, kiddo?" the Slytherin lowered her head, eye level to the rock, looked at her meteorite and winked at it. "You - yes, YOU - are going to get a makeover!" That didn't sound so appealing to males, maybe including Rockefeller, but she didn't care! It'll make him look extra pretty pretty!

Vivian emptied a small pouch she had. She dumped all of its contains onto the table and spread everything on it. She had glue, those googly eyes, coloured yarn, paint, loads of brushes, glitters, felt markers, and all those pretty decorative bits and thingies she was able to dig up from her bags and chest. The eleven year old started with the eyes, adding glue behind them and then sticking both onto the rock. She then started cutting the yarn into three-inch long strands. Adding more glue to the meteorite's top, she began carefully sticking the pieces of yarn, which served as her pet rock's hair.

SEE? So pretty!

When she was done adding glitters and facial features such as the nose and mouth, Vivian raised her meteorite up in the air! "TADA! Behold my meteorite, Rockefeller!" And then she slowly placed a falling yarn back to its place. Maybe she'd let the glue dry for a bit. Hmm.

"You are absolutely the best dressed meteorite there is!" And she was a proud pet rock mama, of course!

Kay had only momentarily ago acquired her pet rock when she had found out she would be able to take part in the pet rock project Airey had set up for the kiddos. The little rock in hand, she made her way to the Astrophysics lab to accessorise it a bit.

Her rock was still unnamed because no name had came to her as yet and Kay didn't want to force a name onto. Said name might be unsuitable. As Airey had said, there were googly eyes and so forth in the lab which Kay located the moment she arrived. She set her rock on one of tables then got to work.

First, the woman selected googly eyes that were purple-ish. Purple happened to be her favourite colour. She then made a little mouth for it- light purple in colour. Glitter was found and a tad added on the surface that served as the 'face'. "I believe you're perfect with these additions. I don't to over acessorise you.''

Wasn't her pet rock so purple and glittery? Kay was in love with it.

Fiyero took the meteorite he'd found in Professor Flamsteed's class out of his pocket. It looked just like a plain ordinary rock. If it was going to be his pet, it definitely needed something! Luckily, he'd heard that Professor Flamsteed had plenty of pet rock decorating supplies in the Astrophysics lab.

He gently laid his new pet on the nearest vacant table, his eyes scanning the supplies. There was every kind of decoration imaginable... paint, yarn, cotton balls, pipe cleaners. So what should he use first? Googly eyes were always a good place to start. Fiyero picked out a matching pair of eyes and glued them onto his meteorite, then added a red pipe cleaner for a smiley mouth. There, now his rock had a face... but it still didn't quite look finished.

He looked around and saw a pile of cotton balls that would be perfect for hair... if only they were black instead of white. Oh well, he could always just charm them to the color he wanted. "Colorvaria," he said, pointing his wand at one of the cotton balls; it instantly turned black. After repeating the spell on two more cotton balls, he carefully arranged them in a pompadour-like hairstyle atop his pet rock. Now for the finishing touch! After fashioning another red pipe cleaner into a rock-sized necktie, he was done.

Fiyero couldn't resist a smile as he stepped back to admire his handiwork. Now there was one stylin' pet rock! "Who's the coolest rock at Hogwarts?"he said, beaming at his new pet. "You are! Yes, you are..." His voice trailed off as he realized he hadn't given the rock a name yet. An idea suddenly came to him. "I know! I'll call you Gastone."

Azura pushed open the door to the Astrophysics lab and looked down at her pet meteorite.. "All right Lunar, it's time to make you pretty.. Well prettier." She said with a smile as she moved over to a table that was filled with supplies..

She set Lunar down and carefully looked over the selection of googly eyes that were available..

"Well, there are all sorts of colors for eyes Lunar, what are you feeling? Do you want blue eyes? Green? Cool and Mysterious Black? Angsty grey? Ohh! Hey they even have purple eyes like mine.. Well sort of like mine.. they are a shade or two lighter, but what do you think?"

She must have sounded weird talking to a pet rock like this, but she was going to pretend it was real, and therefore.. she was going to ask Lunar what color eyes it wanted! Dang it..

"Grey then? Don't want to match me?" She asked with a slight pout as she laughed a little and then stuck the grey eyes on the meteorite before looking down at it..

"There! Now you can see Lunar, I can't wait to show you Hogwarts, it's amazing." She said with a warm smile before looking around.. '"Ahh, you need a mouth.." She quickly glued a purple pipe cleaner to where it's mouth should be..

"There you are Lunar.. and now.. hmm.. how about some glitter? Just a bit.." She said as she added some glitter to Lunar before smiling widely..

"Perfect! You are done! You are such a pretty rock. Now, let's go explore the castle, I want to show you all of my favorite places here." Azura said with a warm smile as she cleaned up her mess, made sure the supplies were back and neatly in their places before she picked up Lunar and headed out of the room.

This was a bit strange - caring for a meteorite - because as far as Sky could tell it wasn't breathing. Least not the way mammals did. Did it even eat food? And she'd have to carry it everywhere, which was also strange. Perhaps, what she needed to do was make a little cradle for it, with a handle to make it easier for her to carry it. It would be like her little pet rock's home.

Picking it up, the first year turned it over and over in her hands as she inspected it, trying to determine the perfect name for it. She wanted to be unique; not call it something like "Rock" or "Meteor" because those names just seemed so boring and plain. And even though she hadn't given her pet a face yet, she knew he wasn't plain. Yes, she decided her rock was a male. Contemplating the name, Sky flipped through her astronomy textbook for something unique sounding. Xenolith. Yes, that would work. She could call it "Xeno" for short.

Now that she had the name, she attached two googly eyes to Xeno and a red pipecleaner for his mouth. "Perfect" she said aloud. Now just to create a carrier for him. Selecting a small cardboard box, Sky carefully cut some holes in the top and then attached two pipecleaners in a semicircle to make a handle... she added some faux grass and then placed Xeno inside. "There you are. Just get comfy now, Xeno, as I tour you around my school."

At first, Daxton had been all but completely set on opting out of the assignment for Astronomy class, and not just because it was extra credit - and therefore optional - and to avoid letting anyone know he worked harder than he liked to let them think. Mostly, it was the pet rock factor. For some time now, Daxton had been bitterly jealous when it came to Airey Flamsteed's own pet rock, and so the mere idea of taking part in such an activity was utterly ridiculous.

Until he had had The Idea.

It was obvious, really, what he could do with this assignment, the opportunity it provided him. So, having stolen borrowed collected a space rock from someone who was no longer putting it to any use - seeing as he himself had not even attempted to locate a meteorite during the lesson - Daxton soon found himself at the Astrophysics laboratory.

This was, without a doubt, the most important part. Of course, Daxton could settle with a regular, undecorated rock, and just by giving it the appropriate name, he could really make his point. But this... well, perhaps this part was more for his own benefit. Still, it gave his assignment that much more of an impact.

After collecting all the supplies he needed - googly eyes, some tufts of something for the 'hair', a small pot of white paint and a paintbrush with which he could draw on the mouth, and, worst of all, felt ears that may as well have been made out of sandpaper, given how horrible it was to touch - Daxton got started. It was a painstakingly slow process, but the creative nature of the activity kept Daxton utterly absorbed in his work. Without the use of magic, he recreated the exact appearance of another well-known pet rock, entirely from memory, frowning deeply in concentration, and impatiently repositioning fake eyes and ears over and over. Painting on the goofy smile was particularly frustrating, given that there was very little margin for error, but Daxton was particularly skilled in the subject of art, and he managed it perfectly.

Until, at last, he had it. A replica - as exact as he could get it - of Pebbles. So strikingly similar that he had the urge to hurl the stupid thing right out of the window right then and there - helped by the fact that he had even taken pains to scope out a rock that was as close to the shape of the original Pebbles as possible. But no; he was going through with this. He was going to complete the assignment with his own Pebbles.

Leaving the supplies where he had been sitting, Daxton snatched up the rock again and made his way out of the Astrophysics laboratory.

He had not forgotten about the extra credit assignment. Honest he hadn't. Jaemin had put his still faceless rock on top of his bedside table along with his other belongings, each day looking at it and reminding himself that he needed to work on the project. And each day he had gone to class before crawling back to the Slytherin common room, absolutely exhausted; he had had little energy to spare for his regular assignments, much less the hike up to the lab to make his rock into a pet. So Jaemin had put it off, and put it off, and put it off some more...

... until he realised that the end of the term was looming, and his project was still completely unfinished. Cue a mild meltdown in the second year boys' dorm, and one small thirteen year old rushing up to the highest tower in the school clutching his small, unadorned space rock. He hurried himself inside, found a seat near all the things Flamsteed had put out for them to use, and gently plunked his soon to be faced friend down on the tabletop.

"What do you want to look like?" he murmured, eyes straying to the craft supplies. There were eyes of course, and pipe cleaners... he wrinkled his nose and stood, fetching some of each before returning to the table. Brown pipe cleaners... he absently felt for his wand and set about sticking two of the larger eyes on the place where it seemed the rock's face would be, if rocks had faces regularly. In Airey Flamsteed's world they might, but... not in this one. Permanent sticking charms would keep both eyes in place; Jaemin prodded at them, very obviously pleased with himself for having taught himself that charm in his off-time. It was coming in really useful.

Now that the rock had eyes... Jaemin looked at the pipe cleaners. Arms? Legs? No... those would look silly and just end up getting all bent out of shape and dirty and gross. The small teen picked up one of the pipe cleaners and absently bent it, curling it around his finger until there was a small 'o' off to the side. A mouth, maybe? Did pet rocks need mouths?

Probably not, though the litte circle had given Jaemin another idea. He put the pipe cleaner atop his rock, measuring as best he could, before picking it back up and making another open circle a little ways away from the other. Two little open circles! The Slytherin set the pipe cleaner on top of the rock again, tilting his head and poking his tongue out in focus as he tried to center them juuuuuuuuust riiiiiiight. When he was sure they were where they should be, he lifted up the rock and wrappd the rest of the pipe cleaner around it, twisting the ends together to secure it so it wouldn't fall off.

Now his little rock had eyes, and ears. Little bear ears. Jaemin looked at the rest of the items available for decorating, blinking thoughtfully, before deciding against it. This was good. This was nice enough and he liked it the way it was already. Cradling the rock in his hands, he stood up and, after putting everything back where he had found it, headed out the door.

Pet Rock officially born, yo.

With the meteorite project over and the end of term feast not but a few days away, there was really no point in keeping the astrophysics laboratory open for business anymore. The majority of the powdered ingredients had already been packed and owl'd home to be stored until Adromeda was old enough to understand chemical concepts - Airey was projecting around age four - and could do experiments with him. Or...and this was the more realistic outcome...until he felt like experimenting in his free time before work began officially with the UK Space Agency and, hopefully, the eventual transfer back to NASA. But despite the room being mostly vacant now, save for the stools and desks and some miscellaneous equipment, the room felt anything but vacant. A surreal sensation for the Astronomy professor, to be sure, and he was unsettled by the notion of considering the room being full purely because of sentimental purposes.

...stars in a jar. Planets. A misunderstanding involving a tea party and a certain pair of Gryffindor ladies. Hooksteed. Being locked in the closet after the entire class mutinied during a space food fight. Pet meteorites... the list went on...and on...

Finding certain emotions unsettling, Airey placed the last remaining items in the box he had carried in earlier and sealed it up. Another trip to the owlery would be in order seeing as he could not afford to floo home with all the loose ends he still needed to tie up before the end of term. Thoughts that did not help quell the sensation of his throat drying up and eyes to sting ever so slightly.

Box in hand, the professor made his way over to the door and paused just long enough to give the room another look over. And then, with a long exhale, he flicked his wand to turn off the lights and closed the door...locking it behind him as he made his way back to his office to...er...compose himself get himself a spot of tea before making his way to the owlery properly.