Huh.

Anahera did a small double-take after stepping into the classroom. Interesting. "Good evening, Professor." Would they be crafting today? She smiled at the professor while walking past her and sitting down at one of the desks near the front.

Was she the first one to arrive?

"Have you had a good day, Professor?" Anahera asked politely while pulling out her Astronomy textbook and setting it down on the desk. Personally, she HAD had a pretty decent day. Despite the weather.

YAWN

That was Eloise's mood at this point in the day...well night now and it wasn't going anyway anytime soon as she entered the classroom for Astronomy. At least Professor Sandhu looked happy or just humming to herself or something.

"Heeey Professor Sandu, what cha humming?"

She took one look at the desks before walking to a free one and her shoulders slumped. All those things just meant she would be busy and couldn't do nothing all class.

Sigh.

Best get her books out.

Giving the room a cursory look as he entered, Kaiser took note of the equipment that was set up on and around the desks. It told him absolutely nothing about what they were likely to be doing that lesson, though he supposed that someone more in the know about this sort of stuff would glean some kind of clue from it all.

"Evening," Kaiser greeted Professor Sandhu, as he wound his way through the desks and found himself a place to sit. Did he need writing supplies out and ready? It was... probably safe to assume he did, so Kaiser quickly got out a quill, ink, and parchment - he had been sent a healthy amount of everything by his social worker earlier in the term after the man had found out he had made it back to school but had brought literally no school supplies. Now that he was ready to go, Kaiser sat back in his seat and drummed his fingers on the desk.

Max liked these lessons for the same reasons he liked ivination, they push his mind to think in wider circles. He was a boy who loved thinking, loved learning and loved the sky- and all of these things were wrapped up nicely in Astronomy.

Not to say he was good at this stuff. He most certainly didn't think so.

Joining the class, Maxie gave the Professor a curt nod of greeting - as was his usual method - before peering around for a seat that was both quiet adjacent and not too close to the front- just in case he needed to hide his face. Anahera was an older student, but a very nice and quiet one. The seat beide her looked... fairly promising. Quietly excusing himself through the small throng of students, Maxie took the seat. "E-Evening." The hufflepuff greeted, offering the Gryffindor a tiny, slightly uncomfortable smile, before setting his attention on the instruments on his desk.

To him, it looked like the kind of things you'd maybe use to figure out gravitational pull.

Lenora felt extremely tired as she made her way to the classroom, half tempted to head back to her dorm and sleep. But.. she did enjoy Astronomy and she wasn’t one to miss classes without any reason. She finally entered the classroom, trying not to yawn for the hundredth time.

“Hello, professor.” She curiously eyed all the desks before heading towards one of the seats near the front and sat down. YAWN. Ugh. She leaned back against her seat, hoping that she wouldn’t fall asleep during the course of the lesson.

It had been a long day and Gunnar was tired. Still, he was somewhat eager for the possibility of seeing a lunar eclipse tonight. He wasn't sure he had ever witnessed one in person before.

Climbing his way to the astronomy tower, he gave the professor a polite smile as he entered the classroom. "Good evening, professor."

Taking an empty near the back, he pulled out his supplies before taking a look at the equipment placed at his table. The fifteen year old idly toyed with the pendulum bob as he wondered just what they'd be doing with this stuff.

Avalon wrapped her fingers around her mug of tea, relishing the warmth radiating from the hot liquid on the chilly October evening. She always remembered to bring tea or coffee with her to astronomy lessons -- a caffeinated drink helped her to stay awake during their late-night classes. She was grateful that Professor Sandhu allowed food and beverages in the classroom. Most Hogwarts teachers prohibited them.

"Good evening, Professor," she said as she made her way around the semicircle and chose an aisle seat. Avalon was curious as to what they would be learning tonight -- it didn't seem like great stargazing weather. She glanced at the interesting array of objects on all the desks, pondering what they might be doing with them, as she waited for the lesson to begin.

As far as Céline was concerned there wasn't much to know about the stars and those kinds of things. They just kinda sat up there in the sky and that was just how it was, best keep things that way. But turns out even if you aren't particularly interested in classes you still have to attend, so tada! here she was.

"Hiya, prof." She said, giving her a nod. Cool.

She quickly spotted her pal pal pal and scooted into a seat right next to Eloise. If she somehow forgot to pay attention like, she could always rely on Eloise to know things. El was smart like that.

Albertine was quickly realizing a few helpful things as the school year progressed further into the fall semester. For one, magical school was so much more fun than her classes at her old prep school. For two, magical school was so much more confusing. For three, Albertine would not be stopped regardless, which is where number four (caffeine!) came into play. Alba would be roasted over an open fire (or private letter, but still) for anything except Outstanding marks, no matter if the class in question extended well into her preferred sleeping hours. She had taken to having three packets of instant coffee dissolved in hot milk and plenty of sugar at dinner to combat any sleepiness during Astronomy, and it had worked fabulously so far - the young girl all but skipped up Hogwarts' tallest tower until she arrived to her evening lessons. Required materials and should-be-required snacks bounced around in her knapsack with the force of her enthusiasm.

The first year was pleased to see her teacher already there. She had taken a liking to the woman from the few lessons she'd already had the opportunity to attend. Whether the older professor cared for her at all would have to be learned in time. For now Alba just smiled and worked (with only small success) at keeping her hyperactivity on the down low. "Good evening, Professor Sandhu."

Glancing around the classroom, Alba decided to sit next to the girl who'd worn the cute shoes on their first day of term. "And good evening to you, Avalon." Alba remembered the name because she hadn't heard it in person until they met. After greeting the other girl she looked down at all the instruments on their desks. "Any Ravenclaw guesses on what all this equipment is for?"

So this was....... new.

Lucas paused at the entrance of the class, taking a moment to look around at the setup, before walking slowly into the classroom. Sure, he'd seen weirder setups in some other classes, but the equipment sitting here really got him thinking. He was curious, okay? And this was Astronomy, his favourite subject, so he was even more curious than he normally was.

And more excited too!

His eyes found the Professor and the curious look was gone, only to be replaced by a smile. "Good evening, Professor." Hello. Hey. Could he ask about the objects? He really wanted to but he had a funny feeling that Sandhu might not say anything. Professors were weird like that.

Moving around the seats, the third year chose a seat somewhere close to the front - or as close as he could get with the current set up of the room. His eyes roamed the classroom again and then up, towards the sky. Overcast? That didn't sound fun.

Hanna, in her neat uniform with all of her required items, took the final step into the Astronomy floor. Lately, especially since getting up earlier than normal to get some exercise in, she was going to bed early. And a class at night was taking up her precious sleeping time. But she had been prepared, and was now full of coffee, a drink which she thought of as rather disgusting. But anyway, she needed the caffeine to stay awake. Sugar helped.

The usual chair set-up was there, even though this Fifth year rarely looked twice at the presence of other items, of which were currently on their desks. "Good evening Provessor Sandhu," Hanna greeted, before heading to her seat and getting ready.

""Good evening, Professor." With all the studying she'd been doing lately, Vita had taken a liking to drinking all the coffee, and she was pretty energetic as she walked by the older woman, offering her a polite smile. One thing was for sure, there was no chance she'd be dozing off during this lesson, even if the weather conditions were made for being under the covers and drifting off to dreamland.

Selecting a seat in the middle of the room, the seventh year set herself up and then settled in. The items on her work space were left alone, though she was curious about what they might be making tonight.

Taddy had a habit of bringing his blanket with him to Astronomy class. It was very comforting seeing the skies while bundled up. But today he left it in his dorm, he felt like he could do without it for this lesson. "Hello Professor." Tad greeted as he entered in.

After taking his usual seat he could see the assorted stuff that was added. Hmm. He wondered what they would be using them for? He waited for the lesson to begin.

Tina strolled into the astronomy classroom, her bag containing her wand, book, and other required materials slung over her shoulder. The late hour didn't bother her a bit. She was used to late nights, having survived many all-night study sessions for her OWLs last term, but just in case, she had a cup of tea before she got here. Her dark eyes darted around, taking in the overcast skies - so much for stargazing tonight! Then she noticed the professor at her desk. “Good evening, Professor,” she greeted, nodding politely in acknowledgment.


She made her way to her usual seat in one of the middle rows, far enough away not to be front and center but close enough to see and hear what was going on. It was only after she set her bag down and took out her supplies that she got a good look at the assortment of items on her desk, and her curiosity was piqued. What were they doing with them? Her best guess was that they'd be constructing some sort of apparatus with the materials, but only time would tell.

Carrying a nice, warm mug of coffee (one of those American things she just couldn't give up), Archer entered the classroom with a "Hey, professor!" Choosing her usual seat towards the middle of the semi-circle, she had to do a double take. It looked like the equipment one would use to make a makeshift metronome or something. Plus, she knew she was going to have problems with the whole 'meters' thing, considering she'd learned to measure things using the imperial or 'American' system and this was the metric. Ooops?

Unfortunately, Eiji needed this class and would be needing it all the way through his seventh year. That was not to say that the Slytherin found the topic boring or otherwise worthless, but rather not everything covered by Professor Sandhu in her curriculum were essentials to his own alchemy studies. There was a very specific niche of astronomy that was applicable, and hard muggle sciences were not it.

....and look. Just his luck. Clearly today was going to be on the hard science aspect of the subject.

"...oh bloody hell," he muttered under his breath as he sluggishly stepped into the classroom and looked for a seat. Somewhere away from Eloise and Céline if there was any hope in him being able to focus - and only because those two would go out of their ways to be pests to his focus. Unfortunately...the only opportune seating that remained was literally the seat in front of them. Hence another 'bloody hell' muttered under his breath as he moved to the seat and set his bag down.

Hazel-green eyes fell on the professor, a polite nod of acknowledgement offered but nothing more. Rather standard classroom greeting for one Eiji Rasting.

Pendulums. Great. This was not the sort of Physics that was useful to him.

Entering the Astronomy classroom on this late october evening hour Ellie held back a small yawn as she curiously looked around the desks at the set up and also noting the cloudy night sky. Shoot no stargazing tonight but hopefully it’d be fun anyway. Passing by the elder woman sitting on the edge of her desk Ellie greeted cheerily "Good evening Professor Sandhu!" She really liked her, because she was like the only professor that actually allowed to eat snacks in her class.

Debating where to sit Ellie gazed around until her eyes fell on Eji that she had heard muttering a curse to himself earlier. Smiling she took a new hold on her backpack as she headed over the snake boy and slumped down in the vacant seat next to him at the front of the class. "Hi Eji!" She pulled out her astro textbook and writing materials placing them on her desk before she pulled out a handful of cheeze crackers that she held out to Eji "Do you want a cheese cracker? They’re yummy or maybe a bertie bott?"

Simran straightened as the first student entered the room. Anahera Webb, a very pretty, very polite one. "Good evening, Miss Webb."

"As good as a day gets, without the sun," she said, pushing herself off the corner of the desk and standing. If students were coming in already, she would have to enter classroom-mode. "How was yours, dear?"



Ah, Miss Fairfield. Never a dull day with this one in the classroom. "Good evening, Miss Fairfield," Simran smiled, and shook her head. "Not a song I would expect you to recognise -- it's as old as I am."

Though if Eloise (or anyone) paid close enough, it did seem that she was singing "I'm gonna swing from the chandelieeeeeeeer" under her breath every so often, and the young Slytherin's disappointment at the apparatus gone entirely unheeded.



Ah, another Slytherin child. "Good evening, Master Kaiser." And he had his supplies out -- wonderful! She did so love it when her students were prepared for the lesson.



Simran smiled as another student walked through the door and took his seat. "Good evening, Master Anderson-Belfort."

"I promise the apparatus won't bite."



Simran watched with mild concern as the next student entered, looking worse for wear. If she had been a fifth year, she would chalk it up to overzealous OWL preparation, but that did not seem to be the case. Perhaps she just had a long day.

"Hello, Miss Bell." Oh goodness, that yawn. She sure hoped the child would not mistake her desk for a pillow.



Unfortunately for Gunnar, he would have absolutely no luck in witnessing a lunar eclipse tonight -- especially as it was only scheduled for tomorrow evening. But even if it had been tonight, the clouds were in the way of such a thing. Pesky little things.

"Good evening, Master McCarthy," she said, smiling to herself as he picked up the pendulum bob. Curiosity was good, always good.



Seeing first years with coffee always made herself feel a little guilty, but her timetable hadn't allowed a better timing for the seminar otherwise. Ignoring the clench of her stomach, she smiled at Miss Sinclair anyway, and returned her greeting. "And to you as well, Miss Sinclair."

At least first years had the earliest lesson slot on non-seminar days.



Easily the most difficult part of moving back to Hogwarts to teach was the knowledge that now she taught a core subject. Back at Oxford, everyone was in her Astronomy lesson because they wanted to be. Tragically, here it was the opposite.

Nevertheless, they were here to learn, and she was there to teach. "Hello, Miss Myles." At least this one was energetic.



"Good evening, Miss Radosevich," she greeted as the next girl entered. It was always lovely to see someone quite so energetic enterting her lesson -- the post-dinner lethargy got to her a little too often.

Her gaze lingered on the girl as she picked up conversation with her deskmate. She wouldn't stop it, of course, the class was not in session, but she did make a mental note to be sure they weren't disruptive when it was.



Watching young Master Dakest enter the classroom and look around with all the curiosity his mind could afford him made Simran's lips twitch upwards in a smile. "Good evening, Master Dakest."

He seemed to be enjoying himself despite the weather. Which made her feel slightly less gloomy too.



Hanna Newton was the next to arrive -- an OWL student. One with another lesson with her tomorrow evening as well. Simran made a mental note to grade the rest of the cohort's papers before the lesson so they'd be able to discuss them.

"Good evening, Miss Newton."

She did hate grading papers, though.



"Good evening to you too, Miss Malari," Simran smiled, smiling as she caught a whiff of coffee as the girl walked past her.

Ah, the NEWT-student life.



As the next student entered, Simran had to make a double take. It was almost difficult to recognise the boy without his blanket.

"Hello, Master Potter," she smiled, still somewhat dazed. "No blanket today?"



Ah, yet another! "Good evening, Miss Dantes," she said, giving the girl a nod in return.

And a curious one too! It always made Simran's heart sing when a student's interest was piqued.



Another student with a mug of coffee! Simran smiled and made her way around the desk, picking up her own mug and holding it out in a mock toast. "Hello, Miss Calrissian."

And as she did, the elder woman caught glance of her watch and gasped. Almost time to begin the lesson!



Simran had just put her mug down and headed towards the door when Eiji Rasting walked through. Not the most talkative, this one. Or perhaps it was different in his other lessons, or he required time to warm up to her. It had only been a month, after all. Either way, she gave him a nod back. "And a good evening to you as well, Master Rasting."

She would simply pretend not to have heard his displeasure at her lesson plan. Hmph.

And on that note, she shut the door behind him.



Or, well, she would have if the next student hadn't managed to slip past the door. "Just in time, Miss Smethwyck!" she said, finally shutting the door firmly behind the girl.

And, well, best to keep the conversation to a minimum. Simran had eyes on you, dear.

Now turning to the class, she cleared her throat to get their attention. Once she had it, or at least some semblance of it, she took her place in the centre of the semicircle of desks -- not quite at her own desk, but about a foot away from it.

"As you all know, Astronomy is a natural science. More specifically, it's a physical science." As opposed to a life science, like Biology, for example, or a social science. "It concerns celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. We learn not only about the hard science of the matter, but also how celestial events influence magic as a whole."

But of course, they knew that. Especially the first and sixth years, who had just completed the chapters An Introduction to Astronomy and A Re-Introduction to Astronomy respectively.

"We ask questions, even though we may not now be able to answer them, in the hope that someday, someone will. Or sometimes for the sake of asking them." The scientific world was still trying to prove and interpret Ramanujan's writings as well, and nobody was quite sure when it would be done. "So now I have a question for you, because you are all as much scientists as I am."

"What is important to keep in mind, as a scientist?" she asked, as a piece of chalk wrote on the board in a tidy cursive the same question. "What values and procedures does the scientific community hold particularly dear?

OOC Note: Hello everyone, and welcome again to the lesson! We've already begun, so please no longer post your character arriving or there will be IC consequences. You'll have approximately 24-36 hours to answer this question before the lesson progresses!

ok that was fair Professor, while Eloise did enjoy some classic rock she probably would not know. Since even right now Eloise was more into house music than anything else. Probably last a week and onto another genre. The redhead was sure she heard Sandu say deer and yeah best not even think of the title.

Anyway she was in her seat now and messing with all the instruments on it and trying to get comfortable and YEAH CEL!. Eloise honestly thought she was skipping today for some reason.

Also Eiji got a grin realizes he would have to sit in front of them.

"Eiji, we are relying on you today. The stars told us...wait wrong class."

Oh Sandu was clearing her throat. Time to pay attention and listen. Wait was she really as much i scientist. The only thing she really understood was gravity and how it related to kicking a board in the air and well spinning in the air. But that was physics not astro. Tho to be fair she believe in science more than astrology divination or even arithmancy. Sorry Professor Sissay.

"I mean they do value some really horrible jokes and puns. Like really bad"

As for any real answers that actually benefited the classroom discussion, well she had none of those.

That was...incredibly relatable.

Smiling at the professor, Anahera leaned back in her seat a little. "I'd say the same, really." Her eyes briefly darted to some of the other students filing in before landing on Professor Sandhu again. "I'm not particularly fond of the rainy weather here." PLUS how cold it got in winter. That was also something she wasn't fond of. At all.

Other than that, she did quite like Scotland. It was beautiful.

She'd been looking around the classroom, watching as more and more students joined them. Yet hardly any of them had caught her attention. Anahera had sent a small smile in Kaiser's general direction but other than it was mostly people she didn't really interact with so far.

Which was why she found herself a little surprised when one of them decided to sit next to her.

Not that she minded. "Hello." She gave the boy a genuine smile and shifted a little to make sure he had enough room. "Max, right?" He was a few years younger than she was AND he wasn't a Gryffindor so she wasn't completely sure she'd got his name right. Hopefully, though.



....oh.

Maybe she'd been wrong in her assumption of this being a more hands-on kind of lesson. This seemed very theoretical. Not really something she cared for, to be honest. Hopefully they'd be doing something with the items on their desks soon after all.

"Reliability." Anahera replied after raising her hand. She might not have been particularly interested in this part of the lesson but she could speak from experience anyway. "It's important to have reliable results and that they aren't just something you observed one time. You have to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence."

Truth be told, Anna was there because she had to be. Even though she hadn't had great marks in her Astronomy OWL, it still wasn't as bad as some others RIP Herbology and Potions, so she didn't have an excuse to drop it like... she did some of the others.

At least they still spoke about the sky and such, which was the closest she would get to the subject of flying in these academic lessons.

Booriiiing.

The fact they were going to discuss about scientific stuff wasn't that appealing to Anna either, and so she would obviously keep from being the first to answer.

That Slytherin girl's answer did make her chuckle, though. Good to know not everybody took lessons so seriously. This gave Anna hope.

Anahera's reply, though, got her nodding slightly in agreement. Yep, Anna decided that had been a good answer, so she gestured with her index finger towards the girl while still nodding. "That's a good point, I second that." Boom. Good answer, Anna.

She DID agree with her dormmate, though, what could she do?

Vita considered scientists to be investigators, adventurers, problem solvers. They asked the big questions and tried to get the answers, knowing that the answers might take ages to find. You had to be willing to make mistakes and learn from them, too. At least she thought so.

"I think scientists need to remember that there could be multiple ways to get a desired end result and just because one way, perhaps your way, isn't working, it doesn't mean you should quit. You need to be open to trying it someone else's way sometimes." Did that make any sense? She hoped so. It did in her head. "With that said, I think being open minded is something scientists should value. Being open to possibilities."

Catching sight of Anahera and the smile she sent his way, Kaiser returned the favour and smiled back in her direction as he fiddled idly with the equipment on the desk. Just for something to do with his hands, you know.

In no time at all, it seemed, the lesson was starting, and Kaiser turned his attention to Professor Sandhu again, still turning things over in his hands. As expected, he instantly found himself at odds with the language, but, given they had had plenty of lessons already this term, he was at least somewhat prepared for it. Kaiser was also pretty sure that he had improved his grasp of the terminology this past month alone, so there was that.

But, uhhhh... he didn't quite know the answer to that. Kaiser had no experience with science, beyond the subject of Astronomy, so he was already feeling a little bit lost. Was he really a scientist too? This was news to him, and he felt that this was something he should have known before now.

After thinking on it for... quite some time, Kaiser put his hand up and ventured a guess. "Curiosity?" It seemed like the sort of value a scientist would hold dear; wasn't half of their research a product of curiosity?

Avalon glanced around the room as more of her classmates filed in for the lesson. Her eyes brightened when she saw a fellow first year, Alba. "Hi, Alba! It's good to see you," Avalon said with a smile. She was glad that there'd be another friendly face in this lesson. Seminar classes made her nervous - it was sometimes difficult to be surrounded by so many older students. Looking down at the equipment on their desks, Avalon shrugged. She pointed at the scissors and string. "Perhaps we're making crafts?" she said sarcastically.



Avalon's eyes wandered to the front of the classroom as the last student filed in and Professor Sandhu began the lesson. What was important to scientists? Avalon wasn't too familiar with science, other than what she had learned so far in Astronomy. But she assumed that herbology and potions could sort of be considered sciences as well. And some things that were important for those subjects were curiosity, open-mindedness, and perseverance, among others. She heard a few of those words being offered up by her classmates before she raised her own hand. "Objectivity is important. Science is very much fact-based, so you can't let your own judgment get in the way too often. Not to say that creativity or personal interpretation is never warranted, but it's important to be unbiased."