Taylor laughed, "Ok, next time I see you. I will have the challenge ready." She smirked and did an evil laugh then giggled as Ronnie snatched some charcoal, painted her face and then did a warrior yell. Tay did a different warrior yell and took out her wand... not to do magic but use it as a sword or something... She playfully swung at Ronnie.

"Okay!" Ronnie said, her game face on. Whatever this challenge was, Ronnie was confident she'd do good at it. 'Cause she was good at everything! Well...a few things. Definitely not divination. But it wasn't like Taylor would challenge to her to something like divination-ish.

She hoped.

Anyways. HEHE WAR PAINT! Oh! They were sword fighting now! Grinning, she whipped out her wand and smacked it against Taylor's, hitting it like she had seen in those old Muggle movies. "I will defeat you!" she said, laughing.

Taylor pushed the challenge to the back of her mind because right now they are at war! Well not really... but ya know... a friendly sword wand war without magic... soooooo a muggle war? Yep! They are doing it the muggle way apparently. She smiled and laughed, "NEVER!" She smacked her wand against Ronnie's for a few moments then tried a fake jab to her chest.

This seemed liked a completely legit stop on her list of places to get dung to the plants. There were a few gardens near the front gate, she didn't pay much attention to them before today because she didn't have to. There were just clusters of plants growing together. She didn't know how they were taken care of, she just knew they were a part of the Grounds Keeper's job. Weren't they? Yup, so not her problem--UNTIL TODAY WHEN SHE WAS TOTALLY A MUGGLE FARMER!!!

Ahem. Moving on.

She pushed the wheel burrow ahead of her, being careful not to accidentally run over Felix's tail or something as she did. For now he was going along with everything, not complaining about the fact that he had to walk. This was improvement.

"I think we can start over here, what'd you think?"

Eyes on the Kneazle, he walked along the flower bed but stopped just at the end. "Fine, we'll start here." She didn't see the difference but whatever. Lex got to work, grabbing the dung from the burrow and patting it against the soil. This would keep it nicely fertilized for a while. She moved along the flower bed, patting down bits of dung after bits of dung until she was on the other side at which point she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Phew! And they say only bums farm. This is hard work!"

The front gate next? Seemed legit.

Ella wandered along with one hand on the sextant and one hand in Alec's hand. So far so good, yeah? See? They could totally work together without getting distracted. Well...at least without getting so distracted that they forgot about their work completely.

The blonde didn't bother sitting this time. She simply nudged Alec gently and looked upwards. They were practically experts at this by now.

Scannnnn. Scannnnnnn. Scannnnnnnnnnn.

"The big dipper makes me want ice cream," She said quietly as she spotted it a few minutes later. She was pouting a bit too but only a little bit. Too much pouting would probably give her wrinkles or something.

The blonde then used her finger to follow the pointer stars. They'd lead her right where she needed to be. Hmmm.


"I think...I found it." Maybe. She was pretty sure that was Polaris. Truth be told, she was more paying attention to her hand in his and the fact that her tummy was screaming for food. Ice cream, to be exact. Could they get some? They'd be really quick about it! Did Alec want some too?

Did she really make all the way from the Astronomy tower to the front gate. Yup, she obviously did. But see she wasn't tired or bored. Because all the way here she was fiddling with sextant. Wasn't it cool. The bar and the mirrors and all those stuff. Though she held it with both hands and was so careful as she went down the stairs. You wouldn't want to break it, Merlin forbid. Such a fancy tool. Not to mention the consequences. Losing points detention or worst, never being able to use fancy tools. Negative thoughts asiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide. The snake arrived at the front gate and for now she put her bag down and the sextant above it.

Because it was Polaris time.

Now everyone must be able to locate the north star easily. Unless there was something wrong with their eyes. Or the sky. Though there shouldn't be anything wrong with the sky anytime. But like maybe cloudy. Anyway, she didn't worry. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked up and concentrated on the sky above as she brought her finger up as well.

Now to look for big dipper. Hmm...Bowl or pot-like thingy. It was easy to find it looking out the window. Or maybe because she was distracted by the larger view now. Perhaps. She willed herself to concentrate and search. Yuuuuuup. Here it was up there! Bigg Dipper itself.

Her finger tracing the VERY far away constellation she got to the tip and smiled. That's our friend. Mr.Polaris.

Now to the more fun and newer part.

So... they were moving on. Awesome!

And they were holding hands too! Which made this even more awesome and... a little like a date, actually. Except, this wasn't his idea of a brilliant date but it was close enough. Sort of. Ells did like watching the stars, right? Yeah? And this was watching the stars but... there was classwork involved. It was like those times in primary school where the teacher said that the class could watch a movie but they had to fill in a worksheet too.

Feeling a nudge at his side, Alec turned to look at her, all thoughts about movies and dates being driven out of his mind. He grinned before looking up at the sky. Okay. Polaris... They were Hufflepuffs, they could FIND Polaris!

Huh? Ice cream? Did she just say ICE CREAM? "Does it remind you of a big spoon?" ... What? That was a good question to ask, right? Yeah? Alec GRINNED as he spotted Cassiopeia and went on to try and find the Big Dipper itself. Big Dipper... big spoon... perfect for ice cream. After all, who ate ice cream with a tiny spoon?

"You did? ... You're so fast at finding Polaris!" He was still trying to search for the-- ... OH HEY! Big Dipper! And right near it was the Little Dipper too which meant... "Polaris!" Now they had to use the sextant, yeah?

Also, when could they go and get ice cream?

They only needed one more reading now--WAIT.

One more? Then they'd have to go back inside? That...that didn't seem nearly as fun, not to mention this was the last class of the day, she'd have to go back to her Common Room and there'd be that whole curfew thing. Couldn't she just skipped that part? She still hadn't gotten any ice-cream from the kitchen!!!

Lex skipped over to the front gate, thinking it'd be good on account of it didn't have that many trees in the immediate area that might have gotten in their way. This was obvious evidence that she was thinking clearly. Like legit.

While she skipped she was thinking about what Kitty!Tobias had said about his father. It was only after she'd stopped that she thought to question it. "Couldn't it just mean you've gotten really good at it? I mean, this sextant thing isn't as complicated as when I first got it...if he's right then I've been getting wrong measurements this whole time." Her brows furrowed as she thought about that. It probably wouldn't matter. The Professor said the readings would be all over the place. BUT WHAT IF SHE NEEDED IT IN THE REAL WORL--pffft, who was she kidding? She wouldn't even look at one of these outside of class reasons.

Finally she shrugged. The stars sounded more optimistic than his father. This is why she liked her Daddy so much.

But back to star gazing because they still had something to do after this one. It was strange but from this angle she could hardly make out Ursa Minor...you know what she did see? Cepheus and as she'd learned previously, those constellations stuck together in their own little group. She searched that general area until her eyes ran across the stalker constellation that had been very shift this time. With it spotted her eyes darted to Polaris. Almost too easy.

"Fount it. What about you?" There was a pause of silence, then, "I could go for some ice-cream. What about you?"

Lex was skipping, so of COURSE Tobias joined her.

As soon as he realised what she was doing (after she'd kind of skipped ahead), he quickly changed his gait to a kind of skip, run a few steps, SKIP, and rinse and repeat. It was quite fun, as well as an easy way of getting somewhere fast. TOBIAS APPROVED.

He came to a halt beside her and stared up into the sky after glancing back at the castle. The last time he'd seen the castle look like this, all lit up at night and from far away, was his first night there during the sorting. Since then going out after dark was kind of not a good idea so... yeah. It was nice to see it again like this. Buuuuuuuuuuuut on to the stars.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Tobias agreed as he peeeeeeered up. Was that the Plough/Big Dipper? It looked like it. He held the sextant up to his eye and did the line between the stars and kept going aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand gotcha! "My dad clearly doesn't understand the concept of actually being able to do something. He's such a downer. Must be way boring!" Tobias had no time for downers. ALWAYS LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE and all that.

"I got it too," he grinned, still staring up at the sky through his sextant. It was like a mini telescope except for the fact that it wasn't at all.

Oooh. "I am always up for anything sweet. Yes to ice cream." Especially since Professor Starman had been a giant tease earlier.

Not many people would have skipped with her. This earned him chocolate frog points with her. It seemed most of the Hufflepuff Firsties were earning those. They were so wonderful, she could just tie them up and haul them off to her dorm. Ahem. Of course she wouldn't. Nope. That was reserved for the next creature to walk out of the forest.

She got the sextant out again, repeating the same steps as all the other times and tried working on an angle while she listened. "I bet! I like thinking I've finally gotten the hang of something, not that I'm getting worse." That made it seem like a waste and that was one thing Lex never tolerated in any form. "Life's much neater when you find something epic to look forward to!" GRIN.

She'd found her angle. 80. No questioning it. Nope. Just working out.



As she wrote the last stroke, he said something that had her absolutely BEAMING. "I very much approve of the way you think." This had nothing to do with her being a sugar!Addict. Nooooope. What gave anyone that accurate idea??? She could stop any time she wanted...but that was no time soon. "I practically live on sugar, this year the focus has been on ice-cream. It's like heaven in a bowl."

Lex slipped the parchment in her pocket along with her quill. She just remembered something. She was the older kid. Riiiiight. "Are you okay with the spell we'll be using?" This was the responsible thing to do, yeah?

After finding Polaris it was time for the angle time. Which meant using the sextant which was on her bag on the floor. A couple of feet away. Which meant she had to go and get but she didn't want to tear her gaze off Polaris. It was true that she had got the hang of locating it with no problem she still didn't want to waste time. They only had forty minutes and she still needed to go to two other places. In short, she wanted to reach for the sextant without her eyes leaving the north star. She paused as she stood thinking of how even that was possible. Pffffffft. Of course it was. Luckily her wand was on her. The blond unholstered the wand then with a tip she uttered,"Accio sextant," Her other hand was ready to catch it. Though for a split second she did fear dropping it. BUT she didn't so all was cool. Awesome.

The fourth-year held the tool firmly and started. First, she pointed it to the horizon then pressed the clomp to release the index bar. Bringing Polaris to the horizon followed .After that was releasing the clomp and positioning. Which might have taken time more than any other step. Probably because it required using the mirrors and her clumsy fingers. Though she managed it at last and swung to verification. And now time to read the angle.

She brought her head closer and looked. 77.That's the higher angle she'd got. But didn't really anything else. So she shrugged and flopped down on the floor as she got out the parchment. Time to measure the latitude.
She shoved the parchment into the bag again and hopped up holding the fancy tool of hers. Well, at least for now she was hers.

"Life is just generally awesomer when people look at the good things instead of the bad. That's all I ever do." SUPER GRIN. Like seriously Tobias couldn't remember the last time he was sad for more than like ten minutes. And happiness never got old. He knew there were people who found it legitimately impossible to see the bright side and that kind of sucked, but he just hoped that eventually they would be able to do it. In the meantime they should try lego because lego = amazing.

He was going off focus.

Theeeeeeeeeere was the horizon, press clamp, Polaris (hello old friend), release clamp. Once again he SKIPPED the other stuff because, like, he was obviously getting readings that were way off and as long as HE knew what he was SUPPOSED to do then they were cooooool.

He checked the angle. 45. SEE? WAY DIFFERENT. Getting it exact and testing it wasn't going to make a massive difference.

Tobias would never be a very good scientist, that was for sure.



Having done the last of his notes he blew on the ink to make sure it had dried before folding it up and putting in his coat pocket. "I've noticed loads of people liking ice cream here, even in the cold," he nodded, and then gave a shrug. "But ice cream is pretty cool" OH HO HO LOOK AT DAT PUN "so I see absolutely no problem with it." Because SUGAR OKAY. Tobias usually had to eat sweets before lessons because, though they hyped him up, they stopped him zoning out. YEP.

Uhhhh... the spell.

Tobias paused for a second and then reached for his wand before answering. "Uh, I think I got it covered? ... But you go first, just so I can make sure I remember what I'm doing." Yeah. Totally. He could totally do it YEP. He just needed to watch Lex do it first.

"Yup, isn't it wonderful? Having so many people appreciate it for what it really is?" There was a wide grin and a dazed look spread across her face. She could almost taste ice-cream now. This was obviously a sign that she would need to have some ice-cream before bed. It was the most obvious thing EVER.

"Some people can be such wet blankets. The Headboy doesn't like the ice-cream, he doesn't like sugar." Oakey was living a dull life, she was sure of it. She was suspicious of anyone who didn't like sugar, it just didn't seem possible.

Oh good, he knew the spell. It would have been a disaster having him practise it then something would go wrong and you know what? It was too dark for them to run back to the castle and up to the Healer, besides...if that happened...Professor Airey would find out they went outside unaccompanied and they'd probably get that lecture about things being smoother if they had had older help. She'd pass on that, thanks. "No problem, watch."

She stepped a bit closer to him so he could see in the dim light. "Remember, you have to tap your eyelids when you do this spell." She paused so he could register that. "Oculo Focalis!"

And there was that feeling of her eyes being strained again. She never did get used to it. They would probably make this quick, besides, they didn't have much time left. "You think you got it? Go ahead and try so we can find the system."

Tobias found it SUPER SUPER WEIRD that Oakey didn't like sugar. He could sort of understand the ice cream thing, because it was really really cold still and so kind of illogical, but not liking sugar was just WEIRD. "He sang a song about a pickle once," Tobias pointed out, not bothering to elaborate. That was the lake day. Yep.

Anyway, yes, the spell. Tobias watched carefully as Lex did it and nodded to himself. Yes. Right. Simple enough, really. "I just have to be careful I don't poke my eye out!" he said cheerfully.

RIGHT THEN.

Closing his eyes, Tobias pointed his wand at them, which was a weird feeling and not one he was likely to get the hang of. Like how natural was it to point your wand at your own face? Not natural. Still didn't feel natural to even use a wand but once again that was thought that was just going further off-topic.

"Oculo Focalis," Tobias said and tapped his shut eyelids sharply. Owwwww. He opened his eyes and rubbed them slightly, looking up at the sky. No... no it hadn't worked. "Hold on." DEEEEEEEEEEP BREATH. Eyes shut again, aaaaaaaaaaaand... one more time with FEELING.

"Oculo Focalis!" Tap.

It worked this time, he knew that without even opening his eyes. They already felt different. His eyelids flew open again and he looked at Lex now in SUPER SUPER HD. Okay, I'm ready.

TO THE STAAAAAAAAAAAARS.

Ummmmm....pickles...? She would have thought that strange but then she remembered it was Oakey they were talking about. He mixed veggie juice and told her it was firewhiskey. Not cool. "Funny...I think I might have heard him over the explosions." She'd been wondering what he was on about but didn't think to ask.

She winced at his mention of poking his eyes out. "Yeah. Don't do that." She could only be so responsible. It would have been hard explaining that she let him poke his own eye out. At the same time, she wouldn't intervene. This was all him. She winced just a little, yeah, she saaaaaw him poke at his eye.

Seemed the second try worked better though. "Sweet! Alright, we'll just find polaris again, shouldn't be too hard, we were just looking at it a second ago." Ah. See. Right where she left it. Good star. It would get a cookie later...she'd just need a REALLY long ladder.

Looking up at it she finally thought she was seeing what Professor Airey was talking about...mostly the big bright light but she was assuming that was both Polaris A and B. Just a tiny distance off she was sure she was looking at another star. Polaris Ab...? That was it...right??

"It's the smaller one that's polaris Ab, yeah?" She would assume so. This meant she'd found the system. Excellent! They could head back once he was done and no one would be the wiser!

When Lex uttered those words 'shouldn't be too hard', Tobias had a horrible feeling that it would be one of those 'famous last words' things. Except not last. Or famous.

So... words.

ANYWAY.

He turned out to be wrong which was of course a Very Good Thing because they were so close to being done that Tobias could almost taste the celebratory ice cream. He looked up and took a little longer finding it than he had the other times that night 'cause now he had his SUPER EYES and it was kind of weird and new. He DID look where he'd left it but it kind of moved... or maybe Tobias had... whatEVER. HE HAD IT NOW.

"Wow..." the tiny Hufflepuff exclaimed softly as he stared up at it. This magic lark would never get old. NOPE. Not at all. Wait, what? What was Lex saying? "The smaller one that's right next to it, I think... yeah." As he finished that sentence, Tobias nodded, even though he knew Lex was probably looking up at the sky too. "And Polaris B is slightly further away, maybe? I can't remember..."

It was just

so

shinYYY.

"Wow."

Yes, Tobias thANK YOU.

He was done now.

A big spoon? Ella's smiled widened a little and she nodded. "That's exactly it, actually." BEAM. And she wouldn't mind using a big spoon to shovel a large amount of ice cream into her mouth right now. Just saying. Ice creammmmm.

"Thanks! I'm just...used to it, I guess?" Finding Polaris, that is. And she was still smiling, did he see? That had lots to do with him because even without the ice cream, le sigh, this was still fun. "You're pretty quick at finding it too, y'know." Cause he just had and BEAM! This meant time for the sextant.

The sixteen year old had to let go of the boyfriends hand now and she frowned a little at that but they did have work to do, after all. She got a good hold on her sextant, fiddled with a bit, and observed what the angle was. Hmmm.

"So mine says...fifty-five. That means that the latitude would beeee..." 90-55 which was "thirty-five." GRIN! "What about yours?"

Oh and notes, yes?

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

Alright now that Cassia showed him how to do it, he could handle doing it on his own for a bit. He had his sextant with him and his notebook of writing down the angles he had. He was prepared. Kace saw Ella there and the rest of his puffs doing the same assignment he was. He waved to them and then sat down. But he would feel more comfortable lying down.

He lied down and gazed up at the stars. Once he was comfortable and had his eyes up on the sky, he looked around. He was trying to find the Little Dipper. He could find that easy. All he had to find was the handle and the pot.

He scanned.....scanned.....scanned.....scanned.....sc anned..

After a little while, he FOUND it. He was getting better at this. Well hopefully he was. Once he found the location of Polaris, he got out his sextant and notebook for ready use. He was gonna do the sextant thing with ease this time. He could feel it.

Big spoon. PERFECT for ice cream! Alec GRINNED WIDELY at her and nodded. He totally approved of that thought process, if these things could be approved. And speaking of ice cream... "Do you think Flamsteed would be mad if we went and got ice cream afterwards?" It was on the way to the Astronomy Tower, the Kitchens. Sort of.

"Anytime!" And she was used to it? "It's a neat trick too, probably," Was it? Yeah... he didn't really know what he was saying anymore. ... Oh? "Thanks!" he said, grinning at her, "I guess it gets easier over time?" Maybe. And it was still easier than using the sextant object, that's for sure.

Speaking of, they had to use that object now, right? When Ells let go of his hand, Alec frowned a little at the emptiness before setting up the sextant and putting his eye to it. Right. THERE was the horizon and... he pressed down on the clamp and adjusting things until Polaris matched up with the horizon. This... was starting to get a little easier. Or maybe it was just the routine. Something. Once that was found, he released his hold of the clamp and looked towards the measurement. ... Okay...

Quote:

Latitude = 90 degrees - sextant angle
Latitude = 90 - 73
Latitude = 17

She got 35 for the latitude? "Oh! I got 17 for the latitude..." Was that bad? ... He hoped not!

Kace had his sextant in his hands. He could find the angle of Polaris. He had done it many times before! He pointed it to the horizon...scan for the horizon...there it was!! He pointed towards it and then pressed down on the clamp and then adjusted till he was eye leveled with Polaris.

He was squinting through the mirror with one eye and realized how fun Astronomy was. Once it was leveled, he released it and then he tried to figure out the angle. He copied it down in his notebook to make sure he didn't forget. He was glad Cassia told him how to do it. He didn't think he could make it without her help.

SPOILER!!: Kace's Notebook!

Latitude: 90- sextant angle
Sextant angle: 68
Latitude: 90-68=22

So once he did his calculations, he got 22 for his total. He wondered what that meant. Maybe he could ask the professor once he was done with all his walking around the castle mumbo jumbo. He was smiling and was glad he was getting to explore. But hopefully he wasn't doing it wrong!

The front gate was a place not many students bothered to come right? Why would they walk all the way over here if there is so much space in between the castle and the gate?

This was exactly the reason why Daichi was here. His school bag was hoisted over his shoulder as he found a place to sit down. Placing the bag on the ground, the Slytherin opened it and grabbed one of his text books. Charms this one was.

He flipped the page to where he had closed the book last time and sighed frustratingly. Why hadn't he studied all year? His NEWT exams were getting closer and the closer it got the more worried the Slytherin became. Reading the words that were written down, Daichi tried to understand what they meant but he only got a headache from it.

This was bad...this was seriously bad! He did not want to fail the exams. What would everyone say? The students already thought he was a failure and they were right because lately Daichi had been feeling like he failed everything. He was the worst Prefect ever and he didn't get why Lafay had picked him.

Wiping away a tear that threatened to fall, Daichi took a deep breath to calm himself and continued reading.

Ronnie walked down to the front gate, her bag of art supplies hanging loosely from her shoulder. She glanced up at the beautiful sky and thought to herself about the other day and how depressed she had gotten so suddenly. Ever since that ice cream toppings party, she felt so sad. She couldn't figure out why and it was really bugging her. But painting always helped so today she had decided on painting the front gate and the scenery around it to try and distract herself from the horrible feeling that kept stirring inside her.

As she neared it, she spotted a boy sitting in the grass with a book, looking pretty stressed out. When she got closer, she saw it was Daichi. Hmm... she hadn't spoken to him in a while. Taking a seat next to him, she glanced at him. "You okay?" she asked as she began to take out her art supplies from her bag, looking at him with concern.

Twilight.....between sunset and dusk. Eventhough summer was brewing near, there was a slight chill in the air but that didn't stop the Ravenclaw Prefect from hunching all over the area under the huge tree beside the Front Gate where they held a small get together a few days into the term.

Now she was here again, but for a different reason.....she was looking for something and most unfortunately, because it was starting to get dark, it was getting harder and harder to find what she was looking for. Beezus pulled out her wand, "Lumos." She quickly pointed the light on the ground and resumed the search.

The days were getting nearer, the sun of her school years almost set into darkness which meant the end. But of course a new day would begin and with that a new adventure.

For now, all she wanted to do was enjoy the last few moment's she'd get in this place. Studying like always had been tiring to her and she wanted to bask in Hogwarts beauty whilst she could rather than have her last memories of this place to do with textbooks and boredom. So a walk around the grounds it was, along with her little pygmy puff perched up on her shoulders.

She'd miss this. She'd miss people too...like Bee that was doing what exactly?

After casting lumos with her own wand, the Nessie went on further to see what the younger Ravenclaw had been doing. It wouldn't hurt to speak to her a few minutes anyways, before heading back to the castle. "Everything cool?" Yes. Duuuuh. She was pouting again.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Daichi flipped the pages wildly as the book had fallen close by accident. His foot began to tap on the ground as he read the words and he brought his hand to his forehead again.

Stupid headache...

Grabbing his phoenix feather core wand, the Slytherin Prefect flipped the page as he practised the wand movement of one of the spells. He was so busy with practising that eventhough he had heard the person sitting next to him, he did not answer.

He practised a couple of times but didn't seem to do it right. He either forgot a flick or did a swish too many and it frustrated him to no end. Slamming his textbook close with such a force that a loud BAM was heard, the Prefect wanted to throw it away but refrained from doing so. Would need this book if he wanted to graduate.

"Practising for my NEWTs....its going GREAT right?" he said sarcastically and ripped some grass out of the ground in frustration. "I'm SO going to fail! i just know it! what if i really fail the exams? what if everyone will laugh at me and call me stupid or...or what if i oversleep and miss the exams?! What if..." While he spoke, the Slytherins eyes widened and he was breathing in and out heavily.

It took a few moments for him to calm down but eventually it worked and he turned to the Gryffindor. "What are you drawing?"