And now she had a...um....that Hufflepuff girl next to her--

Good. Sweet. MERLIN. Why couldn't she remember her best friend's name?? Um um um....Lo-something....er....Lex blinked over at her bestie, struggling hard to come up with a name that actually fit the face. Locust? No no, that wasn't the name of a person--loadstone.....that couldn't have been it either. Her brows knitted, giving away her internal frustration at the situation. Where was her memory these days?

And who was the old man upfront? He looked familiar except not but then nothing looked familiar to her anymore, not really. It took a few extra seconds and a bunch of others calling him Professor before it clicked and her eyes bulged wide.

She tapped the Hogwartian then gave a subtle point toward the graying man. "Remind me of your name again and....is that Professor....er......yeah...Astronomy? He looks different."

When this class was over she was heading straight for the potions lab to brew herself a memory potion before it got worse.

Forgetting the question completely, Lex raised her hand, having one of her own. "Professor Sir...are you alright?"

Theo just nodded at Flamsteed's comment on his Quidditch performance during the match. He was trying not to think about Quidditch actually, but thanks for that.

He scratched his head when the professor started his usual ramble of big words and space stuff, and then he rested his elbow on the desk, with his chin placed firmly into his palm. Theo picked up a pen and started doodling on the next clean page of his notebook.

He was doodling a picture of Saturn, though.

Totally class related, of course.

Trying his best not to stare too hard at the professor’s transformation, Andrew took out his journal and prepared to write down all the important information he’ll get from the afternoon’s discussion.

And the first question was up. What are the seven wandering stars? He was to raise his hand when Anastasia beat him to it. Merlin, she’s fast. The seventh year looked at her direction and nodded in agreement. The seven wandering stars are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Oh…and they actually assigned those stars to name the days of the week. Did they know?

Andrew debated with himself if he should share the information or not. But seeing that Anastasia already nailed it—and most probably what Flamsteed wanted to hear, the seventh year remained quiet in his seat and took down notes.

Additional information is a good thing after all.

Oh my dear Merlin! Why had Sophie chosen a seat so far away from the professor?! He needed a charm or something to amplify his voice. He was just speaking soooo softly. "Come again!" Sophie said, cupping her hand by her ear and raising her hand.

She removed her hand from her ear and looked around. Listening to her classmates, she pieced together what the question had been. "Oh, were they referring to the planets?" she asked, raising her hand again. "Can you hear me up there, Professor?"

Alec gave the man a nod in return, as a way of saying 'anytime'. And... moon rock? He was impressed... and made a mental note to ask more about the cane. Or ask Botros since the man had a dragon one. ... Where did they get them from? That's what Alec wanted to know. For future references, you know.

... Later. Right now, he had to answer a question...

... that someone was SHOUTING an answer to.

Alec JUMPED -- OW! -- and frowned over at the direction of the sound. Did people need to be so loud?! They could hear the man, right? Alec could. Very loudly, in fact. Maybe a little too loudly but he was going to brush it off. There was no way he could tell Flamsteed to pipe down -- manners, he had those -- and he wasn't going to tell the Sophie girl or the other kid to do the same either soo...

Question. Right. Which was...? ... Mars? The loud kid had mentioned that planet. And twinkly planets? None of the planets twinkled, as far as he knew. Were they going to go on another scavenger hunt for them? He did enjoy the last, long term assignment they had had to do. Some of the planets were easy to spot, like Mars. Bright red and close to Earth. Yeah.

... They were talking about planets, right?

... Yeah... he was going to sit there. Paying attention, he was.

Aaah, Astronomy was making Lux feel like her head was going to explode again. As she watched Professor Flamseed hobble around, she had a glassy look in her eyes. Okay, so he was talking about stars, but... what did she really know about stars? Not much other than they were balls of gas that were really really far away. Yep, she was sitting this one out.

Fortunately he had said this was a more hands on lesson, so she hoped to sweet Circe that she would either be able to understand what to do for it, or be able to have someone help her. Figuring there was nothing else for her to do, she took out her notebook and pen so she could take notes.

People were YELLING. Well it sounded like they were, some people didn't seem to know they were yelling. Caleb stuck his pinky in his ear and wiggled it to make sure he was hearing correctly - yup, he could hear them yelling pretty loudly. At least he knew HE wasn't losing his hearing just yet.

YET being the key word.

He raised his hand and grunted "Planets," in response to Flamsteed's question. Yup. That was all he really needed to know right? He wasn't in the mood for a lengthy explanation.

Bay raised his hand "Professor.. aren't those like the planets in our solar system that they called the wondering stars…" or what ever the name was.. man his memory was starting to go… he shook his head to clear it out… Bay raised his hand again… wait.. didn't he already answer.. oh no.. Bay lowered his hand to let other people answer incase he already did.

Homework, what about that? Oh er...yeah she didn't really do that. Well whoops, too bad cause fairies came first.

Anyways she really did try to focus on all the theory things this time, starting with the whole first star that according to Professor Airey Fairy appeared 27 billion years after the big bang.Scribble. She began drawing a star with wind like tail and wrote twenty seven billion drawings which was why she was very pleased with her color changing quill.

The seven wandering stars? And people were talking about planets? ...Or wait didn't he once say planets were stars or something? Eh. Too much to remember.

"Professor is Stupider one of the stars? Eh em. I mean Jupiter." Totally not on purpose no, not even with the suppressed giggles.

Had she said something wrong? Maybe her lack of time came across as that she felt the card the waste of time and she was too busy to make a card for the professor. That was not intended. "there is always time to cheer up one of my favourite professors" They were in limited supply these days, maybe Sarah's standards when it came to teachers was too high.
The seven wondering stars.... wondering made her think of what she did when she was not on medicine... she would pace....
Seven... she liked that number. She had seven brothers and all.
Oh wait, back to the question.. what had the number seven.. in the star.. ancient times... Planets maybe? Obviously they were not able to see all the planets in those days, not even all our Solar System. Sarah raised her hand
"Perhaps our planets? They wonder around... and they can look like stars to people who cannot tell the difference"

Tessa smiled as Professor Flamsteed brought up her prize. "I have actually- not all of it, but I was able to sneak in listening to a few tracks while studying. It was a beautiful compilation- thank you so much," she told him with a warm smile. She didn't have to tell him that it made her sleepy- besides, a lot of things were making her sleepy nowadays.

However, class started and she settled into her seat, glad to relieve her knees for at least a short while. At the Professor's question, she raised her hand. "Professor, could those stars make up a constellation? Perhaps named "The Nomad" for it's tendency to 'wander' across the sky?" she suggested.

SPOILER!!: Adi

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Adi was trying to remember what the letters on the jars meant when he was aware of someone taking a seat next to him. He looked around. "Hey, Benny! What's up?'' Adi looked closely at his friend. Benny was aging very much as well. He sort of even looked older than the Puffer did.

Anyway..."I sure am. What about you?'' Adi looked back at the jars. The stuff printed on the label were from the periodic table; he knew that much. What did they stand for though? Hmmm...

What was up? "The sky..." Ben mused playing on their location. They were to be studying some part of the heavens in this lesson after all, so looking up would just what he had mentioned. The sky, especially if you added the fact that they were currently in the highest point of the castle. "I think so." If that was what they were doing of course. The Gryffindor only got an impression that might be one idea.

--------------------------------

He winced as more and more students arrived in the classroom. Some being far more loud then others which was becoming more and more commonplace. And it was becoming more and more painful for Ben. The second year turned back to the professor when his greeting was returned, only to hear what came after. Carbon dating...he hadn't said anything about carbon dating. Had he? Ben exchanged confused glances with his best friend but chose to not correct the man however as he caught the response the older man had given Adi.
No...the professor was clearly not happy and Ben didn't want to loose any points either.

"Alright... " was all he said before listening as the professor finally began class. At the question about wandering stars, Ben tried to think of what they could be. He was stopped though as the answers coming from students seemed as good an answer as any. There were seven other planets in the solar system as visible in the sky. And the sun wouldn't necessarily be shown in the night. The moon was the only odd man out.

"I think it would be the planets as well," he answered after raising his hand. "They would be seen as having no distinct path or wandering across the sky over time."

Ian looked up to the sky as the professor talked, trying to see if he could remember the names of any of the stars he had read in his homework. Good gracious he couldn't remember hardly anything. He just continued to allow his eyes to wander at the star charts in his memory and wondered how men decided to make a telescope in the first place.

"Thundering cars?" Tobias repeated to himself what he'd heard Airey say, looking incredibly confused.

What on Earth was Airey asking them about cars for? Didn't he realise this was Astronomy, and not Muggle studies?

Tobias blinked, and wondered if maybe he hadn't heard the professor right. He glanced around at everyone, squinted, and leeeeeeeeeeeaned right forward, as far as he could without standing up, and turned his good ear towards the front of the room (because of course he had a good ear now) all the better to hear the Starman.

Speak up, sonny!

A mouse? Where?!

Beverly scanned the ground furiously. Wait...why was she looking for a mouse? Oh, she didn't know. Were they supposed to bring one? Grinning a little more at Airey's greeting she decided to forget it. On a corner of her parchment she wrote herself a little reminder: Make a 'To Remember' list.

As the professor walked back toward the blackboard Beverly had to squint her eyes. It helped her vision a smidgen, but not enough. So she took out the too-big-for-her glasses and put them on. It helped somewhat. Apparently she needed a better prescription than her brother had. Dammit, Kennedy!

Listening to the question the third year quickly searched her brain for the answers. She was SURE she'd read about this. The only problem was remembering these '7 wandering stars.' There was logic, though. They were planets, not really stars, and they'd be the closest to Earth, yeah?

Wriggling her nose - absolutely disliking the idea of not remembering things - Beverly raised her hand, though not as high. Her joints were stiff as a board. "They thought the sun and moon were stars, as well as-" PAUSE. What was next? "Oh, um, Venus...Mercury...um, Mars...and umm..." She didn't remember the rest. SAD FACE.

"I don't remember the rest," she admitted miserably. Could she hide under the table now? >.<

Marigold GRINNED at the professor, happy he was good enough to teach. YAYYYY. She took out her notes and scribbled a few down.

... traveling stars or whatever? "Umm... just planets in general, yeah?"

She was a bit tired.

Yay! She had just been complimented on her writing! Maybe writing near a lake worked. It was in her Aunt's stupid book about being really, really creative. Though she always assumed the book was fodder. Maybe not. Her aunt actually taught her how to write short stories. And apparently, she was taught well.

The little redhead beamed as she let the praise sink in, thinking of the answer he gave. About thirty Billion-or million?- years ago stars formed, and THEN the Big Bang happened. Hmm, how was that possible? Well that wasn't the question, but she was going to keep the answer in her head for later. Because firsties with cool answers were cool.

Seven wandering stars? Hmm, well that was hard. Weren't stars really badly mapped at that time? Bad enough that before Copernicus people assumed that everything revolved around the earth,so maybe they guessed that the sun was one of the stars? And... maybe the moon? That made no sense. Time to wing it. And wing it well.

"Well maybe they thought that the orbit was the 'wandering' part of wandering stars. So then things like the sun were in orbit and they were called wandering stars. Because they looked like they wandered." Hey, if she couldn't be correct, she was going to be creative. Because creative answers worked too. And sometimes they worked better than others. And now seemed to be a time when they worked.

After she spoke, the redhead copied down his question and copied down her answer. She wanted to get all of the students words down in case someone was correct but not fully. She could fill it in later with the correct answer.

This not hearing thing was starting to get very annoying so Michael rolledup a piece of parchment into a cone shape and placed the point end into his ear. He didn't know if it was working or whether the Professor was speaking loudly but he did manage to hear the question and he raised his hand slowly.

"They are planets or to be more precise, the seven classical planets. The sun, moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn. They are also the names for the seven days of the week."

Could the Professor hear him?

"Of course, Professor," why, yes, of course, Lottie nodded as soon as Airey offered himself to help her. There was literally no one who could be of any help, though she was wondering if he was fitted for the task now, all things considered.

THANK YOU, MARCUS BRANXTON FOR SPEAKING OUT OF TURN.

She heard that. But there was no time for a comeback, though that out of place grin that went with his words only made her smirk. Right. A smirk. Now, back to focusing on Airey and the lesson.

You have got to stop mentioning the sun in that way, Airey Flamsteed. Really. Lottie was about to raise her hand to answer when... blink. Excuse me? Her eyebrows went up as her best friend asked for her name. What...? As Lex's expression worried her even more, because she knew the Gryffindor girl was entirely lost as to what Lottie's name was. Needless to say, the question was forgotten, as was the answer she was gonna give. So, eyes on Lex, she spoke in a low voice, "You're kidding me." Astronomy, what?

Terry made no reaction to the unusual look that the professor was giving him, mainly because he couldn't actually see what he was doing anyway. So the sixth year, looked absent-mindedly towards the front of the classroom, not even noticing what was on his desk until he looked down at squinted at it.

Huh? Oh. Liquid stuff. Interesting.

And then the lesson started and he asked a question. The Slytherin would have responded if everyone else hadn't got there first. He was getting a little slow recently, took a while for his brain to process a question before answering it. That was his new excuse anyway.

Instead he wrote down notes in large letters on his parchment so he could read them back later. At least he was doing something. He frowned a little as he heard people shouting but didn't make anything of it. A lot of people were glaring anyway. They probably got the message. His poor ears were sensitive.

All that felt like a lot to take in all of a sudden. Penelope really couldn't be bothered to try to write any notes on any of this. Way too much effort right now.....especially with some people shouting and talking SO LOUDLY. GAH. These people really needed to learn how to speak quietly because loud noises really bothered her these days for some reason.

And now she definitely wasn't paying attention and hardly heard most of the answers, instead just trying to focus on tuning some of the other students out.

Woah that was a lot to take in. A lot of new information this year. Kace remembered that was the homework he didn't have time for. Woopsies on his part but at least he went to the lesson right? Now onto the question at hand. What were the 7 wandering stars? Kace immediately thought of the seven dwarfs but that was irrelevant. He smirked at his wittiness and then had to go into action.

Kace raised his hand and said, "Professor i know that the sun and moon fit into the 7 wandering stars but i do not know about Pluto. I mean is that still considered a planet?"

Mo pushed up his glasses as he peered up at the professor, then turned his attention to those around him. There was really no point answering the question now, although Mo did take a moment to write out lesson notes on his parchment. Big, clear letters scrawled across the page, words that Mo could see easily without his glasses (which he seemed to have forgotten somewhere).

Anything to add? "The stars our ancestors noticed moved in a predictable way, Professor Flimflam. Those wanderers were the planets, which moved through the other constellations rather than with them."

Of course, Constantinople was the first to get the answer right. Hmph. A teeny tiny wrinkle of her nose might have occurred, but a genuine smile reappeared on Alice's face as her hand when up... until her elbow cracked painfully, that was. Seriously? What was with these rheumatisms? Owww.

"Classical planets. Seven non-fixed objects visible in the sky. Didja know the days of the week are named after 'em, too? My elbow is THROBBING, sir." It was. Truthfully, it was.

She rubbed her funny bone, trying to not make pitiful faces at Mo. Toughie here. No elbow pops could hurt an Alice Fischer, no sirree.

Oh Merlin.

Oh Merlin, class was moving far too fast and her foul mood was just becoming that much more foul because she couldn't keep up. It also didn't help that she had Michael, Michael whateverhislastnamewas mouthing off words that she couldn't hear either. If he had something to say, he should just say it. If she could've lifted her arm, she would've used it to punch him.

But as it was, she simply sat there and stared at him through her squinting eyes. His face looked all funny. He should probably go to the Healer.

Before she could say that to him, though, and before she could even get her lab coat on, because funny contraption thing was funny, her attention drifted back to the Professor and.. she couldn't hear a word he was saying. At least she could hear some of the things the other students in the room were saying. The seven wandering stars, right? Eh. She didn't even care.

"The seven wandering stars are the seven stars that didn't want to be seen. 'Tis why they just wander." She was just going to wear her lab coat on backwards, if that was okay.