"What? I am just looking out for our lives ok? It's not everyday that your best friend turns in a fire-wielding, bird-looking thing...that kinda looked like a harpie, but that isn't possible cause harpies are not real."

"I've been looking for you ages!"Adam said exasperated, taking a cookie from the magical, truly magical basket. "Why are you up here? What are you doing here all alone with a basket full of cookies- how selfish of you...You should've called me..."He said.

"She's a Veela you dolt! Of course she's a Harpie! Merlin do you ever go to History of Magic, Elektra? We talked about this last week in class... Elektra? You do go to class right?"

Elektra raised her eyebrow and then she chuckles and picks up her wand and she points her wand at Selina, "Selina Skylar our best friend is lying on the floor right now and you are concerned aboutr bloody class?? Oh, what kind of friend are you?"

Violet slowly groaned a little in her sleep and was beginning to come out of her slumber as she listened to Selina and Elektra continue to bicker back and forth. Violet then said faintly,"Would the both of you please stop, I'm completely out of energy right now and I'm too tired to calm the peace.." She groaned again and then said,"Oyy.."

When she heard her bubbly friend talking and not screeching Elektra smiled and she jumped in happiness. "SHE LIVES!! Merlin, Violet don't you ever do that again. You almost killed us!"

Selina heard Violet speak again and in a second Selina's arms were wrapped tightly around Violet in a hug, "Oh thank Merlin!" Then she remembered all that had happened and Selina said angrily, "Explain!"

Finishing up her first cup of tea and scratched Walnut behind the ears as he began to purr softly. "What do you think Walnut?" she smiled as the cat looked up at her with his large golden eyes.

It was rather humbling to look at the stars and realize just how small she was compared to everything else out there. When you looked at things that way, it seemed silly to get all caught up in the small details.

She looked out the window and saw that it was a bit darker now, so she should probably go check out what she could see. Before she even looked through the telescope, she saw a very bright star that she knew was the planet Venus.

Okay, now it was time for her to get back to looking through her telescope. She waited a little longer before looking through the telescope and turning it south-southwest and looked through it.

She saw an orange looking star that, after checking her book, she realized was actually Mars. Turning her telescope down a bit, she saw what had to be the top part of the constellation Leo and she made a note of it on her parchment.

Returning her gaze to the telescope, Kurumi saw a cluster of stars that she immediately recognized as being a part of the Cancer constellation. "What was the name of this star cluster," she asked out load turning her attention to Walnut. The cat looked at her and almost seemed to raise his kitty eyebrow at her. And just how am I supposed to know what the name of that ruddy star cluster is? Kurumi looked through her Astronomy textbook. "Ah, here it is," she smiled sitting down next to the cat. "The Beehive Clusteralso known as Praesepe (Latin for "manger"), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189, is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer," she read before returning to her notes. "Isn't this exciting Walnut?" she squeaked looking down at Walnut. "Cancer is small and its stars are faint, so usually you wouldn't be able to see it with the naked eye, but now that we have a telescope, we can!"

Kurumi turned her back to the cat again and Walnut began swishing his tail back and forth. "Goodie...because I can see the stars better now...

Kurumi turned around and looked at Walnut. "I'm sorry," she smiled bending down to pick him up. "You would like to look too wouldn't you." She held the cat up to the telescope with his little paws dangling in the air.

Wow...that really is beautiful... Walnut meowed and licked Kurumi's hand.

"I knew you would like it," she smiled kissing the top of his head.

Elle stifled a yawn and entered the Observatory again. She took her usual seat, somewhere under the beautiful night sky. She got out her notebook, telescope and quill.

While observing the sky with her machine, she felt her telescope become heavier. She moved it from her eye and... Ye Kuang was there! Her dazzling barn owl! "YE KUANG! Why are you here?" She stroke her gently and got out some sweets for her.

After a few moments of quality time, she told her owl to behave. "Stay still and don't make a ruckus. I'm going to do my homework and I don't want to sleep late. I might even get caught. Understand?"

Elle opened her notebook and saw her previous observations on Hercules. Tonight, it was not the clear sky. It was a dark starry night. Marvelous.

Once again, she picked the telescope up and examined the sky. She recorded her findings.

Notebook notes!

Quote:

contains several bright stars, so again, it was easy to spot. I have also read that many civilizations over thousands of years have portrayed the constellation of Leo as a lion.

Elle felt satisfied. She would expound on the topic later on. Maybe tomorrow. She was just so tired, so the redhead gathered all her things and stuffed them into her bag, not caring about neatness... For now. She yawned and stood up.

"Good night, Ye Kuang. I'll be back tomorrow night again. Promise. Be a good girl always." Elizabeth stroked her for one last time and headed out to her Dorm.

Hmm, she had only been up here once, and during that time, she made a nice enemy during her time, however, she doubted that Gryffindor girl would be up here at this time of night. Mostly she wanted to be up here after hours considering for one, it was after hours, two since there would more then likely no one up here considering it was a Saturday night and after a quidditch game, and three...well she lost her train of thought once she was actually in the observatory. Wow, the stars were so much different up here. Heck, this PLACE was so much different during the night compared to the day.

Having been levitating the telescope so she didn't have to carry it, Evelyn set it down before placing her bag down on the ground with a soft thud right next to it, gaze looking straight up at the stars. What she didn't know though, was that her kitty Poof had followed her the whole way up. She didn't know the white and dark striped creature was there until the small purrs started and she rubbed on the Slytherin's leg.

Meep!

"You were supposed to stay on the bed." she muttered, picking up the kitty and holding her close. Hmm, well at least tonight wasn't all that bad and cold outside, not to mention there weren't any clouds out. She would have gone last night, when she had originally obtained that note from Professor Hadley for permission to go, but it was cloudy. So she ended up skipping that and going to bed instead. THIS night however...this one was awesome.

Moving over to the telescope, she glared at it for a moment before adjusting it with her foot. Wha? Poof was in her arms! It's not like she could put the most adorable kitty in the world down on the grou- or no. She had to to get her notebook and quill out of her bag. Besides, from her point of view just from standing there, she could already spot one constellation.

Sitting down on the ground, Evelyn crossed her legs as she set Poof in her lap (who made herself comfortable before closing her eyes) and took out her notebook and quill to start documenting. Now, to see if Mr. Gryffindor showed up. He no doubt will, but, then again, she was slightly nervous thinking that he may not. If he didn't then well, she had Poof for company.

Johs practically ran all the stairs up to the Astronomy tower as he was thinking that he had successfully managed to be late to meet the Slytherin girl there though he was already living on the seventh floor. Ehhh. He had been feeling so tired so he had fallen asleep on the couch before the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room after he had tken that famous shower. It was thanks to a couple of housemates arguing near the tables that he woke up and realised he was being late and was about to waste the permission to be out at night. That would have been horrible resulting in both missing the opportunity of being out the Gryffindor tower at this hour and leaving Evelyn working there alone.



The Astronomy textbook with a scrool of disorganised parchment pieces under his arm, the lion boy climbed the last stairs and ran a quick hand through his hair before stepping into the Observatory where he had come only once at night time, without permission at that time of course, when he was feeling a little bit in low spirits. And the stars were looking as shiny and beautiful at that time as well like they did now. ''Wow! This is going to be interesting'' he said approaching Evelyn who was sitting on the the floor with...a cat. Ah, a cat. ''Hi Rose! Hi Kitty!'' then he greeted them. If dogs were allowed, he would have brought Hector too. Smiling happily anyway, he sat down on the ground next to the Slytherin girl. ''I see you already got one. Congrats.'' And it was LEO! Oh! ''That should have been mine''

But it was not HIS so he was supposed to find himself one. So approaching her, he carefully got a hold of her telescope and began observing the stars while playing with her hair with his free hand. And after a couple of minutes, the boy felt like he got one. YAY! Getting away from the telescope, the Gryffindor quickly took his notes totally copying how the girl did that.

Hmmm?

Glancing behind her, the Slytherin girl frooooowned, having thought she picked a good night where there wouldn’t be any other person in the Observatory besides her, and Josh of course, but, well surprise surprise. It was josh. "Hello." She smiled, watching him sit down next to her. Glancing down to Poof, Evelyn smirked when she saw the kitty hadn't moved an inch. Perhaps she was getting as much sleep as the Slytherin was and now she was too exhausted to do anything, much less acknowledge someone else. "Yea." She nodded, looking to her notebook. Hmmm? "Yours?" Hehe. "You aren't the only Leo here."

Teehee.

Having her notebook in her lap, covering Poof almost, the Slytherin girl leaned back on her hands as she looked up to the sky, not using the telescope mostly because…Josh was. Did he forget his own? Not that it mattered of course, she didn’t mind. He could use hers. Yet she wasn't expecting him to start playing with her hair. She…she didn't mind that either, she supposed.

Not being able to help herself though, the Slytherin glanced over to Josh, only to notice he was writing one of the constellations down. Hmm. Lupus? She maaaaay not have noticed that one in the sky as of yet but, well, if Josh saw it, then she'd see it sooner or later as well. Just had to change the date a little.



Smirking, she peaked at Josh out of the corner of her hazel eyes again before looking back up to the sky. What? Technically, that wasn't cheating. She WOULD spot Lupus sooner or later.

Nika made her way to the observatory. She took big breaths as she climbed up the last stair. Looking around she saw that some other students were already there. Nika had her telescope clutched to her chest. She made sure to put it down right as she entered the room. Nika was aware that she is the clumsiest person ever and decided to help prevent any accidents. She looked through her telescope and searched the sky. "So many stars!" She didn't know where to begin. Nika wasn't sure how to know which constellation was which. She only knew of one and that was the big dipper. "I guess this means I have to do some reading before I come here tomorrow." Nika sighed and put her eye through the telescope again. If only she saw someone she knew then she wouldn't be talking to herself. Nika searched the sky some more and then her eyes fell on it. Lucky for her the one constellation she knew was there, the Big Dipper Nika opened her mouth in awe. She quickly took out her journal and began scribling in it before she lost the constellation.

Nika put her quill down and reread her entry. When she felt she was satisfied she closed the notebook and headed off for her common room.

Of course the Slytherin girl's smile outshone the stars up there. Too bad their job here was staring at the stars instead of each other. If he could take notes about her, there was no doubt he could fill a whole notebook just like she had on her lap. After making sure he had spelled the words as they were supposed to be, Josh looked around for an instant just to make sure they were alone there. He surely did not want anyone else there, especially not someone who had the tendency to spy on them. Well...there were no one but them...hopefully.

When she spoke, the Gryffindor boy looked back at Evelyn with that smirk which usually appeared on his face when someone talked back to him. He were not the only Leo here? Ah of course. Evelyn was a Leo, too. Very interesting. They had the same horoscope sign things but also they were two completely different personalities. What were Astrologists going to say about that hmm? Hehe. ''For that you should have been in MY house'' he said randomly though he knew it had no relation with it at all except both the horoscope sign and house mascot were lions. ''Then at least have this to be a true Leo'' At first he looked for his robe but...he was not wearing it now. Okay, no problem. Putting the pieces of parchment and the textbook on the floor next to himself, the boy took off the Gryffindor t-shirt he was wearing which was dark red with a huge Gryffindor crest on it featuring the lion and wrapped it around the girl's neck. ''Here. It looked very good on you''

Then smiling at her rather warmly again, he was about to use the telescope again to spot another named group of starts when he saw what she had written as her second constellation. ''Cheater!'' he laughed and poked her slightly. Then he could do this:

Hehe, her? A Gryffindor? "I don't think just the Leo sign would have been good enough in putting me in your house." she said truthfully, looking back down at her notes. She didn't know whether that relieved her, or upset her. Gryffindors were brave and chivalrous. Everyone knew that. What with her opinions of her parents still swarming her mind about the whole lot, her own years here have changed them somewhat. To not be good enough to be in Gryffindor was like saying...well...you were a snake. Which she was.

Coming back to reality when she felt something on her shoulders and neck, Evelyn looked to the side to see what it was. White? Clothes...oh. Her gaze juuust...landed on Josh.

Bluuuuush.

"Won't you be cold?" she asked, eyes looking into his own as she took off the shirt from her neck. She had her own Slytherin shirt on but...she could be all Christmas-y what with the green and red color action going on. Christmas was a good time of year too. With the snooooow, and the christmas treeeees, and the...the snooooow....

Kurumi nearly dropped Walnut when she heard a rather exasperated Adam speak to her. "S-S-Sorry!" she squeaked as she adjusted her hold on Walnut, making sure that his little feet were not dangling too much. "I am doing Astronomy homework." She waved her observation parchment in the air. "I've already spotted Mercury and Mars so far. Along with a little part of the constellation Leo and most of Cancer. Cancer is a bit too hard to see without the use of a telescope though." She moved to the side so Adam could see her pretty clean telescope. "I was just about to check and see what changes there were in the night sky," she smiled returning her gaze to the telescope.

Thankfully, Kurumi had foreseen Adam coming and looking for her, and she had a certain red-head to thank for that, so she had already gotten approval from Professor Hadley for Adam to be in the Observatory after hours. Besides, a little bit of Astronomy could do Adam some good.

Looking through the viewer, Kurumi squeaked with what she saw. Not only was Cancer a little more visible now that it had become darker, but two stars above the Beehive Cluster were shining exceptionally brightly. "Oh Adam!" she chirped jumping back. "Two of the brightest stars of Gemini, Pollux and Castor, are beautiful!" She jumped to the side and grabbed Adam's arm. "Come take a look!" She pulled him forward and allowed him to look into the telescope. "That one glowing a bit orange is Pollux and the blue one is Castor. Can you kind of see the image the stars make?"

Moving aside to add to her notes, she waited for Adam to observe the constellation. Maybe she needed to draw a picture on her parchment for him? The images that were made by stars in the sky could be rather abstract at times.

Josh was again checking his spelling on the notes, well writing the word 'constellation' was a tiny bit tricky so he felt the need to check it repeatedly, when Evelyn spoke uttering a sentence that had completely surprised the boy making him all frozen for a moment. What? Not good enough to be put in his house? Looking away from the Astronomy parchment, he gazed at Evelyn with his confused expression. He thought Slytherins disliked his house pretty much. He thought they all regarded the Gryffindor traits stupid and pointless.

''What does that mean, Rose? Not good enough? Each house has its own good traits. We cannot be the same all. Some has some traits and the others has other traits. I think Slytherin traits are good, too. Then i am not determined and cunning and practical and...'' well...what good Slytherins had? He knew his mother's family had many Slytherins but they all hated his family so he had seen nothing good from them. ''...something. Forget houses anyway. I know how great you are and to be honest...'' he stopped took a breath and whispered in her ear ''...there are many people who cannot even be a single hair of you in my house. And not all of them brave as they are said to be at all. I tell you.''

Eh! He supposed that was enough. She had said one single sentence and he had made a huge thing out of it probably getting her all bored with himself. He should make up for that! But how? Maybe...leaning in some more he was about to kiss her neck from which she removed his shirt just when she asked something else. So he backed and eyed her. Cold? ''No. I don't easily be cold.''

Hmmm. It seemed houses were a touchy subject with Josh. Every time they were brought up, he had always...well, she certainly wasn't complaining actually. Hmm, he was right though. Slytherins were good. Awesome even. THE best house, but she wasn't going to say that. Not with him right there. Then again, now that she thought about it, Slytherins were like all the houses put together. Meh, Slytherins were just the best. Obviously. No need to feel jealous of other houses.

Shivering just slightly, his breathe tickling her ear, though she was certain that it could be played off that she was just a little cold at the moment, Evelyn smiled, turning her gaze back to him; not really fully aware of how close he had been. "Well, coming from the master of everything, it must be true."

He didn't get cold easily. "Oh, right. I must have forgotten. You're a little ball of sunshine." Teehee. Putting on the Gryffindor shirt over her Slytherin one, she buttoned one of the middle buttons before leaving it as it was. She did look good in red, didn't she? Though she had no clue how she was going to concentrate on stars now with a shirtless Josh there.

But, back to star gazing.

Hehehe. Yeah The Master of Everything. That was who he was! And she was right. Since he was that master his words were all true. Feeling oh-so-flattered right now, the Gryffindor grinned at the girl contently. He was also glad that she had accepted what he had said and stopped being all down spirits about the houses topic. He did not know if he would like a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw Evelyn like he did the Slytherin one. Well...definitely not the Ravenclaw one.

''Well...yes. It is true. And i think it is the time to master those stars, hun, isn't it? If we get done with it quickly then we can enjoy ourselves.'' Not that he thought doing this homework with her was not enjoyable but doing whatever they wanted here would be much more enjoyable. So picking up his parchment, phoenix red quill and textbook he motioned towards the telescope again but then...stopped.

A little ball of sunshine! Oooo! He did not know when was the last time he had heard Evelyn call him something like that. He was VERY glad and happy that she did, of course. So smiling at her with all those feelings he felt the sudden urge to hug and kiss her yet refrained himself from it. Not yet. ''Thank you'' he replied kindly though before starting to look for another constellation through her telescope.

Hmmm. It looked like there was another one. Was there? He felt like it was another one but he was unable to make sure of it. So, murmuring ''One moment'' to the Slytherin girl, Josh started to search and check it in the textbook. Hmm. Hmmm. Hmmmm. Aha! There! That should have been it!

He was right again, of course. The faster they got this Astronomy homework done, the faster they can...well, NOT be doing homework. And right now, homework sounded like the last thing she wanted to do. "Sounds good to me." she said with a quiet giggle, glancing back up to the stars. Who needs a telescope when you had the wide open sky in full view right there?

Taking a quick peak at the telescope, she shook her head before turning her gaze up to the open sky. Hmm, how can one do homework on a night like this? This should be illegal. Actually, now that she thought of it, this technically wasn't homework but extra credit work. They didn't really have to do this. But extra credit would be nice.

Hearing something move, the Slytherin girl finally blinked and turned her head towards Josh. Hmm, he found one? Taking a quick look at his parchment she smiled and turned to her own, just about to write down what he wrote but...huh. When did THAT get there?

Blinking, she scratched out the words before adding underneath. No one saw that! At least, she hoped not. O_O

"Well the Gemini constellation kinda looks like a question mark, or Italy."He said, as one eye peered through the telescope.

"The way they are shaped, or the stars within the constellation, does it have any meaning behind it?"He asked. Adam felt rather stupid for not knowing anything, because as always mentioned he rarely attended classes, so he was always out of the loop.

"Homework. You're not tired, it's pretty early, don't you think?"

A question mark? Really? Kurumi tilted her head to the side wondering just how Adam was seeing a question mark, but she supposed, after squinting at it from a funny angle, it kind of did resemble one.

"In all honestly, the stars really have no connection with one another besides the fact that they are all balls of burning gas," she said rather flatly. "Humans gave them meaning though. All societies created them. The ancient constellations that populate our sky began in the lands of the middle east thousands of years ago, their origins largely lost to time. They passed through the hands of the ancient Greeks, who overlaid them with their legends and codified them in story and verse. During Roman times they were assigned Latin names." She stopped for a moment to look through the telescope. "Actually, constellations play an important role in modern astronomy, besides painting a picture in the sky, of course. They bring order to the sky by dividing it into smaller segments and provide a base for naming celestial objects."

Kurumi smiled and took a peek back through her telescope. "Some shapes are easier to spot than others. Like this one," she said adjusting the telescope and moving aside for Adam to take a look. "You really have to use your imagination to see the dog." The constellation was just two bright stars after all.

Kurumi knelt down and poured herself another cup of green tea. "I'm not all that tired yet, but Walnut is,"she giggled pointing to the cat that was curled up in a ball on one of the spare blankets she had brought.

"Burning gas...I think I compared that to something else..."Adam said with a small smirk, hoping she hadn't understood what he meant."Leave it to humans to make a story out of nothing...Well, the Big Bang was already a story, but that kinda relates to how stars are made, right? How all the particles of the stars just floated in air, and it made them, something like that right?"He asked.

"I guess I've got no imagination- I can't see no dog."He said, adjusting the telescope every so often but not catching any hint of it.

Kurumi laughed. "It is rather abstract. Here, let me draw a quick picture..." Kurumi returned to her parchment and attempted to draw the night sky with special emphasis on a few stars. She then drew the twins and a small dog by their side. "Here," she smiled handing him the parchment.

He took the paper in his hand and examined it as carefully as a doctor would do so.

"I see the dog and a couple- but when I look to the sky I can't see it at all.Anyways, done with your homework, yet?"He asked, putting the picture in his pocket.