SPOILER!!: August and Selina

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Originally Posted by DanialRadFAN01

They needed to talk about Pluto. Well Auggie had plenty to talk about.

He was ready to rant but first he needed to hold his tongue and find someone to discuss with. Looking around the fourth year saw that many people already had partners so he would have to be social and ask if others were in the same situation as he was.

Hmm...Kurumi was with Selina...and Gideon was now joining them. The girls had been conversing for a while so maybe they were already done. "Hey Gideon, do you want to come work with me?" he asked with a smile. You know they could have a guys chat about Pluto, whatever that meant.

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Originally Posted by fanficfanatict

SPOILER!!: Kurumi, Auggie and Gideon

Selina looked curiously as Kurumi tried to break down her rationale on Selina's question to the best of her ability. It seemed that Kurumi was floundering which must have meant that Selina asked a good question. There was a part of her that was sort of proud that she had stumped Kurumi. But in all honesty, the whole thing seemed kind of pointless to Selina. Why did they have to define something a certain way to exclude Pluto. Who was the person who decided the limitations pressed upon the poor little dwarf planet? And why did they have the right to subject their views on an entire population?

However, if Kurumi was making any headway with Selina's question she destroyed it when she brought up Quidditch. The blonde shook her head and said, "If anyone on my team ever asked that question, I'd kick them off the team. Besides none of my players ask that question. So your point is mute. Quidditch is on a very different level than the debate about Pluto. Quidditch is life or death."

Then Gideon stepped in and tried to assist Kurumi in the whole joke of her posed question. It was not funny! Quidditch was no laughing matter! Thankfully for Gideon, Auggie had called his teammate and friend over to help him. Selina was starting to wonder if everyone had gone to the dogs, poking fun at QUIDDITCH!

Gideon met Selina's gaze as she acknowledged his presence trying to read her reaction to his words. Kurumi's had certainly set her off if the captain's response was anything to go by, clearly in defense of the game that was her obsession. He simply smiled to show he was meerly teasing, not wanting to get on the transfigured blonde's bad side. He was the good boy in that defense. But before he could say anything more, August stepped in asking for his help as a partner.

"Um sure...," he answered looking to him, seeing as the other boy apparently needed a partner still and they couldn't do groups of four. Guess he'd leave Selina to Kurumi to deal with especially since they had already begun their own talking over the subject. "Guess we'll leave ye m'lady...Kurumi," the 5th year replied turning briefly back to them before heading a few feet away to work with his fellow teammate.

"So...what is yer opinion?" Gideon asked opening up the line of questioning to begin the discussion.

Kurumi sighed. That wasn't the point...and Gideon's comment took the analogy even further off course. "That...wasn't what I was going for..." Kurumi said, shaking her head. When August arrived, Kurumi smiled at him and bowed her head as Gideon took his leave and she wrinkled her nose at his m'lady comment...gross before turning her attention back to Selina, Kurumi set her arm on the table and entwined her fingers. "Your point is invalid because you still wanted me to play despite calling it a Waffle." So...could they drop the whole that would never happen bit? Please?

"What I meant was, just because it is a ball, that doesn't mean it has what it takes to be a bludger. While I still think it is unfair that Pluto got removed from planet status, you can't just assume that because there is a largeish celestial object in the sky that it is a planet." She paused for a moment. "Size doesn't matter, but the behavior does. Dwarf planets' orbits tend to be much more elliptical and more inclined, which is the case for Pluto. The only real case that can be made against it is, well, this definition is really only applicable to our solar system."

As he waited for Gideon to come over to where August was sitting, the fourth year waved cheerfully across the room to Kurumi and Selina. The boys would be working over here, ladies!

When Gideon came over to where they were going to be working, he asked Auggie what his opinion was on the Pluto debate. "Well, I am all for Pluto being classified as a planet. I think that just because we changed out mind now, Pluto has been a planet for so many years and who are we to change that? What 'hard-hitting' evidence did we find that makes it absolutely necessary to change it's status?"

Auggie had a solar system model back home and he was definately not going to be ripping the little blue ball off that represented Pluto. "How do you feel about it?"

Nerida saw a group of two and walked over and asked Mind if I work with you? She hoped they said yes, she had looked around everyone already had a partner with 2 or 3 people... She had some reasons why Pluto should be a planet and why it shouldnt be a planet. She recognized Laura from her Care of Magical Creatures Class, she was silenced by the Professor...

When a girl came up and asked if she could join them, Amelia nodded. Of course. The more the merrier in her mind. "I'm Amelia," she said in introduction. She had a feeling that this girl might know Laura, because really she was hard to miss after what happened in Care of Magical Creatures earlier.

Laura looked at Amelia and smiled. "No there are no such thing, your either a Planet or your not." Laura said truthfully. "What If I decided to say you were half a human would you like it?" Laura wasn't sure if anyone would like that. "Or what if I said that earth was half a planet?" Seriously Laura didn't think there was any such thing as a dwarf planet. "If you were a planet and you could feel just think how you would feel after being classed as a planet all that time and then being told you weren't." To Laura Pluto was always going to be a planet and nothing the Professor or anyone could say would change that.

Laura was about to continue when someone came upto them. "Of course I don't." Laura always liked making friends and this girl seemed friendly. "I'm Laura Hope Hyde, but you can call me Laura." Laura smiled, she'd wait for Amelia and this new girl to say something before continuing.

It wasn't such a bad thing not to answer a question right? Because that was just what Beezus did, she did not answered the question given by Professor Roslund earlier on. Why? Well, first she was feeling lazy and second, almost all of her classmates gave the same answer which also appeared to be the correct one. So, there was really no need to repeat such right?

To make up for it, she was going to do the activity. "Hi..Anybody need someone to debate with?" the eaglette asked.

Elise looked around nervously. What if she couldn't find a partner? Cause everyone seemed to be paired up already and... wait, was Beezus alone? Bouncing over to her fellow eaglette, she tapped her on the shoulder.

"Me," she grinned. "Unless you have someone else..." she muttered, squinting to see if anyone Daichi was there.

Oh, and there's Elise! "Hi.." Beezus greeted as she edged to her right side and gestured the girl to sit beside her. "Oh, no, no. I don't have anyone else. I mean, you were the first who offered." she said and gave the girl a small smile. Now, it was time to get to work, yes?

"So uhhhmm..Pluto," yeap, that small but interesting dwarf planet in our galaxy. "What do you think about it?" Beezus asked. With a thought in her mind, saying it would be great if they both had different opinions. That way, a debate would creep in naturally.

Selina retorted back to Kurumi, "Your point is invalid because you aren't on the team. The circumstance you gave me was people on the team. You are not on the team, therefore, my point is valid because no one on the team would ask that question. Ergo Pluto was recategorized for no apparent reason.'. Logic always made sense when Quidditch was involved. She wondered if she told her professor this reasoning that he would agree with her brilliance.

But Kurumi continued to the and prove her point. Obviously she was not thrilled with Selina's reasoning. However, Kurumi was still missing her question. Selina was not proposing that the definition was faulty in nature. Instead she was saying that it was not fair that Pluto was renamed because definitions were relative. Who decided that definitions needed to be changed. What did it really affect in the long run? "Rumi... I get all of that. What I'm asking is a bigger question. Who gives a person the right to define and limit things by definition?"

And apparently Selina didn't think that conversation was over. Kurumi was done with it though, so she didn't even comment. Not to mention Selina was being a hypocrite, really. Why did people set limitations on celestial bodies and debunk some from being a planet? Why couldn't a baseball be a bludger? Hmm? Why but limitations and define one ball as one thing over the other? Hmm? Same argument in Kurumi's eyes. Giving a definition to something was doing the same thing no matter what it was, limiting them. Not everything was a kneazle...or a flesh eating plant...or a charm. Categorizing things made sense of life for human understanding.

So...if Selina was against that, then, well, there was no sense in being in school then, was there? That was why they were here, to learn what definitions there were for essentially everything. Selina remembered that they were in Astronomy and not Philosophy, didn't she?

Kurumi just shrugged and continued to write on her parchment. They were getting off topic and the argument about whether or not Pluto should be a planet shouldn't be one based on emotions, which is where it was going.

Amelia blinked now. "But there are dwarf planets and what about Centaurs or instance? They don't like being described as humans period." As far as she knew they didn't at least. And they were half man, half horse. "Besides planets don't have feelings." This girl was being silly, and Amelia couldn't tell if it was on purpose or not. Nevertheless she was amused, and giggled a little.

She turned to the newest member of their group. "What do you think of all this?" she asked curiously.

As he settled into place, Gideon listened to what his fellow lion had to say. It seemed August appeared to be thinking along the lines he himself had....why change something when its been one way for so long. "Aye...I have to agree there," he answered, showing his agreement to the mutual thought before adding to it.

"If they needed guidelines for the future discovery of celestrial objects, they could have simply and easily based them off what the nine original planets shared together." Certainly made sense to him seeing as they had all be discovered over time and by different people. Who was to say that one astronomer was wrong because he had labeled Pluto as a planet in the first place. "You didn't see them changing the rules so that Jupiter would be omitted because it was too large or Saturn because it had rings or Uranus because its axis is different from the rest."

Poor Pluto being the odd man---dwarf planet out.

Ella nodded, thinking that was probably a good idea. "Thanks Alyssa, I think that would be helpful." She said, smiling at the older badger. "You know, I think that perhaps the scientists were just bored or something. I mean honestly, why did they suddenly have to reevaluate things now?" She asked, eyebrows raised. It really did puzzle her.

"Beats me. I think that they just needed something to discuss at their meeting and someone suggested hey why don't we talk about the planets and how there's just too many of them. I mean 9!! Maybe we should have even number or something. All I know is that poor Pluto just happened to be the one right out there at the end, the furthest away from the Sun and they decided to pick on it. I mean it was first spotted back in the 1930's. Why didn't they decide back then not to call it a planet? Why did they wait almost 76 years later to decide that it wasn't?. Yep those IAU scientists in Prague must have been bored."Alyssa nodded.

Nerida listened to both points on the subject, yeap Centaurs dont like being called humans, she learned that the hard way...She said Nice to meet you Laura, I'm Nerida Eventide.
Nerida thought for a moment and said Well, to be a planet you have to have cleared the "neighborhood" around its own orbit and has to be a satellite, and Pluto I think hasnt cleared its "neighborhood" area and its not a satellite.Also its orbit crosses with another planets, Neptunes, I believe. Plus it doesnt seem to have anything in common with many of the planets, shape and some other similarites thats it...

Tayla looked left and right and found she was nearest two Ravenclaws. She had a feeling they had just begun and hoped they'd let her join them.

"Hi Beezus," she greeted the Ravenclaw she already knew. The other girl looked familiar but Tayla couldn't remember her name. "And uh...Elise, right?" She thought that was what Beezus had called the other girl. "I'm Tayla. Mind if I join you?"

Tayla heard Beezus ask about Pluto and offered an answer. "I think it's right that Pluto isn't considered a planet. It's the only one of the original nine to have an orbit that crosses another planet's orbit...and it's really small. But...I guess a dwarf planet is still a planet. Right?"

She didn't know if the two would agree with her last statement.

'Agreed,' nodded Daisy, getting probably a bit too annoyed over the Pluto dispute. If she had the choice, she would go tell all the scientists they were being ridiculous, confusing everyone. 'Isn't it something to do with size. Or maybe they just were in a bad mood and wanted to wind everyone up,' she winked, giggling.

From the moment he ordered them into groups the student’s moved around to find a partner. Some just leaned over to talk to their desk mate and some went a little further away. As the discussions ensued on all fronts Professor Roslund went around and eavesdropped on the conversation. There seemed to be some consensus that Pluto shouldn’t be degraded to a dwarf planet. Selina of Gryffindor even went so far as to drag in Quidditch into the equation to prove her point.

Striding back up front Edvard sat down on the edge of his desk. Clapping his hands to get everyone’s attention he said "The time is up let’s hear from each group what you’ve decided on or rather discussed." Shifting his gaze to the only two boys in the room he said encouragingly "Gideon and August what do you think two think, should Pluto be classified as a planet or dwarf planet?"

Turning to the black board a list of the groups to speak magically appeared in while chalk.

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1. August & Gideon
2. Laura, Amelia & Nerida
3. Ella, Alyssa & Daisy
4. Beatrice, Elise & Tayla
5. Kurumi & Selina

Pointing to the black board he continued "Just state briefly when it’s your groups turn if Pluto should be considered a full planet or not. After that we are going to discuss the mythology behind planets."


OCC: One person from each group summarizes briefly what you’ve come up with in the order above. Then I can move on tomorrow night.

August turned in his chair to look at the professor as he stood again at the front of the class and began writing on the board. And then he was slightly caught off guard when he was asked to speak, well either him or Gideon.

Taking the initiative, August cleared his throat and then stood from his chair. "Well Professor, Gideon and I both agree that Pluto should have never been downgraded from planet status. I brought up the point that because it had been classified as one for so long there was no reason to change it and Gideon said that they should have come up with a classification system that was based on common factors of each of the nine planets."

That was basically it. So he didn't know what to do now. Auggie was standing in the classroom holding a blank sheet of parchment to make it look like he had notes but he obviously didn't. "Um, that's all." He sat back down, nodded to Gideon, and waited for someone else to talk.

Amelia was just about to respond to that clever bit of input when she was interrupted by the Professor.

Ooh! It was time for them to share what they had so far.

Amelia decided to volunteer for the group, and when August was done speaking, she took her turn and stood up. "Well, Laura believes that dwarf planets don't exist and that it hurts Pluto's feelings not to be considered a planet." She cleared her throat before deciding to go on now. "I'm sorta on the fence," she admitted. "I believe that Pluto doesn't fit the guidelines of being a planet as are established... but I also feel that if it was considered a planet for so long, it doesn't make sense to just change it. But things are as they are, and Pluto's not considered a planet anymore." She shrugged. Wasn't likely that anything would happen to change things, and it didn't meet all the guidelines. "And Nerida doesn't think that it meets the guidelines of being a planet and doesn't share common elements that the other planets share." She cleared her throat again before adding, "And that's what we have really."

With a smile she sat back down in her chair.

Elise beamed, and looked down at the seat. Oh, okay... Beezus wanted her to sit. Of course. Silly Elise. "Thanks," she grinned. Flipping her braid to rest on her left before sitting down next to Beezus.

Right, Pluto.

She'd barely sat down when she heard another person standing there. A Gryffindor she'd seen around lately, but never got around to talking to. "Err... Hi, Tayla," she smiled. "Yeah, I'm Elise." Not that many people knew that anyway, so she wasn't offended.

So back to the Pluto discussion. Tayla was... becoming a human textbook, so Elise just smiled a little. "Agreed," she beamed. "Demoting Pluto's kinda unneessary."

"Whoops," she muttered under her breath. Their time was up. Now, who'd go up to talk?

After hearing Amelia go, Ella knew it was her groups turn to present. She cleared her throat nervously and then began to talk, trying to remember all the points that her group had discussed. "Well Professor, first off we definitely don't think it's fair that Pluto isn't considered a part of the group of planets anymore. I mean, size shouldn't matter, especially when Pluto has been part of that group for so long. If anything, scientists should base the definition around the group of planets as they were with Pluto included. Plus, now they have to change like everything...you know books and maps and charts. I think Pluto should get a retrial...and well, that's what our group discussed." With that, she glanced at her group members to make sure she covered everything and gave the Professor a nervous smile, indicating she had finished.

Alyysa nodded in approval. Ella had done a very good job putting across what they had discussed as a group. She had done it clearly and concisely. She patted Ella on the shoulder when she came back to join them.

Selina had struck a nerve. That was... AWESOME! Merlin, if she could get this reaction from every teacher in the school Selina would NEVER need to go to class. She was brilliant. From now on when teacher's asked her a question she would just reply with the theory of relativity and how it does not technically work. Oh Merlin, she felt brilliant. She felt more than brilliant.

She wanted a cookie...

Kurumi always had cookies on her. So Selina poked Kurumi in the side and said, "If I promise to take the conversation seriously, will you give me a cookie?" Positive reinforcement.