Curse you, girlish hormones.

Dallin noticed. Obviously. Her eyes were blurred with tears, it was kind of hard not to notice that kind of thing. And of course, when he said "don't cry", it just made it worse. A little stream rolled down her cheek. "Idon'tknowI'msorryIdidn'tmeanto," she squeaked out quickly with a small hiccup.

Ellie was being pulled in again. Sniffling, she wiped tears off her cheeks and tried to hold them back. "Iwasjust-" sniffle "thinkingaboutus," sniffle "andhowthiswillbe... ourlasttimehere." Hiccup.

Wiping more tears, Ellie pulled away and finally got the stream of tears to stop. Ugh. That was horrible. Poor Dallin. "Sorry 'bout that," she said quietly with a little sniffle.

This might not be the best time to notice, but Dallin thought Ellie's squeak and rushed voice was really cute. She was still crying, though. And that was bad. So Dallin continued to rub his hand on her back, willing her tears to go away.

When Ellie explained herself, Dallin had the urge to laugh. She was crying because they wouldn't be here again? Well... true. And he could see why she might be sad about that. "But it'll be special," he said in an attempt to get her mind off of the fact that this was their last time here. "You'll remember it forever." Hopefully. That was the goal.

Now Ellie couldn't help but smile. She looked up at Dallin again, her eyes mostly free of tears. "Of course. It's always special." Every year it was. It was an anniversary. A tradition. Of course it would be special.

And Ellie would always remember every moment with Dallin. N'awwww, muuushyyy. :3

Ellie couldn't help but raise her eyebrows just a tad when he said she'd remember it forever. "Oh?" Ellie couldn't help but ask. Did he have something planned? Maybe like, a giant chocolate cake or something. Oh, Ellie liked chocolate. And cake. But... that was kind of random. Maybe he... had something for her? Ugh, she didn't know. And she tried to get her hopes back down. Maybe he was just saying that... because it was their last time here. Of course she would remember it. Right. No presents. No chocolate. Which was all still perfectly fine.

There. She was smiling again. Dallin smiled back, slipping his hands back down to hold Ellie's hands again. He chewed on his lip and nodded, looking at Ellie's eyes. And he was silent for a while. He should just... show her why she would remember this night, right?

As he looked down at their clasped hands, a smile played at Dallin's lips. Okay. She was with him, they were holding hands, he had the ring in his pocket. He couldn't stall anymore. He didn't want to stall anymore. He had to start talking, whether he knew what he was going to say or not.

"I love you, Ellie," he started, squeezing her hands lightly. Then he just let his mouth go, and he was speaking his mind, and his heart. "Two years ago, I discovered that. I loved you before, though. When I met you, I think some part of me knew that I was in love with you. But I found out later that I loved you more than anything else I've ever known... and I still do. Every day I learn something new about you, and it just makes me love you more. I wouldn't think it's possible, but it is."

Lifting his eyes from their hands, Dallin looked down at Ellie's blue eyes. His smile spread into a grin, and he felt a wave of confidence that he hadn't been expecting flood over him. "I never want to stop learning about you. I want to know just how much I can love you." On impulse, he leaned forward to kiss her, just for a second. When he pulled away he was grinning again. "Ellie, I love you. I love you so much I can't even explain it. I want you to know that I will never stop loving you. For the rest of my life. And... I want to know that you will always love me too." He just wanted her to say she loved him too before he did what he planned to do.

Ellie smiled a little more and squeezed Dallin's hands. Which were much bigger than hers. Hm. Random observation. Another observation: he was kind of just staring at her. And not saying anything. Which was okay, actually. Just fine. Corny, but she loved it.

Biting her lip, Ellie watched him look down and followed his gaze to her hands. And then she looked back up. She thought about saying something to break the long silence, but she didn't know what.

Just as the thought began forming, Dallin spoke up finally. And Ellie smiled again. "I love you too," she replied. But as soon as she spoke, he was speaking again. Alright then.

Ellie bit her lip again and listened to Dallin as he talked about their relationship two years ago. Their relationship two years ago was nothing compared to what it is now. It kind of sounded like he was in love at first sight of her. Which Ellie didn't really believe, but they way he put it was so believable. Dallin had a way with words. He could make anyone fall in love with him. Ellie was just lucky he decided to fall for her too.

All his talk about how much he loved her was making her blush. Ellie looked away for a few seconds before looking back at him. Where was all this coming from? They had talked about all this stuff before, but he was giving this speech suddenly.

Oh. Kiss. Ellie grinned and kissed him back until he pulled away again... And kept going on with his speech.

Speech... This was a speech. Wasn't it? Like, a practiced one? Had he practiced this? For... something special? Like... Merlin'sbeard. Was he going to...? PROPOSE?

No. Nooo, no, no. Ellie's heart was beating wildly, but she had to try and calm herself down. Of course he wasn't proposing. Why would he do that? Sure, he loved her, but... But what? Merlin, she didn't know. But what if he wasn't proposing? Ellie didn't want to disappoint herself by getting all worked up just to find out he was just randomly confessing his undying love for her...

Ellie realized Dallin wasn't talking anymore. Oh, crap. What had he just said? She was too busy flailing mentally. He said... I love you. A lot. And he... He wanted to know... that she would always love him too.

"Ilov-" Ellie began with a squeak. Caaaalm dooown... Ellie cleared her throat. "I love you too, Dallin... Morethananything. I always will..."

Now, please. Either get down on one knee and make Ellie happier than anyone alive, or stop talking like this and crush her hopes and dreams make her stop hyperventilating.

That space in between Dallin asking Ellie to say she loved him and her actually saying it had Dallin worried. Did Ellie actually need to think about it?

Oh. Okay. She loved him and always would. He knew that, he just needed... reassurance. So now he was going to... finish this. Suddenly, his heart started beating frantically and he couldn't catch his breath. He looked away from Ellie's eyes again, to her hands, and dropped one of them. As he did so, he lowered himself so that he was kneeling on one knee, looking up at Ellie. "Always," he replied, smiling faintly as he slipped his free hand into his pocket. He grabbed the ring in his hand and held it tightly, resting his hand on his knee. His heart was beating almost painfully hard against his chest, and he couldn't swallow without feeling like he was going to choke. All of his confidence had been replaced with nerves, but he wouldn't chicken out now. He couldn't.

"We've talked about this for a while now, and I've wanted to wait until now. I wanted to make the moment special." Pausing, he looked down at his hand; it was still in a fist, the ring hidden from view. Taking a deep, shaky breath, Dallin met Ellie's eyes again. "I don't want to wait anymore. Ellie..." Slowly, Dallin opened his fist. Holding the ring between his index finger and thumb, he held it up for Ellie to see. "Please tell me that you'll make me the happiest man on Earth... and be my wife."

Astronomy post #1 (September)
 

Sierra Greingoth frowned as she lugged her telescope and bag up the million flights of stars toward the Observatory. She was so frustrated with this assignment that she hadn't thought to charm the baggage to follow behind her. It was only when she reached the very last step that the thought occurred to her, and all she could do by that point was just roll her eyes.

Tossing her bag to her feet, Sierra began to set up her telescope and position it upward. According to the assignment's rules, she just needed to stargaze a minimum of ten times and a maximum of fifteen times. Which meant, of course, she'd be going for the ten. Ha.

When her telescope was good and set up, Sierra peered through it then shifted it toward the left and right. Finally, she found a cluster of stars that looked good to gaze at. Maybe. Maybe not. What did she know. Oh, look at that--Pisces. Her own symbol. She watched it for a bit, documented that she saw it, and then disassembled her telescope.

One down, nine to go.

All of Ellie's attempts to calm herself down and convince herself that Dallin wasn't about to propose were vanishing. Because this seemed like the real deal. And then...

Oh. Merlin's beard.

He was on his knee. Just one of them. ONE KNEE.

His hand was in his pocket and when he pulled it out... she couldn't see anything. But he was on his knee! Guys never did that unless they were proposing, right?!

They had talked about this... 'This' being marriage, right? They had talked about that. A lot. And he wanted to make the moment special. It was special. Right then, it was so special.

Ellie's eyes began to water now. Either Dallin was about to ask her to marry him, or he was about to bring out the biggest chocolate cake in the world. She would have been perfectly okay with both, but the proposal was her first choice. Of course.

And then Dallin held the ring in front of her. Ellie gasped and her free hand flew to her mouth. It was gorgeous! And shiny! And... Huge! The diamond was huge! How did he pay for that?! He must have been saving his money for... Oh. That must have been why he hadn't gotten her a Christmas present. How selfish she had been. Ellie suddenly felt bad.

BUT HE JUST PROPOSED.

Her mind was racing, her heart was pounding, her eyes were flooding, her knees were shaking and Ellie suddenly realized she had stopped breathing. That's what that horrible chest pain was. Suddenly, Ellie gasped for air and panted quickly.

Hyperventilating. She was hyperventilating. She couldn't get enough oxygen to clear her head. She needed to answer Dallin, but she couldn't even speak!

That would have to wait, apparently.

Astronomy post #6 (February)
 

The winter months were slowly dwindling away, yet it was still sort of chilly outside as Sierra stepped into the Observatory. This time, however, she at least remembered to charm her telescope to follow behind her instead of lugging it up the entire flight of stairs. The last time she'd been too annoyed at the assignment to think to do it.

She edged to a side that wasn't too busy and began to set things up. She laid her journal, where she'd been taking notes, off to the side then stepped behind her telescope. Peering through it, she adjusted the zoom so she could clearly see the stars. Perseus was the one she spotted right off the bat, so she made a note of that then adjusted the scope to look to the left and right. After a little while, she decided she'd done enough for the night and packed up and headed down to the dungeons.

Dallin decided to take Ellie's shock as a good sign when she saw the ring. He waited silently for her to do something else beside gasp, but she didn't. His eyes widened in anticipation when she started breathing all funny. He wanted to say something to get her to stop, but he couldn't. Why hadn't she answered him yet? What was she doing?

Standing up, Dallin squeezed Ellie's hand tighter. He was still staring wide-eyed down at her, willing her to say something. 'Yes' would be the best option... but anything would be better than this silence.

"Ellie!" He finally got out, his breath coming out in a rush. "Ellie, I asked if you'll marry me." Just in case she didn't get it the first time. This was... kind of an important question. And he didn't appreciate being left hanging on it.

Breeeeaaaaathe, Ellie!

Well, she was breathing. Just, a little too much, too quickly. Trying to slow her breathing, Ellie noticed Dallin standing now, but her eyes were still glued on the ring in his hand. Merlin's beard, it was gorgeous!

Ellie jumped a little when Dallin said her name rather quickly. Right. Now would be the time to respond. Actually, thirty seconds ago was probably ideal, but it was a little too late for that.

"It's not a cake!" Ellie squealed and held onto the ring.

Wait... That wasn't what she meant to say. Rewind. Deep breath.

"YES! Yes, yes! A million times yes!" Ellie finally agreed to marry Dallin and cheeks were wet with tears. And she was grinning like an idiot. Ellie flung her left hand forward and waved it in between them. In case Dallin didn't notice, Ellie wanted the ring on.

It's... not... a cake.

...What?

"Well, no." Dallin frowned slightly. Had Ellie been expecting a cake? If so, the ring might've been quite the surprise for her.

OH. She said yes! Dallin's frown instantly vanished to be replaced with a grin. A full-blown, happier-than-he'd-ever-been grin. He hadn't been joking about being the happiest man on Earth. "Thanks," he breathed. Then he realized that she was waving her hand at him, and he remembered that he was still holding the ring. So he took her left hand in his and very slowly slid the ring onto Ellie's left ring finger. His hands were shaking, and he hoped Ellie wouldn't notice.

Once the ring was in place, Dallin took a moment to admire it. It was a nice ring, if he did say so himself. And apparently Ellie liked it. That was the most important thing. Well, besides the fact that it was a physical reminder that she was now his fiance.

"Thanks," he whispered again, looking up at Ellie's eyes.

Heh. How about they just forget about the cake exclamation? That was probably a weird thing to hear after proposing to someone. Ellie would explain later if Dallin asked.

Heart still pounding, Ellie wiped the tears of joy from her cheeks and nodded quickly, a grin still plastered on her face. She would say 'you're welcome', but it probably would have come out like an insane-sounding blubber. So she just kept quiet. When Ellie looked up at him, he was grinning wider than she had ever seen him grin.

And, aww, his hands were shaking. Ellie looked down at them. And it was then that she realized that hers were too. She laughed quietly and watched as he slid the ring onto her finger. "It's beautiful," she whispered, still grinning. She just couldn't stop.

Why was he thanking her? Pff. He didn't need to thank her. Ellie looked up at his blue eyes and shook her head. Instead of replying with words, she just stood on her tippy-toes and planted a kiss on his lips. Except it was mostly his bottom lip because she was really short. But it was the thought that counts, right?

Dallin hadn't even realized that Ellie was crying. She was grinning too, though, so he just brushed a finger under one of her eyes to wipe away her tears. He rested his hand behind her neck, brushing her hair away from her face just as she leaned up to kiss him. He kissed her back, pulling away after a second with his grin back on his face.

"I love you," he told her quietly. He took her hands in his, lifting her left up to his lips so that he could kiss the ring and the back of her hand. They were engaged. They were really engaged. She loved the ring, she was wearing it, and by this time in two days they would be out of school for good, on their own. Starting a life together. And no matter how cheesy that sounded even in Dallin's own brain, it was the truth. And he couldn't wait.

It seemed physically impossible for Ellie to quit smiling. But could you really blame her? She just got engaged to Dallin McKinley, the love of her life. As corny as that sounded. "I love you too," Ellie replied just as quietly. Her tears were done now, but the cheek that Dallin didn't dry off was still wet. Oh well. They were tears of complete, utter happiness.

"We're getting married," she said with a small laugh. Not that it was funny, it was just... Wow. It was about time! They had been talking about it for a while. And sure, they were only eighteen years old, but... if anyone knew all the things they had gone through together, they would understand. They were ready for this.

Mystery Telescope Post #10
 

August listened to Gideon talk about his apparently regular trips up to the Astronomy Tower and then raised his head from the telescope to process this bit of information. "That makes sense. It is pretty nice up here." Back to star-gazing.

Star....star....MOON...star...'

Auggie wasn't sure if it was just because this time there wasn't a comet shooting across the sky or if he was starting to lose his touch for the subject. The boy was beginning to question if he was going to even finish the assignment when Gideon spoke again, breaking the silence of the late evening. "What?" The fourth year looked at the spot in the sky the boy had gestured to and then turned his own telescope to face the constellation. "Awesome."

He quickly began to sketch the lion in the sky on his parchment.

RP Challange Post 10
 

Gideon simply nodded in agreement. That it was. He was about to explain himself when Auggie questioned what he was saying but the fourth year had already turned his telescope and seemed to have figured it out. "Aye...it is," he replied with a nod in agreement as he went to work on his own mappings. Stargazing never seemed to be a bother for him or grow boring...even after having been exposed to it for so long. Just as he finished the lion constellation, his gaze brushed to the right without the aide of the telescope.

Wait...a line of three stars...ORION.

Funny, usually that was the more noticable to him, at least to the bare eye. Yet he had found Leo first. He shifted the line of the telescope ever so gently to the right and leaned down to see if he could catch it there as well. It took a few tries and fine adjustments but soon the full constellation was within his sights once more. Picking up his pencil again, Gideon began adding the hunter into the mix. The boy switching between telescope and simply looking up as he worked.

Mystery Telescope Post #11
 

It was quite up here even though there were two of them star-gazing but it was still nice.

After the fourth year had finished his sketch of the Leo constellation he turned his telescope to face the moon again. He had just passed over it before but he decided to take a closer look. He focussed his scope on one of the craters and just stared. It was such a different place, they had been there and everything but still so strange. What on earth could be up there? Was there any magic things on the moon? Could they go to the moon with magic?

That was definately something he needed to ask Professor Roslund.

RP Challenge Post 11
 

Finishing up the second drawing, Gideon pulled out his book that he had brought with him. He figured it best to double check the names of the individual stars, adding them for outline for better reference. That done to his satisfactory, he looked back up at the clear night sky above, inwardly sighing at the dark clouds that seemed to threaten off in the distance. Looking away, he settled his gaze on the more pleasing picture of the stars and such, appearing quite content.

"What are ye looking at?" he questioned quietly and curiously, breaking the silence that had developed in the tower. Gideon glanced over at his companion and it was his turn to try and follow, picking up the moon in the other boy's line of view but he couldn't be certain that was all.

It was just something special about roaming the 7th floor at night and going up to the Observatory to be close to the great heaven above and its inhabitants. Edvard had taken a break from his essay marking and lesson planning and headed over to see if the observatory had any visitors.

Stepping into the circular room he gazed around spotting a couple that was exchanging a ring and saying 'I love you.' Oh, perfect, I cincerely hope the two are not first years. He passed Gideon and August on his way over and just briefly nooded to them both.

Stalking over to the two claws Professor Roslund hovered in front of them asking sternly "What is going on here Ms Johanson and Mr McKinley?" Eyeing the ring on the claw girl's finger he mumbled halfly to himself and halfy to the youngsters. "I hope they aren't first years."

"We're getting married," Dallin agreed, sounding half-relieved and half-shocked. Yes, marriage had been the whole point in proposing. But Dallin was still somewhat surprised that she had said yes and this was actually going to happen. They were getting married! At some point in time.

"When -" Dallin started to say, but stopped short when he saw someone walking toward them. And not just any someone. Professor Roslund. Dallin's eyes widened and he pressed his lips together just as the professor reached them and asked them what was going on.

"P-Professor!" Dallin stuttered, dropping Ellie's hands as if they were on fire. He started to open his mouth to explain that he had just proposed to Ellie and they were getting married, but stopped himself. Somehow, he had a feeling that Roslund wouldn't exactly be congratulatory. But he caught the professors next words, and was distracted anyway.

First years? Dallin glanced at Ellie, frowning. Did they look like first years? "We're eighteen," he said, turning his gaze back to Roslund. Not that it was any of his business... but oh well. "And we, uh... Yeah. Seventh years. Eighteen." Adults. Leaving Hogwarts soon. They knew what they were getting into with this whole proposal thing, and they weren't rushing into it, if that's what the professor was concerned about.

Even though Ellie knew it, Dallin saying 'we're getting married' made her flail even more inside her head. And then the big 'when' question came up. Or... started. Ellie looked up to see why Dallin had stopped talking.

Oh dear.

Suddenly Ellie's hands were Dallin-less and her eyes were as wide as the moon as she watched Professor Roslund march over to them. "Heeeey, Professor..." Ellie pursed her lips and took a teeny step back away from Dallin. It wasn't like they were having a snog fest or anything. But they certainly weren't stargazing either.

Ellie wanted to make a remark back to Roslund and tell him that they would soon both be McKinley's, but she assumed he probably didn't want to hear it.

Wait, first years? Ellie raised her eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak... But Dallin cut her off. He seemed rather nervous too. Pff. Let Ellie handle this, dear. As soon as Dallin was done talking, Ellie put a grin on her face and rose her left hand so Professor Roslund could see the ring.

"Look at that, isn't it beautiful?! And with just the right light reflection, it twinkles just like a star in the Milky Way!" He should appreciate that. Because he was the Astronomy teacher. Astronomy teachers liked stars, right? Ellie wiggled her fingers in front of the professor so he could see the ring 'twinkle'.

"See?" Twinkle. Twinkle twinkle.

Gatecrasher coming through!! xD
 

Astronomy post #7 (March)
 

March was a good month for Sierra. It was the month she'd turn fifteen--fifteen! Dear Merlin! When did she suddenly get among the older students in the school, hmm? On that note, she absentmindedly stood a little taller and walked with a more confident stride in her step.

She soon found herself back in the Observatory, needing to do another of those sightings for Astronomy. Blah. Was she behind on this? She didn't know, but she was just ready to get it done. Done, done, done.

So she quickly set up her telescope then moved behind it, journal and quill already nearby to take a few notes. It took her a bit of time, but she finally located a cluster that looked a little familiar. Virgo, that's what it was. She pulled away from the telescope and made note of the sighting. After looking bit longer, she packed everything up then headed out.

He could hear his camera did a faint click-whizzing sound, which means the timer has reached its end and has returned back into default mode. With a wave of his wand the camera produced a photograph of the moon, which looked different from the first one-- this captured the moon's ascent in the sky. He smiled, happy with the long-exposure results using the magical camera


He turned his attention back to his fellow Ravenclaw. She was kinda of doing homework? Maybe he shouldnt assume that everybody who comes up here had scholastic pursuits in mind. He was vaguely aware of the more amorous effects of this place.

"Its nice to meet you Gwen, I'm Vickers." he replied shaking her hand, he wasnt much of a big smiler either, but to ease that they just very nearly avoided an accident he placed a bit more effort to that grin.