Daichi blinked again in confusion as Louisa told him about a chapeau. A word he had NEVER heard before and he wondered if the girl was using such BIG words in purpose. But he also didn't want to been seen as stupid so he smiled and nodded his head as though he knew what she was talking about, while in reality he had no clue.

His cheeks flashed fire again when he heard she found the bow charming. No one had ever said that to him and he felt quiet flattered. He wanted to be charming when he grew up! And he strong man who was super cool! So this step was in the good direction right?

Okay, so it wasn't really helping either when she said *arrow* instead of Gnomon because he knew what Arrow meant. He let out a soft giggle but bit his lip to not laugh again. "Just look at the shadow?" he asked as he scratched his head. Maybe it was better if he checked her out first ...AND NOT LIKE THAT!

The Slytherin left his own sundial and shuffled a bit closer towards her as he tried to look over her shoulder. But he was a little too short even though he had grown over the summer and was looking at her astronomy robes so he stepped to the side and could now see how she was reading the shadow.

But OF COURSE she didn't tell the time..ugh. Daichi turned back to his own sundial and peered at the arrow or Gnomon trying to read the time. The shadow was faint thanks to the weather and the Slytherin had a hard time reading it. "Uhm...it's....wait...i don't know ..five?"

This was so confusing O__o

Selina finally took her head away from the telescope and looked at Gideon properly adjusting her eyes to the earth once more. Her fingers brushed a wisp of red hair out of the way of her eyes and she crossed her legs to face him dead on. She reached behind him to grab his bag with the maps that he had brought with him for the study session. Then she went to work searching the charts for the really pretty swirly thing she saw in the sky next to the big dipper. Finally she found it and turned the chart around to show Gideon what she had seen. She had no idea what it was or what it did but it was really pretty.

"That," she said poking the chart with her forefinger, "I saw that, but I have no idea what THAT is. You have any idea Professor?" Selina shot him a smirk when she called him Professor. However, the title did sort of suit him- Professor Gideon Gavin Gert. Although, Selina had no idea what he would even teach: astronomy or potions? Or would he just go into Quidditch like a lot of Gryffindors in the past had done? He was good enough to play Professionally, although she would never tell him that.

Selina turned away from the telescope and Gideon's attention was back on her as she moved to completely face him head on. He raised an eyebrow curiously, watching as she went all business, reaching behind him for his bag and digging around what he had brought to work with. All he could do was watch and wait until she found what she apparently was looking for, his eyes returning to a chart when the 4th year pointed out what she indeed had seen.

Professor Gert...
It was an interesting thing to be addressed to him and he shook it off.

"Ah....that," Gideon replied giving it a good look to work on identifying what it was since he didn't know it by name or even familiar with it. The form looked like another distant galaxy amongst the other stars but he couldn't be sure without a look himself. So he moved to look through the viewfinder once more, glancing with one eye between it and the chart trying to focus on what Selina had shown him. And finally he spotted it....the spiral galaxy present beside Ursa Major. "Wow...aye thats another galaxy," he answered grabbing his textbook to find a way to explain it to her incase she wasn't familiar with the term.

"A....star system...made up of billions of stars attracted to each other through gravity," he added after finding the definition of it in their textbook. Gideon turning the book slightly so Selina could see it.

Sophie decided to go up to the Observatory to do the night part of her Astronomy homework. It didn't seem 100% safe to be on her own in Hogwarts grounds... well, at least she didn't feel like going out there alone at night. You know... it was pretty dark.

She sat on the floor and pulled the nocturnal out of her bag. After her improvised attempt to tell time using the sundial, Sophie thought it was best to read a little about the nocturnal instead of trying to figure it out all by herself. She had been able to tell time with the sundial because she could tell time by looking at the direction of her shadow, but she wouldn't be able to do that with the stars.

Before reading anything about the object, she decided to observe it and see what could move around and what each disc and... thing could do. It seemed she needed her finger to see; she touched everything and turned the discs and the pointer arm around. She had to admit the whole thing looked really cool!

Hmm... the letters indicated the months of the year! Sophie smiled at the observation. And... plenty of numbers. Where they to indicate the date or the time? Or both?? Gee, this was getting a bit more complicated than the sundial...

Selina looked at Gideon as he started to search through the mass of textbooks that he had brought. Apparently whatever she had seen was an important thing. All she saw from what she had seen was a swirly mass of beauty. Like a Vangogh painting... Almost exactly like Starry Night. No wonder why Gideon was all into this type of work. Astronomy, if she could stay awake for it, was amazing. The universe was massive and he had only directed her to one segment of the universe.

Finally he seemed to find what he was looking for and he pointed out to her exactly what she had seen. ANOTHER UNIVERSE? How was it that another universe could even be possible. Selina swore that there was only one universe.... The one that she was currently living in. Could it be then that there was another girl in the universe she was looking at also looking back at Selina? Impossible.... Maybe not.

She grew wide eyed at Gideon, "So wait... There's more than just one universe? How can that be? I mean... No your joking. I don't believe you. Are yiu serious?"

It was morning, and Silvia had just finished her breakfast. She wanted to try out the sundial one more time before returning it to Professor Roslund. Setting her things down in the same place she had yesterday, she pulled out the small sundial. The sun was far to the east, having only just risen not too long ago. Silvia placed the instrument down in front of her so that the arrow was pointing northward and glanced at where the shadow landed. It was about halfway between the roman numerals VIII and IX. That meant that it was about eight thirty, right? Silvia marked this down in her notebook and then searched her bag for her watch to check her work. Yep, it was eight thirty three according to the watch. Using a sundial wasn’t hard at all; but then, astronomy was one of her favorite subjects. She would definitely have to get her own sundial and nocturnal if she could save up enough money, even if only to display them and not rely on them for the time, because they looked really cool. She grabbed her things and headed off to return both instruments.

After looking at every little part of the nocturnal, Sophie placed the object on the floor by her bag. She pulled out a book and opened it on the page she had seen that had stuff about nocturnals. She started reading it, with a hand on the nocturnal as if it could escape if she left it alone.

Oh! She would have to spot Polaris once again, it seemed! She smiled at the thought. That was the very first star she spotted with Tayla back in October and she still knew how to do it! Yay! For what she was reading, it seemed easy to tell time with the nocturnal once you got used to it, but Sophie was definitely not used to it yet and wasn't sure if she would be able to do that right this time.

Sophie reread the 'usage' part and started trying working. First, she had to turn the smaller disc so that the pointer would indicate the current date and the star she would spot besides Polaris, apparently. She was glad she knew how to spot Little Dipper as well.

Sophie made a mental note to remember to thank Tayla for teaching her how to find those stars before she stared at the nocturnal and turned the disc around to put it in its right position. There! It was now ready for her to look through and check the time! Hopefully…

Gideon let out a laugh as her eyes widdened at what he was saying to her. "Aye...there are more universes. I'm not joking Selina," he answered finding himself quite amused by Selina's response to the prospect of more then one out there. There was plenty he could joke about for astronomy, but seeing as he had books about the subject, he would have kept them a secret if he wasn't being serious. Published works were kinda hard to fake in this context at least with his horrible skills.

"Think of it this way. For each star or group of stars there could be another solar system. And several hundred and thousand solar systems make up a galaxy or universe." Gideon was working on explaining it and hoping his information was totally correct or at least not that far off. He didn't have a photographic memory after all, he did still have to work hard to remember stuff and on top of the other subjects they were made to learn as well.

Next year...next year he could pick and chose.

Sophie got up and looked at the sky, searching for Polaris. It didn't take long for her to find the brightest star and, obviously, Little Dipper. She smiled and held the nocturnal above her head, in a way she could see Polaris through its hole. Turning the pointer arm around, she moved it until it was pointing in the direction of Kochab, the other star of Little Dipper.

Lowering the nocturnal, Sophie checked in the book to see if she had done it right before looking to the time the object was now showing. She hoped she had pointed the arm thing in the direction of the right star.
Yep, it seemed she did it all right! She finally stared at the nocturnal to see what time it was marking. 10:30pm. Hmm...

Sophie put her things away quickly and ran back to Hufflepuff's Common Room, to check if the time she had seen in the nocturnal was right.

Sierra stomped her foot against the last step then finally stepped foot onto the seventh floor of the castle. See, this was reason number six billion why she was glad she wasn't a Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. She'd hate to have to climb a mountain of stairs each time she needed to come and go. She was perfectly fine with the dungeons, thank you very much.

Once she made her way into the observatory, she took out the first instrument she needed to test00the sundial. The sun was out in full force right now, so she took the opportunity to trudge up the millions of staircases and decided to finish up on last minute homework. It was due soon anyway.

Sierra positioned herself and the sundial in an area of good sunlight. Hmm. Now how did this thing work again? Where was a Ravenclaw when you needed one?

Julien was standing in the observatory, just mindlessly peering out down onto the grounds. He was fully aware that there was Astronomy work to be done...but he was lazy. Plus, he could always use a little quiet time.

Stomp.

Or not.

With a smile of clear amusement on his face, he watched a female enter and take out an instrument. Just wasn't any female girl, though, it was the one he had mistaken for his sister at the feast. Well now, how awkward was this?

"You got a bit of a heavy foot, huh," Julien piped up, strolling over to where she was set up. "You're doing the astronomy work, hm? I never took you to be one of the studious types," he then grinned.

Sierra had just peered closely at the sundial, trying to get it to work, when she heard a voice behind her. "No. I was running from a herd of stampeding elephants," she sarcastically, frowning at him. Honestly. He was a Claw, wasn't he? What was he going to do now--try and get smart about the fact that she was stomping onto his territory? She looked down at the sundial then, turning it this way and that then finally getting it into the place she needed it to be at. She stared the arrow part in the middle.

"No, really, I think someone geminio'ed the stairs. I think I just climbed six billion," she said. Then slowly, a shadow started creeping across the bar which would tell her the time, so Sierra quietened and focused on it for a minute. "I'm not," she finally answered. "What I am, though, is the winning type, and this little assignment can bring in up to ten house points." Not that he'd need to be working for more house points, though. His house was currently in first. "Besides, my stepmother works here, and it's not easy skipping out on assignments with a parent in the castle."

Her reply made him chuckle. Quite the quick witted one this Slytherin was. Very cool.

"Yeah...it sure can feel like six billion. I would much rather sleep down on the grass of the grounds than climb those stairs every day. Being a Ravenclaw is so hard..." Julien sighed, folded his arms and leaned against the wall, but stayed out of her spotlight.

They were having a civil conversation, he didn't want to ruin that.

Winning. Yeah, winning was cool. "I don't care much for winning...or much of anything for that matter." He shrugged and grinned, "Going to sleep and waking up the next morning is good enough of an accomplishment for me."

Her next comment made Julien raise an eyebrow. Whoa. She had a parent in this place? What a BUMMER. "I'm surprised you're still here. Frankly, if I had a parent in this place, I would have abandoned ship ages ago...Which professor is it? I'll make sure to sneak little comments to them to get you in trouble from time to time." Smirk.

Sierra stayed still and quiet as the shadow continue to creep across the sundial. Pretty soon, the arrow had cast a shadow across the bar, indicating that the time of day was 4:00. "It's 4:00," she said aloud, looking up into the sky.

Sierra looked up to the boy with a shrug. "I can see where it'd be hard," she said. "I mean, it must be difficult not being in the best house here." House points were only one indication of greatness. Slytherin had the full picture. Ravenclaws were spotty in their wins. She still didn't believe the Claws were the true winners of Saturday's Quidditch match either.

She narrowed her eyes at the boy. His greatest accomplishment was going to sleep and waking up? "What a flobberworm," she said, making a face. Her narrowed even further when she went on about how uncool he thought it was to have a parent in the castle. "Well, I happen to think highly of my stepmother," she said, even though Lafay was technically her soon-to-be stepmother. "I actually really get along with her--Professor Lafay, I mean."

Julien chuckled as she made a comment about his house. "Yes, well, at least they don't hide us away in a dark, dingy dungeon." He liked talking to this girl. They'd have to accidentally run into each other more often.

"Ah yes, yes, I'm sure you do," he sighed, getting off the wall. "And I would LOVE to hear all about that...but I must be going." Julien smiled and gave her a little pat on the head. "Keep up the good work, my dear." With that, he exited the Observatory.

He was HUNGRY.

Sierra's brown eyes flickered toward the Claw. Had he even said his name yet? ... Had she? Eh. Introductions were for Puffers. "I happen to like the dungeons," she said. "The darker and dingier, the less likely you are to be bothered." In her opinion, the founders should have stuck the Puffers in the towers with the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. Then the Slytherins wouldn't have to worry about any of them.

"My...dear?" she asked. She hated names like that. He was leaving, though, which didn't phase her one way or the other really. "Me, too." Meaning, she had to get going, too. She gathered all her materials then headed out, as well.

-----

Hours later, when it was good and dark out, Sierra headed back up to the Observatory. This time, though, she was lugging a nocturnal instrument instead of a sundial. Now this was the instrument she really didn't understand, but...she'd just figure something out.

She moved back into nearly the same place she'd been at earlier, when she'd been testing the sundial. She plopped the nocturnal instrument down then just stared at it. So what was she supposed to do now?

Julien was bored, but he was in no mood to go to bed early. He had made a last minute decision to head back up to the observatory. Surely, a beautiful night sky would rest his mind.

As he reached the top stair, he pushed open the door and entered the observatory. He paused and stared incredulously as the Slytherin was still there. Had she even left? Merlin, this one really did want to win...

"We really have to stop meeting like this," he chuckled, walking over to a window. "Have you even left? Had something to eat?" It was very important to make sure to have 3 square meals a day!

All these meetings and he didn't even know her name. "So, do I get to learn your name? I figure that if we're going to keep running into each other, it might be good if I know your name. If I don't, I may just resort to calling you 'Slythie Girl'" Ew, that was just a silly name.

Sierra looked up from the nocturnal instrument. Yes, they really did have to stop meeting up. If she was forced to be any friendlier, she'd start having nightmares of actually being a Puffer. "Of course I've left," she answered. "Who do I look like? Kurumi Hollingeberry?" She'd left right after he did, actually.

"How do you get this thing to work?" she mumbled to herself. She glared at the nocturnal instrument. She was supposed to do...something...with the alignment of the stars. She looked through it at different angles, but nothing really happened. She wasn't going to ask Flobberworm for help either. She looked to the skies and located the North Star, but...nothing. "I think this one's broken..."

Err.

"I don't think it's very fair to ask me if you look like Kurumi Hollingberry. I've never met one." He paused to mull over the name for a second and then shrugged. "They sound interesting, though."

So much for getting to know her name.

Noticing that she seemed to be having some difficulties with her machine, he approached her slowly and peered down at it. "It's not broken," he spoke up. "You need to align it with the North Star."

Leave it to this boy to start calling whether or not he thought something seemed fair or not. "I wasn't serious," she said. "Besides, be happy you've never met Kurumi Hollingberry. She's the most annoying person on the planet." Even more annoying than a Puffer, and that was bad. Or, at least, in Sierra's opinion...

Oh, great. Now he was helping her, and he was likely correct in what he was saying, too. She started to snap at him about that, but then she realized her good fortune. A Claw, who likely wasn't doing his homework (since he was, you know, a flobberworm), was helping her do her's. Ah, the irony. "Right," she said, in an 'I knew that' kind of tone. She let her eyes flicker to him again, and then she started aligning the instrument with the North Star. So what now, Einstein?

Having not much luck at the vegetable patch earlier that evening, Vickers climbed the Astronomy tower to work on the Nocturnal device again. He neared one of the windows and looked out at the star-filled darkness. The moon was high up in the sky now and the Ravenclaw can see the North Star and the rest of the constellations very clearly.

Gently he brought out the nocturnal and held it up in front of him, centering the North star in the sight hole. He turned the nocturnal so that it would orient properly against the Kochab star of the Big dipper constellation, then squiiiiinted to get a reading on the time arm-- it lined up against one of the grooves that would say it was around 11:30 at night.

Noting it down on his parchment, he picked up the device, planning to drop both devices off when he passes by the Astronomer's office on his way back to his common room.

Tayla recognized the Ravenclaw boy she had seen earlier in the term, during Herbology class. He was leaving the observatory when she entered.

"I wonder who he is..." Tayla thought. She hadn't seen him before this year.

She shook her head and decided to get on with her Astronomy assignment. She took out the nocturnal and her Astronomy book to review how to use it.

"Decide on the reference star - the most visible in the night sky," Tayla read. She looked up at the sky and decided on a star part of the Little Dipper. According to her book, it was called Kochab. She followed the next instructions, aligning the appropriate tooth of the inner disk with the current date on the outer disk, and holding the nocturnal in a vertical position away with the handle down.

She looked for the North Star, Polaris through the nocturnal. It was a good thing she and Sophie had found Polaris a few days ago, so she didn't find it hard.

That done, Tayla rotated the pointer until it pointed towards Kochab. "The time is...almost 12 midnight."

She smiled, quite pleased with herself. She returned the nocturnal in her bag and was glad she had practiced using it earlier at the Gryffindor dormitory. She decided she wanted to keep it for the night. She'd return the instruments to Professor Roslund tomorrow.

Selina looked curiously at Gideon when he answered her statement. It was not that she did not believe that what he said was fact, it was just sort of hard to believe. The whole concept sent her mind into overdrive and she could legitimately not think straight at the moment. Did that mean, if what he said was true, which she dis believe was most likely the case, that there were other universes where other life could exist? The whole idea was just crazy. That was where he had lost her... Her mind going into over drive.

She tried to piece together what he was saying before she responded, "Okay I'm going to go with you on that. It sounds logical enough... But what if, well, you know what nevermind.". When she finally gathered her thoughts she asked, "So universe has millions of galaxies, got it. Now what about a solar system. What makes up a solar system per say. I know stars and stuff... But is that it?". It couldn't be.

Whatever the time was, Daichi was sure that the shadow said 5. He opened up his notebook and scribbled down his answer as he rechecked his sundial. Yup, 5. The look on his face showed pride as he grinned to himself for knowing the time with a weird device like this.

He looked over at Louisa and wondered what time she had wrote, but first he needed to check if he was right. So he grabbed his watch and as he clicked the sealed lid open his mouth dropped.

He had been totally ri--WRONG! apparently it was around 3:15 or 3:30...how on earth did he get a 5?

Daichi frowned as he checked his watch for any signs of malfunctions but it seemed to be working fine. He then looked back at his sundial and still saw it was on the five. Maye he was just blind or something?

Atleast he had tried and the Slytherin grabbed his things from the table. "I'm finished!" he said, pretending he had had the right answer and smiled at the Ravenclaw. "Thanks for helping me but i promised a friend to meet him downstairs so..i gotta go.. thanks again!" He bowed one last time before he walked away and made a quick stop at the Professor's office to place his things down and headed down the stairs.

Alyssa decided that for her last attempt in searching for the stars in the Mystery Telescope Challenge the Professor had assigned everyone for their term end paper, that she would complete it at the place where she first started out the assignment. It was amazing how fast time had flown by. Soon the term would be ending and she would be leaving for home. Alyssa felt both happy and sad at the same time. She quickly pushed those thoughts away as she concentrated on the task at hand.

Tonight was May 25th. Acording to her Star Reference Guide, tonight would be the best time to look for the Constellation Virgo. She quickly took out her telescope from its case and unfolded it, standing it next to the nearest open window. Then she walked over to the star maps that the Professor had lying on a nearby table and looked through them until she found the one she wanted. Taking note of the coordinates, and what the formation of the stars for that Constellation looked like, Alyssa quickly walked back to her telescope, kneeled down on the floor and started adjusting the focus on her telescope's lenses.

Wanting a clearer and more focussed view, Alyssa took out her wand and tapped it on the telescope, saying,"Lens Focalis". Holstering her wand, she peered through the viewfinder again and was glad that the spell had indeed worked. This was definitely one spell that the Professor had taught them that had been very useful for her this term. Alyssa gazed through the telescope pointing it up into the skies above slowly moving back and forth, up and down, checking the formation of each cluster of stars before she found the one that she wanted. Just to verify that she had found what she was looking for, Alyssa walked back to where the Star Maps were and studied the formation of stars for the Constellation Virgo. Memorizing the positions, she quickly returned to her telescope and peered through the viewfinder again.

She studied the cluster of stars that she had found and punched the air with glee because she had indeed found the Constellation Virgo. Alyssa admired the way the cluster of stars glowed in the night sky before quickly noting down its coordinates in her Journal.




After months of star gazing, Alyssa was feeling kind of sad that she had completed her assignment. She had enjoyed looking for the stars and made it a point to spend more time in the observatory next term. Keeping her journal and quill back into her backpack, Alyssa packed up her telescope, gently folding it up and placing it into its case. Placing the case in her bag, she slung it over her shoulder and with one last glance up at the starlit skies and then around the observatory, Alyssa left the Observatory.