After having stopped by the kitchen for some hot chocolate as Kurumi had promised Beezus earlier in the day, Kurumi made her way up to the 6th floor when she realized that she had gone a little too far and had found herself standing outside the portrait if the Fat Lady. This mistake ended up being a happy one as Kurumi had forgotten her noctural in the dorms and now had time to go back and fetch it. NOW with everything she needed tucked safely in her bag, Kurumi walked through the empty 6th floor corridor looking for Beezus. Good planning on the Ravenclaw's part. Now they could do their homework without a giant crowd of people like there would have been in the observatory.

"Beezus!" Kurumi called, waving to the younger girl as she shuffled along, setting her things down below the giant window they were going to use to look out of. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. The sun has just set a little bit ago, so the stars should be nice and visible now." In fact, when Kurumi had made her unexpected side trip to Gryffindor Tower it had been a little after 5. Only one small problem potentially stood in the pair's way. There were some very VERY ominous looking dark clouds in the distance.

Kurumi opened up her bag and removed the borrowed nocturnal from it and then looked out the window. "So...I think the first thing we need to do is pick a focal star...one that is the brightest and easiest for us to see," Kurumi said as she balanced her Astronomy textbook on her thigh with one hand while trying to fuss with her nocturnal in the other hand. "Giving that it is December...I think that should be Polaris..." Kurumi continued to flip through the pages of her book, double and triple checking. Beezus was more than welcome to try and find that star right now should she so desire though.

Hmmm... "It relies on the motion of the stars caused by the Earth's daily rotation. If the stars can be seen, their apparent position act as the hands of a clock and thereby provide a navigator with the time of night." Beezus reread what she had tackled earlier on about the nocturnal instrument. As far as she had understood, she figured the first thing to do in order to determine the time using the nocturnal was to locate a reference star first and through the hole in the central pivot of the said instrument. What she was confused about was the succeeding steps to do after that.

Just as she was about to flip the page her eyes were currently focused on, someone called her. The Prefect had arrived, with a small thermos. She slipped a bookmarker on the page she had stopped reading and placed it at the bench beside her as she stood up. "Good evening Kurumi." she gave her a small smile. "Nope. I arrived just a few minutes before you." Beezus then pivoted around and looked outside the window when Kurumi said that stars should be quite visible at that time. "You're right. But there seem to be thick clouds too." So..a storm was to be expected? Hopefully not. That would make their test difficult.

Granted that Kurumi took out her nocturnal instrument, Beezus also took out hers and later listened to her saying what they needed to do first. "Yes, polaris.." Beezus pulled herself and climbed up to the highest block below the window and as she was able to sit there, she tried locating the said star without the use of the nocturnal first. "So that's Pherkab..and Kochab.." she muttered as she pointed with her index finger the stars. Tracing the constellation it made, she exclaimed, "And there's Polaris! Much like the tail of the Little Dipper Constellation." Then she faced the Prefect. "Am I right?"

Oh good, she hadn't made Beezus wait too long. Although, that sort of response was a typical one that people often gave to be polite when they really had been waiting a long time. Deciding she had read all that she could from her textbook for now, Kurumi closed it and glanced out the window. Yeah...it was starting to get a bit more overcast now...they were going to have to hurry if they wanted to be able to attempt any sort of time reading. "For once...I wish it didn't look like it was going to snow," she laughed nervously, eyeing the moving clouds again.

Kurumi leaned over Beezus for a moment to follow her line of sight. "Yep, that would be it," she chirped. Time to set this heavy textbook down, which she did, and then placed all her focus on her borrowed nocturnal and adjusted the appropriate tooth...stick...thing of the inner disk with the current date on the outer disk...that was how you did things, right? Now...to hold it in a vertical position away from you with the handle down...

Kurumi glanced up again and...Oh Merlin those clouds were moving faster now...

Yes, she did so too! A storm or a blizzard of whatever it may be, if they don't hurry up with determining what time it was then they won't have a chance for the clouds and the weather that night doesn't seem to be on their side. "Let's just get a move on," she told Kurumi. The faster they test the instrument, the faster they would determine the time and that would mean that maybe..just maybe--but hopefully, the clouds won't be a hindrance in their success for their test that night.

That was it? Beezus glanced back at the star she pointed out. That sure was Polaris, alright. Kurumi agreed with her so that was a safe try. When the Prefect took hold of her nocturnal,the young Ravenclaw jumped off from the block and trotted towards her backpack, opened it and grabbed her own borrowed nocturnal. Then she returned to where Kurumi was and reinstated herself in her previous position at the top of the block. Then she started following what she was doing. She rotated the inner disk so that the mark for the chosen reference star points to the current date on the outer disc.

And holding it high, she looked for Polaris through the center of the said instrument and rotated the pointer arm to point at Polaris, which was their reference star. After doing so, she observed the intersection of the pointer arm and the hour markings on the inner disk of the device. It said 6:25. Beezus frowned a bit. "Kurumi, what's your reading?"

Kurumi nodded in agreement. Yep, they needed to get a move on before these clouds covered the sky entirely...which from the look of things wasn't going to be too much longer. Kurumi made a few more adjustments on her nocturnal Kurumi held it up, peering through the rivet at the center of the instrument until she had Polaris in her sights. Now...to just adjust a few things and...

FUDGESTICKS!

Kurumi sheepishly looked over her shoulder at Beezus. "I'm...not sure..." Kurumi said, pointing to the night sky that was now covered in a not-so-thin layer of cloud coverage. Maybe if they waited a few minutes the clouds would move out of the way and she could try again. In the meantime...perhaps some hot chocolate?

Gaaaah, she wasn't sure about her reading. That was why she was still waiting for the Prefect's own. Why didn't anyone blessed her with the ability to make absolute conclusions? She always had doubts and uncertainties.

As Kurumi started talking, she turned to her. Hopeful that the Prefect had determined the time so that they could have a longer time for leisure. But then..Beezus blinked. Did she just say she was not sure? Without any follow up understatement? She quickly followed her hand which pointed to the sky. "Oh! Great..the clouds sure aren't on our side," she commented. Really, she hadn't noticed the clouds move for she was too preoccupied with adjusting her own nocturnal. Pffffft. Now what could they do? Beezus placed the instrument on her lap and faced Kurumi, "We'll just have to wait, right?" She just prayed they won't have to wait that long.

Sighing, Kurumi leaned against the wall and slowly edged her way down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. "Hopefully things will clear up," Kurumi nodded as she reached for her thermos and unscrewed the lid. "Maybe...just wait no more than 30 minutes to see if it has cleared up. If not...well, then you can't blame us for trying."

Kurumi poured the two of them a cup of hot chocolate each and then reached into her robes for her pocket watch. Blowing on it gently, Kurumi took a small sip as she flipped the cover off and glanced at the time. "What did you get for your time reading?" she asked. "My pocket watch says that it is 5:45 right now." Kurumi looked down at her nocturnal and idly fiddled with some of the lever...things...she was going to have to reset some of the parts anyway, so there was no real harm in playing with it while they waited.

"Okay," Beezus replied when Kurumi said they'd wait for around thirty minutes more. She then left the nocturnal she borrowed on the block she was sitting on a while ago as she jumped off of it. She walked to where Kurumi was and squatted on the floor opposite the Prefect when she opened the thermos that she brought with her. A cloud of smoke emerged from it, though it was the good smoke type.

O_____O She stared at the cup for a second. It was chocolate right? She hesitated for a moment, but remembering she had taken the Antillergen potion earlier that day, her nerves eased a bit. She pulled the cup to her side. "Thanks. By the way, how long would the Antillergen potion work?" Because well..she just needed to make sure. Beezus shifted as Kurumi asked her what her reading was. Pfffft. That was embarrassing to say it now that she knew what the actual time was. Nipping her lower lip, she answered, "Errmm..6:25.." Then she made a sour face. "Gaaaahh..I know, I know..it was so far off!"

Kurumi noted Beezus' hesitation when the prefect offered her the cup of hot chocolate. OH! That's right! The Ravenclaw was allergic to chocolate. Way to go Hollingberry, but then Beezus mentioned the potion from class and put the lioness at ease. "Oh, um, I haven't taken a proper dosage just yet, but the small sample I took during the lesson worked." So, that was good, right?

Kurumi smiled when Beezus told her the time she had gotten and shook her head. "Neither one of us are experts on how to use this device, so I wouldn't panic about it." Kurumi had been a full hour off earlier in the day because she had held the device upside down. Kurumi glanced back up at the window again and saw...STARS!

Jumping to her feet, Kurumi nearly dropped her nocturnal out the window as she attempted to put the device up to her eye. Woah there, breathe! Calming down a bit, Kurumi was able to spot Polaris and made the proper adjustments...just a little more tweeking and... "GOT IT! I think..." she said, lowering the device and checking the time. "Or...not," she laughed, showing Beezus the time reading she had. "I seriously doubt we were sitting on the ground for two hours just now." Kurumi looked out the window again and...more clouds. Didn't look like they were going to get much more done tonight in terms of working with the nocturnal or stargazing.

EEEEEEPPP! So was that a good thing or a bad thing? But oh..the smell of the hot chocolate was just tempting that it would be a waste of time resisting. She just needed to trust both Kurumi and her intuition. With a small nod to the Prefect, she took the cup and sipped from it. N'awwww..was that the taste of heaven? It sure was sweet! "Mhhhmmm..this is good," Beezus chirped.

"I knooooww.. We really lack--" but before she could even finish talking, the Prefect had already dashed back to the large window with her borrowed nocturnal at the ready--Beezus too stood up immediately, still carrying the cup, she darted towards Kurumi when she exclaimed that she got it! Or not..Beezus peeked at the nocturnal as she showed it to her. Yeah, that was way far off...

Then the clouds moved again. It certainly made her shoulders lay back in disappointment. Those clouds were such villains to their movie. She started chuckling too. "Well..all we can do is wait." she said as she walked over to the part they were seated a while ago. She took a sip of the hot chocolate, "Doing tasks during night sure is harder."

Sighing and with a small hint of laughter, Kurumi slouched against the wall again. "I don't think those clouds are going to clear up tonight," she said, shaking her head and making some notes on her Astronomy parchment. Professor Roslund couldn't get mad at them for not being able to do the assignment because the weather prevented them from doing it, right? It wasn't the same as saying that the kneazle ate their homework. Instead,

Kurumi sipped some more on her hot chocolate and peeked up at the window again, noticing that the clouds were even thicker now than they had been a few minutes earlier. She then returned her quill and parchment into her bag and finished off the rest of her cup.

"Great Hall for some dinner?"

Beezus looked up the dark sky through the window when Kurumi said that those clouds wouldn't seem to move away now. Which meant they won't be able to do their homework after all. "I think so too. You think Professor Roslund would consider our case?" She asked. Because really, it wasn't their fault, it was just because of the not-so-good for stargazing or time-reading weather that they have.

Just as she had also finished her hot chocolate, the Prefect suggested they go to the Great Hall for dinner. "Are you kidding? I just ate dinner a like an hour ago." she mumbled, propping her things and borrowed devices back inside her backpack. She ate ahead the other students since she had the idea they'd be consuming much time for that task. "You haven't eaten yet?"

Kurumi sighed and looked down at her parchment for a moment. "Well...the assignment was to practice reading the time using the two instruments and we DID do that. You even managed a reading which I checked with my own pocket watch, so we did do the assignment. Just...couldn't get the desired results." She scribbled down a few more notes on her parchment before folding it up and tucking it away in her textbook for safe keeping.

"Oh...um...no," she laughed. "I usually eat dinner around 6:30 or even 7." Old habit from growing up. Kurumi was never hungry until at least 6 and even then she was usually busy with something like studying so she distracted herself until around 7 when she finally dragged herself to the Great Hall to eat.

Well..if she put it that way then yes, maybe he'd really consider it. "I'd say you're right. But I've been saying that phrase for like the hundredth time today. Still, what you said was right." she laughed. The Prefect was just always right.

She really haven't taken dinner yet! Beezus bet she was just studying that's why. Merlin, this girl was just too studious. "I can accompany you to the Great Hall while you take your dinner," or she could possibly eat again. Hehe. That won't be so bad right?

Oh, good news he did get. Maybe they weren't strong but weak, but still, it was enough to hope that he could one day stroll around in his animagus form, one of the hardest aspects of magic. Still, it would be his success and it was worth singing his favourite song.

"So, see you around?" He even wanted to see him around. Huh. So much for people accusing of being rude.

"Yeah, I'll see you around," Adam said with a lighthearted little smirk. And with that Adam headed down the corridor, rounding the corner and turning out of sight.

Kurumi giggled. "Professor Roslund is more understanding than SOME of our other professors," Kurumi nodded. Just who she was referring to, well, that would forever remain a mystery. "Besides, if we were perfect with our attempts, there would be no need to be in class." Beezus really didn't need to respond to that though. Time to switch subjects.

"That is very kind of you," Kurumi smiled. "But I am sure you have more important things than to watch me eat my dinner." Besides, Kurumi was pretty sure that Selina would still be in the Great Hall, most likely gnawing on a chicken leg. Kurumi packed up her things and slung her bag over her shoulder before taking one more glance out the window. Bloody clouds.

Ella headed down the corridor on the sixth floor, holding her last vase which was probably her favorite. She loved the polka dot pattern and the flowers looked lovely in her opinion. She figured this floor was as good as any to place the flowers, especially since it was the floor that the transfiguration classroom was located on. She placed the vase down gently on an empty window sill, admiring her work. She made a mental note to come back and water these when she could. Maybe they would bring a smile to someone as they walked by them. She felt the corners of her own lips tug upwards in a smirk at that thought.