Ezra snapped his protective goggles in place, and ignored that this time around, his lab coat was a little too small on him. He could deal with it, he'd dealt with worse; he'd a flexible, adaptable boy who made the most out of every situation. Sort of. Sometimes. Well, it'd definitely been known to happen. He really was adaptable and flexible, though - to an extent.

He leaned forward. "My star looks dead, November." It was an exaggeration, but it was certainly very opaque. Ezra was ready to blame the people with the terrible voices that would never, ever get to listen to themselves sing in WWW. He was ready to blame them because they'd been singing when he'd left his nameless celestial body behind, and they'd probably sung until his star had cried for mercy, to please stop, you are making sure I don't exist in acceptable fashion that will allow my fat--master to obtain an A. Except stars can't cry for mercy because they have no mouths, and no voice, he presumed and--

The boy was pretty sure he was getting carried away, so he stopped thinking for a moment. He stopped thinking, or rather began to think clearly and realized he could blame the terrible people with terrible voices no more than he could blame the sun for having turned him lobster-red over the summer when he went to the beach with his family. Because, really, both were his fault.

A small sigh left him, and Ezra moved close enough that his eyeballs were nearly kissing the jar. He needed a closer look. And the closer look told him that not only was it opaque, but that there was a distinct shade of light blue to it, too. He eyed the notes, carefully, and deduced that it was opaque because it needed was hydrogen, and that it was a little blue because it was too hot.

Carver could understand that. It wasn't like the Jefferson Arnold was getting a lot of air, inside that jar. "Your name is Jefferson Arnold because it's distinguished and because you may stop existing soon, and if you stop existing soon, at least you'll go out in a bang. Or at least with a distinguished name." It sounded fair enough to him. Mentioning that he'd just come up with the name didn't sound very fair to him, so he didn't. "I'm going to try to fix you." He made sure to put an emphasis in try because there was no guarantee it'd work, and Ezra thought it cruel to lie to a thing that may be about to go through their species' equivalent of dying.

He pointed his wand at it, "Crescere Hydrogenenii."

.... was it... working? So far it was just a couple of... powders. Sitting in a jar. Probably contemplating the meaning of life. But no star. That wasn't good. Could he do it again? Was it maybe just.... a slow day for stars? After another moment he decided yeah, he'd do it again.

"Fingere Elementi!" JABBITYJAB. Compress, powders! Become your star potential! This time, 'sho nuff, a star was BORN. He even got to watch it happen, powders > gasses > star. It was epic to say the least. On a scale from one to Quidditch, it was a healthy seven.

He sat back and had a looksee at the baby star, and the notes he'd hastily copied down on a bit of scrap parchment about the spells and colours and states of the star. So far his star was healthy. Which was... well, it was sort of a disappointment. He kind of like the idea of his star being on the brink of death, and then he, a star surgeon, healing it up all good and whatnot. Secretly though. He wasn't gonna say any rubbish like that out loud. He still hadn't thought of a name for it either, which... well that was becoming a PATTERN. Lack of naming skills. He had a nameless lizard and a nameless guitar, so this star was already way down on the list.

Still his star didn't seem to mind. It was just sitting there, in its jar, twinkling away without a care in the universe.

... who knew stars could be so boring? West's enthusiasm was decaying. Abruptly he got up, put the lid tightly on his jar, and then took his star over to store with the others, safely out of the way and not at risk of being knocked over inadvertently or something. Meh. He'd come back after Quidditch practice or something. Maybe it'd start to die in the meantime and then he could play hero. That'd be funner.

He grabbed his stuff and left.

November would be a liar if she suggested she did not watch the behavior of her friends as they deal with their stars. They were inanimate - not animals or creatures with lives and feelings - and yet there was a fondness to their manners. It made her smile a rather silly smile to herself, and pat the top of Cosmo's jar.

Glancing over at Ezra's star, November's forehead creased with a frown. "Your star isn't dead," she assured him. "Dead would be black." She intended to peer closer at his jar, but refrained; maybe Ezra would rather take care of that on his own. She had her own star to look after, anyway! "That's quite a classy name," she added after Ezra proclaimed the name, offering him a smile.

"It's a shame Professor won't let us take you out of the lab," November said to her jar as she looked over her notes again. "We could take better care of you. Moderate your temperature and gasses far better."

But was Cosmo suffering a gas or temperature ailment?

"Better try warming you up a bit," she said to the star, wishing that it might be able to respond. Blink once if this is correct, blink twice if this is going to further ruin you. "Dextrini Potitus!" A quick flick downward did nothing. She tried again, and then again, just in case the star had been running a fever, but now the poor star was a horrid shade of purple - and heat did not creep but flooded November's face, starting at the back of her neck. "I'm so sorry!" she cried out at the jar, clapping her hands to face, and then quickly trying to undo the spell. "Dextrini Potitus!" Flick, flick, flick, she flicked back upwards, to at least go back to the normal shade of blue it'd been before.

"Well," she added in a miserable tone to Cosmo. "It certainly wasn't your temperature!"

Holding the jar between her hands, Edita took a look around the lab. There was an older student nearby working on his own star. She grew distracted by his antics for a few seconds before bringing her attention back to her own table. Ezra was naming his star Jefferson Anderson and Edita tilted her head, peering down at his jar with some scrutiny. It didn't sound like a bang! at all but she let it slide on the account that his star was dying and mocking his star naming skills would be insult to injury; after all, he didn't seem to have good star-raising skills either.

"You do that!" she said, trying to be encouraging and thumped roughly on Ezra's back. "You fix that Jefferson Star. Yeah!" Yeah! Poor thing.

Edita ignored November as she got a little clingy over her star. She was so going to be like her mother, shadowing her children's every step, making sure they weren't eating things out of the sandbox and trying to arrange play dates with the neighbors.

She took a peek at November's notes and frowned, later looking from the notes to the jar and back to the notes before sighing. "I guess this means you're too hot. I don't see what's the problem with that," she mumbled under her breath as she shoved her hand inside her robes, past the lab coat, to get her wand. "You'll just be the hottest star in the galaxy."

Still, she jabbed towards the jar and flicked her wrist downwards: "Dextrini Potitus!" She sighed again as the color began to change from a less intense blue to a softer one. "Not quite there, huh? Should I try again? I don't want it to get too cold. That's just a hassle."

Edita repeated her movements and the incantation. "That's more like it," she remarked, her star glowing mostly white with a tinge of red. "I mean...what color is this bloody thing supposed to be anyways?" she asked starting to get irritated. "Now it's losing hydrogen or something," she mumbled flicking her wand at it. "I don't want to take remedials."

Laaaapin was waiting for her, Elise realized after she'd actually started towards the common room after dinner. Thanking her lucky starts - see what she did there? - that the common room was on the same floor as the Astronomy tower, Elise made a quick detour towards the laboratory. The ASTROPHYSICS laboratory, mind you.

Because this was Physics regarding Astronomy. Not Astrology, because that was TOTALLY different. Astronomy was way more reliable and way more fun.

Wearing her usual oversized lab coat and weird-looking goggles, Elise made her way over to the shelf, took Lapin off it and set her on the table. Lapin was looking rather red and was she SUPPOSED TO LOOK THAT WAY? Blinking a few times, Elise pulled out her journal to try figure out what was wrong.

Scanning through, she figured that it was probably because it had too much helium in it. "Cumugasalis," she muttered, flicking her wand twice as her journal said she should. Noticing the star begin to turn a slight orange, Elise repeated the incantation and the movement until the star looked perfectly yellow and RADIANT.

Anyway, stars like to be sung at, right? So picking the first song that came to mind, Elise sang softly, obviously ignoring the fact that there was someone next to her who probably wasn't hard of hearing.

"All along it was a fever
A cold with high-headed believers
I threw my hands in the air I said show me something
He said, if you dare come a little closer

Round and around and around and around we go
Ohhh now tell me now tell me now tell me now you know

Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay..."

Letting the last note trail off, Elise stared at the star for a moment more before deciding to continue the song.

"It's not much of a life you're living
It's not just something you take, it's given
Round and around and around and around we go
Ohhh now tell me now tell me now tell me now you know

Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay

Ohhh the reason I hold on
Ohhh cause I need this hole gone
Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving
Cause when you never see the lights it's hard to know which one of us is caving

Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay, stay
I want you to stay, ohhh..."

Done with her song, Elise stepped back a little and looked intently at her star as if trying to find some reaction in the brightly glowing ball of gas inside the jar. It seemed to almost pulse happily, but maybe that was just her...

Time to make her star! But before that, Kat had to make sure her jar was clean and free from all those germs that might contaminate her precious star. She took her wand out from her pocket. Spell work I guess. "Scourgify!" she cast on her jar. It looked squeaky clean. However, the cleaning charm or spell didn't suffice for her standards. She wanted it to be clean. As in, really clean. Though you could never avoid germs (Muggles, seriously) she wanted it to look at least physically clean. "Tergeo!" she cast the spell on her jar. It sufficed for her now, and it was all fine. She was going to make her star now. Yay.

She took a tablespoon of powdered helium and dumped it inside the jar. Then another tablespoon of that hydrogen thingy was dumped in there too. Great, so she can make her star now? Woohoo! Readying her wand, Kat was already SEEING her star in her head. Ooooh it would be good. "Fingere Elementi!" she said with a jab on her wand. The Slytherin watched as the powders compressed and stuff. It was entertaining to her actually. Once it was done, she saw... her STAR! She made her own star, hah! Kat did some finger!pompoms like that former Ravenclaw did... Vivi as they called her. Mhm. Whatevs.

Kat was about to sing a song to her star when she heard the person beside her sing. HEY, that was her part. Looking to her side, she noticed it was her best friend 5ever, Elise. Oops.

SMILE. "Nice voice." It was a proud bestie moment, yes.

Elise was hardly done singing when a voice beside her said something. She hadn't heven noticedh that someone was there. Jolted, Elise dropped her wand onto the table and it rolled onto the floor with a loud clatter. Blushing, she turned to face that one familiar voice.

KAT! Beaming at the Slytherin, Elise mock-curtsied. "Glad you liked it," she said, before bending to pick up the wand. Because there was no doing anything without the wand, there wasn't. Elise was no Muggle, she couldn't SURVIVE without magic.

"Are you going to sing to your star?" she asked, beaming. Well, was she?

"I've never heard you sing prior to now, honestly," Kat admitted. She was late about that kind of stuff, and to think it was Elise. Her best friend, she's never heard her best friend sing before now. Disgrace. It was a relief to her that she had heard her sing now, and you've got to admit Elise had a beautiful voice. Christopher Stylinson, you lucky boy. "You're always welcome." Eh, no curtseys. They weren't visiting the royalty here. To Chris though, Elise was the princess. To Kat, she was her best friend and princess? Nope, she was her best friend rabbit. The only rabbit Kat liked, just saying.

She was going to sing to her star too. Obviously. "I was until you made your solo," Kat said. Probably Kat couldn't match up to Elise's voice but she tries. She'll try too though. So, maybe she could start now...? SIGHS.

"Cos nothing can ever,
Ever replace you.
Nothing can make me feel like you do, yeah.
You know there's no one
I can relate to.
And know we won't find a love that's so true...

There's nothing like us,
There's nothing like you and me,
Together through the storm.
There's nothing like us,
There's nothing like you and me,
Together, oh..."

She didn't know why she sang that song. It was so cheesy and lovey dovey ugh. It was annoying. Kat wasn't in love at all. She's never really been in love. She'll never know the feeling. But she couldn't deny her love for music.

Elise blushed again, a pretty pink that dusted her cheeks and made her look like an almost-ripe Carribean Peach. Kat hadn't heard her sing before? Well, it was probably because only one person was her usual audience, anyway. "I don't sing much," she confessed, looking at her shoes. They were really quite interesting. Much more interesting than the walls or anything and very suitable to look at while pretending not to blush.

Her solo? Smiling a little, Elise inclined her head a little. Don't let Elise stop you, Kat. Sing your heart out. Well, Elise didn't know very many Muggle songs, but she DID know good music when she heard it.

"You sing well, Kat," she beamed. She was so very proud of her bestie, she was. LOOK. She use a new word! Bestie. See, Kat? You rub off on people!

Kat had to know why a lot of people blushed most of the time. If the Slytherin was right, the last time she did blush was because of West. It was because of a boy. Well, right now Elise was blushing and Kat wasn't a boy so it can't just be boys all the time you know. There are various other reasons for everyone to blush and that... well, Kat could use that for some sort of strategy. Hehe. But her best friend didn't sing much and that was a bit sad. "You shouldn't hide it you know," Kat said. "Cos your voice is great." Unlike Kat's. Meh.

But Elise said she had a great voice too. However to Kat, Elise had a better one. She wouldn't admit her voice was okay. It was pretty decent. "Thanks," Kat smiled at Elise cos she did compliment her voice.

Kat looked at her star and saw that it her star was turning blue. Say what. "My star is showing some Ravenclaw pride." That just came out of her mouth. Awkward? But she had to DO something, because stars are supposed to be radiating yellow. Her star was feeling too HOT. "Dextrini Potitus!" she said with a jab and flicked it downwards so the temperature decreased. Now her star was back to normal. Woot!

Now she forgot to name her star. Well she was just gonna name it a random name so...

Elise shrugged. She had no plans of making a career out of her voice like Melanie did. Her singing was usually reserved for the shower and Chris. But if Kat said so... "I'll try?" Because that was all Elise could do, anyway. Try, and try hard.

Ravenclaw pride? Blinking at Kat's star, Elise noticed a blue hue taking over and cracked a smile before her best friend fixed the problem. "Well, it was nice seeing you, Ravenclaw Star," Elise giggled as the star began to take on its normal hue.

Checking her own star, Nope. Nada. Nothing was wrong with it just yet and thank Merlin for that.

Try? Yes, Elise should try. "You also play the piano, so I guess it'd seem better to mix your talents with musical instruments and your voice." Kat was just saying so many things today, not that it was weird and unlike her. She was used to blabbing a lot, hearing almost everything slip out her own mouth. But if Elise or anyone found it rather annoying, she could stop. Honestly.

So now Kat's star had its own nickname. Isn't that cute? Eh... maybe. "I named him Geronimo." Paaause. "For no particular reason at all. The name just popped in my head." That's how she named her things apparently. Like the metal egg back in her first year? She named that one Aimee, and there was no specific reason as to why. It just... bammed.

"What did you name your star?" Kat asked as she checked her star. Nope, it was still yellow. Still normal, at least.

OH. RIGHT.

Spring Cleaning time.

Alec grabbed the jar and held it up to eye-level. It looked clean to him but... then again, so did the Hufflepuff boy's dorm and that was far from clean. They really needed to have a clean up in there properly one day. Tidy up the socks and get rid of all the sweet wrappers. Yeah... a proper clean up day.

... That day was far far FAR into the future.

The Hufflepuff grinned to himself before setting the jar down again and pointing his wand into it. "Scourgify!" A couple of seconds later, Alec held the jar up to the light again and squinted at the insides. Apart from the disappearance of a few dust particles, it didn't... look too different. But this was the same spell he used for Potions so if it worked for Lafay, it had to work for AstroMan as well, yeah?

Nodnod.

Next... making star time!

Alec brought the two bottles, one with powdered helium and the other with powdered hydrogen, closer to his jar. According to the instructions, he only needed a tablespoon of each which was lucky because... all of this adding elements thing seemed just a little bit complicated. Just a bit. He picked up his spoon and scooped a tablespoon of powdered helium into the jar before scooping in a tablespoon of powdered hydrogen.

...

Should he wait or give the jar a harlem shake or...?

OH SPELL.

The spell that... he had written down... Alec reached inside his lab coat and drew out a piece of parchment from the pocket of his shirt. He unfolded the tiny piece of parchment where he had conveniently written down the spells he'd need for this star-making business.

... How AWESOME did that sound? Star-making business. VERY AWESOME.

He shook his head and took out his wand. Right. Fingere Elementi... Fingere Elementi... "Fingere Elementi!" he said with a sharp jab of his wand. He took a deep breath and watched the jar closely. Come on, star, come oooooooon! Form, form, form, form...

...

WAS THAT HIS STAR? GRIN.

Lost in thought about what to name the star, Jake wasn't looking at it. He had an elbow on the table and his head in his hand, his eyes closed. He might've dosed off for a minute.

Sitting up suddenly, he looked at his star. And... screamed a little. It was RED. It wasn't supposed to be red! Frantically, Jake reached into his bag and found his notes. Red star red star red star... Aha. Picking up his wand, he muttered "Dextrini Potitus." Jab, flick. ...Nothing. Jake frowned, trying again. "Dextrini Potitus." Jab. Flick. ...There. Yellow.

Jake sighed in relief. He picked up the jar and held it against his chest protectively. And, hardly thinking about what he was doing, he started singing quietly. "Rock-a-bye Twinkle, on a tree top..." Twinkle? The star had a name, then, apparently... "When the wind blows, the cradle will rock... when the bow breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come Twinkle, cradle and all..." Carefully, Jake set the jar back on the table and made sure the color was right.

...Manly!cough.

No one heard that, right?

HE HAD A STAR, HE HAD A STAR, HE HAD A-

...

BLINK.

Alec jumped a little and looked up from his jar. His eyes scanned the room and the fellow students who were part of the star-making business. Someone... had screamed. And it didn't sound like the nice type of scream either. This sounded very... not nice. And scary. And-

JAKE?!

The fifteen year old tilted his head and BLINKED at the older lion who was cradling his jar!star as if it was his newborn puppy. Is that what the AstroMan meant when he had said that you had to show your star that you lo- really really liked it? Sing and cuddle it?

... Ells wouldn't get jealous right?

Alec shook his head and looked back over at the lion. He... really didn't know whether to be amused at the fact that the guy was singing -- did Jake sing a lot? -- or impressed that the guy had actually managed to make this look... easy. And sort of cool. This gave him some ideas about what he wanted to sing to his own star. And speaking of his star...

OH LOOK AT IT! It was practically glowing! Glowing WHITE! How awe-

... WAIT. That wasn't... a good sign, was it? Sure, it was good that his start hadn't turned green or anything but... he did remember writing white down on his notes as the colour to watch out for. Alec looked over at the piece of parchment that was spread open on his table and scanned the list of spells and warnings. There... JAB... right there was the note that white... wasn't actually a good sign.

Wobbly!chin.

"No dying, no dying..." Alec mumbled as he looked back over at the spell he needed to use. Except... BLINK. How do you even PRONOUNCE this spell? And how do you pronounce something with two 'i's side by side? Was it just like the normal 'i'? Because if so, what was the need for the other 'i'?

HIS STAR WAS DYING probably AND HE NEEDED TO BE SUPERMAN RIGHT NOW.

"Crescere..." Tight circular movement... "Hydrogenenii!" JAB! Was it working...? Yes? No?

No.

"Crescere Hydrogenenii! Crescere Hydrogenenii!" Circle and jab! Circle and JAB!

... Oh look! It was turning yellow again. He could just... breathe and calm down and grin now. Yeah. Hey yellow star!

Anya watched with wide eyes. LookatBlake! He was a pretty star. Yes he was. A pretty y-

... blue.

Blake was blue.

No. No. Nonono. It hadn't even been alive for more than 5 minutes! She flipped open her notes and skimmed to find out what she'd done wrong.

... and now to save her precious star.

Red. Nope. White. Nope. Ah. Here it was. Blue. Her star was... too hot. Aww. Poor thing. It had an ickle star fever. She should change that. Alright... now... ... wand motion... jab, flick. Okay. She had this.

"Dextrini Potitus." she said with a jab and upward flick. She waved her hands above her head and a panicked squeak escaped her lips. SHE MADE IT WORSE!

"Dextrini Potitus!" she repeated. This time with a jab and a rapid downward flick.

She let out a sigh of relief when the star changed back to it's normal color. Crisis averted.

Astronomy...what a bore. At least they got to do something fun, like make a star or something? How on earth do you make a star? That didn't even seem logical in any sense. Rishi walked into the closet, picked out the shiniest-looking lab coat and thew it on. He reached over to the pile of goggles and fished for one to match the freshness of his coat. Finally pulling one out, he attempted to place them properly over his glasses. With a finger, he pushed his glasses as far back as he could and gently strapped the goggles over them. How uncomfortable.

Now, the jars...the remaining few empty ones seemed to be scattered about and as soon as he spotted one, he rushed on over and grabbed it, holding it up in the light as if it were a precious gem he had found. What was it he had to do? He quickly pulled out his notebook and skipped through pages of notes until he found the directions for the assignment. "Step One: Label and wash jar. Easy." He took a marker from his bag and wrote his name down on the label.

Underneath in smaller writing, he wrote:

That ought to scare people into not touching his project. All that remained before he could start was that he needed to clean his jar. He glanced over at his notebook, looking for tips he wrote down. Still staring at his notebook, he took out his wand and finally turned to look at his jar. "Scourgify!" Now it sat looking almost as shiny as his glasses.

As always with spells, it took him a few tries. It was a little comforting that this time, though, it wasn't his lack of familiarity with his own wand that wasn't at fault: it was that he'd not read the instructions properly. Rather than making the correct wand motions, Ezra had merely pointed it at the jar, and only half-expected something to happen, which obviously never did.

But it was still pulsing blue - Jefferson Arnold, that is - and Ezra lowered his wand, checking again his stolen notes. Edita's encouragement came in the form of slight violence against his person, which he took in stride because he knew she meant well; Edita just wasn't very delicate. He commented lightly, appreciatively, and maybe with a little bit of pride: "Well, Jefferson Arnold is brighter now." Not as bright as November's Cosmo (how creative of her) which looked like a rising sun to Ezra, but it was definitely brighter than it'd been before.

He patted Jefferson Arnold's lid. Ezra took a step back, and flicked his wand downward, pointing it at the jar. "Dextrini Potitus."

Nova was getting bigger. Maybe not much, but Mo decided it was enough for now considering she was really only a baby star and all that. He pushed her back on the counter and dropped another chocolate frog onto the tabletop in front of the jar. A snack for story time.

"Let's finish the story today, shall we?" He brought N.J. over too, since Lex had wanted the poor neglected star to get some attention as well. Now then... where had he left off?

"So, then," Mo dropped down so that his chin was on the counter again, his eyes fixed on Nova. "The comet-spitting black hole with no name. Remember him? Yeah, so he started spitting the ugly comets at Nova's planet. That's you, but it's also the star in the story, remember? Nova loved her planet, and she knew that all those people who she sparkled for were in great danger from the ugly comets, so..."

So what? How could she save her planet? It wasn't like stars had arms or super powers or impressive tool belts with planet-saving devices. Not to mention stars were like a soooooo far away from planets that she probably couldn't have done anything to help anyway. "So unfortunately her planet got destroyed, but there were other planets with people who also liked how she sparkled, and Nova sparkled for them instead."

THE END.

Still embarrassed by his singing, Jake had his head down as he watched his star. He didn't look up to see if anyone had heard him. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. It was sort of a force of habit - his little sisters used to fall asleep if he sang to them. And... maybe stars worked the same way? It made sense. You know, despite the obvious differences between jar!stars and little girls...

He kept his eyes on the star, worried about what would happen if he took his eyes off of it again. But... it didn't do much. It just kinda glowed. And Jake got bored easily. So he started slipping into sleep again...

...It was bad to sleep in a science lab, though. So he shook his head, waking himself up. He'd just... be done for the day. Come back tomorrow. He stared at the star for a moment, trying to decide what to do with it. Then, getting an idea, he took off his cloak and, very carefully, wrapped it around his star. There. Now it wouldn't get cold while he was away.

Before he left, he scribbled on the lable.

Quote:

Twinkle
Jake Keller's star
Gryffindor, 5th year

Smiling to himself, Jake picked up his things and left the lab.

Alice was there. She had promised to check up on her star often, hadn't she? Little Dylan deserved loads of attention, and she intended to give it to him. Once she had slipped into her usual oversized lab coat and goggles, the fourteen year old eagerly made her way over to the counter, searching through the jars until she found her own.

"How's my Little Dylan do-" WAIT WHY WAS HE BLUE? Little Dylan was blue! Wasn't he supposed to be yellow? A panicked look crossed her face as she tried to determine why her precious creation had changed color. Pulling out her notes and beginning to scan them meticulously, Alice read until she finally found the cause of her star's shift in appearance.

"Little Dylan, you're hot. And I know you're very attractive, just like your namesake, but this hot is TOO hot. Alice doesn't approve." She gave the blue ball of gas a very stern look. Bad star. "But I'm going to cool you off, so it's all okay. I can fix it. STAY CALM." Hoping her star had been reassured, she fished her wand from inside her bag and then began eyeing her notes again, searching for the right spell to bring his temperature down.

Was this it? "Dextrini Potitus!" JABBITY JAB. And a flick downwards, she didn't forget that either. She trained her eyes worriedly on the star, flickers of anxiety crossing them every few seconds. Little Dylan was going to turn yellow again, yeah? Alice wanted him to, because that would mean he was okay. If he wasn't.. well, that would mean she had failed as a star mommy. And that wasn't cool.

OH HEY LOOK! His star was YELLOW! SUPERMAN TO THE RESCUE!

Cue superman!stance.

...

Now it was turning orange. Alec's grey-blue eyes grew wider as he just STARED at his jar and the star inside. Why did it want to change colour? It was just yellow moments before and now... it was turning orange. That was just a way for it to rain on his parade. THAT WAS MEAN OF YOU, STAR.

And it turned red.

"No no no! I take it back, I take it back!" Now could it kindly change back to yellow, please?

... No?

Alec frowned at his star before scanning his small piece of parchment. So... it could either be too cold, have too much helium or... have too little helium. Why was it that the star turned red? Couldn't it have turned blue, if it really wanted to change colour? Because then, he'd know exactly what he needed to do. But in this case... he had no idea which spell to use.

... Unless...

He did just use the spell for increasing the hydrogen. So what if... there was too much hydrogen... and now there's not enough helium to match up? Although, he didn't really know how that could have happened because he was sure he had put the same amounts of both of those elements in there. And yet...

FROWN.

It was turning DARKER!

BLINKBLINK. No... the assignment notice said that if it turned black, that meant that it would be dead. And if his star died then he, Alec Summers, would be a star-murderer. ... GULP. The fifteen year old scanned the list of spells again and jabbed a finger at the second one. Cumugasalis. Right. He took hold of his wand and cleared his throat, his eyes on his star. "Cumugasalis!" he said, flicking his wand twice.

...

Breatheeeeeeeeeeee...

YES!

Alec GRINNED as he watched his star turn lighter and more yellow-y again. HE WAS INDEED SUPERMAN! Or something. And his star was a survivor. ... Oh... maybe... he could sing songs about survival to his star later? That wasn't a bad idea. ... But... maybe another time. Right now, he needed to get some food! "Bye little star! Stay yellow!" he said as he packed up his things. He walked over towards the closet and placed his lab coat and goggles in there. He then walked back towards his work area, grabbed his bag and walked out, giving his star one last wave before he left.

Alright. The star looked healthy now. And that was a good thing. So Anya slowly sported a relieved smile. Ickle star!Blakey was alright.

Now. She should sing it to sleep and be on her way.

She thought for a few seconds about what to sing her little star. ... and for some reason, the only thing coming to mind was the song that she sang in class. Which... yeah... wasn't exactly an appropriate lullaby, but whatever.

She stroked the side of the star!jar in a way that she hoped looked more loving than creepy. And then she began singing softly.

"When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie... that's amore..." And she continued on with the song. "Bells'll ring... Ting-a-ling-a-ling... Ting-a-ling-a-ling..."

Ohkayyyyy. She should probably stop before she got any louder.

"Later, little star." she said before kissing the lid of the jar. "I'll be back later." Hopefully. If she remembered.

He'd been monitoring his star but only... well, the bare minimum. It wasn't that West wasn't interested because he WASTOTALLYINTOITOKAY? It was just that he kind of wanted a black star, a DEAD star, and yet for some reason his star just didn't want to die. It was a fighter, his star. Even with neglect it lingered on.

He came in just to check on its progress (its dying progress that was) right after Quidditch practice, still in his practice uniform. But no. The star was still twinkling merrily away.

Maybe he should name it Stubborn.

Eyeing it for another moment, West made a face and then left. It didn't need any tending anyways, and tending it would just help it to not die. He wanted to rescue it from the brink of oblivion! It just wasn't cooperating. Maybe tomorrow. Or next week.

Alice continued staring at her star with wide eyes until its hue finally began to take on a yellowish tinge again. Thank Merlin. She held her breath, waiting for him to turn completely lemon colored, and when he did, she beamed with pride. "Crisis averted! Well done, Little Dylan." Yes, she was complimenting him, even though it had done absolutely NOTHING but give her a heart attack. She was just that great of a star mommy, y'know?

She was so very happy that she would have told her star a story, but she couldn't do that, because she was horribly unoriginal and not creative. Another option was to sing the star a lullaby, which would have been possible if she wasn't tone deaf. But Alice couldn't carry a tune at all, so she decided to spare the ears of her classmates the pain. Maybe she could just talk to it?

"Mmk, let's have a little chat, star to face," she told him, bending down so that her eyes were level with the jar. "Have you been making nice with the other stars?" Alice glanced around, staring at the other jars seriously. "I'm sure they all like you loads, on account of I think you're very charismatic. I bet you get that from Daddy Dyl." Which proved that she was amazing at naming things, like her bat. That thing was terrifying and ferocious, but still kind of delicate. Selina was a good thing to call it, see?

She patted her jar's lid affectionately before returning her lab equipment to the closet, only pausing to send another proud glance in the direction of Little Dylan as she left the room.