She nodded. She could definitely tell that Anya liked them. Probably was why she was good with them. Not that Penelope didn't like them, just...she didn't like a lot of them. Some kids were annoying. But that kinda a trait with some people in general, so it wasn't really uncommon.

"That's good. I figured he would be." Supportive, that is. Jake usually seemed pretty supportive of Anya. Which was good, obviously.

Shadow someone? Hmm...she hadn't thought of that before. "Maybe. That's a good idea. I dunno who I'd shadow though..." She might have to look into that though. Could be interesting to see what certain jobs were like for a day.

Okay, yes. It seemed like they agreed on this spot for the snowman. That was good. Tobias crouched down on the ground at the base of the snowman and started packing snow in so that it wouldn't roll away or fall over once they started piling the other big snowballs on top of it.

Oh wait, bludgers. Yep. Still a conversation going.

"Well, I kinda wonder what it's like to get hit by one, but it doesn't look very fun," Tobias replied cheerfully. Yep, those bludgers hits really looked like they sucked... but he was still curious. "I'm not too scared of them. I think the team's got my back. They seem quite protective." It was awesome! Like having loads of brothers and sisters. He wondered how they'd react if a beater ever hit a bludger towards him, and held back a giggle. "And if I do get hit, we go to a magic school so I'd be fixed super quickly anyway, after all."

The thing about Tobias was that he always looked for the positive side to a situation. Sometimes that wasn't always the healthiest way of dealing with things, as this particular Hufflepuff outright ignored any negative feelings or outcomes. YUP.

Ahhh, Tobias would love to learn Legomancy. "I reckon it is super difficult, but I don't think it's too hard. Like... it's not impossible." Well, maybe for some people? Like, the majority of people probably had the potential to learn it. "I'd love to be able to do it... but I don't reckon I've got the focus that you'd need. Are you thinking of trying it?" That'd be awesome! Having a friend that could read minds, WOW.

Tobias had just finished packing the snow in around the base of the snowman and was pretty confident that it was quite stable. He stood back up and brushed the snow off his gloves before turning to Forrest... and that's when he heard him.

It took Tobias a moment or two to register what Forrest had said, because he kind of had to decode it in his brain first, it had been said so fast. He frowned slightly. Mudblood? Why is he saying that word? Because oh yes, Tobias knew what that word meant. It was one of the things his grandfather had told him never to repeat (in case he heard someone say it at school). It was incredibly rude, and Tobias agreed. But Forrest was muggleborn, Tobias remembered that... so... something wasn't quite right.

Still frowning, Tobias spoke. "Has someone call-"

Then he cut himself off. No, that wasn't answering the question. Forrest had asked something and so Tobias was going to answer. He softened his expression from the frown and looked thoughtfully at the treehouse again before looking back at Forrest, having thought of the perfect response.

"Do you eat chocolate frogs? That come with the cards?"

Bear with him, this is actually going somewhere.

She had to admit, it seemed kinda weird walking over to the treehouse without having the intention to climb it. Good thing she wasn't headed for the treehouse, she came within view of it but stopped at the small garden she'd run by on many occasion. It was funny how being a muggle farmer helped her see more things. Kinda neat actually.

Felix was starting to sulk but only a little. It meant she had to move faster before he started looking for other ways of getting her attention.

Lex dropped to her knees by the garden, running her fingers along the flowers for a minute. These were really pretty. How had she not noticed them before? Oh yeah, she had no need to. Alexa was oblivious unless it suited her to be otherwise, which was rare in and of itself. Ah well, not something to dwell on. She reached into the burrow and fished out some dung.

These would look so nice after she was done. Clump. Pat. Pat. In future when she walked by they would all be screaming her name. Probably doing some kind of plant wave too--THAT she'd notice. Er...so long as they didn't start talking in creepy little voices. She could do without those.

And more dung to be added. She kept going until the whole patch was covered. "That should do it. Onto somewhere else I guess..." This was getting tiring.

I wonder... he's cheerful...

Forrest just blinked at Tobias with a look of utter confusion as if he couldn't understand what he was saying. He really couldn't. He couldn't understand how Tobias wasn't scared of metal balls designed to break bones. He blinked some more, but it didn't help at all.

"Yeah sure team's got your back but--" Was this going anywhere? "It's metal!" Tobias understood what that meant, right? "I don't--I don't want you to be hurt." He wasn't being dramatic at all, he was really worried for his friend.

Legomancy... no, legilimency... enough to distract him. He nodded excitedly. "I'm distracted easily too, but it's worth a try." He nodded vehemently. "Think you should, too." Who died of trying? Well, many people, but it was worth a try anyway. He doubted legilimency was lethal.

Forrest slowly rolled his ball to where Tobias was working for him to put it as the second layer as he avoided all kind of eye-contact with him. He was expecting the pity, the evasive answers and then the silly cheering-up process. He couldn't even answer when Tobias exclaimed like that--of course someone had called him like that because that was what he was, essentially.

And then the f- word came.

His eyes flew to meet Tobias' as his hands were desperately trying to scratch his legs and arms that were covered with thick snow clothes, and then the hands flew to his face--scratch scratch scratch!--this wasn't helping--he removed his right glove and scratched his face ruthlessly. He was sitting by now, bent down and all.

He needed a banner or something to avoid the f- word.

Ella went straight for the grounds cause she was a fifth year and she was allowed, yeah? She was alone too but she wouldn't be opposed to a partner. Y'know, preferably one with hair and a face that wouldn't be distracting. Ahem. But if it did happen to be someone like that, she guessed she could handle it. Maybe. At least she'd try.

The sixteen year old climbed up into the tree house which was a little tricky cause sextant reasons but the blonde figured she'd have a good view from here. She then settled down on the floor, bag placed gently beside her as she got ready to find Polaris.

Speaking of, Polaris reminded her of polar which reminded her of cold which reminded her of ice which reminded her of ice cream. She was still really hungry right now, okay? Sigh. She wanted ice cream.

Anywhoo, the blonde set her sights on the sky, head tilted to the side as she tried to find the big dipper. She was pretty used to the shape of it by now so she usually located it pretty quickly. She liked it, the big dipper, cause it reminded her a bit of a spoon you could put ice cream in. Just saying.

...She continued to scan until she spotted it, a triumphant smile forming immediately. The blonde even used her finger to trace the familiar shape just to be sure. Now that she had the big dipper, she'd just need to follow the pointer stars.

Using her finger again, she made a line from the pointer stars and watched and waited until..."Polaris!" GRIN!

It was hard, okay? Really hard! He was just walking past the Great Hall, thinking about how weird the sextant object was, when he was stopped by... his hunger. For ice cream. Because there was the door that led straight to the Kitchens and the Hufflepuff common room and he could walk down to the kitchens and grab himself a bowl of ice cream. It would only take five minutes! No more!

But... no. Sigh. He started jogging down the grounds and towards the first place he set his eyes on, his hands clutching onto the sextant object and the strap of his bag but devoid of any bowl of the best dessert ever. They were meant to be running around and you couldn't enjoy ice cream whilst running around! That was nearly impo-

Polaris? "How did you find that so quickly?!" BLINK.

... Oh. Wait. This was creepy.

"I mean... hey!" he said, sitting down next to the blonde haired girl, "Mind working together? This object's too... confusing," He held up the sextant object, frowning a little.

Ella jumped.

Like not cause she was bouncy this time but because someone was close by and she hadn't even heard them coming. She might have flailed her arms when she did too and accidentally thumped the person. Accidentally, of course.

The blonde's green eyes widened when she realized what she did and who it was and MEEP! "I. Am. SO. Sorry!" And he wasn't broken, was he? She was pretty sure there were laws about breaking boyfriends.

"I just...I...Hey!" Sheepish smile and all. "If you forgive me for whacking you?" Please? "And it is confusing." Really really.

The blonde scooted a little closer to the boy. Y'know, for demonstration purposes and not anything else. AHEM. She then held up the sextant she'd brought and bit her lip. "I think...you just erm...use Polaris and move it like..." And she maneuvered the tool a bit. "Like this."

And then she reached into her bag and pulled out her notes and a quill. "So erm...the sextant reads 45 and erm...to find the latitude I just subtract that from 90, right?" Right...she thought so, at least.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

"I got 45." Small smile for the boyfriend. "Erm...your turn."

And kissing during Astro homework wasn't the same as kissing in the astro tower so they wouldn't get detention if they did, would they?

THUMP!

"OWWWWW!" he cried, rubbing the side of his face. Note to self: Never EVER creep up on someone, especially this Captain. He looked over at her and grinned sheepishly. Was she scared or...? "It's only me!" Not, you know, the Bogeyman. Or Slenderbody or whatever that creepy guy's name was.

Alec let out a small chuckle and nodded. "Deal! Good aim, by the way!" Oh? And she found the object confusing too? "I hope we don't have to use it ever again..."

Her moving closer was a bad idea. Really. How was he meant to focus now?! He reached up and ruffled his hair, trying to keep his eyes on her hands and the sextant object in them. "Oh! That... doesn't look too hard..." Still confusing. "Thanks!"

And speaking of Polaris, he should try and find that too, right? He reluctantly tore his eyes away from Ells and her hands and looked up at the sky. Okay... Polaris... where are you? And... she was saying something. Something about the latitude? "Yeah, you do..." he said absent mindedly, his eyes taking note of the 'W' shape of Cassiopeia.

Big Dipper... Little Dipper... "FOUND IT!"

"You got 45 for the latitude?" he asked, looking down at the girl and then at the sextant in his hands, "Oh... it won't be too different, right?" His turn... maybe this won't be confusing.

Also, could they get ice cream afterwards?

"I know!" That it was metal. Yep. Probably lead or something. "But I don't think they'd let us play if they could like really really hurt us." Like... permanent hurt. Like dead hurt. But then Tobias smiled at what Forrest had said. That was actually... really nice. He didn't want him hurt. Brilliant! "Thanks..." He didn't elaborate. Because he couldn't promise that he'd never get hurt... and he felt like saying 'I'll try to not get hurt' would probably be somewhat counterproductive to making Forrest feel better about it. So yeah... kinda lost on that one.

Tobias nodded at the legomancy thing. "Definitely worth a shot, I'd like to be able to do it." Probably took a lot of effort, but then... didn't everything worth accomplishing require effort?

He glanced at Forrest and went to lean down for the second snowball when it happened.

...

o_______________________________O

Forrest was... scratching. And scratching. And... Tobias was about to ask if he was okay before it occurred to him that something was obviously up. He looked kind of... frantic. Was this some kind of panic attack?

Super concerned expression on his face, Tobias lowered himself down so he was knelt in the snow next to Forrest and was kind of tempted to touch his shoulder reassuringly but refrained from doing so 'cause he knew some people hating that. "What's wrong, Forrest?"

Tobias glanced around. Was there something near them... or was it something he'd said?

Oh. Merlin's. Beard.

O____O

She'd hit him. She'd hit him right in the face. "Alec!" MEEP! "Did I hurt you?" The frown was immediate. You didn't just go around hitting people, especially boyfriend people. The blonde didn't even think as she moved so she could kiss his cheek. She'd just hit the guy so yeah, all thoughts of assignments were forgotten for a second. A kiss would fix things, yeah?

Good aim? Sigh. She was still frowning, y'know. "I'mstillsorry." Cause she was, really. She was happy they'd be working together, though. "Yeah, me too...but it'll good to know in case we use it during OWLs." Just saying.

The closeness was a bad idea. Very bad. Ella wasn't moving, though. The blonde turned to face the boy and smiled, nodding. "Not too hard at all." Poke. "Welcome."

"Yup, I got forty-five." Mhm. "I guess not too much." Though with Hogwarts being unplottable and everything, who knew. Ella double checked her calculations before watching her boyfriend give it a go.

Hmm, Forrest wanted to believe that. Maybe it only looked so tough? Actually, he had never asked that to someone before. Hmm... who would know it? Maybe he should give Quidditch a chance. Definitely... with the upcoming Slytherin-Gryffindor game...

He grinned. Imagine that! It'd be so cool if they both learnt to read minds! Then they would be invincible! Forrest kept grinning like a fool for a moment then he returned to reality. "We should ask Professor Romanos what we need to do." He was very serious about it. Never mind he couldn't do even levitating charm properly. He would learn it in no time if it would help with reading minds.

...

Stop. He had to STOP!

His still gloved left hand clutched the right and pressed it onto his chest. Dark red marks burnt his face, and he tried to open his mouth to explain--because before anyone, Tobias should know it--but he had to close it soon as no sound came. He got up. He needed a distraction.

"Snowman?" His voice was pleading. Please?

Kace decided to try and find stars in the Tree house. He noticed all the others were doing readings here too. I guess it was a popular place to get readings done for Astronomy. Kace climbed up the stairs to the TALLEST part of the tree house. Once he got to it, he could finally see the stars.

He needed to find the Dipper now. He needed to find the tail. Everywhere he went, it changed or shifted so it was challenging to find. Once he was scanning and scanning and even MORE scanning, he managed to find it! Sweet. Polaris was getting quite easy to find. I mean it was rumored to be the brightest star in the sky. But apparently that was a myth compared to the teacher. Ah well!

He found Polaris and that is all that mattered! He was getting his sextant out of his bag, getting ready to use this bad boy.

The tree house. That was the next place after the lake that Nessie could think of.

Walking along in her comfortable shoes, the seventh year reached her destination and just blank stared at the tree house for a few moments. To climb it or not? Heck why not. Who said eighteen year olds couldn't climb tree houses, she'd show them.

So up she climbed, and made sure she was at a level where she could see the sky, because that's what she needed of course. The forrest looked real creepy by the way, so the quicker she got this done the better.

"Polaaris, oh Polaris where are you?" She whispered and giggled only to mellow at herself afterwards. Nobody heard that right?

With a shake of her red hear the puff regained her focus and once more looked for the two dippers. Small kite found, Ness trailed it's end and found her shining star once more.

Now where was her sextant?

BLINK. "Ells?" ... Did she hurt him? See, good question. There was a part of him that wanted to say that it didn't hurt and he was as strong as Superman not really but... there was another part of him that wanted to say that it did hurt and ask her for kisses. Which, she did end up giving to him. He grinned sheepishly and touched the spot on his cheek where she had kissed him gingerly. "Well, I..." He needed an answer! "It didn't hurt that much but that was nice!" Honest.

Also, why the frowny face? "Hey, it's okay!" he said, nudging her gently, "And please don't frown." And... there was that word again. OWLs. Shudder. "Yeah, you're right! Do you think it could come up, though?"

No. Really. She had to realise how close she was and the effects this was having on him. It was the same with the lip biting and the hair thing. He was sure Ells did this on purpose. So he just grinned sheepishly back at her before poking her back. Two can play at this game!

Okay... he could use this sextant object and find the latitude. He set up the sextant and put his eye to it, looking out towards the horizon. He pressed down on the clamp and adjusted things so that Polaris matched up with the horizon. There! He released his hold on the clamp and tilted his head to look down at the measurement. 41 degrees?

Quote:

Latitude = 90 degrees - sextant angle
Latitude = 90 - 41
Latitude = 49

"45 isn't bad at all..." he said, looking up from his notes, "I... got 49 for the latitude!" Which wasn't too bad, yeah? Because of the magical interference thing.

Alright so now that he found Polaris, it was time to use his sextant. He got it out and then was remembering what Cassia was telling him. He was going off the steps in his head. He pointed it to the horizon and then used all the other thingy ma jigs.

Then he pressed the clampy thingy and the index bar was released! He was doing fine for doing it his second time! Then he was looking at the mirror and trying to find Polaris. The star he found earlier and it was his mission. Once he found it, he had to adjust the clamp to Polaris's position. That was simple. He was adjusting to Polaris's position and he could SEE it. He kept his eye on the mirror.

WOOT!!! Yayayayay!!! He did it! And then he had to read the degrees portion part of it. That was the whole portion of this assignment. Once he found it, he squinted and it read....33 degrees. Huh? Alright!

SPOILER!!: Kace's Notebook!

Sextant Angle= 33 degrees
90-33=57

Once he was done, he was packing his sextant away and brainstorming other places to go.

Ahh. Right in her bag where she had left it whilst walking

Taking it out once more, the red head placed it close to her eye and looked up finding Polaris within seconds again. She then peeked through the sextant, made sure it was placed at the horizon and released the clamp.

Cluck. Cluck.

Slowly she moved the handle till she could see Polaris at the horizon line. Perfecto. Clamp put back in hold she removed the sextant from her eye and checked her reading. Different to last time. On a piece of paper, with her skinny hands, Ness wrote the number forty two as well as her latitude answer of forty eight.

Place three checked off the list then. Next she needed to find the other Polaris stars.

FINALLY.

DONE with the measurements...Now all they had to do was squint and SEE the different parts of Polaris...A and B.....and then Ab.....How were they going to be able to see that closely, though? Could they layer lens focusing charms to make them MORE magnified?

Merlin, his eyes were really killing him. Ugh.

"My eyes hurt." It was said nonchalantly as Dylan slowly made his way up into the Tree House. He was hoping to climb onto the roof and lay there...and then just star-gaze or whatever. Polaris-gaze...

Sighing, he pulled his wand once more to perform the charm. "Oculo Focalis!" After he waves and tapped, he vision seemed to jump into high def. again...but with how much his eyes were already irritating him, this just seemed to hurt them more. In fact, they were watering with the extra irritation.

"Man..." Dylan tried to blink to clear them out...and couldn't seem to be able to. So, no going on the roof for him, then. He'd have to peer out of a window or something. Yea....he could do that...

"Okay..." He tried to squint through the pain. It took a few moments...but he caught sight of Draco...and moved his eyes over from there. Just slightly to the left...and down a smidgen.... He could SEE Polaris well enough...but he couldn't SEE the different parts.

Sigh.

"That's why I didn't use the spell yet." West pointed out reasonably. Not when you didn't need to anyways. But now that they were playing spot the dim star they'd have to. Wand and tap, West followed suit. "Oculo Focalis!" It was a weird feeling to have your eyes suddenly zoom in all super, but not uncomfortable yet. Not like it would be in a few minutes.

Unerringly he looked for Polaris. Seriously. Expert. Pointer stars. Fivish lengths. And y'know, part of Ursa Minor and... and yeah. That was Polaris A. West squinted at it and then tried to relax his eyes. Ab was gonna be hard to see given how close and tiny it appeared to Polaris itself.

Touche', Odessa.

"Yea, yea..." Looking over at West, Dylan noted that he was relaxing his eyes...and not squinting. That probably would've helped...since the Captain was straining his eyes a great deal. Hmmmm. So, Polaris A...was the one to the North...and Polaris B was the one towards the bottom. So, he just needed to tell his eyes what they were supposed to see and they would.

Ahem. Problems solved.

Blinking a few times, Dylan got in the zone by taking some breaths and allowing his eyes to just SEE everything. The relaxation technique seemed to be helping, too...because the blurriness and natural tears were clearing up. Hmmm...

Oh, okay. He could kinda see it now. Polaris A was up diagonally from Polaris B...and they were just chilling...not moving or anything. B was SO dim...Dimmer than A by a lot...and he wondered if Polaris Ab was dimmer still than both of these...Merlin...

He KNEW were that one was supposed to be...but actually seeing it was the challenge. "Ab is eluding me."

Hmmmmmmmmm.

OH. It was right there with Polaris A..."Nevermind..." And...actually Ab looked brighter than B...SQUINT!

He had to watch and focus and sort of relax his eyes all at once in order to spot Polaris Ab. It was THERE, it was just hard to see. Looked tiny and so very dim compared to Polaris itself but that was just to do with its distance away and all that. A yellow-white dwarf with an eccentric orbit right? West lost it again and had to really focus to see it. Not easy. Impossible without the charm on his eyes. Still, he was content that he'd identified it now and looked a little wider to spot Polaris B.

Polaris B..... that one you could see with a telescope even so West was a little more comfortable spotting that even if his eyes were starting to get irritated now. West focused and after a few minutes finally spotted the eighth magnitude star that was Polaris B.

... did they need to spot the other ones in the Polaris system or were they good?

They were good.

West closed his eyes and then used finite to get rid of the charm. "I'm done. Lets go."

His eyes ached but probably not as bad as Dylan's. He led the way back up to the Astronomy tower.

Sarah made her way up to the tree house... it was nice there, as she was able to think. She brought along her AR textbook. The question was, what should she make the gandr out of. Birch sounded good as it protected her against lightening, then again, Britain hardly had lightening. Hazel did not grow around here... or at least that was what she read. however she would have liked that.

Sarah made her way through the list.. either the specialty of the wood she did not need or it did not grow naturally in Scotland. Finally she was down to a few choices - oak, pine, Rowan, Ash, Alder and Willow. She then used a lotto type thing and finally she got Oak.
Sounds good... now where would she find an oak tree? She realy wanted a lot of kids.

"Totally... we could do that soon. She'd tell us it would take a lot of work and time and she might tell us to wait until we're older... but yeah... we should ask." Tobias gave a determined nod. He had no doubt that they'd probably get a cynical look or told to 'wait until you're older' but it was definitely worth asking about, like... the theory stuff. Because was there a LAW that said there was certain things with your brain that you couldn't do?

-----

Tobias' eyes scanned Forrest's face and he continued to look slightly concerned. The part of his brain that craved constant told him to, yeah, just carry on with the snowman like that hadn't just happened, but he was slightly worried that that would create an awkward atmosphere and that wouldn't be awesome.

He leaned back slightly, giving him space and all that. "Yeah sure... we can carry on with the snowman." Tobias was pretty sure that's what Forrest was saying... because he'd said it like a question rather than an answer. "But like... what happened there, man? Somethin' freak you out?"

Tobias hoped that Forrest would be comfortable enough around him to tell him what had happened, and he was really curious and also he wanted to know so he didn't make it happen again. He got back to his feet and offered Forrest a hand getting up and a friendly smile. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, of course." They could just carry on as before. Building snowmen. Planning to be Legilimens together.

Anya shrugged. "Isn't your..." Wait. What was that guy to her anyway? Like a family friend? "Don't you know that Governor? I'm sure he has connections." It made sense.

"And... if you're thinking about quidditch, you've got Selina. And I'm sure my brother wouldn't mind either." She added another nod as if it proved her point.

"Are you planning on heading back to the..." her voice faltered slightly. "Are you planning on spending the summer with Ascanius again?"

Jo nodded slightly and raised an eyebrow at the girl's reaction to Potions. Meh. Not everyone could love the subtle and fine science of potion-making. "Yes, I assumed that you must have enjoyed flying since you know.. You're Captain and all of the team.. Congrats by the way." Jo paused to take a breath and to close her bag. "Do you like being Quidditch Captain? Do you ever find it tedious?" asked Jo wondering how in the world Alice must have felt with all of that responsibility on her shoulders like a ten pound weight.

The Slytherin smiled weakly when Alice mentioned that she did look familiar. Jo nodded, thrilled that Alice remembered. "Alice! That's it. It's nice to meet you again, Alice.. I'm Jo," she offered with a rare grin. The grin fell of her face when Alice asked if she had any snacks. Snacks? Ummm.... Jo picked up her bag and began to rummage through it. "I don't believe soo....." began the girl until she found two bags of pretzels that she had packed this morning before leaving her dorm. She picked one of the bags up and hid the other. She'd save those pretzels for later. "I have a bag of pretzels, if you want?" offered the Snake.

Forrest shrugged. Whatever answer Professor Romanos would give, he would definitely try, and it would be cool to have Tobias trying too.

----

Forrest took his hand and remained quiet for a while as he avoided eye-contact too. He had to make sure that he wouldn't scratch while explaining him. Once on his feet, he took a deep breath and shoved his hands deep inside his pockets.

"The--" he tensed, looked into his eyes, looked away, and got paler, "I scratch every time I hear--" deep breaths, "fff--" he swung on his feet restlessly, "that animal. Chocolate cards. See?"

Don't make him tell the name, please. He had been brave enough explaining it himself.