"Excellent choice!" Most people called her Lex. She could probably only count on one hand the amount of people who bothered with her whole name...half the time she forgot it was her real name. Could you blame her? "And Kitty!Tobias works quite fine, I'll call you Toby sometimes but if there's something like completely, totally and utterly exciting happening then I'm going for the one that has a nice ring to it when you scream it from across the Great Hall." It was important...for dramatic effect and all. You understand.

She stood, swaying from side to side, waiting for him to find the star on his own. It was the only way he'd learn and though they were on a tight time schedule she wasn't in much of a rush.

Doo dee doo dee doo.

The willow gave off a creak every now and then but she was used to that. It probably knew she was there and was trying to say hi. "I can't play with you right now, I'm technically in the middle of a class." She whispered RATHER LOUDLY, you know...just in case it had some hearing problems after certain hours.

Oh! He'd found it!! "Great! Sextant time then we can hurry off before some," idiot, "older kid finds us!" GRIN. This was going much better than she thought it would!

The reading she'd gotten said ...hold on...squinting eyes was happening now...it said....50. OKAY! Boy she hoped it was a 5 because it kinda looked like a 6...but well she'd go with 50.



Was he all good too? Could they move on? "Ready?"

Astronomy Lesson 3 yepyepyep
 

Tobias couldn't help but giggle, though he quickly clapped his hand over his mouth. He was well aware that his giggle as well as his chuckle, chortle, guffaw AND his belly laugh were some of the main things that people could identify him with. Didn't want anyone to hear him and come to see who he was paired with, now did he? Because then they might have to make a break for it, and as fun as that sounded...

Anyway, back to sextanting.

Wait, was she talking to th-

FOCUS, TOBIAS.

He'd done this part so many times that it was actually getting a lot easier and therefore faster to do this part. Horizon, press clamp, find Polaris again, release clamp. Adjusting it was boring and Tobias was being lazy but shhhhhhhhh, nobody needed to know that. "This part's getting easier. My dad always says if something seems easy you're probably doing it wrong..." Hmmm. "What a weird thing to say!" Tobias' dad was obviously not well-versed in the art of LOOKING AT THE BRIGHT SIDE.

Swing swing swing the sextant aaaaaaaaaaand read the angle. It was a little more difficult here because they weren't way up close to the water and therefore there were no light reflections to double up visibility, but Tobias eventually worked out it was a 12. This time, he crouched and used his leg as a desk.



Okay that was definitely a big change to the last calculation, and Tobias blinked in confusion, but then he shrugged it off and straightened up again.

"Yep, ready!" Oops... that was kind of loud. "Let'sgo." Quickly.

Post #5; Astronomy Lesson 3
 

And... this was another awesome spot! Or... well... it was their spot. Because they usually met up here, right?

Except, this year, he hadn't been here as much as he wanted to. That should change, right? RIGHT. He looked over at the blonde haired girl walking along with him and grinned back at her. He was glad that she was leading the way with this because, if it was up to him, he would go to four random locations, one of them being the Great Hall. That had windows, yeah?

Alec shook his head and sat down next to the girl, trying his hardest not to hum along to Chasing Cars. Because this was classwork, not a stargazing date! There was nothing romantic about finding Polaris, even he knew that.

"Oh! You start by finding the Big Dipper?" he asked, looking from the girl to the starry sky. Okay, this was going to seem so weird to him but... he could try out her method then. Finding the Big Dipper first. Sorry Cassiopeia! ... Big... Dipper... big spoon sort of shape...

And she was pointing somewhere! Alec blinked and looked over to where she was pointing at before grinning widely. "Yeah, it looks like it!" he said, "Which means... that the Little Dipper is right... there? What do you think?" Point point.

Harvey was sat on the floor when he heard some guys voice and watched as someone wrapped his arms around Taylor, he thought that she was going to slap the guy. But she took him by surprise when she yelled out his name as she kissed him, so THIS was Brodie! He then returned Brodie's nod and introduced himself too "Harvey Watson, pleased to meet you" he said as he smiled and introduced himself as Taylor helped him up and dusted him down. He chuckled as she said that he wasnt supposed to fall "You werent supposed to let go!" he said to her as he dusted the rest of himself down before she hugged him and went back to Brodie before saying that she was feeling cold. Harvey mentally slapped himself for not bringing anything extra for her to wear so that she wouldnt feel cold, he was about to suggest something when Brodie suggested that she go inside. He looked at Taylor to see if she wanted to go inside too, cause if she did he wouldnt mind of course. He was standing there when he felt a strange vibration under his feet wondering where that was coming from, was it an earthquake? it was pretty unusual to have them in Britain but he guessed it was still possible.

Tay pouted, "But I just came out... I havent seen Harvs in ages!" Taylor looked up at Brodie and kissed him lightly, "Though inside sounds lovely." She glanced at Harvs, "Would you join us if we go inside?" Tay giggled, "You were suppose to keep dancing and not fall when I let go."Taylor teased Harvey and smiled until she felt vibrations and heard neighs. She buried into Brodie some more and looked around, trying to find out where it was coming from.

What was what who what where--

Forrest tried to speak a few times. He did his best, really best, to speak, but it didn't happen for quite a while. So he just kept looking there with mouth open for a full minute after the... things left, and when he found his voice, it wasn't to answer Kace's question. Who cared what boring stuff he had been saying when things passed like that?

And just HOW COME Kace wasn't moved by those things AT ALL? Was he--Forrest gasped and looked at the other boy horror-faced--was he related to them?!

Frankly, anything was happen in this world.

"Ho--ho' do you know them?" he asked as his face went its palest.

He listened as Taylor said that she had only just come out and hadnt seen him in ages, which made him smile cause he hadnt seen her either and it felt good to hang out like a normal guy hanging out with his friends. He had to look away as Taylor kissed Brodie again, he wasnt ready for that just yet. He listened as Taylor asked him if he would join them "Only if you want me to, I mean if you guys wanna be alone I would understand" he said honestly cause he knew how it was for couples who wanted to be alone. He chuckled "How was I supposed to know that? I thought you were going to keep dancing with me by holding my hand." he said before carrying on "Then I lost my balance as you let go suddenly and I wasnt ready to be let go of" he said nodding before he saw her bury herself in Brodie's arms as the vibrations were felt throughout the grounds.

Kace was hoping Forrest was alright. He seemed a bit pale. Maybe he should take him to the hospital wing.

He asked if he knew them? Ahahahaah nope. He did not. "Nooo i do not. I am just think they are pretty cool to see up close." Kace motioned toward the centaurs. "I am guessing you aren't that excited to see a magical creature like centaurs up close?" he asked with a hunch.

for Astronomy Lesson 3
 

It was a bit cold, y'know. Cold enough so that Ella scooted closer to Alec and rested her head on his arm as she scanned the sky for Polaris. It wasn't too cold for ice cream, though. She was still craving that. Why is it they couldn't have ice cream in class again? Frown.

"Usually, yeah." That's just how Ella had practiced finding Polaris and she had yet to change her method. "You usually do something different?" Cause she wouldn't mind trying it his way, y'know. Alec ways were almost surely better than Ella ways.

So that was Polaris, then? BEAM! And now Alec was pointing too. The sixteen year old tilted her head and nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! That's it!" Which meant it was sextant time, yeah?

The blonde got a hold of hers and moved it so that she could get an accurate measurement. Or well...as accurate as she could considering she'd never used the thing before today's lesson.

Brow furrowed, she tilted her head and announced, "I got seventy this time." For the sextant angle, that is. "So I guess that means the latitude for my reading would be twenty." Cause 90-70 was 20 and yeah...seemed legit. The blonde quickly scribbled that down in her notes before turning her attention back to Alec.

"What did you get?"

Astronomy Lesson 3 Activity|Spell
 

She didn't really know did she go to the whomping willow but she did. She had one last thing to do. The Polaris system. She checked her watch and saw that she did't have much time left. But that wasn't bad because she her notes were ready for the other ones. She now just needed to be done with this. And this included using the spell. When she got to the crazytree, she plopped down on the ground and retrieved her textbook and started flipping through the pages. She of course was searching for the Eye Focusing charm. She needed to revive her own memory about it. Once she found it, she reread what was written then put the textbook aside.

Reaching for her wand, Cassia sat cross-legged and looked up at the sky. It was getting late and she needed to hurry up. After losing her eyes for a couple of moments, the snake tapped her eyelids uttering,"Oculo Focalis," And her eyes worked like a microscope.

She started looking around trying to get used to the charm. It'll take just a bit then she'll start looking for the Polaris family.

She looked down at the grass AND WAS THAT AN ANT! It looked scary close up. The blond scrambled to her feet and started walking slowly. Which was awkward with everything closeup!

Blink.Blink.Blink.

He didn't? Forrest blinked at him and relaxed a little. Just a tiny bit. His limbs felt dead as adrenaline slowly left his body. Good thing he was sitting down. Even his arms turned jelly. Wow. That was close, wasn't it?

So centaurs. That was their name. He repeated it in his mind to avoid them AT ALL COSTS. Really. How come Kace was so composed?! Well, he didn't buy it, okay? He didn't buy that Kace didn't know them. Because they were CERTAINLY NOT COOL AT ALL to see up close.

Came to see a tree smacking people, was treated with horse-man-thingies nearly killing him. SUCH LUCK HE HAD!

"No, I'm not pleased AT. ALL." He breathed. "Why were they running anyway?"

Astronomy Lesson 3 Activity|Spell
 

The fourth-year kept blinking and looking around trying to get used to the charm's effect but was that even possible . Seeing everything close-up is something you just either marvel or wrinkle your nose at. Depends on the thing you're seeing of course. Like for example the whomping willow was awfully scary. So the snake turned her head away and decided that it was time to start looking for Polaris and the other two. Or more accurately, Polaris A, Polaris B and Polaris Ab. Mhhmm. She had checked them when she was flipping the pages in search of the charm. Because she knew it'd be hard to look at the textbook while her eyes were seeing everything super close.

Now, to the sky she looked up. She predicted that finding the stars like that would be easier. Waay easier. But it first it was awkward seeing the sky like that. Not hard just different. She probably should have been making sure to get used to the sky's view instead of surroundings, hopefully she'd be able to be done before the deadline. No she had to! Closing her eyes for a split second then opened them. And so the serious search for Polaris had started.

Not surprisingly, she was able to find big dipper easily and like two seconds later she found Polaris A. So much easier. Now to find the other two. She kept looking closely around Polaris and viola that was Polaris Ab. Small and close to Polaris A just like the picture Professor Flamsteed showed them. As for Polaris B she knew that this one was further from the two other Polaris. And so she let her eyes trail off and search the area around. Minutes later Cassia located Polaris B. she looked from it to Polaris A and remembered the other picture Flamsteed had shown them. Then she was good and done.

Time to get back. She reached for her wand and tapped her eyelids muttering ,"Finite," and her sight was back to normal. Her eyes did burn a little bit but it was nothing she couldn't tolerate. Cassia retrieved the parchment and started scribbling the notes.

Folding the parchment neatly then slinging the bag over her shoulder , she held the sextant firmly then took off towards the classroom. She got less than ten minutes to get back to class.

Post #8; Astronomy Lesson 3
 

She was doing that moving closer thing, Ells was. And Alec didn't mind at all because it meant that he could just wrap his arms around the girl, which he ended up doing. This... was nice, actually. Really really nice. Could they stay out here for a little longer or...?

Probably not.

"Oh! It's an interesting method..." And it looked like it had worked too because they had found the Big Dipper! As for his methods... "Yeah! I usually find Cassiopeia first and then go from the top middle point of the 'W' and... yeah..." Did all of that make sense? It kind of did to him.

But it didn't look as if either methods mattered because they had still managed to find the Big and Little Dippers, which Ells confirmed. "Awesome!" he said, grinning up at the sky. ... And... there was Polaris too! Right over THERE! Point point.

He set up the sextant object and peeked through towards the horizon. There. He held down on the clamp and, some small adjustments later, Polaris was lined up with the horizon. The clamp was released and he tilted his head to read off the angle. Okay... note taking and calculations time, right?

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

Quote:

Latitude = 90 degrees - sextant angle Latitude = 90 - 38 Latitude = 52

BLINK. Alec looked up from his piece of parchment as soon as he had finished scribbling in the '2'. She had gotten 20 for her latitude? "Yeah? I got 52 for the latitude," he said, stealing a quick glance at his parchment before looking up again, "Is it meant to be far off?"

Astronomy 3: Post 1.
 

.........And for their next stop, Dylan had decided on the Whomping Willow. Why not, right? It was an ancient tree with flaily branches that could knock them out...if they got too close. In other words, one of the Slytherin's favorite places on the grounds.

Smirkety smirk.

Also, the charm had defo lost it's power as he, once again, went to look up. So...taking a moment, Dylan whipped out his wand to remedy the situation. With a slight wave and gentle tap to his eyelids (and the muttered incantation), he was immediately back in business...And then he was blinking a few times. His eyes felt dry and itchy...Meh.

Gazing up for the umpteenth time, the Slytherin sought out Draco...Dragon, dragon....It was his favorite constellation...Hmm...and then, of course, Ursa Minor was right there with Draco...So, it wasn't hard at all to spot the Little Dipper with Draco arched over it in a way...

Right. Polaris. There you are!

astro3-1
 

Mirrors were cool. Just to be different this time West looked through the sextant and moved it around looking for Polaris rather than spotting Polaris first and then looking through it after. It was harder that way. His normal way was faster but West was bored so why not?

West looked for the Big Dipper, found it, and then measured up from the pointer stars. There we go. 'sup Polaris. He double checked by lining up with the ickle one and yeah. He knew it was Polaris just fooling around now because he was bored.

And now to get the angles and whatnot.

Astronomy 3: Post 2.
 

Merlin, this was getting repetitive.

As Dylan continued to look up and eye the North Star, he fumbled with the sextant. It was a weird weight in his hand, too. Not at all like a snitch...but like something else that he couldn't rightfully place or remember.

Weeeeeeeeird.

Lifting the metal object in his hand...for hopefully the last time, he went about getting the mirrors into place. He was aiming out towards the Black Lake...and the Hogwartian-skyline...and then he was making adjustments. Dylan went ahead and pushed that blasted clamp down...and waited to catch sight of the North Star through it's lens.....It took less time than all those previous as it came into view through the lens.

CLAMP!RELEASE!

Making mooooooore adjustments....

"Do you feel like this was a ploy to get us out of the classroom?" If Professor Flamsteed wanted to spend time with Professor Romanos....or Professor Elwood....the elaborate assignment hadn't been necessary. Dylan knew how it was...Chicks bewitched the mind...

Meh.

Looking at the numbered-dial...he seen this one had measured at 22 degrees.


Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

"Done."

astro3-2
 

It wasn't as if West minded being outside, or even doing astronomy stuff, it was just that in general... stuff was weighing heavy on his mind lately in all the good ways and distracting him like woah, so for anything to actually catch his attention it had to be something epic.

This wasn't epic, this was like.... routine. Lining up with the horizon, West went ahead and squeezed the clamp and then adjusted the sextant to bring Polaris down to the horizon. Or seemingly so. Actually it was just the mirrors what made it seem that way. Polaris didn't really move. He released the clamps, checked and checked again by swinging, and then went ahead and marked the next angle down.

Oh hmm what? Did Dylan say things? West looked at him. "Flammy has no game you know."

And that was West's entire contribution to the conversation. "Done." He agreed and then led the way off to the last location. One more task.

They wouldn't hurt him? They wouldn't hurt him?! "How do YOU know for sure?" Kace, Kace, Kace; he knew far too many things about them. Could it really be from books and whatnot? Then how come Forrest himself hadn't heard of them before? Too many questions. He didn't like questions.

"So they listen to groundskeeper?" Well, that was relieving. He looked around for a moment before turning to look at centaur-knowing Kace alarmingly. "I'm sure he's felt them." Who could miss how-many horse-men galloping through the grounds?!

He kissed Taylor back, "I don't mind at all if he comes, or if you want me to leave... But in this cold, Taylor we need to get you inside." He held her with the rumbling and paused, he knew that feeling, but he didn't want to scare her so he just held her. He looked to Harvey and then back down at her, "So, are we heading inside before you catch your death?" He smiled, "I know you grew up in cold winters, but you should still put more on."

Tay nodded, "I want you both to come." She smiled, "I havent seen either of you in ages and I miss you both!" Taylor beamed and then kissed Brodie again before looking to Harvey, "I cant hold on and stay with the tempo, silly." Tay giggled, "You arent suppose to hold hands during the dance but next time I dance with you, I will make sure to hold your hands throughout the whole dance." She twirled over to him and kissed Harvey's cheek, "Okay?" She smiled up at him then twirled back into Brodie's arms. "I am wearing enough clothes, thank you very much." Tay pouted and glanced down at her outfit then nodded to Brodie, "Im ready to go in whenever you two are ready to go in."

Finally replied sorry!!!
 

You can wrap up!
 

How come Forrest himself never got such feelings? He sighed. He wasn't angry with Kace anymore, his anger was directed at himself. He was never going to be brave, no matter what.

Pathetic...

"Yeah, you were right." He looked bored momentarily. Then he shrugged.

"No, this is the first time." Pause. He wanted to leave. He got up. "I think that was enough adventure." He was serious. Hogwarts might have no money, but it still had its doors for protection. "Shall we return?"

Okay i shall wrap it up :)
 

Duck Boy...
 

Minerva need to go on a walk. She need out of the castle and to clear her head. This happy and then confused state that she had been in since a certain fire situation was driving her crazy. She just wanted to be her, but it seemed she was way to happy or thinking she was crazy for being so happy. Sighing she looked around not many people were there. She looked at the tree. She had many experiences with this tree some ending worse than others. Her little game of keep away or chicken came to mind and she inched a bit closer.

Watching the tree begin to swing she wondered if she should play the game again and then shuddered thinking about if she truly got hurt someone might make her see that awful crazy healer. Deciding against it Min decided to just take a seat and watch it swing it's way around knowing she was there. Tapping her foot she wasn't sure what to do now that she was outside.