Foliage and rock in hand Ana began to walk back to her desk. It was a good thing she'd sat at the front so that she wouldn't have to walk too much further. As she rounded the desk to her seat she accidentally bumped into it and let out a hiss of pain. Ouchies. That huuuuuurt. Stupid desk corner for being in her way. She continued to pout about the pain as she sat back down on her stool, only the sight of her cute little sun making her brighten up.

The little sun that would soon have an adorable little planet joining it.

Ana placed her materials down on the table in front of her before she picked up her wand. She needed to clean the mortar and pestle as well as her scoop. They were probably clean already but one could never be too careful. "Scrougify," she said, pointing her wand at the mortar and pestle before repeating the process on her scoop. There. All clean. Time for measuring and crushing.

She carefully placed her foliage and rock into the mortar before picking up the iron and scoop once more. She meticulously measured out the two scoops of iron that she needed, making sure that all of it made it's way into the mortar before placing both objects back into their original positions.

Rock crushing time!

Ana excitedly picked up the pestle and began to grind her ingredients. The rock was being difficult but she was sure she could get it done in no time. And when she did she'd form an adorable little planet.

"Can you...?" Mo held out the goggles to Flamsteed, making hopeful faces. Because, y'know, it wasn't a simple transfiguration and Mo didn't know the charm. He really ought to teach it to himself, especially if he was going to be old and blind for the long term. "Please."

"If I had your wand, it wouldn't work for me. Unless it was now my wand, because it liked me better. So either way, it's my wand." Mo tapped his wand against the counter next to Alice, just to show it to her. His wand. "And if you could see, you'd know that."

Now then... where did that leave him? The mortar still held his pebble and pine branch, and Mo added the two scoops of iron powder to the small pile of organic matter. It was hard to believe that his little pestle could grind up that rock and make anything out of the foliage, but he was willing to give it a try. For science, or whatever.

He attacked the mortar with vigor, grinding at the stone and the plant with a sort of unholy glee. It was certainly hard work to chip away at that pebble, but he crumbled satisfyingly with the added grit from the iron. Mo pulled the pestle back and stared at the texture of his mess. Um... close, but not quite.

Again, he attacked with his pestle. He wondered how big the little planet would be, especially because his sun was already so small.

Once her arms had rested for about a minute or so, Penelope figured it was time to do the spell and get the rest of this part over with. So she picked up her wand, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself and her mind again, focusing on the stuff in mortar becoming a little planet. A nice little planet...

"Fingere Elementi." And...wah-la! Poof! Boom! However you wanted to say it. There was a little planet.

It was promptly tossed into the box with the little sun, and then the top was closed. She even stood a little and leaned her weight onto her hand a bit more just to make sure it was tightly closed.

There. Done? Done.

And now she wanted to sleep, so hopefully this would be over soon.

Ben almost closed the lid and confined his little universe for the time being. Yet the professor man had just caught his attention when he spoke up once more, normal tone thankfully. They still had time to work on what they were doing AND were allowed to have more than one planet. The second year glanced between the table where the supplies still lay and his glass jar as if trying to make a decision on what he should do. Be finished...or try again? Move...or stay put until they were dismissed from the lesson?

Finally the decision was made and he got back up to his feet with some effort. Curiosity was getting the better of him and he wondered what might develop the second time around. So after taking a piece of foliage and a stone of a different color and shape of the previous one in an attempt at contrast, Ben returned to his seat once more. Setting down as best he could, the Gryffindor set about scooping up some iron into the mortar, adding what he had brought back with him and crushing it all up once more.

Second planet on its way.

Once again, Mo pulled out the pestle and peered at the ground up contents in his mortar. It looked about right... all finely ground and evenly textured. No outstanding chunks of rock or foliage stuff anywhere in his planet mix. Mo carefully removed the pestle and cleaned it before setting it to the side. So now what?

At least he was already proficient at this spell, considering he'd used it to make a sun. Come to think of it, he'd assumed it did some sort of chemical reaction on the helium and hydrogen to make the tiny sun, but obviously the chemical reaction on iron and... other things... was going to be entirely different. So it wasn't linked to a specific chemical reaction, was it? How could the same spell make entirely different ingredients do entirely different things?

It was a mystery.

Mo pointed his wand at the mortar and spoke the incantation clearly, "Fingere Elementi." There didn't seem to be a burst of light this time, but the end result was the same. From a mixture of ingredients, Mo know had a perfect little planetoid object. Quickly, he shifted the planet into his glass box and snapped the lid shut. Now that he had a sun AND a planet, that basically meant he had a solar system, right? Even if his planet was sort of just spinning in place and had not yet caught up the sun's gravity.

Should they name their solar systems? Hmm?

Ana crushed and crushed and crushed the contents of her mortar but the rock was being stubborn and her wrist was starting to hurt from the motion. This is where being ambidextrous would come in handy. Too bad she wasn't. With a pout she kept up her crushing until finally even the rock was a fine powder.

Taking the pestle out she eyed the contents of her mortar before deciding she was satisfied with everything. She was glad it was finally done as her wrist was aching. Putting the pestle down she massaged her wrist with her other hand for a few minutes until it started to feel better. Not great, but better.

Right, now she just had to cast the same spell again. What was that though? She couldn't remember. Luckily she had her notes so she looked through them until she found what she wrote down. Fingere Elementi. Right. How could she have forgotten that?

Picking up her wand for the final time Ana turned it on the crushed mass that would soon become her very own planet. Her first one. "Fingere Elementi," she cast again before holstering her wand and looking at the contents in anticipation.

It took a few seconds but all the finely ground material came together into a swirled looking mass. It was sooo adorable. She couldn't wait to make more of them.

Picking it up gently she carefully dropped it into the box with her sun. Not too close, but not too far away either. It already looked pretty Ana decided as she placed the lid on the box, making sure it was on tightly. This had been the best class ever.

"Don't use your Ravenclaw logic to convince me that you're innocent of this thievery." Alice waved her pestle at him in a reprimanding manner, completely unaware that she was facing the other way again. Brilliant way to prove her point, that was.

After giving the air on the other side of her more serious looks, she turned back to her mortar and felt around for where she'd last left the iron. That was it, right? She had to do a bit more station searching for the scoop, and then the seventh year dumped two heaping lumps of the stuff into the grinding bowl (most of which landed inside! Woohoo!).

And then she attacked her materials. Alice chipped away at her stone with vigor, which soon disappeared and was replaced by a sort of exhausted mashing arm movement. Why did she feel so tired all of a sudden? Crushed up her materials into a gritty mixture took her far longer than it did the other students, but soon, her mess of a concoction was all even.

... now where had she put her wand again?

Alexa spent Merlin knows just how long staring at the powder after she'd gotten it crushed. There was a spell she was meant to say and she'd JUST cast it like TWO SECONDS AGO. How was it even possible to go forgetting something like that?? Ugh. It took several moments of blinking and finally hearing the person next to her cast before the lightbulb went off in her head again and she raised her wand.

Oh right!

"Fingere Elementi!"

Lex watched carefully as the reaction began taking place before her eyes. The wonders of Astronomy at work. Was it any question why this was her favourite subject next to DADA? So fascinating. She didn't take her eyes off it, not even after it was all over and she now had a little planet that could start revolving around her sun.

Hehe, look at it trying to orbit....or...no...okay no she had no idea what it was trying to do and it looked kinda funny. Like the type of thing that gets little planet teased when they go to the playground up in the vast dark world that is space. No planet of hers would get bullied for spastic movement!

Lex almost flicked it to behave but then she remembered she was meant to add it to the box. In you go. And an extra minute making sure that the box's lid was SO TIGHTLY SHUT that the thing didn't have a chance of escaping, even if it decided the sun inside her box was a jerk and it couldn't stay there anymore for fear of suffering some kind of psychotic break. Planets could be so complicated sometimes.

Crushing was a lot of fun, even when her frail little arms ached from the effort, but not when there was nothing left to grind. When Alice peered into her mortar, all that remained inside was a bunch of evenly textured planet mix. There weren't any prominent stone chunks or flower petals anywhere in her concoction, so she removed the pestle and cleaned it, a slight sadness tainting her expression.

But that was before she remembered that there was more than one planet in a solar system, and she could whack more stones later. Then it was okay.

She didn't bother cleaning off her materials since they were going to be used again very soon. Instead, Alice began hunting for her wand once more, just about to accuse Mo of it again when her fingers found it. Heh. At least she hadn't forgotten the spell, right?

"Fingere Elementi." Her elbow popped again as a result of the forceful jab, but she was to immersed in the reactions occurring to take notice. She herded the little planet into the her glass box, snapping the lid shut and taking a moment to examine it properly. What an interesting spell this 'phase shifter' was. Quite odd how one spell could cause unalike things to happen to unalike substances, but her exhausted mind couldn't consider it for long.

The seventh year observed, enthralled, as the tiny object spun in place. Its small, jagged movements made it clear that it hadn't entered her Sun's gravitational field yet, but maybe it would soon. Maybe. How could she make it do that?

It would also be cool to make another planet, but... getting up. Her dead legs said no.

Okaay. So she had all of her stuff now. So she kinda of just needed to crush it all together. Opening the container of iron she scooped two scoops of it into her mortar. The iron was a weird color. But it was in her mortar. Now she just had to add the other stuff, and smash it all together. That seemed okay! She liked smashing things. She did want to be a beater after all. Carefully she added the pieces of foliage and the small stone into the mortar before she started to smash it all together.

Smashh Shamshhh Smashhh. Although it was kind of hurting her arms. Her arms were hurting recently. Like aching and stuff. It wasn't good. But she was finished all her grinding and stuff now, so she was doing okay. She peered in, to make sure that all of the stuff was mashed together. Yupp. It all nice and mashed together now.

Noww. She just had to do the spell. But first she wanted a little rest. She was tiredd. Was it nap time soon?

Alright. It was time to create a planet.

... And Delilah was probably panicking a little. 'Cause what if she couldn't do it? It was times like these she wished she could listen to music, you know? To calm her nerves. Anyway. Deep breaths.

The girl picked up her wand and jabbed it at the contents of the mortar. "Fingere Elementi.".... OH! A planet! She'd just made a planet. She stared in wonder at it for a moment before she suddenly remembered what the professor had said. Oops! The girl quickly added it to the box with the sun and shut it tight. No escaping, heh.

... And Delilah continued to stare at it. She was fascinated, to say the least.

The whistling died down to a hum and eventually silent working replaced all other sounds coming from the young old man. Once all that remained inside of Cutty's mortar had been crushed and ground into a find powder, the boy carried them over to the glass box, lifted the lid and with a jab of his wand, he said, "Fingere Elementi!".

The area immediately surrounding went awash with light as the materials fused in order to produce the tiny planet. Only, this one was larger, Cutty thought, larger than the last he'd produced. He looked upon it dizzily moving about with his sun and afore made planet. It did indeed look larger. Larger and greener. He shut the lid tightly after his last planet was made not wanting it or the heavenly bodies before it to find an avenue for escape.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lemon

"Are our planets going to orbit our Sun in the order that we make them, sir?"

Thankfully his good ear was directed towards Miss Fischer when she spoke, otherwise there could have been some terrible misinterpreting as to what she had just asked him. Terrible and awkward. Really awkward.

"Theoretically, yes," he nodded. "However, the actual order will depend on how and where you drop your swirling balls into the case. You do have some control over the placement, but the orbit will be established somewhat organically."

Organically. Heh. That was one of his favorite words these days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

"Can you...?" Mo held out the goggles to Flamsteed, making hopeful faces. Because, y'know, it wasn't a simple transfiguration and Mo didn't know the charm. He really ought to teach it to himself, especially if he was going to be old and blind for the long term. "Please."

Now, Mr. Branxton on the other had had been talking to his bad ear when he had said 'can you,' so that part was entirely missed by the astronomer. The please was another story, however. Although it did take him a moment to figure out what all the boy meant by that.

Oh yes. His goggles.

"VERY WELL," he replied, slightly raising his voice by pure coincidence. "If you don't mind my borrowing your glasses..." Which wasn't really a request as much as it was a statement that he WAS going to borrow them. Wand out, he began to trace around the rim of one of the lens. "Aprotraphones," he muttered as a ball of blue light collected at the tip of his wand. Wand pointed to the goggles now, he gave them a tap. "Pronettes."

The light appeared to paint a thin coat over the front of the goggles and gave them an almost glassy sheen.

"That should do it, Mr. Branxton." And the astronomer was sorry for snapping at him, but wasn't about to admit it.

His blue - although they were turning the slightest hint of grey these days - eyes looked back at his wand, but then noticed the time on his sundial watch.

"OH SWEET SOLSTICE, LOOK AT THE TIME!" he said while waving his cane about in the air. Woah, watch out there Mr. Branxton and Miss Fisher. "I am afraid we are running out of time for today. My hope is that you will all leave here today having completed a Sun and at least one planet. Once you have done this, you will see a label on your station with your name, house, and year. You will need to leave your Solar Systems in your glass boxes overnight here in the astrophysics laboratory and, starting tomorrow, you can come back to and continue to add more planets and moons to those planets if you wish. For moons, you will need to just grind up a small stone and some iron. No cheese." HAR HAR, he made himself laugh. And snort. And perhaps another bodily function that went along with cheese. Cutting it, actually. "By the time of our next lesson you will need 5 planets made. Further details for this will be posted on my announcement board later today."

Assuming he remembered that is. Quite likely to forget.

"If you have already finished making your Sun and a planet, you are free to pack up your things, clean up your station, and may be dismissed."

OOC: you still have some time to finish RPing both activities, so no need to get all dkfgdjglgdjlfsj OMG THREAD GONNA CLOSE SOON! I will be leaving it open for another 10 hours or so before I close it. You can still interact with each other or Professor Flamsteed if you like until then - as long as you are staying on task

Homework will be posted in Sky News following the official closing of the lesson, so please be sure to check there and post it on your own house noticeboard once it is up

Thank you all for your participation and creative RPing <3

So, Adi was done making his one planet. He was feeling rather tired, hungry and worn out from the achy knees so he decided against making another planet. Instead, he slapped on the label onto his glass box, cleaned up the table he had been using and re packed his stuff in his bag. He also returned the lab coat and goggles to the closet. "Ready to go, Benny?'' the Puffer asked. As he waited on his friend, he went over to Professor Airey.

"Great lesson, grumpy old man Professor! Even a more fun activity. See you next time. And thanks for the minus five points.'' Adi grinned and hurriedly shuffled out of the room to wait for Benny. Didn't want the man to think he was being sarcastic or anything and want to take another five points from him.

Powder done once more, Benny retrieved his wand from his pocket. The boy having stashed it there for lack of a better place to have it. The table offered too many hiding places for it to disappear in. "Fingere Elementi!" he cast, giving a jab at the second batch of planet dust.

Nothing really happened this time around. Guess his luck was out again. The Gryffindor focused himself to try again, finally aiming at the mortar once more. "Fingere Elementi!" He was greeted with another neatly formed orb, smaller then both his sun and its companion planet. Success!

His moment was distracted as Adi called his name, only then registering the professor had ended to the class. "Yep...yep," Ben answered, depositing the second planet in with the rest and securing the cover of the jar tightly. Cleaning up, the second year took of his protective gear before getting his stuff and following his friend out of the lab.

Nigel was watching his personally made planet go around his sun. This is pretty awesome. Nigel could already guess the homework and was not surprised when Flamsteed said it.

Alright, Time to leave. Nigel made sure the box was locked tight, cleaned up his station, and regrettably took off his embroidered coat and awesome goggles. Time to gather all his things. Nigel had an idea of all the jokes he was going to give Flamsteed at the end of the week. Like, Why did the sun go to school?

To get brighter!

See they were getting worse. Soooo bad. And he had a lot more to write down. They can always get worse"See you around Professor"

Yes this will be fun.

Okaay. So she had gotten her three things for her planet. She had crushed and smahsed and made it all look good. And now she just had to perform the spell. And she had her planet. That made Grace happy. She liked having planets. they looked really cool. She hoped she would be able to make the second planet, so that her sun wouldn't be lonely. She spent a few moments, to collect herself so that she would be able to do the spell. She was feeling really tired now, so she was hoping to do it on the first attempt. She'd already done the spell once, and it had worked. So she was pretty sure that she would be able to do it.

After having collected her thoughts for a few minutes, Grace decided that she needed to do the spell now. Smiling she jabbed at her mortar, whilst saying "Fingere Elementi!" Grace prayed that it worked. And it did. Yaaay. It worked. She had two nice things in her glass box. Her planet. And her Sun. And she was happy. Grabbing her quill she quickly wrote her name onto her station, so that everyone would know that it was hers. She wrote her year and house too. And she done. Grace put all her things together, before leaving the room. She couldn't wait to go and make her other planets!

After taking a few moments to admire his sun, Theo got a little behind on the next part of the activity. Planets, TOO? It seemed to be a bit more complicated this time around, though, but Theo was sure he could do it because this was COOL and he really wanted to do it. He got up to retrieve a piece of foliage and one stone, then he returned to his working station.

Ahhhh, mortar work. Theo loved using mortars to crush things. It was therapeutic.

Theo popped both items into his mortar then scratched his head to try and remember what the professor said came next. Was it more hydrogen? He looked around the class to see what everyone else was doing before he continued. Better to be safe than sorry.

She totally wasn't behind. NOPE!

Well, maybe just a little bit. But there was still time and she still could finish making her planet. Or you know, starting. She might have gotten a bit distracted watching the others and seeing how they were doing. But yeah, it was time now for her to start! Most of the others have finished and were packing to leave class. What! Wait for her!

The snake went to get foliage and a stone as instructed. She wanted to take her time choosing but she didn't have the luxury to do so. And it didn't look like they were different from each other, anyway. Or perhaps she didn't get to see the difference.

Back at her station, she glanced at the notes she scribbled to see what she had to do next. Iron! Her eyes scanned the jars until they found the one she needed. And two scoops added. Seemed easy so far.

Awesome.. Bay was glad that class was over.. he really needed that nap.. "Thanks Professor for the awesome lesson" he said while putting away his notes and quill.. then he needed to clean up his work station… making sure everything was in its place and not even a spec of dust was left over… making sure his name was on the glass box.. he patted the top to make sure it was closed securely and slung his backpack over his shoulder..

"See you next class" he told the professor while making his way out the door…. Yes… nap time now… can't wait to get into my warm comfy bed.

THAT STUFF.

Whatever that was. Iron? Yes, that was what Professor Flamsteed had said. Add two scoops of iron to the mortar. Easy peasy. Theo cleaned the spoon that he used earlier and carefully added two scoops of the powdered stuff. Once that was done, he placed the spoon down and picked up the pestle to crush it all together.

Crush, crush, crushhhhhhhhhing.

Okay, the stone wasn't quite crushing as easily as he had hoped. Theo held the pestle with both hands and THUMPED the stone about four times. It cracked, which made it easier to crush down. See, these muscles did him good sometimes. Wait, ALL of the time. After everything was meshed together, Theo cleared his throat and prepped himself for more wand flicking.

She put the iron jar aside. Those chemicals weren't safe, everyone knew that. And she didn't want anything to explode near her or whatever those stuff did to happen next to her. So away from her went the jar. And onto the next step. According to her notes that were written in a hasty moment, it was time to use both the mortar and pestle. Almost like potions, eh? Just a little bit.

Slowly, she started crushing the foliage and trying her best to mix it with the iron. Then it was time to crack the stone. She gripped her pestle and readied herself then...THUCK! That was easier than she estimated.

And more grinding now that the stone was bits and pieces and easier to grind and crush. She switched the mortar to the other hand after a little while. She needed to keep going until it was a fiiiine powder. She could do that.

Theo just had to keep telling himself that he had done this spell before and nothing had exploded. He only did it 10 minutes ago, so he had no doubt that he could do it again. Breaaaaaaaaaaaathe. He pulled out his wand and did a few wrist exercises before attempting anything. Fingere Elementi, was the incantation, right? And JAB, JAB, JAB.

Do NOT forget the jab.

"Fingere Elementi." He closed his eyes and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Fingere Elementi. Fingere Elementi." Okay, that was enough. He pointed his wand to his mixture of stuff, jabbed his wand sharply and said clearly, "Fingere Elementi!" There was that scary bright light, which made Theo jump yet again. It worked, though. The mix turned itself into a very passable planet. Theo gave his wand a flick in the direction of his planet, motioning it inside his glass box with his sun.

He closed it quickly and then pressed his face close to observe it. Looooooook at that, he was such a good wizard. Now, was it gonna do the orbit thing, orrrrr?

Once the three items were a fine powder, Cassia put down the pestle and flexed her fingers. That wasn't that hard but her hand wasn't used to that kind of job. She'd recover quickly, though, she didn't worry about that. She, after all, was young and healthy. Thank Merlin for that. Was there wood to touch here?

She needed to finish making her planet, however so she redirected her attention to the powder she had just finished crushing. She carried the mortar then added the powder into the glass box where her sun was.

Pulling out her wand, she repeated the incantation practicing then turned her concentration on the glass box.

"Fingere Elementi!" she uttered moving her wand in the direction of the box. And voila! A planet formed right next to her sun. That was fun.

She let herself watch it for a bit, although it did nothing interesting, then closed the lid tightly. Both her planet and sun were safe in now.

Okaaaaaay, still no orbiting. Theo soon got bored of watching it closely, so he decided to call it a day. Gosh, this had to be the most fun Astronomy class he had attended in forever. "Laters, Professor." He said quietly. The old guy probably didn't even hear him. After making sure his label at his station was all correct, he took off his goggles and lab coat and put it away neatly.

Theo grabbed his stuff and left the classroom. Maybe he WOULD return tomorrow to have a go at more planets and a moon. He would have to check his booming schedule, of course.