"Then it could be like the pluto of your solar system" Nine Planets for almost seventy years and then suddenly Pluto was kicked out of the special club. Shame. Nigel picked up the the last stone, added it into the mortar with the last of his foliage and the required two scoops.

"Fingere Elementi"

There is last planet. He threw it into the box and shut the lid watching them spin around for a while. Pretty Awesome if Nigel did say so himself. Which he did. Genius...did Mo get the ring thing to work. Nigel looked up and over at his box. Would you look at that. "Mad Genius is what that was. I will make a mental note."

He was too lazy right now to bring out parchment. Hmm....naming his planets. He never thought about that. Well they do need a name after all. "Well Pluto will be one of them, Asteroidea will be another of course, and maybe the last one will be named Bob. Why not name a planet Bob."

To her surprise a small, tiny planet formed. Her sight was horrible, but she did notices its grey-ish hue. Mercury maybe? She set it inside the jar. Like the first planet, its hovering was jagged and messy, but it began to obit around the sun as if it knew that's what it was supposed to do. The first planet was doing smoothly, she hoped Mercury there wouldn't smash into it.

For the next planet now. Beverly tapped her chin at the selection in front of her. The first planet she'd created was bigger than Mercury with somewhat of an orange/red tone to it. It had to be Jupiter. Hoorah! For this next one, then, some foliage and a greenish stone. It was pretty, Bev wanted to keep it, but...planets. Homework. House points.

Repeating the process from before, she braved through grinding and then cast the spell. "Fingere Elementi!" The powder gathered into a little ball. In moments, another planet hovered over her hand. She placed it inside the jar, and like Mercury, it was making jerky moves. Sigh. No crashing, yeah?

OOC: Forgot she'd already made one planet during class. Added it here. :|||

Marigold grinned as she turned away from Chocka and got ready to make another planet. She grabbed the foliage and stone needed - this stone was oblong - and put it into her mortar. She pestled it - was that a verb - whichever, she ground it into a powder, watching Gaea and Chocka orbit around in her jar. She added her two scoops of iron.

Taking a deep breath, she waved her wand. "Fingere Elementi!"

Eh? Eh?

Neh, apparently. She pouted for a second, then tried again, imagining a sun forming. Fingere Elementi!"

AND THERE WAS A SUN STAR THING. She quickly put it into the jar, where Chocka and Gaea changed their orbits to be around the Sun.

Hmm..... a name.... Aurelie. It meant golden, of course.

Bart made his way up to the Astronomy Tower and looked around. He beat Brynny here? Where was his best friend? It was kind of their thing to do Astronomy homework. Well while he was waiting for her to get there, the second year figured he could go and get his materials. Was his sun even there? Oh wait did it even work last time? As he shuffled his feet over to the started solar systems the boy found his jar. Nope it wasn't still working. So he would have to start over, great!

Shuffling back over to a work station he pulled out his notes on the process of working on it. Well first thing was first. Grabbing his goggles he placed them on and adjusted so he could see. Now to try and get his sun working again. He shuffled up and scooped one scoop of powdered Helium and then added 5 scoops of powdered Hydrogen.

Moving back to his station he grabbed his wand and jabbed it into the jar, "Fingere Elementi" Nothing happened, "Fingere Elementi" Still nothing the boy started to get frustrated. "Fingere Elementi"


BAAM

He blinked and wiped off his face. Well that wasn't suppose to happen now was it.

"I would prefer not to have an unwanted planet. Imagine how it will impact its self esteem," Mo poured the contents of his final mortar into the box and once again cast the spell. "Fingere Elementi."

The last planet formed in the box, spinning into a solid sphere, and THAT was Mo's last planet. He added it in with the other planets, watching as they wobbled into place. Most of them hadn't picked up an orbit yet, but they would arrange themselves soon enough.

"Mad, yes. I told you we were all mad. And yes, Bob is the perfect name for a planet. I'm surprised you didn't add a Steve and a Bill. I think I'll go with something a little more pedantic. Color names as identifiers. The blue one can be Cobalt, or maybe Cerulean."

He watched the planets a moment longer before deciding, "I think we're done here. You want to go grab a snack?"

Astronomy was so not her thing. Brynn knew it but she was pretty sure Bart did not know it. Sure, let him think she was good at it and of course she would be doing homework with him. He was totally better than her and she could get by with him thinking she was helping him when in reality it was the other way around.

Taking the trek down the seventh floor corridor and up into the astronomy tower, Brynn poked her head into a room she was pretty sure was the astrophysics lab. Not that she had ever been there before. But there was Bart so she had to be correct since she was meeting him there.

She was just about to open her mouth to say hi or something when she was cut off with a loud BANG. "Is that what we're supposed to do?" she asked Bart as she set her things down. Ugh. Brynn wasn't so sure she wanted anything exploding in her face. Pulling out her notebook, she flipped to her notes to see what they needed to do, then made her way over to the supply table to gather the necessary ingredients.

So it exploded that wasn't suppose to happen, but he couldn't not admire how cool it was to explode things. It was a great thing. Just as he was going to shove his wand back into jabbing position he heard a voice. Turning he saw best friend walking over. "Nah, but it was cool wasn't it? It's suppose to make the sun, but I struggled with it in class too. I think I'll get it on the next try though." He was sure of it really. Watching as she headed to get her things he looked back down. "Hey grab me a stone while you are up there." He thought he had everything else from the table.

Looking down at the jar he needed to get this dumb sun to work. The rest of the planets needed to be made, but no sun no solar system. So jabbing his wand again, "Fingere Elementi" He watched and squinted. IT WORKED!! "See I told you it would work." He watched his son for a moment, before setting it aside. Planet time.

He tossed some foilage and two scoops of iron into his mortar. Oh wait he needed the stone, Brynny heard him ask for one, right? He really didn't want to have to walk and get one. Looking up he watched as she gathered her things.

Three planets. That was good progress. Except for their orbiting bit. Mercury almost collided with - what she concluded - Earth, which had settled between Jupiter and an intoxicated Mercury. It was like babysitting. If she tore her eyes away one of them was going to start fighting and then end up crying. In this case, a pile of broken planet dust.

She didn't let that stop her, though. There were more planets to create. Once again, she piled a bit of foliage - something like what used to be grass or leaves, whatever - and a smooth, flat stone with shades that made it seem it had purposely been designed to look like an eye. Adding iron into the mix and with scowl on her forehead, she began to grind.

So. Not. Cool. If muscles could cry, hers would be crying rivers.

With a wince, she finished crushing the ingredients. She was going to need and hot/cold patch. All over her body. Not noticing anything different, Beverly placed it inside the jar with the other planets. It was only when she straightened out Mercury - it almost collided with the sun - that she noticed the new yellowish planet was different than the others. Squinting her eyes, she almost squee'd in delight at the rings around it. SHE KNEW THAT ONE. Saturn. SHE MADE A SATURN.

Snickering under breath Beverly gave a single fist bump in the air. Not even intending for that planet. How cool was THAT? And look it its rings!!!

Thankfully Brynn had carried her notebook with her to the supply table or else she would forget what she needed. Putting on her goggles, she glanced over her shoulder at Bart. "Yeah, I guess," she shrugged. "As long as it doesn't go all over my face like that.." She was pretty sure the sun was supposed to stay intact anyway.

Okay, so she found the glass box she had started with from class, but obviously didn't get very far with other than the sun. At least she had that. Glancing at her notes, she saw that she had to.. pick out some foliage? Huh. Okay, Brynn picked up some leafy looking thing from one of the boxes then placed it into the mortar. Hm? Brynn glanced behind her again. "Oh, sure.." She grabbed a stone for herself to put in the mortar, then grabbed one for Bart. "Here, catch," she laughed as she pretended to toss it to him, then shuffled towards him to hand it to him.

She squinted at the bright light created by the mini sun Bart added, then gave him a grin. "Good job.. planets are next." So now they were both at the same point, but how did they differentiate between planets with the spell and materials.. or where they all just looking the same?

Bart looked up just as she was going to toss it.. SHE WAS TOSSING IT WHAT!! He Flinched and squinted. What was she thinking he couldn't see that well, but then she didn't. Now he felt really stupid. Laughing it off he took the rock as Brynny handed it to him, but reached up messing her hair a bit.

Now that he had a stone it was time to start crushing the items. With everything in his mortar he started to crush.. crush.. crush. Was it crushed enough. He looked, no maybe not. So he crushed more. Once that was done he looked at his notes. Now it was time to do the spell again. Jabbing his wand towards the powder, "Fingere Elementi" nothing.. ugh why was this so hard.

He took his wand jabbing again, "Fingere Elementi" this time a little planet formed. "Awesome I did it.. look!" He showed Brynny his planet all proud and stuff.

Rolling her eyes a bit with amusement, Brynn ran a hand through her grey hair and patted it back into place. She waited a minute to watch his progress - and maybe see exactly what she was supposed to be doing. She squinted a bit, watching him crush the rock and other stuff in the mortar. And then a spell. She watched intently.. waiting.. then grinning a bit as it finally worked. "Cool," she said, peering at his little planet. "Uh.. what do you do after that? Put it in the box with the sun?" Did it orbit on its own? She didn't know.

But she'd better get to working on hers anyway. Brynn shuffled back to her own things.. now where was she? Oh right. Two scoops of iron, she saw as she looked down at her notes. Brynn grabbed the little scooper and measured out some iron, pouring it in the mortar before repeating the same action again. And now grinding. She picked up a pestle and ground and ground the mixture until it was a relatively fine powder. "What was that spell again?" She glanced up at Bart, then thought to look in her notes. She jabbed her wand at the mixture. "Fingere Elementi." Dumb spell. Dumb class. Grumble.

He watched as Brynn started her planet and frowned a bit when it didn't work. "Don't worry Brynny you'll get it." He was sure she would. She was super smart, smarter than he was. He shuffled up to the table to get more materials and made his way back to the work area. Putting the mix back in his mortar he started crushing again. "This is so boring.. there has to be a way to crush it faster." It was so much work and his shoulder still really hurt. Crush.. Crush.. Crush..

Finally it was done and he could start with the spell. He jabbed his wand, "Fingere Elementi" Nothing happened, he grumbled and jabbed again, "Fingere Elementi" Another planet popped up. He grinned and placed it with the sun and his first planet. Putting the mixture in again he started to crush again, why was it needing crushing. ugh this was so much work for planets. Maybe his solar system could just have three planets and he cold be done. Was there a limit? He couldn't remember. Jabbing his wand, "Fingere Elementi"

BANG

UGH... really he blew up another one. He grumbled and slammed down his mortar.

She beat Alice here, Lex was almost sure of that because she hadn't seen her on the walk over from the Common Room and after sticking her head in she realized the lion wasn't in sight. Of course she could be in the closet getting herself some protective gear but what were the odds of that? Lex was early and that was the end of it.

Her first stop was the supply closet, it took some squinting but she found the coat with her name on it and shrugged it on then grabbed a pair of goggles. Those she didn't slip over her eyes yet, they could rest at the top of her head for now while she retrived the sun and the first planet she'd made and had in her box. Fingers crossed neither were dead. Think how traumatized the Gryffindor would be if she came in to two black balls floating about. There were no tears last time but she was pretty sure she would be banging at the Professor's office whining about her inability to care natural gases.

That wasn't the case though, THANKFULLY and Lex spent what might have been three minutes snuggling the jar and thanking her creations for being alive and floating. They would never understand how happy she was.

Lex placed the box back on the table and tapped her fingers impatiently against the table. Where was Alice? She was hungry and wanted to grab something to eat once they were done here. While she waited for grabbed some foliage and picked a good looking rock. The girl needed to hurry before she started crushing. This was as slow as she could go adding them to the mortar and adding two scoops of iron while she watched the door for any signs of her friend.

Anyyyyyy minute now.

Brynn frowned a bit and shrugged as Bart tried to be encouraging. "Yeah, I guess.." And she didn't really care if she did or not. Well, maybe she wanted one planet for her sun, but that could be it, really. That'd be alright. So maybe she'd try again.

She pointed her wand at the mixture then lifted her eyes to Bart as he spoke about the boredom. "I know," she grumbled. "There probably is.. I mean, isn't magic supposed to make stuff get done faster." There totally had to be a crushing/mixing spell. And he didn't get the spell on his next try either, so she tried again. "Fingere Elementi." Jab.

Oh finally. Brynn's little planet formed and she looked up to see that Bart had his done now too. "Neat!" she exclaimed as she stuck her newly formed planet in with her sun. And Bart got.. another one. Yeah, she knew he was totally better than her at this. He had two and she had one and look, he was about to get another one. Maybe she should try for another, how any were they supposed to do? Brynn pulled out another leafy thing, then jumped slightly as she was startled by another BANG. Oops.

Lex, in fact, was NOT early. Her assumption that there was a rummaging lioness in the closet had been correct. Apparently, Alice's coat had been buried under loads of other students' gear, and it was nearly impossible to find. She'd spent ages looking through the white garments already, and it was slow going with how wasted her joints were. Being old was hard, okay?

The seventh year had been so engrossed in her work that she hadn't noticed her partner enter and get her own materials. Finally, though, her coat was uncovered. Goggles were much easier to locate, and Alice was soon at her prefect's side, ready to work.

"You do know why we're working together, right?" she asked as she retrieved her box. It was because Cambridge still couldn't be trusted alone around explosions. Yes, the captain recalled that there was a big bang involved. Alexa had eyes on her for sure.

He saw her jump and couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry?" He really wasn't it was funny and he totally had to do it again at some point. Watching and seeing that she had her planet Bart grinned, "See told you. I knew you could do it." Totally knew she would be able to do it easy. He looked at his sun and two planets. Did he need anymore? Probably so he put is mixture back in the mortar and started crushing again. He felt like it was taking forever to crush. Could he be done yet?

Once it was in a powder the second year jabbed his wand again, "Fingere Elementi" the powder formed another little planet. "Cool" It was possibly getting easier. Maybe? To fully see if it was he decided to try another planet. Four planets, yes that sounded like enough. Crushing more of the mixture he wrinkled his fingers in pain. They hurt and he was going to be forced to stop soon, but look it was a powder again. "Fingere Elementi" Jab.. jab.. The planet formed again. Placing them with his sun he decided he had enough.

"How are your planets coming Brynny?"

Patience wasn't the lion's virtue. Not. At. All. Lex was growing tired of standing there just staring at the door and the noises in the closet were getting louder. Rude. Couldn't they tell she would have preferred working in relative silence? Relative because it was just them she wished would hush up.

Finally deciding her Captain was taking too long she took her pestle and got set to start crushing but Alice's voice had her hand frozen midair.

"Yeah...I know..." She said, turning to face her. Was SHE the noise in the closet? Had to be, Lex didn't see her come through the door just now and she knew for a fact that of all the aging ailments, she was least plagued by vision problems. Alice was hiding in the closet, no questions asked. "But you were taking too long doing merlin knows what in that closet and I'd like to have my stomach full within the hour." She began crushing away at the three items until there looked like powder.

Jab. "Fingere Elementi!" Just looooook at the reaction forming. Alice really wanted her to wait to get this started?? Pffft. The Gryffindor watched the planet slowly form then dropped it into the box while it was doing its oddling movements. Didn't want it getting away.

Now for more foliage and a new, decent sized rock to get the next planet started. Had to be impressive because she wanted an impressive sized planet..if it worked that way.

Okay, it seemed like today was the day chosen to keep on working on her solar system, then. But first she took the coat and the goggles, safety measures Airey makes sure no one forgets. Like Lafay, with all the cleaning. She agreed with both.

Now that she was wearing the lab coat, she went straight to where the center of her solar system (aka, the sun) was. Seemed perfect, as good as she'd left it. And the planet in there looked exactly the same. This only meant she'd be using one spell today and needed nothing else to keep the center from dying. Thanks for behaving solar system. Not that she doubted it would, but still.

As of right now, Lotus was looking at the bright center of the solar system and a deep red planet tagging along. Good. That meant she only had to make 4 more planets, then. While the Hogwartian hadn't given names to anything, she had sketched the solar system on her notes. The colors she wanted, mostly, for it'll make the next task easier if it was thought in advance. The next task being... choosing the foliage and stones and whatnot. Which she did, and took her precious time doing so. Matching colors, sigh. Overachiever.

OKAY. Second planet, here we go!

Lottie was now on the table, mortar and everything at hand, a relatively orange leave was added to the mortar, then the little stone (thank goodness it wasn't Pebbles), two scoops of iron and... the hard work begins... now. This was the annoying part, but she busied her mind quite easily and... got distracted by the bright light. You'd think the goggles would keep it from bothering one's eyes, yeah?

Was this thing a fine powder yet? No, not yet, keep going.

Okay. Marigold could just FEEEL the planet energy COURSING through her veins OH YEAH. She jogged a bit in place, grabbing some ivy plant foliage thingys - she STIL found the name "foliage" hilarious - and something that looked like a eucalyptus branch. Then the rocks. One was about the size of half her palm - so pretty big, for a rock - and the other was slightly triangular and red. Feeling satisfied for the two, she put the triangle on and ivy into her mortar. Two scoops of the iron, then HEREEEE COMES THE PESTLE!!! She did some intense step-touching while grinding up the leaves and rock, lip-synching to a song The Dead Kneazles had made a cover of. OOOH! That gave her an idea of how to name one of her planets...

Once she had finished grinding (and by that, finished singing the song), she cleared her throat and pointed her wand. "Fingere Elementi!" By this point, she decided as a planet appeared and she spun it into orbit, she was getting the hang of this. She smiled and knew JUST the name for this orangey-colored planet.

"Hello, Wespergelius!" Mmhmm, she was THAT cool. And with Chocka and Gaea and Aurelie, her solar system was starting to look pretty cool. Now for another planet.

This time to a different Dead Kneazles song, Marigold pit-patted her rock and treebranchthing into a powder. DONE. And with a flick of her wand (and a failed attempt), "Fingere Elementi!" A STAR WAS BORN. Actually a planet but shhhhhhh music.

This one was callllllled....................... Pluto. Because poor Pluto wasn't a planet. And it was small.

Once the items became a very fine powder, Lottie left the mortar alone and took her wand firmly. Time to make that planet, then.

A jab motion towards the mix and a simple, "Fingere Elementi," did the trick. And she was beaming, though not entirely, for reasons unknown. The planet was slightly smaller than the first one, but it was barely noticeable once it had joined the other in the box. It was bright orange in color, and she realized she wanted to give the planet a bit more.

Perhaps a moon.

Just one. A tiny one. So no one gets jealous in this glass box.

The moon was fairly easy because she didn't have to focus on colors, so the tiniest white stone was added to the mortar once it was clean and some iron got in there as well. Grinding started, yet again. Awful amount of work for a moon. Or not really, because she was done in no time.

Jab motion, intent and all that, "Fingere Elementi." Wow, so small compared to the planet. She guided it and allowed it to join the orange one. A couple of minutes were spent watching the interaction as the box was closed again.

Orange planet had a moon now.

Marigold's last planet needed, because she made one in class. With the goal of this one being BEAUTIFUL, she took her time to use some holly leaves and a small, round, pinkish rock. She added her scoops of iron and gracefully smashed them to a pulp. Take that, pretty!nature!stuff. And then she took a deep breath and allowed herself a smile.

SHE COULD DO THIS.

"FINGERE ELEMENTI!" she shouted. Loudly. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, she saw a last planet in orbit. It was swirling with pink, and was a bit bigger than Pluto.

Aphrodite. Coz it was pretty.

Third planet over here.

Or it will soon be once she starts working on it. You know, Lottie did think about Saturn and rings, but she decided to keep all the shapes alike and didn't pursue this path. She'll ask Airey how it can be done, if he doesn't tell them first, because she was sure SOMEONE was bound to make this happen. Most definitely sure. Someone.

Anyway, a black stone followed this time, and the foliage held this very unique color. Like she could sense it had been bright red once, but it was of a darker nature now, less red as well, almost a dark magenta, even. That wasn't the only color, though, you'll see. Two scoops of iron went in and the crushing started again. There was a spell for this, wasn't it? How come Lottie didn't know it? It should be taught with this activity, truth be told. Things could take forever depending on the stone.

OH LOOK! Fine powdered mix after a few minutes. Good.

"Fingere Elementi." Jab motion and PLANET DONE. The now-plum (with a bit of orange swirls) planet... well, she was no color expert and Ascanius wasn't around, so she's going with plum... was larger than the others but certainly no bigger than the sun, not at all. It was perfect. She quite loved the color too. Especially once the planet joined the others and the center of the solar system in the box.

Perfect.

Only two more to go and she'll have 5! Plus the moon, you can't forget the moon.

"I couldn't find my coat. Damned eyes can't spot a thing lately." She'd worry about that later during Quidditch practice, though. For now, Alice focused on gathering up some stones and foliage before she took her box over to Lex. Merlin knew she wouldn't want to get up ever again once she sat down, so material collecting would have to happen now.

Since she'd only made one planet in class, she had to make four today, yes? Her last stone had been a deep blue, so the seventh year tried to vary her color choice. One dull green, a purplish gray, a soft reddish rock, and a last that was a bright white. Selecting four flower petals to go along with them, she stacked the things on the lid of her glass box and hobbled over to three other stations. At each one, she collected one mortar and brought everything gathered back to Alexa.

Now... where was that darn iron? Sitting down next to the prefect, she mumbled something about the misplacing of items and kids these days. Finding the correct jar wasn't too difficult. The actual work came next. Alice scooped some iron into each mortar, including the one that had been at their lab in the first place, making sure she'd done two rounds of each. That was four in total, yes?

Yep. She planned to do all four at once. Issue? Not here.

Brynn gave Bart a sidelong glance at his laughter. She didn't care either way, really, it just had been a bit startling. To be honest, she just wanted done with this assignment. She had a sun, she had a planet, was that enough? The first year did grin a bit at his praise though. "Yeah, I guess.. How many did we have to make anyway?" Surely not enough for the whole solar system? She'd be here all week!

Brynn wavered between trying another one and just leaving, but her brown eyes wandered over to Bart working on another planet while she tried to decide. "Yay, you did another one!" she grinned, sort of cheering a bit. Maybe she should too.. Mhmm, one planet might be too lonely.

While Bart was working on his third, Brynn set about making her second. She already had the leafy plant thing in her mortar so she picked out a small stone and placed it inside as well. Then two scoops of iron. Grabbing the pestle again, she ground the mixture over and over until it was more crumbly. Brynn looked up to see Bart had gotten another planet formed. Giving him an approving nod, she glanced back down at her things and jabbed her wand. "Fingere Elementi!" Oooh, first try even.

She glanced up as Bart asked her about her progress and she stuck her second planet in with her first and sun. "I got two.. that's enough, right?" She sure hoped so because she was done.

The stones left for her to use varied in color, one was relatively gray, the other held a brownish or copper hue. Again, no color experts here, but Lottie was just covering the basics. And she did well with those. Color-wise, anyway. She only needed to choose which one will go first...

...copper it is!

The foliage placed on the mortar was green this time, and the crushing began once the stone and the iron was added in there. Not soon after, the wandwork could happen, fine powder, you see. So, with a jab, "Fingere Elementi." DONE. If she had used something blue, then perhaps this planet would've looked like Earth, but no blue. The swirls were both green and brown, and already fighting for attention with plum planet in the box. THIS greenish-brown planet was bigger, and shall remain the biggest amongst them all. Except for the sun. Its mass wouldn't be matched.

Once the greenish-brown planet was inside the glass box with the rest, she picked up the gray stone and some green foliage and worked on the mortar again. Those two scoops of iron were there also, and when the powder was in its perfect state, Lottie took her wand, "Fingere Elementi." Jab.

No swirls were present in its lime-green surface, but there was a gray spot present. And this planet was much smaller than the other green one. She merely hoped they weren't going to add many more things to the solar system because it would mess with her idea.

She could still add plenty of moons, but only the orange one was bound to keep their.

Lime-green planet joined the others and this Hogwartian stayed a a fair amount of time watching them all together. The box was tightly shut, of course. Her eyes taking turns between the box and her notes as she wrote everything down.

A little solar system, how cute.

Time to leave, it was. After a while. And she left the coat and goggles in place, before making sure her working space and instruments were immaculate. There wasn't even dust around, Airey Flamsteed. Not that he would notice, would he?

Wisteria out.