Cutty waited for a while, perhaps too mesmerized by the spectacle of the dying system to be moved to action. Then, with his wand still in hand, he again lifted the lid to his system enclosure and vanished the contents-he'd gotten better at the spell since seeing Alice do it. All that was left were the rocks he was trying to crush with a curse. Cutty removed these with a sigh that was possibly put on and dumped them back into the bowl of his mortar.


He began crushing, starting with a rocking motion to make it go by quicker. The tick-tacky sounds that signified the breaking of the large clumps soon enough became crunching sounds as the rocks were ground into smaller and smaller bits. These meshed with Cutty's whistling of something that sounded suspiciously like non-age-apropriate music.

Anyway, having ground up the rocks into a spice-like consistency, his old wrist was getting tired and he set aside the material for he felt like the spellwork it would take to create a new sun. Cutty knelt down slowly near his glass box, performed a quick cleaning charm upon it and added 5 scoops of hydrogen and 1 scoop of helium. Maybe he would try the iron this time, though. So he got up, again very slowly and carefully, cause it would be stupid to have come this far only to injure yourself standing, gathered and sprinkling of iron and added it to his glass box. Then, with a jab at the pile of materials, Cutty spoke the incantation, "Fingere Elementi!" and watched as the materials fused and created a bright glow before gathering into a small mass of brightness. He quickly lidded the glass box and went back to his rock grinding and terrible song.

"Well that's your fault." Lex said, giving a small shrug but taking several steps away in case a thump was coming her way. "You could have waited til I got here then asked me to get it for you because I can still see unlike you." Not her fault her Captain was going blind now was it?

She watched in curiosity as Alice set up all those stations and a part of her thought it was a good idea she could try but she only had ONE mortar and pestle and didn't want to make the long trek back across the lab. Doing them one at a time wouldn't be so bad. She'd already gotten her second planet into her jar and only needed three more. One of which she was about to get started right now. Lex put the foliage, the rock and two spoons of iron. Could she get Alice to crush hers for her?

Eh, she'd do it herself.

Crush. Crush. Crush.

"Do you think the elves will have ice-cream in the Great Hall or will we have to go to the kitchen?" Yes, we, she wanted company for lunch and Alice was the good kind. This was powdery enough.

"Fingere Elementi." Ohhhhh, much bigger planet! She approved very much. This one could do the retarded spinning right over heeeere next to this one. Lex fitted it into the box with the others, clearly proud of her work.

"You can hardly see but you wanna multi-task?"

Whistling away, Cutty had resorted to using both hands on the pestle in order to grind up the rock material into a much finer consistency. Fingere Elementi...he wondered what other uses that spell might've had. Could one actually take something...even a living thing, apart and then put it back together using this spell? Could that make you a god? Many of the mythical magics performed by pantheons the world over could easily be replicated by wizards and witches today so why not?

The train of thought had stopped there as Cutty had well powdered the rocks. He dumped them into a bowl, cleansed his mortar and pestle and threw a handful of the foliage material in. He then separated the rock into designated amounts to make specifically sized planets and began crushing away at a bit of twig and dried leaves that may have come from a blossom rather than a leaf.

That was...four planets. And so far none of them had killed themselves. Beverly still kept an eye on Mercury. Its happy-go-lucky orbiting was irritating her to the point of itching to knock it. Earth and Saturn were still in the sketchy movement stage, though the former was smoothing out. And mister sun was brilliant.

As for the last planet for today Beverly didn't really care what it turned out to be, because she was ready to nap. Maybe she'll find a nice windowsill to nap on? Great view and all. Sounded nice.

Gathering the ingredients necessary, she dragged herself to grind them in the mortar. After the very exhausting task, the third year cast the spell on the powder, all source of excitement gone. Mood swings weren't nice. Especially not when all she desired was a nap.

"Fingere Elementi," she cast. Planet done. Oooh. Okay. BRIGHT planet done.

Why was it so bright?

Beverly squinted her eyes at it? Huh. Bright planet was weird, but pretty. In it goes with all the others. Setting it inside the bright planet fell in jagged orbit. It was all sorts of crazy right now that Beverly couldn't even tell what planet it was.

The good news, though, she was done. And she could nap. Wait, no. Have some tea and biscuits and grab a blanket and a book and THEN nap. Ugh. Perfect evening there.

Closing the jar and cleaning her work station, Beverly gathered her stuff and slowly waddle/limped her way out.

With the materials prepped for his first planet, Cutty took a rather large hunk of the powdered rock material and placed it into his glass box along with the two scoops of iron. The foliage he had crushed took on a reddish-purple hue, which Cutty neither appreciated nor unappreciated as he added it to the box. "Fingere Elementi!" He jabbed at the silty-looking pile and looked down upon it as a very large purpley planet took it's place.

Planet Fat Jimmy. It seemed an appropriate name for the almost over-sized orb and set the naming tone for the rest of Cutty's work.

He immediately set to crushing more foliage; twigs that appeared to have been a bit charred. Maybe they were collected from the pajama camp-out they held last year or there'd been a fire in recent times...outside of the library.

Having crushed up the charred-looking twigs, Cutty tossed them along with the two scoops of iron and a medium-sized portion of the rock material. He applied the fusion spell again and marveled at the brownish, but almost black little planet. It began to mingle nicely with the sun and Fat Jimmy, but seemed to be trying to take on rather large orbit for one so small. Cutty slammed the lid to his glass box down rather harshly as if trying to prevent the escape of the newly added planet, Mike the weasel. The effect of this action was a bumping that sent Mike the weasel into Fat Jimmy. Repeatedly, back and forth and back and forth and breaking off pieces until Cutty lifted the lid letting the planets settle into their orbits more naturally and not so forced. The impact, though could still be seen in the form of several orbiting bits in Cutty's solar system.

One final planet was sitting there in his mortar, and Tobias mentally congratulated himself on a job well done. If he wasn't worried that his joints might lock up, he might have patted himself on the back and everything.

Setting his wand down again, Toby took hold of the final planet in his right hand, lifted the lid of his box with the other, and added that to the mix too. He closed it carefully and peered in again, this time to see if his sun needed any maintenance.

"That'd be super cool," the boy spoke to Ella, still staring at and evaluating his sun. "Playing professionally, like at the same time as Alec, I mean." How cool would that be though, being on the same pitch at least a few times a year in the future? Gosh, even thinking about Quidditch again made Toby's head get all spinny and happy, but he still had work to do, and so the third year brought his attention back to the task at hand. Quidditch later, Tobias. Quidditch later.

With that stupid grin on his face, Tobias stood up straight again and grabbed his wand. He was still having residual Quidditch happiness, of course, but it was mixed in with the awe over the magic on this assignment. "Amazing," he agreed, not really knowing whether Ella was talking to him or to herself, but figuring he may as well give some input anyway.

All he really needed to do now was give the sun a little bit of TLC, and there was list of the exact spells he needed for this... somewhere in his notes. Tobias had to squint and shuffle through all his Astronomy notes that he'd made since the very start of term, before he eventually found what he was looking for.

Okay, the main thing he needed to do in there was up the temperature, and Toby thought it could do with a little more helium too.

"Dextrini Potitus!" A jab with his wand and then a flick UP, and Tobias watched as his sun, which had started to look a little dark (which he perceived as it going red and cooling down) quickly brightened, throwing light out onto the planets which orbited with varying smoothness. Awesome. Now just for the helium.

"Cumugasalis!" Tobias gave his wand two flicks, and then leaned down and squinted in at his solar system again, wanting to make sure nothing was going wrong, or exploding. Which... generally came under the 'going wrong' umbrella. Admittedly leaning closer wasn't exactly smart, but Tobias was very yolo you see.

All in all, nothing went wrong. A very successful day tending to his solar system. Tobias grinned up at Ella.

"I'm done," he announced, beaming proudly as he finally reached up and pulled off his goggles. "I'm starved. This is tough work."

Food. Toby wanted food.

Could they go get food?

'Cause Toby wanted food.

Two planets. Five more to go.

Cutty plucked out more of the foliage from his grabbed pile on his desk and briefly debated the benefits of being chosey. Would he just end up with a bunch of dark planets if he wasn't careful? What if they were all brown and the Professor couldn't tell them apart? Cutty began to segregate and pull out all of the green bits. This one might be a large planet too, the thought ran through his head as he crushed the leafy, almost lacey textured plant into an oblivion. Carrying them over to the glass box, he dumped them in. Then grabbed the Iron and a portion of rock equal to the foliage and hit them all with a jab and a, "Fingere Elementi!"

It didn't look as green as he thought it would, it was sort of drab or muddy. As military wore when in their camouflage. Calmly, though and obedient as anything, the greenish coloured planet slowly gravitated toward the others and began to assimilate.

Planet Mike the weasel, however continued to look lost.

"I'd have trouble deciding who to cheer for, y'know." Truth. Because Ella was a possessive person and Alec and Tobias were hers, y'know? Both very important to her and both people she planned on keeping in her life for a very long time. Well, for as long as they'd have her. And so if they ended up on opposite teams, she'd end up feeling very conflicted but the feeling of pride would probably overshadow that. Probably.

This was probably not the best time to sing Here Comes the Sun, yeah? Only Ella was feeling very cheerful at the moment what with her Solar System looking all healthy and colorful and so she really couldn't help it when she began humming quietly to herself. Well, she hoped it was quietly. Other people were working and she was trying not to be distracting, honest.

Speaking of working, the eighteen year old glanced down at her notes and began brainstorming some names for her planets. She was thinking maybe Latin? Latin words sounded planet-y, right? Right.

Scribble. Scribble. Scribble.

Then there was a Tobias grinning at her and Ella grinned back, resisting the urge to ruffle his hair. Instead she raised her hand for a fist bump. "I'm done too. Nicely done, Toby!" Not too shabby. And he was hungry? "Food, then? That is if you're not sick of me yet." She was just going to pack up her things while he decided. Either way, she wanted something good. Healthy. None of that sugary nonsense the kids were eating these days. Sheesh.

Lex would have gotten a thump, but lifting her elbow was just so much effort. Not worth it. "Don't be ridiculous. I never need help." Scoffing, she dumped a stone and a flower petal into each mortar. Grinding the ingredients together in a fine powder was too much work for her brittle old lady arms, so Alice took care of it with a lazy point at her pestle.

"Excito Animans." Envisioning the object springing to life and crushing everything to bits, she was content when it began doing what she wanted. This was allowed, right? The crushing was still getting done... only Alice wasn't doing it. Equivalent to paying a Hufflepuff to do it for her or something, and she supposed this was the more noble route, so it was okay.

Ice cream? "I don't eat ice cream anymore." Didn't Alexa know? She hadn't gone near that stuff since that horrid overly happy thing. "But I bet they'll have it in the hall." Ignoring the question about multitasking, Alice continued with what she was doing.

Next was the spell, right? ... four times. Okay then.

"Really?" Stupid smile was back. Tobias had eyes, he knew full well how close Ella and Alec were, so for Ella to say that about not knowing who to cheer on... well, it was a crazy good compliment, y'know? "You could cheer for everyone." For the game itself, even. Toby often did that himself.

Very briefly, the thought passed through Toby's mind to half-jokingly demand that Ella come to watch the Quidditch games after she'd graduated, but why bring it up now? Nah, he'd mention it eventually.

Just not ever yet.

But right now, FOOD. A sandwich, yeahhhhh. Just like the good ol' days.

He gave Ella that fist bump and shoved all his stuff back into his back, save for the mini solar system which he stored back where he'd (probably) found it. Tobias had written a list of possible names for his planets; he was going to think through it properly in the comfort of the Hufflepuff common room.

Tobias shouldered his bag and rejoined Ella. "I couldn't get sick of you," he grinned, poked his tongue out in jest, and then led the pair from the room.

Of course. Alice didn't need help, she never needed help even when she was dying and screaming for Lex to save her and put her out of her misery. Yeah, she remembered that and was about to bring it up too just to show Alice how much she didn't need help but then the girl was doing fascinating things. The pestles were stirring themselves and she was saving herself and her wrists some serious damage.

"Neat."

Lex glanced across the lab at a free mortar with a pestle inside. With a flick of her wand she accio-ed it and added both the foliage and the rock then the two scoops of iron....now what was it Alice just did...? Dangit she should have been paying more attention. Er..."Exico Anim....something...no...Excito...animejbskfjsg... .." This was getting her nowhere while Alice had her things grinding away. This wasn't faaaaaiiiirrrr--Or was it.

The Prefect peered into the pestles mixing for Alice, they looked nice and powdery, they did. Mhm.

She flicked out her wand but didn't make any sudden movements. "You're scarred by the ice-cream too? Pity. We're still gonna have to check." And a quick jab at one of Alice's mortar's. "Fingere Elementi!" And before Alice could smack her into the next century, another jab to another of her already powdered homework real quick, while the first one started forming. "Fingere Elementi!"

The trick was to be faster than Alice and right now it wasn't that hard. Lex grabbed both formed planets and stuffed them into her box, grabbed the box, ducked under the table and came up on the next side far away from the grasp of her Captain. It was NO BIG DEAL. Alice could animate two more then make her four planets. PFFFT.

Like a good friend, she would have shown Alexa how to do the spell if the younger girl had asked. But if she preferred performing failed attempts on her mortar instead, who was Alice to argue? She was just sitting back and waiting for her charmed pestles to do all the work, mentally praising herself on what a brilliant idea that had been, when...

"ALEXA CHRISTINA CAMBRIDGE."

Her bones might have been old, but the seventh year was up in a second. Practically throwing herself at a Lex with a pestle and her box in hand, she tackled the fifth year and began smacking her with the little grinder. "Those. Are. MY. Planets." Alice had chosen those stones and petals with love, and Cambridge wasn't about to screw it all up with her greedy ways, thank you.

Ceasing her assault on the Prefect, she grabbed for the box and extracted HER planets (which were looking very beautiful, by the way), placed them in her own container, lifted herself up, and hobbled back over to her station.

And Alexa was scared of thumping. Hmph.

Lex was feeling pretty smug having done her homework without having to put much effort into it and she would have graciously stayed to wait for Alice to be done her planets too because she was SUCH a good friend like that but then Alice was yelling, full name and everything. This was the first clue that Lex was meant to RUN but before she could the girl had tackled her to the ground and proceeded to smack all her senses from her head.

"Ow! Alice! Knock it off!!!" Get off her! She wasn't a punching bag and she certainly wasn't a target for pestl--HEEEEYYYY!!! "No those are mine!! Alice stopit! Stopit right now!! GetYourHandsOff!!!!" NOOOOO!!! She'd worked HARD at stealing those thank YOU very much and had a headache to kill thanks to it. "You can't have them back, Aliiiiiiiiice, no, don't you love me anymore??"

Alexa's heart broke the moment Alice fished her planets out of her box and put them into her own. So close. So friggin' close maaaaaaan.

"FINE!" Lex dragged herself off the floor in a huff of a tantrum because 15 year olds threw those and she SO had a right to in the first place. "Fiiiiiine, KEEP them. They were ugly and deformed ANYWAY!" Hmph! Couldn't let a girl steal in piece. Ruuuuuude.

Still feeling the throbbing in her head, Lex huffed all the way back to the table and basically attacked the rock, iron and foliage she'd placed in her own mortar earlier. You could have sworn she might have broken it with all the strength she was using but that didn't happen. Reaching over she snatched one of Alice's now empty mortars. "No I'm not gonna ask to borrow this 'cause my head hurts too much for me to remember manners anymore." And looks for you Alice. Thanks for adding another aching pain. She threw a random rock in, some foliage, the iron that probably wasn't that accurately measured in the middle of her dying tantrum then more awful pounding that could lead one to believe the girl needed anger management.

She set both out before her and jabbed in the direction of the first. "Fingere Elementi!" And a second jab to the second one. "Fingere Elementi!" Within a few minutes she had both planets formed and doing their defective spinning.

"Done. And I didn't need you planets." Because after the vicious assualt she'd just suffered she still managed to be done before Alice and slipped the last two in. If she was immature she would have blown raspberries too--scratch that, she was immature and there was raspberry blowing.

"Just because I like you doesn't mean you can steal my work. That's dishonorable." She said the word as if it was the worst insult ever uttered, which it WAS. Waving the rest of Lex's comments off, the seventh year refocused her attentions on her two new planets. They seemed to be doing just fine despite the other girl's heist on them, so Alice went back to her other two mortars.

And there two were ready for the spell as well, yes? Thanks to Cambridge, she only had half the work left, and all it had cost her was a few sore joints and a tackle. "Fingere Elementi!" A jab in the direction of the mortar on the left yielded a purplish grey orb. Alice cast another "Fingere Elementi," at the grinder on the right, complete with a jab as well. This time, the formation of a bright white planet was the result, and she contentedly ushered both of them into her box.

"That would have gone much faster if you had just done your own work in the first place." Uh huh. "Plus it would have save you a headache." She offered Lex a grin, then shut the lid of her glass container. Could they go now? Tackling required a serious amount of energy, and Alice was in dire need of a nap right then.

Still whistling the lewd little ditty, Cutty rummaged through the remains of his foliage. Something which looked like a dried out banana peel emerged. It was tough and leather-like and Cutty set to crushing it immediately. Then something else, like a lace made out of paper caught his eye. He finished crushing the banana peel-like substance and added it to a pile of powdered rock he'd set aside and with both hands on the pestle began to pound at the lacy substance. The delicate nature of the substance made it crush up rather quickly which Cutty then added to his next pile of powdered rock.

By this time his mortar was looking rather dirty and he decided to Scourgify it. Once it was well cleansed, a pile of dandelion heads was ground using no pestle at all. He merely used a wiping motion against the rough inner texture of the mortar bowl to clear away the heads of the seed dispersing part. It took quite a few of them, but the effortlessness of the work had soon amassed a reasonable amount from which a planet could be made. Whilst he was at grinding, though, Cutty decided on his last type of foliage. Same plant, but the yellow blossom. Back to using the pestle, he broke down the soft material into almost a mush of bruised yellow bits and added them to his last pile of powdered rock.

His gloved hands carried the bit that had had the lacy substance added to it, he combined it with the iron and let it hit the bottom of the glass box and it release a small dust cloud from the powdered rock. Letting the dust cloud settle, Cutty jabbed his wand into the material and spoke the incantation, "Fingere Elementi!". It glowed, produced a burnt milk or caramel coloured planet that had an almost translucent quality to it were it not so solid. Then, like it's minutes older sibling, Carmello took it's place amongst Cutty's solar system slowly. The messy-haired boy followed this up with the banana peel which produced a very hard, dark, and dense planet about the size of a walnut, whilst the dandelion blooms sired an almost too vibrant yellow planet. Then came a pale and pallid looking outer planet, with a crystalline quality produced by the dandelion fluff bits and a rock that happened to have a fair share of sheen to it.

Cutty watched them for a bit, monitoring and making sure they all played nice and fell into the appropriate orbit before deciding that Carmello should be married and using the last bit of ground rock and a smidge of iron and whatever was left of the yellow blossoms in the mortar, Cutty combined the ingredients in his glass box in order to create a moon. "Fingere Elementi!". A bright, yellow, shiny-like moon that instead of choosing Carmello as it's mate, went on to the dark, dense, banana peel planet. What a cheater! Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.

After leaving his solar system be whilst he cleaned up his mortar, bowls and measuring tools, Cutty packed away and removed the protective eyewear, gloves and lab coat. Then placing the lid back onto the glass box, he towed it away with the rest of his belongings back down to his common room to finish up his project.