Astronomy Lesson 2 :: planetary weather
 

Lint Roller, Check.

Nigel's outfit was looking glorious and the lint roller only emphasized that. It was a bit cold in the Tower. But Thank Merlin. Flamsteed cared enough to put up heating charm. Though with a name like Flamsteed. You would think he knows a little about fire and heat.

Never-mind the cold. That squeaking was really annoying and only one person could be making it.

"Hello, Professor. Practicing for your summer job?"

Flammy The Clown.

It was getting harder and harder for Jasmine to make herself come to class, but somehow she managed to make herself do it. It was a little too early to be anticipating the end of the term, but she wished it was over. Approaching the stool outside of the classroom, Jasmine automatically picked up the lint brush de-linted herself. It felt like everything she did these days was on autopilot, done without thought or care.

Jasmine saw Professor Flamsteed at the front of thr room and said, "Hello Professor". She chose a seat and plopped down on it while noticing a pack of balloons on the desk. When the Professor made that horrible balloon squeaking noise, Jasmine didn't flinch. She didn't have the energy to be bothered by it. She reeeeally hoped that class would start soon.

Mackenzie entered the astronomy classroom and immediately began to shiver, the blonde was extremely grateful that she had remembered her bad that carried her jacket, gloves and scarf. "Good afternoon Professor!" Mack grinned, he was seriously the greatest professor.

"Please tell me we all get red balloons!" the blonde began bouncing up and down pleaseeeee she really wanted to beg but refrained as she took a seat.

Cold? Sure it was, but how was that any different than the rest of Hogwarts these days? Tobias (who was still doing his best to ignore the fact that the last time the castle got this unseasonably chilly was the year of the dementor attacks) was bundled up as much as he could. An extra t-shirt under his uniform and TWO school sweaters seemed to be helping him out a little, and he may or may not have been wearing pyjama trousers underneath his school trousers because why not, right? Not like anyone could tell, AND it kept him extra toasty.

Though... now he thought about it, Flamsteed's classrooms often involved a lot of moving, right? That was always a pretty good warm-up... so maybe he didn't think this one through...

...

Ah well, time would surely tell.

Stopping off briefly to give his robes a cursory sweep with the lint roller, Toby headed into the class and sat at a desk. He'd just registered the packet of balloons on the table and already his fidgety hands had impulsively gone straight for them, so Toby now held the packet. He inspected it closely, turning it over and over and over in his hands and wondering WHAT they were gonna DO. One thing was for certain, if there were balloons involved, it would be totally wicked.

Oh, wait... he was forgetting something. Not surprising really, given he was much more absentminded and distracted these days. But when he remembered, the Hufflepuff looked up and beamed at Professor Flamsteed.

"Afternoon, Professor!" he said chirpily, seeming as though he was literally buzzing with energy. "Whatcha try'na make?"

If the squeaky noise bothered him at all, it would be difficult to tell from the enthusiastic look on his face as Toby leaned forwards slightly in his seat.

After using the lint roller, Adi stepped into the classroom only to be greeted by a squeaky sound. Huh? What was that? Looking around, he spotted Professor Airey with a balloon. Source of squeakiness located.

Folding his arms pretty close to him to protect himself from the cold, Adi trudged towards the man. "Hi, Professor. Hope you're having fun.'' He grinned before bustling off to find a seat. Oh looky. They got their own balloons.

As he made his way to Astronomy, he noticed he wasn't the only one. He saw other student's and he saw Lux. He smiled when he saw the familiar puff. But his attention got distracted when he heard the SQUEEEAAKKKKING sound from Professor Airey. He turned around and saw he was trying to make a balloon animal with the red ballon. He asked him curiously, "Professor are we making balloon animals today?"

As he saw the professor was busy, he went to go find his seat. Once he found his he took a seat and began to do his famous doodles.

Jun was lint free. More like he better be.

He had gotten used to using the lint roller since his first class. The boy had been indoors a lot more lately so no doubt lint was all over. Setting the roller down and entering the class, Jun shivered from feeling how cold it was in here. Did Heating Charms not work anymore? He zipped up his hoodie more and pulled down his beanie. "Hello, professor. Will we be making balloon animals today?" He asked, sitting down in a seat and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Can he make a giraffe one? Yes? YES?

Ooh boy! Astronomy class was next. The boy walked happily and rather quickly up all the stairs to the classroom. He was so excited to see Professor Flamsteed again and learn more things about space. Outside the classroom, Simon saw some of the students ahead of him using a lint roller on their clothes. Huh? The boy raised a curious eyebrow as he approached them. Why were they using a lint roller? He blinked his blue eyes for a second. Ohhhh. His eyes widened. They were getting rid of static perhaps? Mhm. That made sense. So like the others before him, he picked up the lint roller and made himself lint-free.

Once he was lint-free, Simon entered the classroom. A blast of cool, crisp air greeted him, making the Slytherin shiver a little. Merlin. He quickly cast a hot air charm to warm himself up. Ahh.. Much better. "Hello Professor! How are you?" he asked with a wide grin and quickly held up the proper Vulcan greeting. He knew Airey would get it after their last conversation freak out session about Star Trek. Mhmm.. Yeah.

Simon's eyes widened when he saw that the Professor was holding a red balloon in his hands. A balloon?! Oh no, no, no, no. He should have brought something with him. A shield. A defense mechanism. Balloons and Simon did not mix one bit. He was terrified of balloons and the quick velocities that they could attain when not having been tied up properly. Note to Simon: make sure you keep your notebook open so you can use it as a shield. Uh-huh. Why was the boy so terrified of a plastic thing filled with air? Well, long story short....The last encounter, he had with a balloon was when he was going to visit this very Professor in his office. What was the Professor making with the balloon? "Uh, sir, what are you making?" he asked before heading to seek shelter finding an open seat. He found Agatha sitting by herself so he made his way over towards his friend. "Hey Agatha! How's it going?" he asked, giving her a warm smile as he sat down. He then saw Zanderman and gave him a smile and a wave.

As he began to unpack his things, he looked up and once again saw the boy with very familiar features (Toby). He squinted his eyes, trying to figure out where he had seen him. Did he know him? He was pretty sure he did so the boy waved at him. Yeah... He wasn't sure if he knew the other kid at all, but for some reason, he felt like he did. Maybe he'd go talk to him after class or something? ...But then again, the kid probably thought Simon was being very weird staring at him sometimes during classes or in the Great Hall. But Simon just wanted to figure out whether or not he'd met the kid.

After a Divination class like the last one they had, Lex was most happy to be headed for Astronomy. A class where the planets made sense and didn't tell you what you were meant to be. Merlin's beard, she'd always heard the Professor speaking about the ills of confusing Astronomy with Astrology but she didn't realize how much of a slap to the face it was before Divi. Sweet Circe. Bring on the logic. She'd missed it.

Of course the Gryffindor's first stop was the lint roller by the door. There was a time when she used to question it but Lex would question absolutely nothing right now. No. Lint rolling. Typical stuff.

After she as sure she didn't have any lint left on her, she entered the room to take her usual seat near the front. The first thing to catch her attention as she sat was the pack of balloons? Oh? Would they be filling these with helium then seeing how long the cold will take to pop them? If yes they needed to take bets. The Professor could either join in or turn a blind eye. She was fine with either option.

"Good Afternoon Professor, need any help with that?" Nevermind that she had NO IDEA what he was making. Helpful Lex was helpful.

Oh no. They were inside, which meant it wasn't supposed to be cold. Her school uniform - freshly lint-rolled by the way - was comfortable but it wasn't meant to have to offer all the warmth she needed to survive winter. Ugh. Hayden took a seat in a desk in the middle of the room. The balloons did cheer her up a little, but not too much considering they could not offer any warmth. She had completely forgotten to great the professor because she had been too busy mentally complaining about the cold. Though now that she was seated, she did watch what he was doing silently. She wanted to know what he was making, and if they would have to be making things in this lesson.

Who wanted to get lost in the stars? She did.

Hope grabbed the lint roller and gave a little roll here and a little roll there and she placed it back down. She tied her hair back to keep it out of the way and, once she felt she was good to go, walked into the classroom with a gigantic grin on her face.

"Hello, Professor!" Her favorite class of all classes and she was extremely obvious about it too. But that noise! Oh, that noise! She stared at the balloon in the Astronomy Professors hand and raised an eyebrow at him. She loved balloons but what is he making. "Would you like a helping hand...or two?"

Could he make a star with it?? Oh it would be cool if he could. She turned to her desk an went to place her bag down when....her own whole BAG of balloons!?!?!? She jumped up and down smiling. It had been AGES since she had an entire bag of balloons to herself. It had something to do with the fact that she enjoyed letting the air out of them so she could watch them fly around and defy gravity.

Bay arrived to his next lesson totally tired but as soon as he opened the doors a blast of cold air hit him… BRRRRRR….it instantly woke him up…. spotting the Professor he said hello to the man that was what…. playing with balloons?? oh okay??? "Hello Professor" he said as he made his way over to his friends and took a seat.

Mo had a question on his lips as he entered the Astronomy classroom. A question that soon disappeared when he spotted what was happening in the room. Balloons on his desk! And it was cold, so cold that Mo was afraid to sit still too long or else he'd freeze to the seat.

But most of all, it was the noise he noticed. A terrifying noise that brought back Mo's worst memory from his childhood. He looked stealthily around the room for the offending clown, but was only able to spot Flamsteed. Making balloon animals. Flamsteed... Mo should have known the man was part clown.

"Professor? Are you going to keep that roller sign up after the end of this term?" It was possible Mo was going to live on forever, immortalized as 'the one who put the roller in his hair'.