Tora meandered along the corridor to the courtyard. She wasn't in any sort of rush, in fact, she wanted to enjoy the day. She smiled slightly to herself and fiddled with the Astreglobe in her pocket. Eventually, her feet carried her to the columns separated by ledges on the one side. She absentmindedly sat down, facing out towards the Courtyard, and pulled the compass-like device from her pocket. She tapped it with her wand and clusters of stars sprang up around the surface and the red needle pointing off to her left. If the side farthest away from her was always North, and the needle showed which way she was facing, then she must be facing somewhat to the west. She tapped the device again with her wand and instead of the mess of stars, only little lights showed in the "sky". It might be a bit nerdy, but she loved playing with her Astreglobe. She tapped the dot representing Saturn and zoomed in on the planet. She was so involved in enjoying the evening sun and her Astreglobe that she wouldn't have noticed if a person came right up behind her.

It was times like these he wished that he had remembered to bring his skateboard. The surface wasn't entirely smooth but it still would have been a good ride.

Michael had decided to head outside and catch the last of the warm weather before winter was upon them and it got too cold. He probably should have brought a text book or two so that he could study since he was supposed to be good this year, but he still found it hard to get into school work.

These things took time to get into.

He looked down at the ground and noticed that one of his shoelaces had come undone. With a sigh, he stopped walking and bent down to redo it.

During his free time, all Abel could do was to walk around the grounds, amazed that this kind of beauty is real. This view sure beats his backyard. From the courtyard he could still see most of the grounds as he kept walking until....

Abel felt something by his feet, but with no time to look and see, the kid tumbled over whatever it was and onto the flat surface beyond it. "Urghhh" This was the second time recently that he just happens to trip. NOW what was it this time?

His green eyes scanned until he saw another boy there. Him, Abel had tripped over him, a person. Oh no. "Um, are you okay?" Not like he really wanted to know, but his mother had taught him manners. The kid had it coming though right? Who just happens to be crouched on the floor?

One minute he was peacefully re-tying his shoelace and the next he was face planted into the ground. It took him a moment to realise that something that hit him from behind and another to notice that his nose was bleeding.

Michael pushed himself up onto his knees as he wiped his nose with the sleeve of his robe. It was then that someone spoke and he noticed that the thing that had hit him was a boy about his age.

"Yeah." He said wiping his nose again as he got to his feet. It didn't seem to be that bad, not much blood at all. "I'm sure there will be a bruise by the end of the day, but it's all good." Accidents happened, right?

"Are you okay?" Michael asked peering at the boy to see if there were any injuries.

Oh no, why did he have to be bleeding? Now he did feel bad, even if it was his fault for being on the ground. Abel looked at himself, scuffed up hands, that is nothing. Now he felt even worse! "I'm okay... Look I'm sorry, I didn't see you... On the ground." Because that's where he was, and it landed both of them on the ground.

"Um, I can help." The fourteen year old said while he looked through his robes for his wand. After grasping it he pointed it at the boy's face, "Tergeo." For the blood on the kid's face, he is trying to help clean his face. However his nose might still look swollen.

"What's your name?" Abel asked as he got to his feet and put his wand away.

Michael brushed off his apology with a wave of his hand. "Seriously it's fine. Happens to the best of us." He looked down at his shoe briefly and gave the guy a wry smile. "Probably should have used magic to tie my shoe lace." It would have saved his nose and making this guy feel bad.

Although the smile he had been wearing quickly disappeared from his face when the Slytherin pointed his wand at him. Michael took a step back but could do no more before the boy cast his spell. Thankfully it was just the siphoning charm and he let out a sigh of relief. "Dude. You should give a guy some warning..."

Merlin!

Now that he had stopped freaking out, he was able to grin as he stepped forward with his hand outstretched. "Michael Toussaint. And you are?"

Warning. Right. Forgot. Abel was about to say sorry, until he realized again that he just cleaned the guy's face. Maybe warning him would be nice, but the moment has passed. No time to linger on the thought now.

Abel looked down at the boy's hand. Then looked up and stuck his hand out."I'm Abel Wysor.." He said as he shook Michael's hand. After a little pause Abel did not want an awkward silence so he tried to find something to say. "Er.. It's a nice day today, I decided I don't care if I miss studying today." Yeah let's talk about the weather. The stupidest way to start a conversation would be to talk about the weather.... Old people do that.

Botros was taking a stroll from his office down to the courtyard. You could hear three footsteps when he walked with his cane serving as a much needed support. Feo went off running and was, as per usual, lost outside so the old man had to either find him or assign a student for some crup chasing credit. Sigh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amadshade

Tora meandered along the corridor to the courtyard. She wasn't in any sort of rush, in fact, she wanted to enjoy the day. She smiled slightly to herself and fiddled with the Astreglobe in her pocket. Eventually, her feet carried her to the columns separated by ledges on the one side. She absentmindedly sat down, facing out towards the Courtyard, and pulled the compass-like device from her pocket. She tapped it with her wand and clusters of stars sprang up around the surface and the red needle pointing off to her left. If the side farthest away from her was always North, and the needle showed which way she was facing, then she must be facing somewhat to the west. She tapped the device again with her wand and instead of the mess of stars, only little lights showed in the "sky". It might be a bit nerdy, but she loved playing with her Astreglobe. She tapped the dot representing Saturn and zoomed in on the planet. She was so involved in enjoying the evening sun and her Astreglobe that she wouldn't have noticed if a person came right up behind her.

There was a kid sitting by the pillars, though. He slowed down when he got near her, spotting the interesting device she was so focused on. Botros cleared his throat and offered the little kid, whom he recognized from his classes but her name slipped his mind. "It's pretty rare to see a kid with such complicated device as a distraction." Kids usually ran and collected illuminated bugs or flowers. Maybe not Ravenclaw kids, though.

Really? They were going to talk about the weather? Michael raised an eyebrow and his lips twitched a little in amusement, but he didn't make fun of Abel, he was obviously a shy person. "It is a nice day. I thought I would come out and enjoy it before it turned cold. And before we got inundated with homework."

He lent up against one of the pillars and crossed his arms over his chest. "I saw you in potions." His eyes flashed momentarily with sympathy. "Culloden was being a bit harsh." Michael had noticed that the Potions Professor was quite a tough one. "Potions is obviously not your favourite subject."

Tora started with surprise and nearly fell out the opening she was sitting on. Once she had regained her balance, she flipped around to see her addresser. "Oh, hello Professor," she said, much more cheerily than she would have last year had she been interrupted. "Yeah, I got it for my birthday a couple years ago from my Gram." she said, practically glowing as she tried not to boast. The Astreglobe really was a treasure. The thing glinted in the sunlight, it's bronze and steel covering was well worn, but also well cared for. She wouldn't go anywhere, really, without it and it was handily small enough for her to do so. She thought about deactivating it and slipping it away into her pocket, but perhaps Professor Botros would care to see? She compromised for setting it on the ledge next to her; with her hand safely on it of course!

Oh oops! The poor kid almost fell. Ab extended his arm for her in case she needed help to balance herself in the opening, but she recovered quickly on her own. Whew. It would've been a grand mistake if he hurt a student so early this year too. He smiled at her and took her greeting as an invitation to rest his old legs next to her, and so he took a seat in the opening too.

"This is interesting. How does it work?" He asked, interested in what was in for Ravenclaws this year. "Can you show me?"

Abel looked at his feet as he kinda swung one foot back and forth on the ground. Oh no, he was actually SEEN in potions. What a wreck, Abel looked up at the boys face. Raising his hand to the back of his neck rubbing it a little as he tried to chuckle a little bit. "Heh, yeah. I haven't been in a classroom before. I hope the rest of the classes aren't like that." He thought back to his mom, Saffron, who had him homeschooled up until this year. Now he felt like he had never experienced these things, and was wondering which he liked better. For now it is his mom, not enough good things to make this school with SOOO many people worth it.

"Are you good at potions? What's your favorite class? Who's the nicest teacher?" Cause Abel will probably stick by the nicest teacher.

"Homeschooled huh? I was too before coming to Hogwarts." Michael flashed a grin at the Slytherin. "You'll get used to it in no time." It was just a matter of getting used to having other kids in the same room all competing to the get the answers right and earn their house some points.

Michael laughed at all the question being fired at him and he swung his arm around the boy's shoulders and started walking along the corridor. "I should be good at potions, my father runs a potions company but I'm not particularly interested in it so I manage to get by. I don't have a favourite subject because I haven't really paid attention in any of them for the past three years." He laughed again. He was definitely not the best role model. "I think Professor Flamsteed is the nicest teacher and the weirdest."

That was the teacher he liked the best anyway. "So what's your deal Abel?"

Tora tapped the activation rune on the side and watched as a miniature night sky with all it's celestial bodies sprung up around the face of the Astreglobe in a dome. She proudly held the device out to show Botros. "See the different runes around the edge of the face?" she asked, pointing to the row of runes that lines the outside. "If you press them while the device is activated, they show you different parts of the night sky. For example if you press... I think it's called Sunna? Well anyway, it'll show you only stars." she did so and only a few of the lights disappeared. "But if you press Haga- Haga-something, the one that looks like an "H", you get the locations of supernovas and black holes," she pressed this rune and most of the stars disappeared. She was a bit ashamed that she didn't really know the names of the runes off the top of her head, but she knew sort of their meanings! In an astronomy sense at least.

The kid was taking all Ab's attention with how easily she activated her small device. He leaned closer when a projection of space sprung out in a dome. Oh runes? Aw yeah. "Sowilo." He corrected automatically, staring at the little symbol on the edge. "It's the rune of the sun." A small tip that would hopefully stick in the girl's head for later lessons. It was interesting that it showed the stars instead of the sun, though, it must be about the spiritual meaning of Sowilo, not the literal one.

"Hagalaz." He offered, for the next rune. "It's the rune of changes and obstacles." To put it simply. And it did fit the black holes perfectly! Botros smiled at that and touched Jera. "This is a very strong astronomical rune, it's called Jera." He offered, seeing a special constellation instead of the supernovas and black holes.

Tora was thrilled to have someone else just as interested in her Astreglobe as she was. "Exactly!" she said excitedly. Being an Ancient Runes professor really must be an advantage when reading this device. It had taken her sooo long to be able to know which runes to tap without a guide. The name "Jera" sounded familiar, at one point she had looked up all the names to these runes, but forgot most of them. "Normally that rune works by thinking, or saying, the constellation you want to see and pressing it." she explained. "Do you have a favorite constellation?"

She continued on, still listening to whatever Professor Botros had to say, but couldn't resist adding something about the next rune. "Raidho, see? I do know some runic names, is for comets and meteor showers" she only really knew Raidho because she thought it sounded funny, but eh, she still remembered.

Botros could see how the kid was excited to share her atro-toy with someone who appreciated it. He smiled at her as she explained some more. "Pyxis." He answered to her favorite constellation question. When she told him about Raidho, Ab chuckled and patted her arm. "Yes, of course. I don't expect you to possibly know the runes by heart at this age. Raidho is one of the easy ones."

He touched Jera next, with his favorite constellation in mind. And Pyxis sprang up as a dome perfectly like the previous ones had. He watched it for a moment before directing the same question to the girl. "What is your favorite constellation?" Maybe something less faint than Pysix?

"Who brought you this nifty device, dear?"

Tora blinked in surprise, although it had been the next logical question to ask. "I have far too many to choose," she said quite seriously. The stars were a wonderful place. Sure, she liked some more than others, but she had a good top ten list that constantly vied for first place. She shook her head while thinking about her favorites. "Really, I can't pick," she said, being careful not to tap the Jera rune so the device wouldn't go insane.

"My Gram got it for me when I got accepted into Hogwarts," she said, a little proudly. It was a very fancy contraption to be giving an eleven year old, but Tora had strived hard to prove to her grandmother that she could use it "maturely". She wasn't worried about having to prove herself now that she was older, but it was still fun to say she had first figured the device out when she was just a First Year.

"Do you have something like it?" she asked, wondering if Ancient Runes Professors would have something linked to Runes like this but still about Astronomy or Divination.

Well yeah, homeschooled. He kinda made it obvious, which wasn't what Abel wanted. It's not like he took acting classes to seem normal. He nodded in return to being homeschooled, and wasn't sure if he could ever get used to this.

Then Michael slung his arm onto Abel's shoulders and started walking, which obviously meant Abel had started to walk as well. WOAH. 3 years of not paying attention? I guess in real school there's not someone breathing down your back all the time. Nicest. Weirdest. "Is he the..... " thinking.. thinking.. "Astronomy Professor?" Wild guess.

Deal? Abel's Deal? "Um... I'm not sure what you mean." But really... He doesn't know what he means. Hopefully he doesn't sound stupid.

Michael nodded his head. "Yeah that's the one. He's a good teacher but he has this strange affliction for lint free clothing." It was kinda weird and he thought that his dad was obsessive with neatness. Flamsteed took it to a new level.

As they walked along the corridor, Michael couldn't help but chuckle at the look on Abel's face. "Your deal man. Your life story. Like do you have any siblings? Where you from? Are your parents annoying?" The normal things other people like to know.

Coming back from the stables, Piers was taking the back way around and going through the courtyard and outside corridor as he headed back to his office to do some work. Bleh. Work. He would MUCH rather be hanging out with Javy, to be honest.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets and kicking a pebble down the corridor, it was rather obvious that he was in no hurry.

Lint? How does lint have anything to do with astronomy? Abel decided not to question this, for he may not want to know the answer.
Oh... Yeah.. deal.
"Oh um, yeah.. I have a little sister Ingrid, she's 8. Um, I was born in america, then moved to england...." This was all pertinent information? "I uh... No, my parent's aren't that annoying. Only my mom when it comes to school." Life story though... Abel wasn't sure if he was gonna go there. Maybe it's too much upon a first meeting.

"So uh, what's your deal?"

"My parents are annoying when it comes to school as well. Why is that?" He glanced over to Abel. "I mean why do they have to get so obsessive about how well you do at school? The way I look at it, you've only got yourself to blame if you stuff up. Right?"

Michael had this theory that parents wanted their kids to do good at school so they could get good jobs and move out of home. That's the real reason they were so obsessed with getting a good education.

"I have one brother, Alessandro, he's one." Yeah big age gap there. "Lived in England all my life. Zahra Kettleburn is my best friend, slash, girlfriend and I love everything to do with muggle motor cars and bikes." Well of course there was so much more to tell but he didn't want to overload the guy. They'd only just met after all.

"Do you know much about muggles?" That was Michael's way of asking whether the guy was from a wizarding family or a muggle one.

On his way back to the castle from officiating another Gobstones Match Leo took the long way back through the courtyard and outside corridor. He didn't want to go back to the library just yet. He had work to do there which included removing wombat droppings and spider webs in the stained glass section. A task he wanted to put off as long as he could.

Coming up behind a familiar figure in the corridor who he had most often missed in the staff room, Leo called out happily surprised "Piers?"