"Of course I am sharing." He said drawing the shapely little box from his bag. He gave it a rattle and placed it upon the armrest of a nearby seat. "Though, you seem like more of an acid pop lover to me." Or even fizzing whizzbees. An astronomer might enjoy the feeling of weightlessness, might he? Bringing him that much closer to his subjects of study. "But I do keep an assortment in case anyone is ever in dire need and I only recently added muggle and foreign sweets to my inventory. A sort of egg shaped cream treat and chocolate covered wafers. Unless of course you were hoping for something more colourful. Like say, puff fur?" He threw in casually, reaching into the bag and rummaging for a bit before producing a wild ball of pink and green.

Cutty pulled the bit of fur up to the side of his face and rubbed it against his cheek admiringly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

"Of course I am sharing." He said drawing the shapely little box from his bag. He gave it a rattle and placed it upon the armrest of a nearby seat. "Though, you seem like more of an acid pop lover to me." Or even fizzing whizzbees. An astronomer might enjoy the feeling of weightlessness, might he? Bringing him that much closer to his subjects of study. "But I do keep an assortment in case anyone is ever in dire need and I only recently added muggle and foreign sweets to my inventory. A sort of egg shaped cream treat and chocolate covered wafers. Unless of course you were hoping for something more colourful. Like say, puff fur?" He threw in casually, reaching into the bag and rummaging for a bit before producing a wild ball of pink and green.

Cutty pulled the bit of fur up to the side of his face and rubbed it against his cheek admiringly.

Taking the cue, he sat down in the seat marked by the chocolate frog. "Acid pops are alright, but not my favorite," he replied, recalling his Hogwarts days somewhat fondly. Not the sort that he enjoyed consuming himself at least. Did not enjoy the sensation of burning a hole in his tongue.

Carefully tearing open the packaging, the astronomer shoved his fingers inside in search for the chocolate frog card. Looking up, he lips curled into a sideways smirk just as he pulled the card out of the wrapping but did not yet look at it. "Yes, I think the chocolate frog will do for now with satisfying my sweet tooth for the time being, but I certainly could use a bit more color in my life."

Ripping open the fwrapper around the actual frog now, Airey just barely pushed it out so he could chomp its head off - thank you for the reminder of that, Miss Cambridge - and savored the sweet taste of chocolatey victory. "Well done, Mr. Mordaunt. Well done indeed."

Well that was his queue. Cutty shoved the bit of fur back from whence it came and drew out the charmed and spellbound black bag. With a soft Tssh! he let it hit the floor of the planetarium then sat back in his chair staring at the domed projection ceiling.

"So, Professor Flamsteed?" He said considering how best to word his question. "Yew know alorra 'bout weatheh patterns. What do yer make of this inclement weather we've been havin'?" Was it common every so many years to have such a harsh and long-lasting winter? Or was this, as everyone believed it to be, completely abnormal and wholly unwelcome? Perhaps, an out of control bit of weather related Transfiguration as was demonstrated could happen in Professor Bellaire's last class. Only, on a much larger scale.

He wasn't asking about his reward for his deed just yet. As he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do with that. There were so many things he wanted, but most he figured he could find a way to get for himself. He considered how far ahead a few of his houses top earners were. What if he asked for just enough points to put him ahead of Sophie Newell by one point. She'd break her neck trying to best him for the rest of the school year and how delighted he would be to watch her do so. Then he could simply have Professor Flamsteed remove them at the end or earn the loss himself. This Ra-ra-ra! Go team go! thing didn't always work on Slytherins, but competition never failed to be right on target. He didn't really care about winning the house cup. But he recognized it, along with the points game as currency for certain other things. Certain other things which indeed were of value to the boy.

To be honest, Airey had expected Mr. Mordaunt to just hand him over the fur, so there was a fleeting look of surprise on his face when it instead fell to the floor. He also knew that he shouldn't be all that surprised. He was dealing with a Slytherin afterall and had promised the boy that he would make the risk worth his while, so of course he wouldn't hand all the pygmy puff fur over before that had been taken care of.

Although it didn't seem as though that conversation was being put on hold for the time being.

"A very good question, Mr. Mordaunt," he sighed as he relaxed a little into his seat and rested the heel of his right foot on his left knee. "I don't pretend to be an expert in meteorology and only know enough of the logistics to help with my research on exoplanets. I had written one of my meteorologists acquaintances with what air pressure and temperature data I was able to collect, but with all the owls leaving and none returning...afraid all I've got is that this is a result of a polar vortex. Global warming hasn't been getting any better after all," he sighed while rubbing the back of his neck with his hand and knotting his fingers in what hair he could grab.

"I am actually hoping that some of the experimentation we will do in my lesson will help provide us with some insight," he continued. You know, put the fate of the school in the hands of its students. He was just going to try and give them the tools to do so. "Assuming that this is a natural phenomenon, of course."

He hands returned to his knee where he began to drum on it idly. There was another theory he had going, one that he had only briefly alluded to in a previous lesson and that had been before the cold had set in...but it hadn't stuck with him until recently. Add in Medea confirming that nothing was out of the ordinary based on her communications with her friend and, well, there was something that just did not sit right with the astronomer.

Was that a nervous habit? Or was the back of Professor Flamsteed's neck bothering him? Global warming. Of course this would be stressful to a wizard who cared about planets. It was something he valued. Burying the notion of offering a neck massage (they weren't there yet), Cutty shifted the topic thusly, "Somewhere out there, Professor Flamsteed. There's probably a planet that can support human life." Even if they had to BYOH2O.

"Soo..." He said, a twinge of enthusiasm in his voice. "About our agreement...Is a letteh of rec owof yer price range, Professor?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

Was that a nervous habit? Or was the back of Professor Flamsteed's neck bothering him? Global warming. Of course this would be stressful to a wizard who cared about planets. It was something he valued. Burying the notion of offering a neck massage (they weren't there yet), Cutty shifted the topic thusly, "Somewhere out there, Professor Flamsteed. There's probably a planet that can support human life." Even if they had to BYOH2O.

"Soo..." He said, a twinge of enthusiasm in his voice. "About our agreement...Is a letteh of rec owof yer price range, Professor?"

Giving his hair one last tug, he was intrigued by the slight change of subject. Actually a topic he was considering spending a future term on. "Our galaxy alone has at least 100 billion planets in it," he replied, the corners of his lips curling into a manly smile. "Any human on this planet that believes that Earth is the only planet that can support life must surely think mighty highly of themselves.And was in desperate need of a big ol' slice of humble pie, as my mother would say."

He eyed the bag of fur again briefly and smirked. The Slytherin was letting him off easy, but he wouldn't let him know that JUST in case it triggered a more ambitious request. He would write Mr Mordaunt a letter of recommendation any time. No need to shave a herd of pygmy puffs to earn that. The boy's talents did that for him. "Certainly, Mr. Mordaunt. It would be my pleasure."

100 billion planets. Cutty let that inspiration set up base camp in his head as she daydreamt of inhabiting the hospitable ones amongst them and establishing his own system of government. Communism would be fun, but then so would an Oligarchy. He could even go for a Theocracy, like ancient Egypt, with himself placed in the center of the system just like a pharaoh. Totalitarianism he thought comparable to the afore mentioned acid pops. Tart and exciting....at first.

Actually, they all sounded annoying.



Anarchy it was, then.



"Well, I'll leave yew to your loot, Professor, booht...One last question before I go...Is it true that there's a big diamond, say about the size of earth, out there?" He was of course speaking of PSR J2222-0137. His father had told him something about it whilst during one of their summertime visitations and Cutty had updated the man on his academic interests. Adonis Mordaunt had not shared more than that with his offspring. This was probably the sort of information that would get 67 year old Airey Flamsteed shanghai'd and forced to apply his knowledge for grand larcency of a white dwarf in later years. Possibly. Maybe. Yeah, possibly.

His loot. Heh. Never had he been so excited to see a bag of fur before in his life.

Gleefully taking the bag in his hands like some little kid who had just been given his first chocolate frog, his blue gaze lifted to look at Mr. Mordaunt and chuckled at the boy's inquiry. "I believe you are referring to the white dwarf discovered by Dr Jason Boyles, yes?" he asked. "Due to it being composed largely of crystallized carbon, it has essentially formed a Earth-sized diamond in space." He raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin and tried to contain a chuckle as he recalled the notice he had seen posted by the young man on the student board. Quite the little entrepreneur over here. "Essentially like a diamond, due to it being a crystalline structure, but not yet confirmed that it in fact shares the same properties as a diamond. Pity we do not have the technology or resources to go out and inspect it face to face." He was still waiting to receive some additional results from some of his colleagues on the fine details.

"Certainly something to keep an eye on," he mused as he pushed himself out of his seat while clutching his bag of fur. Probably ought to go there separate ways soon, yeah? He had some knitting to do...unless the Slytherin had more questions. Or a time frame for his recommendation.

It was at that moment that Cutty actually regretted the death of a total stranger. He recalled it as and older discovery and so in all likelihood, Dr. Jason Boyles had shuffled off this mortal coil and Cutty would never realize his dream of stalking the man. An onslaught of questions floated through Cutty's head at the moment. How far away was this earth-sized diamond? How was it found? How variant can diamond properties be from one another? I mean, what was the difference in galleons?

Astronomer was starting to look like a pretty viable career option for Cutty right about then. Astronomy, with all of it's promise of diamonds in the sky...and no way to get to them. His brow furrowed at the very idea that they were progressing so slowly toward studying the hunk of cold fire. Limitations were frustrating to Cutty.

His professor, meanwhile was obviously chuffed. It seemed like a good note to leave on. Cutty turned his frown upside-down and before taking his leave, said, "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Professor Flamsteed."