Nina never knew what to expect with Professor Sandhu. She was always far more chaotic than her other Professors and... it was highly concerning. Always. And so, she walked into the room with some apprehension. The very first thing she did was survey her surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary today. No room to roller skate around the room, which was good because Nina hated that.

She did stop to acknowledge her Professor with a look before walking to one of the desks and taking her seat, immediately reaching for her belongings and arranging her desk very particularly. She had a system. And it worked. So she would be sticking to it.

Claudine had managed to catch a short nap before this 9PM lesson. Not on her bed, or she would surely sleep past the time but rather she had fallen asleep on a lumpy armchair in the common room. It helped that there had been some noisy Snakes around and they had rudely woken her up with their cheers from a game they were playing. Claudine had thrown them a nasty glare before realising that they had actually done her a favour.

Without apologising, she had collected her bag and slowly traversed all the way up to the Observatory. “Good evening, Professor,’’ Claudine said, absently rubbing an eye to get the sleepiness out. She shuffled to the back of the class, took a seat and willed herself not to put her head down on the desk to go back to sleep.

It was late. Ewan was not in the mood to look up at the stars tonight and he did not want to be here. But here he was being the good prefect and turning up even if he’d just wanted to be back in his room doing…something else. Besides, the weather was god awful so what could they really hope to see besides clouds and disappointment? Not really paying attention to the blackboard or whatever was on it, the moody Ravenclaw took a seat with the other students, neither acknowledging them or the professor. He simply closed his eyes and rested his head on the desk. Just let someone disturb him before the lesson started.

Blake smiled at the Professor and took a quick at the black board at the front of the room. Not seeing anything jumping out of him that he should recognized he took at seat and got prepared to study hard. As always Astronomy was one of his favorite classes, studying the stars always put him at peace.

So taking a look at the Professor he tried to guess what they would be working on.

After rushing through his dinner and trying to speedily finish an essay for Transfiguration, Lucas was more than glad to be going up to the Observatory for something different. Or, well, not very different because he was used to sitting here when it was empty.

But this was a class and it wasn’t going to be empty.

Walking in, he wasted no time in heading over to his usual seat. It was only when he’d sat down that his green eyes gave a quick glance around the classroom as he went, trying to notice something different about the room. But everything seemed....... normal? Maybe a little too normal, especially for Sandhu.

Speaking of, his eyes found her next and the smile was instantaneous. "Hey, Professor!" And the dots on the board? The STARS? His face lit up even more at that thought. Were they stargazing? Please let them stargaze.

If so, then he wanted a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate while they stargazed. You know, educational reasons.

It was Astronomy time and as Naya arrived for class, she was ready for a challenge. Entering the classroom and looking at the board, she had no idea what the topic of the lesson would be today.

“Hello Professor”, Naya said, as she made her way past her Head of House. She found her seat and began to take out the things she would need for class. Taking a second look at the blackboard, she imagined that the many dots she saw represented stars. Would they be matching stars in the sky to stars on the board? She would have to wait to find out the answer to that question.

"Hello, Professor!" Bernie bounced into Astronomy, as energetic as ever, and hurried to a seat near her friend Claudine. Did she look sleepy or what? Bernie gave her a friendly nudge to wake her up. They were probably studying the stars or whatever was on that chalkboard there.

Cole was on some day's a night owl so this 9pm lesson in Astronomy suited him just fine. He was alert and not sleepy at all. He did though wish that the lesson would end at a reasonable hour so he got time to read his new quidditch magazine before bed. Entering Cole shot Professor Sandhu a bright smile upon passing her desk. "Good evening Professor," before he went over to take a seat next to Naya. "Hi!" he whispered to her. "Do you think we'll study the stars tonight?" What else could the dots up there on the board mean?

Normally Heath would've balked at a lesson at such a late hour, but this was astronomy. aka his favorite subject. Any tiredness he felt was overshadowed by excitement! He entered the room, dark eyes peering around for any sign of the lesson to come, but he found nothing… except for the scattering of dots on the board. Hmm… those dots could represent stars, and… He mentally drew lines between the dots to form constellations.

Heath was so absorbed in connecting the dots on the board that he nearly forgot to greet the professor upon arrival. "Hello, Professor Sandhu," he said, smiling brightly as he passed on his way to his seat. Instead of hiding at the back of the room as usual, this was the one class Heath felt confident enough to sit up front! He neatly arranged his materials on the table in front of him before turning his attention back to the board. As he waited for the lesson to begin, he absentmindedly copied the dot pattern onto a spare scrap of parchment and resumed drawing lines between them. How many constellations could he make before time ran out?

Charlie didn't mind coming in at odd times for astronomy. What she didn't like was having to get up the next morning. Whoever was making that schedule should really try doing it once or twice. It got really hard. Especially when her bed was soooo warm and comfy in the mornings. But she couldn't do that. However, she was all ready to go and get things learning.... which was odd for her. Normally--even though she liked her professors, she often wanted to leave right back out the door she came into. They wanted too much chit chat, too many questions. Tell her things, teach things. Don't expect mind reading. Rolling her eyes she stepped further in trying to assess who all was in the room. Wow she was super early. "Hello Professor." She stated as she finally moved further into the room. She would have gone closer to sit with Heath, but instead she sat a few rows back, middle of the room, no unwanted attention just yet.

Simran did quite pride herself on being unpredictable. Someone had once described her Dungeons and Dragons allignment as "chaotic chaotic" and she still considered it high praise. The highest of praise, in fact.

"Good evening, Miss Castillo," she said, returning the nonverbal greeting with the ease she always did. Now, that look of suspicion was entirely unwarranted, Nina.

... or was it?

"Good evening, Miss Blaze," she said, eyes following the Slytherin as she took a seat towards the back of the room. Did she always sit at the back? Somehow Simran had always thought she was a front-row person.

Maybe it was just her shining personality?

Simran was really sad for the state of the youth if nine in the evening was considered late. Goodness gracious, she'd stayed up far later for far worse reasons well into her twenties. The poor souls. Was it the air pollution? Excessive carbon dioxide did make people more tired than they would have been in previous generations.

Well, the absence of a greeting and his direct placement of his head on his desk certainly raised her eyebrows, and did not at all coincide with her definition of a good prefect. Hopping off the edge of her desk, she crossed the space in quick angry strides before rapping sharply on the desk.

Once she had his attention, her eyes narrowed. "Master Jones," she said, lips significantly thinner than usual. "The sheer disrespect you have shown will see three points taken away from Ravenclaw, and another two because you are a prefect and should know better."

By now, she was positively seething and her voice lowered (albeit to a hiss) to avoid being overheard by students not in his immediate vicinity. "I do not know what kind of example you think you are setting for your peers, but I assure you that it is not a good one."

A smile was sent in Master Ryan's direction as he entered the room, but even that was not enough to completely lift the mood she had now entered.

"Staring is impolite, Master Ryan," she called out, smile still tight. Surely there was nothing here that he'd never seen before.

"Good evening, dear," she said, a smile twitching at her lips at his VERY informal greeting, which he probably hadn't noticed. Not that she expected him to, with how often this particular Gryffindor was in her office. A hey every so often was par for the course.

However, her shoulders were still far stiffer than they usually were and she just did not quite seem as glad to see him as she felt.

You know, Master Dakest, she wouldn't personally mind supplying that blanket and hot chocolate, but it violated school policy. Apparently some professors had previously poisoned children and it was a very specific part of her briefing, not to offer them food during lessons. She did, however, generally allow her students to bring their own snacks and drinks, so she saw no reason why he shouldn't do so.

Everyone needed their emotional support cup of hot chocolate every so often, you know? Ideally with marshmallows. She would, personally, like hers NOW.

"Good evening, Miss Lindsay," she nodded as the Gryffindor entered. She seemed at least a little intrigued by the board -- perhaps she would do this foreshadowing via blackboard a little more often. Perhaps.

FINALLY. A night person! "Hello, Miss Grantham!" she said, shoulders untensing slightly and a small smile gracing her own face, and giving the Gryffindor a small approving wink as she nudged her friend awake.

The lesson would end before curfew, if that was what Cole was concerned about. Simran had sat down for several hours, planning the content of the lesson and the timing in a way that clashed with as few things as humanly possible, and had the younger students in bed with enough sleep that they would be well-rested.

"Good evening, Master Vance," she said, smile still tight. Yes, they would be studying the stars, as they always did. She had not yet, to her knowledge, signed on to teach a different subject.

Well, what a delight that he was not balking at the prospect of stargazing at nighttime. It was truly a relief for Simran not to worry about whether or not her students wanted to look at the stars for a subject called astronomy.

Not that it was difficult enough to actually schedule a lesson where the weather didn't make life incredibly difficult for everyone involved, no. Clearly Simran Sandhu scheduled lessons as she pleased and without a care for anyone else in the world.

"Master Jones," she said tightly, nodding in greeting as he took his seat.

Simran was indeed pleased to see the young Charlie Rivers in her lesson, but it did not quite at this point of time look it. Perhaps it was the small stream of sleepy students who came in behind her, rubbing their eyes as all but yawned greetings at her if there were any given.

Her greeting was returned anyway, with a tight smile from the astronomy mistress as she got up to close the door behind her.

Not even quite making it to the centre of the room, she sighed as she looked at all of them, shaking her head. "You all look tired," she said, after a pause, leaning her shoulder against the doorjamb.

"Get up. Leave your things. Two laps around the observatory. Chop chop." She would be here, by the door, counting laps from the slowest runner, just so nobody tried to "merge" into the speedier students and cheat.

Once they were done and back in their seats, she fixed them with a steely look as she returned to the centre of the room. "I hope we're feeling more awake now," she said, waving her wand at the blackboard and causing her piece of enchanted chalk to begin connecting the dots between the stars -- they were correct: these were constellations.

"I must say, I'm disappointed that so many of you are so out of it, considering this is as early a lesson as I've scheduled," she sighed, most of the anger having subsided while the students were running and leaving her with a very heavy air of disappointment.

"Now, here on the board I have twelve constellations with a strong connection to another form of magic." Each one at least slightly familiar shape, split equidistantly across the blackboard. In fact, she was sure that they would be able to identify at least one. "Please identify either a constellation or identify the areas of magic most commonly associated with them."


OOC: Hello everyone, and sorry about the delay with this post! In the light of Simran's sour mood, I'd like to reiterate that I, Lauren, OOC, am so so so glad to see you all here in my lesson.

Please no longer post arrivals as class has begun. Just pretend your character has been here all along! We will be moving along in about a day from now.

Isla had just chosen a seat and was about to greet the professor, when the lesson got underway. She'd make up for it when she gave her goodbyes at the end of the lesson. Then she blinked. Wait. What? They were going to start the lesson by taking two laps around the observatory? Maybe she wouldn't give a proper goodbye after all. Heh. Kidding.

Regardless, the first year took to the floor and made two laps around the observatory. Being a former dancer, she was kind of used to this sort of thing, and it didn't really bother her to exert the energy. It just kind of annoyed her. But whatever. It was all over and done with now.

Once she was back her seat, she looked up at the constellations. Raising her hand, as she had spotted the one associated with her birthday, she said, "I see Aquarius." She had read it had something to do with a man pouring water, but she didn't see it. "It looks like an uppercase E to me."

Heath couldn’t help but notice that Professor Sandhu seemed a little… off tonight, but he had no idea why. Had he done something wrong? Was he not supposed to try to form constellations with the dots on the board? He quickly put down his quill and looked up from his parchment, but his confusion and concern only grew as the professor spoke. Huh? They looked tired? He didn’t think he did, but then again, he hadn’t exactly stopped to look in the mirror before he left. So apparently they were running laps now…

Heath thought the request was a bit odd, but he didn’t complain. He got up and joined his classmates in running around the room as fast as he could… which, admittedly wasn’t very fast. He was no athlete, not like his older quidditch player brother! When he was done, he returned to his seat, shaking his dark hair out of his eyes. He sat bolt upright, his eyes glued to the board. He was determined not to disappoint Professor Sandhu again!

Oh, so he was right… the dots on the board were constellations! Heath stole a quick glance at the parchment he’d been working on before class started. He was pleased to see he’d correctly identified about half of them in the time he had, but since the professor only asked them to identify one, he went with the one associated with his own star sign. His hand shot into the air. “That one’s Virgo,” he said, pointing out the constellation that sort of resembled a bug with long antennae. For the second part of the question, did the professor mean specific branches of magic associated with each individual constellation or the one branch of magic that united them all? Since he didn’t know, he decided to try to answer both. “Virgo is associated with healing magic, particularly that of the abdomen or nervous system. It, along with the other eleven constellations on the board, makes up the western zodiac, which is associated with astrology.”

Was he talking too much? Probably. Sorry, everyone! He didn’t mean to dominate the conversation; he just got overly excited. So yeah, he was just going to… go back to being quiet now.

Claudine saw Bernie coming into the room and half expected the Gryffindor to go sit with Blake but the Slytherin was secretly pleased as this wasn’t the case. Not to mention she was a lot smug. Not even the nudge bothered her. “Why are you so full of energy? Don’t you know it’s time to sleep?” Although, due to the fact that the lesson was starting, it might help in waking Claudine (so long as they weren’t covering a boring topic).

But then…

What?

Laps?

Not all of them looked sleepy, like Bernie and Cole. Whatever. Claudine was not in the mood to throw any sort of tantrum so she just grabbed Bernie’s sleeve to tug the girl to her feet. They’d do these laps together. Mercifully, the laps passed before she knew it and she was back in her set. Admittedly, the Snakette did feel wide awake. And Sandhu was surprised that so many of them were ‘out of it’? Did the woman think that being a student was a hoot? How could it be when there was so much homework to be done? All that , spell practice? Not to mention many of them were a part of clubs as extracurricular activity. Sandhu should try being a student.

Claudine usually held Sandhu in high esteem but not tonight. This time, it was she who was disappointed but she simply focused on the board. Her eyes sought Leo, her own astrological sign. To her, Leo looked like a rat with its tail held high. It was located but she wasn’t in the mood to raise her hand in order to provide any answer.

Ewan couldn’t help but look up at the approaching steps, knowing what it would be but still not exactly prepared for what was about to happen. Meeting her narrowed eyes and pursed lip with a stone-cold expression of his own, he just sat there for a moment listening to her mini rant about how he wasn’t setting a good example.

“Finished?” the prefect replied, his own voice surprisingly steady considering he was talking back to a teacher, something he’d never actually done in his life. “You want to talk about setting a bad example? Let’s just look at the one your setting right now” his own voice rising a little now. Sure, he’d walked in and put his head down on the table without actually talking to her but he hadn’t exactly done all that much wrong. “A good teacher who actually cared would ask what’s wrong first instead of just assuming I’m setting a bad example on purpose. Have I ever been late? Nope. Have I ever done this before? Nope. So why not ask me a question instead of chewing me out in front of everyone, only making things worse?” kind of like he was right now. Sure, he knew this wasn’t helping but he didn’t care right now. He had other priorities in his life that didn’t include school. The Ravenclaw shook with adrenaline as he stood up, unsure of what to do for a moment. This was not like him at all. He’d never had detention in all his time at school and now he’d just spewed all of that verbal diarrhoea over Professor Sandhu without really meaning to. He knew the consequences were going to be big. Huge even but right now, he didn’t care. All he wanted to do was to leave. To get out from her gaze and to go somewhere alone to think before he really did something stupid.

Completely ignoring the professors lesson in its entirety, he just headed back towards the door to leave, knowing full well there was no coming back from this today, oblivious to the rest of the room.

Chloe sat still in her seat, she watched Ewan and the Professor and really thought the professor to be out of line. Ewan did have his head down, but was he hurting anything or anyone? It wasn't like he had said anything or done anything. Could she be a mind reader and he had horrible thoughts? She glanced at Ewan and back to the professor, hoping that wasn't the case, because if it was, maybe she was doing it to others in the class. At this point, she felt she needed to take her eyes away, but she just couldn't, everything in her wanted to help her best friend, but she bit her lip.

Chewing her lip trying to figure out what to do she did whisper, calm down Ewan, hoping he heard her but not sure if he did since she didn't lean closer in fear that she'd be next in the Professor's rath. She felt her nerves jump knowing she most likely caused some of his mood and hating that she did.

"This is Taurus, it looks like a wishbone, hence why I can always remember it.""

When Cole came and sat beside her, Naya gave him a smile. “Hey Cole.” “ I do think that is what we’ll be doing”, she responded with a whisper. At that moment, class was beginning and Naya shifted her attention, not wanting to get on the professor’s bad side. Apparently, not everyone was in the same frame of mind. Naya looked with wide eyes when Ewan and the professor got into a bit of verbal sparring. She wondered what was wrong. He didn’t seem the type to sass a professor and her response had seemed a little over the top.

When they were tasked with running laps, Naya was definitely not pleased. She didn’t mind running, in fact she usually enjoyed it. This was not one of those times, however. She was awake and prepared. Why should she have to participate in the wake up run? Grudgingly, she stood up and went to complete her required to laps.

When they returned and got back on task. Naya raised her hand to answer the professor’s constellation question. “I see Libra. That always looks like a crooked house on its side to me.” This one Naya knew because Libra was her zodiac sign. She couldn’t forget it.

It was pretty much impossible to sit tucked away in the corner of a classroom which was specifically set up more like a circle. And yet, somehow, Kaiser was managing to give off the air of doing exactly that. It was, quite frankly, an achievement. About the only achievement he'd managed recently, if you asked him.

Sitting quietly at the end of the back row of seats, Kaiser kept his eyes downcast, running his thumbnail over what seemed to be a years-old carving in its surface. Over and over, back and forth, he traced the name Prince that had been gouged into the wood, glancing up once when he heard the sudden scraping back of a chair. At that point, he noted the Ravenclaw prefect was behind the noise, the returned his focus to his desk again.

Until Sandhu spoke in that same old way that meant she was addressing the class as a whole, at which point he half tuned in, but kept looking down.

But then she said that, and he sighed irritably, but quietly, the sound camouflaged by the noise of the class getting to their feet. But, all the same, he stood with the rest and did those laps around the room. At walking pace, because he was zero percent in the mood for any of it, and she never explicitly specified they needed to run. By the time he dropped back into his seat, Kaiser was fully regretting having turned up at all, given he wasn't even taking the NEWT. The only reason he was showing up to all the extra classes was to keep his mind occupied by the external world, for all the good it had been doing.

Resuming his tracing of the engraving on the desk with his thumbnail, Kaiser went back to half listening, half brooding (... maybe one fifth listening, four fifths brooding). Again he glanced up at the mention of what was on the board, and gave the constellations there the once over as he reflected on Sandhu's question.

The shapes drifted before his eyes, melting into each other, twisting around themselves, and equally distorted names and facts and memories of past class discussions tumbled over each other in his mind. Kaiser blinked hard, shook his head to clear it, lowered his eyes again, and said nothing.

Minjae was a morning, day and night person. It really did not matter what time of the day it was he was generally excited. And today was no exception. While he got up from his seat to jog around the observatory, the fourteen year old overheard Ewan’s words towards the professor and he jogged in place. Cause, you know…this was far more interesting because he had never heard the Ravenclaw Prefect talk back to a professor.

Before he got caught eavesdropping, the fourteen year old jogged further, hoping to catch small bits of the conversation between them and when he was back to the starting point…he saw Ewan walking towards the classroom door.

Wait, was he actually leaving? Minjae frowned from his friend…they were friends right? At least he thought they were… to the professor before he jogged towards the Prefect and placed a hand on his shoulder ”Are you really leaving class because of one argument?” he asked. ‘Cause if he was he was going to be a bit disappointed… ”Come on” he said cheerfully and tried to drag him back to his seat. He’d answer the next question, getting Ewan back to his seat was more important right now.

Sandhu seemed....... different. A little off.

And he didn't know why.

His eyebrows furrowed and the smile turned into a small frown. He shouldn't take it personally, should he? He hoped not. A large part of him wanted to believe that Sandhu was just having a bad day, but there was another part, a nagging part, that was starting to wonder if he had anything to do wi-

........

...................

Uh, it looked like Sandhu wasn't the only one in a bad mood.

Lucas' eyes widened as he watched Ewan - EWAN, of all people - talking back to Sandhu? Uh?? What? Was? Going? ON?? This wasn't like him, was it? He didn't know a lot about the sixth year, apart from his name and the fact that he was the Ravenclaw Prefect, but he didn't seem like the type to, uh, make a stand. What against, he didn't know. His mind was buzzing too much to make sense of any of........ this.

And then it got worse.

Laps? They had to run LAPS?!

Oh no oh no oh no.

Eyes closed, the Gryffindor paused to take a very long and very deep breath. This reminded him all too much of his first year at the school and all the laps they had to do then. Every morning. It was a memory he'd tried to suppress all these years but couldn't do so now that Sandhu was asking them to do the same thing.

It was also a memory that made him want to scream into a void but this...... wasn't the time.

As he stood up to start these - sigh - laps, all he could do was hope that this had nothing to do with the lesson. What running had to do with Astronomy, he didn't know. And he didn't even want to know. He kept his eyes focused on the floor, not paying attention to who he was running next to. If they had to do pushups next, he was going to think he was in a nightmare.

After the two laps were done, Lucas flopped down onto his seat, breathing a little heavily and feeling worse than he did before. But he had no time to think on that before Sandhu started talking about..... being disappointed? Was this why she seemed off today? Or was it still because of-

ASTROLOGY?!

A tiny hint of a smile crept on his face, but it had nothing to do with the topic. His mind was immediately jumping to the one person he knew who wouldn’t like this at all. It was a good thing Mr Flamsteed wasn’t here.

Blake blushing deeply at the Professors comment about staring .. jeez... she ccertainly seemed out of sorts today ... but none the less he was determined to make it a good day. So jogging about the room as requested, but what appeared to be a rather cranky astrology professor, Blake then turned his attention to the constellations in front of him.

Blake raising his hand said "They look like the Zodiac signs... that one there." he pointed at one that looked liked an upside down Y "I'm pretty sure looks like 'Cancer'" Hopefully with a right answer he would at least gain some 'points' back from the staring comment.

Well. Whitney hadn’t been in a mood before, but she certainly was now! Laps just because some people were tired. For one thing, Professor Sandhu’s classes were always so late in the day (which she knew couldn’t be helped because Astronomy, but still) and for another, they had those stupid dolls to take care of for Muggle Studies. So, all the fingers were pointing at the professors for that. She fully agreed with her prefect. Was she the type to stick her neck out for someone else, though? Not really. So she stood and did the laps, pacing herself so as to not tire herself out.

”You know, doctors actually recommend exercise to insomniacs to help them fall asleep easier……. she said saccharinely. True facts. So, again, Professor Sandhu had only herself to blame if any of them fell asleep during the course of things. ”And that constellation is Capricorn, which is one of twelve zodiac signs.” The last part was said in her normal voice, of course.

Now, Simran was aware that she was usually one of the more chill professors, in a manner of speaking. Of course, that did not apply now, when a prefect (and one who'd really always been a dear, at that) thought it was appropriate to speak to her in this manner.

Or lack of manners, even.

"Intention and effect can be mutually exclusive, Master Jones, and when you break rules, it is punishable, whether or not it was part of your plan," she said, colour rising to her face as her fingernails dug small crescent moons into her hands. "As for making this worse -- you're right. I love making things worse. That will be another 10 points from Ravenclaw, and detention, where we can discuss all your numerous problems and my terrible teaching."

Her eyes followed him as he headed towards the door. "And if you leave, it will be another fifty points."

Do NOT test her. Really. Don't.

Simran would, if she was in a better mood, have awarded Minjae points for his attempt. Unfortunately, a better mood she was not in and all he got was a tight smile for his efforts as she returned to the centre of the room.

She'd not been so stressed in a classroom for a very long time.

"Very good, Miss Bellchant. Aquarius, the Water Bearer is one of them."

As she spoke, the name of the constellation was written above the corresponding collection of stars. "To be entirely honest, I'm not sure where the water or the bearer is in it, but constellations are largely arbitrary anyway."

Simran's lips twitched slightly as the younger Jones gave his answer. Of course the boy was a little bit overeager -- she'd generally expected as much. It was rather endearing, and made her feel at least less frustrated in general.

"Very good, Master Jones," she nodded as the constellation was labelled in turn.

Simran was no mind reader, but she did at least know what it was like to be a student, contrary to popular belief. It might have been a while since she was a student at Hogwarts, but some parts stuck with you long after you've moved past them.

But no response from Claudine also meant nothing from Simran, and her gaze glossed over the Slytherin in search of a hand that was raised.

Simran nodded as Chloe named Taurus, and the chalk labelled the constellation. "Very good, Miss McCarthy. It is, indeed."

As for the rest, she remained blissfully oblivious. It was probably for the best that she was no mind reader, or most of her students would be in a good spot of trouble.

As the chalk labelled the next constellation, Libra, Simran smiled. "A crooked house on its side is an interesting descriptor," she nodded, eyebrows furrowing in thought.

"It does go to show how arbitrary some of these names are."

Yes, she knew that the running was unpopular, and in hindsight, suboptimal to make everyone do it -- and Kaiser's pace meant that despite the relatively small space of the Observatory, that she lost a good bit of teaching time.

But no matter, they would still be finished before curfew. Probably. All the same, she did always appreciate that Kaiser showed up despite not being in her NEWT class.

However, no response from the Slytherin meant that she, too, had nothing to say now and moved along to the next raised hand.

She saw that smile, Lucas Dakest, and it brought a small one to her own face, her anger seeming to subside just about as quickly as it rose to the surface. She knew, and she knew that he did too, that Astrology was unpopular among most Astronomers who considered themselves scientists, but it was an important topic to bring up all the same.

A little disappointed not to see his hand (or any other hands, for that matter) raised, her gaze swept over the room once more.

"Very good, Master Ryan," she said, nodding. "They are indeed the Zodiac constellations, and that one is indeed cancer."

A wrong answer wouldn't have been as unwelcome as he thought, though. They were all here to learn, after all.


Simran's eyes narrowed at the Ravenclaw. "Tone, Miss Quartermaine, will see one point taken from you."

"While two laps around the Observatory is in no way strenuous work, exercise is also recommended to people complaining of fatigue, and results in the production of endorphins, which triggers an improval of brain function. It seems that exercise in general might be a good idea. Would you like to take another few laps?"

Truly, the sass in this class.

"And yes, it is, indeed Capricorn."


Anyway, moving on. "The western horoscope has been a subject of debate for decades. Many astronomers will have absolutely nothing to do with astrology, aside from acknowledging that these twelve constellations actually are in the sky."

"However, some research links these signs to certain magical tools we have at our disposal. Aries, for instance, is strongly associated with fire magic -- and specifically work with candles."

On the blackboard, with their corresponding constellations, came the magic forms most strongly associated with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackboard

ARIES: Fire/Candle Magic
TAURUS: Fixed/Earth Magic
GEMINI: Air/Knot magic
CANCER: Lunar Magic
LEO: Actualisation/Reading
VIRGO: Herbalism
LIBRA: Visionboarding/Color Magic
SCORPIO: Spellwork
SAGITTARIUS-Chaos/Travelling*
CAPRICORN: Ceremonial/Crystalwork
AQUARIUS: Communal/Astrology
PISCES: Cleansing/Akashic Records

"Travelling, for Sagittari, is in theory not limited to things like apparition. Buddhist Seers say that they have a better connection to their karmic cycle, and the intersecting planes of existence."

"It isn't just our sun sign which is believed to be important, in these things, but ascendants and houses. However, due to the general disdain of the Astronomical community, and the highly specific nature of the art, not much research in the area can be done."

"What do you, personally, think of astrology?"

It didn't have to be particularly scientific, but it would be nice to see some supporting (even if anecdotal) evidence.

OOC: Hello, everyone, and sorry for the delay! It's been a bit of a day for me, but we'll be moving this lesson along in about 24 hours.

Why was everyone else so sleepy?? Honestly, 9pm was relatively early compared to on nights when she had prefect patrol, which went as late as midnight on weekends. And what in Merlin Beards had Ewan's knickers in a wad, honestly?? Carsyn shrugged it all off though because apparently Sandhu wanted them to do two laps around the observatory to wake up.

Eh, that was nothing, compared to her under seventeen practices, which honestly meant the gryffindor was done relatively quickly. And back in her seat to take note of the constellations on the board.

"Aren't the zodiac or sun signs commonly associated with divination?" Wait, was that what she meant by area of magic? Was that too generic?


What did she think of Astrology though?? Hmm.... Uhhh ... oh, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully at Sandhu, she eyed Ewan casually at the door and willed him to come sit down again. Maybe. Cause she wasn't sure what was bothering him, but obviously something was and she, being the nosy gryffindor that she was, was curious.

"Kind of how gravity pulls us to the Earth, Astrology has a pull for each of us towards certain behaviors. Depending on when certain planets might be in retrograde, might be cause for stranger behaviors than normal, for instance." Wait, was that why Ewan was acting weird? Was it the planets fault?