Tina's mood perked up a little bit once the lesson started and the first question was asked. Unlike most people, she rather enjoyed the theoretical portion of astronomy lessons because there was no chaos or vague opinion-based conjecture involved, just hard, undebatable facts. She pondered the question. Something about the solar system… that covered a lot of ground. Her initial thoughts went to the solar system's origin and how it was formed by the gravitational collapse of part of a molecular cloud… but somehow she doubted that was the direction this lesson was going. Of course the obvious answer had to do with orbit, planets going around the sun, moons going around planets, and so on - she couldn't think of any other way rollerskating could relate to astronomy - but some of the other students had already touched on that and it didn't need repeating. All that would do was make her seem too stupid to come up with her own answers!

For now, Tina kept quiet, though her silence wasn't from a lack of interest or attentiveness. She paid careful attention to Professor Sandhu's words, diligently copying the information and pertinent models in her notes. That lecture went on a lot longer than she thought it would, but she didn't mind at all. Kepler's model was an interesting topic, even if there were some aspects of it that Tina was still a little fuzzy on, and really any kind of safe, predictable lecture was better than the alternative. Hmm… maybe her first impression was wrong and this class wouldn't devolve into utter chaos after all!

Tina gave the next question a lot of. careful consideration, simultaneously listening to her classmates' answers and trying to recall enough details on the subject to formulate her own. She immediately noticed that so far, nobody had mentioned the math behind Kepler's Third Law. She had a basic understanding of how it worked, but she was having trouble putting it into words… or at least, words that wouldn't sound like she was reading straight out of her textbook. Disappointed in her inability to articulate what she was thinking, she focused on the second law instead. "According to Kepler's Second Law, a planet will cover the same area of space in equal amounts of time - for example, the earth covers the same area every 31 days, or approximately one month - but the rate of speed that it takes to do so varies depending upon its distance from the sun. A planet will move faster when closer to the sun and slower when farthest."

Wow… When Tina rehearsed that answer in her mind, it made sense, but hearing it voiced out loud, it sounded too rambly and inarticulate. Yeah, she was just gonna… stare at her notes for a while and try not to embarrass herself any worse.

Avalon couldn't help but smile as the professor bobbed up and down to her response. The young Ravenclaw thought that her contribution to the discussion was fairly basic, but she was excited nevertheless that Professor Sandhu approved. She jotted down a few notes on a spare piece of parchment, but a lot of the terms of the lecture went over her head. Avalon liked Astronomy, but once a lot of complicated mathematics got involved, she lost a lot of interest. Epicycles? Retrograde motion? Sidereal periods? The first year was relatively bright, but she was slightly embarrassed to discover that she didn't know any of those terms.

She didn't know too much about Kepler, either - only that he proved that planets don't move in perfect circles. And another student had already mentioned that. She did know that his laws laid the foundation for the theory of gravity, though. And although one of her classmates had already brought up his laws, she thought she would add a more simplified explanation. She raised her hand. "He was one of the first to really 'discover' gravity, in a sense. Newton used Kepler's laws for his own theory, but I think Kepler was the first to notice that a certain force was caused by two objects, like the tides on Earth being affected by the Moon." Of course, that force wasn't called gravity at the time. Not until Newton coined the term. But Kepler was definitely talking about gravity nonetheless.

Patrick was taking in just how much everyone knew about Kepler's laws. He loved astronomy and almost everyone had mentioned his points. "Like the others said about it taking the same time for all planets circle the sun based on their distance is kind of neat. It all works in relation to the sun, without the sun what would happen?" He had always wanted to ask someone. But how did you ask that without sounding like you were saying the sky was falling. Maybe he should have just not said a thing and wrote down everyone elses answers. Oh well too late for that now.

Simran could absolutely relate to the desire to just float into space and experience everything she'd spent her life researching for herself. Unfortunately, she didn't qualify for the astronaut programme -- it was the asthma. Nevertheless, she did still consider Astronomy one of the great loves of her life.

As for the area and harmonic laws, however. "Well done, Miss Roberts!" she nodded. "Those were his second and third laws of planetary motion, and were probably called Theories at the time, and, of course, in German."

Because Johannes Kepler was German, of course.



"Correct, Miss Winklebeck!" Simran said, nodding approval. "That would be his second law of orbits."



It was almost time for the skates, child, and Simran had been yearning for some physical activity for quite some time now. Her daily jogs (or walks, when she wasn't in the mood to sweat too much) were now limited to pacing her office or other locations in the castle. Not fun.

"Correct! Kepler's third law was instrumental in Newton's Law of Gravitation, and allowed him to establish that the moon was held in orbit around the Earth by gravity." Man, Simran really loved it when her students knew their stuff, and they did seem to all have been really studying.

Proud grandma moment? Absolutely.



"Perfectly said, Mr Gunter," she nodded. The whole surname thing did get easier once she'd gotten it right once that day. "And the second focus has no great relation to any physical object. It's been suggested that it correlates to other massive objects in other orbits, but we have yet to conclusively prove that."



Firstly, Master Dakest, it is extremly lucky that Simran did not read minds. Because if she came across your thoughts (or non-thoughts) on Copernicus, she'd blush. But also defend herself extremely heatedly. Everyone was allowed a scientist crush. And Marion had many. Not that Simran blamed her. Scientists were real cuties.

"Velocity, Master Dakest," she corrected gently. Scalars and vectors weren't to be confused, you see. "But yes, well done! They always sweep out a constant area per unit time."



"Precisely!" she nodded, hands clapping together. "I couldn't have said it myself, except for the fact that the rate of speed of an object is its scalar acceleration, when I believe you meant velocity."



"Quite true, Miss Sinclair," she agreed. "Kepler discovered a great many things -- and was also the Father of Modern Optics, and discovered spectacles as a solution for shortsightedness."

What a hunk.



"Without the sun, Master Dooley, the planets wouldn't have formed -- unless you meant to ask what would happen if the sun were substituted for a red giant or a black hole, for example," she smiled. She did so love questions. "In that case, the planets that don't fall in past the event horizon of a black hole will orbit faster than they would with the sun, but otherwise the law still applies."

They just change the variables for the mass of the sun, essentially.

Hopefully that answered his question.

Simran clapped her hands together once, loudly, to get everyone's attention. "Well done everyone," she said. "This will be the last thing you will require your note-taking materials for."

"Kepler's three laws of motion are: The Law of Ellipses, The Law of Equal Areas, and The Law of Harmonies." At these words, the stick of chalk resumed writing on the board:

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackboard

Law of Ellipses: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.
Law of Areas: A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

"The Law of Ellipses states that the sun, or the most massive object of the system, is at one focus of the ellipse that describes the orbit of an object, such as a planet. An elliptical orbit means that we have phenomena such as perihelion and aphelion -- the points where the two bodies have the nearest and furthest distance relative to each other."

"The Law of Areas is self-explanatory, and arises from the conservation of angular momentum. A planet closer to the sun, for example, moves faster, and sweeps through a longer path in a given time."

"The law of periods is largely mathematical, and you will find in your textbooks an approximation that serves for the orbits of the bodies in our solar system, because the Sun has a mass far greater than any other bodies in it."

"It would be best to get used to the calculations for Kepler's first and third laws, as they frequently appear on the gravitation questions in your exams."

And now, for the fun part. "Please put your things away once you're finished with copying, and retrieve your wands. We will be practicising the spell creare orbis today."

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackboard

The Orbit-Focusing Charm
creare orbis
kre-ah-re OR-bis

"The wand movement is to trace the first focus of the ellipse vertically with your wand, and then to tap the object you would like to have orbit it."

"Go ahead and practice -- have your pencilcase orbit your hand, for example -- and if you feel you're ready, you may begin stretching. We don't want cramps." Simran, for one, was starting the stretches with her head.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.


OOC: Hello lads, sorry about this late post -- work yesterday ended up being a twelve-hour shift and I was pooped. You'll have 48 hours to practice the spell and stretch before I move the lesson along!

Analiese wrote down most of the things Professor Sandhu was saying. She was writing quite fast, so it wasn't very neat. She was planning on writing it neatly afterwards though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

Analiese Allanach-Senchuri

Johannes Kepler
- He was a German astronomer.
- He created three laws about solar systems.

Law of Ellipses: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.
Law of Areas: A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

The Orbit-Focusing Charm
creare orbis
kre-ah-re OR-bis

Now Analiese needed to put the spell into action. She cleared her throat and pulled out her wand. "Creare Orbis!" She was trying to make her quill orbit her inkpot.

Second law of orbits. So that’s what it was called. Wait… second? That meant that there was at least one other law. What were the other ones? WAS THIS GOING TO BE ON EXAMS? Were they even going to have exams this year with the mist? How was she going to remember all of this? The professor said that the law of areas was self-explanatory, but Cordelia had no idea what that meant. The law of periods was even more confusing. Even the law of ellipses which was the easiest for her to understand had big complicated words like perihelion and aphelion. What did those words mean? Lost. Cordelia was officially lost on where all of this theory was going. All this confusing stuff was giving her a headache. Oh good, they were done with the theory and moving on to practicing a spell. She could do spells. All too eagerly, Cordelia put away her notes that would almost certainly prove to be completely useless when she tried to study from them later. The Gryffindor pulled out her wand, ready for whatever came next. Creare orbis. Sounded like something that could create orbits. Oh, this had complicated concepts and words too. Dragons dung, she was hoping this part would be easy. ”Which part is the first focus?” Hopefully once she got that cleared up the exercise would be simple. Stretching she could do. Stretching was something she did all the time as part of her daily exercise routine and as part of her quidditch warm up.

Oh. Wow. That...... sounded a lot better when Sandhu said it.

Did he overcomplicate it?

With that thought in mind, Lucas made some notes, especially on the three laws on the blackboard. A planet closer to the sun moves faster. That was basic astronomy, right? Was that not what he was saying before? Maybe he really did overcomplicate his answer.

Once he'd made the last note, the third year packed up his things - apart from his quill and pencilcase - and took out his wand. He only had to make his pencil case orbit his hand, right? That sounded simple enough. He still didn't understand where the skates came in - unless they were making ellipses around...... something - but he was going to try not to think about that right now.

Creare Orbis. "Kre-ah-re OR-bis. Kre-ah-re OR-bis." Extra emphasis on the OR. "Creare Orbis! Creaaaaaaaare Orbis!" No, that wasn't it. "Creare Orbis!" How long had he been sitting there, just saying that incantation? He didn't know. But there was a lot more practice going into the incantation right now.

Was there any point practising the wand movement? He...... didn't think so.

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Creare Orbis!" while tracing the quill vertically and then tapping his pencilcase.

And the result? Nothing. Not even a twitch.

She knew it had a number!

Anyway, practice the spell and stretch. She could do that, once she'd packed her note taking things back up, of course. When her things were safely put away with the exception of her pencil case, she started by sounding out the incantation a few times to make sure she had it. Then she traced an elliptical path around her left hand (which she was holding upwards with her elbow planted on her desk) and tapped her case. "Creare Orbis!" Her case started orbiting her hand, little shaky at first, but more smoothly the longer it went.

Nailed it! Now to stretch.....

She canceled the spell and stretching, beginning with her legs, since that's what she'd be using and worked her way up.

Oh, a question.

Simran paused her stretching to check in on the one Cordelia Winkelbleck and smiled. Orbits, and their terminology, could be a lot to handle. Coming in close, she pulled the ever-present mechanical pencil from her pocket and drew a small ellipse in the corner of the girl's parchment paper.

"Imagine this is the orbit -- the first (often called primary) focus, is the centre of mass of the system. In this case, the sun." Which she then drew as a small point off the centre of the ellipse. "The first focus is stationary, relative to the system, so pick the object that you don't want moving and make sure it's heavier than the object that's orbiting it."

Oh dear, Master Dakest, was everything okay there?

Simran shuffled over, though shuffling was admittedly not necessary when a saree wasn't restricting your leg space, but it was a habit. "Would you say your pencilcase is heavy, Master Dakest?"

"It would be a stronger centre of mass if it were, and your spellwork would be easier. Consider weighing it down with something and see if that helps."

OOC: We'll be moving on to the main activity in about 6 hours.

He smiled, "yes professor I meant if something else took over the place of the sun. Wow that would be strange to witness...." he couldn't picture watching planets fall of and such. Shaking his head he got out his pen to finish his notes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Notes

Law of Ellipses: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the sun at one focus.
Law of Areas: A line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

The Orbit-Focusing Charm
creare orbis
kre-ah-re OR-bis

Rolling his shoulders and thinking over the charm he grabbed his wand and left his pencil on the desk. "kre-ah-re don't say it with an accent Patrick.... or-bis" He whispered under his breath making sure that the thick Kentucky accent he had didn't mess up the spell. Prepping himself he made an ellipse around his hand that was resting on the edge of the desk and tapped his pencil, "Creare Orbis" He watched as the pencil followed his shaky path at first before starting to make a stronger path. He smiled impressed by his work.

Now he wanted to try it with something different.... wait is that what the skates were for? were they going to be orbiting around the room? oh now he was excited for this class today. His sour mood and questions about his friends suddenly gone.

........... Huh?

Lucas tore his eyes away from the setup in front of him and glanced up at the sound of the voice. It was safe to say that he was completely taken aback by Sandhu standing near him, much less talking to him about his recent attempt at the spell. Maybe that’s why it was taking some time for his brain to register what the women was saying.

OR! He was too busy thinking. That was another possibility.

Blinking several times, he glanced between her and the setup and then back again. His mouth formed a small ‘oh’ at the words ‘stronger centre of mass’, and he even picked up his pencil case to test her theory. "Yeah....... yeah, that’s a thought....." His voice trailed off as he started reaching into his bag, this time fishing out anything small but heavy enough to weigh down the pencil case. A book? Wouldn’t fit. A roll of parchment? Probably not. There wasn’t anything in this bag that was small enough to-

Oh! Oh hey....... his watch would work, right?

He let the bag fall and started undoing the watch on his wrist before placing it into the pencilcase. There was a small pause as he just looked at the watch in there, sitting right next to some other quills. As long as something didn’t happen to it........

..........

Not the time.

Taking out his wand, Lucas cleared his throat again and sat up a little straighter. Kre-ah-re OR-bis. Kre-h-re OR-bis. "Creare Orbis!" he called, tracing the quill vertically and then giving the pencilcase a tap. Maybe it was the way he said the incantation, or the fact that he really didn’t want to have to ask his mum for a new watch if something happened to this one, or MAYBE Sandhu’s theory was right all along. Whatever the reason, his quill did more than twitch: it was now circling around his pencil case, almost like a miniature version of a model of the solar system - if it only had one planet and nothing else. Which is a very boring solar system.

But that didn’t matter because IT WORKED!

"IT WORKED!"

..........

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

Ddhskdhsh! He clapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide. Oh merlin oh merlin oh merlin. "I mean, it worked."

Oh Merlin, let him sink into the floor, please.

So the basic concept of her answer had been correct, but her terminology was off… Tina was surprisingly okay with that. The terms were a little confusing, and honestly, she'd half-expected her answer to be even more wrong than it was. She nodded in reply to the professor to say she did mean velocity. Then words appeared on the blackboard, and Sandhu was talking again and - wow, that was a lot of information to take in at once! She listened intently, writing notes as fast as her hand could move so as not to leave anything out. By the time she was done copying, her hand was cramping slightly. Hmm… she really should invest in a quick quotes quill for these note intensive classes!

Tina couldn't help but feel excited when she learned they were doing the orbit focusing charm. Anything that involved wandwork was right up her alley! That wand movement sounded a bit complicated, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. Wand in hand, she practiced the vertical trace and tap a handful of times until she felt she had it down, then moved on to practicing the incantation. "kre-ah-re OR-bis," she repeated under her breath. "kre-ah-re OR-bis, Creare Orbis."

Now it was time to put the two components of the spell together. The only question was which object should she use as her first focus, and which should orbit it? Tina thought for a minute. Then it came to her, her butterfly hair clip! If she made it orbit something, it could look like a real butterfly in flight. It was perfect! She removed the tiny purple plastic clip from her hair and set it on the desk. "Creare Orbis!" she said, vertically tracing her textbook and giving the butterfly a little tap. She smiled as she watched the little purple butterfly moving in an elliptical path around the book. Wow, this lesson was actually pretty fun so far! Who knew?

Tina was so absorbed in watching her hair clip orbit that she almost forgot she still needed to stretch. Oops! She bent up and down, side to side, still watching her butterfly out of the corner of her eye. As she stretched, a thought occurred to her. Were they going to cast the orbit focusing charm on those roller skates to make themselves orbit something? That would be...interesting.

"Very difficult as well," she said, in full agreement with his assessment. "Especially to get near enough to a black hole to observe much. Many things orbit them, though -- our entire galaxy, for one, has a black hole at its centre. Our sun orbits it." Fun facts.

As for his charmwork, well, the Slytherin Prefect required no help from her.



Simran had to try very hard to restrain her laughter -- and a small chortle did make an appearance at the back of her throat -- but that didn't make her any less proud of Lucas Dakest's recent success with the charm.

"It is perfectly acceptable to be excited about correctly-performed charms, Master Dakest," she smiled. "I still dance around whenever a small breakthrough occurs. Pride in your own success is an excellent motivator."



As she walked past the other desks to check on how the progress went, Tina Dantes' idea of having a butterfly orbit her textbook made her smile. "Well done, Miss Dantes. Make sure to stretch well."

It had taken quite some time for everyone to successfully perform the charm, but with no small amount of pride, she watched as the last ones to finish did so and began to stretch. Were they all limbered up yet? She assumed so, or that they were at least close to it. At the very least, they had all packed their things back up, which made it much much easier for her.

"Alright, students," she said, clapping her hands together to get their attention. "Please pick up your bags and deposit them at the back of the classroom."

Once they'd moved, the desks and chairs seemed to float away of their own accord slightly off centre for the room, and with a wave of Simran's wand, were collectively transfigured into one large (and very dense) pole. A pole certainly heavier than the students themselves, but not very large.

"Once you're done stretching, there are skates at regular intervals on the floor. They are all charmed not only to fit, but with stabilising charms. I didn't expect all of you to know how to skate, I'm too old for silly assumptions like that." Did it go without saying that they were to put them on? "Once you have them on, I'd like you to tether yourselves to the pole with the charm you've just learned."

"Then, take a spin or two around the room -- the spell should keep you in orbit, and you'll see firsthand how your speed increases as you approach the pole." A firsthand proof of not just the second, but also third laws of orbits.

"Take some time to get used to the skates," she said, putting her own on but not tethering herself to the pole just yet, in case someone needed help. "And holler if you need help. I'll give you more instructions once you've gotten your sea legs."

Or space legs, rather.

OOC: Hey guys, and welcome to the beginning of today's main activity! I'll update us with the more fun bits within the next 24 hours.

So they were going to be orbiting around the room. Now that was a class that he could get behind. He stood up and put his skates on his feet. He was kind of excited to be on skates. It had been a while since he had gone roller skating with his friends. Lacing up the skates he switched his feet and kneeled down to tie the other one. He stood up and looked around to see if anyone else had done it. He was a bit unsure, "Uh, professor should we say the charm first, then skate or do like we did with the example and go around once then say the charm?" He didn't want to not go around without trying like the activity was supposed to do.

Now for the skating part of the lesson. The part that Analiese was dreading the most. She stood up and dropped her book bag at the back of the classroom. She returned to wear she was sitting before and picked up the skates. She took her own, polished school shoes off and put on the skates. Thank Merlin for the stabilising charms. Otherwise she'd already be on the floor. She cast the orbiting charm on the pole and began to skate around the room. Even the though Analiese was enjoying the skating sensation, her legs still felt like jelly. "Professor, are our legs supposed to feel like jelly?" It was an important question, after all.

Oh, Master Dooley again with the good questions. Simran loved this inquisitiveness! And also self-preservation that she lacked at his age. "The safest way is to go once or twice around skating first, dear, to gain some momentum and get used to the feeling."

"But the brave of heart may, of course, cast the charm first. It's not dangerous, especially with stabilising charms on the skates."

Oh goodness, the first of disasters.

"No, dear, not at all until you're tired," she said, skating alongside the girl. "Take the charm off and go around a little to gain some momentum, and I'll place the charm on you myself in a bit, just to be safe."

Maybe this warranted an announcement. CLAP CLAP. Did she have your attention?

"The charm should feel like nothing more than a gentle tug," she said. "If you feel any sort of funny, let me know, and I'll help."

Whoo-hoo, skate time! Archer happily picked her bag up and moved it to the back of the classroom as asked before slipping on a pair of skates. She took some time to make sure they were properly laced up before skating towards the middle of the room, not really needing the stability charms, but thankful for them all the same. There also might've been a slight bit of showing off too. Hey, she hadn't been able to do much that was truly active, like Quidditch, the past few weeks.

Once her feet and legs were properly used to the skates, she moved towards the pole and cast the spell as instructed. And around the pole she was going.

No, no, no no.

Here came the part of the lesson she had been dreading the absolute most. But… The Slytherin didn’t want to get cramps, and so she began stretching. With a frown on her face. Because she was still quite upset that they were being made to do this. Why couldn’t their Professors have a normal lesson for once? Just one time Nina would have loved to sit down and read from a textbook. Take notes from a whiteboard. ANYTHING that wasn’t this. She hated this.

Perhaps she’d just take extra long to stretch.

Yes. That sounded great.

She did, however, move her belongings to the back of the classroom because she didn’t want anyone to trip over them and knock her things around the classroom. But she also chose to remain standing near all of the deposited belongings, so that she could stretch. For the entirety of the lesson, even.

Once he was done scribbling his notes down, Drewett returned his things into his bag and began practicing. He had gotten the charm pretty quickly. He had already been meddling with advanced charms in preparation for OWLs and possible NEWT levels, so he did gave the charm a few more tries before he was contented with the outcome of his pencilcase spinning around on his open palm

What he needed to work more on, however, was definitely the stretching part. Drewett wasn't a fan of physical activity. Certain types of them, but he would have to categorize roller skates into his 'things I can't do to save my life' list. Unfortunate, really. So he had began awkwardly stretching and wiggling his fingers. He didn't even know how to properly stretch so he had been sort of mirroring Professor Sandhu and maybe trying to recall the horrific fitness regime they did back in his third year under Scrimgeour.

He had moved his belongings to the back of the classroom though but Drewett was hesitant about the actual activity. He trusted the professor, of course. She might be a bit jumpy for someone at least four times his age but he liked to believe Professor Sandhu knew what she was doing. He could not skate to save his life and the stabilizing charms should have made him relax. Still, Drewett just didn't trust himself enough...y'know?

"It won't be so bad..." the Ravenclaw said to Nina, although it might have been more directed to himself. Not so bad. Right? He won't die. This wasn't like an inferi apocalypse or anything. Drewett carefully began to put the skates on. Slowly. To consume some time. The lesser time he spent on skates, the bigger the chance he'll survive this class.

Well time to get the party started so to speak as Eloise started stretch and hoping no mist happens this time during exercise with adults. Really Really hoping. Once done with the stretches she went over and got some skates on

"Professor, does this mean i get to watch Drew and Nina look like fools on skates?"

Big smile to both of them because now this could be fun unless the skates actually were like she said helping them get balance which wasn't as fun. Don't think Eloise has seen Nina do anything athletic in her entire time know the Personification of Boring and being Judgey.

Now what was the spell again because all Eloise was remember was Law this and Law that...oh wait now she remembered She pointed her wand at the pole and with the correct movements here we go!

"kreahre ORbis!"

Feels weird but in a good way like a nudge.

Lets start going faster for fun!

Gunnar had wondered if today's astronomy class would be heavy in theory rather than hands-on practical learning since there wasn't much outdoor activity to be had these days. Even if seeing Professor Sandhu's attire might have told him otherwise, the Slytherin wasn't too surprised with his hand cramping up as he jotted down line after line in his notes. There really was a lot of information today and honestly, he didn't feel much like offering to the discussion himself.

But he put his notes away when prompted, and after jotting down the incantation and wand movement notes for the spell, and pulled out his wand to practice. Gunnar was just about to have his textbook orbit his head when he looked up. Stretching...? Oh. Oh right. He had forgotten about the roller skates he spotted upon entering the classroom. And though he missed some of the outdoor physical activity he was used to, he wasn't so sure he was excited about roller skating around the room with the rest of the class. Or at least that's what he figured they'd be doing.

And it would appear that he guessed correctly. After he successfully made his book circle around his head several times, Gunnar allowed it to drop to his desk with a THUD, then looked up as the professor clapped her hands to get their attention. Great. He did his part in gathering up his things and moving things out of the way in order for them to do this skating orbiting thing. And some stretching of course.

He had just gotten his skates on when he heard a loud, pointed question from his younger housemate, Eloise. Normally, he wasn't bothered with whatever nonsense she was often known to be spouting. But it was clear that she thought she was clever and when it was directed towards a friend (or two), it was a bit harder to ignore.

"Only if we get to watch you look like a fool first," he told her as cast the spell for himself, shoulder checking her as he passed her. "Oops, my bad," he said with an innocent and apologetic smile over his shoulder. "Still getting used to the spell." He wasn't too worried about bumping her accidentally since he didn't do it very hard and he doubted she'd fall. Not with the stability charm on the skates.

Oh merlin oh merlin oh merlin.

Lucas redenned.

And not a blush, he was probably tomato RED.

Sandhu was saying something. Something about being proud in his success, something about motivators, and about dancing - what?! But all of that seemed to be dulled down by the amount of internal screaming that was going on. He looked up at her and offered a shy smile but didn't say anything. There was no need, right?

Thankfully, Sandhu was also starting to move on so he decided to concentrate on her, instead. He picked up his bag, dumped his pencil case - with his watch still inside - and his quill in it and then went to place it at the back of the room. Turning around, he was...... uh, surprised to see that the furniture was gone and a pole was standing up in the middle of the room. And.......

........ oh. This was the skating part?

The internal screaming was back, but this time from fear and not embarrassment. This was really happening? They really had to skate around?? Oh merlin. He let out a very small groan, even rubbing his face with his hands as he did so. It was a cool way to learn about orbits, sure, but-

The sound of tension (?) amongst some of the older students broke through Lucas's thoughts and he found himself, uh, looking. Awkwardly. He wasn't getting involved, of course, but it was hard not to hear certain bits, you know?

Okay, no. He was stretching. That's what he was doing.

Did Nina really have an army of boys ready to do her bidding because it was becoming more like by the second because now Mr. Boring was sticking up for her and that was really really surprising and it was cute that he thought that was a good retort?

And now he was bumping her like a thug.

"Sorry can hear you over the sound of some fool bumping into a girl"

Stay in your lane, Boring Dude

A new spell! Avalon's favorite things to learn were charms and enchantments, so she eagerly picked up her wand as soon as Professor Sandhu announced the next portion of the lesson. She would certainly go back and reread her notes later -- the young Ravenclaw didn't quite understand the law of periods yet. "Kre-ah-re..." she whispered, trying to get the pronunciation correct. Was that the right syllable? She looked back the board briefly before continuing. "Kre-ah-re or-bis." No, she would need more emphasis on the orbis part. "Kre-ah-re OR-bis." That sounded about right!

Extending her other arm out in front of her, she traced her hand lightly with her wand. Then, tapping her quill, she said, "Creare orbis!" To her immense surprise, the object lifted immediately and began circling her hand. It was rare for Avalon to get a new charm right on the very first try. She couldn't help but smile at her achievement.

And now it was time to use those skates. Thank goodness Professor Sandhu had fixed the skates with stabilization charms. Although Avalon had pretty good balance thanks to Quidditch, she had never tried skating before, and she had not been looking forward to making a fool out of herself in front of the entire class. Hesitantly, she slipped her feet into the skates and extended one leg slightly out in front of her. Thankfully, her body followed, and soon enough, she was gliding effortlessly around the pole. Without that stabilization charm, she might have been flailing around like a windsock.

After a few spins around the pole, she grabbed her wand from her pocket. It was a bit tricky to perform the wand movement while in motion, but with some concentration, she did it. "Creare orbis!" she said firmly. And just like that, Avalon was able to stop moving her legs. She felt a light pull toward the pole, which Professor Sandhu said was normal. So far so good. Unless the professor had any tricks to send their way...

Eyes emoji.

Drewett gaped a bit at Trolloise's comment. The redhead wasn't lying, though. If there weren't stabilizing charms on these skates, he'd probably have fallen on his bum already. Perhaps five times. He could balance school work along with everything else, but to physically balance himself was a whole other level of struggle that the Ravenclaw didn't want to deal with. "Har har," was all the fifth year could manage. He wasn't about to play that game with Eloise, and he chose not to mind it. Her jokes were usually harmless unless directed towards Nina because that was an entirely different story.

But he still continued to slowly put the skates on, until he no longer had an excuse to be sitting around. Drewett stretched his legs and wiggled his toes inside the shoe before getting on his feet. Thank Merlin for stabilizing charms. At least it looked like he had some control over himself. He also allowed a tiny smirk to play on his lips at Gunnar being Gunnar right there. Thanks, mate.

Letting out a huff, Drewett started working around the classroom in a orbit to get himself into the momentum. He didn't want to go too fast. Slow pace was where it's at, and it was the only pace he could comfortably handle. It felt weird being on skates. It was his first time on them, actually, so he was taking his time to ease himself into the situation. Two rounds were probably enough and that was when he eventually did the wand movement and casted a "Creare Orbis."

The gentle tug was something. He hadn't decided if it was a nice or a strange one.