Leading the way out of the classroom, through the corridor, and out into the crisp night air, Airey stood and waited for the rest of the class to catch up with him, checking his wrist sundial from time to time nervously. He was cutting it close with the time...assuming that the calculations were correct. This could either be awesome or awful depending on the timing of things.

Once students began to filter into the Tower Patch, Airey used his height to his advantage and tried to spot Mr. Odessa. "Mr. Odessa, would you care to elaborate on something you brought up earlier in the lesson?" he called, not sure if the boy was listening just yet or not. Or even present. It was rather dark out. Probably should have cast Lumos to start off.

Better late than never, yes?

Flicking his wand, he slightly illuminated the area.

"Asterisms I mean."

Alyssa followed the Professor all the way through the corridor and out into the night air. She looked around and realized that there was a little garden where they were.

Then she heard Professor Flamsteed asking West to elaborate on what he had mentioned earlier. Asterisms. She knew what they were. A collective or pattern of stars that may form part of an official constellation, or be composed of stars from more than one.....or at least that was how it was mentioned in the one of the library books.

But she waited patiently for West to give his answer.

Jory followed the Professor and the others to what seemed to be a garden as he saw when the place was illuminated.

"Asterisms?'' he thought. He thought he knew what that was. The Puffer looked around the garden while they waited for the answer from West. It was one of the best places he had ever seen here at Hogwarts.

It took some effort but she finally managed to compose herself a little by the time she got out to the Tower Patch. She stole a glance at the fountain, knowing that somewhere close by there was a plaque. It's like the universe was trying to make sure she stayed sad. Last term, Professor Burbage had been one of her favourite teachers before that bloody plant ate her and now she was left with a man who thought her star was insignificant. Wow. Just wow.

The fact that it wasn't very bright out didn't help at all because, there, NOT Jeffery was, glowing, like he was supposed to do and she could tell that it was hurting Jeffery's fragile self-esteem. He used to glow...before she happened.

Glancing up at the sky made her feel even worse. All the stars up there were shining too...kinda like they were picking on her little guy. Was everything mean to him?? Rude! Just very rude! Rude wasn't even a bad enough word. It wasn't nice to go teasing him, it wasn't his fault...

"Pay no attention to them Jeffery...I don't glow either..."'

She looked to the Professor as he clarified whatever it was he wanted West to explain. That word. He explained it to her last year. By some miracle she still remembered what it meant. Go figure.

West moseyed after the professor and the other kids and sort of blinked and ... what had he brought up? Sure. He'd elaborate on whatever.

Asterisms? Oh that was easy.

He had BEST speak loud so they could all hear and not ask dumb questions right? Right.

"So anyways, Asterisms are basically groups of stars what make up some kind of picture to us in our minds eye, usually based on our culture and the stories that we know about. The patterns up there, in the stars, its all about how we see it from down here. Sometimes an asterism is part of a constellation, but they aren't the same thing. Like the Big Dipper is an asterism what is actually a bit of the constellation Ursa Major. I mean in theory you could like, make up your own asterism just by looking up and seeing them stars up there and connecting the dots and go 'oh that's a slice of Pizza' or 'that one there, that's definitely a Manticore drinking a butterbeer.' and since those aren't officially recognised constellations, they could be called asterisms." Pizzas and manticores were both cool things. Obviously he had their attention.

Also obviously, he kinda felt like pizza.

"I mean we all know about constellations: there are 88 of those, but the thing about them is that those are official shapes up there, ones what have been chosen arbitrarily --that just means that its an agreed upon thing what doesn't really have an obvious physical connection and stuff-- like a bunch of people that just got together one day and said 'oh yeah, that's a constellation dude', and they divided up the sky so that the constellations all have their own bit of sky. But see, different cultures and all ,like the Greeks and the Babylonians and the Chinese, all at different parts in history, sort of recognized different shapes up there, ones what might have had something to do with stories or myths that they were familiar with, and they didn't know about each others stories and whatever, so it makes sense that they didn't see each other's patterns up there, at least not in the same way. Sometimes their patterns overlap with each other, like they even use the same stars." West was all big gestures, pointing up there, at space.

It was kinda big, y'know?

That was enough of that there elaborating anyways. The professor could say more, the boring parts about it, and explain any of the bits what West had got a bit carried away with or skipped over. He was more interested with what it meant potentially for their stars.

Ella shuffled outside with Little Treyen safely in hand, following Professor Airey. The air was a little chilly and the blonde shivered ever so slightly causing her to look down and check on the star's temperature status as well. Yup, the little guy seemed to be doing well. BEAM!

Walking a little further, the fifteen year old stopped and waited by Alexa, humming quietly to Little Treyen while she waited for the lesson to continue.

Oh...Asterisms? Were they going to make those with their stars?! And if so, could she and some others make an ELEPHANT? Pretty please with a cherry on top? She really liked the idea of Little Treyen being a part of something like that. She'd also settle for like...a dinosaur shape or something. That'd be cool too.

Alyssa blinked in amazement. Wow! West really knew alot about stars. His explanation about asterisms made it clearer for her to understand what they were.

'So technically group of stars could be considered constellations. It's just how we see them to be. O_o wait. Are we going to actually get to form our very own constellations? ' Alyssa thought to herself as she looked down at Yvaine.

...and it was then that she noticed, Yvaine was no longer as yellow as she had been before. In fact, she was starting to glow a pale yellow, and then the star's color changed to complete white. Alyssa quickly sat on one of the benches and placed her jar on it.

Taking out her wand, she waved it in a tight circle in the air while saying "Crescere" and then "Hydrogenii when she jabbed her wand at the jar. Alyssa waited and hoped that the spell worked. Yvaine was running low on hydrogen and the spell she had cast was to increase the levels back up.

Alyssa watched as Yvaine's color slowly began to darken again. There were now tinges of color in it. Slowly the star changed from white, to pale yellow and then finally a bright yellow. All was well with Yvaine again.

Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief. If they were supposed to release Yvaine back into the sky, the temperature inside the jar needed to be stable, as well as hydrogen and helium levels. Alyssa wanted her star to live.

Clutching her cloak and star tightly to her chest, the little Claw gathered 'round with the students at the tower patch and took a few long moments to gaze up at the immensity above them. What a beautiful way to live...with all of that above us. "And now I'll know you're up there too, Muilygen," she whispered to her star. Pretty amazing...we're going to actually contribute to the stars. She could scarcely believe that was even possible, but hey, this was Hogwarts and it just kept on surprising her time and time again.

She stood on like that, head back gazing, while she waited for whatever may happen next.

It was kinda nice being able to go outside at night during a class. Especially since it wasn't too cold now, spring finally coming and all. Penelope carried her star in a jar in her arms as she followed the class up to the tower path.

So now that they were here, what were they going to do?

That thought was answered when the professor asked West to talk about aphorisms - er. Asterisms. Right. That. And suddenly now West was spouting a bunch of information, but Penelope felt like she understood what he was talking about. Sorta. For the most part. Mostly the stuff about pizza and a manticore drinking butterbeer. Because those sounded good right now...the pizza and butterbeer, that is. Not so much the manticore.

Merlin, now she was really hungry. Thanks West.

Could they get a snack once this class was over? She didn't plan on going to bed hungry.

Edita had no idea what that Odessa was on about. She squinted up at the sky with one closed eye, trying her best to spot a pizza. By the time her attention had drifted back to the group, Odessa was done speaking. Happenstance made a face and adjusted the jar under one armpit.

"Who uses the same stars now?" she whispered to Ezra before shaking her head. "Never mind."

Nodding and grinning as Mr. Odessa explained asterisms to his classmates, the astronomer nervously continued to check his sundial nervously while venturing a glance here and there upwards. His attention soon fell on the Slytherin however.

Manticore drinking a butterbeer? The astronomer looked skyward once again to see if he could see what the boy was looking at. Incredible, the imagination of a child. Not to mention he had always been a fan of students being given the opportunity to teach each other. Really put their education in their own hands that way.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Odessa," he said while offering a polite golf clap to the boy. He hoped that everyone had been paying attention. "Just to summarize, an asterism is a recognizable pattern of stars. In the general sense, a constellation is the same thing but in a more technical sense the term refers to an officially partitioned section of the sky within which are stars that form a well-known asterism. Examples include the Big Dipper, the Teapot, the Summer Triangle, and the False Cross." He could go into more detail now, but this really was meant to be more of a preview into next term's lessons.

A very VERY large grin on his face now, Airey pointed rather dramatically towards the sky before speaking. "Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to create yours own asterism using the star you created and the preexisting stars ups there." See? The dramatic gesture really WAS necessary. "For this activity I would like you to form a group of two or more. In your group figure out what shape you want to make and come up with a name for your soon to be asterism. When you are all ready, all you need to do is unscrew the cap on your jar and give the underside two taps with your wand. Your star will know what to do." Meaning that it would SHOOT out of the jar like a rocket towards the sky and into space. Well, not ALL the way into space since there was no way these little stars could produce enough thrust, but they would land in at least the Stratosphere. "For safety purposes, hold the jar above your head when you tap."

Yes, we are looking at you Mr. Gunter.

He then clapped his hands together excitedly and checked his sundial one more time. "You have about 30 minutes to complete this. HAVE FUN! Don't forget to say good bye to your star properly." But they should take comfort in the fact that the star would be there to 'watch over them' in the night sky.

.................................................. ....for a few weeks at least. Month or two or three at best. They weren't real stars after all, so having a proper star life cycle was a little optimistic. Not that he was going to let the students know that. He had already seen enough dramatic reactions to certain things.

"Can't wait to see what you all come up with!"

And now he was going to sit back and enjoy the show.

Time to make your own asterism! To complete this portion of the lesson and be eligible for full credit you will need to have at least 3 posts. One post finding a partner/forming a group. Steps to be covered include:

• forming a pair/group
• deciding on the shape of your asterism
• releasing your star

You have approximately 48 hours from this post to do this.

Any questions may be asked IC to Professor Flamsteed or OOC to me via PM or VM

And now Professor Broda Flamsteed was summarizing what West had been talking about, and Penelope nodded. Okay, yeah, she was following all this now. A challenge? To...create their own asterisms? Neat! This should be fun, right? Maybe they could make a food-related asterism. Like that pizza that was mentioned. That'd be cool.

But first...she needed a partner/group. Hmm... "Anyone wanna partner up?"

Anya cradled her star lovingly as she followed the Professor into... some sort of garden. Aww! And look at West be so smart and adorable. She liked him. Had she mentioned that at all? Cute lil Odessa.

...

Wait. What?

They were killing releasing their babies?! That was not cool.

Okay. So it was. Especially since this was practically the same thing she'd requested to do in class. No wonder the Professor had wanted her to stay quiet. She could practically read minds.

Now. Who to... PENNE! She happily walked up to her housemate and looped her arm through hers. Dibs.

Whoa. How did little dude know so much about this?! 'Cause Sky had never heard any of it. At all. Ever. In fact, it was so much new information that it slightly boggled her brain a bit. And she was quite certain that she had felt her eyes cross a little too.

Anyway, she needed to find a partner. Fast. "Anyone need a partner!" Yep, pair up with exploding cauldron girl. Her star wasn't going to explode though. Hopefully.

The person called West Odessa talked an awful lot, so Ezra dedicated himself to stare at Jefferson Arnold. He was pretty sure giving Jefferson Arnold his undivided attention was a better than to listen to a Slytheron spew answers he'd probably memorized from a book.

Ezra tapped the lid of his jar gingerly, wondering if Jefferson Arnold would miss his occasionally terrible small talk. Probably not. Hopefully not. Ezra expected a lot more from something he'd created.

Oh, assignment time. Automatically, he shifted his attention to Edita, held his jar close to his chest. Obviously, they'd work as a group. Or as a pair. Whichever. "What d'you want to do, then?"

Another activity! "Sounds like fun!'' he thought. But at the price of their Stars. "It's all part of the lesson,'' he reasoned. "Stars aren't meant to be kept bottled up.''

All he needed now was to find Alyssa so they could get started. The Puffer looked around and finally spotted her a bit in front of him. He made his way over to her and tapped her shoulder. "Partners?'' he asked with a grin.

Edita was slightly panicking. This sounded like a lot of work and, well, a lot of commitment. What if she changed her mind about their asterisk thing? What if she didn't like Edistar where she decided to place her tonight? What if the night after tonight she wanted a new name?

Ezra called her back from her frenzied thoughts and she stared at him, wide-eyed, for several seconds with her mouth half-open before responding: "Run, maybe."

Running was her go to stress reliever. It had started from when she was little and she couldn't remember how or why.

"But that's not in the instructions, I think, so," she sighed quickly after having spoken and tilted her face to the open skies. "We need to pick a constellation thing, I guess, and then..." Eddie got her jar from under her armpit and held it at arm's length in between her hands. "Shove these somewhere. What's your favorite shape?" she asked Ezra, tilting her head.

Mika looked up as she stood in the tower patch and looked around the area. She just glanced over to around the room. Maybe Alec or Ella would be her partner? Or possibly West? Anyone really?

"Ah-um, Anyone want to be my partner?" Mika squeaked and smiled brightly. She really really wanted to do a great job at this project.

She was bouncing on her feet and looking around. She really just wanted to be partners with someone - a certain friend was popping into her head but he probably wouldn't even be here or even want to be her partner...she was just awkwardly looking around waiting to see who would be her partner.

"But it's freezing."

Which probably made running a better idea - it'd warm them up. Also, Ezra realized as soon as the words were out of his mouth, that Edita was likely not really proposing they go for a run.

He chewed on his bottom lip, and settled his stare on Jefferson Arnold, again. "I like circles, I think." They were endless. Once you made one, it was difficult if not downright impossible to know where a circle started or when it ended. Which was why he found it silly when people said things like 'The Circle of Life.'

Life had a beginning, and it had an ending. Ezra knew that. He'd seen that. "D'you like circles?" He looked up from his jar. "I'm not very attached to circles--" He was very attached to circles "--so if you don't like them, I s'ppose we could work with something else." He really hoped they wouldn't have to work with something else.

Awarlesta clutched her jar to her chest and looked among the sea of faces. She was looking for friends, but couldn't really find any. Now she was hoping that maybe, possibly, hopefully someone would ask her to be part of their group. Anyone?

Alyssa sighed when she heard Professor Flamsteed confirm what she had thought they would be doing. She was going to have to let Yvaine leave and join the others in the sky. 'Oh wow! I didn't think that this would be hard to do. It's like saying goodbye to someone you love.' Alyssa thought to herself.

Her eyes began to tear up when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. Quickly rubbing her eyes, she turned around and smiled, when she recognized the voice. "Sure, Jory. Of course we're partners. I was going to look for you too." Alyssa told him.

'Okay let's do this.' Alyssa thought to herself. It was time to let her star shoot up like a firework.

"Yeah," she replied simply. She knew that, Carver, thanks. Edita blinked in silence, her fingers making a squeaky sound as her grip on her jar tightened. The girl jumped slightly and glanced at her hands accusingly. That was unnecessary, hands, thanks.

"Better than squares, I guess," responded Edita. "Simple enough too." But Ezra seemed determined to prove how laid back he was about this whole circle thing and steam rolled right over Edita's poor attempts at speaking with what her mother would call her civilized voice. "I don't like squares. It has sharp edges and you can bump into them if you're running too fast and can't...stop."

Why was she back on the running thing?

"Anyways, I mean, I don't want to do something complicated. I'm sure that Odessa is going to do something like trying to draw a phoenix with stars!" Edita exclaimed with her brows high on her forehead and her eyes wide. "Circles are good. Everyone likes circles because they are inclusive. You know what inclusive means? It means it's like, inviting. They include everyone or everything. Anyways, I learned that from November."

Wow. Did her mouth break?

"Sorry, I think my mouth is broken."

Yup. Definitely broken.

Awesome, they were here.

As she settled into her new place within the group, she tried to hang onto EVERYTHING that Professor Flamstead was saying. It consisted of a really intense face and the occasional random blinking because she was lost. Merlin, slow down Professor. Information overload.

Mission? They were going on a mission? Did they get to wear Muggle Spacesuits and take a monkey up into space. The Gryffindor Quidditch team had been talking about getting a TEAM Monkey and naming him Karl. Maybe this would be the perfect opportunity to do it. At last, they would all finally have Karl.

Or not. Bloody hell, they were doing constellations, which was STILL cool, but still. She was all excited about the monkey and now no Monkey for Gryffindor. They had to live to dream another day about their beloved Karl.

Running her hands anxiously through her hair, she said, "Hey, anyone want to work together?" Time to accept their mission. As Flamstead had said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ama

"Yeah," she replied simply. She knew that, Carver, thanks. Edita blinked in silence, her fingers making a squeaky sound as her grip on her jar tightened. The girl jumped slightly and glanced at her hands accusingly. That was unnecessary, hands, thanks.

"Better than squares, I guess," responded Edita. "Simple enough too." But Ezra seemed determined to prove how laid back he was about this whole circle thing and steam rolled right over Edita's poor attempts at speaking with what her mother would call her civilized voice. "I don't like squares. It has sharp edges and you can bump into them if you're running too fast and can't...stop."

Why was she back on the running thing?

"Anyways, I mean, I don't want to do something complicated. I'm sure that Odessa is going to do something like trying to draw a phoenix with stars!" Edita exclaimed with her brows high on her forehead and her eyes wide. "Circles are good. Everyone likes circles because they are inclusive. You know what inclusive means? It means it's like, inviting. They include everyone or everything. Anyways, I learned that from November."

Wow. Did her mouth break?

"Sorry, I think my mouth is broken."

Yup. Definitely broken.

A good sign that Edita was spending too much time with November was the current never-ending chatter. Ezra listened, and nodded in all the places he thought he was expected to nod to. Unhelpfully, he said: "Yeah, kind of like scissors. Squares, that is. They are very sharp."

Then there was talk of running, Odessa, inclusion, and November. And somehow phoenixes figured into all that.

Ezra stopped trying to keep up.

It all sounded like a bunch of inconsequential things, anyway. He looked up to sky, and his hand rubbed the side of Jefferson Arnold's jar. "If your mouth were broken you wouldn't be able to talk." His eyebrows shot up, mirroring her expression, and purposely taking the comment literally. "What d'you want to call the, uh, asterism?" Creating a constellation was a very strange thing to think about. "Edistar, maybe?" Ezra was decidedly against that idea.