See she was right. IT WAS THE NEW MOON. She just didn't raise her hand and answer the question out loud. She was still twirling her moon-on-a-stick. Oppps she should really stop doing that right?

When she seen the professor hold up his moon-on-a-stick. The sixth year did the same. Listening to his instructions she stood straight up again. She held her moon-on-a-stick out in front of her and rotated herself around it slowly as she was instructed. She moved around to the left. She listened to Professor Airey as he explain what this was. It was waxing. Clearly not the waxing she was thinking about. She knew all around this moon quarters and waxing rotating around the orbits. She kept listening to the professor. "Waxing gibbous, professor." She stopped once she was at the first quarter of the orbiting the moon-on-a-stick.

Hay is for horses. Hay. Is for. Horses.

Airey Flamsteed was the biggest freaking nerd alive.

Grayson couldn't help but be embarrassed as well as thoroughly amused by the pun. Embarrassed for the guy but man, his timing had been on point, he was gonna give him that. Hey is for horses. SNORT.

Before he could comment on it, the lesson had gotten started and they were learning about...........

HOLY.

FREAKING

MERLIN.

WEREWOLVES! FREAKING WEREWOLVES, MAN. Grayson was dead chuffed at this news. Werewolves were kinda interesting and all, you know? They weren't the kinda creatures that were gonna skip around throwing rose petals. They were dangerous and deadly and therefore Grayson loved them. Probably not as much as he loved dragons but eh.

Being all too excited about this, the seventh year didn't end up answering the first question. He simply carried out the task at hand so that, before long, he found himself standing there with a makeshift Styrofoam moon on a stick in his hand. He tilted his head, his eyes staying glued to the object he was holding. Huh. This was useful, actually. But the dim light was gonna end up making him feel kinda sleepy. Or, as if he wanted to be sitting near a campfire and roasting some marshmallows. Both options sounded great, you know.

And the second question? Not answered either. He did, however, move around towards the left, trying to keep the makeshift moon held in place. The bluebell flames illuminated more and more of the moon and he was starting to find that this visual demonstration was helping a lot. Uh huh.

But LOL. Waxing. Interesting choice of word there.

Yeah Hady was slowly getting lost in this topic. Even if her first answer was correct it didn't mean she was keeping up all that well without taking her usual notes. Not to mention she was supposed to be doing what?

Blinking up at Professor Airey several times it took a few moments for everything that had been said to finally click into place in her brain cause good gosh way to much was being said! The third year had no idea what the next phase of the moon was called though she had a feeling once the correct answer was told she'd want to kick herself for not knowing it. However right now she focused her attention on holding her arm with her stick straight out in front of her while slowly moving to the left in a circle. She watched closely as it went from darkness to light. That was pretty cool and much easier to understand what you were seeing it.

Benny wasn't getting the connection that some of his classmates had come to...that werewolves were among them. Much less that the new defense professor was one of the troubled creatures. He was beginning to think on how the subject connected with the other two subjects which made him concerned. Either seemed to be a cause for difficulty, especially given the fact that wolfsbane wasn't exactly an easy potion to brew. If they were in fact leaning in that direction.

And him without his potions helper...sigh.

He missed the various comments Professor Flamsteed made while his gaze briefly fell in the direction of Adi...and Henric. Pulling himself back when the next instructions were given. Ben slowly as instructed, yet almost forcibly turned to his left, keeping the fake moon upright and relatively still in place. The 'waxing crescent" appeared as he moved and watched it while the astronomy buff described it. Would you look at that.

Then they were at half-moon. As for the terminology, Ben had the feeling it was still Waxing since it was still increasing, but the second term always got him lost. Not the others as a few had answered. Waxing Gibbous. Ben continued his journey with his sphere until it was fully illuminated as Flamsteed had asked and paused in step.

"Gibbons?" Dot asked loudly, since she was super duper busy turning sloooooowly to the left to make her moon turn from new to crescent to waxing monkey butts. Or... no, that didn't seem right. "Ribbons?"

Dot kept turning, and it took all her energy NOT to bop anyone with her moon. But Starman had seen her, so she wasn't allowed to bop again. BUT LOOK! Sophie was doing it! "Lunation is happening. Lunation." And it was against the rules. StarMan said.

Zhenya wrote down a mental note in her head; New Moon = first phase of lunar cycle. Because, after all, she DID want to remember everything, and pass her exam. And now they were moving around their moon. OOoooo000ooooooooo. Zhenya slowly rotated to the left, as Professor Flamsteed had instructed, and she observed the changes to her styrofoam moon. Cool, it was actually interesting SEEING it for herself, rather than just seeing pictures. Even if the pictures were really good.

Waxing - growing of the moon.
Waxing Crescent - the first sliver of moon visible
First Quarter - obvious; first quarter of the moon's orbit around earth
Half Moon - obvious

Zhenya made mental notes of all of the positions in her head, so that she could lock 'em in there. And finally, she found herself rotated to see the half moon. What was the phase after the first quarter moon? Zhenya swivelled around to look at Professor Flamsteed and raised her free hand. "Er... the Waning Gibbous?" she asked. Okay, so she shouldn't be answering a question with a question, but she could never remember what order the Gibbous moons went in. Waning, Waxing, Wicked, Whomping, Weasley...

The styrofoam balls were a very cool touch. And the walking around in circles. Though it was a little bit awkward that he was listening to Professor Flaminghorse talk about lunar cycles when they were facing their backs to him. Eh. For the sake of some semblance of respect, he twisted his body around enough to hear about three quarters of the question. So what stage was it when he could see the entire thing lit up?

OH OH HE KNEW THIS ONE! He actually knew this one and he didn't even really have to think about it to think about or even figure it out. It was an EASY ONE. BONUS MARKS! "The full moon, professor!" he said, hand in the air and kinda bouncing because it wasn't often that he knew the answer. "And it's weird because we can't actually SEE the whole moon but it's really just half, so even though it's technically a half-moon, the name's taken by what is actually a quarter moon."

Wait, that made more sense in his head. Oh well.

Angel was trying not to laugh as her sister span so fast that she knocked something over, she was trying her hardest not to laugh at all but she failed and started to laugh a bit.

Angel managed to stop after a bit and she did as the Professor instructed turning herself around until she was in the position the Professor had asked them to get into.

Angel raised her hand and smiled at the professor as she spoke. "Is it something like The Waxing Gibbous!" Angel wasn't sure but she thought that it was worth a guess.

SPOILER!!: quiet kiddos

Quote:

Originally Posted by Symphora

Henric sneaked a glance at Professor Dakest..rumour has it that the DADA professor might be ...a...a...werewolf!? If it was true...Henric would find it supercool. A werewolf professor teaching in Hogwarts...man...how epic was that?! Of course... he wouldn't want to meet one in real life, uh uh..no. He bet Professor Flamsteed was probably expecting a scary reaction from the students too but...y'know after experience three years of weird happenings and tragic loss of a housemate...he was pretty sure most of them were immune to it by now so...it was not surprising in a way...? Anyhuu....Henric thought this lesson was still going to be a brilliant one...indefinitely, he mused.

He held his moon-stick up right in front of him and moved his head slightly to the left, oh wait... were they supposed to go around it? Ohh...oops...left rotate around Henric....rotate...slowly now. There! He saw it! That waxing crescent! Woaah...what a beautiful sight that was....he couldn't help feeling amazed. Adi seemed to try really hard containing his excitement, He chuckled at the older puff boy, Adi being all Adi again.Yup.

Urgh...the rotating was making him dizzy so he stopped after seeing enough of the new moon transition. Cool.
Question time...again...he had no idea on how to answer Prof.Flamsteed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fire_faerie

And they were moving again. Doing as told, Benzi swiveled around on his foot until his back was to the flames and the little moon was... dark. Not what the professor was talking about at all. This was what is known as an eclipse, where his head was much too big to let any light illuminate the ball.

Stretching his arm out far, he grinned when the silhouette of his head appeared on his little moon. A semi full Benzi eclipse. BUT, okay, he'd play with the rest of the class and get to the full moon, lifting his arm and therefore eliminating his shadow from the white ball.

Hello full moon.

And as for the question... Toby and Cutty and others had already answered it so he just nodded and continued to mess around with his moon. Of course, he was nodding at the wall since they were now facing away from the professor but whatever. Flamsteed would see an inverse nod from the back of his head.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

They were spinning. Eden wanted to dance. She paid attention to her styrofoam moon, though, and did try to take note of the way the light played on the ball...it did look like a legit moon. Cool. She was dying to take notes, though. ugh. She'd have to jot everything down once they got a chance to sit. Or...should she try to scribble some notes down right now.

Ugh.

The woes of being studious.

...but as for the terminology, Eden wasn't sure. Hmm. Waxing. How odd to call the moon phases....waxing. It reminded Eden of cleaning a car. Hmph. She still had no idea, but she quickly set down her styrofoam to JOT DOWN ALL THIS STUFF BECAUSE DEAR MERLIN EDEN WAS PANICKING ABOUT NOT REMEMBERING IT TO WRITE IT DOWN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Govoni

.

.

This seemed like a very awkward dance, in hindsight...but Gabriel did as was instructed, paying close attention to how the bluebell flame first appeared as a crescent and then grew. And after it reached the halfway mark, it seemed to swell out further.

...which was what the Gibbous name referred to: swelling, bulging, or convexed.

Gabe almost answered the question...when someone had asked...but he couldn't make out the owner of the voice and alas, it wasn't his place. That, and he wasn't facing anyone...and it was strange to talk with your back to people.

So, he remained silent this go around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack

Holding his moon as still as he could was starting to become quite the task. You know, he never realized how hard it was to stand still up until now. Merlin's pants this was hard. Especially since the moon depended on it, y'know? But anyways, he was still. SUPER still and SUPER concentrated. New moon. Got it.

Man, Flamsteed sure knew how to talk.

Which he only noticed 'cause he was trying to stay really still.

Alright, finally time to move. The Gryffindor moved as slooooowly to the left as he could, still holding the moon in it's place. And yeah, the light was starting to grow on the right side. Huh. Waxing. This was much more interesting that the wave stuff from last term. Constellations were fun though. But this demonstration was better. At least, in Zander's humble opinion.

He continued to follow along with the demonstration, doing his best to follow along as Professor Flamsteed moved about. Again he chose to stay quiet when the next question was asked, realizing that the same answer had been repeated just about a million and three times. No need to make it a million and four, y'know? He did notice Sophie and Toby though and couldn't help but snicker. This was too good. OOPS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

Hay is for horses. Hay. Is for. Horses.

Airey Flamsteed was the biggest freaking nerd alive.

Grayson couldn't help but be embarrassed as well as thoroughly amused by the pun. Embarrassed for the guy but man, his timing had been on point, he was gonna give him that. Hey is for horses. SNORT.

Before he could comment on it, the lesson had gotten started and they were learning about...........

HOLY.

FREAKING

MERLIN.

WEREWOLVES! FREAKING WEREWOLVES, MAN. Grayson was dead chuffed at this news. Werewolves were kinda interesting and all, you know? They weren't the kinda creatures that were gonna skip around throwing rose petals. They were dangerous and deadly and therefore Grayson loved them. Probably not as much as he loved dragons but eh.

Being all too excited about this, the seventh year didn't end up answering the first question. He simply carried out the task at hand so that, before long, he found himself standing there with a makeshift Styrofoam moon on a stick in his hand. He tilted his head, his eyes staying glued to the object he was holding. Huh. This was useful, actually. But the dim light was gonna end up making him feel kinda sleepy. Or, as if he wanted to be sitting near a campfire and roasting some marshmallows. Both options sounded great, you know.

And the second question? Not answered either. He did, however, move around towards the left, trying to keep the makeshift moon held in place. The bluebell flames illuminated more and more of the moon and he was starting to find that this visual demonstration was helping a lot. Uh huh.

But LOL. Waxing. Interesting choice of word there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy

Yeah Hady was slowly getting lost in this topic. Even if her first answer was correct it didn't mean she was keeping up all that well without taking her usual notes. Not to mention she was supposed to be doing what?

Blinking up at Professor Airey several times it took a few moments for everything that had been said to finally click into place in her brain cause good gosh way to much was being said! The third year had no idea what the next phase of the moon was called though she had a feeling once the correct answer was told she'd want to kick herself for not knowing it. However right now she focused her attention on holding her arm with her stick straight out in front of her while slowly moving to the left in a circle. She watched closely as it went from darkness to light. That was pretty cool and much easier to understand what you were seeing it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Holmesian Feline

Benny wasn't getting the connection that some of his classmates had come to...that werewolves were among them. Much less that the new defense professor was one of the troubled creatures. He was beginning to think on how the subject connected with the other two subjects which made him concerned. Either seemed to be a cause for difficulty, especially given the fact that wolfsbane wasn't exactly an easy potion to brew. If they were in fact leaning in that direction.

And him without his potions helper...sigh.

He missed the various comments Professor Flamsteed made while his gaze briefly fell in the direction of Adi...and Henric. Pulling himself back when the next instructions were given. Ben slowly as instructed, yet almost forcibly turned to his left, keeping the fake moon upright and relatively still in place. The 'waxing crescent" appeared as he moved and watched it while the astronomy buff described it. Would you look at that.

Then they were at half-moon. As for the terminology, Ben had the feeling it was still Waxing since it was still increasing, but the second term always got him lost. Not the others as a few had answered. Waxing Gibbous. Ben continued his journey with his sphere until it was fully illuminated as Flamsteed had asked and paused in step.

Yeah....he should have thought this through a bit more. Thank Merlin he had his own prop to distract himself. Glancing out of the corner of his eye as he rotated a slowly left to right where he stood in front of the class, his eyes glazed over those who had not raised there hands but were still very much actively participating in the little demonstration.

Hats off to all of you. Literally...because no one was actually wearing a hat in the classroom. Against the uniform policy, after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixStar

Blah, blah, blah... they could start rotating themselves. Yeah, that was all she got out of the latest rant. In fact she was SO excited about being able to do something that required movement that she missed the tid bit about going at it slow. AJ wanted to be the BEST moon spinner ever so she began to twirl around in warp speed. We're talking olympic moon spinning here. Everything was a blur because she was going THAT fast. So naturally she missed the whole "everybody else was spinning like a sane person slowly" thing.

Whhhhheeee. It was lots of fun... you know, the first couple of minutes. The wind on her face and the way her hair fell behind her was magical.

Then...

That unmistakable watery feeling in the back of her throat happened. Vomit was coming and she was too far in. Immediately she stopped spinning, but the world was still moving around her. Stumbling a few paces, she actually managed to get closer to Airey that she previously was.

"MMM... crescents." Trying to play off this whole little situation here. He asked something about crescents which was kind of weird. What did those buttery rolls of goodness have to do with the moon?

No mattered how many times she swallowed something was coming up. It was happening. Oh no.

BLEEEERGH...

A huge puddle was right at Airey's feet. His shoes most likely got splattered a bit, but she wasn't paying much attention to that at the moment. Her stomach was still turning and she was trying to keep the remainder of her food in her stomach.

Just as she was feeling better, her moon ball fell off of her stick, and rolled right into the vomit. Of course it did. Talk about adding insult to injury. Whoops. She had forgotten to hold her stick the right side up while she heaved in front of everybody. Honest mistake when you were moon spinning.

"ERM... sorry about that." Professor head of house sir.

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

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

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

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a few moments absolutely no sound came from the Astronomy professor despite his face being contorted in the most horrible of ways and his mouth hanging wide open. It was as though someone had cast a Silencing Charm on him to prevent the entirety of the class from having their eardrums ruptured from the high pitch shriek that tended to come from the man when his suits were in grave danger.

If this had been the case, however, the charm had worn off.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!" he howled at the moon. His entire body quivering, the man finally stopped shrieking after a full minute - of which he had carried the same shrill note the entire time - and STARED at Miss Valentine.

Count to 10, Flamsteed. Just count to 10...

"Wa’ ... cha’ ... wej ... loS ... vagh ... jav ... Soch ... chorgh ... Hut..."

Nothing like counting in Klingon to settle the nerves and regain some perspective, right?

"10 points," he barked, only his attention suddenly snapped around to the entire class, but especially on Miss Valentine's fellow Gryffindors. "From all four houses. You all should be ashamed of yourselves and your disregard for another's well being." camaraderie and companionship were special things. Ask him about it sometime. He had lost his best friend and beloved pet rock.

"I trust you know the proper spells to fix this...situation, Miss Valentine?" he said, eyes narrowing and not daring to actually look down at his own shoes right now. "And an additional 5 points will be deducted from Gryffindor for your inability to follow instructions."

Pausing for a beat to catch his breath, although his nostrils were still flaring like a bull's, he exhaled and spoke again. "Are you alright now? Or shall I dismiss you to go see the Healer?"

SPOILER!!: waning gibbous!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sararara

Norah added all the moon stuffs to her notes in sparkly ink which was TOTALLY fitting even though she hadn't even been thinking of glowing moons when she'd chosen her ink color for the class. Man. She was totally a seer. A seer of INKS. If only Professor Cassie was a part of this three way class thingy, she'd be so proud.

The Hufflepuff fiddled with a strand of hair as she thought about the next question. She KNEW this, right? She'd learned the moon stuff before with her dad but she'd already forgotten about the new moon so really who even knew what she knew. Uh. So there was the full moon and the new moon (apparently), and then there was waxing stuff and waning stuff and crescents and quarters and gibbous. She knew that bit, but how was she supposed to know about the order? Was gibbous even a real WORD? It sure didn't sound like a word, if you asked her. Gibbousgibbousgibbous. She didn't even know what it sounded like, but it sure didn't sound like a real word. Biting her lip, Norah stuck a hand in the air, figuring she could at least take a shot at the answer. She just had to mix 'n match some of the words she knew, right? Just like she did with her socks in the morning 'cause matching socks were a total waste of two perfectly individual feet. The opposite of waxing was waning and the opposite of crescent was gibbous so she'd just go with that, yeah? It was worth a try, anyways. "Is it a waning gibbous? What does gibbous even mean?" she asked, hand in the air.

Well. She hadn't exactly answered the question but she'd asked two of her own which had to count for something, yeah?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jessiqua

Zhenya wrote down a mental note in her head; New Moon = first phase of lunar cycle. Because, after all, she DID want to remember everything, and pass her exam. And now they were moving around their moon. OOoooo000ooooooooo. Zhenya slowly rotated to the left, as Professor Flamsteed had instructed, and she observed the changes to her styrofoam moon. Cool, it was actually interesting SEEING it for herself, rather than just seeing pictures. Even if the pictures were really good.

Waxing - growing of the moon.
Waxing Crescent - the first sliver of moon visible
First Quarter - obvious; first quarter of the moon's orbit around earth
Half Moon - obvious

Zhenya made mental notes of all of the positions in her head, so that she could lock 'em in there. And finally, she found herself rotated to see the half moon. What was the phase after the first quarter moon? Zhenya swivelled around to look at Professor Flamsteed and raised her free hand. "Er... the Waning Gibbous?" she asked. Okay, so she shouldn't be answering a question with a question, but she could never remember what order the Gibbous moons went in. Waning, Waxing, Wicked, Whomping, Weasley...

Still huffing and puffing and ready to blow someone's house down, Airey found enough composure to call on a few raised hands. FINALLY.

"Not quite," he said, his tone still very much carrying an unwarrented hint of annoyance as he spoke to Miss Kittredge and Miss Burton specifically. "Waning gibbous is indeed one of the phases of the Moon, but it occurs after a full moon...which you will see in just a moment." His tone was now somewhat back to normal, for the record, as class seemed to get back on track. "Gibbous, in astronomy, means to have the illuminated part greater than a semicircle but less than a circle. If you reference a dictionary, however, you will also find that it also means convex or protuberant."

LIKE HIS EYES HAD BEEN JUST A MOMENT AGO!

SPOILER!!: WHY IS IT ALWAYS YOU THREE?! *insert appropriate gif here*

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

...Tobes was absOLUTELY asking for it, BOPPING HER EVEN AFTER FLAMSTEED LIGHTLY REPRIMANDED THEM. Sophie WRINKLED HER NOSE playfully at her best friend, grinning all the while, and debated her options - she could bop him back again, or... oooooorrrrr... hehehehehh. HEHEHEH. Yes. That would do just fine. But she had to bide her time first and STRIKE WHEN HE LEAST EXPECTED IT.

Very innocently, Sophie tuned back into Flamsteed's instructions and obediently rotated slowly to the left, still holding the moon out in front of her. This activity was simple and kind of boring, but effective for demonstrative purposes, so it was okay. Aroooound she went slowly, turning even more as the professor spoke, and stopped when the surface of the moon was fully bathed in light.

Tobes had a weird answer to Flamsteed's question, and then he was murmuring alternative names to himself for his full moon - and that was when she made her move, reaching her hand not holding her moon-on-a-stick and - as to not disOBEY Flamsteed and she WAS keeping her moon to herself - she lightly dug her fingers into Tobes' side and tummy and tickled him for a few long moments before stopping.

That was proper retaliation and a sure win. Boom. GOT HIM.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

He hadn't been expecting it. Not for one second. Not THAT. Not from SOPHIE BROWN. Whom he TRUSTED.

Toby was still looking back over his shoulder, then leaning right back instead so he could watch Airey all upside-down and everything. Hehehe. Hi Flamste-

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The effect was immediate. Toby was deathly ticklish, and it took only the slightest touch to the ribs to send him into hysterics. But with the angle he was at, and having not expected it at all, Toby let out a strange mixture of a GASP, a SQUAWK, and a SQUEAL. The tickling didn't last for very long, but it was long enough for Toby to collapse into weird gasps of laughter, trying VERY HARD not to be OBVIOUS whilst LOWKEY BABBLING AT SOPH TO STOP.

"ASKHDskksdkshkSOPhaAHEHEHEE!" Oh. OH. SHE HAD ALREADY STOPPED. Oh. Oh. Okay. He could breathe. Doing that now. Okay. Just... gonna stand back up again, and... ahem. Nothing to see here. Only Toby was definitely gonna get Soph back for that. Later.

As for right now, he kept his arms PINNED to himself in case of further attack, and gave a shudder. Merlin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

"Gibbons?" Dot asked loudly, since she was super duper busy turning sloooooowly to the left to make her moon turn from new to crescent to waxing monkey butts. Or... no, that didn't seem right. "Ribbons?"

Dot kept turning, and it took all her energy NOT to bop anyone with her moon. But Starman had seen her, so she wasn't allowed to bop again. BUT LOOK! Sophie was doing it! "Lunation is happening. Lunation." And it was against the rules. StarMan said.

AND WERE DOING AGAIN! AIREY LEIGHTON FLAMSTEED HAD GIBBOUS EYES.

EYES THAT WERE STARING AT MISS BROWN AND MR. TOBY AND THERE INAPPROPRIATE DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION IN THE CLASSROOM!

He probably would not have noticed it had it not been for everyone standing, therefore making it MUCH easier to notice these sorts of things.

His blue eyes briefly flickered over to Miss Wojack, who seemed to be confused on the definition of lunation actually meant. "Lunation, Miss Wojack, is actually precisely what we are demonstrating right now, the period of time from one new moon to the next," he explained through gritted teeth. "What we are NOT doing, Miss Brown...Mr. Toby, is precisely what you two are doing. Just did. THAT!"

His arms were waving wildly in their general direction with some wiggly finger movements meant to represent tickling. But, really, the man just looked like he was trying to imitate Bartholomew Henry - and doing a very poor job of it.

"I will speak with both of you after class. Do not leave this classroom without doing so. And please trade seats with someone so you are further apart from each other to prevent further temptations."

They could stew on that for the rest of the lesson.

And he heard that laugh, Mr. Adair.

SPOILER!!: waxing gibbous!

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Adi just kept grinning at Henric. Really, it had been an accident but he would let Henric think it was not. It was more fun that way. Hehe.
....................

Yay! New moon! Adi had read and remembered correctly. Was this how it felt to be a Ravenclaw who was confident about their answers because he sure felt like one right now. Okay, moving on! The sixth year started rotating sloooooowly though with MUCH enthusiasm to the left as instructed by The Suit. Wheeeeee! This was fu- woah! He got a little feet tied there in his giddiness and almost crashed into Henric. TOO MUCH ENTHUSIASM! But luckily he managed to keep his balance. His Housemate might not be so forgiving if he took him down even though it was the older boy's birthday.

Anywaaaayyy, Adi righted himself, the 'moon' in front of his face and continued rotating, noticing exactly what The Suit had said about the light growing from the right side. FASCINATING stuff this was! He wished he could right it all down for reference but on second thought, this was much more fun.

The Puffer kept his eyes focused on the moon until the entire thing lit up. Cool! And there was Flamsteed with another question, his voice floating over to the class as Adi realised that they were all backing the man. Had this been set up on purpose? But! Onto the question. Gibbous. He thought the answer had to do something with gibbous. Hand up, he said to the room in front of him. "The Waxing Gibbous, maybe.'' Er... should he shout that answer? Could Flamsteed hear properly with since the class was facing the other way?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

So, Soph had gotten him right BACK with a bop on the head, and Toby was quite prepared to keep the back and forth going for as long as necessary. He'd just looked over and raised his moon to return the favour again when Airey's voice rang out telling them to keep their moons to themselves. But Toby, who usually did evERYTHINGHEWASTOLDBYPROFESSORSOMGRULES!!!11!1!!ON E!!, was feeling ESPECIALLY fidgetyandimpulsiveandmischievous today, and super quickly whapped Soph on the head just ONE LAST TIME. Hehe. Last hit. Hehehe.

Okay. He was done now. Promise. Ahem. "Sorry Professor Airey," Toby whispershouted, just for good measure.

But he couldn't keep his moon still, because he was Toby, so instead it ended up being carefully brandished about again, occasionally throwing the light from the bluebell flames onto his face. Lalala, don't mind him. Oh, but... they were supposed to be doing things. Rotating. Right. Toby did that too, rotating on the spot so more of the light could hit his styrofoam moon until he basically had a full moon... before using it to write his name in the air, just 'cause. That was until the question was asked and he raised his hand... the one holding the moon, and waved it around.

"Waxing gibbons. GIBBOUS. Waxing g i b b o u s. Don't wax gibbons." He fidgeted on the spot and bounced on his toes, before looking over his shoulder to see what else was going on that he was missing because he wasn't looking.

Then back at the moon, all lit up. "Full moon," he said to himself, before lowering it down so his body blocked the light and couldn't reach it. "Total eclipse." Hehe. Toby looked over his shoulder so he could see Airey again. It felt rude to stand with his back to him, even if they'd been told to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlytherinSistah

Chssh!

The little foam sphere became a moon as Cutty stabbed it with the stick and held it up to his face blocking the light from the bluebell flame casted expertly by Professor Flamsteed. No wandwork required. Happygoody should be glad. As the Astronomer Royal related the phases of the moon to their little foam samples it gave the tactile learner a better sense of a thing he'd seen described many times in many ways in books.

He lifted a heel out to the left and took a step, the foam sphere moon took on some light on the right side. The crescent. A familiar sight. He inched again to his left to see the first quarter, which had to appear as half of course for being half of the half of the moon they could see. Standing there in the dark, he then began to shift his moon to the right and to the left giving himself the visual of all of it's phases. A part of him wished for Headmistress Truebridge as he would've liked her input on what Flamsteed was saying earlier about the effects of the lunar phases great and small.

"Gibbous. The Waxing Gibbous moon, sir." To the riiiiight. To the leeeeeft went the little foam moon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by griffin

Penelope returned to the position that made a new moon when she heard Professor Flamsteed telling her not to get ahead of things. Slowly turning to the left when the professor told them to, Penelope looked at the waxing crescent. She continued to move until half of the sphere was illuminated, the first quarter. Now was the time for making a waxing gibbous, and then a full moon. Penelope stared at her full moon. It wasn't quite the same as the real full moon, but it looked like a full moon. She listened to Professor Flamsteed's question, keeping her eyes fixed on her full moon on a stick. "After the first quarter moon is the waxing gibbous moon, and after that is the full moon." Penelope didn't look away from her styrofoam ball moon while she answered the question. Was she getting too far ahead? The waning gibbous moon came after the full moon, then the third quarter, the waning crescent, and back to the new moon. The lunar cycle. It took about 27.3 days for the moon to complete a lunar cycle. Fascinating. The moon was one of her favorite things to study in astronomy, especially the full moon. She could stand here all night just staring at the moon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deezerz

Beverly made mental notes on what Airey was saying, but she was sure it was on their textbook considering that's where she had read about the phases of the moon. Rotating as he suggested, Beverly's brow rose. That was the waxing crescent. Rotate, rotate. And this was the first quarter.

Neat.

Rotating happened once more, she tilted her head at her moon-on-a-stick, her hand slowly going up into the air. "A waxing gibbous moon..." Yeah. That was after the first quarter happened. She remembered her textbook saying that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squishy

SNORT.

Professor Dakest's comment about the s'mores supplies almost had Lux putting her little moon right in the fire. That wouldn't be good at all but fortunately she managed to save herself. Crisis averted. Raising her hand, she silently told him that she wanted them without interrupting Flammy's lecture. See, she was a good student.

...And now she wanted s'mores.

Soooooowly rotating herself to the left, Lux held her moon in place and watched as the light began to shine on it. Oooh, how pretty. Her moon was waxing. Smiling, she kept her eyes on the growing light on the right side of it.

Oh, another question. Lux raised her hand. "It's called the Waxing Gibbous." Nod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

A correct answer--WOOT!

Kate began the awkward transition of rotating slowly to the left while trying to keep her moon in place. It was awkward, because she found herself eyeing the moon, trying to keep it still, while also trying to move another part of her body. Kate had remembered studying the moon phases when she was being homeschooled by her mom. The moon always seemed like it was growing, even though it wasn't.

Then there were times when the moon seemed like it was shrinking, or waning she should say. "Is it the waxing gibbous?" she asked, her hand raised. It was the phase where the moon was almost full but not quite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saraie

See she was right. IT WAS THE NEW MOON. She just didn't raise her hand and answer the question out loud. She was still twirling her moon-on-a-stick. Oppps she should really stop doing that right?

When she seen the professor hold up his moon-on-a-stick. The sixth year did the same. Listening to his instructions she stood straight up again. She held her moon-on-a-stick out in front of her and rotated herself around it slowly as she was instructed. She moved around to the left. She listened to Professor Airey as he explain what this was. It was waxing. Clearly not the waxing she was thinking about. She knew all around this moon quarters and waxing rotating around the orbits. She kept listening to the professor. "Waxing gibbous, professor." She stopped once she was at the first quarter of the orbiting the moon-on-a-stick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry174

Angel was trying not to laugh as her sister span so fast that she knocked something over, she was trying her hardest not to laugh at all but she failed and started to laugh a bit.

Angel managed to stop after a bit and she did as the Professor instructed turning herself around until she was in the position the Professor had asked them to get into.

Angel raised her hand and smiled at the professor as she spoke. "Is it something like The Waxing Gibbous!" Angel wasn't sure but she thought that it was worth a guess.

Could he continue teaching now? Yes? Good.

Nostrils, and a vein pulsating in his large forehead, he nodded his head and counted to 10 once more in Klingon - silently this time - before addressing the class.

"Waxing gibbous is correct," he replied with a stale tone. "To build upon previous information, the term waxing is used any time after a new moon but before full moon. The term gibbous is applied rather than crescent when more than half of the moon is illuminated from our perspective here on earth."

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletCharm104

"Waxing gibbous," she said, even though others had already said her answer. "Professor, this may be a stupid question, but for the moons of Jupiter and other planets, are the phases the same? Or, because the distance from the sun is different, do they act differently?"

"An excellent question, Miss McAlister," he saluted, feeling a little better already now that the focus was back on astronomy. "The short answer is yes, they most certainly do, these phases are not exclusive just to satellites, but planets and other objects orbiting in space experience them too. I suggest you look at page 693 in your textbook for a quick read about the subject when you have the time."

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurange

... "The full moon, professor!" he said, hand in the air and kinda bouncing because it wasn't often that he knew the answer. "And it's weird because we can't actually SEE the whole moon but it's really just half, so even though it's technically a half-moon, the name's taken by what is actually a quarter moon."

Wait, that made more sense in his head. Oh well.

"Indeed, a full moon is when the entire face of the Moon is illuminated by the Sun." And he did understand what the boy was saying, but he had already brought that up previously so the professor simply nodded at the Hufflepuff and moved along.

"Alright, you all should be a full moon position now," he continued, falling back into stride with things and not having flaring nostrils. "Keep on SLOWLY turning to your left. You see how the light is beginning to disappear from the left hand side? This is known as 'waning,' which means shrinking, and is used to describe the moon as it gets smaller from full moon to new moon. If you keep turning...you'll soon arrive at the last quarter, where the moon has completed 3/4 of its orbit around the Earth and once again looks like a half moon to us from out perspective. Keep on going and you will find yourself right were we started, at a new moon." His back now to the classroom again, Airey took a deep breath and then, with another flourish of his wand, the massive bluebell flame vanished and the torches along the walls became ablaze once more. "What we just did in approximately 15 minutes takes the Moon approximately 29 days to complete. Although, for those looking for more specifics, a lunation varies from 29.26 to 29.80 days because of the effects of the Sun's gravity on the Moon's eccentric orbit."

Setting his prop back down on the professor's desk to the left of the room, Airey looked around sheepishly at the students.

"So....he said anxiously. I'll be handing things over to Professor Culloden now, but before I do I have a little treat for all of you," he said while clapping his together nervously behind his back as he rocked back and forth on his heels. His wand out once more to summon individual packages of cookies for each student. Levitating those towards everyone, including his colleagues (hehe), the Astronomy professor tore into his own package for demonstration purposes.

"Now, I know my rules state no food in the classroom, but I would like you all to try a training exercise I did when I was learning these things." Taking out one cookie, he carefully twisted off the top to perfectly leave all the cream on one side of the cookie while the other was completely void. "New moon...full moon," he chirped, setting both bits down on the desk. Taking another cookie, he twisted off the top and began using his teeth to scrap the cream off until there was only a sliver left on the left hand side. "Waning crescent!"

Did they get the picture?

"Go ahead and make your own Cookie Moon Phase chart on your desk and, yes, you may eat the cookies. Be mindful of any and all crumbs and please clean up after yourselves."

Trust him, you won't regret it. There was nothing like learning through doing, yes? Especially with said doing gave you an appropriate little pick-me-up.

OOC: class will resume when StarShine has the time to post.

Thank you all for the laughs during the Astronomy portion <333 even if Airey was less amused, I appreciated it all and it made my day! (which was pretty bad until I read through all your replies so thank you <333)

This little cookie moon activity can all be done in 1 post, but you may take more if you wish. I think the package says there are 8 cookies in it, but let's just pretend there are 10 in case your character snaps some in half or something.

IC Professor Culloden is aware that there may be some cookie nibbling going on while he does his initial lecture

.....

..........

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

*wibble*

After the yelling Airey had done at that Gryffindor girl, and the points he'd taken from, uh... everyone, perhaps Toby should have expected a less than favourable response from the man. But he hadn't expected it at all. So when Airey... Professor Flamsteed... had got all upset at him and Soph, it was a bit of a nasty surprise.

Toby stood there, lower lip trembling slightly (though hopefully the dim lighting in the room would conceal that), looking at Airey as the man wildly gesticulated before instructing them to see him at the end of the lesson. He... he'd never upset a teacher before. Other than Piers that one time, and that had been different in the end, because it had been Piers. Toby stared wide-eyed at the professor before him now, feeling his wonderfully silly mood brought to a very sudden and screeching halt. He felt completely and absolutely ashamed of himself.

Toby's head went down as he directed his gaze to the floor, looking very much the chastised student. "I'm sorry, Professor Flamsteed," he whispered, the wibbly-ness making it to his voice, too, before collecting his things. Not looking at Soph (he'd got HER in trouble TOO), he moved off to find a different seat. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 galleons. He sat right down, not bothering to finish up the Lunation thingy, either.

Nope. Just sat there, staring miserably at the desk through misting eyes, biting frantically at his nails and not daring to look at ANY of the professors. Also, why. WHY was it that EVERY time Toby made a spectacle of himself and got upset, Dakest was there. RIGHT THERE. First the patronuses and now this. Not to mention the fact that Culloden thought he was such a good student, and Airey had always been awesome to him.

Even when the cookies arrived, Toby pointedly ignored them at first. He understood the premise of the activity but...

...

... Tobias didn't deserve cookies.

*sniffle*

Oh Merlin! AJ had barfed all over Flamsteed's shoes! Yeah, Adi had turned when he heard that barfing sound. "AJ! Are you alright?'' He stepped out the formation to rush over to his girlfriend. Well, of course she wasn't alright but maybe the barf had helped her unsettled stomach feel better? Whatever, whatever. He was CONCERNED, man. Oh, Airey's shoes. Right. "Scourgify!'' There! One pair of clean shoes, Professor! Adi repeated the spell for the rest of the floor until it was AJ- barf- free."She wouldn't need to, Professor. Maybe I should say she wouldn't want to.'' The Hufflepuff knew the Gryffindor well. His girl was stubborn and tough.
....................

After ensuring AJ was alright, Adi resumed his stance next to Henric but he was still keeping an eye on his girlfriend. Alright, time to resume rotating sloooooowly to the left. Yesh, he could see everything Airey was describing to them.
... and just like that he was back where he started! COOL! And nope, he was not looking for specifics. Twenty nine days would be just fine, thank you very much. Hehe.

Adi watched The Suit do his thing involving oreos. He couldn't believe it! FOOD was actually in the classroom despite the Professors having rules against it. WHEEE! Did the mean he could eat whatever choclatey goodness Zhenya had given him? Anyway, he headed back to his seat to grab his belongings. "Henny, I'm going to go sit with AJ.'' Henric would understand, the sixth year was sure. With that, he headed over to the Lion. "That food obsessed stomach of yours back to normal?'' he asked cheerfully because he knew AJ would hate to be treated like an invalid or anything. He plopped his bag and cookies down on the desk next to hers. Whoever had been sitting there had better buzz off because right now he was the majorly concerned boyfriend and he wouldn't mind abusing his prefect power this one time to have his way. Meh.

The Badger knew it was best to keep on going as though nothing had happened so he began making the cookie thingy Flamsteed had shown them. The very first oreo he pulled from the packet went directly into his mouth. Come on! Who was going to ignore the chance to eat this deliciouness in a CLASSROOM? Adi chewed while he would conspicuously as possible looked in AJ's direction ever so often.

"New moon, full moon,'' he said aloud as he followed the demonstration that was done earlier. "Waning Gibbous, first quarter.'' Omnomnom! The cream was the best part of this cookie! "Waning Crescent, waxing crescent.'' More cream went into his stomach. "Last quarter, waxing gibbous!'' Woops! That waxing crescent seemed to have less cream than it should have. It seemed Adi had eaten too much off. Hehe. Oh look! He had an extra cookie or two! Yay!

Adi nudged AJ with his shoulder. "Come on. Make your cookie moons. And I know you want to eat those cookies more.''

Being that his back was to the professor and his focus firmly not on his peers, Gabriel missed all the commotion...and most importantly, the vomiting. So, without any context or warning, the loud SHRIEK! that suddenly resounded behind him (in a classroom that was DARK, thank you, save for the moonlight and that bluebell flame....CREEPY ATMOSPHERE) caused such ALARM, that the Ravenclaw hit the floor...quickly darting beneath his desk.

O___o!

Were they...under attack?! It sounded as if someone was being mauled to death...

.

Of course, the fact that he was overreacting, VASTLY, became only too apparent just moments later...when the screeching finally ceased and the lecturing began. Someone had...thrown up on Flamsteed. Well...that explained that, then. Blushing brightly, Gabe retook his spot...albeit more cautiously than before...and kept his eyes on the scene. NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE VOMIT, because he was firmly holding his breath, as well as NOT looking down. Gabe was a sympathetic vomiter. One whiff or sighting...and he was going to follow suit. It was not pretty.

Moving forward, through the blanket points loss, Sophie and Toby getting reprimanded, and the indepth explanation to the previous question, Gabe remained silent. He didn't really have anything to offer...and if he spoke, he worried he might accidently breath in the puke stench...Man, Gabe didn't want to risk that. So...

.

Accepting his cookies, he sat back down and concentrated on making the BEST oreo moon phase chart ever seen...sorta. Professor Culloden was going to pick up his portion of the lesson soon, Potions, which Gabe excelled at. He was basically just ready to keep moving forward. That was all.

OH MY WORD....Did his eyes see correctly in the darkness? AJ just puked onto Professor.Flamsteed shoes!! His face contorted at the sight...oh dear...he was going to be sick too but he forced himself not to throw up not now Henric...urgh...the horror.And before he knew it, Professor Flamsteed was screaming at the top of his lungs! Whhaaa- his eardrums felt like bursting out from his earholes! Instinctively, Henric reacted by shielding his ears tight with his hands.That was the first time and hopefully the last he heard such a scream in his life.

He didn't care if they lost housepoints for it.More importantly, he hoped AJ was alright? He glanced at Adi and back at her, then back to Profesor Flamsteed...he could tell the professor was fuming by the look of his face. He should go help too...

-------------------------

Momentarily forgotten about what just happened earlier, he tried his best concentrating toward the lesson.Taking down notes while he listened intently to Professor Flamsteed explanation about the new moon and the waxing gibbous. He continued rotating as instructed with his moon stick until he got to the last part of the exercise. Brilliant! He just completed his moon phase cycle...hooray. Now the best part, Professor had given them each a package and not just any other package..."Oh merlin! OREOS?!! wHat..even..what...YAass."....()

"Thank you professor!"he chirped. They were going to make moons out of these!! YEY! Immediately, he set to open it roughly and started to twist and lick the parts of the cookie, using his teeth to form the shape.Yumm..wish there was milk to go around. LOVE THIS.

Ilia had been minding her own business, quietly watching the professors and taking notes. She hadn't decided to pipe up in class yet as everyone seemed to be doing a good job of getting the answers right, she wasn't much feeling being vocal today. She had a present for Adi that she had planned on giving him after class was over. It was just easier that way as she had figured it. She was following directions, slowly. The banter and excitement and quick turning of the other students was not something she had wanted to be involved with. She didn't have much of a choice however when the girl close to her twirled ever closer to professor Airey and................oh Sweet Circe that was disgusting. She covered her mouth and nose with her hand and swiftly moved to her seat. That was just........straight up vile. Poor professor....but wait what!? Why did ALL of the houses get points off? She looked around and saw how many of her classmates were acting silly.............never mind. She saw Adi motioning the sick girl back to her seat.....near her.....and plopping his things on her occupied desk. Was Adi seriously going to sit on her?

She recognized the sick girl who she really didn't want to be around now anyways as his girlfriend AJ who she had yet to have a formal introduction with. Standing and collection her things and cookies , brushing aside from Adi. She silently reached into her satchel and pulled out a charmed present wrapped in blue with a big ribbon on it. His birthday present, she hoped that he liked it at least. It was a full case of chocolate frogs, a pack of dragon cards, a plush hippogriff , and a miniature carved whomping willow as a token of adventures. "Happy birthday Adi." She said very quietly as to not disrupt the class. Looking at the previously sick girl she nodded. "Feel better."

--------------------------------------
Off she walked, sitting next to her best friend now in place of Adi. She offered Henric a faint smile and pulled out her cookies to start her Moon Phase chart. After the spectacle she had just witnessed......she seriously did not want cookies. Nope nope nopeity nope. Food was NOT appealing now. Regardless, she took her first cookie and..................accidently snapped it in half....down the center..... Whoops........that was that way that cookie crumbled......attempt number two. She couldn't say as she had really ever had many of these muggle type cookies so her experience with them was.....regrettably lacking. Her second cookie, she tried applying a little less pressure to, but unfortunately cracked one half. () OKAY.............try number THREE. Third time was a charm right? She slowly, delicately, barely touching the Merlin forsaken thing, twisted the cookie. Slow....super delicate...and....FINALLY!!!!!!! Her cookie came apart without breaking. She repeated separating all of the cookies........until the final one. She had become far too confident in her new found skill. Perhaps it wasn't delicate enough, perhaps not slow enough..........but she cracked it........the last cookie that she needed and she had CRACKED it! Exasperation..........pure exasperation, but she would figure this out. She took a file out from her satchel and gently began scrapping the necessary amount of cream off of the cookies, setting it all collectively to one side of her little tray with the damaged cookies. Once the appropriate amounts had been removed, she took her last cracked one. The most whole of them. This would be her full moon. Carefully.....ever so carefully.....she took the set aside cream and added it. She pasted the crack with the cream like some sort of twisted cookie cement and pasted the Merlin forsaken thing back together. TADA! Unless he picked it up by the end, the thing would hold. Cookie chart complete!

Kate grinned a little at the slight chaos in the room. This class was literally always full of some kind of chaos. It made things interesting, sometimes too interesting. What were they talking about again? Oh, right. Waxing Gibbous. Or...something else now. Kate began slooowly turning to the left. She still thought this as an awkward way for her to be turning her body. She watched the makeshift moon as she moved.

She traveled around and around until she'd reached the point where she was right back where she started. And there was a treat, too! ...OREOS! Kate did a little inner cheer as she took a package. "Thanks, Professor!" she said. HA, COOL! They got to eat them, too. Sure, they had to make moon phases out of them, but that was a really fun and awesome activity. Kate chomped away on her cookie moons while she waited for Culloden to get things started.

Kate twisted off the top of the first Oreo. She looked down at all the delicious cream and suddenly wanted to eat it all in one bite. Moon phases, Kate. Moon phases. "Full Moon," she said, looking at the full serving of icing. She carved a sliver off the side and ate it. "Waning Gibbous...First Quarter," she said, naming the phases as she ate. Now her cookie had half the icing on it.

"Waning Crescent," she said, eating enough icing to have only a sliver. Then the fun part! Kate ate ALL the icing, since it was a New Moon. That was suddenly her favorite phase of the moon. She ate nearly all the icing on the next cookie, leaving a sliver on the opposite side than the other sliver she had. "Waxing Crescent." ... "Last Quarter," she said, eating exactly half the icing. Then finally, she ate a tiny sliver, making a Waxing Gibbous.

Okay, Culloden. You can teach now.

Norah's eyebrows disappeared into her auburn curls as Professor Flamsteed yelled. Well then. The vomit WAS capital G Gross, but he was such a nice dude, when'd he get so snippy? She nodded quickly at his response to her wrong answer, ducking her head to record notes on the waxing gibbous. And the gibbous itself, which was still a funny word but she didn't think Flamsteed would be very happy if she giggled right now. Shame, really, 'cause he sounded like he could use a few laughs.

She did grin at him, though, when the sleeve of cookies landed on her desk for very obvious reasons. COOKIES. CHOCOLATE COOKIES. Man oh man, she may have been apprehensive about this class but now she was pretty sure it was the best thing that had ever happened. Twisting the first cookie open, she ate one of the chocolate parts and put the other down with all its icing still on. Full moon, ta da! Next to it, she put the next half cookie, with a tiny sliver of icing licked off. That was the hardest part 'cause only a little bit of icing was TORTURE. And there was her waning gibbous. The next cookie was twisted open a little too enthusiastically and broke in half between her fingers. The fourth year put the entire thing in her mouth. Oops? Heh. The next cookie had half the icing licked off for the first quarter, and the next was the bestest one. New moon! She licked all the icing off and put the other half of the chocolate cookie in her mouth, pausing to chew it all down 'cause if she talked with her mouth full her mum would probably find out in the way mums just knew everything. It was weird how they did that. Next came the waning crescent, so she licked almost all of the icing off except for a tiny sliver, which proved to be even more torturous than the waning gibbous. She ate half the icing off the next one, then just a sliver on the one after that and TA DA! A whole entire moon cycle and she had a cookie left and everything.

The fourteen year old held her remaining cookie up to her nose as she looked up at the Professors again. Could she eat her moon cycle yet? One more cookie just wasn't enough, y'know.

In all reality, Sophie Brown thought Flamsteed would've been a lot less angry with her and Tobes if that Gryffindor girl hadn't thrown up all over. Sure, he might've been a little irked and the same "see me after class" would've followed, but with a lot less fury behind his voice, she was certain of that. So when he suddenly WAS yelling at them and it looked like his head was going to explode with anger, she was caught off guard, and just a little embarrassed - not because of what she'd done, because frankly she had no regrets in being playful with Tobes, but because of how mad they'd made him and how disappointed he was. That was not a good feeling, and... her face showed it.

Of all the professors in the school - maybe besides Botros - Flamsteed was the last person that Sophie ever thought would be yelling at her.

Her cheeky smile that had been put in place after Tobes spazzed out from the tickling was wiped clean and her cheeks and ears were tinted slightly pink. A "seeing after class" sentence meant they could talk it out, though - it wasn't like he just took points or sentenced them to detention... though all things considering, she personally thought those would be highly unreasonable punishments. They were both two of his best - and favorite, ahem - students, and they'd never once gotten in trouble before. Never once. So wasn't there like... a warning system in place? Like a, "Mr. Toby, Miss Brown, I love you both like the children I never had, and you're stellar students. You should know better, and I expect you to know better moving forward." That kind of heart-to-heart would've been more effective with both of them than a loss of points or detention, she knew, and she wondered if Flammy would have the same line of thinking. He'd known how down in the dumps both of them had been over the last months, right? Wouldn't he know their goofing off was highly out of character and a rarity these days?

She could only hope. Not even for her sake - she would be okay with losing points or detention, personally, but... considering the way Tobes looked like his life was over, he wouldn't survive. No, even something as small as a points loss would kill his spirit - even more than it already currently was, just from a verbal punishment - and in that moment of watching him walk to sit at another desk, she knew she was going to have to fight for him if they got more than just a talking-to. And she would, too.

There was no shame in pleading and begging to let them off with a warning. She would debate their side of having a clean record till the end of time.

"Sorry, professor." Her eyes and tone were genuine when she said it, and then her gaze flickered to try to catch Tobes' once he was situated at the other side of the room from her. Sorry, she mouthed to him, too, because... well. Realistically, he HAD started it, but she should've known better to end it, right? She was supposed to look out for Tobes when boundaries were crossed and when he didn't know when to call it quits. It wasn't his fault - it was his brain, right? So... she should've been looking out for him. In reality, this was her fault, and she knew it. That made their potentially impending doom a million times worse. Because if Flamsteed did take points or give them detention or something, Tobes would undoubtedly have a full-blown breakdown... and it would be all on her shoulders. All her fault. Piers and Javy would be upset with her for not looking out for him, and... maybe she'd never deserved to be his girlfriend at all, if she didn't know well enough to look out for him after all this time.

...How were they supposed to sit through the rest of a class now? Class had hardly begun, and Dakest and Culloden hadn't even gotten to talk yet - they had to sit through TWO MORE professors teaching them things before class would be over, and they were still expected to... learn and focus and how could she do that when Tobes' well-being was on the line? She wanted to leave and go to the bathroom and take the time to breathe and recharge and gather her thoughts like she did in Dakest's class, but the astronomy professor said they couldn't leave the classroom until they had their talk.

Was it getting hot in there, or was it just her?

Much like Tobes, Sophie didn't want the cookies. She didn't deserve cookies. Her somber eyes lingered on Flamsteed when he demonstrated their little activity, but every now and then, she couldn't help but check on Tobes over yonder. The more she did so, the more tears threatened to pool in her eyes. He was sad. So sad. Her fault. Now she'd really done it and he'd want to break up from being best friends, too. It was all over. The end of the best four years of her life.

Sniffing back the moisture that was forming inside her nostrils as a result of the tears stinging at her eyes, the Ravenclaw twisted the tops from her eight cookies and used her fingernail to dig into the frosting and trace the white filling into the shapes they needed to be. She wasn't going to eat any of it.

For perhaps the first time in her life, Sophie Brown was rejecting food.

Ben heard Flamsteed's yelling before he even registered what had happened as AJ hadn't been sitting or standing anywhere near him. Oh....that was bad. He closed his eyes and winched slightly as the forty points were claimed from the houses...then an extra five fro, Gryffindor house. Poor AJ. Perhaps he wasn't to be the only lion to be having a bad today of all days. He sent a supportive look her way in case she could see it in the shadows, catching Adi moving to be next to her and causing the sixth year to quickly turn away.

He took a deep breath to gather himself before moving as Flamsteed directed, carrying himself and his moon from Full Moon position to a Waxing Half-Moon and then a Waxing Cresent and finally back to a new moon. Were they done with this portion? So it seemed before Flamsteed had recovered from his outburst and demonstrated an activity for them...with food?!

It was odd for the man yet Ben watched albeit somewhat reluctantly. The Gryffindor then proceeded to mimic the professor's actions to make a chart of his own as instructed. But no eating for him. Puking and a bad mood didn't do much good for one's desire to snack on cookies. Plus they would be moving onto potions and his nerves were starting to appear at the notion.

. . .

Please, this'd better be a dream . . .

Cosgrach could only STARE at AJ as she completely vomited all over Airey - well, maybe not all over, but even a molecule of vomit was enough. He didn't mind the smell, because he was used to terrible ones. No, he was more grossed out by the whole situation and his heart was filled with sympathy for Airey.

Yep yep, totally saw that shriek coming, so Cosgrach wasn't suprised. Instead, he studied the class as best as he could in the dim light - which would be bright again to avoid a potions disaster. Cosgrach didn't care much for the points, because ten from all still meant the same in the race.

Wait, Ms. Brown and Mr. Toby?

Cosgrach looked at them as Airey reprimanded them. He couldn't believe it - that, such great students would be so childish and disrespectful. He frowned to himself. What was wrong with these two today? Or had they become one of those people who took advantage of goodwill?

Please not.

Luckily, Airey seemed to be calming down, so Cosgrach listened to him intently again. After some more information, he seemed to be done and kindly introduced the potions part. Cosgrach got up as he explained the cookie stuff, caught his package and set it aside on the desk to be eaten during Mr. Dark Wizard's Sabel's period and stood a little bit behind him to let him finish what he had to say. Once the man was done, he smiled at him - Adi had thankfully cleaned him - and got his wand out to turn on the lights. Sorry to ruin the romantic atmosphere, but he wanted them to see their cauldron and ingredients.

"As you can guess by now," he said as he started to walk slowly out of habit, but after the second step, he realised there weren't any proper aisles to walk in, so he halted abruptly and continued talking only after a moment, "today we'll learn how to brew the Wolfsbane Potion. Yes, it's extremely hard and I honestly don't expect any of you to get it right." he involuntarily looked at a few of the best students as if to say 'It really is okay,' "but I still want all of you to try your best, and learn from your mistakes." Because experience was the best lesson and all that jazz.

"Before we start, however, tell me one thing about either werewolves or the Wolfsbane Potion."

He would wait for them to have some cookies down first before really expecting an answer. He was that nice.

OOC: Please say only ONE fact about werewolves OR the Wolfsbane Potion (your character can make it up ^__^). We'll continue 20-24 hours later.

O_________O

...

HOLY HIPPOGRIFFS. AJ had just THROWN UP right at Professor Flamsteed's feet.

Lux didn't care about the shouting or points loss; she was a lot more concerned about her friend. Glancing at the younger Lion with concern, she hoped that everything was okay with her. Thank goodness for Adi checking on her but then he was her boyfriend so that was to be expected. After sending AJ a supportive look, she turned her attention back to the lesson at hand.

Sloooooowly turning more towards the left, Lux watched as the light began to disappear from the left hand side of her moon. These demonstrations always made things easier to understand. They were also pretty cool. Her moon traveled allllllll the way back to being a New Moon as Flammy kept talking.

YAAAAY!! They were going to move on to the POTIONS part of the lesson. AND THERE WERE COOKIES!! Did Professor Flamsteed know how awesome he was??? Science and food should be combined all the time because it just WORKED. Excitedly Lux tore into her package of cookies and may have placed the first one in her mouth. "New Moon and Full Moon, she said as she pulled the top off of a cookie. Each piece was placed in proper position for her COOKIE CHART. Cookies should be used in charts ALL THE TIME.

Lux grabbed another cookie and pulled the top off before adjusting the cream. "Waning Gibbous... First Quarter." Happy, she continued to eat as she worked. "Waning Crescent... Waxing Cresent." More cream ended up in her mouth. And finallllly: "Last Quarter... Waxing Gibbous."

DONE! Now could she eat everything???

... Nevermind. Professor Culloden was starting on his part of the lesson.

And of course they would be learning the Wolfsbane Potion; that much had been obvious to her since the topic of the lesson had been revealed. Swallowing the last bit of cream, Lux raised her hand. "It's important to brew Wolfsbane Potion properly because the main ingredient is wolfsbane - also known as monkshood. Monkshood is a VERY poisonous substance."

As if things couldn't get any worse... they were brewing a potion that Culloden didn't expect "any" of them to get right. Which meant her. Which meant he didn't believe in her, when he should've KNOWN that Sophie Brown could brew any potion she put her mind to. But maybe this whole thing that just happened made him not believe in her... and maybe he didn't see potential in her anymore. Maybe he thought she wasn't good enough to be able to brew the Wolfsbane Potion.

Maybe she wasn't, then.

But maybe he'd changed his tune on believing that she could do anything when they just got scolded because he KNEW she wasn't going to be in a right headspace now. AND, deep down, SHE knew just how impossibly difficult this potion was. It was undoubtedly one of the most difficult to brew potions out there, wasn't it? Hm? Could that have been it? The possibility briefly crossed her mind, but then she was back to assuming the worst - that he didn't think she'd succeed, so she wouldn't succeed. She wasn't good enough. She wasn't a good enough best friend to be what Tobes needed and she wasn't a good enough potioneer to do what needed to be done.

...The door was becoming more and more of an option. What would Flamsteed do if she left? Would he follow her? Would he yell at her again or make her shoes stick to the spot? But did he REALLY want to deal with a crying Sophie Brown? No, the only professor capable of calming down a crying Sophie Brown in this room was Culloden, who was currently teaching the class. Dakest wouldn't know what to do, probably, and Flamsteed would probably have his own breakdown or something. So... maybe he'd let her leave. But what kind of example would she be setting for the rest of the class? Walking out of a class was not something she wanted other people to think they could do whenever they wanted... but what if she needed to leave? Wouldn't it be even more of a distraction to be sitting there in tears than she and Tobes had been with their moon-bopping? People would be staring at her. There was no way she could let that happen either.

So she had to be brave.

She was finished with the carving of her moon-cookies, so Sophie pushed them forward on her desk and sighed softly, rubbed her forehead in frustration, and ended up raising a hand to half-heartedly offer up to Culloden's question, "The potion doesn't cure lycanthropy, it just eases the symptoms." That's all she had.

And back to sulking.

No man shrieking was happening just yet and that was a good sign. Right? RIGHT?

WRONG.

So very wrong.

It was happening and for a moment AJ wondered if he was merely demonstrating what a werewolf sounded like, a girly, shrieking werewolf and he has missed the vomit that was right at his feet. She was reaching for the stars here, yes she was.

Wa? Cha? Was he speaking in tongues? Had she broken her head of house? Seemed like this very well may be the case. AJ scooted the tip of her shoe across the floor forgetting about the vomit for a second and almost slipped. Whoa. That was close.

10 points were taken and she wasn't even upset about that. Yeah, she thought it was a bit harsh when all she was trying to do was be ONE with her moon ball. Like, excuse her if she was getting 'all up in' Astronomy. See if she put forth her all next time, Airey.

From all of the houses?

"But sir..." This didn't seem like an ideal time to argue considering his nostrils were practically blazing. His face seemed stroke level red, but she couldn't be sure with the lighting and all. "Please don't take away points from the other houses. I take full responsibility for leaving the contents of my belly juice on the floor in front of you." So, don't punish everybody else, kay? Not that she intentionally caused harm like some others that still had points. Ahem.

"Yes, sir. I--" 5 more points? For puke that never even actually touched his precious suit? This was totally unfair and if AJ wasn't trying to not vomit again, she would protest. And she really didn't need to lose more than 15 points in one go.

Oh, so now he cared. Yeah, she was just FANTASTIC. "I'm fine. I don't need to see the healer." There was no way she wasn't going to see this werewolf lesson to the end. Nope. She would take a sprite though? Too much to ask for? AJ eyed Airey for a moment. Yup, too soon.

She was just about to pull out her wand to clean up her mess when her handy dandy super prefect of a boyfriend came to her rescue. Airey's shoes were as good as new, and there was no more puddle of vomit... so those hiding under tables and holding their breath could rest easy now. "Thanks," she replied to Adi as he got a half hearted smile. Goodness... he was smother mothering her right now. The thought was sweet, and she appreciated it. Really she did, but it was only vomit and not a plane crash. AJ would live. "I'm fine, really."

The Slytherin girl (Ilia) got a smile for her well wishes. "Thank you. I feel better all ready." There was something about emptying your stomach that was sort of refreshing. It still was turning, but it was much better now. AJ missed Henric's, Benny's, and Lux's show of concern as she was losing all of her precious house points. Sigh.

Could she move on now?

AJ picked up her vomit soaked moon ball and stuck it back on her stick. "Scourgify." Should have done BEFORE picking it up. Oh well. You live and you learn. Or in her case you really didn't.

Concentration wasn't really happening for her right now, but she SLOWLY turned to the left and continued looking at her ball. 29 days something happened and WERE THEY GOING TO GET COOKIES?

Her attention was fully back on the professor and believe it or not her belly began to rumble. She watched as Airey showed them the different moon cycles? That was the technical phrase for them, yes? Once she got her bag, she smiled at her boyfriend. "Oh you know I'm going to eat these." First, she made her own chart of the different cycles. Only a few cookies broke, and those cookies got eaten.

No more vomiting happened and that was about the only good thing that was going for her at this point. Happy Birthday to you, Adi.

Then Astro went to Potions in a blink of an eye. This couldn't have come at a better time for Airey. Maybe he could cool down and realize that taking all those points had been a moment of weakness for him. He was mad, she got it. But, he could see reason once he cooled down. AJ had faith.

Hmm... her mind still wasn't really and truly here. What could she say about either of the things the professor asked about? "You could get poisoned if you brew it incorrectly." And more vomiting would ensue. And she didn't even notice that Lux had already mentioned this little tid bit.

Toby sat there, anxiously biting his nails and torn between trying NOT to think about the sadness that was creeping in but also feeling like he absolutely deserved it and wasn't MEANT to be ignoring it. The inner turmoil and back and forth kept him busy for some time, and Toby didn't realise quite how much his eyes had pooled up until he blinked and a tear fell away.

He froze. No. NO. No. Crying in class was one great big giant NOPE. Toby remembered promising to himself in DADA once that if he EVER cried in class he'd simply get up and drop out of school on the spot. But that wasn't exactly, uh, practical at the moment. Toby hurriedly brought up a hand and tried to look as though he was just rubbing his face in general as he wiped his eyes, hoping to Merlin that nobody noticed.

In any case, he wasn't about to look up to check. Toby kept his head very firmly lowered, not daring to risk looking up and seeing disappointment on anyone of the professors' faces. He was trying very hard not to think about it.

As for the cookies, he'd had found a way around that. Having opened up a packet, Toby quickly used his wand to scour the stuff off the cookie halves, to make them look like the moon phases and stuff. He didn't want to eat them, wasn't very hungry at all.

When he heard Culloden talking, Toby still didn't look up. He KNEW he didn't want to look at the man's face and see the disappointment which he thought would absolutely, definitely, without a doubt be there. He felt his lower lip tremble again at the thought, and his eyes refilled with tears. Uhhh... double nope. Toby simply folded his arms on the desk and buried his face in them. He just... just needed a moment. Just a moment to concentrate on how he felt simply awful for disrupting Airey's lesson and angering the man in such a way that Toby was sure he'd not seen him react like that to anyone at all except when he was Hooksteed. Airey, of all people...

Of course, Toby STILL had all that energy in him. That hadn't gone away at all, and so under the desk, his feet just kept incessantly bouncing and jiggling away, like they hadn't gotten the message that actually no, brain was sad now. Fun was over. No? Well... okay. Fidget.

Marigold's eyes grew REALLY WIDE when someone threw up all over Flamsteed AND he yelled AND Toby and Sophie Brown were being yelled at AND he thought her question was a good one. She kept her head down through all the drama, writing down notes painstakingly, but once he announced cookies she caught Sophie Brown's eye and blew a kiss. A supportive kiss. An "I got u" kiss. There ya go, Sophie Brown.

Oreos though. Man, GOOOOOOD memories. She twisted them apart like a seasoned professional, a well-oiled machine. Full moon, new moon. She opened another one just like a first one, but used the new moon half to turn them both into crescents, both waning and waxing gibbous.

She ate a cookie quickly, then dropped her jaw. THE WOLFSBANE POTION?!?!???! No flipping way. THAT WAS SO HARD. DUUUUDE THIS WAS AWESOME!!!!

"Adding sugar will render it useless." She heard that somewhere.

....Well that was eventful.

Jenna had just been quietly taking notes at her desk for most of the lesson so far, but then all that had happened, and she was sitting there in her seat wide-eyed and motionless.

Mer...lin's...beard.

Blinking a few times at the package of Oreos that now sat before her, she took a deep breath to steady herself then carefully opened the package, not feeling particularly hungry but deciding to try the moon phases thing with a few of them.

Carefully pulling one cookie apart to be the full and new moons, she looked up as Professor Culloden began his part of the lesson. This seemed like a good time to start participating a little more too - it'd probably help distract her. So she raised her hand. "The potion helps the person keep their head and maintain control of themselves while in wolf form." Certainly a good thing, so they weren't forced to do something they'd regret afterward.