Aaron had already scooted down the branch a ways to get to the smaller parts. Ones that would be easier to break off when he found the perfect one. Beech was a pretty wood, too. It was closer to fall, so the leaves were punched with splashes of orange and red. He felt like a turkey amongst all the colors.

Oooh! "I'll get you one!" Deciding not to be so selective, he chose two sticks at random, snapping them off near the ends to get the most length. No one else had chimed in, so he started making his way back down. It was difficult with the twigs in-hand, but he finally was able to step down. Brightside, this was a workout. So, he was set for the day.

"Here." He presented one of the sticks to the younger Ravenclaw, grinning wide. "I hope this works."

Vita had seen plenty of sundials before, but she'd never made one for herself. It sounded like something she'd enjoy, so the sixth year wasted no time going to gather her materials.

...

The rock was a bit further away, but it had been worth the walk. She imagined it'd work quite well for this particular project. The stick had been much closer and she was relieved to find she was back at their meeting place before any of the real work began.

Was it sundial time now?

And there was a perfectly good stick, straight as a line in the dirt and thick as her thumb. Chloe knelt to pick it up, giving it a good polish on her robes without concerning herself with the fact that she now had a muddy spot. She noticed it, but she didn't care.

Now for her rock? Chloe kicked over more leaves as she searched. There were plenty of rocks available all along the way, although most were too round or too lumpy or too... too everything else. She scuffed at the edge of a stone and revealed a promising specimen.

Sundials!

She had read about those before - they told what time of the day it was by the position of the Sun in the sky! She thought it was a fascinating and was excited to hear that they would be making their own sundials. Well, as long as she did not have to carry it around everywhere she went. It certainly was not as pretty as a watch.

Standing up from her seat, the Ravenclaw followed the others towards the grounds to gather her materials.

- - -

Upon returning to the meeting place from her search, Jade put down her rock and stick next to her chair. Phew, that was a heavy rock! She quickly wiped her forehead, making sure that nobody noticed her sweating. She was FINE. Clearly she was strong enough to carry a ROCK by herself, geez.

Would they be required to tell the time with their own sundial?

Probably.

Would he have problems with his stick? Possibly. Cam made a mental note to double check with someone else's sundial should they have to do a longterm assignment with this. He might just take Max's. Just in case. For now though, he was satisfied with what he found by the lake. For the lesson it would definitely do.

Now what?

Rylee returned to where the lesson was being held which wasn't all that far from where she had found her rock. It was a good thing too as she was able to hear Kennedy announce that they only had a few more minutes left to find what they needed. Looks like all there was to do now was wait for the next step in the lesson. Until then she was just going to stand right here with her rock and stick in hand. Hopefully she wouldn't have to wait to long.

Tina returned the smile Professor Kennedy gave her,pleased that her answer hadn’t been too out there. She hadn’t been too confident about it, to be honest! She sat quietly, listening to the answers that were given after hers, until the Slytherin prefects happened. Blink, blink. Seriously, what was that? Could they please just have one class without students sniping at each other? Don’t get her wrong, Tina enjoyed being right, but that seemed a little… much. Did that girl have the slightest idea how condescending she sounded? Probably… seemed like the type who thought a badge equaled the right to talk down to everyone. Typical, there must be one in every school! Tina was glad to see Professor Kennedy handle the situation before it spiraled into chaos, but she couldn't help but feel a little sorry for that Maxton guy. First the clones in charms class, now this.

Ooh, sundials! At first, Tina felt a little disappointed in herself for not correctly guessing what they were doing, but her mood brightened when she learned they would be making their own. Now this was right up her alley! She was good with her hands, and this sounded like a great opportunity to be creative; she was so up for this! Her dark eyes darted around the area as several students started moving about. Uhh… so they were allowed to just get up and leave? Wouldn't some people just disappear and never come back? Was this a normal thing at Hogwarts? Apparently so… Tina supposed she must be overthinking things again; might as well go join the others.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The dark-haired French girl returned to class shortly after Professor Kennedy said they only had a few minutes left, a stick in her hand, and her rock and other materials tucked safely in her bag. Whew, just in time! She took her seat, the same one as before, and set her stick gently on the ground in front of her. Then she proceeded to unpack her rock and various other things she'd found to use for decoration, arranging everything into neat little piles. She awaited further instructions, eager to start putting everything together!

Huh. So they were making sundials? That would be interesting. What else they were going to do from this, he had no idea and had no time to think because there were materials to collect. He...... almost didn't want to leave the bubble of the heating charms but, well, he didn't want to be the only one sitting here without a rock and stick so.....

..... off he went. Bye.


_________________________


HE WAS HERE!

With a rock tucked under his arm and a stick that he was still holding out in front of him like a sword, Lucas walked quickly back to the area. Quickly because he was sure he was running out of time and walking in in the middle of a talk with everyone looking at him did NOT sound like his idea of fun. No no no.

He was, therefore, glad to see that that wasn't the case and even more when he was hit by the heating charms again. That was one spell he DID need to learn. Shame Head Girl Jessa Cambridge wasn't here. Shooting a small smile at the Professor, he went to sit back down in his seat again, placing the rock on his lap and the stick..... uh, he could just hold it for now. Yeah.

Kalen checked his watch and then stood up from his perch on the table and looked around.

“All right guys, I hope you have all your materials cause it’s time to come back. ” He said as he waited for a few minutes until everyone had filed back into class.

“Now, we are going to be setting up the sundials, and they will be a bit rough, we don’t have a good place to set up permanent ones, so these will be portable ones. ” He explained, at least they would be for the moment, they could probably affix them in the Astronomy Tower later, but for now this will do.

Kalen reached under the desk and tugged on something that was disillusioned under it. He used his wand to undo the charm and one could see buckets of white paint and brushes.

“ Here are the steps you need to do:

First, paint your rock white, if you want. It’ll make marking it easier later on, but it’s up to you.
Second, put your rock on a flat surface and make sure it’s fairly level.
Third, take your stick and using your wand and the cutting charm, cut off the bottom so the end is flat.
Fourth, use the sticking charm to place your stick upright in the middle of your rock.
Fifth, put your name somewhere on the sundial, because we will be using these throughout the year.
Sixth, feel free to decorate it however you want, flowers, rocks, color charms, if anyone has glitter, go for it.. make it yours. ” He said with a smile.

“All right, if no one has any questions, you can go ahead and get started.” He said with a smile as he looked at them.

“If anyone needs help with the charms ask an older student. ” Kalen added, he would help if really needed of course, but he wanted them to see if they could do it.

OOC: Okay guys! Welcome to the main activity! Just have your student follow the steps that Kalen outlined, we won’t be marking hours on them yet, that’s for another time, right now we are just making a rough sundial. You all have about 72 hours for this, and if anyone needs Kalens help, put Professor in the title of your post! Thanks!

When the time came to get down to business, Abra listened to what Kennedy was telling them to do, eyeing the stick and rock he had collected with some uncertainty. He still didn't get how this was going to work, though he supposed that he really needed to have faith in his professor here. Clearly the man was going to know what he was doing much better than Abra did.

So... Abra had decided he was going to go ahead with the optional step of painting his rock white, as it sounded like it would make his life a little bit easier (regarding the sundial, at least) later on. Getting to his feet, he went up to the desk and found himself a brush and a pot of white paint. After glancing around at those around him, as though making sure he was indeed doing this right, he started carefully brushing the white paint onto the rock.

Maybe it was his artist side coming out, but Abra quickly found he was taking steps to be unnecessarily meticulous, really trying to make sure it was all mega even. It couldn't be helped; as soon as he had a brush in his hand, he had to put his all into it.

Before long, he was finished, and Abra returned the paint and brush, before getting out his wand and casting charms on his rock to try and make it dry a little bit faster; already he had paint all over his fingers and maybe a little bit on his face.

Now, uhh... what... uhhhh.... what was next?

Uhhhhhhhhh...

Verbal instructions and Abra's memory did not a good combination make.

Oh goody…his answer went over well. “You’re…welcome,” Septimus replied slightly awkwardly to the thanks of Professor Kalen. Thankfully the man was already moving on to the next student and the next after that with all the rest of the answers given and before long they were moving on. To sundials. And a creative activity at that. And given the materials they would be needing, the location of the lesson at the lake was even more apparent.

Getting up and setting his notes securely on his spot with his bookbag, the fourth year went to work in find just what he could find that fit the bill. One large flat stone and a long stick. The latter seeming a bit easier to find in the grand scheme of things as the trees located around them gave them up in the wind. And he wasn’t proven wrong as he felt satisfied with his find a couple of tries later. He struggled with the stone, finding one he liked just before they were being called to move on.

Portable sundial…interesting.

Septimus listened carefully to the set of instructions, eying the paint in indecision. Though once they were let go to get to work, the fourth year wound up picking up some paint and a brush. Moving all his stuff to a clear spot, he knelt down and went to work, painting his rock white. It certainly looked rather nice and clean. Then, setting aside his paint brush, he carefully handled the painted surface to shift it on the ground to settle it on a relatively flat surface. Once satisfied, he let it go so it could dry just a little as he went over the rest of the steps in his head.

All that build up of asking them for practical uses for the sun all for the disappointment of....sundials. Which actually weren't all that practical. For one, what the heck did you do on a cloudy day, which, let's be honest, happened more often than sunny ones in Scotland during the fall and winter months? Plus, while cell phones (which had sort of taken the place of watches in the Muggle world) hadn't exactly caught on in the wizarding world, watches and clocks had. All of which rendered sundials a thing of the past.

Hmm, maybe she could have a little fun with her's if nothing else. She painted the rock she had fetched (a sort of large, flat one) white as instructed, charming it dry once she was done. Thankfully for the next part, her particular patch of grass was already pretty flat, so Archer plopped the rock down in front of her. Quick work was made of making one end of her stick flat and charming it to stick straight up from the center of the rock. The back got graced with her name. And for her extra personalization? A charm that caused the face to flash different colors. She would make it make noise too, but then someone would have to live with it and that someone would most likely be her.

Jade listened attentively as Professor Kennedy went over the steps in making a sundial. Hmm, didn't seem too hard. It was basically sticking the stick on the rock, yeah?

The girl got up and went to get some white paint and brush. Upon returning to her seat, she sat down instead on the patch of grass where she had left her materials and got to work. She began by applying white paint onto her dark-coloured rock, taking extra measures to cover the entire surface, though it was probably unnecessary seeing as the purpose of the white paint was only to make marking easier. When she was finally done, she put down her paintbrush and tried to remember what she had to do next... Oh! Putting the rock on a flat surface. The land it was on at the moment was pretty flat, so luckily she did not have to worry about moving it again.

Now, for the next few steps... as much as she disliked it, Jade had to admit that she needed help. She had read about the severing charm and sticking charm, but had never used them before and knew better than to try a spell without learning it properly first. Thus, she raised her hand and said loudly to the older students around her, "Can anyone help me with the charms? Please?"

The first step of their lesson sounded very fin - Hanna enjoyed crafts. Even though there was a charm that would probably help paint, or turn the rock white, painting was fun. Up she went to collect some white paint and a brush. She painted it white, evenly, doing a few layers and using an air charm to dry the bits of paint to make it quicker. She didn't have a week to leave it to dry between coats.

Finding a flat bit of ground wasn't too difficult, and she put her big rock down. She didn't know any spells to check if things were level or not, so using her eyes was the best way she could do that. It looked fairly level, but if it wasn't she assumed she'd know soon enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jean Granger

Now, for the next few steps... as much as she disliked it, Jade had to admit that she needed help. She had read about the severing charm and sticking charm, but had never used them before and knew better than to try a spell without learning it properly first. Thus, she raised her hand and said loudly to the older students around her, "Can anyone help me with the charms? Please?"

She needed to cut the bottom of the stick so that it was flat next, but heard, as she went to do so, one of her fellow Ravenclaws in need of help. Hanna went over to her, with her own stick and wand. "I'm not sure if others use a different one but... but I use diffindo to cut things like this. Maybe Professor Kennedy has a better one." She wasn't sure, actually. "Diffindo isn't toooo hard. It's just diffindo, and with your wand you do a sort of big V with a tail." She demonstrated using her own. "deef-IN-doe," she said, pointing her wand towards the end of the stick and doing the big V with a tail wand movement. "You try! Um... but maybe on a different stick if you want to practice." Otherwise she'd have to look for a whole other stick.

Uhhhhh... UhhhhhhhHHHHHH...

No, it was no good. Abra couldn't remember, not for the life of him. Or, well, he could remember, but it was only the latter instructions that were coming to him clearly. The earlier ones were all fuzzy and he couldn't think of what order they came in.

So, naturally, he did the only sensible thing and asked the professor to repeat himself please took a peek at what everyone else was doing. What harm could there be? It wasn't like potions where copying someone else and then accidentally doing things in the wrong order would end in an exploding cauldron. Not... not that Abra... well... yes, that had actually happened.

Those around him were laying their stones down on the ground, which of course jogged Abra's memory about the instruction regarding a flat surface, so he did that too. Was it now that he was supposed to stick the, erm... well, the stick, to the rock? Wait. People were using Diffindo. Right, yes. Duh.

Abra raised his own wand to point at one end of his own stick, cast, "Diffindo," and lopped the end of it off. It was supposed to be straight, yes? He remembered that part. And now they had to stick it to the rock. Yes, yes, it was all rushing back to him.

He held the stick upright, flat end down, right on the middle of the rock. Raising his wand yet again, he cast not one, but multiple sticking charms to make sure it stayed stuck fast. "Adhaero. Adhaero. ....... Adhaero."

Once Caolan was satisfied with the rock and stick that he had found very quickly and without putting much thought into, he headed back to the group and waited for further instructions. He was sure this was supposed to be Astronomy and not an episode of Blue Peter. He was surprised the Professor hadn’t come out with his own and not declared that this ‘was one I made earlier’. The instructions were given and suddenly there was a load of paint and brushes and students exploding into life.

He waited for a couple of others to go get their tools before heading up and grabbing a tin of white paint and a brush. If there was one thing that Caolan wasn’t it was arty. He was all for this lesson being outside in the open and being active but creativity was not on his list of skills. He roughly slapped a load of paint onto his rock and wafted it with his hand so that it would dry quicker. Anyone have a hairdryer?

It was lucky that Caolan’s memory wasn’t bad as no one had written down any instructions and the list of what to do was pretty long. He picked up his rock and placed it down onto a flat bit of land that was a little away from where he was stood. The paint had smudged a little on his fingers as it hadn’t fully dried yet. Ah well, ‘homemade’ and ‘rustic’ was all the rage now wasn’t it?

The third step was where it started getting a little more difficult. Thankfully the severing charm was pretty basic and one that he had learned from his lessons with his grandparents. He withdrew his wand and carefully moved it down, up and back down again with a swish. “Diffindo” he spoke as the bottom of the stick was sliced across to almost level. Caolan was used to doing the DIY on his mother’s farm in a barn with a saw and not with his wand.

What was next..?

Jackson was almost always kind of tired when it was time for Astronomy, which was quite annoying because he actually kind of enjoyed the subject. Especially with Professor Kennedy. If only they had it earlier in the day. Like this! Maybe it was just behavioral because he was heading to this particular class, but Jackson had to stifle a yawn so that he could give a more respectful “Good evening, Professor Kennedy.” Jackson did notice the precautions that many seemed to be taking this year, and he didn’t blame them. Now that Jackson could have snacks between classes again, he didn’t mind playing it safe.

Jackson blinked when the first question was asked. What did he know about… stars? Stars? “They’re really hot masses of gas burning very very very far away. Some are even further than that. Aaand I know that what we can see is basically a picture of what the star used to look like.” Everything else, he had learned from him and other students seemed anxious to answer too. As the professor let them in on his lesson planned, Jackson had a brief image of them looking at the sun through a telescope. He wondered if there was a way to do that safely yet…

How was the sun useful? Jackson raised his hand again. “Well, we use it for plenty… Imagine a day without the sun! If we didn’t have electricity, it’d be near impossible to see anything since the sun is the light of the moon as well. My parents’ house uses solar power, so they would definitely notice the difference. In the old days, they used sun dials to tell the exact time.” Okay that was enough of the basics. There were some answers that he hadn’t thought of… like Heliomancy, so he closed his mouth and listened to everyone else. Including the idiocy happening with some students who shall not be named. *COUGH COUGH Slytherins!*

Jackson was actually interested in the whole sundial thing. While the idea was very simple, he wondered who had come up with, when, and how they had managed the start of the clock. Of course, there were brilliant people in all eras, but Jackson couldn’t imagine being the first person to think, ‘Why yes, let’s put this thing on this thing and let those shadows rule our lives.’ Makin their own sundials would be helpful he hoped! Jackson got up and went on his search for a large rock and stick. Saying that in his head made him feel instantly four years old. Oh well, off he went!
_

With stick and rock in possession, Jackson was back. He took the stick from his robes and placed the items in front of him. He took a bucket and brush and began painting his rock. Once done, he set it down so it could dry. As it did so, he moved his head around to make sure it was as level as possible. Looking at his hands… His fingers had gotten sticky from the paint, so he took out his wand and cleaned himself off. Next step was to cut the stick! He picked it back up and eyed it as well. He cut the stick as cleanly as possible, checking for any messily cut parts and cleaning it up.

Luck happened to be on her side, because as Torii found the perfect stick for her sundial, the professor was calling them back. As she walked back, she listened to the instructions, which sounded easy enough. Of course she'd be painting her rock. There was the obvious reason, which the professor had given them, and then there was the fact that Torii thought it'd be fun to paint.

On the word go, the fourth year bee-lined to the paint and brushes and collected all the materials she'd need. She then took several long minutes to carefully paint her rock as neatly as possible. If she was going to use this sundial later on, she at least wanted it to look nice.

The professor hadn't said to use a drying charm, but Torii used it to dry her paint. She didn't think he'd mind the extra step. When she was done, she returned the paint brush and paint and got ready for the next step.

Jade smiled at the older Ravenclaw who approached her. She was eager to learn the spells, so that she would be able to do tasks by herself in class. She listened and watched as the girl explained how to cast the severing charm and demonstrated it on her own stick. Neat! "Okay! I'll try it on a piece of parchment first," she said, as she grabbed one from her bag and took out her wand. "Diffindo." Big V with a tail. The parchment was cut into half, but it looked like it was torn forcefully, not sliced neatly. "Diffindo," she said again, casting the spell on one of the halves. This time, the parchment was divided into two with sharp, straight edges. Oh yay! She grinned up at her tutor - did you see that??

"I think I'll try it on my stick now. Diffindo!" The first year said along with the correct wand movement, directing her wand towards the bottom of her long stick. The bottom bit was cut off so that the end of the stick was flat. "I did it! Can you also teach me the sticking charm?"

Gunnar returned rather quickly from the lake with a flat rock and a stick. He was at the lake often enough to have a good idea of where decent rocks could be found. And the idea of a portable sundial seemed pretty cool, but the rest seemed a little more arts and crafts, which he remained unsure about.

He didn't really want to paint his rock at all, preferring a more natural look if they were using nature materials, so he was glad it was optional. And he definitely didn't want any glitter or flowers on it. It would look cool as a natural rock sundial.

So, with those optional steps out of the way, at least in his mind, what did he need to do first? He looked for a flat area, then set his rock down so he could set about cutting and adhering the stick. "Diffindo." Gunnar waved his wand across one end of the stick to trim it off even, then peered at it. Was that level? Eh, close enough. Holding it to the middle of the rock, he cast the sticking charm next. "Adhaero."

With those steps complete, he glanced around at some of the others nearby. Was he done early? Having skipped the optional steps, probably.

With her own stick cleanly sliced at the end, she watched her fellow Ravenclaw as she made a flat cut on the bottom of her stick. Hanna grinned, "Well done!" It was always, and would always be a triumph getting a spell right.

The next part was using the sticking charm so that the stick and rock were one. "Sure," she said. She heard someone using Adhaero, but decided to go with the permanent sticking charm, which was also the one she had the most experience with. Especially clothes and parchment. "I'm going to use the permanent sticking charm." She gathered her things to be with her, then aligned the stick in the middle of her rock. Her wand still in hand, she pointed it to the part where the stick touched the rock and said "Diutirnus affigo," as she gave her wand a small flick, touching the rock-stick contact point. She let go of the hand holding the stick, and it remained upright to her relief. "It's just Diutirnus affigo," not that they were the easiest of incantations, "And a small flick, pointing at what you want to stick together."

She ripped a small piece of parchment from one of her rolls, writing her name on it in black ink. She smoothed it out on the side of her rock, pointed her wand at it and cast the same permanent sticking charm on it to fix the parchment to the rock. She didn't want to scratch or blunt the quill she had in her bag by writing with it on the rock.

Abra was pretty sure he was done now, from what he remembered of the instructions. All that was left was to put his name on it somewhere and maybe decorate it and make it stand out further, which he figured he'd do, given that he was fairly sure he still had the time for it.

It was probably best to put his name on the bottom of the rock, on the side that the stick wasn't attached to. He turned the apparent sundial over so that the stick pointed downwards, pointed his wand at the surface of the rock, and used 'Intaglio' to carve 'ABRA' into it. Sure, that spell was for runes, but it worked fine for names on stone too. And sure, he could have just written it on there, but carving it in was much more permanent.

Hopefully the underside of the rock wasn't very important.

Now that all the vital stuff was (hopefully) finished, Abra set about decorating his ???sundial??? using come colour changing charms. He wanted it to be a RAINBOW of colours, which would call for some slightly tricky application of spellwork, but Abra felt perfectly able to do it. Now absorbed in his work, Abra focused completely and entirely on making his sundial all different colours of the rainbow, radiating out from the stick in the middle point of the rock.

Alright then. This was going to be the best sundial ever.

And if it didn't work, he was going to switch his with Max's. No offense.

Heading to the front with his rock in hand, Cameron then used one of the brushes to paint the rock white. Maybe he should have set it down first, on the ground or so. He really was OFF his game today somehow. As it were, though, after a few strokes, both his rock AND his hand were covered in white paint.

ANYWAY, moving on for now.

After a quick look around and being unable to find a flat surface, Cameron quickly used the Hot-Air Charm on his rock to ensure that the paint was dry. He then pulled out his Astronomy book, set that onto the grass and put his rock on top of it. And then sat down on the grass next to his book. Alright. The stick was next. "Diffindo!" He held out the stick in front of him and caaaarefully slid his wand across the stick's bottom.

Moving along..

There was only one problem. The step was to stick the stick onto the rock but Caolan’s mind had gone completely blank. This was the issue with essentially being homeschooled, he didn’t use these charms all the time at home as he didn’t think it was necessary and his Ma was a muggle after all. He glanced around the other students with the hope that someone may be able to jog his memory. He would be far too embarrassed to ask and well.. the younger students would most likely judge him. He subtly listened in to the nearest students mutterings.

Ahem.

Adhaero? Was that correct? He cast the charm and somehow managed to securely stick the stick onto his almost dry rock. What happened to good old pva glue, eh?

Once again art and crafts were not his forte and decorating his sundial was not on his agenda. That and he wasn’t really the flowers and glitter type of guy. He guessed he could stick a pinecone on it or something but it would just look ridiculous. Instead he wrote his initials in cursive writing on the rock and stood back to admire his lack of handiwork.

It would do.

Kalen kept his careful lean on the makeshift desk as he watched the students work, so far everyone seemed to be getting the hang of it. Mostly, he kept looking around making sure that no one needed him.

“You all have about ten minutes guys to get this done. ” He said with a grin as he looked up at the darkening sky. They probably wouldn’t be able to get to reading their sundials today, but he had another assignment in mind for that.

OOC: You all are doing great! Less than 24 hours now until class wraps up. Thanks everyone for participating!