Astronomy Lesson 1 :: the sun

[sweetpinkpixie]

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/lesson1.png
Warm rays of the September afternoon sun leak into the Astronomy classroom (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2034/640px-Astronomy_Classroom_zpscc271fc5.jpg) as you enter. The desks are arranged in their usual semi circle to help created a more personal environment. Professor Flamsteed's desk is positioned in the “front” of the classroom with a large red velvet bag resembling that of a certain North Pole dwelling fellow's on top of it. On the blackboard is a magically enlarged poster (http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2qmj702&s=5) that surely you have seen by now. Professor Flamsteed is not standing anywhere near his desk, nor the bag, but by one of the large open windows looking out at the Black Lake. Try to take a peek into the bag if you want, but at your own risk:evil:

So come on in and find your seat. Oh, and don’t forget to use the lint roller on the small table outside of the classroom next to the sign that reads, "Not to be used as a brush for your hair."

⌦Lesson Progression
▸ See what happened when you look inside the bag? (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11432721-post37.html) Just ask Miss Wheatborn
▸ question 1 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11432916-post56.html) :: what are the differences between a plant and a star?
▸ question 2 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11433881-post112.html) :: what star is closest to earth? Oh, and you can all have lime green beards if you want
▸ question 3 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11434182-post152.html) :: what iS thing thiiiiiiiiiiiiiing?
▸ mini activity (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11434344-post179.html) :: label the parts of the sun
▸ question 4 (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11434853-post215.html) :: what myths do you know that involve the sun?
▸ myth buster! (http://www.snitchseeker.com/11435065-post240.html) :: the truth behind Icarus & activity instructions


OOC: Opening this thread up two hours early because something came up and I might not be here at the scheduled 9 am time ^_^ Please be sure you are familiar with Professor Flamsteed's rules (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-and-space-navigation-92057/) BEFORE you post in this lesson. We will know if you haven't read them! All SnitchSeeker site rules (http://www.snitchseeker.com/faq.php) apply.

This lesson has officially started! Please do not announce your character arriving late and just pretend like they have been in class all along. You are free to jump in any time and should use the lesson progression links to keep up.

[DaniDiNardo]

Astronomy!!!!

Things still weren't going how she wanted them to but she wasn't prepared to mope and dwell on them when there was ASTRONOMY class to go to. Sulking was draining stuff, enjoying an Astro class took very little out of her.

Alexa headed to the room but stopped by the door. Lint roller. Right. She hadn't forgotten, no worries Professor. She took great care in getting at all the areas on her robe. Had to make sure there was no lint. As much as she never saw the harm in it, the Professor never saw the good and there was really no need to push him. All gone? Looked like it. Lex took a large step and entered the room. The first thing to grab her attention was the bag...then there was Professor Airey by the window.

Good Afternoon Professor!" She chimed, making her way curiously over to the bag. "What'chu got in there?" Lex lifted the lid, prepared to take a look. "A mini black hole?" She accepted those too.

[Ringo]

Oh, was this a lint roller?

Were they supposed to use it on their robes? Huh. The first year glanced around himself before shrugging and grabbing it and quickly rolling it along his robes. He then made his way into the classroom.

"Hello, professor!" Dylan greeted as he entered the astronomy room. He glanced around himself, studying the place for a second. The room was really cool, and he liked the view from the windows. He was fascinated with astronomy and couldn't wait for this first lesson to get started! The eleven year old took a seat at an empty desk in the back and reached down and dug through his bag, pulling out his textbook, wand, quill, and a piece of blank parchment out and placing them all neatly upon his desk. He then sat a little more upright in his chair, and waited for more students to arrive. Hopefully he'd see a friend and they'd sit with him.

[Team ronmione]

Astronomy. Right. Awkward. As Tag headed through the classroom's door he did a quick scan of the room to see where Professor Airey was. And, alas, Tag spotted him looking out a window.

The last time he and Airey had had a short talk it had been over Yoda, and well, Airey had asked something about the earth revolving around the sun and Tag... didn't know the answer and seemed to have thrown Airey out of his wits. Awkward.

So, sneakily making his way through the classroom Tag went to a desk that was not so easily seen by Professor Airey.. No need to bring up their latest conversation.

Oh, and look. His pet rock was missing. Hmmmm.

[pundantic]

Of all of the classes to start the term it had to be this clown's, didn't it? Jeez, just his luck. Glitter Trousers needed to relax, he could already feel his feminine, bubbly energy bouncing about in the castle. Probably why his lesson was first...couldn't sit still and all. Didn't mean that he wanted t be subjected to these lessons though. Or the travel up to the Astronomy tower for height reasons, ahem.

Avoiding looking around the classroom to the outside world, he used the lint roller quickly and went straight to a seat. Yeah, Glitter Trousers wasn't getting a hello or anything from him. Didn't wanna be here.

Lazily, he loitered in his seat and closed his eyes to relax until, well, class started. Or something.

[oh its Erik ok]

First and foremost. Nigel took the lint roller and made sure he was lint free. A Prefect with lint is not a good combination in Astronomy class. Nigel walked into the room, certain he was lint free and saw Flamsteed was staring out the window. Nigel quickly looked at the board and saw the same poster that was on the noticeboard in the common room. He really was missing his pet rock? Interesting.

The Prefect was not that curious to find out what was in the red bag. If it was of importance. He would find out later.

Nigel took a seat wishing he was starfishing or playing guitar. Though Astro was interesting.

[Felixir]

In standing with his new 'I'm gonna do super good in every class from now on' Tobias was READY and EAGER to attend Astronomy. It was easily his best lesson, alongside Ancient Runes, so it was the one he was going to find easiest to be enthusiastic in. He'd done SOME reading (shhhhh they were long books and he had a short attention span) so... bring it on?

The Hufflepuff gave his clothes a cursory roll with the lint roller, but given that the material was charmed to repel STUFF he wasn't sure it made much difference. Still, it was a requirement and Tobias liked being on Flamsteed's GOOD side.

With a grin, he gave the professor a wave and moved to try and get a seat as close to the 'front' of the room, and near the head star honcho, as he could.

"Afternoon, Mister Starman!" he practically chirped, getting out some ink and parchment to be ready for NOTES. He, too, was eager to see what was in the sack, and fought the urge to join Lex in having a look inside. Instead, cycled between bouncing in his seat, fidgeting about and tapping on the desk.

It was possible his energy levels had gotten even more chaotic over the summer break.

FidgetTAPTAPfidgetBOUNCEBOUNCEfidgetTAPTAPTAP.

[FearlessLeader19]

Adi carefully used the lint roller over his clothes. He had seen the not "Not to be used as a brush for your hair'' and he wondered who on earth was going to use a lint roller on their hair. Really, would people do that even?

Finally, the firstie stepped into the classroom excitedly. It was his first class after all! And looky! Students were arriving too. And the man by the window must be the Professor. As he made his way over to the made whom he had noticed at the feast had feather feet or something, Adi curiously cast a glance at the bag. "Hi, Professor! I'm Aditya but you can call me Adi!'' He grinned. Best introduce himself and all.

[natekka]

HER FIRST LESSON.

This was a big deal, okay? Astronomy didn't sound like the best of all subjects, but she feeling prepared to be proven wrong. Hopefully that would be the case. She had a lot of excess energy today like always and what better way to burn it than in a fun class? That was if adventures didn't exist or other things that were remotely fun. It may or may not be obvious, but had quite a love-hate relationship going on with learning.

Either way, she couldn't be more excited than she was right now. She all but literally bounced into the classroom (because manners and such), but she was still grinning without fail and searching the room for anyone she knew. No one. Shame that now wasn't the time to be make friends. For now, she was content with making small talk with the teach and then sitting down, because .. that's what everyone else was doing and she needed to be doing the right thing, too. Speaking of things everyone else was doing - linting rolling. She did that too.

The classroom looked huuuge and quite lovely, with interesting things in it. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she'd first thought. "Hellooooo, Professor," she greeted the tall teacher. "How are you today?" Because she wanted to know and it was important and polite to ask. Right? Also, maybe then she could ask about what was in the bag. It seemed like a mystery and surprise rolled into one.

[aaetha]

Adrienne entered the Astronomy classroom with a combination of halfheartedness and excitement. Sure, it was a new year and all, but it was seriously too for her to do the whole thinking thing. She'd gotten too used to the summer schedule of staying up all night and sleeping until noon, and it was going to be a hard adjustment to get back into school time. So she slumped up to the lint roller and rolled it once or twice on her sleeve (please, as if she had lint on her clothes anyway) and sat down in her usual edge-of-the-semicircle spot. On her way past the professor, Adrienne gave a nod in his direction (not that he was paying attention), but she really wasn't in the mood to actually speak aloud. Utilising vocal chords was way too high-energy for her plans for the day.

It wasn't until she sat down that she noticed the weird-looking bag on the table. She was tempted to find out what was in it, but it was also allll the way up there, and she was sitting down. So no. Instead, she took out a quill and some ink, and stared blankly as students filed in.

[lazykitty]

Llliiiinnnnt rooooolllllling. Just lint rolling. Seriously, the pre class ritual was old hat to the seventh year now, as silly as she might've thought it was at first. Also old hat were Professor Airey's various eccentricities, which was Sky didn't bat an eyelash at the sight of the poster for the lost pet rock or the Santa Claus-looking bag at the front of the room. Instead, she greeted the professor with a rather cheerful "Hello!" and found herself a seat towards the middle of the semicircle of desks.

And there was most definitely no peeking into the bag.

[GrapehSarah]

Adelaide couldn't stop smiling as she made her way to the Astronomy classroom. She was really excited for the first lesson of the year. She rounded the corner and saw everyone pausing at the door to do something. Once she got closer, she realized they were using a lint roller. Addi was thoroughly confused, but she still followed their example. Once she was pretty sure she was lint free, she took a deep breath before stepping in the classroom.

Adelaide took in the classroom, quickly trying to locate the professor. Her eyes stopped momentarily on the mystery bag that another student had already asked about before she turned to grin at the professor. "Hello professor. I'm Adelaide. How are you doing today?" It was best to introduce herself right? Her eyes caught sight of the poster, causing her to arch her eyebrow every so slightly.

[stormanator]

Wow... Here was one of Damon's most favorite subjects. The art of astronomy, with it came plenty of practice and trying to do well. He of course knew several of the constellations and other muggle and magical things related to astronomy. Walking into the classroom he simply said "Good day to you professor."

[Anna Banana]

OH MY MERLIN!

Sophie's first class had finally arrived, and she couldn't decide if she wanted to walk in wide-eyed and uncertain or energetic and full of life. In the end, she tried to compose herself into what she thought was a good mix and then approached the entrance to the classroom.

She paused as she spotted a...flat brush? Not to be used for her hair? Hmm... Eww, not that she'd use a public hairbrush anyway. One of the kids in front of her starting rubbing it along their robes, though, so Sophie shrugged to herself, picked it up, and starting moving it along her brand new robes. This better be some magical object set up to bring copious amounts of good luck her way...

She placed the brush back where she found it and entered the room. She took a moment to really take in everything for the first time before scanning the room for a place to sit. She didn't think anything of the big red sack on the desk. She was new. For all she knew, it could have always been there. She slid into a seat and stared at the professor glancing out the window. Should she say something or just not interrupt his thoughts?

[bitsyandtank]

Walking in without paying attention to the untied lace of his shoe, Asher soon found himself face planted next to the lint roller. He took just only a moment to catch his breath and jump to his feet before picking up the lint roller. 'I hope no one saw that' whispered to himself.

He was thankful the room wasn't too full yet and quickly headed towards his seat. After placing his things in their proper place, Asher located the professor "Hiya Professor! Great to see you again." He really did mean that. The summer had been so awful that he was thrilled to be in class again. Plus, last year Astronomy had been a lot of fun.

Glancing around, Asher noticed a few fellow Hufflepuffs already seated. "Hi Tobias and Adi" he also noticed a young Hufflepuff girl and boy, but he wasn't sure of their names yet. He made a note to learn all of the first years names before the end of the week.

[Danielle_Daughn]

Mack entered the first Astronomy lesson early, she was excited she really like Professor Airey. "Good Morning Professor, have a nice summer?" She beamed at him. His style was awesome and she really liked how fun he made his classes..

She wandered around and found a seat, almost at the front of the class. Pulling out some parchment and a quill and ink, she set up her desk in anticipation for class to begin.

Watching as other students also entered, she smiled at the ones that she didn't know, waiting for someone to arrive that she could greet on a name to name basis.

[Expecto-Penguin]

Oh awesome! Astronomy Time! He LOVED this class. Not because the professor is awesome but Kace is interested in the stars and what they do. As he made his way to the classroom, he noticed there were lint brushes. He knew how to use them. He chuckled to himself and used it to rub the lint off his robes and clothes. As he was done, he never realized how much stuff was on his clothes. Good grief!

Then he finally made his way and he noticed the professor holding a red bag. He gave it a quizzical look. "Hey nice bag you got there Professor!" he said while sitting down in his seat. He saw some of his fellow puffs and people from other houses as well. As he placed his stuff down, he walked to the front of the room and asked the Professor, "What is inside the bag?"

[the fastest seeker]

Classes already? She hadn't even finished decorating the dorm. Though she had started working on the posters she wanted to make. Just random ideas on paper nothing final yet. Then again, classes surely weren't going to wait for her. She would have appreciated it though.

The fifth-year took forever until she remembered what to bring with her. First lesson and all. Fortunately, she did and left the common room.

Cassia appreciated the long walk to the tower because she hadn't gotten to visit all the castle yet. She needed to re-connect and all.

Fingers looped around her bag's straps, the snake stepped into the class looked around and smiled at the familiarity. Good to be back, huh? "Good day Professor," She said to Flamsteed who was looking out the window. Hopefully she wasn't interrupting anything?

She offered smiles as she went further in and walked over to a seat and slid into. She looked around taking in everything and noticed a certain bag. Well, that was going to be interesting to learn about. Also, that poster. Professor's pet missing, she's been hearing about that. Wasn't cool.

[HOPEendures]

Jezzabelle walked in a little nervous. It had been a while since she had been in a Hogwarts classroom and honestly she didn't know what to expect. Nor did she know the professor. "Hello Professor," she said softly. Could she be anymore nervous for this? She stared at the bag but didn't say anything. All in good time answers will come. She made a way to a seat and sat down.

[JennMarie]

First class of the term, and well She was a bit pumped to be quite honest. Strutting into the classroom the seventh year was feeling confident and was smiling, which wasn't too surprising seeing as how that's all she seemed to be doing lately. Surely, something was wrong with the girl. Walking in she looked at all the faces around, familiar faces, some what, a few new ones but the same for the most part. "Hello Professor! Nice day isn't it?" it sure WAS a good day, yup mhm

Turning to take a seat she looked up and saw the poster.. pebbles... that poor rock, she couldn't help but giggle though "still no pebbles?" she said to no one in particular but more towards mr. professor man. it WAS his missing rock.

[PatInTheHat]

It was weird wearing these school pants to a lesson, seeing how Dora hardly ever did such a thing as she preferred tights. But the professor requested this so she supposed she could start the year off on the right foot. Passing the lint roller without giving it so much as a passing glance, she entered and looked around observantly.

His pet rock was still missing?

..... okay.

Dora made her way further into the classroom, passing a few of her friends and giving them greeting looks, then taking up a seat somewhere in the center of the classroom. She dumped her bag on the floor beside her seat and continued to let her eyes wander around while she waited for the lesson to start.

[Cassirin]

For a moment, Mo considered rolling his hair. For old time's sake. But when he considered the effort he'd put into it now, and when he considered the fact that Flamsteed didn't have much of a sense of humor about the lint roller... well. Better not.

Mo eyed the professor's desk as he selected a seat near the middle of the classroom. The seat was unimportant... it was the bag and the poster and the professor that interested him most. Why was Flamsteed being all anti-social? "Professor? Any news on Pebbles? Perhaps we should organize a search party?" Although it was a shame pet rocks couldn't find their way home like those amazing crup stories one always heard about.

[Lissy Longbottom]

YEAH! Time for ASTRONOMY!

Caleb didn't care too much for the subject, but that didn't matter - he was going to a CLASS! At HOGWARTS! It could have been Hufflepuff History for all he cared, he just wanted to do something and learn SOMETHING.

"Hello Professor!" he said happily, waving at the man only to find that he was staring out the window. Huh. Ok. Smiling to himself, he turned on his heel and picked out a good seat near the front. The road to becoming the best Auror ever started RIGHT NOW, and he needed a good seat to make the most of it.

[Bazinga]

Minerva headed up to the Astronomy tower. What a difference a year made. This time she was actually excited for the class. Last term she pretty much had to force herself to go. The difference is what she had learned last term. Just because an exam said something did not make it true, working hard could bring things back up, and she thought Flamsteed was very unique and cool. Even if he made her be embarrassed, almost get expelled, and sent her on the crazy train last term. Stopping at the door she grabbed the lint roller. She had a pygmy puff, not that fluffy shed or anything, but she would do this just to be on the safe side.

Once done she skipped in just to stop for a second and blink at the front row. There were so many students here already, was she late? No it didn't seem like it, but her seat was still empty. Always the front, it had been a place she liked to be since first term, but for the past two terms the seat next to her was always occupied by the same person as well. Wibbling just a bit she turned her focus on the front where professor Flamsteed was not at.. Well where was.. oh there he was looking out the window. "Stargazing professor?" What had he said to her at the feast, "Wishing on any meteors tonight?" She smiled as she headed to her seat only to stop for a second and see a bag.

Hmmm Professor Flamsteed seemed to trust her pretty well. He let her stay in the healers seat when he clearly knew she was not to be there and he called her healer. That still made her day hearing Healer Wheatborn, so why would he care if she looked into the bag. Maybe see what class was about. She stepped over to it without much thought of getting in trouble or anything being wrong and looked inside.

[TakemetotheBurrow]

Astronomy.

One of Ella's favorite subjects ever and boy did her excitement show. After making sure she was properly de-linted, the seventeen year old entered the classroom with a smile and a definite pep in her step. It was good to be back.

The poster was sort of disheartening, though. Poor Airey. The blonde wished she could find the pet rock for him, her being a badger and all, but as much as she'd kept an eye out, nothing had turned up. Sad but true.

After finding a seat in the middle of the room, the blonde looked around and noted the Professor seemed distracted. Rock-sick, clearly. She also took note of Mo's idea and chimed in, "I'd help search, Professor." And hello, by the way. Please don't be sad.

[Lockhartian]

ASTRONOMY!

There was no need for words, plural, only one could sum up her excitement for this class. The... name of the class, of course. So, there was no need for the lint roller this time because there was no dust around the castle like last term, and she'd been extra careful on her way here not to mess up her uniform.

We'll go in, then. AND...the poster. Right. By now she was pretty aware of the fact that Professor Flamsteed's most beloved pet was GONE. For all eternity. And she felt extremely bad for him. She could only imagine what it'd be like. But she wasn't gonna go searching for a rock. Simple as that.

Still, she BEAMED at him as she stepped inside, "Good afternoon, Professor Flamsteed!" She would've asked how he was doing but... the poster was an obvious sign, so she simply went ahead and took a seat.

And, yeah, we notice the bag.

[Charely Potter]

So Wade made his way towards Astronomy. Strange, yeah? Naah, there was nothing wrong with trying to improve on the subject, especially during NEWT year. Meep. Anyways, he followed Ella and Min who had been momentarily joined at the hip in front of him before entering the class.

Hello again, Mr. Lint Roller. Wade made sure to get rid of any lints, and ruffled his own hair just incase any happened to fall in. Luckily there wasn't any kind of white particles in his hair. He saw Airey gazing out.. at something. Hmm.. His brows furrowed, he must be still looking for his missing beloved rock. "Hello, Professor.. is everything alright?" Since you know, things not being okay wasn't cool to Wade.

He eventually went to take an empty seat near the middle, after giving a small smile to those he knew.

[Gissel]

Astronomy. Right. Awkward. As Tag headed through the classroom's door he did a quick scan of the room to see where Professor Airey was. And, alas, Tag spotted him looking out a window.

The last time he and Airey had had a short talk it had been over Yoda, and well, Airey had asked something about the earth revolving around the sun and Tag... didn't know the answer and seemed to have thrown Airey out of his wits. Awkward.

So, sneakily making his way through the classroom Tag went to a desk that was not so easily seen by Professor Airey.. No need to bring up their latest conversation.

Oh, and look. His pet rock was missing. Hmmmm.
This was it. This was going to be the year Christopher actually attempted to do well in his classes. It was his last year after all.

Walking up to the door of the classroom, Chris watched as other students used the lint roller before entering and so he did the same. Why in the world they were all doing so, he had no idea, but if those were the rules, those were the rules. He stepped through the doorway and looked around at some unfamiliar faces and few familiar ones. Showed just how much socializing he did the past three years.

Spotting Tag, Chris walked around the outside of the circle, past the professor, giving him a nod and a smile of hello, and plopped down in the seat right next to his best friend. Maybe class wouldn't be so boring after all?

[DecemberMoon]

Eliza was excited to get back into the swing of classes. Her summer had been lovely and in some ways she hadn't wanted the lazy sunny days to end, but now that she was back and apparently in no immediate horrifying danger from cloaked black soul suckers, she was actually in a decent mood. Maybe the good night's rest in her four poster bed atop the castle in her Ravenclaw digs had been just what the doctor ordered. She was feeling so care-free at this point that she almost passed the lint roller. Seeing it in the corner of her eye at the last second though, she turned back to use it. She was already clean, as usual, but she might have seen a few fuzzies stick their way onto the lint roller anyway.

Professor Flamsteed was looking rather pensive as he stared out towards the Black Lake, and the young Claw couldn't help but assume it must be that he was missing his pet rock. She did feel badly that he'd lost it, but she hadn't seen it. Figuring no news from her was better than bad news from her, she decided not to mention it. Instead, she said cheerily yet softly so as not to startle the man, "Hello Professor Flamsteed. It's nice to see you again!" There had been so many staff changes this year, she was really happy to see that he had chosen to stay on as the Astronomy professor, and Botros as the Ancient Runes still also had her looking forward to a brighter school year.

The fourteen year old took a seat at one of the desks, ignoring the thing on the table. She knew the professor's liked to trick them into peeking, but she wasn't going to fall for it. No sir. A glance around the room showed her there were a few new faces in the class with her. A fresh pair of new Hufflepuffs - a girl and a boy...oh and another Hufflepuff boy. Then there was a redhead that she didn't recognize, or did she? The others were familiar. Lex, Ascanius, Nigel of course...Mo...Another new Puffer. Oh and there was a baby snake as well! With all of the new faces in front of her, Eliza wasn't sure she'd be able to focus on the class. Likely, she'd be highly interested in the new students' answers, but she'd do her best to stay on task herself as well.

[amadshade]

After making sure that her uniform (which included pants today) and bag were spotless of all lint, dust and other dirt particles, Tora happily walked into the Astronomy tower for class. She absolutely loved astronomy, and was in fact reading (er, well carrying at the moment as it isn't safe to walk and read) an educational fictional novel on some constellations and space in general.

Before she sat down for class though, she spotted a red bag at the front. Funny. It looked like what she would think Santa's bag would look like. Instant insatiable curiosity overcame her. What could be in there?? She knew that Professor Flamsteed would most likely tell them later and the bag was most likely the Professor's personal property... But why wait? "Evening, Professor" she smiled and nodded at Professor Flamsteed as she walked over to where he had (rather unwisely in her opinion) left the bag unguarded. Even though she was about to look inside, it wouldn't hurt to ask all the same. "Can I take a look in here, Professor?" she asked, one hand already on the bag, the other still holding her book and her bag full of the things needed for class that day.

[Govoni]

Vesper was both excited.....and scared to death. Today was going to be the day...The day she figured out if Hogwarts would be more suited to her learning style...She'd read the textbook some, trying to prepare...but it was clearly confusing. Proper instruction was needed.

Naturally, she didn't know her way around the school yet...So, she'd followed other Ravenclaws...Good thing about Astronomy, apparently....it was right there near their common room. Less walking...and more time to think about her surroundings. Everything was so beautiful about the school thus far from what she'd seen. One of these days...soon...Ves was going to just take the day and walk and sketch, draw up her own guide-layout so there wasn't a chance of getting lost.

For now, though...she just took a seat quietly and peered around....after lint-rolling herself? Okay...

There was a poster on the board...Pebbles? Was that a space rock?

[emjay]

Claudette made the trek up to the Astronomy tower for the first class, and stopped just outside the classroom when a sign caught her eye. 'Not to be used as a brush for your hair.' Well.. of course it wasn't.. ? The 16 year old was confused by that for a moment before she picked up the lint roller and quickly did a once over on her robes. Not that she felt she needed it at all, she made sure she was well put together before she left her dorm, but it was apparently there for a reason.. that reason being not to use it in your hair.

Still slightly mulling that thought over, Claudette stepped into the room and took a cursory first glance around. Typical observatory.. She glanced around, searching for a vacant seat, and spotted the instructor staring out one of the windows. Stargazing? Probably not.. too early in the day for that. ".....um.. hello, Professor.." She wasn't completely sure he was paying attention, but she also knew it was customary to greet one's teacher upon entering the room.

The sixth year made her way to the first available seat and lowered herself onto the chair, setting her tote bag on the floor next to her. Turning her eyes to the front of the room to await the beginning of class, the blonde stared curiously at the poster on the board. Pebbles.. was that some sort of.. rock? With eyes?

[Daemon]

AHA.

Astronomy classroom.

Panting a little, Benzi patted down his cornrows unnecessarily as he strode confidently towards the classroom. He was VERY pleased with himself. It had only taken him half an hour to find the Astronoy tower and considering he'd somehow ended up at the History of Magic classroom first, he was doing really well. Good thing he went to all those football practices during the summer otherwise he wouldn't have been able to run this fast and not sweat.

He eyes caught the roller thing outside the door and he stared at it dumbly for a few moments before shrugging and entering the astronomy room. He had NO idea what that was, but he sure was not going to mess up his hair if that's what it was for. Unless the sign was being serious? .. Eh well, he'd figure it out some other time. Not recognizing anyone, Benzi took a seat at random and threw his bag down to the floor, loosening his tie in the process. He did NOT like this tie. Nor the top button that came along with it.

Glancing at the board, he read the notice and frowned. "What's a Pebbles?" He asked no one in particular, but looking more to the Ravenclaw older kids as he waited for an answer.

[LilFox06]

Anya walked hand-in-hand with her boyfriend gossiping about something she overheard. Why? Because boyfriends had to listen. And Jake was one of those good boyfriends that was a great listener.

Once they reached the classroom, she dropped her hand from his and picked up the lint roller. She ran it down one of his arms then her other arm. Good enough. She then gave her boyfriend a quick kiss then straightened his badge. D'aww. Cute boyfriend was cute.

She smiled at him and headed into the classroom. "Hello Pro--" Anya began before noticing the Professor wasn't in his usual spot. "Did you bring us presents?" Because what else were giant red bags for?

[squidnie]

Anya walked hand-in-hand with her boyfriend gossiping about something she overheard. Why? Because boyfriends had to listen. And Jake was one of those good boyfriends that was a great listener.

Once they reached the classroom, she dropped her hand from his and picked up the lint roller. She ran it down one of his arms then her other arm. Good enough. She then gave her boyfriend a quick kiss then straightened his badge. D'aww. Cute boyfriend was cute.

She smiled at him and headed into the classroom. "Hello Pro--" Anya began before noticing the Professor wasn't in his usual spot. "Did you bring us presents?" Because what else were giant red bags for?

That was why Jake enjoyed having Anya as his girlfriend. Well, one of the many reasons really. While they were walking to class he didn't have to do anything but listen to her and nod when appropriate. Because she talked a lot and quickly and didn't give him time to say anything anyway. Then once they got to the classroom she did his lint rolling for him. And straightened his badge. He liked it when she did that.

Because of that, he had a smile on his lips as he entered the classroom. "Hello, Professor Flamst-" ... Oh. There he was. "Flamsteed. Have a nice holiday?" As he spoke, he led his girlfriend - who was obviously distracted by the bag of something - to a desk. He tapped his fingers on the top of it, indicating that she should sit, and took the desk next to her. Jake took his girlfriend's hand again. Class hadn't started yet. They could hold hands until it did, right?

He did turn his attention back to Airey, though. "Still haven't found..." he took a quick glance at the big poster in the room, "Pebbles, huh?"

[SarcasticStrawberry]

So Astronomy? Yes. Asher could handle the study of the moon and the stars and planets. But what he wasn't so sure about was coming to the class it's self. After being away for a year, he felt almost the same way he did his first year. Alone and totally clueless. He was going to get lost. It had taken him up to his fourth year to really get to know where everything was.

But now in his sixth year being back here again things were very slowly coming back to him. Lets face it Asher was slow when it comes to things like this. Like where the astronomy tower and classroom was.

He made his way up the staircase and rounded to the door. He slipped in, almost missing the lint roller. not to used as a hair brush? Who do that? Wouldn't that like hurt or at least pull your hair? He rolled off his robes and peeled off the used sheet. the professor a smile and a "Hello professor!" before finding a seat closest to the window where flamsteed stood. Black bag? What is in it?

[sweetpinkpixie]

Airey continued to gaze out at the Black Lake, wondering if his patronus had found Sticky Nicky and, well, if his request to a certain tentacle creature had reached it. He could only hope and assume that things had. He was proficient in that regard. His eyes drifted briefly towards the quidditch stadium in the distance and his thoughts couldn't help but wander to Pebbles.

Good Afternoon Professor!" She chimed, making her way curiously over to the bag. "What'chu got in there?" Lex lifted the lid, prepared to take a look. "A mini black hole?" She accepted those too.
Thankfully his thoughts were distracted thanks to Miss Cambridge walking into the classroom, and his short attention span. "Good afternoon, Miss Cambridge!" he greeted with genuine enthusiasm. "No, no black holes this term, but I do believe it is something that you will like." Perhaps the class as well.

"Hello, professor!" Dylan greeted as he entered the astronomy room. He glanced around himself, studying the place for a second. The room was really cool, and he liked the view from the windows. He was fascinated with astronomy and couldn't wait for this first lesson to get started! The eleven year old took a seat at an empty desk in the back and reached down and dug through his bag, pulling out his textbook, wand, quill, and a piece of blank parchment out and placing them all neatly upon his desk. He then sat a little more upright in his chair, and waited for more students to arrive. Hopefully he'd see a friend and they'd sit with him.
Ah! A new student! Stellar. "Good afternoon to you Mr............." Had the boy said his name? "Welcome to Astronomy."
Astronomy. Right. Awkward. As Tag headed through the classroom's door he did a quick scan of the room to see where Professor Airey was. And, alas, Tag spotted him looking out a window.

The last time he and Airey had had a short talk it had been over Yoda, and well, Airey had asked something about the earth revolving around the sun and Tag... didn't know the answer and seemed to have thrown Airey out of his wits. Awkward.

So, sneakily making his way through the classroom Tag went to a desk that was not so easily seen by Professor Airey.. No need to bring up their latest conversation.

Oh, and look. His pet rock was missing. Hmmmm.
Ah. There he was. The boy who thought the Geocentric model was still fact. Sweet solstice Airey had stayed up all night contemplating the meaning of his teaching career thanks to this one. Yes. We SAW you, Mr. Kildare, despite your attempts to sneak into the classroom. The semicircular formation of the desks made stealth difficult.

Airey left his spot by the window and oh-so-casually walked by the boy's desk. "Pay attention to Astronomy, you must."

Of all of the classes to start the term it had to be this clown's, didn't it? Jeez, just his luck. Glitter Trousers needed to relax, he could already feel his feminine, bubbly energy bouncing about in the castle. Probably why his lesson was first...couldn't sit still and all. Didn't mean that he wanted t be subjected to these lessons though. Or the travel up to the Astronomy tower for height reasons, ahem.

Avoiding looking around the classroom to the outside world, he used the lint roller quickly and went straight to a seat. Yeah, Glitter Trousers wasn't getting a hello or anything from him. Didn't wanna be here.

Lazily, he loitered in his seat and closed his eyes to relax until, well, class started. Or something.
He saw you too, Mr. Cranky-snake. Airey gave the boy a big toothy grin and then went back towards his desk to sit on top of it while he waited for the rest of the students to make their way up to the Astronomy Tower.
First and foremost. Nigel took the lint roller and made sure he was lint free. A Prefect with lint is not a good combination in Astronomy class. Nigel walked into the room, certain he was lint free and saw Flamsteed was staring out the window. Nigel quickly looked at the board and saw the same poster that was on the noticeboard in the common room. He really was missing his pet rock? Interesting.

The Prefect was not that curious to find out what was in the red bag. If it was of importance. He would find out later.

Nigel took a seat wishing he was starfishing or playing guitar. Though Astro was interesting.
"Afternoon, Mr. Barrington," he greeted the Ravenclaw boy as he entered the classroom. "I believe congratulations are in order." Becoming a prefect and all.

"Afternoon, Mister Starman!" he practically chirped, getting out some ink and parchment to be ready for NOTES. He, too, was eager to see what was in the sack, and fought the urge to join Lex in having a look inside. Instead, cycled between bouncing in his seat, fidgeting about and tapping on the desk.

It was possible his energy levels had gotten even more chaotic over the summer break.

FidgetTAPTAPfidgetBOUNCEBOUNCEfidgetTAPTAPTAP.
"Afternoon to you, Mr. Tempus," Airey essentially chirped back to the boy. The Hufflepuff even earned an extra bright smile for, you know the whole pogo stick thing outside his office. The smile was mostly to reaffirm to Airey that the whole, er, misunderstanding about Mr. Tempus being a dementor had just been his vivid imagination getting the best of him. "But please, Professor Airey or Professor Flamsteed in the classroom, if you will."
Adi carefully used the lint roller over his clothes. He had seen the not "Not to be used as a brush for your hair'' and he wondered who on earth was going to use a lint roller on their hair. Really, would people do that even?

Finally, the firstie stepped into the classroom excitedly. It was his first class after all! And looky! Students were arriving too. And the man by the window must be the Professor. As he made his way over to the made whom he had noticed at the feast had feather feet or something, Adi curiously cast a glance at the bag. "Hi, Professor! I'm Aditya but you can call me Adi!'' He grinned. Best introduce himself and all.
Eddie had the boy said? That it what he had heard at least. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Eddie and welcome to Astronomy," he said while giving the boy a nod.

The classroom looked huuuge and quite lovely, with interesting things in it. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as she'd first thought. "Hellooooo, Professor," she greeted the tall teacher. "How are you today?" Because she wanted to know and it was important and polite to ask. Right? Also, maybe then she could ask about what was in the bag. It seemed like a mystery and surprise rolled into one.
Ah, another new face and it was a good thing that he was becoming better at this whole meeting new people thing. "Afternoon," he smiled. "I am stellar." Only not really but in this current moment he was feeling such. "Thank you for asking."

Now if only he had caught her name...
Adrienne entered the Astronomy classroom with a combination of halfheartedness and excitement. Sure, it was a new year and all, but it was seriously too for her to do the whole thinking thing. She'd gotten too used to the summer schedule of staying up all night and sleeping until noon, and it was going to be a hard adjustment to get back into school time. So she slumped up to the lint roller and rolled it once or twice on her sleeve (please, as if she had lint on her clothes anyway) and sat down in her usual edge-of-the-semicircle spot. On her way past the professor, Adrienne gave a nod in his direction (not that he was paying attention), but she really wasn't in the mood to actually speak aloud. Utilising vocal chords was way too high-energy for her plans for the day.

It wasn't until she sat down that she noticed the weird-looking bag on the table. She was tempted to find out what was in it, but it was also allll the way up there, and she was sitting down. So no. Instead, she took out a quill and some ink, and stared blankly as students filed in.
He caught the Ravenclaw's entrace out of the corner of his eye and managed a quick nod in reply before the girl took her seat.
Llliiiinnnnt rooooolllllling. Just lint rolling. Seriously, the pre class ritual was old hat to the seventh year now, as silly as she might've thought it was at first. Also old hat were Professor Airey's various eccentricities, which was Sky didn't bat an eyelash at the sight of the poster for the lost pet rock or the Santa Claus-looking bag at the front of the room. Instead, she greeted the professor with a rather cheerful "Hello!" and found herself a seat towards the middle of the semicircle of desks.

And there was most definitely no peeking into the bag.
"Hello, Ms Carter-Hope," he greeted the Slytherin as she took her seat. My my, seventh year already.

Adelaide took in the classroom, quickly trying to locate the professor. Her eyes stopped momentarily on the mystery bag that another student had already asked about before she turned to grin at the professor. "Hello professor. I'm Adelaide. How are you doing today?" It was best to introduce herself right? Her eyes caught sight of the poster, causing her to arch her eyebrow every so slightly.
This student was all smiles. Spectacular. Airey approved of this greatly. Smiles were contagious they said - not that he believed in such superstitions. Calista, maybe, but not him. Scientific fact was more his speed than rubbish fancy.

"Nice to meet you, Ms," sweet solstice how he wished students would also include their last names, "Adelaide. I'm quite well, thank you."
Wow... Here was one of Damon's most favorite subjects. The art of astronomy, with it came plenty of practice and trying to do well. He of course knew several of the constellations and other muggle and magical things related to astronomy. Walking into the classroom he simply said "Good day to you professor."
"Afternoon, Mr. Cunderthorne," he smiled at the seventh year.

She placed the brush back where she found it and entered the room. She took a moment to really take in everything for the first time before scanning the room for a place to sit. She didn't think anything of the big red sack on the desk. She was new. For all she knew, it could have always been there. She slid into a seat and stared at the professor glancing out the window. Should she say something or just not interrupt his thoughts?
He did happen to see this one as she sat down and recalled meeting her during the summer festival in Diagon Alley. What had her name been again? Airey couldn't recall at the moment, so instead he just offered the first year a small smile. "Nice to see you again," he said, hoping to avoid some awkwardness. "Win anything at the Plimpy Toss after I left?" You know, something better than a gift certificate.

He was thankful the room wasn't too full yet and quickly headed towards his seat. After placing his things in their proper place, Asher located the professor "Hiya Professor! Great to see you again." He really did mean that. The summer had been so awful that he was thrilled to be in class again. Plus, last year Astronomy had been a lot of fun.
Airey certainly had not seen the little lint roller fiasco outside his classroom - which was a very good thing because the boy would have found himself in detention quicker than he could say comet.

"It is good to see you too, Mr. Stinson," the astronomer saluted. Hopefully there would be no spell mishaps for the Hufflepuff this term. Although that was probably slightly optimistic given the nature of today's activity.
Mack entered the first Astronomy lesson early, she was excited she really like Professor Airey. "Good Morning Professor, have a nice summer?" She beamed at him. His style was awesome and she really liked how fun he made his classes..

She wandered around and found a seat, almost at the front of the class. Pulling out some parchment and a quill and ink, she set up her desk in anticipation for class to begin.

Watching as other students also entered, she smiled at the ones that she didn't know, waiting for someone to arrive that she could greet on a name to name basis.
"Afternoon, Miss Jones," he smiled at the Gryffindor. He shuddered slightly in his mind. Gryffindors. Red shirts. He was suddenly quite anxious.
Oh awesome! Astronomy Time! He LOVED this class. Not because the professor is awesome but Kace is interested in the stars and what they do. As he made his way to the classroom, he noticed there were lint brushes. He knew how to use them. He chuckled to himself and used it to rub the lint off his robes and clothes. As he was done, he never realized how much stuff was on his clothes. Good grief!

Then he finally made his way and he noticed the professor holding a red bag. He gave it a quizzical look. "Hey nice bag you got there Professor!" he said while sitting down in his seat. He saw some of his fellow puffs and people from other houses as well. As he placed his stuff down, he walked to the front of the room and asked the Professor, "What is inside the bag?"
Airey turned to the bag that was sitting on his desk. "Can't tell you that," he teased with a knowing grin. They would all find out soon enough anyway.

Fingers looped around her bag's straps, the snake stepped into the class looked around and smiled at the familiarity. Good to be back, huh? "Good day Professor," She said to Flamsteed who was looking out the window. Hopefully she wasn't interrupting anything?

She offered smiles as she went further in and walked over to a seat and slid into. She looked around taking in everything and noticed a certain bag. Well, that was going to be interesting to learn about. Also, that poster. Professor's pet missing, she's been hearing about that. Wasn't cool.
"Good day to you, Miss Somerlad," he smiled at the Slytherin. OWL year for this one, if memory served him right. Hopefully she at least remembered that the earth revolved around the sun, unlike SOME of her classmates.

Jezzabelle walked in a little nervous. It had been a while since she had been in a Hogwarts classroom and honestly she didn't know what to expect. Nor did she know the professor. "Hello Professor," she said softly. Could she be anymore nervous for this? She stared at the bag but didn't say anything. All in good time answers will come. She made a way to a seat and sat down.
Nervous students made for a nervous Airey - feeding off the energies of others like he tended to do so as to mask his own anxiety - so he was now feeling a bit flustered greeting this redshirt, er, Gryffindor. "Hello," he nodded to the girl, forcing a smile on his face that hopefully would pass inspection.
First class of the term, and well She was a bit pumped to be quite honest. Strutting into the classroom the seventh year was feeling confident and was smiling, which wasn't too surprising seeing as how that's all she seemed to be doing lately. Surely, something was wrong with the girl. Walking in she looked at all the faces around, familiar faces, some what, a few new ones but the same for the most part. "Hello Professor! Nice day isn't it?" it sure WAS a good day, yup mhm

Turning to take a seat she looked up and saw the poster.. pebbles... that poor rock, she couldn't help but giggle though "still no pebbles?" she said to no one in particular but more towards mr. professor man. it WAS his missing rock.
"Perfect day for a swim," he said to the seventh year with a knowing wink. And then his face dropped and he looked at the poster on the black board like a kicked cruppy. "Afraid not, Miss Logan. I am beginning to think it may be a lost cause."
It was weird wearing these school pants to a lesson, seeing how Dora hardly ever did such a thing as she preferred tights. But the professor requested this so she supposed she could start the year off on the right foot. Passing the lint roller without giving it so much as a passing glance, she entered and looked around observantly.

His pet rock was still missing?

..... okay.

Dora made her way further into the classroom, passing a few of her friends and giving them greeting looks, then taking up a seat somewhere in the center of the classroom. She dumped her bag on the floor beside her seat and continued to let her eyes wander around while she waited for the lesson to start.
Airey gave the Ravenclaw a slow and somber nod as she took her seat. Pebbles. Man!wibble.
For a moment, Mo considered rolling his hair. For old time's sake. But when he considered the effort he'd put into it now, and when he considered the fact that Flamsteed didn't have much of a sense of humor about the lint roller... well. Better not.

Mo eyed the professor's desk as he selected a seat near the middle of the classroom. The seat was unimportant... it was the bag and the poster and the professor that interested him most. Why was Flamsteed being all anti-social? "Professor? Any news on Pebbles? Perhaps we should organize a search party?" Although it was a shame pet rocks couldn't find their way home like those amazing crup stories one always heard about.
Truth be told, Airey still expected Mr. Branxton to enter the classroom with the lint roller stuck to his head and was unsure as to whether he was disappointed or relieved that he did not. "No, no news I'm afraid." And you know what they said, no news was good news or something. But Airey was finding this expression equally as illogical as smiles being contagious. "A search party would be appreciated though, just don't let such efforts get in the ways of your studies."
YEAH! Time for ASTRONOMY!

Caleb didn't care too much for the subject, but that didn't matter - he was going to a CLASS! At HOGWARTS! It could have been Hufflepuff History for all he cared, he just wanted to do something and learn SOMETHING.

"Hello Professor!" he said happily, waving at the man only to find that he was staring out the window. Huh. Ok. Smiling to himself, he turned on his heel and picked out a good seat near the front. The road to becoming the best Auror ever started RIGHT NOW, and he needed a good seat to make the most of it.
But HERE was a student who was giving the astronomer a bit of a pick-me-up with his cheerful exterior - although the man was still very saddened by thoughts of his pet rock. He probably should have left the poster out of the classroom.

Once done she skipped in just to stop for a second and blink at the front row. There were so many students here already, was she late? No it didn't seem like it, but her seat was still empty. Always the front, it had been a place she liked to be since first term, but for the past two terms the seat next to her was always occupied by the same person as well. Wibbling just a bit she turned her focus on the front where professor Flamsteed was not at.. Well where was.. oh there he was looking out the window. "Stargazing professor?" What had he said to her at the feast, "Wishing on any meteors tonight?" She smiled as she headed to her seat only to stop for a second and see a bag.

Hmmm Professor Flamsteed seemed to trust her pretty well. He let her stay in the healers seat when he clearly knew she was not to be there and he called her healer. That still made her day hearing Healer Wheatborn, so why would he care if she looked into the bag. Maybe see what class was about. She stepped over to it without much thought of getting in trouble or anything being wrong and looked inside.
Oh dear, seemed like Healer Miss Wheatborn had let time get away from her. "Quite hard to stargaze when the sun's light overpowers that of the stars, Miss Wheatborn..." he said with a slightly raised eyebrow at the Hufflepuff prefect. "I intend on doing so tonight, however." Like he did every night really.

The bag that Miss Wheatborn had just peeked into had had several enchantments placed on it to prevent the surprises of the lesson from being spoiled. In true Airey fashion, these enchantments cause appearance altering effects to happen on anyone who dared look inside the bag. In a flash of vibrant green light, the bag zapped Miss Wheatborn and within seconds a long lime green beard down to the girl's knees sprouted from her face and her hands became trapped in a giant Chinese finger trap that could not be removed without magic.

After finding a seat in the middle of the room, the blonde looked around and noted the Professor seemed distracted. Rock-sick, clearly. She also took note of Mo's idea and chimed in, "I'd help search, Professor." And hello, by the way. Please don't be sad.
Airey, however, did not notice the transformation that had occurred to Miss Wheatborn because Miss Ella had his attention thanks to her kind words about searching for Pebbles. "Thank you, Miss Ella."

Still, she BEAMED at him as she stepped inside, "Good afternoon, Professor Flamsteed!" She would've asked how he was doing but... the poster was an obvious sign, so she simply went ahead and took a seat.

And, yeah, we notice the bag.
"Afternoon, Miss Wisteria," he smiled at the Hogwartian. Hopefully she could keep Mr. Kildare on task, yes?

Hello again, Mr. Lint Roller. Wade made sure to get rid of any lints, and ruffled his own hair just incase any happened to fall in. Luckily there wasn't any kind of white particles in his hair. He saw Airey gazing out.. at something. Hmm.. His brows furrowed, he must be still looking for his missing beloved rock. "Hello, Professor.. is everything alright?" Since you know, things not being okay wasn't cool to Wade.

He eventually went to take an empty seat near the middle, after giving a small smile to those he knew.
"Depends on your definition of the word okay, Mr. Potter," Airey said with a very slow nod. Specific were essential for this sort of thing you see. Physically he was fine and dandy. In his head, well, there was a whole nebula of emotions growing in there.



Spotting Tag, Chris walked around the outside of the circle, past the professor, giving him a nod and a smile of hello, and plopped down in the seat right next to his best friend. Maybe class wouldn't be so boring after all?
Airey returned the nod to the Slytherin as passed by and took a seat. Pausing for a moment, the astronomer took a quick peek at his sundial watch - which ACTUALLY worked this time of day - and nodded. Still a bit early.

Professor Flamsteed was looking rather pensive as he stared out towards the Black Lake, and the young Claw couldn't help but assume it must be that he was missing his pet rock. She did feel badly that he'd lost it, but she hadn't seen it. Figuring no news from her was better than bad news from her, she decided not to mention it. Instead, she said cheerily yet softly so as not to startle the man, "Hello Professor Flamsteed. It's nice to see you again!" There had been so many staff changes this year, she was really happy to see that he had chosen to stay on as the Astronomy professor, and Botros as the Ancient Runes still also had her looking forward to a brighter school year.[/SIZE]
"Ah, Miss Dawnsel. I am looking forward to cheering with you during gobstone matches again this term," he greeted the Ravenclaw. Always more fun to sing and whatnot with others.

Before she sat down for class though, she spotted a red bag at the front. Funny. It looked like what she would think Santa's bag would look like. Instant insatiable curiosity overcame her. What could be in there?? She knew that Professor Flamsteed would most likely tell them later and the bag was most likely the Professor's personal property... But why wait? "Evening, Professor" she smiled and nodded at Professor Flamsteed as she walked over to where he had (rather unwisely in her opinion) left the bag unguarded. Even though she was about to look inside, it wouldn't hurt to ask all the same. "Can I take a look in here, Professor?" she asked, one hand already on the bag, the other still holding her book and her bag full of the things needed for class that day.
"Afternoon," he replied to the Ravenclaw, wondering too if they had let time get away with them. He turned his attention back to his desk and it was only then that he noticed what had happened to Miss Wheatborn. Choking on his own breath, he covered his mouth for a moment and looked back towards Miss Gallaway. "Not unless you want to end up like Miss Wheatborn."

For now, though...she just took a seat quietly and peered around....after lint-rolling herself? Okay...

There was a poster on the board...Pebbles? Was that a space rock?
Still choking back a laugh, it would be a bit rude for a professor to laugh at a student after all, he nodded his head to the newcomer. "Afternoon."

Still slightly mulling that thought over, Claudette stepped into the room and took a cursory first glance around. Typical observatory.. She glanced around, searching for a vacant seat, and spotted the instructor staring out one of the windows. Stargazing? Probably not.. too early in the day for that. ".....um.. hello, Professor.." She wasn't completely sure he was paying attention, but she also knew it was customary to greet one's teacher upon entering the room.
Oh! Another newcomer. "Hello and welcome," he greeted, having now composed himself for the most part. Lime green beards. HA! Sometimes he just killed himself. Ha.

Glancing at the board, he read the notice and frowned. "What's a Pebbles?" He asked no one in particular, but looking more to the Ravenclaw older kids as he waited for an answer.
Airey gasped somewhat dramatically at the boy's question, only to remind himself that new students would not be aware of the perfection that was his pet rock. "Pebbles is," Airey began as he stepped towards the first year. "My pet rock." The BEST pet rock there was.

She smiled at him and headed into the classroom. "Hello Pro--" Anya began before noticing the Professor wasn't in his usual spot. "Did you bring us presents?" Because what else were giant red bags for?
"NO!" he said in a slightly louder voice than he had intended. He was all worked up over his pet rock you see. "I mean, ahem, no, Miss Phillips. Not exactly. But there is something in here that you will be able to take back to the dorms with you." So if she wanted to call it a present she could. He would prefer the term 'tool for scientific inquiry' however.

Because of that, he had a smile on his lips as he entered the classroom. "Hello, Professor Flamst-" ... Oh. There he was. "Flamsteed. Have a nice holiday?" As he spoke, he led his girlfriend - who was obviously distracted by the bag of something - to a desk. He tapped his fingers on the top of it, indicating that she should sit, and took the desk next to her. Jake took his girlfriend's hand again. Class hadn't started yet. They could hold hands until it did, right?

He did turn his attention back to Airey, though. "Still haven't found..." he took a quick glance at the big poster in the room, "Pebbles, huh?"
He should have guessed that Mr. Keller was not far behind. At least that little display they had done in front of him at the summer festival had not been repeated here. He really did not wish to see that part of students' lives, thank you very much. He had his own issues with relationships as it was.

"I did," he nodded, a faint smile on his lips....eyebrow raised at the hand-holding IN HIS CLASSROOM and just staaaaaaared at it for several long and uncomfortable moments. "None of that in the classroom, Mr. Keller. This is a place of scientific discovery, not relationship building." So keep your hands to yourself. "And no, no Pebbles. Mr. Branxton and Miss Ella have offered to form a search party if you are interested in assisting, however."

He made his way up the staircase and rounded to the door. He slipped in, almost missing the lint roller. not to used as a hair brush? Who do that? Wouldn't that like hurt or at least pull your hair? He rolled off his robes and peeled off the used sheet. the professor a smile and a "Hello professor!" before finding a seat closest to the window where flamsteed stood. Black bag? What is in it?
"Hello, Mr. Romalotti," he greeted the sixth year with a small nod. Come on Flamsteed. FOCUS. Can't be all mopey this lesson. FOOOOOOOOOCUUUUUUUUUS.

Pausing once again to check his sundial watch. He would wait a few more minutes for any last minute stragglers to show up.

[Felixir]

BOUNCEBOUNCEfidgetTAPTAPTA-

Wait, what?

Oh.

"Okie doke, Professor Airey!" Tobias nodded in response, and gave the man a cheerful salute for good measure. There was talk of a search party for Pebbles and Toby considered offering his services, given the amount he ended up in the grounds. He was distracted, however, by Minerva and how she had been apparently too curious and opened the bag.

See, Toby WAS curious but figured he could wait until the lesson. And sometimes it was a good idea to sit back and let someone else look.

............. for THAT VERY green-bearded reason.

Tobias couldn't help himself; he gave a gigglesnort of laughter at the predicament Minerva had gotten herself into, but quickly recovered his composure. The second year bit his lip as if that would hold back more laughter and continued watching to see what would transpire.

[Charely Potter]

Wade wasn't too sure whether to take Professor Flamsteed's slow nod as being okay. After all, he looked alright but-Hmm.. Glancing at the black board again, he knew it had to be otherwise. "I see.. I'm sure Pebbles will turn out alright, sir." He didn't know too much on what else to say. Turning as he heard there being a search party involved too, "I'll also help find Pebbles for you." Smiling softly, before he heard a powerful *ZAP* noise.

Blinking Wade, turned to see.. "Min..?" *blink* with a beard. *blink* a greeeen beard. *blink* His brows furrowed. Was that.. reaaal? Holy hippogriffs on ice. Wade couldn't help himself as he got closer to see. Her hands were also joined together. Meep. If he wasn't so shocked, this actually looked pretty funny. Like, imagine if her Ethan happened to see her again like this.

But at the same time.. "That looks so cool." Having a pickled-stain beard, yeah, that makes sense. It made Wade rub his own little beard he had going on. Though it looked like a mere shadow compared to this. And it looked like the only culprit was the bag near her. As tempting as it was to look in the bag too, just so they could match.. He kind of wanted to keep his hands free, you know?

[lazykitty]

Minerva headed up to the Astronomy tower. What a difference a year made. This time she was actually excited for the class. Last term she pretty much had to force herself to go. The difference is what she had learned last term. Just because an exam said something did not make it true, working hard could bring things back up, and she thought Flamsteed was very unique and cool. Even if he made her be embarrassed, almost get expelled, and sent her on the crazy train last term. Stopping at the door she grabbed the lint roller. She had a pygmy puff, not that fluffy shed or anything, but she would do this just to be on the safe side.

Once done she skipped in just to stop for a second and blink at the front row. There were so many students here already, was she late? No it didn't seem like it, but her seat was still empty. Always the front, it had been a place she liked to be since first term, but for the past two terms the seat next to her was always occupied by the same person as well. Wibbling just a bit she turned her focus on the front where professor Flamsteed was not at.. Well where was.. oh there he was looking out the window. "Stargazing professor?" What had he said to her at the feast, "Wishing on any meteors tonight?" She smiled as she headed to her seat only to stop for a second and see a bag.

Hmmm Professor Flamsteed seemed to trust her pretty well. He let her stay in the healers seat when he clearly knew she was not to be there and he called her healer. That still made her day hearing Healer Wheatborn, so why would he care if she looked into the bag. Maybe see what class was about. She stepped over to it without much thought of getting in trouble or anything being wrong and looked inside.

Airey continued to gaze out at the Black Lake, wondering if his patronus had found Sticky Nicky and, well, if his request to a certain tentacle creature had reached it. He could only hope and assume that things had. He was proficient in that regard. His eyes drifted briefly towards the quidditch stadium in the distance and his thoughts couldn't help but wander to Pebbles.

Thankfully his thoughts were distracted thanks to Miss Cambridge walking into the classroom, and his short attention span. "Good afternoon, Miss Cambridge!" he greeted with genuine enthusiasm. "No, no black holes this term, but I do believe it is something that you will like." Perhaps the class as well.

Ah! A new student! Stellar. "Good afternoon to you Mr............." Had the boy said his name? "Welcome to Astronomy."

Ah. There he was. The boy who thought the Geocentric model was still fact. Sweet solstice Airey had stayed up all night contemplating the meaning of his teaching career thanks to this one. Yes. We SAW you, Mr. Kildare, despite your attempts to sneak into the classroom. The semicircular formation of the desks made stealth difficult.

Airey left his spot by the window and oh-so-casually walked by the boy's desk. "Pay attention to Astronomy, you must."


He saw you too, Mr. Cranky-snake. Airey gave the boy a big toothy grin and then went back towards his desk to sit on top of it while he waited for the rest of the students to make their way up to the Astronomy Tower.

"Afternoon, Mr. Barrington," he greeted the Ravenclaw boy as he entered the classroom. "I believe congratulations are in order." Becoming a prefect and all.

"Afternoon to you, Mr. Tempus," Airey essentially chirped back to the boy. The Hufflepuff even earned an extra bright smile for, you know the whole pogo stick thing outside his office. The smile was mostly to reaffirm to Airey that the whole, er, misunderstanding about Mr. Tempus being a dementor had just been his vivid imagination getting the best of him. "But please, Professor Airey or Professor Flamsteed in the classroom, if you will."

Eddie had the boy said? That it what he had heard at least. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Eddie and welcome to Astronomy," he said while giving the boy a nod.

Ah, another new face and it was a good thing that he was becoming better at this whole meeting new people thing. "Afternoon," he smiled. "I am stellar." Only not really but in this current moment he was feeling such. "Thank you for asking."

Now if only he had caught her name...

He caught the Ravenclaw's entrace out of the corner of his eye and managed a quick nod in reply before the girl took her seat.

"Hello, Ms Carter-Hope," he greeted the Slytherin as she took her seat. My my, seventh year already.

This student was all smiles. Spectacular. Airey approved of this greatly. Smiles were contagious they said - not that he believed in such superstitions. Calista, maybe, but not him. Scientific fact was more his speed than rubbish fancy.

"Nice to meet you, Ms," sweet solstice how he wished students would also include their last names, "Adelaide. I'm quite well, thank you."

"Afternoon, Mr. Cunderthorne," he smiled at the seventh year.

He did happen to see this one as she sat down and recalled meeting her during the summer festival in Diagon Alley. What had her name been again? Airey couldn't recall at the moment, so instead he just offered the first year a small smile. "Nice to see you again," he said, hoping to avoid some awkwardness. "Win anything at the Plimpy Toss after I left?" You know, something better than a gift certificate.

Airey certainly had not seen the little lint roller fiasco outside his classroom - which was a very good thing because the boy would have found himself in detention quicker than he could say comet.

"It is good to see you too, Mr. Stinson," the astronomer saluted. Hopefully there would be no spell mishaps for the Hufflepuff this term. Although that was probably slightly optimistic given the nature of today's activity.

"Afternoon, Miss Jones," he smiled at the Gryffindor. He shuddered slightly in his mind. Gryffindors. Red shirts. He was suddenly quite anxious.

Airey turned to the bag that was sitting on his desk. "Can't tell you that," he teased with a knowing grin. They would all find out soon enough anyway.

"Good day to you, Miss Somerlad," he smiled at the Slytherin. OWL year for this one, if memory served him right. Hopefully she at least remembered that the earth revolved around the sun, unlike SOME of her classmates.


Nervous students made for a nervous Airey - feeding off the energies of others like he tended to do so as to mask his own anxiety - so he was now feeling a bit flustered greeting this redshirt, er, Gryffindor. "Hello," he nodded to the girl, forcing a smile on his face that hopefully would pass inspection.

"Perfect day for a swim," he said to the seventh year with a knowing wink. And then his face dropped and he looked at the poster on the black board like a kicked cruppy. "Afraid not, Miss Logan. I am beginning to think it may be a lost cause."

Airey gave the Ravenclaw a slow and somber nod as she took her seat. Pebbles. Man!wibble.

Truth be told, Airey still expected Mr. Branxton to enter the classroom with the lint roller stuck to his head and was unsure as to whether he was disappointed or relieved that he did not. "No, no news I'm afraid." And you know what they said, no news was good news or something. But Airey was finding this expression equally as illogical as smiles being contagious. "A search party would be appreciated though, just don't let such efforts get in the ways of your studies."

But HERE was a student who was giving the astronomer a bit of a pick-me-up with his cheerful exterior - although the man was still very saddened by thoughts of his pet rock. He probably should have left the poster out of the classroom.

Oh dear, seemed like Healer Miss Wheatborn had let time get away from her. "Quite hard to stargaze when the sun's light overpowers that of the stars, Miss Wheatborn..." he said with a slightly raised eyebrow at the Hufflepuff prefect. "I intend on doing so tonight, however." Like he did every night really.

The bag that Miss Wheatborn had just peeked into had had several enchantments placed on it to prevent the surprises of the lesson from being spoiled. In true Airey fashion, these enchantments cause appearance altering effects to happen on anyone who dared look inside the bag. In a flash of vibrant green light, the bag zapped Miss Wheatborn and within seconds a long lime green beard down to the girl's knees sprouted from her face and her hands became trapped in a giant Chinese finger trap that could not be removed without magic.

Airey, however, did not notice the transformation that had occurred to Miss Wheatborn because Miss Ella had his attention thanks to her kind words about searching for Pebbles. "Thank you, Miss Ella."

"Afternoon, Miss Wisteria," he smiled at the Hogwartian. Hopefully she could keep Mr. Kildare on task, yes?

"Depends on your definition of the word okay, Mr. Potter," Airey said with a very slow nod. Specific were essential for this sort of thing you see. Physically he was fine and dandy. In his head, well, there was a whole nebula of emotions growing in there.


Airey returned the nod to the Slytherin as passed by and took a seat. Pausing for a moment, the astronomer took a quick peek at his sundial watch - which ACTUALLY worked this time of day - and nodded. Still a bit early.

"Ah, Miss Dawnsel. I am looking forward to cheering with you during gobstone matches again this term," he greeted the Ravenclaw. Always more fun to sing and whatnot with others.

"Afternoon," he replied to the Ravenclaw, wondering too if they had let time get away with them. He turned his attention back to his desk and it was only then that he noticed what had happened to Miss Wheatborn. Choking on his own breath, he covered his mouth for a moment and looked back towards Miss Gallaway. "Not unless you want to end up like Miss Wheatborn."

Still choking back a laugh, it would be a bit rude for a professor to laugh at a student after all, he nodded his head to the newcomer. "Afternoon."

Oh! Another newcomer. "Hello and welcome," he greeted, having now composed himself for the most part. Lime green beards. HA! Sometimes he just killed himself. Ha.

Airey gasped somewhat dramatically at the boy's question, only to remind himself that new students would not be aware of the perfection that was his pet rock. "Pebbles is," Airey began as he stepped towards the first year. "My pet rock." The BEST pet rock there was.

"NO!" he said in a slightly louder voice than he had intended. He was all worked up over his pet rock you see. "I mean, ahem, no, Miss Phillips. Not exactly. But there is something in here that you will be able to take back to the dorms with you." So if she wanted to call it a present she could. He would prefer the term 'tool for scientific inquiry' however.

He should have guessed that Mr. Keller was not far behind. At least that little display they had done in front of him at the summer festival had not been repeated here. He really did not wish to see that part of students' lives, thank you very much. He had his own issues with relationships as it was.

"I did," he nodded, a faint smile on his lips....eyebrow raised at the hand-holding IN HIS CLASSROOM and just staaaaaaared at it for several long and uncomfortable moments. "None of that in the classroom, Mr. Keller. This is a place of scientific discovery, not relationship building." So keep your hands to yourself. "And no, no Pebbles. Mr. Branxton and Miss Ella have offered to form a search party if you are interested in assisting, however."

"Hello, Mr. Romalotti," he greeted the sixth year with a small nod. Come on Flamsteed. FOCUS. Can't be all mopey this lesson. FOOOOOOOOOCUUUUUUUUUS.

Pausing once again to check his sundial watch. He would wait a few more minutes for any last minute stragglers to show up.




Hmmmm......it looked like someone had forgotten the 'curiosity killed the cat' lesson. It also looked like Professor Airey had been prepared for just such a thing, as the peaker grew a rather impressive yet moldy looking beard and had their hands trapped in a Chinese finger trap. Two facts that were funny on their own, but joined together like that? Sky was actually having to fight back her laughter, but occasional chuckle!snorts could still be heard from the Slytherin.

So glad she'd decided to leave the bag alone.

[Weasley174]

Laura walked into the classroom and smiled, "Good day sir." Laura seriously couldn't wait to see what was going to happen in class today. "Did you have a good summer?" Laura asked before sitting down and waiting to see what they would do today.

[Sonea]

Sitting in her chair she looked at the professor, "hello professor" said Sonea friendly and she even smiled at the professor who stood besides the window. And of course she had seen the bag but she didn't had looked inside it. She liked this lesson so she had been happy to enter the classroom. But she had no idea what was going on, and she even didn't tried to discover more until the professor explained himself about the lesson. so, she waited with a elated look in her eyes. But just when she wanted to look if she had all her school stuff with her she noted that her two rats were trying to escape from her pocket!! NOOOO, she quickly pushed them back, knowing that it was against the rules to bring any pets into the classroom so she wanted to hide her two pet rats. Luckily her two rats accepted it that they weren't allowed to leave her pocket and calmed down.

[StarShine]

Forrest was noooooooot running late for his favourite class, noooooope. Never. Let's just say, he'd spent too much time preparing for the first Astronomy class of the year. He was dressed as neatly as a 12-year-old could. His robes looked like they had just been washed and ironed, and even his shoes were not sneakers but suede shoes (http://www.guzelege.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/flo-suet-ayakkab%C4%B1.jpg) bought for special occasions.

Seeing Professor Airey was, clearly, a special occasion.

Clearing his throat and checking his ties again at the door, little boy entered the classroom with a wide grin.

"Hello, professor!" he greeted the man, though his smile had vanished a little as he'd greeted the empty desk. Where was he? Oh, there he was. Phew. Or else, he'd have looked like the total idiot. "I hope you've had a nice summer," he said, now eyes on the man thankfully. He sat at the front row. He'd obviously missed Minerva's beard.

[Anna Banana]

He did happen to see this one as she sat down and recalled meeting her during the summer festival in Diagon Alley. What had her name been again? Airey couldn't recall at the moment, so instead he just offered the first year a small smile. "Nice to see you again," he said, hoping to avoid some awkwardness. "Win anything at the Plimpy Toss after I left?" You know, something better than a gift certificate.

Sophie had just gotten settled into her desk, when the professor turned and started greeting the class. She watched him, listening to what he was saying and still slightly nervous about her very first class. Then he started talking to her, and she found herself suddenly sitting up a little straighter.

"Nice to see you again, Professor--..." Uhh, Starman? What was his name? Her face fell a little, and she added, "No. The crowd just got too thick, and I lost Toby and actually never saw him again. I don't even know what he won." She half glanced around the room wondering if Toby was in here, too.

[Mell]

WOOT ASTRONOMY!!

Michael wasn't excited about the actual class. It was okay and Airey Fairey was pretty cool but he was more excited about when the class finished and he was able to slide down the spiral staircase's bannister.

He ran up the stairs and was just about to burst into the classroom when he remembered the lint roller. He skidded to a halt and began to roll it all over his body, even under his arms. He would have done his hair as well like last year but apparently that was not allowed any longer.

Once he was done, Mikey entered the room, noticed the red bag and immediately wanted to have a look inside of it but something held him back from doing just that. He saw the sign on the board before noticing the Professor.

"HELLO PROFESSOR." He called out, waving to the man as he found himself a seat. "And to answer your question, no I haven't seen your pet rock. I could lend you my ferret, if you're in the need of company." Nothing worse than spending too much time on your own, it tended to send you a little loopy.

Oh so that's what the Professor's problem was. HAHAHA!!

[TeafortheSoul]

West didn't bat an eyelid at the lint roller, it was old hat by now. Nothing else was cause for alarm either: he didn't really care about a rock, and wasn't so curious as to try look in a bag that he shouldn't either. Self-preservation anybody?

"Hello professor." The increasingly tall Slytherin greeted as he took a seat that was surrounded by his friends. Newly delinted and ready for things to start, West opened his bag and got his things out, not looking as excited as he once would have.

[Bazinga]

One minute she was just going to look for a second and the next she had her fingers all trapped together and was that something on her face. She glanced down to see a beard.. A lime green beard..


O_o

Good gracious Merlin hadn't the girl been through enough last term with torment. She knew it was her fault to look in the bag, but honestly was there a sign she missed that said not to? She stood frozen in horror and humiliation. This was not what the healers were probably expecting her to come back to after her short visit this summer. Wibbling she looked at the door. Bolting was the only thing she could think off. She should have known something would happen in here. It wasn't just the ice cream that had caused him to be yet another wacka doodle in this school. How did she ever think otherwise.

Then blue eyes snapped up hearing Kitty's voice. She blinked back tears only for a moment before one escaped. She bit her lip, but quickly removed it. Yuck.. hairy under lip. blah...

Hearing Professor Flamsteed's words she looked up. He was laughing at her. Laughing.. Well he wasn't the first to get a laugh from her expense now was he. Remember two other staff members who thought burning her hair off was quite funny. "I.. I.. " She looked down trying to stop her emotions, keeping her face down she turned for the door, "I'msorryprofessor" She was needing to get out of there and stay as far away from this man as possible the rest of term.

[Daemon]

Er.

Pet rock? .. Did people do that? Keep pet rocks?

Mummy had made him promise that he wouldn't be rude to professors. Or well, she'd said she wanted him to be nice to them but Benzi found it very difficult to be nice to people who wouldn't let him do what he wanted for stupid reasons. He didn't know whether saying that he thought the professor might be insane was considered rude, but it was certainly not nice so Benzi for once kept his mouth shut.

He would have continued to ponder the merits of pet rocks until the lesson began had it not been for the girl who suddenly grew a GINORMOUS green beard right in the middle of the classroom. Snorting, Benzi burst into a fit of giggles as he eyed at the blonde, glancing around the room to see if anyone else was laughing.

Some were. The blonde girl definitely wasn't though - shame. He'd have laughed of he had a bright green beard sprout from his chin.

[noodles]

Józsua was trying to hide it, but he couldn't ignore the nervous feeling in his stomach as he approached the Astronomy classroom for his first ever lesson at Hogwarts school. He was apprehensive to be learning in English –not that he had any problems speaking it, or writing it, but it was to be a new experience for the fifteen year old Beauxbaton's transfer.

Eyeing the lint roller on the table outside the classroom, Józsua's expression was singularly unimpressed. He was clean and... lint free. And... was this professor OCD or what?

Anyway..

He entered the classroom having ignored the roller, and he paid no heed to the bag on the desk as he took a seat at one of the desks. His eyes settled on the poster which he had already seen elsewhere and had thought it to be a student's prank. Weird..

With a clearing of the throat behind his hand, he looked at the professor. “Hello, sir.” He greeted as all the other students had.

Looking around the other kids, his gaze halted at the female prefect dressed in yellow. His mouth curled up into an amused smile which he was obviously trying to repress.

Green beard. *smirk* That was.. that was attractive..

[Tazzie]

Beezus stopped at the door and in a swift motion tied her hair up in a ponytail before she made a grab for the lint roller and used it to make sure her clothes didn't have any lint left on them. Once she was finished, she took a deep breath and stepped inside. Before her eyes landed on people, they made a beeline 'round her surroundings first. ....Aww. A Pebbles poster? The rock was still missing? The content of the poster came as pathetic to her that she almost wanted to just pick a random rock at the Greenhouse and change its features to make it look like Pebbles. THEN...their Astronomy Professor won't be looking as.......wait, he was laughing, What seems to be so fun--- and then the brunette saw it.

Minerva. With a beard. A green knee-length beard.

O__________o ...........*HAHAHA* Whoops. She had to cover her mouth to fight the giggles but it was strong. "Holy snitch.... *HAHA* ....Hello.... Pro- *HAHAHA* ...Professor.....What....*Hahahaha*.....happened?" She was trying to give an apologetic look though but she was still chuckling.

Now that was a crazy, crazy but unique, way to start a lesson.

[Princesspower]

It was funny how the delinting process outside astronomy did not irk Sarah as much as the process she had to undertake before going to Bellaire's class. Maybe because she could use a delinter to stop the static on her stockings. After delinting she entered, it seemed that things had happened since she had been in last. "Hello Professor" she said. "I guess you have not found pebbles. I will keep a look out for him and perhaps join the search party". It was more about the professor then the pet rock. She did not care for a pet rock, yet the professor seemed really attatched to it and Sarah wanted to see him happy again. "Have you tried Accio? Maybe sent an owl to look for it?" She asked. Minnie had a beard. "that is a great beard Minnie, Reminds me of a muggle book my grandma read to me as a kid. When a girl made up her own hair-growth thing for her father and he grew grass on his head.". Then Minnie looked like she was about to cry so Sarah walked over to the prefect and put her arms around her. She did think that there had to be consequences, yet embarressing someone was kind of harsh. "Professor, is it possible that Minnie can get that beard removed. I think all of us have learnt our lesson already"

[Kimothy]

So...

The first class for the day, after that long long loooooooong walk at the Maize Maze with Ariana Logan, was Astronomy. Kat wasn't late to class, you know. Did you ever think she'd be late? She couldn't remember a time she was ever late to a class, because she never was. Maybe she was close to being late once, but she slipped inside class a minute before the time. Hah. How awesome was Kat? Very awesome.

"Good day, Professor Flamsteed," Kat smiled at the man after using the lint roller. Yep, gotta be clean you know. Flammy was always particular about that tiny bit. "Still no sight of Pebbles?" Well, that was sad. Kat wasn't really that affected, but that rock was her professor's companion. Pity, really. She'd help look for Pebbles though, if ever they decided to have a search party.

Lint roller, check. Greeting the professor, check. Time to find a seat. Kat sat beside her snakey!sister!ickle, Cassia, because... why not? She offered the fifth year a smile. "Hey." Gotta start the term right. But apparently it wasn't too good for the Hufflepuff Female Prefect. Hahahahahaha.

[MudInMyBlood]

Was she late? Hannah got to the door slightly out of breath and her eyes took notice of the lint roller and the sign. They had to what? Didn't this professor know that Hannah was always dressed nicely and she would NEVER have things that needed to be lint rolled off of her. She rolled her eyes where nobody could see and rolled her robes quickly.

The sixth year walked into class and was surprised at the amount of students that were already in there. UGH! Where there always this many people here? This could be a good thing though... maybe she could get lost in the sea of students and just coast. That would be nice.

Oh the professor... where were her manners? "Hello Professor." There, that was nice enough. Hannah did a quick scan of the faces and spotted Laura, but she didn't really see anybody else that she noticed but she didn't look all that hard either. She took a seat that didn't seem to be as cluttered with people. She was in her own little world and didn't even notice the mess that was going on with the Hufflepuff prefect.

[FearlessLeader19]

Eddie had the boy said? That it what he had heard at least. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Eddie and welcome to Astronomy," he said while giving the boy a nod.

Eddie? Noooo! Not another person mispronouncing his name. But he was sort of getting used to it. Adi grinned at the man. "Not Eddie, Professor. Adi. It begins with an A not E. My full name is Aditya Rehman. Complicated name, I guess.'' It wasn't to him but he supposed that persons not familiar with Indian names will think it was.

[slytherus]

Angeal arrived at the top of the stairs panting, hand gripped to the rail. Seventh floor classroom without an elevator, which was an ingenious muggle invention, was beyond mad! He saw a small table with a lint roller and used it.

The first thing that caught his eyes in the classroom was the blackboard with a poster on it. He stared, then turned to the man standing at the windows looking at the Black Lake. Then he looked back at the poster. This professor had a rock... As a pet... They're having a looney as a teacher. Perfect! "Good afternoon, Professor- Uhh..." greeted Angeal as he made his way into the classroom, but finding himself forgetting teacher's name. He pulled out a small, folded parchment from his pocket and glanced through it. "... Professor Flamsteed." And he took a seat at the darker site of the classroom. To avoid unnecessary distractions.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Laura walked into the classroom and smiled, "Good day sir." Laura seriously couldn't wait to see what was going to happen in class today. "Did you have a good summer?" Laura asked before sitting down and waiting to see what they would do today.
Sir. Miss Hyde should know better than to use that word. "Professor," Airey corrected gently. Not sir, thank you very much. "And afternoon to you too. My summer was pleasant, thank you for asking." Minus a few awkward run ins.
Sitting in her chair she looked at the professor, "hello professor" said Sonea friendly and she even smiled at the professor who stood besides the window. And of course she had seen the bag but she didn't had looked inside it. She liked this lesson so she had been happy to enter the classroom. But she had no idea what was going on, and she even didn't tried to discover more until the professor explained himself about the lesson. so, she waited with a elated look in her eyes. But just when she wanted to look if she had all her school stuff with her she noted that her two rats were trying to escape from her pocket!! NOOOO, she quickly pushed them back, knowing that it was against the rules to bring any pets into the classroom so she wanted to hide her two pet rats. Luckily her two rats accepted it that they weren't allowed to leave her pocket and calmed down.
"Hello, Miss Duvessa," Airey greeted the girl as he eyed her pockets suspiciously as he recalled what had happened previous lessons. Although, he also felt a little tug in his chest of...was this jealousy? Was he actually sort of jealous that the Slytherin was able to carry her rat with her in her pocket because his pet was missing? Sweet solstice...did he actually WANT a rat?

Woah there Flamsteed, check yourself.

"Hello, professor!" he greeted the man, though his smile had vanished a little as he'd greeted the empty desk. Where was he? Oh, there he was. Phew. Or else, he'd have looked like the total idiot. "I hope you've had a nice summer," he said, now eyes on the man thankfully. He sat at the front row. He'd obviously missed Minerva's beard.
"Hello, Mr. Charlton," Airey greeted. He was going to ask the boy if he had seen any good matches recently, but he found himself distracted by the boy's shoes. Oh, weren't those snazzy. He approved, even if they were not uniform, but today was a little unconventional so he wasn't going to be as strict about shoes.

"Nice to see you again, Professor--..." Uhh, Starman? What was his name? Her face fell a little, and she added, "No. The crowd just got too thick, and I lost Toby and actually never saw him again. I don't even know what he won." She half glanced around the room wondering if Toby was in here, too.
"Oh, well that is a pity," he said with a small frown. "Perhaps the next summer festival you will have a chance then."

"HELLO PROFESSOR." He called out, waving to the man as he found himself a seat. "And to answer your question, no I haven't seen your pet rock. I could lend you my ferret, if you're in the need of company." Nothing worse than spending too much time on your own, it tended to send you a little loopy.

Oh so that's what the Professor's problem was. HAHAHA!!
"Afternoon, Mr. Toussaint," the astronomer smiled at the boy. No wave though, sorry. Ferret. Fur. Ferret. Um.... "I'll....keep that in mind," he said rather hastily as he took a few large steps away from the Gryffindor.
West didn't bat an eyelid at the lint roller, it was old hat by now. Nothing else was cause for alarm either: he didn't really care about a rock, and wasn't so curious as to try look in a bag that he shouldn't either. Self-preservation anybody?

"Hello professor." The increasingly tall Slytherin greeted as he took a seat that was surrounded by his friends. Newly delinted and ready for things to start, West opened his bag and got his things out, not looking as excited as he once would have.
"Hello, Mr. Odessa," Airey greeted the Slytherin. Seemed to him that the boy would soon be taller than himself, which wasn't a bad thing, but more awkward inside his head. You know, having a student being taller than a professor. It made sense in his head.

The man couldn't be too sure, but Mr. Odessa seemed...tired? Odd that he would be so tired so early into the term. Hmmm...no matter. The dark haired boy tended to brighten up once lessons got going, so nothing to worry about. For now. Maybe?

With a clearing of the throat behind his hand, he looked at the professor. “Hello, sir.” He greeted as all the other students had.
Airey didn't even have to see who spoke to know that they were new to Hogwarts. He had a thing with the word 'sir.' "Just professor will do," he replied to the boy, giving him a quick salute.

"Good day, Professor Flamsteed," Kat smiled at the man after using the lint roller. Yep, gotta be clean you know. Flammy was always particular about that tiny bit. "Still no sight of Pebbles?" Well, that was sad. Kat wasn't really that affected, but that rock was her professor's companion. Pity, really. She'd help look for Pebbles though, if ever they decided to have a search party.
"Good afternoon, Miss Hudson," he smiled at the Head Girl. "I'm afraid not, but some of your classmates have decided to start a search party to look for her if you are interested in joining."

Oh the professor... where were her manners? "Hello Professor." There, that was nice enough. Hannah did a quick scan of the faces and spotted Laura, but she didn't really see anybody else that she noticed but she didn't look all that hard either. She took a seat that didn't seem to be as cluttered with people. She was in her own little world and didn't even notice the mess that was going on with the Hufflepuff prefect.
"Hello, Miss Lockwood," the tall astronomer greeted the Slytherin as she entered. Getting close to starting time. Heh.

Eddie? Noooo! Not another person mispronouncing his name. But he was sort of getting used to it. Adi grinned at the man. "Not Eddie, Professor. Adi. It begins with an A not E. My full name is Aditya Rehman. Complicated name, I guess.'' It wasn't to him but he supposed that persons not familiar with Indian names will think it was.
Oh, silly him. Not Eddie but ANDY. Right. Got it. He gave the boy two thumbs up for that one. "Oh, sorry Mr. Redmen," he said with an apologetic nod. He was usually so good with names. Hmm.

The first thing that caught his eyes in the classroom was the blackboard with a poster on it. He stared, then turned to the man standing at the windows looking at the Black Lake. Then he looked back at the poster. This professor had a rock... As a pet... They're having a looney as a teacher. Perfect! "Good afternoon, Professor- Uhh..." greeted Angeal as he made his way into the classroom, but finding himself forgetting teacher's name. He pulled out a small, folded parchment from his pocket and glanced through it. "... Professor Flamsteed." And he took a seat at the darker site of the classroom. To avoid unnecessary distractions.
Airey was amused by this one. Pulling out a piece of parchment like that. Resourceful though. Something to be admired. "Hello," he greeted. And hopefully after today's lesson the boy would not be needed a piece of parchment to remember his name.
BOUNCEBOUNCEfidgetTAPTAPTA-

Wait, what?

Oh.

"Okie doke, Professor Airey!" Tobias nodded in response, and gave the man a cheerful salute for good measure. There was talk of a search party for Pebbles and Toby considered offering his services, given the amount he ended up in the grounds. He was distracted, however, by Minerva and how she had been apparently too curious and opened the bag.

See, Toby WAS curious but figured he could wait until the lesson. And sometimes it was a good idea to sit back and let someone else look.

............. for THAT VERY green-bearded reason.

Tobias couldn't help himself; he gave a gigglesnort of laughter at the predicament Minerva had gotten herself into, but quickly recovered his composure. The second year bit his lip as if that would hold back more laughter and continued watching to see what would transpire.

Wade wasn't too sure whether to take Professor Flamsteed's slow nod as being okay. After all, he looked alright but-Hmm.. Glancing at the black board again, he knew it had to be otherwise. "I see.. I'm sure Pebbles will turn out alright, sir." He didn't know too much on what else to say. Turning as he heard there being a search party involved too, "I'll also help find Pebbles for you." Smiling softly, before he heard a powerful *ZAP* noise.

Blinking Wade, turned to see.. "Min..?" *blink* with a beard. *blink* a greeeen beard. *blink* His brows furrowed. Was that.. reaaal? Holy hippogriffs on ice. Wade couldn't help himself as he got closer to see. Her hands were also joined together. Meep. If he wasn't so shocked, this actually looked pretty funny. Like, imagine if her Ethan happened to see her again like this.

But at the same time.. "That looks so cool." Having a pickled-stain beard, yeah, that makes sense. It made Wade rub his own little beard he had going on. Though it looked like a mere shadow compared to this. And it looked like the only culprit was the bag near her. As tempting as it was to look in the bag too, just so they could match.. He kind of wanted to keep his hands free, you know?





Hmmmm......it looked like someone had forgotten the 'curiosity killed the cat' lesson. It also looked like Professor Airey had been prepared for just such a thing, as the peaker grew a rather impressive yet moldy looking beard and had their hands trapped in a Chinese finger trap. Two facts that were funny on their own, but joined together like that? Sky was actually having to fight back her laughter, but occasional chuckle!snorts could still be heard from the Slytherin.

So glad she'd decided to leave the bag alone.
One minute she was just going to look for a second and the next she had her fingers all trapped together and was that something on her face. She glanced down to see a beard.. A lime green beard..


O_o

Good gracious Merlin hadn't the girl been through enough last term with torment. She knew it was her fault to look in the bag, but honestly was there a sign she missed that said not to? She stood frozen in horror and humiliation. This was not what the healers were probably expecting her to come back to after her short visit this summer. Wibbling she looked at the door. Bolting was the only thing she could think off. She should have known something would happen in here. It wasn't just the ice cream that had caused him to be yet another wacka doodle in this school. How did she ever think otherwise.

Then blue eyes snapped up hearing Kitty's voice. She blinked back tears only for a moment before one escaped. She bit her lip, but quickly removed it. Yuck.. hairy under lip. blah...

Hearing Professor Flamsteed's words she looked up. He was laughing at her. Laughing.. Well he wasn't the first to get a laugh from her expense now was he. Remember two other staff members who thought burning her hair off was quite funny. "I.. I.. " She looked down trying to stop her emotions, keeping her face down she turned for the door, "I'msorryprofessor" She was needing to get out of there and stay as far away from this man as possible the rest of term.
Beezus stopped at the door and in a swift motion tied her hair up in a ponytail before she made a grab for the lint roller and used it to make sure her clothes didn't have any lint left on them. Once she was finished, she took a deep breath and stepped inside. Before her eyes landed on people, they made a beeline 'round her surroundings first. ....Aww. A Pebbles poster? The rock was still missing? The content of the poster came as pathetic to her that she almost wanted to just pick a random rock at the Greenhouse and change its features to make it look like Pebbles. THEN...their Astronomy Professor won't be looking as.......wait, he was laughing, What seems to be so fun--- and then the brunette saw it.

Minerva. With a beard. A green knee-length beard.

O__________o ...........*HAHAHA* Whoops. She had to cover her mouth to fight the giggles but it was strong. "Holy snitch.... *HAHA* ....Hello.... Pro- *HAHAHA* ...Professor.....What....*Hahahaha*.....happened?" She was trying to give an apologetic look though but she was still chuckling.

Now that was a crazy, crazy but unique, way to start a lesson.
It was funny how the delinting process outside astronomy did not irk Sarah as much as the process she had to undertake before going to Bellaire's class. Maybe because she could use a delinter to stop the static on her stockings. After delinting she entered, it seemed that things had happened since she had been in last. "Hello Professor" she said. "I guess you have not found pebbles. I will keep a look out for him and perhaps join the search party". It was more about the professor then the pet rock. She did not care for a pet rock, yet the professor seemed really attatched to it and Sarah wanted to see him happy again. "Have you tried Accio? Maybe sent an owl to look for it?" She asked. Minnie had a beard. "that is a great beard Minnie, Reminds me of a muggle book my grandma read to me as a kid. When a girl made up her own hair-growth thing for her father and he grew grass on his head.". Then Minnie looked like she was about to cry so Sarah walked over to the prefect and put her arms around her. She did think that there had to be consequences, yet embarressing someone was kind of harsh. "Professor, is it possible that Minnie can get that beard removed. I think all of us have learnt our lesson already"
Er.

Pet rock? .. Did people do that? Keep pet rocks?

Mummy had made him promise that he wouldn't be rude to professors. Or well, she'd said she wanted him to be nice to them but Benzi found it very difficult to be nice to people who wouldn't let him do what he wanted for stupid reasons. He didn't know whether saying that he thought the professor might be insane was considered rude, but it was certainly not nice so Benzi for once kept his mouth shut.

He would have continued to ponder the merits of pet rocks until the lesson began had it not been for the girl who suddenly grew a GINORMOUS green beard right in the middle of the classroom. Snorting, Benzi burst into a fit of giggles as he eyed at the blonde, glancing around the room to see if anyone else was laughing.

Some were. The blonde girl definitely wasn't though - shame. He'd have laughed of he had a bright green beard sprout from his chin.
While Airey himself had been laughing himself - although muffled - he pulled himself together and threw some very pointed looks at those who were laughing a little more loudly than they should.

"Miss Wheatborn just demonstrated to us, Miss Castell, in a rather abstract way the notion of hubris. You see, the bag on my desk clearly belongs to me and there is a reason that I have things hidden in a bag and not on display for the class to see. Miss Wheatborn allowed her curiosity to get the best of her and subconsciously assumed that she could be above the laws of my classroom - overconfidence perhaps - and looked in the bag. Now, all violations come with consequences, which is why she has sprouted that beard." There was a reason for this little speech and it was NOT to make the Hufflepuff prefect feel horrible.

Which it looked like he had succeeded in doing anyway, but he THANKFULLY had not noticed that just yet.

"Miss Wheatborn, take 5 points for your unwilling demonstration," and then he met her eyes and saw...wet. BLAZING COMETS THERE WERE TEARS IN HIS CLASSROOM! Internally hitting the panic button inside his head, he just barely heard her whisper an apology. "And take another 5 points for being a good sport about it." And not completely turning on the waterworks or storming out of the classroom...or throwing a shoe at him.

Had happened to him once. True story.

His attention then moved to Miss Edwards when she spoke. "Yes yes, I suppose you are right," he said as he gave his wand a flick in the green bearded girl's direction and removed it from her face. Yellow suited her better anyway. "You should take your seat now, Miss Wheatborn." And he gave the trap on her hand a tap to banish it as well.

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

OOC: This lesson has officially started! Please do not post your character arriving now or else risk loss of house points for your house or some other punishment that Airey feels is appropriate. If you are joining us now, please just pretend as though your character has been here all along ^_^

Remember to say just ONE thing that your character sees as a difference between the two. Points will not be rewarded solely for correct answers <3

[aaetha]

Adrienne looked at the professor. She was interested in the subject, sure, but she disliked its teacher for some reason. It was impossible to place what exactly annoyed her about him, but something did. Maybe how sad he looked over a freaking pet rock, or how he kept looking at the class expectantly, like he was waiting for them to answer a question he hadn't yet asked. Adrienne raised her hand, once he actually had asked a question. Her arm got tired surprisingly quickly, and she switched hands, leaning her arm against her head somewhat.

"Adrienne Colbert, with an ah not an ay," she recited almost mechanically. "Stars, as a general rule, are a lot hotter than planets," The most obvious answer in the world? Yeah, probably. Still correct? Yes, and that's what mattered.

[Felixir]

Oh.

Min was upset about the beard.

Well that made Tobias feel absolutely TERRIBLE about that little laugh. But he would have LOVED that beard. He wanted to touch it. Could HE get one?

As soon as Airey started to speak in that kind of voice that signalled he was starting the lesson, Tobias set his FULL attention on the man. He didn't need to start his notes until everyone else started answering the question, so he set left his quill on the table as he tried to think of an answer.

Still drumming his fingers slightly on the desk because he really needed to keep moving. Thought the Professor would hopefully have something active planned, as he usually did.

Not wanting to go with the most obvious answer, Tobias didn't go with his first thought. It took him a moment or two but he soon flung his hand up enthusiastically.

"Professor, I think I got one!" he said with a little bounce in his seat. "Uh... I'm Toby Tempus..." Ahem. Yeah. Hiiiiiiiiiiii. "And... you can see both stars AND planets in the night sky, right-" and the day time too... you know... the sun... "and they sort of look the same to us from this distance with just our eyes. BUT planets can't be included in constellations and asterisms, only stars can. I think." Maybe. And that still counted as only one point, right? Hopefully. Toby didn't want another reproachful look.

He was trying to think outside the box.

Was it working?

[DaniDiNardo]

The beard, she got a beard. How unfair was that??? The Professor should have offered beards to everyone. If she'd known she would have pulled open the bag instead of hovering at it's edge. A nice blue beard though, because that'd looked nicer and he wouldn't be able to take it back until she wore it to at least one of her other classes--oh and she would have wanted to have dinner with it because of those old muggle men in movies that got stuff stuck in them. It was an odd concept grant you but still intriguing.

She'd ask him for a beard later. Yup. For now they were getting into questions. She didn't mind that the class wasn't being held later at night because she was much less likely to fall asleep now. Not that she'd fall asleep in Astronomy, merlin no! That was reserved for Arithmancy and History of Magic.

...Unless the man blew something up like he promised...yeah.

Lex stuck her hand in the air. "Alexa Cambridge, Professor," He already knew this, why was she doing this? "and one difference is that one is just a bright ball of hot gas that has the potential to implode when it dies depending on the pressure and stuff at the time it dies while the other...well planets don't die...they don't do anything epic unless something crashes into them which could create a big bang." The idea of an explosion in space was quite exciting. Wouldn't anyone else agree?

[Princesspower]

"Miss Wheatborn just demonstrated to us, Miss Castell, in a rather abstract way the notion of hubris. You see, the bag on my desk clearly belongs to me and there is a reason that I have things hidden in a bag and not on display for the class to see. Miss Wheatborn allowed her curiosity to get the best of her and subconsciously assumed that she could be above the laws of my classroom - overconfidence perhaps - and looked in the bag. Now, all violations come with consequences, which is why she has sprouted that beard." There was a reason for this little speech and it was NOT to make the Hufflepuff prefect feel horrible.

Which it looked like he had succeeded in doing anyway, but he THANKFULLY had not noticed that just yet.

His attention then moved to Miss Edwards when she spoke. "Yes yes, I suppose you are right," he said as he gave his wand a flick in the green bearded girl's direction and removed it from her face. Yellow suited her better anyway. "You should take your seat now, Miss Wheatborn." And he gave the trap on her hand a tap to banish it as well.

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

OOC: This lesson has officially started! Please do not post your character arriving now or else risk loss of house points for your house or some other punishment that Airey feels is appropriate. If you are joining us now, please just pretend as though your character has been here all along ^_^

Remember to say just ONE thing that your character sees as a difference between the two. Points will not be rewarded solely for correct answers <3


Sarah was relieved that the professor took that beard off the girl and she sat down at her desk and took her things out. Then the lesson began with reference to Pebbles. Sarah was not in the mood to actually think of an answer, she was just not in the thinking mood. She raised her hand and said what was on top of her head, "Aren't planets solid, and stars made out of gas? Perhaps if one steps on a planet they can walk normally but if they step on a star, besides burning themselves, they would fall through, just like one can walk through a ghost" Probably wrong, yet she was not in the mood for more. "umm, by the way, the example for planets would be mars, or something, as some planets are made up of liquids. It is pretty hard to walk on water. I don't think anyone has"
What was West's secret for growth? Sarah wanted to know, as she was so short.

[MudInMyBlood]

Wait. There was a girl with a beard? Not just any girl by the looks of it, but the Hufflepuff prefect. Hannah couldn't help but to smile as her eyes lingered on the beard. She was sure the girl was humiliated and that actually brought her some sore of satisfaction. Not that she had anything against the girl. She had actually tried to help her when that annoying lion made an ice skating rink in the hall. Still, it was funny. She got points for being nosy? What was the world coming to?

Moving on.

The lesson was progressing and she didn't want to be left behind. She had a lot to prove this year and she was bound and determined not to go back to that dark place. She would put it on a back burner for now.

Hubris? What was that? Was that something that she should know she wondered? Oh well, she was sure that she would be told in due time. Nothing to worry about at this given moment considering the professor was now asking about the difference between a planet and a star. She raised her hand. "I'm Hannah Lockwood sir..." Cough. "I mean Professor Flamsteed. The main difference is that the planet is smaller even though you would think that a star would be smaller." Well, she couldn't speak for everybody else, but she sure thought that a star should be smaller than a planet.

[Kimothy]

"Good afternoon, Miss Hudson," he smiled at the Head Girl. "I'm afraid not, but some of your classmates have decided to start a search party to look for her if you are interested in joining."

...

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.
Search party? Was Professor Flamsteed really reading her mind. Cue the tiny smirk. Great minds think alike. Kat liked that quote, wasn't it obvious? "Of course I am willing to help find Pebbles, Professor," the Slytherin replied. Adventure, you know. Plus she needed to get out of the common room once in a while. It'd be pretty boring to just keep studying and studying without finding time for recreation and leisure. Quidditch and stuff. She needed entertainment in her life.

Anyway, the lesson was starting. Hopefully no Slytherin was going to be late. They'd have to deal with Katrina Hudson if they were ever late this term. So... Hubris. Yep, Kat kept that word in mind. It seemed like an important word in this class.

So the difference between a star and a planet? That was easy. She needed these type of information just in case it came out in her NEWTs at the end of the term. Kat raised her hand. "My name's Katrina Hudson..." Just to let that sink in. People knew her already anyway. "Stars give off light and heat, while planets don't." That was her simple answer. Did she need to say more?

[hermionesclone]

While Airey himself had been laughing himself - although muffled - he pulled himself together and threw some very pointed looks at those who were laughing a little more loudly than they should.

"Miss Wheatborn just demonstrated to us, Miss Castell, in a rather abstract way the notion of hubris. You see, the bag on my desk clearly belongs to me and there is a reason that I have things hidden in a bag and not on display for the class to see. Miss Wheatborn allowed her curiosity to get the best of her and subconsciously assumed that she could be above the laws of my classroom - overconfidence perhaps - and looked in the bag. Now, all violations come with consequences, which is why she has sprouted that beard." There was a reason for this little speech and it was NOT to make the Hufflepuff prefect feel horrible.

Which it looked like he had succeeded in doing anyway, but he THANKFULLY had not noticed that just yet.

"Miss Wheatborn, take 5 points for your unwilling demonstration," and then he met her eyes and saw...wet. BLAZING COMETS THERE WERE TEARS IN HIS CLASSROOM! Internally hitting the panic button inside his head, he just barely heard her whisper an apology. "And take another 5 points for being a good sport about it." And not completely turning on the waterworks or storming out of the classroom...or throwing a shoe at him.

Had happened to him once. True story.

His attention then moved to Miss Edwards when she spoke. "Yes yes, I suppose you are right," he said as he gave his wand a flick in the green bearded girl's direction and removed it from her face. Yellow suited her better anyway. "You should take your seat now, Miss Wheatborn." And he gave the trap on her hand a tap to banish it as well.

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

Minnie with the green beard was kind of funny, especially since, from what he knew, the girl liked to change her hair colour and style a lot. He didn't want to laugh, though, because the girl was likely to be really really upset and there was no way he could laugh at her. Instead, he smiled a little and gave her a small wave when she was free of the beard and the hand trap. Hugs later, yeah?

... Oh hey! Lesson was starting! Okay.

Right. Hubris. Okay. He was going to remember that. And... the question was a pretty simple one, actually. But it did require some thinking because some of the simplest answers might not exactly be correct, could they? They were like those questions in the OWLs that seemed simple enough but were secretly trying to trick you. So you had to think carefully.

And that's what the seventeen year old was doing. Thinking. Carefully. With an odd, furrowed browed expression etched on his usually jubilant face. As for the part about stating your name before you answer, Alec was really confused about that but... he... wasn't going to question it. So, he raised his hand in the air, his grey-blue eyes on the Professor. "Erm... the name's Alec Summers," He knew this, right? They talked about eagles and flying one time when the man was wearing a bright yellow suit. Alec remembered. "And... stars can change properties, yeah? They can become red giants and white dwarves over time but... planets don't really change properties over time." Unless, you know, global warming. But that's not really changing its property, yeah?

[slytherus]

Textbook, parchment, quill, ink... Everything was set on the table except for his wand, which was kept inside his robes. The corner of Angeal's mouth twitched at Flamsteed's mention of his pet rock, almost sneering. Yup. This teacher definitely lost a screw or two somewhere in there.

Glad he started the class quickly after that. Angeal lazily supported his cheek against his hand while the other hand was ready to jot down important notes. He had learned about stars and planets back in the muggle school. Stars can't support any life while some planets can. That's one difference he knew, but instead of answering the teacher, he wrote it down on his parchment.

[the fastest seeker]

The snake sat watching ever that was going on. The bag and Minerva, the prefect getting all curious. Then ending up with a green beard. Cassia was very amused and was glad that first lesson was so far enjoyable. She couldn't help not think that it'd been more suitable if the beard was like yellow? Would match both house and hair color. But this was much more fun.

"Hey yourself," She grinned at Kat who joined her and sat besides her. Cassia appreciated company. Not that they'd be here to talk but it was nice sitting next to your friends. Maybe team or pair work would be needed. She grinned at the head girl who, too, was noticing all the the beard thing. Talk about a cheerful start.


While Airey himself had been laughing himself - although muffled - he pulled himself together and threw some very pointed looks at those who were laughing a little more loudly than they should.

"Miss Wheatborn just demonstrated to us, Miss Castell, in a rather abstract way the notion of hubris. You see, the bag on my desk clearly belongs to me and there is a reason that I have things hidden in a bag and not on display for the class to see. Miss Wheatborn allowed her curiosity to get the best of her and subconsciously assumed that she could be above the laws of my classroom - overconfidence perhaps - and looked in the bag. Now, all violations come with consequences, which is why she has sprouted that beard." There was a reason for this little speech and it was NOT to make the Hufflepuff prefect feel horrible.

Which it looked like he had succeeded in doing anyway, but he THANKFULLY had not noticed that just yet.

"Miss Wheatborn, take 5 points for your unwilling demonstration," and then he met her eyes and saw...wet. BLAZING COMETS THERE WERE TEARS IN HIS CLASSROOM! Internally hitting the panic button inside his head, he just barely heard her whisper an apology. "And take another 5 points for being a good sport about it." And not completely turning on the waterworks or storming out of the classroom...or throwing a shoe at him.

Had happened to him once. True story.

His attention then moved to Miss Edwards when she spoke. "Yes yes, I suppose you are right," he said as he gave his wand a flick in the green bearded girl's direction and removed it from her face. Yellow suited her better anyway. "You should take your seat now, Miss Wheatborn." And he gave the trap on her hand a tap to banish it as well.

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.



And it was lesson time. The blond turned her attention back to the professor. She'd been doing a liiiittle bit of studying during summer. Like skimming pages and getting used to the books covers. Just so it wouldn't take a lot for her to get into the studying zone. She kinda was nervous about all the OWL thing, though there still was lots of time, the mention of it just made her stomach.... squirm.

So it was all about paying attention.

Her quill clutched in hand, for no reason other than it felt appropriate, she listened and nodded her head slowly. Okay. Nothing hard so far, she could remember that. Except, they hadn't really started.

Here's a question. She paused and searched her brain for that.

Some mentioned something about light and that reminded her. She raised her hand, "Regarding temperature, a star is hotter than a planet." She simply answered.

[TeafortheSoul]

.... what? Flammy was giving him odd looks. So was Sarah for that matter. She got a smile and the professor got a nod and then he stuck his hand up to answer.

"Its always daytime 'on' a star." He said, keeping it nice and simple, and surrounding the word on with air quotations. He didn't literally mean ON a star. Like... it wasn't as if people could live there. But hypothetically, if you were there it'd be day. Because of all the light and not being cast in shadow and all that.

[bitsyandtank]

Asher thought for a moment before raising his hand. "Professor, I think that stars are much hotter than planets. That is why they are bright and warm. Oh, and I'm Asher. Asher Stinson."

He believed his answer to be a good one. It did explain why they could see the sun during the day. At least he was fairly sure the sun was a star. It wasn't a planet, so that left stars.

[feeheeheeny]

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

OOC: This lesson has officially started! Please do not post your character arriving now or else risk loss of house points for your house or some other punishment that Airey feels is appropriate. If you are joining us now, please just pretend as though your character has been here all along ^_^

Remember to say just ONE thing that your character sees as a difference between the two. Points will not be rewarded solely for correct answers <3
Well, a girl had just sprouted an electric green beard and no one, besides the victim, seemed overly surprised. Was that a common thing at this school? For troublemakers to sprout beards? If that was the case, Sophie didn't think that was too terrible of a punishment. She could probably rock a beard with flair. Maybe shove some colorful flowers in there and give it character. How long would those beards last, hm? Would she have time to race up to the Ravenclaw common room and show everyone?

Being in a class with older students was not Sophie's cup of tea. She was hoping to be the smartest of the first years and feel smart, too. But... with all these older kids throwing out an abundance of intelligent answers to the professor's first question, Sophie couldn't help but feel small. She didn't know a whole lot about stars and planets. She knew much more about stuff for her History of Magic, Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. She regretted not preparing more for this one.

Regardless, she felt that she needed to make some sort of effort. The Wandmaker guy had said she needed to be really good at Astronomy, so it was probably best to get on the professor's good side early on. She thought about all the times she had been stargazing. Well... she thought of something that might have made a little bit of sense, so she shoved her hand in the air. "Sophie Brown, si-... prrrrofessor," she corrected herself, her face contorting as she stopped herself. Why couldn't she call him 'sir'? She called EVERYONE sir. Even some girls, when the opportunity presented itself. "Don't the stars... always move in accordance to one another? I mean, the stars aren't moving - we are, right? - but, from our perspective, like, the stars might appear to shift in the sky, but they'll never be closer to one another 'cause they're... kind of in like fixed points, right? But planets... planets DO move, yeah? And... they can appear closer to each other. But stars can't."

Was she right? Or did she pull that one out of nowhere? She wasn't sure, but she plastered on a sweet smile, awaiting whatever feedback came to her.

[Anna Banana]

WHOA.

Why did it suddenly seem like everybody in here knew really in-depth answers to the professor's first question except her? This was the first thought that went through Sophie's head. The second thought was that some girl now had a beard, and the third thought was that she'd earned ten points for it.

MERLIN.

Okay, back on track, Sophie... She hesitantly raised her hand. "Well, we can live on planets, but we don't live on stars," she said. That was as good as it got from a first year who was attending Astronomy for the first time. Was she even going to pass this class?

[Sonea]

"Hello, Miss Duvessa," Airey greeted the girl as he eyed her pockets suspiciously as he recalled what had happened previous lessons. Although, he also felt a little tug in his chest of...was this jealousy? Was he actually sort of jealous that the Slytherin was able to carry her rat with her in her pocket because his pet was missing? Sweet solstice...did he actually WANT a rat?

Woah there Flamsteed, check yourself.
While Airey himself had been laughing himself - although muffled - he pulled himself together and threw some very pointed looks at those who were laughing a little more loudly than they should.

"Miss Wheatborn just demonstrated to us, Miss Castell, in a rather abstract way the notion of hubris. You see, the bag on my desk clearly belongs to me and there is a reason that I have things hidden in a bag and not on display for the class to see. Miss Wheatborn allowed her curiosity to get the best of her and subconsciously assumed that she could be above the laws of my classroom - overconfidence perhaps - and looked in the bag. Now, all violations come with consequences, which is why she has sprouted that beard." There was a reason for this little speech and it was NOT to make the Hufflepuff prefect feel horrible.

Which it looked like he had succeeded in doing anyway, but he THANKFULLY had not noticed that just yet.

"Miss Wheatborn, take 5 points for your unwilling demonstration," and then he met her eyes and saw...wet. BLAZING COMETS THERE WERE TEARS IN HIS CLASSROOM! Internally hitting the panic button inside his head, he just barely heard her whisper an apology. "And take another 5 points for being a good sport about it." And not completely turning on the waterworks or storming out of the classroom...or throwing a shoe at him.

Had happened to him once. True story.

His attention then moved to Miss Edwards when she spoke. "Yes yes, I suppose you are right," he said as he gave his wand a flick in the green bearded girl's direction and removed it from her face. Yellow suited her better anyway. "You should take your seat now, Miss Wheatborn." And he gave the trap on her hand a tap to banish it as well.

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

OOC: This lesson has officially started! Please do not post your character arriving now or else risk loss of house points for your house or some other punishment that Airey feels is appropriate. If you are joining us now, please just pretend as though your character has been here all along ^_^

Remember to say just ONE thing that your character sees as a difference between the two. Points will not be rewarded solely for correct answers <3

The third year old smiled even brighter when the professor greeted her back, but when she saw that he looked at her pocket, the one where she was hiding her two rats, she started to feel a little uneasy, she didn't wanted to get in trouble again because she was breaking the rules, AGAIN but she really didn't wanted to leave her two rats behind! Not with all the cats inside the castle who were trying to eat her two rats! She was sure that if she would leave them behind that they would be eaten alive! And she DIDN'T wanted that! Nooooooo, she loved her rats too much!

Staring back at the professor she shifted a little in her seat and tried to hide her pocket with her school robes and hoped that professor Flamsteed wouldn't paid any more attention to it... In her head she was saying over and over; "Look away, look in another direction, there are no pets inside this classroom..." And... he looked away and spoke to the other students! Relieved she closed her eyes for a few seconds and concentrated on what he was saying. And than she saw it, a girl with a... beard?! How was that possible? She now regretted it that she didn't had watched the others but because everybody was laughing she suspected that she had done something wrong and that this was her... punishment? But listening to the explanation from professor Flamsteed she grinned softly, she really had wanted to see this!

But... what? Had he lost his pet? Oh, that was sad!! She promised herself to look for the pet from professor Flamsteed if she had time, losing a pet was really HORRIBLE and she felt sad for him...

Still with a sad look she listened to what he was saying more and frowned when he asked them a question, and... she knew the answer! Yes, she had learned something during her previous year and now she felt proud about it! She raised her hand and spoke her name, "Sonea Duvessa," the third year old paused and thought about how she could explain what she wanted to say. "A planet has no light of its own, it shines by reflecting the light of the sun and that is the reason why you can see it with a telescope." So, she had given a answer, but if she could she had answered a LOT more questions because this was not the only answer she had for this question...

[JennMarie]

Airey continued to gaze out at the Black Lake, wondering if his patronus had found Sticky Nicky and, well, if his request to a certain tentacle creature had reached it. He could only hope and assume that things had. He was proficient in that regard. His eyes drifted briefly towards the quidditch stadium in the distance and his thoughts couldn't help but wander to Pebbles.

"Perfect day for a swim," he said to the seventh year with a knowing wink. And then his face dropped and he looked at the poster on the black board like a kicked cruppy. "Afraid not, Miss Logan. I am beginning to think it may be a lost cause."

perfect day for a swim.. yes, she did agree.. maybe she could do that later after classes, if she felt like it.. maybe. Most likely though she wouldn't she'd probably just have dinner then go up to her room and do homework with the girls, you know the usual. Then, she noted his dropped face and she just looked at him her head turned to the side "Don't give up Professor Airey,he some faith, She'll show up."

it WAS a she right?

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

OOC: This lesson has officially started! Please do not post your character arriving now or else risk loss of house points for your house or some other punishment that Airey feels is appropriate. If you are joining us now, please just pretend as though your character has been here all along ^_^

Remember to say just ONE thing that your character sees as a difference between the two. Points will not be rewarded solely for correct answers <3

Diffrences between Stars and Planets.. this was easy! she put her hand up and waited to me called on "I'm Ariana Logan." though he did know her name, but he asked to say names sooo.. And a difference between a star and a planet is that like stars are masses of hot gas that shine their own light cause nuclear something while a planet is a large earth-like body that does not have nuclear something....." so she forgot a few words that we;re key, oh well she was still spot on and she remembered that from her book cause she wantd a star of her own you see, so she was kind of fascinated by them.

[Charely Potter]

Wade was still blinking at the awesome pickle-like beard of Min. Could he touch it? Probably not, seeing how Min was feeling about all this, "Hey, let's sit down." He lightly took her arm, since her hands were preoccupied and all, to where he was sitting so she was next to him now. He also smiled a little at her. She got ten points for having a pickle beard. That was cool, to him.

Well, since class was already starting. Guess now was the time for Wade to give his attention. Nodding about the missing case of Pebbles the rock, Wade already agreed to help out so it was class time.

The difference between a star and planet.. His brows furrowed. Since his OWLs, he only retained so much.. He knew the sun as their closest star and of course the planets.. Not too much though, but enough to raise his hand, "Wade...Potter, sir." Since he didn't mind at all whether people said his full last name or not, he still was a Potter, after all. The family tree in his pocket watch said so. Anyways, with his answer. "Well.. with a star like our sun. We can't stare at it as long as we can with planets." That was true.. right?

[Anna Banana]

WHOA.

Why did it suddenly seem like everybody in here knew really in-depth answers to the professor's first question except her? This was the first thought that went through Sophie's head. The second thought was that some girl now had a beard, and the third thought was that she'd earned ten points for it.

MERLIN.

Okay, back on track, Sophie... She hesitantly raised her hand. "Well, we can live on planets, but we don't live on stars," she said. That was as good as it got from a first year who was attending Astronomy for the first time. Was she even going to pass this class?

"Oh, and I'm Sophie Newell," Sophie tacked on, remembering that she'd forgotten to say her name. She quietened down after that, mentally scolding herself for forgetting what everyone else seemed to remember. Sigh. ...and she hadn't even come up with a really in-depth answer like everyone else seemed to either. How was she supposed to the best now?!

[Harron Peasley]

"Charlotta Czesanka, but please call me Charlie, Professor," Charlie recited, flashing a smile at the Professor. And now, for his question. The difference between planets and stars. Charlie thought she could give a lot of answers to this, but she settled for one, as he asked. "Stars emit their own light, and that's how we see them. Planets, however, don't - we see them as they reflect light from the sun." Or, you know, other stars in different galaxies.

But they weren't studying other galaxies, right?

[JustAlice]

OH OH OH OH OH

Derry KNEW this. Cause her mam's friend was an astrophysicist and went on and on about stars and stuff... She bounced where she was sat and raised her hand. "Professor, planets orbit around stars, and stars... don't." Was that right? She had no idea now...

She put her hand down again and started scribbling notes in two columns on her paper titled "Stars" and "Planets."

[stormanator]

Damon raised his hand and with a good amount of clarity attempted to give a reasonable answer "I'm Damon professor" He thought for a moment longer. "I suspect one aspect or difference of a planet vs a star is that a planet probably has a much longer lifespan then a star does. I've noticed stars in effect recycle themselves or totally go away and new ones join their place. So perhaps a lifespan difference." Damon finished giving his answer and listened to the other answers.

[Emzily]

"To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.]

Hehe.

His pet rock was missing.

Anyway...

Astronomy was okay, apart from all the talking that came from Professor Flamsteed. Professor-talk-a-lot. Today was no different, but at least the first question was a simple one. Theo raised his hand, not bothering to say his name because PLEASE, this guy should know Theodore Kinsley by now. "You can live on a planet and not a star." Well... "Most planets, anyway..." He paused and tapped his chin, "I think."

[lazykitty]

What?! Wheatborn was GETTING points?!!!? How did that even make sense?

Anyway, moving on. To the difference between planets and stars. Er. Everyone was already saying the stuff that Sky had thought of first. Because, of course. Time to think a little deeper into the subject, then. "Some planets can substain life, while stars are too hot to do so." Wouldn't that be cool, though? Living on a star.

[Team ronmione]

The difference between a star and a planet. Hopefully this time Airey wasn't looking for a specific answer but just any general ideas that came into his students head's. An hopefully Tag would have a decent one. Slowly raising his hand Tag spoke "Aren't stars a bit more definite in knowing its a star while scientists have had controversy over deciding if a planet is truly a planet depending on its environment and the such?"

[Daemon]

Oh OH OH LESSON WAS STARING.

Benzi hastily grabbed his bag to take out the parchment, quill and ink and haphazardly set them on the desk. RIGHT. He was ready. Mummy would be super proud of him. Looking expectantly at the Professor, the eleven year old's grin diminished slightly as Professor Airey - because Professor Flimflam or whatever it was was too long - mentioned something that sounded like hummus. Hummus was a thing he'd eaten once in downtown London and he never wanted to go anywhere near it again.

Bleh.

BUT. Right. Astronomy.

Blinking at the question and took a moment to think. Mummy really liked Astronomy, so he actually knew quite a lot about it. This fact pleased him, and he raised his hand. "Benzi," he stated, "they're made different. Iss'ike, there's space clouds and they make stars but planets are made up of the leftovers... Kinda like orange juice, when you squeeze it the juice stuff comes out and that's the good bit and then the bits from the orange come and those just sorta float around. But they float around INSIDE the juice and planets don't go around wonderin' inside the star. But yeah, they're made different."

Cue PROUD GRIN. This would be going in this week's letter home. He'd tell Mummy, and she's be really pleased and everything will be great.

[TakemetotheBurrow]

Minnie could totally rock a beard, just saying. Ella did feel bad, though. The older badger had been through things and was probably not up for being an example at the moment. Airey seemed to realize she was upset, though, and generously gave her points which was nice of him. Thumbs up, Airey-face.

As for the difference between planets and stars, Ella could think of a few. Surely their temperature and light and things like that. She also couldn't help but thing of the quantity difference. "There are way more stars up there than planets." Way, wayyyy more.

[squidnie]

Ah. So no hand-holding, then. Jake folded his arms across his chest instead and leaned back in his chair. Although he was a bit disappointed that Airey didn't understand the romantic qualities Astronomy had. Whether it was a classroom or not. Seriously, with his knowledge of space stuff, the professor could probably have girls lining up to hear him talk about stars. That was, like... romantic. Jake would have to inform Flamsteed of this fact. Because clearly the guy wasn't using his knowledge to his full advantage.

Anyway, though, for now the Prefect would be good and answer the question. He raised his hand, not bothering to announce his name because Flamsteed had just addressed him. "Planets have a revolution around a star, because a star's gravity is much higher than a planet's, which keeps the planet sort of... tied to its star in an elliptical orbit." Yeah?

[Deezerz]

Doobapshidooshidooooooooo!

Lucian swung his legs under his desk freely since they didn't reach the ground, singing in his head a tune he'd picked up from his friend back home, while writing his name on his parchment. When the lesson began he didn't look up. He could hear perfectly while concentrating on his name. Names were important. It's what set you apart from Lucys and Lucian. It's happened before.

His head perked up. Rocks? Where? Lucian liked throwing rocks in lakes. Or in any large body of water, really. He liked making them skip.

Okay. Maybe he should pay better attention now. He heard what his new classmates had to say. Geez. They were all smarty pants. He preferred the short and quick answers though, so he scribbled those down. Something his dad told him about planets and stars popped into his head. He wasn't done writing, but he still raised his hand. Wait...wait...there. "Lucian Blackwell," he said, "Planets are big enough to have their own gravity whereas stars are held and given their shape by their own gravity." Lucian rubbed the back of his neck. That sounded a lot better in his head. Promise.

[StarShine]

Forrest then saw Minnie.

"Pfft--pfffft--ha HA ha." He shouldn't be laughing. It was rude to Professor and Minerva. He really shouldn't but--itwasSOfunny! His hands covered his mouth to stop the giggles, and he tried to laugh as silently as he could. He then gasped for air and missed some of the educational speech, but he had calmed down for the important part of the class. He still snorted from time to time, but he was alright in general.

Anyways. Question. Yes.

"Forrest Charlton, Professor!" His hand was in the air. The man already knew his name, but he'd asked and Forrest wasn't going to deny his favourite professor. "Stars are always very hot, but planets' temperature depends on the distance to the closest star and their atmosphere."

[amadshade]

Tora was glad that she had snatched her hand back from the bag while she still could. Even though she was considering using the "protego" spell to keep herself from growing a green beard, she decided that Professor Airey was most likely more skilled in whatever magic he used for the bag's defenses than her simple protego spell could be. So she did the wise thing and sat down.


"To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

Wait. Only one way? Tora could think of a million probably. Let's see. Which one would most other people not know? She had spent most of the summer reading up on Astronomy, her favorite subject, and was now even more glad that she had. She thought for a little bit, searching her memory for something fun to say when she had it! It was something that she was mostly sure was correct, not something she had actually read, but something she had deduced to be true. Here was the perfect place to test that deduction. She raised her hand and said, "A star gives off energy, but a planet does not. I guess this commonly comes in the form of light but it could also mean solar waves and stuff." she smiled a little. Ahh she loved space! It just put her in one the the best moods! Then she remembered the second part of Professor's question. "I'm Tora Gallaway, Second year, Ravenclaw." added on quickly.

[oh its Erik ok]

Nigel could not help but laugh at That beard was pretty funny. Honestly. If Nigel had a beard like that. He would laugh at himself.

But now class has started. Planets and stars. The obvious answer was you could live on a Planet. But not everyone of those planets. Nigel still wished Pluto was a planet. Pluto was awesome.

"A Planet has an orbiting Moon"

Now the question was what has in that red bag. To cause Min to get the green beard.

[Talikins]

For a change Miss Abbi Campi was rather quiet. She was observing that was all, observing the classroom and the poster. Poor Pebbles! Not that she knew whom he was, but any lost pet was a sad pet. Poor thing! The next thing Abbi observed was how a girl just grew a green beard out of nowhere.

WAS SHE BECOMING HER INNER WITCH OR SOMETHING?

The little eleven year old was slightly scared, but ready to face any monsters if she needed to. Pity though she didn't because after some proper listening she figured out that the girl wasn't becoming her inner witch. The Professor had done that to her as a lesson.

Seee! She kept up to track rather fast but her mouth yeah it couldn't be kept on mute for too long. I mean that was after all impossible, you were dealing with a kid that had the energy of a gazillion batteries. A little bit longer, that all it took for Abbi to keep quiet and listen before she could burst her mouth open as well as shoot her hand up in the air.

"Hello Professor Airey!" BEAAAAAAAM. She was excited okay? "I'm Fairy Abbi Campi..And! And! Your question." She paused for a second with a head scratch. "Planets starts with the letter P! and Stars start with the letter S! Also Stars shine VERY brightly at night and Professor, I'm sorry about your pet. Had she spoken enough? Not really, no. Could she have answered better? Yes. But heeey these people knew what she did already. Like she totally knew there were more stars than planets. Psshht. Mind reading witches.

[FearlessLeader19]

"To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name."

Planets and Stars! Awesome! Adi liked stars. So, erm one difference? Surrre. Adi raised his left hand. "Aditya Rehman,'' he said slowly and carefully to the Professor. It was certainly not Eddie Redmen, even though he found it quite funny. " Urrrn, stars twinkle. Planets don't do that, I think.''

[noodles]

Ah, professor. Jozsua gave the man a small smile and saluted back. “Professor, sir!” He replied like he was a private in the muggle army. Orrr... just Professor.. like the man just said..

Anyhow..

Onto the lesson..

Professor had lost his pet rock? Józsua let out a small guffaw not really understanding the joke, but finding it funny anyway.

He wanted to ask a few questions. Like how did the Prof know the rock was female? And how hard was it to train your pet rock not to go on your favourite rug? ..but he refrained, deciding to keep his head down for the first few lessons.

Soo.. yea..

Differences between planets and stars..

Józsua sat and listened to the other kids and then raised his hand. “Józsua Istvan, Professor. A star has its own light; a planet doesn't have light of it's own. Shines by reflecting the light of the sun.”

[natekka]

This was the hard part now. Wasn't it?

Well, for her. She wasn't the one with a BEARD. Hogwarts was strange, though admittedly cool. Beard's were cool. Bristol could totally rock a beard .. not that she planned to get into trouble. It would be very silly to get into trouble this early into term, she didn't want to make a name for herself just yet. Her time would come.

SPEAKING OF .. it was learning time and answering question time. First, though, she needed to think of an answer to said question. The difference between a star and a planet? Well, she was living on one and not on the other, but she didn't think that was what he meant. UMMM. She quickly snuck a look in her massive textbook which she hadn't properly read yet. "Bristol Haigh, Sir." That was her name done, hehe. "Plaaaaanets have low temperatures, in comparison to staaaaaars."

Correct? If not - blame the textbook.

Or her reading skills.

[Somnium]

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

OOC: This lesson has officially started! Please do not post your character arriving now or else risk loss of house points for your house or some other punishment that Airey feels is appropriate. If you are joining us now, please just pretend as though your character has been here all along ^_^

Remember to say just ONE thing that your character sees as a difference between the two. Points will not be rewarded solely for correct answers <3[/FONT][/COLOR]

Taylor raised her hand, "Taylor McIntyre, Professor." She smiled then tilted her head, looking at him. "Stars generate light but planets don't, right?" Tay was pretty sure that she was right but she wasn't sure. Taylor fiddled with the quill that was in her hands, waiting to see what the professor would say as well as waiting to hear what everyone else says about planets and stars. She thought the professor made the class fun so she didn't mind paying attention... though being in Ravenclaw, you kind of are expected to pay attention 100% of the time.

[Bazinga]

It was funny how the delinting process outside astronomy did not irk Sarah as much as the process she had to undertake before going to Bellaire's class. Maybe because she could use a delinter to stop the static on her stockings. After delinting she entered, it seemed that things had happened since she had been in last. "Hello Professor" she said. "I guess you have not found pebbles. I will keep a look out for him and perhaps join the search party". It was more about the professor then the pet rock. She did not care for a pet rock, yet the professor seemed really attatched to it and Sarah wanted to see him happy again. "Have you tried Accio? Maybe sent an owl to look for it?" She asked. Minnie had a beard. "that is a great beard Minnie, Reminds me of a muggle book my grandma read to me as a kid. When a girl made up her own hair-growth thing for her father and he grew grass on his head.". Then Minnie looked like she was about to cry so Sarah walked over to the prefect and put her arms around her. She did think that there had to be consequences, yet embarressing someone was kind of harsh. "Professor, is it possible that Minnie can get that beard removed. I think all of us have learnt our lesson already"

While Airey himself had been laughing himself - although muffled - he pulled himself together and threw some very pointed looks at those who were laughing a little more loudly than they should.

"Miss Wheatborn just demonstrated to us, Miss Castell, in a rather abstract way the notion of hubris. You see, the bag on my desk clearly belongs to me and there is a reason that I have things hidden in a bag and not on display for the class to see. Miss Wheatborn allowed her curiosity to get the best of her and subconsciously assumed that she could be above the laws of my classroom - overconfidence perhaps - and looked in the bag. Now, all violations come with consequences, which is why she has sprouted that beard." There was a reason for this little speech and it was NOT to make the Hufflepuff prefect feel horrible.

Which it looked like he had succeeded in doing anyway, but he THANKFULLY had not noticed that just yet.

"Miss Wheatborn, take 5 points for your unwilling demonstration," and then he met her eyes and saw...wet. BLAZING COMETS THERE WERE TEARS IN HIS CLASSROOM! Internally hitting the panic button inside his head, he just barely heard her whisper an apology. "And take another 5 points for being a good sport about it." And not completely turning on the waterworks or storming out of the classroom...or throwing a shoe at him.

Had happened to him once. True story.

His attention then moved to Miss Edwards when she spoke. "Yes yes, I suppose you are right," he said as he gave his wand a flick in the green bearded girl's direction and removed it from her face. Yellow suited her better anyway. "You should take your seat now, Miss Wheatborn." And he gave the trap on her hand a tap to banish it as well.

"Hubris, class, will play into a discussion to come later on in today's lesson, so do keep this word in the back of your minds as we progress," he said as he walked to the center of the semicircle and flicked his wand towards the door to shut it.

Time to get officially started.

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

Wade was still blinking at the awesome pickle-like beard of Min. Could he touch it? Probably not, seeing how Min was feeling about all this, "Hey, let's sit down." He lightly took her arm, since her hands were preoccupied and all, to where he was sitting so she was next to him now. He also smiled a little at her. She got ten points for having a pickle beard. That was cool, to him.

Well, since class was already starting. Guess now was the time for Wade to give his attention. Nodding about the missing case of Pebbles the rock, Wade already agreed to help out so it was class time.

The difference between a star and planet.. His brows furrowed. Since his OWLs, he only retained so much.. He knew the sun as their closest star and of course the planets.. Not too much though, but enough to raise his hand, "Wade...Potter, sir." Since he didn't mind at all whether people said his full last name or not, he still was a Potter, after all. The family tree in his pocket watch said so. Anyways, with his answer. "Well.. with a star like our sun. We can't stare at it as long as we can with planets." That was true.. right?


Minerva was going to leave... She really was, this was not how she wanted to start the term. Not has Prefect and not after last term, but as she stepped to go she felt arms around her. What was... she couldn't help but feel lucky to have a friend hug her at the moment. This was nice of Sarah to do really nice. As everyone else even her little badgers she would do anything for and her suppose to be little brother laughed at her. "Thanks" She managed just as she heard the professor talk about something about hubris. What the blazing saddles was that.

Minerva didn't even care at this point what that was but her eyes shot up as he said about giving her points. Her hearing had to been screwed up to. Was that another trick he had done. She was most likely losing five points for being dumb not gaining, but then his look and he said five more. Really? She didn't deserve them though. "I'.. are you sure professor? " Really she wanted them of course, but she felt awkward at that moment. "Thank you" She sniffled trying to push back any more tears that tried to escape with her humiliation.

Nodding she thanked him again just as she felt a hand go around her arm. Looking up she gave Wade a thank you look and followed him. As the finger traps lifted and disappeared she put her hand over his and squeezed it a tad, "Thanks" Then she sat down pulling out her parchment and tried to focus on class. Wiping her face to get rid of any wet that had slipped from her eyes while no one was hopefully paying any attention to her.

Listen to Professor Flamsteed start class she couldn't help but still feel mortified, but tried to push past it and raised her hand. With a shaky and quiet voice she answered. "Minerva Wheatborn" which he knew of course, "Stars undergo nuclear reactions that burn hydrogen in their cores, where plants do not do this." She had been reading a little bit this summer to hopefully continue doing better in the class.

[Expecto-Penguin]

Aw the professor was missing his pet rock? That is horrible. Hopefully it will find his way home. He couldn't imagine if he lost his pet. Anyways back to business but Kace would notify the Professor if he found his pet rock for sure! Then he heard the professor ask a question....What was the difference between a star and a planet? Hmm.....Kace racked in his brain cells for this answer. He was still on summer vacation mode.

When he finally got an answer ready, he raised his hand. "Kace Lecium." he stated his name. He hoped he remembered him. "Professor the difference between the stars and planets are their size. I mean when you look into the sky they seem SOO tiny. But when you see planets they seem huge!" he nodded. He gave the answer his best shot.

[Gissel]

So far Minnie had been given a green beard and a pet rock was missing. If all classes were as entertaining as this one was, maybe Chris would actually attend all of his class...maybe.

Now that class had started, Christopher was surprised, yet again, to find that he actually knew the answer the professor's question. Or at least, he thought he did? Raising his hand, he answered a little nervously, "Well the sun is a star...and it's on fire and Earth is a planet...and it's not so...stars are on fire and planets aren't?" He didn't know much about stars that weren't the sun but he felt his answer made perfect sense anyhow.

[Weasley174]

Laura looked at the Professor and smiled. "A planet can have someone living on it, where as I don't think anyone could live on a star." Laura hadn't heard of there being life on a star.

[Lockhartian]

Clever West is clever. Because he was simplifying things, yeah? Hopefully, otherwise she'd be completely worried about him.

Now, back to the question Professor Flamsteed asked, for she wasn't going to take part in any search party and didn't need to listen to his words on Pebbles (we love you, Airey, but not that much, he DID let her go, something Lottie would have NEVER done), the girl raised her hand after a lot few answers.

"When considering stargazing...," yes, this was necessary to point out, "...given the reactions happening within its core, the stars appear to twinkle...," APPEAR, OKAY? APPEAR, BUT THEY DO NOT TWINKLE, "...whereas planet do NOT," since they don't emit their own light and only reflect others'.

So, fixed lights equals planets, twinkle lights equals stars. Also, was the sun being on fire a metaphor for high temperature? If so, then awesome!

[Lissy Longbottom]

Alright, Newell. This was it. Your time to SHINE!

Caleb listened to all the older kids answer and patiently waited with his hand high in the air. When it finally got to his turn, he grinned before getting into his answer.

"Well, first off, I'm Caleb Newell, Professor," he said. Yeah, memorize that name Professor. Newell will be a name of GREAT IMPORTANCE once again! "And one difference between a planet and a star is that stars can actually die. Like one day they're just burning out there, chillin in the solar system and living their star life, and then they just explode. Sometimes the explosion is so crazy, it makes a BLACK HOLE," he said, emphasizing his voice to show just how AWESOME that was.

And he was pretty positive planets didn't do that. If they did, it was news to him.

[HOPEendures]

Jezz bit her lip and returned a small smile to the Professor. She pulled out all her required materials and watched as the first few events of the class began to unfold. She was quite glad she hadn't opened the bag to peek inside. Then again she wasn't comfortable invading other peoples privacy.

She listened intently and then gave the question some small thought. Small because before she could think upon it anymore her hand shot up in the air and she said, "Stars eventually fade, or die." It was a simple answer and she felt silly for giving it. Wasn't it an accurate answer to begin with. Stars did eventually flare out but did planets die some how?

[AlwaysSnapesGirl]

"Hubris aside for now...welcome to Astronomy NOT to be confused with Astrology! For those of you who do not know me yet, I am Professor Flamsteed and you may call me such or Professor Airey, but never sir if you will. As you can see by this poster and the other numerous ones I have about the school, my pet rock, Pebbles, is missing. If you see her anywhere, please inform me immediately. I miss her terribly," he said as he got things officially underway with just the slightest of manly lip quivering going on. He then cleared his throat and focused on the task at hand: teaching his lesson. "Some of you may be wondering why we are holding out lesson during the day when astronomy tends to deal more with the night sky, but I assure you that this time of day is perfect for what we will be studying today." Enough of a give away yet? It would be if they were paying attention enough. "To start things off today, I would like us to go back to some basic definitions. Who can tell me ONE thing that is different between a planet and a star? Just one please so that others may have a chance to answer. Please raise your hand and state your name before answering so that I can learn everyone's name." He should have remembered to bring his name plaques with him. His photographic memory worked better with written words.

Penelope had briefly considered looking in the bag at beginning since Flamsteed wasn't guarding it but then figured they'd probably find out what was inside soon anyway, so she'd simply taken her seat instead. And now of course she was glad she hadn't looked. She did not need a beard, okay? Her boyfriend could have one, but she didn't want it on herself. Her own hair was already long enough as it was, she didn't need MORE hair on her face.

So moving on from that, class started and stuff and there were the usual introductions for the new students, and then the first question was asked. Difference between planets and stars? Hm. There were lots of differences, but a lot of the other students had already spoken about them. Maybe there was something else she could add though...

Oh hey, she'd thought of something. Maybe. Sorta. So her hand was raised. "You already know my name, professor." Or he SHOULD by now, at least. He usually cheered for her at Quidditch games, and he surely hadn't forgotten it over the summer. So she didn't need to repeat it for him, did she? "But anyway, I guess another difference between planets and stars is that we can use stars to tell directions and stuff, but we don't really use planets for that. Like with Polaris, it's three stars and we can use it to find which way is north, and constellations kinda help find it too, but we don't really have a constellation of planets or a planet Polaris to do that with." If that made sense.

[LilFox06]

No hand holding. Laaaaaame. But since the class was officially started now, she'd let it slide without a fight.

Something different between stars and planets. Well... there were a lot of differences. In fact, it was more like... what was the same would be a better question.

She raised her hand. "When you look at a planet with a telescope, you get more detail." Of course, that didn't just apply to planets, since the same thing happened when you looked at the moon. "When you look at stars, you can see like... fuzzy rings. They're called... Airy...s? I think. Airy disks." That sounded right.

[lemon]

"I'm Alice, but I'm also brilliant, and you can call me either one." Hand UP, standing, and fingers wiggling. "And I know one of the differences between stars and planets is how they're formed."

Elaboration? Yes?

"You know how stars have disks, professor? I think planets form when the materials in one of those condense around a rock core. Rock. Right? Rock. Or maybe ice. Or maybe both." HE was the expert, he knew. "But stars form when a gas cloud collapses in an interstellar region, like a nebula or something, 'cause of gravity."

Now questions. As usual, Alice had them. "Know how we made a star-in-a-jar, prof? Can we make a planet-in-a-jar? Also, I want a beard like Min, can I stick my head in the bag too?" Would she get house points? Hmm?

She'd give poor Aireyhead a couple seconds to answer before she started rapid firing again.

[Cassirin]

Alice just got amused looks. For one, because that was the nerdiest, most Ravenclaw answer ever. For the other, because she was wiggling around like a flobberworm. For another other, because of the questions. Who did she think she was? A Mo?

Speaking of... Mo raised his hand too, although he managed to avoid finger-wiggling. "Professor... I'm Marcus Branxton." And he sort of modeled his head a little to show there weren't any roller brushes stuck there. He and Flamsteed were acquainted. "I was thinking that a difference between stars and planets is that planets are really formed by stars, if you think about it. Like as a result of them. Whereas stars are not reliant on planets for their creation."

[Ringo]

Oh whoops.

Guess Dylan forgot to introduce himself, how silly of him... "Sorry, professor, I'm Dylan. Dylan Callaghan." he said, smiling at him before taking his seat.

Once more students arrived and found their seats, the lesson began and the Professor began speaking. As the first year listened, he played with his quill in his hands. Astronomy. Dylan had always found stars and such fascinating, so this class would probably be really interesting. He had no doubt he'd enjoy learning about it. And who was in this class, anyways? The Hufflepuff glanced up and looked around himself and saw a few familiar faces (including the mean boy from Scribbilus) and then many faces he didn't recognize.

He snapped back from his thoughts when he heard the professor ask a question. The difference between planets and stars? He knew this. The boy shot up his hand and then cleared his throat. "Dylan Callaghan," he quickly introduced himself. "And well....erm...stars emit light from nuclear reactions in their core, while planets shine only from reflections. So, in other words, stars create light on their own but planets don't." he gave a firm nod all smart-like. 'Cause he was quite smart on this subject, he had studied it a little bit about a year ago when he got curious about it.

[emjay]

Claudette was still in shock over the whole Minerva/green beard thing. Was this really protocol at this school? To humiliate someone simply for being curious? Because as far as she saw, there wasn't a note or sign saying not to peek.. not that the French girl had been paying all that much attention. And she felt horrible for Min not only because Claudette was sure she would have been mortified if it had been her sprouting the atrocious looking beard, but the girl looked justifiably upset especially with more than a few snickers directed at her.

But it seemed to be remedied soon enough, with a couple friends coming to her rescue and the professor giving points or something after he removed the punishment charms. Odd.. she rather save herself the humiliation than get any points at all.. and now she was rather worried that stepping out of line at all would give her a similar fate.

She vaguely heard something about hubris and a question about planets and stars, but her mind was still on humiliating punishments and she bit her lip.A little worried that something would happen if she failed to give an answer, the 16 year old raised her hand, then stood when she was called upon. "Claudette d'Avignon, sir.. I mean, Professor sir.. er.. Professor.." The earlier spectacle and her thoughts on it had gotten her so flustered, and her cheeks burned bright pink in her embarrassment. She did remember him saying something about not calling him sir.. oops. Hopefully there were no consequences. Taking a deep breath, she provided her answer. "Planets revolve around stars.. and not the other way around.. I think." Quickly she sat down and averted her eyes.. moving on, please?

[Govoni]

Energetic professor was energetic...

Right, though. Hubris. Ves wrote it down.

...and it was really sad that the professor's pet rock had went missing. Had someone stolen it? Was it a tale of deception and woe? Was there an evil masked villain behind the 'abduction', if she could call it that?

Ves read too many Batman comics...obviously...but she did want to help. So, after the lesson, maybe she'd hang back and talk to the man one on one...because it was embarrassing to do so during a lesson. Embarrassing for her, anyway. The blush was already there...if that was any indication.

Planets and stars, though. What was the difference between the two...? The Ravenclaw tried to think about anything her dad would've said...He knew a bunch about these two things...because he was brilliant and the best father. Why hadn't he asked about similarities? She knew a bunch of those.

"My name is Vesper Bayliss." BLUSH. "........Stars are classified by astronomers based on their surface temperature...and planets are classified by whether they orbit the sun or not, mass and self-gravity that makes it a...sphere?, and whether they can complete a full orbit..." Or....you know, she'd read that somewhere. She could have been wrong.

Vesper slowly shrunk down and hid behind her hair.

[Luna_Midnight]

Pebbles was still missing, she definitely would take a part in a search party if there was going to be one...It had to be around the school somewhere surely!! The difference between a planet and a star and easy question... Waiting until she could get her answer in she raised her hand and even though the Professor knew her name...Or should know her name stated it like he had asked for. "Im Nerida Eventide." Again purely only for everybody else's benefit because he knew her....And Sky the cat that gave him a fright!" "Stars' relative positions do not under go any noticeable change while planets' positions are noticeable because they are much closer to the Earth than the stars are, so we are able to notice their position moving around the sun."

[DecemberMoon]

Eliza smiled and nodded at Airey about the Gobstones matches and replied enthusiastically, "Oh definitely! I think it will be another fun year for the matches!" Though the last game she'd been rather under the weather, emotionally. But so had he. And everyone else, so it was sort of wash in the end.

Sympathetic eyes caught Minerva's blue ones as the fourth year watched in shock, and some tiny amusement, as the green beard grew on her friend's face. She felt badly that Min seemed to be so emotional about even silly things like that, but she hoped her friend could find the humor in it eventually. She could understand being embarrassed, make no mistake, but a green beard was just sort of funny no matter how you sliced it. Or combed it. She'd check on her after class to make sure she was okay, and to chat about the first lessons of the year and all that. And maybe about some other things too. Ahem.

After she'd heard far too many answers from the students around her, Eliza raised her hand and rambled out whatever she thought of first. "Professor, oh...well I'm Eliza Dawnsel, for starters, but you know that...Er, well, anyway. So, planets are different from stars because they have all of these interesting landforms and terrains - but that's not to a star's discredit really, because they just can't have those neat surfaces because well, they don't have surfaces." She knew someone had said something similar, but darn it all, that was what she'd wanted to say too.

[Mell]

This is what happens when you're a bit slow on the uptake, everyone else gets their answer in before you do. Was there any point in raising his hand and repeating what had aleady been said? Of course not but that wasn't about to stop him from contributing something.

"Michael Toussaint." he announced with his hand rased high in the air. "The only difference I can think of is when you hit your head on something you usually see stars and not planets." Because seeing planets would be just stupid.

[Kitten]

Well... at least that beard was gone now? And for once, Kahlan was awfully happy that curiosity didn't get the better of her... this time!

Otherwise she might've ended up being the one with the beard!

Quickly pulling out a quill and some paper she already started, taking a few notes on what people around her were saying about differences... and because she already felt that her answer would be stupid enough she figured she had to say hers now... or she never would!

"Well... stars have their own light and twinkle by themselves... planets don't" well that couldn't have been more obvious but she figured that she tried...

And that was all anyone could ask for!

[PuppySara]

Brodie looked at Minnie, actually feeling a little bad for her... then the professor asked about the differences... "Brodie Livingston Professor." He raised his hand. Brodie paused, it was Vince's favorite subject, he had to pick something up from his friend, "The basic difference between a star and a planet is that a star emits light produced by a nuclear reaction in its core, whereas a planet only shines by reflected light." Right? He was pretty sure it was true. He hoped it would be. Otherwise he'd probably be seen as a fool. So please be right...

[pundantic]

The bag made you have a beard. Blink, blink.

That was really...intriguing. Yeah, Glitter Trousers was a stupid buffoon who constantly made him regret his choice of sitting through his class as if he had a choice, but he had most performed beard magic. For the first time ever in this class, Ascanius sat up straight and attentively. It was ugly and not the way he had envisioned a beard or proper stubble, but it was a start. This all meant that there WAS magic capable of growing a beard. And Ascanius wanted one.

He knew his face was attractive enough without one, however, beards were the pinochle of manliness and, smirk, look at him. The fifth year screamed manliness and charm. A beard would just add to his allure.

...he needed to know that spell.

Listening intently, to see if Glitter Trousers would divulge how he accomplished such a spell, Ascanius found himself growing irritated once more at the Professor. He spoke so often and so much it was nap inducing. Didn't he know? And he didn't really WANT to raise his hand and answer. 'Course he had an answer, yeah? Still didn't mean Glitter Trousers deserved to hear his voice.

Silently, Ascanius answered, Planets are one of two types: gaseous or rocky. While stars are only one type and every star makes up it's own system. Case and point? The SOL, our sun, is the centre of our system...the solar system.. But the only thing he said out loud was this, "Ascanius Stark."

[sweetpinkpixie]

With a quick flick of his wand Airey banished his Missing poster from the blackboard. With another quick flick of his wand he made the words ‘planets’ and ‘stars’ appear on the board written in white chalk with a vertical line dividing the two so that each suggestion students made could appear as a visual aid. He then turned his attention to the class and looked out at the sea of raised hands.

Stellar.

"Adrienne Colbert, with an ah not an ay," she recited almost mechanically. "Stars, as a general rule, are a lot hotter than planets," The most obvious answer in the world? Yeah, probably. Still correct? Yes, and that's what mattered.
“Very good, Miss Colbert. Stars do indeed have a very high temperature due to two things called nuclear fusion and nucleosynthesis.”
"Professor, I think I got one!" he said with a little bounce in his seat. "Uh... I'm Toby Tempus..." Ahem. Yeah. Hiiiiiiiiiiii. "And... you can see both stars AND planets in the night sky, right-" and the day time too... you know... the sun... "and they sort of look the same to us from this distance with just our eyes. BUT planets can't be included in constellations and asterisms, only stars can. I think." Maybe. And that still counted as only one point, right? Hopefully. Toby didn't want another reproachful look.

He was trying to think outside the box.

Was it working?
Thinking. Yes, Airey was a fan of this, especially when students were unsure but ventured a guess. While he was, of course pleased that students knew facts that showed they had read, he appreciated it more when students were able to put things into their own words or make new connections all on their own. Like Mr. Tempus was doing right now.

“Excellent thinking, Mr. Tempus,” Airey said while giving the boy two BIG thumbs up. “Planets are not included in constellations and asterism due to their orbits. Would be quite terrible for Draco to be missing part of its tail, yes?”

Lex stuck her hand in the air. "Alexa Cambridge, Professor," He already knew this, why was she doing this? "and one difference is that one is just a bright ball of hot gas that has the potential to implode when it dies depending on the pressure and stuff at the time it dies while the other...well planets don't die...they don't do anything epic unless something crashes into them which could create a big bang." The idea of an explosion in space was quite exciting. Wouldn't anyone else agree?
Airey found himself chuckling quite a bit at Miss Cambridge’s answer. “While planets will not go supernova like a star can, planets too can in fact die, Miss Cambridge.” But this was not something that would be discussed this term. Next term however….heh. “Just as a star undergoes a series of temperature changes until it reaches an equilibrium and has the potential to go supernova, the a planet also exists in an excited state. There are temperature differences between its inner core and surface, weather, plate tectonics...and when these all slow down and eventually reach equilibrium themselves, then a planet with be, by geological standards, dead.”

Sarah was relieved that the professor took that beard off the girl and she sat down at her desk and took her things out. Then the lesson began with reference to Pebbles. Sarah was not in the mood to actually think of an answer, she was just not in the thinking mood. She raised her hand and said what was on top of her head, "Aren't planets solid, and stars made out of gas? Perhaps if one steps on a planet they can walk normally but if they step on a star, besides burning themselves, they would fall through, just like one can walk through a ghost" Probably wrong, yet she was not in the mood for more. "umm, by the way, the example for planets would be mars, or something, as some planets are made up of liquids. It is pretty hard to walk on water. I don't think anyone has"
What was West's secret for growth? Sarah wanted to know, as she was so short.
“Ah, a common misconception, Miss Edwards. You are forgetting about the gas giants, such as Jupiter, that are planets without any solid metals or rock. You would not be able to walk normally on these either.” So no. Not a difference, but a good try.
"I'm Hannah Lockwood sir..." Cough. "I mean Professor Flamsteed. The main difference is that the planet is smaller even though you would think that a star would be smaller." Well, she couldn't speak for everybody else, but she sure thought that a star should be smaller than a planet.
Aha. Another common misconception. “Actually, Miss Lockwood, there is some overlap between the two. Astronomers will find planets that have a greater diameter than some stars on occasion - mostly giant gas giant planets. However, generally, a star is in fact larger than a planet due to the requirement of a large mass for nuclear fusion to start.”

So the difference between a star and a planet? That was easy. She needed these type of information just in case it came out in her NEWTs at the end of the term. Kat raised her hand. "My name's Katrina Hudson..." Just to let that sink in. People knew her already anyway. "Stars give off light and heat, while planets don't." That was her simple answer. Did she need to say more?
“Good, Miss Hudson, although we need to be careful with the generalization of heat. Planets can emit heat, just not in the same way that a star does. Essentially, planets give off light and heat reflected from the Sun. However if the planet has an internal heat source, such as our own, it can give off some heat. But yes, a star has its own light source.”



And that's what the seventeen year old was doing. Thinking. Carefully. With an odd, furrowed browed expression etched on his usually jubilant face. As for the part about stating your name before you answer, Alec was really confused about that but... he... wasn't going to question it. So, he raised his hand in the air, his grey-blue eyes on the Professor. "Erm... the name's Alec Summers," He knew this, right? They talked about eagles and flying one time when the man was wearing a bright yellow suit. Alec remembered. "And... stars can change properties, yeah? They can become red giants and white dwarves over time but... planets don't really change properties over time." Unless, you know, global warming. But that's not really changing its property, yeah?
“Stellar reference to the life cycle of a star, Mr. Summers!” Airey said with a rather dramatic jump across the classroom towards the boy. Fantastic to know that students were remembering things and able to apply them in the classroom.
Textbook, parchment, quill, ink... Everything was set on the table except for his wand, which was kept inside his robes. The corner of Angeal's mouth twitched at Flamsteed's mention of his pet rock, almost sneering. Yup. This teacher definitely lost a screw or two somewhere in there.

Glad he started the class quickly after that. Angeal lazily supported his cheek against his hand while the other hand was ready to jot down important notes. He had learned about stars and planets back in the muggle school. Stars can't support any life while some planets can. That's one difference he knew, but instead of answering the teacher, he wrote it down on his parchment.
Seeing no hand from the Slytherin, Airey simply passed by his desk. The boy was taking notes, which was perfectly acceptable to the astronomer.
Some mentioned something about light and that reminded her. She raised her hand, "Regarding temperature, a star is hotter than a planet." She simply answered.
“Very good, Miss Somerlad,” Airey grinned, giving her two thumbs up as well. “Stars are indeed much higher in temperature than a planet.”
.... what? Flammy was giving him odd looks. So was Sarah for that matter. She got a smile and the professor got a nod and then he stuck his hand up to answer.

"Its always daytime 'on' a star." He said, keeping it nice and simple, and surrounding the word on with air quotations. He didn't literally mean ON a star. Like... it wasn't as if people could live there. But hypothetically, if you were there it'd be day. Because of all the light and not being cast in shadow and all that.
Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. Airey grinned and nodded his head at Mr. Odessa. “A very unique answer, Mr. Odessa, but quite correct.”

Asher thought for a moment before raising his hand. "Professor, I think that stars are much hotter than planets. That is why they are bright and warm. Oh, and I'm Asher. Asher Stinson."

He believed his answer to be a good one. It did explain why they could see the sun during the day. At least he was fairly sure the sun was a star. It wasn't a planet, so that left stars.
See, Airey really should have provided them with nametags because he was feeling ridiculous having all these students he already knew say their name. Oh well. Too late now.

“Yes, very good Mr. Stinson,” he nodded.


Regardless, she felt that she needed to make some sort of effort. The Wandmaker guy had said she needed to be really good at Astronomy, so it was probably best to get on the professor's good side early on. She thought about all the times she had been stargazing. Well... she thought of something that might have made a little bit of sense, so she shoved her hand in the air. "Sophie Brown, si-... prrrrofessor," she corrected herself, her face contorting as she stopped herself. Why couldn't she call him 'sir'? She called EVERYONE sir. Even some girls, when the opportunity presented itself. "Don't the stars... always move in accordance to one another? I mean, the stars aren't moving - we are, right? - but, from our perspective, like, the stars might appear to shift in the sky, but they'll never be closer to one another 'cause they're... kind of in like fixed points, right? But planets... planets DO move, yeah? And... they can appear closer to each other. But stars can't."

Was she right? Or did she pull that one out of nowhere? She wasn't sure, but she plastered on a sweet smile, awaiting whatever feedback came to her.
Airey’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands together loudly before pointing BOTH index fingers on BOTH his hands at the Ravenclaw. “Excellent, Miss Brown, and an superb summary of last term!” And look at that. She hadn’t even been here! “Stars seem to move to us from our position on Earth because the Earth rotates. However, it should be noted that stars DO in fact move due to gravity. Every object in space moves because of this.What makes movements more noticeable and not is relative. Planets, to compare, are very much closer to the earth than the stars are and therefore their motion around the sun is noticeable as a daily shifting of their relative positions in the sky.”

WHOA.

Why did it suddenly seem like everybody in here knew really in-depth answers to the professor's first question except her? This was the first thought that went through Sophie's head. The second thought was that some girl now had a beard, and the third thought was that she'd earned ten points for it.

MERLIN.

Okay, back on track, Sophie... She hesitantly raised her hand. "Well, we can live on planets, but we don't live on stars," she said. That was as good as it got from a first year who was attending Astronomy for the first time. Was she even going to pass this class?
“Not all planets, but yes, very good. Stars are thousands of degrees hot and it would be virtually impossible to survive those conditions.” Not to mention the whole lack of ground to build a foundation on.

Still with a sad look she listened to what he was saying more and frowned when he asked them a question, and... she knew the answer! Yes, she had learned something during her previous year and now she felt proud about it! She raised her hand and spoke her name, "Sonea Duvessa," the third year old paused and thought about how she could explain what she wanted to say. "A planet has no light of its own, it shines by reflecting the light of the sun and that is the reason why you can see it with a telescope." So, she had given a answer, but if she could she had answered a LOT more questions because this was not the only answer she had for this question...
“Very well put,” Airey nodded to the trouble making Slytherin. Yes, he had heard rumors in the school, but she had yet to be an issue in his class - save for bringing her rat once.

Diffrences between Stars and Planets.. this was easy! she put her hand up and waited to me called on "I'm Ariana Logan." though he did know her name, but he asked to say names sooo.. And a difference between a star and a planet is that like stars are masses of hot gas that shine their own light cause nuclear something while a planet is a large earth-like body that does not have nuclear something....." so she forgot a few words that we;re key, oh well she was still spot on and she remembered that from her book cause she wantd a star of her own you see, so she was kind of fascinated by them.
“Ah, you too are forgetting about gas giants, Miss Logan,” he said with a quick tap of his own nose. “Those are hardly earth-like bodies.”

The difference between a star and planet.. His brows furrowed. Since his OWLs, he only retained so much.. He knew the sun as their closest star and of course the planets.. Not too much though, but enough to raise his hand, "Wade...Potter, sir." Since he didn't mind at all whether people said his full last name or not, he still was a Potter, after all. The family tree in his pocket watch said so. Anyways, with his answer. "Well.. with a star like our sun. We can't stare at it as long as we can with planets." That was true.. right?
“A star IS just like our sun,” he said with a quick wink. He sort of knew what the boy was getting at, but wanted to make sure that there was no confusing. The sun IS a star, alright students? “Although I may have to disagree slightly. Just as Miss Brown mentioned relativity in terms of motion, brightness and one’s ability to stare at a star is the same. You could, for example, stare at Polaris all night and do no damage to your retina, unlike if you were to stare at the sun.”
"Charlotta Czesanka, but please call me Charlie, Professor," Charlie recited, flashing a smile at the Professor. And now, for his question. The difference between planets and stars. Charlie thought she could give a lot of answers to this, but she settled for one, as he asked. "Stars emit their own light, and that's how we see them. Planets, however, don't - we see them as they reflect light from the sun." Or, you know, other stars in different galaxies.

But they weren't studying other galaxies, right?
Airey grinned at the Ravenclaw. “Very good.” And something that several of her classmates had pointed out, but still a very good point.
OH OH OH OH OH

Derry KNEW this. Cause her mam's friend was an astrophysicist and went on and on about stars and stuff... She bounced where she was sat and raised her hand. "Professor, planets orbit around stars, and stars... don't." Was that right? She had no idea now...

She put her hand down again and started scribbling notes in two columns on her paper titled "Stars" and "Planets."
“EXCELLENT!” Airey exclaimed, taking his first leap onto a student’s desk for the term. That had everyone’s attention yes? Oh, and he did make sure not to step on her parchment. The astronomer was considerate like that you see. “Miss Ferrier raises a very important point. By definition, a planet revolves around a star. Otherwise it can't be a planet in the first place.”
Damon raised his hand and with a good amount of clarity attempted to give a reasonable answer "I'm Damon professor" He thought for a moment longer. "I suspect one aspect or difference of a planet vs a star is that a planet probably has a much longer lifespan then a star does. I've noticed stars in effect recycle themselves or totally go away and new ones join their place. So perhaps a lifespan difference." Damon finished giving his answer and listened to the other answers.
Airey gave the Ravenclaw a nod. “While some astronomers may argue the other way, and of course there are exceptions, planets do tend to ‘live’ longer than stars. Our sun, for example, is estimated to be 4.57 billions years old while the earth is younger at 4.54 billion years old, but the sun will perish before the earth does.” Cue a small sideways glance toward Miss Wisteria. Too morbid? He was working on his bedside manner this time.
Hehe.

His pet rock was missing.

Anyway...

Astronomy was okay, apart from all the talking that came from Professor Flamsteed. Professor-talk-a-lot. Today was no different, but at least the first question was a simple one. Theo raised his hand, not bothering to say his name because PLEASE, this guy should know Theodore Kinsley by now. "You can live on a planet and not a star." Well... "Most planets, anyway..." He paused and tapped his chin, "I think."
“And you think correctly,” Airey replied while giving the prefect two thumbs up.
What?! Wheatborn was GETTING points?!!!? How did that even make sense?

Anyway, moving on. To the difference between planets and stars. Er. Everyone was already saying the stuff that Sky had thought of first. Because, of course. Time to think a little deeper into the subject, then. "Some planets can substain life, while stars are too hot to do so." Wouldn't that be cool, though? Living on a star.
“Right you are,” Airey nodded at the Slytherin.
The difference between a star and a planet. Hopefully this time Airey wasn't looking for a specific answer but just any general ideas that came into his students head's. An hopefully Tag would have a decent one. Slowly raising his hand Tag spoke "Aren't stars a bit more definite in knowing its a star while scientists have had controversy over deciding if a planet is truly a planet depending on its environment and the such?"
Airey had to pause here for a moment to go over Mr. Kildare’s answer in his head. It SEEMED as though the boy was implying that stars were self aware, but as the boy continued speaking it became clear what he meant. “You must be referring to the definition of what classifies as a star and what classifies as a planet yes? By extension the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet?” Airey paused for just a moment. “As human capabilities to explore space evolve, new discoveries will be made and what once was seen as fact may in fact need to be re-evaluated.”

Blinking at the question and took a moment to think. Mummy really liked Astronomy, so he actually knew quite a lot about it. This fact pleased him, and he raised his hand. "Benzi," he stated, "they're made different. Iss'ike, there's space clouds and they make stars but planets are made up of the leftovers... Kinda like orange juice, when you squeeze it the juice stuff comes out and that's the good bit and then the bits from the orange come and those just sorta float around. But they float around INSIDE the juice and planets don't go around wonderin' inside the star. But yeah, they're made different."

Cue PROUD GRIN. This would be going in this week's letter home. He'd tell Mummy, and she's be really pleased and everything will be great.
While the orange juice comparison may not have made much sense to Mr. Benzi’s classmates, Airey caught the boy’s drift. “Excellently put,” he said, giving a quick nod towards Mr. Summers who had mentioned stellar evolution earlier.
Minnie could totally rock a beard, just saying. Ella did feel bad, though. The older badger had been through things and was probably not up for being an example at the moment. Airey seemed to realize she was upset, though, and generously gave her points which was nice of him. Thumbs up, Airey-face.

As for the difference between planets and stars, Ella could think of a few. Surely their temperature and light and things like that. She also couldn't help but thing of the quantity difference. "There are way more stars up there than planets." Way, wayyyy more.
Simple, but very true. “A very good point, Miss Ella,” he nodded with a smile. Leave it to students to help him forget about his woes.

Anyway, though, for now the Prefect would be good and answer the question. He raised his hand, not bothering to announce his name because Flamsteed had just addressed him. "Planets have a revolution around a star, because a star's gravity is much higher than a planet's, which keeps the planet sort of... tied to its star in an elliptical orbit." Yeah?
Sorry to be Professor You-Know-What, Mr. Keller. But thank you for being a good sport and keeping your hands to yourself. Several dozen awesome points to you.

“Very good point, Mr. Keller,” Airey nodded. He would have also jumped on the prefect’s desk, but he had just done to earlier, so instead Airey threw both arms high up in the air as though he were on one of those muggle rolling coasters. “Elliptical orbits are key in defining a planet.”


Okay. Maybe he should pay better attention now. He heard what his new classmates had to say. Geez. They were all smarty pants. He preferred the short and quick answers though, so he scribbled those down. Something his dad told him about planets and stars popped into his head. He wasn't done writing, but he still raised his hand. Wait...wait...there. "Lucian Blackwell," he said, "Planets are big enough to have their own gravity whereas stars are held and given their shape by their own gravity." Lucian rubbed the back of his neck. That sounded a lot better in his head. Promise.
Hmmm, this one was on to something, but Airey felt the need to clarify a few things. “All of the planets, the stars and the moons of the universe have gravity. Even our own bodies have gravity. Everything is held together BY gravity. Gravity is simply a force of attraction between two objects.”

"Forrest Charlton, Professor!" His hand was in the air. The man already knew his name, but he'd asked and Forrest wasn't going to deny his favourite professor. "Stars are always very hot, but planets' temperature depends on the distance to the closest star and their atmosphere."
“Very good, Mr. Charlton,” Airey said while giving the Hufflepuff an encouraging nod. Hopefully by now students had caught on that heat was an important differentiating factor between the two.

Wait. Only one way? Tora could think of a million probably. Let's see. Which one would most other people not know? She had spent most of the summer reading up on Astronomy, her favorite subject, and was now even more glad that she had. She thought for a little bit, searching her memory for something fun to say when she had it! It was something that she was mostly sure was correct, not something she had actually read, but something she had deduced to be true. Here was the perfect place to test that deduction. She raised her hand and said, "A star gives off energy, but a planet does not. I guess this commonly comes in the form of light but it could also mean solar waves and stuff." she smiled a little. Ahh she loved space! It just put her in one the the best moods! Then she remembered the second part of Professor's question. "I'm Tora Gallaway, Second year, Ravenclaw." added on quickly.
“Excellent, Miss Gallaway!” he grinned at the second year. She was hinting at other factors that would not be covered today, but still valid points nonetheless.

"A Planet has an orbiting Moon"

Now the question was what has in that red bag. To cause Min to get the green beard.
“Ah, not entirely correct I’m afraid. Venus and Mercury are the only planets that do not have moons and there are, in fact, some asteroids that have moons,” he corrected.

"Hello Professor Airey!" BEAAAAAAAM. She was excited okay? "I'm Fairy Abbi Campi..And! And! Your question." She paused for a second with a head scratch. "Planets starts with the letter P! and Stars start with the letter S! Also Stars shine VERY brightly at night and Professor, I'm sorry about your pet. Had she spoken enough? Not really, no. Could she have answered better? Yes. But heeey these people knew what she did already. Like she totally knew there were more stars than planets. Psshht. Mind reading witches.
Fairy? That was certainly an interesting first name. Chuckling at her initial answer, Airey was listened as she listed some more differences. Er, he had just asked for one. “Actually, stars are shining bright ALL the time, Miss Campi. It is just that the sun’s light is so bright that it outshines the other stars during the day.”
Planets and Stars! Awesome! Adi liked stars. So, erm one difference? Surrre. Adi raised his left hand. "Aditya Rehman,'' he said slowly and carefully to the Professor. It was certainly not Eddie Redmen, even though he found it quite funny. " Urrrn, stars twinkle. Planets don't do that, I think.''
“Very good, Mr. Rainman,” Airey applauded, once again mistaking the poor boy’s name for whatever reason.

Józsua sat and listened to the other kids and then raised his hand. “Józsua Istvan, Professor. A star has its own light; a planet doesn't have light of it's own. Shines by reflecting the light of the sun.”
“Two thumbs up for your answer, Mr. Istvan,” Airey said, doing just that.


SPEAKING OF .. it was learning time and answering question time. First, though, she needed to think of an answer to said question. The difference between a star and a planet? Well, she was living on one and not on the other, but she didn't think that was what he meant. UMMM. She quickly snuck a look in her massive textbook which she hadn't properly read yet. "Bristol Haigh, Sir." That was her name done, hehe. "Plaaaaanets have low temperatures, in comparison to staaaaaars."

Correct? If not - blame the textbook.

Or her reading skills.
“More thumbs up for you, Miss Haigh!”

Taylor raised her hand, "Taylor McIntyre, Professor." She smiled then tilted her head, looking at him. "Stars generate light but planets don't, right?" Tay was pretty sure that she was right but she wasn't sure. Taylor fiddled with the quill that was in her hands, waiting to see what the professor would say as well as waiting to hear what everyone else says about planets and stars. She thought the professor made the class fun so she didn't mind paying attention... though being in Ravenclaw, you kind of are expected to pay attention 100% of the time.
“Right you are! Planets can reflect light, but cannot create it themselves,” he nodded.

Listen to Professor Flamsteed start class she couldn't help but still feel mortified, but tried to push past it and raised her hand. With a shaky and quiet voice she answered. "Minerva Wheatborn" which he knew of course, "Stars undergo nuclear reactions that burn hydrogen in their cores, where plants do not do this." She had been reading a little bit this summer to hopefully continue doing better in the class.
Well, if she was against the idea he could always take them back, but it was time to put green beards aside for now. Airey tried not to make eye contact with the prefect because he was terrified of tears, but he still heard her answer loud and clear. “Yes, very good and a good reminder to the class about what happened during the main sequence stage of stellar evolution.” That was a little reminder to those of you in OWL and NEWT years. Review was the ticket!

When he finally got an answer ready, he raised his hand. "Kace Lecium." he stated his name. He hoped he remembered him. "Professor the difference between the stars and planets are their size. I mean when you look into the sky they seem SOO tiny. But when you see planets they seem huge!" he nodded. He gave the answer his best shot.
Airey nodded, but ceased nodding as the boy went on. “As a general rule of thumb, stars are much larger than planets. Some stars might be just a bit smaller than the largest gas giants, such as brown dwarfs, but as an example...if it were possible to do you could fit 1.3 million earth's inside the sun.”


Now that class had started, Christopher was surprised, yet again, to find that he actually knew the answer the professor's question. Or at least, he thought he did? Raising his hand, he answered a little nervously, "Well the sun is a star...and it's on fire and Earth is a planet...and it's not so...stars are on fire and planets aren't?" He didn't know much about stars that weren't the sun but he felt his answer made perfect sense anyhow.
Doubt thou the stars are fire? Why, yes he did doubt that, very much so. Airey resisted the urge to pinch his nose. “Stars are not on fire, Mr.Stylinson. Not in the sense like when you take a ball of paper and lite it with a match. Stars may seem like they are to the average person because of the thermonuclear reaction occurring at their core.” Besides, wasn’t the roof supposed to be on fire?

The roof. The roof. The roof is on FIRE!

Airey actually sang this little bit in his head and did a little dance while doing so. Shame the music was entirely in his head, however.
Laura looked at the Professor and smiled. "A planet can have someone living on it, where as I don't think anyone could live on a star." Laura hadn't heard of there being life on a star.
Airey was still raising the roof when Miss Hyde answered. He gave her a reassuring nod and a salute

"When considering stargazing...," yes, this was necessary to point out, "...given the reactions happening within its core, the stars appear to twinkle...," APPEAR, OKAY? APPEAR, BUT THEY DO NOT TWINKLE, "...whereas planet do NOT," since they don't emit their own light and only reflect others'.

So, fixed lights equals planets, twinkle lights equals stars. Also, was the sun being on fire a metaphor for high temperature? If so, then awesome!
Airey gave Miss Wisteria an extra wide grin. “Excellent, Miss Wisteria. Planets do not twinkle in the night sky mostly because their location in proximity to the earth is much closer than the stars.”

"Well, first off, I'm Caleb Newell, Professor," he said. Yeah, memorize that name Professor. Newell will be a name of GREAT IMPORTANCE once again! "And one difference between a planet and a star is that stars can actually die. Like one day they're just burning out there, chillin in the solar system and living their star life, and then they just explode. Sometimes the explosion is so crazy, it makes a BLACK HOLE," he said, emphasizing his voice to show just how AWESOME that was.

And he was pretty positive planets didn't do that. If they did, it was news to him.
Wait. Newell? He had heard that name before…. His eyes darted around the room briefly until they fell on the other Slytherin first year. Coincidence? He thought not, but would not say anything about this. He knew how much one of his classmates in school hated being referred to as “the brother” when he was his own person.

ANYWAY! Back to the boy’s answer.. Ah yes, the dying bit again. “As I said earlier, a planet CAN be described as dead, but in the terms that we are discussing you are correct. Certainly no planet will be exploding or turning into a black hole like some stars do.”

She listened intently and then gave the question some small thought. Small because before she could think upon it anymore her hand shot up in the air and she said, "Stars eventually fade, or die." It was a simple answer and she felt silly for giving it. Wasn't it an accurate answer to begin with. Stars did eventually flare out but did planets die some how?
And this Gryffindor was along the same line of thought, so he gave her a smile and a nod. “There is a bit more too it than that, but simply review the chapter in your textbook on stellar evolution.” Seeing as he did not want to go into the entire lifecycle of a star right now. Not enough time to cover all that again.


Oh hey, she'd thought of something. Maybe. Sorta. So her hand was raised. "You already know my name, professor." Or he SHOULD by now, at least. He usually cheered for her at Quidditch games, and he surely hadn't forgotten it over the summer. So she didn't need to repeat it for him, did she? "But anyway, I guess another difference between planets and stars is that we can use stars to tell directions and stuff, but we don't really use planets for that. Like with Polaris, it's three stars and we can use it to find which way is north, and constellations kinda help find it too, but we don't really have a constellation of planets or a planet Polaris to do that with." If that made sense.
Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. “Very good, Miss Greenwell,” Airey applauded. He really appreciated these out of the box and in reference to other terms’ lessons ways of thinking.

She raised her hand. "When you look at a planet with a telescope, you get more detail." Of course, that didn't just apply to planets, since the same thing happened when you looked at the moon. "When you look at stars, you can see like... fuzzy rings. They're called... Airy...s? I think. Airy disks." That sounded right.
Heh. One of his personal favorite little astronomy vocabulary words right there. “Excellent, Miss Phillips,” he nodded while making a mental note about something to himself. They would not be discussing Airy disks today, however, but it was a good term for students to know.
"I'm Alice, but I'm also brilliant, and you can call me either one." Hand UP, standing, and fingers wiggling. "And I know one of the differences between stars and planets is how they're formed."

Elaboration? Yes?

"You know how stars have disks, professor? I think planets form when the materials in one of those condense around a rock core. Rock. Right? Rock. Or maybe ice. Or maybe both." HE was the expert, he knew. "But stars form when a gas cloud collapses in an interstellar region, like a nebula or something, 'cause of gravity."

Now questions. As usual, Alice had them. "Know how we made a star-in-a-jar, prof? Can we make a planet-in-a-jar? Also, I want a beard like Min, can I stick my head in the bag too?" Would she get house points? Hmm?

She'd give poor Aireyhead a couple seconds to answer before she started rapid firing again.
Er….right, Miss Fischer. He was not going to be calling her brilliant, but perhaps he could call her answer as such one of these days. “Both, Miss Fischer. Terrestrial planets form gases condensing into rocky particles while Jovian planets form from gases condensing into icy particles.” Although it was not his intention to talk about planet formations today. Another day another lesson for all that.

Before he could elaborate further, she was, in true Miss Fischer fashion, rattling off questions left and right. “Not today, no,” he said shaking his head. And...wait...she wanted to stick her head in the bag and get a beard. “Um...well...if you really want one I suppose you can…” Was he going to have an entire class filled with green bearded students? Sweet solstice whatever would the Headmistress think of him then?

Eh, probably the same. That he was loonier than a Seer who had heard a fwooper’s song.

Speaking of... Mo raised his hand too, although he managed to avoid finger-wiggling. "Professor... I'm Marcus Branxton." And he sort of modeled his head a little to show there weren't any roller brushes stuck there. He and Flamsteed were acquainted. "I was thinking that a difference between stars and planets is that planets are really formed by stars, if you think about it. Like as a result of them. Whereas stars are not reliant on planets for their creation."
“That is very interesting, Mr. Branxton,” Airey nodded with great interest. “Would you care to elaborate a bit further on this?”

He snapped back from his thoughts when he heard the professor ask a question. The difference between planets and stars? He knew this. The boy shot up his hand and then cleared his throat. "Dylan Callaghan," he quickly introduced himself. "And well....erm...stars emit light from nuclear reactions in their core, while planets shine only from reflections. So, in other words, stars create light on their own but planets don't." he gave a firm nod all smart-like. 'Cause he was quite smart on this subject, he had studied it a little bit about a year ago when he got curious about it.
Nod nod. Yes. Correct. Excellent. “Very good,” he said, giving the Hufflepuff a quick thumbs up before moving on.

She vaguely heard something about hubris and a question about planets and stars, but her mind was still on humiliating punishments and she bit her lip.A little worried that something would happen if she failed to give an answer, the 16 year old raised her hand, then stood when she was called upon. "Claudette d'Avignon, sir.. I mean, Professor sir.. er.. Professor.." The earlier spectacle and her thoughts on it had gotten her so flustered, and her cheeks burned bright pink in her embarrassment. She did remember him saying something about not calling him sir.. oops. Hopefully there were no consequences. Taking a deep breath, she provided her answer. "Planets revolve around stars.. and not the other way around.. I think." Quickly she sat down and averted her eyes.. moving on, please?
“YES!” Airey exclaimed. “This is a very key thing.” Were you listening, Mr. Kildare? It had been said several times now. Planets revolve AROUND stars. Arouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuund.

"My name is Vesper Bayliss." BLUSH. "........Stars are classified by astronomers based on their surface temperature...and planets are classified by whether they orbit the sun or not, mass and self-gravity that makes it a...sphere?, and whether they can complete a full orbit..." Or....you know, she'd read that somewhere. She could have been wrong.

Vesper slowly shrunk down and hid behind her hair.
She was blushing. Why was she blushing? If there was something that made him nearly as awkward as tears it was blushing. Just going to wiggle our way over this a way while we listen to you speak, Miss Bayliss.

He nodded his head after she answered. What she said was true, but the differences in classification had not been the direction he had intended thinking to go. “Very good, Miss Bayliss,” he nodded with a smile.
"Im Nerida Eventide." Again purely only for everybody else's benefit because he knew her....And Sky the cat that gave him a fright!" "Stars' relative positions do not under go any noticeable change while planets' positions are noticeable because they are much closer to the Earth than the stars are, so we are able to notice their position moving around the sun."
Airey nodded at the Ravenclaw slowly. “Yes, very good Miss Eventide.”

After she'd heard far too many answers from the students around her, Eliza raised her hand and rambled out whatever she thought of first. "Professor, oh...well I'm Eliza Dawnsel, for starters, but you know that...Er, well, anyway. So, planets are different from stars because they have all of these interesting landforms and terrains - but that's not to a star's discredit really, because they just can't have those neat surfaces because well, they don't have surfaces." She knew someone had said something similar, but darn it all, that was what she'd wanted to say too.
“Ah, but can you say that planets like Jupiter also have landforms and terrains?” he asked with a quick wink.


"Michael Toussaint." he announced with his hand rased high in the air. "The only difference I can think of is when you hit your head on something you usually see stars and not planets." Because seeing planets would be just stupid.
Pause. Laugh obnoxiously loudly. “Yes, yes, very good Mr. Toussaint. Very true as well. Although I sometimes see orbiting planets when I am whacked over the head.” Stars tended to be the norm, though. Occasionally spaceships too.


"Well... stars have their own light and twinkle by themselves... planets don't" well that couldn't have been more obvious but she figured that she tried...

And that was all anyone could ask for!


“Ah, but a star cannot twinkle without the assistance of the earth’s layers of turbulent air,” he said with a smile. “You are right though. Planets do not twinkle.”
Brodie looked at Minnie, actually feeling a little bad for her... then the professor asked about the differences... "Brodie Livingston Professor." He raised his hand. Brodie paused, it was Vince's favorite subject, he had to pick something up from his friend, "The basic difference between a star and a planet is that a star emits light produced by a nuclear reaction in its core, whereas a planet only shines by reflected light." Right? He was pretty sure it was true. He hoped it would be. Otherwise he'd probably be seen as a fool. So please be right...
“Yes yes, very good, Mr. Livingston.”

Silently, Ascanius answered, Planets are one of two types: gaseous or rocky. While stars are only one type and every star makes up it's own system. Case and point? The SOL, our sun, is the centre of our system...the solar system.. But the only thing he said out loud was this, "Ascanius Stark."
……………….yes. Hello to you too, Mr. Stark.

Stepping to the left side of the board, Airey nodding his head approvingly of the list they had composed.

STARS

A star emits its own light
Stars twinkle
The relative positions of the stars do not undergo any noticeable change
Since the stars are very far away, the telescope can only make them look brighter but not larger
A star has very high temperature
There are billions of stars in the celestial sphere
Stars can go supernova *BOOM*
Always day on the "surface" of a star.
Stars do not orbit planets.
Life is not possible on stars.
When you get hit over the head you see stars

PLANETS

A planet has no light of its own. It shines by reflecting the light of a star.
Planets do not twinkle.
Since planets are very much closer to the earth than the stars are, their motion around the sun is noticeable as a daily shifting of their relative positions in the sky.
Planets have low temperatures.
Planets do not go [b]BOOM[/s] supernova
Planets have day & night
Planets orbit stars.
Life is possible on planets.
There are only eight planets in the solar system.

Planets are not included in constellations.



OOC: I'm sorry that this is not everyone's answers, but you all are awesome and gave great responses <33

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.

[TakemetotheBurrow]

Ella gave Professor Airey a beamy-beam because reasons and continued taking down the other things that her classmates were suggesting. Or well, most of the things. That was probably mean, right?

Then it was time for more questions and the blonde sat up a little straighter, listening intently. She liked stars lots and stargazing even more. No worries, though. She knew the rule about the Astronomy Tower, professor. She always kept that in mind. Heh.

As for the big dramatic 'WHAT,' the blonde smiled and called out, "The sun, Professor?"

And nope, no beard for Ella. She would totally doodle her classmates with beards, though. That could be fun.

[feeheeheeny]

Airey’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands together loudly before pointing BOTH index fingers on BOTH his hands at the Ravenclaw. “Excellent, Miss Brown, and an superb summary of last term!” And look at that. She hadn’t even been here! “Stars seem to move to us from our position on Earth because the Earth rotates. However, it should be noted that stars DO in fact move due to gravity. Every object in space moves because of this.What makes movements more noticeable and not is relative. Planets, to compare, are very much closer to the earth than the stars are and therefore their motion around the sun is noticeable as a daily shifting of their relative positions in the sky.”

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.
Oh. So she was... partially correct? Sophie scribbled down everything Airey was saying and murmured a gentle, slightly heartbroken "oh" after Airey corrected her details. Well. That was cool, then. "Cool. Good to know. Thanks." At least her answer hadn't been completely out there. The professor seemed mildly pleased with her. That was encouraging.

At the professor's following ramblings, Sophie continued to make quick notes on her parchment, noting how passionate and... positively enthusiastic this guy was about his planets and stars. Funny guy. When he built suspense with a questioning of what, Sophie halfway raised a lazy hand and assumed, "The sun?" That made sense, yeah? It was the biggest thing in the sky compared to the other stars that were just specks.

She wanted a beard, too. She did. She thought about it for a second, envisioning herself going up there and donning a cool beard, then... decided maybe she'd ask if she could get one after class. That'd be more fun and then she wouldn't have to deal with the distraction of stroking the beard while she was supposed to be learning.

[slytherus]

As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

Now twirling the quill between his index and middle fingers, Angeal's eyes simply followed the teacher as he walked around the classroom, with a few brief moments to look at the blackboard to write down his notes. And when Flamsteed raised his voice, the boy startled and dropped his quill. Good thing it was just a quill. Too light to make a noise that will attract unwanted attentions...

"The sun," muttered the Slytherin under his breath, playfully stroking the feather of his quill. His fidgeting didn't stop even when the teacher somehow suggested(?) them to take a peek into the bag which gave a girl a green beard earlier. Curious as he was, he wouldn't dare to do it. His Slytherin pride would be hurt too much.

[Kimothy]

“Good, Miss Hudson, although we need to be careful with the generalization of heat. Planets can emit heat, just not in the same way that a star does. Essentially, planets give off light and heat reflected from the Sun. However if the planet has an internal heat source, such as our own, it can give off some heat. But yes, a star has its own light source.”

...

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.

Yes, Kat knew that the planets also give off heat. Cause they say the core is just really really hot and found in the middle of the Earth. They have the crust, the mantle, and the core. But that wasn't exactly what they were going to learn today. It was more on stars and planets, but what Professor Flamsteed said has been duly noted. Kat nodded a few times and then scribbled it down on her parchment.

What made Kat look up from her parchment and writing was when she heard that loud 'WHAT?' from her Astronomy professor. Merlin, Flammy, did it have to be that loud? But she knew the answer obviously. Kat raised her hand to answer the question. "It's the sun, Professor." Simple as that.

... Although Kat wanted to know what was inside the bag. Yep. But curiosity got the best of Minerva Wheatborn so, no, she wasn't going to risk even if the charms and spells have been lifted. Safety precautions and stuff. Kat wouldn't look good with a green beard anyway. It was hairy... and just gross. So no, thanks.

[bitsyandtank]

He was thrilled that his answer was correct. He puffed his chest out a bit and sat straight up in his chair to take the notes on the board.

He looked up when Professor Airey asked the next question. "I believe it's the sun." Yes, the sun. It had to be. It was bright, hot, and very easy to see. None other was bigger in the sky.

[MudInMyBlood]

Ok so sometimes planets could be bigger than stars. Fine! She was still almost completely right and that definitely counted for something, in her head anyways. She jotted down notes as the professor went about and explained stars and planets and blah, blah, blah. She knew that she would have to rely on them later because there was no way she would remember all of this later. Sigh.

The closest star. Oh, she knew this one, but apparently so did everybody else. She raised her hand anyways. "Like everybody else has already said... the closest star is the sun." So bright and shiny-ish.

If anybody else wanted a beard? Who would possibly want that? No thanks, she didn't really care what was in his stupid bag anyways. It was most likely lame anyways so PFFFFT!

[natekka]

“More thumbs up for you, Miss Haigh!”

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

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

See that? SHE got a thumbs up for her answer. Thank you very much textbook. It wasn't all down to the next book, though, obviously. She'd been the one to decide to use it, so therefore it was all on her. The textbook was just a mere tool. Professor Flamsteed clearly noticed her awesome and she grinned back in response. And no, Sir, she would NOT having a beard, thank you. Though she'd totes look snazzy in one.

The closest star to the Earth?

SHE KNEW THAT.

Her hand went straight up, but she was beaten to it by others. That didn't put her off and she kept her hand firmly in the air until it was her turn to speak. "The SUN." Peek in textbook. "It's about 8 light minutes away, Sir," she told him, grinning, nodding and just trying to look like she knew what she was saying. How did peoples cram all of this stuff in their brains without exploding, was what she wanted to know. Especially useless information like this.

[Expecto-Penguin]

Airey nodded, but ceased nodding as the boy went on. “As a general rule of thumb, stars are much larger than planets. Some stars might be just a bit smaller than the largest gas giants, such as brown dwarfs, but as an example...if it were possible to do you could fit 1.3 million earth's inside the sun.”

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.


As Professor Airey was explaining to him the answer he gave, he copied it down into his notes. It was good information to know. Then he asked a question that he could not answer but it was good to think about. He didn't have an answer but thankfully he moved on.

Then he returned to the class and asked another question. Kace thought of i, what is one star that is close to the earth? Kace thought about it and then it came. DING! He raised his hand, "Professor i know that the Sun is close to earth but i never knew it was a star." he told him earnestly.

[Harron Peasley]

Smiling in relief as the Professor spoke and reassured her that her point was valid, Charlie began to copy down the answers that other students were shouting out. Which were MANY. She stifled a giggle as he jumped onto a students desk, deciding that maybe she'd actually LIKE Astronomy this year.

AND next question.

Charlies hand rose into the air hesitantly before she spoke. "The Sun is the closest star to us - about 150,000,000 kilometres away." And she was so annoyed that she could only remember an approxiation of an approximation. Hadn't her father drilled her on this last year?

[JustAlice]

Derry almost jumped out of her skin...

ALERT
ALERT
ALERT

HE WAS ON HER DESK

THE TEACHER WAS ON HER DESK

FINGERS MAY BE TRAPPED.

She grabbed her quill and flailed a little bit, falling backwards out of her chair and squeaking. "Professooooor!!!"

People shouldn't DO that.

She was a jumpy enough person as it was.

And she was half stuck in her chair. Jeeeeeez. Clumsy Derry.

[Team ronmione]

Sigh. Tag looked at all his classmates and the other students who seemed to be answering with The Sun being the closest star to earth. But he wasn't going to answer, everyone else seemed to be handling that part.

But they were talking about the sun so that made Tag crack a small smile.

Still though...

Sorry Professor Airey, Tag felt like he wasn't smart enough to be answering these questions just so he could be embarrassing himself, like last time. Oh well. Tag simply nodded at all the answers.

[Talikins]

Ohhhhh. That was interesting. The stars always shined. Something new she had learned already. See her brain could absorb things very quickly! Clever fairies were clever! Yep! Yep!

BLINK.

Would you look at that list on the board? So full. With her small eyes, the eleven year old just looked. But was she expected to write it down? Cause she would if she were given the instruction to do so, but considering she was not given the instruction she just read over it and focused back on the Star of the show!

SHE KNEW THIS ONE! SHE....Awww man! Someone had answered before her. She could still feel clever though, or wanted to therefore she put her hand up anyways. "THE SUN!" Beam. She had learned that at her previous school.

As the name Miss Fischer was mentioned, the strawberry blonde's hair swerved to look at the biter. Giggle. Sort. Why would she want a beard? Santa wore beards NOT girls. Pshhhht. Silleh.

[aaetha]

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"The Sun," Adrienne droned, not even bothering to raise her hand since everyone was saying the exact same thing at almost the same time. It was incredibly obvious, and she didn't know why professor Flamsteed was so excited. It was just the sun, not much of a big deal, no? She knew the basics: it was a star, a yellow dwarf to be precise, the Earth orbited around it, et cetera. There had to be more to Astronomy than stars, which was pretty much all they'd studied last year, too...

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

On the one hand, Adrienne really wanted a beard. On the other, she had exactly zero desire to stand up right now, so she debated it furiously in her head for a moment before deciding it wasn't worth it and she may as well just stay slumped in her chair lazily. She would watch other people get beards and, through them, feel the satisfaction of beardiness.

[Emzily]

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

NICE, his answer made the board.

When he shouted the next question, Theo was all confused and nervous and he shouted back. "THE NORTH STAR."

No, no, that was WRONG.

He lowered his head in shame.

[GrapehSarah]

Adelaide had quickly grabbed a seat near the front of the room once the professor had answered her question. She giggled at the green beard the Hufflepuff prefect had earned. She listened to the first question and was about to raise her hand to answer, when everyone else did so.

She thought against it because it seemed everyone else in the class had seemed to touch on the subject. Sigh. Adelaide eyed the bag. There was no way she wanted one of those beards on her face. Nope. No touching the bag for her.

Adelaide quickly raised her hand to answer the question, even though others had done so before her. "The closest star is the sun." Obviously. Not to mention how that had been drilled into her brain from muggle school.

[Bazinga]

Mienrva just rolled her eyes as people actually wanted the stupid green beard. She slid down in her chair and tried to listen to the lesson. They were there to learn not grow beards. Trying to get back into the lesson Minerva smiled a bit as he said she was correct and pointed out part of her answer. See she was trying to study better with this class.

As she heard the next questions Minerva went to raise her hand like she always did, but others were blurting out the answer. Well the way he asked it she guessed it sounded as if people just were to say. "The sun" She said quickly not to be the last one to speak. Oh was that why they were having class during the day, because of the sun.. Light bulb moment there Minerva.. really..

[Sonea]

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.


Ha! She had it right! She knew it! She was really proud about herself now, especially because she knew that she wouldn't had been able to answer this question during her second year! She had become better in this lesson! Still smiling she noted all the other answers, hoping that she could use them later if she needed them again during this lesson, she had a suspicion that this lesson would become REALLY difficult later this year, so she needed all the information she could get!

Oh, a next question! Looking interested at the professor she listened to what he was telling and... YES, she knew the answer, she had read about it and she was convinced that she was right about her answer, but... sadly, she was remembering it wrong... She stood up and raised her hand, but because she wasn't sure if she still needed to introduce herself she did it again. "Sonea Duvessa, third year... And my answer is... the Alpha Centauri star!!!" She smiled proud and sat down again, totally convinced that she had given AGAIN a good answer.

But than, she looked at the bag and wondered what was inside of it, but at the same time she didn't wanted to look because she was too pretty to have a green beard! Green was not her color, but if the beard had been pink THAN it would be a REALLY different story!

[Deezerz]

The professor seemed so excited to ask his next question it was a little contagious. Enthused, Lucian raised his hand so fast it blew a small breeze on the side of his head. "The sun!" That big orange-yellow ball of light that reminded him of an egg yolk was the closest star to Earth, no? If not then he'd been lied for for years. And he'd sooooo blame it on Bridge.

[oh its Erik ok]

Derry almost jumped out of her skin...

ALERT
ALERT
ALERT

HE WAS ON HER DESK

THE TEACHER WAS ON HER DESK

FINGERS MAY BE TRAPPED.

She grabbed her quill and flailed a little bit, falling backwards out of her chair and squeaking. "Professooooor!!!"

People shouldn't DO that.

She was a jumpy enough person as it was.

And she was half stuck in her chair. Jeeeeeez. Clumsy Derry.

Well you learn something new everyday. Nigel thought for a moment about joining Alice in getting a green beard. But decided not to for that fact that he was comfortable in his seat. The next question was obvious. So Nigel decided to turn his attention to Derry. Who's desk was occupied by Flamsteed right now.

Wait. Did she just almost fall out of her chair. Nigel could not help, but laugh. Then he asked. "Are you alright, Derry?

Green Beards and people almost falling out of chairs. Now the only thing left to see is Alice with a green beard.

[StarShine]

The SUN!" Forrest roared immediately, hand in the air, when Professor Airey asked "WHAT?".

They could have green beard? COOL. Forrest walked up to the bag and peeked inside. Of course he didn't see anything, but grew a lime green beard instead. He was so pleased with his new beard, HEHE. He turned to class to show how grown up he was, although his beard was lime green, then returned to his seat.

Now he could stroke it throughtfully before answering! This was so cool yo!

[Lissy Longbottom]

While Caleb was totally pro-beard, he didn't really fancy sporting a LIME GREEN one. He could wait till puberty on this one. So he watched as some of his classmates went up and re-emerged from the bag with the beards, and he chuckled to himself. This professor dude was pretty cool. He had a feeling he was going to like Astronomy.

Ok, so, onto the next question. Caleb actually knew this one! He'd been skimming his Astronomy book before class, and who knew the little bits he'd read would actually come in HANDY? He raised his hand with excitement.

"The closest star to planet Earth is the sun, but if for some reason you're not counting the sun as a star, which some crazy people DON'T, then the next nearest star is Proxima Centauri," he explained. The only reason he remembered that was because of "Proxima" which meant "close" or something right?

[Danielle_Daughn]

Mack's hand shot up.

"Professor, e closest star is Proxima Centauri" the young girl beamed but quickly bit her lip before shouting out more information on the star, just in case that was the professors next question.

Mackenzie wanted to tell Airey that Proxima Centauri was 4.2 light years away from the Earth as well.

[JustAlice]

Well you learn something new everyday. Nigel thought for a moment about joining Alice in getting a green beard. But decided not to for that fact that he was comfortable in his seat. The next question was obvious. So Nigel decided to turn his attention to Derry. Who's desk was occupied by Flamsteed right now.

Wait. Did she just almost fall out of her chair. Nigel could not help, but laugh. Then he asked. "Are you alright, Derry?

Green Beards and people almost falling out of chairs. Now the only thing left to see is Alice with a green beard.

Derry was ON THE GROUND and NOBODY WAS HELPING HER!!! She flailed her legs until they came free of the chair and she fell out. Okay. Now she wasn't stuck anymore.

But theeeen somebody had to go and notice. It was only Nigel though, she liked Nigel, he was great. "I uhh... I'm okay I think..." she said, standing up and brushing herself down before righting her chair and sitting down. "Thanks though."

Okay...

Next question.

[Princesspower]

“Ah, a common misconception, Miss Edwards. You are forgetting about the gas giants, such as Jupiter, that are planets without any solid metals or rock. You would not be able to walk normally on these either.” So no. Not a difference, but a good try.

Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. Airey grinned and nodded his head at Mr. Odessa. “A very unique answer, Mr. Odessa, but quite correct.”

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

[/FONT][/COLOR]
Sarah sort of expected that as she had not reall thought about the answer. Upon hearing what West said and the professor's conformation of it Sarah was skeptical, "but isn't always daytime on planets too? On Earth, there was a saying that 'The Sun never sets on the British Empire', as when it was night time in England, it was daytime in its then colony Austrailia. It is always day time somewhere on earth, as the sun has to be shinging somewhere if not on our location"

The closest star? Sarah's hand shot up, "the sun" That was obvious. Unless that was a trick question...

She wanted a beard! She liked playing dress up when she was younger, but a cool beard would be nice. Especially as it was Green. She walked over to the bag, and ignoring her conscience which dictated that one should not look into another's property she looked in. ZAP! She got a nice green beard. "I feel Irish" she remarked. Where was Tag? She wanted to show him her beard!

[FearlessLeader19]

Rainman? Adi nearly snorted out loud with laughter. This professor was amusing him non stop with his thumbs ups, leaps and applause. He sure was cool! He didn't mid the incorrect names but he did want the suited man to get it correct at some point.

Closest planet to Earth? Oh oh oh! He knew this! His dad had been watching some booooooring documentary about Earth and he had heard the mention of the....SUN! Adi quickly raised his hand. "The sun, Professor! And it's pronounced Rehman!'' He grinned, wondering what colourful name he'll be called next.

[Lockhartian]

Airey gave the Ravenclaw a nod. “While some astronomers may argue the other way, and of course there are exceptions, planets do tend to ‘live’ longer than stars. Our sun, for example, is estimated to be 4.57 billions years old while the earth is younger at 4.54 billion years old, but the sun will perish before the earth does.” Cue a small sideways glance toward Miss Wisteria. Too morbid? He was working on his bedside manner this time.

***

Airey gave Miss Wisteria an extra wide grin. “Excellent, Miss Wisteria. Planets do not twinkle in the night sky mostly because their location in proximity to the earth is much closer than the stars.”

Was he planning on painfully remind her that they were all dead anyway and that life didn't actually matter because everything would cease to exist eventually? WE HAVE OUR EYES ON YOU, PROFESSOR FLAMSTEED. We still like you, though, so Lottie just smirked a bit when he glanced at her. Nicely done, Airey.

And that's why we still like him. Excellence and wide grins. So, she nodded and smiled. Yup, she knew that.

NOW. Merlin could he act ANY more excited about this?? The closest star to Earth? The closest star to their solar system was Proxima Centauri, yeah? But the closest star to EARTH was, of course, the sun.

OF COURSE.

Lottie didn't answer, but she nodded at the ones who said the sun. Mostly, she was just smiling to herself and kept her eyes on her desk because... the sun. Why Airey, why? The sun owed her like a million apologies.

[pundantic]

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.


Ascanius scanned the board quickly to see if anyone had given the answer that he had not verbalized. And, just like he had assumed, no one had put any of it down, yeah? Pfft. S'not his fault that he was clever too. See, he wasn't JUST a pretty face, but he was that as well. Ahem.

Anyway, he wasn't going to answer Glitter Trousers properly anyway, so he supposed it wasn't the man's fault. He could go sashay away somewhere else and inform people who cared. Aka, not Ascanius.

Oh, by the way...the answer was sol...OUR sun. It was the only star in this system, Glitter Trousers. Honestly, easy question. It didn't even merit a response, so he wasn't going to get one.

Instead, he just clicked his tongue and leaned back in his seat. Now he was bored and he was going to make a right show of it.

[the fastest seeker]

The snake paid attention to her classmates answers, she knew most and didn't know about others. She jotted some notes on her notebook for easy reference later. She decided to take as many notes as she could during lessons though that might not last very long. For now she was doing so. Besides she found this particular topic interesting. Stars and planets. She liked this, MOAR information please?

Cassia didn't even consider the beard option. Nope, no beard, thank you. As for the question, she knew that one. "The sun is the closest," She answered with the same answer as many others. Though, there were other answers. Cassia waited to hear what the Professor will say the correct one is.

Meanwhile..? Was Derry okay? The snake kinda noticed late but the red-headed seemed to be okay now.

[Weasley174]

Laura seriously didn't want a beard in this lesson, she didn't think it would suit her so she wasn't going to have one, now she had got to sort things out, she was sure the sun was the closed star to the earth but since everyone else was saying that and she wanted to be different and give a clever answer she decided to get it wrong on purpose and go for the second closet star. "The Proxima Centauri?" Laura smiled, she was sure it was wrong but oh well, she had given a clever answer.

[PuppySara]

Okay, that was a simple enough question and everyone seemed to know the answer already, but he raised his hand anyways, "The sun, professor." The big ball in the sky that kept them alive, that was easy... That was one of the first things he'd learned was that the sun was just a big ball of gas that kept everyone and everything alive... without the sun the planet would be consumed in darkness and all life would perish... Yeah, one of the oldest worries of an apocalypse... Not that difficult to know the answer.

[hermionesclone]

His reference to the star evolution was stellar. STELLAR. How AWESOME was that? Alec grinned at the man, especially at the weird jump he had done across the classroom. ... Astro Man... was kind of enthusiastic and jumpy, it seemed. At least, to Alec. Not that he minded. He just sort of... jumped when the man actually jumped on Derry's desk.

He also jumped again when the man had shouted out 'WHAT' so loudly. ... Man, the possibility of sleeping in this man's class was very small.

As for his question... yeah. Sun. Okay. He was going to mentally go along with that answer by nodding his head. He wasn't going to answer, though, since so many people had done so already and, really, Astro Man didn't need the same answer repeated numerous times, yeah? What he did do, though, was scribble down a note of the lists that were on the board. It could be useful someday, yeah? And he kind of wanted to improve his grade in this subject so... yeah. Notes. Being taken.

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

And did he want a beard? ... HMMM...

[Felixir]

DOUBLE THUMBS UP.

TOBY DID GOOD.

He gave a BIG GRIN and watched as the professor did his desk leaping THAAAAAANG which was probably one of his most favourite parts of Astronomy lessons (he aspired to one day give the professor a good enough answer than Airey leapt onto HIS desk... one day). He always kept his fingers, quills and parchment as close to the edge of the desk adjacent to his body, so he was prepared for such leaps.

As for the question, Toby thought that one was eeeeeeeeeasy, but he also thought it COULD be a trick question because it was so easy. A whole BUNCH of people were saying 'the sun', which seemed about right, so he tagged his reasoning on to the end of theirs, hand up in the air.

"... which is why this lesson isn't at night." It wasn't a desk-leap-worthy answer, but it had been a pretty standard question. He kind of felt like he had to share his reasoning and how he got to the conclusion that it wasn't a trick question.

Anyway, he was glad to have the lesson in the afternoon. Tobias had a schedule to follow, you know?

[Somnium]

With a quick flick of his wand Airey banished his Missing poster from the blackboard. With another quick flick of his wand he made the words ‘planets’ and ‘stars’ appear on the board written in white chalk with a vertical line dividing the two so that each suggestion students made could appear as a visual aid. He then turned his attention to the class and looked out at the sea of raised hands.

Stellar.

“Very good, Miss Colbert. Stars do indeed have a very high temperature due to two things called nuclear fusion and nucleosynthesis.”

Thinking. Yes, Airey was a fan of this, especially when students were unsure but ventured a guess. While he was, of course pleased that students knew facts that showed they had read, he appreciated it more when students were able to put things into their own words or make new connections all on their own. Like Mr. Tempus was doing right now.

“Excellent thinking, Mr. Tempus,” Airey said while giving the boy two BIG thumbs up. “Planets are not included in constellations and asterism due to their orbits. Would be quite terrible for Draco to be missing part of its tail, yes?”


Airey found himself chuckling quite a bit at Miss Cambridge’s answer. “While planets will not go supernova like a star can, planets too can in fact die, Miss Cambridge.” But this was not something that would be discussed this term. Next term however….heh. “Just as a star undergoes a series of temperature changes until it reaches an equilibrium and has the potential to go supernova, the a planet also exists in an excited state. There are temperature differences between its inner core and surface, weather, plate tectonics...and when these all slow down and eventually reach equilibrium themselves, then a planet with be, by geological standards, dead.”


“Ah, a common misconception, Miss Edwards. You are forgetting about the gas giants, such as Jupiter, that are planets without any solid metals or rock. You would not be able to walk normally on these either.” So no. Not a difference, but a good try.

Aha. Another common misconception. “Actually, Miss Lockwood, there is some overlap between the two. Astronomers will find planets that have a greater diameter than some stars on occasion - mostly giant gas giant planets. However, generally, a star is in fact larger than a planet due to the requirement of a large mass for nuclear fusion to start.”

“Good, Miss Hudson, although we need to be careful with the generalization of heat. Planets can emit heat, just not in the same way that a star does. Essentially, planets give off light and heat reflected from the Sun. However if the planet has an internal heat source, such as our own, it can give off some heat. But yes, a star has its own light source.”


“Stellar reference to the life cycle of a star, Mr. Summers!” Airey said with a rather dramatic jump across the classroom towards the boy. Fantastic to know that students were remembering things and able to apply them in the classroom.

Seeing no hand from the Slytherin, Airey simply passed by his desk. The boy was taking notes, which was perfectly acceptable to the astronomer.

“Very good, Miss Somerlad,” Airey grinned, giving her two thumbs up as well. “Stars are indeed much higher in temperature than a planet.”

Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. Airey grinned and nodded his head at Mr. Odessa. “A very unique answer, Mr. Odessa, but quite correct.”


See, Airey really should have provided them with nametags because he was feeling ridiculous having all these students he already knew say their name. Oh well. Too late now.

“Yes, very good Mr. Stinson,” he nodded.

Airey’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands together loudly before pointing BOTH index fingers on BOTH his hands at the Ravenclaw. “Excellent, Miss Brown, and an superb summary of last term!” And look at that. She hadn’t even been here! “Stars seem to move to us from our position on Earth because the Earth rotates. However, it should be noted that stars DO in fact move due to gravity. Every object in space moves because of this.What makes movements more noticeable and not is relative. Planets, to compare, are very much closer to the earth than the stars are and therefore their motion around the sun is noticeable as a daily shifting of their relative positions in the sky.”


“Not all planets, but yes, very good. Stars are thousands of degrees hot and it would be virtually impossible to survive those conditions.” Not to mention the whole lack of ground to build a foundation on.

“Very well put,” Airey nodded to the trouble making Slytherin. Yes, he had heard rumors in the school, but she had yet to be an issue in his class - save for bringing her rat once.

“Ah, you too are forgetting about gas giants, Miss Logan,” he said with a quick tap of his own nose. “Those are hardly earth-like bodies.”

“A star IS just like our sun,” he said with a quick wink. He sort of knew what the boy was getting at, but wanted to make sure that there was no confusing. The sun IS a star, alright students? “Although I may have to disagree slightly. Just as Miss Brown mentioned relativity in terms of motion, brightness and one’s ability to stare at a star is the same. You could, for example, stare at Polaris all night and do no damage to your retina, unlike if you were to stare at the sun.”

Airey grinned at the Ravenclaw. “Very good.” And something that several of her classmates had pointed out, but still a very good point.

“EXCELLENT!” Airey exclaimed, taking his first leap onto a student’s desk for the term. That had everyone’s attention yes? Oh, and he did make sure not to step on her parchment. The astronomer was considerate like that you see. “Miss Ferrier raises a very important point. By definition, a planet revolves around a star. Otherwise it can't be a planet in the first place.”

Airey gave the Ravenclaw a nod. “While some astronomers may argue the other way, and of course there are exceptions, planets do tend to ‘live’ longer than stars. Our sun, for example, is estimated to be 4.57 billions years old while the earth is younger at 4.54 billion years old, but the sun will perish before the earth does.” Cue a small sideways glance toward Miss Wisteria. Too morbid? He was working on his bedside manner this time.

“And you think correctly,” Airey replied while giving the prefect two thumbs up.

“Right you are,” Airey nodded at the Slytherin.

Airey had to pause here for a moment to go over Mr. Kildare’s answer in his head. It SEEMED as though the boy was implying that stars were self aware, but as the boy continued speaking it became clear what he meant. “You must be referring to the definition of what classifies as a star and what classifies as a planet yes? By extension the demotion of Pluto to a dwarf planet?” Airey paused for just a moment. “As human capabilities to explore space evolve, new discoveries will be made and what once was seen as fact may in fact need to be re-evaluated.”

While the orange juice comparison may not have made much sense to Mr. Benzi’s classmates, Airey caught the boy’s drift. “Excellently put,” he said, giving a quick nod towards Mr. Summers who had mentioned stellar evolution earlier.

Simple, but very true. “A very good point, Miss Ella,” he nodded with a smile. Leave it to students to help him forget about his woes.

Sorry to be Professor You-Know-What, Mr. Keller. But thank you for being a good sport and keeping your hands to yourself. Several dozen awesome points to you.

“Very good point, Mr. Keller,” Airey nodded. He would have also jumped on the prefect’s desk, but he had just done to earlier, so instead Airey threw both arms high up in the air as though he were on one of those muggle rolling coasters. “Elliptical orbits are key in defining a planet.”


Hmmm, this one was on to something, but Airey felt the need to clarify a few things. “All of the planets, the stars and the moons of the universe have gravity. Even our own bodies have gravity. Everything is held together BY gravity. Gravity is simply a force of attraction between two objects.”

“Very good, Mr. Charlton,” Airey said while giving the Hufflepuff an encouraging nod. Hopefully by now students had caught on that heat was an important differentiating factor between the two.


“Excellent, Miss Gallaway!” he grinned at the second year. She was hinting at other factors that would not be covered today, but still valid points nonetheless.

“Ah, not entirely correct I’m afraid. Venus and Mercury are the only planets that do not have moons and there are, in fact, some asteroids that have moons,” he corrected.

Fairy? That was certainly an interesting first name. Chuckling at her initial answer, Airey was listened as she listed some more differences. Er, he had just asked for one. “Actually, stars are shining bright ALL the time, Miss Campi. It is just that the sun’s light is so bright that it outshines the other stars during the day.”

“Very good, Mr. Rainman,” Airey applauded, once again mistaking the poor boy’s name for whatever reason.

“Two thumbs up for your answer, Mr. Istvan,” Airey said, doing just that.


“More thumbs up for you, Miss Haigh!”

“Right you are! Planets can reflect light, but cannot create it themselves,” he nodded.

Well, if she was against the idea he could always take them back, but it was time to put green beards aside for now. Airey tried not to make eye contact with the prefect because he was terrified of tears, but he still heard her answer loud and clear. “Yes, very good and a good reminder to the class about what happened during the main sequence stage of stellar evolution.” That was a little reminder to those of you in OWL and NEWT years. Review was the ticket!

Airey nodded, but ceased nodding as the boy went on. “As a general rule of thumb, stars are much larger than planets. Some stars might be just a bit smaller than the largest gas giants, such as brown dwarfs, but as an example...if it were possible to do you could fit 1.3 million earth's inside the sun.”


Doubt thou the stars are fire? Why, yes he did doubt that, very much so. Airey resisted the urge to pinch his nose. “Stars are not on fire, Mr.Stylinson. Not in the sense like when you take a ball of paper and lite it with a match. Stars may seem like they are to the average person because of the thermonuclear reaction occurring at their core.” Besides, wasn’t the roof supposed to be on fire?

The roof. The roof. The roof is on FIRE!

Airey actually sang this little bit in his head and did a little dance while doing so. Shame the music was entirely in his head, however.

Airey was still raising the roof when Miss Hyde answered. He gave her a reassuring nod and a salute

Airey gave Miss Wisteria an extra wide grin. “Excellent, Miss Wisteria. Planets do not twinkle in the night sky mostly because their location in proximity to the earth is much closer than the stars.”

Wait. Newell? He had heard that name before…. His eyes darted around the room briefly until they fell on the other Slytherin first year. Coincidence? He thought not, but would not say anything about this. He knew how much one of his classmates in school hated being referred to as “the brother” when he was his own person.

ANYWAY! Back to the boy’s answer.. Ah yes, the dying bit again. “As I said earlier, a planet CAN be described as dead, but in the terms that we are discussing you are correct. Certainly no planet will be exploding or turning into a black hole like some stars do.”

And this Gryffindor was along the same line of thought, so he gave her a smile and a nod. “There is a bit more too it than that, but simply review the chapter in your textbook on stellar evolution.” Seeing as he did not want to go into the entire lifecycle of a star right now. Not enough time to cover all that again.


Oh, another out of the box way of thinking. “Very good, Miss Greenwell,” Airey applauded. He really appreciated these out of the box and in reference to other terms’ lessons ways of thinking.

Heh. One of his personal favorite little astronomy vocabulary words right there. “Excellent, Miss Phillips,” he nodded while making a mental note about something to himself. They would not be discussing Airy disks today, however, but it was a good term for students to know.

Er….right, Miss Fischer. He was not going to be calling her brilliant, but perhaps he could call her answer as such one of these days. “Both, Miss Fischer. Terrestrial planets form gases condensing into rocky particles while Jovian planets form from gases condensing into icy particles.” Although it was not his intention to talk about planet formations today. Another day another lesson for all that.

Before he could elaborate further, she was, in true Miss Fischer fashion, rattling off questions left and right. “Not today, no,” he said shaking his head. And...wait...she wanted to stick her head in the bag and get a beard. “Um...well...if you really want one I suppose you can…” Was he going to have an entire class filled with green bearded students? Sweet solstice whatever would the Headmistress think of him then?

Eh, probably the same. That he was loonier than a Seer who had heard a fwooper’s song.

“That is very interesting, Mr. Branxton,” Airey nodded with great interest. “Would you care to elaborate a bit further on this?”

Nod nod. Yes. Correct. Excellent. “Very good,” he said, giving the Hufflepuff a quick thumbs up before moving on.

“YES!” Airey exclaimed. “This is a very key thing.” Were you listening, Mr. Kildare? It had been said several times now. Planets revolve AROUND stars. Arouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuund.

She was blushing. Why was she blushing? If there was something that made him nearly as awkward as tears it was blushing. Just going to wiggle our way over this a way while we listen to you speak, Miss Bayliss.

He nodded his head after she answered. What she said was true, but the differences in classification had not been the direction he had intended thinking to go. “Very good, Miss Bayliss,” he nodded with a smile.

Airey nodded at the Ravenclaw slowly. “Yes, very good Miss Eventide.”

“Ah, but can you say that planets like Jupiter also have landforms and terrains?” he asked with a quick wink.


Pause. Laugh obnoxiously loudly. “Yes, yes, very good Mr. Toussaint. Very true as well. Although I sometimes see orbiting planets when I am whacked over the head.” Stars tended to be the norm, though. Occasionally spaceships too.


“Ah, but a star cannot twinkle without the assistance of the earth’s layers of turbulent air,” he said with a smile. “You are right though. Planets do not twinkle.”

“Yes yes, very good, Mr. Livingston.”

……………….yes. Hello to you too, Mr. Stark.

Stepping to the left side of the board, Airey nodding his head approvingly of the list they had composed.



"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.


Tay beamed as the professor said that she was right. She listened to him talk and wrote down what he wrote. At the new question, she raised her hand, "The sun, professor?" Taylor was 99.99% sure that was the answer but she still said it like a question. Taylor silently chuckled at the thought of a green beard but didn't dare do it since she didn't want one. Taylor fiddled with her pencil, waiting to see what the professor would say.

[DaniDiNardo]

You know what? Professor Airey was saying a lot of words. He really was and now she got the image of the earth dying one day, people poking it with sticks for it to spin or revolve or something...though it'd probably still do that because of other stuff? She didn't know. Dead planets was a weird concept to her.

Oh oh oh!!! They could all have beards?

Lex wasted no time in making her way over to the bag and helped herself to one of those nifty beards--wait ew green, no. "Would you mind if I changed the colour on mine Professor?" Had to ask in case he had a thing about using magic without being told to do so. A few Professors had that policy. He was a cool Professor grant you but just to be sure.

As for the question. That was pretty obvious wasn't it? The sun. Everyone else was shouting it...there wasn't much reason why she'd need to go yelling it to. Not when she had this neat beard to keep her attention.

Really though, this colour wasn't working for her. It contrasted with her robes.

[Daemon]

HA.

Smart people house, anyone?! HE WAS RIGHT. And he had even put it well. Hogwarts was already making him a super crazy genius and this was only his first class! Sticking out his chest as much as he could in the chair, Benzi chanted along with everyone as they all yelled "SUN!" Or, well, almost everything. The eleven year old haughtily eyed the ones who didn't. PSHT. Try to keep up guys would ya?!

At the professor's offer of a green beard, Benzi kept his bum well inside the seat. No green beards for this cornrowed fella! It wouldn't suit his skin colour, and besides, he didn't want one. He liked stroking his chin sometimes since yesterday, and a beard would just keep getting in his way. It was what smart people did, stroke their chins!

Cue stroke.

[lemon]

She didn't even get a 'STELLAR' for her answer? But Aireyhead was the only professor she could always count on getting praise from. Did he hate her now? Hmm? Alice's face fell noticeably, especially when Mo got a 'very interesting', and it was clear he'd gotten his answer from hers. That. That was cheating.

Hmph. Sulking was happening.

But as soon as the professor said something about beards and being allowed, the next question went in one ear and out the other. Proxima Centauri? The Sun? Who cared? She could get a BEARD YES.

The sixth year wandered over to the large velvet back on Flamsteed's desk and promptly stuck her head inside of it.

Well? Where was her promised facial hair?

[lazykitty]

No beard for her, thanks. She didn't like the idea of having something that itchy on her face. It was nice of him to offer, though.

And the closest star to Earth? If you thought about what time of the day this was and everything, then the answer was pretty obvious. But how were they going to study the sun? Everyone knew that it was too bright to look at directly, even with sunglasses on. Unless there was some kind of spell to help that......?

[TeafortheSoul]

West didn't need a beard he was good, thanks. Also given people were yelling out the answer, he didn't need to do that either. Flammy knew he knew, right? Right. He just sat there looking around at all this... beard madness.

Heh. Green.

... though, that was not such a good look for his girlfriend. He preferred her face all pretty and smooth, not looking like an old leprechaun.

[Anna Banana]

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.


Okay, now this answer Sophie knew. Everybody knew about the Sun, after all. "The Sun," she said with confidence, raising her hand. Lowering her hand, she listened to the professor volunteer beards for everybody, which was honestly starting to give Sophie a complex. She had had TWO classes in all since she'd become a student at Hogwarts, and in both those classes, the professors had offered to give everybody beards--girls included.

What was it with this school and beards anyway?! Couldn't a kid just be a kid? More specifically, couldn't a girl just be a girl?!

Nope. No beard today. She decided to skip out on this one, since she'd had the whole beard experience in Arithmancy class. That one hadn't been optional.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Derry almost jumped out of her skin...

ALERT
ALERT
ALERT

HE WAS ON HER DESK

THE TEACHER WAS ON HER DESK

FINGERS MAY BE TRAPPED.

She grabbed her quill and flailed a little bit, falling backwards out of her chair and squeaking. "Professooooor!!!"

People shouldn't DO that.

She was a jumpy enough person as it was.

And she was half stuck in her chair. Jeeeeeez. Clumsy Derry.
Oh. Oops. He had to admit that that was not the first time that this sort of thing had happened, but certainly a first for Hogwarts. "Oh, um...." he squirmed as he jumped off her desk. "Terribly sorry, you alright?" Although she had just said she was. And he would have said that it would never happen again, but that wasn't a promise he was sure he could keep. When the man got excited he GOT excited.
NICE, his answer made the board.

When he shouted the next question, Theo was all confused and nervous and he shouted back. "THE NORTH STAR."

No, no, that was WRONG.

He lowered his head in shame.
"I LIKE your enthusiasm, Mr. Kinsley!" Airey applauded, literally. He clapped at the Slytherin's answer despite it being wrong. "Unfortunately, the North Star, Polaris, is not the closest to earth, although it IS important for many other reasons." Reasons that had been discussed in full length last term.

Oh, a next question! Looking interested at the professor she listened to what he was telling and... YES, she knew the answer, she had read about it and she was convinced that she was right about her answer, but... sadly, she was remembering it wrong... She stood up and raised her hand, but because she wasn't sure if she still needed to introduce herself she did it again. "Sonea Duvessa, third year... And my answer is... the Alpha Centauri star!!!" She smiled proud and sat down again, totally convinced that she had given AGAIN a good answer.

But than, she looked at the bag and wondered what was inside of it, but at the same time she didn't wanted to look because she was too pretty to have a green beard! Green was not her color, but if the beard had been pink THAN it would be a REALLY different story!
"No need to continue to introduce yourself, Miss Duvessa," he said with one hand in the air to stop here. "Alpha Centauri IS the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus and the third brightest star in the night sky, but it is not the star closest to earth. It is, however, a part of the star system closest to our Solar System."

Sarah sort of expected that as she had not reall thought about the answer. Upon hearing what West said and the professor's conformation of it Sarah was skeptical, "but isn't always daytime on planets too? On Earth, there was a saying that 'The Sun never sets on the British Empire', as when it was night time in England, it was daytime in its then colony Austrailia. It is always day time somewhere on earth, as the sun has to be shinging somewhere if not on our location"
"SOMEWHERE on our planet is is always day," Airey nodded. "But since the earth does not produce its own light, the side of the earth that is not facing the sun is cast in a shadow which makes for night. What Mr. Odessa I believe was getting at was that 'on' a star, it is literally always day. There is no shadow."
Laura seriously didn't want a beard in this lesson, she didn't think it would suit her so she wasn't going to have one, now she had got to sort things out, she was sure the sun was the closed star to the earth but since everyone else was saying that and she wanted to be different and give a clever answer she decided to get it wrong on purpose and go for the second closet star. "The Proxima Centauri?" Laura smiled, she was sure it was wrong but oh well, she had given a clever answer.
Mack's hand shot up.

"Professor, e closest star is Proxima Centauri" the young girl beamed but quickly bit her lip before shouting out more information on the star, just in case that was the professors next question.

Mackenzie wanted to tell Airey that Proxima Centauri was 4.2 light years away from the Earth as well.
"If I had asked which star is the closest to our Solar System you two would be correct," he said with a nod. But he hadn't. So they were wrong. "Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and is actually one that scientists and astronomers have taken a keen interest in. You see, scientists are trying to determine whether this star has super Earths orbiting within its habitable zone. Habitable zones are regions around a star where planets are believed to receive just the right amount of heat. For instance, Earth is within the Sun’s habitable zone, which is why we are here."



Ascanius scanned the board quickly to see if anyone had given the answer that he had not verbalized. And, just like he had assumed, no one had put any of it down, yeah? Pfft. S'not his fault that he was clever too. See, he wasn't JUST a pretty face, but he was that as well. Ahem.

Anyway, he wasn't going to answer Glitter Trousers properly anyway, so he supposed it wasn't the man's fault. He could go sashay away somewhere else and inform people who cared. Aka, not Ascanius.

Oh, by the way...the answer was sol...OUR sun. It was the only star in this system, Glitter Trousers. Honestly, easy question. It didn't even merit a response, so he wasn't going to get one.

Instead, he just clicked his tongue and leaned back in his seat. Now he was bored and he was going to make a right show of it.
Airey HEARD that. His head snapped around and he stared at the Slytherin. Was it always going to be this way? Airey had no patience for people acting bored in the face of the noble subject that was astronomy.

Although he was going to ignore this. For now. And pretend he couldn't hear the tongue clicking over the sound of how AWESOME the sun was.

Put your feet up, Mr. Stark, and things would be a bit different. Might find that you had no feet at all actually. Heh.

Ella gave Professor Airey a beamy-beam because reasons and continued taking down the other things that her classmates were suggesting. Or well, most of the things. That was probably mean, right?

Then it was time for more questions and the blonde sat up a little straighter, listening intently. She liked stars lots and stargazing even more. No worries, though. She knew the rule about the Astronomy Tower, professor. She always kept that in mind. Heh.

As for the big dramatic 'WHAT,' the blonde smiled and called out, "The sun, Professor?"

And nope, no beard for Ella. She would totally doodle her classmates with beards, though. That could be fun.


Oh. So she was... partially correct? Sophie scribbled down everything Airey was saying and murmured a gentle, slightly heartbroken "oh" after Airey corrected her details. Well. That was cool, then. "Cool. Good to know. Thanks." At least her answer hadn't been completely out there. The professor seemed mildly pleased with her. That was encouraging.

At the professor's following ramblings, Sophie continued to make quick notes on her parchment, noting how passionate and... positively enthusiastic this guy was about his planets and stars. Funny guy. When he built suspense with a questioning of what, Sophie halfway raised a lazy hand and assumed, "The sun?" That made sense, yeah? It was the biggest thing in the sky compared to the other stars that were just specks.

She wanted a beard, too. She did. She thought about it for a second, envisioning herself going up there and donning a cool beard, then... decided maybe she'd ask if she could get one after class. That'd be more fun and then she wouldn't have to deal with the distraction of stroking the beard while she was supposed to be learning.
Now twirling the quill between his index and middle fingers, Angeal's eyes simply followed the teacher as he walked around the classroom, with a few brief moments to look at the blackboard to write down his notes. And when Flamsteed raised his voice, the boy startled and dropped his quill. Good thing it was just a quill. Too light to make a noise that will attract unwanted attentions...

"The sun," muttered the Slytherin under his breath, playfully stroking the feather of his quill. His fidgeting didn't stop even when the teacher somehow suggested(?) them to take a peek into the bag which gave a girl a green beard earlier. Curious as he was, he wouldn't dare to do it. His Slytherin pride would be hurt too much.


Yes, Kat knew that the planets also give off heat. Cause they say the core is just really really hot and found in the middle of the Earth. They have the crust, the mantle, and the core. But that wasn't exactly what they were going to learn today. It was more on stars and planets, but what Professor Flamsteed said has been duly noted. Kat nodded a few times and then scribbled it down on her parchment.

What made Kat look up from her parchment and writing was when she heard that loud 'WHAT?' from her Astronomy professor. Merlin, Flammy, did it have to be that loud? But she knew the answer obviously. Kat raised her hand to answer the question. "It's the sun, Professor." Simple as that.

... Although Kat wanted to know what was inside the bag. Yep. But curiosity got the best of Minerva Wheatborn so, no, she wasn't going to risk even if the charms and spells have been lifted. Safety precautions and stuff. Kat wouldn't look good with a green beard anyway. It was hairy... and just gross. So no, thanks.

He was thrilled that his answer was correct. He puffed his chest out a bit and sat straight up in his chair to take the notes on the board.

He looked up when Professor Airey asked the next question. "I believe it's the sun." Yes, the sun. It had to be. It was bright, hot, and very easy to see. None other was bigger in the sky.

Ok so sometimes planets could be bigger than stars. Fine! She was still almost completely right and that definitely counted for something, in her head anyways. She jotted down notes as the professor went about and explained stars and planets and blah, blah, blah. She knew that she would have to rely on them later because there was no way she would remember all of this later. Sigh.

The closest star. Oh, she knew this one, but apparently so did everybody else. She raised her hand anyways. "Like everybody else has already said... the closest star is the sun." So bright and shiny-ish.

If anybody else wanted a beard? Who would possibly want that? No thanks, she didn't really care what was in his stupid bag anyways. It was most likely lame anyways so PFFFFT!

“More thumbs up for you, Miss Haigh!”

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

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

"Oh, and, um, if anyone else would like to join Miss Fischer in having a green beard," he said while giving the bag a tap with his wand. "The bag will not put your fingers in a Chinese finger trap now and simply zap you a beard so...um...help yourself?" They still wouldn't be able to see what was in the bag though. Zapping and other measures had been taken to make sure of that.

See that? SHE got a thumbs up for her answer. Thank you very much textbook. It wasn't all down to the next book, though, obviously. She'd been the one to decide to use it, so therefore it was all on her. The textbook was just a mere tool. Professor Flamsteed clearly noticed her awesome and she grinned back in response. And no, Sir, she would NOT having a beard, thank you. Though she'd totes look snazzy in one.

The closest star to the Earth?

SHE KNEW THAT.

Her hand went straight up, but she was beaten to it by others. That didn't put her off and she kept her hand firmly in the air until it was her turn to speak. "The SUN." Peek in textbook. "It's about 8 light minutes away, Sir," she told him, grinning, nodding and just trying to look like she knew what she was saying. How did peoples cram all of this stuff in their brains without exploding, was what she wanted to know. Especially useless information like this.




As Professor Airey was explaining to him the answer he gave, he copied it down into his notes. It was good information to know. Then he asked a question that he could not answer but it was good to think about. He didn't have an answer but thankfully he moved on.

Then he returned to the class and asked another question. Kace thought of i, what is one star that is close to the earth? Kace thought about it and then it came. DING! He raised his hand, "Professor i know that the Sun is close to earth but i never knew it was a star." he told him earnestly.Sigh. Tag looked at all his classmates and the other students who seemed to be answering with The Sun being the closest star to earth. But he wasn't going to answer, everyone else seemed to be handling that part.

But they were talking about the sun so that made Tag crack a small smile.

Still though...

Sorry Professor Airey, Tag felt like he wasn't smart enough to be answering these questions just so he could be embarrassing himself, like last time. Oh well. Tag simply nodded at all the answers.

Ohhhhh. That was interesting. The stars always shined. Something new she had learned already. See her brain could absorb things very quickly! Clever fairies were clever! Yep! Yep!

BLINK.

Would you look at that list on the board? So full. With her small eyes, the eleven year old just looked. But was she expected to write it down? Cause she would if she were given the instruction to do so, but considering she was not given the instruction she just read over it and focused back on the Star of the show!

SHE KNEW THIS ONE! SHE....Awww man! Someone had answered before her. She could still feel clever though, or wanted to therefore she put her hand up anyways. "THE SUN!" Beam. She had learned that at her previous school.

As the name Miss Fischer was mentioned, the strawberry blonde's hair swerved to look at the biter. Giggle. Sort. Why would she want a beard? Santa wore beards NOT girls. Pshhhht. Silleh.

"The Sun," Adrienne droned, not even bothering to raise her hand since everyone was saying the exact same thing at almost the same time. It was incredibly obvious, and she didn't know why professor Flamsteed was so excited. It was just the sun, not much of a big deal, no? She knew the basics: it was a star, a yellow dwarf to be precise, the Earth orbited around it, et cetera. There had to be more to Astronomy than stars, which was pretty much all they'd studied last year, too...

Smiling in relief as the Professor spoke and reassured her that her point was valid, Charlie began to copy down the answers that other students were shouting out. Which were MANY. She stifled a giggle as he jumped onto a students desk, deciding that maybe she'd actually LIKE Astronomy this year.

AND next question.

Charlies hand rose into the air hesitantly before she spoke. "The Sun is the closest star to us - about 150,000,000 kilometres away." And she was so annoyed that she could only remember an approxiation of an approximation. Hadn't her father drilled her on this last year?
Adelaide had quickly grabbed a seat near the front of the room once the professor had answered her question. She giggled at the green beard the Hufflepuff prefect had earned. She listened to the first question and was about to raise her hand to answer, when everyone else did so.

She thought against it because it seemed everyone else in the class had seemed to touch on the subject. Sigh. Adelaide eyed the bag. There was no way she wanted one of those beards on her face. Nope. No touching the bag for her.

Adelaide quickly raised her hand to answer the question, even though others had done so before her. "The closest star is the sun." Obviously. Not to mention how that had been drilled into her brain from muggle school.

Mienrva just rolled her eyes as people actually wanted the stupid green beard. She slid down in her chair and tried to listen to the lesson. They were there to learn not grow beards. Trying to get back into the lesson Minerva smiled a bit as he said she was correct and pointed out part of her answer. See she was trying to study better with this class.

As she heard the next questions Minerva went to raise her hand like she always did, but others were blurting out the answer. Well the way he asked it she guessed it sounded as if people just were to say. "The sun" She said quickly not to be the last one to speak. Oh was that why they were having class during the day, because of the sun.. Light bulb moment there Minerva.. really..
The professor seemed so excited to ask his next question it was a little contagious. Enthused, Lucian raised his hand so fast it blew a small breeze on the side of his head. "The sun!" That big orange-yellow ball of light that reminded him of an egg yolk was the closest star to Earth, no? If not then he'd been lied for for years. And he'd sooooo blame it on Bridge.

Well you learn something new everyday. Nigel thought for a moment about joining Alice in getting a green beard. But decided not to for that fact that he was comfortable in his seat. The next question was obvious. So Nigel decided to turn his attention to Derry. Who's desk was occupied by Flamsteed right now.

Wait. Did she just almost fall out of her chair. Nigel could not help, but laugh. Then he asked. "Are you alright, Derry?

Green Beards and people almost falling out of chairs. Now the only thing left to see is Alice with a green beard.

The SUN!" Forrest roared immediately, hand in the air, when Professor Airey asked "WHAT?".

They could have green beard? COOL. Forrest walked up to the bag and peeked inside. Of course he didn't see anything, but grew a lime green beard instead. He was so pleased with his new beard, HEHE. He turned to class to show how grown up he was, although his beard was lime green, then returned to his seat.

Now he could stroke it throughtfully before answering! This was so cool yo!

While Caleb was totally pro-beard, he didn't really fancy sporting a LIME GREEN one. He could wait till puberty on this one. So he watched as some of his classmates went up and re-emerged from the bag with the beards, and he chuckled to himself. This professor dude was pretty cool. He had a feeling he was going to like Astronomy.

Ok, so, onto the next question. Caleb actually knew this one! He'd been skimming his Astronomy book before class, and who knew the little bits he'd read would actually come in HANDY? He raised his hand with excitement.

"The closest star to planet Earth is the sun, but if for some reason you're not counting the sun as a star, which some crazy people DON'T, then the next nearest star is Proxima Centauri," he explained. The only reason he remembered that was because of "Proxima" which meant "close" or something right?
Rainman? Adi nearly snorted out loud with laughter. This professor was amusing him non stop with his thumbs ups, leaps and applause. He sure was cool! He didn't mid the incorrect names but he did want the suited man to get it correct at some point.

Closest planet to Earth? Oh oh oh! He knew this! His dad had been watching some booooooring documentary about Earth and he had heard the mention of the....SUN! Adi quickly raised his hand. "The sun, Professor! And it's pronounced Rehman!'' He grinned, wondering what colourful name he'll be called next.



Was he planning on painfully remind her that they were all dead anyway and that life didn't actually matter because everything would cease to exist eventually? WE HAVE OUR EYES ON YOU, PROFESSOR FLAMSTEED. We still like you, though, so Lottie just smirked a bit when he glanced at her. Nicely done, Airey.

And that's why we still like him. Excellence and wide grins. So, she nodded and smiled. Yup, she knew that.

NOW. Merlin could he act ANY more excited about this?? The closest star to Earth? The closest star to their solar system was Proxima Centauri, yeah? But the closest star to EARTH was, of course, the sun.

OF COURSE.

Lottie didn't answer, but she nodded at the ones who said the sun. Mostly, she was just smiling to herself and kept her eyes on her desk because... the sun. Why Airey, why? The sun owed her like a million apologies.

The snake paid attention to her classmates answers, she knew most and didn't know about others. She jotted some notes on her notebook for easy reference later. She decided to take as many notes as she could during lessons though that might not last very long. For now she was doing so. Besides she found this particular topic interesting. Stars and planets. She liked this, MOAR information please?

Cassia didn't even consider the beard option. Nope, no beard, thank you. As for the question, she knew that one. "The sun is the closest," She answered with the same answer as many others. Though, there were other answers. Cassia waited to hear what the Professor will say the correct one is.

Meanwhile..? Was Derry okay? The snake kinda noticed late but the red-headed seemed to be okay now.
Okay, that was a simple enough question and everyone seemed to know the answer already, but he raised his hand anyways, "The sun, professor." The big ball in the sky that kept them alive, that was easy... That was one of the first things he'd learned was that the sun was just a big ball of gas that kept everyone and everything alive... without the sun the planet would be consumed in darkness and all life would perish... Yeah, one of the oldest worries of an apocalypse... Not that difficult to know the answer.

His reference to the star evolution was stellar. STELLAR. How AWESOME was that? Alec grinned at the man, especially at the weird jump he had done across the classroom. ... Astro Man... was kind of enthusiastic and jumpy, it seemed. At least, to Alec. Not that he minded. He just sort of... jumped when the man actually jumped on Derry's desk.

He also jumped again when the man had shouted out 'WHAT' so loudly. ... Man, the possibility of sleeping in this man's class was very small.

As for his question... yeah. Sun. Okay. He was going to mentally go along with that answer by nodding his head. He wasn't going to answer, though, since so many people had done so already and, really, Astro Man didn't need the same answer repeated numerous times, yeah? What he did do, though, was scribble down a note of the lists that were on the board. It could be useful someday, yeah? And he kind of wanted to improve his grade in this subject so... yeah. Notes. Being taken.

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

And did he want a beard? ... HMMM...


Tay beamed as the professor said that she was right. She listened to him talk and wrote down what he wrote. At the new question, she raised her hand, "The sun, professor?" Taylor was 99.99% sure that was the answer but she still said it like a question. Taylor silently chuckled at the thought of a green beard but didn't dare do it since she didn't want one. Taylor fiddled with her pencil, waiting to see what the professor would say.
HA.

Smart people house, anyone?! HE WAS RIGHT. And he had even put it well. Hogwarts was already making him a super crazy genius and this was only his first class! Sticking out his chest as much as he could in the chair, Benzi chanted along with everyone as they all yelled "SUN!" Or, well, almost everything. The eleven year old haughtily eyed the ones who didn't. PSHT. Try to keep up guys would ya?!

At the professor's offer of a green beard, Benzi kept his bum well inside the seat. No green beards for this cornrowed fella! It wouldn't suit his skin colour, and besides, he didn't want one. He liked stroking his chin sometimes since yesterday, and a beard would just keep getting in his way. It was what smart people did, stroke their chins!

Cue stroke.
She didn't even get a 'STELLAR' for her answer? But Aireyhead was the only professor she could always count on getting praise from. Did he hate her now? Hmm? Alice's face fell noticeably, especially when Mo got a 'very interesting', and it was clear he'd gotten his answer from hers. That. That was cheating.

Hmph. Sulking was happening.

But as soon as the professor said something about beards and being allowed, the next question went in one ear and out the other. Proxima Centauri? The Sun? Who cared? She could get a BEARD YES.

The sixth year wandered over to the large velvet back on Flamsteed's desk and promptly stuck her head inside of it.

Well? Where was her promised facial hair?

No beard for her, thanks. She didn't like the idea of having something that itchy on her face. It was nice of him to offer, though.

And the closest star to Earth? If you thought about what time of the day this was and everything, then the answer was pretty obvious. But how were they going to study the sun? Everyone knew that it was too bright to look at directly, even with sunglasses on. Unless there was some kind of spell to help that......?


You know what? Professor Airey was saying a lot of words. He really was and now she got the image of the earth dying one day, people poking it with sticks for it to spin or revolve or something...though it'd probably still do that because of other stuff? She didn't know. Dead planets was a weird concept to her.

Oh oh oh!!! They could all have beards?

Lex wasted no time in making her way over to the bag and helped herself to one of those nifty beards--wait ew green, no. "Would you mind if I changed the colour on mine Professor?" Had to ask in case he had a thing about using magic without being told to do so. A few Professors had that policy. He was a cool Professor grant you but just to be sure.

As for the question. That was pretty obvious wasn't it? The sun. Everyone else was shouting it...there wasn't much reason why she'd need to go yelling it to. Not when she had this neat beard to keep her attention.

Really though, this colour wasn't working for her. It contrasted with her robes.
West didn't need a beard he was good, thanks. Also given people were yelling out the answer, he didn't need to do that either. Flammy knew he knew, right? Right. He just sat there looking around at all this... beard madness.

Heh. Green.

... though, that was not such a good look for his girlfriend. He preferred her face all pretty and smooth, not looking like an old leprechaun.
Okay, now this answer Sophie knew. Everybody knew about the Sun, after all. "The Sun," she said with confidence, raising her hand. Lowering her hand, she listened to the professor volunteer beards for everybody, which was honestly starting to give Sophie a complex. She had had TWO classes in all since she'd become a student at Hogwarts, and in both those classes, the professors had offered to give everybody beards--girls included.

What was it with this school and beards anyway?! Couldn't a kid just be a kid? More specifically, couldn't a girl just be a girl?!

Nope. No beard today. She decided to skip out on this one, since she'd had the whole beard experience in Arithmancy class. That one hadn't been optional.
*ZAP* And now Miss Fischer had a beard as well. Although Airey had to admit that the color red suited her a bit more than green. Personal house bias. He wasn't entirely sure what the attraction was with beards - especially lime green ones.

"If you wish, Miss Cambridge. You can even braid it as long as you do not lose focus on the lesson," he said with a nod. Girls did that right? Braid hair and stuff. Which is really what a beard was. Hair on the face.

But back to student answers....

YES! THIS WAS THE ANSWER HE WAS LOOKING FOR!

Getting excited once again, Airey jumped up on his own desk and began to sing. "Here comes the sun, du dn du du," he said, doing another weird little wiggly dance in the process. Was anyone going to join him? No? Right then. "Those of you who said the sun are correct. The sun is the closest star to us." And now you know it was a star, Mr. Lecium. "The sun makes up about 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass, just so you get an idea as to how massive this star is. Ironically, it is classified as a yellow dwarf star and is currently in the main sequence phase of its stellar evolution. While it IS the star closest to us, the sun that you see out the window right now is not the sun RIGHT now, but rather the sun as it was 8 minutes ago." Had he lost anyone with that? He always thought it was an interesting fact that when one looked to the sky you could see the past. "The sun is very important to the earth for many reasons. One being that the sun provides the earth with something to orbit. Without the sun, the Earth would fly off into the coldest parts of space and none of us would be here today because life would be impossible. It also provides heat, which is necessary for life to exist and controls our weather. In summary, it is the most basic source of energy for planet Earth."


"... which is why this lesson isn't at night." It wasn't a desk-leap-worthy answer, but it had been a pretty standard question. He kind of felt like he had to share his reasoning and how he got to the conclusion that it wasn't a trick question.
"PRECISELY!" Airey said with some dramatic finger pointing towards Mr. Tempus. "We will actually be utilizing the sun's light in a little reenactment later." But more on THAT laaaaaaaaater.

Were they getting that there was a LOT to study and know in regards to the sun? He could quite literally hold a year's worth of lessons just on it.

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

OOC: class will resume in...a few hours ^_^

[bitsyandtank]

Asher looked closely at the object the professor was holding. What it had to do with the sun, he didn't know for sure. After a few more moments in thought, the only thing that came to mind was "Is it a Mountain Troll eyeball? I'm not sure what that has to do with the sun, but it looks to be about the right size."

Ahh, he was almost one hundred percent sure his answer was wrong, but he was participating in class. That had to be worth something. Plus, Professor Flamsteed had always appeared to be the kind of professor that would welcome guesses from the younger students that may not have as much knowledge as the older ones.

[TakemetotheBurrow]

As Ella continued to watch Professor Airey, she couldn't help but think that him and Tobias were very alike what with the bouncing and enthusiasm. They could totally be bros if it wasn't for the huge age-gap. She'd have to suggest it to the younger badger at some point. Maybe Toby could even help convince Airey to confess his love to Professor Romanos.

And that song? GRIN! Ella loved it. The blonde BEAMED at the Professor then quickly scribbled down notes on the sun, resisting the urge to hum as she did.

And that thing? That speckled thing? That was totally something she'd recognized. Her Gran never wanted to get her one because she was convinced it was going to lodge in Ella's throat and then she'd choke and then her Gran would win worst grandparent of the year award. Dramatic Gran was dramatic, okay? Anyway... "It looks like a jaw breaker, Sir."

[Bazinga]

Minerva could not believe not at all that people wanted those horrid beards. She was still pouting over it really. Yes the points were nice, but she felt stupid for letting her curiosity get the best of her. Now others were going up on purpose just to get that stupid beard .. Honestly the entire school was loosing their minds if she didn't know better she would think they were still in last term.

Watching as Flamsteed got his bag she backed up in her chair hoping he wasn't going to open the bag towards them to make the entire class get the blasted beards. She flinched as he opened it, but looked as he puled something out. Oh she knew what that was. Raising her hand, "Professor that is a jaw breaker. It's a muggle candy that is impossible really to bite through, but has a lot of flavor and you can have it for ever." placing her hand down she listened to see if everyone else agreed with her.

[Felixir]

Airey was on FIRE today. Well, not literally. But he was certainly showing the kind of energy that APPEALED to Toby. Wow. WOW. Singing, dancing AND dramatic finger pointing.

... straight at him.

TOBY DID ANOTHER GOOD.

The boy BEAMED widely, having written all his notes down and now looking up to see the digit of doom accusation ... something idk... pointed at him.

And onto the bag. Tobias sat up a bit straighter here, eager to see what was going oooooon, and caught sight ooooof-

"Sweets!"

He couldn't stop the squeal that escaped him but... c'mon... SWEETS. He threw up his hand and gave an answer. "Where I live-" dahhhn sahhhth "-we call those gobstoppers, Professor. But some people call 'em jawbreakers. You suck on them and they get smaller and smaller and change colours as the layers of sugary goodness come off."

Ahem.

Well, if Tobias knew ANYTHING, it was muggle candy.

.................. could he have one?

[Expecto-Penguin]

Kace was in awe learning about the Sun. He never knew that information. He copied some of it down in his notes. Plus his hand was starting to cramp. He didn't really write at all this summer, so he had to practice. Then he saw the professor have the bag in his hand. FINALLY he will know what is in it!

He saw Prof Airey put his hand in it and then he pulled out a white sphere of delicious goodness. Kace knew what it was instantly. He loved those candies. Kace raised his hand, "I KNOW! I KNOW!! It is a Jaw Breaker!" he said probably a little enthusiastically. But hey they were his favorite candy. Plus they were huge in his mouth and made him drool when he ate them. "Those jaw breakers make your cheeks hurt i know that." he told the Professor. He knew from experience.

[pundantic]

Heh.

Yeah, he saw Glitter Trousers sequined feathers get all ruffled when Ascanius started to click his tongue. It seemed to him that he had gotten down to the tap dancing heart of his singing Professor. Twinkle town and whatnot. And the if it bothered Glitter Trousers it was amusing to Ascanius. 'Sides, this class was boring and he knew all the answers. He needed to do something to entertain himself. Pfft.

So he continued to look around the room with his ever present smirk and he clicked his tongue. And he did it over and over again simply because he wanted to, yeah?

Also, that was a jaw breaker. They used to get those all the time at the corner store, him and the rest of the kids at the home, on Saturdays if they were good. He knew those things well.

[Cassirin]

“That is very interesting, Mr. Branxton,” Airey nodded with great interest. “Would you care to elaborate a bit further on this?”

Did he want to elaborate? No. He really didn't. What if he said something stupid because he didn't know all the official words? He was good at putting pieces together, but he wasn't good at recall. West was way better at recall.

But he'd try, anyway. "When a star, like our sun, is created out of that big star cloud... erm... the solar nebula, the leftover cloud of stuff is just spinning there in the gravity of the forming star. And then through the process of..." He wrinkled his nose, trying to recall the word. "Accretion, tiny grains of dust slowly build mass over ages and ages to become planets. So you see..." Did he see? Did anyone see? "Planets are dependent on stars to be created, but the opposite is not true." Whew. The end.

"As you can see, there are many differences between stars and planets," Airey said in an almost proud father sort of tone. "We will be talking about stars again today." Or, well, again for all those returning students. "But we will be focusing on just one star in particular." He paused here for added effect. "Now, as it was mentioned, there are billions upon billions of stars in the sky, but we will be discussing the one that is closest to earth...which is............WHAT?!" He looked around expectantly for the answer to be shouted out immediately.

OOC: this took me a lot longer to type up than I thought >_< SO SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY! Class will resume as soon as I wake up ... hopefully, so in about 8 - 9 hours.


Okay, so everyone knew the answer to this one, right? Right.

But also... "Professor Flamsteed? Is it true the official name of our sun is Sol?"


"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

OOC: class will resume in...a few hours ^_^


And also also... that there wasn't a star OR a planet.

"That's candy."

[LilFox06]

Overexcited Professor was overexcited. It was cute. Anya's little invisible audience in her head was awwing at his antics and table jumping general monkeyness.

... that was totally normal to think about a Professor, right? Right...?

Eh. She didn't care. It was true. Anyone that thought otherwise was lying.

Ooooh. And what was that? Her hand shot up. "Is it the 'something that I will be able to take back to the dorms' thing that you promised me?" Because. Grabby hands. Anya wanted the jawbreaker. Omnomnom.

[PuppySara]

What was with the simple questions? Brodie looked at it, "It's a jaw breaker sir... A muggle sweet that basically rots your teeth out before too long, it last for quite a long while... but certainly not forever." He had to add that in there seeing how he heard Minnie say it could last that long, please... Nothing really lasted forever, he fought a smug look knowing he'd proven Minnie wrong. He didn't like his prefect... Could anyone else tell that yet?

[oh its Erik ok]

Okay. Derry was Okay. It seemed that Flamsteed did not even notice he sat on a students seat. A little excited talking about Planets and Stars?

Of course the answer was Sol. The Sun. Obvious was Obvious. It did not really even need to be answered. First Years should know that.Now what was this about candy. We were each getting candy. That would be pretty awesome. Not as awesome as his own beard. But cool.

This would be the perfect time to stroke a non existing beard and that is exactly what Nigel did. Why candy?

Hmm......

[Somnium]

Taylor tilted her head and looked at what he held up. She raised her hand, "Uh... is it some sort of muggle candy?" Tay wasn't that sure about her answer but she already said it so... oh well... Taylor fiddled with her quill some more and tickled her nose with the very tip of the feathery part, bored at the moment even though she loved astronomy.

[amadshade]

Woa. Tora hadn't seen one of those since she stopped going to Muggle school! Her hand shot up. "That's a jaw-breaker!" she said excited and then added without really thinking, "Do we all get one of them? To eat eventually?" Tora loved candy, and as a jaw-breaker was candy, she loved jaw- breakers too.

After she settled down a bit she tried to think about how a jaw-breaker could relate to the sun. After a couple minutes she put up her hand again, a little more tentatively this time, and said, "Professor? Is that also a model of a planet orbiting the sun? It has a core and it is hard, which although is not a requisite of being a planet, a lot of planets and other orbiting objects are made of rock. Or ice. Or something like that." she paused with a thoughtful look on her face. "I don't think it represents the sun because a jaw-breaker only gets smaller, where the sun will eventually become a red giant, which is bigger than the original main sequence star.... of course it would eventually shed the outer layers of gas to make a nebulae and then a white dwarf which is considerably smaller, but i don't think that applies to this object." She suddenly realized how much she was talking. Not that talking was ever a bad thing, it was just that she wasn't used to giving to many answers. Normally she was the one to ask the questions. She blushed and looked down at her desk to where her notes from last year (yes she kept them) were open. Just checking to make sure the facts given were actually correct of course. Ahem. Space nerd coming through.

[Lockhartian]

But back to student answers....

YES! THIS WAS THE ANSWER HE WAS LOOKING FOR!

Getting excited once again, Airey jumped up on his own desk and began to sing. "Here comes the sun, du dn du du," he said, doing another weird little wiggly dance in the process. Was anyone going to join him? No? Right then. "Those of you who said the sun are correct. The sun is the closest star to us." And now you know it was a star, Mr. Lecium. "The sun makes up about 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass, just so you get an idea as to how massive this star is. Ironically, it is classified as a yellow dwarf star and is currently in the main sequence phase of its stellar evolution. While it IS the star closest to us, the sun that you see out the window right now is not the sun RIGHT now, but rather the sun as it was 8 minutes ago." Had he lost anyone with that? He always thought it was an interesting fact that when one looked to the sky you could see the past. "The sun is very important to the earth for many reasons. One being that the sun provides the earth with something to orbit. Without the sun, the Earth would fly off into the coldest parts of space and none of us would be here today because life would be impossible. It also provides heat, which is necessary for life to exist and controls our weather. In summary, it is the most basic source of energy for planet Earth."


"PRECISELY!" Airey said with some dramatic finger pointing towards Mr. Tempus. "We will actually be utilizing the sun's light in a little reenactment later." But more on THAT laaaaaaaaater.

Were they getting that there was a LOT to study and know in regards to the sun? He could quite literally hold a year's worth of lessons just on it.

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

OOC: class will resume in...a few hours ^_^


GASP. THE BEATLES! WELOVEYOUAIREYFLAMSTEEDYOU'REOURFAVORITEEVER. That particular song, though. Heh. At least it made her look up from her desk, eyes on Professor Flamsteed at all times, because he was talking and she was listening and...

...she was smiling for whatever stupid reason. Except the smile faltered slightly when he mentioned the small time difference they shared with the sun. Right, of course. Not only were they all dying already, but they were ALSO living in the PAST. For Merlin's sake. Life was already impossible, Airey. Thanks for that.

Like, literally impossible because her mind kept wandering off somewhere else. Stupid sun. Forget paying attention to this lesson.

Also, beards... what? Had she'd been utterly lost in this? Had Ascanius finally SAID something in Astronomy besides his name? No? Oh, then why were there beards on people's faces? Reenactment. Now, that was something Ascanius might find useful for future jokes. However, the Professor should keep the candy away from Lex's hands, because whatever planet that candy would represent... it would perish before the sun did. Just saying.

[DaniDiNardo]

She could get rid of this ugly colour! No need to tell her twice. Lex tapped at the beard and cast the colour changing charm she'd taught herself. Instantly it was her favourite shade of blue and she was beaming. No need to worry about her distracting herself with braiding or whatever, she wasn't very fussy about hair. Merlin knew Melanie was the reason she showed up to classes with brushed hair.

So yeah, they were talking about the sun and why it was important. She already knew this stuff but listened out of courtesy to Professor Airey, one of the only ones she'd have listened to out of courtesy.

Her interest was peaked when he got to the bag and showed what was insi--

hcdvsdgfv!!! "Candy!!" Oh erm...did he want specifics?

"A jaw breaker to be exact." Muggle candy. She didn't have it very often but they had some good ones. "Do we each get one?? Can I have two?"

PLEASE??

[FearlessLeader19]

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it. "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

Yay! He was right! Adi eyed the thingy the Professor had revealed to them. What was that? He craned his neck trying to come up with an answer but really he could not figure it out. But he raised his hand. "Ummm, it's a ball or some other round thing splattered with paint,'' he said. The object did look like that.

[iBeJenn]

What if that thing the professor was holding wasn't really a candy? What if it was one of those giant rubber balls that you bought in Chinatown for a dollar? Melanie squinted at it, trying to see if the lighting on the white speckled object resembled that off a rubber ball's more. She tilted her head slightly to the side and all to observe the object and trying not to get distracted by the beards people now wore on their faces.

Melanie would pass on beards. "It's one of those bouncy balls you get from those toy machines, isn't it?" Y'know... the one where you put in a quarter, twisted the knob and a little capsule would come out with the ball in it? She was pretty sure that was it and not a jawbreaker. It would be too obvious if it was a jawbreaker. She was pretty sure the object had been disguised to look like one... right? It was probably a rubber bouncy ball.

[Team ronmione]

Just take this class slowly Tag. Take it slowly and surely and you'll understand it.

Doing his best to keep his attention on Airey, he did say Tag had to 'pay attention, he must' Tag looked at Airey as he spoke. It was kind of hard to keep focusing on him when he mentioned the sun over and over again. Actually, Airey, the sun was much much closer to him than he thought, but Tag wouldn't say that.

How was the sun eight minutes ago??? Ugh. Yep. Tag had never found this class more confusing than this year. So, keeping his mouth shut Tag continued to listen. Ok, he understood why it was ironic that the sun was called a yellow dwarf star.

And that weird thing he was showing next, yeah Tag couldn't put his finger on it. To him it just looked like a styrofoam ball that some funky artist decided to throw paint upon.

Again, he sat quietly.

[Luna_Midnight]

Nerida looked jawbreaker? gobstopper? It couldn't be candy...It was too cool to be candy! All colorful and epic, didn't they have those in the those machines and you put muggle quarters in to get one, bouncy balls? Yeah that seemed more like it... Agreeing with Melanie she decided to go into the ball direction. "Yeah Professor I agree it looks like a fun little bouncy ball that you pay with for a muggle quarter!" Yeah it was too easy to just give it the name of a jawbreaker it could be a bouncy ball...Which it looked like so yeap it was a ball!

[Anna Banana]

Sophie nodded along as the professor went on and on about how important the Sun was to their existence here on Earth. She knew all about that kind of thing. Her mom had taught her when she'd been at home and too young to come to Hogwarts.

She peered out the window when the professor mentioned the star they could see outside. That wasn't really the Sun...but rather the Sun as it looked eight minutes ago? Weirdddd. Sophie looked outside for a little longer then turned back to the professor.

What was that object? She smirked in amusement at the kid who said 'mountain troll eyebrow'. Heh. Raising her hand, she said, "It's a piece of candy, but...maybe you're using it as a model of something in the Solar System?" she suggested. It did look rather planet-y.

[lemon]

Changing beard colors was too much effort, so Alice just sat silent and stroked her new facial hair thoughtfully while watching Mo ramble like a true eagle. And she also watched the candy.. because candy. Jawbreakers? Hmm?

Was Lex the only other one who took up Flamsteed's offer of a furry chin?

Hmph.. but it.. was scratchy. No. No thanks. Alice wanted it off. Could he get it off for her?

Itch. Itch. "Finite. Finite." Would that fix it?

Itchhhh.

[lazykitty]

Sky felt like that answer was a bit of a duh. But it caused Airey to burst out singing a Beatles song, so that was awesome. And note taking was going on, because she needed this stuff for NEWTs. But then she was distracted. By candy. Mmmm...... candy. "It's one of those large jawbreakers that last for days and change color and everything....." She hadn't had one for those for awhile, mainly because she had such a hard time finding them in either magical or muggle London. "Can we have one?"

[DecemberMoon]

Oh, Eliza thought, deflated. She had completely forgotten about Jupiter being a gas planet, and now she felt silly. Sure, others had been wrong about it too, but she didn't like being wrong, especially not when she had thought she was so right.

Moving on though, she shouted out her answer of "The sun!" in unison with several other students after he'd asked. That was after she chuckled over the professor jumping on desks and dancing slightly by himself here and there.

Now, he presented them with a big white ball with colors splattered on it. Lucky enough for her, she knew just what the was. Or, thought she did at least. She wasn't so sure about her answers anymore now, having gotten the first one wrong, but she raised her hand to answer anyway. "That's a gobstopper, Professor. They're a hard candy that you just sort of lick for a while...which is actually a little bit unhygienic I would think... But anyway, they're supposed to taste pretty good!" Not to mention they'd probably make a nice colorful addition to some sort of solar system mock up?

[Casey O]

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

OOC: class will resume in...a few hours ^_^


Marigold raised her hand.

"Oooh! Oooh! Isn't that a jawbreaker? My mum buys those for me!" she said excitedly. It was true, her mother, being a muggle, gave those to her on Easter. "Oh, and Marigold I LOVE ASTRONOMY McAlistor here!" She beamed. Totally telling the truth, Astronomy was her FAVORITE subjects.
She smiled and then wibbled. She wished that Airey could find Pebbles, though he seemed energetic without her.

OH. AND HEY ALL YOU NEW PUFFERS THAT SHE SAW IN DIAGON ALLEY. HEYYYYYYYY.

Yep.

[Sonea]

"No need to continue to introduce yourself, Miss Duvessa," he said with one hand in the air to stop here. "Alpha Centauri IS the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus and the third brightest star in the night sky, but it is not the star closest to earth. It is, however, a part of the star system closest to our Solar System."

Oh, whaaaaat? Had she been wrong? BUT HOW WAS THAT POSSIBLE!?!?! She had done her homework, she had learned and done her best, so HOW WAS THIS POSSIBLE?! She hated to to give a wrong answer and she was embarrassed because of it, she had spoken out loud and now had everybody heard her! Her cheek colored ALMOST the same shade of pink like the fur from Little Princess and that was making her even MORE embarrassed!

Getting excited once again, Airey jumped up on his own desk and began to sing. "Here comes the sun, du dn du du," he said, doing another weird little wiggly dance in the process. Was anyone going to join him? No? Right then. "Those of you who said the sun are correct. The sun is the closest star to us." And now you know it was a star, Mr. Lecium. "The sun makes up about 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass, just so you get an idea as to how massive this star is. Ironically, it is classified as a yellow dwarf star and is currently in the main sequence phase of its stellar evolution. While it IS the star closest to us, the sun that you see out the window right now is not the sun RIGHT now, but rather the sun as it was 8 minutes ago." Had he lost anyone with that? He always thought it was an interesting fact that when one looked to the sky you could see the past. "The sun is very important to the earth for many reasons. One being that the sun provides the earth with something to orbit. Without the sun, the Earth would fly off into the coldest parts of space and none of us would be here today because life would be impossible. It also provides heat, which is necessary for life to exist and controls our weather. In summary, it is the most basic source of energy for planet Earth."


"PRECISELY!" Airey said with some dramatic finger pointing towards Mr. Tempus. "We will actually be utilizing the sun's light in a little reenactment later." But more on THAT laaaaaaaaater.

Were they getting that there was a LOT to study and know in regards to the sun? He could quite literally hold a year's worth of lessons just on it.

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"



Okay... Why was the professor dancing like that? Wasn't he embarrassed with himself right now? She herself would NEVER do something like that, she only would make a fool of herself, and she wasn't so sure if the professor was doing something smart now, he was a teacher after all... But, at the same time, even now that she thought about him as a little strange, she grinned, it WAS funny to see! And... Oh, the sun? Hmm, she didn't had thought about that...

While Sonea listened to the professor AND made notes because she needed them, she stopped for a moment and looked up at the professor, blinking... what was he saying? She really didn't understood where he was talking about, a sun from 8 minutes before? How was that possible without time traveling?

Her eyes widened when she now understood a little more about the sun but the thought that all life would end without the sun was disturbing, was it possible for the sun to stop with shining and to vanish? She didn't hoped it...

And than, after a few minutes the professor started to talk about the bag, and... She REALLY wanted to know what was in it! So she listened interested to what he was telling. But... what was that in his hand? Why had she been so excited? It's just a simple ball...

But, because she WANTED to try it again she raised her hand. "Is it a miniature of or earth?"

[slytherus]

Good Merlin! He's dancing now... If he was to join this man who was basically prancing during a lesson, Angeal would probably die of embarassment. He was even more convinced that Flamsteed was indeed demented. His explanation though, as brilliant as it may sound, confused him. "What do you mean by... It was eight minutes ago?" he questioned after putting up his hand. More of a murmur, to be precise.

The thing Flamsteed took out of the bag though... "A candy, sir?"

[Charely Potter]

Wade had smiled back at Min when she lightly squeezed his hand in thanks earlier. He nodded back at her, before they were allowed to seperate but still remain closely seated together. He always did what he could to make his friends happy.

His attention turned back to Professor Flamsteed when he addressed his answer. Oh.. yeah, since there were those stars far enough away that were okay to look at. Guess if he mentioned a star being as close as our sun, it would've been a good answer. Oh well. Then the lesson moved on, and then he asked about the star closest to them..

Yeah, Wade felt his face warm. He sort of kind of like you know, mentioned the Sun earlier during the first question. He rubbed the back of his neck as to distract himself. Guess there was no harm is repeating it again, since it was asked... or not. Because now they moved on. Merlin, this class was a little fast. Blinking as he looked to the now displayed white colored.. candy? He turned to Min, who already gave her answer.. But.. this was Astronomy.. was there candy in space? *Blink* No.. well, at least he didn't think so. Maybe there was more to it?

Furrowing his brows, Wade rose his hand, "Erm.. well, it's a muggle candy sir, but.. the colors formed on it resemble those pretty stars and galaxies that are in our textbooks." Least that's how Wade saw it.

[sweetpinkpixie]

Furrowing his brows, Wade rose his hand, "Erm.. well, it's a muggle candy sir, but.. the colors formed on it resemble those pretty stars and galaxies that are in our textbooks." Least that's how Wade saw it.
"Ah, very interesting, Mr. Potter," Airey nodded. "And interesting that you should draw upon the connection between this jawbreaker and one of the three possible shapes of the universe - a spherical Universe. Very good."


But, because she WANTED to try it again she raised her hand. "Is it a miniature of or earth?"
Airey shook his head. "It does bear some resemblance to earth, but that is not what it is."

Good Merlin! He's dancing now... If he was to join this man who was basically prancing during a lesson, Angeal would probably die of embarassment. He was even more convinced that Flamsteed was indeed demented. His explanation though, as brilliant as it may sound, confused him. "What do you mean by... It was eight minutes ago?" he questioned after putting up his hand. More of a murmur, to be precise.[/B]
"Ah, a very good question, Mr. Phantom," Airey grinned. "The sun's light travels at the speed of light through the vacuum of space, which is about 300,000 kilometres per second. Light travels slower through different mediums such as glass, water and air. I'm going to round up and down some number to make the calculations easier, but here is the math. We orbit the Sun at a distance of approximately 150 million kilometers. Light moves at 300,000 kilometers per second. Divide these and you get 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 20 seconds." Airey paused here to let all this sink in for a moment. "So, if the sun were to suddenly disappeared or just stopped emitting light, it would be 8 minutes before we realized it."

Did that clear things up?

Heh.

Yeah, he saw Glitter Trousers sequined feathers get all ruffled when Ascanius started to click his tongue. It seemed to him that he had gotten down to the tap dancing heart of his singing Professor. Twinkle town and whatnot. And the if it bothered Glitter Trousers it was amusing to Ascanius. 'Sides, this class was boring and he knew all the answers. He needed to do something to entertain himself. Pfft.

So he continued to look around the room with his ever present smirk and he clicked his tongue. And he did it over and over again simply because he wanted to, yeah?

Also, that was a jaw breaker. They used to get those all the time at the corner store, him and the rest of the kids at the home, on Saturdays if they were good. He knew those things well.
Okay, the sound of science was becoming increasingly less awesome because of all this clicking going on by Mr. Stark and his tongue. Did he know that clicking noise was EXTREMELY rude in some cultures? The astronomer had learned this due to some international events he had been required to attend as Astronomer Royal.

"Mr. Stark, that is quite enough of the tongue clicking," Airey said, the slightest hint of agitation in his voice.

Changing beard colors was too much effort, so Alice just sat silent and stroked her new facial hair thoughtfully while watching Mo ramble like a true eagle. And she also watched the candy.. because candy. Jawbreakers? Hmm?

Was Lex the only other one who took up Flamsteed's offer of a furry chin?

Hmph.. but it.. was scratchy. No. No thanks. Alice wanted it off. Could he get it off for her?

Itch. Itch. "Finite. Finite." Would that fix it?

Itchhhh.
And speaking of oddness.....

"Everything alright, Miss Fischer?" Was she regretting asking for a beard? Maybe she should braid it or something?
Did he want to elaborate? No. He really didn't. What if he said something stupid because he didn't know all the official words? He was good at putting pieces together, but he wasn't good at recall. West was way better at recall.

But he'd try, anyway. "When a star, like our sun, is created out of that big star cloud... erm... the solar nebula, the leftover cloud of stuff is just spinning there in the gravity of the forming star. And then through the process of..." He wrinkled his nose, trying to recall the word. "Accretion, tiny grains of dust slowly build mass over ages and ages to become planets. So you see..." Did he see? Did anyone see? "Planets are dependent on stars to be created, but the opposite is not true." Whew. The end.
Had everyone been paying attention this? He sure hoped so because it tied into his favorite fact about the universe and humanity's place in it. Or everything for that matter. "Outstanding, Mr. Branxton. Take 5 points for your train of thought," he said, applauding the boy with some seriously loud clapping for a few moments. "As some of you may recall, I shared with you how we, and all life, are made of stardust. That the elements and atoms and parts that create stars also reside within us. Just as life now is dependent on the sun, and stars in general, it is also dependent on it for its creation."

Were students starting to see why he placed so much emphasis on stars yet?

"Some have been quoted saying that Jupiter is a failed star because it is made of the same elements as is the Sun, but it is not massive enough to have the internal pressure and temperature necessary to cause hydrogen to fuse to helium"

Well done, Mr. Branxton. You earned yourself a free pass to your next lint roller mishap.

Okay, so everyone knew the answer to this one, right? Right.

But also... "Professor Flamsteed? Is it true the official name of our sun is Sol?"
"For those of you who do not know, Sol is the Roman equivalent of the Greek sun god Helios," he explained as a bit of a disclaimer before Airey shook his head. "According to the International Astronomical Union, who are the ones who name all celestial bodies, it is not an official name although some will swear that it Sol is the official name. While it may be odd considering every other star has a name, the sun has no scientific name or designation, apart from, the Sun. There is even debate among astronomers whether to use a capital or lowercase 's,' but I will accept either."

And no, he wasn't done yet.

"The sun DOES however have have a symbol," and he turned to the blackboard and quickly drew it for student reference.

http://en.es-static.us/upl/2013/03/sun_symbol.png

Asher looked closely at the object the professor was holding. What it had to do with the sun, he didn't know for sure. After a few more moments in thought, the only thing that came to mind was "Is it a Mountain Troll eyeball? I'm not sure what that has to do with the sun, but it looks to be about the right size."

Ahh, he was almost one hundred percent sure his answer was wrong, but he was participating in class. That had to be worth something. Plus, Professor Flamsteed had always appeared to be the kind of professor that would welcome guesses from the younger students that may not have as much knowledge as the older ones.
...................................ew. That was disgusting and Airey could not help himself but make a face at the answer. He admired the creativity of the young Hufflepuff, however. "I think that would be best suited for Care of Magical Creatures," he said with a forced smile. You know, disecting eyeballs and all that. Not something he would want to do, ever, but maybe some students would. "Interesting guess."



Nerida looked jawbreaker? gobstopper? It couldn't be candy...It was too cool to be candy! All colorful and epic, didn't they have those in the those machines and you put muggle quarters in to get one, bouncy balls? Yeah that seemed more like it... Agreeing with Melanie she decided to go into the ball direction. "Yeah Professor I agree it looks like a fun little bouncy ball that you pay with for a muggle quarter!" Yeah it was too easy to just give it the name of a jawbreaker it could be a bouncy ball...Which it looked like so yeap it was a ball!

What if that thing the professor was holding wasn't really a candy? What if it was one of those giant rubber balls that you bought in Chinatown for a dollar? Melanie squinted at it, trying to see if the lighting on the white speckled object resembled that off a rubber ball's more. She tilted her head slightly to the side and all to observe the object and trying not to get distracted by the beards people now wore on their faces.

Melanie would pass on beards. "It's one of those bouncy balls you get from those toy machines, isn't it?" Y'know... the one where you put in a quarter, twisted the knob and a little capsule would come out with the ball in it? She was pretty sure that was it and not a jawbreaker. It would be too obvious if it was a jawbreaker. She was pretty sure the object had been disguised to look like one... right? It was probably a rubber bouncy ball.

Yay! He was right! Adi eyed the thingy the Professor had revealed to them. What was that? He craned his neck trying to come up with an answer but really he could not figure it out. But he raised his hand. "Ummm, it's a ball or some other round thing splattered with paint,'' he said. The object did look like that.


Ooooooooooh Airey liked those machines. He had been especially fond of the crane one when he had ventured into a muggle gaming center over the summer. They were FABULOUS!

"Good guess, but this is not a bouncy ball or any sort of ball for that matter." Well, it WAS a ball of sorts since it was orb, but not the sort of ball that these students were thinking about.


As Ella continued to watch Professor Airey, she couldn't help but think that him and Tobias were very alike what with the bouncing and enthusiasm. They could totally be bros if it wasn't for the huge age-gap. She'd have to suggest it to the younger badger at some point. Maybe Toby could even help convince Airey to confess his love to Professor Romanos.

And that song? GRIN! Ella loved it. The blonde BEAMED at the Professor then quickly scribbled down notes on the sun, resisting the urge to hum as she did.

And that thing? That speckled thing? That was totally something she'd recognized. Her Gran never wanted to get her one because she was convinced it was going to lodge in Ella's throat and then she'd choke and then her Gran would win worst grandparent of the year award. Dramatic Gran was dramatic, okay? Anyway... "It looks like a jaw breaker, Sir."

Minerva could not believe not at all that people wanted those horrid beards. She was still pouting over it really. Yes the points were nice, but she felt stupid for letting her curiosity get the best of her. Now others were going up on purpose just to get that stupid beard .. Honestly the entire school was loosing their minds if she didn't know better she would think they were still in last term.

Watching as Flamsteed got his bag she backed up in her chair hoping he wasn't going to open the bag towards them to make the entire class get the blasted beards. She flinched as he opened it, but looked as he puled something out. Oh she knew what that was. Raising her hand, "Professor that is a jaw breaker. It's a muggle candy that is impossible really to bite through, but has a lot of flavor and you can have it for ever." placing her hand down she listened to see if everyone else agreed with her.

Airey was on FIRE today. Well, not literally. But he was certainly showing the kind of energy that APPEALED to Toby. Wow. WOW. Singing, dancing AND dramatic finger pointing.

... straight at him.

TOBY DID ANOTHER GOOD.

The boy BEAMED widely, having written all his notes down and now looking up to see the digit of doom accusation ... something idk... pointed at him.

And onto the bag. Tobias sat up a bit straighter here, eager to see what was going oooooon, and caught sight ooooof-

"Sweets!"

He couldn't stop the squeal that escaped him but... c'mon... SWEETS. He threw up his hand and gave an answer. "Where I live-" dahhhn sahhhth "-we call those gobstoppers, Professor. But some people call 'em jawbreakers. You suck on them and they get smaller and smaller and change colours as the layers of sugary goodness come off."

Ahem.

Well, if Tobias knew ANYTHING, it was muggle candy.

.................. could he have one?

Kace was in awe learning about the Sun. He never knew that information. He copied some of it down in his notes. Plus his hand was starting to cramp. He didn't really write at all this summer, so he had to practice. Then he saw the professor have the bag in his hand. FINALLY he will know what is in it!

He saw Prof Airey put his hand in it and then he pulled out a white sphere of delicious goodness. Kace knew what it was instantly. He loved those candies. Kace raised his hand, "I KNOW! I KNOW!! It is a Jaw Breaker!" he said probably a little enthusiastically. But hey they were his favorite candy. Plus they were huge in his mouth and made him drool when he ate them. "Those jaw breakers make your cheeks hurt i know that." he told the Professor. He knew from experience.
What was with the simple questions? Brodie looked at it, "It's a jaw breaker sir... A muggle sweet that basically rots your teeth out before too long, it last for quite a long while... but certainly not forever." He had to add that in there seeing how he heard Minnie say it could last that long, please... Nothing really lasted forever, he fought a smug look knowing he'd proven Minnie wrong. He didn't like his prefect... Could anyone else tell that yet?

She could get rid of this ugly colour! No need to tell her twice. Lex tapped at the beard and cast the colour changing charm she'd taught herself. Instantly it was her favourite shade of blue and she was beaming. No need to worry about her distracting herself with braiding or whatever, she wasn't very fussy about hair. Merlin knew Melanie was the reason she showed up to classes with brushed hair.

So yeah, they were talking about the sun and why it was important. She already knew this stuff but listened out of courtesy to Professor Airey, one of the only ones she'd have listened to out of courtesy.

Her interest was peaked when he got to the bag and showed what was insi--

hcdvsdgfv!!! "Candy!!" Oh erm...did he want specifics?

"A jaw breaker to be exact." Muggle candy. She didn't have it very often but they had some good ones. "Do we each get one?? Can I have two?"

PLEASE??
Sky felt like that answer was a bit of a duh. But it caused Airey to burst out singing a Beatles song, so that was awesome. And note taking was going on, because she needed this stuff for NEWTs. But then she was distracted. By candy. Mmmm...... candy. "It's one of those large jawbreakers that last for days and change color and everything....." She hadn't had one for those for awhile, mainly because she had such a hard time finding them in either magical or muggle London. "Can we have one?"

Oh, Eliza thought, deflated. She had completely forgotten about Jupiter being a gas planet, and now she felt silly. Sure, others had been wrong about it too, but she didn't like being wrong, especially not when she had thought she was so right.

Moving on though, she shouted out her answer of "The sun!" in unison with several other students after he'd asked. That was after she chuckled over the professor jumping on desks and dancing slightly by himself here and there.

Now, he presented them with a big white ball with colors splattered on it. Lucky enough for her, she knew just what the was. Or, thought she did at least. She wasn't so sure about her answers anymore now, having gotten the first one wrong, but she raised her hand to answer anyway. "That's a gobstopper, Professor. They're a hard candy that you just sort of lick for a while...which is actually a little bit unhygienic I would think... But anyway, they're supposed to taste pretty good!" Not to mention they'd probably make a nice colorful addition to some sort of solar system mock up?

Marigold raised her hand.

"Oooh! Oooh! Isn't that a jawbreaker? My mum buys those for me!" she said excitedly. It was true, her mother, being a muggle, gave those to her on Easter. "Oh, and Marigold I LOVE ASTRONOMY McAlistor here!" She beamed. Totally telling the truth, Astronomy was her FAVORITE subjects.
She smiled and then wibbled. She wished that Airey could find Pebbles, though he seemed energetic without her.

OH. AND HEY ALL YOU NEW PUFFERS THAT SHE SAW IN DIAGON ALLEY. HEYYYYYYYY.

Yep.
Taylor tilted her head and looked at what he held up. She raised her hand, "Uh... is it some sort of muggle candy?" Tay wasn't that sure about her answer but she already said it so... oh well... Taylor fiddled with her quill some more and tickled her nose with the very tip of the feathery part, bored at the moment even though she loved astronomy.
Sophie nodded along as the professor went on and on about how important the Sun was to their existence here on Earth. She knew all about that kind of thing. Her mom had taught her when she'd been at home and too young to come to Hogwarts.

She peered out the window when the professor mentioned the star they could see outside. That wasn't really the Sun...but rather the Sun as it looked eight minutes ago? Weirdddd. Sophie looked outside for a little longer then turned back to the professor.

What was that object? She smirked in amusement at the kid who said 'mountain troll eyebrow'. Heh. Raising her hand, she said, "It's a piece of candy, but...maybe you're using it as a model of something in the Solar System?" she suggested. It did look rather planet-y.

"Precisely!" Airey said as he nearly popped the giant candy into his mouth, but he DID stop himself before doing so. "Known as either gobstoppers or jawbreakers depending on region - this is actually one of my favorite muggle candies and one I cannot suck on without thinking of the sun because...."
Overexcited Professor was overexcited. It was cute. Anya's little invisible audience in her head was awwing at his antics and table jumping general monkeyness.

... that was totally normal to think about a Professor, right? Right...?

Eh. She didn't care. It was true. Anyone that thought otherwise was lying.

Ooooh. And what was that? Her hand shot up. "Is it the 'something that I will be able to take back to the dorms' thing that you promised me?" Because. Grabby hands. Anya wanted the jawbreaker. Omnomnom.
"Yes, yes Miss Phillips you and everyone can have a jawbreaker later and take the leftovers back to the dorms," he nodded.

Now, where had he been with his train of thought? Oh, yes, he was just about to explain why jawbreakers reminded him of the sun.
Woa. Tora hadn't seen one of those since she stopped going to Muggle school! Her hand shot up. "That's a jaw-breaker!" she said excited and then added without really thinking,
After she settled down a bit she tried to think about how a jaw-breaker could relate to the sun. After a couple minutes she put up her hand again, a little more tentatively this time, and said, [b]"Professor? Is that also a model of a planet orbiting the sun? It has a core and it is hard, which although is not a requisite of being a planet, a lot of planets and other orbiting objects are made of rock. Or ice. Or something like that." she paused with a thoughtful look on her face. "I don't think it represents the sun because a jaw-breaker only gets smaller, where the sun will eventually become a red giant, which is bigger than the original main sequence star.... of course it would eventually shed the outer layers of gas to make a nebulae and then a white dwarf which is considerably smaller, but i don't think that applies to this object." She suddenly realized how much she was talking. Not that talking was ever a bad thing, it was just that she wasn't used to giving to many answers. Normally she was the one to ask the questions. She blushed and looked down at her desk to where her notes from last year (yes she kept them) were open. Just checking to make sure the facts given were actually correct of course. Ahem. Space nerd coming through.
"Ah yes, when you look at it THAT way it does not seem to be a good representation for the sun," Airey nodded. "But, as I said earlier, I am thinking more of the sun and it's appearance and layers, not its lifespan and what will happen." Just the basic physical appearance. "But very good analytical thinking, take 2 points for your thoughts."

And now he was going to get down to real business. Removing his wand, Airey levitated the massive candy into the air, enlarged it so it was easier to see, and gave his wand another flick to cause it to rotate slowly. "Now, you will all need to use your imagination and think outside the box for this, but when I look at the surface of a jawbreaker I see sunspots and solar flares. When I cut it in half..." he said as he gave his wand a quick downwards slash to sever the jawbreaker perfectly in half (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Jawbreakers1.jpg). "...I see thermal based diagrams of the layers of the sun."

The professor then gave the blackboard another tap and revealed just that, a diagram of the sun. Did they see how similar they looked? Airey found the similarities to be rather uncanny. Just like black holes and ice cream cones - which took on an ENTIRELY new meaning thanks to the events of last term.

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/unlabeled.jpg
"Now, as you can see the parts of the sun are not labeled. I would like to ask for volunteers to come up and fill in the missing information for us. Just ONE please. If the part of the sun you know has already been filled in, you can state a fact about it instead. You MAY use your textbooks to assist you." This was a RARE thing for him to ask, but he wanted to help those students who may be at a disadvantage participate. This information was not something he expected first years to know, for example.

OOC: You do NOT and should not wait for Professor Flamsteed to call on your character to come up to the board as a volunteer and can just pretend that he did. Likewise, no one get all dslkjfdjfsllkssfdj BUT MY CHARACTER ALREADY WROTE THAT PART ON THE BOARD if someone RPs the action after you. Just take a deep breath and relax knowing that you had speedier fingers and luck on timing <3

If your character chooses to state a fact, try to keep your brief and do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT just copy paste from Wikipedia or another website. I will know ;) Make sure you use your character's own voice when answering, please and thank you.

Class will resume either before I go to bed (in approximately 8 hours) or once I wake up depending on your posts ^_^

[slytherus]

Ooooh~ It really looked like the sun structure! He would really use jawbreakers to help him remember after this. When Flamsteed was asking for volunteers, Angeal, who surprisingly decided to finally participate in the lesson got up and went to the blackboard to label one (http://i.imgur.com/yyTRhRm.jpg) of the parts.

Looks like a few years of muggle education paid off after all.

[Charely Potter]

Hmm.. yeah spherical Universe. Alrighty. He merely blinked before jotting it down in his notes, before the other information, regarding the Sun and some claims on it's name being 'Sol'. Yep that too. Now they were asked to label parts of the sun.. Hmm, okay.

Once Wade's name was called, he got himself up from his desk. He merely looked at the whole thing. If anything he recognize was that everything had a core. So, he went right up to the board before writing in the "Inner Core" for the green-blue area right in the middle.

Now what did he know about the inner core, "Well.. the inner core is what starts it all for the Sun, to make it a star." He was somewhat okay with the brief description, when he was allowed to he went back to sit down. Then he opened the textbook to see what the others were, whilst looking up to see others label too.

[JustAlice]

Oh. Oops. He had to admit that that was not the first time that this sort of thing had happened, but certainly a first for Hogwarts. "Oh, um...." he squirmed as he jumped off her desk. "Terribly sorry, you alright?" Although she had just said she was. And he would have said that it would never happen again, but that wasn't a promise he was sure he could keep. When the man got excited he GOT excited.


"Yes I'm fine now thanks, Professor..." she said, trying her best not to turn into sulky, slightly embarrassed Derry and wishing she had a beard she could hide her blush behind. But she didn't want a green beard thanks. It'd... clash with her hair or something.

She was still sulking a little bit, trying to regain a little bit of confidence before she started to talk, when everyone was answering the question before her. God this was going so fast.

As for the sun... Derry was starting to wish she had actually listened to Tilly's ramblings about the solar system. But she'd never actually cared that much.
...
OOOOH but she DID know a fact about the outer-bit... "Sometimes there're st-st-storms on the s-surface." She frowned to herself. Stuttering was not what she needed right now. "Called s-s-s... ..." It just wasn't happening. She meant solar flares. But she couldn't get it out. "...nevermind..." she mumbled, leaning forwards to let her hair cover her slight blush whilst she took as many notes as she could.

[Kitten]

A grin formed on the purebloods face as she saw the image of the sun on the board, remembering the times where Liam had been doing Astronomy homework, or even studying it, and she'd just sat around watching him as he worked.

So she already knew a bit, and immediately jumped up given the fact that she'd been given the chance to. So looking at the board, which already had one part filled in she thought for a moment, before quickly writing another one ('http://i.imgur.com/Mc0m3Ih.jpg').

Sitting down, fairly certain she was right, she could only hope that she hadn't made a mistake...

That would be embarrassing!

[FearlessLeader19]

A jawbreaker. Adi had never had one of those and decided he would try one soon. They won't actually break the jaw right? Painful, painful that would be.

Adi examined the diagram. Label one of the parts? He would love to! If only he knew what was what. So instead he just sat there watching as the older students filed up to do the labeling instead.

[DaniDiNardo]

Lex looked across the room and noted the fact that Alice had begun scratching in her beard. Hey wait what? She was already trying get rid of it?? That kinda defeated the purpose of being beard buddies even if she didn't know they were! Hmph. She would need to have a word with her on coordinating later.

For now THEY COULD KEEP THE CANDY!!

She'd be on this one for a while not to mention they could keep the leftovers. Professor Airey was amazing, that was all she was prepared to say at this present moment but 'cept there was probably more to say. They were labelling the sun now. She could do thaaaat. Surprinzingly enough she'd bothered to look through her Astronomy text over the summer.

Lex hopped up and walked to the board....which one...? Hmmmm?

In the end she chose the photosphere (http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z412/DaniDiNardo/Sun_zpsd7140a49.jpg) and scribbled it in. There! She beamed over at the Professor, eyed the bag of candy for another moment then retook her seat and went back to her beard admiring.

This was a philosophical moment kinda thing and she was now nodding like a wise sage. YUP.

[iBeJenn]

So it wasn't a bouncy ball. Well then, Melanie was okay with that. She listened to the professor as he spoke and the candy was split in half. Ooooh. Look at all the colors. Melanie's mouth might've dropped some, when she saw the inside. It was actually quite pretty. That didn't mean she wanted to eat one though.

She slid out of her seat and walked up to the board before labeling (http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/ss236/xiiFakeASmile/Melanie%20Sung/school%20stuff/suuuun-1.jpg) the convection zone. She remembered that one because it kept reminding her of the word confection. The other ones were just a tad more difficult to memorize.

Making sure her handwriting was neat, she nodded her head and went back to her seat.

[Weasley174]

Laura just sat in the classroom, she wanted to do the activity but she wouldn't know where to begin all she could do was probably make sure that her work was perfect so she was going to just watch everyone.

[Kimothy]

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"
That was a jawbreaker / gobstopper, alright. Kat knew that because she's seen Muggles eat those stuff. Though she was kind of curious as to how it tasted. Maybe she'll ask for Professor Flamsteed for some later? Just for the heck of experimenting and making sure if the sweet was edible or not. But if she hated it, she'd spit it out with no hesitation. Fair warning.


The professor then gave the blackboard another tap and revealed just that, a diagram of the sun. Did they see how similar they looked? Airey found the similarities to be rather uncanny. Just like black holes and ice cream cones - which took on an ENTIRELY new meaning thanks to the events of last term.

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/unlabeled.jpg
"Now, as you can see the parts of the sun are not labeled. I would like to ask for volunteers to come up and fill in the missing information for us. Just ONE please. If the part of the sun you know has already been filled in, you can state a fact about it instead. You MAY use your textbooks to assist you." This was a RARE thing for him to ask, but he wanted to help those students who may be at a disadvantage participate. This information was not something he expected first years to know, for example.
Kat took a moment to examine the chart on the board. So, the layers of the sun, yeah? That was easy. She wanted to go in front and write down answers but she was too lazy. Like, honestly, she was just tired and standing up plus writing down things was already a lot of effort. And she didn't want to use too much energy since she was already being a good student for participating actively in class. So instead she'd just say a fact about one of them

The Head Girl's hand went up. "The photosphere has sort of dark spots which people tend to call sunspots." Yeah, that was her share. Carry on, Astronomy students.

[amadshade]

Woa. Flamsteed was saying that they could use their textbooks? That wasn't something that happened every day. She shrugged, it didn't matter really to her, and raised her hand for a turn at the board.

Tora bounded up towards the board to write down her answer. She quickly wrote down Tachodine in the appropriate place before dodging back to her seat. And because she could she checked her textbook to make sure she got it right.

Oh. Wait. That was wrong... She looked around quickly, and because no one else had gotten to the board yet she dashed back up to cross out her original answer and write in her new and improved one. Radiation zone (http://i.imgur.com/aJKTGoj.jpg). That was the right answer. "Sorry Professor." she turned to Professor Airey. "I fixed it..." She blushed and returned to her seat once more. Maybe it was a good thing that she was allowed to use her textbook.

[MudInMyBlood]

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it. "Can anyone tell me what this is?"


Did that man just jump on his desk and do a jig? Just like that... he knew there were people that could see him in here right? She tried to clear that imagine completely out of her mind.

Oh he was pulling things out of the bag now. HA! That puffer got a beard over a piece of candy? That was too good. Hannah wondered how the older girl felt about that now. "That's a sweet treat." she said with a raised hand. She wasn't sure about the exact name, but it looked like everybody else did sooooo fantastic.

Now, as you can see the parts of the sun are not labeled. I would like to ask for volunteers to come up and fill in the missing information for us. Just ONE please. If the part of the sun you know has already been filled in, you can state a fact about it instead. You MAY use your textbooks to assist you." This was a RARE thing for him to ask, but he wanted to help those students who may be at a disadvantage participate. This information was not something he expected first years to know, for example.


The sun. What did she know about the sun other than it being hot and it hurt your eyes to look into it? OMG! They had better not be going outside to look at the sun. Her eyes were precious and there was no way that she would do anything to hurt them. He would most likely have them use some kind of protective glasses, but that was really besides the point. She just didn't wanna. She noticed her classmate had just labeled the radiation zone and that actually rang a bell.

"The radiation zone or the radiative zone as it is sometimes called is where all the energy comes from." Err... was that enough because the rest was kind of confusing to her. "Umm... and I think that the rate of energy will directly impact the temperature." she said with a raised hand. She wasn't entirely sure that she understood that correctly, but that was her answer and she was sticking to it.

[noodles]

Prof was singing. Prof was actually kind of cool. Prof's lesson was interesting.

Józsua sat and scribbled down a few notes, refraining from answering the nearest star to earth question, assuming it to be directed more to the younger members of the class. Besides, everyone else was answering it and he wasn't prepared to follow in parrot fashion.

He watched with interest as the professor finally revealed one of the items in the bag to be a jawbreaker.. or gob-stopper. Not that he actually knew that until someone said so. Troll eyeball? Funny.. Józsua had been thinking along the lines of eyeballs too.

Kinda gross for Astronomy.. but they had to grow beards in Arithmancy soo... it wouldn't really surprise the boy.

Sol. That reminded him of his friend Emilie. Her cat was called Sol if Józsua remembered correctly. So thanks to her he knew the meaning of the word.

Hm.. interesting. He looked from the jawbreaker to the diagram. He'd never think of jawbreakers in the same way again.. not that he enjoyed the sweets. Their name was too close to reality for comfort.

And now he was going to get down to real business. Removing his wand, Airey levitated the massive candy into the air, enlarged it so it was easier to see, and gave his wand another flick to cause it to rotate slowly. "Now, you will all need to use your imagination and think outside the box for this, but when I look at the surface of a jawbreaker I see sunspots and solar flares. When I cut it in half..." he said as he gave his wand a quick downwards slash to sever the jawbreaker perfectly in half (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Jawbreakers1.jpg). "...I see thermal based diagrams of the layers of the sun."

The professor then gave the blackboard another tap and revealed just that, a diagram of the sun. Did they see how similar they looked? Airey found the similarities to be rather uncanny. Just like black holes and ice cream cones - which took on an ENTIRELY new meaning thanks to the events of last term.

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/unlabeled.jpg
"Now, as you can see the parts of the sun are not labeled. I would like to ask for volunteers to come up and fill in the missing information for us. Just ONE please. If the part of the sun you know has already been filled in, you can state a fact about it instead. You MAY use your textbooks to assist you." This was a RARE thing for him to ask, but he wanted to help those students who may be at a disadvantage participate. This information was not something he expected first years to know, for example.He waited his turn and then went up to the board and examined the diagram. All the bits had been done bar one, which he scribbled the name of in hastily. Subsurface flows (http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg111/Katies_random_crap/Misc/Sun_zpsd4f3ddaa.jpg) that said. He writing was rather untidy..

[aaetha]

Adrienne frowned up at the board. She didn't actually know much about the sun, but she was pretty sure about one thing... so she thought she may as well write it. What's the harm, right? She raised her hand just a little bit above her head and, when she was called on, went up to the board and wrote (http://i.imgur.com/pWFCZmG.jpg) in the last remaining space. She also added on to Tora's answer, just because it couldn't just be the 'radioactive,' a noun was needed as well as an adjective. She had no idea if the adjective was right, though.

Adrienne took a step back, noticed that her handwriting was a. tiny and b. not in a straight line, sighed, and went back to her seat. No use trying, really.

[TeafortheSoul]

It was best to just not look at the bearded girlfriend yeah? It creeped him out. West didn't get up to add to the diagram either, since the beard thing was so distracting, but he was paying attention and mentally assigning labels to the diagram in his head. The gobstopper thing was cool, with the layers and all. West hadn't ever properly thought about it like that before. So, stating facts yeah? West didn't bother with his textbook, still keeping it simple and all that. Hand went up though.

"While the planets and dwarf planets and all that in our solar system orbit the sun, the sun isn't actually stuck in one spot either: it orbits around the center of the Milky Way, it just takes a really, really long time." West said, starting to perk up a bit just because Flammy's classes were always reasonably interesting, even when he wasn't in the best of moods.

[PuppySara]

Label the sun? The sun actually had different names? He looked around as everyone around him went up, he wasn't the best at this class clearly... Poor seventh year, chances were he knew less than even the ones younger than him, he really had no idea about this... Yep, Brodie just stayed down with a sigh, he felt stupid. So much for all the easy classes.

[Sonea]

Hmm, she had again given the wrong answer and she didn't liked that! But... she had tried it right? That was better than nothing! But... Oh, all the talk about the sun and all the information!! She noted everything what the professor was telling her, but she didn't understood everything of it, so she decided to re-read her notes when she was back in the common room, just to make sure that she would understand everything.

And because she didn't knew the right answers for this she stayed quite for the first time during this lesson and just listened to what the others were saying or doing. And while she did that she noted shocked that her two rats started to move again so she placed her left hand over her pocket to hide them and to keep them quite.

[the fastest seeker]

She had no idea what that round thingy was so she kept silent as she didn't have any guessed. Well, she did but her guesses were already said so she just waited to hear the right answer. And did they say muggle? Explains why she didn't know this kind of candy. Also, the name wasn't really appealing. Who wants their jaw broken? Unless, it wasn't meant for someone who might deserve a broken jaw. Cassia absorbed this info. Always learning here.

Cassia's eyes were on the candy the entire time, it was a good example to imagine the sun. She nodded at the Professor's words and tried to memorize what he was saying. What if THIS was on the final exams! Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she focused on the memorizing but. Might actually work, who knew.

And while she was too focused on that, she simply couldn't interrupt her own train of thoughts and go up the board. Plus, other students were quite fast. She just watched and absorbed. All was good so far, she liked this sung and made a mental note to grab one of those jawbreakers before leaving.

[Anna Banana]

Sophie looked at the jawbreaker, both the version that was whole and the one that was severed in half. To the professor, it looked like the Sun, but to Sophie, it looked like a good after-class snack. Yummm...

She watched as her classmates labeled the parts of the Sun. There were parts she didn't know, but there were also parts she did know. She raised her hand to volunteer, knowing the word for something not already labeled on the Sun. That blue part in the very, very middle was called the core. It was deeper than the Radiation Zone.

It wasn't labeled, so she assigned it to the last arrow in the top, left corner (http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff427/anna_banana_ss/randomgraphics/partsofthesun_zps081a0e9d.gif).

[TakemetotheBurrow]

The inside of a jaw breaker really was cool looking. It was also a really good representation of the sun and it was nice that Airey-face thought outside the box with stuff like this. Because even if you weren't necessarily interested in the planets and stars *GASP*, you'd probably be interested in the candy and what that had to do with anything. Cool professor was cool.

Ella looked up at the diagram thoughtfully as her classmates began to fill in the empty spots, trying to think of anything she knew about the different parts of the sun. It's hot was probably too general a thing to state, yeah? Yeah.

"The corona is a layer of gases, Professor. Light gases, I mean. It's not super bright or anything but I think you can see it on some occasions when the other layer, erm the photosphere, isn't as visible."

[Princesspower]

Getting excited once again, Airey jumped up on his own desk and began to sing. "Here comes the sun, du dn du du," he said, doing another weird little wiggly dance in the process. Was anyone going to join him? No? Right then. "Those of you who said the sun are correct. The sun is the closest star to us." And now you know it was a star, Mr. Lecium. "The sun makes up about 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass, just so you get an idea as to how massive this star is. Ironically, it is classified as a yellow dwarf star and is currently in the main sequence phase of its stellar evolution. While it IS the star closest to us, the sun that you see out the window right now is not the sun RIGHT now, but rather the sun as it was 8 minutes ago." Had he lost anyone with that? He always thought it was an interesting fact that when one looked to the sky you could see the past. "The sun is very important to the earth for many reasons. One being that the sun provides the earth with something to orbit. Without the sun, the Earth would fly off into the coldest parts of space and none of us would be here today because life would be impossible. It also provides heat, which is necessary for life to exist and controls our weather. In summary, it is the most basic source of energy for planet Earth."


"PRECISELY!" Airey said with some dramatic finger pointing towards Mr. Tempus. "We will actually be utilizing the sun's light in a little reenactment later." But more on THAT laaaaaaaaater.

Were they getting that there was a LOT to study and know in regards to the sun? He could quite literally hold a year's worth of lessons just on it.

"Today, we will be focusing on the sun and it's parts to better understand how it works." Which was now leading him to walk towards his bag. "Now, I know you are all curious as to what is in this bag. There are actually several things in here that we will be using in today's lesson, but the first iiiiiiiiiiiiiis," and he reached into the bag and pulled out a large white round object with a colorful speckled design on it (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Real_Jawbreaker.jpg). "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

OOC: class will resume in...a few hours ^_^

Sarah knew something else about the sun, she raised her hand “The sun is also at the perfect distance from the earth, while vice versa, if the sun were even a fraction further from the earth, the earth would freeze and if the sun was even a fraction of a milimeter closer the earth would burn and now life could exist naturally, sort of like Mars.”
The part about eight minutes was cool, not that she did not know about the speed of light. She just never applied it that way.
Sarah recognised the sweet he hold up, a jawbreaker. It hurt ones jaw after a while as the jaw got tired.

"Ah, a very good question, Mr. Phantom," Airey grinned. "The sun's light travels at the speed of light through the vacuum of space, which is about 300,000 kilometres per second. Light travels slower through different mediums such as glass, water and air. I'm going to round up and down some number to make the calculations easier, but here is the math. We orbit the Sun at a distance of approximately 150 million kilometers. Light moves at 300,000 kilometers per second. Divide these and you get 500 seconds, or 8 minutes and 20 seconds." Airey paused here to let all this sink in for a moment. "So, if the sun were to suddenly disappeared or just stopped emitting light, it would be 8 minutes before we realized it."

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

Had everyone been paying attention this? He sure hoped so because it tied into his favorite fact about the universe and humanity's place in it. Or everything for that matter. "Outstanding, Mr. Branxton. Take 5 points for your train of thought," he said, applauding the boy with some seriously loud clapping for a few moments. "As some of you may recall, I shared with you how we, and all life, are made of stardust. That the elements and atoms and parts that create stars also reside within us. Just as life now is dependent on the sun, and stars in general, it is also dependent on it for its creation."

Were students starting to see why he placed so much emphasis on stars yet?

"Some have been quoted saying that Jupiter is a failed star because it is made of the same elements as is the Sun, but it is not massive enough to have the internal pressure and temperature necessary to cause hydrogen to fuse to helium"

Well done, Mr. Branxton. You earned yourself a free pass to your next lint roller mishap.

"For those of you who do not know, Sol is the Roman equivalent of the Greek sun god Helios," he explained as a bit of a disclaimer before Airey shook his head. "According to the International Astronomical Union, who are the ones who name all celestial bodies, it is not an official name although some will swear that it Sol is the official name. While it may be odd considering every other star has a name, the sun has no scientific name or designation, apart from, the Sun. There is even debate among astronomers whether to use a capital or lowercase 's,' but I will accept either."

And no, he wasn't done yet.

"The sun DOES however have have a symbol," and he turned to the blackboard and quickly drew it for student reference.

http://en.es-static.us/upl/2013/03/sun_symbol.png



"Precisely!" Airey said as he nearly popped the giant candy into his mouth, but he DID stop himself before doing so. "Known as either gobstoppers or jawbreakers depending on region - this is actually one of my favorite muggle candies and one I cannot suck on without thinking of the sun because...."

"Yes, yes Miss Phillips you and everyone can have a jawbreaker later and take the leftovers back to the dorms," he nodded.

Now, where had he been with his train of thought? Oh, yes, he was just about to explain why jawbreakers reminded him of the sun.

"Ah yes, when you look at it THAT way it does not seem to be a good representation for the sun," Airey nodded. "But, as I said earlier, I am thinking more of the sun and it's appearance and layers, not its lifespan and what will happen." Just the basic physical appearance. "But very good analytical thinking, take 2 points for your thoughts."

And now he was going to get down to real business. Removing his wand, Airey levitated the massive candy into the air, enlarged it so it was easier to see, and gave his wand another flick to cause it to rotate slowly. "Now, you will all need to use your imagination and think outside the box for this, but when I look at the surface of a jawbreaker I see sunspots and solar flares. When I cut it in half..." he said as he gave his wand a quick downwards slash to sever the jawbreaker perfectly in half (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Jawbreakers1.jpg). "...I see thermal based diagrams of the layers of the sun."

The professor then gave the blackboard another tap and revealed just that, a diagram of the sun. Did they see how similar they looked? Airey found the similarities to be rather uncanny. Just like black holes and ice cream cones - which took on an ENTIRELY new meaning thanks to the events of last term.

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/unlabeled.jpg
"Now, as you can see the parts of the sun are not labeled. I would like to ask for volunteers to come up and fill in the missing information for us. Just ONE please. If the part of the sun you know has already been filled in, you can state a fact about it instead. You MAY use your textbooks to assist you." This was a RARE thing for him to ask, but he wanted to help those students who may be at a disadvantage participate. This information was not something he expected first years to know, for example.
[/INDENT]
[/COLOR]
On hearing the professors answer about the speed of light, Sarah could not help but quip. “Light travels faster then sound, that is why some people appear to be bright until they start talking”. Just a fact, like that Professor French.. he seemed old and old is usually the equivalent of wise.

She listened to Airey’s praise on Mo, of course she heard what Mo said. She also knew that Mo was clever and kind... But he had Cat already.
Sol? “Then why is the word Solar still used as relating to the sun?” she asked after raising her hand.

Then the activity began, someone said core, so Sarah decided to elaborate, “I know a few facts about the Sun’s core, yet one of them is that the temperature at the core is fifteen MILLION Kelvin, which is around a Million times the maximum average temperature in a Scottish June – literally!” Putting it in prospective.. Sarah was happy she lived in England with it warmer climate, although it was not as hot as the South Africa her mother grew up in.

[Somnium]

Tay raised her hand and got up once she was called on. Taylor went up and looked at the diagram of the sun, tilting her head. She picked out a solar flare and labeled it as: A super hot and big sneeze from the sun aka a solar flare. Tay smiled and went back to her seat and sat down, waiting for the teacher to continued. Taylor looked at Brodie though for a second before continuing on focusing on the teacher.

[Talikins]

CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY!!!

This had just become the best lesson ever...or it would be if they were all going to get jaw breakers. Being a muggleborn the site of what was in Professor Airey's hand was nothing new. Special because mommy didn't let her have candy often., but nothing new. Jaw breakers were in fact one of her absolute favorites. This Professor was COOL.

People were too fats for her today though and before she could raise her hand to answer him many had beat her to it. Awww maaan. But no feeling down, no no. Because Mr Professor had just told them they'd ALL be getting jawbreakers.

HAPPINESS. Candy meant happiness.

Aaand back to watching the Star dude because she could worry about her own jawbreaker later. Swwwiiish. She watched as he cut the candy in half. Wooooow. She'd never seen it split like that. Ohhh and would you look at that picture on the board.

In amazement and awe Abbi watched each person get up and scribble something. She had a fact though which meant a SHOOT up of a hand. "The core, middle part thingy is the hottest part in the whole sun...I think." Seeeee she knew SOME things.

[Bazinga]

Well everyone seemed to have hit the labeling already so Minerva just sat listening for a bit to all the information. What did she know about the sun. It was round, it was hot, planets revolved around it. Really was there anything else she knew. Opening her text book she flipped through the pages. There had to be something she could add to this discussion, right?

She looked at the sun in the front of the class and randomly picked something. Let's try Corona, flipping to that part of her book she skimmed what it said and put up her hand. "Professor the book says that the Corona extends millions of kilometers which can be seen best during a solar eclipse."

Placing her hand back down she sat back in her chair shutting her book again. Well hopefully that was an alright fact, because the blonde really didn't know much else. She would have to spend some extra time on this subject again this term it seemed.

[hermionesclone]

They were all going to get jawbreakers? REALLY? Was the man serious?

AWESOME. With HUGE capital letters. Which could also be used to describe the song Flamsteed had been singing along to before.

A big grin spread across the Hufflepuff's face as he sat up a little, his eyes on the Professor. He was paying attention. Yeah. Jawbreakers can represent the sun. That note, right there, was going into his set of notes. It could be useful one day, yeah? He bent his head again and scribbled it down before looking up again.

... The sun. They had to label it which... since he had spent so long internally fanboying over the idea of jawbreakers, the labels were already full. Okay... he's just give an explanation then? Putting his quill between his teeth, the boy started riffling through the pages of the textbook until he reached the page about the sun. Sun... sun... parts of the sun. Occasionally, his eyes shot up to the board and the label before looking back down again. Maybe he could talk about one that hadn't been talked about? Maybe?

Deciding on one and rearranging the words into a form he could understand in his brain, Alec raised his hand in the air. "Professor? The convective... convection zone has convection current in it, hence the name," he started, looked between the man and the diagram, "The hot gas becomes less dense and rises towards the surface and the cool gas... becomes more dense, I guess, and falls towards the..." He paused and checked the textbook quickly. "... base of the convective zone."

He took a deep breath and let it out again, sitting back as he did so. There. That was enough, right?

[Felixir]

There were a lot of people going up there and doing the labelling thing, but Tobias decided just to sit back for this part, but he DID have some input, so he raised his hand. "That middle part is the hottest thing and you shouldn't touch it."

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

Speaking of the middle part.

"Why is the middle blue?" Did blue mean hot? Tobias thought blue meant cold. Was his entire life a LIE?!

Three years at a private muggle school WAAAAASTEEEEED.

[/drama llama]

Unless it was just there to look pretty.

[pundantic]

Okay, the sound of science was becoming increasingly less awesome because of all this clicking going on by Mr. Stark and his tongue. Did he know that clicking noise was EXTREMELY rude in some cultures? The astronomer had learned this due to some international events he had been required to attend as Astronomer Royal.

"Mr. Stark, that is quite enough of the tongue clicking," Airey said, the slightest hint of agitation in his voice.

And now he was going to get down to real business. Removing his wand, Airey levitated the massive candy into the air, enlarged it so it was easier to see, and gave his wand another flick to cause it to rotate slowly. "Now, you will all need to use your imagination and think outside the box for this, but when I look at the surface of a jawbreaker I see sunspots and solar flares. When I cut it in half..." he said as he gave his wand a quick downwards slash to sever the jawbreaker perfectly in half (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/Jawbreakers1.jpg). "...I see thermal based diagrams of the layers of the sun."

The professor then gave the blackboard another tap and revealed just that, a diagram of the sun. Did they see how similar they looked? Airey found the similarities to be rather uncanny. Just like black holes and ice cream cones - which took on an ENTIRELY new meaning thanks to the events of last term.

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/unlabeled.jpg
"Now, as you can see the parts of the sun are not labeled. I would like to ask for volunteers to come up and fill in the missing information for us. Just ONE please. If the part of the sun you know has already been filled in, you can state a fact about it instead. You MAY use your textbooks to assist you." This was a RARE thing for him to ask, but he wanted to help those students who may be at a disadvantage participate. This information was not something he expected first years to know, for example.

OOC: You do NOT and should not wait for Professor Flamsteed to call on your character to come up to the board as a volunteer and can just pretend that he did. Likewise, no one get all dslkjfdjfsllkssfdj BUT MY CHARACTER ALREADY WROTE THAT PART ON THE BOARD if someone RPs the action after you. Just take a deep breath and relax knowing that you had speedier fingers and luck on timing <3

If your character chooses to state a fact, try to keep your brief and do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT just copy paste from Wikipedia or another website. I will know ;) Make sure you use your character's own voice when answering, please and thank you.

Class will resume either before I go to bed (in approximately 8 hours) or once I wake up depending on your posts ^_^


Smirk.

It seemed that Glitter Trousers was nice and agitated now, yeah? Sort of made Ascanius proud of himself, although technically he wasn't really doing anything. Smirky smirk. S'just a light little click, a nervous habit if you will from Ascanius anxiety, which he actually had. At least, that was how he was going to couch it if Flamstead tried to come at him about it.

Although, when Glitter Trousers turned to actually LOOK at him, Ascanius put on the most casual face he could muster and just stared at the man. Ahem.

Click, click, click. Nervous tick, yeah?

When he tried to move on with the lesson, Ascanius looked up at the board and rolled his eyes for the thirteenth time that lesson. This was easy stuff. Nothing you wouldn't find in the simplest of books on the SOLAR system, aka the SUN system. Yeah, he wasn't an idiot. Just 'cause he wasn't answering didn't mean he didn't know.

So when people started to shout out answers and race to the board, Ascanius just leaned back and watched it all. He wanted to comment that the sun was a G2 star, which meant that it was like a medium sized star in comparison to others but he didn't. He also wanted to state that since the sun was made of gas and not any SOLID material the fact that Flamstead wanted them to name parts wasn't exactly right. Can't have a part of its technically not a solid. Maybe sections would have been more apt.

But like every lesson, he said nothing.

[bitsyandtank]

It was a jawbreaker!! Yes, a jawbreaker. Not a Mountain Troll eyeball. Although, that would have been much more fun...and squishy. Now he needed to label the parts. "Wait, the sun had parts?" he mumbled to himself. He had only ever thought of the sun as a giant ball of fire in the sky. Not something that had layers.

Asher got up from his chair and made his way to the diagram. Just as he arrived, he realized that he should have looked in his book before going to the front. Not having any idea what the layers were called, he stood there, looking quite confused. Seeing that most of the parts had already been labeled by his classmates, he decided to give a fact about one of the layers.

He reached his hand out and pointed at the outer most layer. "That part is the outside. It's hot. Yes, hot and usually looks yellow from Earth. I suppose it looks the same color from other planets as well." He spun around on his heels and trotted back to his desk.

[oh its Erik ok]

Nigel just did not have the energy to rush to the board to point something out about the sun. Nigel wanted to talk about Pluto. The Prefect felt sorry for Pluto. It was a planet and now it is not a planet. Just like that.

Plus Nine is a pretty nice number.

Though pointing out the obvious about the Sun would be fun. Like the Sun is hot and you can see it in the sky. But no. Nigel moved around in his seat getting comfortable.

[lemon]

And speaking of oddness.....

"Everything alright, Miss Fischer?" Was she regretting asking for a beard? Maybe she should braid it or something?

Itch. Itchhh. "Can you do that flicky thing with your wand again, prof?" Like that thing that got this beard off? Please?

As for facts and labeling, Alice was much too preoccupied with her beard issues to offer anything to the class. But she COULD ask questions. "You know how Cact.. Mo, I mean.. was talking about how planets are made from stars, professor?" Which had actually been her answer. Ahem. "D'you think the Sun could ever become a planet one day?"

Was that even possible?

She scratched thoughtfully at her uncomfortable batch of green facial hair and pondered it.

[Lockhartian]

Can. We. Not?

There was a moment, probably around the middle of Airey's explanation about this topic that Lottie considered daydreaming. Obviously about something else, not the sun. But she was supposed to keep on listening, it's just... the man kept making it harder at every single mention of the SUN.

That was ALL she could hear. Granted, the focus was on this particular star today, she'd rather go back to the North Star even the Death Star any minute now.

Willing her mind to focus on the closest star to Earth for a moment - tough task, by the way - she knew that if she stood up to write a name of any of the layers she'd end up laughing at the board, so, she didn't stand, she remained seated... and was starting to get annoyed by that tongue clicking, Ascanius Stark. Though, it served as a distraction, so she just smirked.

HAND UP! We have a little something to say in relation to the sun, "Well, the sunspots, solar flares, or any kind of solar activity... are brought to you by the sun's magnetic field." Nod, nod, of course. Hey! Fun fact! Electric power and radio stuff gets affected by this solar activity thing, did ya know? Sometimes even MAGIC. Merlin, can we go now? Sigh.

[Cassirin]

Mo stuck his tongue out at Alice. Politely, though, and when the professor wasn't looking. Friendly ol' face-making, for calling him Cactus in front of the professor and all that. And for making disgruntled faces at him.

Since all the blanks were filled in, all Mo could do was offer a fact. HMMM. "The photosphere, which is that outer layer, is super hot. Like... 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit hot. And it's the outermost of the layers, even, so that means the core is... well, super DUPER hot. Like 27 million degrees Fahrenheit hot. I mean, if you weren't already pretty much disintegrated on the spot, you'd have one heck of a sunburn."

[Lissy Longbottom]

Caleb grinned. This was fun! And a great study guide for his notes later...he jumped up when it was his turn and headed to the board. Hmmm, which one did he want to fill in? He scribbled the word "Corona" at the bottom and then explained what that part was to the class.

"The corona is like...the edge of the sun. The top layer. It's SUPER hot and that's the part that we usually see, and it extended for miles and miles and MILES, so even if you're not super close to the sun, it's still super hot because of this," he explained before taking his seat again.

[Casey O]

There were a lot of people going up there and doing the labelling thing, but Tobias decided just to sit back for this part, but he DID have some input, so he raised his hand. "That middle part is the hottest thing and you shouldn't touch it."

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

Speaking of the middle part.

"Why is the middle blue?" Did blue mean hot? Tobias thought blue meant cold. Was his entire life a LIE?!

Three years at a private muggle school WAAAAASTEEEEED.

[/drama llama]

Unless it was just there to look pretty.

As soon as Tobias made his point, Marigold's hand shot up.

"Because the core is blue, it means it is hotter than the outside. Red often means cooler than blue. The color that means something is the hottest is white!" She was excited to share this. She had gone to a planetarium with her mom when she was younger, and remembered learning this.

She glanced at the board and saw that it was pretty much full, so she sat quietly until the next set of instructions.

[Team ronmione]

Oh. So they could state facts if they weren't comfortable with showing which part of the sun was which. Yeah, Tag wasn't going to take that chance. He did know, hopefully, at least one thing he was sure of, so ever slow slowly he answered, though there was still question in his voice, "Isn't the core of the sun the hottest part because its so deep within the layers?"

An if not, well, he felt decent that the core was at least the hottest part of the sun. He'll take being half right than all wrong.

Sun, sun, sun. Interesting indeed.

[AlwaysSnapesGirl]

The sun and a jawbreaker. Hmm. Yeah, she could appreciate food/candy being used in explanations. It made everything better. And now for this question...they could use their textbooks? Awesome. Because anything she might have said was probably already said by someone else, so now she could try to actually find some other fact instead of just sitting there. Or answering with something super obvious.

Hmm, flipping through the textbook.... Oh hey, here was something. Penelope raised her hand. "Corona comes from Latin. The word, I mean. And it means 'crown.'"

[sweetpinkpixie]

Itch. Itchhh. "Can you do that flicky thing with your wand again, prof?" Like that thing that got this beard off? Please?

As for facts and labeling, Alice was much too preoccupied with her beard issues to offer anything to the class. But she COULD ask questions. "You know how Cact.. Mo, I mean.. was talking about how planets are made from stars, professor?" Which had actually been her answer. Ahem. "D'you think the Sun could ever become a planet one day?"

Was that even possible?

She scratched thoughtfully at her uncomfortable batch of green facial hair and pondered it.
The flicky thing with his wand? The professor just sort of stared at the quidditch captain bewildered by her question. He wasn't good at reading into things. One needed to be blunt with the man when asking for something. So, he sort of flicked his wand with no intention of it doing anything - which is precisely what it did. Nothing.

Was she satisfied?

Now for her question. "Not unless you had a GIANT wand, and I mean GIANT, floating in outer space that was pointed at the wand and a witch or wizard with magic powerful enough to transfigure it," Airey said with a chuckle. "The sun's formation is already complete and it's life cycle underway. Stars form when clouds of gas and dust collapse under their own gravity. Planets form from leftover matter orbiting the new star. The sun's heat is FAR too hot to allow any matter to collect as everything would in incinerated on spot" Just in case that thought was there, you know, the sun collecting space dust and all that.

There were a lot of people going up there and doing the labelling thing, but Tobias decided just to sit back for this part, but he DID have some input, so he raised his hand. "That middle part is the hottest thing and you shouldn't touch it."

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

Speaking of the middle part.

"Why is the middle blue?" Did blue mean hot? Tobias thought blue meant cold. Was his entire life a LIE?!

Three years at a private muggle school WAAAAASTEEEEED.

[/drama llama]

Unless it was just there to look pretty.
Airey smiled at his pogo buddy. "I want you to picture a candle (http://eofdreams.com/data_images/dreams/candle/candle-01.jpg) in your mind for a moment, Mr. Tempus. Now, without going into too much detail about things....the tip and outermost layer of the flame, the part that tends to look more orangish-red to the naked eye, is the coolest part of the flame. As you go deeper within the flame, the color becomes more yellow and more hot. Once you are at the base of the flame, that color is blue and the hottest. Now, keep in mind that there is A LOT going on to create these colors, but at the most basic level the hottest flames are blue. You see this in stars as well. The hottest stars are blue and the coolest stars are red." He paused for a moment. "Now, in terms of this diagram, however, astronomers can only speculate as to what color the sun's core is since we have not been able to explore it, but an educated guess there is that it would be white. Think of the chart as a thermal, heat, map where the center is the hottest - hence the blue color."


He reached his hand out and pointed at the outer most layer. "That part is the outside. It's hot. Yes, hot and usually looks yellow from Earth. I suppose it looks the same color from other planets as well." He spun around on his heels and trotted back to his desk.
Oh! This was a good point! "I am glad you mentioned color as well, Mr. Stinson," Airey nodded. These two points would actually build off one another quite nicely really. "While the sun is always depicted as yellow in pop culture, the actual color of the sun is not yellow and you would see this if you were able to fly right up into space. You see, if a star's temperature is less than 3,500 Kelvin, its color will be red. This is because there are more red photons being emitted than any other kind of visible light. Photons are what light is made up of and are little energy packets of electromagnetic radiation. If a star is above 10,000 Kelvin, its color will be blue. Once again, because there are more blue photons streaming from a star. Now, the sun's temperature approximately 6,000 Kelvin, which is VERY VEEEEEERY hot as many have pointed out. So, stars like our sun will appear white and this is because because we’re seeing all the different color photons coming at the same time. When you add all the colors up you will get white." Not black. This isn't art class. And he was also going to pause here to take a breath. "What we see here on earth, the yellow color, is thanks to the earth's atmosphere scattering all those photons and removing the shorter wavelength lights of blue and violet - which is what makes our sky blue - and what is left is yellow!"

SEEEEEEEEEE how neato the sun was?

It was best to just not look at the bearded girlfriend yeah? It creeped him out. West didn't get up to add to the diagram either, since the beard thing was so distracting, but he was paying attention and mentally assigning labels to the diagram in his head. The gobstopper thing was cool, with the layers and all. West hadn't ever properly thought about it like that before. So, stating facts yeah? West didn't bother with his textbook, still keeping it simple and all that. Hand went up though.

"While the planets and dwarf planets and all that in our solar system orbit the sun, the sun isn't actually stuck in one spot either: it orbits around the center of the Milky Way, it just takes a really, really long time." West said, starting to perk up a bit just because Flammy's classes were always reasonably interesting, even when he wasn't in the best of moods.
Mr. Odessa got two thumbs way way up. Airey just had to wonder what had taken the Slytherin so long to chime in...and then he recalled his lack of sleep hypothesis from earlier. Hmmm...something seemed a bit off.

"Excellent, Mr. Odessa, and a very important point for us all to consider," Airey nodded as he gave his wand a quick flick to conjure up some floating and orbiting lights that began to move around the classroom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBlAGGzup48). "Now, this model you see right now it just a rough idea of how things move as those orbits are not accurate and, of course, things are not moving THAT quickly. But keep in mind that nothing in space is stationary. Everything is moving even if it is very VERY slowly."

Yes, even black holes. But he was going to neglect that bit of information for the time being.
"Yes I'm fine now thanks, Professor..." she said, trying her best not to turn into sulky, slightly embarrassed Derry and wishing she had a beard she could hide her blush behind. But she didn't want a green beard thanks. It'd... clash with her hair or something.

She was still sulking a little bit, trying to regain a little bit of confidence before she started to talk, when everyone was answering the question before her. God this was going so fast.

As for the sun... Derry was starting to wish she had actually listened to Tilly's ramblings about the solar system. But she'd never actually cared that much.
...
OOOOH but she DID know a fact about the outer-bit... "Sometimes there're st-st-storms on the s-surface." She frowned to herself. Stuttering was not what she needed right now. "Called s-s-s... ..." It just wasn't happening. She meant solar flares. But she couldn't get it out. "...nevermind..." she mumbled, leaning forwards to let her hair cover her slight blush whilst she took as many notes as she could.
Oh sweet solstice, how had he not known this fact about the Slytherin captain? Then again, how would he have? The astronomer clearly had his meany pants on today. Oops.

"Solar flares," he said with an awkward smile and side shuffle. "Yes, very good. It is these solar flares that can interact with the earth's magnetic field and case the Northern and Southern lights." Older students should recall this phenomena. They studied it with the late Professor Burbage according to the records he found in the Astronomy Tower.

HAND UP! We have a little something to say in relation to the sun, "Well, the sunspots, solar flares, or any kind of solar activity... are brought to you by the sun's magnetic field." Nod, nod, of course. Hey! Fun fact! Electric power and radio stuff gets affected by this solar activity thing, did ya know? Sometimes even MAGIC. Merlin, can we go now? Sigh.
"Excellent, Miss Wisteria," Airey nodded, glad to see that she was back to participating in the lesson as more than an active listener. It was like she didn't like the sun or something, which was an amusing thought to him because it was the source of life on earth. Disliking it would be rather morbid.

On hearing the professors answer about the speed of light, Sarah could not help but quip. “Light travels faster than sound, that is why some people appear to be bright until they start talking”. Just a fact, like that Professor French.. he seemed old and old is usually the equivalent of wise.

She listened to Airey’s praise on Mo, of course she heard what Mo said. She also knew that Mo was clever and kind... But he had Cat already.
Sol? “Then why is the word Solar still used as relating to the sun?” she asked after raising her hand.
Oooooooooooh look at you Miss Edwards! Some science humor thrown into the mix. He could appreciate that. And Did. The astronomer stood there laughing for a bit. Yes, awesome points to you, Miss Edwards. THAT was a good one.

Her question...sort of threw him for a loop. He wasn't exactly an English teacher here. "The word solar is an adjective that literally means of or relating to the sun. So that is why it is used."

Airey stood back and watched as students went to the board to label the chart, nodding his head and occasionally squinting when handwriting was hard to read, but the astronomer found himself smiling more than not. Even if students did not know the answer off the top of their heads, they had been resourceful and used their textbooks - a RARE thing he allowed during lessons, but today it was alright]

http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/171925main_heliolayers_label_516.jpg

OOC: I'm sorry I didn't use the versions you all edited. There were a few variations floating around and for the sake of time, you know <3 just pretend that your character's lovely handwriting is there, k?

He turned now to face the class to give a brief overview of each layer. The giant jawbreaker was still floating around as well to serve as another reference point and visual aid in remembering the layers should students find that useful.

Sophie looked at the jawbreaker, both the version that was whole and the one that was severed in half. To the professor, it looked like the Sun, but to Sophie, it looked like a good after-class snack. Yummm...

She watched as her classmates labeled the parts of the Sun. There were parts she didn't know, but there were also parts she did know. She raised her hand to volunteer, knowing the word for something not already labeled on the Sun. That blue part in the very, very middle was called the core. It was deeper than the Radiation Zone.

It wasn't labeled, so she assigned it to the last arrow in the top, left corner (http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff427/anna_banana_ss/randomgraphics/partsofthesun_zps081a0e9d.gif).

Then the activity began, someone said core, so Sarah decided to elaborate, “I know a few facts about the Sun’s core, yet one of them is that the temperature at the core is fifteen MILLION Kelvin, which is around a Million times the maximum average temperature in a Scottish June – literally!” Putting it in prospective.. Sarah was happy she lived in England with it warmer climate, although it was not as hot as the South Africa her mother grew up in.
CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY CANDY!!!

This had just become the best lesson ever...or it would be if they were all going to get jaw breakers. Being a muggleborn the site of what was in Professor Airey's hand was nothing new. Special because mommy didn't let her have candy often., but nothing new. Jaw breakers were in fact one of her absolute favorites. This Professor was COOL.

People were too fats for her today though and before she could raise her hand to answer him many had beat her to it. Awww maaan. But no feeling down, no no. Because Mr Professor had just told them they'd ALL be getting jawbreakers.

HAPPINESS. Candy meant happiness.

Aaand back to watching the Star dude because she could worry about her own jawbreaker later. Swwwiiish. She watched as he cut the candy in half. Wooooow. She'd never seen it split like that. Ohhh and would you look at that picture on the board.

In amazement and awe Abbi watched each person get up and scribble something. She had a fact though which meant a SHOOT up of a hand. "The core, middle part thingy is the hottest part in the whole sun...I think." Seeeee she knew SOME things.

Alright. To start things off then what better place than the middle. "The core," he began while pointing to it on the chart. "Is the innermost layer of the sun. This is where thermonuclear fusion happens and is the process in which a star produce its light, heat, and energy. All the energy that reaches earth from the sun started right here. The core has a temperature of approximately 15 million degrees Celsius or 28 million degrees Fahrenheit."


Woa. Flamsteed was saying that they could use their textbooks? That wasn't something that happened every day. She shrugged, it didn't matter really to her, and raised her hand for a turn at the board.

Tora bounded up towards the board to write down her answer. She quickly wrote down Tachodine in the appropriate place before dodging back to her seat. And because she could she checked her textbook to make sure she got it right.

Oh. Wait. That was wrong... She looked around quickly, and because no one else had gotten to the board yet she dashed back up to cross out her original answer and write in her new and improved one. Radiation zone (http://i.imgur.com/aJKTGoj.jpg). That was the right answer. "Sorry Professor." she turned to Professor Airey. "I fixed it..." She blushed and returned to her seat once more. Maybe it was a good thing that she was allowed to use her textbook.

The sun. What did she know about the sun other than it being hot and it hurt your eyes to look into it? OMG! They had better not be going outside to look at the sun. Her eyes were precious and there was no way that she would do anything to hurt them. He would most likely have them use some kind of protective glasses, but that was really besides the point. She just didn't wanna. She noticed her classmate had just labeled the radiation zone and that actually rang a bell.

"The radiation zone or the radiative zone as it is sometimes called is where all the energy comes from." Err... was that enough because the rest was kind of confusing to her. "Umm... and I think that the rate of energy will directly impact the temperature." she said with a raised hand. She wasn't entirely sure that she understood that correctly, but that was her answer and she was sticking to it.

"Very good. The next layer is the radiation zone, which is also called the radiative zone," he continued as he moved his finger along the chart. "Light produced by nuclear fusion in the core travels out in the shell called the radiative zone. This layer is not as dense as the core but it is still so dense that light from the core bounces around taking about 100,000 years to move through here. Between this layer and the next is a transition layer, the tachocline," he said, nodding his head towards the Ravenclaw who had written the word first before correcting it. The answer hadn't been wrong, just not the one he had been looking for.

So it wasn't a bouncy ball. Well then, Melanie was okay with that. She listened to the professor as he spoke and the candy was split in half. Ooooh. Look at all the colors. Melanie's mouth might've dropped some, when she saw the inside. It was actually quite pretty. That didn't mean she wanted to eat one though.

She slid out of her seat and walked up to the board before labeling (http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/ss236/xiiFakeASmile/Melanie%20Sung/school%20stuff/suuuun-1.jpg) the convection zone. She remembered that one because it kept reminding her of the word confection. The other ones were just a tad more difficult to memorize.

Making sure her handwriting was neat, she nodded her head and went back to her seat.
They were all going to get jawbreakers? REALLY? Was the man serious?

AWESOME. With HUGE capital letters. Which could also be used to describe the song Flamsteed had been singing along to before.

A big grin spread across the Hufflepuff's face as he sat up a little, his eyes on the Professor. He was paying attention. Yeah. Jawbreakers can represent the sun. That note, right there, was going into his set of notes. It could be useful one day, yeah? He bent his head again and scribbled it down before looking up again.

... The sun. They had to label it which... since he had spent so long internally fanboying over the idea of jawbreakers, the labels were already full. Okay... he's just give an explanation then? Putting his quill between his teeth, the boy started riffling through the pages of the textbook until he reached the page about the sun. Sun... sun... parts of the sun. Occasionally, his eyes shot up to the board and the label before looking back down again. Maybe he could talk about one that hadn't been talked about? Maybe?

Deciding on one and rearranging the words into a form he could understand in his brain, Alec raised his hand in the air. "Professor? The convective... convection zone has convection current in it, hence the name," he started, looked between the man and the diagram, "The hot gas becomes less dense and rises towards the surface and the cool gas... becomes more dense, I guess, and falls towards the..." He paused and checked the textbook quickly. "... base of the convective zone."

He took a deep breath and let it out again, sitting back as he did so. There. That was enough, right?

Airey nodded his head at the next correctly labeled layer. "When the the density of the radiative zone becomes low enough, energy from the core in the form of light is converted into heat and rises into this layer. You can think of this layer as the surface of water boiling in a pot almost. The heat from the edge of the radiative zone rises until it cools enough that it sinks back down towards the core, but by doing so it creates big bubbles called convection cells. This rising of heat and and falling of cool gas is called convection." Hence the name of the layer.

Lex looked across the room and noted the fact that Alice had begun scratching in her beard. Hey wait what? She was already trying get rid of it?? That kinda defeated the purpose of being beard buddies even if she didn't know they were! Hmph. She would need to have a word with her on coordinating later.

For now THEY COULD KEEP THE CANDY!!

She'd be on this one for a while not to mention they could keep the leftovers. Professor Airey was amazing, that was all she was prepared to say at this present moment but 'cept there was probably more to say. They were labelling the sun now. She could do thaaaat. Surprinzingly enough she'd bothered to look through her Astronomy text over the summer.

Lex hopped up and walked to the board....which one...? Hmmmm?

In the end she chose the photosphere (http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z412/DaniDiNardo/Sun_zpsd7140a49.jpg) and scribbled it in. There! She beamed over at the Professor, eyed the bag of candy for another moment then retook her seat and went back to her beard admiring.

This was a philosophical moment kinda thing and she was now nodding like a wise sage. YUP.

Kat took a moment to examine the chart on the board. So, the layers of the sun, yeah? That was easy. She wanted to go in front and write down answers but she was too lazy. Like, honestly, she was just tired and standing up plus writing down things was already a lot of effort. And she didn't want to use too much energy since she was already being a good student for participating actively in class. So instead she'd just say a fact about one of them

The Head Girl's hand went up. "The photosphere has sort of dark spots which people tend to call sunspots." Yeah, that was her share. Carry on, Astronomy students.
Mo stuck his tongue out at Alice. Politely, though, and when the professor wasn't looking. Friendly ol' face-making, for calling him Cactus in front of the professor and all that. And for making disgruntled faces at him.

Since all the blanks were filled in, all Mo could do was offer a fact. HMMM. "The photosphere, which is that outer layer, is super hot. Like... 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit hot. And it's the outermost of the layers, even, so that means the core is... well, super DUPER hot. Like 27 million degrees Fahrenheit hot. I mean, if you weren't already pretty much disintegrated on the spot, you'd have one heck of a sunburn."

"If only scientists had discovered a sunscreen stronger than SPF 50," he chuckled. Or was there one stronger? He didn't follow up on muggle sun prevention things much. "But very good, the next layer is the photosphere which is the visible layer of the sun and is tens to hundreds of kilometers thick. This layer is the lowest level in the Sun's atmosphere and is where energy finally escapes." He paused for a moment. "What is interesting to note about sunspots is that they do not appear in random locations and astronomers can actually predict where they may show up. They tend to be concentrated in two mid-latitude bands on either side of the sun's equator. They begin appearing around 25 to 30 degrees north and south of the center and never more than 70 degrees. Sunspots are huge and act just like poles and because there needs to be a “North” sunspot and a “South” sunspot, these spots like to appear in pairs. The number of sunspots varies over an 11-year cycle known as the solar cycle and actually begin in the convective layer of the sun and appear on the photosphere," he said as he gave a nod towards the Head Girl who had mentioned them in the first place.

Ooooh~ It really looked like the sun structure! He would really use jawbreakers to help him remember after this. When Flamsteed was asking for volunteers, Angeal, who surprisingly decided to finally participate in the lesson got up and went to the blackboard to label one (http://i.imgur.com/yyTRhRm.jpg) of the parts.

Looks like a few years of muggle education paid off after all.

Airey nodded at the Slytherin as he labeled the next layer. "As we continue upwards, we reach the next layer in the sun's atmosphere, the chromosphere. This layer is where most of the sun's weather takes place, including solar flares. The chromosphere is red in color and is actually visible during a complete solar eclipse." Something that they may get the chance to see this year. "This layer is also marked by countless jets or small spikes of matter called spicules that continually form and disappear, rising up and falling back down within minutes." It was a very exciting layer of study to be sure.

A grin formed on the purebloods face as she saw the image of the sun on the board, remembering the times where Liam had been doing Astronomy homework, or even studying it, and she'd just sat around watching him as he worked.

So she already knew a bit, and immediately jumped up given the fact that she'd been given the chance to. So looking at the board, which already had one part filled in she thought for a moment, before quickly writing another one ('http://i.imgur.com/Mc0m3Ih.jpg').

Sitting down, fairly certain she was right, she could only hope that she hadn't made a mistake...

That would be embarrassing!
The inside of a jaw breaker really was cool looking. It was also a really good representation of the sun and it was nice that Airey-face thought outside the box with stuff like this. Because even if you weren't necessarily interested in the planets and stars *GASP*, you'd probably be interested in the candy and what that had to do with anything. Cool professor was cool.

Ella looked up at the diagram thoughtfully as her classmates began to fill in the empty spots, trying to think of anything she knew about the different parts of the sun. It's hot was probably too general a thing to state, yeah? Yeah.

"The corona is a layer of gases, Professor. Light gases, I mean. It's not super bright or anything but I think you can see it on some occasions when the other layer, erm the photosphere, isn't as visible."
Caleb grinned. This was fun! And a great study guide for his notes later...he jumped up when it was his turn and headed to the board. Hmmm, which one did he want to fill in? He scribbled the word "Corona" at the bottom and then explained what that part was to the class.

"The corona is like...the edge of the sun. The top layer. It's SUPER hot and that's the part that we usually see, and it extended for miles and miles and MILES, so even if you're not super close to the sun, it's still super hot because of this," he explained before taking his seat again.

Almost done and then the fun could begin. "Good good," he nodded at the label on the chart. "The corona type of plasma that surrounds the sun and other celestial bodies, even our own earth. This layer of the sun is only visible when the light of the photosphere is blocked, like during a solar eclipse, and is the glowing halo of light that I am sure most of you are familiar with," he explained as he pointed to the appropriate section of the chart. "This layer is actually hotter than the surface of the sun and scientists believe that this is because of the energy from sun's magnetic field heats it." Yes, you got a quick nod, Miss Wisteria, for mentioning the magnetic field specifically. "But the corona does not produce much heat, so meteors and the like will not burn up were they to enter it."

Airey stepped away from the board now and banished the giant floating jawbreaker, for the time being. He waited for a few minutes while students wrote their notes and any potential diagram drawing that may be going on. Once ample time had passed - and mostly because he couldn't stop bouncing in place - Airey began to hum to himself and before too long he was BELTING out a song about the layers of the sun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZC7mocf1Q4) while dancing about the room and encouraging others to get up and move as well.

Music WAS a great learning tool after all and they all had been sitting still for far too long.

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh! Oh oh oh oh oh oh! Oh oh oh oh oh oh! These are layers of the sun!"

Once he had finished his lively rendition, he straightened his tie and returned to standing in front of the blackboard.

"Now, one last thing to discuss before we head outside," he said with a small smirk. "Because of the sun’s massive influence, many early cultures saw it as a deity or god. For example, Ancient Egyptians had a sun god called Ra while in Aztec mythology there is a sun god named Tonatiuh and we have mentioned the Greek equivalent of Helios earlier and the Roman Sol. But the sun was not just seen as a god, it also became a source and a great influence in mythology as well. Given how I began this lesson, what myth do you think I want us to focus on today?" He had even given them a keyword earlier too.

OOC: This will be the last question before the activity ^_^ Go ahead and have your character guess what myth involving the sun they think Airey is talking about, or just any myth they know (or make one up!) Remember that all SS Rules apply here ;)

I will continue this lesson before I go to bed in approximately 11 hours from now.

[lazykitty]

She was more interested in the jawbreakers and when they were going to get theirs. Because, hello, hadn't had one in a long time here. But note-taking was going on, unfortunately for Sky's hands. There were a lot of notes to be taken.

Also, there was glaring headed in Ascanius's direction because that clicking of the tongue wasn't making him seem cool, it was making him obnoxious. Which was the complete opposite of cool.

Wait, did Professor say they were going outside? Awesome! But first, myths about the sun. In particular, which one were they going to be studying? Hmmm. "Maybe Helios? Or Sól?" She was pretty sure they had both been mentioned.....

[lemon]

The flicky thing with his wand? The professor just sort of stared at the quidditch captain bewildered by her question. He wasn't good at reading into things. One needed to be blunt with the man when asking for something. So, he sort of flicked his wand with no intention of it doing anything - which is precisely what it did. Nothing.

Was she satisfied?

Now for her question. "Not unless you had a GIANT wand, and I mean GIANT, floating in outer space that was pointed at the wand and a witch or wizard with magic powerful enough to transfigure it," Airey said with a chuckle. "The sun's formation is already complete and it's life cycle underway. Stars form when clouds of gas and dust collapse under their own gravity. Planets form from leftover matter orbiting the new star. The sun's heat is FAR too hot to allow any matter to collect as everything would in incinerated on spot" Just in case that thought was there, you know, the sun collecting space dust and all that.

"... I meant.. the flicky thing that... gets rid of the beard, professor." Alice pawed more at her chin and gave the professor an incredulous look, everything about the giant wand going in one ear and out the other. Could he do something about this uncomfortable facial hair already? Itch. Itchhh.

She stuck her tongue back out at Mo when he started making faces, but quickly pulled it back in for fear of getting beard in her mouth. Nope. Nope, Flamsteed, she wanted this thing off. There was no way she could think straight about myths and suns and stars and whatever else she was meant to be thinking about when she looked like an old leprechaun.

But she did know ONE thing. "I think we're going to be reenacting whatever this myth is, prof. Utilizing the sun's light in it and stuff." 'Cause he'd said that to another student, and Alice was ALL for repeating professors' words back to them to avoid actual thinking.

Did that count as an answer? Yes? Beard off now?

[Cassirin]

Hmmm. Myths and legends to do with the sun? And they were going to go outside to do something with one of the stories...?

Mo perked up immediately, his hand in the air. "Sir professor sir?? Are we going to ride the winged horses or let them draw a carriage with us in it, like Helios would fly his chariot of the sun across the sky every day? If we do, I'm real good with the horses, sir, and I would like to drive. Please."

[AlwaysSnapesGirl]

Lots of information all at once, goodness. Penelope couldn't take notes that fast, so she merely jotted a few things down here and there and hoped that was good enough. And there was...lots of music and singing and dancing going on with him. Alright then. She wasn't joining in though, especially since she didn't know this song.

Now they were moving on and talking about myths. Which one would they be focusing on? Penelope did know a little bit about Greek mythology at least, so she could attempt that. She raised her hand. "Could it be something about...Apollo? I think?" He had something to do with the sun, didn't he? 'Cause he had a twin sister who was all about the moon...so it made sense. Sorta.

[DaniDiNardo]

There was even more information to be taken in now. For a while Lex simply sat and scribbled everything he was saying, it didn't all fit on one parchment, in case you were wondering. By the time she was done she almost felt lost. What were they talking about again? Myths concerning the sun...based on the class so far?

Alexa stroked her very philosophical beard, giving the impression of a thoughtful student. This was how one went about looking legit in a class.

Now where was she? Oh yes, guessing the myth based on the class so far. Hmmmm...Slowly she raised her hand, keeping that thoughtful look so the next thing she said would be taken seriously. "The beards lead me to believe we might be looking about old Saint Nick, he had a huge beard as you recall Professor and had to get around the world before the sun's light caught up to him, but," Yes there was a but, she didn't think they'd spend the time discussing a man that gave coal to children who stomp through their neighbour's garden, "it's not likely so I'll go with Mo's idea because it involves riding horses and I would also like a turn as driver."

She gave a solemn nod after that, maintaining the guru, wise old sage thing.

[Lockhartian]

Excellence. Yeah, right.

This class was excellently making her head hurt at the moment, how much longer until they're allowed to go somewhere else? He did say they were going to head outside, yes? That could help her clear her head. Probably.

BUT THEN! Hmmm, myths? At the beginning of the lesson?! SAY WHAT?! Lottie didn't even remember what had happened at the beginning of the lesson! Her eyes widened ever so slightly and she, inconspicuously, started to search her notes. WHAT?! Why did he have to pick THE SUN?!? Do you know how many galaxies are OUT THERE?! She sighed. LOUDLY.

Greeks. They had both Helios and Apollo. Much like she was thinking of two suns. Curious thing. Only one was a Titan, the other not so much. It wasn't until Mo mentioned driving... where was he even driving? Why was Lottie not even focusing? "Or flying... like Icarus." Mo could do that, he was more than welcome to go and fly into the sun. He'll tell us all about it later, surely.

[Bazinga]

Minerva watched and listened to all the other answers before Flamsteed started talking.. no singing, yes he was singing a song about the sun. He really was enjoying himself wasn't he? Well she guess that was a good thing why be miserable like Lafay in your job. Do something you love to do and are happy about doing, right? meh.. Minerva was just glad she didn't have to sing along or anything even though the song was not horrible and she actually started tapping her foot a bit. A smile crossed her face after awhile beard issue becoming forgotten, for now.

With his next questions Minerva frowned so beard issue not forgotten. Putting up her hand, "Well you said about Hubris sir and that it would come later or something like that, but Hurbris is an action of shame or humiliation for the pleasure of the person doing it." So basically the beard was for Flamsteeds pleasure.. Yep.. beard no forgotten. " but I'm not sure what that has to do with the sun, unless the suns making us burn in the summer is it's way of shaming us for it's on pleasure." Yeah she knew that sounded dumb, but it was more the point she was getting across than it actually being right. She really had no clue how Hubris fit into the lesson.

[aaetha]

Adrienne was copying down information when he just started... singing. Why was he singing? More importantly, why hadn't he stopped singing? God, it was still happening. She winced in secondhand embarrassment the whole time he was up there, warbling away. Professors should never ever sing, especially when they oh-so-clearly could not. Sure, it was kind of a catchy song, but it sounded awful and was... well, incredibly annoying. She waited it out and then went back to redrawing that diagram.

The mention of myths piqued her interest, though. They had always fascinated Adrienne, especially when they now knew the reasons for things the myths had been made to explain. Well... what had he started the lesson with again? Beards?

Oh yes, he'd mentioned hubris. Hubris... sun... she raised her hand tentatively. "Um, if we're talking about Greek myths, there is the one about Icarus and Daedalus maybe? Because Icarus was too cocky and he flew too high, and then his wings melted..." Well, that was a terrible explanation, but hopefully someone would know what she meant. Boy did she hate talking in front of lots of people.

[Team ronmione]

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

When Airey started talking about the sun's core Tag's slightly slumped over posture whipped straight up, his mind slightly more lively. The core was the reason a star turned very heated. Now, that was cool! And apparently that sun was burning up way too hard, but Tag didn't mind. Oh, and "NO WAY! The sun was seen as a god!" Whoops, Tag spoke up too loudly.

Tag remembered something about someone having wings or something of the sort and trying to fly up to the sun? Something like that. What was the dude's name? "That one dude with the wings and I think he flew up to the sun. Poor dude probably looked like a carrot. What a tan, what a tan. What's his name?" said the blonde in a rather absent voice. Looking around his classmates he heard Lottie say something about flying. "That guy she said." He answered pointing at his friend.

[DecemberMoon]

She had been about to talk about how solar flares could wipe out all of the technology on planet Earth if they managed to get through a breach in the atmospheric type barrier...stuff that surrounded the planet, but they were moving on before she could think of a better way to say all of that.

The Ravenclaw was amused by the catchy little song that the professor was singing and she hoped it might help her remember at least some of the layers. She copied the diagram down as best she could just in case she needed it to study from later.

She remembered the beard thing and the no peeking consequence...and the general sun talk...and then the jawbreaker...but she couldn't really put anything together myth-wise out of that. But when she heard another student mention something about someone flying up and melting his wings, that rang a bell for her. "I'm not too sure about the details, Professor, but I agree we're doing something regarding the story about the guy who flew too close to the sun and had his wings melt down to show him that he shouldn't be so headstrong and try to disrespect the sun's power." She paused before adding, "So...maybe we will get to fly a little bit somehow, like Mo and Alexa were asking about? Or maybe not...because that was the opposite of the moral of that story...unless we don't fly too high, maybe?" Hearing them talk about the winged horses made her realize how she missed flying on her broom all summer. She decided she'd take a trip tot he Quidditch pitch once she had a break between classes, just to feel the wind in her hair again.

[slytherus]

He could label every single part of the sun with the correct spelling, no problem. But the extensive descriptions... Merlin, help this boy during his first lesson in Hogwarts! He tried to jot down every detail the teacher mentioned, but only succeed at noting some points. Then, Flamsteed started to wail a song and prancing around again. Angeal buried his face in his hand.

As for the myths, when some students mentioned the only name he had heard of, Helios, he knew no details about the story. If there was a myth he knew, it was he believed the sun literally set into the earth. That was obviously before he entered school. Without even showing a hint he wanted to talk, Angeal continued to take down notes.

[Kitten]

Quickly taking town all the notes on what all the layers of the sun actually were and did, she couldn't help a small amount of laughter coming out of her mouth when Professor Airey started singing... though that would probably be stuck in her head for aaages!

Used in mythology?

Kahlan bit her lip as she started thinking about it... he'd mentioned Aztecs hadn't he? "Well... maybe how the Aztec gods sacrificed themselves to keep the sun alive?" because that had been the cause of thousands of sacrifices in order to continue to keep the sun alive.

Oh how glad she was that she wasn't living life in the Aztec society!

[TeafortheSoul]

Well West wasn't completely sure about which myth simply because there were so MANY and they could all be explained away to fit, hubris taken into account for that too. But he listened to what others had to say and it sparked a thought of one he'd been exposed to recently.

West put his hand up. "The chariot motif shows up in a lot of European myth relating to the sun, which is called Sol in Norse Mythology too. And there's also a chariot, and horses that pull it across the sky for night and day. There's some sorta conflicting tales, like Árvakr and Alsviðr supposedly pulled Sol's chariot together, but then there's Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi, who pulled Dagr and Nótt across the sky separately too."

The latter two were influenced by Germanic myth and stuff though he thought, it was just interesting that both sets of horses were separate, and they hadn't like.... merged or something.

[GrapehSarah]

Adelaide had sat quietly at her seat while everyone was labeling the sun and such. She quickly took notes on it, even though she'd taken a lot of space science classes in muggle school. They were still at the top of her list of favorites.

...and now Professor Flamsteed was dancing and singing. Adelaide couldn't help but giggle at his antics. Yep. She was going to like him. Singing and dancing were two of her favorite things. But there was no way she was joining him in class. Not with all of these other people around.

Oooo mythology. Adelaide's all time favorite thing to read. She raised her hand after some of the others had spoken. "If we're talking about hubris, wouldn't that be the Icarus myth? I mean, he was told not to fly to high and yet he did because he thought he was invincible." Or something like that.

[Govoni]

Really, Vesper was trying to focus....but there was so much talking. So much fact stating...Needless to say, she'd gotten distracted, having began drawing an ancient sun in the center of her notes. As she worked her quill, her ears were open...but only half of her attention was fully committed.

She'd just began some intense shading...

...but then she'd heard 'Ra' and it ceased immediately.

Perking up in her seat, Ves looked at the energetic professor with new eyes. They were discussing Myths now...Mythology....Mythology about the sun. Now...THAT was something she'd get excited about. Egyptian myths were her favorites...but the Greeks were right up there. Others were answering already...

Of course the myth of Icarus and his father, Daedalus...and the wax wings seemed the most logical, considering Professor Flamsteed's emphasis on 'Hubris' at the beginning of the lesson. Her peers had already suggested this as an answer, though...So, she shrunk back, looking around carefully. Ves had missed a lot with her distraction. Eep.

Heh.

"There's a Nintendo video game based on Kid Icarus." Obviously, she wanted to distribute something to the discuss now that she was actually paying attention. "I think that the others are right because of the sun's significant symbolism in it. 'The sun is beautiful from afar...but can also be harmful and destructive if one gets too close.'" Ves was speaking kinda low...because everyone seemed to be talking at once. A blush, once again, stained her cheeks. "...and I don't think he thought he was invincible....I think he was excited and giddy about the feeling of flight."...in response to another person.

[Sonea]

Oh, the answers for professor Flamsteeds lesson were quite difficult, she realized now when she had seen the right answers on the shard that she never would have known them or had been able to answer them correctly. She had never really read anything about the sun, the only thing she knew was that the sun was REALLY hot and she had heard vaguely something about the sun and stars, as if he WAS a star, but she wasn’t so sure about that… But maybe professor Flamsteed would tell them about the sun some more during this lesson…

And then, when professor Flamsteed told everyone to make notes she grabbed her quill and wrote everything as fast as she could, she didn’t wanted to miss anything important while she was making her notes and there was a LOT she needed to write. This lesson was sometimes really difficult and she was a little surprised that she had been able to keep up with the lessons all the time!

Huh? Why was… he singing? Professor Flamsteed was REALLY strange, she know knew it for sure… Or, she had always knew it, but this was again some proof that he was not a normal teacher! She smiled shortly while she wrote her last notes and was JUST done with writing her notes when professor Flamsteed started to talk again.

Hmm, the only sun mythology she knew was about Amaterasu, a Japanese myth, she had once heard a story about it because one of the maids from her mom was Japanese and she had told her stories about her homeland. But that was all she knew and she had not really been interested in any more stories, it was fun to hear somebody tell about a myth from another country but she didn’t had searched for it or had asked for more stories…

“I’m sorry professor, but the only Myth I know is about Ametarasu, but I’m sure that that isn’t the right answer” said Sonea after she had stood up and had raised her hand. She was convinced that this lesson wasn’t about Ametarasu but it was fun to tell professor Flamsteed that she knew SOMETHING about a myth!

[Kimothy]

"Now, one last thing to discuss before we head outside," he said with a small smirk. "Because of the sun’s massive influence, many early cultures saw it as a deity or god. For example, Ancient Egyptians had a sun god called Ra while in Aztec mythology there is a sun god named Tonatiuh and we have mentioned the Greek equivalent of Helios earlier and the Roman Sol. But the sun was not just seen as a god, it also became a source and a great influence in mythology as well. Given how I began this lesson, what myth do you think I want us to focus on today?" He had even given them a keyword earlier too.
MYTHOLOGY.

Kat liked mythology a lot. This question had sparked her interest even more so she was definitely listening now. Enthusiasm doing its job well. So, a myth about the sun? Could be Helios since he was the Titan god of the sun in Greek mythology, but it didn't seem too fitting. How about Apollo? He was the Greek god of the sun while his twin sister, Artemis, on the other hand was the goddess on the moon. But naaaah, Kat dismissed that thought. Then she tried to recall what Professor Flamsteed meant about 'how he began this lesson'. That was when it hit her.

...... Hubris? Wasn't that the word Professor Flamsteed wanted them to remember because it would pop up in this lesson soon? Maybe this was it?

Hubris... and then she remembered the fall of Icarus. How he passed away due to too much ambition, which failed anyway. Kat raised her hand. "I'll have to agree with the myth about Icarus. He tried to escape but it failed, which ended up with his wings getting burned because he flew too close to the sun." And then he drowned and died. Sad, because his wings were made out of wax. Obviously someone needed to listen to their fathers soon.

[PuppySara]

Their teacher was singing now? The seventh year just shrugged, he forgot the professors tended to have very colorful personalities, not that it was a problem. It always just made class more interesting. Brodie raised his hand, actually knowing one fairly well, "Well, professor, there's always the Greek god Helios. When he'd ride his chariot across the sky he was the sun, and when it was night he sailed in a golden boat round one-half of the earth, and thus arrived in the east at the point from which he has to rise again in his chariot." Yeah... So he knew something again, that really helped him seem like he wasn't a complete fool.

[Princesspower]

Oooooooooooh look at you Miss Edwards! Some science humor thrown into the mix. He could appreciate that. And Did. The astronomer stood there laughing for a bit. Yes, awesome points to you, Miss Edwards. THAT was a good one.

Her question...sort of threw him for a loop. He wasn't exactly an English teacher here. "The word solar is an adjective that literally means of or relating to the sun. So that is why it is used."

Alright. To start things off then what better place than the middle. "The core," he began while pointing to it on the chart. "Is the innermost layer of the sun. This is where thermonuclear fusion happens and is the process in which a star produce its light, heat, and energy. All the energy that reaches earth from the sun started right here. The core has a temperature of approximately 15 million degrees Celsius or 28 million degrees Fahrenheit."





"Very good. The next layer is the radiation zone, which is also called the radiative zone," he continued as he moved his finger along the chart. "Light produced by nuclear fusion in the core travels out in the shell called the radiative zone. This layer is not as dense as the core but it is still so dense that light from the core bounces around taking about 100,000 years to move through here. Between this layer and the next is a transition layer, the tachocline," he said, nodding his head towards the Ravenclaw who had written the word first before correcting it. The answer hadn't been wrong, just not the one he had been looking for.




Airey nodded his head at the next correctly labeled layer. "When the the density of the radiative zone becomes low enough, energy from the core in the form of light is converted into heat and rises into this layer. You can think of this layer as the surface of water boiling in a pot almost. The heat from the edge of the radiative zone rises until it cools enough that it sinks back down towards the core, but by doing so it creates big bubbles called convection cells. This rising of heat and and falling of cool gas is called convection." Hence the name of the layer.





"If only scientists had discovered a sunscreen stronger than SPF 50," he chuckled. Or was there one stronger? He didn't follow up on muggle sun prevention things much. "But very good, the next layer is the photosphere which is the visible layer of the sun and is tens to hundreds of kilometers thick. This layer is the lowest level in the Sun's atmosphere and is where energy finally escapes." He paused for a moment. "What is interesting to note about sunspots is that they do not appear in random locations and astronomers can actually predict where they may show up. They tend to be concentrated in two mid-latitude bands on either side of the sun's equator. They begin appearing around 25 to 30 degrees north and south of the center and never more than 70 degrees. Sunspots are huge and act just like poles and because there needs to be a “North” sunspot and a “South” sunspot, these spots like to appear in pairs. The number of sunspots varies over an 11-year cycle known as the solar cycle and actually begin in the convective layer of the sun and appear on the photosphere," he said as he gave a nod towards the Head Girl who had mentioned them in the first place.



Airey nodded at the Slytherin as he labeled the next layer. "As we continue upwards, we reach the next layer in the sun's atmosphere, the chromosphere. This layer is where most of the sun's weather takes place, including solar flares. The chromosphere is red in color and is actually visible during a complete solar eclipse." Something that they may get the chance to see this year. "This layer is also marked by countless jets or small spikes of matter called spicules that continually form and disappear, rising up and falling back down within minutes." It was a very exciting layer of study to be sure.





Almost done and then the fun could begin. "Good good," he nodded at the label on the chart. "The corona type of plasma that surrounds the sun and other celestial bodies, even our own earth. This layer of the sun is only visible when the light of the photosphere is blocked, like during a solar eclipse, and is the glowing halo of light that I am sure most of you are familiar with," he explained as he pointed to the appropriate section of the chart. "This layer is actually hotter than the surface of the sun and scientists believe that this is because of the energy from sun's magnetic field heats it." Yes, you got a quick nod, Miss Wisteria, for mentioning the magnetic field specifically. "But the corona does not produce much heat, so meteors and the like will not burn up were they to enter it."

Airey stepped away from the board now and banished the giant floating jawbreaker, for the time being. He waited for a few minutes while students wrote their notes and any potential diagram drawing that may be going on. Once ample time had passed - and mostly because he couldn't stop bouncing in place - Airey began to hum to himself and before too long he was BELTING out a song about the layers of the sun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZC7mocf1Q4) while dancing about the room and encouraging others to get up and move as well.

Music WAS a great learning tool after all and they all had been sitting still for far too long.

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh! Oh oh oh oh oh oh! Oh oh oh oh oh oh! These are layers of the sun!"

Once he had finished his lively rendition, he straightened his tie and returned to standing in front of the blackboard.

"Now, one last thing to discuss before we head outside," he said with a small smirk. "Because of the sun’s massive influence, many early cultures saw it as a deity or god. For example, Ancient Egyptians had a sun god called Ra while in Aztec mythology there is a sun god named Tonatiuh and we have mentioned the Greek equivalent of Helios earlier and the Roman Sol. But the sun was not just seen as a god, it also became a source and a great influence in mythology as well. Given how I began this lesson, what myth do you think I want us to focus on today?" He had even given them a keyword earlier too.

OOC: This will be the last question before the activity ^_^ Go ahead and have your character guess what myth involving the sun they think Airey is talking about, or just any myth they know (or make one up!) Remember that all SS Rules apply here ;)

I will continue this lesson before I go to bed in approximately 11 hours from now.
Sarah listened intently and took notes at rather furious pace. It was her OWL year after all. She waas glad that he liked her line, she liked making others happy, make them smile and all.

Sarah did not know any myths, in fact she was not interessted in them, hence the fact that she was considering dropping Ancient Runes. She raised her hand though, "for quite some time humans, among them the scientsts believed that the sun circled the earth and not the other way around. In fact when the man..." her mind went blank on his name, "I think it was Corpenicious or Galilieo first introduced the concept that the earth orbitted the sun, it caused much uproar."

[oh its Erik ok]

Myths about the Sun. Interesting.Couple people were talking about Helios. But Nigel remembered that there was still Apollo.

So...Yeah.

"There is the Ancient Greek myth. Where the deity Apollo rode a chariot across the sky every day to bring light to the world."

Similar to Helios. But still an answer.

[MudInMyBlood]

Myths? Why did they even care about myths? Waste.of.time. Hannah racked her brain to try to think of something, anything really. A thought crossed her mind about making something up. How would the professor really know? It was a myth for crying out loud.

Wait a minute. Just WAIT A MINUTE! Did the professor say some off the wall earlier. What was it, what was it? She was sure that it had started with an H, but she couldn't be entirely sure... She heard some people talking about Helios but she didn't think that was quite the word she had heard earlier. Her tongue kept playing on the word Hindu, she didn't think that was it, but she decided to go with in anyways. It was always better to try right? The sixth year raised her hand. "In Hindu mythology the actually think this weird beast is their sun god, Surya. He has like four arms and three eyes and they actually worship the creep." Biased much? "The people would even put suns up over their shops thinking that just by having it there it would bring them good fortune."

The blonde haired Slytherin couldn't speak for anybody else, but she wasn't about to worship anybody, especially someone who had more arms than a unicorn has legs. Nope!

[FearlessLeader19]

"And some Indians refer to it as Surya,'' Adi blurted before he could stop himself. Of course he knew that because of his mom. He cast a glace at the Professor and grinned. Nothing wrong with adding a piece of information.

Hmmmm. What myth could the suited man be referring to? Adi raised a hand. "Urmmm, comparing some of the myths you listed and the facts of the sun?'' he suggested before returning to his notes. He needed to draw and do the labeling of the diagram that was on the board.

[Lockhartian]

Well, she heard that.

As long as the deity issue didn't affect the sun's ego, then everything was fine. Honestly, Geocentric model was one thing, this was a very different one. Lottie smirked, for reasons.

And then... we're really, really sorry about this Airey, this is completely unusual and has never happened before but... Lottie started to laugh, she couldn't keep quiet anymore, see? It had taken all her concentration not to laugh before but when pointing happened, she couldn't help it.

So, yes, laughing.

The girl bit her lip and gave Airey an apologetic smile. She sort of whispered Sorry at the man and went back to eyeing her desk. That was safe.

[bitsyandtank]

Myths about the sun. Yes. He knew some myths about the sun. Now he just needed to remember them. It had been some time since his grandmother told him the stories of Mog Ruith. "Mog Ruith was a sun god who rode on an oxen driven bronze chariot through the sky every day. I can't remember why he did that. But I'm sure there was a reason. I think he was mean. At least that's how I remember my grandmother telling the story."

Asher didn't think this was the story the professor was referring to from the beginning of class, but it was a sun myth. He picked up his quill and began to draw the examples and charts from the professor before he ran out of time.

[sweetpinkpixie]

"... I meant.. the flicky thing that... gets rid of the beard, professor." Alice pawed more at her chin and gave the professor an incredulous look, everything about the giant wand going in one ear and out the other. Could he do something about this uncomfortable facial hair already? Itch. Itchhh.
Oh, she wanted the beard off. "Why didn't you say that in the first place?" he asked with an amused chuckle as he gave his wand a flick towards her face. The beard seemingly grew back INto her face, but was gone nonetheless.

Minerva watched and listened to all the other answers before Flamsteed started talking.. no singing, yes he was singing a song about the sun. He really was enjoying himself wasn't he? Well she guess that was a good thing why be miserable like Lafay in your job. Do something you love to do and are happy about doing, right? meh.. Minerva was just glad she didn't have to sing along or anything even though the song was not horrible and she actually started tapping her foot a bit. A smile crossed her face after awhile beard issue becoming forgotten, for now.

With his next questions Minerva frowned so beard issue not forgotten. Putting up her hand, "Well you said about Hubris sir and that it would come later or something like that, but Hurbris is an action of shame or humiliation for the pleasure of the person doing it." So basically the beard was for Flamsteeds pleasure.. Yep.. beard no forgotten. " but I'm not sure what that has to do with the sun, unless the suns making us burn in the summer is it's way of shaming us for it's on pleasure." Yeah she knew that sounded dumb, but it was more the point she was getting across than it actually being right. She really had no clue how Hubris fit into the lesson.
.................................................. .:mellow:

Well, Airey felt like a big ol' meanie pants right about now. Not to mention he felt all fidgety and awkward and. "N-n-n-n-not qu-quite," he said shaking his head. Blast! His stutter had momentarily come back. He was just going to do the awkward shuffle over this way now.......................

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

Airey called on and listened to student answers, wishing he didn't have such a dislike for creatures so that chariots and winged horses could be a real thing. Could have been fun, you know, racing in the air around the Black Lake dressed as Helios and what not. But, no, sadly, no winged horses or chariots this lesson.

He DID enjoy all the different myths that were being shared, and not all from Greek and Roman mythology either. Always nice for students to branch out like that.

And then....
Excellence. Yeah, right.

This class was excellently making her head hurt at the moment, how much longer until they're allowed to go somewhere else? He did say they were going to head outside, yes? That could help her clear her head. Probably.

BUT THEN! Hmmm, myths? At the beginning of the lesson?! SAY WHAT?! Lottie didn't even remember what had happened at the beginning of the lesson! Her eyes widened ever so slightly and she, inconspicuously, started to search her notes. WHAT?! Why did he have to pick THE SUN?!? Do you know how many galaxies are OUT THERE?! She sighed. LOUDLY.

Greeks. They had both Helios and Apollo. Much like she was thinking of two suns. Curious thing. Only one was a Titan, the other not so much. It wasn't until Mo mentioned driving... where was he even driving? Why was Lottie not even focusing? "Or flying... like Icarus." Mo could do that, he was more than welcome to go and fly into the sun. He'll tell us all about it later, surely.
Adrienne was copying down information when he just started... singing. Why was he singing? More importantly, why hadn't he stopped singing? God, it was still happening. She winced in secondhand embarrassment the whole time he was up there, warbling away. Professors should never ever sing, especially when they oh-so-clearly could not. Sure, it was kind of a catchy song, but it sounded awful and was... well, incredibly annoying. She waited it out and then went back to redrawing that diagram.

The mention of myths piqued her interest, though. They had always fascinated Adrienne, especially when they now knew the reasons for things the myths had been made to explain. Well... what had he started the lesson with again? Beards?

Oh yes, he'd mentioned hubris. Hubris... sun... she raised her hand tentatively. "Um, if we're talking about Greek myths, there is the one about Icarus and Daedalus maybe? Because Icarus was too cocky and he flew too high, and then his wings melted..." Well, that was a terrible explanation, but hopefully someone would know what she meant. Boy did she hate talking in front of lots of people.

Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

When Airey started talking about the sun's core Tag's slightly slumped over posture whipped straight up, his mind slightly more lively. The core was the reason a star turned very heated. Now, that was cool! And apparently that sun was burning up way too hard, but Tag didn't mind. Oh, and "NO WAY! The sun was seen as a god!" Whoops, Tag spoke up too loudly.

Tag remembered something about someone having wings or something of the sort and trying to fly up to the sun? Something like that. What was the dude's name? "That one dude with the wings and I think he flew up to the sun. Poor dude probably looked like a carrot. What a tan, what a tan. What's his name?" said the blonde in a rather absent voice. Looking around his classmates he heard Lottie say something about flying. "That guy she said." He answered pointing at his friend.

Adelaide had sat quietly at her seat while everyone was labeling the sun and such. She quickly took notes on it, even though she'd taken a lot of space science classes in muggle school. They were still at the top of her list of favorites.

...and now Professor Flamsteed was dancing and singing. Adelaide couldn't help but giggle at his antics. Yep. She was going to like him. Singing and dancing were two of her favorite things. But there was no way she was joining him in class. Not with all of these other people around.

Oooo mythology. Adelaide's all time favorite thing to read. She raised her hand after some of the others had spoken. "If we're talking about hubris, wouldn't that be the Icarus myth? I mean, he was told not to fly to high and yet he did because he thought he was invincible." Or something like that.

Really, Vesper was trying to focus....but there was so much talking. So much fact stating...Needless to say, she'd gotten distracted, having began drawing an ancient sun in the center of her notes. As she worked her quill, her ears were open...but only half of her attention was fully committed.

She'd just began some intense shading...

...but then she'd heard 'Ra' and it ceased immediately.

Perking up in her seat, Ves looked at the energetic professor with new eyes. They were discussing Myths now...Mythology....Mythology about the sun. Now...THAT was something she'd get excited about. Egyptian myths were her favorites...but the Greeks were right up there. Others were answering already...

Of course the myth of Icarus and his father, Daedalus...and the wax wings seemed the most logical, considering Professor Flamsteed's emphasis on 'Hubris' at the beginning of the lesson. Her peers had already suggested this as an answer, though...So, she shrunk back, looking around carefully. Ves had missed a lot with her distraction. Eep.

Heh.

"There's a Nintendo video game based on Kid Icarus." Obviously, she wanted to distribute something to the discuss now that she was actually paying attention. "I think that the others are right because of the sun's significant symbolism in it. 'The sun is beautiful from afar...but can also be harmful and destructive if one gets too close.'" Ves was speaking kinda low...because everyone seemed to be talking at once. A blush, once again, stained her cheeks. "...and I don't think he thought he was invincible....I think he was excited and giddy about the feeling of flight."...in response to another person.

MYTHOLOGY.

Kat liked mythology a lot. This question had sparked her interest even more so she was definitely listening now. Enthusiasm doing its job well. So, a myth about the sun? Could be Helios since he was the Titan god of the sun in Greek mythology, but it didn't seem too fitting. How about Apollo? He was the Greek god of the sun while his twin sister, Artemis, on the other hand was the goddess on the moon. But naaaah, Kat dismissed that thought. Then she tried to recall what Professor Flamsteed meant about 'how he began this lesson'. That was when it hit her.

...... Hubris? Wasn't that the word Professor Flamsteed wanted them to remember because it would pop up in this lesson soon? Maybe this was it?

Hubris... and then she remembered the fall of Icarus. How he passed away due to too much ambition, which failed anyway. Kat raised her hand. "I'll have to agree with the myth about Icarus. He tried to escape but it failed, which ended up with his wings getting burned because he flew too close to the sun." And then he drowned and died. Sad, because his wings were made out of wax. Obviously someone needed to listen to their fathers soon.

"Yes! YES YES YES YES YEEEEEEEEEES!" Airey exclaimed as he pointed to each student as they guessed the myth of Icarus.

“Those of you who who mentions Icarus and Daedalus hit the asteroid on the noise,” Airey said as he pointed to those students who had come up with the answer. “Now, it is often said that myths are all based on fact to a certain extent, and this one is no different. As the myth goes, Icarus attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. He ignored instructions not to fly too close to the sun, and the melting wax caused him to fall into the sea where he drowned.” Airey paused for a moment. “This is not the true story, however, but rather a myth created by muggles who witnessed two wizards battling in the sky by means of harnessing the sun’s light with magic, much like how some children will fry ants by using a magnifying glass. Daedalus was one of the pioneering wizarding inventors who sought to blend muggle technology of the day with magic to put muggles in their rightful place - under wizarding kind. Icarus, his son, was against this pureblood line of thinking and found plans to a weapon and stole them from his father and escaped from their home in Crete by flying on wings transfigured from wax candles in his father’s study. Of course, Daedalus, couldn’t have his plans ruined and flew after his son and used the sun’s light to shoot down his own flesh and blood by melting holes in the wings.” And, well, they knew how the rest of the story went there. “This is one of the many early examples of trying to harness the sun as an energy source. In more modern times such muggle inventions like solar panels have been created. Today, we are going to be utilizing the sun in the same way that Daedalus did - but under much safer circumstances.”

Like MUCH safer, okay? No one was going to die.

“We will be going outside in a few minutes to the lake where you will all take to the skies in a house vs house battle,” he grinned, bouncing in place and hitting his thighs with his fists. “Before we go, however, we need to do some preparation first. The first thing you will need is one of these,” he said as he removed an antique looking magnifying glass (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/9703785-2-1.jpg) from his ‘back of tricks’. “This is a magical magnifying glass much like the one Daedalus used and attaches to your wand like so.” Airey snapped the device onto his wand so that the magnifying glass was sitting vertically on his wand. “While you are flying around, you will need to catch the sun’s light with the magnifying glass - which shouldn’t be hard as long as you are not blocking the sun with your body. The light will be intensified at the tip of your wand. Then, all you will need to do is give your wand a quick jab forward towards your intended target and say Solis Focalis. This will shoot a temporary burst of sunlight.” Pretty neat, yeah? “Now, you may find that your robes will become a bit singed during this activity, but YOU should not receive any burns on your skin. I also have protective goggles to protect your eyes,” he explained as he pulled out a pair of goggles (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/2062-2.jpg).

“Because of the magnifying glass attachment, you will not be able to perform other spells - so NO Protego or other defensive spells. Also, we will not be using brooms for this activity,” he said, still bouncing in place quite a bit. Airey then pulled out a large glass container filled with mini jawbreakers that were glowing an inviting blue color. “These jawbreakers have been treated with a levitation potion, one that is triggered by happy memories. You will not be needing a powerful one like you would when conjuring a patronus, however. Just a small one will do to help you feel light as a feather.” Of course, this did not answer the question that was probably in the back of their minds, how were they going to fly without brooms? “Each of you will be donning wings transfigured from wax in your respective house colors. You simply slip them on by means of the shoulder strap and are charmed to flap on their own, which should be enough for you to fly into the air.” Assuming they were thinking of a pleasant memory that is. “These wings are not here, however, and are down at the lake.”

Airey picked up the container of mini jawbreakers and handed it to the student nearest him - but not before he popped one or three in his mouth. “What you all need to do first is have one or two of these mini jawbreakers. Once you have, please come up to my desk and grab a magnifying glass and a pair of goggles from their respective boxes. There are more than enough for all of you. When you have finished all your prepartions, please join me outside (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-lesson-1-activity-by-the-lake-94905/) for further instructions.”

OOC : You should RP your character doing the following ::

▸ grabbing their magnifying glass attachment & snapping it onto their wand
▸ retrieving a pair of sun goggles and putting them on
▸ eating a handful one or two jawbreakers

once you have done this, please proceed to this thread (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-lesson-1-activity-by-the-lake-94905/#post11435059) and you may BEGIN!

[TakemetotheBurrow]

Ella was with the Icarus people for sure. The big bag on the table at the front of the room was sort of like the sun, yeah? And Minnie, like Icarus, had let her curiosity get the best of her and gotten too close. Though in Ella's opinion, a green beard was much better than having your wings fall off and plummeting to your death. Way to be dramatic, kid. She did sort of feel bad, though. Flying was brilliant and anyone could get lost in that feeling. Anyone at all.

Anywhoo..."I think it's Icarus too, Professor." Nodnod.

And then...

AND THEN.....

They were going to be flying about the lake in a house battle using the sun? AWESOME. Ella was a bit nervous about the robes getting scorched bit but it did sound really cool. Plus she got to use one of those antique magnifying glasses which made her feel like Nancy Drew which she clearly liked. CLEARLY. Anyway, bouncy Ella was bouncy. This was going to be fun.

When it was time, the blonde hurried up and grabbed a magnifying class, handling it carefully. She smiled to herself as she attached it to her wand and then reached for some goggles. The last thing she needed was to damage her eyes during Quidditch season. Merlin. After putting those on and adjusting them a bit, it was time for the jawbreakers. She took two and nommed them up, eager to go get her wings.

WINGS.

This was seriously the best class ever.

[Sonea]

Okay, listening to all the answers was interesting and she noted everything what was good, but what happened next was shocking Sonea. SHE DIDN’T WANTED THIS!!!!!! In her mind she was screaming and she didn’t believed this. SHE HATED FLYING and she HATED it to be close to the lake! She didn’t wanted to attend to this activity, but she needed to do it… But, NOBODY COULD FORCE her to do it! Nooooooo, she would NOT do it, NEVER!

She stamped with her feet on the floor while she grabbed all the stuff she needed and did what the professor wanted, just to LOOK like if she was going to do it… But, she would NOT attend to this activity and if she was lucky she could sneak away without getting caught by the professor… And because she didn’t planned to fly she hide the jawbreakers she had grabbed inside her other pocket, the one where her rats weren’t hiding and left the classroom with the others, fully prepared but NOT going to use everything!

[Anna Banana]

Ohh--Sophie knew that story! She'd just been too late to share her thoughts, because just as she'd decided to raise her hand, the professor had moved on. Oh, well. She listened to the next part with a bit of fascination. They were going to fly? As in, without a broom? And...with wings?! She couldn't decide if she was hesitant or excited, so for now, she just sat there bewildered.

When the time came, she joined the line at the front of the room. Once she got to the front, she took a magnifying glass attachment and snapped it onto her wand just like she'd been shown. Then she pulled out a pair of sun goggles and put them on, too. She felt like a fish, a really stylish fish. Finally, she grabbed enough jaw breakers and began eating them as she filed out the classroom.

[Talikins]

IT WAS OFFICIAL. BEST LESSON EVER. BEST LESSON EVER. OKAY BEST LESSON EVER.

KSAHGFCJSAGDJ.WINGS THEY WERE GOING TO FLY WITH WINGS. LIKE THIS WAS JUST AMAZING!

Smiling a three hundred and sixty degree smile, Abbi listened as the Professor continued to explain what they were to do now before going outside. It was SO hard for her not to just jump up and scream and flail. But she'd do that as soon as he was done talking ...which now he was.

"THIS IS SO AMAZING LIKE EVEN BETTER THAN CANDY. NOTHING BEATS WINGS AND FAIRIES." She squealed about barely even realizing the amount of noise she was making. Could you blame her though? I mean WINGS. Did you get that? WINGS WINGS WINGS.

Jumping with enthusiasm out of her desk the fairy grabbed a magnifying glass from Professor's Star's desk and connected it to her fairy wand. Next she grabbed a pair of the swaggish goggles and put them on. Lastly she took a HUGE handful of jawbreakers, kept two in her hand and put the rest away for later.

With that she began nomming on her jawbreakers in hope of finishing them as she reached wherever they were going to go outside.

[FearlessLeader19]

Icarus and Daedalus? Ad never heard of them before but he listened intently as Professor Airey spoke of them.

And then...Activity time! Yay! At least it wasn't one of those boring classes when they just sat all time and listen while the teacher drone on and on. Okay, so first thing's first.Adi grabbed the strange looking magnifying glass things from its box and attached it to his wand, which now felt a bit heavier thanks to the glass.

Moving to the next box, he now grabbed a pair of cool looking goggles. "Flashy!'' he muttered with a grin and put them on. The firstie took two of the jaw breakers. The man did say one or two...too bad they couldn't have more. Anywho, chew, chew, chew!

[DaniDiNardo]

Of all her classes, Astronomy held the most field trips, definitely, yup. Now they were going out to the lake...WINGS??? Flying and battling and knocking into people (Okay not really, that was the wand's job). This was going to be epic!!

Before grabbing any of the essentials for the activity, she helped herself to seven jawbreakers. One was for now, the other six were for later and if after everyone else had taken there were still more she'd go back and have a few more for just in case reasons. Lex plopped the jawbreakers into her bag then grabbed the magnifying class and attached it to her wand like she was meant to. That taken care of she went for some goggles and slapped them on, but not over her eyes because she kinda still needed to see.

Could they go now???

She was itching to cast at people without getting in trouble for it. This was all a learning experience, plus, flying with wings. She'd always wondered what that was like.

Granted she'd miss the feel of being on a broom but at the same time WINGS!!! Lex grabbed her things (so she wouldn't have to walk all the way back up here after class) then filed out behind the others.

[slytherus]

During Flamsteed's long lecture, Angeal dozed off. He didn't care about this myth or that unless they'd come up during the exams (which he hoped not because he dozed off). He almost fell into a deep sleep until the rustling noise of students leaving their seats to take something from the teacher's table. He had no idea what was going on, so he just followed them. Then a student offered him a jar of mini jawbreakers. Just a couple? Weird was one thing, but he didn't know Flamsteed was stingy too! Not that he expected anything less to begin with.

He popped them in his mouth as he made his way to retrieve a magnifying glass and... A goggle? Wait, what did he say they were going to do again?

[feeheeheeny]

"Yes! YES YES YES YES YEEEEEEEEEES!" Airey exclaimed as he pointed to each student as they guessed the myth of Icarus.

“Those of you who who mentions Icarus and Daedalus hit the asteroid on the noise,” Airey said as he pointed to those students who had come up with the answer. “Now, it is often said that myths are all based on fact to a certain extent, and this one is no different. As the myth goes, Icarus attempted to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. He ignored instructions not to fly too close to the sun, and the melting wax caused him to fall into the sea where he drowned.” Airey paused for a moment. “This is not the true story, however, but rather a myth created by muggles who witnessed two wizards battling in the sky by means of harnessing the sun’s light with magic, much like how some children will fry ants by using a magnifying glass. Daedalus was one of the pioneering wizarding inventors who sought to blend muggle technology of the day with magic to put muggles in their rightful place - under wizarding kind. Icarus, his son, was against this pureblood line of thinking and found plans to a weapon and stole them from his father and escaped from their home in Crete by flying on wings transfigured from wax candles in his father’s study. Of course, Daedalus, couldn’t have his plans ruined and flew after his son and used the sun’s light to shoot down his own flesh and blood by melting holes in the wings.” And, well, they knew how the rest of the story went there. “This is one of the many early examples of trying to harness the sun as an energy source. In more modern times such muggle inventions like solar panels have been created. Today, we are going to be utilizing the sun in the same way that Daedalus did - but under much safer circumstances.”

Like MUCH safer, okay? No one was going to die.

“We will be going outside in a few minutes to the lake where you will all take to the skies in a house vs house battle,” he grinned, bouncing in place and hitting his thighs with his fists. “Before we go, however, we need to do some preparation first. The first thing you will need is one of these,” he said as he removed an antique looking magnifying glass (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/9703785-2-1.jpg) from his ‘back of tricks’. “This is a magical magnifying glass much like the one Daedalus used and attaches to your wand like so.” Airey snapped the device onto his wand so that the magnifying glass was sitting vertically on his wand. “While you are flying around, you will need to catch the sun’s light with the magnifying glass - which shouldn’t be hard as long as you are not blocking the sun with your body. The light will be intensified at the tip of your wand. Then, all you will need to do is give your wand a quick jab forward towards your intended target and say Solis Focalis. This will shoot a temporary burst of sunlight.” Pretty neat, yeah? “Now, you may find that your robes will become a bit singed during this activity, but YOU should not receive any burns on your skin. I also have protective goggles to protect your eyes,” he explained as he pulled out a pair of goggles (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/2062-2.jpg).

“Because of the magnifying glass attachment, you will not be able to perform other spells - so NO Protego or other defensive spells. Also, we will not be using brooms for this activity,” he said, still bouncing in place quite a bit. Airey then pulled out a large glass container filled with mini jawbreakers that were glowing an inviting blue color. “These jawbreakers have been treated with a levitation potion, one that is triggered by happy memories. You will not be needing a powerful one like you would when conjuring a patronus, however. Just a small one will do to help you feel light as a feather.” Of course, this did not answer the question that was probably in the back of their minds, how were they going to fly without brooms? “Each of you will be donning wings transfigured from wax in your respective house colors. You simply slip them on by means of the shoulder strap and are charmed to flap on their own, which should be enough for you to fly into the air.” Assuming they were thinking of a pleasant memory that is. “These wings are not here, however, and are down at the lake.”

Airey picked up the container of mini jawbreakers and handed it to the student nearest him - but not before he popped one or three in his mouth. “What you all need to do first is have one or two of these mini jawbreakers. Once you have, please come up to my desk and grab a magnifying glass and a pair of goggles from their respective boxes. There are more than enough for all of you. When you have finished all your prepartions, please join me outside (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-lesson-1-activity-by-the-lake-94905/) for further instructions.”

OOC : You should RP your character doing the following ::

▸ grabbing their magnifying glass attachment & snapping it onto their wand
▸ retrieving a pair of sun goggles and putting them on
▸ eating a handful one or two jawbreakers

once you have done this, please proceed to this thread (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-lesson-1-activity-by-the-lake-94905/#post11435059) and you may BEGIN!
Sophie was entirely too engaged in the professor's story to glance down at her parchment and realize she was writing in a nice slope upwards and some of her lines were overlapping. No biggie, though, she could decipher the writing later, certainly. Right NOW, she was ready to GO. When the jawbreaker container came to her, she eagerly grabbed a few and popped them into her mouth quite cheerfully. As she sucked on the jawbreaker, she grew a little concerned about her robes getting singed - she HAD just bought these and thought it would be a shame to have them blemished, even if it was fixable. But... battle scars. That was cool. She could look like a superhero who was wounded from saving the WORLD.

When the professor allowed it, Sophie jumped from her seat and made a dash for the magnifying glass attachments. She took one in her hand and held it up close to her face, examining it carefully. Interesting tool, this one. Removing her Hermione!wand from its holster, she attached the device carefully and gave the wand a few waves to make sure it would stay on properly. Then she shoved a pair of goggles onto her face. The first year wiggled it a bit on her face, making sure it was secure. OKAY. All set. She struck a pose to herself, trying to catch a glimpse of her reflection in the magnifying glass device to check out how AWESOME she looked. WOOP.

"Ravenclaws, ASSEMBLE!" She thrust her wand into the air and rushed from the room.

This was gonna be good.

[MudInMyBlood]

Why couldn't Hannah ever attend a normal lesson. Why was there always some kind of crazy activity attached? You would think that the sixth year would be used to it by now, but alas she was irritated. At least this was a house battle. That made for a more interesting activity. She was sure that the Slytherins would win because they were Slytherin and they were winners by nature. by any means necessary

She was thinking that the happy memory would be a bit of a problem for all things considered, but the professor said that it didn't have to be very strong so maybe she could fake one well enough to get the job done?

She approached the desk and grabbed the magnifying glass attachment thingy and attached it to her wand. One step was done. Sung goggles! She would definitely need those. She could not hurt her beautiful piercing green eyes. Hannah placed them delicately on her face. Now she had to eat the jawbreaker candy. She had never had one before but she wondered how hard it would be to get down considering the name of the candy. She took two just in case her happy memory would need some help.

The only thing left was actually following the class out to the lake and doing the actual activity. The other houses were going down, Hannah was determined as she followed the others out to the lake.

[the fastest seeker]

“We will be going outside in a few minutes to the lake where you will all take to the skies in a house vs house battle,” he grinned, bouncing in place and hitting his thighs with his fists. “Before we go, however, we need to do some preparation first. The first thing you will need is one of these,” he said as he removed an antique looking magnifying glass (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/9703785-2-1.jpg) from his ‘back of tricks’. “This is a magical magnifying glass much like the one Daedalus used and attaches to your wand like so.” Airey snapped the device onto his wand so that the magnifying glass was sitting vertically on his wand. “While you are flying around, you will need to catch the sun’s light with the magnifying glass - which shouldn’t be hard as long as you are not blocking the sun with your body. The light will be intensified at the tip of your wand. Then, all you will need to do is give your wand a quick jab forward towards your intended target and say Solis Focalis. This will shoot a temporary burst of sunlight.” Pretty neat, yeah? “Now, you may find that your robes will become a bit singed during this activity, but YOU should not receive any burns on your skin. I also have protective goggles to protect your eyes,” he explained as he pulled out a pair of goggles (http://i969.photobucket.com/albums/ae180/sweetpinkpixie/Airey%20Flamsteed/SS%20Astronomy/Lessons/Term%2035/2062-2.jpg).

“Because of the magnifying glass attachment, you will not be able to perform other spells - so NO Protego or other defensive spells. Also, we will not be using brooms for this activity,” he said, still bouncing in place quite a bit. Airey then pulled out a large glass container filled with mini jawbreakers that were glowing an inviting blue color. “These jawbreakers have been treated with a levitation potion, one that is triggered by happy memories. You will not be needing a powerful one like you would when conjuring a patronus, however. Just a small one will do to help you feel light as a feather.” Of course, this did not answer the question that was probably in the back of their minds, how were they going to fly without brooms? “Each of you will be donning wings transfigured from wax in your respective house colors. You simply slip them on by means of the shoulder strap and are charmed to flap on their own, which should be enough for you to fly into the air.” Assuming they were thinking of a pleasant memory that is. “These wings are not here, however, and are down at the lake.”

Airey picked up the container of mini jawbreakers and handed it to the student nearest him - but not before he popped one or three in his mouth. “What you all need to do first is have one or two of these mini jawbreakers. Once you have, please come up to my desk and grab a magnifying glass and a pair of goggles from their respective boxes. There are more than enough for all of you. When you have finished all your prepartions, please join me outside (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-lesson-1-activity-by-the-lake-94905/) for further instructions.”

OOC : You should RP your character doing the following ::

▸ grabbing their magnifying glass attachment & snapping it onto their wand
▸ retrieving a pair of sun goggles and putting them on
▸ eating a handful one or two jawbreakers

once you have done this, please proceed to this thread (http://www.snitchseeker.com/astronomy-tower/astronomy-lesson-1-activity-by-the-lake-94905/#post11435059) and you may BEGIN!


Mythologies and theories. She didn't have her own opinion about this so she just listened and nodded. And she wasn't scribbling anything because she needed her full attention for this. And they were a bit confusing.

Luckily, they were going out! Cool, she liked outdoors activities. And it seemed that this one included flying? Though not using a broom but wings? That was interesting. And it wasn't that bad since there wasn't going to be a crowd watching as everyone would be too busy flying and trying to make others fall.

As Professor Flamsteed finished explaining, Cassia got up and went to grab the pair of goggles. She took a couple of jawbreakers and decided to eat them on the way out then for the last step. The fifth-year reached for a magnifying glass attachment and carefully adjusted it to her wand after removing the holster. Just to be sure, she shook the wand around, good it was firm.

With that, she popped a jawbreaker into her mouth, grabbed her bag and followed the others out.