Ellie reached the top of the stairs, nearly out of breath. Phew, that was a long staircase. She caught her breath before knocking on Professor Antares' door. She straightened out her pale blue blouse as she waited for a reply. Hopefully he was in there or else she made that tedious climb for nothing.

Risu almost didn't hear the knock. This wasn't premature deafness, however, he was simply occupied otherwise: He was standing on a precariously balanced chair, trying to dust off the shelves in his office. For some reason, the office hadn't been cleaned at all during term break, and dust, especially in an old castle, has a habit of accumulating.

Dust in a magical environment, doubly so. Even as Risu waved his wand to vanish the small grey particles, they rearranged themselves to form bad words. By pure coincidence, these words were very similar to the ones swirling inside Risu's head as he nearly lost his balance when the knock came again. As gentle as he usually was, being forced to grab all fifteen volumes of The Galactic Companion so as not to fall had to produce some sort of emotional response.

When he was sure the chair wouldn't topple over because of some provocative action on his part, like breathing, Risu called out, "Come in!"

As soon as she knocked, Ellie was sure she heard a... noise. Tumbling? Fumbling? She heard the professor call out for her to come in. It sounds sort of panicky. Was that a word?

She reached for the handle and slowly opened the door. She poked her head in as she opened the door and saw Professor Antares strategically balanced on a chair, carefully balancing-she quickly counted-13, 14, 15 books in his hand. She opened the door all the way and raised her eyebrows at the scene. Impressive.

"Oh! Let me help you with that." She suggested as she rushed to the Professor's side, reaching for the books.

Perhaps Risu should have climbed down first. "Erm... That's okay," he managed, and although he feared any sudden movements would attract the attention of gravity, he nodded curtly in the direction of his desk. "Please, sit down, I will be with you" - the chair creaked dangerously - "momentarily. I'd advise you to stand back, at any rate, I'd hate to be responsible for an urgent Hospital Wing referral." He'd be happier with the student out of reach. The Companion set was heavy.

He let go of the books carefully. They shifted a bit on their shelf, but did not tumble down. Good. The chair creaked again as Risu turned around, greyish dust all over his black robes. "Oh yes, this," he said conversationally as if he hadn't been about to fall face down onto the office floor, "my office seems to have been neglected by the House-elves over the holidays. I was just trying to... tidy up a bit."

He stepped off the chair nimbly, waving his wand vaguely to vanish the dust on his robes. At least the shelves (and, admittedly, the corners of the office) were the only thing that still needed cleaning. "I do apologise, Miss..." He wasn't sure he had seen this student before.

The chair creaked and Ellie desperately hoped Professor Antares wouldn't fall off. "Oh. Okay." She said taking a step back. Ellie had already been to see the nurse today. One trip to the hospital wing in one was good enough for her. She walked to a chair in front of his desk and took a seat, setting her small bag on her lap.

She fidgeted with her snake ring while he put the books on the shelf and dusted his robes off. "Ah, I see."' She commented, reffering to the House-elf remark. The trip up the stairs was probably too much for them. Sheesh, it was too much for Ellie.

"Johanson, sir. Ellie Johanson." She said, standing back up and extending her hand out for him to shake. That was... formal. Right? "I haven't taken your class before." She noted. In case he was wondering. "But I must say, I am quite excited. Astronomy is my favorite subject, you see." She sat back down in the chair with a smile on her face.

Risu was slightly taken by surprise at the girl's outstretched hand, but also oddly amused. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Johanson," he said with a grin, and shook hands with her. Indicating that she make herself comfortable on the chair, he wandered around his desk. "I can offer you some tea if you want?" he ventured, sitting down with a sigh. His back hurt slightly, proof - as if his greying hair was not enough - that he was approaching the wrong side of 40.

"Now, Miss Johanson, what can I do for you?" He grinned. "I certainly expect you in my classes now, after that announcement, but if you have not participated in my classes before, perhaps you have some questions?" Risu paused, and pursed his lips. "They will be challenging - a comment, or complaint even, that I have received a fair few times - but if you enjoy the subject, it should be interesting enough to follow."

Risu indicated the shelves lining the walls, full of encyclopaedias, textbooks, and stacks of astrophysical journals. "As you can probably tell, I share your view on astronomy."

Hmm, tea sounded pretty good actually. She couldn't help but say yes. "Oh. Yes, tea sounds wonderful! Thank you, sir." She replied with a smile at his kindness.

"Well Professor, I don't doubt that they'll be challenging." She said with a light-hearted laugh. He didn't seem like the type of teacher who would go easy on his students. "But I'm up for a little challenge, you know?" She was in Ravenclaw after all. Knowledge is important. "Actually I was wondering about what we'll go over in general. Just the basics. Will we be learning about specific galaxies and planets? Or how the extraterrestrial worlds move with each other...?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

Ellie looked towards the bookshelf, amazed at all the books he managed to fit onto the shelves. "I see that, sir." She said with a nod and a look of awe.

"Oh, please, no 'sir'," Risu said, picking up his wand and waving it at his stove next to the door. An old teapot on top of it started hissing steam almost immediately. This was a trick he had picked up from Avery - she was very good at these sort of household charms, and just a few months ago, Risu would have had to get up and make tea by hand (not something he would have minded, but this, he had had to admit, was more convenient). "'Professor' will do," he went on with a slight smile. "I am definitely not a sir, Miss Johanson."

The teapot gave a sharp whistle, and Risu waved his wand again. It rose from the stove and began a somewhat shaky ride through thin air until it was hovering over the desk. Risu gave it a light tap, and a cup of golden-coloured tea was poured into a cup. "There you go."

He watched her take a sip. "Well, over the last two years, I have covered a lot of basic material. In class, we've talked about the nature of science, we've talked about different views of the Universe..." He began ticking things off on his fingers. "We had a group project on all the different astronomical disciplines. Last year, we talked about the Big Bang model, as well as Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics." Risu leaned back in his comfortable chair.

"This term, without giving too much away, I am planning to spend some time on life in the Universe. Life, evolution of life, the possibilities of life on other planets, those sort of topics." He waved a hand.

No sir? She watched as he waved his wand at the stove and amazingly it started whistling almost immediately. She raised her eyebrows. Miss Johanson. It was weird to be called that. "Alright. Professor." She said with emphasis on the title.

Ellie watched as the teapot took a shaky journey to the desk. She took her cup of golden warm tea. It smelled delightful. She took a sip and raised her eyebrows. "Mm, that's delicious..." She muttered more to herself.

She nodded as the Professor spoke and took another sip of her tea. The Big Bang Theory. That was always interesting to her, with all the controversy of the theory versus a God or a higher power that created all things.

"Life on other..." She raised her eyebrows. "Do you.. Do you really think life exists outside this world? That it's possible?" She asked, even though she sort of knew he'd tell her to wait for the lesson...

Pouring himself his own cup of tea, Risu tapped the framed photograph with Avery and him in front of the glacier. "Don't thank me," he said, smiling fondly at the photograph. "I'm a former research scientist, we eat and drink almost anything as long as it's easy and, especially, quick to prepare and keeps us awake. I've recently had my taste for tea... cultivated a little, you could say."

He sipped on his tea and pondered, sighing contentedly. His mouth had felt entirely too dusty after that climbing exercise. "Are you asking my personal opinion?" he asked, glancing at the girl. "I would have to say, yes, I'm fairly certain that there is. This is, of course, not scientific in any real sense, but I think it is a question of probability. Just our little and insignificant Solar System has eight planets. One of those definitely has life, and there are numerous other places - Mars, moons such as Titan or Enceladus - where life could conceivably exist. Indeed, Mars could have been a living planet billions of years ago. Evidence of running water, and so forth." He waved a hand again. "This is all rather well-known, of course."

Taking another sip, he went on, "And that is, as I said, just one planetary system. The Milky Way contains several hundred billion stars, and there are billions and billions of galaxies in the Universe. Even if the, say, the beginning of life is a highly improbable event, the sheer number of planets, almost infinite to our brains, I think, will mean it's almost certain that life exists on billions of them. And personally, I think biological experiments here on Earth have shown that life is not so improbable after all. So, yes, if you ask me, I think the cosmos is full of life. And, of course, huge numbers of planets have already been discovered, some of them similar to Earth. Undoubtedly we will discover more as our methods improve and our instruments become more advanced."

He smiled brightly, tapping his finger against the glass of the photograph frame again. "How much of that life is in the form of space-faring civilisations, though..." He shrugged. "I think the probability of evolution to take a species that far is actually much lower than for life to get started. Primitive organisms will exist on innumerable planets, I suspect, but beings similar or superior to us could be very rare indeed."

Once again, Jake's sunglasses were ON. He had a new pair these days; aviator sunglasses with dark glass in the frames. Mmmmmmmmmhm. His outer robes were down in his dormitory and so Jake wore a nifty zip-up blue hoodie over the muggle-style part of his uniform.

He had not forgotten how cold it was during his last visit to the Astronomy professor's office.

BRRRR.

When he finally reached the office, Jake found the door ever so slightly ajar. He pressed the tip of his index finger and middle finger to the wood and pushed gently, opening it a little wider.

As if to compliment this, the young man knocked on the frame of the door.

Jake had to wonder if he'd been remembered by the man. Things had changed and shades were on.

Risu returned from his trip to the lower regions of the castle in a slightly grumpy mood. An unusual occurrence to be sure, but then so was getting one's office tampered with and waking up with red blotches on one's face. Which, thank goodness, were slowly disappearing, thanks to whatever potion-y magic Hecate had worked. He was still sniffling - and trying not to scratch his cheeks - but at least his eyes had stopped leaking. Mostly.

Still, he knew he had to look like spending the previous night at the kind of party he was at least twenty years too old for.

Rounding the corner to his office, he was not a little surprised to see a student (it had to be a student, no teacher would ever find himself in an outfit as ridiculous as that... Risu fervently hoped), and a student peering into his office at that. Planning to spread more allergenic dust?

He frowned severely - employing muscles unused to this task - and gave one of the chairs outside his office where waiting students could sit down a hearty kick to attract the young man's attention. "Can I help you?"

...

Say whut?

Jake flinched quite violently when he heard a sudden noise that he clearly hadn't been expecting. The young man turned to see Risu and he was quite tempted to... well, to be frank... run.

But he didn't.

Jake had NOT expected this reaction from Antares who was usually pretty coooool and happy... so he froze for a bit.

"I... I j-just came to t-t-t-..." he began, before realising he was stuttering again.

We blame you, Antares.

Risu's eyes narrowed. Sunglasses? Inside? In November?

But now that he could see the student's face - most of it, anyway - and (a little uncharitably, but nonetheless helpful) hear the slight stutter, he remembered. "Jake?" His face relaxed. "Erm... hello." Hadn't the kid graduated a year ago? Risu was a bit fuzzy on the details, especially since there was sometimes a bit of a curious reluctance on the part of some of the longer-serving professors to discuss Jake.

He nodded in the direction of his open office door. "Want to come in?" He walked past Jake and pushed the door open fully. "Apologies if I startled you there. The chair started it."

Jake was quite aware that he'd shown a little weakness there with the renewed stutter. He hadn't been expecting something like that from Antares, so that just went to show that you never really knew how someone would be.

Now he was pretty sure that the guy was cooooool, he slowly took off his sunglasses. "That's me," he smiled wryly. "And I'd like to come in, yeah." When Antares headed on into the office with a curious tale of the provocative chair, the young man followed him on in whilst glancing over his shoulder.

"What did it do?" Jake asked, thinking of many possibilities. He'd heard of defective desks in Ancient Runes, but recalcitrant chairs?

"Oh." Risu had been thinking more along the lines of a joke. "Er... It winked at me inappropriately?" he suggested, pulling the used tissues out of his robe pocket and lobbing them in the direction of the waste paper basket (which moved in order to catch them). He was about to pour himself a cup of tea when he remembered Hecate's warning not to consume hot drinks for a day after taking the antidote.

With a sigh, Risu replaced the kettle on the stove. Something else would have to do, then. With a quick wave of his wand, the cup filled with water. "Please, sit," he said to Jake, indicating the chair. "Don't have anything in the way of food, I'm afraid, but I can offer you a cup of tea."

Walking around the desk, he glanced at the large windows. Good. At least at first glance, the face of his mirror image had lost most of its red blotches. He slumped into his chair and took a sip of the water. "What can I help you with, Jake? I was under the impression that you had left Hogwarts."

"..."

Jake had opened his mouth to speak and promptly shut it again. He was about to say something about chairs not having eyes but thought better of it. Something told him Antares was being humourous and Jake hadn't picked up on it.

"Oh, no thank you," Jake shook his head, all traces of stutter gone for the moment. That had been annoying, having it back for a second. But never mind. "I don't really like tea. I think it has caffeine in it as well." He wasn't too sure...

Anyway, back to business.

"No, actually... I left after my fifth year to be home-schooled instead of staying here for my sixth year. My parents stopped teaching here and quidditch was off so I didn't have any reason to stay. Plus, I was apprenticed."

He didn't mention the name. Too many people didn't know him. >.>

"So now I'm back for my seventh year. Came up here to... talk and stuff. I had a few questions as well."

Mhmm.

Yyyyyup.

Maybelle got to the door that lead into Professor Antares office. She held up her hand to the door and began knocking. She wanted to ask questions about an astronomy class. She loved stars and everything to do with our planets OWN magical features. But she wanted to learn more. She brought her hand down and waited for Professor Antares to answer.

Risu tapped his cup of water reflectively, and as he listened to Jake, some more related staff room memos came back to him. He remembered now. "I do recall that you were very fond of Quidditch," he said with a smile. "Are you competing again this year? Close out your education at Hogwarts with a Championship? Another one?"

Risu leaned back comfortable. Hecate really knew her stuff, he could practically feel the itchiness in his cheeks fade. This was certainly worth 24 hours of not being able to drink tea, even if it was Avery's delicious flavours he had been forced to skip.

"Perhaps I will see you at the Gobstones tournament as well?" Risu asked, looking at Jake. "I'm in charge of the club with my colleague Professor Hadley, and I have to admit I'm quite looking forward to it. You weren't here last year, of course, but I am sure you heard about the Triwizard Tournament." Risu pulled a disapproving face. "As part of the Tournament, both Quidditch and Gobstones were cancelled, so this year will be my first time in this capacity. And..." There was a knock on the door.

"Noted!" Risu called out cheerfully, loud enough for whoever it was to hear. "Please have a seat outside, I will be with you momentarily." He gestured at Jake. "Sorry. You said you had a few questions?"

Maybelle nodded....at the door? Yes at the door! She sat down on the bench outside and took out her wand and began twirling it around in her fingers. She practiced lumos for a bit and began just twiddling her thumbs for a while.

Jake couldn't help but grin. This was why he liked Antares... he remembered a lot. "Yeah... I've tried out for Quidditch again... I hope to get on the team, but I'm afraid I'm a little out of practice."

Regrettably. Then again he had been doing some other cool stuff. More important stuff. Yup. "I do hope we get the Championship," the young man smiled. That would be awesome. He would cry whatever happened.

"Gobstones? Sure. I used to play a lot. I think I got player of the match once," Jake pointed out. He was pretty sure it was once, but Gobstones happenings admittedly often slipped his memory. He just knew Hufflepuff hadn't won whilst he was at school. Wait, what? "Oh.. the Tournament. Yeah, I vaguely remember something about it," the young man shrugged. MEH. It was why he went home, really.

Oh, but yeah. Someone else wanted to come in.

Hm.

"Errr... well. Admittedly, last year Astronomy was one of the subjects that was kind of neglected just a bit. Kazi was big on Defence and stuff like that to do with, like... leading. Just, yeah... so you know. Also, how long is a lightyear?"

Totally not a random jump to a topic.

"Well, maybe I will see you at the Gobstones matches then," Risu announced brightly. "Probably less to your taste than Quidditch, seeing as it's stationary, rather slow to progress, and all in all not too exciting, but most people get out with their bones unbroken." He flapped a hand about as if all the bones inside it had disappeared. "Perhaps we should think of spicing up the rules a bit?"

Entertaining idle thoughts of Gobstones that could fire off a variety of random jinxes, Risu picked up his cup of water again. "And I, in turn, might just turn up to the Quidditch matches. I have to admit I avoided the Tournament last term; it's a bit too dangerous for me. Quidditch has the right thrill-to-injury ratio, I would guess."

Hm, thrill-to-injury ratio... That sounded oddly scientific. Perhaps he should make up some proper measurement of it. Something involving, perhaps, quantity and intensity of sympathetic groans, chewed fingernails, averted eyes... He could call it the Antares. A Slytherin walkover in Gobstones could be one milli-Antares while a Quidditch Championship game taking place in thunder and rain checked in at, oh, 42 Antares, perhaps?

"I don't think I had the pleasure of meeting the professor," Risu said, trying to focus on what Jake was saying. "Oh, and a lightyear is approximately 10 trillion kilometres."

"Most, haha," Jake chuckled. The idea that someone could possibly break a bone in a game of Gobstones truly amused him. It... probably shouldn't. Knowing Jake, he'd end up slipping on a Gobstone and breaking his backside or something.

"Dude, you totally should! I suggest you support Hufflepuff but I don't suppose you will. Well... there's a one in four chance that you root for Hufflepuff; the odds aren't in our favour," the young man added, more to himself. Heh. In truth, it didn't matter who cheered for them. The stands could ALLLLLL be bigging up the opposing team, and Hufflepuff would still be in with the same chance of winning. It was simple.

But STILL.

Jake sighed; so many people hadn't met Kazi... 'twas sad.

Heh.

"I never really understood the concept of a lightyear. Is it a distance then? Like... why is it 'year'?" Possibly the simplest of Astronomy concepts... and he didn't get it at all.

Risu grinned. "Well, this dude was a Slytherin, once-upon," he said, clearly amused by this exchange, "but who knows, if the Hufflepuff students were to do their homework diligently, he might just change his mind and transfigure the old green-and-silver scarf..."

Risu was a terrific pedagogue.

"It is a confusing concept to grasp at first, certainly," he said with a nod. "Simply put, a lightyear is the distance light travels in one year. It seems unintuitive at first because, as you correctly pointed out, the year is a measurement of time, not distance."
He paused briefly. "You were not here last term, unfortunately, but this is one of the topics we discussed in class. The scientific revolution 150 years ago, of Einstein's ideas about space and time, made it possible. Space and time are intertwined, an inseparable construct that we call, naturally enough, spacetime. In this construct, a measurement unit such as a year can serve to define distance."