Mercury's landscape? Eino raised his eyebrow at Kurumi. She could tell all that by looking at it through her telescope? Magical telescope indeed, maybe his was broken. He raised his hand. "It's looks like a tiny pebble, like a pogrebin." Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. Planet of the Pogrebins. Of course, it was a lot bigger, but it looked smaller than his fingernail through the telescope. "It also looks like it has little holes on it... Is that because it has been hit by asteroids and comets and, ummm, other spacial debris things? And is it reddish-brownish because it was burned by the sun?" It was the closest planet to the sun so why not? Eino got reddish when he stayed out in the sun for too long so maybe that was what happened to Mercury.

As for the mythological story, Eino wasn't sure if the professor was talking about the mythical god or some myths about the planet itself. "Mercury was known as the messenger god." Eino began after having raised his hand. "He wore winged sandals that allowed him to fly and run at great speed. They were known as pédila by the Greek and talaria by the Romans. He also had a winged cap, but I ought to think that the winged sandals are a much more brilliant invention."

Michelle bit her lip, spotted mercury? yea, everyone but her..*sigh*. Having only what she remembered from her mother's story about the heavens, Michelle raised her hand, "Professor, since mercury is one of the three closest planet to the sun, it must be really compact and not gaseous like say, Jupiter," she continued, "..and umm, so it's landscape must be rocky and full of ridges, and stuff..."

Okaaaay...

"..and umm, mercury's myth revolves around the roman messenger god. The one with the winged shoes who travels real fast. It's probably because the planet itself travels so fast across the horizon," she answered and smiled.

Aiden yawns while Professor Roslund is getting the students' attentions. Was he asking about the the landscape of Mercury. "Pretty much like our moon," she answers after lowering down her raised hand. "With the addition of the surface facing the sun would be extremely hot and the other surface would be very cold."

She doesn't bother to answer the question regarding the myths. In fact, she might not even hear it. Arms folded, Aiden rests them on the telescope before resting her chin on them. Good thing she doesn't have class till afternoon. She definitely needs a good long sleep!

Jory looked hard at Mercury through his telescope. "Professor, I think the landscape is covered with large craters.''

After hearing the second question, Jory frowned. He had never heard of any mythology about Mercury.

Tiffany had learned a bit of each planet of the whole solar system so she knew a little about Mercury besides only observing its surface from her telescope.She raised her hand.
"The surface of Mercury, actually it is similar to the moon and has a rocky body. It is the smallest planet in the whole Solar System and the temperature in the surface of Mercury is quite high."she smiled and continued,"But for the mythological story of Mercury...I haven't heard about that. Sorry,sir."She sat down and looked a bit sorry for that answer to the myth of Mercury.

"Well sir about the mythological story…I've heard that he was the Roman equivalent to Hermes the greek messenger god who was a prankster…but other than that I'm not completely sure what mythological story you are asking about." Violet said raising her hand nervously.

"Mercury looks like it has a bunch of holes in it and stones." She wasn't sure what the myth was so she just waited for others to answer.

Harvey just watched Minnie answer the first question and jotted down what she said, he also didnt know the myth surrounding Mercury although he thought he had heard bits about it but was not sure so didnt say anything. He listened to what others had to say on the subject.

She knew that Louisa was about to ask her about something else but the Professor had interrupted her. Good thing too for she had the feeling that it was a question not related to the subject.

But seriously, it was almost morning now and Beatrice's eyes are starting to water due to their lack of sleep and continuous finding of Mercury. She yawned carelessly as Professor Roslund asked them about the characteristics of the said planet. And because of her sleepiness, she chose not to answer the first question since many already did and she felt like her head would go haywire if she would once again look into the telescope.

"Mercury is also known as Hermes who is the Greek God's messenger," she said, answering the second question. Or at least that was what she knew. Honestly, she was not sure. She was very sleepy now and the words coming out of her mouth didn't really went through her mind clearly.

Raven answered the question

"If I'm not mistaken, Mercury is a God from Roman Mythology." Its similar with Hermes, from Greek mythology. Mercury is a messenger and god of trade."

An expert? That was incredibly amusing. He was barely that. But he didn't have a chance to answer that question and now Sierra was making him blush. Truthfully, he wasn't very good at reading people sometimes. Simon was living proof of that. He never knew there had been something wrong with his friend until he told him. But...he wasn't going to comment on that.

There was, however, one thing he could mention to her, "I'm not as good in Charms," didn't mean he wasn't good at it, just didn't excel in it as much as the others.

He wasn't very good at Herbology either. But the class he took it as complement to Potions.

There was a smile on his face when she rolled her eyes at him, yes, he knew that the focus had improved dramatically, but it was best not to make such a big deal about it...after all, she did make a fine job by adjusting it manually. "Looks okay." He repeated, adding a wink this time.

And it seemed they had done a fantastic job at finding Mercury and not getting enough sleep.

His hand was raised before he decided on answering. Mercury was...a tricky planet, really. "Looks just like the moon, regardless of the fact that the moon is closer to us than Mercury is, making Mercury appear like the tiniest moon ever seen...and that the moon looks white instead of the brownish shade Mercury displays." Yeah, it was a good way to describe what one was seeing while comparing it to something else.

Jayden raised her hand. "Mercury is known one of the Roman gods, he is god of fighting, thieves, commerce and travelers, he is also known as a messenger of the gods as well." She answered, smiling confidently.

Corey put his hand up, having had zoned out for the past while, looking at the planet.

"Its all grey and rocky right? Lots of craters and lots of plains. A bit like the moon but its more dense and all that." He finally moved away from the telescope and after hearing a few answers about the myth stuff he raised his hand again and tacked that too.

"Well if we're talking about the planet in particular, there's a whole bunch right? Back in the day, they thought Mercury was actually two planets, Apollo and Hermes, and then someone finally figured out it was the same planet and because of the Hermes name, they decided on Mercury because the planet is kind of irregular in its orbit and unpredictable. And fast. Mercurial and fast. And Hermes was fast. Mercury being the Roman equivalent of Greek's Hermes. God-wise and stuff. I think other stuff got said already." So he wasn't going to repeat it all.

Thea jumped as Daichi suddenly hugged her. Wrapping her arms around him awkwardly she patted him on the back. 'It's fine. No bother.. really.' She smiled sheepishly. Rolling her eyes she placed her own notes in her text book.

Laughing as he blushed again, Thea turned back to her own telescope. She could only see cratery looking things.. 'Yeah, I see craters too sir.' She smiled as she raised her hand. Mythology? Aha. 'Mercury was a messanger, and a god of trade. He was the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology.' Lowering her hand, she smiled and wrote some more notes on her parchment.

"Well..." Victoria thought carefully for a moment. "Mercury's surface is very much like the moon's surface. There are many cratered terrains and smooth plains. The craters are formed when meteors or small comets crashed in to the planet." replied Victoria after flipping some pages in her Atronomy textbook. "It's supposably really hot because it's the closest to the sun?"

Victoria like the second question. She has a whole book of Greek and Roman mythology and its relationships to the planets. Heehee..."Well....the Greeks gave it two names, Apollo and Hermes when it come and crosses as a mornings and evening star. But in Roman mythology, they named it after Mercury, the god of travel and trade. They probably name it after him because it moves so quickly across the sky."

Orr raised her hand, "Mercury's surface is similar to the Moon's-- it has got lots of craters and some smooth surfaces."

She thought back to her grandfather's mythological stories and again raised her hand, "Wasn't Mercury one of the Roman Gods? He was a messenger who flew all over the place. I can't say how that connects to the planet Mercury though."

Penny was very tired now, but she did what was asked and looked at mercury again..."Professor, It has a lot of big craters, but it has some flat smooth surface as well - I think it was once known as 'Messenger God' he was known for his cleverness and intelligence".

Penny knew she was probably wrong, but it was worth it just to try..

Edvard smiled encouragingly at the little ravenclaw girl. "You are on the right track, Ms Greene. Mercury has a rocky and dry landscape with a lot of craters and mare-like plains just like our Moon." He paused to turn to his blackboard. Directing his wand toward and gave it a little flick and swish an image appeared of Mercury.


Pointing at the image he said "Here you can see what Mercury looks like, it is a stone planet and looks a lot like our Moon. However with the amount of crates and mare plains one might think there should be evidence of volcanism, but Mercury has been geologically inactive for several thousands of years. Our knowledge of Mercury is though limited so we can just guess why the crates aren’t active currently."

Hearing the slurry, tired voice of a little Slytherin girl Edvard started to feel guilty for keeping the students up so late. They needed to be in bed to be rested for tomorrows lessons. "Good answer Miss Riddle. Mercury is indeed full of craters of differentiating sizes."

"Ah, yes Mercury is the equivalent to the Greek God Hermes and according to one myth he did as creepy as it may sound escort newly deceased people to the underworld." Edvard nodded. Talking of dead people and the underworld wouldn’t cause the student’s to get nightmares, right?

The next to answer was a badger girl, Ms Hitchens "Good, good! Yes, in some ancient myths Mercury is depicted as a boy with wings on his heels, wings on his back and he carries a caduceus made of olive wood with serpents around it." Remembering his glass of water Edvard drank a few sips from it before turning his attention to the next student.

As Edvard gave the next badger the word he for a few seconds thought he was seeing double until the girl spoke. It was Ms Patching that had slipped in among the last student’s before he closed the door. "You are right; Mercury is heavily cratered and has smooth plains. In Roman mythology mercury is the god of trade and son of Jupiter." Professor Roslund with a smile pursing his lips.

"It is interesting that you mention that Ms Wilson. Mercury has a volcanic surface since it’s so heavily cratered and full of plains, but it hasn’t been geologically active for thousands of years."He wasn’t going to ask why since that was a subject for another lesson.
Alive; did the girl mean vegetation and so on? Probably, Edvard nodded "Mercury is heavily cratered and is the messenger to the gods and also the god of trade in Roman myths."

"Very good, Miss Blackthorne, I wondered when somebody would mention that Mercury has no atmosphere. Since Mercury has no atmosphere you wouldn’t be able to last longer than a few seconds on the surface even with astronaut gear which is why no man has set foot on the planet. It has though been visited by a spacecraft according to history from the muggle world." Professor Roslund said thoughtfully.

"I’m glad that you brought up the myth about Mercury and Apollo and why he now carries a rod to control cattle."He beamed and laughed hoping that the students saw the moral in the story.

Edvard nodded "Yes the exploding holes are called volcanoes or in this case craters since the volcanoes haven’t been active for a very long time." After a long outline the ravenlaw came to the point of why Mercury has been named Mercury. Grinning Professor Roslund responded "Yes, the Roman’s usually complicates things before they simplify things but its true Mercury is believed to be as swift-footed as their god."

"Good answer, Mercury is a rocky, cratered planet." Professor Roslund slightly disappointed that the girl in the heat of the moment couldn’t remember the name of the god Mercury was named after.

Then it was time for the little enthusiastic Slytherin boy to give his answers. Edvard couldn’t help but feel re-energized by just watching the boy look into his telescope. "It’s good of you to mention the Latin name for mercury and yes you are correct the landscape is full off craters and he was the god of merchants." Professor Roslund missed seeing the image on the parchment since he was focusing on the next student. He needed to speed things along or he would need to get the prefects to walk back their house mates to their common rooms via holding onto a rope or something. Some were showing signs off soon laying down their heads on their desks and taking a nap.

The lioness who spoke up after was the little slytherin’s friend who finally put a name to Mercury’s mother after getting hugged. Had his hug rule actually been used by the students but not in the way that he had planned for, hmm, something to think about later. "Thank you for sharing the name of Mercury’s mother with us according to the myths. It had slipped my mind. And yes he is a messenger god and also the god who oversees trade."

"You are correct Ms Greingoth and thanks for being the first today to mention that Mercury is not only the god of trade but also of travel and communication." With Mercury watching over them it was hard to understand why there was so much miss communication. Shrugging he took another sip of water. With all the talking his throat was getting dry.





"Miss Takahasi and Miss Bunbury equally good answers, you clearly have been paying attention to things when using your telescopes." It was nice to see that his spell had led to something good. "I also like that a new myth was brought up that actually shows how Mercury has acted like a messenger in important times." It was always good when something could strengthen or validate something else Professor Roslund mused to himself.







The three last students to give their answer all echoed each other so much that Eddie was a little creeped out. He didn’t show it though but instead said after a slight hiccup "You three are correct Mercury is known as the messenger god and has a Moon like surface."

"As the majority of you have asserted Mercury has a rocky, crater and mare plains landscape. It is very hot on the planet and it has no atmosphere which is why nothing lives there." He paused to gain his breath then continued.

"In Mythology Mercury is the son of Jupiter and Maia Majestas, he is a messanger god but also a god of trade, travel and communication. He is depicted differently depending on which myth source you go to meaning Greek or Roman but usually he has winged heels and is fast.”

Closing his lesson papers Professor Roslund said "You have to choices for homework. One you write a story or diary entry of your visit to one of the planets in the solar system with a space craft. You cannot choose Mercury. Or you can choose a planet and create your own original myth. The assignment is due one week from today."

"That’s it. Class dismissed! Go to bed everyone!" Edvard feigned a yawn and turned to erase the pictures from the blackboard and put the observatory back to its usual appearance.

occ: Class is dismissed. I will add the last replies in tomorrow..Totally energy zapped. Thank's for making my first lesson a success!

Blimey... Another... Homework.. Darn!

Raven packed all of her stuff and walked out from the class.. "Thank you for your lesson, Professor Roslund." said her. Then she walked to the dorm and... SLEEP!!!

Fiiiiiiinally. Louisa suppressed a HUGE yawn - yes, yawns were contagious. Louisa climbed down from her chair, giving Beezus a big smile and then went to put the telescope back into the cupboard where she got it. "Thanks, sir. Good...morning." Louisa blinked at her own words. It was morning technically so...
She marched out of the classroom, lazily and dragging her feet literally.

Orr yawned as Prof. Roslund dismissed the class. It was a great class and she liked the sound of the homework. She got up and packed up her stuff and said goodbye to the Professor as she left the tower and headed to bed. She was really glad that she had a late start tomorrow. She had no idea that they would be up so late but it was worth it.

Jesifur packed up her telescope and jotted down the homework. She gathered up all her things and put them in her bag, heaving it onto her shoulder. She waved at the Professor, "Thank you sir. It was a fun class." And with that she made her way out of the classroom in a normal fashion. It did not say in the class rules you had to leave in a "clam manner" too. She again laughed aloud at herself for adhering to the obvious typo in the rules, but again you never know if the typo was there on purpose to see if we were paying attention. Always best to play it safe.

Alyssa quickly jotted down in her journal what the homework assignment was going to be. "Another new and original myth about a planet?? Now that was going to be a tough one," Alyssa thought to herself. But she decided that she'd figure out which assignment she'd do later. Right now it was time for some shuteye or breakfast, which one she felt like first by the time she got downstairs. Grabbing her things, she walked over to the Professor,"Thank you Professor, for a very eye opening lesson. It was very interesting." Alyssa smiled at the Professor, stifling a yawn as she made her way back downstairs.

Jenny stifled a yawn. Sadly class was over, but she really needed a nice long rest. She packed up her telescope and other things after she wrote down the homework assignment on the parchment. "Thank you for the fun class, professor." She nodded. It was true; she had fun looking for Mercury the entire time. "Have a good night!" Jenny added hastily as she made her way to the stairs.

Now for the interesting homework assignment.

Daichi looked outside of the window and noticed that it was already morning. He wondered how long he could sleep before they had their first lesson of the day again. This was why he liked Astronomy. He could stay up late! But of course sleep would overwhelm him like any young kid and the thoughts of staying up late was cool until he started to yawn.

The second year stood up from his seat after having written down the homework and picked up his borrowed telescope and walked to the cabinet. Placing it inside, he turned to walk back and grabbed his black hello kitty school bag. Hoisting it over his shoulder, Daichi walked to the front of the class watched as the Professor was placing his own stuff away. "Thanks for the lesson, Professor Roslund! You're cool~" he smiled and bowed, his black hair that he wanted blonde fell in front of his eyes and he had to brush them away with his hand as he stood up. "Stupid hair..." he muttered as he tried to style it. "Need some help cleaning up, sir? I'm not really tired..." Okay he was but not that much. Questions were running through his mind way too much. "And Quidditch Practises start in a few hours so i know i can't sleep anyways, even if i wanted too" He laughed softly as he looked around the classroom, but if one was looking him in the eyes they could have noticed the twinkle in them when he mentioned the word Quidditch.