Elle sat in her seat, a little dumbfounded. She was never good with Astronomy, that's her sister's forte. Rather than raising her hand, Elle sat & listened intently to everyone's answers. She looked around sheepishly, feeling rather brainless.

Raven raised her hand and answered

"A planet is an object in orbit around the Sun that is large enough (massive enough) to have its self-gravity pull itself into a round or near-spherical shape." she answered it clearly and confidently.

After living in the world of Muggles for 10 years, she still remember what her textbook says. She raised her hand and answered.

"A planet is an object that doesn't produce light and circles around an orbit."

Well that's the simplified version.

Wow. These people sure knew a lot about muggle stuff, being able to answer a question with an answer coined by muggles themselves. Oh well..that was a good thing.

After letting a few other students share their answers, Beezus raised her hand, "A planet is a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun. It also has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium or having an almost round shape and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit Professor." She asserted. Being a half blood witch certainly have its advantages. And reading books once in a while was another addition.

Leaning forward on his chair, Daichi placed his elbows on the desk and his chin in his hands. Still eyeing the purple cloth. BECAUSE HE WANTED TO KNOW WHAT IT WAS...... and held his hand in the air when the first question came up.

"A planet is a ...something that has a difficult name... body that is something about a orbit around the sun." He said while still looking at the cloth. What? he was curious! Until he moved his eyes away from the cloth and looked at the Professor.

"I don't know more..." he sighed , his answer hadn't even been that good either but whatever. Atleast he triiied!~

Ryan let everyone say there answers before he put his hand up to say what he thought a planet is.He said''A Planet is a Celestial Body that must orbit the Sun and can have Human Life on it Or not.''That was his answer,It might not have been the best but it was from his point of view.

Elise eyed Professor Roslund excitedly as he walked over to the purple cloth thingy. Come on! Open it! I get the suspense!

And he opened it. And Elise just stared for a moment. A solar system model! Squee!

The definition of a planet? Her mom had explained it to her when she was little. Tapping the side of her head, she tried to recall the vague memory....

Got it.

"The muggle IAU clearly stated in 2006 that to be classified as a planet, it must firstly be a non-satellite celestial body," she said with her hand raised, quoting her Astronomer mother word for word. "It must also be gravitationally dominant around its own orbit, also known as 'clearing the neighborhood'. A planet must also orbit around a star, or a sun, and have sufficient mass to maintain a hydro-static equilibrium."

Out of breath, she lowered her hand, inhaling deeply. The memory was one of her now-dead mother, and Elise tried hard to fight the tears that threatened to wash over her.

Professor Roslund beamed at Indiana "Yes that is correct. One requirement is that the planet has to orbit the sun. 1 point to Ravenclaw!" she was the last one in and the first to answer.

"Very good Alyssa, 3 points to Hufflepuff." Edvard said as he turned to the badger. Someone clearly knew their astronomy by heart.

"Spot on Gideon, 3 points to Gryffindor!" Edvard said with a beam to the lion boy. It seemed that planets were something which interested many of his students.

"Very good Kennedy, 1 point to Slytherin! Pluto was indeed downgrades to a dwarf planet because it shares and orbit eith another dwarf planet." Edvard replied with a smile.

"Very good Harvey, 2 points to Ravenclaw!" Edvard said with a little wink in the first year's direction.

Blink? "Good Salima, 3 points to Hufflepuff! I will go into the requirements of a planet when everyone has had a chance to answer." Edvard said firing of a smile in the little girl’s direction.


"Very good William, 3 points to Gryffindor!" Edvard said with a smile to the young lion.

Turning to another lion, this time a girl Edvard nodded "Yes, good Selina, 1 point to Gryffindor."

"Excellent Sky, 3 points to Slytherin!" Edvard said with a beam to the little snake.

"Excellent Kourtney, 3 points to Gryffindor!" Edvard said with a beam to the young lion.

"Good Zhenya, 1 point to Slytherin!" Edvard said with a smile. She named the planets correctly too but he hadn't asked for them.

"Excellent Kurumi, 3 points to Gryffindor!" Edvard said with a beam to the young prefect.

"Indeed it does Minvera, 1 point to Hufflepuff! A planet does orbit the sun." Edvard explained to the little badger.

"Good Anthony, 1 point to Hufflepuff! A planet orbits the sun." Edvard said reassuringly to the little badger. Why were they so uncertain when they were right?

"Excellent Keefer, 3 points to Hufflepuff!" Edvard said to the little badger. This seemed to be a class where student's of all houses were raking full points on the questions.

"Very good Angelina, 2 points to Slytherin!" Edvard said with a smile in the young girl's direction.

"Very good Raven, 2 points to Slytherin!" Edvard said with a smile in the young girl's direction.

"Good Janice, 1 point to Hufflepuff." Edvard said encouragingly to the little badger.

"Excellent Beatrice, 3 points to Ravenclaw!" Edvard said to the little badger.

"Good Daichi, 1 point to Slytherin! It's good that you tried." Edvard nodded at the boy encourangingly. If you don't try then you can't gain anything.

"Good Ryan, 1 point to Gryffindor!" Edvard responded to the little lion boy.

"Excellent Elise, 3 points to Ravenclaw!" Edvard responded.

********************

Taking out his wand he directed it towards the blackboard.

As the text started to appear Edvard turned to address the class "First of IAU stands for the International Astronomical Union. They definied a planet quite a few years ago now. The requirements for a celestial body to be called a planet is that it orbits around the sun, has sufficient mass to be able to assume a nearly round shape and has a clearned its orbit of other celestial objects."

"Looking back at the first lesson of the year, many of you mentioned that Pluto has now been classified as a dwarf planet. What is the difference between a dwarf planet and regular planet?"

'Really?' Salima replied 'Something I do know. Not much but it is significant.

"A planet must confirm to these three rules:

1) It must revolve around the Sun. (Removes all moons)^
2) It must have enough mass to form the object into a spherical shape (Removes most asteroids and other debris)
3) It must have cleared it's orbit (Removes all the rest, including Pluto)." Is that ok Professor?' she finished off.

Harvey beamed he had won his house two points!! He was determined to win more. He put up his hand to answer the next question "Sir a dwarf planet

1. is a celestial body orbiting the Sun that is massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity
2. its neighboring region is not clear of other celestial bodies

Whereas as we said before a regular planet must have no other celestial bodies in its orbit, such as Venus and Earth. But Pluto is now a dwarf planet."

He hoped he was right

Having just sat in silence taking notes, Mina slowly raised her hand.

"The only real difference between the two is the area area the celestial bodies. Planets have cleared the area around their orbits, when as dwarf plants have not."

Turning back to her notes, she continued to jot down things.

Writing the things down that was written on the blackboard in his own note book, Daichi looked up when the professor mentioned the celestial body. Oh so that is what's called! He smiledbroadly when he had gotten a point for his try. YAY~
Placing his quill down the second year thought of an answer.

His eyes stared at nothing and his eyebrows furrowed. Deep in thought, Daichi re-grabbed his quill and bit on it. Letting out a "Blegh! sound for it wasn't the candy kind of quill , he suddenlyraised his hand. " Professor? Is it because only dwarfs live on a dwarf planet and the other planets don't have th-" he stopped talking and frowned... " Does that mean that earth is a dwarf planet?!" because he had heard about dwarfs before from his older brother! They could be found even in diagon alley!

Sky jotted down the requirements for a planet, smiling. She was glad this class seemed to be easy for her. Not that the class was actually easy… anyway. "The difference between a regular planet and a dwarf planet is a regular planet doesn't share it's orbit with anything else while a dwarf planet shares it's orbit with at least one other object," Sky answered.

Alyssa was surprised that she had been awarded 3 points for her answer. So when the Professor asked his next question, knowing the answer, Alyssa raised her hand. "Professor the main difference between a dwarf planet and a normal one, is that a dwarf planet has not cleared the area around its orbit. Regular planets clear smaller objects out of their orbits by sucking the small bodies into themselves or flinging them out of orbit. Dwarf planets, with their weaker gravities, are unable to clear out their orbits. And that is another difference too. Their size. Dwarf planets tend to be smaller than regular planets. Other than those two differences, they orbit around the sun and have enough mass to form the same roundish shape, just like regular planets do.".

Maybelle raised her hand slowly. "Professor, doesn't a regular planet have at least one moon as well?" She asked, not entirely sure, but she remembered learning something like that back at Sands. Hearing the question, Maybelle's hand shot upwards again. "The difference could be any amount of things, Sir. Such as the orbit is off from the sun, or it's size is not big enough." She only listed two, so she didn't seem like she was showing off. but, Maybelle also hoped that she was right on at least one of them.

Happy that he got a point he put his hand up again.''Sir, a dwarf Planet is a planet is a celestial Body that is to small to be counted as a proper planet but it still orbits the sun.''As again it was his answer.

Violet tentatively raised her hand. A dwarf planet? "Er, because it's smaller?" she ventured, wishing she knew more about Muggle science terms.

Awesome! We really need the points.

Keefer hadn't been expecting much for his answer, since so many other students were supplying information. But he was particularly glad that so many Hufflepuffs were gaining points.

Wow. First lesson of the year. That was a long time ago. I hardly remember that... he thought in despair. But logical thinking may save the day once again!

He placed both hands in the air, as usual. "Well, Pluto meets the first two requirements in that it orbits the sun (albeit slowly) and it is nearly spherical." So that just left... "It's that third requirement, I think, that finally did in poor Pluto. Its orbit crosses Neptune's in that there are times when Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune, but they will never collide, so don't worry!" Not that the Professor was actually going to worry. "So basically, the main difference between dwarf planets and regular planets is that the dwarves' orbits don't need to 'clear the neighborhood,' as others were saying. Am I correct in guessing that Pluto's much smaller mass and thus weaker gravitational pull doesn't allow it to clear the neighborhood around it? If so, then dwarf planets are likely to be much smaller than the normal planets. Hence the name dwarf."

William raised his hand. " Here is the planet definition" William told the professor. "A planet must be rocky, gasseous and a spherical, celetial body" William said to the profeesor. " the real planet also orbists the sun, but does not emit light and it needs sufficient mass as well as it's own gravity" William explained to the professor." The real planet has a round shape" William smiled.
" The dwarf planet is a spherical body orbiting the sun" he told the professor. It is smaller than 3031 miles in diamwter" he said to the professor. It is heavy enought to resmeble a planet, but has no distinct orbital path and it does not orbit the moon" he explained to the professor.

Well, at least this question was an easy one. Nearly right after the question was asked, Sierra raised her hand into the air. "There are two things you have to look at--orbit and size," she said, lowering her hand. "A planet has the power to remove everything in its orbit by either sucking it in or tossing it out. A dwarf planet isn't strong enough to clear its orbit." Then there was the whole size issue. How small was a dwarf planet again? "...and a dwarf planet isn't bigger than about 3000 miles all the way around."

Kourtney jotted down a few notes as the professor addressed each student who had answered, simply offering up a smile as she gained three points for her house. Awesome!

She listened to a few of the others answer, and then lifted her head again, raising her hand. "Excuse me, professor? I just wanted to say something in regard to...her answer." She gave a smile towards the Hufflepuff. "Dwarf planets can have moons, correct? I thought Pluto had a large moon revolving around it?"

Look! Notes!

Ellie copied down the board onto her parchment. It was an odd feeling, honestly. Taking notes. Actually using her parchment the way it was intended, rather than doodling or blacking out the page, or something else that the fifth year was guilty of doing over her years at school. She seldom actually took notes. Hmmm.

Moving on. Dwarf planet versus normal planet? "Well, Dwarf planets are smaller." Yes? Made sense to her...

Oh, Zhenya had to think back. What was the differences?

She raised her hand, "Sir, a dwarf planet is defined as a planet which is a large and spherical celestial body which orbits the sun and has its own gravity, but the difference between that and a regular planet is that the dwarf planet has not cleared a neighbouring region of planetesimals, which isn't a satellite. But a regular planet is large enough to have cleared the neighbourhood of their orbit," she explained.

"Professor I heard that dwarfs are just not concitered 'big' enough to be under the catagory of a plante." Angelina said. She doesn't know much about dwarfs at all, she just heard it somewhere, other than her classmates.

Kennedy grinned back at the professor for awarding his house a point for answer. He thought over the next question and then raised his hand. "The difference between a dwarf planet and a regular planet is that dwarf planets have weaker gravities and are unable to clear their orbit, while regular planets have strong gravities that get the job done," he said.