Christopher thought he remembered reading something about dwarf planets once, so he raised his hand and gave it a shot, "The difference between a regular planet and a dwarf planet is a dwarf planet hasn't cleared its orbit of other celestial debris." He hoped he was right...

Poor Pluto. Kurumi always had felt bad for that planet. It had been part of the the big kid's club of being a planet for so long and then it had been stripped of its title. Wasn't that like...if you had been sorted into one house, say Gryffindor, and were there all the way until your seventh year and at the opening feast the Headmaster called you up and told you that the sorting hat admitted to making a mistake and that you really belong in Hufflepuff?

Merlin, where had that thought come from? Clearly her brother's influence.

Shaking these thoughts from her mind, Kurumi listened as the lesson continued. Oooooooooooh, so THAT is what those three letters had stood for. Good to know. "I believe there are several differences between dwarf planets and planets, but scientists will never fully be satisfied with any definition," she began. After all, Pluto had suddenly been stripped of its title after so long. Poor thing. It deserved a hug or something. "A dwarf planet, like a planet, is a spherical body orbiting the sun. However, drawf planets are small and much be smaller than a certain diameter, somewhere around 3030 miles I believe, but also be heavy enough to resemble a planet. The size of a dwarf planet must also ensure that it doesn't have a distinct orbital path and that it doesn't orbit another object. If it did that, then it could be classified as a moon." She frowned a bit thinking about Pluto. Poor Pluto. "In Pluto's case, it's orbit has not been cleared of debris such as asteroids by Pluto itself, while the other planets have cleared their orbits. Pluto is also about two thirds the size of the earth...so...it was deemed a dwarf planet." And somewhat unjustly.

Raven raised her hand again and answer his question.

"According to IAU, A dwarf planet is an object in orbit around the Sun that is large enough (massive enough) to have its own gravity pull itself into a round (or nearly round) shape. Generally, a dwarf planet is smaller than Mercury. A dwarf planet may also orbit in a zone that has many other objects in it. For example, an orbit within the asteroid belt is in a zone with lots of other objects."

Minerva put her hand up and decided to just try. "Professor is a dawrf planet a plant that goes around the sun, I mean orbit around the sun, but it is to small to be considered a regular planet."

Tori raised her hand from the back of the room. "A dwarf planet has enough mass to be spherical but unlike real planets, it has not cleared its neighborhood. But otherwise it's mostly like a real planet, like with orbits and stuff, it's just... smaller."

Hehhee. Planets had neighborhoods. Heh.

Ryan was having fun with this,He wanted to earn as many poits as possible so he put his hand up and said''The Diffrence from a Dwarf Planet is that the Sizeis completly Diffrent and A Dwarf Palnet does not orbit any object other than the Sun.''

Well if Snow White and the Seven Dwarves had taught her anything in her childhood it was that dwarf was another name for a smaller person. So ergo, perhaps a dwarf planet was in turn a smaller planet. She really hated not knowing as much as the other students in this course. She could only really infer what she thought she knew. That alone was not very much. But she was here to learn, not come in like some first years and know everything, "Sir, from what I can gather from the name... is a dwarf planet just a smaller planet? It does not fit the quota to be a regular planet so they stick the prefix dwarf in front of it?"

Elise beamed. She hadn't expected three points! That'd help them best Slytherin for sure! Not that they weren't awesome, though!

A dwarf planet... Dwarf means small, right?

"A dwarf planet's small? Somewhere less than around 3000 miles all around," she said, hand hiiiiiiiiigh in the air. "And it's just like a planet, round... or almost round... It just hasn't cleared its neighborhood. Like Pluto has those plutoids nearby it, right?"

Lowering her hand, she jotted everything into her notebook and tried sketching the solar system.

Janice raised her hand and answered.
"Well, dwarf planets are planets that are too small to be considered a planet. And yet the orbit of Pluto interveres with Neptune's --although so far they have never been sighted to collide with each other-- so they decided to pull it off the list."

Jointing the notes down, Tiffany raised her hand,"Professor, a dwarf planet is a celestial body that is orbiting the Sun. However it does not make itself clear with its neighboring place. I guess it's because of the size that the planets are and which it is massive enough or big enough to be considered as a planet. By this we can judge whether it is a regular planet or not."

That was easy enough. Well, not entirely easy but a question surely many of them would be able to answer.

Beatrice raised her hand, "Professor, a dwarf planet in the simplest sense is also celestial body that has achieved only one or two of the requirements that is needed to be considered a planet." Surely they remembered the requirements, right? "So Pluto for example is considered a dwarf planet since its mass isn't sufficient enough to obtain hydrostatic equilibrium, but with its mass it could still take the shape of a sphere." And that was why it was still called a planet. Only that it doesn't meet ALL the things needed in order for a body to be considered as a planet.

*POP*

Tinka landed, feet first on the desk of the Astronomy professor. Sliding all over the papers he had piled on it, she squeaked loudly as her legs went from under her and she fell off onto the floor. "Owww," she whined, closing her eyes and rubbing her bumped head.

Opening them again, she looked up, all tearful. "Oh, oh, oh...TINKA SORRY, Mr professor Sir! Tinka didn't know you had class now. She..she...ohhhhhh." Tinka scrambled to her feet and pulled on the bandages she had wrapped around her ironed hands. Studentsies. Not good.

"Tinka was just going to - to clean, Mr sir," she stammered, leaning forward and eyes darting underneath the desk, looking for something. "Eeeeee. Sorry. Tinka very sorry for getting in the way!"

Kennedy was writing what he had said on his notebook. He never knew if this was going to be in the final. He was about to reached in his bag for his pencil sharpener when he heard a pop.

What was that?!

He sat up straight and his eyes landed on the small elf. It wasn't Nimma. It was another one. He flinched when she hit her head and had a strong urge to go up and help her, but he wasn't sure if Professor Roslund would allow that. Sure, he was a nice teacher and all, but he didn't want to risk house points. Since he was sitting at the front he slightly leaned over the his desk, but not too much attract attention. "Are you alright?" he whispered very low that his classmates wouldn't hear and his lips hardly moved.

Plus, it was just a question of concern. He couldn't possibly get in trouble for that, right. He was being nice.

Professor Roslund was just about to move the lesson along when he heard a loud *POP* from somewhere behind him. Turning around he made big eyes as he saw an elf standing on top of his desk. He was about to speak to the elf when she slid on all his papers and fell to the floor.

O__O

Rushing forwards Eddie called out in a worried tone "Are you all right, Tinka is it not?" It looked like the elf had bumped her head as she tumbled to the floor. Maybe he should have elf proofed his desk? Too late now though…

Stopping a bit of a distance from the elf Eddie tried to make sense of what she had just stammered out.

Clean???

She was there to clean, now? Scratching his head he replied "Tinka, that’s very sweet of you, but I’m in the middle of a lesson. Didn’t you clean here this morning?" He watched the elf’s eyes dart down underneath his desk as if looking for something. "Tinka I’m not mad at you, honestly just, erm, surprised." What else could you say when an elf showed up unexpectantly.

Turning to Kennedy whom was leaning over the top of his desk Prof Roslund asked "Kennedy, can you help Tinka find what she is looking for?"

Alyssa was surprised when the house elf suddenly appeared out of nowhere. 'Oh the poor thing. I wish that I could help her, but Kennedy has already been asked. Maybe if Tinka said what she was looking for, I could help look out from it from where I sit, while listening to the Professor at the same time. I know that I'm pretty good at multi-tasking.' But as Alyssa continued to sit, she felt more and more uncomfortable. So risking the Professor's wrath, Alyssa raised her hand,"Professor could I help Kennedy look too. That way we can find it faster."

Professor Roslund didn't get mad? Thats made Kennedy grin in relief and nodded. "Yeah, of course," he said. He stood up from his seat and walked over to Tinka...that was what Professor Roslund said, right?

He knelt beside her to be at even level with her and not seem too intimidating. "What were you looking for?" he asked, searching his surroundings but not knowing what he was lpoking for.

Victoria studied the text on the board. Hmm...that is new information to Victoria. Now turning back to the professor's question, Victoria raised her hand. "Well...a dwarf plant is too small to be a regular planet. It's unable to clear its orbit, which is opposite with a regular planet."

Ohhh, eyes were on her, and Tinka felt the tips of her ears twitch with nervousness. So many eyes. And then one of the studentsies spoke to her. Tinka nodded and pulled at her ears to stop them twitching. "Tinka fine, thank you young master."

Looking from the professor, down at the mess of papers, then back again, Tinka's eyes filled with tears. She made a mess in the nice clean room. "Yes, and Tinka is a bad elf, sir! Tinka scatter your papers, sir. She will punish herself when she gets back to the kitchen. She will, SHE WILL!" Biting her lip hard, she tugged some more at her bandages.

She had? But Tinka was sure she hadn't cleaned the room. She'd....Ohhhh. "I forgot I did sir," she squeaked, eyes scanning the room nervously. "But, but...Tinka so busy, Mr....so much to do! She forgets."

Bending down to look under one of the students desks, Tinka sighed and chewed some more on her lip.

Help? Studentsies help?

"Noooooo!"

Tinka flailed her arms around in the face of the child who had bent down next to her, and looked pleadingly up at the professor. "Tinka don't need help, Mr and missus studentsies...and professor, sir. No help. Tinka fine. Nothing wrong! Nothing lost!" Shaking her head furiously, her ears flapped about around her face. Her bottom lip quivered as she looked around - she really need to get back to the kitchen!

Violet had started from her musing about what else a dwarf planet might be, besides small, when she heard the elf apparate into the classroom. She watched the creature trying to cover up the fact that it was looking for something under the professor's desk (well, really, any Slytherin could tell you that elf was covering something up!) and watched Professor Roslund talking with it.

But she really sat up and took notice when the elf started to blather incoherently. No, this was not just an elf being sneaky--something was really wrong with that elf. Was it ill, or maybe it had been Confunded or memory charmed? Something was definitely not right.

Sky sat staring at the sudden appearance of the house elf in shock. Weren't they supposed to stay mostly hidden? When the elf fell, Sky started to offer her help, but held back when one of her classmates offered. Especially when she saw how upset the elf was getting.

The poor thing. She seems frightened.

He had been about to offer assistance when the elf--Tinka, apparently--had vehemently opposed help. Now why would an elf forget what she cleaned? That was most unusual. If Keefer didn't know any better... There's something else going on here. But what?

Kurumi could hardly contain her excitement as another house elf made it's appearance in class. Eye wide a sparkly, Kurumi found that her voice had been completely lost when Tinka appeared and all other sound was gone. Merlin did she miss her house elf friends, even more than she missed baking.

When the house elf said they were looking for something, Kurumi wanted to move a limb, say something...but NOTHING came out. She was, to put things simply, frozen in a state of happiness.

After a few minutes, and conversation moving in some direction that she was completely unaware of, Kurumi jumped out of her seat and walked over to the elf, throwing her arms around its little body. "TINKA!" she chirped. She had heard the elf mention something about forgetting...which only made her theory sound even more true...but didn't let that distract her for now.

Um...she should probably go back to her seat...

Minerva jumped a foot and fell a little off her seat when the elf came in. She was still not use to these magical elves that just pop in and out. Only a year ago she didn't even think elves were real. She sat listening to the chaos in the front of the room.

Catching a slight motion near the professor's desk, Sierra turned her gaze up to the front just in time to hear the elf's squeaky and annoying voice sound throughout the room. Ewww. Who the elves in?! Weren't they supposed to be locked away in the kitchens or something?

Sierra was glad the professor called on Kennedy to help. No way was she going to help the filthy creature. Her lips curled into a look that indicated she might be a little disgusted, but she otherwise stayed still and quiet. She shifted her position, a little uncomfortably, and diverted her gaze somewhere else.

Then again, maybe she should show a slight interest in the elf. After all, she'd been trying to convince her father to employ one at their cottage for years, and this one seemed to love cleaning...

Once the elf poped in Angelina's eyes open up wide and she jump back a little in her desk chair. She watched the elf fall of Professors desk onto the floor. She always liked elves. She had one at home, but she tried to treat them like friends.
"Awww. She is so cute." Angelina said kinda whispered so she wouldn't desterb much.