Sniff sniff.

It was so freakin' cold. Next time, Kat was bringing a thermos full of coffee or tea with her. Moving over to the Maize Maze, where she nearly got lost with Ariana in the beginning of the term. So now, they meet again... and hopefully she wouldn't get lost in this one because this was a long term project. 50 house points and all.

So... setting up of the telescope done. Blanket wrapped around, yep. Okay, time to look for a planet or a constellation or something interesting because Katrina Marie Hudson was about to fall asleep. Peeking through the eyepiece - maybe it was because she was lucky tonight - she immediately saw Antares.

.................... No, don't cry of joy, Katrina. No.

BUT YES THAT MEANT SHE WAS A STEP CLOSER TO FINISHING THIS TIRING THING.

And here came Alice again, levitating her telescope back to the maze. This, along with the lake, seemed like a place people were flocking with telescopes, so the sixth year was counting on the fact that it might have been a good place to spot more than one celestial body on the list from.

She'd set up her telescope at the very entrance... because, really, who wanted to sit in a dark path of corn and try to run your way out at this time of night? Of course, Alice knew of a couple of tricks to get herself out if she ever got stuck, but she wasn't taking any chances.

Another planet tonight. Maybe she should have headed to lake for this one, too? But nope, Pluto was right there.

Kat was definitely seeing things. Like... was that a gigantic sun in the night sky? Heck, no. The sun only shows in the morning. Maybe this was an effect of being the most tired person in the world ever? So tired. Kat hugged herself before peeking through the eyepiece of her telescope.

Because all of this was effort and Merlin, why does Professor Flamsteed like effort? Kat didn't even like it. Effort was one of the reasons why she was SO excited to graduate... yet she didn't want to. Pro and cons, please.

Okay, the telescope was set. Kat gave all her effort just to do that. Squinting through the eyepiece, she looked around... for something. Something in the list. No, not you, random star.

But oh. OKAAAAY. Pluto was there. Yeah, Kat checked that off her list of stars, planets, and constellations to look for. She was done. So done. Well, almost done... but still.

Pluto, then. That was sorted. Alice mentally ticked that off her list, trying to recall some of the other celestial bodies she hadn't found yet. Cepheus, right? Husband of Cassiopeia and father of Andromeda? It was handy to know the legends and myths associated with the constellations, on account of it meant that she knew all the neighboring ones too. Then Cepheus would be that much easier to find.

Scanning the sky and taking periodic peeks through her telescope as if it made all the difference, it was only a matter of time before Alice spotted Cassiopeia, and along with it... Cepheus! There. Pack up time now?

The corn was starting to make her hungry.

So before Kat went to look for another planet or star or constellation, she took a moment to lie down on the grass ignore the corn just to watch the sky without the telescope. Because it was tiring and she was almost done with all of this so yeah. Just a few more heavenly bodies to locate.

Then she stood up and set her telescope up to get this over with. Also her blanket around her, just because it was cold. GLARES FOR YOU, WIND. Stop blowing, okay? Peeking through the eyepiece, Kat squinted a little bit more to see clearer.

... Hmm. Is that you, Cepheus? First, she was unsure but after checking her star chart, that was it. YES.

Kat checked the constellation off her list.

It was a shame it was dark out, because Mo would really liked to have gotten completely lost in the amazing Maize Maze. A-maize-ing? Hmm. He'd suggest it to the Groundskeeper. But regardless, he did not have time, and it was way too dark for that at the moment. If he wandered too far past the entrance, he would get lost and have to live there forever.

Which sounded a little awesome. The wild man of the Maize Maze.

At the moment, though, Mo was looking for a star. Antares, to be exact, which was something like the 16th brightest star in the skies and part of Scorpius. Which Mo did NOT have to find. He gazed upward in search of that constellation, which took longer than he would have liked since it wasn't one he was very familiar with.

Finally, Mo found it simply by looking for a bright red star that was NOT Mars. 'Rival of Mars', right? Once found, Mo pressed the telescope to his eye and studied the star closely... it was already pretty bright and the telescope didn't add much to this particular view.

The weird thing about this maze place was how easy it was to get lost in here. And there was the small fact that it made the boy think that there was some sort of creature that was waiting around the corner, ready to attack him.

Thank you, OWLs.

But Alec was still here. Why? Because he needed to think about certain things. And what better way to do this than walking around in a maze? That was what he had thought as a way of convincing himself when he headed out of the common room minutes ago. Summer was practically here which meant that it was relatively cool outside. Awesome.

A couple of steps into the maze and... Alec was immediately regretting his decision of coming here. How many times had he gotten lost in this place? Too many. FAR too many. He quickened his pace, turning left, then right, and then another right, but not really knowing if he was close to the exit or not. Maybe he should have come here with someone else instead. Or, maybe, come prepared with something other than his wand and a BLT sandwich. There was no way a BLT sandwich would help him now.

... Time to panic?

There was a shuffling sound in the maze behind him, like maybe someone else was foolish to be out at night. Or maybe there was a bear. He really hoped there was a bear, because... well... he'd like to meet a bear, and where else would one run across a bear, other than in an a-maize-ing maize maze?

Other than the woods or a zoo, obviously. And sometimes they wandered into cities and pushed around dumpsters, which he thought was pretty boss too.

Gosh, bear, stop being so distracting. "Unless you're a grizzly or a polar, I don't have time for you. Black, brown, or koala, you better just keep on shuffling." Because Mo had to find Pluto and get the heck out of here. There was cocoa to drink and sleep to be had and still other thingies in the sky to find and sigh.

"I lied. If you're black, brown, or koala, I still have time for you. Strictly speaking, if you're koala, you aren't really a bear. No offense." Mo stretched back again in search of Pluto, since he had laid the bear issue to rest. Maybe he was trying to distract himself from looking for Pluto since he felt SO bad for it. Like one day you think you're a planet with all the other cool planets, and the next some scientists decide you're just a... dwarf planet. There were MOONS called dwarf planets.

Only losers were dwarf planets.

"Sorry, Pluto," Mo whispered when he finally managed to spot the dwarf planet using his telescope. Did the other planets still invite him over for their birthday parties, or was he too uncool for that now? It was so SAD.

The best thing to do when you're lost? Eat. Alec was midway through taking a bite out of his sandwich -- BLT, you know -- when... someone spoke.

... BLINK. WHAT?!

Brows furrowed, the boy looked around him to see who this voice belonged to but... because of the darkness, he couldn't really see much. Frown. Confused Summers was confused. And he was even more confused at the way this voice -- a familiar voice, at that -- seemed to be calling him... black, brown or koala? ... Weren't they all bears? Apart from the koala, as this voice so cleverly told him. ... Also, what was so wrong with those types? He had questions about this.

Alec was stumped. Really. He didn't LOOK like a bear and he certainly didn't sound like one either. Last time he checked, bears didn't speak English. As for the sandwich... he paused. Would bears eat a sandwich? Were they big fans of the bacon-lettuce-tomato combination? Was that what was giving him away? Or the way he was walking? Was his walk... bear-like? ... He needed to ask Tag. The boy would be more than okay with checking out his walk. He hoped.

No. He needed to reply. ... So... he started making lame bear noises. Naturally.

Cepheus was really the last part of this story. Andromeda's father, and placed in the sky near Cassiopeia. Both of them were circumpolar and never set, although Andromeda, Perseus, and Pegasus all set... that seemed kind of unfair. It wasn't his story, really, but he got to hang out in the sky all the time.

Mo found Cepheus quite easily and was in the process of checking his star map when he heard it. The bear. Grizzly or polar, it HAD to be his bear. He finished marking his map and checked on Cepheus ONE more time before creeping over to the corn wall and putting his ear against it.

"Growl? Growl growl roar snuffle?" That was bear language, right? "Hey, bear... you smell like bacon."

If he thought he couldn't get any more confused, Alec was wrong. Very wrong. This was more like... confusion overload.

Growl? Roar? Snuffle? Were all of those bear noises? Was this person... trying to communicate with him? In bear language? It seemed like it, unless his hunches were wrong. Frantic, the boy used his spare hand to ruffle his hair. Why should he do? How should he respond to the person who seemed to be so... invested in this bear theory. ... "Roaaaar!" ... That wasn't believable. Erm... right! He should... shuffle some more! That's it! Shuffle shuffle roar roar!

Bacon? Alec looked down at his sandwich and GRINNED. This was a compliment and here was the logic: bacon was AWESOME, in every sense of the word. And if Alec smelt like bacon, then that meant that he smelt GREAT. Yeah, he could accept that. "Tha-" Bear, Summers, bear! "ROAR!" Roar... roar... bang on chest roar...

... And... there went his sandwich too. Over the corn!wall. Sigh.

Cepheus was her last one. It was near Cassiopeia right? Nerida skipped along down to the Maze it seemed there was a always one over there so why not check to see if this one was there. After setting up her telescope, she would Cepheus easily. She double checked with her star map or course but after double checking she found out that it was indeed Cepheus.

Sarah fuond Draco and Ursa Minor very quickly She was so used to seeing them that it came naturally to her. But.. she was going to use them as a point of reference to find Cepheus. He was said to be the father of the constellation she had found a while ago.. not that she was one to believe in Greek Mythology. It was all junk to her.

There it was.. the king on his throne. She had found Cepheus! She ticked that off her list now