Latest Site Notices

sweetpinkpixie · 09-13-2014, 06:18 AM

FINALLY entering the Astronomy classroom after the 'House Elves at work. Please do not disturb' sign had been removed, you see nothing out of the ordinary other than an especially clean classroom. The desks are arranged in their usual semi circle to help created a more personal and inviting environment. The late afternoon sunlight shines through the windows to give the room an almost heavenly glow.

In the front of the classroom is the professor's desk sitting before a massive chalk board that appears to be empty for the time being. Professor Flamsteed is currently leaning against his desk with his bum while finishing up a comic book he had started while waiting outside the classroom for the elves to finish their work.

Did you remember to use the lint roller on the small table outside of the classroom? It was there next to the sign that reads, "Not to be used as a brush for your hair" and has the signature of a former student in the bottom right corner.

So come on in and have a seat. Class will begin shortly despite the hour delay due to a conflict in house elf cleaning schedules.

⌦Lesson Progression
▸ question 1 :: what does astronomy mean to you and why do we study it? Don't forget your nifty name tag!
▸ question 2 :: can you identify any of these "famous" science fiction figures?
▸ question 3 :: imagine you are an evil mastermind, how would you go about destroying the Earth?
▸ activity 1 :: practice making a planet using the colored bags of "sand" provided
▸ activity 1 :: UPDATE. Optional spellwork and last call to practice
▸ activity 2 :: LET'S DESTROY THE SOLAR SYSTEM!
classroom diagram for the activity

▸ activity 2 :: STANDINGS UPDATE! 1. Hufflepuff 2. Slytherin 3. Ravenclaw 4. Gryffindor
▸ activity 2 :: RULE MODIFICATION. Please read. STANDINGS UPDATE! 1. Gryffindor 2. Ravenclaw 3. Slytherin 4. Hufflepuff
▸ activity 2 :: LAST CALL FOR PARTICIPATION! 1. Slytherin 2. Ravenclaw 3. Gryffindor & Hufflepuff
▸ no more green planets
▸ CLASS DISMISSED! Congratulations Ravenclaw!

OOC: Sorry for the serious delay in starting time, but let's just be glad and thankful for the hard working SnitchSeeker.com techies for fixing the slight server hiccup <3

Please be sure you are familiar with Professor Flamsteed's rules BEFORE you post in this lesson. We will know if you haven't read them! All SnitchSeeker site rules apply.

~~Class will officially begin in approximately 20 hours from the time of this post.~~

This lesson has officially started! Please do not announce your character arriving late and just pretend like they have been in class all along. You are free to jump in any time and should use the lesson progression links to keep up.

ArianaBlack · 09-19-2014, 08:52 PM

The Gryffindor ran back to the sand bags because he was all out of ammunition!! Maybe he should just make a couple at a time so that he could get them all at once. Except that'd make it harder to throw... So maybe not. His aim was hardly working out anyways. So right. Just one for now, but maybe he could bump it up to two the next go.

Zander grabbed a nice red sand bag and repeated the jabbing step again. "Fingere Elementi!!" AND TADAAA! A new planet. Planet Zander. MHM. But no he wasn't naming it or anything, okay? It was just merely a pet name. That's it though. Walking towards the battle field he scanned around for the next target. Closing one eye, he concentrated on one planet in particular. Ay! It was a green one.

ANnnnnnnnnnnnnnddd "Locomotor Planet!!!" Fliiiiinnnnnnnnnnnngggg. And then a bunch of green dust went everywhere and happy times.

Holmesian Feline · 09-19-2014, 09:04 PM

Second orb made, Benny was ready to aim for a yellow planet this time. The trick was finding an asteroid that could work and trying his luck. The fourth year shifted in his location a little, wary of his fellow classmates, as he scouted out a point and started his plan. Finally he stopped in place and raised his wand once more to his floating companion.

"Locomotor planet!" he cast, getting the feel for it again before taking aim at the closest asteroid to his right. Watching it move as he guided, Ben was nearly holding his breath in his hope it worked this time. First the hit into the asteroid...then the reaction where it moved off course....then the movement of the asteroid towards the planet. The yellow planet!!

A second or two later he was greeted with a burst of yellow as the Hufflepuff planet exploded. WOOT score another one for them!

MudInMyBlood · 09-19-2014, 09:08 PM

Okay, if everybody could back up off the red planets it would be greatly appreciated. She could only take out so many planets at a time, and it seemed like everybody was coming for them. Including her dear boyfriend. That's right, we saw you take out another red planet even if you we aiming for another color. It still counted.

If Hufflepuff wasn't in last place she would send her planet flying towards a yellow planet, but seeing as how they weren't even a threat right now, she set her sights on another blue one.

First things first. The lion needed another planet. She drug another bag of red sand over to her and didn't waste anytime getting to the spell work. "Fingere Elementi!" Jab. Instant planet. If you needed someone to make some planets, AJ was your girl. She was a planet making pro.

Here asteroid, asteroid, asteroid. Ask and you shall receive. "Locomotor Planet." Annnnd her planet was off. Asteroid was successfully pinged and BOOM, there was one less blue planet.

AlwaysSnapesGirl · 09-19-2014, 09:50 PM

David had his planet ready and was eyeing the others flying around when Flamsteed announced the new standings. Gryffindor being in the lead was awesome, but also not good because now of course everyone would be trying to knock them out. Mehhh.

But he had total faith that they'd be fine because Gryffindors were awesome. Yes. Definitely.

And speaking of which, HE should hurry and knock out another so he could create another etc etc so they could win! Yeah!

So he went back to eyeing the other planets zooming around, trying to decide on a color to attack next. Maybe blue. He spotted a good one almost instantly.

"Locomotor planet!" He sent his planet flying towards an asteroid - but apparently he didn't calculate and aim as well as before because it hit the grey asteroid differently than he expected. It was sent flyyyying...

...right into a green planet.

Well. That was okay then. Let's just pretend he was actually aiming for that one. Mhm.

Sararara · 09-19-2014, 10:02 PM

Norah pointed her wand at the latest bag she had collected. This one could be called Gryffindor Destroyer, because those Lions were going DOWN, mhmm. She performed the incantation and watched as yet another yellow planet came into being. Pausing for a moment, she wondered whether she would ever need to use this spell again, but that wasn't as important as ruling this solar system, so she pushed the question from her mind. She jabbed her wand at the sphere with a shout of "Locomotor Planet!" and sent it flying towards an asteroid which travelled towards a red planet. She had almost let out a cheer when she noticed it had just missed the red planet and was instead about to make contact with a blue one. Norah shrugged as it exploded into blue sparkles. Eh, Ravenclaw was a worthy enemy too.

SlytherinSistah · 09-19-2014, 10:24 PM

Airey Flamsteed wanted him to kill Plenty O'Toole.

Okay. (:

Cutty suited up and took his place in the circular arrangement. Always circular. Basically, they were being asked to apply laws of trajectory and use geometry to take out the asteroids. Is this what muggles even did? Cutty did find the comment about being prepared for the asteroids mentioned early a bit off. Know he knew that this was actually a job description, what they were doing. He thought the practice might come in handy if he ever had to erase himself from existence and assume a muggle lifestyle.

You know, get away from it all til the heat is off.

"Locomotor Planet!" And Plenty was off and Cutty was goading her greenish body on. "Kill, Plenty, Kill!" Which on it's own was strange though made more sinister by the addition of his planet's given name. She sprinted off quickly ricocheted off of someone else's magic-made planet and spun into the fray taking out a yellow body before she sunk.

She was a good planet whilst she lasted. Kamikaze. She did what needed to be done.

Kaos.Doodles · 09-19-2014, 10:27 PM

Alright, so the last time hadn't gone so well, but he could try again!

Grabbing another bag of sand thing, Kyroh pointed his wand at it. "Fingere Elementi!" This time as the bag levitated and shifted into a planet it became much less lumpy, way more workable. It was perfect. So CLEARLY that meant he HAD to hit something this time, right?

Spotting the same RED planet as last time Kyroh squinted. There! Right beside it the perfect asteroid! "Locomotor planet!" This time as he flicked his wand he aimed it a bit lower. The planet went FLYING and HIT the target! Kyroh jumped up excited but as his planet went spiraling it missed the red planet by a few centimetres and continued zooming off to hit some unsuspecting student.

At least he had ALMOST got it!

SlytherinSistah · 09-19-2014, 10:35 PM

This time he was going to try using the asteroid bodies. And hey, whilst he was at it why not be a jerk and target a house. He'd need another Plenty, however. So Cutty reached his hand for more of the ground up material and produced another planet. JAB and "Fingere Elementi!". The ingredients shone and grew lighter in his palm until they were the small green body he was aiming to create. So remarkably like Plenty. Her twin sister.

Let us hope that she could fulfill the task.

sweetpinkpixie · 09-19-2014, 11:07 PM

Holy flying Hufflepuffs!

He would give Mr. Tempus...5.0 for that landing. It left much to be desired.

Seeing that he could count the remaining planets on all of his digits - toes included, although he needed to pretend he could see those because of his spiffy shoes and socks covering them - Airey had no need to check his sundial watch. Time was almost up!

"60 seconds! Green is in the lead, followed by blue, and yellow and red are tied for third!"

He didn't mention that there was essentially a one planet differentiation between first and second and then second and third. SO IT WAS A CLOSE RACE!

TakemetotheBurrow · 09-19-2014, 11:16 PM

60 seconds?! WELL.

Maddie rushed towards the sand bags and fumbled with the one closest her, hurrying to place it down on an empty desk. Then she concentrated as best she could, almost hearing the clock ticking down the seconds in her mind. Tick-Tick-"Fingere Elementi!" If only the blob would form faster. The brunette watched it impatiently, tapping her foot. TICK-TICK-TICK

"Locomotor planet!" She moved as quickly as she dared, in search of a green planet in a good position. She spotted one across the room and darted here and there around the students nearby. All the while she tried to keep her blue ball steady. Then she spotted it, an asteroid that would do. Or she hoped it would. The brunette moved her blue blob into its direct path and flicked hard, watching with wide eyes.

And it hit. It made contact with the asteroid and the asteroid headed for the green planet. Only it wasn't going fast enough! The time was ticking, hello. Didn't the asteroid KNOW!? Only eventually it DID hit and when it did, the green planet was gone.

...Had she made it in time?

hermionesclone · 09-19-2014, 11:17 PM

Grayson was starting to get tired. He didn't care if it was simply aiming and casting spells. There was the exercise element to it too, as well as the concentration levels required and dude needed a good ham and cheese sandwich after this. Or some sleep. Either one would do.

Trying not to let it get to him, the boy headed back to grab another green bag. Gotta continue doing this. He had a house to make proud and all. And he kinda didn't want to be one of the first to back out. "Fingere Elementi!" JAB! He wasn't surprised to see the green planet appear in the palm of his hand. Even smirked at it in greeting. THAT was more like it.

MORE smirks were given when Flammy-o mentioned something about Slytherin being in the lead. FREAKING YES. He shot a look over towards who he hoped was Ethan and gave HIM a smirk too. SEE? Teamwork. It worked out well and if they could only hold this off until the very end, all would be good.

Fuelled with a bit more confidence -- or a bit TOO much confidence, however you look at it -- Grayson aimed towards one of the blue planets flying around. "Locomotor planet!" FLICK It HAD to go towards that planet. Had to smash it and make MORE blue glitter--

................................. It wasn't meant to do THAT.

LOL. Lulz. Someone or something else was gonna get hit by a rogue green planet, if they weren't careful. Oh MAN. That would be fun to see.

Sararara · 09-19-2014, 11:21 PM

LAST STILL? A little whirl of fury, Norah raced over and grabbed a yellow bag of sand and whispered the incantation to turn it into a planet. TEN SECONDS EEEEP. She jabbed her wand at it, with a cry of "Locomotor Planet!" and sent it flying towards an asteroid. The asteroid streaked across the solar system, and Norah cheered as it smashed into a green planet. Hooray for green sparkles!

Holmesian Feline · 09-19-2014, 11:23 PM

His latest success was bittersweet as the professor spoke up once more, not only giving them the latest standings but the draining time on the activity. Ugg...Gryffindor was still doing bad, even if Hufflepuff had been brought down to the bottom of the houses with them. Guess it helped when badgers and lions were going after each other. Yet Slytherin and Ravenclaw both had the better lead. And they only had a short time to go forward anymore.

Thankful he had already had another red bag of space stuff by him, Benny focused himself on the spell at hand. At least he would try to get another shot off. "Fingere Elementi!" he cast, jabbing his wand tip in the direction of his last bag. Another planetary orb was soon floating by his hand no longer held by gravity.

AlwaysSnapesGirl · 09-19-2014, 11:26 PM

Aaand standing were announced again...

Nooooooooooo that was NOT GOOD.

Maybe hitting green ones was what he needed to continue doing then. Yep. So time to make another planet REALLY FAST.

David grabbed another bag of red sand and while hurrying back to another spot along the perimeter, he jabbed his wand at it and cast, "Fingere Elementi!"

As the plastic melted and the sand began forming, he skidded to a stop and watched it, willing it to hurry up and form into a planet so he could blow up another one. Hurryyyyy.

Finally, it was pretty much in sphere-form, so his attention changed to searching for another planet. Hmmmmmm...THAT ONE. That green one right there!

Didn't seem like much time to properly aim, so he just went with it and hoped for the best. "Locomotor planet!" It went flying, smashing against an asteroid which was sent zoooooming right past the green one and into a yellow one instead.

Well......okay? Fine. Don't listen him, planets. It was fine.

hermionesclone · 09-19-2014, 11:30 PM

The time restraint? Whitty took no notice of it, really. He wasn't gonna start rushing around. He was gonna let other people do that and then watch the chaos that would ensue. That would be one of the few things that would distract the fifth year from blowing up a planet. Uh huh.

Super villain mode was ON, by the way.

For what felt like the billionth time that day -- swear to Merlin, how many times had he done this so far? -- Grayson grabbed a green sand bag and held it up. "Fingere Elementi!" JAB! This spell had been going MUCH better for him than the Locomotor one. Or maybe it was because once the planets were created, they simply decided to have a mind of their own and not listen to him. Or his aim was simply poor.

Nah, the planets just didn't like to hit their intended targets. Reminded him of freaking teenagers. Or bratty kids who liked to act like teenagers when they had hardly gotten out of primary school. Jeez.

The time wasn't ripe for grumbling, he reminded himself as he weaved his way through the crowd and over towards another empty space. He had been told to keep this random and that was exactly what he was gonna do. Deciding that the Puffers had had it easy thus far, Grayson aimed his wand for one of the brightly coloured yellow planets zooming around. "Locomotor planet!" he called, flicking his wand.

It zoomed..........

............. and zoomed..........

........... and the planet zoomed too.........

.................. WELL then.

It was like watching a slow motion action shot of a movie. Tense and then full of groaning as the green planet juuuuuuust missed the yellow one and collided head on with the blue one. They really liked those blue ones now, didn't they?

Kolyander · 09-19-2014, 11:33 PM

"Fingere Elementi!" Hady called out jabbing her wand at a green bag of sand. With a quick swirling motion the sand formed into a small circlish shape. It didn't look as good as the others but hey she was in a rush to get one more chance in before the time was up.

They only had 60 seconds left! That wasn't long at all.

Spotting a blue planet she grinned. "Locomotor Planet!" Hady muttered sharply bringing down her wand with a firm flick of the wrist. Her green planet dashed through the open space hitting the blue one head on sending glitter everywhere.

Yes!

Cassirin · 09-19-2014, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lockhartian

Nothing that a simple summoning charm couldn't take care of. So, a single flick of the wand and one 'Accio!' later, she had the girl's wand in her hand. "Try to get a firm grip on it, yeah?" Because losing your wand was rather embarrassing. A nod later, she was handing the wand over to the rightful master.

Meaning, the girl.

Oh, thank Circe! Dot grabbed up the wand that the girl was offering, hugging it tight against herself. This girl here... was a hero. A Hufflepuff hero, and the first one that Dot had met. Hufflepuffs, that is to say... not Hufflepuff heroes.

"Thank you," she breathed with a glimmer of a smile before she scooted off to grab another bag of green sand. They were near to the end of the game, and Dot was feeling a flare of competitive spirit. She wouldn't dare to take out a yellow one, in honor of her hero, or a blue one because of her bestest and her other friends, so red. She was going for red.

Um um um... what was... "Fingere Elementi," Dot had the wand casting pretty much perfected at this point, or at least she wasn't poking holes in the bag. Her planet was a little bit wobbly still, but it was also mostly round. Good job, planet. You look almost planety.

She watched for a red planet to come close enough to hit, and out of the corner of her eye she spotted Maddie execute a really impressive strike. GOOD JOB, FRI... waiiiiiit a minute. That was a green planet. Maddie was trying to knock out Dot's team? Wibbling was happening.

Fine. Fine then. "Locomotor planet," Dot flung her planet extra super hard at the asteroid nearest to her to send it straight into a blue planet flying by. VICTORY DANCE.

DaniDiNardo · 09-19-2014, 11:47 PM

Again it came to creating a planet in order for her to take aim. There weren't many sacks left on the table and the Professor was yelling something about 60 seconds...WHAAAAT?? Was that all they had left?? She felt like that wasn't nearly enough time to make herself feel good about these explosions. Sweet Merlin she had to hurry!!!!

Once again she accio-ed a sack, this one was blue again but not on purpose, she was just trying to get this one out quick enough. "Fingere Elementi!" Come on come on come on. It was like this thing was forming at it's own pace just to get on her last nerves. Yeah, she knew the type and nearly tossed it with the thought to just get another but soon enough it was done and soon enough she was back in action, taking a shot.

...just....had to get...a little more...this way.....and....

"Locomotor Planet!" Aiming for Puffers was always thought to be bad karma but these were desperate times you know and...and maybe that stuff wasn't anymore real than Divination anyway.

Oddly enough though, after her planet hit the asteroid it didn't hit the yellow like she'd hoped but green. Well, um...sure...why not?

Holmesian Feline · 09-19-2014, 11:57 PM

With his billiard cue orb successfully created once more, all Benny to do was aim and hope. No real chance to move about and be picky about targets. As long as it wasn't red, the lion was alright with the victory. If in the end it was another hit. "Locomotor planet!" he cast for the latest and final time, for this lesson at least. He couldn't work that quickly.

Taking a deep breath and pausing just a second to find a suitable target, Ben finally sent it after an asteroid for a direct hit. Yes for step one. It moved in response to his happiness but instead of the blue he was going for since it was closer it went instead for green causing it to explode in a shock of debris. To each its own...it worked either way.

Hopefully enough in the end.

Felixir · 09-20-2014, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mordred

On his way back to the table of packed coloured sand, Ethan caught sight of Toby hitting the floor and…well, losing his planet. Erm…whoops? Ethan calculated that it was his green planet that had hit the older boy. His last shot was a miss, and looking back at Ethan’s position, Toby was standing directly across him.

Getting another green packet of sand, “Fingere Elementi!” a jab, and a nice looking planet was in his hand. “Everything all right, Tobias?”

Toby heard Ethan call out to him, and was quick to give the younger boy a double thumbs up, indicating that yep, everything was okay and well and good and YEP.

"I'm cool." So cool. Cool as a cucumber. Refrigerated.

Man, this was cool. When participating in the activity, it was easy to get caught up in what you were doing and not really see the big picture. Now Toby had a view of the entire thing, and he watched in wonder as planet upon planet exploded into colourful glitter and confetti. The classroom floor was going to be a mess after this; didn't Airey know that glitter was more stubborn than a Gryffindor that had been double-dared?

Actually... yeah, he probably DID know that. Wow. What a sacrifice this was. Kudos, Starman. He would get more salutes later.

As the planets dwindled, Toby watched with mounting excitement. Man, this was a close game. SO CLOSE. And... so pretty. Wooooooooow.

lemon · 09-20-2014, 12:02 AM

He would have been lost in this activity if not for Lottie's instructions before the activity started, and Dima was ever grateful for those. Shooting her a thankful smile, the kid's eyes fell to his floating orb. He..... he had to move this... to hit another planet... with THAT spell. A new spell. Two new spells in one day.

Not hard at all, right?

"Locomotor planet!" A bit frenetically, Dima flung his creation somewhere in the room randomly... and lo and behold, there went a green one. Score!

DaniDiNardo · 09-20-2014, 12:14 AM

Despite not missing, the Gryffindor was starting to reconsider her own aim. She'd gotten the first and would have gotten the second if someone hadn't bumped into her but what about now? Just now she missed and she didn't even know HOW because...well...they were almost all gone now so it should have been easier to hit the target...shouldn't it? It was a bit perplexing to say the least and she couldn't shake the thought even as she got herself another sack and got it twisting and shifting and spinning its way into a planet. A red one! Wow, how did she miss that? Must not have been paying attention when she accio-ed. It was this lack of focus that would cause her to keep missing she was sure.

Alright, this next one, she'd get. No missing. No hitting another colour. None of that stuff that disproved her aim--and right when Professor Airey was watching too! He'd never trust her to cast in the Common Room if this continued....though she could probably get away with the excuse 'I didn't mean to hex the kid, I was aiming at the wall'...just saying.

"Locomotor Planet!" This time aimed to ricochet into the BLUE planet. Blue. Okay planet? Okay asteroid? BLUE. Merlin you think you'd have to draw a map for these things--

Unbelievable. The Gryffindor literally facepalmed as her asteroid crashed with a BOOM into the green planet floating by inches from the blue. SERIOUSLY????

lemon · 09-20-2014, 12:16 AM

He wasn't the best at Accio-ing, so Dima traversed through the maze of flying planets to retrieve another blue bag. It didn't take too long, and he managed to avoid getting hit by anything while crossing over to the materials and returning to his seat. As soon as his bag of 'sand' was on the table, the second year got to work again.

"Fingere Elementi!" JAB. Did that work?

It seemed like it had, and not to be unhelpful, 😑Dima sent his orb zooming again.

Uhh... what was the spell again? "Locomotor planet!" Another green down. Man, he was GOOD at this.

sweetpinkpixie · 09-20-2014, 12:24 AM

KABOOM!

Once the green glitter and confetti had settled on the floor with the rest, the astronomy uncovered his eyes (because the explosion had shot the stuff directly AT him) and took a gander at the area.

"ALL GREEN PLANETS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED!"

Carry on!

DaniDiNardo · 09-20-2014, 12:29 AM

If it wasn't for the fact that at least she was still hitting stuff, she might have become cross at this activity. Cross enough to take her seat again and wait for the last of the planets to be destroyed so they could end. How much longer did they have anyway? The Professor had said 60 seconds but now she was beginning to think that he wasn't referring to time left in the activity. He couldn't...that second explosion had taken some time.

Once again she got herself a sack. By now she'd stopped paying attention to the colour, it was simply a matter of what was left and at the moment she didn't even care. What mattered more was the floating planets remaining. The numbers were shrinking little by little she'd noticed.

"Fingere Elementi!" It was only after the planet had blown up into size that Lex took note of the fact this one was green. Oh. She hadn't had one of these in a while. If luck existed, maybe this was it--or maybe she needed a yellow one. Something to think about for next time.

Off in the distance she saw a yellow planet fluttering about on it's own. No others to accidentally bounce into. This looked all kinds of promising and the Gryffindor took aim. "Locomotor Planet!" ZooOooOoom! The planet was off, hitting into the gray asteroid which in turn...actually...hit the yellow....YES! Merlin, yes! Finally! It was about time!

WOOT!

Latest Site Notices

Latest Harry Potter News

Latest FanFics

Latest Forum Posts

Latest Games

Hogwarts RPG

Wizarding World RPG

Members