Remy didn't know exactly what it was that had drawn her to the Professor's office.

Ok, that might have been incorrect. She had a few questions about Astronomy as a general thing. Partially because it seemed like something her sister at done at high school. Muggle high school. Also, she still didn't really understand why it was relevant for witches and wizards.

It was pretty cool though, she did like stars.

Nodding to herself, which finalised her decision to actually speak to the professor, she skipped towards the doors.

Knock, knock.

She paused for a moment, thinking about it. Was two enough? Did she even knock loudly enough?

Knock.

Shaking her hand in pain from the last knock she glared at her hand. Maybe she shouldn't have knocked that hard, but there was no telling whether or not the softer knocks had been heard. She still didn't have a definitive answer, but her hand was sore so she didn't care anymore.

Now she'd just wait. She was carrying a book so she could always read if it took a while...

Kalen was in his office grading some papers from the weeks previous class, he was impressed with how much everyone seemed to learn. Though some of them had gotten Dark and Emission Nebulae mixed up, for the most part they were good!

He had just finished marking one and was moving on to another one, when he thought he heard a knock. His dark head raised a bit, was someone actually here to visit him?

Kalen had thought he had the plague with how few people wanted to talk to him, but ehh. He wasn’t here to make friends he supposed or be liked. He was here to teach and keep kids safe, no matter what.

He tuned back to his papers when he heard a much louder knock and he smiled a bit.

“The door is open! Please come in.” He called out as he pushed some papers away. Wondering who could be out there wanting to talk to him.

The professor's voice was muffled behind the doors, but Remy caught it nonetheless. Doors at Hogwarts were confusing, in the sense that many of them seemed ridiculously heavy but weren't.

After a few times of slamming the door open and tripping through, Remy had definitely learnt her lesson and carefully opened that door. Faceplanting and slamming doors were not good looks. On anyone.

She smiled as she poked her head in first. "Hey Professor Kennedy, how are you?" she greeted politely, before entering. The office wasn't exactly what she had expected, she thought to herself as she sat on one of the leather chairs, but it was awesome.

It was like a mini library. And those cats? They were adorable! Should she mention them?

That wasn't why she had come to visit him, though.

"Your classes are really interesting," she commented first. "But I had a couple of questions about what we're studying."

Kalen was curious as to who was coming in to his office, but he had a gentle smile on his face as a small head entered his office and spoke. “Hello Miss Beaumont.” He said kindly as the rest of her appeared and settled down in one of the leather chairs across from him.

He pushed his ever present cup of tea aside and focused his attention on her.

“What can I help you with?” He asked as he folded his hands and leaned back in his chair a bit, grinning slightly as Aslan took the movement he made a s sign that he was done with his work and jumped up into his lap. He gently stoked the flame point Siamese cats back, allowing him for the moment to be in his lap.

As long as the cat didn’t get on the desk he was fine. He didn’t feel like explaining again to the students why there was cat hair on their homework. It wasn’t his fault that Aslans favorite napping spot happened to be in the papers he was correcting.

“Of course, please ask away and I’ll try and help you to understand, we’ve been covering Nebulas, did you have any questions about that?” He asked her.

It had been months since Kalen Kennedy had been Skylar's new Astronomy professor and with not even two months until the end of term, the fifth year found herself anxious on what his prospects held for him next September. The chances were good she'd have a new Astronomy professor and yet, she liked Kennedy as a librarian and didn't want to see him go. She also felt the need to explain her reasoning for lack of calling him professor, when it seemed all her other peers had adapted to use of that term.

Perhaps getting this one mission off her chest would make it easier and clearer to focus on her owl studies that had been growing increasingly difficult. She'd semi-failed with the Vivian mission, as Vivian had gotten her own ... well, she didn't know exactly what it was Vivian had, as the best friend apparently refused to use labels, but she didn't want to fail this mission too. Because then she might as well repeat fifth year and honestly? That was the LAST thing the fifteen year old wanted.

Knocking on the door, once she finally reached his office - why had he decided to move his office from the library anyway? The library was MUCH more convenient with how often she was there this year and year's past.

Kalen was sipping his tea and casually reading through an essay that a student had turned in. So far he hasn’t seen anything wrong with it, which left a hand free to hold his teacup. Really, everything was better with tea. Even grading wasn’t as stressful when he had a cup of it.

He was just setting his cup down when he heard a knock and the door and he said “Come in!” Without even looking up. His eyes still on the essay he was reading.

The cat that jumped onto the Professor momentarily distracted the first year. She hadn't even seen the cat before it had moved, but clearly it was Professor Kennedy's cat. It looked quite content there. And super cute.

If it were anywhere else she would have refocussed to get it's attention and lure it in for cuddles.

But, alas, she was in fact in a Professor's office and trying to figure out more about a subject that she was going to study for the next few years.

"No," she'd immediately answered, before realising that she actually did have a few questions about the Nebulas, but it was mainly focussed on Astronomy itself. It took a moment before she finally admitted that, "Well yes, but that wasn't my main question."

"I was just wondering what was the purpose for witches and wizards studying astronomy?" she finally blurted out her main question, before her eyes widened with the realisation that maybe, just maybe that came across as a bit insulting to him and the subject he taught. She had to backtrack quickly to fix this.

"Like, don't get me wrong. It's a super interesting class and I'm really enjoying that I know a bit about it but I'm still learning things. I'm liking that it isn't foreign but it's not just everyday life like muggle studies... It's just it does seem less relevant to witches and wizards than the other subjects that we study." at the end of her rambling she was pretty sure that she had just dug herself a deeper hole. But she really was trying to understand and was curious.

And it still didn't make sense to the Muggleborn.

Entering at his words, Skylar's gaze immediately fell to two things - one, the sizable collection of personal books lining his shelf and two, the large picture of the library. But it was only for the briefest of moments before her gaze shifted to the librarian behind the desk, who was ... focused on reading?

Biting her lip hesitantly, she realized this was one reason why she more often than not, did not visit professors or staff members in their offices. She hated to be a bother, unless it was super urgent. And yet, this was also one of those reasons that she found to be important, given the fact that there was the possibility of a sixth Astronomy Professor next September.

"Hi... I ... can come back, if you'd rather?" The fifth year finally spoke up.

Kalen raised an eyebrow as Miss Beaumont started to speak and then kept on rambling a bit about why they had to study Astronomy.. Yeah, he had questioned this a few times and well, and if he was honest he still didn’t fully have all the answers, but perhaps what he did have would help her out?

“Well.” He began as he pushed Aslan off his lap and picked up his teacup, his fingers played idly with the delicate china mug as he pondered the young first years question.

“If I’m honest I don’t have all the answers to that, I do have some of them though. For instance, some plants, like Fluxweed need to be picked on a full moon to be used in potions, of course moon phases aren’t all Astronomy is about, but.. it’s a start yeah?” He said with a soft smile. “It might not seem the most relevant, but perhaps when you want to make a potion, and you need to know how it will flourish underneath a various star.. it might come in handy.”

He said with a nod, as he set his tea cup down.
Kalen raised an eyebrow and finally looked up from the essay he was reading as he heard a voice. “Of course not Miss Diggory, please come in and have a seat.” He said with a soft smile. “I was just trying to finish this essay, it started out good, but they lost the point at the end.. such a pity.”

The beginning had real promise too.

Ahh well.

“So What can I help you with?” He asked her as he moved the essays to the side and looked at her. As long as she didnt ask him why Astronomy was relevant, he would be okay.

Relevance in potions?

That was something to make a mental note of. Potions was something that was interesting, and from Remy's understanding, also relevant to a lot of different Wizarding professions. Maybe she needed to do a bit more reading on the subject of Astronomy to get more of an understanding of it.

"Do the telescopes we use have enchantments on them, or are they just like muggle ones?" she asked, wondering if they stayed up to date on technology or used magic to do that. After all, magic and technology usually didn't co-exist very well from what she had been told. It was why she was currently still mourning her kindle. And there were so many books that she still wanted to read this year.

Then she blushed slightly as she remembered to get to the main, class-related reason why she was here. "And... um... I was still having trouble with the spell that we learnt in class. The one for conjuring stars? I just... they last a bit longer now but they still just fizzle out... or explode."

Remy contemplated demonstrating the spell for the professor, but... she was going to leave that to him whether he wanted to see that. Again.

She had been practicing though?

Oh, okay? So she wasn't bothering him? A quick glance around the office and the fifth year found herself taken a few steps forward and taking the seat across from him. Sitting on the edge though, because it would hopefully be a quick meeting. She had studies to get back to and he had ... essays, apparently. "As long as it wasn't mine." Skylar quipped with a small smirk playing at her lips. Although she was fairly sure it wasn't; she'd spent a fair amount of time on that last essay.

Right. Back to the topic of why she was here.

"Um, well, honestly? It's about my lack of calling you by your new title," Skylar said hesitantly, figuring she might as well come right out to say it. "It's not because I don't respect you as a Professor, but see, I'm a fifth year." Duh, he knew that. "Anyway, five years, five different astronomy professors, so I was just thinking, maybe somehow the position is cursed and while I don't think I want to pursue anything related to Astronomy after Hogwarts, I do enjoy the subject, but I hate how broken up the curriculum has been with having five different teaching methods. And really, it's just, I was kind of hoping that maybe if I didn't acknowledge your title, it could break the curse?" Okay, that was a tad lengthier ramble than she anticipated. Oops?

Kalen was almost expecting more questions, but he didn’t then, which quite frankly relieved him, he wasn’t sure how keen he was on explaining how relevant his job was. Especially when he didn’t fully know himself.. eh-hem He leaned back in his chair a bit as Miss Beaumont asked another question, ahh one he knew the answer too.

“We actually have a few of both, if you would believe that. Some do indeed have enchantments to make them very powerful, and then we have muggle ones, in case what we are studying is easy to spot with normal one.” He explained to her, it was also helpful for comparisons and things like that.

His green eyes were curious as she blushed and he waited patiently for her to explain what it was about. Though a small smile crossed his face as she explained her issue. “Ahh yes, Stellaris, it is a bit of a tricker spell, but they aren’t supposed to explode, can you show me what you have been doing? Maybe I can give you some pointers?” He asked her as he motioned for her to demonstrate the spell for him. Perhaps there was something in the wand movement or the pronunciation...



Kalen shook his head with a small smile at her remark, “It was not yours, I find your essays always make their point very well.” He said with a nod as he leaned back in his chair a bit and took a sip of his tea. He was rather curious as to why she was here, but it turned out he didn’t have that long to wait.

He had noticed that she didn’t call him professor, but then again he had given the kids the option at the beginning of the term to call him Professor or Mr Kennedy. He was also pretty sure that Miss Cambridge called him Mr as well. “It really is all right Miss Diggory, each student seems to have their own preference of what to call me.” He said as she continued and his eyebrows raised just a bit as she spoke..

She thought the position was cursed hmm? Well he supposed he could see it. Five different professors in five years would give someone that idea. Merlin he certainly hoped it wasn’t cursed, he very much liked to be alive.

“Well Miss Diggory, I thank you for trying to break this so called curse, and maybe you have, for I have no intentions of leaving this position anytime soon. I am coming back next term.”

He liked it here at Hogwarts, it was home, and even though there were memories of Serena around every corner, they were happy ones. Ones that allowed him to move on with his life.

Oh good; she knew it wasn't her essay, but hearing him say so just made her feel that much better.

Also, he would say that and somehow she just hoped his words were true, because she wasn't naive enough to think that anything could happen in the next three or four months, which could make him change his mind. Either voluntary or involuntary. He could receive an offer that couldn't be refused. Really, anything was possible. But she just wanted him to know, she cared and maybe it was due to his love of books, she didn't know why, really.

"Good," she smiled gratefully. "I'll do my best to call you Professor next term then.. Well, assuming I can continue with Astronomy at NEWT level. I mean, I'm not sure I'd want to take remedial." The latter was more a concern if she didn't pass; also she wasn't exactly sure why she'd be taking Astronomy, because the subject wasn't relevant to ANY of career possibilities.

Speaking of exams - only she hadn't spoke of them, only thought about them - "Anyway, I should probably head out and get some more studying in before Gobbledegook. I just wanted to stop by to say, I'm rooting for you to stay on." But really she'd have rooted for the last four professors too, she just hadn't realized it was necessary to say apparently. "And thank you."