Astronomy Lesson 1

Benedek placed a large board on the ground before summoning the rest of his materials. He had his wand, a few quills and parchment. Dressed in cozy clothes; jeans, a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket, he began to form thirteen constellations around him. With a flick of his wand, small sparkling dots appeared to form the constellations he was picturing in his mind until he was standing in the middle of a lit up half dome that covered a good space, enough for all of his students. He then waited for the youngsters to arrive.

Aoife was way too tired for this, but she turned up anyway. Staying up late was great, but she'd hardly got any sleep the night before so was exhausted. Still, she had been reading a lot of things about Astronomy so hopefully she'd be able to answer some questions and win some points for her house.

When she reached the Quidditch Pitch where the lesson was to take place, Aoife shivered, wrapping her coat tightly around herself and wishing she'd brought her scarf. It was freezing cold. Despite this, she smiled as she took in her surroundings. Everything looked beautiful, the lit up dome and the stars covering the sky.

"Hello, Professor!"

Practically flying to the Quidditch Pitch, Ryland grinned as he noticed, from where he was, how beautiful the sight in front of him was. He quickly recognized Professor Kozak, and the other Gryffindor girl he didn't like much, but they were surrounded by a starry dome which made everything look whimsical. He approached them and greeted his professor with a simple smile, before murmuring a small "Hi" to the girl and waited for someone he knew, and liked, to arrive.

Lillian never was a fan of the cold, and that had never changed. The girl had nearly forgotten about her first Astronomy lesson until she had flopped down on her cozy bed -- to which she gave an inaudible gasp and flung herself off the mattress as if it were on fire. Then she peered out the window, changed back into outdoor attire, grabbed her things, and rushed out of the Common Room and to the Quidditch Pitch.

She was out of breath when she arrived and was relieved to see that she was actually quite early. "Hi, Professor," Lillian began happily, before noticing the rather beautiful sight of the stars above. "Wow," the Gryffindor breathed, turquoise eyes now locked on the dome. The sight was enough to settle the halfblood down and keep her mind away from the freezing weather.

Assuming that he would spend a lot of time outside in the chilly autumn evening, Evan put on a warm cloak and a woolen scarf. He left the the castle and headed to the Quidditch Pitch, looking at Hogwarts surroundings.

When Evan came to the Pitch, he saw several figures there: professor and three students, probably Ryland and two first or second year girls. However, after Evan made several steps towards them, he recognized one. "Aoife! My sheep time lord friend! Hey hey hey!", he exclaimed immediately, but seconds later he realized how silly it probably sounded. For other people, not for Aoife. "Well, I mean, hi," Evan told her, when he came closer. "Hello Ryland, hello Professor." Then he turned to the girl he didn't know and asked her, "Um, not sure if we've met before, what's your name?"

Sighing in relief, Ryland smiled at the girl he'd briefly met with Lucy during dinner. However, his mood was soon altered as Evan joined the class. Why couldn't he simply drop out of it? Hearing his weird introduction to the Gryffindor girl, Aoife he now knew, Ryland laughed loudly. He hadn't intended it to be loud and audible, he thought it was in his mind until he turned to look at Evan and Aoife. He should have felt terrible, but he simply smiled at both of them as Evan greeted him.

"Hi!" she chirped in reply. Aoife didn't really like [s]Bill[/s] him because of his dramatic-ness, particularly with Aylee, but she wasn't just going to be really rude to the older boy. She didn't say anything else though, not really friendly enough with him to have any conversation to make with him at all and hopefully she didn't seem mean, although she could sense he didn't like her.

Her small smile turned into a huge beam when her heartless dinosaur joined the party too. Not that he was any smaller than Aoife since she seemed to be the smallest out of all the people she'd met so far at Hogwarts. "Hi Evan! Thanks for rembering." Rembering her formal title, that was. Sheep and time lord. Maybe she should change it to the first ever time lord to be a sheep or something, mix things up a bit.

Wade stepped out of the Slytherin Common Room wearing a jacket, some jeans, and a green tee underneath. He suspected it would be cold, but he found that it was bearable. He made his way to the Quidditch Pitch, thinking it an odd place to have an Astronomy lesson at, but said nothing as he walked. He greeted Professor Kozak with a nod, having formally met the man during the summer, and stood next to Ryland. "Are we going to have every class together or what?" He joked.

Auden walked onto the pitch and saw tons of people. She clutched her jacket towards her body for warmth. Auden noticed that Wade and Ryland were there.

Ryland let out one of his recent loud laughs at Wade's comment. "You can handle it Wade. I'm sure you can." He patted his cousin's back, who despite being older, was still a couple inches shorter than Ryland. "Have you seen her?" He asked, hoping he'd figure out he was asking about Lucy. However, he quickly turned his attention to Auden as she appeared and gave her a greeting smile.

Elita walked down to the Quidditch Pitch, her green jumper clutched tightly to her body to hold in her own body heat. To anyone else, it may have felt good outside, but with her being so small and athletic built, it left her a little chilly. As she entered the pitch under all the stars, she looked around at everyone and the professor and just tucked her head down, hoping no one noticed her.

Lucy ran down the corridors and hallways to meet her Astronomy class. Between Divination and Astronomy, she liked the latter best because it made much more sense. She wore her Slytherin sweater under her leather jacket since Ryland had informed her it would be cold outside if they stayed too long. Excited, she reached the Quidditch Pitch, and having seen Wade next to Ryland, her eyes began to cloud. She ran up to them and took Ryland's arm, the way she did with James, and ignored Wade completely. She wasn't going to let him ruin her evening, much less her classes.

Instead, she greeted her brother with a hug and turned to face the rest of the students. They seemed younger than her, and she recognized the Ravenclaw boy from her past lesson in Astronomy. She gave him a smile and stayed by her brother's side. "I thought you were going to ditch." She finally said, glaring at Wade, unable to be in the same place without talking to him. "Did you father get tired of you and send you back to school?" As she spoke, she held tightly on to Ryland, afraid of crying in front of this many people and afraid of letting Wade know how badly he had hurt her.

Grace hadn't realized how late it was until someone had mentioned the time. She jerked her head up and realized it was nearly 8 o'clock. "I'm going to be late!" she thought, taking the stairs two at a time up to the dorm. She pulled her favorite sweater out of her trunk, tossing it on and grabbing her jacket as she sprinted back downstairs and out of the common room. She really didn't want to be late to her first Astronomy class.

Thankfully, she reached the pitch right at 8 o'clock. As she slowed her pace, she noticed that the professor was surrounded by what she thought were constellations. It was an amazing sight. Grace stood towards the back of the group, and looked at the other students who had beaten her there. None looked familiar, so she decided to just hang back this time.

Wade frowned at Lucy, resisting the urge to yell at her, "It's clearly none of your business." He was tired of his cousin's attitude towards him, and he wanted to ignore her, and he did. Wade planned on ignoring the girl for the rest of the class, hoping he wouldn't be forced to pair up with anyone.

Morgana left the dungeons, wearing a long frock to shelter her from the cold. She had placed a charm on it to keep out the wind as well, just to make sure she didn't get cold. She then left the castle and made her way down to the quidditch pitch. She could see a lot of dark shapes there long before she reached it and sped up, hoping not to be too late for the lesson. She wasn't, however, and she was pleased with that. She looked around herself, and took a spot a bit off from the others; she really didn't feel like socializing with anyone. Other than Lucy and maybe Ryland. But they were standing next to Wade, and Morgana was no way in hell going anywhere near that guy.

So, she stood all by her lonesome, enjoying the solitude, looking at the stars, and waiting for the class to begin.

Hugging her sister back, Ryland glanced at Wade. I hope you realize what you let go... His green eyes turned back to Lucy as she ended the hug. Soon enough, the awkwardness between Lucy and Wade was killing him. His sister glared and insulted his cousin, and Ryland was in between them. Literally.

"Can we not...?" Ryland began but flinched as Lucy held on to him a little too tightly. "Why don't we just...move on." Suddenly, he turned around to make sure he could have somewhere to run if things with Lucy got out of hand. She was a great witch; he had been hexed many times by her during their weekly summer practices. Quickly spotting Morgana, he turned to Lucy. "Hey, look. It's Morgana. I think you should go talk to her." He was trying to make things better, not taking sides, but the words came out wrong. "I mean, you guys are friends, so I'd rather see you happy than arguing with Wade." he corrected, waiting to see if there was any hostile reaction from any of them.

Once the students gathered around, Benedek began the lesson. He wanted it to start simple, with the request of the first student who registered for this class. Looking around, he asked, "Does anyone here know what atrology is? And how it connects to our subject, Astronomy?"

Relieved to have this family feud happening in front of him, Ryland quickly spoke up. "Isn't Astrology basically the zodiac? You know, Aries, Taurus and the likes. And I believe it relates to Astronomy because it has to do with planets aligning to give certain sign a predictions, and the stars help out too." He'd never been one for horoscopes and astrology, but he wasn't going to complain if it kept Wade and Lucy quiet.

Lucy shot a glance at her brother, since when did he become an expert in Astronomy? She glanced at the many stars around her, finally realizing that he was right. She recognized the Aquarius constellation, and the Aries one...but everything else was new and exciting.

Auden listened to Ryland's explanation of astrology. She didn't particularly follow it but her mother did. Auden recognized all of the signs because her mother always talked about them. Her whole immediate family were Aries so there were a lot of head butting in her house.