Astronomy ~ Lesson Two ~ All Years

Colin watched all the children come in and talk amongst himself. It was interesting to see the way they interact with each other.

Though he could see that some of them might have been on the verge of causing problems if he did not start the lesson soon.

"Alright Class," she clapped, "I think we are all here. Lets get started. As you can see here I have takent he liberty of combining all the classes together. I feel as if you can all learn just as well together."

"Now, lets start. If someone says Astronomy, what is the first thing that pops into your head?"

"I'm going to be so late, so late." Rachel said to herself as she ran up the steps to the Astronomy Tower. "Not good, not good."

She opened the door quietly as she noticed that the class had already started, she took a seat in the back of the class and took out her parchment and quill.

"Now, lets start. If someone says Astronomy, what is the first thing that pops into your head?" asked the Professor.

Rachel leaned back in her chair, what was the first thing that popped into her head? Stars, Planets, Moons, Mythology... Her mind began to race as she bit on the end of her quill.

"Hi, Charlotte, how pleasant this is to meet you," Anna nodded curtly. She glanced at the other girl as well. She then nodded at Eye to show that she was fine there. So far, this girl Charlotte and her friend didn't pose much rudeness. And even if they did, she couldn't turn back.

She then turned towards the Professor. "The first thing that pops into my head is the exploration of stars," Anna replied. "How we will never be able to discover all the stars, and how stars form and how they die, and how light from them can take billions of years to reach here even with light speed."

Iris sighed hopelessly and ignored Anna. Well, she barely knew everything about her friend. And sometimes, Anna can be the confusing one. Perhaps she has a thing with the whole first-impression rude type. But she knew nothing about Iris.

Does she have to confess? After hearing the side's comment and the two girls talking to each other, the girl did felt guilty about her secret. That she can intrude things. Things that are rather private. For one, the air of emotion around her. Even though everyone was doing their best hiding them away. Can they understand her? Should she make peace? Surely, she wouldn't want any misunderstanding.

Iris ripped a small part of a parchment from her bag and wrote on it slowly, not wanting to be caught by the professor and ruining the whole lesson. On her favorite subject to be exact. She folded it neatly and tried to pass it around until it would reach Anna, and the group she was belonging to at the moment.

Hey. Sorry about the . . . uh . . . thing earlier. I know that if I spilled my secret, you can't really understand it. But I would accept any reaction. And if possible, I would want to talk about it. For me to ease out the stress of not confessing. Do you mind telling those two that I apologize? And say that I just have some issues that I can't fully control. Perhaps this feeling can stop. Please? Thank you.

P.S. I think I find them kinda interesting now. And I DO NOT want any enemies.

Left eyebrow in the air and two grins later, she concluded not to bother about the rudeness anymore. "I shall let it go", she started, winking to Char. "For now. No one talks to my friends like that."

As another girl approached them, mixed feelings entered her brain. After no sign of her friend rude behavior came up on this one, she realized that it wouldn't be good to punish her because of that. So, she smiled, and it was a real smile and all, not one of her fake ones that she gives people and introduced herself. "Gordon, Tesla. Friend of Char here and a bitch on occasions. Nice to meet you Tshering. I agree about the ring. Sounds...poetic."

The professor started to speak, and she went on to listen to him, looking at the rude slytherin girl one more time, in a non threatening but a curious way.

"Yes, but not only stars, also all the celestial objects, such as planets, comets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies", she said, finishing Anna's sentence with a small smile for her new acquaintance.

Iris shrugged and had gotten back to her consciousness. She looked up at the professor and started to answer what she had in mind about the subject. She did have a lot, though. But she can't tell all of them after sensing a death glare presence from behind her back. Awful. Everything would be such a misunderstanding. If only she can tell face to face without them speaking once she's finished.

"When I hear the word Astronomy, first thing that pops into my head would be the whole universe. The endless space stretching for infinity. And of course, the things that were present in there."

Iris said with a lonely tone and looked down, covering her face with her hair as to not get the feeling of being watched horribly.

"For some reason, I always end up thinking of how stars are born and how they die." Iris replied. "It's just an amazing process and impact is even more magnificent."

Colin nodded, and listened to each of students response in turn.

"All very good responses, and all parts of astronomy," Colin nodded, "This is indeed a vast subject with many facets to look at, but today I want to focus on one I do believe I've heard most - the stars."

"Now, I am sure you have all seen, and I may have said before, we are from all years now, and in some aspects we have spoken of stars to varying degrees already. Today what I want to look at is constellations."

"I apologize if we have gone over this for some of you before, but just to get going - definition of a constellation anyone?"

"Professor, constellations are basically groupings of stars that make a pattern or picture. Constellations were very important in Roman, Greek, and other nationalities' mythology and story tellings. Also, the stars help tell us what time of year it is and are very useful for directions if you don't know where you are." explained Rachel. "Like the north star, Polaris, and the Ursa Minor, or Little Dipper, constellation; if you are in the northern hemisphere, you can always find which way is north by watching the stars."

Anna added, "People used to follow the North Star - which was the end of the Big Dipper - to find out where they were going." She then passed the note Eye had sent to her to Tesla and Charlotte.

"We're friends? Since when?" Charlotte joked as she let out a small laugh at Tesla's comment.

"And constellations they're pretty good to look at," Charlotte added towards herself.

The note Anna had had in her hand was soon passed towards her and Tesla. She opened it and read it carefully. Sure, nobody wanted enemies but that didn't meant the girl had to imply the were rude. Shrugging it off, not really caring if the girl would confront them or not, she passed the note to Tesla so she could read it.

"Thank you Ms. Evans, and Ms. Tshering, that can be five points to each of you."

He got up from the table as he noticed some movement among the students. Casually he took the note that was being passed from Charlotte before Tesla could take it.

"Now, can anyone tell me a constellation. There are many. I want us to compile a nice list."

Casey groaned to herself as she ran for a class AGAIN. Of course by the time she realized class was starting, she was in the dungeons getting purple hair courtesy of her sister and there was no time to reverse it.

She finally made the classroom and was relived to see that discussion didn't seem very far along now. "Hello Professor. Sorry I'm late and sorry to interrupt, but I'm a new transfer student from America. My name's Casey Donohoe." She turned to sit down and saw that the only seat open was next to a Hufflepuff boy that seemed to be in fourth year.

Just my luck, she thought. I get to class red faced from running and with purple hair and the only seat available is next to a guy. With a sigh, she hurridly threw her bag down and sat.

Iris turned her gaze on the professor and gulped nervously. Urgh. She missed the chance. But thankfully, the man who took the note did not read it out loud. Or hoping that he would never do that at all in the first place. She removed the wide-eyed face of hers and answered instead the question being directed to them. She knew better than that.

"The Zodiac Signs are just some of the examples of constellations, professor. Those kinds make up the Zodiac Belt like Cancer, Gemini, Saggitarius, Pisces and many more. And others would be usually based on mythology." Iris replied, trying her best to sound like her normal self.

Hades smiled at Iris. "I no what your saying, I've never been this happy to see you in my entire life" Hades said with a small smile.

"I know, I'm just so awesome." She joked and grinned at Hades. Turning to answer the question, she replied, "Some others include Orion, Perseus, Phoenix and so on."

Colin nodded, "Thank you."

He flicked his wand and the ones the mentioned as well as some other constellations appeared on the board.

"Now, we will look at these in the sky more indepth at a later date, but today I want to focus on something a little different.

"As was already meantioned the ancients came up with stories to acompany these formations. Does anyone know any of these stories?"

Casey raised her hand. "The ancient civilizations often said they were pictures of great heros, like Hercules, Orion, and Perseus. They could also be famous or infamous animals, people like Ariadne and Thesues, or just shapes that were familiar to them."

Kirsten chimed in for the first time that lesson; saying shyly, "The story of Orion is based on the Greek hunter of the same name," she said, hoping to state her answer as quickly as possible and return to being a wallflower. She did not like being in a combined class. She knew hardly anyone.

"I believe one most popular version of Orion's story is that he was a great hunter who was banished to the sky for bragging on how many animals he could kill and the two bright stars which follow him represent his hunting dogs."

She gave a shy smile to the professor then dropped her gaze, scratching a nonsensical pattern into the margin of her book.

"Thank you girls, those are both very true," he smiled, "I think you can each take a few points for your house on that."

With that he looked at his watch and his eyebrows went up. "Oh my, that seems to be all the time we have for chatting today. It is getting far too late for you to be up," he gave them all a little smile, "I want you to research and write down the story for at least one constellation for next class."

He nodded and leaned back on his desk.

"And that is all - please feel free to go enjoy the rest of you evening."

Iris sighed with relief as to know that her bad time on the subject is finally putting to an end. Some peace at least. Or none at all. She wondered what she hell she's going to do now. What in the world of mentality she's going to come up with. And yeah, it's real crazy. Perhaps people would do those things just to ease the pain. To forget the hurt and suffering they're currently into. And that sure was right with her. Who says she's still and super young? No one in her family ca find out. Besides, she can let out all that stress of emotions inside of her just for once in her life. Or maybe plenty of times.

Making up her mind, the Slytherin packed her things and headed downstairs of the tower after giving the professor a short bow as her farewell. Astronomy seemed boring nowadays. And somewhat all the subjects as well. What was up? Is is just her?