Lesson Two

[cassandra]

Professor Leone unlocked the door to the class, and entered it. Twisting the doorknob, she released it and it closed with a soft snap. Waving her wand, again the roofs disappeared, with the heavens above them. The stars look bright tonight, she noted. Definitely a good sign.

Professor Leone prepared the chart on the board, tapping it lightly with her wand. The surface rippled like water for a moment, before showing the constellation they were to study tonight.

Wrapping the shawl around her shoulders tighter, she sat on her stool, and waited for her students to appear, enjoying the stars in the meantime.

[Ronit Virani]

Ronit entered the Astronomy tower, and looked at the sky above. It was covered with bright stars. "Hello Professor," he said, taking a seat.

[Krutika Gehi]

Krutika walked inside Astronomy tower. She was humming a song. "Hello Professor," she said, and saw that Ronit was already there. "Hey Ron," she said, taking a seat beside him. She took out her books and started humming again.

[Heather Granger]

Heather climbed the tower again it always killed her to walk but to observe the stars on such a wonderful sight to gaze at the stars. Finally Heather reached the door, she opened the door and saw Ronit, Kruitika and Professor Leone, "good evening," Heather said cheerfully as she took her usual seat and waited for class to begin.

[cassandra]

"Good evening, students," Professor Leone responded, smiling slightly.

"Please take your seats. We shall wait a bit longer for the other students to arrive. As Didius Horknoff once said, 'the stars may come and go, but it is the moons of Saturn and meteors of Heavens that serve to amaze us,' so look to the eyes of Heaven, and let us not break the silence we hold now," she said, as her rested on the students a second or two before returning to the sky.

Cassandra Leone was someone who loved the stars and everything in it, and some might say too much. Her head was always up in the clouds, and anything beneath it held no pleasure to her. At least, not as much as her stars and planets could offer. So her classes would always be filled with her nonsense ramblings of stars and their beauty, and quotes she herself knew not what they meant.

She was known to the students as someone they can easily push over, and so her classes were always looked forward to, as homework was something -in her own words- 'like Mars and Jupiter, holding their own, needing no acknowledgement from mere humans'; or in other words, very very seldom.

Leaving earth for a while, and the students off by their own means to amuse themselves, her thoughts drifted to the Moons of Esclastia, while they all waited for a few more students to appear.

[alialongwolf]

Alia stumbled quickly into the room. ' Great.' she thought to herself.' First day of class and Im already late.' Alia stared around the room, looking for what looked like a good place to sit.

[cassandra]

"Aaah..." Professor Leone looked at Alia as she came in. "Another addition to the class. Welcome, welcome." She smiled at the Hufflepuff.

Glancing at the skies for a second, her thoughts focused on her teaching task at hand. She got off the stool, and walked to the star chart. On it, was already a constellation that they were going to be studying. The exact mirror of a constellation so far away was on that chart, and second only to her deceased Aunt Irma's old necklace, it was her most favourite thing in the world.

"Today we shall be learning about the Capricorn constellation. Look at the chart, everyone," she tapped the chart lightly. Following her voice, the view of the constellation moved accordingly.

"Looking at the chart, you can see that when every star is connected -" here a silver line formed from one star to another "- the image of a goat appears. The well known sign of the Capricorn in astrological terms is this."

Professor Leone drew in mid-air the sign of the Capricorn. "You should also be aware that Aquarius borders with the constellations Aquila, Sagittarius, Microscopium, Piscis and Austrinus." She stopped for a while, allowing the scratching quills to catch up.

After a moment, she continued.

"Capricorn is usually depicted as a goat or sea-goat, but in Greek Mythology he is the God Pan. Pan ruled over forests and woodlands, flocks and shepherds. From the waist down he was a goat and also had the ears and horns of a goat, and from the waist up he was a man. He was a beauty-loving little creature and was always trying to catch a nymph, who would flee because of his appearance. He eventually became the God of Nature, and some of his qualities, such as sexuality and love of nature have become part of the character of people born under this sign. Another story is that the goat nymph, Amalthea, who suckled Zeus as an infant, was placed among the stars as the constellation Capricorn by Zeus in gratitude."

Professor Leone looked at the students and clapped her hands together once they were finished with taking notes.

"Now we shall look for the constellation Capricornus, or in astrological terms, the constellation of Capricorn. After that, we will have a short discussion about our lesson today. Avert your gaze to the heavens, children..." she said, her voice drifting as her eyes looked almost hungrily at the stars above them.

((OOC: Okay, 5 points to the first to post their RP of looking for Capricornus. Another five if you manage to help move the lesson through your RP, e.g: question, or any interaction with me or your friends.)) [/b][/color]

[Krutika Gehi]

Krutika looked at the sky above. The sky covered with shining stars looked so beautiful. She was busy in gazing at it when she realized that she doesnot have to just sit and gaze at the sky but look at - she looked back in her piece of parchement to see what it was - "Constellation of Capricon" She looked at the star chart on the board in front of them and then looked back at sky to see the group of stars. "Professor, do we have to draw it?" she asked.

[cassandra]

Disrupted from her train of thought, Professor Leone looked at the Ravenclaw who asked the question. "Wha- Oh...yes, yes. That would be wonderful, Krutika. Now, children..."

Professor Leone called back their attention to her. "Can anyone tell me what constellations border Capricornus? Five points to those with the correct answer."

Professor Leone looked at them expectantly.

[alialongwolf]

Alia, from the seat she had chosen near the back of the room, warily raised her hand."Erm, is Piscis one of them Professor?"

[cassandra]

Professor Leone's eyes widened in surprise. "Well, yes my dear! Very good job! There!" she pointed her finger at Alia, "-someone who actually reads before coming to class! Five points to Hufflepuff!"

"Now.." she dusted her hands of invisible specks.

"Can someone please tell the class who Amalthea is? Come on.." she encouraged them when she saw no raised hands. "Five points to your house for it!"

[alialongwolf]

Alia looked around. Her knowledge hadnt come from a book. She just loved the stars.
alia looked down at the rawing pad she had pulled silently from her bag, she sketched out a few ideas for her photoshoot after school, then looked up, noticing that there was not any one who seemed to know the answer. In fact, neither did Alia. She blushed and went back to sketching.

[cassandra]

"Come on, class. Anyone?" she looked at the students.

Sighing, she adjusted her shawl around her and cleared her voice. "Well, if anyone cared to pay attention to what I said a coupe of minutes ago, anyone-' here she shot a pointed look to all the students '-would know that Amalthea is the goat nymph who suckled Zeus as an infant, and was placed among the stars as the constellation Capricorn by Zeus in gratitude. Of course, as I've also mentioned earlier, this is one of the two versions available. Can someone tell me the other version? Five points, dears...You want to help your respective houses, don't you?"

[Heather Granger]

Heather raised her hand as no one else in the class seemed interested, "The other version is that Capricorn or the God Pan in greek mythology who was half man from the waist up and half from waist down was a goat with the horns of a goat too. He became the God of Nature after his many attemps in catch a nympth who was affraid of his appearence, however a few of his qualities such as sexuality and love of nature had became part of the character born under his sign." Heather said after finishing her copy of the constellation.

[cassandra]

Professor Leona looked at Heather approvingly.

"Very good, Miss Granger! Couldn't have put it better myself! Five points to Gryffindor for the fruit of your marvellous attention. Now, anyone care to join Miss Granger as contributors to your house? You can do so by answering this question: name me five other constellations that have influenced the world of astrology. One of them has to be the constellation under which you were born. Ten points, students!"