Sixth & Seventh Years: Lesson One

[Adelaide Debussy]

The sky was at its darkest, the moon straining to shine through the thickness of the clouds. Adelaide had the sinking feeling that it would soon be raining, but a little fall of rain was never something to cry about. Tonight Adelaide would have the Sixth and Seventh Years, the 'top dogs' of the school. She smiled to herself, remembering those years, although her own experiences happened miles and miles away. Beauxbatons had been a wonderful place for her to learn, and Hogwarts was certainly no different. She knew that the students who would be coming to her class would be those who still enjoyed and held interest in Astronomy, maybe even students who were interested in a career with the stars. She chuckled to herself, realizing that she was perhaps assuming too much of her students, her students whom she did not even meet. Her blue eyes glanced at the doorway, anxious for someone to enter.

She took a seat in her deep navy blue chair and crossed her delicate legs. They were pale in the moonlight and she struggled to cover them a bit with her dress. Even though she was ages older than these students, she still feared their judgement. She wanted to be influential in their lives, not be picked upon by them. Tonight they would speak about dark energy and dark matter, and the importance of such things. Hopefully this would be an engaging lesson for all. Adelaide rested her head on her chair and simply waited for the classroom to fill.

[Sophia Crawford]

The stars were fascinating; always moving, always glowing no matter the circumstance. It seemed like a great life, a wonderful existence...all except for that whole nova part where a star would burst into a...well...whatever stars burst into. Midnight was always one of the most magical times of day for the notorious night-owl, and Sophia was looking forward to Astronomy, especially with a new professor. She waltzed down the corridors, whistling a little to a show tune as per usual. She carried with her nothing but a quill and a notebook, hoping she wouldn't need anything else.

She entered the classroom with ease and smiled at the new professor. She seemed very nice, and rather young. Sophia took a seat in one of the most comfortable chairs she had ever sat in and heard the clock toll twelve. She looked to the sky as she waited for the rest of her classmates to arrive and noticed the presence of dark clouds above. She wondered if it would rain tonight. A thunderstorm would be terrifying at this time of the night. She looked over to the professor who was resting on her chair. She seemed anxious, too. Perhaps she didn't like thunderstorms either.

[Matilda Wentworth]

Ah, Astronomy. How many nights Matty had spent of her schooling years, dragging herself out of bed, cursing the fact that she had this class at such ridiculous hours. And how she noted on the fact that once the class was done, the teen would find herself having actually enjoyed it, and wondering why on earth she had made such a fuss on getting up in the middle of the night, in order to note on and observe a class that magnified the beauty of the night sky. Why, she had never figured out. But like every night in the past, Matilda was not keen to get up at such an hour, and to do so, she literally had to throw herself out of bed.

Once the girl had put her newly dyed brown hair up into a messy, but presentable bun, she ambled out of her common room, and up to the astronomy tower. Thankful for the nifty of idea of merely sleeping in her robes, Matty tried to smooth out the many small wrinkled in her shirt - not that it really worked, but it was worth a try. She soon reached her class, entering the door with a sleepy sort of smile. "Evening Professor." she said in a friendly tone, noting on the fact that they had a new astronomy teacher this year. Matty passed Sophia on her way to the back, giving her a smile and a small wave as she did so. Plunking down in her seat, the girl rested her chin on her upright hand, waiting for the lesson to begin, or someone to distract her in the mean time.

[Delilah Morine]

Delilah, although not very good when it came to her classes, always tried her best. And usually, when a subject was something she loved, she did an even better job at it. Tonight would be one of those nights. She had always found the sky and all it's masterpieces amazing, and a joy to look at. One could get lost just being outside at night, and every time you looked up there things seemed to change at will.

It was no surprise that she loved being outside, and she assumed that others, loved the starry sky as well, it really wasn't the hard to look up to. Delilah was excited to meet the new Professor, and hopefully get to know anyone she hadn't yet, although the pickings were slim nowadays, being Head Girl and all, you got to know everyone quite quickly. As Delilah entered the tallest tower in Hogwarts, she was filled with excitement. She was definetly not a morning person, and if there was any time of day she could concentrate in, it would be night time.

"Hullo Professor." Delilah said smiling, spotting Matty and Sophia in an instant. They all seemed to have quite a few classes together. Of course, Delilah sat down next to her best friend and beamed like one of the stars up in the night sky. "This is pretty much one of my favorite classes..." Delilah said to Sophia, acting as perky as if she had had three cups of coffee before entering the towers tonight.

[Adelaide Debussy]

Adelaide felt her heart sink a little as she looked at her class. Surely there were more students taking upper-level Astronomy? It hurt her to think that these three ladies were the only ones taking Astronomy, but she would have to make due. They seemed rather personable and genuinely interested. She wondered why her class was lacking male students. Perhaps it was for the best. She rose from her chair and stepped gracefully to the front of the room.

"Good evening, ladies." She said with a smile. "My name is Professor Debussy and I will be teaching you all about Astronomy this year. It's my pleasure to conduct this class, and I'm sure you will be a fine group of students. Now, we'll be tackling some rather large topics, so I suggest that you take notes and really try to immerse yourself in the subject. You're an upper-level class, the top to be precise, and so I think that you can handle whatever I throw at you. Later in the year you'll be doing a little research project on a topic that I'll approve, but enough about the future; let's talk about now. Tonight we'll be talking about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Does anyone want to take a guess at what they are?"

[Delilah Morine]

As Professor Debussy introduced herself, Delilah was in a very good mood. Although this wasn't her strongest subject, she thought it wouldn't hurt to try and answer as best she could. They were here for learning right? She hoped that she wouldn't sound too stupid though if she did decided to answer the question, and seeing as the class was beginning with only three girls, Delilah thought it best, to go ahead, and answer away.

"I'll guess..." She started, just to make sure that her Professor knew that her answer probably wouldn't be concrete. "Dark matter, could be the opposite of matter, so like an empty space, like a black hole." Delilah tried, and shrugged figuring the worst thing that could happen here would be that Debussy took away a couple house points, it's not like the classroom was full of people ready to pounce on her if she got the answer wrong, she was just throwing ideas out there.

[Adelaide Debussy]

"Thank you for at least taking a stab at it, Miss..." Adelaide scrambled for her notes. "Wentworth? Crawford? Or is it Morine?" She had to admit that she was horrible at learning names, but she was golden with remembering them. At least by the end of the year she wouldn't be making embarrassing mistakes like this one. "I'm terribly sorry, miss. You'll have to excuse me. New-professor nerves."

She shifted and sifted her papers until she found the right ones. "Miss Morine...Delilah. Terribly sorry. Black holes are a very good guess, but not quite right. Dark matter and dark energy, surprisingly, make up 96% of all mass and energy in the universe. The existence of dark matter and energy is very confusing to both wizards and muggles alike. Dark matter is the very reason our galaxies stay together and the reason why they formed in the first place. Dark energy is what helps the galaxies to expand. Galaxies are expanding at a fast rate. Both muggles and wizards do not know what to make of it."

Adelaide stopped to take a short breath. "What do you ladies think of that?"

[Delilah Morine]

[/i]"I'm terribly sorry, miss. You'll have to excuse me. New-professor nerves."[/i] Delilah smiled, showing it really was no sweat off her own brow. She knew how people could be when getting to know their classroom, and she knew that Prof. Debussy would get used to them in no time. After all, it was only three, fairly well behaved for the most part, girls. Delilah was really liking the fact that for once, a professor was friendly, and not moody.

Delilah shrugged to her next question though, not really wanting to take another stab in the dark. And frankly, she didn't agree. She thought things were in place because of a much higher power than Dark Matter... And so, instead of voicing this opinion, she stayed quiet, yet still attentive to see what Sophia, or Matty, would say to this.