Percival was feeling unwell this week and sat at his desk sipping some hot lemon water, using his free hand to gesture to the class that the lesson was starting. "Quiet everyone!" He said, coughing in between. "This week, we are going to be looking at how stars move in the sky. Everyone, quills and parchment out."
"Now, if I were to keep you here all night, you'd be able to see how the stars pass over us in the nighttime sky, much like the sun does during the day. But, to make things simple, this week we are staying inside, and I'll be showing you a ceiling demonstration, much like the same magic used for the Great Hall ceiling. This will allow me to control time above us in our classroom sky." Despite his best efforts to suppress it, the cough persisted, punctuating his sentences with raspy interruptions. He persevered, pointing his wand up to ceiling of their classroom. "Astra Fero*."
A bubble filled out near the walls of their classroom, hovering over them. As they looked up, stars and galaxies appeared above them. The bubble did not reach the floor, more so representing an umbrella. He heard small gasps and exclamations among the first years and hacked before continuing. "Now, this is an exact representation of the night sky on September 1st, around 10 pm, when you all had first arrived at the castle, about the time I'm sure you were fast asleep," Professor Zephyrmoon expected children this age were long in bed before 10pm. "You'll notice when you look up facing towards the front of the classroom, a large star along our horizon line. This is Vega, which lives in the constellation called Lyra," he said, waving his wand so lines appeared connecting the stars to form the small constellation.
Clearing his throat, Percival soldiered on, determined to deliver his lecture despite the discomfort. "Now, watch what happens to the star Vega when I move time forward so we can see how the night sky appeared just a few hours later." Percival waved his wand, and the stars began to slowly move across their pretend sky as the night she was recreating continued. The star Vega quickly fell beneath the horizon, and to the east, new stars were appearing and rising up, but the stars towards the south remained more or less the same. He stopped when the time would have been around three in the morning.
"You'll see at this time early in the morning, Vega is no longer visible. In fact, in the same position is the constellation Pegasus," he continued before again waving her wand, and lines formed where the constellation was. "Now, constellations are something we will go into later on in your third year. For now, I want you all to ponder what happened during the night on September 1st between 10 pm and 3 am that would change the nighttime sky like we just saw. Next week, we'll go into more details about this process with more technical terms. Read the next two chapters in your book to prepare. Class dismissed" Eventually, as the class drew to a close, Percival managed to bid his students farewell, though his voice was strained and hoarse from the ordeal. He retreated to his office for a coughing fit, leaving the stars above alone so the students could walk out under them.
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For full credit, RP the lesson.
*Astra Fero - An astronomical depiction from the memory of the creator displayed in 3D within the surrounding area. Used to represent a large area of space.
