Seventh Years: Lesson Six

Professor Nakamura was in a good mood. He thought tonight’s lesson would be a welcome reprise from lectures, as well as still being educational. They’d learned an interesting spell last week, but nothing was as good as the real sky up above – which was what they’d be observing tonight. He’d arranged for the class to be earlier than the usual evening class and hoped that that signalled something interesting for his students.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted, “this lesson will be a bit different than usual. No lectures, no notes – unless you want to, of course.” There was a twinkle in his eye. He knew some students liked to go above and beyond. “Tonight we will be going on a short camping ‘trip’. So please, no need to get out your parchment and quills, simply follow me.” Professor Nakamura bade the students to rise from their seats, then led them out before locking the door behind him.

Professor Nakamura led the students to a far corner of the castle grounds where a couple of tents had been set up earlier. “Tonight we shall study the stars as they are in the sky, but first we’ll set up a few campfires. They should die down by the time we can observe the stars, so they’ll be little light pollution. Right! Two to a tent. There’s plenty of room inside, as you’ll see.”

The tents had been set up near the lakefront. As the evening settled, the students and Professor Nakamura spent time talking around the campfire, mostly about astronomy, but other topics cropped up too. The sunset reflected beautifully onto the surface of the lake, a fluid mirror of reds and oranges. They all ate food provided by a mix of the Hogwarts kitchen and Professor Nakamura himself, who prided himself on his chef skills. Toilets were also provided in the tents, meaning no need to return to the castle itself.

“Now, I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the importance of studying for your NEWTs,” Professor Nakamura brought up, a groan or two coming from the students at the prospect. “Tonight, please take the time to examine the sky, practice your star charts and identifying constellations, as well as try to locate some of the celestial things we learnt about this year. Ah, and one last thing – curfew is at 1:30am. Make sure you are in your tents by then and good luck with your exams,” Professor Nakamura said, smiling. “I’ll be around if you have any questions.” He left the students to it, hoping they’d enjoy their time. A meteor shower occurred around midnight, which Professor Nakamura watched keenly with interest. He made sure everyone was in bed by curfew before retiring to his tent himself. It had been a perfect night to simply relax and study the sky.

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Roleplay the trip!

 

[Elio Boneheart]

Since note-taking was hardly Elio’s favourite activity, he was more than happy to ditch the normal note-taking activities of most of his classes this year. A night under the stars as they prepared for probably the most important exam of their lives felt about right. He’d been so anxious about so many things lately that it was becoming hard to really know whether or not he’d been making the right decisions. It was nothing that he couldn’t handle of course, but, it was just one of those things, it was hard to know how to proceed. As they set up camp, he picked a tent that was away from most other people. Tonight especially he wished that he shared the class with any of his friends, but Theo, Bailey, Hina, Kael (but he wasn’t a friend so) were all in the year below. He wasn’t always sure how that quite happened, but these things just tended to lend to themselves. He was hardly the most studious when it came to astronomy, but he had to admit there was something really peaceful about a night under the stars. He didn’t care who he shared a tent with, but paid more attention to the food - Nakamura could cook - and made a couple of half-hearted attempts at sketching the star charts. This felt like exactly what they all needed to end their Astronomy careers in school. He wondered if any of the people in this class were intending on taking it further than this? By curfew he was rubbing his eyes with tiredness, and crawled into the tent. Not a bad way to study, all things considered really. F#ck he was gonna miss school.​

 

[Cassius Styx]

It was the last lesson of the term, and that meant that they would either study or have a light lesson. Cassius Styx looked forward to heading home so that he could chill and look for a place. He was picky. Cass could not wait to gain independence after all. He needed more than just money from his family. Cass walked to the Astronomy class a little earlier as instructed, which did spark some of his interest. No notes. He got up and followed Professor Nakamura outside to the castle grounds. He noticed that there were tents. Wait, were they going to camp outside, on the ground, like a couple of peasants? They could set up a campfire, which he did not mind. The tent was not bad at all, and seemed like a relaxing evening for the seventh years before the NEWTs. He was in his tent by curfew. The meteor shower was okay. Cass was not the type to really be interested in those things.​

 

[Savannah Walters]

Savannah walked into the astronomy classroom, though she wasn’t there for long, as the professor told them outside to be able to spend the afternoon and night under the stars. She had other plans with her day which were now completely out of the window. She sat down close enough to the fire, and spent the afternoon working on astronomy revision, but other pieces too, putting it away when it became too difficult to see the words on the page. She took the time to look at the stars, and as instructed took the time to practice with her star chart. She went to bed at the curfew having had a good night.