The Stars Are Falling Like Rain

[Ulysses Viteri]

There was no way he was going to miss tonight's astral phenomenon. Every stargazer and astronomy enthusiast knew that tonight there was going to be a meteor shower of Orionids in the night sky. Ulysses was preparing for the event for a week now. He had arranged all his star charts in the backpack he was going to take with him, he had back his broken telescope and had also ordered a few extra lenses for a better observation. After his unexpectedly finding a dummy that he stored in the abandoned classroom and his encounter with a classmate, he dashed back to the common room to grab his already prepared equipment. Next stop was one of the towers. He had chose the tallest one while it had a spacious balcony where he could set his telescope.

Shortly after his arrival it became his own private workplace. He was sitting on a stool, peeking through the telescope's eye hole, then drawing on one of his charts scattered around him on the floor. With each peek, his expression was changing, each time he looked more impressed or excited. The phenomenon wasn't yet at its peak and it wasn't going to be until after midnight, but he could already see the glowing tails of the shooting stars slicing the dark blue of the sky. It was after curfew and he knew he was breaking a few rules for being there but he couldn't resist. He was extra careful so far. No one knew that he was visiting the towers pretty often to stargaze. He was too absorbed in observing the phenomenon through his newest magnification eyepiece that he didn't perceived the arrival of another person at the tower.

 

[Lydia Warrick]

Lydia Archer was not a very active person, she struggled a lot of the time to figure out people and make more friends which always seemed like so much of a chore and a challenge, but she was a very friendly and open person, which was why she couldn't figure out why she struggled so much. Perhaps it was just because she didn't go out all that much. It had plagued her mind over the last few days, so much so that the third year Hufflepuff on that night couldn't settle her mind enough to sleep. She'd tried to get an early night what with a quidditch practice in the morning but it hadn't worked, instead she had just gotten dressed again, and sat in the common room for far longer than she should've really. Eventually when she still couldn't seem to get tired, the teen just decided that she needed to use up this energry, even if that meant she might lose house points. She knew it wasn't too great a way of doing things, but enough was enough and Lydia was just bored.

Eventually she ended up far away from her own dorms and heading up to the astronomy tower, Tybalt had always told her about how amazing the view was from up there and how much more he had enjoyed it once he had gotten over his fear of heights, and Lydia hadn't been up there much as side from for classes, so now she was taking that opportunity to go up there, and once high enough up she noticed a door to a room she didn't really think she'd been into, since this was a night of new things and wasting energy she figured why not check it out. Inside this room she noticed there was a boy, someone from her year sitting with charts and things scattered around him, with a telescope. She smiled at the sight, she didn't know him, but it looked like he was quite the astronomer. She felt like she might be intruding, but with nothing else to do, Lydia wanted to join him, though she didn't have any equipment and didn't particularly want to distract him, "Hi," she spoke quietly, before waiting to see if he would respond to her, or just turn her away or even notice that she was there and had said something.
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I hope you don't mind me joining

 

[Ulysses Viteri]

The third year ravenclaw cursed when he missed one of the stars falling. He tried to follow the streak of light with his telescope. He just caught a brief glimpse of it. Most of them glew for about a second so you had to be quick and focused to actually get a good look of them. He then looked up at the sky hoping to see one with his naked eyes. Most of those celestial bodies were vaporized by the atmospheric friction but some of them survived their passage through the atmosphere. What usually remained of those few survivors was just a small chunk of iron. Ulysses wanted so badly to find one of those star fragments and he was always intrigued to imagine where they could have ended. Usually at isolated, uninhabitable areas, in the wilderness or in the oceans. He was imagining how it would like if a meteor was descending from the skies before his eyes to end up in the school's lake when a voice behind him snapped him out of his daydream.

Afraid that a professor had caught him there, his mind flooded with possible excuses, such as he was there for merely academic reasons, in his defense. Ulysses could breath again in relief when he found out it was only a girl. "Oh, hey!" he said quietly as well with an awkward smile. He recognized her easily despite the dim light of the torches. They might had never hang out or have a chat but the girl was the keeper of Hufflepuff team. Ulysses was really strategic when it came to Quidditch. He liked the quote of Moutohora Macaws' keeper that suggested having your opponent's closer than your players. This statement was up to interpretation when the particular Quidditch player was married with the beater of another team, but Ulysses took it as an advice of doing some research about your opponents. Study their techniques and the way they're playing and learn something from them. Although he had closely watched the girl playing and felt like he knew a few things about her already, he just proceeded as it was the first time seeing her.
"I know I shouldn't be here that late but tonight there's a meteor shower! I simply couldn't miss it." he started apologetically but his tone quickly turned excited. "Are you here to stargaze as well?" he wondered from his stool. He didn't know if more people at his age were into astronomical phenomenons like he was. Since there wasn't some kind of extracurricular club about astronomy, he had guessed he was one of the few enthusiasts.

 

[Lydia Warrick]

Lydia had been expecting him to shoo her away really, but when he said Hi, and smiled, she recognised him a little more as someone who was in her year, someone whom she had seen but never really spoken to before, well, at least she'd never held a real conversation with him. She did however return his smile, but feeling a little awkward hugged herself, brushing her hand up and down her arm and shifting her weight between her feel. She didn't know what to do, it wasn't like she'd asked him a question, she'd just sort of stated hello, and Lydia hadn't ever really snuck out like this, so she was worried about getting caught, worried about ruining what was a good reputation, but she couldn't sleep and the girl had little interest in actually leaving right now. If he wanted her to go, she would go, but she wouldn't go back to the dorm, instead she would continue venturing around the place hoping to tire herself out enough that she might be able to sleep. She glanced between him and his equipment, hoping to figure out a little bit more about either him or what he was doing, but she was beaten to the chase when he spoke.

Lydia shook her head at the beginning, with no intention of turning him in unless she too wanted to end up in trouble, which she obviously didn't want. The way his tone grew to excitement made her smile so much, just loving the fact he was so excited about something, she had no idea about the meteor shower currently happening, but now that she did, the girl was very keen, very interested in getting involved in it, "I couldn't sleep," she replied honestly, she had no equipment, if she planned on watching the stars she had nothing that would actually help her in this endeavour, "Do you mind if I sit and watch too?" she asked motioning to his equipment, "I've never seen a meteor shower before, I don't have a telescope but I should just be able to look out the window, yeah?" Lydia didn't want to disturb this boy, and she didn't want to interfere with all the things that he had set up but she was hoping he wouldn't mind her sitting to watch it with him. Lydia knew that she wasn't going to get to sleep any time soon, and perhaps this, star gazing might make her far more tired, the hufflepuff was certain she wouldn't be turned away.
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