Chapter 2: October 2015
"Astronomy club," Louis read to himself quietly.
After being at Hogwarts for just over a month, both Dominique and Victoire had agreed that it was time for Louis to step out of his comfort zone and find some people his own age to hang out with. Ever since arriving at Hogwarts, Louis had either spent his time alone or with one of his sisters and their friends. Mostly Dominique, because Victoire was very busy as a prefect, and Louis didn't really like his oldest sister's friend Brianna.
Dominique had suggested that Louis try joining a club as a way of meeting new people. It would be less intimidating than going up to someone at random and introducing himself – something that Louis should have done back at the beginning of September and had now put off doing too long. First year cliques were forming, and Louis wasn't part of any of them. So Louis had reluctantly agreed to at least take a look at the list of clubs on the notice board in the common room.
According to the notice, the Astronomy club was having it's first open meeting that evening. Open meaning that new students were welcome to join.
"You should go," Dominique said, sneaking up behind Louis. "It'll be good for you."
"But it's probably going to be really awkward, going alone," Louis protested. "How will I know who to sit with, or what if they want me to say something?"
"They're not going to try to make you uncomfortable," Dominique assured Louis. "They'll probably have you say your name or something. Maybe give a brief introduction."
"Will you come with me?" Louis asked.
"Trust me," Dominique said. "You do not want your big sister taking you to your first club meeting. It'll only alienate you from the other students and that is the complete opposite of why you're joining."
Louis sighed. "Alright, I'll go alone."
"Do you need me to walk you to the door?" Dominique asked.
Louis shook his head. "No," he said, breathing a deep breath. "I have to do things on my own at some point."
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The meeting was scheduled for immediately after Louis' final class. So as soon as Professor Tonks dismissed the first years, Louis began to make his way up to the seventh floor, to the room where the astronomy club met.
It was a classroom right next to the astronomy tower. Louis figured this was so that they could go up to the astronomy tower at times, either for equipment or to look up at the sky. Briefly, Louis wondered what an astronomy club might actually do – but he didn't dwell on that because at the moment, he needed to work up the courage to go inside.
"Hey man," an older boy – maybe sixth or seventh year – said, walking up to Louis from behind. "You coming to the astronomy club meeting?"
"I – uh… yeah," Louis stammered, turning red in embarrassment of his ineloquence.
"Well come on in," the boy said, opening the door and ushering Louis inside.
Louis had no choice. He let the boy lead him in and then heard the door shut behind him.
The room was a lot like most of Louis' classrooms, except that the desks had all been pushed back against the wall and a circle of chairs sat in the middle of the room. There were two older students – a boy and a girl – at the front of the room, standing in front of a large object that was covered with a sheet. In the chairs were a few students, sitting together and talking – they all seemed to know each other.
"Well go ahead and take a seat," the boy who had come in with Louis said. "The meeting will be starting any minute."
The boy then went over to the other two older students and joined in their conversation about the large sheet-covered object. Louis took a look at the circle of chairs and chose one that wasn't next to anyone, deciding that it would be better for someone to sit next to him than for him to sit next to someone else.
A few more people trickled into the room, and then one boy entered that Louis recognized. It was Justin Spinnet, one of Louis' dorm mates. Upon seeing Louis, Justin waved, and Louis nervously waved back. Then Justin walked over and sat down next to Louis.
"So you're thinking about the astronomy club as well?" Justin asked.
"Yeah," Louis nodded, his heart pounding as he desperately tried to seem casual. "I suppose you are as well?"
"Yeah," Justin nodded. "Thought it could be something fun to do."
"Astronomy seems like a very interesting subject," Louis agreed, making sure to mask his high appreciation of the subject like his sisters had instructed. He wasn't supposed to come off too nerdy, they had told him.
Justin nodded. "I heard that last year the astronomy club started working on building this huge telescope. It's supposed to be a hundred times better than the ones we use in class."
"Do you suppose that's what's under the sheet?" Louis wondered.
Justin shrugged. "Maybe," he nodded.
Justin and Louis didn't get the chance to finish their conversation, as the three older students came over and took seats in the circle and began the meeting.
"Welcome to the Astronomy club," the girl greeted them all. "My name is Melody Wellman and I'm the president of this club. I'm a seventh year Ravenclaw, currently studying with the hope of being accepted into the Magical Astronomy Institution internship program after graduation."
Louis was impressed. The Magical Astronomy Institution was very exclusive and accepted applicants from all over the magical world. If Melody thought she had a shot at getting an internship, she must be pretty good at Astronomy.
"Since we have some new faces, how about we all go around and say a little bit about ourselves?" she suggested. "Caleb?" she gestured to the boy on her right, the one who had come in with Louis.
"Alright, well my name is Caleb," the boy said. "I'm also a seventh year, and I'm in Hufflepuff. I'm the vice-president of the astronomy club, and though I'm not expecting to be accepted into a prestigious internship like Melody, I am hoping to pursue a career in astronomy. Oh, and I'm also the Keeper for the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, but that's just for fun."
Probably why he's not trying to get into the MAI, Louis thought to himself. He probably loses a lot of time practicing Quidditch that he could be spending doing astronomy related things.
The next student introduced herself as Dorothy Alderton, a fourth year Ravenclaw. Her favorite subjects were astronomy, transfiguration, and arithmancy. The girl next to her was Kelsey Olsen, a fourth year Gryffindor interested in astronomy, ancient runes, and history of magic.
Next was Louis' turn. Nervously, he stood, just as the others had been doing, and introduced himself.
"My name is Louis Weasley," he said nervously. "I'm in my first year. I'm a Gryffindor. And… well I know I haven't been here too long and probably don't know much about astronomy yet, but I think I want to pursue a career in astronomy."
Melody thanked Louis and then it was Justin's turn.
"Hey everyone, I'm Justin Spinnet," Justin introduced himself. "I'm also a first year Gryffindor. I don't know what I want to do as a career quite yet, but I'm definitely interested in astronomy and I think telescopes are super cool."
Though Justin didn't seem as committed to astronomy as the older students or Louis, the others seemed content with his introduction and the next person stood to take his turn.
"I'm Greg Lipson," he introduced himself. "I'm a fifth year Slytherin. I'm probably not going to pursue astronomy as a career, but I'll definitely continue it at NEWT level next year."
The next student was Arnold Rosen, also a fifth year Slytherin, who agreed with Greg that astronomy was worth taking as a class, but not pursuing as a career.
Trent Mitchell was a third year Ravenclaw who was hoping that once he reached seventh year, he also would be able to apply for an internship at MAI like Melody. Makayla Higgins was a second year Hufflepuff who'd enjoyed astronomy last year and thought the astronomy club seemed like a cool way to learn more about it. She was the only other new person in the room besides Louis and Justin.
Abby Reed was a second year Slytherin who'd joined last year as a first year and had enjoyed the astronomy club and wanted to continue. Finally, Benjamin Pullman, who was sitting on Melody's left introduced himself as a sixth year Ravenclaw and the official project manager of the club. While Melody and Caleb were responsible for the administrative parts of the club, Ben was directly responsible for the physical material of whatever project the club was working on.
"Super," Melody smiled once everyone had taken their turn. "Well now that we've all gotten to know each other, let me tell you all a bit about what we do here, for those of you who are new. Since we are the astronomy club, you won't be surprised to learn that we are interested in astronomy. Specifically, last year we began a project to build a telescope that we hope will be able to see further into space than any other telescope Hogwarts has seen before."
As she said this, Ben stood and walked over to the large sheet-covered object. He levitated it into the center of the circle and Melody removed the sheet.
As Louis had predicted, the large object under the sheet was indeed the partially constructed telescope.
"Now this club's main goal this year will be to complete the telescope," Melody said. "Ben has assured me that we should be able to complete it before the end of the year, and maybe even present it to the school before everyone goes home for the summer."
"Besides the telescope project," Caleb continued, "this club also interests itself in special celestial events. On nights when something particularly interesting may be happening, Professor Brunwell gives us special permission to use the astronomy tower after curfew so that we can observe it."
"Astronomy club is a place to enhance your knowledge of astronomy in a fun, casual way," Melody continued. "Here there's no pressure to get good grades or write complicated papers. We want this club to be about making astronomy fun. And of course, being a part of this club means that you will receive extra credit with Professor Brunwell."
Louis turned to Justin in surprise.
"Did you know that?" Louis asked.
Justin shook his head. "Nope," he admitted. "But if I was having doubts about staying, I definitely don't anymore."
For the rest of the meeting, the older students – what they referred to themselves as the Astronomy Club Leadership – showed the new students the parts of the telescope that they had already built and explained where they wanted to go from there. When the meeting was over and everyone headed down to the Great Hall for dinner, Louis found himself greatly looking forward to the next meeting – when he would be paired with one of the older students and given a part of the telescope to actually work on.
"Hey," Justin said, catching up with Louis as Louis started to head down to dinner alone. "Wait up!"
Surprised, Louis stopped walking and allowed Justin to catch up.
"Hey," Louis greeted the boy.
"Hey," Justin said. "Thought we might head down together."
"Oh," Louis nodded. "Yeah okay."
As the two boys made their way to the Great Hall, Louis discovered that conversation flowed easily between the two of them. They started by talking about the astronomy club, and then moved to other topics, like their classes, their Professors, their classmates. Louis was surprised to discover that while Justin had been spending time with the other first year Gryffindor boys, he hadn't really become friends with any of them.
When they reached the Great Hall, the boys sat together and continued talking over dinner, later retiring to the common room and mutually agreeing to work on their homework as a pair.
From across the common room, Louis caught sight of Dominique and saw her smiling widely at him. It seemed that Louis had finally made a friend.
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The next Astronomy club meeting was the following week. During that time, Melody, Caleb, and Ben had checked in with everyone who had attended the club meeting to make sure they wanted to remain in the club and had decided on the pairs they would be assigning. As Louis, Justin, and Makayla were the newest members, they would be paired with the leaders. Makayla was assigned to Melody, Justin to Ben, and Louis to Caleb. Meanwhile, Abby was paired with Greg, Trent with Arnold, and Dorothy and Kelsey were paired together.
"Well it looks like we're going to get to know each other pretty well," Caleb said to Louis once the pairs were made.
"I guess so," Louis agreed shyly. Caleb was much older than Louis, which made Louis a little nervous.
"Well listen, you got lucky being paired with me," Caleb said. "We've got one of the best jobs."
"What's that?" Louis wondered.
"We are going to be working with the mirrors that go inside the telescope," Caleb declared. "You're going to get to learn all about angles and reflection and all of that."
"Sounds like fun," Louis said, genuinely excited. "Where do we start?"
"Well my friend," Caleb said. "As with most projects in this club, we start with research. What do you say we meet in the library after classes tomorrow to start looking into what we're going to need to pull this off?"
"Alright," Louis agreed. "I'll be there."
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Over the next few weeks, Louis found his life taking on a new routine. Instead of eating with one of his sisters, he took his meals with Justin, slowly discovering that the two got along even better than they could have originally expected. In classes, Justin and Louis had started sitting next to one another. After classes, Louis and Justin would head to the library, either to meet with Caleb and Ben for astronomy club stuff, or else to work on their homework. Once a week, there was a group-wide meeting to discuss their progress with the telescope project and to discuss anything interesting about astronomy that anyone wanted to bring up.
By the end of the month, Louis and Caleb were ready to order their mirror pieces and have them shipped to the school. Apparently, they had to get approval from their faculty supervisor – Professor Brunwell – before purchasing anything with school money, so Caleb had Louis write a proposal, indicating all the materials they would need for their part of the project, and submit it to his astronomy Professor.
"I see you've joined the astronomy club," Professor Brunwell noted when Louis brought the letter to him in his office.
"Yes," Louis nodded, unsure how he was supposed to answer such a statement.
"I'm glad," Professor Brunwell said. "Even from our first class, I could tell that astronomy would be a subject you'll excel at. The astronomy club will take good care of you."
"I've learned so much about the mirrors inside telescopes," Louis said. "When will we be learning about that in class?"
"Unfortunately, because we have so little time in this class, I'm not able to cover that in my lessons," Professor Brunwell said sadly. "There's barely enough time to teach my classes about the sky, let alone the tool we use to see it. If you're interested in telescopes, then it's a good thing you're in the astronomy club, because you'll learn plenty there that you'll never learn in class."
Louis was glad to have joined the astronomy club. Not only was he learning a ton of interesting stuff about telescopes, about stars and planets, and about space, but he was making friends. Justin was already a good friend, and Caleb was nice too. The new second year girl – Makayla – was friendly as well, and everyone in the club treated Louis with kindness and friendship.
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One day, as Louis was heading to the astronomy club room, he found himself crossing paths with David Flint, the Slytherin who'd made fun of him his first day, as well as some other Slytherins. Louis hoped to just pass by them quietly without incident, but apparently they had other ideas.
"Look who we have here!" Flint cried. "It's the baby who can't leave his sister's side."
Louis tried to just walk past the boys, but they spread out to block his path.
"Where are your sisters now, huh kid?" Flint demanded, getting up in Louis' personal space.
Louis shrugged, looking down at the ground. He thought about turning around and leaving, but knew that the boys wouldn't let him do that either.
"Well where are you going then?" Flint demanded.
"I bet he's going to the owlery," one of the other boys spoke mockingly. "Probably going to write a letter to his mommy to say that his sisters left him alone."
Louis silently shook his head.
"What's that?" Flint demanded. "You're not going to the owlery? Then where are you going, little baby?"
"Astronomy club," Louis muttered quietly.
"Sorry," Flint said. "Can't hear you. Better speak up."
Louis repeated himself, only for Flint to laugh loudly.
"Astronomy club?" he cried. "You mean loser club! Why on earth would you join such a lame club, baby?"
Louis shrugged, deciding to go back to keeping silent.
Suddenly, someone came up behind Louis and called out, "Hey!"
Flint looked up and laughed, but Louis was just glad she was there. He hurried over to Victoire stood next to her, taking strength from her presence and the gleaming prefect's badge on the front of her robes.
"Get lost kid," Victoire demanded. "And leave my kid brother out of this."
"Look at this boys," Flint said to his posse. "The baby needs his big sister to fight his battles."
"I mean it," Victoire repeated. "Beat it or I'll give you all detention."
"You can't do that," Flint challenged, taking a step forward.
"Try me," Victoire said, eyes narrowing and voice sharpening.
Worry flashed in Flint's eyes for a moment, and then he went back to being aloof.
"Alright, well we're done here, right boys?" he asked. "Come on, let's get out of here. The baby's not worth our time anyway."
Flint led the other boys past Louis and Victoire and down the corridor. Louis watched until they were out of sight and once they were gone gave Victoire a hug.
"Thanks," he said.
"Hey," Victoire muttered. "Why were they bothering you?"
Louis shrugged. "They think I'm a baby because I've been hanging around with you and Dominique," he said.
Victoire let out a breath of frustration. "Well if they give you any more trouble, just come and tell me," she said. "I'd like nothing more than to give them detention. And I know Teddy would do the same if you went to him."
"Thanks Victoire," Louis smiled.
"Alright, well go on now," Victoire urged her brother. "I know you have an astronomy club meeting, and you don't want to be late."
