Chapter 11 - Astronomy
By: Zero Star (zrostar)
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After losing several games of wizard chess with Ron, Harry was ready to turn his attention back to the dream journal he'd been purposely ignoring, but somehow his pen just wouldn't write.
Neville began to snore loudly from his seat by the fire. It's warmth and glow encouraged a good nap before the late Astronomy class. Seamus Finnigan was starting to join him, his large eyes drooping.
Harry felt more awake now than he had all day, so he was the first one to notice when a large gray ball of feathers crashed through an open window in the common room. It bounced twice and rolled across the floor to thump Ron in the shin.
"Errol!" He shouted, in surprise and embarrassment. "I didn't think he was even still alive."
Ron picked the bird up and removed a bright yellow envelope from it's feet, with some difficulty, then set the poor thing on top of Neville to keep warm by the fire.
The large envelope giggled as Ron turned it over. He was having trouble reading the jiggling red writing.
"Whose it from?" Harry asked with interest. It wasn't every day you see a laughing letter, even in the wizard world.
"I think it's from Fred and George." Ron stated, raising an eyebrow. "Says it's from the 'Olifat Amusement Shop - Buffoonery and Jest we do our best! Trickery and Fun for Everyone!'"
Harry looked over his friends shoulder. The seal on the letter was round with the letters OAS in what looked like a ring of sharp teeth bitten into the edges.
As Ron tried to open the letter, it began to squirm and laugh louder. Finally, he managed to ripped it open, and the letter stopped moving with a shriek of pain. Ron rolled his eyes, it was just like Fred and George to do something like that. He pulled out a bright blue parchment with a photograph attached. Two different styles of handwriting alternated in the letter. In the same red ink, the message read as follows:
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Hiya Ron!
We figured you and Harry would need a refill on your sugary
goodness about now. After all, the next Hogdesmead trip isn't
for three weeks, at least! That's a long blasted time without
a chocolate frog. So, figuring it won't be much good to us
now, we'll let you in on a little secret of ours.
We have a stash of all kinds of candy, anything you can get at
Honeydukes Sweetshop. The catch is, you have to find it. It's
a bit out of Gryffindor territory. We had to hide it from our
fellow classmates. Let's hope Snape never found it... haha.
With all the love and kisses our Mum never gave us,
Feorge and Gred
PS.
Ron don't be such a baby and give your repeat cards to Harry.
He needs to start working on his collection!
"How do you like that..." Ron didn't have much to say.
The photograph attached to the letter was an images of the red headed twins. They were waving happily arm in arm outside of their new shop, in Diagon Alley!
"Oh Ron!!! Look!" Harry exclaimed, he could see they had taken over the original Gambol & Japes building. It had been a joke shop before, seemed it would continue to be.
Ron and Harry looked at each other maniacally. Having friends with an unmentionable supply of gags and tricks was like ... was like heaven to any Gryffindor boy! Harry knew this was the best news he would be hearing for a long time.
----
After the letter, Astronomy seemed like a skip and a jump away. They climbed the never ending amount of stairs whispering to each other about the secret location of the candy stash.
"Hagrid gave us a special warning to avoid Slytherins..." Hermione scolded them. Some one had to keep an eye on them after all.
"The only clue they gave us was about Snape finding it first." Harry pondered. "Where would he find it first? Surely not the Potions class room."
"Maybe we can dig out the old Maurader's map! It has just about every passage listed on it ... well most of them." Ron smiled brightly.
----
When the Gryffindors settled into their seats. Professor Sinstra was ready to begin.
"Welcome students. There is plenty of tea for those of you who are having trouble staying awake. One of the few classes you can do that in, so enjoy." She was happy about something. "This year is very special, and since it's so very special I plan a big class project nearing Halloween."
The class groaned mournfully.
"Tut tut children! To make it up to you, this will be the only major project."
The Gryffindor's cheered, well, some of them did. Harry and Ron didn't join them, it probably meant that this project was going to be such a pain it wouldn't make up for not having more later.
"Unless you have Divination's class, you probably haven't heard of the event that will grace us this Halloween. Even most wizards haven't heard of it. Five points to the first person who can tell me what it is!"
The Slytherins chattered with each other noisily, but Ron and Harry raised their hands immediately. This caught Sinistra by surprise.
"Er, yes boys?"
"The Darkest Night." The two droned in unison. Harry was starting to get sick of hearing about it.
"Five for each of you!" She exclaimed "What is commonly know as the Darkest Night, is actually an alignment of Saturn, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Mars, Mercury, and an eclipsing full moon on or nearing October 31. Also known as Saimhein. Should you have divinations make a note of these planets, Trelawney will give you extra credit for cross referencing the divinatory meanings."
Harry made a quick note.
"The interesting thing about Saimhein, a Celtic holiday translated into 'summers end,' is that it's not always on the same day of the year. October 31st is a day muggles chose and now even most wizards embrace. But it actually occurs when the Sun reaches 15 degrees in the constellation Scorpio."
Hermione was taking fast and furious notes to catch every bit of her lecture.
Professor Sinistra continued about Celtic stone monoliths and ancient ways of messuring the night sky. When class was finally over, most of the class didn't even realize it. They had to be woken up, or they were in such shock that she finally stopped talking, they didn't know what to do.
----
Heading back to the tower, the trio talked about when a good time to find their unclaimed tressure would be.
"Not tonight, please." Ron yawned. "I can't stay awake another moment."
Harry and Hermione agreed.
Trudging back to Gryffindor Tower, they all said their goodnight and went swiftly to sleep.
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I just discovered Professor Sinistra's name is latin for "wrong handed" or
"unfavorable"... friend for Snape?
So you know, BIG mythology joke here with Fred and George. Actually I plan
a lot of those, pantheon.org will be your friend. However, I'll let you in
on this one. Olifat is a trickster god from the Islands. The joke? He gave
sharks razor teeth so they could eat people, isn't that funny?! >:(
Oh yeah, the 15 degrees of scorpio isn't a joke. The stone henges around england
can actually messure that.
11-10-02