"Working on me Astronomy 'omework." Magnus said, from the corner of the room where he hadn't been visible. "I don't see why I need to know the names of Jupiter's moons or if Venus is in retrograde." Frustration seeped into his voice as he was trying to make sense of his homework. He tossed his quill down with disgust and said grumpily, "Just tell me when Halley's Comet comes 'round again and if the stars start fallin' from the sky."

Gaia heard Fade's voice and jumped off her chair looking for a parcel on the floor. She unwrapped a figurine. "I got you this unicorn and had my dad spell it for me! It changes hair color!" blushing a little "just like you do". Gaia grinned at her friend "It is enchanted to change hair colors when you are around it and if my dad is right it should also change whenever you change colors, but I am not sure since no one in my family was able to test it out before I came! Oh, and here we got you stuff for Chase in a muggle pet shop and treats from Diagon Alley when we delivered the new owls!"

"You know Astronomy helps with Divination... just saying" Gaia grinned at Magnus.

( )

"Probly why I'm rubish at it," he said darkly. "I don't fink I'm cut out for divination or Astronomy."

"Retrograde motion shouldn't have so much of an impact on predictions. After all, the planets do not move backwards, merely appear to." Katsumi had entered for tag end of the conversation, and now settled into a chair. "I'm still not used to seeing you in here, Magnus. But I'd be willing to lend a hand with Astronomy. I like stargazing, so I'm not bad at star charts and stuff." She waved to the other students, though she didn't smile.

"I fink I like divination more than Astronomy," he said with a frown. "I ain't used to it either. The other day a prefect saw me trying to get into the Gryffndor tower. Didn't believe me when I told 'im it was an accident. Got 5 points taken for lying and was about to get detention I fink until Peeves started chasing a first year and the prefect went to stop it. But I would love any help. I wish I could just give up Astronomy now."

Fade jumped a little when pounced, but tried to play it cool. Chase must have heard his name because the bengal meowed from behind the chair and jumped up onto the back to see what the fuss was about. When Gaia handed Fade the unicorn figure, his hair turned a bright magenta as did the figurine. “Oh, wow, I mean a unicorn how random. But the hair is cool, tell your dad I said thanks. I mean, also thank you. What an awesome idea.” He willfully turned his hair to purple and watched amusedly as the unicorn figure’s hair changed to match. It had taken some time, but he was finally starting to appreciate his odd ability.

“Always liked astronomy, can’t claim to understand a bit of it, but I like stargazing…” He grinned sheepishly at Magnus () and Katsumi ()

"Wow," Magnus said as he watched in awe as Fade's hair changed colour, first on its own and then with the boy's control. "That's so cool, you're getting a lot better at control Fade." He was a little jealous at Fade's natural gift. "You need ta try morphin' other things.... think of all the mischief you could do if no one could tell it was you."

Magnus frowned at his best friend's next comment though. "I already 'ave to keep track o' the moon, I don't wanna keep track of nofing else." He realised he just admitted the large reason he hated Astronomy to begin with.

The unicorn was pretty, and the enchantment on it was fabulous. Katsumi liked Fade's hair. She rather wished she'd been born with anything but her boring black locks at times, but she'd never go so far as to dye it.

Katsumi tilted her head slightly when Magnus mentioned tracking the moon. "Ah, that does make some sense....but think of it like this. You keep track of what day of the week it is, don't you, and what year? Or the time of day? What about when DADA club is? Sure, maybe it's the night sky where the moon also appears, but...it doesn't have much effect on them. Besides, the constellations all have stories. Do you know anything about Greek and Roman mythology? It's interesting, if wildly fantastic.

"And when it comes to divination...no offense to the Professor, but I'm reasonably certain astrology is not accurate the way they use it now. Methods of predicting the future are often inaccurate, but some of the basic premises of astrology make no sense at all."

She had a point. He didn't like it, but she did have a point. Maybe he needed to think about it without the moon. "Some but," he said with a frown, "I never really liked learnin' about the mythologies. 'Nd then I keep lookin' but I don't see what the little dots are supposed to be. I mean, you got 3 random stars an' its supposed to be a belt? Its so abstract." He pulled his hair as if it would help him see anything. "I guess I just don't understand what purpose it serves?"

His comment about the dots and the shapes and them being ridiculous got a laugh and a full smile, not something Katsumi did often. "Well yes, it is. It's connect-the-dots with a liberal dose of imagination and artistic license. But in the end, all a constellation is, is a pattern of stars. If you can find stars of the right intensity in the right pattern, you'll be fine. I see you already know how to find Orion, or at least his belt." Her grey eyes danced as she reached for his book. "I think it helps that I grew up with kanji. It's not as easy as the Queen's English, you know. English you can sound out, though the rules are messy. If you don't know what a kanji means...it's all or nothing." She opened his textbook to a page with a star map. "The pictures stars make are very simple, and very crude. A wiggly line is a serpent. A chubby hourglass is a body. A W is a chair." She pointed to the main stars those three constellations. "Find the big stars, and you'll know where to look for the little ones."

Seeing her smile and laugh was worth his frustration and eased some of his tension, it was so rare. "You should do that more often, you 'ave a pretty smile." He said it very seriously, rather than the flirting he did with any girl. "Maybe you could teach me some kanji?" he asked feeling a lot calmer as she showed him some of the ways to see it easier. "Why is a W a chair, cos its got a seat and arms?"

Oh, now she was embarrassed. "People say that...it's not that I'm avoiding smiling. I just...I don't know." Katsumi seized upon the return to astronomy eagerly -- it was a far more welcome topic. "I could, yes, though if you have problems with stars I really don't know that kanji are much easier. Maybe you should start with one of the kana syllabaries -- probably hiragana...." She trailed off, and his next question elicited an amused snicker. "Honestly? No clue. Because the bloody Greeks decided it did. Maybe they were drunk -- I mean, if you cross your eyes and sorta squint...."

"I know," he said, "you're just quiet and there ain't nothing wrong with that. I just think its nice, an' I'm glad we are friend." At least he considered her a friend, he couldn't tell if she did but he wasn't bothered if she didn't. "I like knowing you a bit better." He smiled and gave her a slight bump on her shoulder, "actually, I think I could get on better. For one, it is more artistic, and two its got a purpose. You miss one of those little flags at the end, you mess the entire word up. You miss a star and ain't much difference cos there aint sense to it." He liked that she thought the way they had derived at was as absurd as he thought it was. He also liked he got another laugh.

Gaia smiled at Fade and whispered "You know it is okay for you to love unicorns... have you not seen my owl obsession?"

Watching the exchange between classmates Gaia smiled "It is interesting to see Magnus not be flirty. Katsumi you are lucky he can be unbearable!" Taking a chocoball from the side table she hit Magnus on the forehead and started laughing. "I love stargazing, but coming from a family of Seer's it is common for us to use the stars to help figure out future events. It is fun to do when you aren't particularly looking for something." Gaia went back to her acid pop and began making name tags for the presents she had left. ( )

Magnus shot Gaia an indignant look. "Oy!" rubbing his head from the candy hitting him. It hadn't really hurt but it seemed the best reply. He did bravely pop the chocoball into his mouth and tasted it. It was pretty good. "Lookin' at stars is nice," he said noncommittally.

Gaia almost fell from her chair laughing "You really need to work on your angry face!" Tossing the box of chocoballs his way. ()

Sticking his tongue out at her he said, "and you need to stop picking on innocent wolves..." as if he was that innocent. "Cheers!" he said brightly at receiving the box of chocolates, "Got pork pies in me bag, if you'd like one?"

Katsumi ducked her head when Magnus commented on being friends and nudged her. She wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. She wouldn't at all mind being friends -- perhaps she actually considered him one already, though she'd never done any serious thinking about it. But to come right out and say it, that seemed unbearably awkward. "Sure, I could teach you hiragana."

She ducked at the thrown chocoball, but it wasn't aimed at her. The boy beside her wasn't so lucky. "I like stargazing too -- when I got to stay with Dad at some of his work sites, he would let me stay up late sometimes, to look at the stars. He taught me most of them They're pretty good here, but the light from Hogwarts and Hogsmeade interferes some. Try going /way/ out in the middle of nowhere, and there's ten times as many."

Magnus was bold and hadn't realised he'd said anything awkward. He was however thinking more about the girl beside him. She was pretty and has some lovely hair. Blushing a little he was pleased at the idea of learning something that seemed more fun and purposeful. "Awesome, I can't wait," he said. "Oh, what does your dad do?" Was it his imagination or did she smell nice too?

(( Ahaha, it's not awkward for many I'm sure, but Katsumi...well it's far too simple if the reserved girl thinks /saying/ things is enough, now isn't it? =P))

"He's an anthropologist," she replied, relieved to be back into simpler territory. "After all, most Muggles don't know about magic -- so they slap a 'ritual significance' label on things and call it a day. It's a shame, really." Katsumi looked thoughtful. "I mean, there's so many holes in their picture of the world, and from what Dad says it's already hard piecing together the past from what can be recovered without a fundamental misconception mucking things up. ...Not that wizard researchers haven't come up with a few of their own." Her expression turned amused.