Stargazer

     “oh … well, then that’s fine,” he replied with a meek attempt at a laugh, his voice a little quieter now as a light sense of guilt settled on his chest. “no, it’s alright i’ll take them.” alex took the two wrapped gifts from her and flashed a smile. “thanks, that’s very kind of you.” he took out his wand and non-verbally levitated the presents towards the office. “don’t even think about it, jordan, those aren’t for you!” he called out to a fourth year eyeing up the gifts as they floated past him. “pepper-up potion, huh? sure, come with me.” he gestured to her to follow his as he turned away from her and began striding towards the potions cabinet. “there’s definitely something going ‘round … you’re the sixth person this morning asking for some pepper-up. luckily for you we’ve got some left, we’re very low on stock at the moment.”

“Oh, that’s a relief. I’d hate to have to take these all the way to your offices.” She teased, relinquishing the gifts gladly; though she normally didn’t observe most holidays like this, she thought the other professors could use some cheering up this year. “I should say not,” she muttered, eyeing the student sternly. As her attention turned back to Alex, she nodded with a sigh, rubbing her forehead. “It’s that time of year, isn’t it? I should just brew my own, I suppose, but that takes effort that I don’t want to expend. I’m glad you have some left.”

She nearly laughed at the irony of it: Alice had caught plenty of people out of bed after curfew, and now it was her getting caught. Blush flushed her cheeks as she heard professor Ollivander’s voice — not only because of her being caught breaking the rules, but also because she was feeling weak. “I — I’ll get back to bed immediately,” said Alice, but her voice still sounded hoarse and she was not moving. 

“No need to apologize, Fortescue. Here, you can hold this for me, if you’d like to stay.” She didn’t like crying students; she never knew what to say or do, and so she reverted to the only thing she could think of - busyness. Holding out her books, she crossed the tower to be nearer to Alice, and the telescope she needed to use. “I never have anyone helping me up here, and it might be nice. It’s not a class night, so you don’t need to worry about being disturbed by anyone else.”

“Oh did you really?” Her eyes lit up a bit and she smiled. “I loved it too! Perhaps I’ll refer to some droids that you aren’t looking for in my work,” Elena said with a quiet laugh.

“I did. I don’t make this common knowledge, but I happen to be quite fond of Muggle culture like movies and things.” Gemma was the first to admit that she wasn’t the best teacher at reaching out to students, but she was trying to do a little better and this seemed like a good opportunity. “I’ll be expecting something of the sort. How is your term going?”

“I have a lot more where that came from,” said Wendy, grinning slightly. “Astronomy-related puns are the best, honestly.”

“I don’t think I even want to ask but if you insist on telling me, I can listen to a few more before I get completely fed up.” Gemma grinned herself, amused despite her dislike of puns in general.

     “sorry, no valentines gifts allowed in the wing,” alex called in loud monotonous voice. “the patients need to rest and poppy doesn’t agree with the sound of positive emotions.”

“What if the gifts and positive emotions are for her, and you?” Gemma asked, holding up two parcels. “I can drop them off in your offices if she’d rather but since I’m here . . .” She shrugged with a grin. “I also wanted to see if you have any pepper-up potion? I’m developing a sniffle.”

      “If you could just give me a moment,” said Alice, voice somewhat hoarse ( and not at all because of a cold ). She was c r u m b l i n g, and she didn’t know how to stop it; all she knew was that she had to, with mourning siblings younger than her requiring her guidance and an Auror trainee program to get into. 

Gemma stopped abruptly as she stepped into the Astronomy tower - and a quick look around confirmed it was the Astronomy tower and not some other classroom that she had entered by mistake. This time of night, she had expected it to be empty, as it wasn’t a class night and students were supposed to be in bed. “Fortescue,” she said cautiously, shifting her grip on her books and parchment. “Take all the time you need.”

Eilidh was tired, she was tired of everything actually. She sighed as she ran her fingers through her long brown hair and looked at the glass of firewhisky that was half gone. Sitting up straight, she pushed her long sleeves up to her elbow’s. She was getting warm, but that was due to the alcohol that was in her system. She liked being at the school again, it brought back good memories of her days while there. However, she also missed being out there doing her job. She was missing the thrill of being an auror. “Such a waste…” She mumbled under breath as she took another drink of her firewhisky. “Maybe not a waste…I need to stop being a pity party.” She mumbled to herself as she leaned her head on her hand. “Is it a pity party?” She asked herself “I’m talking to myself… I’ve gone mental… too much alcohol…” She groaned as she rubbed her temples. 

Gemma yawned as she wandered from the Astronomy down toward the kitchens for a cup of tea. She needed to go back up for some more studying but her energy was lagging at the moment and she had seriously considered just going to bed. That option was growing more and more alluring as she made her way through the castle. Hearing a voice as she walked, she glanced around and spotted Eilidh nearby. “Something wrong?” Judging by the glass beside her, there was but then it might just been a long day. 

“I’m sure you have! I’ve always loved the stars, but you’ve definitely made my love for them grow.”

“Thank you, that makes me feel like I’m doing my job well.” Gemma couldn’t help but smile; she didn’t often feel like a great success as a teacher, and compliments were always welcome. “How has the new year been treating you, Miss Jones?”

The young blond froze at the sharp voice of Professor Ollivander and looked up at her with what can only be described as a eyes like a deer. “I’m sorry, I, I just, I know it’s close, but is it that close? I’m really sorry, I’ll return straight away. I must of been wandering for longer than I expected.” Felicity rambled, especially with the mentioning of taking points from her house. The girl wouldn’t want her house to lose points because she was being stupid. Felly didn’t really care about house-points, except for an irrational of causing her house to loose them. 

Gemma wasn’t generally overly strict, and unlike some of the professors she remembered from her own years in school, she didn’t enjoy snapping at the students. After meeting Felicity’s eyes, Gemma felt a bit guilty, honestly, and sighed. “You’re fine, Miss Diggle. Don’t look like that. I’m not taking points from your house. I’ll walk you back to your common room so you don’t have another run-in with a professor.”

“Nep-tunes,” said Wendy, wide grin spread over her lips. “Admittedly, I didn’t come up with that one myself, I got it from a cousin of mine. Still, it’s a good one, you’ve got to admit that.”

Gemma sighed, smiling only grudgingly; even she had to admit that one was a bit amusing. “That one gets some credit for being about the planets. I still dislike them in general though.”

“Oh, tell me more.”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Rookwood, so you might want to save that attitude for Astronomy.”

“Never a bad time for a cuppa,” he nodded. He far preferred coffee to tea, but he was forcing himself to spend less time holed up in his office despite all of the terrible things that had come with this year’s holiday season. “Fifth or seventh years driving you mad, yet? I always seem to have a wave of second years realize over Winter break that they don’t want to take Ancient Studies next year.”

“That’s what I think too. I try to keep myself limited to a reasonable quantity of tea but it never quite works,” she said with a laugh as she started down the hallway. “When don’t they drive us mad? The fifth years don’t quite realize what OWLs will be like yet so they don’t take it seriously but the seventh years are already starting to stress over NEWTs. I don’t know which group is worse but I think I’m more annoyed with the fifth years at the moment.” She grimaced in sympathy, having seen her share of students like that - not as many, perhaps, but there were a good number who decided early on that they didn’t like Astronomy. “That must be annoying, because I’d imagine they just stop working once they decide they don’t want to keep taking the class.”

“What? Puns are … they’re literary jokes, how can you not like them?” Wendy paused, looking at her professor for a moment. “Alright, let me change your mind on puns! What kind of songs do the planets sing?”

“I just . . . don’t,” Gemma said, bemused. She’d never thought about it, but as long as she could remember she had disliked them. “No, please - oh god. I don’t know, what kind of songs do the planets sing?”

The blond was wandering the halls, and honestly, it was nearing curfew but she wasn’t tired, and she just couldn’t seem to come at rest. So, Felicity figured that perhaps taking a stroll might help her. However, it didn’t seem to do much good for her. “But i got class early tomorrow, I need to be tired!” she muttered harshly to herself, trying to convince herself. 

“Excuse me, shouldn’t you be in your dorm or common room by now?” Gemma asked, eyeing the student sharply. It had less to do with the time and more to do with the fact that she had been startled to here the footsteps and few things irritated Gemma more than being startled. “It’s getting late, and I would hate to take points from Hufflepuff.”

“The entire time I was writing this Astronomy essay I was thinking about the Star Wars theme song. I hope I didn’t write anything about Han Solo.”

“If you make a good reference, I might give you bonus points. I was introduced to Star Wars by some friends and I quite liked it.”