The Astronomy Tower

[October Cricket]

((Before you say anything: Yes, I do know the Astronomy Tower is on the seventh floor in the book. But we don't have a seventh floor, now do we? So, I put it on the highest floor were had.))

October Evangeline Cricket rather enjoyed Astronomy class. The stars were fascinating. The myths about them had endured thousands of years and were still remembered today. Also, Astronomy, while heavily influential in Divination, had a great effect upon other magic as well. Some spells could only be cast when a certain star was visible and some potions could only be brewed during a certain phase of the moon. Astronomy class was dedicated to the study of celestial bodies and their effects on magic. That was how it differed from Muggle Astronomy. October found it all very interesting.

Tonight was a perfect night for stargazing. It was way past curfew and technically, October needed to be in the Slytherin common room if she didn't want detention. Still, they could hardly punish her if she was doing research for a project. It was around midnight and the sky was perfectly cloudless. The endless, deep blue was flecked with tiny points of light arranged in abstract patterns. The moon was a thin crescent and glowed a pale silver against its dark background. The sky, besides having serious effects on magic, was also quite beautiful to look upon.

October sat on the observation balcony of the Astronomy Tower with her telescope, mapping out Ptolemy's 48 constellations, naming the stars in them, and writing down the constellation's effects on certain spells and potions. A few of the constellations were not easily visible because of the seasons, but October knew most of them by heart and could ma and name them without really thinking about it.

Yes, Astronomy was a certainly an interesting subject to study.

[Blaze Spellseeker]

Sitting in the Common Room by yourself was borning on a night like this. The moon was bright and the stars were shining; some might have called it the perfect night. Still, Blaze Spellseeker wasn't satisified. A question kept raising up in his mind and no matter how hard he tired the boy couldn't get it out of his head for more than five minutes. Not being able to sit still, Blaze had decided to take a walk around the school, even if just to try and clear his mind. A little bit ago, he had seen someone who looked like another student wandering the halls as well. After a few moments not sure what to do, the boy decided to follow her. Once reaching the Astronomy Tower, Blaze could finally catch sight of who the girl he had been stalking was. October Cricket, just the girl that had been plagueing his thoughts. "Hey Tober," Blaze's throat was dry and it came out of a bit of a squeek. Clearing his throat he tried again, "Good evening Tober."

[October Cricket]

October, who was completely absorbed in her Astronomy charts, did not notice as Blaze came out on the balcony of the tower. Finally, when he addressed her, she looked up from her chart and spotted Blaze. October blinked her luminous blue eyes, wondering just exactly what Blaze was doing out here at this ungodly hour. She was doing school work, hence her telescope and star charts, and had a good reason to be out here past midnight. Was Blaze just up for the sake of being up? Didn't her know he could get detention for that? October bit her lip lightly. She did not want him to get in trouble. Well, if Filch showed up, October cold always tell him they were working on the project together.

"Hello there, Blaze. What brings you out here tonight?" October asked, slipping her charts and diagrams into her Astronomy textbook and pulling her green and silver Slytherin scarf off her neck. It was a cold night out and Blaze did not seem to be wearing anything to protect from it. "Here. It's cold out. Take my scarf. Without any protection, you'll probably get sick."

[Blaze Spellseeker]

"Oh thanks," Blaze looked at the scarf she offered him, "but I'm fine, you use it." It was brisk outside, but it felt good compaired to how hot he felt at the moment. "Yeah," he shuffled his feet for a second before he looked up into October's face. She seems to be working, he thought, maybe I should just ask her later. Really, Blaze was just trying to think of a way out get out of what he wanted to say. "You see," he turned around and paced to the wall and looked over it, "I was just bored and decided to walk around. There's not really much to do at midnight around here, almost everyone's gone to sleep or something." He was stalling and knew it. Sighing he turned around quickly and looked at October again, "Actually," he grinned running a slightly nervous hand through his hair, "I wanted to ask you a question."

[October Cricket]

October ignored his comment on how he did not need the scarf. Instead, as she listened to his words, October walked forward and looped the scarf around Blaze's neck for him, seeing as he obviously wasn't going to accept it otherwise. "Ask me whatever you want." She replied. "But you need that scarf whether you want it or not. It gets really windy up here and the wind chill gets even worse at night. I have another scarf in my book bag. You keep that one for now and you can return it to me whenever you want." With that, October went to her book bag and retrieved her second scarf. August had said that getting a second scarf was just wasteful, but it came in handy every now and then. She wrapped it around her own neck, tightly enough so that the wind wouldn't steal it off and carry it away but loose enough so that she could still breathe.

[ThisIsBlaze]

"Thanks," Blaze muttered tugging at the scarf. For some reason he didn't understand why he was suddenly so nervous. What reasons did Blaze have in this world to be nervous about anything? Nothing. Not one single reason. So why couldn't he just stop being anxious and ask her the stupid question. "Hey Tober," he hesitated a second, "October, I was hoping..." Okay, now part of the question was out of his mouth, maybe within the next milenia. "So," he suddenly laughed at how stupid he was begin and decided to phrase his question in more of a statement. "I know you'll be honoured to accompany me to our next trip to Hogsmeade."

[October Cricket]

October stared at him for a moment, wondering exactly what to say. She was fond of Blaze, even if he was the most arrogant boy on the face of the planet. His arrogance was endearing, although October was not sure how. Overly confident people were usually annoying and yet she liked Blaze. She just...didn't like him in that way. After a moment of wrestling with her thoughts on the matter, October finally knew what to say.

"I'll go with you on one condition." She began. "The Hogsmeade trip after next, you need to promise me you'll go with Astrum." It was rather obvious that Astrum liked Blaze. October knew it and she was not sure why Blaze hadn't seen it yet. Surely he would love a girl who would fawn all over him and love him and call him the greatest thing that ever happened to her. October did not like Blaze as more than a friend but Astrum did and she deserved a fair chance as well.

[Blaze Spellseeker]

"Sweet!" Blaze exclaimed excitedly cletching his fists in the air, then suddenly the second part of her statement set in. "What?" he asked agast. "Why would I do that?" Then suddenly Blaze laughed, he had gone to Hogsmeade with Astrum before many times; at least he thought he had. Actually, he seemed to rememeber seeing her there last time he was there. Maybe October was being nice and didn't want Astrum to feel left out since she like Blaze's best friend. "Of course I'll go with Astrum," he finally stopped laughing and looked at Tober a tad bit questionally.

[October Cricket]

"Good. I was worried you hadn't noticed how smitten she is with you. A blind man could see it." October smiled. "So, next weekend, right? I'm free Saturday. Let's meet at the Three Broomsticks. Anyway, for now, I think you should be heading back to the common room. I have reason to be up here, but you don't. Unless you want to pretend we're working on this together to fool Filch."