Week In, Week Out

School

14 Jan 1992

Professor Sprout decided that after the first meeting, they would begin by meeting every Tuesday. This would hopefully be enough for them to all get to know each other, while not overwhelming them. She arranged great big trays of sandwiches in her sunny little office, and when lunchtime came, they filed in one by one, barely acknowledging one another. She gathered her notes.

"As this is our first-time meeting during a lunch time, I think I will tell you all about how this is going to work. The first ten minutes will be the time for getting to know each other. Every week a different person will talk about a specific subject. After that, you will be able to go back to absolute silence if you wish. Why don't we start with..." she ran her finger up the list she had compiled at random until she landed on one, "school, which should be a nice easy one to start with considering that you are all always at school. The first question is: What is your favourite subject at school?"

The system she had instituted in the first meeting remained. This was not due to its efficiency in ensuring that only one person was talking at once. That had been assured by the fact that none of them seemed to want to talk to each other at all. Regardless, they all sat in the circle of chairs that she had arranged (there were so few of them that it was barely circle, but she assumed that this didn't matter) and dutifully did as she requested.

Cho Chang, a second year Ravenclaw took the bear gingerly from Professor Sprout before sitting down again.

"Hello everybody," she said nervously, looking down at her lap as she did so, "My name is Cho," Professor Sprout had added that part just in case people had forgotten, "and my favourite subject is Astronomy. I like Astronomy as it connects us to long ago cultures who used the stars to navigate and even sailors up until recently. My mum used to tell me about the stars when I was younger and where we lived when I was younger, the sky was clear enough to see the stars clearly and we would both look up at them and think about my dad who was always away because he used to be in the Navy."

She finished what she was saying then looked uncertain.

"That was good Cho," Professor Sprout reassured her. "Now, does anyone have any questions for Cho about her favourite subject?"

"Well, what's your favourite thing about stars?" Adrian Pucey, third year Slytherin, asked her after taking the bear.

It wasn't the most creative question, but it opened a clear path for Cho who now had plenty to say.

"That we don't know everything about them yet. There's always things being discovered about them. Did you know that the muggle scientists have been theorising for decades that not all stars are hot? There might also be cold stars. Just a few years ago they were able to use special heat cameras to find that there was an object that might be a star that is colder than expected."

"The muggles can do that?" Neville Longbottom, first year Gryffindor seemed floored by that and completely forgot the bear.

"Oh yes, muggles can do lots of things!" Addie Potter, first year Hufflepuff spoke for the first time. In their previous meeting she had simply pointed at the purple butterfly on her rucksack and they had all understood. "They have very very advanced telescopes that can see very far away but they also have microscopes that can see very close and XRays and MRIs that can see through skin!"

"And they've been to the moon!" Cho added enthusiastically. "In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon."

"So it's not made from cheese then?" Professor Sprout said musingly.

"No, it's very dry and rocky. I don't think anyone has ever tried to eat a moon rock before."

"If it were made from cheese, then I wonder how it would be preserved? Wax?"