neutral_omens | (no subject)

Date: October 25th, 1999 - Late night, near midnight
Status: Public it is, then. (Er, if you don't mind, that is, Carrie.)
Setting: Outside, on the Manor grounds
Summary: Luna is practicing her Astronomy and waiting for Saturn to rise so that she can track it and hopefully predict where and when it will rise in 60 years' time.

Luna fiddled with her telescope, finally managing to make it stay upright properly. She sighed, taking her wand from behind her ear, and peered through the telescope, trying to find the waning Moon in the telescope's viewing field. It was just rising. Mars was bright tonight, but Saturn, the planet she was interested in, would not rise for another hour or so. Pointing her wand at the parchment in her hand, she noted down the positions of the stars in the sky, paying particular attention to the relative distance between the Pleiades and Taurus. If her calculations were correct, this was the area where Saturn would appear.

She was tracking the movement of Saturn every month in order to find if she could satisfactorily predict where it would be when the time came for it to intersect with Halley's Comet, if it did intersect with Halley's Comet. It never hurt to be extra sure of things, and two sightings of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks would definitely confirm their existence.

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"So what did you get laughed at about?" prompted Luna gently, absently pushing her wand up behind her ear from where it was threatening to fall. Newt looked like he would have made a good Ravenclaw. Or perhaps a Hufflepuff. And indeed the latter looked more likely. Luna thought that perhaps she already knew why Newt got looked down upon. In Hogwarts it was usually the Hufflepuffs who got picked on for their good nature and their loyalty. She wouldn't be surprised if it was the same way with Newt.

"Well, um. Mainly because I kept fiddling with electronic things. And breaking them."

Too late, Newt remembered that he was supposed to be the resident electrician. "Um! But that's all, totally behind me now," he gabbled, "And uh, I'm now quite good with computers, actually!"

"Oh," said Luna, a little surprised. Hmm, perhaps her judgement was a tad off. Then she smiled brightly again. "Elek-tronic. That's Muggle right? I've never really gotten the hang of that either - it's always much easier using magic. I've always found it strange how Muggles can manage without magic, but there, I've broken one of Hermione's rules again." She paused. "I can just manage to turn on my computer, but I tend to just write out my things the regular way, and Hermione's charm translates it to the computer for me. And I'm always afraid of breaking it. I suppose if my computer did get spoilt you wouldn't mind fixing it, would you?"

Pausing a while, Luna wondered why people would pour blood on Cass-, no, it was Carrie. Then it struck her. Turning to Carrie, she said, "Was it because you were a witch that you got picked on?"

"Sort of. But I got picked on all the time, way before anyone knew." Carrie shrugged. "Was that why nobody liked you? Everyone thinks magic would be fun, but it wasn't for me. 'S kinda nice to know I ain't the only one."

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