[Lake] Amateur Astronomer

[Kohana Engel]

‘Pegasus...’

The night sky arched over the world with brilliant clarity tonight. To the very far North, the first blue-green flames of aura borealis slithered across the atmosphere, heading into the black waters of space in search of hundreds of tiny, white lights. Its ionic glow would consume theirs in the coming hours, though it was a process so steady one would not have the patience to watch for too long.

‘Aquila...’

Someone did watch, though.

Kohana, perilously close to flouting her curfew, lay sprawled on her back upon the stones of the lakeshore, shaped like prehistoric eggs by the water’s subtle ways. In her hands she held a device of peculiar, complicated purpose; a pair of silver binoculars, which could be transfigured into a single-lens telescope with a few delicate adjustments.

Upon pressing to Kohana’s eye, its minuscule components assessed the strength of her vision – and, more impressively, her desire – to focus upon another constellation, one too far away for an ordinary instrument of its size to detect.

'Vulpecula...’

So absorbed as she was by places beyond this world, the Gryffindor failed to notice anyone approach.

[Gemma Leigh]

"She was a peculiar woman." Gemma's particularly loud voice drifted over the quiet night air. "Did you ever meet her?"

The Hufflepuff adjusted her robes before taking a cross-legged seat next to Kohana. She had to look down to catch the girl's expression as she was still on her back, but Gemma didn't mind. "You mean the constellation, of course. But in Diagon Alley I had a run-in with a fortune teller who predicted rather perilous outcomes. Most of them involved brute murders by fox cults. Weird, right?"

Gemma smiled widely and decidedly leaned back also. She followed the point of Kohana's finger and smothered her hands behind her head. "How on earth did you see it though? That one is so far..."

[Kohana Engel]

The stones shifted, a pale face appearing at the corner of Kohana’s vision.

‘Gemma!’ she breathed in both relief and exasperation, instantly recognising her Hufflepuff classmate despite the moon’s bleaching effect on her canary robes. It was nice to see her, for their paths did not collide often – they had been in the same Year for five years now, yet they had barely got beyond acquaintanceship.

‘Fox cults? Trust her!’ Glancing back into the beautiful device, Kohana nodded in amusement at Gemma’s anecdote. ‘I think Anthony’s been to Madame Vulpecula more times than any of us. His muggle parents are obsessed; hearing grim stuff like that seems to mean the world to them. I don’t think he’s so fond, though.’ Gemma lay down beside the Gryffindor, whose mind wandered to the old, slightly eccentric Seer of Diagon Alley. Kohana had never visited herself, but she knew much by reputation.

Upon Gemma’s enquiry, Kohana’s eyes glowed with a hidden smile. ‘Take a look for yourself...’ Shuffling a little closer to the Hufflepuff, Kohana carefully passed her the apparatus.

As Gemma’s touch it emitted a series of faint, orchestral sounds, aligning to its new wielder’s requirements. ‘It’s a lunascope,’ Kohana explained. ‘You can see rivers on the moon it’s so finely tuned.’

Kohana cast her gaze back to the black ocean above, little glowing boats at random intervals. ‘What do you see?’