Private Tutoring [[tag Fionn]]

Jessica sat on the window ledge of the Astronomy classroom, a textbook propped up on her knees as she looked outside. It was finally dark and the stars were beginning to shine brightly enough for a lesson- luckily, there were no clouds out tonight. Unfortunately, this did make it abominably cold. A small jar with a bright blue flame sat at the opposite side of the window ledge, eminating a bit of heat that took the nip out of the cold air. She supposed that Fionn wouldn't mind the chill, but was quite prepared with a few more containers if fire was needed. Hope he gets here soon...

Fionn clomped awkwardly up the stairs with his cast and finally reached the door. he pushed it open with his shoulder and loped inside, one arm around a crutch, the bandaged arm holding blankets. "how come I knew you'd forget these? snacks are in there too, because I think we'll be here a while" he gave a sheepish smile and sat beside her, sighing. "stop looking at the leg, got into a fight"

"Well you've completely ruined my fun now! I was going to have you run laps." Jessica shook her head, looking over the bandages and injuries. "Seriously, can you not stay out of a fight for one minute?" She pushed away her irritation for a moment when she looked at the blankets he had brought. Huh... why didn't I think of that? She grinned slightly and reached for one, laying it over her lap and dropping the text book on top. "Well, at least you remembered these, I was just sticking with the good ol' fire in a bottle method. I must admit, not the best method of heating."

"please, without my fights life would be normal and boring" he joked. he spread a blanket over himself as well and pulled out a bagful of candy. "got your favorites, so don't steal my licorice wands this time" he grinned at her and opened the bag of wands, pulling one out and taking a bite. "why do you think blankets were invented? still think the castle should go the muggle way and get electric heating installed, fires and blankets and stuff doesn't quite cut it"

"Fire has been heating things for millions of years," Jessica pointed out, grabbing a licquorice wand gratefully- he's right, my favourite! "However, were we not just having a lecture about power failures in Muggle Studies only yesterday?" She looked pensieve for a moment as she took the first bite of licquorice. "Who were you fighting, anyway?"

"Fires also cause trouble" he pointed out. "someone set the tapestry in the Gryffindor tower ablaze a few days ago, remember?" Fionn shrugged. "and fire can be put out with water or dirt" he took another licorice wand. "fighting Hawkins and that other one-Todd Cross. Hawkins threw an explosion-based spell at my chest"

Wow. That sounded... dangerous.

"You must have pecs of steel to have gotten through that," Jessica said, laughing awkwardly as she tried to make light of the idea. "Well, muscles certainly aren't going to help you in here. You may have come prepared with provisions but I came prepared with this," she said, gesturing towards the textbook. "Honestly, I just wish I was born a centaur sometimes, this stuff would just be second nature. Or maybe a dung beetle. They don't have to worry about Astrology"

"no, I invested in a bullet proof vest this year. who knew it was good for spells too?" he chuckled and took her book, looking at it sideways to try and make sense of the dots and lines in the pages. "centaur, dungbeetle, whatever. doesn't matter. I'm glad that you're you, and you are what you are" he spoke without thinking.

Jessica paused for a moment, waiting for him to laugh or at the very least pull a face after speaking. What the hell?

"Sucking up to the teacher won't get you anywhere," she murmured, grabbing the textbook from him and frowning slightly. "Was there anything in particular you were confused about?"

he realized what he'd said and mentally facepalmed. what was she thinking of that comment? he shrugged and grinned at her. "no harm in trying?" Fionn took the book back and flipped through till he got to a certain page and handed it back to her. "that. I can't make anything our of those bloody stars, how am I supposed to know how to predict the future with them?"

"You're not, because that's bull," she said, grinning slightly. "And that's Astrology, Astronomy's more about the stars in themselves, not what they can tell us. But I guess it helps if you want to... predict the future," she said, air quoting the last three words. Jessica looked briefly at the page before pointing at a small paragraph. "See? Astrology's about how the position of stars and planets affect us. Here, we're meant to sort of look at them and it tells us what time of year it is, or what time of day. That's where the star formations come in, you know like Orion's Belt and that sort of thing?" Seeing the blank face on his face made her laugh as she realised the absurdity of it all. "I know, it's really boring... like, really boring. Do you know the star formations?"

[[P.S.- I suck with stars, so let's just pretend I'm smart ;D I have my Wikipedia open as we speak just in case]]

he made a face. "you know I sleep through these classes. it's all the same to me" although he'd probably stay awake if she was leading the class. he looked at the book then up at the stars. "well, yea. by their Celtic names, but I think I can translate..." he pointed out the big and little dipper. "I know those as mama and baby bear" he went to Orion's Belt "that's Orion's Belt, and over there is the North Star. see, I know that stuff. that part's easy"

"Well, it's all just about where they are in the sky then. I'm pretty sure as long as you know the names of the stars, you'd be fine with any of those questions." She pointed the remainder of her licquorice wand accusingly at him. "See? You already know the stuff-it's just that that Professor Wolpe always has to make things sound ten times more complicated than they actually are. Which I why I don't listen to the lessons either, so you're not alone." Jessica took the pause as an opportunity to pull the blanket closer, looking up to smile gratefully at Fionn. "Thanks again for these. Seriously, I never think of the obvious stuff"

"does Wolpe even speak English? because I just can't understand a single word out of his mouth" he laughed. "Jessica? not listening to lessons? call the doctor I think she might be ill" he smirked at her. Fionn watched her pull the blankets up closer around her and sighed. "yea, I know" because seriously, if she paid attention to the obvious stuff, she'd have probably figured it out by now. "you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached to your body, where would you be without me reminding you about this stuff?"

"Well, tonight I'd be surrounded by far more jars of fire. But your way's much easier, I'll need you around more often to tell me how to do things," Jessica said, laughing. "Now, stars... we'd forgotten about stars there for a minute. Umm... I didn't really come with a lesson plan, I'm mostly just using this as an excuse to get out of the common room. I'm really quite amazed you don't have anything better to do"

"much easier and much more practical. your way'd be giving you blue fingers and toes by now" he snorted and shook his head. in all honesty, he tired being free anytime she needed him. even if it meant dropping everything or skipping out on another promise. "I have to know the legends behind the constellations, right? let's do that right now"

"Well, I know a few, they're all Greek but I have a feeling they won't ask you about anything else. Most other tribes and civilisations were either a bit too dense or gruesome to come up with legends worth memorising," Jessica pointed out. She trailed a finger down the pages, looking for legends to spur her memory. "Ah! Well, I'll start with the more important ones. There's a few that are just representations of the twelve labours of Heracles- you know, like the Hydra, Leo, those sorts. Oh! Delphinus, that's an interesting one. It's about the dolphin that fetched Poseidon's true love, and he rewarded the dolphin by putting him in the stars." Jessica wrinkled her nose as she looked at the page. "Oh, she ran away. I guess that's kind of kidnapping then on the dolphin's part. But hey, not many of these guys did anything to become constellations." Jessica paused for a minute before looking up, smiling slightly. "You know, most of these are just women or men who were either punished or rewarded for love. Delphinus, Perseus, Ursa Major... even Saggita's about avenging a loved one. It's all rather sweet, don't you think?"

Fionn sat back and shrugged. "yea, but there are several stories where the loves are separated. and I dunno, the Native Americans have some really itnteresting ones, and my culture has some too..." he rolled his eyes. "sweet, romantic, whatever. they all get stuck in the stars, away from the reasons they did that or whatever that they acted for in the first place. it's a cruel and unusual punishment if you ask me, for being selfless"

"Hera was a cruel and unusual woman," Jessica pointed out. "She put most of them in the stars, either to reward them or punish them." She smiled when she heard the words my culture. "Oh? And I suppose you know better stories? Like I said, I'm only really familiar with the Greek ones, they're the ones Professor Wolpe tells us about. When I listen, that is. Do you know any of them? I'd love to hear some."

"true, But Circe could battle her for th most cruel and unusual. she's the one who drove Macbeth insane in the story. she also made a man immortal with leprosy when he stole her book of thoughts and dreams of the world and became the greatest poet Ireland had ever had. so I suppose it's an interesting trade-off" he shrugged. "well, there's the story of the Hare. he's over there in the stars, see? North Star is part of his tail. anyway, Trickster wanted a totem, something to represent and work for him in the world of mortals so he came to earth and looked at all the animals. Bear, Wolf, Tiger, Owl, they all tried, but their wisdom and ways were too dark for the Trickster. so, he looked elsewhere, and what did he find? shy little Hare, listening to Coyote's stories. Trickster danced a dance and declared that he had found his totem, while Hare objected, saying he was the least of all the animals. but what was done was done. Ireland and Wales were the islands the Trickster had made, so in Ireland and Wales, Hare was declared king" he shrugged. "an interesting story, but he's in the stars to forever keep an eye on his isles"

Jessica listened intently to the stories, a little saddened when he had finished. She smiled widely in appreciation for the new knowledge.

"That's pretty cool- I didn't know about the totem stuff!" She sighed a little wistfully. "I wish I'd had some sort of culture with these stories. I mean, you've got all this mythos and stuff, it's really... awesome. You're pretty lucky"

he smiled a little shyly, pleased that she liked the stories so much. however he frowned a little at her next comments. "as far as you know you're English, right? why don't you learn the mythos of England and adopt them as your own? or...you could always move to Ireland and declare that your country. you don't have to be born there to be part of it's people and culture, you know"

"Oh, I don't know, it just wouldn't seem right," she said with a shrug. "I mean, for all I know I'm part Swedish or something. I don't remember. There isn't really that same sense of belonging if you're not certain." Jessica smiled a little bit. "Is Ireland really that boring? Or is the housing market crashing? Because that's the second time I've been persuaded into moving there, or at least visiting."

"there's always DNA testing. muggles can actually figure out what you are by hair and stuff, looking at it. if you wanted to know for certain you could always invest in a test" he suggested. "um..." how to get out of this one? constantly suggesting it was just his way of trying to invite her to get to know him and where he came from better, in case anything took off. "it's a good place, and there's so much history and culture. I just think you'd like it, seeing as you like learning new things"

"It sounds like I would," Jessica admitted. "Just about anywhere sounds good right now." She paused a moment, looking out the window at the dimming sky. "You know, you haven't mentioned your family yet. How're they doing?"