Adventures of Beatrice the Basilisk

Chapter 18: Astrology gals

DISCLAIMER: This chapter isn't as wild... but it is wacky. Keep your eyes peeled for chapter 19....

Also- it's very long x. 

A very special thanks to one very special member at barbieque_swine HQ who one of us paid to write this entire chapter. No you will not be getting a raise. 

... 

As the end of term drew closer, winter raged heavier than ever. Hogwarts had begun to look like the inside of a snow globe, or that's what Onika said anyways. She was poetic like that.

Beatrice had resorted to wearing her winter cloak everywhere, as the castle had become so cold that without it, her scaly skin would shiver violently. The overcast wintery days had slowly turned into a blizzard, with snow falling thick and heavy day in and day out. The weather eventually became so bad that Dippet banned everyone from leaving the castle whilst wearing a massive fur coat that kept falling into his lunch soup and splashing on Dumblewhore's beard. Even their Herbology lessons had been moved into an empty classroom on the 4th floor.

Tonight, Beatrice had a midnight astronomy lesson scheduled, so as they usually did on Monday evenings, Beatrice, Onika and Tom sat in the common room trying to get their homework done through heavy eyelids. Tonight, they had moved from their usual place in the corner to the couches in front of the fire to keep warm.

"Can we just not go tonight..." Tom yawned, he was resting his head on the arm of the couch, miserably failing to reach a slice of baguette he had laid on the coffee table.

"Tom! We can't... we can't skip astronomonomy..." Onika yawned, by the looks of it, she too was fighting to keep her eyelids closing indefinitely. To be fair, Beatrice couldn't talk as she was just as tired as them. Fighting to stay awake, she jumped up off the couch and began to pace around the room impatiently. It was only 10:30, but what can we say? Basilisks aren't known for their patience.

"Like we're even going to be looking at anything in this weather!" Tom exclaimed, waking up a bit to raise his voice and complain. Onika didn't speak for a while, and when Beatrice turned around, she was dozing, her head flopped sideways to rest on the edge of the cold black leather couch.

"Well if she gets to sleep-" Tom started, before instantly falling asleep on the other end of the couch. How did he do that? Beatrice sighed, she obviously wasn't going to nap, someone had to make sure they didn't sleep right through the lesson.

At 15 minutes before midnight, Beatrice shook Onika and Tom awake. Tom tried to punch her but missed, what a wacky reflex of his... haha.

"Ughh, what time is it?" Tom rubbed his eyes, one hand still out where he punched the air.

"Time to go!" Beatrice said energetically, for their sake and hers. They hastily grabbed their things for their lesson, threw on their cloaks and ran all the way to the astronomy tower.

"Urg, I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to make first years have lessons at midnight," Onika complained as they ascended the spiral staircase into the astronomy tower, where most of the class was waiting, along with their Astronomy teacher, Professor Antares.

"I don't mind them, but it's so cold." Beatrice shivered, she survived in a cold sewer for 11 years in her basilisk form but as a human the weather really got to her.

"Welcome my little twinkles!" Professor Antares greeted the class as the last students came up the stairs. "Now, as you can probably tell by the weather, there will be no precious stargazing tonight. I know, it's SUCH a shame... but it allows us to use our overlarge brains and get some very necessary theory work done!" He clasped his hands and beamed around the room. A few people groaned.