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Post by Diana Addair on Oct 23, 2008 11:37:20 GMT 1
Ah, Saturdays.
Considered a blessing by both students and teachers as a general rule, for it marked the first of a glorious two days where none of them were forced to actually interact with each other. Of course, that didn’t mean none of them were free from work, students had homework and teachers had lesson plans and essays to mark, which was arguably more difficult.
Diana had proven herself quite vindictive with this whenever she lapsed into a mood. If she was going to be forced to be stuck inside all day working, her students were going to suffer with her. The brunt of frustration had gone to the Sixth Years this time, who she’d decided to traumatise by making them look up every Death Omen in existence and write half a page on each on the pretence of training them up for next years N.E.W.Ts. Half of them wouldn’t sleep for a week after that, or at the very least be too scared to look at their cornflakes in case they saw a grim in it.
Growing weary at last of hours cooped in her office, the blonde had migrated down to the Staff Room for a change of scenery, but although more roomy it was decidedly less comfortable. Tying her hair back to keep it out of her face, Diana spent another hour working though the Ravenclaw essays on planetary alignment revision before giving up. Time to take a break, apparently.
Sighing and looking rather harried, she put the essays aside and made her way to the small ‘kitchen’ in the corner, which was only really a cupboard, a draw, and a counter and sink. After shooting some scalding water from her wand into a mug, Diana fixed herself some coffee and walked back to where she had been sitting, blowing on the top of the beverage to cool it as she went. At least now she had something pleasant to do. Sit down and drink. Pity here was no one to talk to.
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Oct 23, 2008 12:21:52 GMT 1
One minute he had been marking essays on various defensive spells at midnight, the next Adrian had jerked awake to see the sun shining through his office window. He looked down to see he’d smudged one August Jensen’s essay with, he snorted at the thought, his sleep drool. Oh well the kid probably would have gotten full marks anyway. Adrian rubbed the side of the cheek he’d slept on, not realising he had caused a few words to print themselves onto his skin and was smudging them all over the place. It would have had to be the most uncomfortable night’s sleep the man had ever had. His neck was cramped, his head ached and his eyes were bleary.
Adrian knew of only one miracle potion that would cure all his ailments. Coffee.
Down the stairs he stumbled letting his feet take him to the staff room. Adrian let out a loud sigh as he pushed open the door. The coffee was only metres away, he was blind to all else. He opened the cupboard and stuck in his hand and head to feel around blindly for a mug. “Come on ya’ bastard,” he growled. Where the hell were all the mugs? Oh wait, wrong cupboard. As Adrian straightened up his head collided with the cupboard’s roof. “Shit, ow,” he groaned. Damn cupboards attacking at this time in the morning, or was it afternoon? Adrian wasn’t entirely sure.
Finally, after many struggles, the man made his coffee. As the last of the hot life giving liquid flowed down his throat Adrian sighed in relief. Now he was ready for the day of no students, and hopefully Diana, that lay ahead. Oh God how did he not notice that there was someone else in here and it was Diana, oh God. He must look like an idiot. The usual neat haired, neat clothed Adrian was gone, replaced with someone who looked liked he’d slept in what he wore. “Uhh... morning Diana,” he coughed, trying in vain to flatten his wild hair, “what brings you to the staff room?” As soon has he’d said it Adrian felt like slapping his hand to his forehead. She was staff and they generally hung around in the staff room, duh.
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Post by Diana Addair on Oct 23, 2008 13:20:58 GMT 1
Well, it had been relaxing to lean back in a squishy armchair, light breeze playing from the open window, no essays under nose… at least until Adrian banged through the door and almost turned her own coffee into a lethal weapon. Diana had jumped so hard she’d almost spilt it all over herself. However, the distinctly sleep deprived looking professor hadn’t even noticed her existence and Diana watched in something like amazement as he managed to cuss out the mug and injure himself in about 3 seconds flat.
Um, wow.
The effect of the coffee seemed pretty instantaneous, much to her relief, though the man was now looking distinctly awkward and she felt a pang of sympathy shine through the rest of the ‘omgwhat’ that she was currently experiencing. “Um, work?” she replied uncertainly with a sensation of being caught on the spot, and she gestured to the two piles of marked and unmarked homework as though to emphasise her point.
“If this is you after waking up I really don’t want to meet Idris in the next few hours,” Diana added lightly as her brain suddenly shifted into gear again. Raising her mug a little higher, she spotted him trying to fix his hair over the top of the coffee. “What happened to you anyway?”
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Oct 23, 2008 14:14:37 GMT 1
“Work, of course,” where was a box or a corner to hide in when you needed one? Adrian laughed to try and hide the awkwardness he was feeling. Judging from the tone of Diana’s voice he’d done exactly what he thought he’d done, made a fool of himself. Adrian blushed and nervously twisted the empty mug in his hands, trying to think desperately of something good to say.
Once again Diana spoke but it took a few seconds to register in Adrian’s brain. An onlooker would have been able to see the man’s brain slowly ticking over from a mile away. “Haha!” he laughed, oh God that sounded so forced. “Yeah Idris is pretty bad, it’s best to not go within a few hundred miles of him until he’s had his morning coffee,” he laughed again, this time trying to make it sound more natural.
“What happened to me?” Adrian took on board her question, “uhh well I was marking some work and I guess I fell asleep at my desk.” He idly rubbed at the cheek he’d slept on, making the ink smudges oh so much worse.
Trying to look anywhere but Diana for fear he’d just stare at her, Adrian looked down to see his hand was covered in ink. Oh God again, where’d that come from? He must have put his hand in some wet ink before he’d left his office. His heart began to race; maybe he could ask Diana for help to get rid of the ink? Even though he knew how to do it himself. It was official, he was a genius. “Hey can you help me get this off my hands, I’m not very good at cleaning spells,” in his haste to get over to Diana he tripped over the edge of a rug and smashed his coffee mug.
Smooth, real smooth.
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Post by Diana Addair on Oct 24, 2008 8:39:09 GMT 1
The man was a walking calamity. If she had of known he used to be an auror before becoming a teacher she would have wondered which the most dangerous career path was. Somewhat alarmed now, Diana quickly put her coffee down on a small table and got out of her seat to hurry over to help, somehow. Her first thought was to grab onto Adrian’s arm and steer him into a chair so as to keep him away from anything breakable, but, as she realised fairly quickly, he was an awful lot bigger than she was and apparently she wasn’t that gutsy.
Instead Diana pointed at the sink, virtually shooing him towards it as she turned to deal with the coffee, which had unfortunately gone onto the rug. “There should be some soap over there,” Diana suggested hurriedly, not even mentioning the cleaning charm because at this stage she wouldn’t put it past him to accidentally fire the spell up his own nose. Ought to help with the sinus’s though wouldn’t it?
Diana pointed her own wand at the carpet and muttered “Scourgify” under her breath. The stain immediately frothed up with foam and bubbles, looking almost like it were seething as the charm tried to do its work. She risked a glance over in Adrian’s direction on the off chance he’d gone and blown the sink up or something. It was funny for him to be like this, she realised. She’d seen him at the staff table numerous times before and talking with students, and he was generally quite calm and in control. “Do you want to sit down and I’ll make you another one?”
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Oct 25, 2008 4:53:55 GMT 1
“Oh of course, the sink,” Adrian blushed again. This time as he turned to go to the sink he made sure there were no rugs or anything else that could trip him up. He turned the taps and began to scrub furiously at the ink on his hand. If Diana hadn’t of been there he probably would have started to hit his head on the side of the sink.
Adrian reached for the soap and once again took his frustrations out on his inked hand, without realising it he gripped it too hard and consequently sent the little bar flying across the room, hitting a painting of a sleeping past teacher. The painting woke with a start and started hurling abuse at the ruffled looking man that had the nerve to be throwing soap at this hour. Adrian glanced at Diana, grinned sheepishly and then burst out laughing.
“I think it’s best that I sit down,” he chuckled, “I’ll do less damage to myself and others.” He laughed again. Still with ink both on his hand and face he resided himself to one of the armchairs by the window and silently hoped Diana would sit by him. "No thank you," he answered her offer of coffee, still embarrassed that he'd caused all this fuss with his last cup. “So how long have you been up?” Adrian asked, trying desperately to make conversation and distract her from the chaos he’d caused.
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Post by Diana Addair on Oct 27, 2008 11:31:09 GMT 1
Diana was still monitoring the cleaning spell and was about to cancel the charm when the place was clean enough, when all of a sudden one of the portraits started hurling obscenities of a fashion any of Diana’s students would have gotten three days of detention for. Despite the initial surprise on her part, the humour became apparent and after a moment and she joined poor Adrian in his laugher.
Making a sweeping motion with her wand, Diana ended the cleaning charm and gave the portrait a firm ”Silencio,” for its trouble. There was a bit of associated guilt. The man in the portrait was a nice fellow usually, and she couldn’t imagine she’d be too enthused by the prospect of being woken by a bar of soap either. Predictably, the look her gave her for such treatment was downright furious. Avoiding his gaze, Diana levitated the soap back to the sink, fetched her coffee from its safe spot and took a seat in the chair next to Adrian.
"Me? I’ve been up for about three hours now, I have to if I want to get these essays on reading bird entrails back to class on time,” she explained, with a look that clearly said that killing birds and shuffling through their organs wasn’t the highlight of her job. Honestly, she’d be quite happy to cut that part out of the curriculum altogether if she had a choice in the matter.
”What about you? I’d probably be trying to work out how to get the first years to jinx the snot out of each other if I was teaching your subject,” she grinned and took a large sip of coffee as though the faster she drank it the less chance there was of some disaster befalling it. She knew full well she’d never try such a thing if she was doing DADA, but it was an amusing thought none the less. Most likely lots of wands fizzling uselessly and kids randomly sprouting tentacles.
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Oct 27, 2008 14:17:53 GMT 1
“Hehe thanks, I thought he’d never shut it,” Adrian grinned and then turned to face the portrait, an apologetic look on his face. The portrait glared back and then turned abruptly back to his chair. Adrian chuckled again and then resigned himself back to scratching fervently at his inky hand. He groaned as his eyes began to grow heavy again, the combination of not enough coffee, the warm morning sunlight and a comfy chair was putting the man back to sleep.
His heart skipped a beat as Diana came and sat down in the chair next to him. “Sounds like looking through bird guts is a bundle of fun,” Adrian said sarcastically and smiled. Her distaste for the practice was obvious even to him in his state.
Wow she was beautiful and funny. “Yeah you feel like doing that to them sometimes but the most they could do is shoot sparks at each other. They don’t get up to the hexing stage until they’re in the 5th year,” he laughed, “And I’m sure you’d be great at my job, from what I hear you’re pretty good at yours.” Adrian flushed bright red and looked out the window. The last bit had just slipped out and now he felt like more of a fool than ever.
“So uh when are you finished marking?” he croaked out. Adrian’s heart felt like it was about to explode. There was some more he wanted to ask her but his tongue had become paralysed and refused to work. Instead his mouth flapped open and shut wordlessly. He hid his face in his clean hand, pretending he was trying to rub the fatigue out of his eyes. Adrian took a breath and tried to ask her something again but for some reason he still had trouble getting out the words, ‘Would you like to go out for breakfast with me?’ Instead he continued to stare out the window redfaced.
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Post by Diana Addair on Nov 1, 2008 9:17:47 GMT 1
Well, what with breaking of several things, one very angry portrait that was probably storming around the castle and a few bumps and spills, one couldn’t say it hadn’t been a very interesting morning. Thankfully Adrian was proving to be a lot safer when he was sitting down and Diana was able to finish her drink with no other mishaps. None the less he certainly looked nervous and Diana found herself hoping she wasn’t the cause of it. Understandably he had cause to still be embarrassed.
”Ah, I suppose you’re right about the students, though the real test for me is in a week. Fourth Years and Fire Omens, which means if I’m not careful the Slytherins are going to try and set the Gryffindors on fire first chance they get. I swear they’re all going to lose their minds sooner rather than later,” Diana said with a hint of apprehension, but taking the compliment in stride. ”I have to go get wood in the forest next Saturday before the break of dawn as well at about 5 am, which is going to be fun. You don’t want to listen to me complain though,” she added, giving him an apologetic look. Feeling like she was whining was something Diana hated. Honestly if the shop hadn’t of screwed up her rowan and pine wood delivery, she wouldn’t have to go anywhere to start with.
Right on cue with Adrian’s inner turmoil, a large round clock on the wall made a faint sound like a gong as the only hand reached the word ‘Breakfast’. Rather than numbers, the rest of the contents on the clock face went along with major events of the standard Hogwarts timetable such as ‘Lesson 1’, ‘Lesson 2’, ‘Break’ and so forth. Diana looked slightly nonplussed as she looked up at the sound. Wow, had she lost track of time that completely? In a hurry she made a movement as though to get up, then looked at her stack of half marked essays. Pah, they could wait. ”Are you coming to eat something?”
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Adrian Connery
Adult
Gryffindor Head of House and Auror
Mysterious; another word for boring.
Posts: 110
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Post by Adrian Connery on Nov 1, 2008 10:43:40 GMT 1
Wow she was dedicated that’s for sure. Getting up at five in the morning held no appeal to Adrian, and to go into the forbidden forest too all in the name of teaching. If only those ungrateful kids knew what the staff did for them. “The forest huh? I could come with you,” he said almost automatically as he stared out the window. “To ensure your safety of course and only if you want me to come,” the man added quickly and blushed. Once again he started to scratch at what ink was left on his hand and didn’t notice that he rubbing a patch of skin raw.
Just as Adrian was about to ask Diana to breakfast the bell beat him to it. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath. It seemed fate was against him this morning. Oh no she was escaping to breakfast without him! “Sure I’m coming right now, I’m starving,” he rushed past her to the door, “after you ma’am.” Holding the door open for her, he smiled as she walked past and then made sure he caught up to her to walk beside her to the great hall.
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