At the End of the Day...

[Orion/Marius]

"... You may now begin to bottle your Pollander potions and clean up your workspace. I'll remind you that your ten inch write-ups on Pollander are due at the beginning of your next class. Do not set up your workstations when you arrive, as we will be picking partners for next month's report then. For those of you that may have forgotten, the report topic is potions designed for medicinal uses. Do I have all the potion samples now? Very well, everything looks good; you can go early today."

As the students began making their way out of the classroom, Orion sat down at his desk, tempted to just flop down haphazardously like some of the students tended to do, but there was too much of an... audience, for such childish behavior from an authority figure. That was why, of course, he waited until the last straggler had the door shut behind them, before folding his arms atop a small stack of write-ups that still needed to be checked, and took a moment to rest.

A soft peck, then a light tugging brought him back to the world of the conscious- goodness, had he actually fallen asleep?- in time to get a squawk in the face, instead of the ear. He spared the creature a rueful smile, absently petting his comb before physically moving the bottles from his last class into a drawer and out of harm's way, and started in on the pile of papers he'd dozed on.

Rather unimpressed by the repetitive motions of Orion's quill and red ink, Vasyl fluttered clumsily from his perch, and strutted away into the Professor's office. While waiting for the ink to be securely dry on the first group of papers, he entertained the thought of what the students were doing at the moment. Most were probably enjoying themselves, but there might be some working on homework. Hopefully, a few would be looking into potions that met his report requirements...

"Probably not." Dismissing the idea, Orion took up his porcupine-quill pen, and resumed his grading.

[Headmistress Issacs]

Headmistress Isaacs had intended on going to the Potions room to check up on Professor Lamiac to make sure he was doing okay with the Death Eaters that tended to walk in on classes at times. Not that there was much of anything that she could do, except make sure they don't bother them too bad or harm anyone, but she still wanted to make sure her faculty were holding up good.

"Probabaly not."[/b]

"You know, I wouldn't let the students know you are a little on the mental side. They might take advantage of it." she teased from the door. She knew he wasn't mental, she just liked to tease her faculty when they talked to themselves like that.

Actually, she didn't blame them for talking to themselves sometimes. What, with the Death Eaters hanging around everywhere and then some of the students they had to deal with, it was all understandable.

Katerina grinned before walking toward the potions teacher's desk. Today she wore a set of bright violet robes that were tight from her waist up and then loose and flowing the rest of the way down. You could definately tell she liked color in her outfits. It was what made her different from most of the adults of the castle.[/size]

[Orion/Marius]

He paused mid-word on some third year Hufflepuff's paper, and looked to the door at the rather sudden comment from that direction. Goodness, apparently perceptiveness was a trait he was lacking in. Still, the surprise was a welcome one.

Setting his quill aside, after leaving a bit of a large spot at the end of the letter, Orion stood from his seat with a small smile, slightly on the self-deprecating side.

"If I weren't, I'm sure they would find some other aspect to take advantage of. The lot of them are rather bright, after all." He replied, making his way down one of the isles of the room to be in a more appropriate range for conversation. His choice of apparel was typical of a teaching day, with his hair carefully tied back with black ribbon, though a few strands had managed to get free by now, tall dragonhide boots, grey wool slacks, a black belt with silver buckle, and a white dress shirt with the sleeves pushed past his elbows, which was tucked in carefully. The last part of the look was currently draped over the back of his chair, keeping it company, though the thick grey woolen material and simple black embroidery placed the coat as not exactly casual, but not formal, a pretty good way to describe his overall look, really.

He bowed almost to a right angle, before straightening and gesturing further inside, toward his office. "Would you like some tea, Headmistress? I'm sure Mr. Smith's report could stand to wait a while yet before being graded without any serious loss of structural integrity."

It seemed like such a long time since the young, and still relatively inexperienced, teacher had had any company- invited company, that is- and he hoped to make the most of the opportunity.

[Headmistress Issacs]

"That they are, though most of the time they choose not to show it." she commented about the students being rather intelligent. It was true, most of the students preferred to be lazy and not show that they had the slightest bit of an IQ rather than actually make something of themselves, not that it mattered anymore. They were under the power of the Dark Lord and she didn't see any of them getting away from the castle long enough to put thier knowledge to use. But she still insisted that classes still be held.

"Straighten up Professor. You don't need to bow every time you see me." she giggled, though it wasn't as if it was silly school girl giggle, just a simple giggle. If that ever made sense.

"I'm sure it can wait." Katerina Isaacs was never one to turn down some tea. Ever. Well, unless you happened to be someone she didn't like. For example, a Death Eater or something, not that any of them would ask her to have some tea unless it was poisoned.

[Orion/Marius]

He responded with a slightly larger smile before leading her to his office, careful to shut the classroom door behind them, but not his office door. His office was notably different from his desk in the classroom, in that it was more organized, and considerably less swamped in papers. Shelves and cupboards took up much of the wall space, holding or housing odd, but generally beneign, potions ingredients for the odd, bored visitor to take their time looking at. The only space that lacked such organized clutter was directly behind Orion's chair, which Vasyl currently occupied. The wall here was left completely open and bare, except one rather old-looking diagram. It was smaller than the average Muggle poster, and portrayed at it's center some rather unidentifable organ, with smaller pictures spaced around it, presumably of it in various forms; dried, diced, and so on. Small text captions accompanied each picture, with some text placed between pictures, the largest, and likely the name of the object, took up the top of the paper. Draconis fundamentum. Luckily for those of squeamish constitutions, the paper was most often nearly half blocked from view by Orion's chair, which meant that it covered most of the pictures quite well.

Unsurprised, and entirely unimpressed by his own office, Orion moved almost immediately to a small side cupboard, and began gathering all the bits and pieces necessary to properly have tea. Here he paused, and turned to his guest, contemplatively considering her before finally asking. "What sort of tea would you like this afternoon? Black? Green? Something herbal, perhaps?"

Vasyl stuck his head up just enough to peek over the top of the desk, to determine who their visitor was. Seeing the Headmistress, the rather ugly creature hopped from the chair and walked over, puffing out his chest and wings to appear impressive and regal, although it generally came off a bit more comical than that.

[Headmistress Issacs]

Katerina returned his smile with one of her own shining grins before following Orion into his office. The bottom of her robes fluttered around her legs as she walked, tickling them slightly and giving a slight breeze around her.

She raised a dark eyebrow slightly at the rather odd items that filled the room, though she knew they were typical for a Potions Professor. She didn't mind them, though. They struck her as rather interesting, but not the normal thing you see on an every day basis, unless you are a Potions teacher or work at an Apothecary, but she didn't do either of those jobs, so all of this stuff was different in her eyes.

The headmistress looked up as he asked her a question. "I'll have whavever you feel like drinking. I'm up to trying anything." she smiled, her gaze turning to the cockatrice that had removed itself from the chair and was now walking in her direction in a rather funny manner. "Cute." she said to herself, a grin on her pink lips.

[Orion/Marius]

He chuckled slightly at Vasyl's antics, before returning to the quickly developing tea set. After a couple of quick charms, Orion dropped a small bundle of sage leaves into a rather delicate white teapot decorated with thin swirls of leaves and clusters of acorn or upside-down teardrop-shaped black berries, then poured almost boiling water atop the bundle from a simple black kettle. While the tea steeped, he gathered up a small sugar bowl with spoon, two cups and saucers, two teaspoons, a juicer, a plate, a knife, two lemons, and a small device similar to a nutmeg grater. As there was still a significant amount of time before the tea would be ready, he turned to Katerina, and blinked in surprise.

Immediately, he stepped forward, motioning toward one of the two chairs set before his desk, flushed slightly in embarassment. "I'm terribly sorry about that. I'm a terrible host for making you stand so long, sometimes I think I would forget my head if it weren't attached to my neck." he rambled for a bit, trying to alleviate any tension, or soothe possibly wounded dignity a bit anxiously. After all, he'd done something his grandmother wouldn't have heard of; he practically ignored her, and just left her standing there. Unacceptable.

Seeing that things were moving toward the chairs, Vasyl fluttered up on top of the desk, before fluttering over to Katerina's shoulder, landing with a lesser amount of grace than say an owl or other bird, though his grip was comfortably loose. He made a sound somewhere between a hiss and a coo, then promptly began preening, obviously of the opinion that he was the most important thing in the room.

[Headmistress Issacs]

Katerina watched as Orion gathered the things he needed for the tea and began making it, though her gaze tended to wander around at the random objects and Vasyl, who was quite entertaining on his own.

"Don't worry about it. And you are not a terrible host." She assured him as he apologized and motioned her to one of the empty chairs. Of course, she took a seat and smiled as Vasyl followed them and landed on the table, only to fly again and land on her very own shoulder. The feeling was much different than anything else that had ever landed on her before, but she didn't mind.

Katerina loved animals and had been a Care of Magical Creatures professor before she was named the new Headmistress of Hogwarts. To this day, she tended to make a trip every now and then down to the paddock to observe a class or two. What great fun that was.


OoC| Okay, I am soooo sorry for taking so long and then giving you this piece of crap post that ain't worth anything. I'm surprised I got it done, but we weren't doing anything in Geometry, so I finally came up with a little bit of something, even though it totally sucks.

[Orion/Marius]

He offered a bit of a sheepish smile, lingering nearby until he was reasonably assured that she was comfortable, before returning to the tea service, which he checked, then brought the items over, carefully placing them amidst the items on his desk. Unusually, he had no sort of tray for carrying the service on, and therefore had to make several trips back and forth, before he remembered himself and levitated them over. Lastly, he rifled through a cupboard and made his way over, idly tossing a dead mouse toward Vasyl.

Unfortunately, Vasyl made a slight miscalculation as to the size of his head with the goggles on, and accidentally knocked into Katerina's head, albeit none too forcefully. Orion was fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, occupied with fiddling with the tea set and taking a seat, so he missed that part of the exchange entirely.

He cut one lemon in half and turned to Katerina, leaving the cut side of the lemon up, to ask, "What would you like with your tea? Milk? Sugar? Lemon?" While waiting for her to answer, he again checked the tea, before pouring out two cups, hers first, then his own, of course.

Perhaps once the tea had been served, and everything had settled down some, he could ask her the reason for her visit today, if there was a particular reason. He rather felt there was, as most did not go out of their way just to have tea with little ol' him. There were rather important matters at hand, after all, that would surely put a strain on all social callings. But now wasn't the time for asking about that just yet, so he remained quiet on that subject, for now, at least.

((Sorry I took so long to get this out today. It's been a bit... trying.))

[Headmistress Issacs]

Katerina giggled slightly as she rubbed her head from where Vasyl had knocked into her. She guessed it wasn't as smart as she had thought it was, but brushed it off nonetheless. It was just a bird and she was sure it hadn't meant to do it on purpose.

"Milk and sugar, please." she told him when he asked what she wanted in her tea. She knew he would be asking her why she was there any moment now, though there wasn't really much of a reason other than to see how he was doing with his classes and whatnot.




OoC| Sorry it totally sucks. Grr.bark.bark. You know, I think I might actually go get some tea with milk and sugar. It sounds really good. ^.^

[Orion/Marius]

Orion nodded before adding a bit of milk and sugar to her cup, not adding a lot in case she found it to be too much, and carefully handing it to her, before adding a moderate amount of equal parts lemon and milk, then a little bit of sugar to combat the tartness of the lemon, to his own cup. He stirred it for a while, then gave it a test sip, and found it still a bit too hot for his liking, so he decided to finally engage them in a proper conversation.

"I believe there was something you wanted to see me about? I don't often get visitors for purely social reasons, and I'm well aware my taste in tea is somewhat... bizarre, so surely there is something I can do for you?"

Vasyl made another soft hiss/coo, and settled himself lower on Katerina's shoulder for comfort and better balance, halfway glancing toward her before he stopped, and looked toward Orion, head tilted in curiosity.

Seeing the near-glance, Orion shifted uneasily in his chair, and held Vasyl's gaze for quite some time, before shaking his head, to which Vasyl seemed to deflate a little. Opting to explain, and keep everything from turning into a potential accident, Orion opted to explain.

"I would advise against meeting Vasyl's gaze from such a close distance. I know the goggles work, but some of the effect might seep through at such a close proximity."

Cockatrices are magical creatures that are very similar to basilisks; the two are the closest relations either of them have to other creatures, in fact. Unlike the basilisk, whose gaze kills, the gaze of a cockatrice turns it's victim to stone. Hence Vasyl's Gazeblind goggles, magically held in place as they are. A diluted gaze from a basilisk petrifies, but a diluted gaze from a cockatrice... has never been documented. Orion was quite hopeful he would never be the one to have to document it.

((Sorry I took so long to reply.))