Ready for Classes

[Devon Whiltshire]

If there was one thing Devon hated, it was ignorant and loud children. So, he attempted to seek solace in the Hogwarts Library-- a place that not only held his favorite books but the peace and quiet time he so rarely got. He shifted the bag across his shoulder from his right to his left. He hastily got up and shuffled through the stacks, whistling quietly to himself. The new school year was starting, so of course he needed to prep himself and get lessons started.

He was a bit hesitant to sign up for this job in the first place, however. It certainly was not his speciality to deal with children. Of course he was well known for loving children and everything they bring to the world. He scoffed quietly and smirked at how easily people believe what they see.

He turned around quickly as he heard the patter of footsteps behind him. His face went blank immidetally and he then put on a happy, warm smile for anyone that might be lurking around.

Got to keep up appearances, don't I?

This facade was making him tired, he admitted. But it would all be worth it.

[Thomas Tangleton]

"Well if it isn't Mr. "Protect the Muggles" in the flesh."

Thomas came around the corner with a wide grin on his face. He was trying to escape the festivities that were going on around the school. What with submitting his lesson plans and getting everything ready for all the little snot nosed brats that where going to be coming through those doors, Thomas was beyond tired. He had stayed around to help with setting everything up, not because he wanted to, but because he was the new teacher and apparently he had to do everything.

He sat down next to Devon and he let out an exasperated sigh and he leaned back in his chair. He had been at it since morning, and he had just escaped helping set up the Hufflepuff common room, that was something he was not going to do. He had slipped away and the only place he could think of to go to was the library.

"Are you as excited about this new school year as I am?"

He grinned and he knew Devon would pick up on the sarcasm in his voice. He was finally around someone who he did not have to hide his true personality from. He was sick of pretending to be nice and he could finally be around someone who was not a stuck up teacher.

[Devon Whiltshire]

Devon looked at Thomas with an inward sigh. He knew Thomas was exactly the man that Devon pretended not to be. He outwardly hated Muggle-born students and was horribly cruel to all the students in his class. Devon wished he could be as free to speak his opinions as Thomas, but he knew that his plan would pay off in the end. Upon hearing himself called as "Mr. Protect the Muggles" he couldn't help but let out a very small and quiet scoff. If only he knew.

"I am rather excited, Thomas. What could be more fun than teaching a new group of students something to expand their mind?"

Gods, I sound like a Muggle-loving fool. That is what I'm supposed to be, right?

He leaned back on his chair and stared at Thomas with narrowed, calculating eyes. He knew that Thomas wasn't as ignorant as the rest of the teachers. He could tell Thomas knew something was wrong with his "bubbly personality" act. And to be frank, it scared the shit out of him.

[Thomas Tangleton]

Thomas put his head in his head and he eyed him with a weird look, as if saying to him "Yeah right." Thomas only shook his head and laughed at him and then he closed his eyes, drifting off for a few seconds. He dreamed of being in a huge mansion with no one in it but himself. The complete seclusion was something Thomas rather enjoyed and the idea of going off into the woods to be by himself forever excited him. In fact, on more than one occasion, he had almost done it.

"I will tell you what is more fun than that Monsieur Wiltshire." He opened his eyes and turned to Devon with a grin on his face "Anything. Anything at all. If I see one more student butcher a simple shield charm that a small child with a wand could do, I might snap. Seriously, you will see it in the Daily Prophet "Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher butchers entire classroom. Charms teacher is also found to be a muggle loving loser." he grinned at the last part, peeking back over at Devon trying to get a laugh.

"Oh can you not come off it for a few minutes? In a few weeks your life is going to be hell! Spending your every waking moment worrying about the kids that you really don't even care about. Take a moment to relax."

[Devon Whiltshire]

"Come off what, Thomas? I'm merely commenting on how refreshing it is to be teaching a new bunch of students. I'm sure you feel the excitement in the air. You can't appreciate that?" The last remark was added with a bit of a smirk, although he didn't often make facial expressions when in the company of others. He preffered to keep his face clear of any indication of weakness.

"I do care for my students," Devon lied smoothly. Except the mudblood ones, he added in his head.

He leaned his arm over the chair and faced Thomas now. "I presume you are up to date on your lesson plans, then?"

[Thomas Tangleton]

Thomas only shook his head and laughed at Devon. "You are darn right I cannot appreciate it! Just when you think your current students are starting to finally grasp the concept, you get a group of students moved into your class who, yet again, have no idea what they are doing! When I was a first year the teacher barely had to describe anything to me and I was acing everything. Now days, if I don't write it, draw a picture, and then write it again, the kids have no idea what to do. It is like some kind of demon magic that no one understands but me and that one nerdy kid in class, and there is always one and only one."

He finished finally and took a deep breath. After his rant he let the air settle before Devon commented that he cared for his students. Thomas just looked at him like yeah right, sure you do, but he did not comment further on it. After his first comment, he really was no longer in the mood to go any further with it. Then when Devon asked about his lesson plans, Thomas laughed.

"First years are learning shield charms, second years are learning advanced shields and basic attacks. Third years are getting to learn about unforgivables, while fourth and fifth are getting a nice dose of advanced spells. Sixth and seventh get to pick what they want to learn about, honestly I don't care about them. They are stupid for taking my class.... again. Why would they do that? I make my class as hard as possible so no one will take it when they are sixth and seventh years, yet every year I have two full classes full of morons who think I am going to teach them how to properly dismantle a giant with the flick of the wand."

[Devon Whiltshire]

"If you do learn how to dismantle a giant with the flick of a wand without the use of Dark Arts, let me know. I'd be curious."

He let those words sink in for a moment before he commented again. Deceding against letting this ridiculous conversation go any further, he stared blankly at the fireplace in front of him. An eery silence now filled the room, and he looked back at Thomas to ensure he was still there.

"Sounds like a good lesson plan to me, Thomas." There was an uninterested tone in his voice now. "I don't agree that students are ignorant and unintellegent, but I must admit to feeling the same way about some of my NEWT level students. They expect far too much from a tired man like myself."

If only my students weren't ignorant and unintelligent he thought with a smirk and a scoff that he conviently forgot to hide.

[Thomas Tangleton]

Thomas laughed at his dismantling a giant comment and then he let the silence envelop him. It was nice to sit in silence without having to worry about all of the petty nonsense that was always plaguing his mind. He then turned his head to Devon with a smirk on his face when he made the comment about students being intelligent. Of course they were ignorant when they first came to Hogwarts, that was the entire point of it.

"I wonder if we will see any cat fights this year." He turned his head and stared off into the distance with a look of happiness on his face "There is something about two girls fighting that I just love to watch."

[Devon Whiltshire]

"Oh, don't be the creepy pervert Professor. Although, every school needs one and it sure as hell won't be me."

Devon looked up sharply at one of the books on the top shelf. He ignored Thomas for a moment and wondered. He often pondered wether or not this so called "plan" of his was worth a knut in the long shot. There was a lot of contraversy that surronded the Heaadmaster, Jensen Jameson. When he heard the tales, he'd raced to Hogwarts with anticipated and baited breath. This one was thing he'd not miss on. He was done being the man he pretended to be, and for one in life he wanted to be the man he was. He looked back at Thomas, his expression once again completely and utterly nuetral-- displaying no emotions.

Adamant on discussing something else before Thomas asked any personal questions, he inquired "How did you get out of setting up the Great Hall?"

[Thomas Tangleton]

"I guess I can be the creepy pervert."

He laughed thinking about it, he hated the foolish girls in the school just as much as he hated the boys. The only difference between them was something extra in the pants, but they were still just as stupid if not stupider than all of the male idiots he had to deal with. In fact, he almost hated the girls in his class more than the boys. Always having to leave because of woman problems, he hated it. He used to punish them but the Ministry eventually got on to him for that.

Thomas laughed when he asked the next question. He cocked his head sideways with a grin on his face "I am on my Ministry mandated lunch break." He turned his head back and grinned again "You know, the three hour one."

[Devon Whiltshire]

"Oh, of course. How could I forget about your 'Ministry Mandated Lunch Break'. You think Jameson is a dip-shit, do you?" There was a bit of an edge to his voice now, he was becoming quickly annoyed by Thomas. He smoothed his hand through his hair and sighed. The book in front of him was unopened and lying there, pleading him to open it. He looked up at Thomas again and shook his head.

"So--may I inquire as why you decided to be a Teacher in the first place, Mr. Tangleton?"

[Cindra Rourke]

It was her second favorite place in the castle. The familiar smell of aging pages, cracked leather, and dust welcomed her like an old friend. Cindra couldn’t resist the urge to see what new books graced the many shelves of Hogwarts library since she last milled between them as a student seven years ago.

Her fingertips lightly ran along the spines of titles both new and old, many bringing back memories of late nights in her dorm and cloudy days leaned against a rock along the Black Lake’s shore, knees pulled up to her chest with a cracked spine cradled in the space between. She was more relaxed here than most any place else. There was only so much that could take place in such a space. All the better, to be honest.

Making her way down one aisle, then another, she made her way further into the stacks, pausing every once in a while to pull a book from the shelf to examine it’s contents to see if it truly interested her. Several minutes passed and she found herself between two shelves with many potential tomes, tables on the other side of the stack facing her when the sound of someone whistling caught her attention.

At first, she rolled her eyes and went back to the titles on the various leather spines packed in tight rows.

"Well if it isn't Mr. "Protect the Muggles" in the flesh."

Who the…? Cindra was tempted to peek around the edge of the stack and see whom was addressing whom but thought better of it. Instead she paused, a book open in her hands that went ignored as she stared at no sentence in particular and listened to what parts of the conversation she could make out.

It was clear they were talking, she could note the tell tale rise and fall of their voices, but not everything was clear enough to be distinguished.

A laugh, however was easily picked out.

Quickly she skimmed the page, silently shut it and shoved it back on the shelf, moving further down the row and closer to the aisle between the stacks.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher butchers entire classroom. Charms teacher is also found to be a muggle loving loser."

Cindra bit her lip holding back a chuckle. It seemed some ranting and colleague baiting was on someone’s agenda. She wondered what comment had been the precursor to the DADA line, a worst class scenario mayhaps?

Her eyes were still looking over the books, but her mind was focused on hearing a little more. It was amazing what one could learn about a colleague just by listening. Already she knew one clearly held no respect for Muggles, and one was being taunted for his so called 'love' for them.

It would be curious to find out for herself exactly how much in those words were the truth, on both counts. Little stock was put on hearsay, in her book, she preferred to take the time to sort things out on her own, in various ways. Many people took much for granted, appearances especially.

So much more was learned through observation.

“I'm sure you feel the excitement in the air. You can't appreciate that?"

Reaching the end of the stack, she quietly stepped into the aisle and crossed over to a new row. From there she could barely make out an arm slung over a chair and the legs of someone else, a book unopened on the table between them.

It sounded as if someone was looking forward to the start of classes, but it didn’t come off the way she would have expected. Then again, she might be reading too much into the tone alone. Merlin, how it helped to see a face, they were so much more expressive. The smallest movement of the facial muscles gave more evidence to the validity of a tone or statement.

Another laugh broke into her thoughts.

Cindra went back to the pretense of examining the library’s offerings.

"You are darn right I cannot appreciate it!”

Oh, someone was a bit feisty. The voice belonged to the one who commented on the DADA teacher. Instincts told her it was the DADA teacher. Were they always so… volatile?

Pulling a book off a shelf, she quickly looked through it as their words fell back into musical background noise. She had read this one before. Pursing her lips, she returned it to the shelf and worked her way around the opposite end of the stack until she now stood across from the table at which they sat at the far end of the row. All the more detail she could discern was that they were polar opposites, light and dark, in hair at least.

“They expect far too much from a tired man like myself."

His companion. There was one thing she did feel was in earnest in his words, and that was the tiredness. With classes not even in yet, it had to be something else that made him sound as such.

More words undistinguishable.

Her fingers ran along the spines of the shelf at her eye level.

"How did you get out of setting up the Great Hall?"

A smirk danced across her face. Simple, she thought, offer to tackle a seemingly immense task, that you knew would actually be a breeze, do it quickly and efficiently while others milled about trying to avoid their ‘smaller’ tasks, and slip out when done, much to the loafers’ chagrin. Did no one learn?

"I am on my Ministry mandated lunch break. You know, the three hour one."

Okay, he was either a Gryffindor or a Slytherin. The odds it was a badger or one of her own was slim. They frankly didn’t, as a point, avoid the mundane. They made the best of it.

As she thought this, her finger stopped on a title that did interest her, greatly in fact, a curious one in flaking gold embossed Gaelic. Her attention snapped to the cracked crimson leather as she pulled it off the shelf carefully, for it was extremely heavy, and set it on the counter ledge in front of her, as softly as she could so as not to disturb the two men.

"So--may I inquire as why you decided to be a Teacher in the first place, Mr. Tangleton?"

Cindra lifted the cover of the book and a piercing shriek filled the library.

The sudden jolt caused her heart race and she quickly slammed the cover back, just after noticing the real title that was inside, muffling the blasted sound for a moment before pointing her wand at the cover and silencing it permanently. "Bloody hell," she mummered to herself.

Did that prank ever get old! Switching the covers. Brilliant and asinine! At least one thing never changed in seven years… students’ sense of humor.

The book closed and quiet, she dropped a hand to rest on the cover and sighed. Then noticed she had done exactly what she didn’t intend.

Made her presence known.

Wonderful. So much for taking inventory.