au_hogwarts | The Three Broomsticks; Late Night

"Alright," Leah says. "I'll take you up on that challenge, Professor Aquam. If I can get explosions into all of my curricula by the end of the term, you're buying the drinks for the staff party."

"Done!"

Prompt acceptance.

Perhaps too prompt.

"...all right, secret time." The bar stool beside her scrapes as he pulls it out and Sokka flops into the seat with a very serious frown. "M'actually cutting down a bit on explosions this term. They were mostly for rewards anyway, but I'm gonna enforce that a little more now.

"So feel free to fill up the gap!"

Leah looks shocked. SHOCKED.

"No explosions? Then what are potions for?"

"I heard something once about the 'delicate power and subtlety of a proper potion bewitching the mind and blah blah blah,'" Sokka replies with a wave of his hand. "Something like that. And there's certainly a place for subtlety, but you've got to get the kids in the right state of mind to give half a damn about it."

"Pah subtlety."

Leah is quite capable of subtlety when she wants to be. "Subtlety's for when you don't have enough holycrapthat'samazing."

"Well, that's what I've always said, but the Headmaster's had a different view for quite some time."

Soft, mild frowning goes here. The Headmaster is...

...

...his boss. That's the most important thing.

Besides, Sokka's grinning again. Never a terribly long pause. "But mostly? I've got a few students showing serious potential and I want them to be my lab rats this term."

"If you're talking about Leonardo da Vinci," Leah says, "You can feel free to give him all the challenge you wnt, now it's not my class he'll be 'forgetting'."

"He's been here long enough for me to expect more out of his participation in the club than anything he actually does in class," Sokka admits with an amused smirk. "And I don't think he's even in club, he just shows up now and again. Brilliant, though, if he could focus on one thing for more than an hour."

A hand is lifted, fingers near her lips in a 'shush' gesture.

"I am completely aware of the hypocrisy in that statement. Point stands, though."

Leah grabs his hand near her mouth, and keeps it grabbed.

"Yeah, like I'm in a position to talk about people's attention spans or something. Look who you're talking to."

It's true; an hour is good for Leah.

"Since when has that stopped you from criticizing the kettle, pot?"

There is grinning and hand-grabbing, though. "There are a few others who are making life interesting, too. And it'd be nice to try out some of the old potions. I've been here long enough, I think I'm allowed a little leeway on curriculum."

Even if they were currently in place, Leah's mgical eyes are incapable of expressing suitable shiftiness. She just supresses a smirk instead.

"We're supposed to wait until we overthrow curriculum? Coulda told me that, y'know."

"Well, my first year might have had more broken boundaries than yours did," is the sheepish admittance, his own eyes moving a bit shiftily. "Though in my defense, I was awfully young and a Ravenclaw - no idea how much effort a Hufflepuff would go to in order to hide the evidence of a botched potion."

"Hufflepuffs are always my best classes," Leah offers. "I didn't know how much Ravenclaws thought they already knew, or how dangerously attached you all are to your marks. I've had hour long sulks over a percentage point."

"Only an hour? Bunch of whimps, this generation is. My best sulk lasted a day and it was a half point - remember fourth year, Binns' essay on Merfolk-Wizard relations? Ticked me right off, that one did.

"The Hufflepuffs are the best, though. Put a steady effort into it without being obsessive. Still, twitchy little things. I have to make sure not to frown in their classes or they'll get tears in the cauldrons."

"Yeah," Leah says cheerfully. "I remember that. Took me all of an hour to churn something out for that. He never appreciated my hard work."

She shakes her head, sadly. Her predecessor never appreciated any hard work, but at least he never noticed her behaviour in class or marked her down out of spite for her lack of effort.

She is scowled at, much the way a younger Sokka always scowled when his closest friends beat his grades.

"You know, the Gryffindors are my worst. Marks are fine, but at least half of them chat and pass notes during class and think I don't notice."

Leah smirks, and lays a finger on his brow, between his eyes. She knows you're frowning, Sokka.

"Yeah, I just dont' care about that crap. If they're not paying attention it's their loss, as long as they don't distract everyone else. S'why I get them outa the classroom whenever possible.

"Bloody hate Gryffindors, though. They've all got this superiority thing, like they're too good for history. It's worse'n the Slytherins. at least they only think they're better than me."

If you were expecting an argument Sokka, you're not getting one.

That is both delightful and disappointing. Sokka goes cross-eyed to watch her finger poke him.

"Agreed. Even when I let them foul up the potion, they end up laughing about it. Slytherins have their downsides but they are all dreadfully focused on being better than the person next to them."

A pause and he smirks, darkly amused. "Even if I'm usually told by one or two of them a class that I couldn't hold a candle to Snape."

Leah grins. "Send those guys to me. Sounds like there are some people who're genuinely interested in historical personalities."

That gets a snort from him, Sokka shaking his head. "I think it has far more to do with house loyalty and parental bias than any sort of historical accuracy. Not that the man wasn't brilliant, I just prefer to think my teaching skills are superior, if not my inventiveness."

"Mate, I don't care in where the interest begins," Leah says. "That's a hook. Lemme teach 'em bis in the process.

"Hey, are you still using Advance Potions Making for your NEWT textbook? I got something you may be interested in."

"They're yours," with a dismissive wave of his hand and a smirk. "Which I hope you take to mean 'their detentions for me will be scheduled by Professor Ross.'"

What? She can make them do research.

"In the rare event I actually use the textbook, yes, I think that's what's on the list." Eyebrow lifts and he looks at her, hopeful. "What've you got?"

"So when I started putting a War with Voldemort curriculum together for the second years, Leah explains., I discovered that no one'd really done anything approaching an archaeological survey of the sites in the actual school. Which is what I did over the summer.

"Turns out that one of your predecessors had a student who really didn't think much of the set NEWT textbook."

Sokka lifts an eyebrow, not yet seeing the connection. "Sounds like a brilliant student. What's it got to do with archaeological surveys?"

"It's really hard to compare handwriting with my eyes," Leah continues. "But. If I'm right, based on some geneological stuff I'm reading, the student in question grew up to be a Potions Master in his own right, and Headmaster for a whole year."

:D

Leah is dead proud of her research. She may be bouncing a little in the excitmenet of finally telling someone.

The Three Broomsticks; Late Night

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