au_hogwarts | (no subject)

It's late on a September school night - students should all be doing homework now, really. The Defence Against the Dark Arts professor certainly is. She's marking papers in her classroom, and occasionally batting away an errant pixie.

She's new to the school this year - this month - but she's been told that legend has it a batch of Cornish Pixies were released in this room around 1992 and nobody's ever managed to exterminate them properly. Legend has it, too, that they've evolved and become ever more intelligent, due to the high levels of magic in the air around Hogwarts.

Legend has an awful lot of things. Professor Brown is still making up her mind on whether or not any of them are real.

Teaching is kind of a new gig, and Hogwarts isn't very clear on what, exactly, the expectations for this Defence class are. So her first paper for the sixth-years is along the lines of: "This is what's attacking you. How do you defend? Give three options and three possible escape routes."

Her students' responses to that are -- apparently kind of entertaining, judging by the occasional hint of muffled laughter audible even from the corridor.

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Steph laughs. "I'm not going to lie - I think i'll either love this job or it'll drive me out of my mind. Do you know one of the fourth-years brought in a vial of a potion designed to explode, just to see what I'd do when it blew up? Where do kids even get something like that?"

"Either from their older brothers and sisters," Sirona says, "or they dredge it up from their own strange little minds and suddenly go and use everything they learned for the sake of mischief. We should award prizes for most creative extracurricular use of a subject, really. Lots of candidates to choose from."

Steph shakes her head, with a small smile. "Well, at least that's one fourth-year class that won't try it again. Until, oh, at least next week, probably. Once they've forgottne the detentions."

"I don't like giving detentions," Sirona says. "At least not the sort where they sit and copy things. Some take it as a kind of sport. If anything, I like to give them really fiendish assignments to be completed on a tight schedule. It's fun to see them hop to it and get creative."

"I give them boring work to do and confiscate their wands," Steph says, grinning. "It's good for them to do a bit of scrubbing and remember they've got arms as well. ... I'm going to have to get a bit more creative, I think, to keep up with you guys."

Sirona laughs. "Oh, that helps as well!" she says. "Nothing like scrubbing floors to make somebody mindful."

"Bit of scrubbing, bit of polishing." Steph smiles, glancing at the floor. "There's a bit of a scorch mark there, but I think I'll have the next detention-ee practice Reparo on it."

"And so they learn," Sirona says, "without really noticing."

"You know," Steph observes, smiling, "I think I could really get used to this teaching thing, after all."

"Oh, you will!" Sirona says. "You've got the right sort of devious mind and sense of humour for it."

"I really hope so." Steph is still grinning, for the lighthearted tone of the conversation, but she looks deeply pleased anyway. "I'd hate to have signed a year's contract and now find out I'm no good at it."

"You could always try terrifying and scary to hide that," Sirona says, "but honestly, do you think Hogwarts would have hired you for that job if they'd thought you wouldn't be great in it?"

Steph grins at her. "You hear some pretty interesting stories out there about Defence teachers at this school. There've been some stunners, haven't there? By the state of some of these essays, some of the kids have plenty to learn."

"Legendary," Sirona says. "That's what the job is. Legendary."

"That makes me part of the legend," Steph remarks, and beams. "Even if only for a little while. I can live with that."

"I like how you're not scared of living up to the legend, but see it as an honour and an opportunity," Sirona says.

Steph laughs, turning her own phrase back on her. "I don't think they'd have hired me if I wasn't!"

Sirona approves.

"It'll be fun working with you!" she declares.

"I hope so!" Steph beams at her. "I think it's going to be a great year."

"We can make sure it will!" Sirona says.

"You got a deal!"

With a big, Sirona gives her thumbs-up, horn-fingers, and a curtsey, and then is on her way to leave her young colleague to her work.

Yes, this year will be fun!