The plan had been for Sanaa to stay the year, perhaps more, but she'd been called away and the spot of Teppenpaw Head of House had been left open. Lorraine hadn't considered herself eligible for the spot on several levels, and had therefore been more than a bit surprised when Manfred Bulla had called her aside one day and asked her if she would like to take charge of the Tepps. She would, of course. Lorraine liked a good many of the Teppenpaws and they lacked, for the most part, the cattiness of the Crotali or the wildness of the Pecari. Drake had ended up with the Pecari after Marian had left anyway, and she was sure he could handle them as well as any.
It was the woman's resolution this year to become better acquainted with her co-workers. The librarian and the guidance counselor seemed well enough, and the Runes professor as well. Other than a few dinnertime conversations, though, she hadn't had any direct contact with any of them. It would be nice to have someone to share a cup of tea with once in awhile.
For now though, she had sent an owl to Dalila Bastet with a summons to her new office. Dalila was the Quidditch Captain for the Teppenpaw team, and she was also in need of an assistant captain, as she was to graduate at the end of this year. Waiting for the knock on her door, Lorraine pushed her gray-blonde hair back with one hand and continued writing the answer key for the first-year Charms homework in elegant cursive.
The knock came; Lorraine's pale blue eyes flew up to the door. "Come in," she invited, smiling at Dalila as she walked into her office.
The office had two moderately comfortable chairs in front of the neatly arranged desk. Off to one side there was a bookshelf with some rather ancient tomes on charms in the Roman Republic as well as some rather new-looking tracts on magical engineering. On top of the bookshelf was a plant with long, slender leaves and what seemed to be a self-confident air about it. There was one picture on the wall, a moving scene of Nevadan landscape. On Lorraine's desk was a picture of her extended family at last Christmas. Her nephew, Jonathon, was scowling at the camera in the way that eight year old boys tended to.
"Good afternoon, Dalila," Lorraine smiled at the girl. "How are you?"
0Professor Lorraine TaylorNew year, new responsibilities [Tag: Dalila]0Professor Lorraine Taylor15
It was a little unnerving to be summoned to Professor Taylor's office. The Charms Professor was known for her strict manner and her penchant for assigning long essays. She was never mean, as far as Dalila was concerned, but she wasn't really the warm, motherly type at all. Dalila had the letter crunched in her hand as she bounced in front of Professor Taylor's door. With her free hand, Dalila tapped on the door with her knuckles.
When she heard the okay, Dalila opened the door to a smiling Professor Taylor. Dalila grinned back, her nervousness fading. She had never been in Professor Taylor's office before and it suited her perfectly. Super neat and tidy and filled with old, and scholarly looking books.
Hi, Professor Taylor. I'm good, how're you?" Dalila sat in one of the chairs. "Um, what's going on?"
0Dalila BastetAnd a new head of house60Dalila Bastet05
"Wonderful thank you," Lorraine replied to Dalila's polite question. The woman gathered her papers together, capped her ink bottle, and stacked them off to the side to resume after this brief meeting was done. Now with a clear desk in front of her, the Charms professor was ready to deal with the issue at hand. Things always worked better with a clear desk. It just put people in the right mindset to get down to work and get it done. None of the clutter needed to get in the way. Very much a mental thing, and Lorraine was rather pleased with her interpretation of this. Not to mention that when one was trying to work and reference papers extra things just distracted the mind from the task at hand. As her mind was currently being distracted, she reminded herself, and refocused on the girl in front of her.
"Oh, you're not in trouble, don't worry," Lorraine reassured the seventh year in front of her, pushing a bit of stray gray-blonde hair out of her face. "It was just in the notes I was left--it seems as though you're going to be graduating this year. It would be a good idea in that case to promote an assistant Quidditch captain. It says here," Lorraine rifled through her notes quickly until she reached the one that was necessary, "that Hannah Laurent was the one suggested to fill the spot? Has anyone talked to you about this?" The whole Quidditch thing had never really been Lorraine's cup of tea, and she wasn't entirely sure how this sort of thing was supposed to run. She was hoping Dalila had a bit of a better idea.
0Professor TaylorYeah, I noticed that one too0Professor Taylor05
Dalila felt herself relax even more when Professor Taylor told her she wasn't in trouble. She knew it all along, but it was nice to be reassured on such things. Dalila started smiling. Quidditch? This was about Quidditch? Now that was something she could get behind. Though the other part was a little sad. Dalila hadn't forgotten that she was graduating, but she hadn't realized until now that that meant that she was going to stop playing Quidditch. It wasn't like she was good enough to play professionally.
"I hadn't really thought about a replacement," Dalila said a little sadly. At the mention of Hannah's name, Dalila went through the sloppy rolodex in her head and a pretty blonde girl popped up.
"I guess Hannah would be okay." Dalila tried to think of anyone she'd rather have as her assistant captain. Immediately Lexi was thought of, but since they were graduating at the same time, it wasn't going to happen. The only other person besides Hannah and Lexi that she might consider was that redheaded Keeper. Josiah. But if Hannah was recommended then Dalila would probably just go with that.
"I guess I should talk to Hannah," Dalila thought out loud once her thought session had ended. "This being in charge thing is weird. Um, is that it or is there some thing else?"
Although it seemed Dalila hadn't really thought about her replacement much before, she did not seem averse to Hannah receiving the spot of assistant Quidditch captain, which Lorraine was rather pleased about. The woman was not a fan of stepping over peoples' decisions, particularly when she had no idea whatsoever had gone into making those decisions. She was a firm believer in the system of delegation, allowing those with knowledge to make the choices in their area of expertise. After all, if Dalila hadn't any other suggestions to offer and the previous Head of Teppenpaw House had thought Hannah a good idea, who was Lorraine to argue? She only had a vague idea as to who Hannah even was.
"That would be best," Lorraine smiled again at Dalila. She seemed rather thrown off by her impending graduation, but Lorraine supposed many of the seventh years would be. In her own memory, school had passed by rather quickly and she'd been pleased to move on to college. Not that she'd disliked Sonora, but she had been more interested in higher level work than the usual standardised testing and learning to the standardised test. In her day, Sonora hadn't offered any sort of sciences curriculum other than Astronomy, and she'd been much too shy to ask teachers to assist her.
"That's it," the Charms professor nodded. "Unless you have any questions?"