Orientation to Magical Creatures on Aladren Commons

Professor John Fawcett

August 15, 2008 8:37 PM

Orientation to Magical Creatures by Professor John Fawcett

John eyed the door of the Aladren Head of House a little warily as he approached it. His knowledge of the younger teacher he was to temporarily replace was scant at best, but her age did not match up with her list of titles. He had been respected in his field, but being the Head of a four-member department at forty-five wasn't quite on par with what Kiva Kijewski had accomplished at half that. A conclusion about a woman reached on the basis of her age and titles was unlikely to be accurate - logically - but John still suspected he'd signed on to deal with a right personality when he let Allison bully him into this job.

Not for the first time since he became wise enough to not mention it in front of his wife, he wondered if there was any way he could possibly pull this off. It had been more than ten years since he'd been in a classroom, and he had no idea how substitutes were supposed to behave; not many of his permanent coworkers had ever gained his attention, and no temporary ones had. Worse, Magizoology wasn't even his subject. It had been one of his RATS - he'd been that kid who took every exam possible to show off around other geeks - and Allison had ensured they had quite a few pets over the years, but it still wasn't...

Well, no need in that. He'd agreed. Grudgingly, yes, and under threat, but he'd agreed. Besides, if he went home, Allison might just run him back into the Muggle quarters with the broom. His wife was very...formidable, and when Allison thought John needed something, John usually soon found that he did indeed need whatever it was, be that a haircut or a re-entry to the educational system. It made life easier that way. Usually.

Grimacing faintly, he knocked on the door and hoped Kiva Kijewski was in and in a good mood.

0 Professor John Fawcett Orientation to Magical Creatures 19 Professor John Fawcett 1 5

Professor Kijewski

August 16, 2008 10:29 PM

I promise it won't hurt. by Professor Kijewski

Kiva sat at her desk going over the reports that she still had yet to grade. Her midterm had been a hectic one with doctor appointments and clothes shopping. Her body had finally begun to show signs of a new life growing and that meant that her old clothes were no longer going to work for her. When her body had begun to expand, Kiva was none too thrilled. She certainly considered her baby to be a miracle and was well aware of what happens when a woman becomes pregnant, but that did not mean that the changes had any less of a negative affect for Kiva. She had always taken great care of her health and body, staying in shape, eating the right meals, etc. So, the small bulge that began to form had Kiva constantly inspecting her body to be sure everything else had remained the same.

Of course, this was just the start of it since she had yet to entered her last term, but she would have to deal with that later. For now, the work that she hadn’t been able to complete needed to be done and she still needed to set the plans for the Ranch in order to be sure that everything was prepared and perfect for when the fifth years went. There always seemed to be things to do and never any time to do it in.

Kiva ran a hand through her hair of curls as she read the same paragraph for the third time and having not picked up anything from it. She was never going to get through all these essays if she kept getting herself distracted. The knock on the door had Kiva sighing with relief. It was too quiet for her at the moment to really keep up with her work anyway.

Standing up, Kiva made her way over to her office door and opened it to find an older gentlemen standing in front of her instead of one of her students. Confusion lit her face for a moment as she struggled internally to figure out who the man was in front of her. “Oh, oh right, you must be John!” Kiva exclaimed, finally remembering that she was meeting her replacement for the second half of term. She held out her hand in greeting with a smile, “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m sorry, please come in. Excuse any mess, it’s been a bit hectic around here. Please have a seat. Would you like anything to drink?”\r\n\r\n

0 Professor Kijewski I promise it won't hurt. 0 Professor Kijewski 0 5

Professor Fawcett

August 19, 2008 9:00 AM

That's a relief. by Professor Fawcett

For a moment, John was seriously worried he'd knocked on the wrong door. The young witch who answered was clearly confused by his presence at her door, and while John had always considered himself less absent-minded than others usually seemed to, it had been forty-odd years since his last visit to Sonora. It was entirely possible that he'd forgotten where the Aladren office was located.

After a moment, however, her face cleared and she greeted him by name, which indicated he had ended up in the right place after all. He smiled back and shook hands with her, pleased and a little surprised that things had gotten off to a good start. If she had the claws her authority level suggested, she hid them remarkably well, especially to be surprised. She seemed to be a very pleasant sort.

"Pleasure meeting you as well," he said, glancing around her office as he entered it. Compared to his - well, the room at home he'd appropriated as an office, anyway - it was tidy enough to please Allison, but she still made an apology for the mess. Women did seem to have much higher standards about that sort of thing. "Quite all right and no, thank you." He was fairly sure that was the politest thing to do and that he was thinking too much about it.

Polite formalities aside, he had no idea where to begin. It was infuriating, and - contradictorally - somewhat amusing, but there it was. "So," he said, "where to start?" This was her office, after all. Not the most original way he'd found out of a social bind to date, but it was her office.

0 Professor Fawcett That's a relief. 0 Professor Fawcett 0 5

Professor K.

August 19, 2008 8:28 PM

I don't want to scare you off so soon. by Professor K.

Kiva returned to her seat behind her desk when Professor Fawcett declined her offer for something to drink. Most people did, herself included, when offered something while visiting another on a more professional level. She supposed it was some unspoken rule that everyone knew. Oh well, she supposed it was all formalities anyway.

Now that she was more clear headed, Kiva took a better look at the man who would be teaching her students about Magical Creatures. Her last substitute had failed miserably and, at the time, she hadn’t had enough time to prep the woman as to what Kiva expected. It was a mistake that the students suffered, or so she had learned from the many complaints she had received when having returned to the school. But, as she assessed the man in front of her, he seemed like he was the sort of man a person would go to when one wanted to have a philosophical discussion.

“So, where to start?”

Right. They couldn’t just sit here twiddling their thumbs. “You have a very impressive resume, Professor Fawcett, I can’t imagine why you would agree to sub in for me while I’m on maternity leave, but I’m very appreciative over the fact that you are.” Kiva began, digging through her paperwork until she located the copy of her schedule and an outline of her lessons. “Here’s my schedule. You’ll start earlier this half of term so that the students get used to having you. Since most of the older students are studying creatures that are more hands on and dangerous, I’ll give you full control over those and either supervise or do office work, depending on how far behind I am and how comfortable you feel with the material.”

Kiva paused, shuffling through her papers again and giving Professor Fawcett a moment to take it all in before she pulled out another, longer, parchment and handed it to him. “The parchment next to my schedule is my lesson plan for each year. The first years are learning about the smaller, docile creatures such as crups or Kneazles. The second years are learning about water creatures, however, you’re more than welcome to combine these two years and choose from the number of creatures I’ve listed there for you. My third years are learning about magical birds, that includes Hippogriffs even though they are also considered Griffins. Griffins are not on that list for third years merely because they’re far too dangerous for their age group.

“That said, the fourth years are learning a variety of creatures that don’t necessarily fit into a particular category. Nifflers are one of my favorite to teach because the kids can play a game with them, but that’s only my opinion and you don’t have to really go by my plans. And like the other group, you can combine the third and fourth years if you‘d like.” Kiva took a deep breath finding herself talking from one breath because she had so much to say and suddenly felt rushed to say it all.

“Fifth years are special because they are the only class learning about Winged Horses and they get to take a trip up to a ranch located in Colorado.” Kiva leaned forward slightly as she spoke, it was obvious to anyone how much she loved her job. “Now, I still plan on going to the ranch with them, but because I’ll be in my last trimester, I won’t actually be able to do anything aside from sit and watch them. I do have a couple of professors coming along to help supervise, but having you there would be wonderful too. Of course, I won’t force a trip on you if you don’t want to take it.”

Kiva grinned openly before continuing on. “The advanced students get to have all the fun with the more ‘dangerous’ creatures. Sixth years are learning a variety of creatures between those who are endangered to those who are vicious. While the seventh years are learning about Dragons. Again, feel free to combine the two lessons. I’m not particular about it. The sixth and seventh years also have the option of going to the Ranch if they want. They’re given more leeway while they’re there though, since they’ve already gone.”

She gave a sigh and leaned back in her chair. “I’m sorry, I just said quite a bit in a short amount of time.” Kiva gave a small chuckle at her own ramblings. “Before I continue, did you have any questions or concerns?”

0 Professor K. I don't want to scare you off so soon. 0 Professor K. 0 5

Professor Fawcett

August 23, 2008 11:09 PM

What about later? by Professor Fawcett

John slipped off his usual glasses and replaced them with his nearly-identical readers as Kiva handed him a copy of her schedule, scanning the papers quickly as she went on. She had a bit more to do than he'd had in California, but he'd expected that. Administrator's abilities aside, Kiva was the only member of Sonora's Magizoology department. A fault of the system, in his opinion - having one witch or wizard teach seven years of classes seemed excessive even with the trend of declining attendance - but a very, very old one.

Since very dangerous creatures featured very minorly in the résumé she had complimented, he decided to work on the idea that he'd been handed the advanced class because it was the closest in age to the students he was used to. John was not entirely sure what he thought about that. On one hand, he'd never had much to do with children, so starting with kids a year or so younger than the ones he was accustomed to would be easier. On the other hand...Dangerous. His best guess of why he was here featured Allison needing more time with him out of her hair than a day at the spa could provide, but he was still fairly sure she wanted him alive.

Another, longer, parchment detailing lesson plans came next across the table, complete with an explanation. It seemed a reasonable one, and he was pleased...right up until she put in another mention of vicious creatures, this time adding a specific reference to dragons. Dragons. John had, of course, read a fair bit about dragons, but he had never had so much as a flicker of desire to go anywhere near one, and then there was the student problem. Getting students killed was generally agreed to be a bad thing. Apart from it being a waste of potential, it also lead to lawsuits. He had even less of a desire to be involved in a lawsuit than he did to chase dragons.

Luckily, Kiva soon asked about questions and concerns. He had a few of those, one of which was, in his opinion, the slightest bit important. "Ah...just to clarify," he said, lowering his readers so he could see Kiva clearly without swapping glasses again. "I'm assuming this advanced group is learning about the creatures in a safe context?"

0 Professor Fawcett What about later? 0 Professor Fawcett 0 5

Professor K

September 02, 2008 7:41 PM

We'll worry about that when it comes. by Professor K

Kiva looked expectantly at John when he began to speak. He reminded her of one of her professors back in her school days who often looked at people over his glasses, making him look wiser than perhaps he was. The memory of her adolescents brought an amused smile on her face that only widened when John asked his question.

“We have a room called the Mirage Chamber. The room was once used as the prize for the house that received the most points at the end of the year, but that tradition has been placed on hold for some time now.” Kiva explained. “I’ve been given the okay this year to use it for my older students. This way, they get to experience the creatures first hand without the fear of them actually being hurt by them. The images are as real as one could imagine, but everyone is still quite safe. I’ll give you a tour of everything later so that you have a better understanding of how the room works and the advantages of the clearing.”

Kiva let out a small breath and rested her hand momentarily on her small bump of a stomach. She was still getting used to feeling him move around. After the moment passed, Kiva returned to her spiel about what the substitute should expect with everything she was leaving him to do. “Alright, aside from all the lessons, there is one other thing that I need to discuss with you. This year we are holding a Cultural Fair where the students get to run their own booths and just spend some time learning about different things or having some fun.

“I had originally been planning on having a booth for creatures that the students can intermingle with. But, since I’ll actually be on leave by the time the fair rolls around, I won’t be able to run it.” Kiva gave John a hopeful look as she continued, “So, if you weren’t feeling completely overwhelmed with everything already, would you mind running such a booth? Maybe getting a few of the students to help you out? You can choose whatever non-threatening animal that you’d like.”

0 Professor K We'll worry about that when it comes. 0 Professor K 0 5

Professor Fawcett

September 05, 2008 8:02 PM

Here's to living for the moment, then. by Professor Fawcett

John supposed the smile was a comment on the foolishness of the question, but it had been safer to be sure. He had read enough and personally seen enough to know some institutions of magical education could be...odd. Melinda Hayes, usually a delightful lady, had once brought in a vampire to talk to her Issues in Magical Ethics class at his last job, and she hadn't even been seriously reprimanded for it.

Good old Lindy. John wondered what had happened to her and Tommy and the rest of the old crowd. Lucy, "the Token Lady of the Magisociology Department" and his protégé, had kept in touch after he left, but as rare was she in that as she was in all else.

"Excellent," he said briskly, pushing his glasses back up and missing when she touched her stomach. He'd have to go to the library - it couldn't have moved far since he last came here - later to peruse the section on school history and architecture. Physically seeing what he'd be spending the term working with would ultimately be more useful for him, but he always liked to read about it, too.

One more thing she needed to discuss with him. If they'd covered most of the major points already, theirs was the next thing to sure to be a cordial working relationship. Rambling on for hours about one's subject was one thing, but dragging out business meetings was another. When she finished her request, John nodded. "I think I can handle it," he said. With student help and the clause about the animals in question being non-threatening, John was sure that he could. He wrote down a note to write Allison for advice about it with a Muggle pen, which he used for all non-official work he did. Quills were lovely, but he had staining his robes with them down to an art.

"Anything else?" he asked her. She'd said that was the last thing, but he'd never met anyone who hadn't, at one time or another, thought they'd remembered everything relevant to a situation and realized five minutes later that they hadn't. He himself had done it before. As recently as yesterday.

0 Professor Fawcett Here's to living for the moment, then. 0 Professor Fawcett 0 5