Professor Thaddeus Flatt (and Henry Flatt)
February 26, 2009 10:38 AM
*Inside Flatt's Private Quarters* by Professor Thaddeus Flatt (and Henry Flatt)
"So you're here to spy on me?"Henry winced under the accusation, feeling too much of the truth in it. "Not exactly. I imagine that's what I'm supposed to be doing, but in reality, I'll just be sitting around, bothering you for a few weeks. I can help with your lessons," he added, hoping the enticement would be enough to distract his great-uncle's furor.
"I suppose," Thaddeus Flatt finally grunted in assent, biting down ferociously on his trampled cigar. It remained unlit, as per yet another diction from on high. "You get the miscreants tomorrow morning then. And in the afternoon. You get the whole rest of the week for that matter. They're mindless beasts, I warn you. Sure, one or two of them have independence enough to back talk, make things interesting. But the rest are brain-washed rabble, regurgitating whatever mommy or daddy fed them since birth."
Henry nodded in agreement, his attention more focused on discarding the glass of suspiciously clear liquid his great-uncle had pushed onto him minutes after his arrival. "That's fine. Where exactly are you on the curriculum?"
"Curriculum?" Thaddeus lifted a disdainful eyebrow. "I don't follow that government propaganda."
"Then, do you have a copy of your lesson plans or syllabus that I can look over?" Henry held back a cheer as the glass successfully fell into the waste-bin and met with his perfectly timed, muted, evanesco.
"Don't bother with that either. It's all stored up here," Thaddeus stabbed the air near his forehead viciously. "You've seen the text books, what else do you need to bother with? I've been running over individual versus group rights with the younger years- completely worthless that bunch. I might force the intermediates to deal with the Vampire War again-"
"You're still calling it a war?" Henry broke in, incredulous. The so-called Vampire War was only named as such because certain revisionists had called the murders political, and thus terrorist acts. "You know very well that it wasn't until Pollace came out with that ridiculous article that no one called those murders a war."
Thaddeus shrugged, plainly unperturbed. "Doesn't matter. You should see some of these Pureblood ninnies get on their high horses over it, though. Completely worth the revision. There's one girl, a third year, who faints or vomits nearly every week; it's fantastic."
"Uncle, I'm beginning to understand your lack of popularity with the parents," Henry commented dryly. "You do know that they've been complaining- so much so that the Department of the Interior is making notice of it. Charles Bassington sat me down-"
"Bassington? That nimrod?" Thaddeus dug into desk, withdrawing an opaque flask and slugged a good three swallows down. "Sycophantic bumbler if there ever was."
"Well," Henry continued slowly, eying the flask with apparent concern, "both he and Pamela were of the mind that I ought to come here for a few weeks."
Thaddeus barked twice in laughter before barreling across the room, his stomach leading. "Pamela Jenkins, your fiancee, huh? She knows how to turn a tail now, doesn't she? I like her, though. My kind of woman; can manipulate a whale out of water that one." Thaddeus scowled at his nephew pointedly. "Wrong sort of woman for you, though. She's the sort that needs a man who won't pull punches. You're a whipped dog around her."
Henry adopted a scowl of his own. "I'd appreciate you keeping your opinions on Pamela to yourself."
His great-uncle grunted in assent, and Henry watched as the man's short fingers tore through the bookshelves, re-arranging some and removing others. A growing pile was gathering height on the floor; after a few minutes spent in silence, watching, Henry finally roused himself to voice his curiosity. "What are you doing?"
"Organizing," Thaddeus responded shortly. "Besides, Felix is getting married again."
"Felix- your school mate?" Henry, unfazed by the non sequitur, asked, unable to place the name's relevance to its speaker.
"Pen-pal. This'll be his sixth attempt at marriage."
"Sixth?" Henry repeated, surprised out of his stupor. The time difference was slight, but enough so that his body was wanting its sleep. "What happened all the other times?"
"The women changed their minds," his great-uncle answered vaguely, a self-satisfied smirk creeping across his cheeks. "I should make a visit on old Felix, to convey my congratulations." Thaddeus twisted around in a surprisingly spry movement for one of his stout stature. "Henry, I'll make the introductions during tomorrow's lessons, and then I'll be off for a week. You can play house with your future brother-in-law Jenkins," the jeering tone was blatantly obvious, "and I can take a vacation."
Henry paused before agreeing, the logistics of sensibility raising their head. "Shouldn't you run this by Headmaster Bulla first?"
Thaddeus made a barking sound that Henry recognized as his great-uncle's attempt at laughter. "Hardly. He'll probably be ecstatic to have you around instead of me for a while as it is."
Henry made a few more attempts at convincing his great-uncle to reconsider, but in the end, as it was with most forceful people, he found the decision made for him. He finally fell asleep some time before midnight, where his dreams consisted primarily of the bad sort, and in the morning, when he woke up to a note detailing the day's schedule, Henry James Flatt felt an overwhelming sense of doom fall over him.
Somehow, he felt his two to three weeks of a visit was going to turn into something much longer.
OOC- If you'd like to read more on Henry's back story, please check out the (soon to be) WtS post here.
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Professor Thaddeus Flatt (and Henry Flatt)
*Inside Flatt's Private Quarters*
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Professor Thaddeus Flatt (and Henry Flatt)
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