Looking for answers [Tag Professor Nash] on Defense Against the Dark Arts

Cleo James

May 19, 2018 10:38 PM

Looking for answers [Tag Professor Nash] by Cleo James

Cleo had been immensely grateful for the pass on the boggart class. She knew that it would have turned into some… representation of what she was. Whether it would have been herself spitting fire from a bird-like face, or Parker’s body lying broken she didn’t know. But both options were horrible, and she was definitely not ready to face them. She knew she had to acknowledge and deal with her issues, and she was trying, she had told Parker, but seeing it so graphically was another thing altogether. It might also have opened her up to the questions and suspicions of her classmates, especially if it had been the former incarnation… She knew that people had to know. Eventually. She had to make sure people were safe from her. And this was what was bringing her to Professor Nash’s office now.

She felt nervous about going to see him, not only because of the content of the discussion she planned on having but because she hadn’t exactly done a lot of seeking out of people. Especially male people. Being one to one in a room with a male professor felt like something semi not allowed. Of course, she was bringing one of the prairie elves with her, but that didn’t exactly help it feel less awkward, in that it just drew attention to what was wrong with her.

She knocked on his door. She entered hesitantly - after all, it was fair to assume he had thought it was a human being when he’d heard her knock. Maybe he wouldn’t want her in his office.

“I wanted to talk to you...” she said almost apologetically, “I brought supervision,” she nodded at the elf, as if she needed to justify her presence, and point out that all the requirements had been met. She only took a seat when invited explicitly to do so.

“Thanks for the pass in the boggart class,” she began. She really wanted to hug her knees up to her chest but she was aware that that would bring her feet onto the seat, and it was not how you were supposed to sit on a chair in a teacher’s office. She settled for hugging her arms firmly around herself instead. “Do you really believe what you’ve been saying in class? About monsters not being all that bad? Or are just trying to sugarcoat it to spare the feelings of the monster in the room?” she asked, looking him dead in the eye, ready to search his face for any signs of him lying to her.

13 Cleo James Looking for answers [Tag Professor Nash] 389 Cleo James 1 5

Daniel Nash

May 27, 2018 10:02 AM

Why me? by Daniel Nash

"Come in," Daniel called resignedly when a knock sounded on his door. He'd been stuck inside Sonora for much too long, and he was well passed the point of being happy to see his students during his off-class hours, even the ones he liked. It had been terrible enough at the beginning when his freedom and his holiday plans were abruptly cut off, and it hadn't gotten any better over time. It had given him the chance to find that boggart for class in a forgotten attic storage area he never would have found if he hadn't been stuck here so long, but he really just wanted get away from this whole place, if only for a couple of days. He was starting to go stir crazy, and hooking up with the medic was looking like a better and better idea.

He wasn't any more or less disappointed when the student hesitantly entering his office was Cleo James than he would have been about anyone else, but a moment of dread did creep into his heart wonder what she wanted with him. Was she going to want to talk about hormonal boys looking at her in ways she didn't approve of because she thought he knew some magic way to make that stop? That wasn't something he wanted to discuss with Jasmine nevermind Cleo. He really wasn't paid enough for this.

He waved negligently as she mentioned the elf, which he had come to think of as a given these days. If the elf hadn't been there, that would have caused him some concern, if only for proof of propriety reasons, but otherwise, it was hardly worth mentioning, and he waved her in to take a seat when she seemed content to hover near the door. "Take a seat, it'll be more comfortable for both of us."

She did finally, and he nodded in acknowledgement of the pass on the boggart class, though honestly he'd done it as much to spare himself as he did her.

And then she had the gall to accuse him of lying.

Daniel frowned and narrowed his eyes in irritation. "I would not endanger the entire intermediate class by lying about the course material," he denied with more than a little heat. "First of all, it could actually be important for some of you in a real life situation. Secondly, I'm an Aladren and would never offer false information as fact. That could set back not only all of your grades, which would reflect poorly on me as a teacher if everyone in my class got the same thing wrong on their CATS, but could lead to biases and false foundations later in life which could lead to bad research from anyone studying Defense, and put back the entire wizarding world even more than it already is where science and social justice is concerned."

He scowled at her - not a particularly intimidating expression on his set of pretty-boy features - but it expressed his displeasure with her question perfectly well. "Let me make this very clear. You are not a monster. Werewolves are not monsters. Vampires are not - well," he stopped abruptly and grimaced, bobbing his head from side to side with indecision, "Vampires have a good case for them being monsters, but you are not a vampire. You are a half-veela, not even a whole veela, mind you, a mere half-veela. You have plenty of self-determination from your father's side, and enough to tip the balance from your mother's. I'm not saying I'd be happy about having a full veela in this school, but a half-one can certainly hold on to her humanity without endangering everybody around her if she's careful."

"And that's a fact with no candy coating. Is that clear?"

1 Daniel Nash Why me? 130 Daniel Nash 0 5

Cleo

May 28, 2018 8:20 AM

It's literally your job by Cleo

Professor Nash didn’t seem pleased to answer her questions, even though he was a teacher, and that was literally his job. He was even glaring at her. He was also being totally ridiculous, because she had never said he was lying. Cleo wasn’t used to adults not liking her. Sure, she had sometimes incurred her Daddy’s disapproval, and he had scowled at her and told her off, but that had been when she was doing something wrong. She glared back.

“Good,” she replied, matching his put out tone, arms still crossed against her chest and face still sullen, as he assured her he was making the material appropriate. A lot of his concerns about the impact on knowledge lost to wizarding kind went right over her head, but he seemed to be saying he wasn’t going to nice it up for her sake. She agreed with his approach, but that didn’t mean she had to like him or how he was talking to her.

She shrugged her shoulders in response to his question.

“People keep talking about it like that,” she replied, “Like I have a choice. And at the same time, they’re going around putting in safety measures so no one gets hurt. And I didn’t -” she cut herself off, not sure how to express what had happened with Winston. What had he done, really? He had just come and talked to her… What had been wrong about it? It had made her feel uncomfortable, but he had just… been there. And there had been the accidental magic, but that wasn’t a thing you were supposed to blame people for. She couldn’t name what he had done, and so she gave up - maybe Professor Nash would think she was being ridiculous about it. If he even believed that it wasn’t her fault. He seemed to think she just needed to be careful.

What was she? The question just kept on coming back to her. She knew she was half veela, but what did that mean? Some people seemed keen to emphasise to her that she was also half human. But those both made her sound so incomplete, so mixed up. To what extent was her humanity diluted? If she was half of something else that meant there wasn’t space for everything that made up a human. Was she missing something? Did her veela parts override certain normal human tendencies?

“I don’t know what’s going on!” she protested angrily, “I don’t understand anything about this! So everyone telling me to just be a good girl and make the right choices makes it seem like… Like, I don’t know. It’s up to me, or they expect me to do something about it. Like what? Just try harder? I don’t know what I’m even meant to be trying at! Just choose to be a good person? That’s what I want, I’d rather never use my powers - but that can’t be all there is to it.”

13 Cleo It's literally your job 389 Cleo 0 5