Unwinding on Elective Hall

Professor McFarlan

May 18, 2007 12:23 AM

Unwinding by Professor McFarlan

Bare feet never felt better. Why in the world did she decide to where heels all day? Vanity, thy name is woman Kathleen thought as she donned her exercise clothes and tied back her hair. It’d been a long day. By and large a good day, but a long day. She promised herself a long bubble bath after her workout and some chamomile tea. Farewell stress.

Kathleen left her living quarters and crossed through her office. She stopped longed enough to give Andromeda her beloved barn owl a treat and a scritch. She was so glad she took the time to make the office hers. Her favorite part of it was the huge window that reached almost the entire width and length of the wall. It gave a wonderful view of the sunrise each morning. She’d put so many herbs, vines and flowering plants there that it looked like the place belonged to a Herbologist rather than an Astronomer. Well, everything in balance.

She’d set up her alter right in front of that window. It was a very low table she could sit or kneel in front of to meditate. On the table, perfectly positioned was a feather from Andromeda, a hand hammered silver bowl filled with clear water, a Hawthorne tree miniaturized into a Bonsai size and three candles. Surrounded by Earth, Air, Fire and Water lay her Book of Shadows. In front of altar was a large poofey cushion for comfortable meditation. The rest of the furniture was comfortable, no frills or lace, but definitely feminine. The shiny polish of the cheery wood desk gleamed waiting to be covered with the tons of paperwork that would inevitably hide its luster sooner rather than later.

She made her way to the large classroom and invoked the power of the crystal once more. A wave of her wand pushed all the chairs against opposite walls. Another flick and the wireless began playing her favorite work out routine.

She loved dancing with the crystal invoked. It felt a bit like being back home in her folks’ place. Well, it was her brothers’ now that they had retired. She warmed up with slow, muscle building, ballet moves. By the time the wireless switched to the hard pounding, fast music of the Haggard Harpies, she was ready to let off some stream. Kathleen used the entire room to her advantage. Using her own combination of hip-hop, ballet, and gymnastics, she crossed every inch of floor space.

This part had changed a bit over the years. She couldn’t do back flips anymore, but her thirty two year old body still did a decent walk over and she could still do the splits and spins. By the time the cool down piece began, she was drenched with perspiration and her spirit was revived. The music and Kathleen’s dance style changed. Slowing her heart and respirations gradually, she danced and swayed, partner-less, to a slow samba.

Twirling to another part of the room, she saw out of the corner of her eye the shadowy silhouette a person leaning against the frame of the classroom door she’d forgotten to close. Gasping in surprise and grateful she’d stopped the scream, Kathleen stopped dead in her tracks as the last notes of the Samba died away. Laughing and panting, she laid her hand on her chest feeling more than a bit foolish.

“God-dess, but you gave me a fright.” Kathleen panted not angrily. She conjured a bottle of icy cold water and took a couple of swallows. “Do a body a favor and knock next time, so they know they’re making a fool of themselves, won’t you?”
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0 Professor McFarlan Unwinding 1467 Professor McFarlan 1 5

Simon Tellerman, Master of the Grounds

May 19, 2007 4:45 PM

Uncovered by Simon Tellerman, Master of the Grounds

Simon hadn't meant to bother the new Astronomy teacher, nor hover in her doorway for as long as he had. He'd just been on his way from one part of the school to the other, checking on the progress of the cleaning elves (the Second Order of Janitors was responisble for this stretch of cooridors and their evaluation was due today) when the music caught his attention.

He'd been expecting, well, he wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting, but a dance recital wasn't it. He leaned against the doorframe and watched quietly as the woman twirled and spun and dropped down into splits. She didn't notice her audience until she was winding down, which judging by how abruptly she stopped dancing, was just as well.

Simon began to clap, and smiled at her, his grin only widening when she told him to warn a body. "Oh, I assure you," he promised, "there were no fools made here tonight. I've got some aunts who'd love to still be able to pull off some of those moves."

Stepping into the room, Simon extended out his right hand, "Simon Tellerman," he introduced himself. He'd just showered an hour ago, when he came in from the gardens, so he was confident his blond hair was combed and his robes were clean, for a good first impression. "Pleasure to meet you, and an even greater pleasure to see your performance."

There weren't a lot of new teachers showing up halfway through the year, and the one temporarily taking over for Kiva was rumored to be much older than this lady was, not to mention this classroom certainly wasn't for Care of Magical Creatures, so Simon was pretty sure of his guess, "I take it you're the new Astronomy teacher?"

1 Simon Tellerman, Master of the Grounds Uncovered 14 Simon Tellerman, Master of the Grounds 0 5

Kathleen McFarlan

May 20, 2007 1:16 PM

Unbelievable by Kathleen McFarlan

Kathleen had meant to look up Mr. Tellmerman earlier to make arrangements to use the coaches but talking to Professors Powell and O’Leary took much longer than she had expected yesterday and today just got away from her. She’d made a mental note to seek him out before classes in the morning. But forgetting to close the door rendered that unnecessary for here he was.

Blonde, tanned, and full of himself, he didn’t fit her mental image of a grounds keeper. They were usually much older and less elegant in speech and manner. She almost, almost took insult at the aunts comment. She was only thirty two for pity’s sake, not exactly a Crone. All her nephews and nieces were under age ten. But he was the man with the wagons and it would do little good to antagonize him and he was doing his best to be flattering.

“I grew up around music and dancing,” Kathleen explained, grinning. “It’s perfect for exercise, for both its cardiovascular benefits and strength building. But I’ll make sure I’ve closed all doors first from now on.”

She took a couple more sips of water thinking she must look a sight. Sweaty workout clothes, no makeup and hair coming out of her ponytail all over the place was not the way she liked to meet people for the first time. She conjured a towel to wipe the perspiration from her hands.

“Your right, I’m the new Astronomy Professor, Kathleen McFarlan,” she offered her right hand to the grounds keeper. “It’s good to meet you, Mr. Tellerman. In fact you’re the very person I most wanted to meet. Could I offer you something cold or perhaps a cup of coffee or tea?”
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0 Kathleen McFarlan Unbelievable 1467 Kathleen McFarlan 0 5

Simon

May 23, 2007 2:33 PM

Unfounded by Simon

Simon's eyes widened and he shook his head in disagreement as she swore to keep her doors closed hereafter. Over the last four years, he'd grown accustomed to casual magic use, so while she conjured a towel and dried her sweat, he was more concerned with assuring her, "I have professional dancers in my family so I feel confident telling you that you've got nothing to feel embarrassed about."

He stepped nearer when she offered her right hand and he shook it pleasantly, though he was wondering why she'd been wanting to meet him specifically. He hoped it wasn't about termites. He wasn't sure his ego would be able to take that blow. That, and he thought he'd gotten rid of the infestation before it spread beyond the carriage house.

"Lemonade would be great, if you have any," he answered her request for drink preference. "Otherwise tea is fine, preferably herbal."

He looked over at the edges of the room to where some comfortable looking recliners had been pushed and patted around his person until he found his wand in his back jeans pocket. He used a simple summoning charm to call over two of them and made himself comfortable on the one further away from Kathleen.

"If you ever want some live music to dance to, I'd be glad to provide it," he said as he leaned back and put his feet up. This was good. As long as she didn't bring up termites, he was looking forward to the next few minutes. "You said you grew up around music, too, do you play at all?"

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Kathleen

May 23, 2007 9:03 PM

Unabashed by Kathleen

“Well, thank you, Mr. Tellerman,” Kathleen smiled as he complimented her dancing. She was very glad she hadn’t taken umbrage at the “aunts” remark. She was being too sensitive. He really was quite charming. “But I’m afraid that routine was never intended for public viewing.”

Suddenly, the question of the coaches could wait. Kathleen realized that she had talked to no one about anything but school and its related topics in ages. The idea of talking about music appealed to her very much, somehow, it made her feel like a human being again.

“I took the usual ballet lessons every little girl does.” she began as Mr. Tellerman pulled up two recliners and made himself at home. “My folks owned the Cosmos. It’s a wizard’s nightclub in Great Britain and was enchanted very much like this room. I grew up there and I learned all kinds of dance styles from Celli, to ballroom, to modern styles.”

Kathleen was taking a seat when Mr. Tellerman offered to play for her as she danced and almost missed the chair. To cover her discomfort, she reached up and pulled the tie that held what was left of her ponytail and finger combed her auburn hair, wishing it wouldn’t be rude to make him wait while she jumped in the shower and put on decent robes.

“As with any self respecting colleen, I can play the penny whistle, bodran, and the bones.” Kathleen answered him when she asked if she played an instrument, glad to steer clear of the dancing comment. “I’d not enough patience to learn the harp or fiddle, but I’m not a bad hand at the guitar. I was sort of a mascot when I was little to all the bands that played regularly at my folk’s place so I got a lot of free lessons. By the way, what do you play, Mr. Tellerman?”

His suggestion of either lemon-aide or herbal tea gave Kathleen an idea. She was no good at conjuring lemon-aide. It always tasted like that muggle powdered stuff. But a bit of iced tea would take very good right now. Excusing herself for a moment, she ran into her office and set the leaves to brew while she threw off her work clothes and changed into a turquoise robe. Transferring the tea to two tall frosted glasses, she hurried back out into classroom.

“I’m afraid this isn’t lemon-aide, but it’s my own recipe,” Kathleen handed Mr. Tellerman one of the glasses. “It’s lemon balm and mint with a bit of sweetening.”

She sat back down and took a sip from her own glass. “The herbs are mine too.” Kathleen smiled wickedly, her emerald eyes dancing. “I grow my own.”
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0 Kathleen Unabashed 0 Kathleen 0 5

Simon

May 24, 2007 11:09 PM

unreserved by Simon

Simon took the opportunity to take a good look at the room as she drew attention to it and nodded in approval. The stage set could make or break a production and if the nightclub looked at all like this any act there was sure to be a hit so long as the sound system wasn't completely horrible. He'd love to play a gig with these kinds of surroundings. The performer did run the risk of being outshone, but Simon had no worries about that.

He had no idea what 'Celli' was - though, admittedly, he'd stuck more to the playing of instruments than the dancing to their sound. On the other hand, he didn't know what a 'colleen' was either - besides a girl's name - so it might just be a difference of naming conventions.

He nodded along as she named different instruments - ditto to 'the bones' but he assumed it was some sort of percussion made out of, well, bones.

"Simon, please," he begged when she called him by Mr. Tellerman. "Not even my father goes by Mr. Tellerman. We California Pierces are an informal lot." To say the very least. Hopefully, she'd been warned he was one of that tribe before he just dropped that on her. Not that there were a lot of Tellermans in the magical community, so it wasn't hard to connect him to the California squib who ran for president of the Wizarding America on the Muggle Integration ticket a few years back. Simon's father was still psyched about making it onto no less than three state ballots.

On the other hand, she was Irish, so maybe she hadn't heard of them.

"And mostly strings," he added in answer her question. "Guitar, banjo, and mandolin primarily, but I can do the mountain dulcimer and fiddle, too. I can only make up new songs that I'll never be able to play the same way twice on a hammer dulcimer, but I don't sound horrible on it, but then again, nobody can without trying. Well, except Saul, of course, but that's a different talent entirely. Seriously, he's a great kid, but if you ever use music in your lessons, don't let him even touch the instruments unless they're safely away in a case because I swear he's cursed."

When she gave him her homemade drink, Simon accepted it with a smile and a thank-you and pretended not to notice that she'd felt the need to change out of her work-out robes while she was out of sight. The turquoise was a definite improvement though. It complimented her hair very nicely. Taking a sip, he nodded in approval. "This is good," he complimented her.

1 Simon unreserved 14 Simon 0 5

Kathleen

May 25, 2007 2:26 AM

Uninhibited by Kathleen

“Very well, Simon,” Kathleen responded when he asked her to call him by his first name. “But only if you’ll call me Kathleen.”

His next comment about the California Pierces rang a bell, but Kathleen couldn’t quite put a finger on it. It was funny, for a country less than two hundred and fifty years old, how so many families took stock in their surnames and lineage. They were as concerned with it, some even more so, as the ancient families of Europe. Not that she couldn’t understand pride in one’s heritage. Her own family could trace it’s roots back to the time of King Brian.

“I think the mandolin has to be one of the most beautiful sounding instruments ever invented.” Kathleen wistfully, not willing to admit that she also thought it one of the most romantic sounding instruments she’d ever heard. She sipped her own tea and enjoyed his comment about Saul. She remembered the bright but distracted young man from class. She could well understand how his short attention span could wreak havoc with expensive instruments. “I’ve heard recordings of dulcimers before, but I’ve never seen one played.”

Kathleen sighed. It would have been a great pleasure to talk about music all night long, but she had better get down to business while the man was there. Perhaps the conversation about music and families could resume afterwards if there was time.

“I don’t know if the Headmaster has contacted you yet, but he said you were the man in charge of the wagons. The reason I said earlier that I was glad to make your acquaintance was that I was going to look you up tomorrow, to see if you’d be so kind as to fix me up with enough to transport the Fourth and Fifth year class and three staff this coming weekend to a campsite for a night of stargazing. If that’s not a problem, I would certainly appreciate it.”
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0 Kathleen Uninhibited 0 Kathleen 0 5