Staff Meeting #1

[Professor Rosenthorn]

[OOC: This is set the day after school starts. Everyone knows about Rafe and Haru's position, but they won't know about the Deputy thing until ... somewhere in the middle of this meeting ^^ Hence the Reason for it.]

Rosenthorn entered the common area for the staff, in a flurry of nervousness. She withheld important information from everyone yesterday, and was sure to have it ripped into her today when she decided to tell everyone what was going on. The new Deputy Headmaster was not going to be received well. It was not Roibin's fault at all, as it was not him who appointed himself. As a matter of fact, he could have said no about a million and times and it would not have gotten him anywhere. She would have merely told him that he was going to be the Deputy Headmaster or she was not going to leave his house.

She was quite glad it did not have to come down to that. She might have fallen asleep before then, or might have gotten lost under god knows how many sorts of things he had lying about.

After a few moments, she plopped down in the least comfy chair in the room, tapping her fingers against her knee. A nervous hum escaped from the back of her throat, and she pouted. She wanted this to be over rather soon.

[Professor Callista RoseWolf]

Callista was the first to arrive on the scene. She entered the staff lounge, sipping a mug of tea that she hadn't finished from breakfast and nibbling on a piece of toast. She would finish her food before the meeting started, of course, but she needed something to keep her occupied until that moment presented itself. And, being the beginning of the term, she had no papers to grade yet.

"Good morning, Alexandria," she greeted the headmistress as she lowered the mug from her lips. She cast the other woman a cheerful smile, despite her hatred of early mornings. Callista loved the beginning of a new school year, seeing the students' eager faces, so it was easier to get up in the morning. That eagerness wouldn't last for very long, but it was nice while it lasted.

She set her tea down on the wooden coffee table and sat down on one of the cushioned chairs within arm's reach of her mug. She took another bite of her toast before turning back to Rosenthorn.

"How was your summer?" she asked conversationally. They hadn't spoken since Alexandria had come looking for a new Deputy head and Callista had promptly shut the door in her face. It wasn't the responsibility of the position that she couldn't handle, it was the required organizational skills. The Deputy was in charge of sending owls and doing most of the paperwork, and Callista was one of the most disorganized people in the school, professors and students both included. It was hard enough for her to keep track of her Transfiguration students and their assignments; she couldn't handle dealing with Alexandria's work, too.

[Professor Maeva McDemiguise]

While Maeva was certain that most of the Professors felt a flurry of excitement at the start of the new term, she, for one, detested it. There was always so much administration to take care of and Maeva really despised paperwork. What was more, there were always the snotty nosed, attention deprived brats that tried to test her patience within the first week. While she generally liked the students (contrary to popular belief), she did not appreciate students acting up in an attempt to make a name for themselves. Her subject was an important one and any time she had to spend disciplining some ill conceived miscreant was time that she could not spend on the rest of the students in the classroom. Maeva's policy had always been that if a student was willing to learn, then she would go out of her way to be available to teach.
And anybody who had the audacity to interrupt her teaching would make an immediate enemy out of her.

All things considered, Maeva much preferred the middle of the term, when the pace of things had been established and everyone could push forward without too much trouble. But in order to get to that middle stretch, she knew she had to survive the start. And unfortunately for Maeva, that included attending the very first staff meeting of the year.

When Maeva walked through the door of the general staff area, she was wearing her normal black garb. The black skirt made a slightly swishing sound as it swept across the floor. Her robe was a fitted one, mainly because it was more comfortable to move around in, but also because she thought it quite ridiculous when robes billowed. For some reason, she immediately thought of dark grey smoke and deserted alleyways when she noticed a billowing cloak. On Maeva's right hand was a single ring with a dark purple stone. It had been a gift from her sister in law. The Charms Professor's dark hair hung loosely over her shoulders. She was carrying a few sheets of clean parchment, along with a heavy book to write on. When she spotted the headmistress she nodded politely, not bothering to ask how the holidays had been. She figured that there would be more than enough time to deal with the pleasantries once the important part of the gathering had been dealt with.

There was no doubt in Maeva's mind as to why this meeting had been called. For one, she had heard that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had taken off, so the replacement would obviously be introduced. Over the years, Maeva had found it of the utmost importance to stay on good terms with the Defense teacher. A lot of the groundwork for that particular subject had to be established in her own class, so communication was an excellent idea. Besides. It would be terribly embarrassing if the students had to learn a spell in Defense and had difficulty doing a wand movement or mastering a basic incantation. It would reflect very poorly on her and that just wouldn't do at all.

One of the other main points on the agenda of this meeting would, no doubt, be the matter of electing a Deputy. While Maeva was quite certain that she would not be chosen for this honour (she had noticed the Headmistress' obvious discomfort in her presence at various times), she was adamant to at least have a say in the matter. In her mind, there were only a few eligible candidates... one of which was living inside her skin. But since nobody had breathed a word about the position to her, she simply assumed that it was not to be. By her calculations, it would be a toss up between the Heads of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. While she had never met the Head of Hufflepuff, she held the Head of Gryffindor in high regard. The woman seemed to know what she was doing, especially since she was in charge of the most unruly bunch of students that Maeva had ever encountered. Still, her mind was not made up. Not quite yet, anyway. She would insist on hearing arguments from both sides before she revealed her position on the matter and if possible, she would like to ask a few questions of her own.

After taking a seat, she put her writing things down and glanced briefly around the room. She had been one of the first to arrive and since there weren't many others to look at, her eyes instinctively fixed on Callista RoseWolf. While the woman seemed quite competent, Maeva realized with a slight twitch of annoyance that she did not know much about her. She would definitely have to remedy these circumstances, especially if she was appointed as the new Deputy. Like Maeva, she was in her early thirties, with dark hair and a confident manner. Unlike Maeva, she was inquiring after the Headmistresses' vacation, obviously trying to break the silence with a bit of meaningless banter. Smiling, more to herself than anybody else, Maeva crossed her arms and sat back in her seat. This was going to be interesting.

[Professor Roibin Vespers]

Roibin knew there was a great likelihood of him being a bit late to the first staff meeting, but he was sure Professor Rosenthorn would understand. While everyone else in the school assumed that Ravenclaws knew all there was to know about Hogwarts life upon admission to the school, Roibin knew from experience the difficult times the first year Ravenclaws faced, even from their own common room.

Especially from their own common room.

"Just think through what the door-knocker is trying to tell you, dear. You'll have to get used to it's riddles sooner or later," he gently admonished the little first year who stood at the door of the common room close to tears.

"A sp-sphinx?" the little girl asked the bronze eagle. Roibin winced as the light from the eagle's eyes dimmed and she was locked out of the common room. The little girl's tears started flowing, and Roibin rushed to wipe them away with a sleeve.

"Do not worry, darling, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon enough. And the prefects will always be willing to help you I promise. Stay right there, and I'll get you in. I'm afraid I have a meeting to go to."

He winced as this only renewed her tearful apologies for making him late, wasting his valuable time, etc. Roibin patted her shoulder and turned with a sigh to the door knocker. The eagle's eyes glowed once again as it posed a question to the Head of House.

"What is the color of an infant unicorn?"

"Golden. Now open up," he ordered. The door duly obeyed and Roibin quickly ushered the little first year inside, before turning tail and rushing down to the staff room, looking somewhat like a chalky blue blur.

He opened the door quietly and peaked in, sighing in relief when he noticed the meeting had not started yet. He walked fully in, and ambled over to a seat near Professor RoseWolf.

"Good evening! I'm so relieved, I thought I would be late. New first years having trouble with the common room and all."

[Hatsuharu Smith]

From just behind Roibin came what seemed to be a bright blue haired, teenaged eighteen year old, who, if no one knew any better, looked very much like an unruly Ravenclaw boy as opposed to a professor. Since he had quite subtly not been at the Welcoming Feast the night before (he got lost on the way from the train, one wonders how a professor does that), there were only two people who may have possibly known who he was.

And one of them seemed to think it was the evening.

Hatsuharu's deep, black brow rose upwards as he gave Roibin a strange look, plopping himself down next to the Slytherin Head of House (not that he knew who she was...), and giving the woman a suave grin.

"Hello there," he said, American accent thick compared to the other accents in the room. He did seem to stick out like a sore thumb. After all, he was in Britain.

His gaze returned to the Ravenclaw professor, and he shook his head to match his next sentence.

"Roibin, it's incredibly early in the morning, and you don't seem so much like a night owl that your mornings turned into your evenings... first years really that much trouble?"

Crossing his arms against his chest in a sort of cocky determination, he glanced around the room. Other teachers had since filed in, but he was looking for that Hufflepuff one...

New professors had to stick together, after all.

"I should probably introduce myself," he said after a moment, grinning at the others, some of whom gave him peculiar looks, "I'm Hatsuharu Smith... the new Defense instructor... I just look like I don't belong."

[Professor Rafe Cardozo]

Bloody damn screeching hell.

That was where Rafe found himself. There was no way that this place could be Hogwarts, the place where Rafe had spent the majority of his own adolescence. That had been a rather treasured period in his life (well, other than all that death unpleasantness), and the setting had been the very castle Rafe found himself feeling rather…well…trapped in. More specifically, trapped with a raging horde of loud, messy creatures called ‘students’. He had been under the impression his pupils were to be witches and wizards, but instead they bore (to his recollection of the day before) an uncanny similarity to baboons.

To be fair, his own students seemed rather promising. The Hufflepuff house seemed in about the same shape he had remembered, and despite himself he felt a certain pang of sympathy when he ran into a rather lost-looking Muggleborn first year who looked very much homesick. Though undeniably stilted in manner, he had done his best to console the boy and assure him that he would grow used to things in time. The first year had seemed intimidated by the rather gruff teacher, but also appeared to have taken the words to heart, and Rafe had made a note to himself to check up on the student and his fellow first years another time.

For now, however, he had his first staff meeting to attend. He would dare say he was running late in arriving, but a fourth year had made the unfortunate decision to set off a Portable Swamp in the common room. As anyone familiar with him could imagine, Rafe had not taken the event kindly. Student appropriately dealt with, Rafe made took up a swift pace until he arrived at his destination.

Rafe entered the room in time to catch the introduction of a young American man as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Scanning the room briefly, Rafe first noticed the two people he was previously acquainted with: Professor Rosenthorn, the new Headmistress, and Professor Vespers, the mad German who attempted to assassinate Rafe over the summer. It took a great deal of self-control not to narrow his eyes at the latter, but he managed by looking at the others. From the feast, he recognized the other two as Professors RoseWolf and McDemiguise, the Heads of Gryffindor and Slytherin respectively.

Flicking his gaze back to Rosenthorn, Rafe said, “Apologies if I’m late.” To the three he didn’t really know, he introduced himself: “Rafe Cardozo. Potions.” With that succinct summation of himself, Rafe walked over to take a seat on the other side of McDemiguise from Smith, which seemed the most strategic spot. It was near the other new professor, but most important was the Head of Slytherin. When the two had tea (which really made the event sound far more civilized than it was, given the attempted murder), Vespers had specificially singled out McDemiguise when speaking of teachers. Uncertain quite the angle Vespers was playing, Rafe could not quite figure out if it was meant to draw him towards the woman or push him away, but whatever the case was, he would probably benefit from speaking to her in private at the first opportunity.

[Professor Rosenthorn]

If Alexandria had heard Callista, she showed no signs of noticing. It might have been because she was much to fretful to notice the woman even came in, or it might have been the sudden attention loss from the meeting's existence and onto her large dog, Buster, who was sitting at her side, panting happily about the start of the new school year. He loved kids and kids loved him; at least, that was how he perceived it. He was a large dog, of course kids were happy to him. Even if they were not normally, they would be when they caught sight of Buster!

Of course, Alexandria had no heart to tell him that he was just such a large dog and many children fled in terror, not played 'hide and seek.'

"Oh... fine I guess," she replied absently after a few more moments of scratching behind her large dog's ear, "Found who I needed..."

She waited for the others to file in, and was slightly disappointed to find that Roibin had stumbled in later than the other teachers, at least before the other teachers that had been their long enough to know better. She casually dismissed the tardiness of the newer instructors, as the both of them had their own unique problems to deal with.

The rest of the staff had finished filing in before she began.

"Good morning everyone," she said cheerily, yet eerily professionally, "As you are well aware, we have a few changes that have been made. Minerva wishes to tell you that she is doing well and no harm has come to her... I just got the owl yesterday, so I assume she sent it on the twenty eighth or so..."

Standing up, she paced back and forth before continuing.

"There is no word on Ignus yet... sadly, when he disappeared, he left behind quite a large amount of baggage, both professional and personal. Thankfully, Professor Smith came by last minute and saved us from what could have been a hectic first few months of the new year."

She stopped, and sighed.

"That is not why I called you here. There are many little ticks on the schedule that I need to address, and we need to do it now... First off, the Deputy Head position. As you are well aware, when Minerva retired, she left me with the Headmistress position, highly recommended to the Minister himself. Obviously, he agreed, or I would not be standing before you today. That did, however, leave me with the task of choosing a Deputy Head before the school year started. All of you were, of course, in the running... including the new professors. However, with Ignus's disappearance and some of the professors declining the offer, I have decided that Roibin will take the position."

She knew this was going to be the hefty news on all of them, but she hoped that none of the professors would react... negatively towards it.

[Professor Callista RoseWolf]

Callista's first impression of the new Defense professor was that he was a student who had accidentally meandered into the staff room. Upon finding out that he was, in fact, a teacher, her first thought was that Rosenthorn was bonkers for hiring someone so young. But after thinking about it for a short moment, she realized that he was probably the only candidate on such short notice. Besides, the students would undoubtedly take a liking to him... if he could control them. If not, they would consider him weak and walk all over him.

No one was particularly talkative as everyone assembled, a fact that Callista found to be a little tiresome. Shouldn't they, as colleagues, be comfortable in conversation with one another? Then again, perhaps Callista was the only person who was happy for the first day of classes. She supposed it was difficult for some to be excited for a school full of rowdy teenagers. But for a teacher... wasn't that a bit backwards?

She drank the rest of her tea and nibbled down the remainder of her toast before Alexandria began to speak, briefly introducing the new professors. And then the topic that she was sure most of the others were waiting so anxiously for: Deputy Head.

Callista wanted nothing to do with it, but she was still curious who had received the position. In her opinion, it was between Maeva and and Ignus... and since Ignus was gone...

Therefore, Roibin was the first person she would have thought of. Personally, she thought Maeva would make a great Deputy, but it was, after all, Alexandria's decision and the Charms professor clearly made their new headmistress nervous.

All she could think in the end was better him than me.

"Congratulations, Roibin," she said with a polite smile. She had no reason to be angry with him, after all.