 Mischievous Niffler
Alice nodded fervently at everything she was told about needing to prove her magical ability. "Thank you for giving me a chance to prove myself, sir," she said in as humble a tone as she could manage. "I shall not disappoint you. I will of course take all the training you require of me. I will not let you down again." Training with Malachi could be...interesting.
But then his final question almost made her snap, again. She clenched and unclenched her fists, a rapid movement that hopefully he didn't read too much into. Then she tried to respond in as even a tone as possible. "Now that's not fair, Headmaster. Why do you accuse me of sneaking around?" She tried to sound a little hurt, though in reality she was just annoyed. "Those words make it sound as if I'm hiding things from you. I do not know what Algamus told you, but all I wanted was for the elves to tell me if they noticed anything strange or potentially dangerous. The elves wander this school at night and they see far more of it than we do in our day to day activities. I knew it was only a matter of time before something unexpected happened again. So I asked them to keep an eye out for such things. For my efforts, I was disrespected by Algamus and my motives were questioned. My history working for Julian was also brought up by the elves, as if that was evidence of my untrustworthy character."
She leaned back towards him, her expression a bit harder. "This past experience with the fog has made me feel more vindicated than ever in my failed attempt with the house elves. You've just finished telling me how I need to be prepared to defend the students. You've fairly pointed out my flaws and my weaknesses - namely, my lack of magical skill. It seems, however, that many of my colleagues (and perhaps you too) consider my strengths to be something to be held against me. My use of the invisibility cloak, my stealth, my interpretation of odd behavior - all of these are things you could use to help stop the next tragedy at this school before it happens. Yet you're not asking me to do anything, and when I get ideas of my own...they get squashed and I am accused of being a sneak. This has happened time and time again. Nearly every professor in this school keeps their distance from me because of these traits I listed. Perhaps attitudes will change when the next professor gets eaten by monsters...or the next student goes missing."
She leaned back in her chair and blinked several times, as if surprised at her own daring. She then refocused on the headmaster. "I don't mean disrespect, sir. It is frustrating to be insulted for things which I am not ashamed of." |