Detention: Nemesis Upstead

[Lissy Longbottom]

For the record, Gabi did not LIKE holding detentions. Despite the fact that she was rather strict about her classroom rules, detentions were a last resort for her mostly because it involved actually running said detention herself. Nemesis had forced her hand, though. She was finding them impossible to read lately, and while she normally wouldn't have concerned herself with the inner thoughts of a fifth year Slytherin...well, questioning her loyalty to them had been the breaking point. She wasn't sure what had gotten in to them, but hopefully she was able to make a BIT of an impact on them with this detention.

She waited patiently for whatever hooded figure Rosier had patrolling the halls today to escort Nem to their detention. She stood in front of her desk, tapping her heel impatiently.

[Felixir]

Nemesis was familiar with the concept of detention only through second-hand sources, and word of mouth. They'd never yet been given one of their own, and abstaining from that over the years had been largely intentional. The situation had changed, however. Anyone paying the slightest bit of attention could see that.

They were neither apprehensive nor looking forward to the experience, nor anything in between for that matter; Nem couldn't imagine it would be too different from sitting, bored out of their mind, in any old lesson. If anything, it might be something that broke up the monotony of the day, but they weren't holding out any hope on that score.

Reaching the classroom, Nem pushed their way in and let the door fall shut behind them, coming to a stop in the middle of the room and facing the professor, their entire bearing much the same as it had been in that History of Magic lesson. Alright, Recard, let's get this over with.

[Lissy Longbottom]

"Hello Mister Upstead," Gabi greeted them as they came in. She didn't expect a response, and in fact would be surprised if they talked at all during this detention. Which was fine by her. She had lots of grading to do while she watched them work, after all.

"I was wondering what I was going to have you do for this detention, and I'm not going to make you write an assignment about why you were wrong or what you would have done differently," she began. Quite honestly, she felt she knew the young man well enough to know that neither of those tasks would produce anything worthwhile from them. "No, I'm going to have you do something useful for me instead," she continued, reaching under her desk and pulling out a medium sized box.

She walked over to Nem and deposited it on the desk in front of them, tilting it so they could see the contents - a tangle of plants, many of which had bright orange blossoms attached to them.

"I'm running low on some potions, so I'll need your help getting my ingredients together. Please pick these jewelweed blossoms and crush them for me. Once you're done with the whole box, you may leave," she explained. She reached into the bottom of the box to take out the mortar and pestle she'd brought for them to use.

[Felixir]

Recard had been right not to expect a greeting, that much was true, but Nem was not intent on keeping their silence either. They looked into the box, scanning its contents dispassionately and pulling out a chair from the desk, ready to sit once the professor click-clacked herself away.

"Happy to help." Yes, yes, anything for her precious students. Seemed like a deliberate display that she was still doing what she could to help, rather than hinder. "I would have hated for you to waste your time today." The gag was that she was anyway, but whether or not Recard ever figured that out was of no importance to Nem. All the same, an assignment like that would have benefited them only in the way they were sure Recard would not have appreciated, or maybe even anticipated. It was almost a shame she'd not gone that route, but who was to say they'd have played along in any case. Sometimes even Nem couldn't be sure about these things.

[Lissy Longbottom]

Whether Nem believed it or not, Gabi did not have any ulterior motives assigning them that task. It was simply on her list of things to do, and she needed it to get done. Since essays would provide no benefit, maybe some manual labor would. Two birds with one stone, as it were. Not that she felt Nem was going to gain anything out of this, honestly. She knew Slytherins and knew how stubborn they were. Nemesis had a view of her in their head and she wasn't going to bother trying to get them to change it.

"Don't worry, my time is not being wasted here, Mister Upstead," she assured them as she sat down to start grading her papers at her desk.

[Felixir]

"Oh, I'm not worried." Look at this, nice and civil interaction between a student and their head of house.

Sitting down, Nem placed the mortar and pestle on the desk so the items were positioned squarely between themselves and the box, and nonchalantly slipped their wand out of its holster while Recard's eyes were on whatever she was doing, only for as long as it took to silently place an animation spell on the implements. With all they'd been working on improving this year, it only made sense that they'd kept non-verbals on the agenda too.

All set up, Nem grabbed a plant from box and tilted back on two chair legs. One at a time, they plucked the jewelweed blossoms from the stems and dropped them, one at a time, into the mortar, letting the pestle do the rest.

Did they think Recard wouldn't notice? Actually, it was likely she would, with a little attention. Nem was more interested in seeing how long it would take. An experiment, of sorts.

[Lissy Longbottom]

It took about two minutes of Gabi reading over her assignments to realize that Nem had charmed the mortar and pestle to do all the work. UH. No. That wasn't how this worked. Although to be fair - she hadn't been specific. Not that that mattered, she knew WHY Nem was doing it that way in particular.

"Without magic, Mister Upstead," she said, waving her wand and silently ending the spell so that the pestle fell into the mortar with a soft thud. "And sit that chair on all fours before I charm it to sit that way," she added, mostly because she knew they wanted to get a rise out of her with that. In fact, this whole thing had been one big experiment on pushing her buttons, she was sure. WHY they suddenly had the urge to do this, she had no idea. Teenagers were hard enough to read at the best of times.

[Felixir]

"Sure." With that, Nem let the chair fall forwards onto four legs with a slam, and, without once looking up or breaking their stride, continued plucking the orange blossoms from the plant. It was tempting to make a comment about just how quickly it had taken Recard to notice what was right in front of her, but Merlin knew people around here liked to take things the wrong way. Considering what Recard had given the detention for, Nem thought it likely she'd just end up thinking they were criticising her inability to see the Big Man for who he'd really been throughout the previous term, or doing anything about it, when that would only have been a small part of it. More of a parallel, really.

Whatever, they didn't want to go spelling it out, nor take an unnecessary risk for minimal payout. So, for a little longer, they said nothing. A few minutes, at least.

Setting aside one plant and picking up another, Nem glanced briefly up at their head of house and her work, and then back to the plants. "Can I ask why, though," they said, plucking another blossom free, and resuming the not-a-conversation-except-now-it-was like there had been no pause. "I mean about the 'no magic' thing, what's the logic there." One more petal into the mortar. "Actually, professor, I'm curious about the logic of detentions in general, too. Could you explain it for me."

The way Nem asked, one would be forgiven for thinking that the conflict in that History of Magic lesson had never even happened. Call it a skill.

[Lissy Longbottom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

"Sure." With that, Nem let the chair fall forwards onto four legs with a slam, and, without once looking up or breaking their stride, continued plucking the orange blossoms from the plant. It was tempting to make a comment about just how quickly it had taken Recard to notice what was right in front of her, but Merlin knew people around here liked to take things the wrong way. Considering what Recard had given the detention for, Nem thought it likely she'd just end up thinking they were criticising her inability to see the Big Man for who he'd really been throughout the previous term, or doing anything about it, when that would only have been a small part of it. More of a parallel, really.

Whatever, they didn't want to go spelling it out, nor take an unnecessary risk for minimal payout. So, for a little longer, they said nothing. A few minutes, at least.

Setting aside one plant and picking up another, Nem glanced briefly up at their head of house and her work, and then back to the plants. "Can I ask why, though," they said, plucking another blossom free, and resuming the not-a-conversation-except-now-it-was like there had been no pause. "I mean about the 'no magic' thing, what's the logic there." One more petal into the mortar. "Actually, professor, I'm curious about the logic of detentions in general, too. Could you explain it for me."

The way Nem asked, one would be forgiven for thinking that the conflict in that History of Magic lesson had never even happened. Call it a skill.

When Nemesis asked their question, Gabi paused for a moment. She could tell that, unlike their previous jabs, this question seemed...sincere. More of a shadow of the curious Slytherin student she'd known the last few terms, not the defiant child they'd been the past month or so.

"Well, doing the crushing with your hands, the muggle way, as opposed to magic is harder. You're in detention and it's supposed to be difficult. Detentions are meant to be a punishment for acting out. Some people may argue it's meant to make you think about what you did wrong, or how you could have acted better..." she paused, thinking carefully about what she was going to say next.

"Quite frankly, however, I don't think you're going to benefit from any sort of lecture of why your attitude was wrong. You strike me as the student who doesn't THINK your actions were wrong - and I could sit here trying to convince you until I'm blue in the face that what you said was inappropriate, and also completely untrue. But you'll find out in time that adults don't always need to clue children in on their every inner thought or plan. Nor do they have to reason their every action with you. Right now, I think it best that I just punish you by making you spend some time with me, doing a monotonous task instead of...whatever else it is you'd be doing right now," she explained quite plainly. Gabi generally put on a smile for her students, but she also believed in being truthful when the situation called for it. And right now seemed like a pretty good moment for honesty. However, she was NOT going to be honest about the fact that trying to figure out a punishment for a child who seemed completely unbothered by EVERYTHING had been quite a chore.

"And, I would HOPE that this boring task dissuades you from acting out in my class again. You can think whatever you'd like about me, but disrupting my class and other students isn't the way to go about it," she added, crossing her arms. It was all she asked for at this point in the term. Just silence from them. She had THOUGHT that had been the original understanding, thinking back to their conversation earlier in the term. But apparently not.

[Felixir]

So that was all it was. Nem had wondered as much, about the manual work thing, and even the detention thing in general, but it had seemed a little too simple to be effective. They had half-expected some sort of hidden layer to it that they'd not been able to see, but, if there was, Recard wasn't sharing it. That would make sense, but it was more likely that there was just nothing else to it at all. Simple methods for simple minds. As Nem plucked the orange blossoms from another plant, and set the stem aside, they considered asking what the success rate of all that was, how anyone knew it worked, if it really worked at all, and how exactly, if so. But... no. They held fire for a moment longer, decided to neither confirm nor deny Recard's suspicions about exactly the kind of student they were.

They kept listening as they got to work with the mortar and pestle, grinding down the blossoms gathered so far - not with any haste, in fact they went painstakingly slowly, much slower than was necessary - with the air of someone mindlessly working while listening to an informative wireless broadcast. Nem hadn't been certain they'd get any sort of answer out of Recard; every word was a bonus. Slowly nodding as the professor reached the end of her spiel, Nem idly turned the words over in their head. There was no point making promises, genuine or otherwise. Kids' stuff, all of it, and the game had changed. Ended entirely, in fact. "I suppose that all makes sense," Nem commented, still not shifting out of their impassivity. "I'm used to being bored, though." She could have that one for free.

The long, drawn out crushing of the flowers continued, and Nem watched them slowly diminish even as they spoke up again.

"You wouldn't have needed to convince me of anything, even if you were willing to try. I know you're not one of them, or actively working against the school, or whatever." The appropriateness of their comment in class was neither here not there. Much like with the topic of the lesson itself, there was no point imposing that kind of judgement on it. Recard would obviously disagree, but Nem could see the bigger picture. "I understand - better than most, I think - why you lot wouldn't want to share anything of value with the students, but... well. I'm sure you're prepared for the reverse being true as well." They stopped crushing the petals, though they were far from done, and looked straight up at Recard. "A little communication might have gone a long way, if you know what I mean." But maybe she wouldn't. Nem wasn't really talking about the same thing anymore.

[Lissy Longbottom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

So that was all it was. Nem had wondered as much, about the manual work thing, and even the detention thing in general, but it had seemed a little too simple to be effective. They had half-expected some sort of hidden layer to it that they'd not been able to see, but, if there was, Recard wasn't sharing it. That would make sense, but it was more likely that there was just nothing else to it at all. Simple methods for simple minds. As Nem plucked the orange blossoms from another plant, and set the stem aside, they considered asking what the success rate of all that was, how anyone knew it worked, if it really worked at all, and how exactly, if so. But... no. They held fire for a moment longer, decided to neither confirm nor deny Recard's suspicions about exactly the kind of student they were.

They kept listening as they got to work with the mortar and pestle, grinding down the blossoms gathered so far - not with any haste, in fact they went painstakingly slowly, much slower than was necessary - with the air of someone mindlessly working while listening to an informative wireless broadcast. Nem hadn't been certain they'd get any sort of answer out of Recard; every word was a bonus. Slowly nodding as the professor reached the end of her spiel, Nem idly turned the words over in their head. There was no point making promises, genuine or otherwise. Kids' stuff, all of it, and the game had changed. Ended entirely, in fact. "I suppose that all makes sense," Nem commented, still not shifting out of their impassivity. "I'm used to being bored, though." She could have that one for free.

The long, drawn out crushing of the flowers continued, and Nem watched them slowly diminish even as they spoke up again.

"You wouldn't have needed to convince me of anything, even if you were willing to try. I know you're not one of them, or actively working against the school, or whatever." The appropriateness of their comment in class was neither here not there. Much like with the topic of the lesson itself, there was no point imposing that kind of judgement on it. Recard would obviously disagree, but Nem could see the bigger picture. "I understand - better than most, I think - why you lot wouldn't want to share anything of value with the students, but... well. I'm sure you're prepared for the reverse being true as well." They stopped crushing the petals, though they were far from done, and looked straight up at Recard. "A little communication might have gone a long way, if you know what I mean." But maybe she wouldn't. Nem wasn't really talking about the same thing anymore.

She wasn't entirely sure if she bought that - after all, if Nem believed her, why had they poked her and pushed her by trying to make the class think she WASN'T doing anything to help them? Gabi quickly decided that trying to deduce any sense in this matter was futile now.

"I do," Gabi assured them in regards to their last comment - but she stood by what she had said. Especially considering there had been quite a few moments when she'd spoken to specific students about it - they were all private, of course, for the safety of everyone involved.

Gabi remained silent, and looked up at the clock a few moments later. It had already been nearly an hour...and she wasn't planning on keeping them longer than that. "That'll be enough, Mister Upstead," she announced. "Please bring me your crushed petals and the tools, and you can head on your way," she explained. She wasn't planning on keeping them here much longer. Not only for them, but herself as well. She needed to get up and get back to the hospital wing, after all!

[Felixir]

Was it possible that she did really know what they meant? Nem had to wonder - they didn't discount the idea straight away, but they had their doubts regardless. Not to play into Recard's trope of the misunderstood teenager or anything, but the professor was lacking some vital understanding of the issues at hand to really know what Nem was getting at. She was certainly no Rosier.

Then again, that lined up perfectly with what they'd always aimed for, with everyone, and they weren't about to undo all that work now - not totally, at least - even if the game had technically ended.

With a nod, Nem scraped the chair back, stood, and brought back the mortar, pestle, and crushed petals that Recard had asked for. They didn't say a word as they set the items down on the desk and made for the door. Ultimately, if Recard had been hoping to make an impact, it was very possible that she had, but perhaps not a very favourable one. At least, not from her perspective.

Nem was almost out of the room, had their hand on the door, when they paused and looked back. "In the spirit of communication, professor, and seeing as you'll find out soon enough, you should know that I'm in the Inquisitorial Squad now." See? Nem hadn't poked the bear at all. In fact, they'd found favour with it, been accepted by it, undeterred by the fact that it could, and would, maul them the moment they put a foot wrong. "I joined Rosier, and the Neo-Alliance." Nem turned away and pulled open the door, and headed on out without a backwards glance. "Peace."

[Lissy Longbottom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

Was it possible that she did really know what they meant? Nem had to wonder - they didn't discount the idea straight away, but they had their doubts regardless. Not to play into Recard's trope of the misunderstood teenager or anything, but the professor was lacking some vital understanding of the issues at hand to really know what Nem was getting at. She was certainly no Rosier.

Then again, that lined up perfectly with what they'd always aimed for, with everyone, and they weren't about to undo all that work now - not totally, at least - even if the game had technically ended.

With a nod, Nem scraped the chair back, stood, and brought back the mortar, pestle, and crushed petals that Recard had asked for. They didn't say a word as they set the items down on the desk and made for the door. Ultimately, if Recard had been hoping to make an impact, it was very possible that she had, but perhaps not a very favourable one. At least, not from her perspective.

Nem was almost out of the room, had their hand on the door, when they paused and looked back. "In the spirit of communication, professor, and seeing as you'll find out soon enough, you should know that I'm in the Inquisitorial Squad now." See? Nem hadn't poked the bear at all. In fact, they'd found favour with it, been accepted by it, undeterred by the fact that it could, and would, maul them the moment they put a foot wrong. "I joined Rosier, and the Neo-Alliance." Nem turned away and pulled open the door, and headed on out without a backwards glance. "Peace."

Gabi WOULD have felt really good about that detention - because of course, she had no insight into Nem's mind and had no idea how they were perceiving her little speech that she had made. That all naturally flew out the window when they dropped THAT metaphorical microphone on her.

"You WHAT?" she exclaimed, but it was too late. Nem was gone, and Gabi was just...left in shock. Nem had been difficult this term, yes, but surely they didn't BUY IN to all that nonsense Rosier was spewing? Surely this was just a survival tactic gone horribly, horribly wrong?

Merlin, she had a migraine. This was truly the least of her concerns right now, but...that didn't mean she couldn't worry about her students. She sighed and picked up her things, charmed the box of jewelweed to follow her, and then turned to head back to the hospital wing.