Tancred had managed to find himself walking through the tallest towers on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, having a delicous apple pie hover above him. He had come to see one of his favourite teachers in the whole school this evening and he brought a pie in case she wanted some desert from the Start-of-Term Feast, maybe even give some to little Damian if Erikson wasn't watching him. Professor Natasha Blaylock-Erikson, the best Divination Professor in the entire Wizarding World.

He smiled once he had reached his destination. Professor Blaylock's door too her comfy and relazing office, which just made him forget nearly anything that had happened that day for quite some time. Right now he needed that time to forget about what had happened down at the Start-of-Term Feast involving that first year Slytherin, Scarlet Malfoy. He had risked getting himself a detention, but was lucky and chose to walk away from the situation that had unfortunately came up.

He clenched his wandless hand into a fist and knocked on the office door gently three times in a row at a decent rate. Quickly, but not to quick. He took a small step back, the apple pie followed, and waited for Professor Blaylock to welcome him in her office. They hadn't seen each other in a while and Tancred, to be honest, missed her while he was stuck in Italy during the whole break.

Natasha heard the knock on her trapdoor and grinned despite her fatigue. So it began earlier than usual this term. She padded over to the trapdoor in her stockings and heaved it open to find Tancred standing at the top of the stairs with a...was that a pie in his hands?

"Good evening, Mr Adara, come on up." At the words, a silver stepladder descended to allow the young man access to her office. She always thought that thing was rather cool.

"Good evening, Professor Blaylock," Tancred said, stepping up the silver stepladder and entering her office. He smiled. This office was one of the most unique ones in the castle. One of a kind! "Oh. Enough with the silly Mr. Adara stuff. It makes be sound much older than I already am. But if you really must call me Mr. Adara, then I guess you must."

He walked over too the little coffee ... tea table and looked up at the pie. He explained, "I brought some apple pie." He set the pie gently on the table with a swift movement of his wand. "I thought you'd like some, seeming you and the other Professors were most likely busy talking about other things than eating."

He sat down in one of the chairs and took a deep breath in. The smell of tea ran through his nose. "I see you still have that tea smell in here, Professor. Must have some being made, correct?" Of course she had tea made already. Duh! When didn't she? "How was your break? Do anything ... uhh ... exciting with Professor Erikson and little Damian?"

Smiling, Natasha conjured up two teacups and summoned her teapot over. The spout was steaming and the delicious aroma of chamomile tea drifted out, teasing their olfactory senses. "Well, since you brought pie, and I have tea...it looks like we're having a little tea party."

She poured for both of them and sat down in one of the plushy armchairs, "We can dispense with the formality since we're having tea, Tancred. Although I must apologise for my attire." She waved about, gesturing to her stockinged feet and the fact that she had slipped out of the stuffy long formal robes that covered her skirt and blouse.

"Oh. I don't mind about your attire," Tancred said, smiling at her stockinged feet. "Robes are just flat out boring at times. Actually, they're quite boring. No offence to the Hogwarts robe makers, but it wouldn't hurt to spice these things up a bit. Don't you think?" Tancred lifted an end of his Hufflepuff robes, that were already a few inches to short for him.

He let the end of his robes down and drank some tea. After swalling down the tea quietly, he said, "So how's little Damian? I haven't seen the little tyke in quite some time." Tancred was going to tell her that he had already met up with Erikson today. Nearly getting a detention from him and her cousin, Professor De Luca, but he just left this little piece of information out. He didn't even do anything wrong!

"I heard that he's gotten bigger, as all things must grow sometime, since we students last saw him now that he's around the age of one," he said, remembering the last time he saw him. He looked around. Must be with Erikson. "I take it that he's somewhere with Professor Erikson right now?"

Natasha smiled in that way mothers smile when their children are mentioned and nodded, "Yes, Damian's with Professor Erikson right now...just working off that excess energy. He's gotten so much more energetic along with getting bigger."

She sipped her tea before going on, "So, what brings you to my tower at this hour, Tancred? Surely this visit wasn't simple about pie and tea."

Although pie and tea were a great combination.

Tacnred smiled. He used to be the same way when he was that age, according to his mother and his fath ... father. "I can just see Professor Erikson trying to keep up with that little energy ball. Young kids are usually pretty springy like that and stuff."

"Well," Tancred said, wondering why she was asking, "I just wanted to catch up with you and stuff. Know how your break was. Things like that. Plus, pie and tea is a good start to a new term."

He sighed. Good start to a new term? Erikson had given Liz Goylegray a detention for trying to get that annoying Ms. Malfoy away from calling people 'Mudbloods' and to go back to her own table. Yeah right!

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the child's statement about young kids. She could barely keep from chuckling at his expression...as if he was so very old himself.

He sighed.

The eyebrow raised a fraction higher.

"Somehow that sigh leads me to believe there is more than tea on your mind." She said it with a slight lilt to her voice, as if asking a question.

"Well," he explained, running a hand through his hair. "During the Start-of-Term Feast, the begining of my happy and exciting new term was blown away by a Ms. Scarlet Malfoy. She called people Mudbloods and poured Pumpkin Juice on a few students including me and got a friend, Liz Goylegray, in detention with your husband. She also received a detention from Professor De Luca. I nearly got a detention myself with your husband for standing up for Liz, because she didn't honestly do anything wrong.

"Then Mrs. Malfoy started tormenting me, after having tormenting Professor Erikson and De Luca. At that time, I was heading to Ravenclaw Table, with Liz, to get as far away from the beastly girl as possible. Well, I sort of went back, wand ready. But I immediately put by wand away and told Ms. Malfoy to get of her 'high horse' and start caring for other people's feelings. Then Professor De Luca gave me a warning.

"I understand why they'd give Ms. Malfoy a detention. Liz didn't exactly handle the whole 'Go away' situation very well, according to the Professors. It was kind of yelled at Ms. Malfoy after a couple to calm requests to leave. I don't know why it's bugging me. It just is. I mean, a bad start in teh new term on just the first day back."

He looked up at Professor Blaylock. Would she understand? He wasn't asking anyone to take away any punishments. He just wanted to get past what had happened and move on in life. He needed advice. Good advice. Tancred thought that Professor Blaylock was the perfect person to give him that advice.

Astral stood in the corridor of the tower with tears streaming down her face. She needed to see the Divination teacher. As she left the dorms she thought she might get lost, but her powers of intuition led her straight here to where a plaque on the wall read; Professor Baylock, Divination but there was no way in. astral needed the teacher's help so badly. She was sure her phasing in and out of time was getting worse. The last shift had seen her go back more than 50 years into the past. Surely seers should be able to control themselves much better than this. Astral couldn't wait two more years befor she could take Divination. Perhaps the teacher would let her start taking them now? Astral had a strong feeling the teacher was really nice.
astral sat with her back to the wall. She'd sit here all night if she had to. Her first day at Hogwarts was not turning out the way she wanted it to.

"Tsk tsk." Natasha said with a sympathetic expression as she heard the boy's story. She had seen it all unfold, of course but had been caught up in the Grand Debate with Cassandra and Max at the table. "It sounds like you could use an extra spoon of sugar in your tea, dearling."

She paused, "Or an extra slice of pie."

Astral was still waiting in the tower hall. Even though it was summer, it was getting chilly in the stone corridor.
Could she hear voice above her head? Or was that just a fresh outbreak of phasing into another time? Astral wept again, unable to keep her sobs contained. She was making a bit of noise. At least if there was anyone above her, they would be able to hear her. For that very reason, she cried a little louder.

Natasha was just reaching for her teacup when she heard strange noises coming from below her office. She stood up slowly and gestured to Tancred to be quiet, even though he wasn't saying anything. She pulled her wand out of her pocket and crept to the trapdoor quietly. Whatever was down there would be shocked to find itself Stunned.

She kicked the trapdoor open and pointed her wand at the offender "AHA!" She managed to stop herself from stunning the person at the bottom of the silver steps.

"Whoops..." she muttered, blushing furiously now, "Hullo dearling."

If there was anyone Allegra needed to talk to right now, it was Natasha. She looked at the first year who was under the trapdoor. The kid was in her way. Sighing, Ally knocked on the trapdoor and waited for Nat to answer. Looking at the first year, she blinked and stretched. "What's got you so upset?" It's not like you're in the mafia, now is it?

Natasha was still staring down the trapdoor, waiting for the student to climb up when yet another person appeared in her line of vision. Strange...the North Tower usually wasn't this busy at this time.

"Goodness...can't sleep all of you? Come on up then, so we can warm up to some tea and pie."

She stopped.

Sniffed.

And adopted a nonchalant pose.

"Or coffee for you, Allegra, if you can find any."

"That's the last thing I need right now Natasha. I need to talk to you and it has nothing to do with coffee and tea." Allegra shook her head. This was not exactly the time to talk about the coffee and tea war the staff seemed to be having at the moment. Sure she was pro coffee but she didn't mind drinking tea as long as she watched the person make it.

She sniffed again and managed to refrain from commenting that everything had to do with tea. She waved them up and waited as they climbed (ooc: I'm just gonna assume that both Ally and Astral are in the office now) up. She padded over to her sofa, making no sound as her stockinged feet landed on the soft carpet.

"So, what is it you came to say? I'm sure none of you came all the way up to the North Tower at this hour simple for refreshments. After all, we just left the Opening Feast."

And she had left because she was exhausted. Looks like she was getting no sleep now that term had started (ooc: true in real life, too!).

"Um. Well. Since this woman is here I'm extremely worried that she's going to dig up dirt on me. I really don't need to mention which dirt I'm talking about because you know what I mean." Allegra didn't want to mention the past story to the two students in the room. Tancred and Astral didn't exactly need to know about the past she had. Ministry made her nervous unless she was somehow connected to the official in question. This woman she had no connection to so she had no clue what her purpose was.

Natasha touched her nose to show that she understood what Ally was trying to tell her. She leaned in close to the other professor so that the students couldn't hear.

"This is true, Ally, but why on earth would the Ministry be interested in Muggle goings-on?"

She smiled pleasantly at the students as if she had just commented on Ally's hairstyle...or earrings. Or the collar of her robes.

"That is true. That is very true. So you think we've got nothing to worry about then?" Allegra whispered to Natasha. The students did not need to hear about this. How would it look if one of their professors was worried about ministry being in the school? It would make her look weak in front of those she was supposed to be teaching and that just would not do. Sighing she leaned back and stretched. "I'll take a cup of tea if you don't mind."

Natasha shook her head no as Ally seemed to relax right before her eyes. Then she jumped off the settee as she realized what her bestest friend in the whole world had just said.

She barely managed to control the squeal from escaping but couldn't help herself as she flounced over to the tea set and personally poured a fresh, steaming cup of chamomile for her friend and the young Hufflepuff.

"Tea for everyone! And help yourself to this pie Tancred here brought me." She smiled at them all as if everything was alright with the world again.

And it was.

Ally was drinking tea.

Allegra grinned when she saw the reaction Natasha gave when she asked for tea. She looked like she could run around the world in twenty seconds. Taking the cup of tea, she sipped it and smiled. "Tea helps me relax so that's why I asked for it. I'm partial to tea from people I trust because of the incident from over the summer." She winked at Natasha and gasped when she saw the pie. "That pie looks delicious!" Allegra took a bite of it and smiled. "And it is delicious. Good job Tancred. GOOD job."

Natasha sat back in her armchair, tucking her feet under her as she cradled the mug of tea in her hands. She heard the distant sound of the clock tower chiming and she smiled at the students, "It's getting late, dearlings, and your classes begin tomorrow. Curfew will begin in half an hour, and if you're not careful..." she mock shuddered, "You may run into old Flynn."

"I suppose I should be getting back as well. Classes tomorrow and all. My lesson's a bit wonky so I need to revise a couple things. See ya Nat." Allegra smiled and took the cup of tea with her as she exited the room through the trapdoor. She wasn't really worried now. Nat was right. What would the ministry want in muggle affairs anyway?