Knocking on the door to Professor Lainey's office, Liz steps back to be bidden to enter. Wanting to see all her professors again before classes start, Liz excitedly waits for one of her favorite professors, to answer.

Rian looked around as she walked up to the History of Magic teacher's office. She didn't think she'd met the teacher before, adn she thought it would be nice to do so before classes started. Rian saw Liz when she reached the door, and she thought that Liz'd probably already knocked, so Rian didn't bother to do so. She just stood there patiently.

Jenn walks up slowly to the door. She sees to other girls standing there. "Hi Rian!"Jenn says excitedly. "Have one of you guys already knocked on the door?" Jenn askes.

Young Becca came waltzing down the hallway with a plate of sweet-smelling brownies in her hands. They were individually cut, lightly sprinkled with bright blue sprinkles and everything! In the center of the plate was a perfectly folded piece of parchment. It was all perfect! The best for Miss Professor Lainey, of course.

As she approached the door, Becca realized other students had already arrived and were... waiting outside the door? Well that was just nonsense. Didn't everyone know this professor wasn't going to bite their heads off and deduct eighty-seven million points for entering without knocking? She would just have to show them the right way to handle things.

With her head held high and a bright, confident smile on her face, Becca used her free hand to part her fellow Ravenclaws as if she was Moses. "Excuse me, children," she spoke to them, even though she was pretty sure at least two of them were older than her. Becca pushed open the door and stepped into the office without hesitation. "Miss Professor Lainey? Guess who brought you FOOD!"

Lainey was just on her way to get the door - when it opened and Miss Rebecca Parker let herself in. "Well come on in," Lainey laughed. "By all means, don't be shy." Lainey fell behind her to beckon the other girls in behind Becca."Come on in, too, girls. Have a seat if you're here to visit."

She put the door stop in to hold it open and returned to her desk. "I don't know, Becca, just who DID bring me food?" Lainey laughed and flopped into her chair. "Could it be... the house elves? Because you know how I feel about their food."

Becca followed Lainey around the room like a loyal puppy. When the woman took a seat at her desk, the Ravenclaw immediately hopped into the chair on the other side. She set down the plate of brownies and grinned from ear to ear.

"Aw come on. Definitely not the house elves. Much better than that, I promise!" she reassured her, gently scooting the plate towards Lainey a bit more. Once they were directly in front of the professor and Becca was convinced that she would gladly accept one, she propped her feet up on the desk and gently laced her fingers in her lap. Ah, home sweet home.

"How was your summer break?" Becca asked out of mild curiosity. Well yeah, of course she wanted to know what happened last term. But she figured that was getting a bit too nosey too fast. She would work up to that, or just wait to see if she read the note.

"Pleasantly uneventful is what I would call it," Lainey said as she selected a chunk of brownie off the perimeter. She brought it up to her face and sniffed it, poked it with her wand, said a few simple incantations, and then sunk her teeth into it. With a full mouth, Lainey asked, "And 'ow 'uh 'our 'ummer?"

A quiet giggle slipped from Becca's lips. Pleasantly uneventful was an interesting description, in her opinion. "Well that's... good, I suppose, right? So did you just hang around all day long? I find that hard to believe. You must've done something. Don't be shy!"

Becca raised her eyebrows at Lainey's extreme caution when it came to food. She was definitely an odd one, but that just made Becca love her even more. "My summer was pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. I had practice for the summer soccer league Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tournaments on Saturdays." She paused for a moment to smoothen out a wrinkled portion of her robes.

"Thursdays I had lessons for my alto saxophone. So, Tuesdays and Sundays were basically my only free days." She smiled to herself at the summer memories before her face fell, "It was a lot of fun being back with all my friends, but hard to not fill them in on everything that happened during the school year. They asked questions, and I had to lie and leave all my stories out!" Don't pull the sad card, Becca. She might try to hug you again! A smile reappeared on her face. All she had to do was play it cool.

Rian grinned and sat down in a chair. "Hi, Proffesor!" she said happily. "I'm Sahrina Potter, AKA Rian." she laughed a bit, she'd never introduced herself like that before. "Third year Ravenclaw," she added proudly.

"Ah. You're muggleborn, then? I didn't know that," Lainey paused to think on it and seemed to really slip into deep thought. She jotted down a quick note on a sketch pad from her desk and looked back up. "You should tell them the truth. The thing about muggles that's interesting is... they wouldn't believe the truth even if you told it to them. Tell them you fly around on a broom and generally kick butt. Bet they'll think you're lying, when really, you'll be telling the truth."


"It's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Rian. It's no secret..," Lainey leaned forward to grin secretly, "that Ravenclaw House is the best. And my favorite House. And I give brownies to Ravenclaws." Lainey laughed and edged the plate towards Rian.

Becca continued to smile calmly even as Lainey realized she was muggleborn. "Yes, that'd be correct. Muggleborn and proud! It's pretty exciting." A genuine grin now took the place of the previous fake one. Sure, it probably was cool to be a pureblood - but being muggleborn had many benefits. She got to experience two totally different lifestyles. It was a good deal.

"Tell them the truth?" she repeated aloud, almost shocked that Lainey would even suggest such a thing. "I can't do that! What if they did believe me? And even if they didn't believe me, they would probably still think I'm some freak. No, I think it'd be best for me to just... not tell them. I have a reputation to protect," Becca stated firmly. There was that darn pridefulness again. "I'll just keep my two lives separate." She saw no problem in that, besides the fact that she wanted to tell all her friends about every little thing. But she would get over that in time.

"What did you just write down, by the way? Are you taking notes on my life or something? That's what it looked like, at least. I tell you some personal information and BAM! You're suddenly writing something down. I mean, I know I'm pretty spectacular at times, but isn't that going a bit too far, Miss Professor Lainey?" she inquired, grinning playfully. Yeah, she did find herself amusing, thank you very much.

"It is," Rian giggled. She thanked Professor Lainey as she reached for a brownie. "Were you in Ravenclaw?" she questioned, then took a bite from the brownie, "Wow, these are good!" she said quietly and with a laugh.

Lainey folded up the note that she had written down about Becca and shoved it down her blouse. "It's a SECRET. For me to know and you to find out later." Lainey laughed and punctuated that thought with a very mature moment of sticking her tongue out.

"Of COURSE I was, Rian. Of course I was! What other House is..." Lainey was interrupted by an owl. She opened it quickly and - then nearly died - again.

She stood up so abruptly.. "I.. excuse me! I'll be back... in a bit..." Lainey RAN out of the office and off the grounds.

Becca frowned. Lainey was so stubborn - didn't she know she could keep any secret? She was not some immature gossip queen. "Okay, later then. But not too much later," she replied sadly, wishing the woman would just tell her now. If she had taken notes on something about Becca, shouldn't she be able to know what was written down? It wasn't fair!

And then something odd happened. An owl swooped into the room and delivered a note to Lainey, she read it, looked like she might have had a stroke, then ran out of the room in a hurry.

"Oh... kay?" Becca stared at the door for a few moments after the professor had exited. She shot a glance at the other students, then a sly smirk appeared on her face and she jumped into Lainey's chair at her desk. "I officially appoint myself as... Lainey's personal assistant!" She grinned from ear to ear and made herself comfortable behind the desk. Oh yeah, she could totally do this job. "Next!" she rang, as if she were taking orders for some sort of restaurant. She had no clue how long Lainey's I'll be back in a bit would take, but she figured that something fun could happen in this position.

Reaching out to the door, Alyss knocked softly. She'd not learned anything about History of Magic last term, and dang straight she was going to learn some this term. But she just didn't want to learn about it in class. Poking one of her brusies from Quidditch tryouts she smiled, it was going to be a peaceful term if she got into the team.

Lainey returned to her office after her "meeting" in Hogsmeade. She was massaging her temples as she found Alyss standing outside her office. "Come on in, honey. No need to knock." Lainey re-entered her office and stopped to look at Becca. "Make yourself at home, huh?" Lainey laughed and then flung herself into a chair in front of her desk. She groaned loudly.

Rian laughed, but stopped politely when an owl flew in. She jumped back in her seat as the Professor ran out of the office.
"Oooohkaaay......." she murmured, crossing her feet up on her chair and making herself comfortable.

Rian jumped again as Lainey came back. She quickly uncrossed her legs and put her feet on the floor, hoping that there wasn't any marks on the chair she was sitting on. When Lainey groaned, Rian looked up, startled. "Are..are you okay, Proffessor?" she asked, obvious concern in her voice.

Becca grinned when she heard a knock at the door and was just about to call in her first customer when she heard Lainey's voice outside the door. Dang it! Way to ruin my first job opportunity, babe, she thought to herself, then smiled innocently at the professor as she entered the room.

"Miss Professor Lainey! Uh, well... you want your students to feel at home, right? To feel like they can always come to you for safety and comfort? And, I figured since you were gone for such a short amount of time, you would need someone, err, responsible to let the students know that you would be back short...ly..."

A frown appeared on Becca's face as she collapsed into the chair on the opposite side of her desk and let out a load groan. "Uh oh. Professor?" She looked at the other students present with concern, then back at Lainey. "What happened?! Did someone HURT YOU!? Okay, whose butt do I have to kick? Lemme at 'em!" She was now on her feet, her eyebrows lowered angrily. Becca would do anything to protect her favorite professor.

Tasha walked up to the open office door. he went to knock on the door when she heard a shout.

"Umm... Do you want me to come back later Professor?" She said awkwardly as she looked round the room.

"No, no, Tasha. Come on in. Come on in. I'm just experiencing my normal term drama. It usually just comes later in the term...," Lainey sighed and looked up with a smile. "I think I could use all your help though."

Becca's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Her butt-kicking service was not needed? Well that was rather unfortunate. She had gotten all excited for nothing! But Lainey DID request their help. And it was obvious that Becca would be the best help the woman could get, so...

She hopped out of Lainey's nice cushiony chair behind the desk and got to her feet. "I'm so in. What's the mission this time, boss?" A sly grin appeared on her face as she narrowed her eyes, clearly anticipating the professor's reply. Oh yeah. She would make her proud, no matter what the dilemma turned out to be.

Rian's eyes sparkled a bit more when Lainey said she needed their help. "All of us?" she asked, hoping she didn't sound like a complete idiot, "What can I do?"