Alex smiled, "Your not bothering me Miss Anderson, and yes your friend is here."
"Not at all, I cover as much basic transfiguration as I can while still giving the older students challenging things to do." Alex responded.

Suddenly, the fire in the fireplace turned green and a young man's head appeared. He was a handsome man with sandy colored hair and chocolate brown eyes, maybe in his mid-20's. "Mom," the man said, "Mind popping in for a few minutes, I have something I need to discuss with you."

Alex's eyes brightened as she saw her son, "Yes of course Samuel, I'll be right there dear." she said with obvious affection, and the man disappeared, the fireplace empty once again. She turned back to her students, "If you wouldnt mind coming back later, I will be happy to discuss whatever it is you needed to talk to me about."

She gently ushured them out the door, grabbed her cloak, threw some floo powder into the fire, stepped in and said, "Samuel Pierce's flat!" And disappeared in a whirl of emerald flame.

Alex walked into her office after class carrying Banshee, who she'd finally managed to get back into her carrier. Placing the carrier on the floor she said to the little skunk, "Alright you, time to find somewhere for you to sleep!" Whipping out her wand she conjured pillows and cushions for the skunk to lay on while she ran down to Brook's office to see if he had a small crup house she could have.

Opening to door ot the carrier, she spoke to Banshee again, "Ok, you roam around the office and behave yourself, I'm going to go see if I can find you a house." Alex petted her pets head and watched as Banshee waddled over to the pile of pillows and snuggled down in the middle.

~A few days later~

Alex walked into her office and plopped down in her chair very ungracefully. She blew a piece of hair out of her face before sitting up and looking over in Banshee's direction. The little skunk had really settled down in Alex's office, spending most of her time sleeping on her little throne of pillows, at least she wasnt wandering around the school scaring people.

'I need sleep.' Alex thought to herself, she made to get up out of her chair but half way out of her chair she decided that it would be to much energy to go all the way to her quarters and her bed. So instead she quickly conjured a comfy looking bed next to the far wall, layed down on top of the covers and fell fast asleep.

Getting out of the Hufflepuff common room was, in his opinion, one of the best things he had done this entire day. Even though the celebration party over a victorious Quidditch win was going on in there, too many people where there at that party. He didn’t have any intention of staying there very long either – it wasn’t as if he was going to be crushing anyone’s feelings. Seth Paton wasn’t much of a party person to begin with, which everyone should’ve known. Nevertheless, at least he made an appearance. That was better than nothing, right? Right.

But what was he going to do to kill some time now? He surely was not going to study for his O.W.L.s, especially after he had made the decision to have a mental health day. So what really was there to? There was no way anyone was going to get him to go outdoors for some time and he certainly didn’t want to hang out in the prefect’s bathroom. Then that left him with pretty much one thing: go visit a professor. Which one, though?

As if his own feet had made up the decision for him, Seth found himself outside of that Transfiguration teacher’s office – Professor Pierce. Well that was going to be easier than he thought it would be. After straightening his prefect badge quickly, Seth knocked on the professor’s office door.

Knock, knock, knock!

Alex rolled over in her sleep and muttered something that sounded like, "Mmrmmph." She did not, however, wake up.

Banshee woke up as she heard a strange noise coming from the direction of the door. She crawled off of her throne and stretched before walking over in front of Alex's desk ad plopping down, staring at the door in curiosity.

Tapping his foot impatiently with his shoe, Seth debated whether he should just simply turn around and go find another professor to chat with or to just go and patrol one of the corridors for troublemakers. It seemed like Professor Pierce wasn’t in her office anyway, so what really was the point standing out there waiting for someone to answer the door that clearly wasn’t there? Right, there was no point!

As the Hufflepuff had turned around and started walking away from the door, a strange and peculiar noise came from inside the office. Staring back at the door with a raised eyebrow, the blonde boy blinked his blue eyes several times. What in Merlin’s beard was that?!

Quickly making his way back to the office door, Seth knocked on the door a few more times once again. What in the world was Professor Pierce doing in there? After not getting a response once again, the boy placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it, surprised that the professor hadn’t even bothered to lock it. When the door opened with a light and quiet click, Seth entered the office and closed the door as quietly as he possibly could, not even noticing the little creature that was laying right in front of the professor’s desk.

Seeing that the professor was sleeping away in a bed next to the fair wall, Seth was rather confused. Where had that noise from before come from then? Hastily making his way over to the sleeping professor, he suddenly stopped when he had felt his foot meet contact with something squishier than the hard floor. Looking down, he then saw the skunk. Oh crap!

Banshee let out a quiet squeak and ran over to Alex's bead, hiding underneath it. She didn't enjoy being kicked and the boy should think himself lucky that she didnt sink her sharp little teeth into him!

A soft squeak broke through Alex's dreams and she slowly opened her bleary eyes to see a figure standing in her office about 6 feet away. She gasped and jumped out of her bed, whipped out her wand and pointed it at the mysterious figure. "Who are you?!" she demanded trying to blink the sleep away from her eyes so she could see clearly. 'Oh Merlin, its that Toussaint woman back to get me for getting her fired!' was the the first thought to run through her brain and, being in her half asleep state, it sounded like a reasonable one. "I'm giving you two seconds to answer me then I start jinxing!" she warned.

Seth immediately jumped right before the skunk squeaked. Since when did skunks squeak and go hide under beds? Weren’t they supposed to spray out that smelly gunk out of their behinds or bite someone? Even though he did not exactly know for sure what skunks did to defend themselves from danger, he was extremely glad that this skunk had decided to run and hide. His pretty face wasn’t going to get destroyed today!

Well, it was not going to be destroyed by a skunk anyway. He had someone else he had to worry about doing that to him now….

Hearing the feminine voice of Professor Pierce, Seth knew that he had made a big mistake in stepping on that skunk, as well as entering her office. However, you would’ve expected the professor to hear a couple knocks on a door much less the squeak of a skunk. Jumping a few inches in the air and raising his hands up in surrender, the boy noticed that the Transfiguration professor already had her wand out. Who did she think he was – some mad woman from her past or something?

“Please, Professor Pierce!” Seth said, immediately pointing to his prefect badge to show that he meant no harm to her. “I’m Seth Paton! Hufflepuff, fifth year prefect. Please – please don’t jinx me!” That was the last thing he needed right now, to get his face all messed up because of a stupid jinx. “Please!”

Alex let out a sigh of relief and dropped her wand hand back to her side. "Dont you know better than to enter a professor's office without announcing yourself dear boy?" she scolded gently as she tucked her wand back in her robes. Leaning down, she scooped Banshee up and placed her on her shoulder, "Now, what can I do for you?"

As Professor Pierce let out a sigh of relief, Seth did as well. His face wasn’t going to be jinxed so it was the ugliest thing on the planet! Phew! Not daring to make a single move, besides the small movements he made when he had to breathe, he waited several moments after the professor lowered her wand hand before making a sound. As soon as her wand was back in her robe pocket, he then decided to speak.

“Yes, I do know better,” Seth said, rather surprised that she had asked him if he knew better or not. Of course he did! He was a prefect after all for Merlin’s sake. “I – uhh – I was just coming here to visit. That’s all. But …”

Oh, God. That was such a lame excuse to give to someone who was almost ready to jinx his. Slick moves, Paton. NOT!

“… But I was going to leave. I swear I was! But that was when I heard some weird noise come from inside your office, professor,” Seth stated, nodding his head at nearly every word he said. “So I entered your office and found that you were asleep. I – I was going to go after letting you know that I had heard something, but … your skunk. It – it was going to eat me!”

"I dont mind if you visit, just announce yourself." Alex answered as she sat down at her desk. "Strange noises? Hm... I didnt hear anything, but then again, I was asleep." She began to laugh, "Banshee? Eat you? Mr. Paton, she is about one sixteenth your size and very lovable. What made you think she would eat you?"

“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, Professor Pierce,” he began, still standing right in the same spot he had been over the past few minutes, “but I did knock several times before entering. But I understand what you mean, so I guess that really doesn’t matter. … But I am sorry for waking you up.” Seth then looked at Professor Pierce and gave her an apologetic look as she started talking about Banshee.

Wait. What was she rambling on about a banshee for? He didn’t see any banshees hanging around in her office. Oh, she meant the skunk. What? Who named a skunk Banshee? That just didn’t make sense in Seth’s mind – not one bit at all.

“Well … she squeaked!” Seth exclaimed, already knowing that what was coming out of his mouth was going to be pure nonsense to the Transfiguration professor. “And when most skunks fell unprotected, they spray stinky stuff and bite people! … I guess I was over-exaggerating about her going to eat me, though. … So, err, why do you exactly have a skunk roaming free in your office, professor?”

"Its alright dear, I understand, I am a pretty sound sleeper." Alex nodded as she spoke. It made sense that she didnt hear the knock but heard Banshee, the squeak was much higher pitched.

"Well, Banshee has been 'de-stinkified', most domestic skunks are, and as for why she didnt bite, shes a very gentle skunk, arent you Banshee?" she answered as she scratched her skunk between the ears. "I have her here because she's my pet. My son was watching her for me, but she was getting lonesome while he was at work, so I took her back."

Whitney had never been to the professor's office. Not knowing whether she was to walk in or knock on the door. She just stood there in front of the door, for about two minutes than she decided. Whitney took another step towards the door and knocked,not too hard, three times.

From the Common Room, Anna headed down to the sixth floor and in the direction of Professor Pierce's office. She reached down and checked her robe pockets, making double sure she'd remembered to bring her wand along. No use showing up at the Professor's office door to complete her homework assignment without a wand. When she'd verified that her wand was indeed in her robe pockets, Anna smiled and then continued on with her walk. When she'd arrived at the Professor's door, Anna raised her hand and knocked, awaiting an answer from her Transfiguration professor.

"Come on in, the door is open." Alex called as she looked at the two students outside her office door.

OOC: As I said in the classroom thread, the doors open Saves me from having to post "Come in" every two seconds

Megan walked into the office and smile at the proffesor. "I'm here for the assignment" she said

" Sorry if I'm bothering you professor. I just came to do or turn in the homework. I think I'm ready for it." Whitney said nervously. She checked to make sure she had her wand and an extra bowl just in case.

ooc:sorry about that lol

Punz wandered out of the Transfiguration classroom and right towards Professor Pierce's office. After all, no time like the present to practice, right? At least the spell was still fresh in her mind.

"Hello Professor," Rapunzel nodded to the teacher, slipping inside her office behind the other few students. Apparently they were all there for the homework assignment too.

Sapphire walked into Professor Pierce's office from the lesson as she walked in she realised there was a bit of a que she looked at the professor and said "i am ready for the homework Professor" and stood there paitiantly waiting

Hayden walked in quietly."I'm here for the homework." She held her wand by her side a little nervous.

Lima walked out of the transfiguration class and headed for Professor Pierce's office. No better time to get this done than the present, right?

Walking in, she said "hello Professor, I'm here for the homework." She cast a glance around her and saw the other students that were there. Noticing Pretzel among them, she gave her friend a wink.

Astrid saw the line of students that was already forming inside the Professor's office. She took her place behind the others to wait her turn and said, "Hello Professor Pierce. How are you today, ma'am?"

"Nice to see you all. If your here for homework, label your cup with your name and cast your spell." Alex said smiling, "I cant drink them all at once so just place them on my desk. Thanks!"

Sapphire collected a cup and labeled it with her name, she looked at the glass and concentrated with a flick of her wand she said Aguamenti and to her surprise the glass filled over half way and stopped she looked at the Pofessor and asked "is that enough Professor?" walking over to the desk to place the cup on there.