Quote:

Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles

"And I highly doubt that it needs permission at all." Dash said loudly as he quickly climbed the steps to the staff table. " Considering the fact that it is actually a she, and she is a baby." Passing his chair and stopping beside the headmistresses, he smirked before leaning in closer. "They tend not to understand how giving permission works, just in case you've forgotten." He winked before turning back and plopping right in his seat.

It felt strange tonight. In his head at least. A part of him had wanted to skip the feast all together but there was no point in that really. "Hecate." And baby. "Alistaire" He greeted, adding a nod to everyone close enough to hear him. Everyone else could just live their sad lives without hearing him speak.

Anastasia was still fuming when her deputy decided to show up, late as always. He seemed to be in a rare good mood though, so she didn't reply too snarkily to his comments.

"Maybe the IT I was talking about is IT'S MOTHER." Lafay. You. Ugly one, with the saggy jowls over there. Anastasia threw another glare in the direction of the Slytherin HoH and then glanced back to Dash. This was going to be a bittersweet feast, she could feel it already.

She had nothing else to say to him, for the moment, so she went back to staring out at the students. Her elbow crept on to the table and Annie cupped her chin with her hand. She was still fuming, but simmering down now. Some.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpluvr037

That glare... Ali physically shrank back into his chair. He felt perspiration start to bead on his neck and dribble down his back. Oh Merlin.. But.. not angry with him? She definitely wasn't acting like it! The fact that she had corrected herself to call Broc and Bonny cattle wasn't lost on him. At least she was attempting to be civil in her own way. "Well, I'm sorry they did their business in yer office, Annie, bu' they are domesticated. However, they are also still creatures. I don' know how long they were in yer office, but yeh can bet they were downrigh' terrified. I's a natural response an' they didn' know any better." All true, and she probably had already thought of those facts. But he felt the need to stand up for his pets. "I'm more'n happy ter help you clean up if yeh haven' already finished."

Struck by an idea, he gripped his wand inside of his jacket pocket. With a wave, he conjured a stunning bouquet of fragrant flowers, as pink as he could manage. "I'm gland yeh believe me, Annie. I still feel bad abou' the whole thing, though. Here's some flowers. I know i's a poor attempt ter make amends, but a' least their fragrance c'n help mask whatever smell is lingerin' from... yeh know."

But blah blah blah, they're just poor domesticated natural respondin' animals blah blah blah. Anastasia only half-heard Ali's nervous rambling about his cows. She hadn't turned them into ground chuck yet, had she? No. So they were safe. He could just stop talking about it now, please and thanks.

She had stopped listening so she was surprised when she smelled something pleasant to her left all of a sudden. The redhead turned to be faced with a bouquet of very aromatic, large flowers. Well. "I... see," she said after a few long moments of blinking and smelling and taking the flowers from him and cuddling them tenderly. Well well well! Who would have thought the very embarrassed groundskeeper had it in him.

"This should make a difference, actually," she said much more gently as she took the flowers and settled them in her water glass. Had to keep them fresh through the feast! "Though I'm not living in the office at the moment." It was inhabitable until an exterminator and professional cleaning army of house elves had a chance to scrub the place down.

"Thank you." She was much more subdued now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Droo

"Actually I do have a great fecal unction, the smell isn't the best, but I'm sure it will improve your skin's radiance." She smirked. "And I don't laugh at work, because there is nothing funny about a good education..." Though had she seen the headmistress slip and fall head first into the dung... that would have been funny. THAT she would have laughed at.

It? IT?!? Could the woman not see the child was a girl? She was just about to tell her off when...

Did Anastasia LOOK like she cared what kind of unctions Lafay had in her potions cabinet of secrets? No she did not. Did she CARE that the woman laughed or did not laugh at work? Yeah, a good education was serious business... HA. The redhead could have let out a stream of giggles at that one.

But she had flowers in front of her, pretty pink flowers to distract her. So she said none of these things and instead simmered in silence. "I don't like her," she commented under her breath, likely talking to her bouquet and no one else. It was a good thing Lafay had already left the table, because she had been THISCLOSE to getting herself fired.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

Annie whirled in and took her center seat at the table looking like she was going to blow out a rage of fire if she was a dragon. What in Merlin's whiskers had made the headmistress so angry? Or maybe who was the better question? Leo gave her a small smile. "Evening Headmistress, what is the matter?" Raising his hand to stroke his hair again he sighed. At least he wasn't the only one at the table that wasn’t exactly um feeling calm and collected.

"Evening," Anastasia was gently petting one of the flowers' petals when Leobald spoke to her... and unknowingly brought THE EVENT up again. Her blue eyes flashed red with a glint of anger again and she whirled to face him, lips pursed.

"NOTHING is the mater. NOTHING." SO STOP BRINGING IT UP ALREADY, PEOPLE, WOULD YOU?

She was just going to have to address this... situation directly, wasn't she. Well. No time like the present for a SPEECH. She would be needing a new water glass anyway, since hers was full of flowers. With that, and with a slight snarl still on her face, Anastasia stood and cast sonorous on herself. She cleared her throat loudly the way one might tap on a microphone to see if it were live, and waited for silence.

Taking a long sip of her juice, Seren bobbed her head, eyebrows raised attentively. "Plans?..." she echoed. "Well, I think spending some time at home with my husband sounds like a pretty good plan." And that was an understatement.

Seren flashed a smile, looking from Lafay to the baby. "She's adorable..." truly.

Airey sort of continued to poke at his fork as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world as more of his colleagues arrived at the table. Giving each of them a nod, his attention was immediately caught by something the Charms professor had said.

Wait. Pygmy puffs? In her office? .................BWAHAAHAHAHAHA!

He quite literally had to cover his mouth with one hand to stop himself from laughing and snickering anywhere but in his mind. Medea really was...something else, wasn't she. "She got you too, huh?" he chuckled under his breath. No pygmy puffs for him though. "She trapped me on my desk once with her felines."

Hmmm, hold on a moment. Interesting little connection we having going on here.

Pygmy puff = animal............cats = animal............cattle = animal

Did she really have the audacity to prank the Headmistress? Part of him sort of hoped that she did. Heh.

Which brought his gaze back to the dark haired woman. Fidgeting a bit with the sleeves of his suit, he tried not to look at the flowers he had given her as an apology. It made him feel ridiculously awkward. Awkward enough that he needed to loosen his tie slightly.

"Sooooooooo, Medea, you going to be planting anymore creatures in anyone else's office over the summer?"

Oh look, the Headmistress looked as though she would be getting ready to give her speech. That meant food would come after!

Cece couldn't keep from smiling when she was playing with Ariadne. And yes, she heard that little mumble from Hecate too. She had no problem with keeping the child with her during the feast. "I bet she'll be walking before the summer is over. And just think, you'll be home to see her first steps." That was an important milestone. Something a mother shouldn't miss in her child's life.

As Hecate talked with those around her, Cece sat there playing with Ariadne and pretty much ignored everything that was going on around her. That is until she heard the comment the headmistress made about Ariadne. How would the woman like it if someone called her child an IT? Even Dash understood that the child was a baby, not an It.

Not nice headmistress, NOT nice at all.

Bouncing Ariadne on her lap a little she glanced over at the librarian. "Leo." What was his problem? If he didn't want to say hello to her he didn't have to. She could very well do without his attitude. An attitude that he didn't seem to have towards the herbology professor, or any other staff member he addressed. Whatever. She had Ariadne on her lap. She wasn't going to let the likes of Leobald ruin her mood.

She was NOT seeing what she thought she was seeing. The groundskeeper was looking at the top of Leo's head? "Really Leo? You're having another staff member check to see if you're going bald? You need to get over it already. Suck it up. You're a man, men lose their hair, they go bald. It happens. Move on with your life and be happy with the hair you have left." Not that she noticed he had really lost any. She was just really tired of hearing him whine about it.

And then Hecate got up and left. Cece's gaze followed the woman. Looks like she's either going to address her house table, or maybe just to talk with Sierra. Whatever she was doing, it looks like Ariadne would be sitting with Cece during the feast, which was perfectly fine with her.

turning the child so she was facing her, Cece stood up and went to her own seat near the middle of the table. Near the headmistress. Now she needed to get the woman's attention, before she made her speech. She placed Ariadne on her left leg then leaned in front of Alistaire. "Sorry Mr. Firth, I need to speak with the Headmistress." She had something important she needed to tell her. "Excuse me headmistress, I have something I need to talk to you about." Preferably before the woman made her speech.

Josephina hurried up to the staff dais, taking note of her fellow colleague's expressions as she did so. Was it just her or did everyone (well mostly those on the other end of the table) seem rather uptight and tense? And why did Medea and Annie have flowers?! She NEVER got flowers. That was totally uncool. Frowning, she pulled her seat out and gave a quick smile to Abraham and then glanced the other way at Airey. And only then did she remember she had something for each of them.

And that something was sitting on her desk, in neatly wrapped boxes. A quick nonverbal summoning charm should do the trick; she inconspicuously withdrew her wand and cast the nonverbal incantation. One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes. Four minutes later two boxes zoomed at her lap.

"One for you, and one for you," she said, handing the white box to Airey and with her other hand, she extended the tan-coloured box towards the Runes professor. "Just a little something. For you know, tolerating being my seatmate for a whole year." Plus she felt bad about the tie-missing thing and she couldn't get Airey something without Abe, so yea.

Oh, Lafay. She was always good for a snarky remark. "Well, i's not as if I'm enjoyin' myself, exactly, Hecate. An' Cece, he was jus' going ter keep carryin' on abou' it, so I just decided ter humor him." But then... Hecate said something nice? Was she offering to help Leo? "An' tha's mighty kind of yeh, as well." Perhaps she'd forgotten to take her daily dose of U-No-Poo. But apparently Cece hadn't. He patted Leo's arm sympathetically. "I would've said it nicer, bu' they do both have a bit o' a point, Leo."




Aaaaand all his explaining was getting him nowhere, that much was clear. But.. she appeared to be grudgingly turning around? As he watched her smell them and then grasp them to herself, he let out a silent, pensive breath. A tentative smile played across the corner of his mouth.

"Great, I hope so! And I c'n have more sent up if yeh'd like.. or refresh the ones yeh already have when they need it." Of course, she was more than capable of doing those things by herself, but.. "I figure yeh don' want ter be going up there, a' least until yeh're sure it smells alrigh' again." But she wasn't living in her suite? "Oh shoo', I feel like this is all my fault. I mean, I know i's not, but I still feel awful. Can I rent yeh a room a' the Three Broomsticks?"

The stress of his conversation with the Headmistress had made him thirsty. Alistaire drained his goblet. As Annie stood up to give her speech, he noticed that her own water was otherwise occupied, so he silently conjured a water goblet for her. With another nonverbal incantation, he filled it with ice cold water. Then he settled back and fixed his attention upon his boss.

And now it was time for the speech. Anastasia ignored the pesterings of her little staff members beside her and again cleared her throat. She had decided it would be better to deliver the speech with mostly no anger, rather than anger for all.

Even if she was still mad at them ALL..... whoever the 'them' was that had put gassy cows in her office....

"Welcome to the end of term feast, everyone. I hope you have all studied hard and had a successful year. We are, as always, proud of all our students, and are especially proud of our graduates, the class of 2080." She looked around at the table, not showing a bit of happy emotion for the students. "I would also like to congratulate our House Cup winners, Hufflepuff; our Quidditch Cup champions, also Hufflepuff; and our Gobstones winners, Slytherin." She clapped her hands lightly and a flock of house elves scurried into the room, all carrying celebratory bowls of ice cream. "Please be sure to enjoy dessert along with your meal today, as we are celebrating not only our House, Quidditch, and Gobstones champions, but we are also celebrating the start of something new." A new partnership, of sorts. Bunz eyed the ice cream starting to create a stir and continued talking.

"This term was a unique one because we had our first-ever open election for the Hogwarts Board of Governors. The Hogwarts Staff and current Board members did an excellent job of attempting to educate you all on how a democracy works and on how our own school is run. To show the importance of last month's election, Hogwarts even went so far as to host a voting booth on this floor. We also allowed you all -- our students -- to vote, regardless of whether you are of age or not. I'd like to announce those results now."

She reached down by her empty plate and picked up a tiny scroll, which she unrolled ceremoniously. "The nine candidates elected by the Hogwarts students' MOCK vote are: Atticus Aldredge, Sherman Clark, Cooper Cope, Gavin Higareda, Ivy Knox, Carter Phillips, Nolan Reynolds, Althea Schirmer, and Corineus Vanderbilt. How nice of you all to vote. Hogwarts thanks you for your participation in this process."

The redhead paused and looked up from her scroll with a tiny, just minuscule, evil little smile at the students. "And as much as we do appreciate your voting, students, here are the REAL results. Here are the nine people who were REALLY elected to the Board, and who will be serving our school for possibly DECADES to come.

"The wizarding public has elected: Atticus Aldredge, Sherman Clark, Cooper Cope, Ivy Knox, Carter Phillips, Nolan Reynolds, Althea Schirmer, Corineus Vanderbilt, and Erik Vinteren to the Board. Please congratulate these fine Governors if you see them around the school in the future, and as always, remember your manners around them."

She rolled her little scroll back up and dropped it to the table. "With that, I have no further announcements, save for one: If anyone EVER enters into my office without FIRST RECEIVING MY EXPRESS PERMISSION to do so, EVER AGAIN, so help me Merlin I WILL be serving their heads on a platter for the main course of the next feast." Her blue eyes flashed red all around at all four House tables, HOPEFULLY FINDING the person(s) who had pulled THAT PRANK on her, and making them feel TERRIBLE for it. Then she put on a sweet smile again and finished her speech.

"That will be all. Thank you, and enjoy your meal."

Quote:

Originally Posted by The1HBIC

Now she needed to get the woman's attention, before she made her speech. She placed Ariadne on her left leg then leaned in front of Alistaire. "Sorry Mr. Firth, I need to speak with the Headmistress." She had something important she needed to tell her. "Excuse me headmistress, I have something I need to talk to you about." Preferably before the woman made her speech.

"What." Annie said simply after she exhaled her last bit of anger. She turned her head to drolly glance at the Healer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpluvr037

Aaaaand all his explaining was getting him nowhere, that much was clear. But.. she appeared to be grudgingly turning around? As he watched her smell them and then grasp them to herself, he let out a silent, pensive breath. A tentative smile played across the corner of his mouth.

"Great, I hope so! And I c'n have more sent up if yeh'd like.. or refresh the ones yeh already have when they need it." Of course, she was more than capable of doing those things by herself, but.. "I figure yeh don' want ter be going up there, a' least until yeh're sure it smells alrigh' again." But she wasn't living in her suite? "Oh shoo', I feel like this is all my fault. I mean, I know i's not, but I still feel awful. Can I rent yeh a room a' the Three Broomsticks?"

The stress of his conversation with the Headmistress had made him thirsty. Alistaire drained his goblet. As Annie stood up to give her speech, he noticed that her own water was otherwise occupied, so he silently conjured a water goblet for her. With another nonverbal incantation, he filled it with ice cold water. Then he settled back and fixed his attention upon his boss.

"Oh that won't be necessary," Annie carried on her conversation with the groundskeeper, even if Cece and a baby were leaning on him as it were. He looked strong enough to handle the weight of all those women. Ha. "I do have a home in Hogsmeade, you know, Alistaire." She looked back to the table and picked up her new water goblet.

Was that his doing? How nice of him. "Thank you," she remarked, rather touched by the gesture. Well well, the redhead might just have a favorite groundskeeper now. That wasn't saying much, though, considering she'd strictly hated all the previous ones she'd worked with.

Oh please, don't humor the man. Tell him like it is, just like Cece had done. "Yes Leo, listen to the man. WE women have a point." And don't you forget it either.

Yep, Cece could very well like this new groundskeeper of theirs if he kept agreeing with her like this.

NO!

Did Anastasia not listen to Cece when she said she needed to talk to the woman? The headmistress cold NOT give her speech now. Seriously, she had something IMPORTANT to tell her. But apparently that wasn't going to happen just yet.

Sitting there listening to the headmistress give her way too long speech, Cece was tempted to let Ariadne run around to distract the woman. Maybe she would stop talking long enough to listen to what it was Cece had to tell her. Not wanting to feel the wrath of Hecate though, she chose to keep Ariadne on her lap, out of trouble.

FINALLY!

The woman stopped talking and sat back down... and decided to acknowledge Cece.

Leaning even further in front of the groundskeeper Merlin, was it hot in there or what? Cece quickly told the headmistress what it was she had been trying to tell her BEFORE she gave her speech.

Sitting back up in her own seat but staying close to Alistaire, Cece held tight to the child on her lap and grinned at Anastasia.

Well go ahead. Stand back up. Make another announcement already.

Sweet Circe, did Cece REALLY need to give out some last-minute points NOW? She heaved a great sigh at what the INSISTENT Healer was whispering to her and stood back up again, quickly casting sonorous for the hopefully last time today.

"I'm sorry, everyone, I don't mean to interrupt your feasting," she sure didn't sound sorry, "but it appears we have a few last minute points to give out." She turned to shoot a certain LOOK the Healer's way. "For cleaning the hospital wing from top to bottom, supposedly so well that even House Elves were impressed, Healer Tillstorm would like to award six points each to Dylan Montmorency and West Odessa. That brings Slytherin House's total points score up to 5,343, so that they are officially TIED with Hufflepuff House for the 2080 House Cup."

She clapped her hands again and great big Slytherpuff banners fell down to decorate the large wall behind her. "It seems a congratulations are in order for the first tie in recent memory. That concludes our speech and term, everyone, please eat now."

She sat back down again with a Huff and dragged a bowl of mashed potatoes her way. Woman needed carbs after all that talking and seething.

...

Pardon?

Medea looked past the charms professor to Airey, shaking her head a little. No, no. No one trapped you on your desk with cats...oh dear. Shush mister! "That vos an accident." she said just above a whisper, still shaking her head a little. That indeed was a total not accident when her cats got out, until she figured out how amusing it was.

Ahem. There was no reason to give Sophia any more proof to point fingers at her for the pygmy puff incident.

Taking out her wand, she conjured a small vase to set the flowers in, before her attention was abruptly turned back to the Astronomy professor. You know what... "I had no plans of doing such a thing, no." She said matter of factly. Although she may have plans now. "Vot about yourself? Any relaxing getavays planned that don't involve haffing your limbs stuck together?"



Oh, the speech!

Medea turned her attention to the Headmistress as she started the speech, even more intrigued when the sudden arrival of house elves carried in ice cream from the looks of it. What an unexpected surprise! And what excellent news to go along with it. The student's votes were just a hair off from who were actually elected. Medea couldn't have smiled any more than she was now from the idea.

However...

Oh dear. Her smile started to fall as the headmistress ended the speech. Well...what was an ending feast without a bit of drama, right? Always look to the bright side of things! And don't look at the headmistress for too long. It might anger her more now.



Forgetting about her slight suspicions that the water in the jug closest to her had been tampered with by a certain someone, Medea poured herself a glass anyways and took a sip. Honestly, the defense professor automatically went to conclusions when Annie stood up again to speak. Thank Merlin though, there weren't any threats on loss of other limbs.

What? WHAT? Could that happen?

Apparently so, what with the Slytherpuff decorations now adorning the hall. How wonderful! Medea clapped, glancing over to the Slytherin table. Both houses worked as hard as ever this term! Much congratulations to both.

As Hecate returned to the staff Dias she smiled at her little girl while she giggled and pushed her new teddy bear in Cece's face. She seemed to be having so much fun. The potions mistress cringed at the decorations of yellow and green, but she was thankful green was in there.

She sat down not taking Ariadne from Auntie Cece, and it was then she thought of her siblings... Aunts and uncles... They probably didn't even know. She and Alexander hadn't announced it publically. Too many questions on her illness and how she could have had the baby in that condition.

Speech was over... So was the term and now the feast... Right? "So... we can go now?" She whispered leaning into Cece.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

The astronomer was a bit surprised when something went wizzing by his face and nearly smacked it with his plate had it not been for a slight hand-eye coordination malfunction that made him struggle to keep a hold of the plate in the first place.

Just going to set that down again before he broke it.

His blue eyes move to the Arithmancy professor as she handed him a box. Oh! A present for him? But it wasn't even his birthday! That had been way back in December and it had passed just as quietly as it did each year. "I would hardly call it tolerating," he chuckled as he accepted the box and shook it near his ear. Hmmm....muffled... what could it be. He was allowed to open it, right?

Eager fingers quickly removed the lid and his eye twinkled slightly when he saw what was in it. "Oh! An Italian made silk tie!" he grinned. "Thank you, Josephina!" Should he have given her something? He could conjure flowers or something, but that seemed tacky and, well, giving her anything now would be more of an after thought and not nearly as genuine.

Oh look! The Headmistress was giving her speech now. Which all essentially went in one ear and out the other because the rumbly in his tummy was proving to be too much of a distraction to do much else. He did, however, offer the appropriate applause to the newly elected Board members.

And now she was done which meant FOOD!

Serving himself a large portion of mashed potatoes and roast beef, he was just about to dig in when the woman stood up AGAIN. Sweet solstice all he wanted to do was eat. Oh, a tie? Well wasn't that nifty?

Not as nifty as these mashed potatoes though.

Stuffing some food into his mouth, Airey looked over at Medea with cheeks stuffed like a hamster's while she addressed him. Accident? Right. Sure. He was sure that those felines were really just assassins in disguise. They DID have claws after all. And they shouldn't be coming to his office anyway. He had given all of his Fancy Feast to Medea and the other monster possessing professors.

"Me? I plan on doing some more research. The transit of Venus in front of our Sun should be visible sometime in the next year, so I have some calculations and work to do there." Fascinating stuff, really. They were all LUCKY to be able to witness this sort of astronomical event. You were lucky if you got to see it even ONCE in your lifetime. "Besides that," he continued, eyeing the ice cream and deciding to scoop himself a bowl. "I want to do some more exploring of muggle London. They have these places called Fast Food and I want to see just how fast their food is."

He planned on taking notes and everything. Maybe there was something to be learned to help the house elves be even more efficient.

And into his mouth went a large scoop of ice cream. Heh. He had an idea seeing as LeoBALD down there was still panicking over this whole hair issue. "Hey, Leo, did you know that scientific study shows that eating ice cream of the mint variety can help stimulate hair growth?" Cue another smirk as another spoonful of ice cream went into his mouth. Oh look, his bowl was all empty. Time for another. "Looks like I will have luscious locks forever at this rate."

Feeling slightly squashed by the Healer, Alistaire did his best to keep his full attention on the woman to his right. He attempted to conceal his surprise. "No, I didn' know that. I guess yeh won' be needin' that, then!" She really did have a way of making him feel stupid sometimes. But, he managed a sincere, "Yeh're welcome," in response to her gratitude.



He clapped in congratulations after Annie's announcement. But honestly... his Gryffindor senses of fairness and chivalry were being triggered a bit. Seriously? Cece had to wait to talk to Annie about this? Why didn't she just add the points earlier? Then the Hufflepuffs wouldn't have to be let down. Did the Healer really not know that as soon as you awarded the points they were added? Did she think Truebridge had to approve everything? To Ali, this move was purposefully calculated to occur during the Feast and cut into the Badgers' joyous festivities.

Not cool, Tillstorm. Not cool at all.

Still unhappy with his colleague on behalf of the Badgers, Alistaire was distracted by something Airey was yelling down the table to Leo. Luscious locks? Leave it to Airey.. Ice cream did sound good, but the Healer's move had left the Groundskeeper without much of an appetite. No ice cream for him.

Nodding Leo responded seriously. "Yes I am. It's just a big thing for me. It has always been that way even if it’s hard to understand." Other people were scared of heights or small places or spiders and he was scared of going bald. Lowering his hands from his hair Leo gulped. "Okay, I shall keep that in mind." Following Ali’s advice was another story. "I have tried hair potions but they haven’t worked on my hair." He responded. Bending over so Ali could check his head Leo guessed that it looked weird. He held still so for a few minutes before he straighted up and said. "Thank you Ali. I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important."

The staff table was too long. Leo wanted a nice and good conversation with Abraham and share stories from the term. The table didn’t allow that. They were sitting too far away from each other. Suppressing a pout Leo called over. "I’m going to Spain with my nephew Lucas and then I'll just spend time with my family."

A hair tonic!

Leo wanted to take Hecate’s offer of a hair tonic but it came with strings attached. He had never liked being in debt to anyone least of all a potions mistress. Coughing he shook his head. "Thank you but no thank you Hecate. I think I’ll try my luck at Primpernell’s first. If I however am unsuccessful i’ll seek you out at the start of next year." Yes, a solid plan.



Cece has never been known for her diplomatic way of putting things and this was not any different. She basically told him to get over his fear of going bald since it was normal for men to lose their hair. Leo just stared at Cece for a moment or two before he mumbled. "That’s easy for you to say. I will try though. I can’t promise you more than that." Cece probably had just said something to not hear him whine about it before the Annie gave the speech. And Ali agreed even if he wasn’t so blunt about it.



Annie stood up thankfully and gave her traditional speech. Leo just gaped in shock by the end of it since the House points cup was tied between Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Had that ever happened in Hogwarts history? Asking nobody in particular Leo wondered out loud. "Have the house cup standings ended on a tie before in the school’s history?"

As the food appeared Leo filled his plate with a little bit of everything before he dug in to the food like someone that hadn’t eaten in a while. Worrying always made him hungry.

Leo had just eaten up the last bits of mashed potates and was debating whether he wanted more food or not when he heard Airey shout from the other side of the table."Oh really? I haven’t read that study. Did it say how much ice cream you had to eat to stimulate hair growth?" he called down to the Airey. Pulling the ice cream bowl towards him Leo moved a considerable amount of ice cream onto his place. Scooping up some ice cream onto his spoon he held it up and yelled over to Airey "Shall we see who can eat the most ice cream? We should invite some students to join too." Plucking the first spoon into his mouth Leo hummed in satisfaction, delicious ice cream. Glancing around him at his fellow staff members he urged. "Come on everyone let’s see who can eat the most ice cream. It will be fun!"

What had Ali's wand in a knot? The sudden points announcement? He was a Gryffindor, wasn't it? He should have have been all wand twisted face before the feast even started in his opinion. Odd gent.

And speaking of odd....

Really Leo? Gullible much? "You know, Leo, for a librarian you really need to read more." Airey was no Herbologist, but he at least knew that mint did no such thing and was more for digestion or something like that. Seren could glare at him if she wanted to. He popped one last spoon into his mouth - making it bowl number 4 - and then chuckled at in the man's direction. "You implying that EVERYONE is going bald there. eh, Leo?" Honestly, how did the man go from ice cream stimulates hair growth to trying to get everyone to join them in the make believe contest he had drawn the man into?

Oh well. Challenge accepted.

Without even asking, Airey scooped Medea a bowl of ice cream and passed it to her. "You wouldn't want me to beat you at ice cream eating now, would you?" Since she was insisting on battling him with pranks, might as well keep the trend going.

And this was going nowhere fast. Time to crank this up a notch. Without further explanation, the astronomer got to his feet and hurried down off the dias and down towards the house tables.

He was sure he could catch up with Leo once he returned.

His plans were actually rather interesting. Not that they wouldn't be if they were something else, though she supposed their year of on and off childish behavior had her expecting otherwise. "Dare I ask how you'll manage to figure that out?" Astronomy was not one of her strong suits unless it was pointing out constellations in the sky.

Trying to stab a crouton with her fork, proving only to be a fail and managing to split it in half, Medea raised an eyebrow and turned her gaze to the Astronomy professor. Fast food places? "I know about those places. Usually packed during the times I've valked by them." she spoke, half trying to remember the few she walked by months or years before and half still trying to get one of those croutons on her plate. "Never actually been in one though."

Oh for Merlin's sake. She gave up on the crouton, smashed into tiny pieces by now.

Besides, the mention of an ice cream eating contest caught her attention. Medea glanced down the way to Leo, a smile creeping up on her face despite the fact that she found the idea absurd. More like see who can get a stomach-ache the fastest... Woah, now. After being handed a bowl of ice cream, the defense professor stared as Airey randomly went down to the Gryffindor table for who knows what. She will not be pulled into this.

Nevertheless, she did take a half spoonful bite of the ice cream, because...ice cream.

Need there be another reason?

And now it was speech time. She beamed down at her shining golden badgers when she heard Annie announce them as House cup and Quidditch Cup winners. Really; she was thrilled by their hardwork and dedication and she couldn't have been prouder of every single one of them and how they worked together.

And then the announcement of the board members. Not too far different between the mock and the real elections, actually. She was slightly disheartened that a certain former housemate of hers didn't make it in, but it was probably better that way. They already had at least one quidditch player, with Carter; Andrew too and the amount of ego on the board might have been overwhelming.

And gee louise?!! Did someone actually enter the Headmistress' office without permission?!? Hadley frowned grateful no one had ever done that too...... and then .... with another frown, she realized someone had. It wasn't bad though, the break in, but just for a surprise parting gift.

Oh. That's all. She was about to dig into the feast (and the ice cream!), when she saw the Healer grab Annie's attention. What in the name of Merlin could have been so important that Cece wanted to interrupt the speech for?


And then.... after another moment, the Headmistress spoke up again. Just as she inserted a rather large spoonful of potatoes into her mouth....

WHAT?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SFHTEJGPTW!!!!!!!!!!! *splutter* *cough*


Not that she was upset about sharing the house cup; she was a Badger and they shared, but .... that was just ............ REALLY!?!? Why did Cecelia have to wait until the FEAST to award those points?!?

That was just ............ downright ...... Slytherin.

Cecelia Tillstorm; that was totally uncool. And without a second thought, she just GLARED daggers down the table at the Healer, who was totally in our naughty book now.

Taking her napkin, she wiped away the mashed potatoes that had somehow made it from her mouth to her goblet Cece's fault, and turned to look at Airey. Oh GOOD, he liked it!

Beammmmmmmmmm!

"You're welcome. I just ... i felt bad too about your office breakin and whatnot...." She admitted quietly. "I hope you enjoy your summer break."

That was when she overheard the conversation between Leo and Airey .... or at least the bit she'd been paying attention to. Something about who can eat the most ice cream? Well thanks to her disheartened mood due to last minute points by a certain Tillstorm, she was for certain SHE could eat quite a fair amount of ice cream. It wasn't even the tie that bothered her. It was the fact that it was last-minute-at-the-feast.

"I'm in." She said quietly, helping herself to a large bowl of ice cream as she pushed her half-eaten dinner off to the side and inserted a large mouthful of ice cream into her mouth.