Laurel wanted to continue to reassure and console Carlton but the throbbing pain in her cheek and bleeding fingers made her only think of that. That River was inspecting her wounds and applying gauze to her face distracted her attention from what was going on around them.

Realizing suddenly that it had gone very quiet in the room Laurel pulled out her wand and restored the RoR room to its original state. The next professor or student that wandered into the RoR probably didn't want to be met by arrows and bows. Meeting River's gaze she asked "Can you fix my wounds in my office? I don't really have time to follow you down to the hospital wing." Looking over at Skylar and Carlton she said "You two can come along too. I'm really all right Carlton. Healer Reed will fix me up in no time."

***
Some minutes later Laurel unlocked her tower office door and headed inside with River just behind her and the students she assumed were some feet after him. Releasing a sigh that she had been holding in Laurel smiled faintly at her Bengal cat that was snoozing on top of her desk. Turning around to face River she asked "Do you need any supplies to fix my wounds?" She had a healing kit somewhere in her office for simple cuts and such.

OOC: All three of you can now post in here.

Carlton followed professor Vance and healer Reed away from the Room of Requirements in silence. But his thoughts were NOT silent at all. He didn't like this situation in the slightest. Carlton hung his head in shame as he followed the billowing robes of the healer in front of him. Resisting the urge to grab on to it. Why did he want to TOUCH it. Grabby hands.

Then he was reminded of the very solemn situation and his mood darkened again. Poo. He followed the adults to the Divination professor's office and looked around them curiously. This office didn't have a bouncy floor like Professor Myer's meeting space, but it felt homey and Carlton immediately liked it, in spite of having a non-bouncy floor.

He hovered around the adults and shifted his weight. He was very uncomfortable and very much hating the situation they were in. He refused to look at professor Vance's injuries because GUILT. He didn't like guilt. It made his tummy ache. Instead he took a great interest in all of the stuff professor Vance had in her office. So. Much. Stuff.

Now, could healer Reed just use his magic hands and fix the professor please so they could all just forget about this whole thing?!

Caroleena walked into Laurel's office. Her eyes moved around until she had enough of looking around her co-workers office. The blonde woman looked at at the woman. Did she have a favorite tea flavor?

Favorite tea flavors? "Green tea and orange tea." the woman said with a small smile. By the end of term she would get better at this whole socializing at a new place of employment. She should be used to this by now.

Laurel enjoyed socializing with her co-workers. Inviting them into the sanctuary that was her office where she spent many hours seering and preparing for classes was still though a little scary she admitted silently to herself. Caroleena though didn't seem to dislike her office decor and furniture and that was a big plus in the making friends department.

Focusing on getting the tea water ready Laurel said with a kind glance over her shoulder. "I'm a green tea fan too. Orange tea has never grown on me." Meaning she just didn't like it. When the tea water was finally ready, Laurel added two teacups and biscuits to the tray and headed over to her little seating group of comfy chairs and a table in the middle and motioned Caroleena to join her.

Taking a seat, Laurel sat back after pouring herself a cup of green tea and focused on Caroleen. "So, how do you like teaching here? Did you go to Hogwarts in your school years?"

The blonde woman kept looking around the office. "This is a very interesting decor you have here" her hands just gestured towards the whole room. "Not in a bad way though." she was very into people expressing themselves through any form of art.

"Eh, I used to hate orange tea, it's a taste that I was able to get used to and I ended up liking." Though right now she had wished she had hated it seeing as orange tea was her ex-husband's favorite. Caroleena walked over towards the table as soon as the tea was ready, she took a seat in the empty chair.

"Teaching here is different." Leena shrugs slightly with a nod. "I'm not exactly used to having students talk back to me that for sure." it was very disrespectful. "I was here a very long time ago." She had graduated about thirty years ago at this point. "I was sorted into Slytherin." she wondered if people had a hard time figuring out what house she had been in.

That Caroleena kept looking around her office was a little puzzling. Laurel didn't think her choice of office decor was much different from her other colleagues, but she hadn't visited all their offices. Sweeping her blue eyes around the room, they eventually stopped on Leena as said slightly confused. "Thank you I think. I just wanted to make it homely and warm. Are you interested in interior design?"

"I have a theory that tea favourites changes with mood, age and circumstance. Could that be why you like orange tea now and not before?" Laurel wondered. It would be interesting to know if her theory was at least half right. When she was very young she had hated tea and just seen it as a bad smelling hot substance.

Sipping on her own cup of tea Laurel nodded "I know what you mean. I didn't have much teaching experience before coming here, but how students address each other and their professors has really stuck out. I wonder where respect as has gone? I used to be sorted into Slytherin too."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

It took several moments for Laurel to drop her whole crisis mindset, because of the insistent knocking on her crystal ball that seemed very urgent to a calm and pleasantly surprised by Derfael's visit mindset. Luckily for her the young badger was so engrossed in his own world with his back to the door that he didn't notice her right away.

But when he did though Derf spun on the spot and dropped his peculiar box with a dull thud to the floor as he greeted her. Apparently he wanted to give her something but it was lost as Derf most likely took in her flour covered appearance. Laughing good heartedly Laurel shook her head as she replied kindly. "No, not at all. Peeves isn't at fault. I'm covered in all this flour and its entirely my own fault for experimenting with a new future reading method."

Doing her best to brush off some of the worst flour from her face and robes she asked. "Would you like to come inside Derfael and show me the content of that box over some apple lemonade and some scones if they are too badly burned?"

OOC: You may now post in the office!

There was something about being called Derfael that made his stomach backflip uncomfortably. Maybe it was because mum and dad used it when they were scolding him about something. Although when they were REALLY upset they would use his middle and last name too. It really depended on the severity of what he had done. When he had filled the bathtub with water from the pond out back so he could keep tadpoles in it he had only been called Derfael. When he had emptied all mum's expensive perfume bottles and turned them into fish bowls..that had earned him a Derfael Mitchell Ashburry-Hawthorne.

"Experimenting is-sn't a bad fing," the first year replied with a shrug. Fault seemed a funny word to use, you know? At least it seemed to him. "Do you dump flour all over yours-self to do it?"

The Hufflepuff already had two feet inside Professor Vance's office when she mentioned FOOD and he immediately thought of the poster he had put up on the house hourglasses. "Um...it's-s okay, professor. Not hungry." Not a lie, so he didn't feel guilty about feeding his suspicion and conspiracy theory. "But I can s-show you what's-s in the box!"

Watching Derfael it oddly brought up memories of her own first year at Hogwarts and its roller coaster ride of experiences both personally and academically. She supposed that the young badger somewhat resembled herself in some ways and thus made Laurel think back to when she had met her brothers after the feast when she had been sorted into Slytherin. It hadn't been an easy conversation and her two brothers clear disappointment had been written in their faces and words. It had been super though and had turned something joyful into tears and a very upset letter home to her parents. Luckily her parents had been more positive, understanding and encouraging.

But never mind that now, locking away her memories where they belonged. Tuning into what Derf was saying Laurel smiled "No, of course experimenting isn't a bad thing. I encourage it from my students every day. I just took the experimenting a bit too far and well got flour everywhere I didn't want it." Taking out her wand Laurel cleaned herself and her office up with casting around a few spells.

Relived when she was clean, Laurel shook her head in response to Derf's question. "No, that particular divination reading doesn't involve dumping flour all over myself, but I can understand if you got that impression."

"Let me know if you change your mind about trying a scone." Laurel murmured as she moved to get the scones out of the oven before they burned up. Turning back to Derf she nodded curiously. "Yes, please show me what's in the box."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nordic Witch

Watching Derfael it oddly brought up memories of her own first year at Hogwarts and its roller coaster ride of experiences both personally and academically. She supposed that the young badger somewhat resembled herself in some ways and thus made Laurel think back to when she had met her brothers after the feast when she had been sorted into Slytherin. It hadn't been an easy conversation and her two brothers clear disappointment had been written in their faces and words. It had been super though and had turned something joyful into tears and a very upset letter home to her parents. Luckily her parents had been more positive, understanding and encouraging.

But never mind that now, locking away her memories where they belonged. Tuning into what Derf was saying Laurel smiled "No, of course experimenting isn't a bad thing. I encourage it from my students every day. I just took the experimenting a bit too far and well got flour everywhere I didn't want it." Taking out her wand Laurel cleaned herself and her office up with casting around a few spells.

Relived when she was clean, Laurel shook her head in response to Derf's question. "No, that particular divination reading doesn't involve dumping flour all over myself, but I can understand if you got that impression."

"Let me know if you change your mind about trying a scone." Laurel murmured as she moved to get the scones out of the oven before they burned up. Turning back to Derf she nodded curiously. "Yes, please show me what's in the box."

Experimenting too far? Derf was preeeeeetty sure the professor hadn't taken her curiosity THAT far yet. She was still alive and all! Curiosity killed the kneazle, after all. At least that was the understanding he had about the phrase. And flour wasn't dangerous - not like flowers - so...he didn't think Professor Vance had taken anything too far. Maybe just messy...but the Hufflepuff had no problem with that.

"What does-s-s it involve then?" he asked with a bounce. Besides the obvious of using flour.

Nodding at the mention of the scones - yeah...not happening, professor - the first year instead handed over the poorly wrapped box with a lopsided bow to her. "It's-s not a pres-s-sent if I open it," he beamed, eagerly waiting for her to see what was inside.