Lunch (Annabelle, open)

[Dominic Day]

Dominic sat, his class concealed from him behind a small book which struggled to keep his attention. He had found it in the library one day, although how exactly he had gotten into the library at the time was something of a mystery to him. His head pounded as he remembered his eyes flickering their way open to see the many high rows of shelves and polite coughing from a student who was reading not that far away, he remembered as he tried to fob off his being asleep in the library onto work, pretending that the wine bottle in his slumped and relaxed hand wasn’t actually his, asking the student what books they had. In reflection however, that one in particular was a rather dim question, although the student had answered all the same and had handed him the book that was now trying desperately to squeak its way into Dominic’s interest and refusing to believe that it was merely being used so he had an excuse to not look at his practising students.

‘Err sir?’ A voice quavered from behind the word ‘belligerent’ in the book. Dominic glared at the word for a moment before going back to the paragraph he was on. ‘Sir?’ The voice said more urgently and a tad louder. Dominic sighed and gave another glare at the quite innocent word in his book and allowed the book to fall away so that the word was replaced by a confused looking first years face. “What?” Dominic said rather harshly, glaring at the child. The first year shook a little as he said, ‘errrm, i just can’t seem to get it right professor.’ Dominic practically fell out of his chair out of exasperation and staggered towards the child, running a hand through his hair, “whats the problem exactly?” He said vaguely, looking down at the child and flicking a floating feather that one of his fellows had managed to get up to his eye level. ‘Errm, well i say the incantation and swish and flick but nothing happens’, the 11 year old raised his wand up vaguely. Dominic got down to the childs level and glared deep into its eyes. “How long, exactly, have you been here...whatever your name is?” The child opened its mouth then closed it again, “i assume, that you understand the deep carnal power that we as magical folk have been granted.” The child still said nothing as feathers fell from the air as the class turned round to watch. “I don’t think you do, because despite your perfect technique in wand movement, despite your pure pronunciation.” He gently and slowly took the child’s wand out of its hand and turned it round, replacing it in the child’s quivering hand. “You still have to use, the right end.”

He glanced up at the clock on the wall and noticed it was about 10 minutes till the end of the lesson as sniggers spread throughout the class. “Shut up!” He suddenly shouted at them at large and they fell immediately silent, not expecting the sudden outburst. “Piss off go on! Early lunch! I want an essay for next lesson on.....magic...stuff.” He pointed at the child still before him packing up and said “not you, i want a diagram showing me how to hold a wand from you.” He waited a bit for them to file out of the room but they were taking such a long time he just walked over to the desk, reached into a drawer and withdrew a bottle of wine, clicking his fingers so the cork flew out of it and he waded his way through the children to the door.

It wasn’t a long trip downstairs to the great hall, in fact he practically ran and was still running as he reached the great doors, running up the hall and slammed himself down into his seat at the teachers table, lighting a cigarette and conjuring a glass out of thin air, pouring himself a glass of the wine and putting his feet up on the table, waiting for the food to appear as usual.

[Annabelle Andrews]

Now that school was back in full swing, Annabelle and the hospital wing were in full swing. She had multitudes of students coming in every day now. Young first years with hexes gone wrong, or potions that have gone terribly ary. Older, sixth and seventh years, mostly a pair of Slytherin boys and a pair of Gryffindor boys coming in from getting into a fight. Seriously. The school was meant to bring the young together, but it seemed that they still all got into arguments and generally disagreed with each other.

Today, though, just before lunch she had gotten a poor little first year boy who came in shaking from humiliation. And he hadn't been humiliated by the Potions master, which she heard was something that used to happen a lot. It had been the Charms professor that had brought this kid in with the shakes. She had set him up in a bed and put a privacy curtain around him and had asked one of the house elfs that helped her when she needed it, to run down to the kitchen to fetch him something to eat.

Then, she went in search of the teacher. Checking her roster, Annabelle figured out that Dominic Day was the teacher, and beside his name was his picture, and preparing for an argument, she headed off to the Great Hall from the Hospital wing, the memory of the poor kid fresh in her mind and keeping her anger fueled.

Though she was short, she pushed through the larger students, who quickly moved aside when they realized she was a redhead and was in a terrible mood. Entering the Great Hall, she marched past the House tables, and up onto the stage where the teachers sat. Walking along the front of the table, her heels clicking loudly on the floor with each step, she moved down past teacher after teacher until she came upon the one she was looking for. And the sight of him caused her small flickering flame of anger to blaze brighter than it had in a long time.

Here the man sat, leaning back in his chair, dirty shoes on the table, a cigarette in one hand, and a glass of what unmistakably looked to be wine. Biting her cheek for a moment, she stood as tall as her five foot four frame would let her stand in front of him, and she glared down at him with everything her large hazel eyes had.

"Professor Day," she finally spoke through ground teeth, although that just had to be bad for them. "For Gods sake, take your shoes off the table. People eat there, and from the looks of you, who in the world knows where your shoes have been. I must have a word with you, but I will not speak to you while that God awful cigarette is in your hand, and if you take a sip of that wine so help me, I might do something that most people would regret, but I am pretty sure I would not regret it." she rambled in her anger. She hadn't meant to make a scene here in the Great Hall, had been hoping to move the teacher into the room off to the side of the professor's table up here, but the sight of him sent all reason flying from her brain.

Outfit || Lovely
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[Dominic Day]

Dominic watched as the rest of the school slowly filed in for lunch, the teachers taking their respective places around him, he shook hands with a few of them. Dominic knew why they let him get away with his usual antics. No one in their right mind would hire him if he couldn’t at least back up what was necessary for the job at hand, the knowledge that some of them considered him to be the lowest of the low didn’t bother him in the slightest, Dominic had the ability to live by his own rules and to not really care what people thought about it. He didn’t even particularly like his job, having to interact with students who insisted on having to learn from him all the time when all he really wanted was the rather considerable salary that his job provided. ‘Teaching the young minds of tomorrow’ was a supposedly motivational term that he was hearing day in and day out but he simply couldn’t understand the point if they were going to act the way they insisted on doing around the school. He would be the first to admit that he was unreasonable, but then he was the ruddy teacher and thus they should have the brains to not aggravate him too much, instead apparently it was him who was out of turn.

He watched the students filing their way in and taking their seats as the food appeared as usual, scattered around his feet on the table. He grabbed at a sausage whose plate was handily nestled between some Yorkshire puddings and his left ankle and took a bite out of it, musing at the many heads swarming the room. One head however, rose above the others, this head, it seemed, belonged to a teacher, the sense of authority rather gave it away. No student could walk around looking that angry without someone making some sort of wise crack, but the students seemed to be dutifully avoiding this woman’s gaze, a gaze that Dominic realised, was directed towards him.

He knew he had probably done something wrong, but then apparently he always was doing something wrong. So he dutifully sat there blearily, sipping at his wine as the woman stormed up to him behind the teachers table and began to speak.

He didn’t bother interrupting, or even resisting, he just let the diatride wash over him as he drank, musing over exactly why she had chosen to do this in front of the entire school, maybe some sort of misguided attempt to show him up or even to make an example out of him. Her voice had steadily ranted louder and louder as she had spoke and pretty soon the students at the front of the great hal had turned towards the elevated platform. When she had finished however, most of the hall was whispering keenly at the confrontation about to take place, Dominic did nothing for a moment, simply taking it in.

He took a very long draught from his cigarette and raised one solitary middle finger at the students, saying as he breathed out finally, “shut up and eat.” They paused for a moment before obliging, some grinning a little, “and if i see any of you ding that sign then...” he paused for a moment, still ignoring the irate woman glaring at him “...give you detention or something...”

He then turned to the woman, a thoughtful look on his face as he very deliberately took a sip of his wine and replaced the glass with the bottle on the table. “First of all...” he started, leaning back slightly as he observed the woman as he spoke. “...i’m the only one who eats here as this happens to be my part of the table, thus if i’m going to get leprosy or something you have every bit of permission to say i told you so, but i think i’ll risk it.” He took a puff on his cigarette for a moment before returning to the woman, not bothering to blow the smoke somewhere else. “Second of all, i like smoking and as it doesn’t leave you overly speechless i’m sure you can deal with it. And thirdly, i happen to like wine, very much, and this is rather good wine, so if you so much as try to make a move towards my wine I will be forced to do something i will not regret in the least...” he smiled good naturedly at her before saying, “next please.”

[Annabelle Andrews]

He glanced up at her when she finished speaking, and Annabelle stared down at him. He flipped the students the bird, and she rolled her eyes. He obviously didn't quite understand how to deal with the students. She tried to listen with an open ear, but smoke from his cigarette wafted up softly into her nostrils, and she snorted softly, trying to rid the stench from her senses.

She wasn't going to let him lull her into a false sense of security. She was fire red angry, ready to just about do anything now. As he set the glass of wine down again after drinking it, she growled slightly to herself. He did it on purpose, she just knew it. Just to make her angry.

Glancing at the glass, she shivered slightly in remembrance in the last time she had dealt with a man who had been drinking. Annabelle decided to cool her temper, if not for herself, then because she really didn't need to make a scene in front of all the students. Professor were supposed to be on the same side, although, now that she thought about it, this man was almost everything she hated in a man.

"Mayhap we can talk about all the reasons why drinking, and cigarettes are bad for your health later, but for the moment, I'm really here before you because I received one of your students just moments ago. Very troubled, and had the shakes. Professor, he explained to me what happened and it troubled me greatly. And with what I have already witnessed here, you really need to relearn the way to handle the students. Especially the first years." she paused, catching her breath. Thinking, she realized the direct way didn't seem to be working very well with him.

Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I guess I can not tell you how to do your job, but honestly, is there anything I can do to persuade you to take it a little easier on the first years at least? I would hope that I wouldn't have to deal with students coming in from your class."' she sighed, already feeling defeat and her neutral personality creeping back. She wasn't one to argue much, and now that most of her anger had left her, Annabelle really just wanted to put this horrible conversation behind her.

"I don't know, maybe at least be a little more discreet around the students. We really don't need them picking up smoking, or drinking alcohol." she rubbed the back of her neck, biting her lip and looking to the side.

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