From the Ashes

Who: Ryan and William, interruptions welcome
When: Monday, December 21st
Where: Staff Lounge
What: Ho ho ho, little boy, have we got a surprise for you! Er. Staff Secret Santas.

William arrived at the staff lounge with an armful of scrolls, a basic divination kit floating behind him, and a poinsettia flower pinned to his robe. The holiday decorations certainly were pushy this year; it had taken William three tries just to get the thing out of his hair and pinned down over his chest. At least now he had an excuse to wear his favourite worn jumper.

"Do you have any ideas for how to best go about this?" he asked Ryan, directing the box of tiles and tea leaf packets onto the table before depositing the scrolls nearby. The tiles and scrolls he ignored; the tea leaves he plucked from the box and doused neatly with hot water. They were far more useful in keeping him caffeinated than in attempting to predict the future.

"Arithmantical or divinatory techniques? Apparently I told the headmaster randomization wasn't a feasible method, but I'm afraid I don't remember it." He hadn't been all that surprised to hear it, though. He had no idea what he'd have done if he'd been randomly assigned someone he wasn't prepared for, and somehow he didn't doubt that he would have been.

Who: Frank and William
When: Sunday, December 20th
Where: The kitchen fireplace, from thence to other parts of the castle
What: Greeting the new professor

When Headmaster Schechter had asked him to stop by the kitchen to greet the newest member of their staff, Professor Iero, William had experienced a brief moment of 'Frank? Frank Iero? Teaching?'

It had passed, though, quickly because he'd become aware of the half-smirk on the headmaster's face watching him stumble, and William had agreed that yes, of course he would, it was no trouble at all. It wasn't, really, although he did have to pick his way through the trasgu, a select few of which were in high temper and breaking crockery all over the kitchen floor. William carefully negotiated the slick puddles of spilled water, picked up a trasgu-pilfered bronze relic from the History of Magic classroom to return as soon as possible, and waited just to the side of the fireplace for Frank to appear.