From the Ashes

Who: Adam and Z
When: Tuesday, January 26, last period
Where: Adam's office
What: Officially a DADA tutoring session. Really it's a chance for Z to deal with her emotions and get some perspective

Z knocked on Adam's office door twice to let him know she was there, then entered without permission. She took a seat in front of Adam's desk and probably looked exactly like the frazzled and stressed out twenty-one year old she usually hid behind smart remarks, short skirts and keeping her distance.

"How do you teach them? They're all horrible little monsters who don't do their work or care about the subject or respect me. God, I could just kill the 6th years-they're all right little smug bastards who think they know shit about Runes when really, most of them are somewhere between 4th and 5th year level because they haven't had proper classes until they got to Hogwarts."

Z paused for breath and settled into her chair a bit more comfortably.

"Hello Adam. Today I got to teach three Runes classes, including what was my own 7th year class right up through yesterday. I want to slap the headmaster for having Healer Bryar take over the class when he doesn't know the subject. I'd also like to eviscerate most of the Ancient Runes students. I would also like to garrote Beckett with his hair and I would give someone's heart to have the Concerned Wizards of Britain stop mucking about with my House. Also, you and I need to chat about wards and why Victoria Asher knows all about this project. I want her in on it, obviously. But I certainly did not expect to have a conversation with her about this last week."

Who: Victoria and Gabe
When: Tuesday, January 26, evening
Where: Restricted Section
What: One Head of House job, two professors, lots of issues (and probably many witnesses).

Victoria had allotted Tuesday evening to her wards research. She had made her way to the library, past the librarian's desk, from which the librarian was fortunately absent at the moment of her arrival, and all the way back to the Restricted Section, where she was selecting an armfull of volumes for examination, probably in her office. The impulse to sneak by William was craven, and she knew it, but she still wasn't ready to discuss the Prophet's campaign and she expected the subject to come up. And it wasn't like she was a Gryffindor to have to care about denying her cowardly impulses. She'd had to deal with the curious stares of students of all four houses for the last two days. That was enough without having to analyse her own impulses on the matter, Ravenclaw-style.

Wards research was, in a welcome contrast, quite soothing. Find the book, read the relevant sections, take notes as needed for later cross-referencing. Lather, rinse, repeat. She'd been at it for perhaps a quarter-glass, ignoring the rest of the world, when she realised she was no longer alone in the Restricted Section. She didn't think it was William, but maybe if she ignored whoever it was, they would go away and leave her to her work.