It was a pleasant surprise for Arcturus to be personally met at the door, and he greeted his host enthusiastically, if a trifle more formally than most would expect. Conscious of the fact that he was representing his family to a wizard of the future, Arcturus intended to make a good impression. He carefully set down his brooms as directed, although not without taking a curious glance around the office. Most wizards in his time kept their private rooms off-limits to guests, and he imagined that they were all a little like his father's study: full of mysterious vials and dangerous objects. Richard Summerby's was certainly more airy and spacious!
Still clutching the Arithmancy papers in one hand, he followed the older wizard out to the patio. To look at him, Richard seemed a strange juxtaposition of the world that Arcturus knew, and something more alien. Take his mode of dress, for instance: that was very clearly a wizarding robe, and a well-made one, even if the cut was a little unusual, but what in Merlin's name was he wearing beneath it? Fortunately, Arcturus had been in Preya long enough to encounter wizards and other magic-users from many times and places, and so this was no longer as strange as it might once have seemed.
'Thank you,' he said brightly, smiling as they approached the table. 'I did work up something of an appetite as I flew here.' Taking the offered seat, he began to look over the dishes in front of them. It took perhaps a fraction too long before he realised that no house-elf would be approaching to serve them. When he did, however, he promptly stood again to uncover them himself – accustomed to fending for himself at school, this was one area, at least, in which Arcturus had no tendencies towards snobbishness. He politely took a little of everything to try, although he heavily favoured the dishes which looked the most familiar.
'This is all splendid, Mr Summerby,' he said then. 'Although I fear you are likely to be a little disappointed by my papers. Would you prefer to wait, and I might show you the broomstick itself after we have eaten?' It flew, at least, and Arcturus reasoned that Richard might be more forgiving of the inevitable errors in the notations if he had already seen the finished product, as it were. He might not have officially been Arcturus' tutor, but that didn't mean that the same tactics Arcturus tended to use in such situations wouldn't apply.