Brewing Up a Letter PV Professor Regan Finished

As Méabh had quickly noticed, the work of a professor never ended. Between prepping classes, cleaning up after the students, and actually teaching, she was spending a lot of time in her classroom. And that didn't even account for the time spent grading assignments, which she tended to do elsewhere. Honestly, she still wasn't quite sure if being a teacher was the right job for her. The main reason she'd applied had left several months ago.

She was currently going through the stock of ingredients she'd need for a lesson the next day - enough for all her students, with some to spare, because someone would mess up - when an unsure voice called her name from near the door of the classroom. Méabh turned, all-too-glad for the excuse to put her work off a little.

"Yes, Mr..." Flipping a few pages of her mental catalogue of all her students provided her with the correct name to the face. "Dragonclaw?" The kid was a first year, a Hufflepuff, as his clothes confirmed. Honestly, first years were kind of cute. All energetic and bustling, the Hufflepuffs especially. What this one wanted in this moment was not entirely clear to her, and she waited for an explanation, a friendly smile on her face.

Axyen drew her attention to the artfully cut piece of parchment in his hand, and she took it from him, eyes curious. It was... cauldron shaped? "A letter?" she asked, unfolding it as she spoke, then her smile widened when the parchment unfolded into a full cauldron. "Oh! You made this?" she exclaimed while her eyes skimmed the words on the parchment, written in a child's hand. Axyen's hand, as the letter was from him. There was a drawing on it, too, and Méabh suppressed a snort at the sight of her likeness, scribbling on a blackboard. She looked up when she was done, grinning. "Glad to hear you're enjoying Potions even if you were originally a skeptic." Méabh winked, the expression conspiratorial. "It's easy to be a good teacher with students like you, eh?"

Her smile softened, eyes drifting back down to the letter. Axyen had put effort into this, it was visible, and Méabh was surprised by how touched she felt by the gesture. "Thank you." Perhaps she wasn't as out of place here as she'd thought.

Axyen noticed professor Regan putting up ingredients of some kind, was it for his next lesson? Axyen was uncertain. Yikes, did I come at a bad time? Axyen said as professor Regan did look busy. He noticed her turn and snapped out of his thoughts immediately as she addressed him by his last name. "Y-yup! That's me." Axyen said, slightly stuttering at the start of his sentence, he wished he could ease up more, there was no real reason to be nervous.

Axyen noticed her smile as she looked at the letter. "Yeah, I made it!" Axyen said happily. He listened as professor commented on him enjoying potion despite not previously enjoying it. "Y-yeah... my older brother wasn't really good at potions and told me... stories about the classroom." Axyen said, remembering how his older brother basically told him horror stories of 'punishments' for even messing one thing up, and how his brother so dramatically survived, Axyen always saw him as his hero, even now that Axyen is starting to catch up to some of his older brother's lies. "Of course I realized they were false as soon as I got here." Axyen quickly added. Professor Regan wasn't really that bad, and Axyen wondered why his brother made up such rumors like that, Axyen was supposed to be looking up to him, which conflicted the 12 year old who put it in denial.

Professor Regan commented on how easy it was to be a teacher with students like Axyen. "W..wow thanks! That really means a lot!" Axyen exclaimed. Axyen smiled. He didn't expect the compliment, but it meant everything to him being called a great student from his professor. Axyen decided that he wouldn't forget, even in his adult or as he would call it 'grown-up years'.

Professor Regan thanked Axyen. "You're welcome!" Axyen said happily, glad that he made someone's day. He wasn't expecting a bad response from the professor, but he certainly wasn't expecting as great as a response as this, which made the moment even more special for Axyen.

Mentioning @Méabh Regan

The kid seemed exceptionally nervous, and Méabh tried to keep her face even, her amusement flickering over her face. She tried to remember if Axyen had ever spoken up in class, if he was still this nervous around her, but couldn't quite recall. The school year had started with so many new faces; Méabh being as new to teaching as the first years were to Hogwarts, and seven years of students had been a lot to take in and remember, even for her.

At least he seemed to relax a little at her response, chattering about his older brother's unlikely tales from Potions class, and Méabh raised an eyebrow. "Stories?" she repeated, laughter dancing in her eyes. "That sounds incredibly ominous. Of course, I don't really know what this classroom was like before this year, I only started teaching here in September, but I doubt Professor Wickham-Deakin was that bad... if a little serious." She let her smile widen a little. "I'm glad I didn't confirm your fears, then."

The kid brightened up like the sun rising over the horizon at her flattery, and Méabh's face softened a little. She sometimes underestimated how easy children were to influence... well, some of them, at least. A kind word might well make their day. That, if nothing else, was a reason to teach, she supposed.

Her eyes wandered back to the letter, and she skimmed the words once again, then folded up the letter, tucking it into one of her many pockets. "Well then," she said to her young visitor, "I have to get back to work, but you are welcome to stick around a little, if you want to practice your potion brewing. You know your way around." She winked. "Thanks for giving me an excuse to take a break."

Axyen saw her comment on the mysterious stories, Axyen decided the wisest thing in the moment was simply not to comment. Luckily it was a different professor- wait a minute. "Wait, isn't she my head of house?" Axyen asked, Wickham-Deakin... I've seen that name before in the Hufflepuff common room before... I think.... Axyen thought with uncertainty, this was one of the reasons he feared potions, he simply never was good at remembering things, well he is, but when it was the most important, he couldn't remember it all of a sudden.

Professor Regan was actually nice, and perhaps he could talk to his brother and prove him wrong for the winter- wait Axyen wanted to stay at Hogwarts, well he heard that was a thing anyways, he'd need to wait, but the summer which he was dreading because he would have to eventually break the news to his Gryffindor family that he got into Hufflepuff. Axyen wondered what his head of house was like, he never had a chance to properly met her, he knocked on the door and nobody replied and he was unable to build up enough courage since.

Professor Regan proceeded to mention how she needed to get back to work. Axyen decided he probably shouldn't keep her from doing her job, although he slightly smiled when she thanked him for the excuse to take a break. As Axyen was leaving he waved saying "Bye! Have a good day!" Axyen said cheerfully.

Axyen wondered what the next lesson was and what professor Regan was setting up for, he thought as he left the classroom what his next lesson would be, and it was something he would be excited for.

Mentioning

Méabh Regan

I'm pretty sure this is the end of the thread now, so thanks for the RP!