Closed Unwanted Revelations PV Octavius Baird

His heart pounced as he inched towards the door to his classroom. When he opened the door, he saw a child. Someone who would've been in his class unless she's skipped classes. But, the only person he has ever marked missing was Raizel. It didn't mean that Raizel was absent from his class or that Raizel was skipping, because she wasn't! He just felt like he needed to mark someone present as absent so he would be satisfied with that one random detachment from a perfect attendance.

He tried to picture every person his son would've said to him- through a lunch with him. He's mentioned 'Alyssea' a lot, but the face wasn't aligning with the name. At least, not in his head.

Of course, Clark said the same thing about the girl about a hundred times on repeat as if he were a broken record player. Octavius was that way when he was younger, but he found it meant he loved someone. The meaner he was, the more he loved someone. It was like he couldn't properly communicate his love for someone appropriately, so he had to be rude and cruel. Maybe that was Clark?

"Hello?" He asked, thinking back to what he was thinking. "Alyssea?"

october 18 2023, 21:30; interacting with @Octavius Baird

Alyssea broke out of her trance and opened her eyes. The voice came from... the front door, yes, that made sense. No one had been inside when she came in. She looked in that direction, eyes widening upon realizing who it was.

One of the rules of Astronomy class was not to enter the classroom without teacher supervision... At least, she thought it was; her memory wasn't exactly the best anymore. Was she breaking it right now? The rule slipped her mind, only the eagerness to move at the forefront of her thoughts. She wasn't doing anything wrong, just sitting on the cushions and watching the night sky.

When her vision refocused, she realized she hadn't greeted Professor Baird yet. She cleared her throat and got up from the cushions, patting down her robes in an attempt to look somewhat presentable. "Hi Professor! Sorry, I didn't realize you weren't here. I hope it's alright I'm early for class."

Alyssea was somewhat surprised that he remembered her name. Astronomy was one of her lower grades and she hardly contributed to class discussions, opting to listen to everyone else who seemed to enjoy it more than her. Her palms began to sweat and she wiped it on the side of her robes. This was also the first time she was directly speaking to Professor Baird. She could only hope he didn't think poorly of her, much like her first Astronomy grade.

Holy crap, he actually got a name right from guessing!?

Well, that was tremendously amazing. But now that he did think about it, Alyssea got her first- and only- Poor grade in one of his lessons. He wasn't going to go above and beyond but he would just state it to see what reaction he would get. He wanted to see the reaction, see if this were truly the girl his son were talking about.

"You know, I thought about rechecking all of your grades as its odd how you got so many outstandings after your very first and only Poor grade in my class. They might just become P's." He wouldn't actually go through them. He didn't want to unearth old assignments as they would simply make him want to set them on fire to cleanse and purge his mind of the traumatic papers he had graded.

He turned around and was blatantly terrible at hiding that he was peeking over his shoulders to confirm this was the girl. She didn't seem like a troll, she didn't even look like roadkill, she didn't burn her hair off, she didn't have a snake bite on her hand. Maybe his son was exaggerating. "Alyssea, you don't look like garbage." That just came out. Lovely. His thinking process was public. Awkward. "What I mean is, Alyssea, my son had said so many bad things about you and I want to let you know that what he's doing is not because he hates you. He..." He bit his tongue, not wanting to say it because it meant his son was growing up. "loves you."

That was like someone poured bleach into his eyes and said it was a good thing when it clearly meant he didn't have a say in what his son would do. His son was bound to grow up and leave him behind. One day, Octavius might end up being a pile of dust with a muglin grandchild.

october 18 2023, 21:30; interacting with @Octavius Baird

Professor Baird looked like he was going through the six stages of grief in less than a millisecond. However, Alyssea's nervousness quickly skyrocketed upon the mention of her old grade. Her eyes quickly shifted everywhere but Professor Baird. "I... Uh, Astronomy's not exactly my best subject. I promise I'm doing much better and that's why I'm getting Os now."

She wasn't cheating! She just got a bit more confident in asking questions to her Astronomy buddy. The P was an awful time and she wanted to erase that from her memory forever.

However, the memory of that P was quickly shifted towards an extremely weird comment Professor Baird just said. Garbage? Who said she ever looked like garbage? Now feeling a bit self-conscious of her appearance, she brushed through her hair with her hand. Her question was quickly answered by the mention of a son.

Of course, it was Clark Baird.

What was even more baffling was the professor's announcement that Clark apparently loved her. Alyssea couldn't hide the confusion, disgust, and [other emotion that has no positive connotations] that came on her face. There was no way Clark had any positive feelings for her. She remembered throwing a book at his face about two weeks ago and avoiding him thereafter.

"Uhh," she began, not exactly sure where to start, "Are you sure? We didn't exactly have the best first impressions..." If Professor Baird was still optimistic that Clark was in love, Alyssea didn't exactly want to tell him that she'd thrown a book at his face the first time they met. They were more enemies than acquaintances.

"Honestly ma'am, I don't care whether your grades are bad or not in my class. I just want to know why you're in here if not to search for the father of the one who has a crush on you." A sharp tension struck him. He paused, taking a deep breath. "I can't believe my baby boy is dating and leaving me."

He bit his tongue. "He's not even 16! Why are so many children dating at this age? Alyssea, yes I know Clark loves you. I was the same way that he was when I was younger. It's how I met my ex-husband here."

Sure, he didn't want to think about his ex, nor did he want to think about his son leaving him. He was already losing so much and he knew his time with his three sons were coming to an end.

"I know about your first impression with him. Well, at least from Clark's point of view. From his point of view he simply just walked up to you and you beat him up with a hardcover book because according to him you have a crush on him." Maybe Octavius was just oblivious and didn't realize that all the stories Clark would tell him were contradictory to themselves.

october 18 2023, 21:30; interacting with @Octavius Baird

"I..." Alyssea tried to formulate the words to make a rebuttal, but the more Professor Baird talked, the more her jaw dropped. She was too stunned to speak.

To make things exceptionally clear (in her head since Professor Baird wouldn't stop talking), she was not here to search for the father of some guy who (apparently) had a crush on her. She, also, did not have a crush on Clark. In addition (there was a lot to add), she did not beat Clark up with a book. How did throwing a book at his face (paperback, not hardcover) equal having a crush? Alyssea was no expert in love but that whole excursion annoyed her rather than developing feelings.

All Alyssea could do was stand there, jaw on the floor, and disgust in her eyes. Once he stopped talking, Alyssea cleared her throat.

"Sir, I have a class with you in less than half an hour. Astronomy for Second Years is 10 pm on a Wednesday. I did not come to talk to you about your son. I was wanting to get away from everything." Her mind flashed to the lake. At least, from how high up the tower was, she was nowhere near the waters. "And my first impression of Clark was annoying. He literally conjured a snake and punched a First Year in the commons!"

Had she slipped more than she intended? Perhaps, but she wanted to clear up the confusion without any more rants from the professor about his son's supposed love life. With a sigh, she said, "Can I please just sit here and look at the sky while waiting for everyone else to arrive? I don't wanna talk about this."

Well now Octavius was just a tad bit annoyed with the girl's response but he also couldn't be annoyed with her at the same time because he knew his son was annoying as hell, destructive, and perhaps a bit evil. He had heard a few rumors around the school, but his favorite one regarding his son was that he was an evil fairy born of a child's scream. Granted it was a wizarding world and it could happen but he knew very little about anything outside of the stars. He was such a himbo.

"Alyssea. I apologize for- my irrational outburst calling you garbage. You are not garbage. But my ex husband is." He stated, starting softly but slowly escalating into a growl at the thought of his ex. "If you can answer this question correctly, I'll let you leave this class with two things. Being marked 'here' and to get an outstanding grade in participation for the week."

It was the best question he could ever ask. "Are you sure you don't love Clark? He's got a good heart, but he needs someone to show him the way. I'm afraid he doesn't seek my guidance anymore. He thinks he's too cool for his very own dad."

october 18th 2023; interacting with @Octavius Baird

Alyssea wanted to laugh. Was she allowed to laugh? Professor Baird just called his ex-husband garbage. Surely she was allowed to laugh at that, right? Adults and their problems were always a tad amusing to listen to.

She raised an eyebrow at Professor Baird's offer. There were a lot of questions she wanted to ask regarding his offer. One, by offering to mark her as present to class, that meant he'd either marked her absent before when she had been in class or he'd done that to someone else. Two, offering to give her an outstanding grade in participation would be cheating since she knew it wouldn't be a true reflection of her contribution to class. Alyssea wasn't one to lie about her performance (unless it was her parents and avoiding being grounded). Also, was there even a right answer for the question he was about to ask?

There is, and she was prepared to say the wrong answer.

"Yes, I'm very sure."

Would Professor Baird fail her for saying that? Gods, she already got a P and she wasn't looking to go lower than that. She tried to sputter out some last minute words. "I'm just— I'm not— I just don't think I'm that person you believe will show him the way. We're not even friends. We met once and he was being annoying."

When no more words came to her, she dropped her hands with a defeated sigh. There go her decent Astronomy grades. Her Astronomy buddy wouldn't be very enthusiastic to hear it.

The Professor just decided he would avoid any form of further pressing confrontations with Alyssea by simply just casting a violate spell. He knew it was a spell that would be a bit too complicated for her to try to cast, and too high in the sense of when its taught via years, so he would cast it. This spell in question was the Flipendo Maxima spell, probably the strongest Knockback Jinx he knew of.

He needed to get out of the room but if he couldn't avoid her, then he would probably be dealing with her. She probably did have to sit in class later but sometimes even teachers needed a break. "Flipendo Maxima." The professor muttered, targeting Alyssea.

"Alyssea, please take a seat, I'm going to take a step out." He thought about calling out sick and cancelling class for the evening or perhaps just stapling the research assignment to his door to serve as the homework. But no, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea. A responsible professor would need to deal with those they don't necessarily want to talk to at that very moment. Especially when he might be reeling from the embarrassment of thinking that Alyssea looked like Roadkill or even just Garbage. But for now, the Professor would walk out of the classroom.