Meet and Greet OPEN

Hjørdis did not notice the third professor immediately - mostly because he did not appear to be there before her. She had seen the man around a little, but basically not spoken to him for longer than a moment. A passing greeting if anything, really. He was in Iwasaki's house, if she recalled correctly, meaning she did not have to concern herself with briefing him or showing him around or anything - which was rather nice. But the strong waft of smelly fish and the sound of a gruff voice quickly caught her attention. Her eyes widened slightly, breaking her usual neutral expression, as she observed the scene. The man was literally holding up... fish. Not even cooked fish. For the love of Flamel, what was wrong with these new hires? One was, well, Tuesday and the other was this fish guy. Alright, she kind of liked Tuesday but that was not the point.

Turning her attention back to the new DADA professor, she narrowed her eyes at the student who was looking at her. One @Martyna Romero. Ugh, the disrespect. Pastry man. Croissant Professor. What was wrong with children? Luckily for the student, the "pastry man" replied before she had the chance to reprimand her and Hjørdis ended up saying nothing. Unluckily for her, the look was probably enough.

The French man was nothing sort of a suck-up it would seem. But complimenting her baking abilities was a good way to do it. It would definitely work. She provided the man with a simple nod of her head in response to his compliments, having nothing more to really add to that, "Of course. Now, if you'll excuse me-" She started, making it clear she was only here to hand over the pie before leaving.

Her words were cut short as heard her name being said by @Aurora Ranvier. Hjørdis simply blinked at the Ravenclaw, who had the audacity to ask Tuesday such questions. Where in Flamel's name did this come from? A Swedish spy! Did she look Swedish? She was obviously Norwegian! The outrage. She shot Tuesday a look, almost sighing a breath of relief as she heard his response. Well, that helped settled matters. "Miss Ranvier, may I ask why your cousin from Russia would think such a thing?" Wondering where the questions came from and why they had the audacity to go with Swedish. She had nothing more to say on the matter but establishing who the cousin was and where they got the idea from was a good first step. She would not push the matter though. Whatever the answer was, so be it. She would find out one way or another - that was, after all, what good spies did.

In all honesty, she did have to wonder if she chose the right job - as Tuesday questioned it. She did not respond with more than a smirk but it did make her wonder. The school was full of moments that made her question whether or not she should be there. Opening up a bakery sounded like a dream come true. If it weren't for the fact that she had started to care about some of these rugrats. She had told herself it was only for her cousins but as the years went on, she found herself caring and worrying about more than just the two of them. It seemed like another life where she hated children and adamantly told people she did not want any herself. And now, she had spent all night baking for people like Cassanora, who had stolen a part of the heart she pretended not to have before they had even met, or for her house in the aftermath of the incidents that seemed to constantly be taking place in the country.

Dipping closer to Tuesday, she stole the remaining bit of pie from him as he was distracted trying to keep Booth away from the pie. Ducking past him, she quickly made her way to Booth, "You should try this pie, Professor Booth" She added as she glanced over to the Herbology professor with a smirk on her face. Not because she liked Booth, she did not even know the man. But mostly because she wanted to steal the pie from Tuesday for getting too cheeky! He already had a special treat exclusive to him, after all! Offering the pie to Booth, she looked at the fish, "And... if no one eats those, let me know if you need me to turn them into fish cakes or a casserole or... anything less... odd," There was plenty she could do with fish - they could become part of a salad or even go in tacos! After all, the Norwegian cuisine had a lot of variety when it came to fish. Anything was better than... just raw fish on a fish.

With that, she left the courtyard quicker than she arrived. The sound of her heels tapping against the stone floor as she departed.

Thread left

Interacting With
@Scarlet Salvatore, @Akari Kato, @Winter Wolfhartz, @Tuesday Jeremiah Irons & @Hjørdis Jensen

Mentioning
@Aurora Ranvier & @Orion Lécuyer

It would take no longer than a minute before Hal questioned his methods of discouraging conversation. The tactics he normally employed with other adults quickly proved ineffective on those of the younger generation, as three girls withstood his odious glares to approach him, never batting their own bright eyes.
The scene was akin to that of a horror movie. Despite his best efforts, the little demons couldn't be stopped until he was pinned against the stone wall - a trap of his own making - unable to retaliate for the risk of being branded a threat to children.
Although the man would stop short of harming a hair on their heads, he would have very much liked to bluff by drawing his wand, for the intent of seeing them scatter. Then again, it was doubtful that the school would look favorably upon such action, and his desperation for income had already been established, wrought by a decision to quit his previous job two years prior.
In other words, he would be forced to engage in some form of interaction.
How he missed his old profession.

One voice met his ears, quickly followed by another, then a third. All carried questions that he had no interest in addressing.
For an ample stretch of time, no response passed his lips. Face set in rigid stone, he scrutinized the girls one by one, brown eyes alight with a piercing quality that would seem to bore into their souls. Most individuals shied away from such a gaze, and sometimes - when he got lucky - they simply left him alone.
Finally, after allowing the painful silence to stretch on, the man slouched further against the wall at his back, tipping his chin upward to punctuate his apathetic demeanor.
"Aye," he responded to the first girl (Scarlet) brusquely. "Caugh' em' meself. Never 'eard o' t'Black Lake, though." Eyeing the girl, he added, "Nor do I want to."

Swiveling his attention to the third girl (Winter), who had admittedly offered a rather polite greeting, he produced a mock grin. "Tha's reight kind o' yer, lass. I'm chuffed. If t'fish tickle your fancy, I'll not stop yer from stuffin' your face." A flippant gesture towards the rod of fish came with one flick of his wrist, encouraging the student to move along.
As the small group of young girls was quickly learning, the Divination Professor wasn't one for conversation, even colored with the flowery tones of flattery. Quite comfortable in his own competency, he didn't put much stock in compliments - especially those from the mouths of children - hardly receiving any warm, fuzzy sensation upon their deliverance. Thus, the laudatory words were discounted without a second thought.

Now turning on the second girl (Akari) to have spoken, his voice retained its cold nature as he responded to her question. "As for which professor I am, I'm the one tha' can see t'future, an' I foresee this conversation ending now." At that moment, another voice (Aurora's) rose above the crowd, detailing Professor Irons as some kind of spy, and himself as 'Professor Gibberish.' He ignored the accusation entirely, though the ghost of a genuine smile reached his lips as he added to the girls before him, "Call me Professor Gibberish, bairns."
Hal was well aware that most students at the school would struggle to understand his accent, along with the unique terms that came with it. Yet, somehow, he wasn't compelled to tone it down.

Alas, it would seem his work was unfinished, as he spotted Orion - that accursed fool who had dragged him into this mess - guiding yet another student in his direction, all the while justifying his actions with an irritating symphony of French cheer. Truly, Halford wondered how he'd become so proficient in the art of the obnoxious; the man was an enigma.
The enigma earned himself a death glare from Halford, though not a single word in response. The situation was already taxing enough without engaging Lécuyer directly.
"So yer want t'learn about Divination, do yer?" The words were spoken to the unfortunate boy (Leonard). "Lovely. Come t'class like everyone else and yer might learn somethin'."
Convinced the curt advice was more than what was expected of him, he would cast his eyes toward the table over yonder, intending to escape the bodies pressing him against the wall and investigate the purple box that promised pie. But as his gaze swept in that direction, it was met with the immature image of Tuesday J. Irons, munching merrily on what was unmistakably a piece of apple pie. Face scrunched with devilish intent, it was clear what the man had planned.
Suddenly, Orion looked like an angel in comparison.

Luckily for Hal, Professor Irons would approach him, which would make strangling his colleague a much simpler task.
Eyes lingering consciously on the gathered children, he endured the mocking pat on the back, jaw working as he contemplated exactly how to make the students understand why their new Herbology teacher needed to die.
His face a mask of poorly concealed rage, Hal's voice lowered to a dangerous level. "Monday," he said, using a name reserved for when the other man was walking a very thin line. "Remove your 'and an' give me t'pie, or those fish won' be t'only things I cook."
He was entirely prepared to force Irons to hand over the pie. He simply refused to allow such a divine creation to be eaten in front of him. However, as it turned out, no physical action was required on his part.
Capitalizing on Tuesday's distracted state, the woman (Nora) who had brought the pie in the first place extricated it from his grasp, before offering the dessert to Hal.
Eagerly taking hold of the pie, Hal studied the face of his savior, truly seeing it for the first time. She really was beautiful. And even more importantly, she had thwarted Tuesday's dastardly plans, with no damage to the object of Hal's admiration - the pie, that is.

The woman received a nod of thanks before casually strolling from the Courtyard, heels heralding her exit.
Making a mental note to remain in her good graces - she, the bearer of apple pie - he extracted a large piece of her creation from its box, glancing cheekily at Tuesday as he did so.
"Best thank 'er later for savin' your sorry life."

The approachability of Professor Lécuyer set Liana at ease. True, he wasn't fully convinced that she could handle the more advanced spells with responsibility, but who could blame him? Magic was dangerous, and she knew that plenty of students ended up in the hospital wing due to their own or their peers' irresponsible spellcasting. He was willing to give her a chance, and that's what mattered. The girl's face lit up with a smile.

''Thank you, Professor Rion,'' the Slytherin responded, accepting the permission to address him in this less formal fashion. ''I'll come by your office when you're less occupied so we could choose a suitable time for my first practice.'' The redhead chose not to mention having already tried out some of the spells in secret. No matter how accommodating the man seemed to be about letting her use the DADA classroom, he certainly wouldn't see it in a good light that she was using magic unsupervised, even if she was successful thus far. The offer regarding tutoring made her perk up, however. ''It would be a great privilege to receive additional lessons!'' she exclaimed before she remember what she had already realized before even coming to the courtyard. He had the time in the schedule now, yes, but this was his first week only, and there could be dozens of students that actually needed his aid, while she was capable of learning on her own. Having a mentor was great, but Professor Rion was also responsible for hundreds of other pupils. Occupying his time wouldn't exactly be fair, and could prove burdensome to him no matter how good of a student she was. ''That is- I mean-'' the girl momentarily lost her grasp on the proper flow of speech that she had been taught to employ. Stumbling over words was unacceptable, as was speaking up before one knew what they were going to say. She took a deep breath and started over. ''I would be grateful for any additional information and tips, but you can just list some literature for me to go through instead. I can learn on my own without much assistance, I simply might need to be pointed in the right direction occasionally.''

Would he even be paid for doing extra work with individual students? Likely not. If it turned out that professors were indeed given bonuses for taking students for private tutoring, she would probably ask each and every one of them for additional guidance. Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration, Potions... she would have loved to terrorize all of them about giving her more knowledge than the regular classes did; after all, school curriculum was tailored to the very average students, with the slower ones needing help to keep up, and the apt ones feeling like they could do more. And having an actual teacher guiding one was undeniably better than browsing through the vast resources available in the library, potentially getting sidetracked by a discovery of a especially appealing book unrelated to the current research but offering an enthralling take on some other aspect of magic... Having a tutor prodding her to focus on the subject at hand was quite desirable, but she couldn't be so selfish as to hoard all of the Professors' free time with her thirst for arcane knowledge.

She glanced at the Herbology Professor, having heard his response to her awkward quip but being unable to respond due to the general chaos in the multiple ongoing conversations. There was a window of opportunity to speak now, and she grasped it eagerly.

''Professor Irons, your lessons will be of great interest to me as well, I'm sure.'' She wasn't quite ready yet to approach the subject of getting extra study materials from him as well - the topic of magical plants seemed captivating, but she would need to attend at least a few classes before she knew for sure that she was as fast at learning it as she would be with DADA. ''I've been leafing through the Herbology textbook, and I found plenty of the plants mentioned there fascinating. It would be an interesting project for students to try growing some of the less-dangerous ones at home over the summer perhaps? I'd love to try my hand in long-term care of a useful plant.'' Here. That was all she dared to say about her desire for extracurricular learning of his subject.

The girl stayed politely quiet when the Head of Slytherin joined the group to formally welcome the new staff members. Not having talked to the woman herself yet, Liana wasn't willing to make herself seem uncouth by interrupting. Instead, she focused her attention on the latest arrival of the new Professors, one who was to teach the subject she wouldn't have access to until her third year. To say the least, the man didn't seem at all approachable for inquiries about possible lessons on Arithmancy, which seemed like a highly logical and accurate alternative to Divination to look into, even without possessing a seer ability. It was supposed to be taught as part of Divination curriculum nowadays, but the first-year was entirely discouraged to bring any of it up. Professor Booth was curt in his responses to the students, and seemed to throw an unspoken challenge at Professor Rion with his body language after bringing the raw fish to the table. Could there be some conflict between the two? Or was the Divination Professor so hostile on a daily basis?

She eyed the fish cautiously, wanting to say something nice, anything nice to him as it was only appropriate to meet and greet all three of the new staff members, not just the two easy-going ones. There was no way she could pretend the snack he offered seemed appealing to her. Fish was delicious when cooked and seasoned properly, and some types of it could even be eaten raw, but this... fresh catch... it didn't seem like that high-quality type of fish. Luckily, her fact-collecting mind came to the rescue.

''Professor Booth, isn't fish used in Ichthyomancy?'' she inquired, not completely certain that she pronounced that mouthful of a word correctly. ''Do you ever use fish for Divination yourself?'' That was a feeble attempt at courtesy, especially given the man's open reluctance to communicate with students. But she was truly out of her depth here, and sure to have her effort of interacting with him thrown back in her face. It was all the girl could do not to cringe when waiting for the response.

INTERACTION: @Orion Lecuyer, @Tuesday Jeremiah Irons, @Halford Booth, @Aurora Ranvier & @Nicholas McCowan

| Outfit | Tiger

The fifth year had big plans this year, including to become better at being who he was but also had heard there were some changes in the ranks of the professors as three new of them were introduced, whereas only two old ones had left. He had heard rumors that Elaine had given up the role as a Defense professor and instead would focus on her tasks as the Head of House of Gryffindor. Other than that the Professors Boniface and Kibitzer had left Hogwarts over the course of summer and Alan couldn't say he missed them as he never really had connected to them much, aside from visiting Herbology classes and trying out, but failing miserably at anything that had to do with divination. He simply couldn't wrap his head around it and found the subject was a bunch of nonsense and prophecies; those without the gift for it were bound to fail at it and he didn't have the patience to be convinced otherwise.

But he was excited to meet the new professors nonetheless, though he heard rumors as he was passing through the hallways of students who had come and gone to the meeting, carrying some few snacks they had likely gotten from the courtyard. The courtyard was some of the favorite places for the young prefect to spend his time at. As he stepped outside, he would instantly be greeted by the sweet smell of baked goods and the sight of a few people some of which he was more familiar with and some that seemed new even to himself. He instantly looked for the professors, who were in a way not difficult to find among a group of students.

"Hey!" he would greet all three of them with a friendly smile, "I seem slightly at a loss who is who, may I ask for your names?" Alan seemed like he had grown a little over summer, not just physically but the way he carried himself seemed slightly more at ease and a charming amount of confidence. He had entirely lost the simple stutter he had been bothered with a few years back and looked more like the young man he was, though he never lost touch with the boyish appearance and nimble frame. He wore simple clothes and pinned to his chest were his prefect and captain badges so that a newer student knew he was safe for them to approach and asked for directions on school topics. His hair fell into his face in messy bangs, divided through the middle and following his trail one could find a spotted Bengal cat, that curiously would press forward to greet the new professors; approaching them in need to explore and a desire for attention. "I hope you don't mind the cat? I can call him back if that's preferred," he offered softly, a little flustered.

He would see two more familiar faces one of Aurora who he had shared a cabin with, they had a great time bonding over their love for candy, as well as Nicholas, a boy he had the opportunity to have met shortly after his return to the school, when the boy had been accused of bullying another kid. Alan was, while he wasn't aware of what exactly had happened, sure that nothing wild actually took place and that the other kid had exaggerated a little bit in their explanation of what had happened. The fifth year would greet both of them for now, sure that soon he would join the in plundering the sweet smelling pastries, eyeing the salad that seemed lost among the table of deliciousness with suspicion, before turning his attention back to the professors.