The newly crowned teenager could have waited until the second week of school, when the hustle and bustle of the first week was dying down, or any day other than the first day of school. But nope. Not only was she super eager to have this meeting, in which Professor Ichihara promised to see about her starting animagus training this year, but it was also her birthday.

That's right...her thirteenth birthday to be precise.

Which made this the best possible day to have this meeting, because surely the Transfiguration Professor would be slightly more willing to say yes on her birthday, so as to not bum the birthday girl out. Right?

Only one way to find out. Hadley approached the door and casually knocked. Then she took a seat, picking up a copy of Transfiguration Now to flip through, only after she memorized exactly where and how it was placed.

This meeting could have gone SO MUCH better, if he'd done it last term, back when he was 12 and adorable and hadn't yet written the Transfiguration Article and hadn't yet been outted by the school population as one of the most likely to skip lessons. Bunch of snitches. All they did was give him and Daxton more work to do and a big 'ole target on their backs. Not to mention making this meeting somewhat more awkward for the boy.

How did one who skipped all but one lessons of the woman's and said her subject should have gotten the axe instead of having her hired then turn around and tell her he was thinking of maybe giving a few of her classes a try--because it would only be a few. The boy wasn't ready to commit to full attendance just yet. It would take baby steps and a whole lot of getting comfy.

Until then he would continue to primarily acquire his spells on his own, in private, where no one could see his many failures before his one success. That was how he preferred it.

The reluctance on the boy was palpable as he approached the door, still uncertain of whether or not this was a good idea. What if Professor Ichihara decided she wasn't amused by his offer and made a determined effort to ensure he didn't attend some but all her classes? Professors....were meant to force you to their lessons when they found out this sort of thing happened...weren't they? And it's not like he could pretend otherwise. Outside of meals, this woman must have seen him all of once? With his heaviest sigh, the boy knocked at the door then took a seat...hoping the Professor wasn't in.

You know Dante should had visited Professor Ichiharas last term. He still wanted to call her Professor Ichi but yeah that would be rude. Still he guessed it just slipped his mind since he usually visits the new Professor's. Though he did not visit the new Potions Master. Guess he is not so new anymore. Anyway back to the current Professor he is visiting. He knocked on the door and flopped on one the couches on his back and took one of the copies of Witch Weekly and began reading it.

Hmm comfy couch.

It was no surprise to Nana to when she slipped out of her office and saw Hadley Danaker sitting in quiet wait, for although, the quiet was uncharacteristic of the young girl, her interest and presence was not. "Miss Danaker." Nana greeted, offering the young claw a polite smile. She knew quite well what she was in store for with this visit and this visitor. "I was wondering when you'd be coming along..." Rather sooner than later, naturally.

She slipped aside, opening her door wide. "Will you be coming in today?" As much as Nana wished this could be simple, she sincerely doubted this was a casual visit.

Nana was absolutely in. she had been working on some Alchemical Graphs for a new school project that had absorbed all her time and mental capacity of late, which had lead to the strange circumstance of her office being rather.... messy... very messy, filthy even. A fact that would have had the Professor in a tizzy if she weren't so engrossed in her current work of crafting safety precautions, restrictions, various spells and a clean layout. Not easy stuff to handle alone, even with her logical and organized mind. Perhaps she needed a partner in this after all, perhaps-

The Knock caught her off guard, for Nana, in her distracted haste had not accounted for time or the arrival of guests.

Sloppy. She had become sloppy. Internally berating herself, Nana quickly took up her wand, motioning it over her desk and the office in an elegant wave, sending the documents to float from the desk to their usual homes. She probably looked a mess, how terribly unprofessional of her, how terribly silly. Preston would have been displeased, the witch was certain of it.

Opening the door, Nana peeked out to spot....

"Mister Bellaire.. Well, what brings you to my office?" Nana asked, folding her arms over her chest and watching the young boy curiously. "Perhaps you'd like a quote? I'm afraid I don't speak much to the press." She added, a thinly veiled reminder that she had, in fact, read his article.

On her way back from the kitchens, Nana had her arms rather full. She had been in need of sugar, you see, an obscene amount for a new class project and rather than order the stuff - which would have taken quite long and cost the school more money - she'd decided to simply slip off to the kitchens and seek the sweetener therein.

The elves in true House-Elf fashion had been more than... Obliging in their response. Which was why Nana Ichihara was walking into her waiting room with her arms wrapped around a small barrel of sugar.

Which was a bit heavier than she'd imagined. Putting the barrel down, the witch stood silently cursing herself for not using a feather-weight Charm on the barrel, all the while, she was quite aware of the Slytherin boy young man's presence. "I will be with you in a moment, Mister Barrington." She said, rolling back her lithe shoulders to stretch her taut muscles. That had been quite the work out.

Daxton never knocked on office doors. Or any doors, at that. Instead, he simply loitered outside the office, or he barged straight in, all depending on the situation. Today, he stuck with loitering, as was his habit when meeting with Ichihara at her office.

Arriving at the waiting area in his too-big and well-worn uniform (sans his robes, of course), Daxton bypassed the door of the office and instead went to take a seat, retrieving one of the golden cube puzzles and fiddling around with it while he waited. He sat cross-legged on the chair, tucking his bare feet out of sight for the moment, and rested his elbows on his knees, with the puzzle cube close to his face. All the while, his expression did not change from the blank, emotionless facade he currently wore, no matter how thoughtful he got while playing around with the cube. Daxton looked almost bored, and terribly unconcerned, but looks were often deceiving.

She always felt as if she was coming and going lately. Since receiving news of her mother's ailing health concerns, and since the... new... and... strange bubbling of nerves in her belly at the thought of certain former Gryffindors had emerged the Transfiguration professor had thrown herself into project after project to keep her delicate hands and over-active mind in check. So far, it was working, but had the undesired consequence of draining much of her energy,

Office visits were suddenly a respite from all that.

Walking back into her waiting room, after having been out for a stroll along the grounds, Nana almost immediately noticed the presence of Daxton Prince seated and waiting. She did not greet him just yet, more interested in watching his progress with silent, but obvious, curiosity. They had been meeting for these little sessions for quite some time now, and Nana still knew so little about the boy before her aside from the obvious.

It was frustrating, and worrying to say the least. For how was she to best help and teach the Ravenclaw when she could;t understand him? It would be impossible.

"Mister Prince." She said, her voice heavy in the still air of the waiting room.

Daxton was well aware of Ichihara's presence in the waiting area. It helped that it was particularly quiet, meaning that picking up on the smallest of movements and sounds became a whole lot easy. Still, she had not acknowledged him - perhaps taking advice from a certain Astronomer - and so he did not acknowledge her.

Even when she spoke, he gave no sign that he had heard anything, and kept his eyes instead on the puzzle, and his hands constantly moving with it. Only after a few moments had passed did Daxton finally look up, having decided he had hit a 'checkpoint' with the puzzle.

He simply looked at her, still sat in his seat and with the puzzle held inches away from his face, offered no words; written, spoken, or otherwise. Daxton wondered if, when he set down this puzzle and entered the office with Ichihara, it would simply be a case of moving from one mind game to another.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicole black

Nana was absolutely in. she had been working on some Alchemical Graphs for a new school project that had absorbed all her time and mental capacity of late, which had lead to the strange circumstance of her office being rather.... messy... very messy, filthy even. A fact that would have had the Professor in a tizzy if she weren't so engrossed in her current work of crafting safety precautions, restrictions, various spells and a clean layout. Not easy stuff to handle alone, even with her logical and organized mind. Perhaps she needed a partner in this after all, perhaps-

The Knock caught her off guard, for Nana, in her distracted haste had not accounted for time or the arrival of guests.

Sloppy. She had become sloppy. Internally berating herself, Nana quickly took up her wand, motioning it over her desk and the office in an elegant wave, sending the documents to float from the desk to their usual homes. She probably looked a mess, how terribly unprofessional of her, how terribly silly. Preston would have been displeased, the witch was certain of it.

Opening the door, Nana peeked out to spot....

"Mister Bellaire.. Well, what brings you to my office?" Nana asked, folding her arms over her chest and watching the young boy curiously. "Perhaps you'd like a quote? I'm afraid I don't speak much to the press." She added, a thinly veiled reminder that she had, in fact, read his article.

Yeaahhh.....so he didn't regret his article. Daxton's had been worse, he could assure her, except....maybe that wouldn't be his strongest point for winning this argument so Blaise opted to keep the point to himself. Still, she did seem a little put off by it. "That's fine, I'd actually like to talk to you off the record." A gaze was spared toward his floating quill and notepad that worked away as they spoke. "Well, off the official record anyway. This won't end up in the Yearbook, promise.".........................................unless his quill could spin it in such a way that it was too hilarious to leave out? Then...then maybe he didn't promise afterall. Yet another thing he wouldn't be saying.

"Can I come in? This is actually something I'd rather not discuss through a doorway." Standing out here where any passerby could hear. It wasn't so much he thought it might interest them even if they did catch an earful but rather, the boy was still trying to come up with the right thing to say and wasn't very keen on the idea going around that sometimes, he DID do magic outside of that cursed duel club.

They'd start expecting things after that.

"Won't take long, honest."

Dante was all for waiting just not this amount of waiting. He was impatient but this was pushing it. He was about it leave until he saw Ichihara holding a barrell of sugar. Why Dante had no idea. Baking a small army of pastries maybe or she loved sugar that much. Who knows.

"Sure, You need help with that Professor?"

Please say no.

Dante would be more than happy to wait a moment and watch whatever she was trying to do..

Penelope had been reading more about transfiguration and animal over the summer. There were things that she wanted to ask the professor that had to do with animagus training and university stuff. Being a seventh year she didn't have much time left at Hogwarts, so perhaps that was something to wait for as she headed off to university to study advanced transfiguration and charms, but it couldn't hurt to start asking questions. Maybe the transfiguration professor would be able to offer advice about university. Penelope found it strange to think that after this term she wouldn't be coming back to Hogwarts and would be going to university. After knocking on the door, Penelope took a seat and picked up one of the golden puzzle cubes. How did they work? She twisted the pieces around. This was interesting.

Had Brian Woods ran all the way up six flights of stairs from the kitchen level to the sixth floor? Well, no. No, he did not run up all six. In fact, to be precise, he had run up three, felt his leg almost give, hobbled up one, walked up another and ran the last flight. And by some miracle, the stairs hadn't even messed with him this round. Maybe they could sense things, that he could probably not handle another round of stairs, much less THREE as the stairs were prone to subject him to.

Anyway, that was six flights of stairs climbed as fast as he could. And locating the actual office of Professor Ichihara was no easy task considering the ever-changing floor plan. Seriously. Rowena Ravenclaw, arguably the smartest witch of all time, decided that making the rooms change locations on the daily was a brilliant idea. It's not like they rotated on a schedule either. This assortment was as random as Brownian movement!

Slumping with one shoulder against the door, the Hufflepuff knocked on the sturdy -it has better be sturdy, he was leaning on it!- door. Three times, with the heel of his hand. The sound wasn't as sharp as knuckles would have been but he was too tired to make a proper fist now and the volume of the heel-tap was more than enough.

Please let her be in there.

Though those gold puzzlers were looking nice. Maybe if he could summon the willpower to go sit by them and attempt them, that would pass the time better. Hmm. It was a thought.

Hadley Denaker had been unleashed. And by Professor Primeaux no less. She was to pick a few spots to graffiti around the school.

Hey, Professor's orders.

Of course, her first choice was the Transfiguration Professor's waiting area. After the way she kept Hadley on the hook for a year when she never had any intention of actually seeing about animagus training, this was deserved. Hadley snuck quietly into the waiting room. The walls, furniture and everything really in Ichihara's waiting room was immaculate. The professor hated mess and chaos. Which made this assignment the perfect pay back.

She took a moment, surveying her canvas, and decided on what to do. Because Ichihara hated chaos so much, and because her three way animated battle painting between the squid, the sperm whale and the sailors was so deliciously chaotic, it was the perfect choice for this bit of assigned graffiti. All she had to do was make it and get out of there before Nana caught her.

Hadley started by moving one of the chairs up against one of the immaculate walls. Standing on the white, pristine fabric, without bothering to remove her shoes, mind you, Hadley began to draw waves high up on the wall, and then a line down to the floor, across to the opposite end of the wall and back up to connect to the first wave. "Figura Ocean!" She was whispering because it would be stupid not to. When the ocean's outline emerged magically on the wall, the teen smirked. It was her classic troublemaker smirk. "Colovaria!" Wand pointed to the center, the entire wall below the wave lines became a nice, rich sea blue. "Figura Giant Squid!" She traced out a squid like the one she originally drew in Charms class, only this was one a lot bigger. It took up a good fourth of the wall. And it was more maniacal than happy. "Colovaria!" The squid filled itself in red. Next she traced out the equally large sperm whale. "Figura whale!" There was only really one color to make the whale. "Colovaria!" There now she had a great white whale ready to battle a massive squid.

Next came the ships. She figura'ed three large whaling ships with harpoons and a big crews of tiny stick sailors. The ships were then colovaria'ed brown, and their sails white. She was almost done now. "Animatae! Animatae! Animatae! Animatae! Animatae!" Hadley Denaker set to work animating each part of her approved graffiti. When she was done, three whaling ships were shooting harpoons into the great white whale and the giant squid, while the sailors aboard were also trying to defend themselves with other, smaller harpoons. The giant squid, meanwhile, was snatching sailors off one ship while trying to sink another, and had the great white whale in its tentacles, and was struggling to bash the whale against the ship, but the whale wasn't having that. It thrashed about trying to free itself while its fluke slammed into the ships above, and the whale nommed frantically on one of the squid's tentacles.

There they remained, locked in endless battle with each other. A giant mural sized version of her epic painting from the class.

Hadley snapped a few pictures with her camera and fled the scene.

These visits were trying and though they had met time and time again, Nana found herself no closer to understanding the young ravenclaw. His enigmatic stares, the cool indifference. She was certain there was something beneath it all, but this was not a case easily unsettled.

With a small nod, Nana gestured for the young man to follow her into her office. "I believe we have quite a bit to go over, Mister Prince."

OOC: You may post in Ichihara's office now. *__*

A small smile threatened to slip across Nana's features, but she hid it behind a well placed fist and a soft throat clearing. ahem, ahem. She was rather amused by Blaise, but trying her best not to show it during this little interview. After all, that would spoil the bit of fun she was having with how worried he looked. Eyes following his, Nana's gaze fell to the floating quill. "I would prefer you put him away during your visit." She coolly said, her gaze returning to the Gryffindor boy. "But yes, you may come in, I've been meaning to speak with you." Nana added, opening her door and stepping in, fully expecting the young boy to follow in after.

OOC: You may post in Ichihara's office now.

"No, thank you Mister Barrington, but I only need a moment." Nana said. There was sugar on her fingers, underneath her pristinely pink nails and she could feel a bit of it on her chin. -___- Merlin, she hated this sort of thing. She'd ought to have shrunk it all down and put in a little container what had she been thinking? Taking up her wand, Nana shrunk the barrel and tucked the thing into her pocket. "What can I help you with, Mister Barrington?" Nana asked, turning to the seventh year with a small, polite smile.

Nana didn't rise from her chair as she was usually wont to do upon the hearing of a knock, she was a bit busy with grading at that moment and had ink all over her fingers, and the thought of her hand touching the knob of the door and getting inky black fingerprints all over it was not a pleasant one at all.

So she picked up her wand and enchanted the door to open itself. "Prefect Wright, come in." Nana said, tucking away some of her papers. She reached again for her wand, muttering a quick charm to have the desk items neatly re-arrange themselves. "Excuse my office, I find that work always leads me to mess." Or at least, mess in the Professor's eyes, for her office was indeed, as tidy as ever.

OOC: You may post in Ichihara's office now. ^__^

The Professor was indeed, in, Mister woods. she was having a cup of tea and enjoying a small snack of ginger newts while reading the latest issue of Transfiguration Today! and enjoying the relative peace and quiet of her evening. Something she very rarely was able to enjoy in a school like Hogwarts. The knock, however, was not unwelcome. Taking another sip of her tea, Nana rose from her desk and approached the door, opening it without a moment's hesitation. She still had her tea cup in hand, the presence of which had gotten lost in the confines of her mind while she mentally revisited a fascinating paragraph about the influence of quantum physics on Transfiguration and vice versa. "Mister Woods!" Nana said, eyeing the young man's exhausted appearance. "Are you alright, young man? You look as if you've been through an ordeal." Amaterasu, help her, if there was another Peeves attack she would- No, calm, calm, calm. She was calm. Find the problem first, worry later.








.................................................. ........................... Nana was hardly surprised by the state her office was in. It seemed every term [I[some[i] sort of mishap had to befall her quarters, and today it just so happened to be a viciously alive piece of graffiti. Moby Dick, if she wasn't mistaken. Huffing with frustration, Nana took out her wand and got down to the business of ridding the wall of the ongoing battle between qui and whale and- was that a Harpoon? Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

Who on earth had the time to get up to this sort of thing? Or the energy? If only students (if it was a student) would give this much energy in lessons! Rolling up her white sleeves, Nana tried first a scourgify spell to rid the wall of the excess paint before tackling the painting itself with a far more in-depth cleaning charm. All the while the Japanese woman tried to think of a way to find out who exactly had gotten up to this nonsense.

The wall, though clean now seemed dingier to Nana, dirtier even. Tutting with annoyance, Nana once more took up her wand and promptly changed the walls from a soft, eggshell white to a barely-there-peach. Immediately she felt better, but the culprit was still out there and until she caught them she would be wholly unsettled. HMPH.

What Brian was not expecting was for the door to be opened while he was still leaning on it, so Merlin help him, there the young Hufflepuff was on the floor. Bald head throbbing, he took off the beanie he wore everywhere to hide that fact and rubbed that with the heel of his palm as he made a somewhat pathetic attempt to his feet. He only actually addressed the woman's questions once he was upright. It was impolite to answer questions from a different level and Professor Ichihara was one of the few left that he still held an impossible level of respect for.

"I'll be fine, professor," he nodded, taking a deep breath and hissing a little more as he continued to rub his head. Ouch. "I just... ran most of the way here from the Hufflepuff Common Room because I had an idea and I wanted - no, I had to ask you. Because everyone else is saying that magic works just because it's something you have in you and you're the only person who's told me that it isn't completely isolated from the Muggle world and I have to know."

BREATHE, WOODS.

"I was just going through my notes, revising for my OWLs, and I remembered that you mentioned that Transfiguration tied into convergent evolution last term and I know that's just biology but-" pant, heave, ouch - his ribs hurt too. "Physics, professor? To what degree does Transfiguration associate with physics? I can't throw away the world I was born into just because I can do magic - the wizarding world doesn't feel like home, all it does is tell me that I shouldn't ask questions and be curious and that everything just is because we can do magic." It went without saying that science was his best subject, that he expected to take up pure sciences in secondary had he not been sent here. That the small bit of physics he learnt in Astronomy was his connection to home and that he needed more.

And for the first time in a long time, he had his wide-eyed wonder that he was robbed of in his third year. So please, Professor Ichihara, he didn't need all the answers right now. He just needed to be pointed in the right general direction to find those answers and maybe that would be enough to keep his head above the water when learning all this felt hopeless.

Also, yes, he could have waited until she let him in to state his case but HE WAS TAKING NO CHANCES.

He was standing here, yep he had come like Haddie said. Did she forget where she put her second project? He was expecting over the top like her first, but there was nothing but a blank wall. First Blaise with his notes and now a blank wall. Did the students think pranking him was a good thing? He wasn't not one for a sense of humor and he was trying to allow some freedom of expression with this lesson, but there were rules. One of those rules was to actually do something.


He pulled his wand and sent a patronous off to find the little Ravenclaw, "Come to the Transfiguration waiting room immediately." That should get her here, well it better at least. He had words for her and she would be doing the project here or somewhere else.


He looked around to see if Nana was anywhere around. Maybe she had seen the third year coming here and just pretending to do her work. He was going to get to the bottom of this right now or she was getting no marks for this assignment.

Hadley hadn't been far to be honest. Just down the hall in the old unused bathroom. Working on stabilizing charms for her flying snowboard. She also had to keep working on her flying charm too, because half a foot off the ground and bucking wildly wasn't exactly flying.

Sure, she and Blaise had been working on it and testing it out in the much safer Room of Requirement, but there was still something about the old bathroom that seemed to help her focus on the casting. And she had been in the middle of trying the stabilizing charm again when a huge, silvery buffalo peeked through the wall and told her, in Professor Primeaux's voice, told her to report to Professor Ichihara's waiting room.

Uh-oh.

She packed up her books, slung the snowboard under her arm, gulped and made her way to Itchy Mara's waiting area. This was going to go well.

Hadley was in the Transfiguration Professor's waiting room less than a minute later. Super fast really. Bundled in her winter robes and holding the snowboard under one arm, she looked more like she was headed for a ski resort than reporting to a Professor's summons. "Yes, Professor?" Then she noticed the bare wall. "You erased it?" She asked, tone slightly sour. "Good thing I took photos when I did it." Rest in Peace giant squid. She had been rooted for him. "Wait. You didn't erase Professor Hirsch's mural did you?" Because that one was as much a gift for Sir Knight as it had been for the assignment.

Primeaux was just about to knock on Nana's door when he heard footsteps. He turned and saw it was the student that he was looking for. Before he could say anything to her she was saying things to him. "You did do something on here? You aren't just saying that are you Haddie?" His brow raised as he watched her carefully. Did she say she had pictures. "Can I see them?" He'd like the proof that there was something on the wall.

"Maybe Professor Ichihara will know what happened to it. Maybe we should ask her." He'd like to know if anyone saw Haddie here. As much as he thought she was a great student he wasn't fully trusting her either. He knew she could cause a bit of trouble here and there.

"No, no that one was very well done." A little too well done now that he thought about it, "You didn't have any help from any of the older students did you?" He wouldn't mind working together, but be honest about it.

Hadley gave an exaggerated nod. Of course she'd made something. Did he think she slacked off and said she did? "Of course, I did. You assigned us the task of graffiti'ing the school, Sir." She wasn't beating around the bush here. They both knew her well enough to figure the primary reason she'd do the assignment. Other than, you know, the fact she did nearly all her assignments. They were teaching her magic here, of course she'd do the assignments.

Hadley shook her head and was about to answer when Professor Prime brought up Itchy Mara...Yeah, how about we don't and say we did? "Do we have to ask her?" Hadley sure her transfiguration Professor wasn't thrilled with whoever did that mural, if she'd even seen it. And if she hadn't, well, there was no reason to clue her in was there? She gave Professor Primeaux a hopeful look...

...That soured with his next comment. Was he asking if she cheated!? Seriously? The girl's expression became one of steely scorn, and annoyance. Is that what he thought of her? "No," she sneered. "Sir." Hadley took her camera out of her bag and shoved it into his arms. "Your proof is in that. You know, once you've developed the photos." And she was out of there, or at least that was her goal as she headed to the door.