 rearranging a bit Gryffindor for life Notorious Niffler
Celestia sighed inwardly at Miss Cambridge's response. She did, of course, understand that it wouldn't be difficult to use a spell to stop a heart if you took all thought, other options, and emotions out of the picture. She just didn't think it was a good idea to advertise that the spell could be used in that way; perhaps it was lying to tell the rest of the class that it would be, but Celestia wasn't opposed to occasional white lies. It wasn't as though any of these kids would actually need to use the spell to stop a heart unless they wanted to commit some atrocity. Besides, it was a difficult feat to make this spell work on living, animate things for most witches and wizards without plenty of practice. Thankfully, Miss Cambridge was not an average witch -- or Celestia would have wondered how the girl sounded so sure that it wouldn't be difficult for her to manage. This last thought made her wander back over to the Ravenclaw's desk after the class had started working and ask hesitantly, "Are you all right, Miss Cambridge?"
Miss Walsh's call for help did not go unnoticed, but fortunately it was answered almost immediately by another Hufflepuff. Celestia flashed a smile at Miss Swann for volunteering to help the younger girl. The girls seemed to be getting on fine, so Celestia let her eyes rove over the rest of the room for signs of students in need of assistance.
The younger boys in the class (Daniel and Septimus) seemed to be making a good start on carving their pumpkins. Celestia was pleased to see that Miss Kevelle was also hard at work on carving her pumpkin -- which Celestia was pleased to note was a rather large one. Good, that ought to give the Ravenclaw a challenge.
Celestia began making her way up and down the rows of desks to inspect students' progress and saw Miss Kettleburn turn her partially-stone pumpkin completely to stone from a few desks away. The professor hurried over to the Ravenclaw's desk and told her warmly, "Well done, Miss Kettleburn! Be sure to try visualizing the entire object turning to stone at the same time next time, but very good job indeed!" She gave the girl an encouraging smile to back up her words, but was soon distracted by a commotion coming from another part of the room.
A pumpkin top had gone flying off! Well, that was not a big deal, really. Celestia had expected plenty of mistakes today. She strode over to where the thing had landed and scooped it up before turning around to discover the culprit.
Ah, it was Miss Lovecraft. Of course it was. The earlier incidents with the girl today made Celestia wonder if she had thrown her top off on purpose, but perhaps she was getting a bit paranoid. In fact, after having had several minutes to calm down, Celestia had come to the conclusion that she most definitely had overreacted to the girl's sleeping in class. Heaving another sigh -- because she HATED to be in the wrong -- Celestia marched over to the Slytherin's desk and placed the pumpkin top on an empty bit of space.
She cleared her throat lightly and said, "I believe I owe you an apology, Miss Lovecraft." She waved her wand and used a nonverbal spell to turn the girl's hair back to its previous color, then paused before continuing in a softer tone that would not carry: "I did not like quite a few of my teachers when I was a student here. They seemed unfeeling and uncaring to me and many of the other students." None of her colleagues had been teaching here at the time, so Celestia did not feel much an ounce of guilt in telling her that. "I'm afraid that we have gotten off to a bad start today. Are you feeling alright? Do you need to go down to the hospital wing?" Because it had also finally occurred to Celestia -- after dealing with Mr. Carter and his odd allergy -- that perhaps the Slytherin was ill or something of the sort. She didn't look ill, but Celestia was not a Healer. |