Young Aryan being the first through the door was of no surprise to Roulan. It was obvious to her how much he seemed to enjoy the work, and his growing confidence was hard to miss. As an educator, she loved to see it, and she found she was quite excited for each lesson as well to see the knowledge grow in him and his peers. With a soft chuckle under her breath, she returned the finger wave - a favorite of his and Ms. Paton it seemed - before nodding in approval as he got to work.



Mr. Fox was the next to enter and Roulan smiled and gave a nod of acknowledgement his way as well. The slang greeting did not bother her, though it was one of those sayings that often amused and puzzled her. Why DID young people ask ‘what’s up’? She refrained from responding in jest - deciding to leave the corny jokes to their dear headmaster. “Hello, Mr. Fox. We seem in bright spirits today, if not a little bit unkempt.” She found she didn’t not care much about the state of the uniforms (though perhaps she was supposed to be stricter on this matter) but knew others did, so it was more of a subtle warning than anything.

She heard his slip of the tongue in greeting Aryan as well, and puzzled at the strange name. Perhaps an inside joke between the young lads.



While Roulan had never been acquainted with Desiree’s father, she had spent some time looking into the history of her predecessors and of course Gaston Marchand had been a noteworthy one. Her appreciation for the subject certainly was unsurprising, though Roulan briefly wondered as well if the subject itself never made the girl a twinge homesick. “Good day, Ms. Marchand. Having a pleasant one thus far?” At the compliment, she gave the girl a smile and an appreciative nod of her head. “Thank you. It’s quite comfortable as well.”

She watched as she also took a seat and got to work.

Mr. Solberg was the first to raise his hand, and Roulan smiled at him as she nodded for him to go on. “I have often heard people refer to the castle as home.” She assured at his question, before listening thoughtfully as he continued to make his connection. “Family is often a group of individuals who stir strong emotions from us, so family being a common theme is a popular one.” She replied once he’d finished, pleased he’d offered his thoughts.



The badger was always polite, and Roulan smiled kindly at her and the returned pleasantry. “The day is good. I’m hoping you’ll all have a bit of fun today in today’s lesson.” The intention was for it to be like a bit of a game, but intention in teaching she found sometimes fell flat with the student’s interests. Fingers crossed.

Nodding at Ms. Marchand when her hand went up, Rue clapped her hands at the answer. “Excellent observation!” It was easy to spot an emotion or person, but identifying the importance and how pivotal a moment in time could be for development was often more difficult.



From observation, it seemed Mr. Atreyu-Rehman was just as perplexed by Brandon’s greeting as she had quietly been as well. She made a mental note to perhaps speak to the older student later, just to check in, since it seemed his classmates who were even more well acquainted also found his current actions puzzling. But for now, she refocused on Aryan’s thoughts - which she always looked forward to hearing a well, as the young man was certainly astute. “Happiness is an emotion that it feels the best to feel. Wanting to remember the more happy moments of life is another common report people make about their favored memories.”



Roulan was pleased with how seriously and thoughtful all of the students were being in their answers, Brandon being no exception to the others. “It’s interesting isn’t it to see how we can have near conflicting emotions too in some of the memories that stand out vividly. Perhaps it’s because of the strength of two battling ideas.” Vulnerability and protection were often seen together, but they were hard to feel simultaneously. Seeing by his body language she deduced he did not want to think too much further about the particular moment. That was alright too, because now was the perfect time to move on.

Nodding encouragingly at Aryan as he raised his hand to answer, Roulan smiled. “Correct! As they say, the devil is in the details. Not only were the creatures unrealistic in their hues, but my clothes in the scene were not what I’m sure you’re all used to seeing me in. And I certainly would never be accredited enough to speak at an Arithmancy convention.” Truthfully, she’d done rather poorly in those exams when she was a student. Though she didn’t need to dredge that up at the moment. “Excellent observation, Mr. Atreyu-Rehman.” She smiled at him again before moving on.



While Rue was perhaps the slightest bit surprised Mr. Fox did not have further reasoning for his choice, which was quite already though she would have asked follow up still, she was instead surprised by one of her students referring to her as ‘cool’. So much so a small laugh escaped. “A new compliment for me, I’m sure, but thank you, Mr. Fox. Your guess is correct. Sometimes using deductive reasoning is our best tool as well by ruling out our other options.” She smiled at him again before once more moving on.

Roulan observed young Aryan, listening to his pronunciations as she nonchalantly wandered around the room to assist any that might have needed it. She was pleased when she saw him continue to persevere after the initial failed attempts - she knew this was not an easy spell. But soon enough, he got it and she could see he’d produced two full vials. She smiled at him and gave a nod of approval as she moved along, eyes averting to another student’s progress.



At the sound of Emma’s voice, brown eyes turned to find the first year as Roulan made her way to the girl. She had briefly heard her earlier pronunciation and gave an encouraging nod, assuring the girl she had said it right, before moving on to her question. “The memory adaptations are permanent in the sense that you will always know the falsified version, however you will also have this moment in your memory and know which is true and which is false. Modifying memories is far more successful as a permanent feature if you are doing it on someone else, without their knowledge.” Or else they would always know what had happened. It was one of the reasons that historically, Professor Horace Slughorn had always known the memory he’d tampered with was tampered with.

As an afterthought, she spoke louder to the class. “Not that I am encouraging anyone to alter anyone’s knowledge or memories without their know. That will result in harsh consequences.” Just in case any of them were getting any ideas.



Moving on once again, Roulan briefly watched Desiree and monitored her progress, pleased to see the sixth year seemed to be progressing quite swimmingly. She’d already procured memories and seemed to be working on the brainstorming of how to alter. She figured she’d have nothing to worry about with the girl, but she was glad to see it regardless. With another smile and approving nod of her head, she continued on again.



Spotting the Gryffindor who seemed to be struggling a bit, Roulan made her way to her side and knelt down to offer assistance. She was well aware the extraction part was difficult, so if any student needed her to do that portion she was happy to. The altering was far easier, especially for the purposes they were doing it today. “Do you need any assistance, Ms. Kate? If you have a memory you’ve settled on, I’m happy to do the extraction for you.”

By the time Desiree had approached her desk, Roulan had made it back to her seat and was sat, observing the class with her own pensieve in front of her. It was no longer charmed to the blackboard, should students want privacy of Roulan only being the one to see their work. She smiled at the Hufflepuff, giving a nod at her question. “I would love to.” Desiree always showed such promise, she was certain it was going to be difficult to guess.

As the first memory showed, Rue couldn’t help the slight chuckle. This seemed very possible, as she’d often heard her own brother had a very similar reaction to her when her parents had brought her home from the hospital. Protesting the existence of a younger sibling was a rite of passage for the elder, was it not? At the second memory, she could notice slight inconsistencies that raised awareness - such as the movements of the dog and the way the decor didn’t quite seem to flow together. The details of the magazines were lost on her. But as it then moved into the third memory, she found herself hoping that was the false one. A wombat??? Poor dear! She believed she had heard of strange occurrences like that happening at the school, though she didn’t know specifics. Considering for a moment, Rue made her guess. “Is it the second memory that’s false? The decor seemed a little off. Though I hope my guess is wrong and you didn’t actually have to be a wombat.” Although, perhaps there was something interesting too to living life as a creature for some time?



Aryan was the next to approach her desk, and she smiled kindly at him as she did in fact know what he meant when he gestured to the pensieve, and she joined him in taking a look at the memories. The first one was quite frightful, though as far as she could tell there was nothing advert that showed this could have been a falsified memory. She was a little skeptical both parents had been able to sleep through hail crashing through a window, but such heavy sleepers DID exist. The second memory was far more pleasant and drew a smile on her face. It was only because of what the young Mr. Atreyu-Rehman had said before about his favorite memories being some of his happiest that made her answer, “Is it the first one?”

Although perhaps there was also a bit of hope too. The second memory was far more pleasant to have been an actual instance in his history.