"Very well." Kazimeriz lowered his voice to a near-whisper, leaning in close enough to her to smell her perfume... mingled with the scent of pepper-up potion. Apparently she'd been handling the stuff so much that it had embedded itself in her pores. He raised an eyebrow, contemplating the ramifications of that for just a moment. He took a breath and sighed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanaSnape

"Thank you, Professor Svensson. That is most appreciated." Kazimeriz nodded. "Perhaps you could accompany Professor Vindictus down to my office and the rest of the professors will meet you at the stairway?" Swim with a buddy, folks. Always swim with a buddy.

Professor Svensson nodded slightly at Kazimeriz's suggestion. Raiding a flooded office for gillyweed would be no problem. He even knew what gillyweed looked like. And as for swimming, well, Lars could dog-paddle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by XanaSnape

He looked to all the professors at the table, his face extremely somber. "No professor should take the task of going into that water lightly; in fact, Maximus, perhaps you could provide brooms so that we can fly in low over the waters and avoid contact with that water as much as possible while we attempt to contain it?"

"Brooms?" Lars mouthed the word to himself. Flying?! Lars Svensson paled slightly. Swimming in floodwaters he could endure. But flying? Professor Svensson would prefer almost anything to flying. But in their current state of emergency, he supposed he could give it a try. It was not as if he would be flying miles above the ground. And how hard could it be to stay on a broom, anyway? Nevermind that the last time Lars had tried to fly had been when he was a teenager, and he had nearly crashed into a tree. He would just try to not crash, that's all.

What was it about her that had people constantly in her bubble? Even senile old men were invading her space now. And… sniffing her? Did she smell? She did a quick turn-your-head-sniff-your-shoulder to check. Nope, pretty sure she didn’t smell. Except of Pepperup Potion, but what do you want?

Caroline raised her eyebrows at Kazimeriz’s explanation. Oh man! Cool! But how about tomorrow, when she’s slept a bit, and when the water was gone? Today? Really? Well alright.

“That’s… well, more complicated professor, but nothing Madam Kohan, and Professor Kapoor, and the Prefects and I can’t handle.” Inside her own head, she called Nurse Byron all kinds of very unflattering names for up and disappearing on her. So what if her kid brother thought the sun shined out of her butt? She wasn’t around to be very sunshiny now was she?

“If that’s everything, I’m going to assemble the prefects and head on up to my Hospital Wing,” she said moving away from him.

Let him amble after her if he wanted continue sniffing.

"Very good, Miss Avalon. And if you should see students presenting with that last, specific effect we discussed, please take copious notes of the case and its progression-- moment to moment. We may very well be able to collaborate on an academic publication as a result. Of course, we should hope not to see this occur, for the next logical step after that symptom would be an agonizing yet mercifully swift death." Kazimeriz nodded to her, very polite, very professional. "Good luck to you. Send a patronus to me immediately if any emergency situation occurs, please, Cari." He shuffled back to the other staffers, ready to get moving down to the dungeons.

"Of course, sir. I'll do my best to retrieve as much as I can," Vindictus replied and he began to work out a strategy in his mind. All I need are two expert fliers with me . . . .


His eyes followed the direction in which Kazimeriz was speaking and they fell upon one of the new professors. That's when Vindictus saw the expression on the rookie's face and he rolled his eyes. Why me? I swear he's getting back at me for some unknown reason. "Yes, brooms," he answered firmly and a little louder than he intended. "Meet me at the top of the stairs leading down to the Dungeons in five minutes and don't forget your wand."

He stood up and quickly strode out of the Great Hall in great strides. Time was of the essence.

Angela watched with interest as Kazimeriz and Caroline alighted from their seats to speak privately in a corner. She was curious, of course. Who wouldn't be? But she managed to move her attention towards the task at hand. Okay...emergency supplies...

She turned towards Kapoor with a small smile. "Well, I suppose that we should get started."

Caroline's magnified voice suddenly filled the hall, announcing that all Slytherin students should drink the Pepperup Potion and that those who were feeling ill should report to either Angela or David.

The first few minutes after the announcement brought nothing, so she simply moved from her seat to one closer to Kapoor, removing a piece of parchment from her robes. "This is certainly something, isn't it?"

Someone didn’t look like a very happy camper, Professor Svensson noted. Maybe it was his fault. He would just have to get a grip and not freak out about the flying. It… it couldn’t be that hard, if first years could learn. Lars Svensson nodded firmly, more for his own benefit than anyone else’s. If an eleven-year-old could learn how to fly a broom, so could he. Five minutes.

He was supposed to follow Vindictus. Right. Svensson pulled his wand from his pocket and stood up after a bewildered glance around. Here went nothing. The transfiguration professor rose from his seat and walked briskly from the Great Hall.

Kazimeriz approached the rest of the staffers. "All right then. Those of you who are going to help with the dungeons, please head directly to the dungeons with me. Professor Kapoor and Madame Kohan, we are grateful to you for your help here in the hall and your support of Professor Forrester and Healer Avalon's tasks." Kazimeriz stepped off the dias and headed out of the Great Hall and toward the dungeons.

Anastasia quickly click-clacked back into the Great Hall and up to the Staff table, her arms full of nasty, filthy, disgusting, moth-bitten hole-ridden half-decayed robes. They weren't attractive, tailored school robes either, but rather thick, gnasty lab-coat like robes, straight from the back of the tool shed.

"Professor Kapoor, please distribute these to the Slytherin students," she sighed, dropping the robes on the table in front of him. A pile of dust escaped from the robes and a few bugs may have been seen trying to scramble away as the professor then pulled out a small, slightly squirming cloth bag.

"And here's ah, some of my gillyweed stores," she added quietly. "Ta ta now."

Then Annie took off click-clacking after Kazimeriz to the dungeons. She had to be the one to stop the flooding, obviously, because she knew everything about anything and only she could stop it. Or so she thought.

An origami flower had been placed at each teacher's place setting, a sweet at its center. A small printed card lay next to each, with the following explanation.

"Professors,

This origami flower, which resembles a nettle plant is part of my homework project for Ancient Runes. At its heart, a sweet as was given to me by professor Lupa and her magic Fehu box. Since Fehu does mean generosity, I have chosen to share my new abundance of sweets with you. I hope you enjoy it. Sincerely.... anonymous.

Ps: I decided not to give out my name since generosity is better left anonymous. You could give your sweet or the flower to another, for them to enjoy.... generosity seems to multiply that way. Have a good day.

Water trickled into the great hall. It seemed to cover the floor on the Dias and around the Staff Table.

Then the water suddenly froze and the area looked like an indoor ice rink.

As the temperature warmed, the ice began to melt and the water started to rise once again at top speed. It was cold, and it seemed angered by its having been frozen.

He swam quite regally into the Great Hall and up to the Headmaster's chair that resembled a throne. King Aornos sat down on the chair and spoke in a voice that was loud enough to be heard throughout the school.

Though the Great Hall was void of human life, that by no means meant that the depths of the waters were not inhabited by beings other than the menacing creatures that were grindylows. The water stirred only a little as Merwomen with Spears entered the castle, swimming menacingly around the staff table.

There was the King sitting in his rightful seat at the head table. Swimming through the water soundlessly towards his master. The Merman kept his spear out in case any pesky little student should be found in the murky depths of the water.

Looming out of the now perilous depths of what once was The Great Hall - no more - came yet more Merwomen, this time armed with Tridents and charging forth sleekly if also dangerously in a formation of respect for their leader but barely contained hostility and impatience.

King Aornos watched with great pleasure as his loyal Merpeople followed him into the Great Hall. What could be described as an evil smile appeared on his fishy face and his earsplitting voice was heard throughout the school.

The water was very dark and cold but not for the king and his Merpeople as they swam through the water but time was ticking on. The Merman stopped by one of the tables and his screechy voice echoed throughout the castle.

A Merwoman, bearing an exceptionally pointy trident brandished it excitedly. How daring, perfectly infallible was their king? Truly a wonder.

For Merwomen's voices were only that much higher in pitch her screech was almost too much to be borne when it bounced of seemingly every surface and carried through the entire school.

A merman bearing a long pointy trident swam towards the staff table. Just as he reached the table he turned and screamed out the following words, so loud they echoed throughout the entire school -

As Arethusa said, the water was drained out, the injuries healed, and everything was restored to normal.