Svensson smiled in turn at the girl. She really could not be as horrible at History of Magic as she had initially said. He shook her hand across his desk. "Professor Svensson. I look forward to seeing you in class, Miss Davis."

Nicoletta pulled back her hand and smiled weakly. Suddenly the room started to spin and she couldn't see straight. She grabbed the nearest shelf for balance, knocking over a couple books in the process. Nicoletta fell to her knees on the floor, her head lolling to the side. Her eyelids fluttered shut before she could see anything other than the floor.

Svensson let out a small sigh of relief as the girl finally smiled. Then the pleasant expression on his face changed abruptly into one of alarm, and he whipped his wand out, jumped to the end of his desk and hurriedly scurried around it to try to catch the girl before she landed on the floor. He didn't. Uh-oh. He conjured a pillow and stuffed it under the girl's head as he calculated how long it would take him to carry her to the hospital wing, how long it would take if he levitated her there, and the risks of both. He figured it would be a better idea to levitate her, so that he at least wouldn't drop the poor girl.

The professor cast a nonverbal spell on the girl and put his full concentration into the spell so that he wouldn't accidentally let her head hit a doorframe or the ceiling or something. Now he just had to find the hospital wing.

Now back from the hospital wing, Nicoletta knocked on Professor Svensson's office door again. Oooh, I hope he's in there. she thought. It was bad enough she passed out in his office, but he had to levitate her to the hospital wing!

On the way down from the library to the dungeons, several heavy books under one arm, Kiri passed the corridor leading to the History of Magic classroom. She'd walked several more steps before she remembered about the errand Professor Duskurk had sent her on.

She stopped and turned around. It was the middle of the morning, so there was a chance Professor Svensson was busy teaching, but while Kiri was here... She could at least check.

The old door into the professor's office was closed. Kiri resisted the urge to stand quiet for a few moments to listen if anyone was moving around inside, but instead hitched up the books more securely in her arm and knocked on the door a few times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luna_severus_26

Now back from the hospital wing, Nicoletta knocked on Professor Svensson's office door again. Oooh, I hope he's in there. she thought. It was bad enough she passed out in his office, but he had to levitate her to the hospital wing!

Svensson had just sat down to review his notes from his last class when he heard a timid knock on the door. He looked up, frowned briefly, and shuffled his notes into a pile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antarctica!

On the way down from the library to the dungeons, several heavy books under one arm, Kiri passed the corridor leading to the History of Magic classroom. She'd walked several more steps before she remembered about the errand Professor Duskurk had sent her on.

She stopped and turned around. It was the middle of the morning, so there was a chance Professor Svensson was busy teaching, but while Kiri was here... She could at least check.

The old door into the professor's office was closed. Kiri resisted the urge to stand quiet for a few moments to listen if anyone was moving around inside, but instead hitched up the books more securely in her arm and knocked on the door a few times.

Oh. Make that two knocks. Svensson hurriedly slid his pile of notes into a drawer of his desk and straightened his robes. "Come in!" he called to whomever was at his door, whether it be two students or two groups of students or one particularly impatient student.

Nicoletta poked her head in the door timidly. "Hi, me again. I don't intend to stay long I just wanted to apologize for passing out in your office and thank you for taking me to the hospital wing." she smiled, her head cocked slightly.

Kiri wasn't sure why, but she felt she'd rather be alone with the professor when asking about what Professor Duskurk had told her to. Hoping that the other girl - her face was vaguely familiar (maybe from the Quidditch Pitch?) - would not take long, maybe just ask about a homework assignment or something, Kiri followed her into the bright and friendly office of the History of Magic teacher.

"Good afternoon, Professor," Kiri said politely, shutting the door. "I, er, have a question... kind of. It can wait, though," she added, suddenly a little insecure.

She gestured for the girl to begin - she'd been here first, after all - and surveyed the professor's office while trying not to listen too closely to what the other student was saying. This was her first time in this room since Professor Truebridge had been forced to vacate it for the puffed-up form of Lord Borr, and it had certainly changed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luna_severus_26

Nicoletta poked her head in the door timidly. "Hi, me again. I don't intend to stay long I just wanted to apologize for passing out in your office and thank you for taking me to the hospital wing." she smiled, her head cocked slightly.

Svensson raised his eyebrows at the girl but shrugged. "For some reason, I can't believe that you intended to faint at all, much less in my office," he said. "There's no need to apologize."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Antarctica!

Kiri wasn't sure why, but she felt she'd rather be alone with the professor when asking about what Professor Duskurk had told her to. Hoping that the other girl - her face was vaguely familiar (maybe from the Quidditch Pitch?) - would not take long, maybe just ask about a homework assignment or something, Kiri followed her into the bright and friendly office of the History of Magic teacher.

"Good afternoon, Professor," Kiri said politely, shutting the door. "I, er, have a question... kind of. It can wait, though," she added, suddenly a little insecure.

She gestured for the girl to begin - she'd been here first, after all - and surveyed the professor's office while trying not to listen too closely to what the other student was saying. This was her first time in this room since Professor Truebridge had been forced to vacate it for the puffed-up form of Lord Borr, and it had certainly changed.

Svensson turned to the Slytherin and frowned slightly. A question, but only "kind of"? That sort of statement seemed foreboding. But if the girl was willing to wait...

The professor returned his attention to Nicoletta to see if she had anything else to say.

"Oh errm, I didn't. Panic attack, I should be fine for a while. Anyways, thank you." she said and backed out of the office.

Fortunately, Kiri didn't need to spend much time admiring Professor Svensson's office before the girl was done. What had they been talking about? History of Magic, even with Professor Truebridge, had never seemed that exciting to Kiri.

When the door clicked shut behind her, Kiri left her place near the wall and wandered over to the professor's desk. She sat down opposite and... and tried to figure out how to begin, something she probably shouldn't have done while the other student had still been in the office.

"Well, erm... thanks for receiving me, Professor," she said. "It won't take long, I think. Er..." Kiri paused again. Professor Duskurk hadn't been particularly committal chatty about what he needed Professor Lainey's stuff for. Or what that stuff would be, or even if Kiri was allowed to mention him. But that was silly, wasn't it. Professor Duskurk couldn't be up to anything... illegal, could he? He probably just couldn't get Professor Lainey's things himself, being busy... doing whatever it was he was doing. Decorating his volcano-based Fortress of Doom, maybe.

"I'm here on, er, on an errand I guess. One of your colleagues asked me to help him retrieve a few things, and as he's busy... I mean, you all are, aren't you..." Kiri smiled distractedly. "Anyway, I told him I could do that. So, he's looking for stuff that, er, Professor Lainey left behind. I guess the professor used this office before?" She looked at Professor Svensson questioningly. "Do you know anything about that?"

Svensson smiled and waved as the girl left his office.

Svensson blinked. "Left behind?" he repeated, completely nonplussed. Who was Professor Lainey? "This office was empty when I moved in," he said slowly. "And my predecessor was Professor Truebridge, not...this Professor Lainey fellow." Svensson frowned and waited for the girl to elaborate on what she was looking for.

Kiri stared. She'd run straight into a wall. To be honest, she hadn't even expected that Professor Svensson would give her such an answer. Didn't the professors... know about their old colleagues and stuff? Then again, Professor Svensson was kind of new, and Kiri had no idea what he'd been up to before coming to Hogwarts, and where that had taken place.

"Um, well..." She fidgeted around on her chair. Then she shrugged, embarrassed. "I don't really know, Professor! I was only told to, er, ask you about any belongings the professor might have left behind. I assumed that, er, you'd know what I meant."

Kiri pursed her lips reflectively. "I think Professor Lainey used to teach here." She waved a hand. "You know, way back. No idea why someone would think she..." Professor Lainey was a woman, right? "... still had stuff here, but yes, um, that's what I'd been asked to do. But if this office was empty, I don't know where else I could look. Are you sure there was nothing here, Professor? Like, I dunno," Kiri cast an eye around the room, "an old cabinet, or a box, or something?"

Svensson shrugged and gave the girl a sheepish look. "I wish I knew what you meant," he said apologetically. He frowned and tilted his head thoughtfully. The name Lainey wasn't entirely unfamiliar to him. Perhaps someone had mentioned this fellow before. "I suppose that it is possible this Lainey person used to use this office," he finally conceded. But leftover belongings? That was unlikely.

"There may have been something I overlooked, I suppose," he said slowly. "If you want, we can look, but I do not believe there will be anything of any worth." Unless he had a coworker who enjoyed collecting others' discarded belongings.

"Well, I think she... he... I think they did," Kiri nodded, "but, er, well, if this office was empty when you got here, I guess there wasn't anything left." An idea occurred to her. It was a very weird one, and really, no way could it be true, but Professor Duskurk's short and secretive commands might have played their part in prodding Kiri into this frame of mind. "You don't think there could be, you know, a secret compartment in the walls or something?" she asked, brow furrowed.

She glanced around. Most, probably all of the furniture was obviously new and belonging to Professor Svensson. When Professor Truebridge still inhabited this office (oh, how Kiri wished she could talk to him, he was a few steps closer to Professor Duskurk on the creepy-and-dangerous scale than the good-natured, friendly Professor Svensson) it had been filled with old cabinets and shelves, full of the curios he had collected on his travels. Now, the shelves were a light blue, and in-between rows of books stood model train cars.

But there wasn't anything visible in the walls. Of course, just because one casual look around didn't uncover a secret compartment didn't mean it wasn't there, but Kiri didn't particularly feel like turning the office upside down, even with Professor Svensson's permission and help. More for the look of the thing, Kiri got up anyway and began wandering around the room.

Svensson blinked. A secret compartment. That would be creepy. What if there were dead rats inside? He shook his head to rid himself of the thought and peered at his bookshelf. "I guess there might be," he said. To think that he had unwittingly helped to hide a secret compartment (possibly)! He brushed imaginary dust from his robes and peered behind the random trains set on his shelves. He was looking for a secret compartment. That Starstalker kid was pretty bright, he realized. Most people, himself included, wouldn't consider a secret compartment.

It only took Kiri a minute to realise that this was stupid and futile. She didn't want to start rummaging around in or behind Professor Svensson's belongings, and just wandering back and forth and running her hand along the wall was not going to reveal a secret compartment. Especially not if it was the kind of compartment in which to store things that interested Professor Duskurk. It would take some serious magic to find one like that.

She knocked against a few portions of the wall like some of those, what were they called, clandestine agents... people she'd learned about in Muggle Studies, listening for any sound that might indicate a hollowed out portion behind the plaster. That gave her a bruised knuckle, but no compartment.

What they needed was some kind of spell, an object version of Homenum Revelio. Kiri had never heard of such a spell before, though. There might not even be one.
"I don't think this will really work," she said, returning to the desk and slumping down in her chair. "I guess if there really was something hidden here, Professor Truebridge would have discovered it." Whether he would have mentioned such a discovery to anyone else was another question, but if Professor Truebridge had decided to just keep whatever he'd found to himself, it was still gone.

She drummed her fingers on the desk. "I think I'll just have to tell Pro-... the professor that I wasn't able to find anything."

Svensson shrugged. "If you're willing to give up that easily," he said lightly. "Tell the professor that if they'd like me to look further, I will, if I know what I'm looking for." He scratched his chin. "If I find anything suspiciously out of place, I'll let you know," he added, sorry that the girl had come all the way to his office and hadn't found anything.

"Give up?" Kiri repeated, frowning at the professor. She'd have thought that he would prefer it if she didn't tax his time and patience longer than necessary, or root around in his stuff too much, especially considering how strange her request had been in the first place, but if he was fine with it... Kiri would have risen to the challenge - whether it really was one was, of course, a different question entirely - but she was almost late to her next lesson. And anyway, she thought, a little petulantly, it wasn't as if she really felt like spending that much time on it.

She waved a hand. "You don't need to do that, Professor," she said, shaking her head. "I'm sure you have better things to do than search your office for something that might not even be there." Kiri began fishing around for the strap of her bag under the chair. "I'll just tell your, er, colleague that I haven't found anything. That there probably isn't anything to begin with." Even though Professor Duskurk had seemed pretty sure of that. Strange.

Her hands caught the rough material of the bag. Pulling it out, Kiri said, "If you do find something, of course, it'd be good if you let me know. Thank you very much for your time." She smiled briefly and got to her feet. "And help." With a little wave, Kiri turned around and left Professor Svensson's office. Now to report back to Professor Duskurk...

The professor just shrugged again and waved as the girl left his office. That was odd. But then again, this was Hogwarts, and odd was perfectly acceptable, so he just sat down and worked on his lesson plans.

Emily remembered talking a lot with Professor Svensson last year, when he was the transfiguration teahcer, but now with the mysteries dug up with the death of her grandmother had gotten her to sleuthing and mucking about in her past. She now had some questions that she thought he, as the history of magic teacher, could answer. Emily walked up to the office door and knocked, as she waited for someone to answer she bounced up and down in her uncontrollable excitement.