"Mr. Gevrik is my concern and needn't bother you a whit," Tate scoffed at the idea of this little bit of a thing trying to tackle THAT problem. She couldn't handle discussion in class - why did she think she could handle scary old men?

"As for your hair... it isn't a disruption. We have several people in this school with that gift, and they get along just fine. It's only an issue if you make it one."

"Yes, headmaster. If you do need any help though, I don't mind. He reminds me of my dad and I handled him just fine." She had gotten into spats with her dad frequently over her being normal...well, normal muggle...in her opinion she was perfectly normal.

"I don't make it an issue, sir. It's just a nusince that I'm hoping to get more control over. I haven't really seen a class for that in my schedule, but I'm taking notes as to when it happens and how intense the emotion is." She wanted to show that she was attempting to take control of it. Maybe he knew a teacher that could help her out.

She thought... Gevrik was like her father? That was frightening. "I appreciate that, but I think I can handle him. In the meantime, if you'd like to speak to anyone else with this ability, I can have someone mentor you a bit. You don't have to figure everything out on your own."

And if she was really settled and ready to go, he was willing to let her return to class.

Jaina was happy to hear that he knew who could help her. "Yes, headmaster! I would love to have someone help me! So far it's been just my friend, Belle, helping me. She's been monitoring when it changes so I can describe how extreme an emotion is. Unfortunately, I've only figured out what colors it turns when." She frowned a bit at the last statement. That was lame. She knows what color her hair changes for which emotion. Great. Mood hair.

[color=gray]"Let me speak to some of the other students first, and I'll let you know if anyone is available," Tate promised with a solemn look. She needed attention from someone who could tell her this was not a big thing, not from some other little first year who was making her feel like an oddity.

"I'm going to send you back to class now, but if you have any questions, you can owl or visit."

"Yes, headmaster. And thank you. I really do appreciate it." she said sincerely. She left on his wor, but turned once more to say, "I promise if there are any more problems, I'll let you know." She smiled and exited the office.

Jake led the way up into the office as he had been told, and once he was inside the young man simply stood there, awaiting further instruction. He calmed his breathing somewhat; closed his eyes, counted to ten, yada yada yada... but he was still IRKED.

Maybe... maybe it would be sorted.

"Back so soon?" Tate moved around the boy to take his seat, gesturing at the opposite chair. As always.

"Is this going to start being a thing? Competing with Dakest for most visits?"

"With...?" Jake looked confused for a moment. Dakest who? Was he missing someth-

Oh.

Sabel.

"No sir," Jake said seriously, sitting in the chair Tate had gestured to.

Yes. Doing as he was told.

Shuddup, he did that sometimes.

Fiddling with his bag strap and not looking at Tate yet, Jake tried to think of how he was going to say this. Not being careful with his wording; oh Merlin now... Jake never thought of that. He just felt that, if he got too wound up, he might... you know...

Stutter.

"I came to..." Complain? Argue? Converse? Sing about? Shout about...? After a moment or two, Jake decided on the appropriate, but oh so boring word. "... talk... about-" >.> "... Lafay."

"If you're going to ask me to fire her, you should realize by now that I can't do it. The governors are particularly fond of her and her impressive credentials and don't feel that we have compelling evidence that her techniques are anything more than quirky. So... maybe I should stop you right there. She won't cause you physical harm," Tate shrugged it off as if he didn't care and reached for a cookie from the plate.

"Biscuit?"

At once, Jake looked up and gripped the seat of the chair tightly, gritted his teeth tightly so as to stop saying anything.

"No," he mumbled at the offer of a biscuit. Because seriously... no.

"What makes you think I want her fired?" he said simply, glaring out of the window. "You haven't even heard me out yet."

She could have done something TERRIBLE... it was a good job Jake hadn't been ushered straight out or... well... he wasn't sure but SOMETHING would happen.

"You're here to complain about her, yes? Or are you here to tell me what a good job she's doing? If that's the case..." He made a gesture for Jake to continue.

"So what's going on, lad? You're stirred up."

"Yes. But even I know that complaining never gets anyone fired whether they deserve it or not. Like one year, you weren't here then... but Bunbury set the bloody Devil's Snare on me. I complained and nothing was done. Since then, sir, I've come to expect nothing more than to be told 'not to worry'."

It was genuinely infuriating.

He shifted in his shirt. "So... I don't really know why I came. Seemed like the sensible thing to do at the time. Lafay kicked me out of her lesson just now. I'd asked if we'd be killing animals for potions again, and she told me to get out. At the beginning of the year she told me I'd fail... now, in my opinion, it seems like she's trying to make it happen."

Rarrrr atchu, Lafay.

"So what do I do?"

"I don't let professors hurt my students," Tate leaned forward and fixed Jake with a serious look. It wasn't chastisement; it was a promise. In the past, maybe things happened, but no one went unchecked any more.

"She kicked you out for asking a question, or do you think she may have felt you were being purposefully provocative to get things off course?" He tilted his head, considering. "I can speak with her, but have you considered private study? Find a classmate who also wants to do well and create a study group of your own?" Surely Upstead wasn't the only one with problems with Upstead.

Jake glanced at Tate and then back out the window. He couldn't explain it and he certainly couldn't help it, but he didn't believe the man. Jake had too much experience. It only took a teacher's word against his, and that would be it.

When Tate spoke, Jake looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know that many other people feel, sir," he said simply. Not 'what' other people feel, but literally he'd never considered that more than a few people he knew of (so far) were capable of feeling. It was another Jake thing. "I don't know that she thought that was what I was doing, but it wasn't my intention." He looked at the man again, but at Tate's hands. "She didn't ask my intention. Just sent me away."

As for private study...

"I am doing so, sir. Studying on my own, I mean. I go to the potions lab when I can, because that's the safest place to brew... the only place to brew... and I study intensely for all my subjects. I just never felt it suitable that I should be ejected from the class. I'm not entirely sure what to do about Lafay. I need to attend her lessons and I'll continue to try and be civil, but I don't trust that she'll treat me fairly, Professor," Jake said simply, creasing his brow in concentration as he thought. "If Lafay is one to feel, the she doesn't like me, sir, and I don't know why. I suspect it was the feast... there was never an issue before I came back."

Jake looked at the man again, using a trick he had to really muster courage to do... look at the bridge of someone's nose instead of into their eyes. The other person would never tell the difference. "If I'm honest with you, sir, coming back was a mistake, so I've found. But I made someone a promise."

"Not a mistake, I don't think. It's hard, but if we never do the hard things, then we never really learn how to live. You're going through the pangs of growth right now, and I know it's a struggle, but you're becoming the man you are meant to be. I think a little hardship is worth that outcome, don't you?" Tate certainly thought so. Those who lived easy lives without anything pushing against them came out on the far side incapable of living in the real world. Parents did their children a disservice by trying to make everything too smooth.

"I think you have a choice to make, my boy, and no one can make it for you. If you're determined to continue attending her class, then you have to be willing to play by her rules. She will want you to brew potions you don't like and she will give directions you may not want to follow immediately, but you have to choose which battle to fight. If you cannot live by her rules, then you have to continue studying on your own and drop her class."

"I know what hardship is... and I don't mean to sound self-pitying, sir... but I've had enough hardship for now," Jake said simply. "I'd prefer a smooth ride... just once in my life."

He shrugged, and, once again, looked to the window. "But I'm not going to get that."

Nobody did... not really. The only person Jake knew to have an easy life was Neptune... Jake STARTED to think about all the rubbish occurances over the summer alone, and quickly shook his head to clear it of all that. Enough of that.

"I didn't actually break any rules though, sir. I asked her a question. I mean, if she'd have told me that we were in fact going to do that, I would have requested to leave again. I know I'm not the only one with an issue with using... very fresh ingredients... but I'm the only one not intimidated enough to actually say something," Jake went on. Again, he shook his head. "I don't know why I'm even going on about it. It won't change, I'm sure... I'll stay in her class. If I have to kill something else... well..."

Whatever will be, will be.

"I suppose, sir, that I just feel the staff have the wrong impression of me. They think I'm some troublemaker... but I'm really not," Jake said quietly, fingers still absently working at his bag strap, using the slidey buckle thing to make the strap loooooooooong... and shorrrrrrrrt. "Nothing's changed that. But anyway... you're probably busy. Maybe I should go." Jake stared over at the window, impressed with himself at how he'd kept his emotions in check.

"It's impossible to participate in Potions if you have qualms about using animal parts," Tate said without softening his voice, although he understood a moral dilemma. He wouldn't force Jake to take Potions or bend to Lafay's will, but he simply couldn't give anyone a pass in a class that had reasonable requirements.

"You have some staff members who are very fond of you, and you always have. Aside from Lafay, who else makes you feel as if they are judging you?" Because honestly, Lafay judged everyone.

"Yeah but it's not that. It's not the parts... it's the fact that for the first time ever, we suddenly had to actually harm the creatures, and apparently there's no way to do the lessons without doing so. Which is rubbish, because I'd never had this issue before," Jake insisted. "And it wasn't just that. It's not just that she acts like I'm some huge problem in the world. It's that she was perfectly fine with me before. Heck, she even helped me with magic when I was having horrible problems. I just... I do not understand the change."

Jake ran a hand through his blond hair, letting it fall back into place before talking again.

He looked at Tate in silence for a moment, holding back the comment that he actually felt the headmaster was one of those people that disliked him. In a way, at least. Either way, he ducked the question. "Everyone judges, sir. It's human nature. It's just... the basis on which it's done... but anyway..."

Jake shifted in his chair. "I'm rude, Headmaster. I know that, but it's something that happens with me that I can't really stop. I guess you know that, students having files and whatever... but I think that because of all the feast stuff, when the rudeness kind of happened, and I got in trouble, that some of the staff might have mind a judgement about me. Like Lafay... hence why she hates me now.

"Truth be told, I don't care about that. I'm leaving soon... why be worried? Thing is, my little brother is set to start here in September, and he's... like me. Only he's... worse off? But he's always happy, I mean seriously. I'm worried that when he's here... he might have a... similar experience?"

Furmgoat did not care a whit that there was currently some sort of meeting with a student going on in the office. With a low hoot, he swooped into the office, wonky wing making him wobble slightly before he settled on the edge of the desk.

Wide black eyes settled on the Headmaster, and he held out his leg.



He waited patiently for the man to remove the letter from his owly little person, eyes flicking about swiftly to see if there were any owl treats in the vicinity.

Furmy deserved noms for a job well done, didn't he?

"I don't accept that, Upstead. If you are cognizant of the fact that your behavior is rude, then you are able to make a different choice in that moment. You're determined to be the victim here. No one is saying that things don't go badly or that people aren't judging, but you're not alone in that." Honestly, if he needed to conference with someone everytime he didn't get along with a coworker or superior officer, he'd be living in the CO's office.

"Everyone is judged on their own merit. Your brother won't have any issues," Tate began, but he was interrupted by the arrival of an owl. With a little roll of the eyes, he untied the note and offered the owl the remains of his biscuit.

"I'm afraid I need to handle this, Upstead."

Jake simply couldn't help but laugh. Tate really didn't get it... and though Jake laughed... it was a humourless one. "You can believe that if you like, sir. I'm not going to try and change that. There's no point; I know that."

About the rudeness AND the whole victim thing. But whatever. He'd only have to deal with the Merlin-forsaken place for a couple of months more, worst case scenario. He'd go ahead and get top grades without the help of anyone... because he was, quite simply, proud. It was a matter of his PRIDE now... something that never really existed before.

Jake looked at the owl for a moment; he still had a huge soft spot for animals. Once he'd given the creature a smile, the young man stood and readjusted his bag, because fiddling with the buckle had caused it to hang much lower. "I'd like to leave now, anyway, sir," he said simply as he fixed the thing. "So... good day."

Headmaster Tate crumpled bits of parchment, sending one after another toward the waste paper basket. They all sailed through the air in a perfect arch before bouncing off the rim. All in the same. Exact. Spot.

Annoying.

"Okay. Let up the next one," he sighed and spoke toward the door.

brushing his boots on the back of his jeans to shine them up a bit Michael walks in to the office " Good afternoon Headmaster " not quite meeting his eyes but looking at his Headmaster " I am not shure if you heard bout the problem in Hogsmead with the ,,, I think they were a Muggle couple "

Tate glanced up at the young man who had launched into the issue without any preamble, cocking one eyebrow up in thought. Interesting way to start a conversation.

"Yes, I've heard about the couple in Hogsmeade. You have any supporting evidence that they were actually Muggles?"