Gideon couldn't help but laugh at her comment about Selina. "Aye...and I'm sure it will only get worse over time," he replied, his soft smile showing that that wasn't a bad thing in his mind. He did understand and appreciate his girlfriend's love of the sport and her wish in perfectly fulfilling her duty as their team captain.

He allowed Professor Bentley to take the frame from him, watching expectedly as she looked it over. The Gryffindor let out a small breath of relief when she finally spoke, commenting on his work and her opinion of it. "Thank ye Professor," he answered smiling brightly. "I'm glad ye like it."

It was one of those nights where Oliver felt like really pigging out on comfort food. Soups, stews, pies...you name it, he felt like it. Heck, he could even go dessert and he wasn't one for sweet food.

But it was just one of those nights.

He glanced at the four house tables as he entered the Great Hall before turning on his heel and heading up to the staff table. The smell of the food was actually making his mouth water and he had grabbed himself a bread roll and ladled some potato and leek soup into a bowl before his butt had even hit the chair.

He was hungry!!

Having been already sitting there for the better part of an hour, reading over some notes and eating some soup every now and then, totally ignoring the outside world, she was thrown out of her concentration when someone else had sat at the table. Urgh, her foot was asleep.

Adjusting her position, Medea looked down the table to see who joined them. Or her. Heck, she didn't even know who else was in the great hall. Although, it was one of the Professors whom she hadn't officially met, and from what she could remember, he was one of the troublemakers. That opening feast was quite the first impression.

"Long day?" Looked like it.

With the spoon of soup halfway to his mouth, Oliver was just opening his mouth when he heard someone speak. he had been so focused on getting some food into his stomach that he hadn't even noticed that someone else was sitting at the table.

"No...not really...well...maybe just a little." Oh real smooth Jenkins! Way to sound like a complete idiot. 'Not really...maybe just a little.' What the hell was that?

"What I mean is...it wasn't a hard day just..." Just what moron?..."just I don't think I've eaten since breakfast." He picked up his bowl and made his way down the table and sat in the chair beside the woman.

Oliver put down the bowl before extending his hand towards the DADA Professor. "I don't think we've officially met. Oliver Jenkins. Ancient Runes."

Maybe a little...

Or no?

Once he finally got his words out, she nodded in understanding. "I can see the rush then." That would definitely make the day long, if not longer just waiting to eat that spoonful of soup in which she unfortunately prevented him from doing so. Not the purpose she sought after.

Laying her quill down she smiled and shook his hand. "Medea Romanos. Defense." The whole title was a bit of a mouthful.

Would it make him sound like some kind of stalker if he told her he already knew who she was? Probably. "It's nice to meet you Medea. What is that accent?" Oliver let go of her hand and returned to his soup.

Well he was hungry. He could eat and listen to her talk at the same time. Multi-tasking. He had it.

Her accent? "Oh, I um..." Had become quite self conscious of it during her time at Hogwarts already. "I grew up in Bulgaria. Around Lovech." It was a hard habit to kill, one's accent.

Bulgaria? How interesting. "So I'm guessing that you went to Durmstrang during your school years?" Or maybe that was assuming too much. Just because she's from Bulgaria didn't mean that she went to Durmstrang.

Oliver practically inhaled his soup and then leaned over and spooned some beef stew into his bowl. He was soooooo hungry.

"So what did you do before becoming a Professor at Hogwarts?"

"Durmstrang? No." If only. "No, it vos a bit too, expensive, for my family. I vent to the Ukrainian Academy. Much closer to home." Yes, if ONLY she went to Durmstrang. Farther away from home, the better.

Not at all that hungry, instead of eating like he was, she poured herself a glass of water. Not quite used to that orange drink called Pumpkin Juice. "Mostly studied." she confessed. "I'd run into one of my ex-professors after leaving University, and he'd offered to help. He'd retired and missed it so, couldn't pass up that opportunity. I'd tutored a little bit later on, but, nothing quite like here."

Much detail from before that time was left unsaid. "How about you? I assume you vent to Hogwarts." Grinning, she took a sip of her drink.

"Ahhh...so I was assuming." He chuckled as he helped himself to another serve of stew. Maybe if he filled up on stew, he wouldn't be tempted to eat any of the sweet stuff. "Well it was Durmstrang's loss and Ukranian's gain."

Oliver was rather impressed as Medea spoke about what she had been up to. It seemed everyone continued to study after they had graduated from Hogwarts or the Ukranian Academy in Medea's case. "So teaching was always in your blood, eh? And why Defense Against the Dark Arts?" People always asked him why Runes, especially after they found out what he did after school.

He returned her grin and nodded his head. "Yeah. Graduated in 2065. Was a proud Gryffindor." Well when he wasn't being a tosser eighty per cent of the time. "I played muggle sports professionally for a few years before going into the Ministry where I played around in the Department of Mysteries."

Finishing his stew, Oliver pushed his bowl away and grabbed some water. "I can be serious sometimes." Usually when William or Waylon weren't around.

The little smile that graced her face had that hint of embarrassment in it. Durmstrang was far the better school, but, she hadn't taken the moment to really place herself. The Academy had been good enough for her.

"My brother." she responded, nodding somewhat as if to confirm it. "I originally vanted to go into the arts, but, he eventually persuaded me to take a different course." Really, it didn't take long to persuade her at all. She could never repay him for that either. "And since I did vell in the subject, why not?"

Oh, so he was one of those ones who wore the red uniforms. An enthusiastic lot, they were. She should've known. Though his choice of careers after school were puzzling to hear, considering where he'd ended up. "You'd have to be." she said, eyebrows raising the slightest. "I mean, vith teaching the subject of ancient runes. How did you end up doing so?"

Oh. He hadn't meant to embarrass her. He wasn't even sure what he had said to cause such a reaction so he decided to pretend that he hadn't seen her face go a light shade of red and grabbed himself another bread roll. Not sure what he was going to do with it though, seeing how he was decidely stuffed.

"Why not indeed." Oliver had done well in Defense as well but he found talking about the dark arts could be a little depressing at times. "Are you enjoying teaching the students?"

Oliver tossed the bread roll back onto the table and shrugged his shoulders. "I've always liked the Runes even when I was at school. History as well." He paused for a moment steeling a small glance at her. "I used to have a tutor who spealised in Runes and during the summer break, she would take me to places and showed me how different people used the Runes. It was quite...exciting." A grin formed on his lips. "But don't go spreading that around. I have a reputation to uphold." he teased. Although he would prefer if William and Waylon didn't know about that. Considering he had told them that he had been travelling the world picking up chicks.

"It's certainly not like tutoring one or two kids at a time, but, I can't say that I don't enjoy it." She was still warming up to all the rules and little things in this school after all. Like those house names and the importance of house points. Weird concepts.

Closing her folder with her notes, she placed the quill neatly on top and crossed her arms on the table. While his interest in history was surprising, his talk of traveling was amusing to her. Having done some herself, she wondered just which places he had visited, and how many at that. "Your secret is safe vith me." she gave a jokingly serious salute before the grin broke out. Couldn't keep a straight face. "So, where have you visited? Any particular place you vouldn't mind going back to?"

"Surprisingly they are all well behaved." he mused. Not at all like he was when he had attended here. He remembered running rampart with William and Waylon along for the ride. They were such good times. The students now are more worried about gaining or losing points. "Either that, or we're very scary Professors." He grinned and tossed her a wink.

Oliver could safely say that there was nothing scary about him and he didn't think Medea was all that scary either. But then again she taught DADA, so you never know.

Oh but she did have a sense of humour. Oliver liked that. "Pretty much all of Europe and a little of the Middle East." Every place had their own amazing history. "I liked Denmark the best. The place is amazing." And he had been back there a few times. "And it's full of runic history."

He picked up his goblet and took a sip out of it. "Now if you're talking which place I would go back to for the waves then I would have to say Brazil." He kinda wished he was there right now actually. The surf would be pumping. He let out a lazy sigh as he looked at Medea. "What about you? Any place that you have been that you would like to go back to?"

"Oh they're shivering in their shoes in class." she chuckled before taking a good look at him. "Can't imagine you as one though." Obviously the students must be just very well behaved naturally. Either that or it was the other professors. The ones that apparently liked fire too much.

Or maybe she just needed to get out of her office more often to witness such things.

All of Europe? He had quite the number of countries under his belt then. She'd guessed him for some of the southern countries of Europe though, and Denmark was quite unexpected. Even his answer of Brazil had her deciding to just stop guessing all together. "A surfer are you?" Surfing she knew about. Quidditch, not so much. "I hear Indonesia has a few excellent spots just for it."

Contemplating his question for a moment, she leaned against the table a little and held her hands under her chin. Which place would she want to go back to? "While my traveling hasn't been as extensive as yours..." Raising an eyebrow at him, she thought for a moment longer. "I'd have to say Italy. Mostly for the arts though, and their architecture. Got sucked into the beauty I suppose."

"Oh I don't look scary to you?" he asked before pulling a face at her. "How about now?" Oliver grinned at her. It seemed that Medea had him pretty much figured out. Maybe she was remembering his antics at the opening feast. Yeah he was definitely not a scary person.

Oliver decided that he did in fact fancy some dessert and looked over the table for something that was sweet but not too heavy. "Yeah, it was one of the muggle sports I did after finishing Hogwarts. I was pretty good at it." Well actually he was pretty good with charms which made riding waves on a board pretty easy. He picked up a bowl of jelly. "Oh yes they most certainly do. I like Lagundri Bay the best. You ever tried surfing?" While she didn't exactly look the type, Oliver knew never to assume anything. Women always surprised him.

He couldn't help but smile as he watched her consider his question. And her answer did surprise him. Women. They could be such a mystery at times. "Italy huh? I never really got to look around there much. Just the usual tourist spots which never really show a country's true...culture." Merlin! He was actually having a somewhat intellectual conversation. He tucked into his jelly and then placed the bowl onto the table.

"Have you seen all of the castle yet?"

Vindictus ran towards the Staff Table as if he were a kid competing in a race. Well, he was a big kid at heart. "I WIN!" he exclaimed and grabbed a plate. His eyes fell upon a platter of sandwiches and he snatched the biggest one he could find. Max took a big bite and began chewing. "Ooo know, nuffin' tapes bettah than a ham sammich," he said with a full mouth. He finished chewing and swallowed. Silence followed for the next few minutes as he ate. Well, there was almost silence. As he was chewing, kept on saying 'mmmmm.'

"Hmm. I wanna see what this orb looks like in a room full of light," Vindictus said as he licked his fingers and then wiped them off on his robes. Then he stuck his right hand inside his robe pocket.

Nothing.

Suddenly, the Deputy Headmaster began to frantically search all of his robe pockets.

Uh oh. It was GONE.

Be cool, Max. Be cool.

"Erm. Did any of you guys, uh, happen to see, um, an orb laying on the, uh, ground anywhere?"

Coming inside from the greenhouse and carrying three flower arrangements under her arms, Kurumi approached the staff table and bowed her head politely to the professors that were present as she set one of them down in the middle. "It's for Transfiguration homework," she explained, in case they were confused as to why the Gryffindor was delivering flowers. Just something else to make her look like a house elf, yeah?

She then noticed Professor Vinductus being...well...himself was probably the best way to describe it really and he had lost something? An orb? That didn't sound very good. While she knew the question hadn't been directed at her, she shook her head nonetheless. "I'll keep an eye out for it, professor." She was just about to wander around the castle delivering flowers after all.

Speaking of which, she needed to get going if she was going to catch up with Jezz in the common room.

"Uh, thanks Kurumi!" Vindictus replied rather loudly. "It, uh, looks like, um, well . . . it's round and uh, made of, um, glass."

In truth, he'd never really taken a good look at the thing while in the Forbidden Forest. Maybe the two dunces could describe it better.

They were getting food at what, midnight? One in the morning? Willy tiredly climbed up the dias and slumped into the headmaster's seat next to Max, not even noticing where he was sitting.

"What, didja lose something, Max? I bet you just can't see it 'cos you don't have your glasses on." HA HA.

"You've got a severe case of wrackspurt, my friend." Pause. Vindictus put both hands on the table and leaned towards William. He was only a foot away from the man's face. "The orb ISN'T IN MY POCKET!" he shouted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by demented_death_eater

"You've got a severe case of wrackspurt, my friend." Pause. Vindictus put both hands on the table and leaned towards William. He was only a foot away from the man's face. "The orb ISN'T IN MY POCKET!" he shouted.

WHOAAAAAAAAA somebody had a serious case of BAD BREATH. Merlin, had that sandwich been ham and horseradish or what?!

"I"M NOT HARD OF HEARING!" William returned, albeit not even as close to as loud as the flying professor had been. "If it's not in your pocket, then where is it? HOW DID YOU LOSE IT ALREADY?"

It had been a VERY short trip from the forest to the pathways to the castle. Come on.

Josephina hadn't been expecting to find anyone here in the great hall, but she was in need of just quick bite to eat before she headed on her way to the grounds. But as she pulled opened the large doors, her eyes blinked in shock at finding several colleagues AND several students in the Great Hall. Whatever happened to CURFEW? Was that like two decades ago or something?

And what was Max shouting about now?

"Why would you carry an orb in your pocket?" Weren't they either in locked away in the Divination Tower or ... in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry? Fina slide casually into her seat and scooped a large spoonful of potato salad on her plate.

Talking. More talking. Oh, no more Quidditch talk?

Scabior wasn't paying attention UNTIL he heard Max yell about the orb. Seriously. "Because he's an idiot." Dash said turning on Fina. The big question was how could the man lose the orb on a five minute walk.

Really?

"I for one am not looking at that thing again. Grab your sandwich and get searching Max." By YOURSELF. Unless the Gryffindor Prefect actually wanted to help look. Dash grabbed a random sandwich. Not HIS problem anymore.

"Terrifying." she smiled, so very not believable with her words or expression. He looked more like a goofball if anything, though she had no doubt he could be scary when he wanted to be. She liked the goofball better anyhow.

Seeing as he was going for desserts now, she absentmindly nudged one of the dishes on her side closer to him, nodding as he spoke. Wait. No, she shook her head. "I haven't." she confessed. "But I've imagined. You've stopped surfing though?" From what she'd gathered, it sounded as if he had.

She put on an almost pout. "You'll have to do some exploring there when you get the chance. Away from the tourist spots." Where all of the true treasures lay. That was final! Taking a sip of her drink, she was a bit taken aback with his question. It was almost ridiculous actually, in a funny way. "Is that even possible?"