Staff Table
 

Seren was exhausted, truly exhausted. There was something about teaching and managing too-many greenhouses at whatever age she appeared to be, that left one drained and feeling as though they were hanging onto life by a thread. It was for this reason that she was slumped in her seat, the flowers in her hair a little skewed as she had seated herself with haste, and now she was staring into oblivion. That oblivion was only roused when she subconsciously peered down the length of the table, and... was that?... WHY, was there a student at the staff table? She'd have questioned it out loud, but considering how so very far away Airey's seat was, she couldn't be bothered expending the effort.

Someone else could deal with the Slytherin. It was never too late to dock points.

No, instead, for the time being, Seren eye-balled the student, she saw him, so he should move, and change into some decent clothes while he was at it. Where was his uniform?!

Javy had been sure to arrive earlier than his usual time. With his constant tired-self, he knew it was either that or risk shuffling through crowd of noisy students. In his mind, anyone knew the better and more peaceful choice of the two.

He was casually looking through a particular article, turning to the next page when he noticed a waddling student approaching in his direction. Maybe if I ignore him, he'll get the message to wait until later.. Returning back to his reading, expecting the student's voice.. but it never came. Instead he felt on his right side a little body heat reside in a chair.. Star Man's chair.

.....

He was getting way too old for this.

"..I certainly hope you're only here to warm up your Professor Flamsteed's chair, Mr. Mordaunt." Flipping into the next page. "It'll cost you.." Yes, a good explanation was in order before he decided on the amount to take.

mentions of Javy and Cutty too.
 

Sophia really wasn't feeling like dressing up for the feast. Usually she would put an effort into looking glam to say goodbye to the little monsters but she just didn't right now, especially since she was still feeling awfully old and looking the part too. Her hair was still grey and her curls were not as bouncy as they once were. Ugh.

To make it all worse, she would be going home...LIKE THIS. This may very well just be her last year here after this fiasco. She hadn't even started looking into retirement yet and now that was almost her only option. She took her side and offered a smile to Leo, everyone else she nodded at.

Oh, when did Javy get here? He hadn't noticed. He hadn't noticed a lot of things. He was sort of... out of it. The old age was frying hs brain, man. HE HAD LIVED TOO LONG. Sigh. Piers would have been looking forward to this feast, but he was still all OLD. The worst part was he had done that stupid facelift charm too many times and he now looked like an overstretched balloon with thinning hair.

Peeking over to the article in Javy's hand (and completely oblivious to the student next to him) he read the title: Beards are good for you. Piers snorted and wiggled his cane (a new additition to his look). "Rubbish." If beards were good for you then whhhhhyyyy was he all OLD looking, eh?! His little beard didn't save him!

It was finally the end of the term yet there still wasn't a cure for this ridiculous aging problem. Cece hated the idea of sending everyone home looking the way they did, but there was nothing she could do about it. Not even those worthless ministry healers had been able to help. And those healers from St. Mungos. She was starting to think they were just as useless.

With a heavy heart and a forced smile on her still perfect face, she made her way into the Great Hall only to find...

ONE OF HER STUDENTS AT THE STAFF TABLE!

This was totally unacceptable. She would NOT have any of her students at the table causing problems. And did he just disrespect Professor Thompson?

UNACCEPTABLE!

Instead of making her way to her own end of the table, she went straight to Flamsteed's seat and stood behind it. "Cutty Mordaunt! I do not now, nor have I ever tolerated disrespect from students! You WILL apologize to Professor Thompson for the way you just spoke to him. You will also leave this table and go sit at your own house table like the rest of the students are doing." She glanced out at the Slytherin table just to make sure the rest of her snakes were behaving themselves. She then looked back down at the student in front of her. "Unless of course you want to spend you last night here in a detention. With me."

That's right. Term may be over, but those snakes were still hers until they boarded that train tomorrow morning.

Javy glanced momentarily at the sound of this voice. Piers' voice. Wait- When did- Hmm... His eyes squinted a little through the spectacles. He could've sworn he was back in his office napping last thing he remembered, but oh well. Rubbish.. "So's your beard.." He could've been cheekier, but well, just look at him, Piers was much too pitiful looking compared to the others with Javy for him to go any further.


"..Diaper?" Javy's right eyebrow rose a little. Since when did this- hmm.. Either this kid was just being a brat and or somehow knew about his change in undergarments with the Sta- Nah, it was probably just him being a brat. Him, Piers and Airey had been quite discreet on their change of undergarments. His instant declaring of punishment was already in the hands of Cece.

Her options sounded better and cleaner than what he had in mind. "Take your pick Mr. Mordaunt, a night with your classmates or with your Head of House." It seemed like a easy choice to Javy, there's no way he would choose to be dumb with staying sitting here.

Tiara had left her Hogsmeade home close to an hour ago in an attempt to not be late to the Leaving Feast. She shuffled in wearing her slippers, fluffy jewel-green bathrobe, and hair curlers. She made her slow, paaaaaiiinful way up to the dais, negotiated the stairs at an equally slooooow pace, then scratched her head trying to remember which was her seat. After several moments, she realized she should be next to.. What was her name? Oh, Anastasia. Flopping down into her chair, she promptly slumped back in exhaustion, closed her eyes, and tried to fit in a quick cat nap before the activities started.

Since Mordaunt was now being dealt with by Cece, and others, she was content with observing the rest of the gathering. Her eyes trailed up the lengths of the House tables. Her sight was still terrible, but she could hazard a guess as to who was who. The saddest part about the end of term feast... was saying goodbye, and the thought of saying goodbye was practically giving her a heart attack -- not really, but it hurt.

Radiant? Flowery? ... "Aaaww, thank you Leo, but I feel about as decrepit as the food the ghosts served at the beginning of term." There was nothing radiant about that. Nope. And perhaps her floral arrangement was simply there to mask her old lady smell? Hhmm? Who knew?

"I would love some water, thank you," she replied, having been too lazy to get her own. At least there were gentleman on staff.

This was supposed to be a joyful feast but just looking over at his BFF made Leo’s good mood ebb away. The disease was not being gentle to Sophia. It was painfully clear. Not really sure how he could brightened his friends mood over Cosgrach’s and Josephina’s heads. Settling for flashing her a warm smile, he called over before the feast properly started. "Are we still on for meeting at Madam Malkins later in the summer?"

Letting his eyes drift over to left Leo almost choked on the water he had poured up for himself earlier at the sight of Tiara. She was wearing a bathrobe and hair curlers to the feast and if possible she looked even more miserable than Sophia and Seren combined. He shook his head sadly before shot Tiara a small smile over the empty chairs between them. Leo did his best not to stare at his colleague's choice of clothing. He didn’t want anger her into raising her wand at him again.

Shaking his head in protest Leo responded as he reached out to grab Seren's goblet. "Nonsense, you just need to get out of the castle for some much needed vacation like everyone else and then you’ll return with new energy next term."

Taking the water pitcher he poured up the cold water into Serens goblet before he pushed it over the table towards her. "I suppose this isn’t a good time to ask you for plant advice?"

Ha! Seren chuckled lightly, shaking her head in disbelief. Unless getting out of the castle meant getting her blonde locks back, then she didn't think she would be returning with much more energy than she currently had, and indeed that she would return at all. In her current state, retirement was sound option. "Mmm... we'll see," she mused, not able to bring herself to share the librarians optimism.

She smiled sweetly, accepting her goblet and drinking from it deeply. She was perhaps more thirsty than she thought, and it went down a treat. Eyebrows raised, Seren paused her drinking and placed the goblet down in front of her. "It's always a good time for plant advice," she insisted, twisting in her chair to face him better. He had her attention, "What advice are you after?" Not something he could find in a book, surely.

He wasn't late to the feast was he? Braith had completely lost track of time as he had spent most of the day packing up the last of his personal effects. He didn't know how much time he would have after the feast but he didn't want to miss the food.

Thankfully it didn't appear that he had missed much, he noticed, as he stepped into the Great Hall. Sure there were plenty of people there, but it didn't look like the Headmistress had arrived yet, so therefore no speech and alas, no food.

As he approached the Staff table and began walking the length of it behind those seated there to find his own chair, he eyed up those already present. Mr. Mordaunt decided to join them at the table? That was interesting... not to mention how sassy he was being to the rest of the staff who was handling the situation. And since they were, he said nothing, instead bit back a chuckle as he passed. Good student, just slightly incorrigible perhaps.

And he noticed the rest of the staff as he continued on his way, many of them who looked worse for the wear. Yikes. Thankfully he somehow managed to escape the affliction, though the rest of them proved to be awfully concerning - or most of them anyway. Braith took his seat, giving Leo on his left a nod and Seren on his right a compassionate smile. She'd certainly seen better days.

As he took a sip of water from his goblet, he let his eyes wander over the house tables. Nothing too out of the ordinary there. He did wonder what had happened to the poor boy from his class as he did not see him at the Gryffindor table and he kept watching until his eyes fell on the Slytherin table. Huh. "Didn't realize Mr. Mordaunt had a twin," he murmured to no one in particular. And from what he remembered only ONE of them was ever present in his class, which gave him the distinct impression that they were playing one of those twin-switching tricks on him all term.

I do have permission to do this.
 

"Yes Mr. Mordaunt. If I was you, I would do what Professor Thompson here is suggesting." Because a night of detention with her was NOT going to be a fun night. At all.

Oh you have got to me kidding me.

Cece knew Cutty Mordaunt wasn't one of her brightest snakes, but really? Was he so stupid as to sit there and continue to talk to adults like that? Especially when one of those adults was his head of house. And what would ever possess him to call her by her first name like that? "That's Healer Tillstorm to you young man! You WILL show me respect when you address me!" Had this boy done gone and lost his mind? That had to be it. Why else would he keep talking and getting on her last nerve the way he was.

And did he really think she cared about his other engagement he claimed to have that night? Because he was in for a rude awakening if that's what he thought. And did he seriously just say she was a bit late asking him on a date?!

That's it! She had listened to enough of this boys mouth. He was leaving this table whether he wanted to or not.

Grabbing him by his ear she pulled him up out of his seat. "I don't care how comfy you think this seat is. You WILL be going down and sitting at the table with the rest of your housemates. And you can forget about any previous engagements you think you had for tonight." That's right folks. Young Mr. Cutty Mordaunt would be spending his last night as a second year serving a detention with his head of house. And it wouldn't be a fun detention either.

Still holding his ear she pulled him all the way down to the Slytherin table, where he would spend the rest of the feast until it was time to go serve his detention.

He's been here
 

just a quick one *is no longer at the staff table*
 

With her assistant and the bucket, Amethyst walked inside the Great Hall. She had forgotten how glorious it was, but she didn't even pause to admire it. Instead, she walked towards the Headmistress and hoped Andrew wasted no time studying the Hall. Probably everyone was watching them. She hesitated for a fraction of a time when she saw Mrs. Truebridge was about to deliver her speech, but they had already entered the Hall, so she would have to cut her off.

"Headmistress," she addressed to the woman, "We have brought the cure." She was speaking only a bit louder than usual, in case the Headmistress had hearing problems, but her back was towards the students and she doubted they heard her clearly. She put the bucket down and looked at the white red head.

"You should drink a glass of it, and you will be fine in a few days. You can mix it with other drinks if you wish. The taste is rather horrible, I hear." She paused. She was still addressing to the Headmistress and staff.

Any questions?

Andy followed Amethyst into the Great Hall carrying the bucket in a safe grip. He couldn’t help but stop and admire the ceiling and all the house banners for a few seconds. When his mentor was almost up on the staff dais Andy reluctantly stopped gazing around and hurried after her.

Andy came up on the staff dais just as Amethyst addressed the Headmistress and instructed her how the cure should be taken mixed in drink since it smelled ugly. Placing his bucket on the table next to Amethyst he added addressing the Headmistress and assembled staff too. "I suggest mixing the potion with pumpkin juice or some other tasty drink to mask the horrible taste and smell. And they need to drink more rather than less for best effect."

Waiting for questions Andy's eyes were drawn to the ceiling again.

Quietly observing the happenings in the Great Hall and the second year Snake bring dragged by his ear down from the dais, she shrugged it off and her attention was now on Annie who seemed unusually frail and ... bitter? And standing to give her speech, but ... completely at a loss for what she was supposed to say.

But before she could mouth anything to Annie, a young female and even younger male entered the Great Hall, carrying a bucket of steaming potion with them and stopping only when they approached the former redhead. The cure?

BUT ... leaning forward (as best she could), Josephina tentatively made a motion at the pair with her hand ... "Excuse me, but ... I'm just curious, if you have a cure, then what was the cause?" The bookworm half of her wanted to know.