The lion was slightly out of breath because she had been RUNNING around the castle trying to find somebody to do calculations for. Any other time there would be tons of people milling around the castle, but of course there wasn't anybody to be found now that she needed them.

She was just about to bang and kick the door with her fists and feet when her eye caught sight of a note. This was an emergency though. Surely, that didn't count during one of those. She bit her bottom lip, and decided on knocking with authority, but not too loud where you would have thought she was breaking the door down. See! She could compromise.

Amur's face went beat red. No. No she didn't remember that. Otherwise she wouldn't have freaked out. She still thought the Professor should issue some sort of warning. What if another student had a black cat that looked exactly like him? How would anyone be able to tell?

But she kept that thought behind sealed lips. And shook and nodded her head as appropriate. Yes, Sir. No, Sir. Nothing else. Anything else would be dangerous.

Glancing up at him, Amur slowly pushed herself to her feet, gathering up her rock and the book. "I'm sorry Professor. I'm just used to seeing cats around the castle and I --" Got confused? He already clarified that she should have known. That thought caught on her tongue and she swallowed it. "I'm sorry. And I won't skip. Promise."

She wasn't a skipper. But now, really, she wasn't sure if she wanted to go through with this anymore. She thought it was important, but Professor Quigley might sing a different tune. Especially now. Would he think she was trying to lecture him again? She should have brought an apple. Why didn't she bring an apple?

Shuffling forward, Amur stopped in the doorway. "I uhm...just wanted to give you this." She held out the book titled, Couples Counselling. "I uhm...noticed you and Professor Bellaire were having some....well trouble getting along, and I thought this might help. I know it might not be one hundred percent applicable, but...I thought it was relatable given last class." See? Not a skipper. Not always.

"And-it's-doing-no-good-sitting-in-my-suitcase-under-my-bed." The last part was tacked on in a rush. She wasn't sure if this was something that Professor Quigley would consider urgent or important, and she hoped he wouldn't slam the door on her. That would hurt.

So, to avoid becoming a flattened pancake, she quickly shuffled into the room and continued to hold it out to him.

Admittedly, that didn't take as long as he thought it would have. It wasn't something he wanted to make a habit of and he was hoping to make it to his office without running into another one of them...but then Miss Valentine was standing at his door?

Merlin just how many of them did Tanner unleash??

Maddox approached cautiously, hoping that maybe this one was actually skipping and he wouldn't have to be exerting any excess brain power. Was that thought too good to be true? Probably...

"Let me guess, you need to do my reading too, don't you?"

Feel free to prove him wrong though.



The colour change was noted but Maddox made no gestures to assure the girl that it was perfectly alright. That might have had to do with the fact it wasn't alright at all. He hadn't intended for the animagus thing to become common knowledge but falling asleep waiting for your class to show up did that.

He might have slammed the door when she started her little rambling but then she was offering him a book and talking about Bellaire?

What did that woman have to do with anything?

More than a little uncertain, Maddox reached forward (ignoring the fact she'd let herself in for now) and took the book. Couples Counselling?

....

......

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!

Oh Merlin. It took Maddox a moment to compose himself and in that time he didn't even attempt speech, just stifled laughter and snorting and Circe it shouldn't be this funny.

Finally, he was done. The only thing that remained of his amusement was the wide grin spread across his face at showcased his unusually long canines. "Please, have a seat Miss Neverwinter."

You can post in the office next since *snorts* she's already in there now XD

There he was with his perfect face. Why was she still thinking like this? She had a boyfriend that she was in love with. That didn't stop a girl from noticing a fine piece of specimen when she saw one, right? Merlin no. Anywho, she was here for an assignment, and as much as she would love to stare at him she needed to get a move on.

"Lucky guess." Only it probably wasn't a guess at all. It seemed like she wasn't the only one that wanted to figure out Quigley's life cycle. Not that she really believed in it or anything... anyways.

"I just need your full birth date, and I'll get out of your hair." She didn't want to really do the extra work as much as he didn't want to be bothered. Plus, she wanted to win and be the first one back in class.

Lucky guess? "Something like that."

Maddox flopped into one of his own chairs in the seating area, figuring he might as well get himself comfortable while the girl worked. At least Miss Valentine saved herself the extra trouble by asking the date rather than his age. Sometimes he would never understand the logic of Ravenclaws and wanting to give themselves the extra work. "May 23, 2050."

Probably wouldn't be the last time he said that today either.

"Could save you the trouble and give you the numerical answers too." As figured out by the first to approach him. "Ah but then you'll be wanting to figure it out on your own." Diligence and all that. Something he personally never understood but he could admire it in the students.

"Never mind me, carry on." He would recline here and enjoy the scent of the hour. Was this chamomile?

Hey eyes followed him as he made himself comfy on one of the chairs. Hmm... that did look rather inviting. AJ too plopped herself on another free chair.

Yes! He actually gave her the date without rambling on about who knows what like Airey did. Straight forward answers were appreciated. She didn't have time to try to figure out what significant thing happened the same year he was born. Why Airey thought that was okay was beyond her. Did she look like the kind of person that enjoyed riddles?

One good thing about Quigley being the second person that she sought out was the fact that she was able to borrow some parchment for Adi. Writing down information with a quill on her arm wasn't that easy, and not to mention that it kind of hurt.

AJ snatched the crumpled up parchment with Airey's calculations already on there and smoothed it out. It was time to calculate.



Simple math was the best kind of math. That was all that she really needed from him now. "Thanks, professor." Did he care to know what his major cycles were all about? "I didn't bring my textbook so if you'd like to know what I come up with I can bring my work by when I am done." Wasn't she just prepared? Not to mention Tanner said they had 30 minutes and merlin knew how long she had been gone.

He'd gotten off to a quiet humming while the Gryffindor worked, figuring this wouldn't take too long. It was so nice out here, how did he not notice this before? Such comfy chairs. He could have a cat nap out here--but he wouldn't because there were too many students with short term memories and he didn't fancy being yanked out of a decent sleep by cuddles.

At her question, he looked to her again. She was done? That was brilliant. "Not necessary Miss Valentine. I'm afraid I don't put much stock in these numbers." When they were right, hats off to them but they were just as often wrong.

"I don't need a number to tell me how the rest of my life is going to go. Ruins the surprise, you know?"

Now if only he could unhear the future Miss Addison had 'predicted' for him. Circe.

No future telling? AJ was okay with that because as much as she would love to have an excuse to come back to this man's office, she really didn't want to do the extra work. Him and Airey were both non believers. The only difference between the two was that Airey actually wanted to know. She got it though... curiousity was a very real thing.

"If you're sure." AJ picked up her paper and shoved it back into her pocket. She didn't much believe in them either. Not to mention that they were usually vague so lots of people could fit into the same category. Surely, not that many people were the same and there were only so many numbers, so you were going to be lumped with tons of others.

"Well, thanks again. I'll see you in class." She leaped out out of her chair and headed back towards the Arithmancy classroom. What were the odds of her being the first one there?

He hadn't come to see Professor Quig. Quigleh. Quiglestein. Quigley Downunder. No. But the little sociopath did find it worth his while to make good on the Professors earlier suggestion to procure apple varieties for the Charmists sampling pleasure. Cutty had decided that information, at this point in time, was just as valuable as the silver and gold he might have otherwise gotten for edible services and that he would meet with the youngly Professor at a later date to further discuss that.

His charms game wasn't terrible. Although, he knew Caleb Newell to be the standard par excellence at the subject. Even if Caleb didn't acknowledge this himself, Cutty had been on the receiving end of one of his prefect's Daydream charms and knew it to work nearly as well as Professor Fuller's down to the doggy breath of Caleb's cruppy even as a novice practitioner. Caleb found him annoying. He knew that too. But as his best-frenemy, Cutty understood that nothing appealed to the Slytherin prefect like the opportunity to shine and take credit for virtually anything commendable regardless of his actual effort. And if the opportunity arose to help a fellow Slytherin rise up in any particular subject in effort to win the house cup during his first term as their prefect, he thought there was a good chance that Caleb would take it. And with a stronger charms ability, the Slytherin also thought that he could convince Quigley to give him an educational edge if he proved he deserved it.

Cutty wasn't empty handed as he approached the scented waiting area. And although his sense of smell was not very strong, he thought the scent of a chocolate dipped smore was familiar from his various shopping and restocking ventures. He planted the presentation on one of the small tables. It was of the sort that sweet shops used with the collapsible walls that fell down and outward when the ribbon which tied the whole thing together was pulled loose. Inside would reveal a charmed-to-stay-stacked pile of tiny and indeed very tart crabapples. The tag of course read: For Professor Quigley from Cutty Mordaunt.

He may have jinxed it as he moved away from the area, so that none but the Professor could pull loose the ribbon and open the box without vicious incident.

There were a couple things that Maddox had come to expect from teaching at Hogwarts but the wrapped parcel waiting for him in his seating area was not one of them. Of course he wasn't under the impression that every student in this castle was rotten but...he didn't think he'd find himself with gifts either....

Cautiously he approached the seat and nicked the wrapped box. It could be a prank, amongst other things...so he did the only logical thing, he held it to his nose and began sniffing.

Pastries were out of the question...so was any form of cooked or raw meat...sniff sniff...fruit....sniff...apple?

It was then that he noted the card attached. Mister Mordaunt and it smelled of apples? Brilliant, the boy had kept his word. Shame he hadn't stuck around though, Maddox was willing to pay as he said he would. Perhaps he would when he ran into him later but for now he carried his present inside.

This would be lovely.