There were fewer knocks on his door these days. Or so it seemed. Perhaps it was the holiday season. Or the constantly falling snow that had students looking out doors rather than towards them. He himself was just bundling up for a jaunt in the fresh powder when the knock came.

Or rather, two knocks came.

Tucking his scarf in properly and buttoning up the last two buttons on his jacket, Sabel moved to the door and pried it open. "Ah, Mr. Foster. How can I help you?"

Hugo waited just a few seconds before the door was opened. "What's up, professor?" greeted as usual "Well, first of all Happy Holidays... " 'cause yeah "And secondly, I have a question. Very important one" not like the first time he came to ask Dakest about the riddle. Actually for him that was important but this time it was serious.

"You aren't busy, right?" said glancing behind Dakest to see if someone was in there.

What's up? Didn't the kid realize by now that was a dangerous question to ask? Indeed it took the better part of his will to keep from making a comment on the greeting. Instead, he took to the second one and nodded polietly. "Happy holidays to you too, Mr. Foster."

What was this now? A question? An important one? Curious. Despite his attire saying that he was somewhere between being busy and non-busy, Sabel shifted to the side and motioned to his office.

"I suppose I can spare a few moments for an important question."

OOC: You can now post in Sabel's office

Dora was kind of super excited to see Uncle Sabel, okay?! She practically bounced into his waiting area, a small parcel in her hands. Shifting said parcel she knocked hard as she could on his office door and bounced some more. Also... "Uncle Saaaabellllll!! It's Dora Umbridge!!!! " You know... just for good measure and all. Maybe he didn't like ALL of the students. Mhm. He definitely liked Dora though, so surely he would answer the door quickly??

THE EXCITEMENT WAS TOO MUCH!!

So, there was this thing about being a Professor at Hogwarts. Actually several things, but of utmost importance was concentration at this particular point in time. Concentration on marking the latest 'pop' quiz he'd given his class. Concentration on trying to understand some of the ... interesting, answers and deciphering others. Concentration on not laugh out loud or scrunching up certain tests into balls and either using them as target practice or all but tearing them up.

Concentration, which was broken the moment his quill hit parchment and the knock came at the door. It was a tremor to the work he was doing. A slight disturbance in the ------ SWEET MERLIN!!

Blinking, Sabel looked down at the test, now faithfully smeared with a good, long, dark line of ink, right across the center. The young girl's loud voice on the other side still rattled in his brain. With a huff, Sabel shoved himself up and stalked to the door, pulling it open.

"Dora," he rubbed his ink stained hands on his pant leg. "Know the definition of inside voice?"

Oh wait... was he mad at her? She had heard the stomping... and he had ink on his hands... now on his pants. She wouldn't laugh, though. Would not. Pressing her lips together she shook her head.

"Actually, no. I'm not good at that. " Truth.

No. Sabel's irritation left him in a huff of air. Finishing wiping off the ink, he rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Should have known. Kennedy quality."

Tipping his chin, he nodded at the parcel. "Whatcha got there?"

"That's why Mummy gave me Kennedy as my second name, " she said holding up one hand and showing him TWO FINGERS. Second name Kennedy. Ha.

Looking down at her other hand she shrugged. Looking up at him she smiled wide. "I dunnnooooo... maybe it's for you. But I require hugs first. BIG ONES! " Didn't he know how this worked?! Surely by now he'd know. Holding her arms up toward him she waited patiently. Hugs then gifts. Bro!

"And a strong name it is too." Strong in will. Strong in irritation too sometimes, but Dora wasn't quite at that age. Nor would she ever be a level age with him, so he didn't think it would come into play.

With that news, Sabel eyed the package suspiciously, though a playful smile did tug at his lips. Leaning down, he scooped the little girl into a big bear hug, but not too big, because he did have that strict, no-trouble Professional image to maintain.

Still, while she was in his arms and eye-level with him, Sabel gave the young girl a side-eye. "Didn't you once warn me about accepting any sort of gift-trade with you?"

Dora KENNEDY UMBRIDGE smiled brightly at her favorite Uncle Professor and bounced slightly on the balls of her feet. It was a strong name, for sure. Whatever that meant. She would just go with it because Sabel was seldom wrong. Right? RIGHT!

DORA SQUEALED with delight when Sabel scooped her up. In her excitement she may have accidentally smacked her head on his, but it didn't faze her really. She giggled and GIGGLED some more as she squished him real tight. HEHEHHEE. And for the RECORD, she did not care one bit about whatever rules he thought he had in place where hugs were concerned. PFFFT! She would cry if he didn't hug her and no one wanted that, did they?!

Using her free hand to poke his dimple she shook her head HARD causing her ponytail to whip around. "I think I would remember something like that," she responded whilst attempting a mean side eye back at him. Was it impressive? She thought so! "Open it!" It was something she had helped her Aunty Addy make for him over the holidays... she was just late getting it to him, ya see.

Sweet Merlin, were all kids this wriggly?

While attempting not to drop her, Sabel also attempted to keep her from injuring either of them. The crack of heads together proved how successful he was getting along, and so finally, he just let it be. Let her squirm and wiggle and squeal, and just hugged her back as best as he could. Not too long though. Someone might see.

Moving them over to the seats, Sabel sat down on one and shifted her so she could have his knee. Open it? That sounded a bit dangerous. Her side-mean eye got one of his own. "Not sure I trust you."

Even so, he took the package from her and began opening it. A slight tear and then, oh would you look at that, his finger was stuck. "Think I'm gonna need some help here. The wrapping job is absolutely impenetrable."

Not really, but didn't children have just as much fun watching someone unwrap as they did helping unwrap? He thought so. Plus, opening presents on his own was just a bit awkward.

It had taken him a while to work up the courage to see Sabel, though he still wasn't entirely sure why. What he did know though, was that he wanted to talk, so much had happened recently, and after the duelling tournament, he just felt like the Professor's company.

Naturally, he did have questions, but whether he would reach the point where he felt he could ask them freely remained to be seen. He would play this by ear.

Arriving at the seating area outside the office, Zeke wasted no time in approaching the door and sounding his knocks. He took a step back, waiting for the door to open. Willing the door to open.

It was becoming rather clear to him, that students at Hogwarts had impeccable timing. And not always in the best way possible. His door had been rather silent for the last few hours which, while it gave him much needed time to catch up on paperwork, gave him little motivation to linger around the office.

Of course, as he was finishing tucking his scarf into his jacket and pulling his gloves on, there was a knock. With a sigh, Sabel tugged on his last glove and went to open the door.

And then he paused. Of all the students that he expected, Browne hadn't been one of them, and he couldn't really help the concern that pressed onto his expression. "Zeke. Everything alright?"

Because the last time the kid had been to his office, was to ask him not to send update letters to his mother.

The wait felt agonisingly long, despite it being a matter of seconds, many seconds, but certainly not minutes. When the door opened and Sabel's face appeared he was relieved. Though... was he going somewhere? Zeke couldn't help but notice the gloves, scarf and jacket, coming to the conclusion that Sabel was either on his way out, OR, perhaps that heating charms didn't work on his office... which was a ludicrous thought, so the former it was.

Was everything alright? ..... he actually wasn't sure, but he responded with a casual and honest, "I guess?.. I mean, yes, but..."

Mmm.

"Can I... talk to you?" Here or somewhere else, or another time, perhaps he should have made an appointment. Zeke raised a hand to rub the nape of his neck, not because it hurt, or was itchy, but simply as an subconscious effort to self-soothe.

He wasn't convinced. Not even a fraction. But it wasn't like the kid was his age, and therefore there was no right to shamelessly push and prod. Instead, he followed Zeke's half-hearted stumble with a slow nod.

"Well I don't suppose my job description allows me to say 'no'." A small smile touched the corners of his lips. Not every student appreciated his dry humor, but he had the hopes that Zeke had enough traits of his mother to find some amusement in it. If not, his loss he supposed.

A glance over his shoulder had him deliberating the office for a moment, and then subsequently pulling the door shut behind him. He rubbed his gloved hands together. "Why don't you walk with me? I was just going to do a round of the grounds. The office gets a bit stuffy sometimes."

He had to think about this for a second. His job description said he couldn't say no? So... that was a yes? He beamed. BUTTTT... "Actually you can, you just wouldn't be doing your job well, there's a difference." He wouldn't be the first Professor to be dismissive.

Though he figured the answer was yes, Sabel closing the door had him questioning whether maybe now was not the time for it. But then the invitation was welcome. "Sure... uh... don't happen to have a spare coat I could borrow do you?" he asked, because he obviously wasn't prepared for a trip outside. Heating charms could only do so much, and summoning from the common room was all sorts of inconvenient. So here he stood, hands in pockets and rocking on the balls of his feet. Yay? Nay?

A bit of laughter left Sabel. "You are certainly your mother's son, aren't you?" She was raising him good.

As for the matter of a coat, Sabel considered the kid for a moment before leaning back, opening the door and riffling around on the inside. He produced a second coat, similar to his own both in appearance and size. A moment and a wave of his wand and it was shrunk, hopefully appropriately for the kid. He handed it over. "Give that a try."

The laughter lifted his spirits and distracted him from the purpose of the visit... if only temporarily. "I try," he shrugged, and really he did try. It wasn't easy going either, while the bar wasn't set unrealistically high, he still felt he was falling short.

He waited, watching as Sabel rummaged around and produced a second coat. It was even nice of him to shrink it down to size, or at least, MORE his size than it had been before. Shrugging it on, he gave Sabel a firm nod, "Thanks." He didn't even question how weird it was to borrow a Professor's clothes, because, this was different. They'd had Christmas together and all. "So... where are we going?" he asked, ready to step into line and follow Sabel's lead. Could they go by the forest? He liked the forest.

Try and succeed it seemed. Sabel smiled, pulling the door shut once more. He shrugged his shoulders and started down the hallway from the waiting room. "Not entirely sure. Somewhere outside. Why don't you pick?"

Didn't seem like it would hurt anything. In fact, it'd probably make the kid more comfortable picking a place where he felt safe talking, about whatever was completely not bothering him.

Perhaps all kids were wriggly, but Dora couldn't speak to that. She could ONLY speak for herself. And wriggly was a magnificent descriptor for her. Mhm. She hugged tightly and didn't mind the head banging that occurred. Her Daddy DID say she had a hard head anyway. Heh.

When he moved them to a sitting position she bounced slightly as she gave him her most impressive MEAN FACE. Sabel Dakest didn't SCARE HER!! She knew he was a big old teddy bear... which was why she assaulted his dimples once for good measure before she turned her attention to the package. "Uncle Sabel... please. " Please as in PUHLEEZE! He knew she was a sweet kid, yeah?? She gave him an innocent enough look just to drive that point home, okay?!

AHAHAHAHAHWHAH!!! Dora got a fit of giggles as his finger got stuck in the paper. She knew he was probably just putting on to please her, but she Loved it anyway. With a small snort she leaned over and hooked the paper in her teeth and PULLED!! It made a magnificent ripping sound as she did. YASSSSS!!! "There!! Now oooooopen it the rest!!!! " She was excited she had helped Addy KNIT HIM A SCARF OKAY!!?? And possibly she had ulterior motives... possibly.

For sure she did, but she would wait unail he told her how AWESOME IT WAS to drop that particular bomb.

Benzi spent most of his days in the DADA practice room. He knew the obstacle course mostly off by heart now, he could now do fifty pull ups compared to last year's thirty and his wandwork has never been better. He excused the long hours he spent in there instead of at the library by telling himself that ultimately, if he couldn't rely on his fieldwork to get him into YATI then getting O's and E's in the NEWTs won't make a difference. Completely legit.

This was the reason Benzi had seen the pairings for the next set of duels about twenty minutes after Dakest had put them up. Mouth falling open, he glared at the offending parchment and almost marched to Dakest's office there and then. Did the DADA have something against him? Did he want to see him fail? Or was this some sort of extra test, to watch him battle it out with the people closest to him. Would he get paired up with Charlotte Kettleburn next, to see him handle a first year? Or perhaps his sister? Did Dakest think he was overemotional? What was he thinking? ... Was there a possibility he didn't even know about his friendship with Cutty?

All these questions had bounced around in his head until he finally realised he wasn't going to get anything done until he had some answers. The promise of a recommendation letter was too much to dismiss. So, after a shower and a bite to eat, Benzi was right back at the DADA professor's door. The prefect knocked briskly three times, breathed out a sigh then stepped away from the door and waited.

He would let her poke his dimples. There was no one around to see, and really it would be a bigger scene if he didn't.

As for the wrapping, she did a good job in making short work of it. "Why thank you gator teeth." Seriously, those were some dangerous chompers. Peeling open the rest of the package, Sabel found himself near laughter, but most of all grinning.

"Why it's absolutely fabulous!" And because he could, he wrapped one part of the scarf around his neck and then, with a flourish that failed quite a bit, tossed the other half around his neck. The end smacked him in the face before settling down.

He grinned at the girl on his knee. "How do I look?"



Truth was, while he usually got up to personally answer the door, he was buried up to his eyeballs in paperwork when the knocks came. Not literally, but moving would have required breaking concentration, loosing his spot, starting all over again and likely knocking some papers askew. Who knew what cross breezes could do to a pile too.

So, instead, eyes still fixed to his page, Sabel collected his wand and cast at the door, letting it swing wide open. His other hand was slightly lifted off the page, quill in his fingers, ready to catch any pages that might lift up and away. "Come in, and close the door behind you if you would."

OOC: You can post in the office thread now :3

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat was this. No way was this just the entrance to the DADA professor's office. This was like an indoor campground! Why hadn't Davie found this sooner in the term? He and Char could have had a bestie sleepover with real s'mores! Dang! This was definitely a step up from Dakest's first term at Hogwarts. Maybe his mum hadn't allowed fake campfires in the middle of corridors. How tragic.

Anyway, now that he was here.... Davie wove his way through all the cool campfire stuff and forced the rest of his half-eaten chocolate frog into his mouth so his hands were free to knock. And knock he did, lots and loud so the professor would hear him. This was URGENT.

Evie had been wanting to see Professor Dakest for quite some time now, in private, but had been putting it off for one reason or another. Nervousness, perhaps. Or knowing that her biggest question would get shut down with a giant, big ol' NOPE. But she'd kick herself if she never asked. And on that particular day that she did end up at the professor's office, she just felt the need to... talk. Which Dakest would just love, she was sure.

Evie approached the professor's door and knocked four times and then took a small step back. Hopefully, he was actually in.

It was occuring to him, slowly but surely, that not all who knocked rapidly were truly desperate and not all who knocked slowly were truly patient. Usually, it was the opposite way. But, in the offchance that it wasn't, and it was important, Sabel's conscience didn't really ever allow him to test that theory.

So, when the rapid knocking came at his door, it was up and out of his chair and over to it, to pull it open. His eyes drifted down, landing on Truebridge. "......I do hope I'm not in trouble with your mother."



It was amazing how precise some of the students were with their knocks. Really, he was going to have to put up a code at some time or another. One knock for unimportant things, two for mildly, three for 'it might be able to wait till tomorrow but not really', and four for 'it's a matter of life or death, almost'. The true matters of life or death would be many more knocks than one could bother counting.

But this was four, so by unspoken rules it should be a 'nearly life or death'. With a sigh, Sabel folded up his newspaper, pushed himself to his feet, cracked his back and opened the door to a rather nervous looking near-graduate. "Shacklebolt. How can I help you?"