Sorry Professor but you are not first on Dante's list of Professor's to visit. That went to Professor Paul this term. Or second that went to Ichihara. Or third that went to Hirsch. But what year would be complete without a visit to Dante favorite grump of a Professor. And would you look at this. It seemed he took Dante words to heart. There was an actual fire and it was warm with light coming in.

Dante was impressed.

Dante knocked a couple more times than necessary because it was fun and flopped on a seat waiting.

Fortunately for Dante, James wasn't doing anything entirely important at the moment. Granted, everything he did was always entirely important... But less so right now. Honestly with the lack of students coming to drop by so far this term, he had so much time to actually get work done. It was like a Christmas miracle... In September.

And at this point, James was starting to think he had actually succeeded with scaring the students away from his office. Not that he'd ever admit that it was a part of his strategy. Er. Anyways.

It was clear that he hadn't scared all of them. Because before he knew it there were a few million knocks on the door. By now he had started to make a game of it. Try to match the knocks to the student. This one he couldn't exactly place, but it was most definitely an older student who prided him or herself on being able to mess with Professors. Which meant only one thing, "Barrington," he motioned the boy to come inside after opening the door with a flick of his wand.

OOC: You know the drill

His cousin had had the right idea when he'd mentioned how many girls made a fuss about Professor Hirsch and it got him thinking...because...well...they sometimes made a fuss about Professor Draper too and if they went to the same lengths as some did with the Defense Professor then he was willing to bet that a few went to lengths with him as well. So, a flier for his door as well.

Whenever they came to visit the supposedly good looking Professor, they would have to knock and when they reached out to knock, their knuckles would be acquainted with the flier that would surely draw their attention. This way, even if they DID still decide to visit after the warning, they'll at least know better than to accept anything he may offer them.

Yup, definitely on to you Professors.

Blaise got out his glue and made quick work of attaching the thing to the door.

"Perfect."

Ponyponyponyponyponyorunicorn. Ponyponyponyponyponyponyponyorunic... The seven year old frowned as she skipped behind Sir Knight. "This is a barn," she protests. "Cows live in barns. Ponies and unicorns live in stables." Her eyes narrowed as they approached a little building attached to the barn. What did the knight think he was trying to pull on her. "I know the difference between ponies and cows." A simple matter-of-fact warning that she won't be fooled as she follows the knight into the building.

Together they entered the...barn's living room!? Whaaaa? There was a fire place, and some of those chairs that Grandpa had in his study, which was really dusty and boring by the way. Haddie tugged on Sir Knight's shirt. "Why did someone put a living room in a barn?" And what was behind that roasted door?

Ordinarily Haddie would just have opened it and peeked, but there might be more cult members in there or something, so instead she pressed her ear up against it. Then she knocked. Which sounded really cool with her ear against the door, so she knocked again. And again. Tapping out some original musical number of her own design. It sound exactly like something a seven year old would compose.

Quickly Esme made her way towards Professor Draper's office.

Hopefully the Nifflers wouldn't have wandered off too far and Juno could deal with them. She just wasn't sure what else to do and everything should be fine shortly. Nifflers could be very destructive but fingers crossed they wouldn't manage to cause any real damage. So far the only casualty had been her pocket and that could be easily fixed.

Approaching the door, she knocked once and waited for him to respond.

James didn't even notice.

That's all.

What a horribly annoying way of knocking.

When James opened the door to his office, he wasn't faced with one tiny body... But one tiny body and one Professor Hirsch. That was perhaps the first thing that struck him as odd, their arrival together. The second thing was the lack of menacing smirk on Denakers face. What was she playing at here? He couldn't help but wonder as he stood in the doorway.

Roderik," he nodded turning to look over to the small child who must've been the one to knock so obnoxiously. Because despite the Hirsch's frequent childlike behavior, they had a sort or respect for each other... Yes? "Denaker," he continued giving her a nod as well. Strange. Didn't think he'd ever see her making her way over here any time soon. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" he said addressing both of them this time.

Was he just seeing things or was she even smaller than he remembered? He needed more tea.


He was grading papers, what else? You'd think with a hands on class like Creatures, the paperwork would be minimal, yes? No. That couldn't be any farther from the truth. Which is why on most quiet-- What now?

Interestingly enough, this particular knock wasn't a familiar one. So his chances on playing the guessing game and ending up correct, were slim. This being said, instead of waiting to venture a guess... He just lazily flicked the door open with a wave of his wand. "Come in," he called out without even looking up from his papers.

That way whoever it was could see he was busy. Maybe they'd realize that whatever they had come to talk about wasn't important enough and they'd run away to bother him with it later. Maybe. But something told him that he wouldn't be all that lucky. Call it intuition.

OOC: You can go ahead and post in the office!

If Roderik Hirsch ever decided to have kids, please remind him of this small incident. All wishes would disappear faster than you can say Dark Arts.

Throughout this walk down from the first floor all the way to James' hut, the man had been constantly worried about letting the young girl down. It was a known fact that Haddie and James got along about as well as oil and water so granting Haddie a wish might not be in James' best interests. It was just the way the world worked.

But hey, at least he'd have fun watching this interaction take place.

Did kids always ask a lot of questions? "Yeah, we're just here to see the person who looks after them first. So that they can open the door to the stable." Simple enough, wasn't it? "Well done," Er, fake smile? Almost a grimace? Something along those lines are in place on his face because frankly, he wasn't sure what else to say to a comment like that.

The expression soon disappeared, only to be replaced by a slightly neutral one that, he hoped, masked his worry. That is, until there was tugging at the shirt. A living room in a barn? Did she know that there were crazier spots than this in the castle and grounds? "It's an office, not a barn. This is just the place we can sit while we wait for the man who looks after the animals."

Technically, he wasn't lying.

Ah, there's the man of the hour. "James," he said, smiling at the man and giving him a nod in return. To what did he owe this pleasure? Good question. He looked between the Creatures professor and the young girl and then back again. "Haddie wants to see some ponies. Or a unicorn." There. Simple and straight to the point.

Pause.

Dropping his voice slightly, he spoke to James in a bit more of an urgent time than before, "I think something's wrong. She's not entirely herself." Using his eyes, he made a quick motion towards he direction of the Ravenclaw before looking back at James with slightly wider eyes behind those glasses of his.

Please understand?

She was exactly one foot and 3 inches smaller thank you very much. And a whole six years younger too.

But none of that mattered because the Pony-Man was here! "You know my last name!?" Was he psychic or something? Haddie looked back at Sir Knight. "Is he a knight too?" Or maybe he was just the stable boy? Did they have adult stable boys? Why didn't he become a knight like the Dark Arts ninja did?

She wanted to ask these questions and more, despite her mind already filling in the answer to them, but the grown-ups were talking. And ALL grown-ups, knights or not, hated to be interrupted. So the girl waited her turn. That turn presented itself the second there was more than two seconds of silence. The seven year hopped in front of James, a big enthusiastic smile on her face and said. "Hi!" A gigantic dimpled smile that no adult with a heart could ever resist. Unless they knew her personally. "One pony please." Long pause. "Or unicorn."

Ponyponyponyponypony...

….. She wanted to see what?

”I know every students name,” well sort of. In theory that’s where he was supposed to be at. There were a few he never got right, but let’s be real here. There were about five million of them and one of James. Numbers didn’t add up. He only knew the ones he needed to know. Denaker was unfortunately on the list because her name was one he said the most. Not in a good way.

James gave Roderik a strange look. One that was supposed to translate as something along the lines of ‘what are you two playing at here’ because was Haddie not capable of walking over to the barn and taking a look at the creatures herself? Why did it take an entire army of two tall, good looking Professors to lead the way? Furthermore, ponies and unicorns weren’t among the animals listed on their roster. Sorry bud, but can’t help.

”Sorry we don’t have either,” not sorry at all. One minute she was calling him names and the next she was begging for help? Ah, karma was a beautiful thing was it not?

And that’s when Roderik hit with his useless explanation of the situation. Dropping his own voice to an agitated whisper, James leaned closer toward the DADA Professor, ”…. What?”

He didn’t understand.

Perhaps it was because he had dismissed the child so early, not really paying close consideration to just how young she appeared before them. It wasn’t his fault though, James had learned early on that all Denaker wanted was attention. So of course he’d go out of his way to make sure he didn’t give her any extra. Which was probably not helping their situation at the moment…. Because if James had been paying attention… He’d have an actual grasp for what was going on here.

'You know my last name?!'

There it was. Those few words that were enough to make Roderik's heart stop. Eyes slightly wider than usual, he glanced between the Magical Creatures Professor and the girl who's taunted him just at the end of term feast last year. It put this Defence Professor in the very difficult situation of having to explain exactly what had happened to Haddie all the while making sure that she didn't overhear.

Again, this was not in the job description.

As for her question, Hirsch nodded. "Yes, he's a knight but he deals with creatures which is why he's the best man to go to for your pony." This was party for James' ego. You're welcome, Draper.

The man understood exactly what that look meant and tried to look as innocent at possible. Look at him, innocently pushing his glasses further up his nose and waiting for an answer. Nothing to see here.

And there was that negative answer. It wasn't disappointing to him but he couldn't help but glance over at the young girl. "Sorry, Haddie," he said, clapping her on the shoulder. Distraught small girls wasn't something he wanted to deal with, to be honest. Maybe they really should have gone to Nana first, where she could've gone shopping with the girl and he could've gotten himself some coffee.

If anyone could see James leaning closer to Hirsch, they would've probably had a field day. But as it was, there were no journalistic type people around so they were safe to whisper about Haddie, er, in front of Haddie herself. Really, James, why make this difficult? "She's not herself," he whispered back, "She seems to think that I'm a knight and she was in a cupboard when she found this place and that there's a cult being run in the dungeons." And just look at how baggy her clothes were on her.

The little girl looked up at Draper in awe. "You know every student's name? In the whole world!? Wow!" Because that's the only way second Knight guy could have known her name. "You must be very smart!" Like Santa Claus.

And then it happened. The child was devastated. DEVASTATED. Tears glistened her eyes. But...but...she was supposed to get a pony. Looking up at Sir Knight, the girl glared at him. "You promised!" She stamped her foot and sulked over to the grandpa chairs, arms folded, legs swinging, big pout on her face. Haddie huffed. Loudly. After a minute or so, she suddenly brightened up, and hopped to her feet and bound up to the Animal Man. "Do you have a dragon? Dragon would be acceptable. One dragon please."

This put her close enough to here what Sir Knight was saying. "I am too myself!" Haddie Denaker. She stamped her foot again. They even called her by name! Why would Sir Knight think she was someone else if he knew her name? "Who do you think I am? And there really is a cult! They wore ugly robes and put me in these clothes that don't fit and everything!" Didn't they just go over this before? "It's true!" she insisted, a frantic, frustrated whine in her voice. He was supposed to be protecting her...

…… And that’s when he decided to pay attention.

What was she playing at anyway? ’You must be very smart.’ Of course he wouldn’t argue with that. He was, indeed, very smart. But there was something wrong here because those were never words that would come out of Ms. Haddie Denaker’s mouth. So he decided to pay attention. And suddenly, things were going wrong at a very usually fast rate. She was smaller, much smaller. Clothes were baggier. Demeanor was kinder (which was entirely okay by the way, he wasn’t complaining about this one). And she was the image of innocence.

Leaning back towards Hirsch again, which yes would’ve been quite the sight to witness, ”I see what you mean,” and then he looked back at Denaker’s defeated face. ”I don’t have dragons….” But hold on… There must be something they could do to avoid tears because James was allergic to the tears of children. ”But I have winged horses?” Would that work???

Also, he shot a concerned look at Roderik. They needed a plan. ”Potion mishap?” he asked under his breath. ”Rogue spell?” Prank war??? They couldn’t just keep her occupied with animals. They were meant to actually fix it. Being a Professor sucked. Er. It was aight sometimes. And all the while, he was standing thinking of possible solutions. The best one being, they’d fake her out. Tell her they were going to the horses and actually take her to the healer. Spend some more time figuring out what was wrong and then find the antidote by tricking her to follow into the castle? There had to be a way to fix this.

Petrified niffler still tucked in her bag - which she would be promptly abandoning now that it had niffler all over it - Nicky stepped right up to Professor Draper's door and knocked sharply. Either he'd misplaced a friend of his, or there were some wild rodents running amok.

The teen huffed and tapped her foot as she waited. Last thing she needed was this thing waking up.

Was that a slight twitch in the human's bag?

Was the niffler coming to?

You have three seconds to answer the door, James Draper.

Honestly, the most recent strange occurrences didn't even strike him as the least bit odd. If there's one thing James Draper remembered from his own Hogwarts years, it was that this place brewed insanity. It was thoughts like this that kept him from turning into a fool like Poncho Paul or that Airehead Flamsteed. They had just been cooped up here for far too long trying to convince themselves that this school was normal.

Having just brewed himself a cup of tea, the man went to sit at his desk to enjoy it when... A knock. Of course. Every time. Could he not even have a single moment to himself? Of course not. That would be asking for too much. Reluctantly he walked over to the door and opened it. "Miss Iv--" What in the name of Merlin was happing inside of the girl's bag, "In," so he could close the door and get an explanation. His eyes were locked on the bag.

OOC: Come in

Janelle arrived at Professor Draper's office with eager anticipation. She was on a mission. Mikey had to be hers, he just had to be. She was willing to do whatever it took, as long as she could adopt him. Of course she hadn't exactly run this plan by her parents, but she was sure that it wouldn't be a problem..........hopefully.

Pausing for a moment, Janelle knocked on the professor's door and waited. If he wasn't there, she had prepared to wait. With no immediate response to her knock within two seconds, that is, Janelle went over to one of the chairs by the fire and sat down. Might as well get warm and comfortable while she waited.

What had seemed to be a nicer, slower year with fewer office visits and more time to relax... Didn't last for very long. Office visits were rather contagious, James found. Once there was one there were always at least seventeen more. Not that he was complaining... Not publicly, anyway.

And as if right on cue, he heard a knock on his door. This one was polite, no obnoxious knocking. Meant it was a student with at least some sort of respect for their Professors. So eh, it couldn't be too unpleasant. But he was about to find out. Still sat at his desk, he opened the door with a flick of his wand. "Come in," he said hardly looking up from his book.

OOC: You can now post inside if you want!

Blink. Blink. Blink. The child's eyes grew wide as galleons almost as if in slow motion. Her mouth too grew into an impossibly wide smile; the edges of her mouth stretched so far from each other, it had to hurt a little. "P-P-Pegasus!?!? You have Pegasus...ses!?" And now she was bouncing. An excited ball of energy spring up and down, left and right. If there was room she'd be doing bonafide cartwheels.

Maybe there was room...naw, not enough room. She'll do them when in the barn!

She threw her arms around the man in a hug. And there it was. In one small sentence, Draper had won little Haddie Denaker's heart. He had Pegasuses! Then Haddie was back to bouncing up and down in front of the two knights. "Can we see them!? Can I pet one!? Can I keep one!? What are their names!?" One question followed the next in quick succession as if each question was more impatient than the last. And each one was asked with the same excited urgency. She couldn't wait for silly things like answers. Nosireebob!

In fact, Haddie Denaker didn't wait. She scooped Draper's hand up in one of hers, and Sir Knight's hand in her other and started to drag both men, or at least attempted to, out of the waiting area and toward the barn. Pegasuses don't wait!

Hirsch knew to be wary of the disappointment that would ensue and for good reason too. No sooner had she realised that there were going to be no ponies for her to meet, the excitement was gone and he found himself looking hopelessly at a pouty young girl. It made him sad to see her like that, especially when the words 'you promised!' rang around in his ears. As if he had somehow disappointed her.

Which he had.

The man didn't say anything, instead choosing to rub his forehead and cast his eyes on the floor. He wasn't meant to feel like that.

The Lumos to this situation came from James. At least he understood now, which kicked off 'lack of communication' from the list of things he needed to worry about here.

Just when he thought that things couldn't get any worse, Haddie retaliated to the comment he'd made to James. "I'm sorry, Haddie. We really do believe you." He even nodded at her, looking as serious and sincere as he could. How do you explain this to a girl who couldn't remember her present self? He couldn't just tell her the truth, anyone with some common sense knew that much. James, luckily, mentioned something about meeting winged horses. It wasn't a pony but it was a start and it certainly got. Haddie to lighten up.

Huh. Funny how quickly that pout disappeared at the mention of winged horses.

Kids.

And then came the weirdest sight to the inhabitants of Hogwarts: Hadley Denaker was hugging James Draper. Hugging him. The same man that she often went out of her way to annoy. Hirsch couldn't help but smirk slightly, all the while wishing he had a muggle camera on him to capture this moment. This precious little moment that he was sure wouldn't happen again.

Maybe he'd ingrain it in his memory and taunt James about it at a later date? Good idea.

Before he could come up with a whispered plan with James, the young girl was dragging them out and you know what? He let her. The amount of force she had was remarkable, even at her age. "We could bring Art here?" he started in a low whisper, "I doubt she'd want to go there after the creatures." And the sooner they got her back to normal, the better.

And for once he had done something right… Apparently.

Though, the way her eyes widened made James almost regret what he had said. Maybe he was wrong. Honestly, tears of children couldn’t be as bad as what he was bound to be forced into next. ”Winged horses,” he corrected, though he knew it wouldn’t matter. When a child had their mindset…

…… Hugged.

He was being hugged.

By Hadley Denaker.

This was not in the job description.

James stood stiffly in mild surprise, all the while giving Roderik a look that would’ve translated to something along the lines of ‘if you bring this up later, you are dead’. WAS THERE NO BREAK??? It was as if everything the kid was doing at this point was speed up in hypersonic speed. [b]”Yes, yes, no, and their names are on the stalls,”[b] he got all the questions, right? Not that it mattered.

And before he could do anything, they were being pulled. Before they could reach the door, however, it looked like Roderik had a plan. So he wasn’t useless after all, good to know.”Send a patronus once we’re busy with the horses,” She’d be distracted, they’d be in the clear, hopefully Art could fix this, and then they could all sleep decently tonight.

It was nearing the end of the term. Mid-April already. Which was what brought Hady outside (well she had already been outside) and towards Drapers office. Just like most days this year she had gone to visit Sammie the crup she had taken care of at the very beginning of term. The decision had been made many months ago that she loved the little guy however she had waited a long time to come and ask if she could adopt him. Her reasoning with this had been a simple one, crups needed a lot of attention and she would be here again after the summer. Which meant Sammie would be home with her family. It wasn't something she could pass up though.

Coming to Draper's office Hady raised her hand and knocked on the door. The teen then went and sat herself down on one of the chairs to wait. Hopefully he was around and not to busy.

Coincidentally, James was just headed back inside after feeding the animals. Merlin, the way they all jumped at their food would make you think James starved them. Which, of course, he didn't. They were all just hungry ALL THE TIME. Honestly, reminded him of himself when he was a kid. Constantly hungry, always with expendable energy. Not like that any more though, he was already exhausted and the day wasn't even halfway through yet.

Upon opening the door that lead into his waiting room, he noticed he wasn't alone. "Ah Miss Lynch," he nodded, wiping his feet on the matt and making his way inside. "Haven't been waiting on me for too long, have you?" he inquired pausing as he neared her.

Waiting was never a problem for Hadleigh. Unless she was waiting for something really big and the time just dragged even more slowly the closer it got. Like when the twins had been born months earlier on Halloween, that day had felt like ages while she went to lessons. Today though wasn't at all a bad wait and sitting in the waiting area wasn't at all a big deal to her. It gave her a few few moments to just think about random things.

A door opening broke the silence in which Hady lifted her head to see who else would be joining her in the wait for professor Draper. Ah, only it was the man in question himself. "Hello professor, not at all I've only been here a few short minutes." Not much more then maybe five. A small smile appeared as she spoke again choosing now to inform him why she had made visit to his office. "I'm only here to speak with you about possibly adopting Sammie the little cruppie I've been visiting with all term."

"Good," normally he didn't care all that much about making others wait on him. It wasn't like he was here to serve 24/7. Just during scheduled office hours and then some in between. When he was being generous. However, with a few of his students... He didn't mind. The few that truly cared about the subject material and made an effort. Hadleigh Lynch included. She was among those few he didn't mind all too much. That was a compliment, by the way.

"Well then, you've come to the right place," he had a few come to ask about adoption actually. It was refreshing to see the kids feeling so reenergized and passionate about something they wanted to learn more about. That and... Honestly, who could resist a pup? Not even James Draper, that's who. Walking towards his door, he reached for his key and gave the nob a little jiggle. "After you," he held the door open expecting that Miss Lynch wouldn't mind sitting down for the rest of the visit. They had a few things to cover.

OOC: You can post in the office if you'd like!