Matters of the Lionhearts

John had not been present in his classroom at the time due to him grabbing a bit of food from the great hall. He walked into his classroom with half a turkey sandwich in one hand and a glass of pumpkin juice in his other. He took a sip from the pumpkin juice before noticing Selina Roy the Potions professor. "Miss Roy" He said after swallowing his bite of sandwich. "I wasn't expecting anyone until my first years" He stated walking to a small projector. "Had a fun lesson on grindylows planned" He mumbled.

he checked to make sure that everything on the old projector worked and smiled. "So what can I do for you ?" He asked as he walked to his desk sitting down sticking the sandwich on a small folder and then looked at her expecting their to be a problem. "If it's something to do with shenanigans,tomfoolery or anything like that I keep my nose out of it." He said. "But if you feel the need to make me aware I may deal with it as I see fit." He said getting to the point. "I figured you weren't hear for a social call" He said.

The room was unoccupied only momentarily, and Selina was soon joined by the Gryffindor Head of House, lunch in hand. "Selina, please," she insisted. There were only a few situations where Selina was so formal, and most of them were with people she didn't necessarily care for. At the moment, the Potions Mistress didn't know her colleague well enough to dislike him.

Glancing at the projector, she was impressed that the younger man was coming up with different medium for his curriculum. She smiled at the man and tinkered with the projector, but not enough to change its settings. "Not a social call, but something in between shenanigans and something more serious." If she was lucky, she could resolve things with his help. "It seems that a few members of your House are quite... overzealous this year," she put lightly. Her eyes inspected the different parts in the projector, trying to compare it to the only picture she remembered of one.

He lifted an eyebrow. How could shenanigans become serious. He remembered his own time in Hogwarts spiking his head of houses fire whiskey with engorging tablets causing his tongue to swell. He chuckled lightly and then looked at Selina. "Ok so what seems to be the problem" He asks curious with an eyebrow raised. He took a drink of his juice and then looked over to the window as he saw his boa constrictor Puffles climbing in through the window his stomach swollen with a gopher inside.

John rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair looking at Selina expecting some sort of prank gone wrong or something else. "If it's severe I shall handle it myself" He promised calmly.

Selina was glad he cut to the chase. She wasn't fond of small talk, especially with someone she was only recently acquainted with. "First of all, I've had to mix in additional charms to my ingredients stores and have a house elf keep an extra eye on Olive Greene . She came to my office asking about the details of brewing Amormentia, and doing a poor job of hiding her intentions." Anyone else having that kind of conversation with the young Lion might have seen the humor in it, and perhaps Selina might be able to at a later time. "She has had a long standing infatuation with one of her Housemates, and I suspect it might have to do with that." Sighing softly, Selina kind of felt ridiculous and a bit like she was gossiping about her students, but it only made sense to make sure the newer staff member knew what was going on.

"And then there is Cadence Strife ," she continued, finding a seat a leaning back to look at the ceiling. The kid had really pushed her buttons and she wasn't able to control herself. Hopefully this wasn't going to bite her in the ass after she admitted to Drake what had happened. "I called him into my office to set him up with tutoring with another student of mine," she explained, confident that her actions and intentions were reasonable. "Not only did he decide to hit on me, but he took me by the hand, made a number of suggestive remarks and kissed me on the cheek." By the time she had reached the end of her report, the irritation and frustration was evident in her voice and the soft features of her face. "I'm embarrassed to admit that I lost my temper. It was completely unexpected and my defensive magic just pushed him away. He's apparently got a broken hand and hasn't gotten it treated." Giving her colleague a look that said Yup, that's my luck, she crossed her arms and gave him a shrug. "Honestly I haven't been here much longer than you have, but I haven't had this much trouble before.

He thought for a moment. "Amortentia no doubt, It'd be best to have one of the ghosts keep an eye on her, I'll have Nick right on it when I see him next" He says leaning forward. "Until their is an incident their isn't much we can do. Now if supplies were stolen that would be different we could perform an investigation and find out if it was her or someone else. He thought for a moment on her other problem and furrowed his brow, something he did when thinking about something difficult.

"I'll speak with mister Strife" He says as he grabbed his quill and began to write ferociously. "I recommend talking to Headmaster Murphy" He says "Better he hears it from you first than another student. He stood up and walked over to an older looking owl sitting in the cage. He strapped the letter to it and opened his window as it took off.

Shaking her head, she couldn't confirm anything had been taking from the students' ingredients cupboard or her own personal stores. "No, nothing's been taken as of yet so we can't question anyone as of yet. If she manages to brew it anyway, she would need help. She's not the worst Potioneer, but Amormentia is quite outside of her capabilities." She was glad the Professor would monitor Olive as well, which would allow the poor house elf to return to her duties.

With regards to the Headmaster however, Selina rubbed her temple. "I'm actually not quite sure about the Headmaster," she countered softly. "I know this is your first year and you might not have interacted with him much since the school year started but... he's not quite himself recently." Selina watched her colleague's owl depart, presumably to deliver a message to Cadence, and tried to select her words carefully. "Since the election... he's come back to the castle quite the different man." She tried her best not to sound worried, but she still remembered the man she had worked with not even a year ago. His loss of the election or something over the summer holiday, had changed him into someone very strange. She wasn't sure how wise it was to mention it to the other Professor, but she was hesitant to go to the Headmaster regarding a student's conduct.

"What about his Deputy" He said trying to remember the name. "Would you be able to talk to her or is she as bad as murphy?" He asked thinking. He shrugged "I had just gotten out of isolation when the election happened so I don't know the details." He was plain about it as he sat back in his seat.

"If there isn't anyone you can report to then there probably isn't any need to worry. I imagine if teachers are afraid of Murphy then the students are too." He let that sink in a bit. "As for Olive I know a couple of good potion students James King I know for sure wouldn't do it he's not into that thing." He sat back thinking who is your best potions student? And are they friends with Olive?"

“Yes, I understand. It would be difficult to perceive something different when you’ve only just returned from your travels.” Rubbing her hands together against the cold, she shook her head a little. “The Deputy Headmistress is loyal to Headmaster Murphy. She hasn’t acted like anything is wrong with him, and has supported all the… strange changes he’s implemented.” For a moment, Selina almost sounded paranoid. She was on the verge of retracting everything and excusing herself from Professor Drake’s counsel. But no, she had been thinking about it for several weeks and the Potions Mistress was sure she was not imagining things.

She disagreed about the Staff being afraid; they were either ignoring it and enjoying themselves (a la Mercutio) or they were just keeping their heads down like her. For Selina specifically, she was trying to speak with the Headmaster directly, but he hadn’t even returned her owls. That was without considering the bizarre set of rules he had posted in the castle. Her colleague returned to her original concern, tabling the bigger picture for later. “Well, I have a number of students that are doing well, but maybe a dozen that would be successful with something like this.” Selina’s mind ran through her roster and recited the first couple of names that came to mind. Jasper Kim, Davina Jade, Dale Roberts, a couple of my 7th years. Maybe a few other Ravenclaws.” It was a place to start, but she wasn’t sure how helpful it would be. “I’m not entirely sure of everyone’s social interactions,” she admitted. “Olive generally gets along with most students, but I don’t know who she would be able to enlist.”

He thought "You said Ravenclaw" He said thinking as he looked to Puffles. He made a note to have him sneak around the library an maybe even the Ravenclaw commons. He looked to Selina "I'll keep an eye on the Ravenclaws myself I see a few of them walking around from here." He said pointing to his winow. "I suggest you keep an eye on any weird activity."

He smiled at her "I'll Owl you if I find anything out" He says smiling as he looks at her and then the clock above the door. He smiles as he opens the door for her "I'll walk you back to your classroom if you like." He said to her politely.

Sighing softly, Selina nodded at Professor Drake’s suggestion, which was what she had been doing all along. It wasn’t his fault, but it was frustrating to have little control over the situation. Selina and the Gryffindor Head of House had every right of confronting their students, but it seemed like they both agreed to give them the benefit of the doubt and observe, hoping that they made good decisions.

The man’s smile was encouraging, and she responded with a friendly smile of her own. It seemed that he was more confident about the situation, and she was immensely relieved he was going to address Cadence’s broken hand. She had been worried it was going to be a bigger issue, but she put her faith in her colleague.

The Gryffindor surprised her with his offer, but she stood and returned his smile. “Sure, that would be great, thank you.” Walking towards the door he had opened for her, she slipped her hands into her pockets and lead the way out, wondering the last time someone offered to walk her back from where she had come from. It had been many years actually, and was not expecting it from him. She wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from him anyway, since he’d only recently joined their staff.