Astronomy Office Hours!

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

Monday afternoon after the tumultuous events of the Halloween party seemed like an ideal time to hold office hours.

Miles had cleaned up his office with the assistance of Martin, his newly acquired house elf, so that it was in a state to receive company. A sign on the office door proclaimed office hours to be in session, and Miles sat behind his desk, a game of Battleship laid out in front of him. Martin had also provided non-magically enhanced cookies for Miles' guests. Miles had ensured their non-magical qualities by eating several himself, and he was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice and share any cookies with his guests.

Now, leg twitching, Miles stared at the door, hoping someone would come in and express some desire to learn something about astronomy. Or failing that, about cookies. Or Battleship. Really, he wasn't picky. He just wanted a chance to meet some of his potential students.

Comments

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

"Come in!" Miles said, with probably a touch more enthusiasm than was strictly called for. "Have a seat. Would you care for a sugar cookie? I vouch for them myself--they don't have any strange enchantments."

Social duties having been taken care of, he returned to his seat. "It's nice to meet you, Ron. I'm Miles Vorkosigan... I'll probably just, um, be Professor Vorkosigan when I'm teaching, which is still a lot less unwieldy than Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan, which is my real official title. And, yeah, I audited your flying class. I wanted to experience all the different teaching styles I could to see what I could learn from them."

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

Ron smiled as he moved into the room. "A 'sugar cookie'? With no enchantments? Sounds strange, all right. Is that what you give out to students to make sure they behave? I try chocolate frogs, myself. I figure holding on to them would help them with their Quidditch, too."

Professor Vorkosigan? Ron didn't mention it, but now he was glad he wasn't going to be around whenever the man was teaching. Miles was much simpler. Ron sat down across the desk. "That's right, you were there! Tell me, how did you like it?"

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

Miles grinned. "I loved it!" he enthused. "I mean, what's not to enjoy about being several feet off the ground supported only by a magically enhanced piece of wood? It kind of brought to mind some of my more daring exploits with light flyers." He did not add the "When I was your age" comment to the end of that statement, though, in fact, he was something like a decade older than the bright-eyed young Quidditch professor. "I think I should stay out of actually playing Quidditch--damned inconvenient brittle bones don't exactly make that a good idea--but it does seem like a pleasant means of travel in general provided you've got some means by which normal people wouldn't see you do it."

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Loved it? Really? Well, all right then! I was having second thoughts about the safety caps, but they actually might have worked out on the long run. Actually, I never got around to it, but I was going to have the class write about their previous flying experiences as homework. Maybe you could talk about these 'light flyers' next class, if you audit it again. I'm not sure how a grown man could fit on a piece of paper, but then, I guess it takes all sorts."

Ron then raised a professorial finger. "But I think you mean 'Muggles,' when you talk about the people who we want to keep from seeing us fly. Not 'normal people.' Because wizards are as normal as the next bloke! Well, not Luna Lovegood, but she's a special case." A case of what is the question.

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

Miles let the bit about the piece of paper go unremarked upon, since he wasn't entirely sure where that had come from.

"Muggles, right," he said, nodding vigorously. "I didn't mean anything offensive by 'normal', though that is an extremely bad choice of words on my part." Yeah, you'd think the least normal person on Barrayar wouldn't be using words like that. "I haven't met the lady you're talking about, though, or at least I've not been properly introduced."

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I know that. It's just not really accurate to call wizards strange. Especially since most of the weirdos on campus are as unwizardly as you can get. Which brings me to why I'm talking to you; there's a new kid who might get on campus who's really... touchy. And he's giving away drugs. If he makes it into Hogwarts, I think we should keep an eye out."


Ron then added, "How have your office hours been? I need to host my own soon."

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

Miles quirked an eyebrow. "I need to visit the sorting room more often," he asserted. "I didn't know about that. But, um, if we're going to be cracking down on ilicit narcotics, shouldn't we be trying to discourage whoever keeps putting magically-enhanced food out for the student body?"

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

Immediately thinking of his brothers, Ron's face grew a bit red as he mumbled, "Why? I mean, is that a problem? Maybe it enhances them in a good way?"

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

Miles shrugged. "Hey, if people eat magically enhanced foods and know what they're getting into, I have no objections. Of course, the stuff at the Halloween party looked fairly unappetizing, so yeah... people probably should have known before they drank it."

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"What did the stuff do?" He almost didn't want to know.

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

"I think it turned people into... other people," Miles admitted. "I mean, before I got distracted, I saw one guy... he might have been some sort of businessman type... drink from the punch--or fondue, or... whatever it was... and the next thing I noticed was that he was suddenly this purple lumbering creature." He shrugged. "I didn't really stay long enough to watch the excitement, though, admittedly."

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like polyjuice to me," Ron offered. He then blinked in confusion. "But then they should have turned into one person, rather than a whole bunch. Also, you can't use polyjuice to turn into creatures or animals. You usually end up with a visit from the medi-wizards as they try to undo whatever freak-thing you've wound up as."

The wizard shrugged. "But magic has been misbehaving ever since Hogwarts, well, got all those new houses and students. Hermione would be beside herself if she were here."

[chaotic-miles.livejournal.com]

Miles nodded. "I wonder if anyone kept any samples of what was served. I should ask the house elves, and if they find any left over, I could maybe have them package it up and send it to you. You know more about this polyjuice business than I would." He didn't acknowledge the comment about Hermione, since, of course, he had no idea who she was.

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Hey, now I get what that Reperations and Renumerations (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1699987.html) thing was about. I thought they were just hosting an Arithmancy seminar in the Great Hall." Ron stood up.

"I'm gonna go see what I can learn from them."