Flying Office Hours ((Open RP))

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

Mister Weasley was holding his office hour, which were set at "Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from after lunch until mid-afternoonish". Ron would thus be in his office until the weather changed or until he was hungry again.

The room was filled with furniture that was not quite shabby, but definitely nothing Ron had ordered in. Still, there was a welcoming spirit to the young man's work-space. The texts he selected for his class held a prominent space on his shelf (he made sure to keep many copies in case they needed to be borrowed. He knew from personal experience how expensive books could be).

There were Muggle comics on the door (comics which Ron did not quite understand, but it displayed a flying witch, so he decided it counted) as well as a slip of paper which proudly proclaimed, "Quidditch: For Muggles Too!". Inside there were the kind of motivational posters one might find in a high school, including a poster which, Ron assumed, asserted the magical nature of bee flight. Furthermore, he had the posters of various Quidditch teams on his walls (though the Chudley Cannons' poster seemed to be a bit bigger than the rest).

Still, most of his displays were pedagogical in function. One display that Ron was particularly proud of had two pictures posted side-by-side. One showed a man being shot from a cannon, and had a large NO painted in front of it. It was charmed so that he was repeatedly shot out of sight, and would be an unhappy SPLAT noise whenever a new viewer caught sight of it. Beside it was a much happier picture of a young wizard happily flying off to the distance. Any resemblance the little boy had to a Weasley was strictly coincidental. As was probably guessed, the picture had a bold YES painted on the front.

And that is a brief description of Ron's office, where he was waiting for any students who might stop by, and one student in particular.

In all honestly, Ron did not actually care that much about the incident with the fondue. No one was hurt, when he was younger he got into far more trouble than that, and he was actually pretty impressed that a student had managed to make a polyjuice potion considering how few opportunities for magical training there were. But he felt like it was his duty as instructor and alumni to investigate the issue. Besides, he remembered Shibuya Yuuri as a nice enough lad, and thus no one he would feel intimidated by. He scratched his head. That blond girl was quite insistent that he call Yuuri by the nickname, 'Meow'. He wasn't quite ready to do THAT, but he thought he would work it into his owl somehow. The owl that Mister Weasley eventually did send was sharp and to the point:

Shibuya Yuuri,

I want you to meet me during my office hours as soon as you can.

Meow,

Mister Weasley

Comments

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Really," Ron said conspiratorially, "SPLASH is the best sound you can hope for." He turned the parchment around so that Pippie could see it more easily. At the moment the instructor was working on the written homework:

1) WHAT OTHER EXPERIENCES HAVE YOU HAD WITH FLYING?

2) HOW HIGH CAN YOU FLY WITHOUT STARTING TO CRY?

3) WHICH BROOMSTICK WOULD YOU BUY FOR YOURSELF IF YOU COULD? PLEASE CONSULT "WHICH BROOMSTICK?" IF NEEDED.

4) WHAT IS GRAVITY?

His face reddened into a blush at Pippi's compliment. "Thanks! It's pretty common where I come from, though. Don't know many people who can get their hair to do that, though," he said, indicating to her pigtails. He was trying to compliment her. He then added, "Have you ever flown before?"

[pippithepirate.livejournal.com]

It made about as much sense to Pippi the right way around as it did upside-down. Reading was not her strong point. She never did get around to acquiring one of those educations. So Pippi just shrugged at the letters. "Best that you read, if you have the know-how," she said casually, and gave the little monkey on her shoulder a raisin to nibble on.

She looked quite pleased, as she took a great deal of pride in her hair. "It's all thanks to egg yolk," she revealed merrily. "It makes your hair grow like you won't believe." Her eyes began to sparkle at his question. "Have I ever flown! I don't know anyone who's flown as much as I have. On beds and on airplanes and I don't know everything I've flown on!" No broomsticks, though. There was that one movie where she did fly on one, but in that movie she also flew all by herself, and her mun finds it Pippi blasphemy and is firmly ignoring that piece of canon, thank you. "But mostly I travel by sea," she added with satisfaction. "Why do you ask?"

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Ah. I guess it would be pointless to write this down if I didn't, right?" Mister Weasley laughed, as if he was making a fine joke. He probably was a bit proud of it. He then read the questions to Pippi, before asking her, "How does that seem for homework?"

Yup, egg yolk was a fine explanation for her hair. "And also, if you're ever hungry for breakfast, well, you have a nice snack right there!" Ron found himself taking a liking for this girl, but then, he had grown so sick of Hogwarts for Grown-Ups that he was set to cartwheel whenever he spotted a child. Hogwarts, Ron felt, really should have children outnumber the grownups enough to make them feel uncomfortable, like they were in a middle of a scene from The Birds. Ron had never seen that movie, but that's the best equivalent I could think of.

"I'm only asking because I am the flying instructor! I'm teaching students like you how to fly on broomsticks. I've been on airplanes and carpets, but never flying beds before."

[pippithepirate.livejournal.com]

She listened intently, mulling over each question. "Sounds like good ones," she said eventually. "Had plenty of flying experience, like I said. And I could fly pretty high, too. I do not cry," she added with some disdain. Pippi Longstocking did not cry over altitude! Dead birds though, that was a different thing. "Maybe I should get a broomstick. It sounds like fun, and I haven't flown in a while. Sometimes I get bored when there's ground under my feet for too long." The gravity question was not going to be addressed. From Pippi's perspective, she had gone through nine (possibly ten, now) years without knowing what gravity was or even letting its existence affect her daily life very much, so she was of the firm belief that she'd manage in the future without any knowledge of it as well.

"Ye-upp," said Pippi with some satisfaction. "All I need is some bacon in one ear and a piece of toast in the other, and then I'll never have to go hungry again. Perhaps I'll even fill my pockets with porridge, too. Times are hard, you know. You can never be too careful."

She looked Ron up and down. "It's called a myskodile," she said helpfully. "The flying bed." And she should know. She'd built it herself. "And how was the carpet ride? I never got around to those myself."

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"Absolutely," Mister Weasley agreed. "Since you've had so much flying experience, I don't think we have to keep you on a limit. Were your parents wizard? From the bed thing I was guessing that you might have experience." He considered her description of boredom, and then cracked, "Does that mean we can people who walk all the time 'land-lubbers'? What is it with pirates and dropping the 'v,' anyway?"

He shrugged. "The carpet ride was alright, I guess. I was a little bit nauseous after riding on it through the time-vortex thingamajig." Mister Weasley said by explanation, "I was solving crime. Time crime."

[pippithepirate.livejournal.com]

Pippi shook her head cheerfully. "Pretty sure no wizards," she said. "Papa's a pirate and a cannibal king, and mama's an angel in Heaven. I just like inventing things that none of them professors ever thought of inventing before. Professors never invent the really fun things." She grinned, showing off dimples. "That sounds like something we can do. Only I'm sure there's a better word. Maybe 'ground-people.'"

Ohhh... "I didn't know time could commit crimes," said Pippi, looking quite intrigued.

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

"A cannibal king?" Mister Weasley asked. He was half-incredulous, half-indulgent, and half-believing. He was also half-bad at math. "That must take a lot of work." And a lot of gut. He stuck out a tongue as his stomach clenched. Bleh. "Hey, that sounds like something my brothers would do. Though I bet what they junk up wouldn't be half as useful (or non-flammable) as you."

After considering the term 'ground-people,' he said, "I don't think I like it. Makes us sound like Lawn Gnomes. And time didn't commit the crimes, but these blokes committed the crime on time. I swear, some girl named Caroline Huggenkiz was this close to being named Amanda. Real big crime."

[pippithepirate.livejournal.com]

"Not as much as you'd think," mused Pippi, although she didn't know. "I'd reckon they can take care of themselves." She adopted a solemn look. "Small children should not be allowed to meddle with flammable things. That would only cause such trouble."

She wrinkled her freckly nose. "Pah. People should be named their names, that's what I think." Just imagine if Pippi had not been named Pippi! She wouldn't be herself! "Otherwise there's just no proper order in the world." There was a short pause. "Where would one go about should one wish to purchase a flying broomstick?"

[dungbombsrule.livejournal.com]

Mister Weasley handed Quidditch Through the Ages to Pippi. "Here, this is a good text to tell you what it's all about. Real fun moments of history, too. You probably shouldn't mention the games they have listed here, especially the ones that have charts on fatalities. As for the broomstick, you can pick one up for yourself at Diagon Alley. But we also have brooms here at school for the students to use; it's probably fairer for everyone to practice on the same kind of broom, anyways. It's gotten late enough. Why don't you walk to the Quidditch shed with me and we'll pick a broom up?"