open RP: office hours for Potions

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

The Calming Draught having worn off, Stephen resumed his normal routine, which largely involves researching potions, testing potions, and dissecting things.

However, he did feel a bit negligent of his professorial duties. Perhaps holding office hours would be helpful, as Crowley had done before. Some of Stephen's students did not have as easy a time making bruise balm in the most recently held class as he had hoped. Also, there were new students who had arrived at the school since the class had been held.

So he directed his house-elf to post a notice in the Great Hall and the common rooms, and posted it on his office door himself:

Office hours for Potions are being held. Current and potential students are welcome to drop by Professor Maturin's office to discuss any issue of interest to them.

He thought that putting it in the way Crowley had ("Come by to chat if you have a question about class, your homework assignment, or if you're just really fucking bored, too") was perhaps less than professional, but he did want to make it clear that he was available to discuss anything that a student felt it necessary to discuss, even if it were not related to potions. After all, the recent owl from Dib concerning the Gryffindor boy's run-in with Ichimaru Gin suggested to him that more attention to extracurricular problems might be a good thing.

(( OOC: Whoever stops by Stephen's office will be offered tea, as is his habit. This does not need to be problematic -- so far everyone who's drunk tea in his office has done so without incident. But the potential exists for the clumsy house-elf to have spilled something in your tea, and you're welcome to take advantage of that fact. Available potions include anything in the HP Lexicon that isn't overly perilous, as well as mpreg potion, virility potion, gender-change potion, and a potion that can turn you into a fish or turn a fish into a human.))

Comments

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen did not like the way in which Byakuya spoke of questioning Susan. Granted, Stephen himself often thought of other people in such a way, but to expose so blatantly one's regard for another person as being essentially no more than a source for information was really not very good form. Byakuya seemed to be behaving rather oddly in general -- the curious expression on his face, the careful way he moved and sat -- Stephen would have offered medical assistance of some kind, had he any confidence that human remedies could be effective for shinigami. He had no idea that Aloysius could have spilt anything into his guest's tea.

At the mention of Dib, Stephen frowned. "I have not seen the boy myself. He must have been sufficiently well to send the owl to myself and to Miss Sto Helit, to let us know what had happened. I confess that as a faculty member I should have been able to do something about the situation, once I learned of it; but what? Assign Gin detention with his friend Teatime? Really, there is no way I can punish him."

[noble-shinigami.livejournal.com]

((*dies* "Pardon me, but is your ass okay?" ...I know Stephen would never word it that way unless speaking of a donkey, but still.))

Byakuya might have normally recognised Stephen's unease; sensed it, if it wasn't outwardly expressed, but in his current state when he looked at the professor, all he could think was, he has interesting hair. I wonder if it's natural?

"Punish him," he repeated thoughtfully. "Perhaps Gin would like to be picked up by his head." The thought apparently amused him, he chuckled as he leaned back in the chair comfortably (the subsequent wince was easier to hide than the first). He wasn't actually thinking about heads or lifting at all, but something considerably more violent. Gin was, surprisingly, physically bigger than him to a small degree, but Byakuya knew it would hardly matter if they got into what would in essence be a shinigami-style pissing contest.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen grinned. The thought of Gin being picked up by his head was extremely gratifying. "Perhaps he would."

[noble-shinigami.livejournal.com]

"Lately I have seen far more of him than I care to, but-" There was the nagging thought he should avoid Gin for a while, and he couldn't recall why it was necessary. The mood he was in, it was as if nothing could irritate or trouble him ever again. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to remind him that he can be bullied as well."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"I should consider myself most indebted to you for providing him with such a reminder," Stephen agreed. "Lord knows we all see far more of him than we care to."

[noble-shinigami.livejournal.com]

Stephen's remark made him smile. He sat up, needlessly straightening his clothes. "Thank you for your continued help in this matter, I do appreciate it," he said pleasantly. Almost too pleasantly. "I'll take my leave now, unless there's anything else you'd like to discuss."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

If only Stephen and Byakuya had been able to commiserate over the tragedy of seeing far too much of Gin! But neither would ever have broached the subject.

"No, that is all, I think," said Stephen. "I confess it sets my mind greatly at ease that you should be here to keep Gin in check. A good day to you, Mr Kuchiki."