The Great Hall

Kiara entered the great hall and smiled when she saw Eglantine she was so relieved her friend was finally regaining her strength back.

"Good morning Eglantine, how are you feeling?" she asked as she took her seat at the staff table.

Eglantine turned to glare rather coldly at Kiara. She felt terrible and the knife stunt had done nothing to soothe her. But the glare quickly softened as she realized that the younger woman was only concerned.

"Just peachy." she replied, her voice slightly bitter. "How is your shoulder?" Anything to take the conversation off herself would be lovely and Eglantine was worried about Kiara.

Kiara taken back slighly with the glare, wrong thing to ask appreantly.

"Oh"

Glancing at her shoulder, which was now in a cast she said "It will be fine, torn ligament is all. Besides I am becoming really good at wandless magic now. Even better then I was before,"

Her shoulder still ached terriblely but Juria said it would hurt, so she could live with it, knowing it would mend sooner or later.

"That's wonderful." Eglantine replied, relieved to hear it was healing. Deciding to not risk using magic in public again, she picked up a nearby knife to continue peeling her peach. Her shaking hands made gripping the slender metal extremely difficult, but she finally succeeded in bringing it up against the peach.

Suddenly the peach began to shrivel, white ash dropping from its once pink cheeks.
"Excessum Neci..." it hissed softly, before entirely disintegrating in her hands.

Eglantine blinked, thankful that it was only a hallucination as the peach still sat, her fingernails tearing into its soft flesh.

Kiara had poured her self some tea and held the cup akwardly in her left hand.

"Why couldn't I haven been left handed like my father..." she mumbled as she fildled with the handle.

Then seeing Eglantine holding the peach she had been peeling rather hard she asked.

"Is something wrong?"

"No...I just." she blinked. Was it becoming darker in the Great Hall? she wondered. "Bad peach." she finished finally, setting the perfectly good fruit down on her plate. "Would you pass the bread?"

Kiara nodded, but she still looked at Eglantine in concern as she summoned the bread basket over to her and passed it to Eglantine.

"Here you go, err your sure everthing it alright?" she hated sounding likr a broken record but with Eglantine she never new.

Eglantine decided to go for the honesty approach. "No, I am not fine. But since there is nothing to be done about it...I will live." she gave Kiara a small smile and began to break a piece of bread into smaller pieces to dip into her sardines.

((sorry... lol.......fell asleep...3am))

Kiara looked at Eglantine for moment and unknown to her she stared glowing blue with flames again. This women was going to be the death of her.

Sighing she said.

"If there is anything I can do to help, you will let me know won't you?" she said worriedly.

"Indeed." Eglantine responded. She began to eat her sardines, ignoring how her shaking hands made it difficult.

An owl flew into the great hall with a letter baring the ministry of magics seal, adressed to the Headmistress of Hogwarts. The owl droped the envelope onto Kiara's lap and left.

Picking up the letter Kiara mused, "Hmm I wonder what they could want"

Opening it Kiara read through it quickly.

"What the bloody hell?" she breathed as she read through it again to make sure she read what they were saying right.

Glaring at the letter Kiara said coldly.

"Well it was awfully nice of them to inform me.....

Eglantine glanced over at Kiara, concerned by the reaction the letter had caused. She had already become aware of the fact that it took something of great magnitude to upset the balanced witch.
"Inform you?" Eglantine asked gently.

Kiara handed the letter Eglantine, "The triwizard Tournament is going to be held at Hogwarts" she said.

The letter read.

"Dear Headmistress,

Due to the recent investigation of Drumstrang school the Triwizard Tournament has been reschedualed to be hosted by Hogwarts this years. Be informed the Gobet of fire will arrive at Hogwarts in one week and students form Beauxbatons and Drumstrang will arrive a day after.

Have a good day,
Zacharias Smith, Minister of Magic"

Eglantine's eyebrows raised.

"I see..." she muttered. "Surely they should have asked if they could hold it here? And it is within your rights as Headmistress to refuse."

The idea of seeing several of her former colleagues from Beauxbatons was both frightening and appealing. None of the students she had taught still attended, making it almost ideal.

"Doesn't seem like they are giving me that option, the vote for it must have been unaminaus for the Tournament to be held here. If they had asked me I would have said no. That tournament is cursed, students die in it, why they keep bringing it back it beyond me"

"Another lovely tradition." Eglantine smirked. "If muggles held fast to every tradition as the wizarding world does, they would still be using bow and arrows."

Viper took a quick glance at the man in front of her. He couldn't be much more than 30. She wondered how he ended up as a Professor here at Hogwarts.

"Were you always a teacher, Professor Kaminski?" Viper asked in a formal tone, not quite sure of how he would like her to address him.

"No kidding...."

Kiara sighed, just as thing were returning to normal.

"Well if they insist on doing this rules on students entering will be mine. If a student wants put there name into the goblet of fire there have to pass a enterence exam. I want make certain they know what they are getting into before they risk entering"

"An excellent idea." Eglantine agreed.

Sighing Kiara folded the minsitry letter up and placed it in her pocket.

"Hey I am curious, Do you know the current Head of Beauxbatons Academy?" she asked Eglantine.

Eglantine looked back at her sardines, no longer interested in them. Their fishy eyes staring up at her usually sparked her stomach to hunger, but not now.

"Yes, Madame Lasharna was the Charms professor when I taught at Beauxbatons. She is an excellent Headmistress from what I hear." Of course, she and Genevieve had always gotten along well, after all they had planned the event, that had ended their Headmistress' life, together.

"Well I will look forward to meeting her then, in 8 days, that is when their cariage is supposed to arrive." said Kiara.

Eight days... Eglantine shivered. She did not look forward to seeing her friend. There would be too many memories and too many things to explain.

Kiara rasied her eye brow, "What is it?"

((Sorry, I wasn't home all day, and then I was busy once I did get home. But I'm back. I'm assuming both conversations are taking place at the same time?))


Sevastyan nodded in response to Viper’s admission but didn’t say anything. It had seemed only natural - in his opinion, at least - for her to have difficulties in adapting to a new type of audience, but he had been seeking her point of view on how she felt about the hand that fate had dealt her. Incidentally, his assumption and the reality of the situation were the same.

Lost in contemplation, Sevastyan was quite oblivious to Viper’s observations. Blinking from his reverie the moment she spoke, it was clear that the question took him by surprise. “Please, call me Sevastyan,” he requested in light-hearted sincerity. Using his given name didn't sound quite so "stiffly formal" as he often categorized it, though he addressed others formally without question unless asked otherwise.

Gray eyes turned thoughtful for a moment before he answered her question, carefully weighing his words as thoughts of the past bubbled to the surface of his mind. “And no, I vosn’t always a teacher. I had vorked vith my brother for a few years before deciding to become a professor. He owned a shop of sorts,” Sevastyan explained with slight reluctance, the last few words uttered rather hastily moments after he’d taken a few seconds to glance out at the students. The professor didn't like discussing his brother, but wouldn't lie about the very basics regarding his family, either. Sevastyan wanted the late teen to early adult portions of his past to remain right where they were: as much willingly forgotten as possible. Unfortunately, though, that wasn't a grand amount: the death of his cousin would always remain with him no matter what he did, whether it was truly his fault or not.

It was then, after he resumed a semblance of eye contact with his colleague, that Sevastyan realized Professor Viper looked to be quite young, herself. Younger than him, it seemed. Maybe mid- or early twenties, though Sevastyan didn't want to hazard a guess on the precise amount of years. "I take it you greatly excelled in your field, to have come such a long vay in the study of Potions so quickly, Professor Viper?" He asked conversationally, trying to ensure the conversation didn't focus entirely on himself in addition to commending her apparent dedication to the subject. Or at least what he understood to be dedication, anyway.