Hermit-Professor Abraxas Magnus's Quarters (Located in one of the Towers in the East Wing of Hogwarts)

Abraxas's Personal Chambers take up use of the topmost part of a tower in Hogwarts's East Wing. There are six small-to-moderate-sized teardrop-shaped rooms, with a spiral staircase connecting them all. All of the "drops" have their points facing inward toward the stairs, to maximize available space. At the very top of the tower is an observatory, so that Abraxas may observe the stars.

Here is a breakdown of the "floors," even though there are only a seven stairs between each room. Magic, of course, prevents the slight complication of space and room overlapping:

Top of Tower: Observatory - contains telescope, star charts, etc.

6th Room: Bedroom - Pretty spartan at first glance; just a bed and nightstand, chandelier, dresser, a side room not on the floor plan that is in fact a bathroom, and a closet. Said closet holds a lot of fine clothing he used to wear when he wasn't a hermit, notably his wedding clothes and international garments he'd acquired upon traveling the world. The bed is actually more luxuriously comfortable than one would give it credit for, as is the bedding.

5th Room: Library - One of the most lavish rooms in his quarters, Abraxas loves his library! Books upon books in ceiling-high shelves, levitating ladders and grandly antique armchairs! There are no desks here, for that kind of work is best done in his Study.

4th Room: Study - Tables line the room, as well as some not-so-full bookshelves. Said structure is used to place books obtained from his or the school's library, and is enchanted to return said books to their proper places upon the last user's whim and voiced incantation. A healthy dose of parchment, quills, and ink in various colors are kept here, albeit jumbled about. Various experimental devices and completed inventions can be found in here, too. So far, Abraxas has concocted nothing overly dangerous...

3rd Room: Kitchenette - Yes, it is a fully stocked kitchenette and dining area for the current maximum of four. However, magic can increase that number... but Abraxas is a hermit, and most hermits do not host dinner parties.

2nd Room: Entrance and Recreation - This is the first room one steps into upon entering Abraxas's quarters. There are a variety of ways to non-academically entertain oneself. Take a look around, and make yourself comfortable! The couch has an extra cushioning charm. Everything in this room has an emphasis on comfort and non-sleepy relaxation... though Abraxas has been known to nod off on the sofa every now and then.

First Room: Laboratory - Beneath the observatory and previous five rooms is a rather extensive laboratory for someone who's profession is Arithmancy professor. Then again, with his other academic interests being in alchemy and potions, perhaps it's not such a mystery after all.

It would seem that the man collects crucibles...


Outside the reinforced wood door, a sentient tapestry of the Egyptian god Thoth stands guard. He will accept several variants of the same password, though entrance without Abraxas's personal invitation is only permitted via emergencies. Yes, this portrait of sorts can communicate with its owner; it has been doing so for at least fifty years...



Acceptable passwords: Im-hotep; Immutef, or Imuthes

The actual password: jā-im-ḥatāp

Horatio hummed "April Showers" as he skipped down the hallway. He had been delighted to hear that his dear friend and fellow "centurian" Abraxas Magnus had recently become a professor there at Hogwarts and wanted to be among the first to welcome him.

Bowing to the familiar tapestry, he smiled and ceased his humming. While more or less babysitting Edwin the week before he had watched a muggle movie, classic according to Ciaran, called Bambi. The little ditty about April showers had quickly become his favourite song right under "Eglantine" of course.

"Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune
As you fall all around." he sung cheerfully as he dug out his pipe and magically lit it.

"jā-im-ḥatāp." Horatio stated to the tapestry, bowing again. As he slipped into the room, he smiled at the surroundings. "Brax, you old codger!" he shouted, good-naturally.

Abraxas had arrived at the school not long ago. Being a former alumni, he needn't a grand tour but did manage to catch up on the newest additions: the extension of the gardens, a wand-tree garden, and a few other odds and ends that managed to slip from the sporadic sieve he called a brain.

At this very moment, Abraxas was relaxing in his rocking chair, reading a novel just for leisure. Via his connection with the tapestry of Thoth outside his door, the wizard heard the full, actual password to his chambers being recited. He mentally acknowledged Thoth to let the person through: whomsoever knew or understood ancient Egyptian either memorized his password well - such as the other members of the staff - or somehow knew of it previously... had one of the 'centurians' already come to visit from their castle in Northern Europe?

...... or was it a previously-abroad 'centurian' that too had decided to take up the mantle of teaching?

The novel Abraxas was reading was sent a good three feet in the air, caught by an animated gargoyle statue mounted on the wall, upon hearing his name called out by a familiar voice. With a graceful swiftness that made him move several decades younger than one hundred and ten, 'Brax' took several long strides from the approximate center of the living room towards the door.

"It takes one to know one, doesn't it, Horatio?" Abraxas replied in kind, a smile upon his aged and bearded face as he approached the other wizard. "How's the world outside been treating you these days?" he asked with light-hearted curiosity. After the third Magnus wife had passed, the wizard decided to commit himself to study, joining Horatio McKevin's research group not too long thereafter. After burying one wife, one ex-wife, and a lover or two that insisted upon going with him on a wild escapade for mythical magic artifacts, Abraxas decided that knowledge was a better goal to seek than treasure... or attempting to start a family that wouldn't be split apart later down the road. Perhaps a foolish notion, but it was a notion he stuck to.

Knowledge, after all, is power. Every Slytherin almuni learned that saying at a young age...

Horatio roared with hearty laughter when he heard his friend's reply. "Aye, that is does." He agreed, his smile reaching his ears it was so broad.

"Well, very well. It seems to have opened the very gates of Olympus and rained on me all the treasures of joy." he winked, knowing full well how well his friend got on with the opposite sex. "So what subject shall you be droning about? And shall we warn the students before they meet their ends of boredom?"

He was practically bouncing he was so happy to see Abraxas. Reaching out he laid a hand on the younger 'centurian'. "It is good to see you, my friend. Fate has been good kind and noble to allow our paths to cross again."

Salt and pepper eyebrows rose pleasantly upon hearing of Horatio's good fortune. "Wonderful - absolutely marvelous!" Abraxas exclaimed at the good news. He really hadn't had need to leave the research group the moment he had arrived, and thus there was where he stayed for the past fifty years straight.

He laughed heartily at Horatio's question and suggestion. "Oh, come now! Surely I'm not that boring...?" Abraxas asked good-naturedly. "I get to bore those poor souls with the mysterious art of Arithmancy... And which subject do you have our young friends snoozing along to?"

When Horatio put a hand on him, Abraxas mirrored the move. It had been quite a few months, if not an eternity it seemed, since he'd seen his friend and fellow researcher. "Likewise! And it is indeed incredibly kind of fate, to not only allow us to meet again but to also smile upon you with fair fortune!" Abraxas returned.

The wizened wizard looked his friend in the eye, an eyebrow bouncing in place slightly while Abraxas tried to keep a straight face. However, it immediately stretched into a grin. "Hot chocolate!" he blurted out with a similar burst of mirth. Immediately, two mugs and all the makings for hot chocolate hovered down to the pair of wizards from their former places in the kitchenette.

"Make yourself at home, my friend! The location may be different but everything else is for the most part the same!" Abraxas's face nearly split in two with the way he was grinning from ear to ear.

Horatio chuckled. "History of Magic. And apparently I am a delightful change to Professor Binns." he added in a whisper. "Not a goblin in any of my lessons so far."

"Boring? Goodness, no. I've heard some of your theories and thoughts on the subject. Bloody fascinating is what they are." He nodded and tapped his pipe against his cheek. "Fair fortune indeed... you wouldn't happen to have anything we could use to celebrate fate now eh?" he asked, bother seriously and jestingly.

Horatio could not keep from roaring with laughter as the hot chocolate appeared. "You my friend are just what the doctor ordered. Between your arrival and Eglantine, I'm sure to be over the moon with joy. Speaking of your arrival... how is are our fellow centurians?"

((Christmas day))

Saturn arrived in a flash of light and droped off two wraped packages.

On one package was a Note it said, "To Professor Abraxas Magnus, And you said they were extinct. Merry Christmas Professor"

Inside the package was a box with 3 seperate compartments containing the 3 minerals from the rare wylavoct.

Melas Weepings

Wylavoct Salts
and...

Pyrithesium

In the second package was rather large and contained a painting...



Another note appeared.. " Have a happy christmas, From Headmistres Kiara Delanquar"

((Sorry it took me so long to get to this!))


Abraxas awoke Christmas morning just as he had any other: opening one bleary eye to check the time and wishing sleep would overtake him, only to slowly rise after fifteen minutes of idling. Slipping into his slippers and wrapping a robe around his frame, the elderly wizard groggily maneuvered around his tower chambers.

He’d finally dressed for the day and was just adjusting the collar when, about to make something warm to drink, noticed that someone had been by to drop off a pair of gifts. Curiosity made him magic the warm drink to prepare itself and float in to him rather than his initial plan of making it himself.

The wizard plucked up the first package and note before sinking into the cozy depths of the single, soft-cushioned couch of deep emerald green and silver embroidery. Depositing the package in his lap, Abraxas retrieved the note and only lightly squinted to read as was his habit.

“To Professor Abraxas Magnus... And you said they were extinct. Merry Christmas, Professor.” He read aloud unto himself, attempting to discern the sender. At this particular moment he couldn’t remember with whom he’d spoken of something extinct. The professor shrugged off his faulty memory and decided to just leap into the spirit of things head first, figuratively speaking. Unlike the many occasions of his youth, the hermit cautiously peeled the paper off from the box. It was nicely wrapped, and thus caused the man to wince slightly as he heard a noise that sounded suspiciously like scissors being roughly taken to paper. Yet, paper wrappings were meant to be torn...

Upon opening the box, the wizened wizard blinked in astonished surprise. Abraxas recognized the minerals right away, having used them occasionally when the alchemist he bought from had such rare items in stock. In an instant the conversations regarding the wlyavoct came rushing back into his head. He was fairly certain this gift had to have been from Kiara, for he didn’t recall having approached Horatio about his dilemma regarding the minerals... at least not this time around. “Rather full of surprises you are, dear Headmistress... I shall definitely need to add a little something to the gift I’ve prepared for you,” he murmured to himself since there was no one else in the room.

It went without saying that Abraxas assumed the second gift was also from the headmistress, the note confirming his assumption earning a pleasant albeit crinkle-eyed smile to his weathered face. Because of the next parcel’s large size, Abraxas took to its wrappings with his wand, simultaneously removing the paper and adjusting the parcel so that he might see what other surprise Kiara had had in store.

A quiet ‘oh’ of delighted approval escaped the hermit-wizard upon seeing the painting. For a brief moment he wondered if the Egyptian-esque trappings about his chambers, classroom, and office made him that obvious, though the thought was one of amusement. It was indeed fairly obvious he had more than just a passing fancy for ancient history, particularly that of the time of the Pharaohs. Without further adieu Abraxas made room enough upon the first bit of wall one could see upon entering so that the painting could be hung and catch the attention of all.

For a moment, the old man smiled pleasantly at the painting before returning to another portion of his chambers for to finish wrapping the gifts he’d selected for Kiara and Horatio. With the assistance of magic, he was back down and preparing to walk out the door and head for the staffroom...

Yet paused to glance at the painting one last time.

“And a Happy Christmas to you...” he once again murmured to the absent Headmistress before striding out the door.