Transfiguration's Office

Here you may interact with Professor DeLanquar, the Transfiguration Professor.

The room is decorated with cream coloured walls, a large simple desk, and two chairs opposite the desk for students. Also there is an enchanted chalkboard on the eastern wall for students to write their detention lines on and two large bookshelves full of books recline against the wall opposite the desk.

There is a pot of ink and a quill resting of the sparse desk and nothing else. The chair situated behind the desk is empty at the moment since Professor DeLanquar is about in the castle.

Eglantine hurried into the room, out of breath and panting from her exertion. Her body was now racked with pain from her run and she felt exceedingly silly. Seating herself behind her desk, she took a deep breath and pulled out a stack of papers to look over.

Kiara ran through Hogwarts, although she knew she shouldn't, she could already feel her lungs start to tighten, but she had to find her.

"Where could she be? think Kiara think" she thought to her self.

"Of course her office! why didn't think of it before?"

By the time she reached Eglantine's Office she was terribly out of breath and her chest felt like it was burning.

"Egl..an..tine... what is... what's wrong?" she gasped as she leaned against the door trying desperately to regain her breath with little succes.

Eglantine looked up from the papers as the Headmistress entered her office looking as if she was about to pass out. Alarmed, she hurried, as fast as her legs would allow her, to the woman's side and helped her to one of the chairs.

"You look dreadful." She stated, worriedly. Transfiguring the chair into a soft settee she helped the Headmistress to recline and then cast a quick diagnostic spell. Something seemed to be wrong with her lungs, but Eglantine was not a doctor and therefore she only conjured a soft wet cloth and set it against the Headmistress's forehead.

Ignoring the sharp pain that was now shooting up both legs, she remembered the woman's gasped question. She'd done it again, been troublesome when she had been trying to help.

"Nothing is wrong, save that you seem to want to kill yourself." She quipped.

Kiara still horribly out of breath dug through her robe pocket and pulled out a cloth and potion vial. She dabbed the potion on to the cloth and placed it over mouth and nose. After a minute the burning in her lungs faded and she started breathing normally again.

Removing the cloth form around her mouth she looked up at the older women.

"I am sorry about that, it is my own fault, I shouldn't have run all the way here, but old habbits die hard I guess. Running into things without really thinking is a bad habbit of mine now" she said still feeling a little winded but much better then before.

Placing the potion vial and her cloth back in her rode she got up bringing herself to full hight, and looked directly in to Eglantine's eyes.

"But something is wrong, Someone doesn't react the way you did in my office just a few minutes ago when "Nothing" is wrong. Now what is it?"

Relieved that the Headmistress seemed to be feeling a bit better, Eglantine sighed.
"I was simply...troubled about bothering you. As you said, old habits die hard." Almost as if to remind her of its presence her left leg finally went numb, but she ignored it.

Kiara shook her head not fully buying it.

"You were fine up until I told you that I would teach the class. Which is what I thought you wanted anyway, for someone to teach it? you weren't being a bother, it is my job to make sure the students here get a good education. Same as it is yours. You felt you needed to bring something to my attention. You did and now it is on it's way to being solved that much quicker...." She paused her speach when she noticed Eglantine looking very uncomfortable.

"And for Merlins sake sit down before your legs give out" she said as she pointed to the chair she had been sitting in.

Eglantine sat in the other chair the instant she was told to and winced slightly.

"I suppose I thought I was adding to your burden as Headmistress. You already teach several classes and the last thing I wanted was to add to your responsibilities." She smiled lightly.
"I am glad you have not taken offense." Remembering her tea set atop the bookcase, Eglantine stood.
"May I get you some tea?" She was anxious to change the subject.

Years of working as an Auror she leared how to detect if people were nervous or lying. Kiara could tell Eglantine wasn't lying, but she wasn't telling the whole story either.

The Auror in her wanted to keep prying, she almost did to, she opened her mouth but she changed her mind a the last second. Whatever Eglantine didn't want to reveal to her, was her own business.



At the offer of tea Kiara smiled and nodded "Alright, but let me help, Least I could do for making you worry over an old Auror injury of mine" she said.

Turning back to look at the Headmistress, Eglantine gasped.

"You were an Auror? How interesting. Did you fight in the war?" she pulled the tea set down and set to filling the cups with water.

Kiara smiled an shook her head "No, Harry Potter defeated old Voldie at the end of my first year at Hogwarts. I was evacuated along with the other first years when the attack started " Said Kiara as she took two tea bags and placed one in each of their cups.

"How interesting!" Eglantine remarked, delighted to hear that the woman hadn't been in the war. War was an awful thing for anyone to experience. With a flick of her wand the water began to steam and she handed the first cup to the Headmistress.

"You went to Hogwarts as a child then? I am sure that was a memorable experience."

Kiara nodded as she took the tea cup.

"Yes it was, I was a typical Gryffindor, from 2nd year through 7th.... always running in to trouble. My first year however was rather difficult, I may not have been old enough to fight in the war, but I saw first hand what the war was doing to the wizarding world. I was very nearly kicked out of Hogwarts among other things because my Muggle born status was found out by one of those death eater Professors. I don't know what would have happened if Severus Snape hadn't intervened when he did."

Kiara smiled as if remembering "After he sent the death eater away I thanked him, but he just glared at me and walked away. I have yet to this day figured out why he helped me.... Anyway what about you, I gather you didn't go to hogwarts?"

"No I did not go to Hogwarts." She stirred her tea as she debated, mentally, whether or not to admit she had been basically "muggle" home-schooled. Finally she decided to risk it.
"My parents travelled a great deal and I was home schooled." Thinking back to what the Headmistress had said about Severus Snape, she added.

"I am certain he cared about you as his student. He was not a bad man after all."

Kiara looked up "Wow you must have learned so much traveling around all the time like that. Furthest I have ever been is France, During my Auror training I was sent there you learn the basic's of french. What places did you go to?

Kiara let the matter of Severus Snape drop, it was silly of her to bring him up in the first place. He had been one of the few who knew her real full name when she got hogwarts. He and MacGonagoll were the only ones that knew, it was because of them she was even accepted into hogwarts at all.

DeLanquar raised the cup to her lips, only to find the liquid to hot to drink yet.
"They travelled everywhere. We lived on every continent and in many countries." she paused to blow on her tea.
"How did you come to be our Headmistress?"

Kiara smiled and blew on her tea.

"It is a complicated story really, but after the incident that damaged my lungs i was no longer able to work as an Auror anymore. As you know a Auror's job is very physically demanding. With the amount of damage done to my lungs it was impossible for me to continue as Auror on the field. The ministry of course offered my a desk job, but I found it boring I guess. I became to restless sitting around sighing papers all day."

She took a small sip of her tea and continued.

"Then for some reason the School Bored of Governors contacted me and asked if I was interested in the job. Needless to say I was shocked, I have no Idea why I was asked, but I took the job happily. There is of course still a lot of desk work, but I can live with it. Hogwarts is much more then the desk job the ministry offered me. So yeah that is pretty much how I became Headmistress. I still seems weird though, being call Headmistress makes me feel old." she said as she laughed at the last line.

Eglantine listened with great interest. She knew very little about Aurors except they were a bit like muggle police officers. She had already gathered that the Headmistress had greatly enjoyed being an Auror and it pained her to hear that an injury had forced her to take another job.

"You are not old, Miss Kiara." she said taking the last line as a subtle hint.

((Carefull not to dubble post, if you need to add something add it to your last post))

She sipped the tea, ignoring the pain that seared through her as the hot liquid burnt her tongue and mouth. Ironically, the pain reminded her that the Professor Viper's class schedule was still sitting on her desk. Immediately rising, she bit her lip.

"If you will excuse me, Headmistress. I have something I need to give to our Potions Mistress. Perhaps we could continue our conversation later today?"

Kiara nodded.

"Sure duty called huh?" she said as she got up.

"Thank you for the tea, and sorry about earlier"

"You are very welcome." Eglantine responded before hurrying off to the potion's professor's office.

((she can now be found in the potion's office))

((Kiara went back to her office))

Eglantine paused right outside of her office door to lean against the wall. Both legs were now throbbing and her side hurt from her uneven gait. Closing her eyes she thought about her conversation with Professor Viper.

But instead of feeling angry at the woman for dragging up memories, she felt almost relieved. It was the first time that she had ever talked about her beloved's death.

Seating herself carefully in her chair, Eglantine ignored her legs and leaned the cane against the inside of the desk. Her hand stole into the top drawer of the desk and withdrew a muggle photo, its image frozen in time.

The man in the picture was ruggedly handsome with deeply set brown eyes, a well kept mustache and short salt and pepper hair. He was smiling at the camera and had jokingly tucked his hand into his breast pocket to mimic how men had posed in old colonial paintings.
She remembered taking the picture, laughing as he scrunched his eyes closed at the bright flash.

(Warning: memories of how her husband died beneath...proceed with caution)




Images, unwanted, flashed into her mind. The same handsome face, pale and drawn. The powerful hands that he used to talk with as much as his mouth; shaking and weak. Blood had been splattered across his countenance.
"Lenty, you need to move on." The words had not been his last, but the other things he had said later on had been swallowed up by her agonized weeping.

(finished)

She sat up, suddenly aware that she had blacked out on her desk. Blinking several times, Eglantine wiped several tears off her face and began to fill out the paper the Headmistress had given her.

Without even bothering to knock, Viper stormed into Eglantine's office in a blind haze of fury.

"What in Circe's name is wrong with you?!?!?!"

Eglantine looked up from the paper. "I beg your pardon?" she asked evenly.

"Storming off on the Headmistress in my office! Honestly! Do you even think about anyone but yourself? What was I supposed to tell the Headmistress? You made it look as though it was all my bloody fault"