And you will know me by the trail of dead.
Am writing this on very little sleep; the weekend was quite busy and I've not had a moment to just be still with a cup of tea, until now.
Charlie Weasley arrived very early Saturday morning, a bit later than expected (apparently there was some trouble with getting a live Norweigan Ridgeback through Wizard Customs). The day was spent getting Norbert - or rather, Norberta, as it turns out - settled in her temporary paddock in the Forbidden Forest, which she seemed to take to quite well.
Charlie's assistant had begged off coming to Hogwarts after a nasty incident involving a Fireball with a headcold, and so Hagrid graciously offered to babysit while I took Charlie up into the castle to show him his rooms for the week, as well as to see knight_to_h3 and blushcrush, as well as percyneedsalife in from Hogsmeade.
I've never in my life seen so much red hair and freckles at once.
After the little reunion we went to my office to go over the specifics of Sunday's lecture, but I'm afraid we spent most of the time chatting, so much so that I completely lost track of the time. It was very late when Charlie left; I sent him along with some hot tea and cakes, an apology to Hagrid - though I doubt very much he minded looking after Norberta.
The lecture Sunday morning went very well, despite a few dodgy moments here and there (Hufflepuff showing up in all-weather gear, discontent mutterings, etc). As attentive as the Slytherin females and a certain Gryffindor were I expect that they will get absolutely smashing results on their exams this year, without fail. There was also some sort of funny business involving a certain angst-ridden Ravenclaw, but I will just pretend that I don't know anything about that.
I did notice a few members of the faculty had turned up to observe, and I do appreciate it. jadedsirius's talk went over very well, as did Charlie's, and almost everyone seemed to enjoy meeting Norberta, while others enjoyed being reunited.
Afterwards, I awarded knight_to_h3 fifty points to Gryffindor for assisting me, and as a joke I gave Charlie twenty points as well. I suppose he found it amusing, for he laughed and called me "Professor" for the rest of the day. Strange fellow. We then retired Norberta to her paddock and Hagrid was more than willing to keep an eye on her again, so that Charlie and I could head up to Hogsmeade for a celebratory pint at the Three Broomsticks.
While there, we found a very sulky jadedsirius drinking a disgustingly foul concoction that looked like something potions_master might whip up to remove boils, or perhaps strip paint. Sirius called it a 'wheat grass energy smoothie'. I called it something else. Sirius was of course offended, so much so that I wound up inviting him to join us to make up for it. He accepted very reluctantly but I know he was secretly pleased. Sirius hates being excluded.
There was conversation, butterbeer, tall tales from our youth and much gossip that followed. And I regretted every bloody second of it, for reasons I'm not going to go into, except to say that jadedsirius has the biggest, fattest sodding mouth, and very little brain to go with it. The stupid git. I'd hex him but I don't want to waste perfectly good magic.
And so, I give you this:
Another retrospective from days of yore: Sirius, during his "I wanna be a cowboy!" phase.
Now to go and deal with the dragon-tamer currently sniggering behind me.
Charlie Weasley arrived very early Saturday morning, a bit later than expected (apparently there was some trouble with getting a live Norweigan Ridgeback through Wizard Customs). The day was spent getting Norbert - or rather, Norberta, as it turns out - settled in her temporary paddock in the Forbidden Forest, which she seemed to take to quite well.
Charlie's assistant had begged off coming to Hogwarts after a nasty incident involving a Fireball with a headcold, and so Hagrid graciously offered to babysit while I took Charlie up into the castle to show him his rooms for the week, as well as to see knight_to_h3 and blushcrush, as well as percyneedsalife in from Hogsmeade.
I've never in my life seen so much red hair and freckles at once.
After the little reunion we went to my office to go over the specifics of Sunday's lecture, but I'm afraid we spent most of the time chatting, so much so that I completely lost track of the time. It was very late when Charlie left; I sent him along with some hot tea and cakes, an apology to Hagrid - though I doubt very much he minded looking after Norberta.
The lecture Sunday morning went very well, despite a few dodgy moments here and there (Hufflepuff showing up in all-weather gear, discontent mutterings, etc). As attentive as the Slytherin females and a certain Gryffindor were I expect that they will get absolutely smashing results on their exams this year, without fail. There was also some sort of funny business involving a certain angst-ridden Ravenclaw, but I will just pretend that I don't know anything about that.
I did notice a few members of the faculty had turned up to observe, and I do appreciate it. jadedsirius's talk went over very well, as did Charlie's, and almost everyone seemed to enjoy meeting Norberta, while others enjoyed being reunited.
Afterwards, I awarded knight_to_h3 fifty points to Gryffindor for assisting me, and as a joke I gave Charlie twenty points as well. I suppose he found it amusing, for he laughed and called me "Professor" for the rest of the day. Strange fellow. We then retired Norberta to her paddock and Hagrid was more than willing to keep an eye on her again, so that Charlie and I could head up to Hogsmeade for a celebratory pint at the Three Broomsticks.
While there, we found a very sulky jadedsirius drinking a disgustingly foul concoction that looked like something potions_master might whip up to remove boils, or perhaps strip paint. Sirius called it a 'wheat grass energy smoothie'. I called it something else. Sirius was of course offended, so much so that I wound up inviting him to join us to make up for it. He accepted very reluctantly but I know he was secretly pleased. Sirius hates being excluded.
There was conversation, butterbeer, tall tales from our youth and much gossip that followed. And I regretted every bloody second of it, for reasons I'm not going to go into, except to say that jadedsirius has the biggest, fattest sodding mouth, and very little brain to go with it. The stupid git. I'd hex him but I don't want to waste perfectly good magic.
And so, I give you this:
Another retrospective from days of yore: Sirius, during his "I wanna be a cowboy!" phase.
Now to go and deal with the dragon-tamer currently sniggering behind me.