wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure

[alittlemirror]

To say Jade is displeased would be an understatement. It's not that he cares about this detention tarnishing his record, no. He doesn't really care about his record. What he does care about is how it cuts into his studying time. He had just come across a particularly fascinating snippet on the nature of death and the soul...

(And besides, those Hufflepuffs had started it with their incessant chattering. They're like a less annoying version of Saphir, and nobody had ever really objected when he hexed Saphir. And it's not like he used a serious hex; he just sealed and removed their mouths. Easily reversible, if they knew what they were doing - and knew how to use nonverbal spells.

After all, what kind of first-year doesn't know how to use nonverbal spells?)

But someone had taken offense to his hex, and now he finds himself trudging to Professor Rammsteiner's office, growing increasingly irritated at the loss of his study time. From what he's heard of detentions, they usually entail doing useless, mundane tasks easily accomplished with a little creative wandwork. He's thought about ignoring Professor Rammsteiner's orders more than once, but he's also been told that it would just lead to more detentions and thus a bigger waste of time.

Oh well. He's here now. With one last irritated sigh, he raises his hand to the door and knocks.

"Professor Rammsteiner? This is Jade Curtiss."

Comments

[alittlemirror]

They're still on this topic? Jade sighs out loud this time, his small frown growing more pronounced.

"I can demonstrate, if you want." It doesn't even sound like a threat, just a genuine offer. He can't get into trouble for hexing a teacher if it's with their permission, right?

[canicide]

Heine balks at the thought of letting any student practice on him. Any kind of magic, and certainly not a hex.

But he is curious.

There's a box of cigarettes on his desk. Heine picks it up, turns it over in his hand, and on the second turn it becomes a white cockatoo, clucking and fluttering its wings.

Heine holds on to its feet and extends his arm to the side. Hopefully the kid's at least got aim.

[alittlemirror]

He's been at Hogwarts long enough that even the skill required to perform nonverbal transfiguration fails to impress him, especially when the result is something as commonplace as a cockatoo. It only gets one unimpressed look, then he looks back to Professor Rammsteiner.

"I don't know how it works on non-humans," he warns, but his wand is already out and pointed at the cockatoo. Let it never be said that Jade is adverse to trying new things.

Claudereos, he thinks, the tip of his wand moving in a subtle, precise figure-eight movement, ending with a flick. Suddenly, the cockatoo's clucking stops as its upper and lower beak snaps together and begins to fuse. For a moment longer, the bird continues to make muffled panicked sounds, but even that dies away as its tongue wells and fuses to the roof of its mouth, until its oral cavity is one solid mass.

Jade watches, unaffected, calmly slipping his wand back up the sleeve of his robes.

[canicide]

But he tries it, and more than that, succeeds, which does make an impression on Heine. He watches closely both Jade's motions and then the effects on the bird. While it's still clucking he moves it to get a closer look, grasping it by the neck and head firmly but not harshly.

Completely gone. Heine waits for a moment longer, in case the hex is weakly cast enough to dispell itself. When it isn't, he smooths his hand over the bird from head to tail and it's cigarettes again.

How is he supposed to treat children again? He's probably best off giving the kid some menial labor to do, but he really doesn't have any to assign. And as for trying to make someone feel remorse, Heine isn't the type either, so he's got nothing to offer.

"How'd you pick up nonverbal casting?"

[alittlemirror]

Maybe it's time to resign himself to the questioning. Professor Rammsteiner doesn't seem very interested in making him feel sorry, so he won't.

The question is met with another shrug. "I read about it." Yes, he's a bookworm. "Then I taught myself."

It wasn't any great feat, no more than teaching himself that hex was. Magic had always come naturally to him. It also happens to be his only interest. Natural talent (or maybe unnatural? He knows his parents and neighbours thought that way) coupled with intensive study ensured that very little challenged him, and what did challenge him, he tackled with grim determination until he succeeded.

He wants to know everything. He knows that's impossible now, after all that had happened, but he still wants to know as much as he can.

[canicide]

At least now he knows the kid reads a lot. Heine isn't sure what value that observation has, however, and starts fiddling with the cigarettes for lack of anything else to do with his hands. Despite having a wand, it's not constantly in his hands, used as he is to magic without it.

"What else have you taught yourself?"

[alittlemirror]

He looks at Professor Rammsteiner's hands rather than his face. It looks like the Professor has a lot of experience playing around with cigarette boxes, although he's not sure what that says about him - if anything.

"A lot," he answers. He's not bragging, although it might seem that way. He's simply stating facts. "Are you going to test me?"

[canicide]

"What? No." This isn't a class. Though it is a classroom. Heine spins the carton once more on the desk and then stops it with his palm.

"I'm not supposed to hex students either. Unless you want that to be your detention." Maybe they can go into the Enchanted Forest and collect crap for Herbology? Or for Care of Magical Creatures? That seems painful enough to be punishment...

[alittlemirror]

Oh. A test would be more interesting than this pointless talk they're having. At this point, Jade is half-tempted to accept the offer of being hexed, but his pride stops him. If there's one area of magic he has no skill in, it's healing and restorative spells. He'll have to go to the Hospital Wing if he really does get hexed, and he hates being reminded of his limitations.

So he shakes his head with another frown. "Then what are we doing? You didn't plan this out, did you?"

Respect for teachers, what's that...

[canicide]

"No." Straight-up, no, he didn't plan this. When giving detention Heine usually foists it off on one of the other professors who always need some hard labor done.

"I'll find something for you to do. Come on."

The Herbology professor has their list of requirements, which he'd offered to pick up things for in repayment for the massive favor of not having to teach the subject. It's traditionally Hufflepuff and all, but God knows he's not suited for plants.

A deep area of the Forbidden Forest he shouldn't be bringing students to, now... that he can do. Heine gets up from behind his desk, patting himself down reflexively to ensure that his wand is in the pocket of the robe he's wearing over decidedly not-wizardy jeans, t-shirt, and canvas sneakers. He leads the way out of the classroom and starts down the stairs in a slouch.

[alittlemirror]

He didn't plan this. He really didn't plan this. Jade's irritation is more pronounced than ever as he stares up at Professor Rammsteiner with narrowed eyes. This is a waste of time.

But, fine, it looks like Professor Rammsteiner is finally ready for them to get started. Hopefully he can be out of detention within the hour. He's a little curious when the Professor rises to his feet, but the majority of his focus remains far away, on that tome he had found earlier this morning.

"We're going somewhere?" He asks, ready for it to be some place boring. He's heard that cleaning up the dungeons was a common detention.

[canicide]

Heine remains the worst professor.

Especially when he casually replies, "Yeah, the forest." He waits a moment for the moving stairs to set them down at the right place and walks more quickly, not caring if Jade's little legs have to work faster to keep up.

[alittlemirror]

Professor Rammsteiner is probably walking faster on purpose, is he? It's a good thing the mention of the forest takes Jade by surprise, or he might have (lazily) kept to his old pace. As it is, he speeds up to a slow trot, keeping pace with the Professor.

"The Forbidden Forest?" He asks, with a slight emphasis on the Forbidden part of the name. Not that he doesn't want to go - the opposite, really - he's just making sure that's where they're really going.

[canicide]

"Yeah. Why, you got a problem?" Heine goes down the last flight of stairs and shoves his hands into his pocket as he goes out a side door, slowing his pace at last as they start crossing the stretch of lawn that separates the building from the forest.

The sun is setting. Seawort grows only in the light of the moon, but it'll take them a while to get to the deep part of the woods where it grows. Of course, nightfall also spells the beginning of many creatures' active periods, but it is what it is. Heine just hopes the kid will shut up at some point.

[alittlemirror]

Unfortunately for Heine, 'shutting up' is not a skill within a Ravenclaw's repertoire. Jade shakes his head, then immediately asks another question: "Why?"

Maybe he should be scared. The forest must be forbidden for a reason. But he won't get anywhere by being scared, and he had thought about looking around the forest before anyway.

[canicide]

"I told Rokeby I'd pick seawort for her next class," Heine eventually replies. They're coming up on the edge of the forest now, and he comes to a stop, finally, just under the shade of the first trees.

"We'll be going in pretty far. If you see something or someone, tell me. Don't wander off."

And with that enthusiastic warning, they're off. Heine walks quickly, constantly scanning the area around them for anything out of the ordinary.

[alittlemirror]

"Okay." Even Jade has a little instinct for self-preservation. He's been told over and over again that the forest is dangerous, and while that doesn't scare him away, he knows he has to stay on guard.

Hand never far away from his wand, he follows after Professor Rammsteiner. The temperature seems to drop as soon as they step under the shadow of the first trees; he shivers a little, also glancing back and forth.

Dead leaves and twigs crunch under his feet as they walk, the sounds of the nighttime forest surrounding them. Jade remains vigilant, following calmly after Professor Rammsteiner, not a hint of fear to be seen.

[canicide]

Heine's glad that he's at least quieted down a bit. He'd seen seawort on his last expedition into the Forbidden Forest, so he has an idea of where it is, but he has to concentrate to not let the trees all blend together.

From time to time there comes an odd sound from the trees around them—human-like cries, birds chirping, the footsteps of something much larger than a human. Heine ignores most of it, until he spots the flash of yellow eyes more than once—following them.

He takes up his wand with his left hand, and keeps walking.

[alittlemirror]

Noticing Professor Rammsteiner's movement, Jade takes out his wand as well, although he's unsure why they're doing so. Is there some sort of danger incoming? He hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

"What is it?" He asks quietly, looking around, trying to see for himself. But it's hard to see anything in the dense undergrowth, and harder still to distinguish one object from the next. The shadows seem to knit together, forming a fathomless darkness impossible to penetrate.

[canicide]

"Might be nothing." But of course, better safe than sorry. He's on edge now, prepared to cast a spell if he sees a thing.

But first, he sees the seawort. Heine comes to a stop by the patch of it, looking up to see the moonlight streaming through the trees to light them a faintly glowing pale blue-green.

"Here. These flowers." He walks around them, searching the woods around them for any sign of movement again, even as he directs Jade. "Pick at the base of the stem."

[alittlemirror]

He doesn't even let out a noise of acknowledgement before he has wand pointed at the softly glowing flowers. With a casual wave of his wand, he plucks a cluster of three flowers out from soil, sending them floating into the air and into his free hand.

(Because he's apparently above kneeling down and picking flowers out from the ground is too much effort.)

"How many do you need?" He asks, already "picking" another cluster of flowers.

[canicide]

Looking around them, Heine is occupied and only replies, "I said at the stem, not out of the dirt." There are twigs cracking and trees groaning; too much clutter to listen through.

He casts a ward and silence falls like a blanket over them, the magic filtering out sounds coming from anything that doesn't mean them harm.

Perhaps sensing the magic, something growls outside the clearing.

[alittlemirror]

"You didn't answer the question," Jade retorts, wand moving in a sharp swiping motion. The severed roots fall back into the dirt. "Does it even matter how I pick them? It'd be faster if I pick them all out of the dirt and we cut them at the stem when we're back in the castle."

Herbology isn't his strong suit. Oh, he's interested in the results of herbology - the potion components, the useful talismans that can be created from plants - but the process of taking care of plants? He'll leave that to someone else.

The growling gives him pause, however. His eyes flick over the clearing even as he speaks, and he makes no move to pluck another bunch of flowers out of the dirt. It looks like he might have need of his wand soon, and he'd rather not die because he was too busy picking flowers.

This is the most poorly thought out detention ever.

[canicide]

"You have to cut them before picking. It fu—messes up the potion if you don't." Kids probably don't care if he curses, but other professors do. Heine frowns.

He's starting to see rushes of motion between the trees, and more than one.

"Hurry up."

Heine makes no offer to help. It's still detention, after all.

[alittlemirror]

He sees those rushes of motion as well. What he doesn't do is hurry up. If anything, he's more disinterested in the flowers than ever.

"Shouldn't we take care of those first?" He asks, eyes fixed on the shadows, wand at the ready.