19 September 1923
Wednesday, 8:00am
Open Office Hours
Coffee…
So much coffee was needed.
Strong. Black. Hot.
As a single man, whisky would have been his drink of choice, but married with an eleven-year-old who hated her house and an infant who thought sleep was merely a suggestion?
Coffee.
Buckets of it.
They were a few weeks into the term now, and things were finally beginning to settle. As much as life could settle inside a castle filled with several hundred teenagers running almost entirely on poor decisions and hormones.
It was exhausting.
Gideon paced slowly around his office, Theodore tucked securely against his shoulder. Rose was teaching, leaving him in charge of convincing his son that naps were not, in fact, a personal attack.
So far…
The negotiations had failed.
Normally Teddy was an easy baby. He smiled at almost everyone. His favorite person in the world was Fiona, following her around the room with wide blue eyes whenever she came to visit. He was perfectly content to spend half an hour talking to the ceiling, his swing, or whichever stuffed toy happened to be nearby.
Today, however, he had decided that sleeping was for the weak.
"You're tired." Gideon said quietly, gently bouncing him. "I know you're tired. Everyone within earshot knows you're tired. You’re the only person pretending otherwise."
Theodore answered with an unhappy grunt before burying his face against Gideon's neck.
"Exactly."
He continued his slow circuit around the office. Desk. Fireplace. Bookshelf. Window. Repeat.
Somewhere around lap thirty-seven, Teddy's tiny fingers found Gideon's tie and wrapped around it with surprising strength.
"No..." Gideon muttered, carefully trying to rescue the silk from sticky little fingers while trying to convince himself that his son was not trying to choke him out. "That is not a toy, buddy."
The grip only tightened. With a sigh, Gideon surrendered. It wasn’t worth the inevitable cry that would ensue.
A knock sounded at the office door. Gideon looked to the ceiling and groaned. His eyes drifted towards his now cold coffee and sighed. Without looking at the door, continuing his circuit around the office, he called, "Come in."
Tulip entered the office, she'd been here plenty of times before, she visited the Deputy Heads office at least once every couple of weeks when what ever stupid detention failed to teach her an important lesson, or any lesson at all. Professor Crook was discovering that today. After three days of detentions with the potions professor Tulip had gotten bored and decided to make life interesting.
Tulip has also never entered the office in quite this state however. She is multicoloured, her robes are multiple colours, her hair is multiple colours. she has left multicoloured footprints from the potions classroom. And Tulip looks like the cat that got the cream, she looks smug. And inside she is incredibly proud of what she did, she has created beautiful chaos. She had been sat explaining to third years who were also in detention about speakeasys and cocktails and one thing led to another and potions got mixed and explosions and colour occurred. Professor Crook didn't know where to look or who to yell at. It was magnificent.
She steps into the room surveying the scene, apparently she has walked in on the Professor on baby sitting duty, "I can come back if it's a bad time professor." she offered. Hiding the note she had been given to give to the professor from Proff Crook, if it was a bad time she would just hide down by the lake and claim she'd been here the whole time.
Gideon's eyes lifted from Theodore as his office door opened fully. Then, settled on Tulip standing in his doorway. Then slowly looked from her hair, to her robes, to the brightly colored footprints staining his pristine wooden floors.
There was a long pause. Then a drawn out sigh.
Gideon took another sip of his luke warm coffee, looked at Tulip, and chugged the rest before leaving the mug on his desk. He needed every drop of caffeine for this conversation.
"...Miss Asquith."
His voice was resigned, holding no surprise. She was a frequent flyer to his office, so she knew the drill. ”I’d off you a seat, but I like the color of my furniture as it is.”
He looked down at Teddy. "You see this, Teddy? This is why your mother is so tired at the end of the day. We get to deal with allllll kinds of things. All. Day. long." He said, in a sing song voice. The baby answered with a happy little sound.
"Exactly."
Tulip offered to come back later. Gideon gave her a look that said, nice try, then shook his head once.
"No. If Professor Crook sent you here looking like this." His hand gestured vaguely in her direction. "I imagine delaying this won't improve either of our mornings."
He held out his free hand, giving Tulip another once over.
"The note, if you would. Please tell me this is paint.”
He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer.
The look on Proff Blackwood's is priceless and makes Tulip smile, giving her a sense of satisfaction, the unknown potion reactions going on on her robes now utterly worth while. Just for the look on the professors face. She waves at the baby as if this is totally normal, in Tulip's mind this IS totally normal.
see this, Teddy? This is why your mother is so tired at the end of the day. We get to deal with allllll kinds of things. All. Day. long."
Tulip looks at the baby, she didn't remember her own father doing this to any of her younger siblings, he ate with them and then vanished into his study. Tulip and her sisters were pretty much brough up by the house elves. "Hi Teddy," she says when she notices the baby looking over at her, "Do you like the pretty colours?" she asked the baby.
"No. If Professor Crook sent you here looking like this." "I imagine delaying this won't improve either of our mornings."
[b]Tulip looked down at her robes they were rather spectacular "It would probabily improve Professor Crook's morning substantially in fairness sir, as I'm her bothering you not them." she explained. "In my defence it was mostly an accident and I honestly think Professor Crook has blown it all out of proportion as they frequently do, I'm not sure they are suited to teaching they do tend to get hysterical a lot.[l/b] She said trying premt what the professor might find in the letter. Get the warning in before hand. Tulip wasn't intimidated by standing in front of the deputy head, in 7 years she had stood in the many heads and deputy head's offices.
"The note, if you would. Please tell me this is paint
Tulip hands him the note "It isn't paint but if would make you feel better I can say it's paint" she tells him brightly
Gideon stared at Tulip for a long moment. Then at the note in his hand. Then back at Tulip. "You know, Miss Asquith, I appreciate the honesty."
He unfolded the note with one hand, keeping Theodore settled against his shoulder with the other. His eyes moved over the parchment. Once. Twice. His expression slowly flattened.
"So let me get this straight. You were in detention and earned another detention. That takes skill, but at least you’re consistent."
He looked up. Theodore made a small noise against his shoulder. Gideon's entire expression softened immediately.
"Yes, I know, Teddy. Terrible, isn't it?" he said in a soft, sing-song voice. "Some people can’t go three days without creating a problem. Granted she is a Gryffindor, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised."
His eyes lifted back to Tulip. The softness disappeared. Reserved only for his son.
"You are aware that 'mostly an accident' is not a defense?"
He tossed the note on his desk, not needing to look at it anymore, it would be added to her bulging file later.
"You were in detention because of your previous behavior. During that detention, you somehow mixed several potions and there was an explosion, and now you are covered in whatever that is."
He paused, choosing his words carefully, and delivering them slowly. "And your defense is that Professor Crook is hysterical.” He made a point to look from her toes to the tip of her head and back down to the floor. ”It’s an absolute mystery why that would be.”
Gideon shook his head slowly.
"Bold defence. Unfortunately, I don’t buy it. You are a seventh year student, you should have learned by now the importance of handling potions correctly. This could have ended very badly."
He adjusted Teddy, who had begun chewing thoughtfully on the edge of his tie. Sighing, Gideon kissed his son on the side of his head. "I should just stop wearing ties all together.”
A small smile crossed his face before he looked back at Tulip. ”Please, sit down, Miss Asquith. I would like to discuss what you see as a fitting punishment in this case. You’ve experienced so many at this point, I dare say you may be an expert.”
He watched as she sat, hoping the colors stayed on her and didn’t transfer to his furniture. ”Do you have anything to add to your defence? Or shall we move on?”
Tulip watched as the professor read over the parchment, she saw him read it once, and then twice she tried not to smile, a double read, that means the first time was so ludicrous he had to check again. That was going in her journal, caused professor Blackwood to read my detention note twice she tried not to smirk that was a dead giveaway to doing something deliberately.
"So let me get this straight. You were in detention and earned another detention. That takes skill, but at least you’re consistent."
Tulip thought about it, "Actually I was half way through a week of detentions," she corrected "Did Proff Crook miss that bit out?" she was clearly unrepenting of what she had done to get the first set of detentions. The professor made a comment about her not being able to go three days without causing trouble, "It's actually improved since my first year we used to measure it in hours rather than days." she corrected him.
"You are aware that 'mostly an accident' is not a defense?"
"You were in detention because of your previous behavior. During that detention, you somehow mixed several potions and there was an explosion, and now you are covered in whatever that is."
Tulip nodded as if it was the most simple thing in the whole world, "Er yes?" she answered mostly an accident was her defence. "By mostly an accident I didn't set out to cause the explosion by mixing the potions, that just sort of happened" She started to explain "Thus it was mostly an accident. I don't deny mixing the ingredients caused the explosion. The reason for it doing so was more involved. I was actually chatting with some 3rd years who were also in detention about Magical and Muggle international affairs. Specifically that of Magical and Muggle society in America, my older sister lives there, she's an ex-Gryffindor too, she's an actress, anyway we were discussing the Prohibition over there. They no longer allow Muggles and Witches and Wizards to drink alcohol." she made it sound so scandalising "My sister had recently attended a speakeasy which are underground establishments were they can still get alcohol and she had been telling me about the cocktails they did. The third years had asked what a cocktail was an how one would make them, and one potion led to another, there was some shaking a large bang and lots of pretty colours", she indicated her robes and hair, she was seriously considering keeping the hair.
"And your defense is that Professor Crook is hysterical.” It’s an absolute mystery why that would be.”
Tulip looked at Blackwood as if he had just landed, "No Sir, Professor Crook is just Hysterical normally, they weren't more or less hysterical because of this, they get like this a lot, they are always screaming and yelling 'too much knife pressure on that root, you are a fraction of a second too fast with your stirring, that slice of leaf doesn't conform to Pythagorean theorem' that sort of thing" she said doing an convincing Professor Crook impression, Tulip honestly believed someone needed to start spiking their coffee with some calming draught.
"Bold defence. Unfortunately, I don’t buy it. You are a seventh year student, you should have learned by now the importance of handling potions correctly. This could have ended very badly."
Tulip thought about this for a moment, mulling the answer around in her head, "That is a fair point professor," she started, "And may be it's sheer skill rather than luck that all that I have done is create some pretty coloured robes and some wicked hair colours rather than done any serious damage." She thought that was a good defence "Not to mention the 3rd years would have a hands on demonstration of why they shouldn't mix what looks like random potions and ingredients, rather than just being told it's a bad idea, perhaps if I'd had more practical demonstrations in the lower school I would not have had to try so many of my own things to find the errors in many of my ways" she tried to change to show she was in fact doing the school a service.
Please, sit down, Miss Asquith. I would like to discuss what you see as a fitting punishment in this case. You’ve experienced so many at this point, I dare say you may be an expert.”
Tulip looked at the chair, well there were always plenty of good cleaning charms, she watched as the baby ate the tie, it was hard to be intimidated by a professor who's tie was being mauled by a small child. "Punishment, well yes sir I may be an expert I've had one or two detentions in my time" she said trying to sound humble "Well it depends do you want a punishment to fit the crime, a learning experience or an act of mind numbing boredom, or something more akin to the punishment of the ancient Greek gods?" she asked, she'd pretty much done at least all of those at least once. It very much depended on the creativeness of the professor, and after a while she found some professors actually ran out of ideas and just stopped giving detentions.
”Do you have anything to add to your defence? Or shall we move on?”
"Well I would suggest moving on as your little one seems to want to eat your tie so it probably hungry, or teething, Poppy started on biting clothes when she was teething then started biting people. And it's no use making them wait on my punishment." She said remarking on one of her younger sisters, she didn't add Poppy still bit people now and that probably wasn't due to teething.
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