Care of Magical Creatures Professor's Office/Room

This is the room that belongs to the Care of Magical Creatures professor. It can serve as a room and office, for those who teach the class, or just an office for those who teach the class and are also titled with Head of House.

The room contains two couches that surround a fireplace next to a small library and office desk, as well as a large dining table with a door that leads to a small bedroom.

Care of Magical Creatures Professor's Office/Room Bedroo10

The bag containing various books and clothes fell to the floor as Eleonora stepped into her new office. It looked just the same as it did seven years ago when she had been all bright eyed and anxious to tell the then current occupant that she had been accepted as an intern for the ministry's beast department. The large sofas still sat facing a fireplace that had not been used in ages. Eleonora could almost trick herself into seeing the slight depression her frame had made in those same cushions as she sat after class discussing with her old professor. The bookcases lining the wall nearby were dusty with a faint smell of old paper wafting out from the many pages of yellowing books. It all held a very nostalgic feel to it, like she had just stepped through a portal into her school days.

Truthfully she had not thought much about those years in a long time. Her time at Hogwarts had been largely forgettable. With only one or two close friends most of her time had been spent studying in the library or wandering the grounds in search of the creatures her professor had told her about it. It was almost like a game. He would explain to her a certain magical creature, usually an average every day one that she had never heard about in her muggle childhood, and she would spend hours exploring the grounds looking for a specimen. Her best memories of Hogwarts were the ones she had digging in the mud around the Black Lake, or combing the tall grass fields by the Quidditch Pitch. Unfortunately this pastime looked very odd to any onlookers and deterred most other students from talking to her.

Taking a seat at the big oak desk before her, Eleonora pondered how she was going to take over this position that had influenced her life so much. After a few days of traveling back and forth between her flat in London and the makeshift pen she had set up for her rapidly growing hippogriffs in Gloucestershire she realized she needed a more permanent solution. A job and a place to keep possibly dangerous class three magical creatures...did she even know of anywhere like that? It had hit her quite suddenly. So in short order she had somehow become the new Care for Magical Creatures Professor at Hogwarts. Now the only thing to worry about was figuring out how to do her job.

She was teaching first years through fifth years, so ages eleven through fifteen. She wasn't too worried about the younger kids, little kids behaved closer to animals than people anyway, right? She was sure she could keep their attention with the type of creature hunts and non dangerous animals she had loved so much when she was that age. The older ones, though, might be a bit more difficult. How was she going to get a bunch of teenagers interested in magical creatures? She hoped something marginally safe came to her before classes started.

Eleonora picked up a quill from the desk and placed a sheet of parchment before. It was time to get started and hope for the best.

Eleanie found herself not in bed this Saturday morning like many occupants of Hogwarts Castle but trudging down the corridors, secret passageways and moving staircases to see none other than the Care of Magical Creature's professor herself. A coat of icy frost covered the glass of each and every window, darkening the corridors more than usual. The torches were lite, but a chill settled in the air that even Eleanie couldn't shake off as she coiled herself up with her gold and red scarf. She could hear, but not see the splatter of rain against the stone wall as spring transition to fall.

Her pace was indicative of her mood, slow and haphazardly. her steps were not in a straight line as she zig and zag across the cold stone floors. If anyone saw her, people would have thought she was dipping into some firewhiskey until sunrise. Just what she needed was another rumor about her spreading around like venereal disease. Thankfully she meet no one alive nor dead, not a living soul as she reach the fourth floor staircase.

She turn the corner, tracing her fingers on the edges and crevasses of each stone slap, listening to the rhythmic rain pound against the unmovable Hogwarts' walls, and the creaking of the suits of armor. Sometimes she wonder if the empty suits were alive, and had ears, listening to everyone's conversations, every word and whisper retained, and that is how rumors spread so quickly. It was just a thought that she could not pondered any further seeing as how she stood in front of Saggy Ms. Eleanora's office door. Which should have taken five minutes, ten minutes tops, to get Eleanora's office took her quite a bit longer. She did not want to be here. She could have been asleep in the girl's dormitory or slipping away to spend the morning in the Forbidden Forrest, but no, grudgingly she had to spent the morning with Eleanora.

She blamed all of this on Eleanora at first, but it was really Professor Grace's fault that she was here. Eleanie could have warm herself out of detention and hide in the shadows at the back of every Care of Magical Creature class for the benefit of both Eleanora and herself, but than Professor Creeper showed up and ruined it. Now she had no choice but serve this detention and the next she had this afternoon. What a waste of a perfectly good Saturday.

She wasted another five minutes holding onto the door handle as she pondered what would happen if she just did not show up to either of the detentions, but it wasn't worth getting expelled over it so she managed to bang quite loudly on the door. Her conjecture was that Eleanora could have been deaf from taking care of Banshees, but honestly she wanted to scare/annoy the wits out of her professor.

The fire had burned low over the night, now only embers emitting little warmth and glow. The morning cold seeped in through the windows and under the doors leaving an icy chill. Frost covered the window panes, obscuring the grounds and the dreary weather outside. The light in the Care of Magical Creatures office was a flickering glow that threw shadows across the walls and left the dark corners untouched. The desk at the far side of the room was cluttered with papers and open books that was evidence of incomplete lesson planning. A small white cat was laying atop the parchment, one eye open to survey the going ons of the silent office.

Eleonora was laying curled up on the couch by the fire, a book strewn open on the floor. Her eyelids fluttered in dreams as the cool air rushed over her sleeping form. It was not an unusual occurrence for her to fall asleep laying before the fire instead of her own bed. She was up until late reading about new discoveries in the magical creature world and was lulled into slumber by the gentle tapping of rain on the window. Her sleep had been fitful and restless as of late. Her mind never seemed to stop worrying over her new profession and students. It was as if her whole life had turned upside too quickly and her body was still living out its old habits, refusing to change and adapt. She spent many stray thoughts on wondering if it was going to get any easier.

A banging was invading her dreamscape. At first it was faint, merely a tapping keeping time with her phantom steps. It grew louder, incessant. Eleonora was roused from her sleep, drowsy and blurry eyed. It took her a moment to realize the drum like banging was coming from her office door. Wondering who would be needing her at such an hour, she stretched feline like up from the couch. Her muscles were sore from a night curled up and a the chill of her room was registering in her body. She grabbed her wand from a side table and pointed it at the fire place gently whispering confringo and watched as the wood exploded into a cheery fire.

The banging was becoming impatient and Eleonora rushed to the door, tugging her sweater closer to her body. She caught sight of herself in a mirror along the way and frowned at the disarray that was her hair. She looked as if she had just rolled out of bed, which she had. Trying without success to calm her tangled hair Eleonora reached the door and pulled it open.

The shock on her face must have been noticeable. Eleanie was standing before her, her gloomy mood coming off of her in waves. Eleonora had not expected her to ever show up for her detention, let alone so early in the morning. Her mind raced thinking of what she could possibly have the girl do. She self-consciously pulled her hair away from her face as she looked at Eleanie.

“Ms L, good morning. Please, come in.” Eleonora stepped aside leaving room for her to enter the room. “Would you care for some tea before we get started today?” She had no idea what the proper decorum was for a detention, never having received one in all her years at Hogwarts.

Just beyond where her troubles lies, movement could be heard coming from inside. A congealing array of sounds happen almost all at once: the whooshing crackle of the fire spring back to life, the fluttering of papers like leaves against the wind, and light footsteps coming closer to the door. Eleanora greeted Eleanie with courtesy were all Eleanie had was contempt. She hid her pleasure of waking the professor, seeing the fragile disarray the professor was in. Instead she held up a mask of indifference. “Hello Ms. Valente,” she said haven’t learn one thing from gaining two detentions and a deduction of house points.

Eleanie did not move into the room as Ms. Valente wanted, seeing as she stepped aside, holding the door open for her to come in. She regarded the professor with suspicion and it showed in the smoky blue eyes of hers. Even though she spent numerous times with professors, remembering the laundry list of detentions she got the last two years, she did not once been offer tea or any sort of beverage. All she got was grueling task to perform, or mediocre lines to write till dawn, but this she regarded in suspicion.

“No, thank you,” she said. She did not trust Ms. Valente or the drink she offered, seeing as how easily a drink could be taunted. Finally after minutes standing in the corridor, Eleanie slowly slipped through the opening and into Ms. Valente’s office. The room was as expected, generic in every way, shape and form. The only life that was brought into this room was a white feline perched up on a desk and the roaring fire crackling away on the other end. Even though the warmth of the fire had not return to the office yet, the smell of pine infused the air. She would know her trees anywhere.

Instead of the comfortable confines of the coach near the fire, seeing as how the chill crept into her bones, she chose the feline. A genuine smile playing at her lips as she approach the ball of fur. She did not pet nor approached any farther than where the hardback chair stood, as the feline watched her watching him/her. Animals were meant to be seen, but not subjected to the whims of man, unless they saw fit to do so.

Remembering what she was there for, her smile slipped off her face. “Ms. Valente, In my spare time have made up the lost time for missing class,” she said pushing up her baggy sweater, before digging into her handbag to retrieve two parchment papers.

(Don’t want this post to be too long so I will post the report in the next post.)

Eleonora had to stand in the doorway for a moment, feeling the cold air further invade her office, until Eleanie finally walked past her and into the room. She felt her sharp eyes as they took in her frazzled appearance, no doubt seeing it as unprofessional at best. She wished she would not have overslept. If she had known Eleanie was going to actually show up she would have tidied up her space and made herself more presentable. Eleonora never liked unexpected guests, they took away her time to plan and prepare her words ahead of time.

Watching Eleanie look around Eleonora hide a smile as she saw her stop by the cat on her desk. Her lips were parted in a smile that did not hold any mocking or attitude, but genuine pleasure. So she did like animals after all. While that made Eleonora happy it also forced her to realize Eleanie's problem with her class wasn't about the material itself, but about her. There wasn't much she could do about that and she wouldn't even know where to start if there was. It was hard enough getting adults to enjoy her company but a surly teenager? Eleonora's hope of ever getting Eleanie to stop being rude plummeted.

Eleanie pulled some parchment out of her bag, handing it over. Another surprise. Maybe she had misjudged her. Eleonora gave it a cursory glance before placing it on her desk amidst the clutter. If she had done the assignment there was not much of a reason to keep her here very long. Eleonora had planned on making her way to Hogsmeade today for some supplies and was loathe to forgo it in order to watch over a student in detention. She quickly ran through her tasks for the day trying to find one that would suit Eleanie. She appeared to like the cat well enough, perhaps she could help with other soft creatures.

"Thank you for making up the assignment. I don't want to keep you too long, but I do have something small I'd like you to do. I need to get these puffskeins from another lesson washed and cleaned up. They all happened to get sticky and dirty somehow. Please fill that tub over there with warm water and soap and give them a bath. They don't mind water so it shouldn't be difficult. I'll be here working on lessons if you have a question." Eleonora motioned to a basket on a far table full of the softly cooing puffskeins. She hoped that this was something that Eleanie wouldn't mind doing, but it was also something she wouldn't choose to do, so it was still a punishment, right?

Eleanie parted with the parchment papers, seeing them bounce back into scrolled up pieces of paper, before being reopened by Eleanora. One parchment was a rather thorough essay that took her better part of the evening to finish it. The second parchment which was half concealed by the first had a drawing,

Under a hundred year old oak tree, the roots grown deep into the soil while the branches reached to the heavens, two Snidgets could be found hovering over the roots in midair as if doing a courtship dance mating ritual. The fleck of light streaming through the trees and darkness of the shaded tree was executed by only a Graphite pencil. As the eyes moved across the art, rough edges and lines of the tree trunk and the gnarled roots, with the softness of the leaves and the walnut size snidgets, they were in perfect harmony with each other.

Golden Snidget

Golden Snidgets a rare and majestic bird found in Europe. They are plump, wal-nut size creature with golden feather, long curve beaks and red eyes. The thinness, length and curvature of the beak suggest that its food preference is warms in soft soil. The skeletal structures of the Snidgets are frailer than most birds and easily susceptible to injury or death by simply falling out of a tree or by human grip. They are also known for their speed and natural flying ability, able to change directions in an instant due to its rotating joints and rapid wing flaps.

The Magical Classification of Golden Snidgets is at level four because of the laws and sanctions in place to protect the species. Other classifications include Beast, none sentient without almost human like intelligence, Kingdom Animilia and branches off under the classification Aves.

The sudden decline of the species in the thirteenth century was due to multiple of factors. Hunting and gaming wildlife had few laws regulating the amount of species that could be slaughtered during that era, especially when the game caught a high price. Golden Snidgets were one of these sought after species because of their golden feathers and red eyes. Both the feathers and eyes were used in archaic potion practices, and even in the dark arts. Not only were they useful for potion research during that era, they were a sign of wealth and beauty during the height of the slaughtering of Golden Snidgets. Lipstick used the eyes of the Snidget to get that red glowing shimmer, and the golden feathers were used instead of peacock feathers in Noblemans’ hats.

In the midst of a Quidditch match at Cauditch in 1269, a man in the stands known as Barberus Bragge, newly appointed chief of the wizard council, released a Snidget out onto the field, and stated whoever retrieves the snidget will receive 150 Galleons. Modesty Rabnott of Kent, thought Barberus Bragge’s actions were barbaric and cruel, but her protest went unnoticed so she took action and summon the Snidget and fled the Quidditch match. She was caught and paid heavy fines but not before releasing the snidget back into the wild. Modesty Rabnott’s efforts where in vien as Quidditch introduce Snidget-capturing in their games and added another 7th member to catch the bird.

This went on for centuries before the Ministry establish the Golden Snidget Protection Act of 1354, one of many acts abolishing Snidget-hunting and declared them a protective species. More laws were drafted creating reservation for the Snidgets in Somerset known as Modesty Rabnott Snidget Reservation. This prompted an inventor, Bowmen Write, to create the snitch as the new quidditch ball to replace the Snidgets. Snidget-hunting, capturing and/or injury are severely punishable by the Ministry leading to heavy fines even imprisonment.

As the species became more abundant and was taken off the endanger species list, Byron Kerchivick in 2082 wrote a bill trying to reenact the Snidget-hunting as a sport because the snidgets kept eating his precious warms. Both pros to the bills and cons to the bills were evenly divided. People in and around the Snidget reservation stated that they were more like pest tearing up gardens and preventing them from development and expansion of cities. The Wizard Council voted to three fourth voted in favor of the Environmentalist, preventing wizards and witches for hunting snidget as sport.

Returning to her desk, Eleonora picked up the parchment Eleanie had handed her. The first sheet was her essay, clearly written and legible. She took time to read the paper in detail this time, checking the facts in her head. It was very well done. Eleanie must have spent quite some time in the library doing research and crafting her responses. It was more than she had expected from any of her students, honestly.

The next sheet of parchment caught Eleonora's eyes in amazement. A drawing covered the whole page, expertly done. A whole scene was drawn out, tree, snidgets, and all. Eleonora didn't know much about art but she could tell this must have taken patience and a delicate hand. The artist love for her work could be seen in the light shading and tedious lines. She tore her eyes from the picture and over to Eleanie. This girl couldn't possibly be just another rude student. The drawing had too much emotion conveyed in it, too many hidden secrets. Eleonora felt a pang in her heart, wishing she could see the Eleanie who had made this drawing, not the Eleanie who spoke out in her class.

Bringing her eyes back to the parchment Eleonora thought about all of the other students she had met. They must all be like this, hiding parts of themselves from the professors, only showing what they thought was right. She would never get to know them as real people, not unless something out of the ordinary were to occur. This was just another situation were Eleonora was interacting only a surface level, not really connecting. She had yet to even make connections with any of the other adults in the school, people who wouldn't need to put up a false front. It made her feel terribly lonely.

"This drawing is wonderful, Eleanie." Elenora's voice was far off and quiet, full of her inner emotions.

Eleanie sighed inwardly as she peeled off her loosely fit sweeter, not wanted it to get soaked in the process. The crisp cold air danced along her bare skin producing ripples of goose bumps up and down her arm. It wasn’t the manual labor that got to Eleanie, she expected as much with any detention and she secretly like the repetitiveness that it brought. It cleared her head. It was the professor she was doing it with that bothered her.

The silver tube, shoved up into a corner of professor’s office away from Eleanora, thank God, did not have a drop of water. She looked for a faucet or a switch, even getting partway into it to see if there was something that she missed. There wasn’t. A ray of sunshine descended through the gloomy clouds that were Eleanie’s inevitable fate this Saturday. Eleanora did not say she could not use magic to do her bidding. Not a lot, but just enough to do her bedding.

The red oak wand felt good in her hand as if it was a part of her; not only an extension of her arm but her being as well, and it was itching to be used. “Aguamenti,” she said, a strong, constant stream flowed from her wand into the silver tube. For such a large tube, her spell did not take very long to fill up. As Eleanie crouched on the cold, hard stone surface seeing as how the carpets did not extend out to the corners of the room, she rolled her eyes at Eleanora’s comment. Luckily, Eleanie wasn’t facing the professor when she did it.

“I never said I drew it professor.” She used that term loosely. In no way, shape or form did it have any ounce of respect in that three syllable word. She picked up one of the pigmy puffs, which was a greyish white one that looked offly like a snow cone. She gently submerged it in the cold bath and it stopped its purring. Seeing as how there was no sponge to clean the critters off, nor soap Eleanie had to improvise. She took her white sleeveless shirt at the base of it and ripped a strand of cloth out of it to use as her cleaning supplies, leaving her midriff exposed. “Maybe I bullied someone into drawing it for me. Haven’t you heard? ‘I’m wicked through and through.’”

Eleonora was taken aback when Eleanie professed to being wicked. Why would she say such a thing? She hoped that Eleanie didn't truly believe that about herself. At such a young age no one could know such a thing about themselves to be absolutely true. What was going through her mind to make her say that Eleonora couldn't fathom. It was possible there was something she was struggling with that made her feel the way she did. It was none of Eleonora's business what her personal life was like, though, so she simply gave Eleanie a soft look of disbelief and turned back to her desk.

The mountain of papers stacked on the dark wood seemed to have grown since Eleonora had turned her back. She let out a sigh and sat down, the white cat purring at her presence. It was actually a relief to have Eleanie helping with the puffskeins, it meant one less thing for her to do today. First thing on her list was now grading papers. She wanted to give every student a passing grade and be done with, not have to shift through repetitive sentences and misspellings. When she had taken this job she knew it would be a lot of work but she did not think she would be more exhausted by it then she was when she was trudging through the wilderness for the ministry.

After reading and giving out generous grades for a few papers she let her eyes wander back towards Eleanie. She was nearly done with the basket of puffskeins, using part of her shirt to wash them. Eleonora wondered why she hadn't asked for a rag or washcloth, she had plenty stacked away. Maybe she should have left one out, but this had been so sudden she had forgotten that small detail. It was something that happened too often for Eleonora to be happy with. She often forgot little worldly details when her mind was occupied with other things.

She went back to reading the tower of parchment, her held lightly in the cup her hand, elbow resting on the table. It was warming up in her office, the fire now giving light to the previously dark corners. The white cat, now warmed and full awake, jumped down from it's perch and strolled confidently over to Eleanie. Eleonora noticed its departure out of the corner of her eye. He was a friendly cat and was probably just looking for attention.

Eleanie did not turn around to see Ms. Valenta’s reaction, but simply took another pigmy puff and dunk it in the cool bath. Her hands were numb to the bone, as the water seemed to get colder every time she cleaned another cute puff. The cold numbness in her hands was not as bad as what the pigmy puffs went through, seeing them shaking violently as they got submerged into the bath. Their purring suddenly stopped. Eleanie tried her best to be gentle as she used her shirt to wipe clean their matted hair, or the grim on their faces.

When they were washed clean, Eleanie could not let them dry naturally, seeing how they shake and shivered from the cold, so she used a bit more magic. Her kindness got the better of her as she used an instant drying spell she learned in Charm class last year. If Ms. Valenta had an issue with Eleanie doing magic during detention, Eleanie would no doubt get another one as she would no doubt defend her actions. Eleanie could put up with the chilling cold, the grim, the slime and even the pungent odor coming from the silver tube after about the twentieth pigmy was once more being washed, but she wouldn’t allow them to suffer for her detention.

“Hello Mr. Cat,” she said in a light whisper, seeing the cat brush up against her leg. She was too preoccupied cleaning a pink pigmy puff to give him the attention he deserved and anyways, her hands were wet so the cat wouldn’t like that anyways.

Peaking from behind her stack of papers Eleonora watched as Eleanie used a little bit of magic to finish up drying the puffskeins. It was an added kindness, not something that was required. A gentle smile formed on her lips, noting how caring her student was being. Creatures always brought out the best in people, Eleonora thought. The way a person treated a helpless animal was indicative of their inner personality, no matter how hard they try to keep it hidden. The fact the Eleanie was going beyond what was strictly necessary gave Eleonora an insight to her true nature. It was a shame she felt it must be kept buried away, but it was nothing something Eleonora would dwell on or try to figure out. If that's the way Eleanie was, that was that. She was not going to attempt to pry and figure it out. Such things were best left to someone with a better understanding of human nature than her.

Eleonora placed her quill on the desk and spoke across the room to Eleanie. "Once you're finished you are free to go. Thank you for helping and for your assignment. I understand if you care to drop my class..." she paused, thinking of her words. She wanted to voice her hope and sincerity, "I would be happy to see you in my class again."

Was that it?

Eleanie was finished in the hour. The pool of water which started out glossy, clear blue now was a murky grey. The pigmies were all clean, fresh and purring loudly in a new bucket. She drained the tub of the reminisce of water, and clear out the slime left behind by the fur balls. She got to her feet and stretched out her stiffed limbs. There were several cracks and pops in quick succession which felt good for the most part.

One thing she could say about Eleanora, as she gathered her things and left without a word, she did not pester her with frivolous questions to dive into the heart of her issues like most busybodies professors try to do. She was sick and tired fending off those silly questions during detention that this was a refreshing change, even though she had no love for the Professor. Eleanie might show up to her next Care of Magical Creature class…might.

» Care of Magical Creatures Syllabus
» Care of Magical Creatures OWL Level (4th and 5th years)
» Art Professor's Office/Room
» Arithmancy Professor's Office/Room
» Music Professor's Office/Room