It's Never Too Early for a Plan {Jackson}

The window was taunting Eleonora on purpose, she was sure of it. The sun was shining in and throwing shadows onto her office floor, making patterns that shifted as the occasional owl flitted by. She sighed, forcing herself to look away from the tempting world outside. Her eyes instead settled on her desk stacked with its usual slew of parchment and books.  

Couldn't she just give everyone an 'exceeds expectations' and be done with it? Her students were all pretty adept...

The hardest thing about teaching, Eleonora had found, was grading papers. It was tedious, time consuming, and worst of all it was best done inside and sitting down. Those were two things she really was not equipped to do for any length of time. Her mind started to protest, wanting instead to be free to take care of her creatures and feel the fresh air.

But no, here she was. Things needed to get done and if she took a break now it would only be putting off her responsibilities even more. She grabbed a nearby quill and started going through yet another essay on the life stages of unicorns as her eyes started to glaze over and the quiet sounds of the room dimmed in her ears.

Jackson knocked on Professor Valenta's door. Well, he was pretty sure it was her door, but he'd never checked before. He hoped he wasn't interrupting, though she had said he was always welcome to stop by for a chat and maybe a sweet. He hoped she could help.

Eleonora was in the middle of a particularly tedious essay when a knock on her door shocked her out of her trance. For a moment she sat, confused, before putting her quill down and gazing towards the large closed entrance.

It was not often that she had visitors. The occasional student would drop by with a question but it was just that: occasional. Visitors that did not consist of students were even more rare; in fact she couldn't recall a time at all when another profession had called upon her. Quite some time had passed since she had heard the unfamiliar sound of a knock on the old wood door.  

“Um...come in?” She called out, realizing that whoever was outside was now being made to wait too long.

Jackson thought maybe the room was empty, and was about to try another door when Professor Valenta told him to come in. Jackson entered, smiling.
"Hullo, Professor. I hope I'm not interrupting?"

The door opened to reveal Jackson Smith, one of the students of her house. Eleonora quickly got up from her desk and made her way into the middle of her office where a few plush armchairs and a side table were reserved for such an occasion.

"Oh! No, you're not interrupting at all. Please, come have a seat...Can I get you some tea or anything?" The truth being he was interrupting didn't matter; it was a welcome distraction. Now she did not feel bad about taking a break from grading, considering this was still part of her job.

Eleonora hurriedly moved stacks of books and whatever else lay scattered over the seating area out of the way, attempting to make the place look a little more tidy. She then remembered Jackson's blindness and gave up. He wouldn't notice the mess anyway, but at least now the chairs were cleared and a place to sit uncovered.

"No, thank you." Jackson heard Professor Valenta moving stuff, probably she used chairs as storage, his mum had picked up the habit since he started attending Hogwarts. He found a chair rather easily and sat, picking at his fingers in his lap. "Er, so, I have a question and didn't know who else to ask?" He ventured.

Seeing Jackson take a seat Eleonora placed herself into the chair opposite, curious as to the reason of his visit. She was fidgeting just as much as he was, uncertain as how to proceed in their meeting. She was supposed to be this authority figure who could help and guide all these young children but in reality Eleonora felt more like one herself a lot of the time. It was a hard line to walk, wanting to do her best and be of help but also not wanting to come off as too unprofessional.

"Well, I'll do my best to answer, if I can. What is it?"

"Well I'm in third year, so next year I start learning stuff for the OWLs, but I don't know what I wanna do when I grow up and finish school. I don't even know what jobs there are." Jackson explained. He figured he'd want to work in the Wizarding world, though, so he could use his magic. "I might be able to be a cashier, except I can't read price tags too easily. And being a cashier is like the easiest job ever, so I don't even know what else to even think about doing."

As Jackson explained his visit she imagined that soon she would be getting more of these type of questions from the students in her house as the year winded down. Eleonora had never faced the uncertainty and fear that so many others did when thinking of their future. To her it was always obvious what her path was; there was only one thing in her mind that she could see herself doing for the rest of her life. Even if recently her career had taken an unexpected turn, as she was now sitting in a plush office in Hogwarts and not at the Ministry, it was still along the same vein. She was still working with the creatures her life had always been about.

Here, though, was that uncertainty sitting opposite her in the form of a young boy whose life was still so open to the possibilities and pitfalls that came with growing up. It was all at once a beautiful and terrifying thing. Eleonora smiled just thinking about it, knowing that one day he would look back on his time at Hogwarts and the choices he made just as she was doing.

"Well...I think the first place to start is by thinking of the things you enjoy doing. I mean, there are plenty of jobs out there doing all sorts of things. You want to do something you like to do right? What subjects or activities do you like?"

Jackson shrugged. "I dunno. Normal stuff. I like playing outside. I like listening to music. I like reading. I guess I might like reading about History more than other kids." He doubted his marks would show it, though. He wasn't always as respectful toward Professor Reid as he ought to be, and shirked his homework.

Jackson's answer seemed to Eleonora a normal, generic, teenage answer. Maybe he just hadn't found quite what made him interested yet. He still had plenty of time, really, but she figured she should try to delve a little deeper and see if there was anything she could suggest for him to do.

"There are a lot of paths you could go to with history, I think. Writing, researching, teaching...Have you considered taking ancient runes classes for your OWL levels? That would be helpful for that."

Eleonora bit her lip as she thought, trying to find other things to help steer the young man in any direction. She unfortunately didn't know too much about anything doing with history. She supposed there were places like libraries and schools where it was a valuable knowledge to have, though.

"Maybe." Jackson shrugged. "What is it?" Runes? Those symbols carved into rocks?
He might like a researching job, but how did you find one? Were there wizarding world museums or something? If so, he'd have to beg his mum to help him find one to go to.

"Runes? They're all sorts of things, like writing and carvings. I took that class when I was here at Hogwarts, you can learn and discover history through artifacts with runes on them. It might even be a life of adventure if you go seek them out instead of just sitting behind a desk reading about them! If, you know, you're into that." Eleonora was getting carried away, hunting for artifacts did sound exciting but she wondered if Jackson was more of an inside type of person.

"Do you plan on taking more History of Magic? I'm sure Professor Reid would know more about jobs in that subject than I would, but I could ask her or search for some if you're really interested."

"That sounds really interesting." Jackson grinned. "Er, yeah, I might talk to professor Reid." He nodded, but sounded less enthused. He wasn't really sure how much she'd be willing to help the kid who asked to leave class whenever they were told to silently read their textbooks...

It was clear that Jackson wasn't keen on the idea of talking to her fellow professor, for whatever reasons he had. If he was really interested in magical history, though, he would have to deal with her at some point in his remaining years at Hogwarts.

"Professor Reid is a little intimating isn't she?" Eleonora laughed lightly, remembering the few times she had been around the deputy headmistress. She couldn't imagine what she was like teaching; she was probably a better teacher than Eleonora though, so she wasn't in a position to judge, really.

"I bet if you ask the librarian for some books on famous historians you can find out what they did before writing books. Maybe something will pop out at you." Plus this way he wouldn't have to ask Professor Reid if he didn't want to.

"That definitely sounds like something I can do." Jackson smiled again. Maybe it'd give him the confidence to talk to professor Reid, at least a little bit. "I think I'm gonna go do that now, thanks professor." He stood and grabbed his cane, still smiling.

Jackson's smile was infectious and Eleonora could feel it traveling to her face as well. She had helped! It hadn't even been that hard. Just a few words and gentle nudges and maybe she had made some difference in a young students life. It felt surprisingly good and Eleonora was proud of herself. All the time she had spent avoiding people and trying her best to stay out of situations where her advice would be called upon seemed a little less necessary now.

"Good luck, then. Thanks for stopping by, Mr. Smith. My door's always open!" She said as she walked with him towards the door. It was going to be back to grading now but the stack of papers on her desk did not look so dreary anymore.

((Yay! Thanks for the RP!))