Ravens of yesteryear

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

summer. it was a season of heat, and relaxed long evenings. the windows of the divination tower were wide open to tempt the very light breeze through her rooms. she was sitting in her office and she could hear the sounds of some of the students in the ground and she could smell the which fragrant smells of jasmine and honeysuckle were also coming up through the open window. she looked and saw that it was a beautiful afternoon, with just a few light clouds drifting past like cotton wool. Deciding she could do with stretching her legs, she picked up a book from her shelf and left her tower. she hadn't been into the garden for a while. she slipped on a pair of shoes and made her way down the many flights of stairs and eventually out into the grounds.
the smell of the garden was enticing her. she made her way towards the flowers stopping somewhere in the middle unsure what to do now. so she sad on a bench looking out over the flowerbeds the afternoon light giving them a golden glow. it reminded her of home and how morgan liked to keep their garden nice. with a large veggie patch, in one corner and chickens out the back, but the front was all different kinds of flowers. the traditional english cottage ones hollyhocks, lupin, fushia, pansies, marigold, bluebells, cornflower and all other manor of plants. some used in things others not. she opened the book and realised it was a copy of a muggle children's story, Alice in wonderland. unknowingly she must have picked the perfect book for the afternoon, she must be psychic. she turned the few pages to where the book started and began reading.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

As much as Lucy would've kept herself happily holed up in the castle on the days she was there, perhaps working on her novel, it was good to get fresh air. Especially on a breezy summer day. Clad in a sundress, hat and a pair of sandals (as a Muggle Studies teacher, Lucy wore muggle clothing all the time and got away with it, the thought of which made her smirk), she slipped her notebook and pencilcase in a bag and headed out the doors and in to the garden.

The garden was always beautiful at Hogwarts. Lucy wasn't much of a green thumb, so her own garden looked very lacklustre compared to this. Still, they did have the added bonus of dedicated Herbology teachers and magic. Lucy found herself doing things the muggle way a lot of the time, unless she was feeling ultra lazy, or it involved cleaning. Lucy could easily get absorbed in reading and writing and she didn't want to waste too much time cleaning by hand. Shaking her head, Lucy took a deep breath, enjoying the scents of the flowers.

She looked around for a bench to sit down and write at before she spotted a familiar face. The Divination Professor, who had also happened to be in Ravenclaw with her. Lucy grinned. "Professor Le Fey," she began, putting her hands on her hips. "It's nice to see you again, Elvera. How are you doing?"

 

[Artemis Tuuri]

Artemis had never been so happy to see Hogwarts again. Down in the village, she would turn the soil in her own garden, look up at the spires of the castle and miss her old home. She could not think of a better reunion for the two of them, the castle and her. Herbology Professor, thought Artemis happily. Me! A Professor! She giggled to herself. The most familiar space to her was, of course, the Ravenclaw towers, but a goblin girl felt most at home in the dirt and so she was, happily aiding the school's custodian with their gardening duties by grubbing around for useful seeds and pruning as she went. Artemis was currently up to her chin in daisies with her work robes thrown on over a pair of well-used overalls.

Nothing seemed to have changed at all. Her memories brought her back to a similar moment in her fourth year where she'd met and chatted to the friendly Damien Metzger. She wondered where he was now; who he was with, what he was doing ... Come to think, Art had lost track of many of her old friends. Worst of all was the little notice in the village bulletin: 'We congratulate Lucinda Buckley on her marriage to Landon Dalton ...' etc, etc. A frisson of hurt had run through her. Her two best friends in the world, married right there and then as if she'd had nothing to say about it! But they weren't best friends anymore, no, and it was inevitable that the two lovebirds would end up together. Artemis smiled sadly to herself as she carefully re-planted a daisy bush where she'd been harvesting its newest roots. She wished them all the best and, if she admitted to herself, missed them terribly, too. Things weren't all bad, of course. Artemis was welcomed back to Hogwarts New Zealand in the company of many old school friends. Their upper-school Muggle Studies Professor had been absent, and one of her coworkers had winked and told her it was someone she'd be happy to meet. Now who would I know who would do Muggle Studies? puzzled Artemis over the mystery.

She scrubbed her hair out of her face and looked up at the sound of a halfway familiar voice interrupting her thoughts. Despite having known her goblin heritage for most of her young life, Artemis continued to be surprised at how close she thought people were when they were actually quite far. Her long ears twitched and she raised herself from her knees to squint over at the far side of the garden.
"Bother." said Artemis. Fooled again by the hearing of old. Still, she was curious enough to investigate, since students rarely came to the gardens (at least in her years at Hogwarts) so she picked herself up and toddled over to meet the source of the voice, ducking overgrown pumpkin leaves on the way. When she finally reached the source, Art was surprised to find not one person but two, and she was very happy to see them.
"Well hallo, you two!" she practically shouted, clapping her hands in delight. "Just look who I've found!"​

 

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

Elvera heard someone call her name. professor Le Fey. not many people called her that most of her students called her by her first name. it must be someone she had not taught. she looked around and was slightly surprised by who she saw. she had heard the new professors Names. Professor Lucinda Dalton, however she had not placed the name Lucinda Dalton with the girl who had been in the year below her. Lucinda Buckley. they had never been particularly close friends, actually Elvera had never had many particularly close friends at school, but she did recognise Lucinda from around the common room and she was sure they had spoken a few times, so they probably were friends of such. "Lucinda, wow, this is a surprise. I'm am doing great thank you. how about yourself? married and everything" she said. making her page and closing her book. t was funny how even a distant friend from the past could feel like a close friend when one hadn't seen anyone from that time for so long.
Just then she heard someone else arrive and another wide smile spread across her face. she had heard about artemis returning to the school, and as her name hadn't changed she knew it was her. the new herbology professor. maybe that was the reason she had subconsciously piked the garden to read. she had hoped to see her. "wow, Art. It has been ages. how have you been?" she said. to her former dorm mate before giving both of the girls a quick hug. she hadn't realised until just that she did have more friends at school than she had thought. and it really was good to socialise with them from time to time.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy gave an enthusiastic smile. "Gosh, I know. It was the last thing I expected, to be married and teaching wizards about muggles. Heck, I was sure I wanted to be a muggle lawyer until I was about fifteen." She gave a little snort of derision at that. She'd never spoken to Elvera much, but she seemed to be like a very nice woman. She'd kept herself to herself a lot in school, though, especially in that dark patch of her life from about third to sixth year, where she'd lost her mother, studied back home and stayed with her grandmother, and eventually come back to Hogwarts to struggle through until she finally got back on her feet. Indeed, in all her life, it only felt like now that everything was finally falling in to place. It was good to have former housemates on the staff with her, too. It meant she could have friends on the staff, aside from the obvious. She'd also been told that she would know the Herbology Professor, which piqued her curiosity.

Her curiosity was very quickly sated when the young woman who must have been the Herbology Professor appeared. It was, of course, none other than Artemis. Lucy instantly felt ecstatic to see her again, awful that she hadn't kept much contact with her after graduation, and relieved that she'd hopefully be able to rectify that last point. "Oh my gosh! It's so good to see you, Arty!" Lucy's grin threatened to split her face in two. "I guess we're all the cool former Ravens who became professors," she added, with a light chuckle.

 

[Artemis Tuuri]

Artemis was soon swept up into a hug by the Divination Professor which she gleefully returned. Finally, her friend of many years recognised her and she pulled Lucy into the embrace with strong, skinny arms.
"Just look at us, then!" said Art, sniffling a bit in her happiness. "I've ne'er felt so old before and yet so young. Since we're all standing here like a bunch 'o pumpkins, why don't we sit down and catch up, aye?" she suggested.

It was the work of but a moment to transfigure some of the Garden's colossal pumpkins into a set of extra chairs for Lucy and herself, and Artemis seated herself down next to two people she thought she'd never see again.
"Truly, though," she said as she beamed at her two friends-turned-colleagues, "The last time I saw both of 'ye was at the leaving feast ... must be going on five years now, or six, since that day. To think that we would all return to this old castle of ours as, well, custodians of the wee ones is ..." Artemis shook her head in disbelief. "Well, it cannae be believed. But please, tell me: how did 'ye all end up back here? 'Ye must ha' a tale or two to tell about it. I certainly do."

Artemis looked over her former house mates and marvelled at how they had changed. She herself had changed very little, although her hair was now approaching her waist rather than curling around her ears. There was nothing different save a few more lines of sadness around the eyes. Art was as short and bright as ever.​

 

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

Elvera nodded when Lucinda said that she never thought she would be married, and teaching. "I know when i was at school I wanter to be an unspeakable, now i cant think of doing anything but teaching" she said to lucinda. by now she had been teachng so long it was who she was. she didn't want to do anything else. but work at the school and the shop. when Art suggested that they sat down and caught up properly she nodded. "good plan batman." she said watching as the girl managed to transform two pumpkins into chairs. she knew Art had always preferred herbology and magical creatures to other classes but she was surprisingly good at transfiguration, a branch of magic she could never get her head around. "defiantly only the coolest ravens become professors." she said smiling. she was starting to feel like a teenager again herself sitting there with her friends. she thought back to her leaving feast. when Art brought it up. it really was years ago. a lot had changed in her world since then. though surprisingly little of it was her. the only thong had been her stupor the previous year. "I think it is nearly five" she said confirming her friends thought. "I am sure you both have more interesting stories than me. I spent a year working purely in the inner eye a shop me and my mum own, but after a year finances made me look for a new job, and well there was an advert in the prophet for a divination professor so i took the job" she said. before the other two told their interesting storied and left hers sounding boring.

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

Lucy was pretty impressed with Arty's ability to quickly transfigure the pumpkins in to chairs. She wasn't terrible at Transfiguration herself, but she'd always preferred the theoretical to the practical. She'd loved History of Magic, she'd enjoyed Arithmancy, and now she was teaching Muggle Studies. She giggled, girlishly, when Elvera agreed with her on being the coolest ravens. Lucy had never felt particularly cool. She was kind of a nerd (after all, her favourite classes had been History and Arithmancy) who had, even after studying magic, still wanted the opportunity to work in the muggle world.

"That's an interesting story," Lucy protested, looking thoughtfully at Elvera. She thought back to her own story. She'd gotten engaged at the end of school, something she'd never thought she'd do. As much as she loved Landon, she'd planned on holding off the wedding until she was about 25 at least. Circumstances, however, intervened. There'd been the pregnancy scare. She'd been horrified, convinced it was a disaster. She hadn't been ready for children. Then that problem took care of itself, and she hadn't known what to think. The wedding, quickly arranged, had been a welcome distraction for them both.

Of course, that was the story she would omit, Arty and Elvera didn't need those details. "Landon got a second-hand bookshop, we both invested all our time and energy in it to get it up and running. I also did a little bit of work on the side, you know, writing a few columns for witch magazines. I wanted to work on novels but I guess dreams don't pay the bills." Shrugging, Lucy cleared her throat. "Landon took a job as Charms Professor here and I found the Muggle Studies ad over the holidays, so I took it on. It's not a big job, but the extra cash is rather nice." Expecting she'd probably bored them both with her own story, she looked expectantly at Arty. "What brought you back to Hogwarts?"

 

[Artemis Tuuri]

"So it's been shop work for both of 'ye, was it? That's about right." said Artemis, swinging her legs back and forth between the wrought iron chair she'd transfigured. "It's not often 'ye can step right intae that dream job that ye've always been after. If it wasnae Herbology fer me, it'd be Care of Magical Creatures. Although ... I don't know if I'dve liked to hae stepped into th' Forbidden Forest again," she added. Her face closed a little at the mention of the school's out-of-bound territory. No one knew better than her why one ought to keep out of such a wild and unpredictable place.

Art soon brightened when Lucy spoke of Landon's store. "So as it turns out, we were all working locally all the time! Now that's just rotten luck, if I say so meself, 'cause darned if I hadn't missed 'ye every time I came tae visit yer stores." pouted the new Herbology Professor. "Though I buy very little, all the same. And me, workin' at Flourish and Blotts as well! Truth to be told, my shifts were sporadic at best 'less it was comin' up tae school time." Artemis grinned at her Ravenclaw colleagues. Seeing familiar faces had made her practically explode out of her new-job-jitters, and she was chattier than ever. "Well, it wasnae all shop work before now. Tisn't well known, but there's a tiny animal sanctuary borderin' the wilderness beyond Obsidian, and I spent most of me time volunteering there afor I got the job offer." she explained. "Ye wouldnae believe the kinds of magickal beasts that New Zealand's got tucked away down here. As it turns out, it was probably the least exciting adventure of all. There was far too much shite involved."
"Still," sighed Art happily at the girls. "It's good tae be home. Me old raven passed away a Summer ago, and caring for those sweet creatures at the sanctuary makes me miss him somethin' fierce. So I'm tae get a new familiar, if I'll be allowed tae loose it on the grounds once in a while. Only," Artemis shrugged her bird-boned shoulders at the other Professors, "I dinnae know what tae choose! Do 'ye all hae pets?"​

 

[Professor Elvera Le Fey]

Elvera listened as Lucinda said that she had been working in a second hand book shop with her husband then had started teaching for a similar reason as she had. "that sounds like you have been up to a lot of interesting things. I think i may have read a couple of your columns in the newspaper. maybe you can write a novel as you work here." she said. she felt that lucinda wasn't saying everything, she didn't want to probe both out loud or to try and see anything. people were entitled to their secrets. she wasn't going to tell everyone hers, she had told the one person who had mattered and he seemed to be doing fine regardless, and she knew he was happy and so tried not to let it matter to her.
Arty's story was probably the most interesting of them all. "I don't think i have ever viseted the sanctuary there" she said. she had never been that bigger animal fan. though Art seemed to be good with them. "that is sad about your raven. I am sure he would have had a good life" she said. her raven merlin had died a few years previously. it was sad, she had had him from first year but for a raven he had lived well. "a new familiar sounds like a splendid idea. I have a black and ginger cat called Samahin. and my step-sister has a dog called glyph that lives at morgan and my home. Oh and we keep chickens for eggs" she said. for someone who wasn't a big fan of animals. "what were you thinking of getting?" she asked

 

[Lucinda Dalton]

((eeee, sorry! No internet and all))

Lucy blushed, slightly. The novels she intended to write were perhaps a little racy. Tastefully so, of course. A school would not be the best place to get that sort of writing done, not unless she wanted to be fired in disgrace. She sobered up when Arty mentioned she wouldn't want to go in to the Forbidden Forest, however, and looked pointedly down at her hands. She remembered that day well. It had hit them all pretty hard, but Arty the worst of them all. Lucy regretted not being a better friend, not trying to reach out more. Fact was, Lucy had never tried to reach out to anyone, and she was ashamed of herself for that. She'd never put in an effort to make friends at Hogwarts. She'd led a pretty lonely existence over the last few years. Sure, she'd had Landon, and she loved him dearly and she was very happy with him, but the fact of the matter was, she'd never put in an effort to make and retain other friendships. She'd have to start, she reasoned, and she'd have to make the effort to be a good friend to both Artemis and Elvera. The friend she should've been back as a teenager at Hogwarts.

Lost in her thoughts, she resurfaced at the talk of animals. "My old cat passed on in the year after graduation, bless her. I couldn't face replacing her for ages, but I bought a lovely little kitten as a reward for getting the job. She's my baby, her name's Elizabeth. Lizzie, I call her. After Lizzie Bennet, of course." Her face practically lit up at the talk of her cat. Lucy wasn't a huge animal lover, but she adored cats. And it was nice to have the extra company. She didn't want to have children, not for a long time anyway, and she honestly wasn't sure if she'd be able to. She could pour all her love in to a cat, instead, without having the difficulties of raising a child. It was a much nicer situation. Landon just had to deal with her cooing over the cat (to procrastinate from writing lesson plans, or anything else she should've been doing). "I'm sure you'd be able to let it loose, you can invoke professor's privilege. I don't think that's actually a thing, but you never know. Would you want to get a raven, or an eagle?"