Open The 'L' Word

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Since agreeing to switch things with Josephine 'flirtation' to 'relationship', Angel's personal life had become nothing but a series of crises. Wonderful crises, don't get him wrong, but crises none the less. At the very least he had plenty of things to think about to help him avoid grading papers. Today, he'd retreated out to the gardens, unable to focus in his office for a moment longer. Since they'd moved in together, there'd been this charged feeling lingering under Angel's skin every time he was in the same room as Josephine, and with them living together full time, they were in the same room a lot. It wasn't until recently he'd put a word to the feeling, a realization that had sent him into a near full blown panic. Thus, Angel was outside, pacing the gardens, worrying at his cuffs and circling round and round the school rose bushes until he could decide what exactly to do with himself.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne was settling into the professor life much easier then she expected. Part of it was probably because she was teaching older students and it felt much easier to talk to them as equals rather than children. But it was only her first semester and it very well might just be beginners luck. Yet in all her time at Hogwarts she hardly made it down from the tower long enough to explore the grounds. Today she made it to the gardens and was pleased to find how nice it was, the air only just beginning to cool. She stopped short when she noticed an man, one of the other professors but she couldn't remember for which subject, yet he seemed to pay her no mind. Yvonne stood there for a moment, hands on her hips waiting to see if he would notice he wasn't alone. But instead he continued to make circles around the rose bushes. "Aren't you dizzy yet?" she asked with an amused smile.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Angel barely registered that someone else had joined him, barely turning his head to check who it was before resuming his pacing. "Helps me think," He said vaguely. Angel did another quick lap before his brain actually caught up with who he was speaking to. "Ah, wait, Yvonne, right? New Divination professor? Your lot is good with advice and all that, right?" He asked her, finally coming to a stop. He was a little dizzy.

Angel knew messing around with branches of divination magic could be risky if you weren't ready for other people to know things they shouldn't, his past readings with runes students had already taught him that much, but Angel was desperate. Perhaps an outside observer could help him get his thoughts in line better than he could. "I've been uh. Thinking some important stuff over, if you don't mind?" Angel made a vague hand gesture at Yvonne. He wasn't sure what exactly he was asking her to do, but she was a Divination professor after all. Surely she could figure it out for him.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne’s amused grin didn’t falter when he finally responded. “Sure.” she said sounding thoughtful and nodded agreeably. Her eyebrows did raise slightly when he knew her name. “Correct, and you are? I apparently haven’t been as observant to my colleagues as I should be.” she asked tentatively and hoped she sounded apologetic. “And yes, generally that is one of our skills.” she admitted. She liked to think her area of expertise was a bit more complicated than that. But she had done enough readings for clients to know sometimes she had to be a counselor more often than not.

Yvonne crossed her arms but listened sympathetically as he seemed to be vulnerable and asked for help. She sighed. “Why not?” she asked rhetorically and shrugged. She smiled and spotted a bench near by and took a seat. “Go on. I'll give it my best shot.” she insisted and gestured for him to start talking as she crossed her legs and got comfortable.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Angel's brain was still at about 98% capacity thinking about Josephine, so he mostly waved off Yvonne's apologetic tone, not really having the brain space to be offended or concerned that the new professor might not know who he was yet. "Right, Right. Angel, upper year herbology," He provided, eager to get them to a place where Yvonne might be able to help him sort out his mess of a brain.

"So how do we do this, do you read palms or do the card thing or something? I'm afraid I'm not much of a tea drinker," Angel said, joining Yvonne on a nearby bench. He supposed he could just start rambling about Josephine and all the tangled up feelings he had, but he could barely parse them himself. Angel didn't know how much stock he really put into divination all the time, but he'd take some level of farce today over having to just blatantly state his feelings if he could, especially since the sudden urge to do exactly that was the problem.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne nodded gratefully when Angel introduced himself. “Well nice to meet you.” she said, glad to put a name to the face and to move on past the inconvenience of introductions. She scooted over on the bench to make room for him as he started to ask questions about how she could do a reading. She smiled sympathetically. You didn’t need any kind of Divination skill to see that something was clearly weighting on the other professor and from his pacing she guessed it was something big. Maybe an unplanned live change? “I know it’s hard to believe but I didn’t exactly see this coming when I left my office." she said in a conspiratorial voice. "So I don’t have any cards. Or tea, don’t worry.” she explained. “Palms would probably be the easiest. That should be enough to give you some kind of advice.” she said confidently and held out her hand for Angel to place his, so she could see the lines clearly. “Only if you want.” she added as a courtesy. Giving him an easy out if he wanted, sometimes readings uncovered things people didn’t always want to know or be reminded of.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Angel gave a wry smile at Yvonne's joke about not seeing this coming. "How very candid for a divination professor. I feel like I'm being allowed to see behind the curtain," he joked weakly, not truly wanting to push Yvonne, even jokingly, when he was so desperate for some level of outside advice, since clearly his own senses had fled him. He nodded when they settled on palm reading, dropping his hand, palm up, into Yvonne's outstretched hand. "Right, yes thank you. You guys can tell all sorts of things with palmistry right? Like life lines or perhaps, l- Relationship.. stuff?" Angel asked, his tongue skittering away at just the attempt to say the L word out loud at the moment.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne wondered how secretive the divination professors usually. "Well I'm not a seer, and believe it or not divination is more than just smoke and mirrors." she said, proudly. "Although they do make it more fun." she admitted and sighed, thinking back to the incents and crystal ball kept in her space at the shop.

Yvonne could feel the tension all the way in Angel's hand when he placed it in hers. And from the way he fumbled around the word relationship it didn't take an expert to see what was really his mind but she vowed to play along. “Ok, I can focus mostly on your life and... heartline.” she began, glancing up at him one more time before focusing on his palm. “Your life line is the one that curves around your thumb.” she explained and traced her finger across it. "The line is fairly short." she said simply, but continued quickly before he could freak out. “And contrary to popular belief the length of it has very little to do with life span. A short line actually represents independence.” she explained. “And your heartline...” she murmured and traced a finger over the highest line on the palm. “One of the easiest things to see when reading this line, is where the line begins. If it starts farther over under the index finger that usually means your content in relationships.” she explained. “But if it starts under the middle finger that points to potential restlessness.” she finished and let his hand go gently.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Angel raised his eyebrows at Yvonne's mention of not being a seer. He knew objectively seers were fairly few and far in between, but with something so difficult to really prove he was surprised to hear someone not even attempt to pretend they might be one. "If I remember correctly smoke and mirrors are pretty necessary sometimes," he said lightly, but happily let the subject drop if it meant Yvonne might be able to put his mind at ease.

It took all of Angel's will power to keep his hand still as Yvonne traced a finger across his palm. The life line comment definitely caused his eyebrows to rise higher into his hairline, but Angel was more taken with the comments on his heartline, squinting at his palm once Yvonne had finished. He was trying to work out which finger the line she had been pointing at was closer too, though he mostly succeeded in making himself cross-eyed. "So, with that uh, divined. If I were to theoretically be having a bit of say, uncertainty about a relationship-" Angel started, twirling his hand blithely in the air, "-What would you recommend? I should go for it? Pump the breaks? Run away screaming?" He tacked on a smile at the end of his sentence but it felt unnatural after a few moments, the curve of his lips pulling just a tad too long to be totally smooth, but he hoped Yvonne would ignore it.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne laughed easily. “Sometimes. But I’m very good.” she said what a grin as she focused on his palm. She felt him tense as she traced the lines on his hands and the way he reacted to the things she pointed out. To the point, she wasn't surprised when he focused on his heart line reading. “What would I recommend?” she mused curiously. Yvonne considered his suggestions and leaned back slightly to look at Angel closely and do some less ‘official’ divining before she shared the kind of insight he was looking for. He was handsome and she could tell he knew it, and from the way he was sweating bullets whatever was going on was undoubtedly something of his own creation. Rarely did tangible problems manifest like this. She wondered if she should pity the poor soul that had caused...this. “Screaming is a bit dramatic, which isn’t always the worst thing. You could always move to a different continent.” she said, thinking about her own recent break up. "But for you, I think the bigger question is what is making you uncertain?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Is it fear of future conflict or is it a fear of commitment?" she added. Yvonne was heading right into the more psychological aspect of her subject of expertise but she was truly curious, and wanted to know how to help the panicked man in front of her.

 

[Professor Angel Castillo]

Angel flexed his fingers a few times as Yvonne mulled over her advice. This was what he'd been hoping for; some decisive voice to tell him what the right move was here, because the one his heart and brain kept supplying felt all wrong. He'd never gotten in this deep with a partner before, and every bone in his body wanted him to cut and run. It was terrifying and yet his heart. It seemed to want something else entirely and Angel had no idea which to listen to. Yvonne seemed a lot more reasonable than either option.

He snorted at the offer to try moving continents, muttering a quick "Been there, done that." Her question though gave him pause and Angel pursed his lips, torn between answering honestly at the risk of bearing any more of his soul here. "I suppose getting into something serious is a little- Uncharted territory for me. I think I'm looking for a map," he said, glancing back down at his palm with a frown, wiggling his fingers at himself. Really though, what was Angel so scared of? He'd told people he loved them before, but he didn't think he'd ever truly meant it in the way he wanted to when he thought of Josephine. And that was the crux of it really. But then again, when had Angel ever let the unknown stop him from making stupid decisions. "Right. Okay. I think I've worked something out. Thank you, Yvonne," Angel said decidedly, curling his hand shut and getting to his feet. He gave Yvonne a quick nod of thanks before darting off. He needed to fine Josephine before he lost his nerve.