bumbling along (open)

[rogerdavis]

Albus Dumbledore was a very busy man, as was well known by most of the Wizarding World. Among the demands of his positions in the Wizenagamot, the International Wizards Confederation and as Headmaster of Hogwarts, he was often hard-pressed to find a moments peace. It was a lesser known fact that whenever things started to pile up and his jobs became too stressful, Albus would take a few days off and do nothing related to work at all.

He would play and write music in his chambers, read purely for pleasure and not for profit and spend time with his friends and fellow Professors. And he would also, as he was today, wander the corridors and halls of Hogwarts and spend time with his students, a close relationship with whom was one of the major things he missed from the days when he was just a simple Transfiguration Professor.

Absently humming Beethoven’s Ninth under his breath, Dumbledore wandered down the Great Staircase and into the Entrance Hall, where he paused for a moment to contemplate one of the tapestries that hung on the wall. Albus meandered around the walls of the Entrance Hall, lost in thought and heedless to his surroundings then was snapped out of his trance as he stopped abruptly to avoid running into a student.

”My apologies,” Dumbledore said with a rueful smile, ”I was quite lost in another world and I’m afraid I simply wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

[bella]

“What a stupid suggestion. That would never work.” Bellatrix Black snapped coldly at the girl sitting next to her. It was not in her nature to be polite, and it seemed the girl she had just spoken to was well aware of that fact, as she simply rolled her eyes and carried on eating. She glanced around at the Great Hall, pleased to see it was slowly filling up as it approached lunchtime. The more people there were in the Great Hall, the less attention they would attract. After all, they weren’t exactly the most conspicuous bunch, a group of about ten or so older Slytherins gathered around a small section of the table. There were several sheets of parchment spread out in front of the group, but nobody was paying them any attention, everybody’s eye were on Bellatrix, as she once again outlined what they had been planning for the last half hour. A trivial matter to most, but this group of Slytherins took their inter-house rivalry very seriously. Especially when it came to Gryffindor.

She rolled her eyes at her housemates stupidity. “We’ll continue this later.” she said coldly, and with a flick of her wand the parchment on the table was gone She stood up from the table, and without any further acknowledgement of her housemates, she walked out of the Great Hall, the sound of her heels on the floor turning several heads.

Moving into the Entrance Hall, she headed over to the staircase that would lead her to the dungeons. Halfway across the Entrance Hall, she was forced to stop abruptly as somebody nearly walked into her, “Watch where you’re . . .” she began harshly, looking up after she had began to speak. It was the Headmaster. She momentarily froze, before relaxing, there was no way she could be linked to the attack in the Forbidden Forest that happened last night, so there was no need to be concerned. After listening to his apologies, she quickly added her own; this was the Headmaster after all. “I must apologise sir,” she said sweetly, in a voice that was all too obviously fake, “The fault was entirely my own, I was in too much of a hurry for you to see me.” And despite the fact she was speaking to the Headmaster of Hogwarts, she couldn’t help but have that arogant smirk on her face. Well, this was Bellatrix Black after all.

OOC: I hope you don't mind!

[rogerdavis]

Albus hid a smile as Bellatrix apologized, her too-sweet tone and the general tenor of her emotional state betraying her insincerity. The smirk on her face showed that she hadn’t escaped inheriting the classic Black arrogance, though he sincerely hoped she hadn’t inherited any of that House’s darker tendencies as well. ”There is no need for fault to be assigned, my dear. Let us simply chalk it up to a mistake and move on.”

Reaching into the inside pocket of his velvet jacket, Albus retrieved a Lemon Sherbert and offered it to Bellatrix. He had no expectation that the Slytherin would take it, of course, but it was habit and he liked to make the offer. In his life Dumbledore had met many people seemingly less than worthy of trust, but he had been pleasantly surprised before by always offering people the benefit of the doubt. ”So, was there any particular reason for your haste? I would hate to think I’m keeping you from anything urgent.”

OOC: not at all sorry it’s so short

[bella]

Bella almost smirked as she heard her Headmaster start to speak. Of course she’d get away with nearly running him over. This was Albus Dumbledore after all, he was known for being notoriously soft with his students, unwilling to give out punishment, giving everybody the benefit of the doubt. It was no wonder that so many Slytherins got away with the things that they did. Bella raised her eyebrows as he offered her some sort of sweet, a Muggle sweet by the look of it. She shook her head dismissively, not even bothering to thank the Headmaster for his offer.

She shook her head. “Not at all Professor,” she replied, “I have a detention with Professor McGonagall, but that’s not for another half an hour. I was simply on my way to the common room.” It was true, the Head of Gryffindor had given her a detention every day for three weeks, it was beginning to feel like routine for Bella.

She eyed the Headmaster curiously, wondering if he knew the reason for her detentions. Surely he would have been informed if a seventh year had landed a third year in the Hospital Wing for a week? It was of course, possible that he had heard and decided not to do anything about it. He was after all, not the strictest Headmaster Hogwarts had ever seen.

[rogerdavis]

Albus hid a frown, fully aware of the reason behind Bellatrix’s most recent string of detentions. After all, he’d signed off on Professor McGonagall’s punishment himself, and had in fact made a recommendation to the effect that the number of detentions be increased. Though he tried to think the best of all his students, Albus was too old and had seen too much of the world to believe that what the Slytherin before him had done to that poor Third Year could be anything but a calculated act of malice.

Ah yes, detentions – punishment for that regrettable accident with the poor Gryffindor girl.” Albus temporarily dropped the doddering old grandfather mask he played up around the children and stared stonily into Bellatrix’s eyes. ”I most sincerely hope, Ms Black, that you will be more careful in future. It would distress me greatly should such an accident occur again.”

Having given the warning, he redonned the mask of harmless eccentric and twinkled his eyes at her with a pleasant smile. Though it was necessary to give her fair warning should she attempt such malfeasance again within Hogwarts’ walls, Albus saw no need to be unpleasant to the young woman (though if he learned she had indeed been involved in the recent attack, as many suspected, then unpleasantness would be the least of her worries, he thought to himself, then hid the flash of grimness behind another bout of twinkling). There was always a possibility for redemption, however slim, and fighting this war it helped him sleep more soundly at night to know that he had tried his best to save each and every one of his enemies before it had gotten to the point of violence.

”So,” Albus asked smilingly, ”How go your classes? Taking your NEWTs this year; the workload must already be pilling up if I recall my Seventh Year right.”

[bella]

If Bellatrix was at all surprised by the sudden change in her Headmaster, she hid it well. In fact, if anything, the smirk on her face became more pronounced. At that point, she didn’t for a second doubt that the Headmaster was aware of the intentions behind her attack on the third year – pure maliciousness. And yet here he was, prepared to let her get away with it with just a stern sentence or two. She almost laughed, but caught herself just in time.

“Yes, such a terrible . . . accident Professor,” she replied, her amusement at the phrase accident lingering in her voice just enough to be noticed. “Of course sir, careful is exactly what I’m intending to be.” Well, careful enough not to be caught this time anyway. She was absolutely certain that she, along with Evan and Amycus had gotten away with the stunt they had pulled off in the recent attack in the forest. There was no way they could be blamed for it. Content with that knowledge, she raised her eyebrows slightly after she had finished speaking. The challenge was evident in her expression. She had no intention whatsoever of stopping her usual antics of terrorising the lower years.

“The workload is certainly constant,” she replied. “Luckily we seventh year Slytherins tend to help each other out a lot.” It was a complete lie, the seventh years in Slytherin were just about the most uncooperative bunch of students in the school, but how was the Headmaster supposed to know that?

OOC: Sorry it's taken me so long to reply!

[rogerdavis]

Albus chuckled. "Ah yes, the famous solidarity of Slytherin house. It certainly does this old man good to see students getting along so well and helping each other." His tone was deliberately wry; the backstabbing and academic sabotage that went on in the Slytherin dormitories was legendary. But provided that no students chances were actually impacted badly by the infighting, Albus liked to let them work if their stress.

On many occassions as Headmaster, however, he'd had to sneakily arrange for students to retake examinations and hand in assignments again. But in the end, everything always managed to sort it out to his satisfaction, and no student had ever had their academic future permanently harmed by the characteristic culture of Slytherin House.

"And after your NEWTs, what then? Are you to be engaged, or will you be off to an apprenticeship? Professor Slughorn tells me you could go far if you wanted, and I seem to recall our old Defence professor saying the same.”

[bella]

Bellatrix noted the mocking tone in her Headmaster’s voice. She had no doubt that he knew exactly what went on in the Slytherin Common Room when it came to homework. As did all of the professors. It wasn’t uncommon to see a fight break out because somebody refused to do somebody else’s homework. Or for the younger house members to hide from the older ones in the library, otherwise they’d be landed with a hefty research project. It was unfair, but the Slytherins wouldn’t have it any other way.

She smirked at her Headmaster’s last comment. Of course the last Defence professor had praised her. It was no secret that she excelled in that certain subject. Private Dark Arts lessons with the Dark Lord were a common occurrence in Bella’s schedule. Naturally, she had a good idea of how to defend herself. She managed to retain a steady position at the top of the class, despite the fact that she rarely put any effort into her assignments or essays. Nevertheless, it was a nice ego boost to hear it directly from the headmaster, not that the young Death Eater’s ego really needed to get any bigger than it already was.

“I am to be married on leaving Hogwarts sir,” she answered politely. “So I don’t think I’ll be entering into employment any time soon, I hear married life takes some adjusting to.” She said this calmly, no sign of bitterness or resignation to the fact she was destined to be a ‘Pureblood wife’ for the rest of her life. It was how she had been brought up, she expected nothing less. And after all, it just meant that she had a lot more time to devote to the Dark Lord, which was her aim in the first place.