Dinnertime, baby!

[Queety White]

Actually, dinner was Queety's least favorite meal. She loved breakfast because that was when she came to the Great Hall hungriest. And she loved bagels and muffins more than natural. Lunch is always fun because Queety enjoyed a good sandwhich. Dinner seemed pointless to her because all she really was going to do afterwards was sleep. But, today, she was pretty hungry and any food sounded great.

Finding her way to the Great Hall, a path that was completely familiar, Queety looked for her seat. She had almost forgotten that she was a professor and therefore had a seat closer to the center of the table. She began to sit down at a TA's seat but then got up, realizing that she had a different seat this year. She found her seat and sat down there.

Only a few students had begun filing in and there were even fewer staff members at the table. Queety looked around her table as she sipped on some water.

[prince]

Seifer was carrying a large pile of parchments and seems so into it that he is not looking at where he is going. In fact, it's the students who clears from his path, not him trying to get his way through. For some reason or another, he didn't seem to realise that.

He marched up to the Staff table and helped himself to the seat right at the end of the table, nearer to the Slytherin side and for the first time, raised his head to look around him, at the students who were now all staring at him and then, turning his head to see his fellow staff members. Sadly, only a few were present and he met Professor White whom he met at the Staff gathering at the end of last term. Or was it the term before last? He smiled at her and sat down.

Strangely, he did not eye the food which are laid out on the table first. He in fact, went back into indulging himself in his stack of crumpled parchments.

((OOC: Happy birthday!))

[Queety White]

((ooc: Thanks. ))

Queety put down her glass as another teacher came to sit down. He definately looked familiar. She knew she had met him before, but where? It was probably at one of the staff gatherings. Queety rarely saw any of the staff at any other time. She really needed to be more social instead of just hanging out with the same group of people.

Turning herself so she could face him, Queety waved to get his attention. If she could only remember his name. She definately had seen him before so she could just act as if she knew him. Perhaps it would come back to her eventually.

"Hey, how are ya?" she asked, grinning.

[prince]

Seifer was too engrossed into his work that he did not notice Queety's wave. Therefore, he had a big shock when she spoke. In fact, he jumped. "Oh. Er.. Hi.. Whoa.. Fine, thank you. And how about yourself, Professor White, right?" Seifer said, extending a hand for a handshake.

With his the other hand, he quickly pushed the parchments aside, away from Queety's view and quickly grabbed a goblet to scoop himself some pumpkin juice. He then felt his stomach rumble. It's time for dinner. He didn't notice that when he was so engrossed in his work. So he helped himself to whatever there was on the Staff table in front of him.

[Queety White]

((ooc: Sorry it took me a while to respond.))

"Oh, I'm sorry," Queety said softly when she realized that she was disrupting his work. "I didn't meant to disturb you. But, yeah. I'm Professor White. I prefer to be called Queety, if that's cool with you."

Queety took another sip of water as the other Professor sipped his. His name was on the tip of her tongue but she just couldn't say it. She did remember, however, that he was a professor. That was a start. "I've been all right," she replied. "Students are driving me crazy but that's the fun of it. How are the kids treating you?"

[prince]

"Queety White." Seifer mumbled under his breath. That name rung a bell. "I think I saw you at the End of Term Staff Party last term. Of course, you won't remember someone as insignificant as me." Seifer said, hanging his head low.

"The kids? Some of them are horrendous! I'm fine with the Slytherins, it's the Gryffindors and Hufflepuff's that are putting me off my rockers. What do you teach? I teach Divinations. Yes, optional subject. Not many students keen." Seifer said, chewing on some pumpkin tarts. After a while, he noticed that she was still standing up. "Perhaps you would like to have a seat?" He inquired, politely. Very unlike him.

[Queety White]

Queety smirked. "Ah, but it's a lot of fun isn't it?" she asked. "It beats some boring paperwork job at the Ministry." She thought about how bored she would be if she had that sort of job.

"Divinations," Queety smriked. "I remember taking that class. I only did it for a couple terms though." That was a weird time for Queety. She remembered having all those weird dreams she used to have and she had gone to the divinations teacher of the time to figure out what was going on. There was no complete answer though. Luckily, most of the dreams had faded away.

"I teach History of Magic," Queety said. "Trying to keep people from thinking it's a boring subject is a lot harder than I thought."

[prince]

"History of Magic." Pondered Seifer. That was the most horrible subject he ever took at Hogwarts. He remembered the ghost of Professor Binns teaching him boring topics about goblin rebellions and giant wars. Brr. He shook and came back to reality. He forced a smile and told her, "History of Magic's not exactly my cup of tea." He joked.

Then, he grabbed the goblet full of pumpkin juice and sipped at it. Everything in his life was about pumpkins. He kist love that large orange thing. "Honestly, I am more interested in being a Ministry official, at least you can get a promotion if you do well. I don't see hwo I'll be promoted here as a Professor. The level of stress that comes with the job is unimaginable!"

[Queety White]

Queety rolled her eyes. A lot of people really did not like History of Magic. But that was because the subject was traditionally a boring subject. If the first year Queety could have seen the Queety today, she would have thought she was crazy for teaching such a subject. However, as time had passed, Queety had learned to love the subject and vowed to change it around and make it interesting for her students.

"There are promotions here," Queety mentioned. "Though they come a little bit rarer than if you worked at the ministry."

[prince]

"Yeah, take yourself for example. I don't see you being promoted to at least, teach a core subject, or a Head of House." Seifer said, that had completely slipped from his mouth and he didn't mean anything like that. He knows that must sound really awful and mean to a new friend but that was the way Seifer was, just speak his mind, which often gets him into trouble.

"I'm sorry, Queety. I didn't mean anything like I said, from what I know, I understand that you have been with the school for quite sometime now, eh? How is it so that you have yet to be promoted to a Head of House, or is it that you just haven't applied for anything like that?" The Divination professor rephrased his question, trying very hard to sound polite and kind. He couldn't afford to offend any senior staff. Not when he's aiming for a promotion.

[Queety White]

Queety gasped. She was a little bit insulted but she did not let that bother her. "Hey, first of all History of Magic is a core subject. And it's a very difficult one to teach as well, thank you very much.

"And the reason I'm not Head of House is that there are more capable people doing the job right now. It doesn't really matter how long you've been here, it's how good you are. And besides, they are all a lot older than me. If you haven't noticed, I'm the youngest professor here. I don't think I'm mature enough to handle such a huge responsability."

Queety took a sip of her water and sighed in thanks as the fried chicken appeared at the table. She took a thigh and began cutting it. "Don't worry though. I forgive you," she said after Seifer's apology. "I don't really want to be Head of House right now anyways."

[prince]

Seifer was ashamed of himself, throughly ashamed. He needs to curb this horrible habit of his. Really. He's had it. He forced a smile, not even looking at the History of Magic Professor's face. He could hardly muster the guts to look into her eyes. "I'm.. I.. I don't know what to say. Bah, I'll just eat."

Today definitely wasn't his day. He just disgraced himself in front of a much younger professor. He felt like killing himself. He quickly tried to escape that subject by grabbing the pumpkin pie near him and started munching on it, not daring to speak to Queety lest he disgrace himself again. He was afterall, in a shade of pink now.

[Queety White]

Queety swallowed her chicken and glanced at Seifer again. Seeing that he was upset with himself, Queety quickly put the chicken down and wiped her face with a napkin. "Look," she said quickly. "It's no big deal really. You just caught me by surprise. I'm not mad at you at all. In fact, I'm incapable of being mad. Ask anyone I know. I'm too optimistic for my own good. I'm so happy that some say it'll be my downfall. I- uh, yeah."

Queety really did not want to lose the chance to get to know someone. She really did not want the reputation of being an easily offended person. She was just thrown off guard by being used as an example. But what Seifer said was true. Queety had been around the school a lot longer than the heads of houses, barring Anya Slughorn. Still, Queety was a lot younger than all of them and was certainly not capable of being a Head. Though the opportunity would be nice.

[prince]

Seifer smiled. She was a nice girl to him. "Thank you, I can't feel embarrassed enough. That must have been the worst I've experience in my life." Seifer said, still at a loss of words.

"Please, do not allow me to hold you up any longer. It's been great knowing you." Seifer continued, still concentrating on his dinner. He had completely forgot about the stack of parchments he had. But he didn't care anyway.

[Queety White]

Queety shook her head. "Forget about it," she said. "No one's perfect."

She then gave Seifer one of what most people call her magical smiles. Queety seemed to have this weird power with her smile as it makes other people smile too. Wide and bright, Queety used this power to bring a calm over people who were feeling nervous, upset, or uptight. Hopefully, it would work it's magic again on Seifer.

"You're not holding me up," Queety added. "I have nothing better to do but eat this dinner and then grade some tests. And the world knows how much I love doing that," she said sarcastically.

[prince]

Seifer smiled at her. This lady here is exceptionally friendly and for some reason or another, he didn't want to doubt her. He ususally doubted anyone who treats him nicely, maybe because of his history and past events that had occured in his life before that made him stand on his toes all along. But there was this special feeling when he was with Queety. It seems like magic. He felt like he had already knew her long ago.

"Oh, Right then, I'm pretty much the same, perhaps you would like some pumpkin pies, they are great, you know?" Seifer said, offering her some of the pies he had on his plate seeing that there isn't any left on the serving plate. He now sat facing her, no longer blushing or trying to hide his face.

[Queety White]

Queety nodded. "I'll have one, thanks."

She began to take a bite out of it and nodded in approval. "You know, I never would have eaten so much pumpkin stuff had I not come to this school. I never heard of pumpkin juice- let alone drink it- until I was a student here. Now I'm practically addicted to the stuff," she laughed.

"What about you? What school did you go to?" she asked.

[prince]

"I was once a Hogwarts student too. Brings me loads of memories now that I am back. I used to seat over there." He pointed to the Slytherin table. "But now, I'm a professor. Unbelievable." Seifer looked at his pie. He remembered the time he had as a student, playing food fights when no Professors was around and throwing anything that can be found around. "Being a student is much more fun than a Professor."

"By the way, which house are you from? I'm guessing Ravenclaw? You seem like the intelligent sort to me. Or perhaps Gryffindor? I've long heard that most Gryffindors like History of Magic. So I thought you might belong to Gryffindor since you are teaching it now." He smiled and waited for a reply.

[Queety White]

"So you were a student before the school had closed down a while ago," Queety assumed. "But yeah, being a student is so much better. I was a lot more carefree back in the day."

When Seifer tried to guess what house she was from, Queety shook her head and grinned. While she wasn't from an original house, she sure as hell had a lot of house pride. "I'm from Mihael," she said, nodding. "And I know it's, by far, the best house here. I'm glad I was chosen there. It was between that and Hufflepuff and the world knows Mihael is a buhmillion times better than Hufflpuff."

No offense, Nessa, Queety thought to herself.

[Cello Evans]

Cello walked into the Great Hall and instantly walked up to the staff table where she saw Professor White and Professor Dyke sitting engaged in conversation. Sitting down next to them she smiled whilst helping herself to a piece of bread.
"Hello Professors" she said. This was her first time at the staff table as she had only just got the position of Potions TA. Looking down on all of the students, she felt happier than she had been in a while.