Professor Troy Downmen's Story

Professor Downmen arrived at the courtyard slightly late, where he had informed his students to meet him for today’s lesson. “Alright, alright, that’s enough chatter. I’m sorry I’m late. You know that’s not like me.” Even during his apology his tone came off agitated, pacing to the front. But he’d have time for sincerity later. There was much to preoccupy his thoughts.

The school, though functioning and healthy to the normal eye was in a tight twist. There were new issues regarding whom should run the school, carrying the obligation of new headmaster. It may have been perceived as a parade to the students but it posed a true nuisance to the teachers. They needed a hierarchy and the position filled as soon as possible for one leader to be claimed and make the big decisions. Otherwise too often debates were risen ranging from modifying the school, to students consequences and interrupt the consistency and reliability of Hogwarts catering for young witches and wizards.
Personally, Troy thought it should have been him to fill the position. He’s always been reliable, confident and brave and a fair judge. And the class he specialised in was evidence of that. He didn’t judge the creatures before knowing them. He’d put himself in front of a student if the creature went rogue. There was no third party to decide which Professor would be most suited for the moment either so it looked to be an enduring problem.

Troy’s eyes flickered back to his class and he cleared his throat. He had dwelled enough on that matter. “As I was saying. Today we are going to encounter, Brinkettes. Now usually they’re about 5 foot 2 max and that's only as a camouflage technique among us, so obviously larger than a pixie and slightly brighter but generally classified as a small height,” he wavered his hand at the estimate height. “And they have invisible wings so it often appears like they’re levitating and flying most of the time.
They’re wings too, as I’m sure your potions teacher has told you, are highly valuable limbs as they have the property of invisibility. And as tempting as that sounds I'm going to advise against all plucking of their wings as there are alternative ingredients to invisibility potions anyway.
Moving on. Brinkettes are from the fairy/pixie category. They're from the family if you will. They share the same troublesome traits as pixies and can't help but get up to a bit of mischief and chaos, though they're less impulsive about it. Which is why it's important to be alert around them and keep them on our side. But also why we keep them closer to the lake.”

He lead the way to the area where they had an agreement to reside or be banished from the grounds entirely. The Brinkettes often executed their little talents on the bugs of the area yet the bugs were in abundance today, as the Professor was caught smacking his arm more than twice to rid the crawling sensation and waving his arm in the air to be rid of them as he ventured a little further for them.
Where were they? Or what were they up to exactly? Not even one's presence was detected. He had a bad feeling about this. An extra bad feeling that suggested more than them tearing up pillows or stealing from students luggage.

"Sorry about that class. Short incursion over," he announced followed by being saved by the bell.

Sasha had the period free and was roaming the grounds of Hogwarts with her head held high as per usual and hands behind her back, eyeing off some drifting students in warning.

When she came to the bridge, it was a fine overlook and often unappreciated she was willing to bet, stroking the horizontal rusty steel that held it together. To think this was actually considered new since the destruction of Hogwarts and how much stronger it could be bound if by magic. She sighed out to herself and looked on squinting slightly as figures appeared to be by the lake, just as mere specs. They looked lost by their indecisive pacing and Sasha had decided to investigate for herself what the issue was exactly. In a particularly witchy fashion, she appeared behind her colleague, Professor Downmen in a puff of green smoke. She was always looking to master that trick and it appeared successful.

“A bad class, Professor?” she spoke from behind the tall muscled man, a smirk appearing on her face. “I would not stress about it longer than necessary for these things tend to happen.”

“No. It’s not that. It’s…” he trailed off feeling his own phone vibrate in his pocket, retrieving it and glancing down to read a message from Dana. The phone devices truly were helpful, convenient inventions even though initially he wasn’t the fan of them. “Lost some Brinkettes,” he finished with a distant voice. “Which isn’t good news for us, the pesky bastards. Now if you’d excuse me Professor, I am expected to meet up with Dana.” He slid his phone back in his pocket and headed back up to main castle grounds.

It had taken a few extra minutes than he intended to arrive at Dana’s classroom by relying solely on his legs. He was almost puffing when he came through the door. “Hi,” he breathed and laughed at himself for being out of breath. “What’s on the agenda, Dana?” he asked.

Kalista had just returned to Hogwarts for the first time after Dumbledore was no longer headmaster. Of course with this concern all everyone's minds, things were going to be a bit hectic for a while. But she knew that all of the teachers would be able to figure this out eventually so she didn't really worry much about anything.

She found herself following Professor Downmen down towards the lake to teach the class about these Brinkettes. Though she was shocked to find that there were none around and the class seemed to end just as soon as it had started. Kalista was never really the most social person, so she tended to keep more to herself. Though hopefully she would make some sort of friends, even if they weren't in Gryffindor with her.

When Kalista left home in order to attend Hogwarts for another year, both her parents freaked out. Her parents were muggles, though she was born to a wizard father and muggle mother. Both her birth parents died in a house fire, leaving her to be adopted a couple years later to the Mercer family.

Kalista slid her hands into her pockets and glanced down at the ground as she began to walk around. All she could seem to think about was her birth parents. All she wanted to do was get to know them, she wished they were still around. She loved Miranda and Joseph to death, but there was still that small curiosity within her mind about who her parents would be if they were still around.

Would she get along with her parents? What kind of things would they end up arguing about? These questions seemed to come up out of nowhere, but she honestly couldn't help but wonder.

Finally Kalista found herself sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree in the courtyard. She bent her legs, knees up in the air as she let out a soft sigh and leaned her head back against the tree. This year was going to be different, she promised herself. She was going to break out of her shell, meet some new people, make some friends, even make some enemies if it came down to it. At least she would know where she stood with people.