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@biancadibara
Bianca Dibara: Words are power, and you are one with many words. Retrieve for me a Draught of Living Death from O'Connor's dungeon and bring it to the library by dawn, or words you've uttered in private will be known by all.
Blackmail is unbecoming, Bianca scribbled, but I'll do it. Don't assume you're safe, whoever you are. Smarter wizards than you reside within these walls.
Prompt - Desire
Bianca has always had fine taste, and after discovering she was a witch, that taste extended to unique magic. The two--aesthetics and power--are combined in a locket that is rumored to have belonged to Clémence Montreuil, an 18th century French witch who was the inspiration for the Marquise de Merteuil of Les liaisons dangereuses fame. If ever owned by her, the locket went missing after her mysterious death. The story has always fascinated Bianca and she has never stopped wondering what powers--if any--this locket contained.
Bianca wants acceptance. Given her abusive upbringing, she wants to be more than simply tolerated. She accepts fear as a substitute, but even she knows it's not the same.
Idiots, Plots, and Awkward Diplomacy - Bianca & Maeve
Maeve smiled, pleased with the vote of confidence. She wasn’t used to being trusted, and the notion sent tingles down her skin. Sarah, the others… They’d judged her without a second thought. Though undeclared, the silence spoke far louder than words, and Maeve felt ostracized from the start. Maybe Bianca was different.
"Starkey," she replied, voice filled with conviction. It had to be him, she could feel it in her bones. “I don’t have much evidence, but he was present at both the tower incident and the Gringotts break in. Suspicious, and too coincidental; besides, my instincts have always been sharp. What do you think?”
Their eyes locked, and Maeve froze for a second. She hated eye contact, it made her feel quite vulnerable. But like hers, Bianca’s were hardened, and she found an odd comfort in that. Perhaps they’d be able to get along.
Bianca raised an eyebrow. "Innocent Michael Starkey? I never imagined someone woulds accuse him of anything requiring competence..." She took a long pause while she studied Maeve. "Though lesser men than even he have hidden behind a facade of purity."
It was an intriguing thought, one Bianca thought it best to pursue. There were, after all, no other leads, and the parents of the dead girl were demanding answers.
"You think he was responsible for the death of Christina Eames?" Bianca asked, returning to her quill. "This is a very serious accusation, but I have never been one to discount the instincts of another."
She gave Maeve a small smile, but one that could in no way be considered friendly. If anything it was scathing, perhaps challenging, and Bianca was fully prepared to make her new ally squirm. How else was she to discern if Maeve was a worthwhile companion?
"Who else knows of your suspicions? No one, I would hope?"
Idiots, Plots, and Awkward Diplomacy - Bianca & Maeve
"It was a tragedy," she stated, "one we’ll have to keep from occurring again. Loss is a hard weight to bear, and I fear you’ve got the brunt of this one. My deepest condolences."
She dipped her head, showing grief, then gracefully slipped into the seat. With legs crossed she listened, nodding when points rang true. Ah yes, the squid incident. Maybe now they’d kill the darn thing. “Is it under control?” Maeve inquired, voice cold as the chill in the room. She’d been in class when it happened, so she didn’t know all the details. As a head of house, Bianca probably knew more.
"Any details? Suspects? Inklings at all?" With pursed lips, she awaited an answer. Her mind had already been made, however, as all roads led to Michael Starkey. The deplorable man was at it again, and Maeve would not tolerate his antics.
She narrowed her eyes, getting lost in her head for a minute. Perhaps there was something she could do. “Though pleasant, talking only gets us so far, Bianca. If you’d like to take action, however, I’m all yours.”
Bianca nodded as Maeve spoke. "Action, indeed. I'm glad to know I can rely on you. It's the only way we can ensure the safety of our students."
Maeve had asked of suspects, and from her tone, Bianca imagined she had some thoughts. "I have none, but it sounds as if you do." She raised an eyebrow and grabbed a quill. "I assure you, any suspicions you may have will remain in this room until such times as proof can be found."
Eyes still locked with Maeve's, Bianca began drawing in what appeared to be lazy circles on the parchment in front of her. It helped her think, and this was certainly not a time to let her brain be idle. Too much was at stake, and if Maeve was not trustworthy, she would need to sever the alliance before it began.
Idiots, Plots, and Awkward Diplomacy - Bianca & Maeve
Never a social creature, Maeve was quite irked at the summons. To question a superior, however, was out of the question, so she sucked up her pique and went gently.
Light footsteps echoed around her, sending shivers through the stone. It was old, the castle, and very much alive. Though age left it worn and grey, a vitality remained, and she realized she had missed it. Too long she’d been dead, holed deep in a den of dirt and damnification. It was time to breathe again.
With a book of poems in hand, she meandered towards Bianca’s office. She’d try to be civil, even open in fact. Though vexed at the loss of her free time, it was about time she tried to make a friend.
She looked down at at the anthology, dog-earing the page of her favorite poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Her fist hit the door three times, solidly but in no rush to move. She waited there, for a second, before a woman’s voice called through the door. Bianca. She’d met her a few times, though they weren’t acquaintances yet. In fact, she knew very little about the woman.
Quickly, Maeve slipped into the room, respectfully nodding towards the snake. “Bianca,” she greeted. “Hard at work again, I see. What did you want to discuss?”
Always business, that Maeve. She barely knew the witch, but she admired her pointedness. This, after all, was no time for idle banter.
"The deplorable state of our school," she said, pointing at a chair across from her desk. "I was hoping after the first mishap last year that the situation could be resolved, but then a student in my House was killed horrible." She paused and met Maeve's eyes. "Of course I hoped that was the end of it, but just today that squid has gone feral and has put the students yet again in danger. This needs to stop, and I fear the people in a position to stop it are quite incapable of protecting our charges."
It was no secret that Bianca had a disdain for Deputy Head and her lapdog, but until now the situation had never necessitated what was now dangerously close to a coup. But they had failed at the most important part of their jobs and had consequently proven their terrifyingly inadequate qualifications.
She hoped the witch had a measure of intelligence as well as the gift of discretion. There were few other members of the faculty who were as distrusting of Starkey as Bianca was, and if Maeve let her down, she'd be forced to look elsewhere for help.
Maeve, if you would be so kind, please meet me in my office around noon tomorrow. Given the state of affairs at the school, I feel it's high time we talk. --Bianca
Ms.Dibara,
As soon as the clock strikes twelve, I’ll be there.
-Maeve Delacroix
Idiots, Plots, and Awkward Diplomacy - Bianca & Maeve
Bianca was quite sure all her colleagues were incompetent. Students being attacked, one of her own dead, and they were no closer to discovering who was responsible.
It was disgraceful.
As Head of Slytherin, Bianca had been responsible for notifying the Eames family in person of their daughter's accident. She had left out details--the dire situation at Hogwarts mostly--because if her colleagues couldn't do damage control, at least she could. There had been an accident, an unavoidable tragedy, but they weren't to know how dangerous the school had become. Other parents would panic, and that never helped anything.
Damage control had the unfortunate side effect of continued correspondence, and as she tied the letter to Mrs. Eames to her owl, she considered how to remove herself from this role of grief counselor.
It was a small price to pay to keep chaos on the outside at bay, but it was certainly an unwelcome courtesy Bianca was keen to be rid of. Until the Auror and the hedgehog figured out how to fix the school, though, the small diplomatic niceties were a must.
The owl was barely out the window when there was a knock at her door. "Enter," she said evenly, hoping to gods it wasn't one of her more incompetent peers.
Journal - September 2077
He's a fool, that hedgehog. A waste of class time, and the students were nearly dead.
Of course I don't believe it was him. Maeve does, but I know he doesn't have the capabilities. Still, it was his idea that put the children at risk. His, and the historian's.
The pair of them are exactly what is wrong with this school, and I hope one day they realize their extreme lack of credentials. Education is not for the weak. It is for those most capable alone.
I am grateful for Adelaide and even for Sarah, who, though inexperienced, has a tenacity that those boys lack.
Perhaps the school should be rid of the men. Surely it will not serve to fix all the problems, but some? I do wonder.
Of course they are the favorites. They can do no wrong. But Maeve will expose something, even if it's not what she intended to find. She has a determination that they lack, and the hedgehog cannot protect himself for much longer.
Bratlings - Bianca/Nathan
Bianca’s comment could be seen as the kind of backhanded insult she would use. And if he would consider it an insult it would have definitely worked. “I don’t have any children”, he told her. “But then most of us haven’t.”
He endured her other comments with a smile and a nod and then left her office, glad to leave her behind.
The next step was informing Mikey.
Bratlings - Bianca/Nathan
Uncertain of what he was feeling, Nathan stared at Bianca blankly. It took a moment for him to stomach what she had just told him. There was no way she would agree as fast as she had, was there? Apparently there was. No matter what she told him, or thought for herself, this clearly counted as a win.
He just hoped the others would see it this way - her tone was still very condescending and he could only imagine how it would end if Bianca took control of everything and every thinkable scenario involved tears at some point.
"It’s a rough draft, it can’t be perfect from day one." The little voice in his head telling him that there had actually been more than one day to maybe plan was ignored. Nathan was getting annoyed with her attitude about it, acting superior and trying to make him feel small.
He stared at her, while she flipped through the pages, calming himself and welcoming the break in the conversation to clear his own head. He needed to be very careful about what he would say now.
"If you have any ideas of how to change-" he would not call it improving. "- our plans, please inform us as soon as possible. You might have noticed that our time until the start of the term is running out quickly, we can’t waste any more time on semantics." He had postponed his lesson plans to a later date, but telling her would only fuel her belief in their incompetence.
"We will not. Lose. Control. We’re professors, they’re kids, the spells we will use are all going to be fool-proof. There is no way this could go wrong." Her inability to believe in anyone’s but her own incompetence was infuriating, Nathan realized once again. There had been worse things in the school than a group of first years and a bunch of simple spells. "And if you don’t believe it, we could try out a supervising spell that keeps tabs on them, or an alarm system."
Although it felt like the wrong thing to do, supporting her ideas would probably be the best way to go for now, if he wanted to avoid her boycotting the whole idea at least.
Oh dear, he was losing control of himself already, and Bianca kept her face perfectly even as she observed.
Yes, poor Nathan was irritated, but it was nothing more than a bratty child whining because he hadn't gotten his way.
How Dawson found these fools was beyond her, but they were her peers, and she would ensure they did not fail. After all, any negative reflections on the faculty reflected poorly on her as well.
"Children are the most capable of circumventing more sophisticated precautions. You have no children of your own?" Of course she knew the answer, but she wanted his reaction. It would amuse her.
Besides, he was a professor. He should be well familiar with children. He should know that even the best laid plans will often fail when children are involved. And magical children were the worst of all.
"I see no need for a supervisory spell, nor do I expect perfection out of you, Nathan." She smiled. "I trust this endeavor is in capable hands. But do let me know how I can assist?"
She nodded once to signify that the meeting was over, and she returned her attention to her book.
"Oh," she added without looking up, "and please do give my regards to Michael?"
Bratlings - Bianca/Nathan
He was not sure if he liked the way Bianca’s face seemed to light up, but Nathan decided it was a good sign. A plan as good at this one couldn’t fail, he should have actually known from the start.
Nathan shook his head. “No, this isn’t what it is about. We are a wizarding school, but a lot of subjects don’t require actual wizardry. And of course magical components would be involved.” He just wasn’t quite sure which ones yet, but making things up along the way shouldn’t be too hard. “We cold use simple illusions and one of the ideas was to seperate them by magic, maybe lock them inside a room, and only release them if they work together.”
If this did not convince her, he wasn’t sure what would. Muggle methods, yes, but still confrontation with spells and charms. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to make up too much at the top of his head to convince her. He didn’t want to promise her too much.
"It’s a very simply idea, I’ve explained the basics already", he started and called the details back into his mind. "The students will be divided into groups, but those groups will be seperated at first, some of them locked in a room, the way of getting out would be to show that they are able to work as a team. The exact task isn’t specified yet, but I’m sure there is something." He had already given this a bit thought, but not yet found anything. There were a lot of complex spells that needed multiple participants, but if there was a solution fit for a muggle-born first year, it could be done alone.
"Then they will have to solve other tasks around the castle, incorporating certain paintings, ghosts and parts of the castle. Each one of them should symbolize one of the house virtues - showing the students that each one of them is valuable, which is the goal of it in general, as I’ve already said."
He thought for a second. “I think we wanted to include both the dungeons and the towers and give them easy ways to navigate around, maybe even one or two of the secret passages, put that is more of a location-point. The other details will probably be discussed between the other Heads and there might be minor changes -” he actually hoped there wouldn’t be much of those. “-but it’s still under development, so that is to be expected.”
He made a pause for effect and looked at her expectantly. “So, what do you say?”
A single corner of Bianca's mouth curled up. Nathan was proving himself no better than the hedgehog, and his failure was immensely entertaining.
He had no plan. No real plan. There was no structure, just a vague idea of what could be. Very like a history professor: such skill in the past that they lacked vision of the future.
If Nathan had no direction, what would save the hedgehog and his guardian from faltering? The two were foolish and childish, and despite their skills in their own areas, they too lacked the mental capacity to get things done. No wonder the pair of them were in Hufflepuff.
"This will require careful tuning, if we are to salvage the idea from ruin." She stepped lightly off her desk and moved to a bookshelf where she lazily began searching through books. "After all, we want to give our new students nothing but the best impression in their first days here."
Her finger stopped on a particularly dusty tome which she removed from the shelf carefully. She carried it to her desk and sat down to begin flipping through it, all the while ignoring Nathan.
"What I say..." she eventually began, "is that you need a much stronger plan, or this will turn into chaos." She looked up and met his eyes, all hint of a smile gone. "I will adjust my lesson plans accordingly, and I shall assist at your request, but I encourage you, Nathan, to present the Headmaster with greater detail than you gave me. Inter-House relations are important, and I do applaud your dreams of a better Hogwarts, but order is also important. And should control be lost..."
She trailed off. She would not lose control of anything, and she had no doubt Nathan knew this. Whether he could keep the others--and, indeed, himself in check--was another thing entirely.
Bratlings - Bianca/Nathan
Nathan couldn’t help but suddenly feel very hopeless concerning his abilities to convince Bianca. It was an unusual feeling and he didn’t like it.
"They are lacking… well not lacking anything directly", he tried to explain. "But there has been great amounts of bullying between the houses and students get hexed and miss classes while staying in the hospital wing." It did feel like the best way to just explain the situation.
"We thought we could change this by… well it would be similar to a muggle scavenger hunt - the students would be split into mixed teams that have to solve different tasks, tasks that symbolize the different house virtues."
He hoped she would like that point - it could be a way to show Slytherin’s superiority after all.
"Mikey and Sarah will talk to the Headmaster." It wasn’t ideal and partly a lie, Sarah had not agree to it yet after all, but he knew she wouldn’t be hard to persuade.
He sighed. Bianca had of course found the one weak spot. “It will interfere with the first term lessons, I’m afraid. But it would be only the first day and since the students will have to spend a lot of time running around the school in little groups, their knowledge of the castle will improve, so we are hoping that less people will be late during the first months.”
Late students were a problem for every teacher and he had a vague idea that they annoyed Bianca even more than most of his colleagues.
As Nathan talked, Bianca felt herself straighten up. This was certainly an intriguing idea, but more intriguing was the way he was attempting to sell the idea to her, as if he were scared of her. The very idea!
She was delightful.
"Muggle, you say?" she said, her already raised eyebrow arching higher. "Are we no longer a Wizarding school?" She met Nathan's eyes for a moment before standing and walking around her desk. She brushed off a spot--though of course it had already been dusted earlier that day--and sat gently on the edge. "Of course," she continued with a vague sort of indifference to her voice, "I do suppose the Muggleborns would be at a disadvantage if we allowed the others to use the spells they already know. Still, I wonder if this is setting a bad precedent, displaying so early on our disdain for our own craft?"
In all fairness, the idea had the beginnings of a solid foundation, and anything to keep those new students from getting themselves completely lost was something Bianca could find herself supporting. But she couldn't let Nathan go without knowing he fully supported his own plan. Nothing should ever be half-cocked, as the Muggles said, and if he wanted to debase magic so, he had better have excellent reasons for it.
"The hedgehog and his guard dog..." she mused to herself. Of course that boy had no spine of his own. Surely he could handle someone as foolish as Dawson by himself without his protector, but Bianca was hardly surprised he didn't want to. He never went anywhere without Sarah, which was probably for the best. Bianca doubted he'd function well on his own.
She shook herself from her thoughts and lifted her head to face Nathan. "Tell me more about these Muggle tasks," she said, tilting her head slightly to the side. "What exaclty do you propose our students will be doing. Without wands. At a school of magic?"
Bratlings - Bianca/Nathan
Nathan believed in his ideas, which made him, in theory, the perfect person to suggest them to Bianca.
At this time of the year she was usually already at Hogwarts, probably because she preferred the big castle as silent as possible, without any students running through the corridors. And he could see the advantages of that now, while walking to her office.
After arriving, he knocked and waited for her to ask him in, before opening the door.
"I’m sorry for disturbing, Bianca, but there’s something I need to discuss with you before the term starts. It’s an idea Mikey and I had, about inter-house relationships, especially between the new students."
Bianca raised a single eyebrow and folded her hands neatly on her desk. Ah, Mikey. Stupid, simple Mikey. If he had an idea, it would surely be amusing.
Still, perhaps with Nathan as the voice of reason, there would be some substance. Plus, from what Bianca had seen, if Nathan suggested something, Mikey would follow like a lovesick puppy dog.
"You feel the relationships are lacking in some way?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "What, pray, is lacking, and how do you two gentlemen propose we fix it?"
It was no secret that Bianca took the staunchly traditional view of the House hierarchy: Slytherin was at the top, and Gryffindor, despite their obnoxious pride in their supposed chivalry, came next. Ravenclaw had its merits, Bianca knew, but they cared far too much about academics and far too little for the application of their knowledge. And then Hufflepuff, the reject pile, where silly children sang campfire songs and shared ghost stories into the night. They embodied frivolity at its finest, and Bianca was adamantly against frivolity in all forms.
She let a snide smile reach her lips. "This, I trust, has the backing of the Headmaster? I should hope it won't interfere with the start of term lessons. Foundational knowledge, as you know, is of the utmost importance."
Bratlings - Bianca/Open
Term was approaching, and while other professors were at Diagon Alley looking after the new students, Bianca was comfortably alone in the castle, pouring over books and scrolls as she finalized her lesson plans.
Despite being an educator, children were not her favorite thing. She liked imparting knowledge, not dealing with their problems. Mercifully, her own students in Slytherin seemed more well behaved than the other Houses.
How those other three were made Heads was beyond her.
She had assumed she was alone, so it jarred her when there was a knock at her office door.
She took a moment to compose herself before clearing her throat and saying "Come in."
