now you see me

brock albion // apparition professor

[alffie-stebbins-deactivated2016]

Red, yellow, orange, and brown filled Alffie’s vision as the tree above him suddenly decided to shed all of its fall leaves on top of his head. He had been casually sitting underneath the tree in the courtyard reading a book; so much for a peaceful day. Sighing he began to brush off the leaves when he heard a laugh from behind him.

[professorbrockalbion]

Brock didn’t know why he found it so funny, but for some reason he couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the boy before him get frustrated as the leaves floated down from the branches to land on top of him. “It’s a tree, you know. They tend to do that - especially in the fall.”

[itsmissmarymac]

Boggart | Mary and Professor Albion

[itsmissmarymac]

Mary laughed, though the sound was hollow, unlike the harmonious sound that normally graced her lips. She chewed her lip thoughtfully. “The boggart was my mother, but I don’t fear her,” she said quietly as the emotional edge disappeared from her frame. Her limbs relaxed, hands unclenching from the now wrinkled sleeves of her robes, and she lowered herself down into a nearby desk chair. “Quite the opposite actually. My mum - well, it - calls out for help…it’s bleeding. But no matter what I do, I can never get close enough to help.” Her voice shook slightly but she carried on, still trying to avoid Professor Brock’s gaze. “It’s like an invisible force pulling me back, and all I can do is listen to it scream for me. That’s what I fear, not my mother. Not being able to save the people Iove.”

She exhaled slowly, as if the memory of her mother’s pained face was trapped in her lungs and she was desperately trying to expound it from her. “It’s not always her, though,” she noted, finally bringing her dark eyes to meet his gaze. “Changes. That’s the worst part. Though, she is still alive, mum.” She offered him a weak smile, one that she hoped would reassure him. It was already mortifying enough having him see her so vulnerable, she wasn’t about to give him more reason to worry. Part of her wanted to be left alone, but perhaps a smaller part knew that she shouldn’t be.

[professorbrockalbion]

He listened intently as she explained why the boggart had taken shape of her mother and with every word, Brock’s heart grew heavy for the Gryffindor. It had to be awful to have failing to her save her own blood as he worst fear, though it made sense why it was. If Brock spoke to any of his own family anymore, he imagined he’d probably see the same thing when facing off against a boggart. He racked his brain for a good response, but couldn’t come up with one that wouldn’t sound like he was pitying her, so he opted for a stony silence with an occasional soft smile thrown in every second or so. 

“Mary, it’s not your job to save everyone.” He replied quietly, letting his eyes match up with her own. He needed to her to understand this more than he needed anything else in the world right now. She was just a kid and putting that kind of pressure on herself couldn’t be good for her. She needed to be young and have the time of her life while she could, not worry about keeping her family alive. “I know that they’re important to you, and I know you feel as if they’re your responsibility, but you can’t do that to yourself. You can’t protect everyone you love all the time. If anything happens to them, it isn’t your fault.”

[thegejones-blog]

“You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Gwen recited in an annoyed voice. “I’ve heard it before. I’m working on it. Just not in a good mood. May I go now?” 

[professorbrockalbion]

“Exactly. Keep repeating that to yourself till it sticks.” He sighed heavily, a shake of his head following shortly. “Sure. Go.” 

[thegejones-blog]

“…No.” Gwen sighed running her hand through her hair. “It’s just a first response. I didn’t know who you were and I can usually scare people if I yell and I just wanted to get out as quickly as possible. I wasn’t thinking.” 

[professorbrockalbion]

Brock sighed heavily, shaking his head at the Gryffindor. “Don’t you think that’s the best way to go about things, Jones? Maybe if you first response wasn’t anger, you wouldn’t getting into trouble so often.”

[thegejones-blog]

“Sorry Professor, didn’t see that it was you…I apologize, I’m just in a bit of a mood and need to get out this castle and thought I would go for a fly.” 

[professorbrockalbion]

“And threatening me was the best way to achieve that?”

[jessiepinkman]

[itsmissmarymac]

Boggart | Mary and Professor Albion

[itsmissmarymac]

Mary dropped her wand weakly into her pocket, not wanting her violently churning emotions to turn into accidental magic as it so often did with younger witches and wizards. Her wide, dark eyes were trained on the ground. She didn’t want to look him in the eyes, didn’t want him to see the fear that resided there so permanently. And she wasn’t going to cry, that was for damned sure. Crying was for nights alone with the curtains of your four poster bed drawn tightly shut while you faced the rest of the world with a smile.

“Accident,” she uttered softly, her voice steadying. “It must have been part of the overflow from the Defense Against the Dark Arts storage, McGonagall was having me sort through a few things.” Blinking her eyes dry, she stole a glance upward. His eyes were kind and full of genuine concern, clearly offering her a sense of comfort, but Mary could not let her guard down after facing her boggart even if she wanted to. “It was my mother,” she said, unprompted. “I know you were probably wondering, anyone would. I just, I uh…wasn’t expecting it.”

[professorbrockalbion]

“Of course. That kind of stuff happens sometimes. Tricky world we live in.” He agreed softly, wanting to be agreeable and complaint. He felt an overwhelming surge of sympathy for the brunette, but he was doing his best to bite it back. Something told him that Mary wasn’t looking for his pity. The only way he could even begin to help is if he didn’t treat her like a child. That was the last thing that she needed and Brock could tell that she wasn’t a child anyhow. He’d seen it in a lot of students, but never so up close before. The war that threatened all his students future took obvious tolls on some of them, causing them to grow up at a much faster rate. These were no longer children that he was teaching, they were young adults.

When she commented about her mother, Brock took a slow breath in, pondering how to respond. There was no good way to console someone that you knew nothing about. It was the least he could do to try though. He let a few seconds pass before he nodded slowly, clearing his throat. “Ah. You’re right - I was curious, but I didn’t want to ask. That must be awful, your greatest fear being your mother?” He paused, not wanting to carry on, but decided to ask the question weighing heavily on his mind, “Is she alive? Your mother?”

[roar-of-a-lioness]

“Scum of the earth? That’s a tad harsh professor. They can take up all the space they want, I just wish it wasn’t in doorways.”

[professorbrockalbion]

“Oh no no no no. Those aren’t my words. I’ve heard them say that. I would never call the students scum, at least not out of my own accord.”

[roar-of-a-lioness]

“They do it to you too? I would have thought that maybe seeing a professor would make them move out of the way for fear of losing house points.”

[professorbrockalbion]

“They don’t do it to me as much, but it has happened a few times. I don’t blame them, I guess. You lot treat them like the scum of the earth because they’re younger than you and just starting out. They are probably trying to show you that they’re humans too and they can use up as much space as you can.”

[astridderoux-blog]

“Well you assigned us a paper about our experiences apparating on the school grounds and see how far we could get. But you see,” she paused, taking a seat on the stool across from the professor, placing her books on his desk and propping her chin on her hands. “We can’t apparate on school grounds. There’s a whole enchantment that prevents that.”

[professorbrockalbion]

A frown etched onto his fine features, the lines of his sculpted mouth dropping as confusion racked the professor’s brain. “Did I?” For some reason, he couldn’t recall giving his students such an assignment. Brock knew very well that they couldn’t apparate on the grounds of the school, so there was no way he would require his pupils to do something of the sorts. “I think you may have misunderstood the assignment, Ms. Ollivander. I’m very aware of the fact that the lot of you cannot apparate within the grounds unless given direct permission by the headmaster himself. I wouldn’t have told you to do something that you were physically unable to achieve.”

[astridderoux-blog]

“Professor…” Willow trailed off as her books fell to the floor in a loud crash. “Fuck.” She bent down to pick up the books, scraping up her papers into a neat heap, trying to pick up her books and parchments. “I wanted to ask something about the homework you assigned for next week.” 

[astridderoux-blog]

[professorbrockalbion]

Brock had been grueling over a set of essays for hours now, grading them mindlessly until he fell into a mechanic like rhythm of slopping a score at the top, then moving on to the next piece of parchment. After about ten minutes it had grown to be furiously tedious and now Brock was just going through the motions so he could be finished with it. He’d just finished writing a score on the top of a failed paper, flourishing the zero with a flick of his quill when the sound of a book slamming into the solid stone of the floor brought him from his grading trance. He looked up slowly, blinking a few times in hopes of clearing the daze that had settled over his emerald hues.“Oh, Ollivander. Yes uh - come in then. What’s your question?” The male tried to keep a certain professionalism in his tone, but deep down, he was more than grateful for her interruption. 

[paulwelsey]

[moony-mayhem-blog]

Remus frowned. “I’m sorry professor.  I was only trying to help.”

[professorbrockalbion]

“I’m not angry or anything, just a bit confused. It’s not every day that I get pulled down the stairs by a student.”

[moony-mayhem-blog]

Remus tugged the back of a student’s robe, pulling them to his side.  “Watch the stairs.  They move every once in a while.”

[professorbrockalbion]

Brock stumbled backwards, his green eyes wide with confusion as he spun around to see who had grabbed him. “I know this already, Lupin. I’ve been here longer than you have. Do you always go around grabbing people like that?” He asked, concern etching his features. 

[thegejones-blog]

“Either get out of my way, or get a black eye.” 

[professorbrockalbion]

“You think you’d learn that talking to me like that never gets you what you want, Ms. Jones.”

[roar-of-a-lioness]

“Why must the younger years insist on having their conversations in doorways?”

[professorbrockalbion]

“I’m starting to think they do it on principle. Something like ‘this is my castle too and I’ll do what I like’.”

[thebetterollivander]

“No, sir. She was a bit too young for me.”

[professorbrockalbion]

“Good, good. I don’t know what I would have said if you’d told me that you did ‘explore her dungeon’. I imagine I would have needed to give a lecture or something.”