Nathan Xavier
January 03, 2015 11:32 AM
Head of House Speech by Nathan Xavier
Nathan led the way out through the large main doors of the Cascade Hall into the grand entrance hall with its portraits of the Founders and the corridors and stairwells to different parts of the school. From here, there were actually several ways to get to the common room. This year, as he had last year, he picked the route that he thought might be the most helpful to them, if not the shortest.He headed toward one of the corridors, leading the new students down a hallway lined with doors, which he pointed out as being some of the classrooms they would utilize for potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts and, on days when it was not held outside, Care of Magical Creatures. He stopped at a cross-corridor, and pointed further down the way they had been going. "The Transfiguration rooms are further down that way. This is the way to the hospital wing," he added, leading the students down the side corridor.
Before they reached the medical wing, though, he stopped at a staircase leading up. "Our common room is up here," he said, starting up the stairs. He stopped partway up and turned back to the students following him. This was the difficult part.
He pointed at the step underneath him. "This is the entrance to our common room," he stated, with a slight air of someone not expecting to be believed. He hadn't quite believe it himself when he'd been told, and even two years later, it still seemed a bit odd, though it was starting to seem less so. Maybe in another year or two, it would finally begin to feel normal to enter a room this way. "Look for the little diamond-shaped chip in the stair," he added, giving them the advice he'd been given for finding the right spot. "Now we do a jig to get in." His tone had changed to one that sounded more than a little bit apologetic. "This was not my idea."
As the school's groundskeeper, Nathan's job was reasonably demanding in a physical sense. He could lift heavy bags of dirt and walk around the labyrinth for hours without needing to sit down too often, so he wasn't completely out of shape. However, he had hit his forties and he had about fifteen or so extra pounds around his middle that were not strictly necessary and 'graceful' was never a word anybody had ever accused him of being.
"You don't need to be good at it," he reassured the first years. Even now, he was in no stretch of the imagination good at it, and his attempt at the jig looked more like an elephant having a seizure than a dance. "You just need to get the steps in the right order." Merlin knew his own rhythm was awful and his timing inconsistent, so he knew for a fact that these were not necessary for successfully navigating the entrance. "You step like this, this, and, uh, this, then click your heels, and tap, and tap, and shuffle. And you repeat that twice more. You can get an older student to show you how to do it with the right tempo, if you'd like, but everyone just do the steps with me now. This, this, and . . . this, click, tap, tap, shuffle. This, this, and this, click, tap, tap, shuffle." After the third iteration, the wall slid open and revealed the Teppenpaws' Sonora home.
"Everyone in," he ushered and followed them through the opening once they were all inside. It slid closed behind him, looking just like a blank wall except for the doormat lying on the floor next to it. "Getting out is much easier," he informed them with no small amount of relief that he didn't need to teach them another jig. "You just step on the mat."
He moved further into the room, and waved around the space they found themselves in. It was decorated, predictably, in the House colors of yellow and maroon. The fireplace looked cozy though, and the couches and armchairs were quite comfortable. "This is your common room," he introduced the students to their new home. "Your dorms are up the stairs, girls to the right, boys to the left. Look for the room with your year number on it; one, in your case. Don't go up the wrong staircase. You'll get dumped back in here if you even try."
He pointed out the bulletin board hanging on the wall near where they'd come in. "That's the announcement board. It'll have important information on it like club announcements, Quidditch sign-up sheets, and so forth. Teppenpaw has had some trouble with getting Quidditch players lately, so I'll be running the try-outs and, hopefully, naming the team and the captain from the results of that." He had planned to do that last year, as well, but they hadn't been able to pull together a full team, so the Teppenpaws had merely been used as reserves for the Aladren and Pecari teams. He hoped maybe this year might prove better.
"Teppenpaw also has some prefects," he nodded at the ones who were currently about, "who wear badges identifying themselves as such. They are Julian Umland and Portia Dobson." Carter Browning currently remained listed for the position of Seventh Year Prefect but he hadn't attended the school in over a year, so Nathan left his name off the prefect list this year to avoid confusion. Teppenpaw hadn't had three prefects in a while anyway, so he was sure they could make do.
"Just a couple more rules, then I'll let you get settled in and acquaint yourselves with your new home. Curfew is at 10. You don't need to go to sleep then, but you need to be in Teppenpaw territory and quiet. Otherwise, we lose House points. You get those for good behavior and achievements and lose them for bad behavior. The House with the most points at the end of the year gets a trophy. Let's see, don't tell anyone not in Teppenpaw how to get in here. Breakfast starts at seven. Each of you should have gotten a class schedule and a map with your acceptance letter, but I've got more in my office there," he pointed out the door to the Head of House office, "if anyone needs them. I'm also available, either in there or out in the Gardens, if you ever need me for anything. I'm here to help. Are there any questions?"
OOC: Welcome to Sonora and Teppenpaw House! You may reply here with questions or just chat with and get to know the other students. You are now welcome to post on any board except the common rooms of other Houses, as your Teppenpaw student isn't allowed there. Have fun!
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Nathan Xavier
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