Professor Nathan Xavier
August 25, 2017 4:19 PM
Head of House Speech by Professor Nathan Xavier
Nathan stood as the feast drew to a close and the food began to disappear, and he looked to his newest group of young Teppenpaws. The first year class was pretty small but Teppenpaw seemed to have done pretty well for itself this year, gaining one more first year than the other Houses, in addition to one of their seventh years earning Head Boy.Now was time to introduce the new Teppenpaws to their new home. "Hello, first years," he greeted them as a group. The nice thing about small class sizes was that he didn't need to yell to gather all his new students together. "Welcome to Teppenpaw. I'm your new Head of House. You may have noticed the dormitory locations were not on the tour earlier; that's because they're supposed to be a secret to anyone not in the House." He doubted they stayed too secret to anyone really intent on figuring them out, but it was the principle of the thing. "I'll show you the way now. Follow me please," he instructed. "It's right near the Hospital Wing," he added as they walked, "so you can use that as a landmark on your maps."
"I'm Professor Nathan Xavier," he reintroduced himself in case they had forgotten and missed it when he mentioned during orientation. "What are your names?" he asked as they walked, since they were a fairly small number and it had worked out well last year and he'd expended most of his landmark stories during the tour.
"Here's the Hospital Wing," he said when they reach it. "We're up this set of stairs here. Other things up this way include the elf quarters and some supply closets, so there generally isn't much traffic beyond people from our house. My external office door is the first one on the right, up at the top, but mostly you won't get that far." He came to a halt partway up the stairs. "Watch for this diamond shaped chip in the stair," he instructed, nudging the spot on the stair beneath him with his toe. "To get into our common room, you stand on this step a do a jig."
After this many years, his tone was more resigned than apologetic as he delivered this piece of bad news. "Fortunately, you don't need to do it with rhythm or grace. It's the steps that are important. It goes like this."
Nathan demonstrated. The Teppenpaw Head of House was a big man with too many pounds around his middle, and no young chicken anymore either, so it was by no means a graceful or even a dignified dance, but he no longer looked like he was suffering a seizure, so improvement was possible. More importantly, his steps followed the pattern he described out loud, "step, step, step, click your heels, tap, tap, shuffle," he paused briefly, looking at the students, "do it with me, we repeat that two more times, three in total. Step, step, step, click your heels, tap, tap, shuffle. Getting there, one more time. Step, step, step, click your heels, tap, tap, shuffle." On the completion of the third iteration, the wall beside him opened up, revealing the Teppenpaw Common Room, decorated in muted yellow and maroon tones. "Go on in," he invited, and followed after once they were all inside.
Nathan found the Teppenpaw Common Room a nice relaxing space and he often spent a couple hours each day sitting on one of the comfortable couches or chairs scattered about the room, in the hopes that familiarity bred trust and the students would voluntarily come to him if they had any issues with anything. He enjoyed engaging the students there in conversation and getting to know them. It made him feel like part of the House, not just its overseer, and he hoped the students likewise saw him as a favored uncle with whom they could be comfortable and joke, rather than being an imposing authority figure.
"As I mentioned earlier, your House is like your family here. I hope you will see me as something like an Uncle, but if there is trouble, I'm the one responsible for your safety and well being and I take that very seriously. I just ask you all respect one another and school property and we shouldn't have too many problems. Also, curfew begins at ten so please be in here or your room by that time and keep your noise level to minimum so your Housemates can sleep."
"Your rooms are up those stairs there. The right staircase leads to the girls rooms, the one on the left is for boys. Your year number is on your door. There are charms in place to physically expel those using the wrong staircase back down here, so I recommend not getting them mixed up," he added dryly.
He pointed over to the wall beside where they had entered. "The bulletin board is there, keep an eye on it for school and club announcements. Teppenpaw is very proud that this year's Head Boy is from our House, so feel free to reach out to Owen Brockert if you need assistance. Our prefects include Jemima Wolseithcrafte, Abigail De La Garza, and Joe Umland this year. Ginger Pierce is our Quidditch Captain. So any of those people, or myself, are good folks to go to if you have a question or problem or just want to talk to somebody. They all wear badges so you can easily identify them as House and School authorities."
He believed he had hit all the key points, so he wrapped up his speech there. "I think that's everything. Any questions, please ask, otherwise, converse amongst yourselves or head up to bed. Breakfast is at seven, and I have more maps in my office right over there if you misplaced yours and can't remember how to get there."
OOC: Welcome to Sonora and Teppenpaw House! You may reply here with questions or just chat with and get to know your Housemates. You are now welcome to post your new Teppenpaw on any board except the common rooms of other Houses or the Lounges, because first year Teppenpaw students aren't allowed there. You may continue your feast and orientation posts as long as you like thanks to fuzzy time, which lets you write multiple threads taking place at different times simultaneously. Have fun!
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