An awkward chat [Professor Xavier] on Herbology

Nevaeh Reed

March 30, 2018 5:38 PM

An awkward chat [Professor Xavier] by Nevaeh Reed

Her grades were slipping. Not critically, but enough to disturb any well-intentioned Aladren, especially a prefect like Nevaeh, who needed to be a role model for her Housemates and in fact the school. She just felt like she couldn’t focus this year. Things were so… weird, she guessed. Especially in Herbology.

It was her favorite class. She liked the way the soil felt, her hands deep within. She liked that plants, even magical ones, lived and breathed and thrived without the same types of perceptions that animals usually did. A venus fly trap had no eyes - no vision - but it caught the fly all the same.

And she liked the teacher best of all, too. Professor Xavier was kind and patient, an excellent choice for the Teppenpaw Head of House, although she often wished he was hers instead. He was wonderful. And also dating her birth mother. That was why it was weird now. She supposed the affairs of teachers were nothing unusual, but it was different when one of the teachers was her mother. Not that Isis was ever much of a parent in her life, but… well, Nevaeh felt a lot of conflicting things. Mostly worry, for him. Maybe Isis would abandon him, too.

Nevaeh found herself so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t immediately realize that class had ended. It took the shuffling of bodies on the way out, paired with a gentle nudge from Scout, to make her aware. By the time she had her belongings packed up, it was just her, her dog, and the professor left in the room. She looked at him as best as she was able, her limited vision providing just a blurred outline of the man. The sixth year felt awkward, and maybe he felt it too, so she decided to say something despite the risk of only making it worse. “Hey, uh…” she began weakly. “Isis told me about-... I mean, Professor Carter… Well, congratulations, I guess.” She paused, rocking on her heels weakly. “And she said you know about the whole me thing, so I just wanted to say, like, you don’t have to… I don’t know. You don’t have to try to be a dad to me or anything. She’s not much of a mom, anyway.” The last bit was slightly mumbled, more to herself than to him. But it was still there.

12 Nevaeh Reed An awkward chat [Professor Xavier] 325 Nevaeh Reed 1 5

Nathan Xavier

April 01, 2018 9:08 PM

Well this is awkward by Nathan Xavier

Nathan hadn't missed that Nevaeh's grades had been dropping marginally of late, nothing enough that he felt the need to bring it up himself, but just enough that he assumed that was what she wanted to talk about when she dawdled at the end of class until all of her classmates had left and they were left alone for a more private conference. Well, them and Scout, but the guide dog was such an integral part of Nevaeh, that 'and Scout' was almost part of her first name when he greeted them coming into the classroom everyday.

So he was taken entirely off guard when she opened on an entirely different topic.

Isis had warned him that she'd told her biological daughter about their relationship, which he had - mostly - supported, because Isis talking to people about her private life was kind of a big step and it meant she was growing at a person. It did leave Nathan himself in a bit of awkward situation with a student, but when no confrontation had been presented in the first few days after the revelation that none was coming, the slight awkwardness would fade with time, and normality would return eventually.

But this was not a year for normality; he had assumed too soon.

And worst of all, even beyond how in Merlin's name he was supposed to respond to an assurance that he was not expected to try to be the girl's father, was the undertoned, She's not much of a mom, anyway, because that could not be left unaddressed, even if Nevaeh wasn't exactly wrong, but . . . why him? why today? why here?

He opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. He couldn't. He just couldn't. This whole year was too much. The fevers. The accidental magic. Cleo. He'd already been starting to feel a bit run down, which probably meant he was going to have a fever himself soon. And now this. He just couldn't. He wanted to be in bed.

And all of a sudden, Nevaeh and Scout were alone in the Greenhouse.

Nathan was in his bed. He blinked about in bewilderment for a moment and then just dropped down flat onto his back, soft pillow beneath his head and stared at the familiar ceiling. "Why me?" he asked it plaintively. He couldn't just leave Nevaeh like that, though. This was just about the worst thing he could have done. He dragged himself back up out of his bed and took just about every shortcut he knew between his room and the greenhouse, at a full out run whenever there weren't other students in sight, and a brisk power-walk when there were.

"Nevaeh?" he panted, entirely out of breath because, in shape, Nathan was not, and that was easily the fastest he had ever made that trip, by at least half. "You still here? I'm so sorry."

OOC: Sorry. You can be here or not when he returns. I'm not sure exactly how far it is between Teppenpaw and the greenhouse, but I'd guess it probably took a few minutes even running.

1 Nathan Xavier Well this is awkward 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Nevaeh

April 10, 2018 5:41 PM

You can say that again. by Nevaeh

There was a pause.

Okay, that was normal. Nevaeh had, admittedly, just dumped a lot on him. A lot more than he had probably bargained for, if she were to guess. Isis refused to tell her much about what her early life was like or where they came from, and likewise, her parents never gave her much to go on. If that pattern was indicative of anything, she doubted Professor Xavier really ever got much breathing room when it came to Isis. And now here was Nevaeh, doing the same thing. That felt gross.

But then the pause lengthened. It went on and on. “...Professor?” With Scout at her side, she tentatively made her way toward the front of the room, where Professor Xavier was. Or, rather, had been. She got close enough that she should have definitely perceived him, but he wasn’t there anymore. Had he been there to begin with? Maybe he had left with the rest of her classmates and she just hadn’t noticed.

“Nevaeh?” Her head turned in the direction of the voice: seemingly, the doorway of the greenhouse. It definitely belonged to the professor, but he seemed out of breath. And he was apologizing for… something.

Nevaeh blinked. “What just happened?” she asked, momentarily too confused to be much fussed about the topic she had previously brought up to him. Actually, maybe he wouldn’t think of it either and they could just forget about how awkward she was bound to make things. “How did you get over there? I swear you were over here, weren’t you?”

12 Nevaeh You can say that again. 325 Nevaeh 0 5

Nathan Xavier

April 11, 2018 2:58 PM

Well, this is awkward by Nathan Xavier

Oh good, she’s still here, was Nathan’s first relieved thought, but that was swiftly followed by the more perverse thought, Oh no, she’s still here! Because while he had to make this right, he still hadn’t figured out exactly what it was he was supposed to say.

Well, explaining his disappearing act would at least buy him some time. “I was,” he confirmed when she expressed her very valid confusion about where he had been, which must have been made even more confusing by her not having been able to see that he had left his previous location. “I assume you’ve noticed or at least heard about the accidental magic and fevers going around?” he ventured. The advanced class hadn’t been hit nearly as bad as the intermediates, or even the beginners, but some of the events had taken place in public areas of the school outside of class, and the rumor mill was certainly working hard to make sure the most notable events got shared with everyone. Plus the staff themselves were making an effort to make sure anyone with fever like symptoms made it to the Hospital Wing as quickly as possible.

“The staff has concluded they’re connected, and I think I’m getting the fever, and I wished for my bed at the wrong time, and poof, I was there.” He entered more fully into the greenhouse, and dropped heavily into his working chair, which he mostly only used when there weren’t any students around, but he was tired, out of breath, and sick, so he didn’t think Nevaeh would begrudge it. He rubbed a sleeve across his forehead to wipe away the sweat from his run, and took a few seconds just for the act of collecting oxygen. “I didn’t mean to leave you here like that,” he added after he could breathe steadily enough that he was no linger panting between each word. “Came back as fast as I could but -“ he stopped, blinked, frowned in confusion. “I’m going to have to ask Selina to make sure I didn’t accidentally take down the anti-apparation wards, too, while I was at it,” he said, more to himself than to Nevaeh. He didn’t think he had the power or the authority to do that by himself, but accidental magic could be absurdly strong sometimes. It was unlikely he managed it for any longer than the second it took him to relocate to his bed, but would be best to check on it anyway.

He shook his head, hoping to clear out some of the cobwebs in there. “Sorry, again, I’m still trying figure out what just happened myself. You were saying.” He knew what she’d been saying and was pretty sure he didn’t want to hear it again, so he ended that thought on a period not a question mark. It was a change of subject, not a request to repeat herself.

“I, I appreciate your candor,” he began carefully. “I, well, I understand this is an awkward situation for all of us. Um. I don’t, that is, I’ve tried to maintain impartiality toward you in class since I found out, and I will continue to be entirely professional in the role of your professor. I’d try to do that with any student I had any kind of outside tie to,” he added, though he had largely dodged that bullet when his only nephew to show any sign of magical ability had chosen to attend a different school.

“Outside the scope of being your teacher though,” he continued, somewhat awkwardly, “I understand your relationship with Isis is . . . um, strained . . . and legally your adoptive parents have full custody of you, so I will respect whatever boundaries you wish to lay. But if you wanted . . . I don’t know, to build more than what is currently there with . . . either of us . . . I would be happy to try to make that happen.”

1 Nathan Xavier Well, this is awkward 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5