Sigh, Students...(open)

[Ofelia Cruz]

It had been a trying morning, the students had been restless and several of the slytherins who thought they where too good had been causing mischief in her class. Ofelia had to send three mudbloods to the hospital wing as they had ‘accidentally’ been cursed. She wouldn’t normally mind so much apart from the fact that the curse they used had been…particularly messy and she’d spent the next ten minutes cleaning up with a charm.

She entered the staff room letting the door slam behind her as she swept toward plush looking sofa. Several of the other teachers glared at her, but she ignored them, she was used to not being accepted by students and staff alike, however they listened to her most intimidated by her air of authority.

Ofelia sat down on the sofa putting down her folders and pulling out a pile of papers. It was fifth year homework on the three ‘unforgivable’ curses. She smirked as she read some of the answers; honestly she thought as she gave the paper a 2/10 first years could do better. She sometimes thought she was teaching a bunch of muggles the way a lot of them looked at her blankly when she asked them questions.

As Ofelia marked the papers she wondered about what the term held for her, there was many a thing playing on her mind. The fact her sister was working here now and the fact her ‘son’ was coming to Hogwarts although nobody knew he was her son. She had given him up along time ago to her sister and never wanted to see him again. But now things had been made more difficult for her and all she wanted to do was blast those two people from her life. She hated to not feel in control and right now that’s how she felt, it was as if she was being forced along by some force and she was powerless to stop it.

[Elliot Price]

Elliot was seated in a comfortable black leather chair with his nose buried in the day’s Daily Prophet, which held nothing of interest except the news of a local shop's doxie infestation. His morning classes had gone as well as he thought they would. He had managed to keep the pure bloods further away from those who were of mixed blood. There were a few death threats, but he found that most of these would not come true.

He tried not to let the students’ behavior get to him. Looking on the bright side, at least he didn’t have to send any to the Headmaster. Only one of his students was sent to the Hospital Wing, though it had nothing to do with the slew of accidental curses happening around the school. A Slytherin who decided it would be funny to transfigure his own hair into snakes to frighten the girls in front of him accidentally transfigured his black locks into a raven, which flew out of the open window.

So far, no one at Hogwarts seemed to know that he was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and most didn’t seem to care that he was a ‘mudblood.’ Hopefully, things would stay this way, but Elliot knew that this was only wishful thinking. When working at a school that was filled with people who thought that people of pure blood were of more importance than those with ‘bad’ blood, it was hard to be taken seriously.

The door of the staffroom slammed, which made him jump from behind his newspaper. He lowered it to see who had come in with such a bang, and recognized the Ravenclaw HOH and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Ofelia Cruz. She settled herself on a sofa and began grading papers. Elliot saw the swipe marks flying wildly and hoped that her bad mood, which seemed to be her only mood, wasn’t hindering her students grades. He thought that he should say something, but didn’t. He knew he didn’t want any other teachers telling him how to run his class.

He did, however, feel the need to alleviate her sour mood. If not for her students’ sake, then for her own. “Bad day?” he asked trying to hide any sarcasm in his voice.

[Ofelia Cruz]

Ofelia’s quill flew across the papers, she could generally tell what mark a paper deserved after the first paragraph. She scribbled out a particularly poor paragraph that a mudblood had written; honestly it barely made sense let alone explained the curse properly. It should really be checked if they could read and write properly before they entered the school, something so simple even muggles could do it.

“Bad day?”

Came a voice to the right of her, she glanced up to see the transfiguration professor sat in a chair nearby reading the daily prophet. A mudblood, she remembered as she surveyed him with an icy stare. She wondered why he found it necessary to talk to her, not many of the professor’s did unless of course they where death eaters.

“Cleaning up after someone’s poor attempt on cursing a mudblood isn’t exactly my idea of fun” she said dryly returning her attention back to the papers marking one a mere four out of ten with a satisfied smile. Ofelia had already issued the Mudbloods with a detention for annoying a pureblood, if Ofelia hadn’t punished the Mudbloods it would be likely that the slytherins would have taken it into their own hands to punish them and things might have ended up much worse.

“Anything interesting in the Prophet?” she asked indicating to the paper he held in his hands. The Prophet mainly contained information to how the ‘lower class’ should conduct themselves and what the ministry was currently doing to secure the purebloods higher status.

Ofelia hadn’t really spoken to this particular professor mainly because she was generally in her own world too caught up with her business to care about anyone else around her. She, however knew he wasn’t a death eater but he must have passed the headmasters inspection to be teaching here, therefore must not be a traitor to their cause. This made things easier for her.

[Elliot Price]

Ofelia turned to glare at him with her icy gaze, which made Elliot furrow his brow. He wondered why everyone around the school seemed to be angry at the world. Maybe he was just too optimistic, but he knew that everything wasn’t going horribly wrong and there were plenty of good things at the school; especially for the people who followed the Dark Lord. If anything, Elliot knew that he should be the one worrying. He was risking getting caught, or even killed, by becoming a teacher at the school. Even more so that he was a Muggle-born.

“Cleaning up after someone’s poor attempt on cursing a mudblood isn’t exactly my idea of fun,” Ofelia said turning back to her papers. Must you use that word, Elliot thought as he bit his tongue. He wasn’t offended by it, because he had heard many students whisper the word to him under their breaths whenever he chastised them. He did, however, feel that she shouldn’t be using the term herself to set an example for the students. If the school was ever going to become whole again, then words like that should be eradicated from the mouths of staff and students alike. Elliot didn’t protest this, however. He knew that it would do more harm than good.

“I’m sorry,” he said finding his voice, “There seems to be a lot of that going around. A couple days ago, I came upon a muggle-born first year that had been cursed purple. Upon my seeing him again today, the poor boy had regained most of his color, but still remained a tiny shade of puce.”

“Anything interesting in the Prophet?” Ofelia asked him. Elliot examined the paper in his hands. There were a few ‘reminders’ in it about how the lower-class should be acting, but Elliot had never read any of them. He refused to adhere to the rules that were set to people of mixed blood. He felt that this segregation was not good for the community and especially not good for the students. Weren’t they supposed to be doing the best they could for making the children well-rounded individuals? Elliot supposed that the majority of people were teaching their children their own prejudices.

“Not really. Someone let a horde of doxies into Madame Puddifoot’s Tea Shop in Hogsmeade. I think that the Prophet is hard up for some good material. They hardly ever go to Hogsmeade.” The Prophet seemed to be run by ‘high-class’ citizens, and the Ministry officials never seemed to go to there.

[Ofelia Cruz]

“There seems to be a lot of that going around. A couple days ago, I came upon a muggle-born first year that had been cursed purple. Upon my seeing him again today, the poor boy had regained most of his color, but still remained a tiny shade of puce.”

Ofelia listened and didn’t say anything for a moment as she read a paragraph, she looked up at him he was a mudblood sympathiser; she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. On the outside she acted like she was meant to disliking mudbloods, however she couldn’t forget her own roots…a half blood and she understood that a person couldn’t help where they came from only what they did with their life. She was willing to give them a chance, but one chance was it. “Well we have to be careful with how we deal with it. If we are not careful things could get extremely out of hand…it would mean completely separating everyone.” She said simply.

Ofelia knew things where going to get worse before they got better and Ofelia often feared the Dark Lord might order a complete elimination of all he deemed unworthy.

“Not really. Someone let a horde of doxies into Madame Puddifoot’s Tea Shop in Hogsmeade. I think that the Prophet is hard up for some good material. They hardly ever go to Hogsmeade.”

Ofelia nodded, actually if the publishers got their way the prophet would be filled with much more interesting material, however they where unable to publish the information as there where several death eaters monitoring what news got out to the public. She smirked “I expect they are finding interesting story’s more…difficult to publish” she said pushing her long dark locks behind her ears as she ticked a few sentences on a paper.

Ofelia pulled out her wand and gave her papers a tap, they disappeared in a flash and she leant back leisurely looking forward to reprimanding her students tomorrow on a poor pile of papers.

“Professor Price” she said primly “how do you find the students respond to your lessons? With enthusiasm or malice?” she asked looking at him interestedly.

[Elliot Price]

“Well we have to be careful with how we deal with it. If we are not careful things could get extremely out of hand…it would mean completely separating everyone,” Ofelia said to him and Elliot nodded. He folded the Daily Prophet and let it drop to the floor.

“Sometimes I think that would be better for some of the students. Children can be really callous; especially when things like blood lineage come into play. I’ve seen some really cruel things go on at this school, and it disheartens me that my own students are using what they learn in my class as a means of torturing those they feel are ‘below’ them. If Purebloods and Mixed Bloods were separated, I think it would be better for the majority of people.” He shrugged, “But I’m sure that would never happen. The Ministry doesn’t have enough money to run a completely separate school just for Mixed Blooded students.”

In reference to the article published in the Daily Prophet, Ofelia said, “I expect they are finding interesting story’s more…difficult to publish.” Her word choice was interesting to Elliot. He wondered what she meant by this, but he could make his assumptions, which he thought were going to be correct. If the Ministry is run by a Death Eater, then it isn’t such a stretch that there are Death Eaters controlling what does or doesn’t make it into the newspaper. This made Elliot shiver. He felt like Big Brother was watching, monitoring him constantly.

“Professor Price, how do you find the students respond to your lessons? With enthusiasm or malice?” Ofelia said after finishing grading her papers, which seemed to be of horrible quality. Elliot shrugged at her question.

“You don’t’ have to call me ‘Professor,’” Elliot informed her, “Elliot is just fine. It depends on the student. I’m sure you’re aware that I, myself, am a Muggle-born, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that the students who preach that Pure Bloods rule all don’t take me seriously. They prove to be a pain every now and again, but I can handle myself against them. Mostly, they just call me a Mudblood before going back to doing their work. Most of them are looking forward to obtaining a job that requires Transfiguration, so I think those students just put up with me. The other students, on the other hand, love my classes. They act with enthusiasm and an eagerness to learn. I try to be the best teacher I can despite the situation.”

He studied her reaction to his statement curiously before asking, “Why? Do your students not act with enthusiasm for your class?”