diversified | In the one life that we've got [closed]

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In the one life that we've got [closed]

WHO Eli Delacroix(

implike), Shannon Vaughn (

privatematter).
WHAT Care of Magical Creatures apparently involves dragons. Or an animagus professor being a troll and messing with his students. Thirteen year old Eli knows better than to fall for that.
WHEN Modern-ish setting? Eli's third year at school.
WHERE Salem Witches Institute, a courtyard.

For the first time in his time at school, Eli was not running late to a class that wasn't Transfiguration. He wasn't the first to make it to the courtyard where class was being held, but he was far from the last. Every since he was a child, he loved to read about all sorts of different creatures and a class just about the magical ones was definitely right up his alley, especially if he got to interact with them first hand.

He wasn't expected the whispers and panicked looks on some of his classmates' faces when he arrived. His small size meant that the crowd of students was a wall to him and forced him to weave around legs and bodies so that he could get a closer look to see what had gotten them all worked up. He was expecting something surprising, but he didn't expect to see a dragon laying in the courtyard with the professor nowhere to be found.

Why is there a dragon here? Aren't they supposed to be dangerous? This is so cool! Did the dragon eat the professor? Where is he at? Questions fluttered in the air as Eli frowned at the dragon, feeling that something was off about it. He knew that it wasn't a dragon and when it finally clicked, he couldn't help but smile widely. It was so obvious and nobody else could tell.

"It's not a dragon, everyone," Eli said loudly, his childish voice carrying an air of duh as he said it and walked out towards where the not-dragon lay. There was some shock and one of the other kids tried to reach out to stop him but he avoided it deftly in a way that only a small person could do so effectively. Getting close to the dragon, he looked straight at it without any fear and spoke. "Hello, Professor. Are we learning about dragons today?"

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There had been a lot of hushed anticipation about his first day at the school. Shannon had it all planned out for a while, a way to introduce who he was and what he was to the class in the most natural way in order to get it out of everyone's system so that they could get on with the school year. Of course, he cleared it with Headmaster Hawkins first and most of the teachers had either been in the same position since Shannon was in school or had gone to Salem's in the same period and knew exactly who the dragon loitering in the courtyard was.

It was mostly the children he had been worried about. Their confusion, excitement and worry was all palpable, practically pinpricks slipping past his scales. He waited to see if anyone would make the first move, laying out on the grass in order to keep from intimidation. Although it wasn't the same as having a scenting snake with him, Shannon's senses as a dragon kept him well apprised of his surroundings and the berth that the young wizards and witches had given him. Until one single, brave and bright student forced his way through.

Grinning enough to show off the venomous fangs that came with the associated form, Shannon reached out to place a claw over the boy's shoulder to hold him still and a long, serpentine tongue licked along the side of his face. It was the best he could do, an alternative to a pat on the head, for getting the answer to the unasked question. Then he snorted out some warm smoke and shifted onto his side. Come closer, kids. Get a look at a real, live dragon with the mind of a wizard. It was good to know thy enemy and all, and he wasn't the type to change like this for parlor tricks — this would be one of their only chances to inspect.

Out of all the responses Eli was expected, getting licked by his professor in dragon form was unexpected. He giggled as the leathery tongue swiped across his face and he accidentally bopped him on the nose with his hand while trying to squirm away from the tongue. It was definitely a weird feeling and he didn't want to have his face covered in dragon slobber.

Now that Eli had revealed that the dragon was no threat, the rest of the students surged forward to ooh and ahh at him and study their teacher in this interesting form. Eli stayed where he was, looking over their professor with silent interest. He had read about Peruvian Vipertooths in one of his books and while it was incredibly neat to see one up close, that was not what he was excited about.

It was the fact that right there was an animagus here for Eli to study and learn from. As a transfiguration genius, it was an unspoken goal that he was going to become an animagus by the time he graduated school and if he could get the chance to talk to the professor about it, maybe he'd be able to glean something from him about the process and make it easier when he attempted it.

When the child bopped him on the nose, Shannon snorted out more smoke in surprise and shook his head away. His neck was not as long as some of the more serpentine dragons out there, but it was long enough to turn his head almost entirely sideways while he gave the boy a warily amused look with brightly-colored eyes unaffected by the change. It turned into curiosity as the rest of the students began to swarm him once it was revealed he was no threat; upon prodding and light tugs and pokes, he unfurled one of his wings to stretch it out over their heads to their excited gasps and murmurs, half a mind to the safety of his students while the other half remained on the one still waiting patiently in front of him.

He moved closer, nudging him gently on the chest, then the side as if to urge him toward taking a look. Shannon was not often this magnanimous with his animal form and there wouldn't be many other chances for study. As his head got closer to the ground, another student came up and poked at his lip.

"Professor! Can I see your mouth? Where the fire comes from? Pleaaase?"

It was another third or fourth year by the voice, someone who knew well enough to ask but not enough about what they were dealing with. Shannon grunted and shook his head, lightly trying to pull her away with a claw at the back of her robes. His mouth was off-limits.

At the nudging, Eli finally did what the professor wanted and started to take a look at him, moving forward and placing a hand on his snout as the other student asked to see the dragon's mouth. He let out a softer giggle, hiding it behind his other hand so she wouldn't hear it. While he wanted to point out that their professor was in the form of a venomous dragon, he didn't want to be seen as a know-it-all and instead went to go gently examine one of his wings, more curious about that than showing off.

The other students were getting braver and asking more stupid questions. Eli himself was staying quiet, content to just silently poking at the leathery wing and later the smooth scales of his side. He was like a giant snake, Eli thought to himself as he placed his hand on his scales. Once he seemed content with his poking and prodding, Eli stepped back and away from the dragon professor and the rest of the class, sitting on the ground as he watched the rest of the class continue with their questions.

There was only so much that Shannon could do to answer his students' questions nonverbally. After it seemed they were quieting down, or at least had enough of their fill and now had time for answers, Shannon picked himself up and stepped back. Although changing from something so large to something relatively small like an adult human should have seemed jarring, it was a quick and smooth transition from one form to another.

"Hello everyone," he said easily, clasping his hands together and giving his class the once-over. Dragon senses were amazing and told him so many things he would never be able to figure out on his own, but having his regular human senses told him even more that he wouldn't want to give up in exchange. "My name is Shannon Vaughn and, as some of the more astute of you figured, I'm your professor for Care of Magical Creatures this year. Hopefully for many years to come, as well. You can call me mister, professor, sir, whatever you want. Let's just be polite about it, all right?"

He pointed out into the crowd, knowing there were students there without actually caring whom he was picking. "You, could you step to the tree over there and retrieve the basket I left? Thanks."

When Shannon started to change back, Eli leaned forward with rapt attention, trying to take in the transformation and wishing to know just how he did it. He had never seen an animagus change before thanks to them being so rare, so he was focusing on him intently so that he could gather all he could for his eventual attempt to do the same once he's gotten better at transfiguration.

Another student went and grabbed the basket Shannon asked for, bringing it over to him and handing it to him. There's a low murmur from the rest of the class, all wondering what it was that the professor had in the basket and what he was going to do next. Being a dragon was definitely hard to top and Shannon had succeeded in impressing the class thus far, but they were already looking for the next interesting thing.

Perhaps good for bringing their expectations back down to earth, the basket seemed to merely contain his wand and... a snake? It was the side of a garden snake with green and blue scales, docile and very receptive to Shannon. He held it up to his neck and the snake immediately slithered around twice in order to make itself a loosely coiled necklace where it perched and licked at the air intermittently. Shannon thanked the student, clapped him on the shoulder, and sent him back with the rest of them.

"For the rest of the year, you'll be learning how to identify and react to many different species of magical creatures that we share this planet with. Speaking of, you may have noticed back there that I was a dragon a second ago. Might not have, how would I know?" He shrugged widely, as if his transformation hadn't been so startlingly obvious that the rest of the school had probably been watching out their windows as well. "I'm what you call an animagus. Animagi are rare because for most people it's a parlor trick, but considering my field of study, you can see how I might think of it as more than that. However, I can't teach you that magic myself nor are you old enough to attempt it on your own. It's dangerous to try it unattended, so if you're interested, please seek out a teacher—your transfiguration teacher, preferably—and they'll help you with how to proceed."

Head tilted, Shannon paused a moment and then sat himself down. "We're outside, so we might as well get comfortable. Sit, sit. C'mon. All right. First lesson: my animagus form is that of a Peruvian Vipertooth. I didn't choose it; it chose me. Peruvian Vipertooths are just as venomous as they sound, so never get bitten." There was a soft oh and an uncomfortable shifting around that Shannon could pick out, and he deliberately kept from turning attention toward it. This was what class was for. "You were all right to be scared and wary when you came outside today. Dragons are incredibly dangerous creatures and if you see one, run away as quickly as possible and alert an adult. Understood?"

Edited 2014-06-16 05:55 (UTC)

The reveal of there only being his wand and a snake in the basket disappointed a fair number of the class, but they didn't react too badly. Sure, that was a downgrade from a dragon, but most things were. Obviously, there would be other interesting things in later classes that would make up for this disappointment and for now, everyone just got settled in to listen to Shannon speak.

There was very quiet annoyed noise from Eli at the end of Shannon talking about animagi. It felt like a jab against everything he had wanted to do over the next year or so and it made him instinctively bristle. Just because he was still a kid didn't mean that he couldn't successfully go through with it unsupervised. He felt now that he had to go through with it just to make a point against this teacher.

Annoyance turned into amusement when the topic turned towards dragons. He hoped the majority of the people who were ignorant to the danger of this specific dragon breed were not in his house so he didn't have to feel embarrassed about being from the same house as them. Shannon had been trying to keep them away from his mouth for a reason and it definitely wasn't because he breathed fire, otherwise he wouldn't have licked Eli.

Whether he reacted outwardly or not, Shannon definitely took note of the disappointment he heard in the crowd of his students. Something to watch out for if he could help it, but nothing he could do anything about right now. His warning had been for his students' safety and the safety of those around them; such complicated transfiguration was not without difficulties or consequences. Heck, Shannon had only learned it himself in order to try and hide from a heckler during his own school years and his animagus form had turned that attempt at safety into another circus entirely.

"Their eyes aren't as naturally blue as mine, either. They're usually hazel." He tilted his head, tapping his wand lightly against his chin. "Was that what tipped you off?" he asked his students at large, hoping to rope in the one who had spoken up earlier.

"There isn't a breed of dragons that has blue eyes," Eli said, taking the bait Shannon had given. There are some groans in the mass of students and some murmuring about how he's showing off, but Eli ignores them as he continues. "The closest you get are the Hebridian Blacks with purple eyes and the Antipodean Opaleyes with multicolored eyes. Combine that with the fact that you weren't trying to eat any of us meant that you weren't a real dragon. Your eye color is your distinctive marking in animal form, right Professor?"

He stayed where he was and instead of watching Shannon for any reaction, he instead kept his eye on his fellow students. He didn't have very many friends in his house nor many in the same year as him, so he was normally separated from the others when it came to things like this. Sure, he was only really good at Transfiguration, but everyone else seemed to equate that with being good at everything else when he was anything but.

"That's correct," Shannon said with a large grin. That had let him place the student, a young-sounding voice that spoke of someone not quite hitting puberty just yet despite his year in the school. At least he would be easy to keep track of in the mass that was his first class. There was a lot of introductory material to go over, and hopefully they would be able to finish it all today and start the real class tomorrow. "Animagi always take some sort of external factor from their human form and work it into their animal forms. It isn't a conscious decision, but if you know where to look, it's the best way to determine if you're dealing with a real animal, or a wizard or witch in disguise."

"Now. To make things easier on me, why don't we do some introductions? We'll go by house and then year, starting alphabetically so no one can accuse me of picking favorites already." That said, he technically didn't need a roll call; he'd been given the student ledger same as any new teacher had, but hearing voices applying their own names would put him at ease rather than having to shuffle through the muddle of so many new youngsters at once. "That means Gryffindor first, then Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

The class took a few moments among themselves to group up by house and then figure out alphabetical order. Once they seemed to get it straightened out, one by one, they started to go down the line, saying their name for the professor. When they got to Eli, he said his name clearly though with a bit of an accent on his surname. It wasn't on purpose, but instead an ingrained habit learned from living with his family.

Once Eli was done saying his name, he sat down and pulled out his transfiguration textbook and started to read, knowing that this would take a bit to get through the class and not really caring about paying attention to the professor while the roll call was going on. He'd focus when he was teaching, but for now he'd just read something interesting instead and get started on learning this year's worth of knowledge on the subject of transfiguration.

Shannon did his best to keep attentive and look as though he was following each student as they introduced themselves. He was cataloging every voice to their name, to their house and their year, but it wouldn't do to appear as if he wasn't looking at them as well. Most kids tended to take that sort of lack of attentiveness as an excuse to raise hell when given the chance. Shannon had to be in control of his class. It was only his first year of teaching, but he was going to ace this. Just watch.

It was when they finally got to Slytherins that Shannon realized perhaps this wouldn't go as neatly as he had hoped. A fifth year hesitated when it was his turn, then spoke something other than his name: "How do you know the colors so well?"

There was a moment of murmuring, confusion and reprimand for not introducing himself. Shannon tilted his head, then laughed when it hit him what the kid was asking. "Lots of memorization," he answered. "Part of it's my job, part of it is just not looking like an idiot. And you are?"

"Harvey Adair," he said as Eli rolled his eyes and muttered "a couyon." It was obvious that Harvey heard him because he stormed over and grabbed his book, causing Eli to glance up at him with an unimpressed expression. "What did you call me, pipsqueak?"

"You're smart, so I'm sure you can guess." Eli watched as Harvey glared at him and dropped his book on the ground. He reached over and tried to grab it, but Harvey stepped on his hand, making him wince.

"That's always what you do, hide behind your fancy not English words. Bet that's what you did when you found out your real family didn't even want you and abandoned you," Harvey said as Eli pulled his hand out from under his foot, rubbing it carefully as he glared. He wasn't going to take that and stood up, swinging his leg up to kick Harvey, his foot connecting with the other boy's groin and he doubled over in pain while Eli picked up his book and sat back down.

"Don't talk about my family," he said and then went back to reading, acting like he didn't just insult and take out a kid both older and bigger than him. He was probably going to get in trouble, but he didn't care. Harvey deserved it all.

Oh, for pete's sake. A fight on his first day as a teacher? Shannon shook his head, then stood and walked over to them; one hand went to the fall Harvey's shoulder and the other took Eli by the scruff of his oversized robe. "All right, you two, first lesson: keep your personal shit out of my class. Eli, go sit over there," he said, motioning toward the other side of the gathering. "Harvey, you're going to sit with the much bigger kids and think about why rising up to the bait is a bad idea."

He gave Eli a nudge and motioned for some fellow Slytherins to help Harvey actually get to his feet before returning to his spot at the head of the class. He gave them all a moment to consider what had just happened before adding: "That's a lesson for all of you, by the way. Starting fights or rising to the bait is going to get you in trouble. After this, it's straight to the Headmaster or detention. Someone starts picking on you, you let me know." Shannon let his expression soften somewhat in humor, and gestured up toward his own face and sightless eyes. "Trust me, I know how much it sucks to get picked on at school and I'm not going to ignore it."

Grabbing his book and his bag, he went to where the professor told him to go. Thanks to his small size and acting ability, he was hard to tell that he was storming off and getting himself into a sulk. The kids where he was sent too, a bunch of Gryffindors, quietly congratulated him for finally sticking it to his bully, not to mention sticking it to a Slytherin. Not saying anything in response, Eli sat back down and let the Gryffindors do their thing. He was used to how they were and they were used to him.

Harvey, on the other hand, was visibly fuming and moving to stand up again. "That's it? You're just going to move him across the class and expect that's a punishment for him?" His voice had a highness to it that it didn't have previously thanks to Eli's well-placed kick. The other Slytherins seemed to be backing off, definitely not wanting to be part of whatever stupidity he was doing right now.

"This isn't a punishment," Shannon said, voice controlled and hopefully exuding the authority he had been bestowed but had not quite learned to wield. There would be a lot of gossip after class in order to figure out what exactly was going on between these two. "This is a warning. One more outburst and then we'll be dealing with real punishment here and I doubt you want that on the first day of the school year."

Shaking his head, he motioned for everyone to settle down. There were a lot of murmurs going around and he could practically taste their anticipation and excitement on the air around him. That wasn't going to be conducive to class at all. "Now, let's take a moment to calm ourselves down and we'll move on. Today we'll be going over dragon biology since I'm sure it's on your minds and forewarned is forearmed... or however that goes."

Hearing Shannon's words, Harvey finally backed down from a fight, but instead of settling into a sulk, he started silently fuming. He wouldn't cause another fight with the warning given, but that didn't mean he was going to be happy about it. The other kids, seeing that both Harvey and Eli had settled down, had started to quiet down as well. They might be interested in the two third years' quarrel, but they knew better than to be disruptive with a professor in high alert.

It would be around lunchtime that Shannon would have any chance to pick up any gossip. Unlike breakfast and dinner, lunch was far more grab and go, with students eating out on the grounds with friends instead of in the dining hall. The teachers, however, had their own little room where they could sit together and talk about their classes thus far. There were always at least a couple teachers who had settled in long before lunch had officially started and even the headmaster tended to be there, sitting in the back and keeping out of the way as to not interrupt any conversation.

Today was different from every other day because it was Shannon's first day as a teacher and not only that, there had been a fight in his class. Everybody was waiting for him to arrive so that they could get all of the information out of him and figure out who all it was that was involved and if Shannon had issues with dealing with the fight itself.

It was like walking into some kind of forbidden ground, letting himself into the teacher's lounge for lunch. Not that he would ever let onto it, but Shannon had been sorely curious about the faculty-only areas of the school ever since he was little. By now, he had mostly convinced himself it was going to be nothing special but there was still a bit of a pleased thrill at being able to stride in like he (partially) owned the place.

When he stepped in, it was with his attention at full. Some of the teachers had been classmates when he was young, others were still there from the same era, a few of them were new from other countries or settled into teaching after pursuing some other profession first. With the help of his smelling snake, he placed each person and identified those whose scents he recognized, head beginning to tilt when he noticed the atmosphere once he had arrived.

"Don't tell me someone's already stuck a 'Hex Me' sign to my robe," Shannon said lightly. Not that it was unheard of or impossible, either. Happened to him all the time as a kid.

There was some laughter from the other teachers and the headmaster at what Shannon said. It wasn't what they were really laughing at, but the mental image was amusing nonetheless. They all looked at each other to see who was going to explain why they were waiting for him, but they all simmered down when the headmaster stood up from his seat and raised a hand to silence them before sitting back down, feet up on the table as he looked over at Shannon.

"Not yet, but the day's still young," he responded with no small amount of amusement. "We were wanting to hear about the fight in your class. I'd say that's a record, but then I'd be lying and I'm sure that this would make you feel better about the whole thing."

Now that the tension seemed to have split somewhat, Shannon moved to find himself a seat. It was easy enough to find somewhere unoccupied by judging the air flow around him as he moved (that was definitely a plus for these robes, despite being what he was sure was a fashion disaster) and plopped himself down on a couch. He tilted his head toward Thomas and shrugged.

"Record or not, it was something stupid," he said easily. "Just some kids bringing their spats into my class. You'd think the dragon thing would have distracted them longer, right?"

Now that Shannon was talking, the other teachers went back to their lunch and business. The headmaster was the one who decided to have the conversation, so they let him start grilling Shannon about what happened in there.

"Depends on the kids. Some of them are from wizarding families and have seen far stranger things than a dragon in the middle of the school grounds," he answered with a grin, watching Shannon and the other teachers carefully. He wasn't saying anything, but he knew what kids had fought and what about. Thomas had a knack for knowing what happened at his school at all times. "Which kids were involved? I know I could think of a few who it could possibly be."

Despite the fact that the rest of the teachers had resumed their previous activities, Shannon could tell a few were still listening in. Not that it bothered him, or he would be taking the conversation in private. It was just a dumb fight with kids who weren't quite old enough to know better yet. High school was like that for everyone.

"Harvey Adair and Eli Delacroix," he answered. "Slytherin and Hufflepuff. They just kind of got into it when I was having them do introductions, so I sat 'em down and gave the class their warning. I'm really not even going to try dealing with that drama."

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In the one life that we've got [closed]

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