[Puddifoots] A Simple Cup of Tea

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

This was the first time Dia had been out of the castle by herself. On previous occasions Bree had not let her go anywhere without a hand to hold. Dia didn't mind the company by any means but as she strode towards Hogsmeade, her hands buried deep in the pockets of her dark coat, Dia remembered how nice it was to be by one's self. Her mind could go anywhere without worry about offending anyone or making anyone feel uncomfortable if those thoughts and memories caused you pain. It was such a releasing feeling, Dia smiled to herself, thinking how silly it was that she hadn't done this sooner.

It was an overcast day and the wind was sharp. In Hogsmeade there weren't many people, Dia noticed, and she blamed the weather. Wanting to get out of the stinging wind, Dia ducked into the nearest little shop, Madam Puddifoots. Dia thought it was lucky she did because what she could have killed for just then was a lovely, simple cup of tea. The door opened and a bell tinkled above her head. Quickly shutting the door behind her, Dia smiled at the people in the store, not as empty as usual she noted.

Removing her coat, Dia hung it up and moved to an open table, one luckily by the window. Leaning lazily on the table, Dia gazed outside. She knew that the cloud cover would last for several days and she would be stuck with starless nights. Sighing, Dia ordered a pot of Earl Grey tea from the short, podgy lady that came for it, and she smiled after her. Left alone with her thoughts again, Dia gazed out on the street, watching the one of two people pass that would brave the wind.

[mayella]

The young professor sat in the back of the brightly colored shop, ignoring all the young couples that seemed to be milling about the place and occasionally she's spot a few snogging and forcibly separate them. Indeed, it was probably her favorite place to sit --if she wasn't looking to drink, of course -- since there were so many students for her to pick on for public displays of affection. May twirled the quill between her forefinger and thumb as she contemplated the sentence structure in one of her students essays. Ah, how she loved to tear them to pieces, it almost made marking all of them worth while. She enjoyed driving her students to work harder, or drop the class. Transfiguration was a class that just seemed to become a lot more difficult one she settled in, but that was only to be expected when a former Ravenclaw was teaching.

Hearing the tickling of the bell, May glanced up lest Bradyn and his secret girlfriend walked in. After all, she hoped that her frequent hauntings of the horribly happy place would pay off for some future tauntings of her brother, but it was just a women. 'Wait! Hold on!' She thought, giving the women a quick double take. Now, where had she seen her before? Hogwarts, of course; another professor.

Quickly coming to the decision that she spent far too much time alone and that a social life should be attempted, she quickly licked the tip of her quill to dispel the last bits of ink so the weasly bit of liquid wouldn't wind up on her cloak later. It's happened far too many times before. Quickly shuffling her papers into an obsessive-compulsively neat pile, May grabbed her cup of tea and walked over to the professors table. It seemed they both could use a bit of company.

" 'Ello there, Dia. Wouldn't mind a bit of company, would you?" She asked politely, and surprisingly not faltering on a name as was her usual habit, before gently pulling the chair out across from the blonde and sitting down.

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

Dia was smiling. If you had asked her why she was smiling, looking out over the overcast, miserable day, she wouldn't have been able to tell you. A few thoughts had crossed her mind, thought about happier times, simpler times. School had seemed to be so complicated when she was there, which wasn't too long ago, she'd have everyone know. She found it amazing, and perhaps this was the cause of the smile, that while you are younger you life is so much smaller and less complicated then you think, getting bigger and more byzantine as you aged.

Not a happy line of thinking, this was for sure, but something about it comforted the professor greatly. Something about that made her realise that her problems at the moment were more then likely not as bad as she was making them out to be and that things would get better ... they were always at their worst before they got better.

Her train of thought was interupted as her name came to the woman's ears. Looking up, Dia spotted a face she had seen around the castle a few times recently. "May!" she charmed, with an ovbiously pleased smile on her face. "What a pleasant surprise. Of course, of cour ..." Dia trained off as her cup and pot of tea arrived. "Thank you," Dia said to the lady who smiled widely at the two women.

"Anythin' else fer ya, dear?" the woman asked.

"No thank you," Dia said and took up the pot, turning her cup the right way around. "So," Dia began, pouring the dark liquid into the cup, "what brings you here?"

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash entered the small tea shop with a weary sigh, he wished he could say that the whole Max/Laney/Ash/Cris love square was old news, but unfortunately it wasn't. However, Ash's mood brightened as he noticed his Head of House, Professor Owen and the Transfiguration professor, Professor Reed, Bray's older sister. He smiled, "Hi professors."

[mayella]

Mayella grinned at Dia's openly pleased greeting, which she had to admit was one of the happier times she'd seen the sullen Professor. But she had made an effort to stay out of their business, besides the general basics that even the student body all knew. Shifting the papers into a neat stack on the table, and lightly placing her cup of tea down she chuckled a bit.

"Ah, I'm as pleased as you are. For a while I was feeling that I was one of the oldest people here," May rolled her eyes and glanced towards one of the younger student couples that were enjoying the boisterously bright shoppe. Then, catching herself after the realization that she not only insulted herself but also Dia, she laughed a little. "Not that we're old or anything."

May glanced up after she heard a students voice directed at them, unless there were other professors here that she just seemed to overlook, and she was glad to have a little scapegoat from accidentally letting comments go. "Hello, hello, Mr. Laurent." She said, smiling and lightly kicking out one of the other chairs at the table. "Go ahead and take a seat, unless you'd rather hide under the table, you know, just in case some other students see you sitting with us." Of course she was being sarcastic, but she wondered a moment too late if that would be noticed rather than her sounding like a complete loon for being serious. Nah, surely he wouldn't be that incompetent, considering he was supposedly one of Bradyn's friends and that boy is far too sarcastic for his own good.

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash laughed lightly, "No, I prefer to sit in a chair, rather than on the floor!" he said as he sat down.

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

Dia smiled at May as she commented on being the oldest there. When she corrected herself, Dia laughed and nodded her head. "Don't worry, I know what you mean," she chuckled. Dia thought about the last time she had just sat around and chatted with a friend, even one such as Mayella who she didn't know all that well.

Her own tea was piping hot, just the way she liked it. She couldn't remember the last time she had tea this hot. Usually when the house elves brought it up to her office it wasn't as hot as this. It wasn't anything to fuss over but having been as spoilt with this tea as she was she had to mention.

Setting the cup down as Ashton joined them, Dia smiled at May, "that's lovely." Turning to Ashton, Dia smiled. "Would you like some, Mr Laurent?" She held up the pot of tea, a cup appearing in front of him. Not waiting for a reply, Dia poured the tea into the cup, then put the pot down. Pushing the milk and sugar towards him, Dia turned again to May.

"Do you often mark here?" Dia asked. It seemed an odd place to mark. She needed quiet to mark and the only place Dia found that was in her office. Marking with all the hustle and bustle that was going on, not to mention feeling rather old around the couples of students, would be impossible for the Astronomy teacher.

[mayella]

Mayella smiled at Dia. "Thank goodness, now I don't feel so bad for beating a dead horse with that." She said, rolling her eyes a little after realizing how silly she could be. Although, if anyone, student or otherwise, were foolish enough to admit out loud that they thought Mayella Reed was old, she'd ever-so-kindly crush their jaw with her fist.

May lifted her own cup of tea and took a sip of the sickeningly sweet drink. It was just how she liked it, regardless of what other people thought or warned her that her heart would give out if she kept drinking it with nearly five lumps of sugar in it. Some people really needed to mind their own business, lordy. She nodded absently towards Dia after she mentioned something being lovely, but she wasn't quite sure that she caught what was and smiled when Dia openly gave up her pot of tea for the student. Of course, if May had bought a whole pot, she would have done the same for a Claw.

"Mm, sometimes. I can get my work done in most situations, though. Of course, a lovely cup of tea is just icing on the cake." She said, with a little shrug, not minding being open with Dia since she didn't really know the other professor too well. And you usually get what you give, right? "It doesn't have to be a quiet place for me to focus. I actually prefer the... loud places for grading." May drew the statement out a bit so she could changing the place at the last minute. Then it didn't say that she preferred to do her marking in the pubs with a touch of whiskey on the side, that wouldn't be something to admit in front of Ashton who could easily relay that information onto Bradyn if he wanted to. No, loud places would be a much safer noun.

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash sat quietly as the two professor's talked, he looked around the tea shop which seemed to be a popular place for couples. Not me, I'd rather go to Honeyduke's any day over this he thought to himself. He looked back over at Professor Owen and Professor Reed with a smile. "So, how is the year going so far?"

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

Dia smiled. She knew all too well how silly one felt when inadvertently having insulted someone. Not that she had, Dia did feel old around this particular selection of people, but the statement had been of an ambiguous nature so easily misinterpreted. Dia had not misinterpreted it, but Mayella had seen the ambiguity in it and though Dia may have taken it that way too. It was all rather confusing really so it was best left where it was, if you asked Dia.

Dia sipped her tea as she listened to May talk about marking. Dia smiled again while setting her cup down. "I can't mark in this," she admitted, leaning on the table, "I have to have quiet when I mark. I honestly don't know how you do it. I find my mind wonders too easily when there is noise." Dia shrugged, lifting her cup again. "But I suppose it's all down to the individual, isn't it?"

Ashton piped up and Dia turned to look at him in surprise. He clearly wasn't focusing on their conversation. Dia couldn't blame him, how exciting could talking about marking be? Smiling after a moment, Dia took another sip. "Things are going just fine my end," she said, referring strictly to the school work. She was afraid that it was painfully obvious for most people that other aspects of her life were not going as well as she had hoped and she hoped that would not be brought up now.

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash smiled, "That's good. I'm glad things are going well for you." He laughed lightly, "Too bad I can't say the same."


((blegh. crap))

[mayella]

May nodded sympathetically towards Dia, she'd figured that was the case for her. It was with most of her Ravenclaw friends when she was a schoolgirl and they never enjoyed her beatboxing while they worked but eventually they got used to the idea that they couldn't tell her what to do. She soon followed suit and took another sip of her own tea and smiled at the pleasant flavor. Sometimes, it could be much more appreciable than alcohol. Sometimes.

Then, remembering that she was sitting with Mr. Laurent, she glanced at him as he started to distract them from their nerdy teacher discussion. "Mine's been rather dry so far, but I can't complain." After all, a boring beginning was much better than a horrible one. But she'd heard from her student sources of a lot of student drama that she just found oh-so-amusing, with Mr. Laurent being one of the key players.

"Hm, I'm very sorry to hear that, Mr. Laurent." She said, deciding she wouldn't be the one to ask for him to spill his problems to. May wasn't a therapist, and she doubted that it was something she should try to attempt. 'Pop them in the face' would be a common piece of advice.

[Professor Dia Hubbles]

Dia did enjoy being able to get out of the castle on a lovely day, or any day for that matter. Bree had always told Dia that getting out of the castle would be good for her, removing herself from familiar circumstances would remove the thoughts and memories attached. She couldn't think why she would need to remove such things from her head, after all she was with Sebastian now and she knew that she and Dan weren't going to be able to fix what had been broken.

Never the less, Dia felt good about today. Sitting with a fellow teacher she had not as of yet been able to converse with on such friendly ground and with a student she had always found familiar ground with. It wasn't every day that such lightheartedness could be enjoyed by three such people and Dia was ready to enjoy it for everything it was worth.

Dia smiled at May but when Ashton spoke she turned to him, her smile fading a little. "As am I," Dia said after May had spoken. Dia knew some of what had happened in Ashton's life and knew better then to ask about it. Taking another sip of her tea, Dia felt that their table had fallen awkwardly silent. Desiring a change of topic, Dia turned to Ashton with a smile. "So, Ashton," she said, sipping her tea before continuing, "have you thought about what you are going to do when you are finished with school?"

[Professor Ashton Laurent]

Ash shrugged, "I'm thinking about opening up a store."

[mayella]

Mayella tried not to wonder about what was bothering Mr. Laurent since she seemed to get the impression that curiosity killed the cat would be an all-to-similar phrase for the situation. Taking a sip of her tea to keep a question from slipping she nodded with Dia. "I hope things start to go better for you?" She said, figuring that it would be best if she put in some sort of input and condolence to his obvious cry for help that she was unwilling to pry into.

Shooting a greatful glance to Dia as she changed the subject, May smiled at the idea. What would he do after graduating? She knew that at that time she had many crazy ideas that she wanted to do with her friends, but instead she just joined the Ministry like a real job. "Oh, a little shop all your own? What do you plan on selling?" She said with a little bit of interest, since she remembers one time Bradyn told her that he was going to open up a little inn and have raves all night long on the weekends. Yeah, sure he would. It was interesting to see if Ash would have a serious idea or just be silly like Bray, though she was pretty sure that he was being sarcastic.

[oh. terrible]