new chapter *open*

[jace]

Jace took a deep breath. The spring air wasn't the same here as it had been in the Scottish moors. He grimaced as he looked back, the castle standing there. Hogwarts had been a home once, but he had figured that he would never have to live among people again after wards. He had taken comfort in his life as a nomad, but that letter from Bella had changed everything. He turned his attention back to the Whomping Willow. Even now he was fascinated by the graceful motions the great tree did, dipping here and bowing there, calm without the interference of another person. He remained at a safe distance, resting on a boulder, sketching the great tree.

It was probably his twentieth attempt at mastering the behavior of the tree. He rested his chin in his hand thoughtfully. Students on their way to and from class skirted widely around it. He shook his head in amusement. They had obviously learned to be cautious, while those kids during his time had been challenging of the temperamental tree, which could grow quite angry and violent. He watched the tree groan in annoyance with one student who stepped too close, waving a branch threateningly. He looked back down at his sketch, realizing he had captured it completely wrong. A frown wrinkling his forehead, he scratched it out, before beginning to sketch once again, the world dissolving from around him.

[benjamin]

Benjamin, as he often did, found himself wandering the grounds during the period in which he did not have any classes. Really, the time was supposed to be more for grading tests and assignments, or more importantly for this time of year course counseling with fourth year Gryffindors, though Benjamin decided he would procrastinate on both. At any rater, that day in March was far too nice to be spending his break inside his office. He would simply grade tests in bed that evening as he often did, and the counseling could resume tomorrow. Yes, that sounded like a plan to him. Of course, Benjamin figured he shouldn't be putting things off, his wife could go into labour any day now.

Though at any rate he had already justified his actions to himself, and at that point had ceased fretting over them. When Benjamin looked up he was pleased to see Jace Kaper, a colleague of his, roughly his age, who taught Care of Magical Creatures. Really, Benjamin admired the man for teaching the subject, as he really was not too fond of animals. He had gotten a dog for his wife and son, even grown to somewhat like it, though Max wasn't of much importance to him. "Morning," said Benjamin with a nod of his head to his fellow teacher.

[jace]

Jace looked up, a bit shocked to hear a voice during his break. He looked around, before recognizing Benjamin Dawlish. He nodded, smiling slightly as he greeted him. He recognized him more from their days at Hogwarts than the new teaching job. "Good morning," he nodded in return. He covered the book quickly, no matter how old, he had always sworn to keep the contents of this book he'd been keeping since his graduation from Hogwarts. He had gotten better at communications with other people since he was in his school days. But there was always that constant want to get to that safe topic of weather.

"How is the counseling going?" He smiled pleasantly as he spoke. He knew the time of year brought responsibilities the heads of houses. The young students supposed to begin to decide on their careers. He had answered he wanted to be a banker, just to have something to say. There would have been little advice his professors could offer him if he had honestly answered he wanted to be a hermit of a nomad.

[benjamin]

Benjamin's gaze flickered over to the tree as it lazily swatted at a bird that had flown just a little too close. It's branches had been just a bit too slow, however, for the small little bird. He directed his attention back to his colleague, wondering vaguely what Jace had been up to since their school days. He had seemingly dropped off the map after graduation. Not that they had exactly been friends, though they had gotten along well enough, though Benjamin wouldn't say they were close. Nevertheless it was good to see that he hadn't vanished from the face of the earth entirely. He figured that Jace must be a private sort of person.

"Fair enough," said Benjamin with a shrug of his shoulders, "there will likely be an influx of applicants at the Auror department if given a few years, though." He chuckled lightly at his former house. Though there were more ambitions than that- some wanted to become healers, curse-breakers, shop-keepers and professional Quidditch players, though it seemed every other fourth year he had spoken with had their hearts set on becoming Aurors. Grimly enough, however, Benjamin figured that in a few years the world was going to need a lot more of them.Things weren't looking good, that much was certain.

[jace]

Jace gave a small laugh. Even the first years had spinning heads full of the wonders of being an Auror. They were idolized in their eyes. But it was a dark humor. He hadn't been on staff during the incident, and it was very worrisome that Aurors may one day be in demand. It was only a sign of war. The ministry almost never seemed short of Aurors unless a war was brewing. He had seen on trace of the dark wizards works, and it was only a sickening reminder of how terrible some people could be.

"I'm sure you've got your fair share of Quidditch players as well," he joked lightly. Aurors and Quidditch players. The two glamorous jobs, idolized by the young students. "Anyone in the run for our jobs?" He asked. Professor was the boring, average position never considered. Heavens knew he had never considered it.

[benjamin]

Benjamin leaned against a tree, thankfully one that was quite inanimate, just a normal tree. It would crush him with the gesture, and the only moving its branches did was a gentle swaying when the wind hit it the right way. He couldn't help it, but he hated thinking about what was going on out there. As much as the ministry attempted to persuade otherwise, he could just feel that soon they were going to have a war on their hands. And Benjamin was ready to do whatever it took to keep his family safe. Katherine, John, and the little one on the way meant more to him than anything else.

That was why he was no longer a professional duelist, they needed him around, it would be selfish of him to continue to hold such a dangerous profession. Hence why he was now in a safe, albeit slightly boring, position at the school. "Plenty of those," said Benjamin, lightly shaking his head, "no one looking for professorship, however. Looks like we're not going to retire anytime soon." He added a smile and a bit of a chuckle in a joking sort of way.

[jace]

Jace smiled thoughtfully. At least they were still motivated. At least they were still thinking of the future, and brightly of it. He couldn't ever manage position of head of house. To listen to them speak of a happy future, and to want to believe it. Someone would need to go about it with their head, rather than their heart. The very reason he so often hadn't thought of practical jobs such as Auror or professor. He couldn't let his head have domain when he thought there was a chance.

"Already feeling old, huh?" He joked in return. Of course, he himself had only been twenty-eight, and had seen Benjamin around the castle in his school days. The obvious hanging threat hung between them, although they kept it light and polite, something Jace was good at. Of course talking to people would always be a challenge, but at least it was polite and professional.

[benjamin]

Really, Benjamin found the optimism to be lightening of his own heart. Some of the students knew very well what the future might hold for them, though they still found something to dream for, they still had that spark- a spark that the world often crushed out of young people. Their situation could be quite depressing, though the fact that these fourteen and fifteen-year-olds still saw the world as a place of opportunity made it easier to think on the brighter side. That and Benjamin never had been terribly pessimistic. He lightly shook his head at himself, wondering where that sort of thinking had gone from him.

It had probably all been taken by his three-year-old who was under the impression that the world was all sunshine and rainbows. "Hell, mate, I'm going to be thirty this coming May, I'm already old," Benjamin said lightheartedly. When he was a teenager the idea of getting older had been daunting, but now that he was approaching middle-age, it didn't really seem all that bad. He was a great deal wiser, if only a little less energetic than before. Not by much, Benjamin still found the motivation to wake with the sun each day to work out a while. He figured his inner duelist would never die.

[jace]

"Ancient," he agreed, running a hand through his unruly dark hair. He hadn't cut it properly since his last visit back home, about two and a half years back. He had made a habit about dropping back in on Bella every few years before letting himself vanish. No one else missed him much, and it was her that had brought him back. "I think I see some gray hairs, mate," he nodded, feigning a serious tone.

"I've got to say I respect that counseling you do," he admitted, serious this time. A few students had been stressing it over it in his course, but few continued on with it after their first term in the elective. So he had heard. He had been hoping to change that, at least make some difference if he would face a good few hundred students a day. Hardly any saw the beauty of the creatures they were blessed enough to see. The muggleborns seemed to appreciate it the most, fascinated by the new world, but even then the newness slipped away. Creatures did not judge as people did. Creatures were always hopeful, and always forgiving. So few people realized how important that was, especially in a world where darkness was growing.

[benjamin]

Benjamin shook his head lightly, though he smiled all the same. Though he had come to accept it, he still found the idea of turning thirty in a little less than two months' time difficult to wrap his head around. Thirty. What a number. That would mean three whole decades under his belt- the most recent years of which including fairly big things, his marriage, soon to be two children, a radical career change. Benjamin ran a hand through his hair as Jace mock-seriously mentioned spotting some grey hairs. His hair was thick, full, and brown like always, though it wouldn't surprise him if there were individual pieces of silver sparingly scattered across his head.

"Ah damn, I'd hoped I'd be able to put that off another year or two," said Benjamin, trace of a laugh in his tone. Though he supposed that if anyone were going to notice a change in his hair it would be Katherine. She knew him better than anyone and vice versa. At the thought of her, his hand migrated to the wedding band on his finger, as if the touch of the metal would reaffirm that he really had married her, that she was his, and he was hers. He shrugged lightly. "Someone has to do it," Benjamin said modestly. Really, he did like to feel like he helped his students in some way.

[jace]

Jace nodded. The way he spoke so casually of it was interesting. The entire concept of sitting here was interesting. He had never thought of the professors having lives, but here they were. He could even see by the wedding band on his colleagues finger that he had married. He had seen the entire world, and documented creatures not even mentioned in the schoolbooks he had been given to teach the students with. He had experienced a world of beauty, and yet he had thought all they did was assign homework to attempt to kill the students. He had to shake his head with a grin of amusement.

"Do we have any Minister of Magics in the making?" He asked lightly. It had been the ambition of every small muggle child to be president, or to be some other fascinating figure-head. But only one could take on the title which would be later ridiculed. What most everyone failed to realize was there was nothing someone in that position could do to make everyone happy.

[benjamin]

Benjamin ran a quick hand through his hair again, it was an absent habit of his- one he usually wasn't aware of unless someone pointed out to him that he was doing it. Just another one of his random quirks, he supposed- one of the many intricacies of his multi-faceted personality. People were fascinating to Benjamin in that matter, he liked to be able to try and figure them out- find the how and why of the way they did the things they did. Even in counseling his students in what careers they had their eyes on- Benjamin liked to see if he could figure out what about that particular career attracted them.

"Aye, just the one, though," said Benjamin, lightly chuckling at the memory of sitting down with that young man. He hadn't even opened his mouth to ask the question before the boy had stated he wanted to be Minister of Magic.Benjamin, of course, had advised him to stick with all the core subjects, and to first seek an occupation in either Magical Law or International Magical Cooperation. "'Course I don't see it being a position many would fancy," said Benjamin, "even these kids know they can't make everyone happy."

[jace]

Jace laughed, feeling a bit of the pressure he normally felt when talking with people fade. Many of the colleagues were warm yet polite. Exactly the way he liked it. He had been dreading the position at first, but seeing some students with burning passions made him realize why he had taken it in the first place. He hadn't entirely known himself why he had chosen this career over anything else. One dealing with hundreds of people. It was turning out to be a worthwhile decision. A few students had even taken to visiting the Hippogriffs on the weekends, which the noble animals greatly appreciated.

"Sounds like Gryffindor ambition," he chuckled. There had always been jokes about the wild and rash Gryffindors, especially being the first students after the golden trio had attended Hogwarts. But what was worse was the Hufflepuff jokes and slurs that had been made. But he couldn't have thought of a better house for himself. "Aye," he nodded as his colleague spoke of the position. "We'll need a good one though," he said, thinking of the brewing danger. He had even briefly considered joining the ranks of the Order with his sister, but, for the same reason as him not being an Auror, he couldn't stand the dueling. The aggressive magic. On either side.

[benjamin]

Benjamin smiled slightly, finding that he was enjoying talking with Jace. Perhaps it was the fact that they were so close in age, generally professors seemed older, more experienced. Though with his background in professional dueling the position had been his before he opened him mouth. That and people still seemed wary of taking up the Defense Against the Dark Arts post- Benjamin knew that it had been cursed in the past, though it hadn't extended beyond the fall of Voldemort. The last one had simply left, not killed, rendered insane, or held prisoner for the term. Something about "pursuing greater opportunity elsewhere," or at least that was what Benjamin had heard.

"Seems to hold true in some cases," said Benjamin, reflecting on his own school years. He had been a child of great ambition- he had first thought of becoming an Auror- though he had joined dueling club in his fourth year and been persuaded otherwise. Even at the age of fourteen he had had a prowess for dueling- he had even defeated several seventh years during that time. "I just feel bad for the sorry soul who thinks they can handle it, at least now," said Benjamin, suddenly aware of the much more serious direction the conversation had taken.

[jace]

It was evident now that both knew exactly where the conversation was headed, and what they were referring to. Normally, Jace knew that one would keep hinting at such a forbidden topic, speaking lightly about it. But he had never understood that, nor was he capable of it. At least the topic of the Gryffindor ambition wasn't taboo. Often times it had been the joke of many other Hufflepuffs, the wild and hotheaded Gryffindors going ahead without much thought. But they were brave. That was something not many people could deny. It always seemed like the perfect house for one who would take on that impossible job.

"Someone will take it on," he said at last, running his finger along the spine of his old journal. "Hopefully someone who realizes it exactly what it means," no one had forgotten what had happened. The Minister of Magic Fudge had refused to believe, and he had found himself dead. Voldemort had wasted no time in killing his successor, before taking over the ministry himself. It was a dark spot in history, all dependent on the beliefs of the Minister.