Kahina realized that if she were the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, she would certainly request that Dylan show up for work to teach…or something. Somehow, she doubted he’d be able to bring an entire dragon…and she wasn’t certain that that would be safe, exactly. But regardless, she would invite him. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see any educational benefit behind asking him to join her for Divination. That was quite disappointing as to Kahina, every career possibility was enlightening, something that could benefit students in knowing. A part of her really wanted to see a dragon, but then a part of her was really glad she had yet to make that encounter. To each their own, she thought.

“Well, that’s good!” Kahina grinned, finding that she was rather glad to hear that he named the dragons. Somehow, it just made it seem like he cared about his job more than just a boy with his hobbies. It seemed more personable to her. “Did you ever have to take care of a dragon while she had her eggs? Do they get really defensive if you try to approach her eggs? Do all dragons have eggs?” she shot out, before letting out a slight laugh. For her, she wondered if the mother dragons were the most challenging for him to face. “I’m sorry for all of the questions. It’s just so incredibly fascinating the work that you do!” she explained, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

The professor let out another laugh at his comment, amused by the statement. “That certainly makes me a bit hopeful for my class,” she stated. In truth, she had been slightly nervous that the class would be impossible to teach, trying to get students interested in a class that many adults even found pointless. “Maybe I’ll need to borrow a dragon of yours to sit in the back of the class to ensure my students are at least staying awake,” she joked.

He was certainly finding himself luckier by the minute that he hadn’t even managed to make it inside of Honeydukes before running into this bint. While he wouldn’t have minded looking at the wares in the shop and trying out some new candies, Dylan was finding this conversation a hell of a lot sweeter than what he could have found in there. Although he didn’t make a habit of picking a bint up for a shag in the middle of the day, in the middle of the street, Dylan could appreciate a beautiful face and an interesting conversation. Kahina was certainly providing both of those things at the current time, and one could never have too many friends or acquaintances at least. Especially ones that looked as good as she did. After he had returned to London, he really hadn’t seen the point in having any friendships or relationships at all, simply going from job to job to get by as he attempted to get over the death of his fiancé. People could barely even recognize him from his schooldays, where he had been loud and exuberant and friends with just about everyone. Luckily, aspects of that side of him had long since returned to him, which made any conversation he was in interesting to him. Of course, he found himself slightly more lost in his thoughts on occasion, especially when he was thinking about Luvinia—around the holidays, or her birthday, or when he was in a particularly bad mood about the state of the wizarding world and the rapidly deteriorating Ministry. But other than that, Dylan was more like his old self, which was fine by him.

Dylan grinned as more questions came out of the woman’s mouth, surprised that she was managing to come up with so many questions in such a short amount of time. She seemed glad that he named the dragons, he noted, though the subject had already quickly moved away from that, “I have, and yes, they’re a hell of a lot more aggressive when they're protecting them,” he told her, particularly recalling the Triwizard Tournament that had occurred when he was a second year. Those eggs hadn’t even been real, and the dragons the champions had gone up against were still incredibly protective of them, “All dragons don’t have eggs, no. There are male and female dragons, though the males are a lot more relaxed—well, as relaxed as a dragon can be, I suppose,” Dylan continued, as he had always found male dragons to be a lot easier to train, oddly enough. He shook his head at his apology, chuckling slightly, “No need to apologize. I like talking about my work,” he told her, shrugging. Really, he could talk about it a great majority of his day but chose not to, as he didn’t want to be the type to just talk about himself all the damn time. That didn’t make for interesting conversation, and he was intrigued by learning about others.

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll have everyone’s attention,” he stated, grinning. Vaguely, he wondered why it was divination that she was so interested in. His professor had been a seer, or so she claimed, and it made him wonder if all divination professors were seers—though perhaps that was a rather rude question to ask. Unfortunately for Dylan, he didn’t always have the best filter, saying most things that came to his mind, “Why Divination, if you don’t mind me asking?” Dylan asked, curious if she was a seer as well. That would certainly be interesting, since seers were quite rare. He never believed that Trelawney was one, but Kahina actually had the look of one… whatever the hell that meant, “Just give the word and I’ll train one up for you,” he joked, his grin widening. That would definitely have all of her students at attention in class, though he really doubted she would need the extra help, “You can even name it,” Dylan added.

Coming out to Hogsmeade for a stroll was certainly proving worth it, loving this chance encounter more than anything. It also helped that the bloke was attractive, though that didn’t matter all that much when seeking to make friends. Every bit of this conversation was making her more interested in Dylan, wanting to know more about his past and future, curious to see where he had been and where he was going. Sometimes, she wished her visions would come when she willed them to, though they didn’t exactly work that way. She could read cards and see what was in the stars, but it wasn’t an ACTUAL vision of a future event. There were just some people she had come across that she was way more interested in learning about than others. He was fascinating. Seeing the scars practically covering his body made her wonder why he chose that path. The way that he spoke made her wonder how he had gotten to where he was. Seeing the light in his eyes made her hopeful about where he was going, wanting to see him succeed just as much as he probably hoped he would. When Kahina made friends, their success felt as if it were her own, celebrating just as strongly with them as if she was the one to have won. This was certainly the case now, she realized, knowing immediately that this was her friend now.

“Hmm, I don’t think I’d like to train a dragon that had eggs. That sounds deadly,” she noted, nodding in agreement with her statement. “How long does it take for an egg to hatch? Or does that depend on the dragon?” she asked curiously. Her eyes darkened ever so briefly as she recalled running into someone who had appeared to have stolen a dragon egg for whatever reason. It had seemed like dragon eggs were on high demand on the black market, witches and wizards alike wanting to get their hands on the poor babies. It had bothered Kahina then, and it bothered her now. How could anyone want to harm the poor, helpless babies? How could anyone want to steal from a mother? Just as briefly as the darkness spilled through her eyes, had it left, her brightness slipping through again. “Males in nearly every species seem to be the more relaxed of the genders. I guess us females are just crazy,” she laughed, her smile spreading wide across her face.

Kahina laughed at his comment, dismissing it with the wave of her hand. She wasn’t certain if she were nervous or not, but she supposed her excitement was overwhelming the situation. She could talk about things related to the future all day, it seemed. “Oh, I don’t mind at all,” she smiled, an almost proud look coming over her. “I just find the future so incredibly fascinating and important. When the future looks good, it means that we’re doing something right in the present. If it looks bleak, it means we need to change what we’re doing in the present. The future is so touchy that every small decision seems to affect the outcome, which is what I love the most about it. Oh, and I’m a seer, so my great-grandmother would have killed me if I didn’t use my gift somehow,” she laughed. Although dangerous times were looming again where it would be dangerous for the wrong person to know she were a seer, Kahina refused to go into hiding who she was again. Fear was not something that had settled her well and she was fully confident that the future would work out, even if it were at her expense. “Oh, don’t tempt me. I’ll let you know in a week how the class is doing and if extra reinforcements are necessary,” she smiled, thoroughly amused at the sight of a dragon in the back of her classroom.
[/b]

This was certainly a time for the wizarding world where it was difficult to know who to trust. He hated to compare it to when Voldemort was alive, but people did seem to be slightly on edge as situations everywhere got tenser. People were separated by so many different factors nowadays, that it seemed anytime someone could be speaking to someone with completely differing beliefs than them. Sometimes, that was fine, as there were witches and wizards that could healthily debate topics with no problem. But there were others that were so aggressive in their beliefs that trouble could start at any moment. After all, there was too much going on at the current time—people had differing thoughts on the treatment of Death Eaters, of their families, of purebloods… if people supported the Minister, if they supported Potter or thought he was insane. There was everything going on with the radicals that had killed his fiancé and other innocent purebloods, a situation that could only get worse, especially if the Ministry really was looking the other way. Of course, it wasn’t as though he thought that he and Kahina were about to go to blows if their conversation turned to those topics, and he doubted either of them would be bringing any of it up in any case.

He brought his focus back to the conversation at hand, slightly irritated that his thoughts had wandered. Luckily, he still caught her comment, nodding in agreement, “A bit more dangerous, certainly,” he said, but that had never stopped him from working with dragons with eggs, obviously. A dragon keeper who didn’t think they could handle that was obviously in the wrong profession, after all. Dylan was actually getting impressed with how quickly these questions came to her mind, not that he minded in the slightest. She was asking questions that he didn’t commonly get asked, oddly enough, as most people focused in on injuries and asking if he was afraid that he was going to get burnt to a crisp, which was just a bloody ridiculous question. As for injuries, Dylan didn’t mind talking about that, especially to a bint he was trying to shag, though he would never bring it up himself. “Months, but it does depend on the dragon,” Dylan stated, “Sometimes it differs by breed, to an extent, but it also depends on the specific dragon and the conditions that the egg are in,” he continued. That was bordering on information he didn’t have, as he wasn’t a dragonologist, but he did know that much, “That’s more of a dragonologist’s territory, though,” he told her, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. He would tell her more if she wanted to know, but Dylan certainly didn’t know as much detail as a dragonologist would. Laughing at her statement about females, a grin grew across his face, “Yes, the whole lot of you are crazy,” he agreed, jokingly, finding himself incredibly amused that she was able to joke about that. He’d certainly had a few bints he’d talked to get offended even by him insinuating that female dragons were more difficult, as if that was a personal insult to females everywhere.

Divination. He certainly found it interesting that that was the subject she taught at Hogwarts, trying to think back to see if he even remembered anything at all about the lessons he’d actually attended of the subject. Nothing came to mind, which said more about his professor than the subject itself. Kahina already made it sound more intriguing just by the way she explained it, and he found himself grinning at the explanation, as it was clear that she was very passionate about the subject. Finally, she did say that she was a seer, “A seer,” he said, whistling to signify that he was impressed. That was really bloody rare, after all, “Well then they’re lucky to have you up at the castle,” Dylan added. He supposed there weren’t many other jobs that a seer could have to be able to use their gift as much as a job at Hogwarts would, though he’d heard that seers were a lot harder to come by as many kept it a secret. That did make sense, he realized, with everything going on, “Just let me know,” he said, chuckling. He couldn’t even imagine the reaction of students if a dragon was in the back of their classroom, as he figured many of them would be far too distracted by it and it would do more harm than good—though it would be a bit amusing.

Well, now she had to go actually study up on dragons some more so that she would be able to talk to him more about the dragons he worked with. To her, it was worth her time, studying if only to use it as a means of a conversational start and a topic of interest with him when they met up later. “Something on your mind?” she asked curiously, noticing his slight pause in speech. If there was one thing Kahina had learned from many years of practicing her magic, it was that observing behavior certainly helped a lot. If she could observe human behavior accurately, she could observe her mind’s portrayal of future events with slightly more ease. Now, it seemed like everyone’s minds were on other things, concern filling people the older they got.

Kahina nodded in understanding and interest, smiling at his explanation. “Well, I’m afraid I don’t know much about dragons, embarrassingly enough,” she laughed, feeling like she was a failure at being a Ravenclaw when she wasn’t well versed in a subject. “But you need us all the same,” she shrugged, grinning. “Come on, surely we keep men’s lives interesting….at least keeping them on their toes, anyways,” she suggested, laughing lightly. This conversation continued to be interesting, surprised it had even started at all….and only after her carelessly bumping into him.

The brunette smiled brightly at his whistle, proud of her heritage. Being a seer was a part of who she was; how could she not be proud of that aspect of her life? “Well, I wouldn’t say that just yet. Who knows what the future brings?” she joked, winking at him. Really, her own future was the one thing she had avoided looking at, not really preferring to read the cards to see how her life would play out. She would occasionally, but that obsession had never settled in. She really didn’t want to take her ability for granted, or abusing her powers, much preferring to help others than herself. “Perhaps I’ll pass on the dragon for my first year….don’t want them to think I’m too crazy just yet.”

She’d been playing closer attention than he’d realized since Kahina had noticed that he had briefly been distracted by his thoughts. Normally he considered himself better at staying focused turning conversations, as if it was one thing he was, it was a conversationalist. He always had been, able to talk to anyone about anything. Of course, there had been a brief time where that hadn’t been the case, and still had those days every so often, but it was much less common nowadays. But thoughts could occasionally overtake him, especially when contemplating how the wizarding world was seemingly going downhill by the day. Perhaps if Luvinia had been killed in some fluke incident, it wouldn’t bother him so much… but knowing that the manner behind her death were ways and for reasons that were still happening today made matters worse. Staying uninvolved was the best thing for him to do for his bloody sanity, apparently, and he just needed to stop wasting any more time thinking about shit that couldn’t be changed, “Oh, my mind’s always blank,” he said, jokingly, figuring there was no need to bring up any kind of serious topics in a conversation as light as this one had been so far. That had been where his mind had gone to anyway, pondering how one never knew the others’ thoughts on the politics that seemed to be going on in the wizarding world. It wasn’t exactly a first-conversation topic, or one that found himself talking to anyone about, really.

“Not embarrassing in the slightest. Dragons seem to be one of those things,” he shrugged, unsure how to explain what he meant. For the most part, it seemed that the only people who knew much about them were the ones who worked with the creatures. Either someone was so intrigued by dragons that they wanted to make it their career, or they didn’t know much about them at all. Dylan hadn’t come across anyone that rest in the middle ground, “You’re either obsessed and work with them, or it’s a creature there isn’t much need to think about,” Dylan added, which of course wasn’t at all offensive to him. If everyone were as interested in dragons as he was, he’d have a hell of a time getting work. Well, that wasn’t necessarily true—he was pretty damn good at what he did, after all. He grinned at her remark, finding himself even more amused that she wasn’t the type that got offended easily. Although he found that he could talk to nearly anyone, it was always challenging if someone didn’t have a sense of humor and was taking offense to every other word being spoken, “Keep us on our toes… yes, that’s one way of wording it,” he agreed, his grin widening. For the most part he would say he was rather good at reading women, he’d had a hell of a lot of practice with the lifestyle he chose, but some certainly were good at keeping a bloke on their toes if the man didn’t know what he was doing. Dylan supposed there had been a brief time where that had been him, but that was a hell of a long time ago.

Seers were something he didn’t know much about, which he figured made them even as far as this conversation went. It brought up a lot of questions of his own, though he wasn’t going to ask them. For whatever reason, it seemed like a more personal question than asking about a profession. Dylan did try to keep away from conversations that got too personal, just as a general rule, “Well, I don’t, and apparently you do,” he said in response, finding himself chuckling under his breath. That would be quite the odd experience, being able to know what was going to happen next. Hell, he didn’t know what he was doing in twenty minutes, and she had seen Merlin knew what in the future. Dylan didn’t know how he’d feel about that, since he was someone who lived his life very firmly in the moment. It seemed to work better that way for him. “A dragon would certainly give off a bit of a crazy impression,” he agreed, solemnly, though it really would be a hell of a sight.

It was so incredibly easy for Kahina to tell when someone’s mind had brought them elsewhere as that had been something she studied quite a lot. Much of being a seer fell on properly interpreting situations, both in her mind and in reality. There really wasn’t much of a difference. What one saw was not always the case, often causing people to form the ability to read between the lines. Not many people excelled at this, but she liked to believe it was something she was fairly good at. People tended to be open books, even if they liked to think they were difficult to read. Hearing that one was easy to read never seemed to be taken as a compliment, though most people were. Despite all of the different personalities that existed, people were ultimately very similar, not as unique as they would believe. Most saw this as a flaw, but she saw it as beauty…seeing how everyone was connected emotionally, a deep yearning to be understood. She chuckled lightly at his comment, shaking her head. “Good, it’ll be easier for to corrupt depending on what I allow you to see,” she laughed back.

“It’s embarrassing because I was a Ravenclaw; I’m fighting the poor stereotypes now,” she laughed, her smile widening. She supposed that even with the amount of time she spent studying, she still spent a good portion of her time at Hogwarts merely socializing, much preferring to have actual relationships with people, getting to know them. “Ah, but the creatures are so magnificent, they deserve to be discussed in great detail and remembered.” In her mind, they were just remarkable and that would be a fascinating topic to have the students discuss and see, though she supposed that went far beyond simple Divination. Really, every creature deserved much consideration, each so incredibly unique in their own right.

Being a seer was something Kahina couldn’t stop herself from talking about. It was a large part of who she was and she would hate to ignore that part of her life. Not everyone understood what a seer was or what they could do, but she certainly enjoyed attempting to share with them this part of her life. “We’re all a bit crazy, aren’t we? What better way to become a well-known professor than have an exciting class pet?”

Kahina was actually decent at distracting him from his wandering mind, surprisingly enough. For the most part, Dylan was back to his old self. He enjoyed conversing with just about anyone, as he had always been interested in meeting new people. But every so often, he did get trapped in his own thoughts if he began to think about Luvinia, or the current state of anything going on in the Minister or the Wizarding World. Hearing about any new attacks on pureblood families always got him as well, showing that things had only gotten worse over the years. But Kahina was far too amusing for his thoughts to even keep his attention for long, luckily. Now was obviously not the time for him to be dwelling on shit like that. Why would he waste his time and energy contemplating anything of the sort where there was a beautiful witch in front of him? Even if he had no intention of trying to shag her, Dylan could always appreciate a worthwhile conversation—which this certainly was. Really, he found most any conversation worthwhile, unless he was in an aggravated mood. That happened on occasion, but even then, he was sometimes capable of pushing that aside in order to meet someone new. “You shouldn’t have told me your evil plan,” he stated, shaking his head. “How can you corrupt my mind if I’ve prepared for it now?” Dylan countered, finding his grin widening. This was certainly an interesting conversation, something that he could honestly say he wouldn’t have expected if he had known at the beginning of this conversation that he was talking to the divination professor at Hogwarts. Kahina was scores better than his own professor on the subject, and she clearly would be giving the subject a better name.

“Ravenclaw, were you? Not sure I would have pegged that,” he said, looking her over carefully as if he could tell what house she was in from a glance. She was friendly enough to be in Hufflepuff, but other than that, Dylan supposed that Ravenclaw probably did fit the best. Slytherin would be out, quite obviously. “But you’re right—now you certainly should be embarrassed,” Dylan said, solemnly, his eyes showing his amusement. Even Ravenclaws couldn’t versed in every subject in the Wizarding world; though if that was possible, Dylan surely would have paid one to do all of his assignments back at school. He had been good at most subjects, despite what many others had assumed, and laxness had really been the reason for his average grades. But that didn’t matter when he was now doing what he was passionate about—marks weren’t nearly as important as professors had led students to believe, in his opinion. Dylan nodded in agreement at her words, glad that she could also see the importance of dragons, as it was something that many people didn’t care to notice. “Well, I’m glad you agree with me, at least,” he told her. There were far too many members of the wizarding world that considered dragons to be an unnecessary danger, unfortunately.

Divination had been a subject he hadn’t so much as thought about since leaving Hogwarts. It had done what he had wanted, which was giving him an easy class to pass, and he hadn’t seen much use for it since. In his opinion, it was a bit difficult for anyone who wasn’t a seer to get too invested into divination. Kahina would have her work cut out for her as far as that was concerned, but he knew that she’d do a hell of a lot better at getting students interested. Her enthusiasm on the subject was apparent even with how briefly they’d spoken about it. “A class pet, well yes, that’s one way of looking at it,” he replied, chuckling under his breath. “I suggest if it ever comes down to getting a dragon, you simply introduce your new class pet and let the students think it’s probably a damn cat before making the … exciting reveal,” Dylan continued, finding the concept amusing even if it clearly would never happen.

Kahina had temporarily forgotten what she even came to Hogsmeade for, too distracted by such a pleasant conversation with a decent man that was quite a surprise. Some people made the incorrect assumption that because she was a seer, she could see every event in the future, so focused on the future that she forgot to live in the present. They assumed she spent all of her time trying to predict every situation, but she didn’t. She supposed that some seers did, but she didn’t. Of course, she did spend a lot of time utilizing the various methods, trying to hone her skills some more, but she wasn’t all that concerned about specific events. The future was incredibly fascinating and knowing it was definitely useful, and tedious, but living life full of surprises was worth it.

She was a strong believer in the fact that knowing every little detail about anything was terrible for a person. It would cause them to forget to actually live, but to more or less, as if they were reading a rulebook. That took the fun out of everything, the wonderful adventures disappearing. As with everything, too much of anything was a bad thing. Knowing too much of the future was not wise to the growth of the individual. Of course, she had voiced these opinions to someone before, only to have them shot down as if it were blasphemy of sorts. Kahina just supposed she was the new generation of seers. “Ah, the million galleon question,” she grinned in response. “I’ll simply wait until you’re off guard…eventually you’ll tire of trying to be prepared,” she shrugged, smiling widely. This conversation certainly came a far way from a simple bump in the streets.

“I don’t know if I should be offended or not,” she laughed, shaking her head lightly. “I hope one day I’ll be able to live my embarrassment to the house down,” Kahina continued dramatically. Even today, she still studied more than she did any other activity…except perhaps, breathing. “You were a Gryffindor, right?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at him hopefully. He had to be, obviously. “Do you travel to a lot of different countries for the different dragons?” she asked curiously.

Kahina knew she had her work cut out for her, no one really liking the subject. It bored a lot of students and a lot of students simply made things up. She was a kid, once. She really hoped she could make it challenging and interesting enough that students would actually want to try, increasing their skill set in knowing how to do others things. “Merlin, I expect I’ll have a lot of wet seats to clean up,” she joked, shaking her head in amusement. “Perhaps I’ll start small with a…three-headed dog or something,” she shrugged.

The idea of being a seer was rather interesting to Dylan, and not something that he had ever thought too much about. He knew that some people in the wizarding world were obsessed with knowing their futures and how everything was going to turn out. He wasn’t that type, really, finding it better to live by each day and not worry about tomorrow until he got there. Some people called that irresponsible, his lack of planning, but he just didn’t see a need for it. Dylan wondered if she was ever tempted to just find out a lot and predict situations simply because she was a seer. Others had to actually find a seer or, read tealeaves or something he supposed, whereas she was a seer… it certainly made it easier and he would understand how that could be tempting. “Oh, I’m always prepared. So good luck with that.” He replied, grinning.

“Don’t be—just means you’re mysterious,” Dylan said, as he normally was quite able to deal the basics about people—such as houses at Hogwarts and jobs. Kahina apparently was just more of a challenge, since he hadn’t pegged her profession either until she’d told him. “Just go and read up on dragons to make up for it and I’m sure Rowena will forgive you,” he added, shaking his head. He never would have lasted in Ravenclaw, really; that probably was the last house that he would ever be in. “Gryffindor, that’s right,” he nodded, knowing that he wasn’t exactly a complicated person to work out. He worked with dragons for Merlin’s sake, of course he was a Gryffindor. But even before he had found himself in this job, he’d always been an easy person to figure out. “I’ve traveled around a bit,” Dylan told her, though it certainly did depend. “Sometimes, depending on what the dragon is needed for, they’ll bring it to me. Other times, I travel to help out,” he continued. He wasn’t sure what one he preferred, since it was always easier having a dragon on his home turf, but he did love traveling. “When I’m in between jobs, sometimes I travel around to different sanctuaries just to get more experience.” Dylan added, and he did enjoy that aspect of his job as well. Coming across and learning about new dragons was always interesting to him, though at this point there weren’t many new dragons for him to discover. He’d seen and worked with most all breeds firsthand.

Dylan barked out a laugh, amused by the woman now more than ever at the joke. She was continuing to surprise him, that was for certain, and he wasn’t actually able to think of a conversation he’d had recently that measured up to this one. He was glad that he had deiced to come to Hogsmeade that day. Although the plan had been to go to Honeydukes, he was finding this to be a hell of a lot more interesting than anything that could have happened in that shop. “Well, you paint quite the picture,” he replied, still grinning. A hell of a lot of students probably would piss themselves if a dragon just bloody appeared at the back of their classrooms; but it would be a lot more useful as a class pet than anything else he could think of. “A three-headed dog might be a bit milder of a point to start at,” Dylan agreed, still amused. The students of Hogwarts would certainly be in for an interesting divination class, regardless of a pet, in his mind. Kahina would do a good job of gaining their interest in the subject, at least, probably. He was already more interested in it just from having talked to her; but there was probably a hell of a lot that she could talk about that would normally bore him that he’d be willing to listen to—she was attractive, she was interesting. She’d probably make history of magic appealing, he mused, entertained by the prospect.