It was a little before the exams and Samuel had been held up in his office most of the day. The man looked at his watch and noted it was now a little after 4:30pm and that classes would be finished for the day. He was unsure of how many students even bothered to attend classes as the exam period drew closer, he presumed that some students skipped certain classes in order to study for their others. The Professor had noted that some students in his upper year classes had been missing, he was hoping that they did study for charms since it was the first exam on the schedule this time around.


Standing up Samuel banished a few books he had sitting on his desk to a side table with his wand before he placed it back on the sturdy wooden surface. Sure, he also had sleeping quarters in his office but he chose to live in Hogsmeade so he got time to himself even if it was only a few hours. Right now he was in no hurry to head home or down to the great hall for dinner. He was waiting on one of his sixth years to arrive. Having looked at her file a little while ago to refresh his memory, he noted that he hadn't spoken to her much, ever but after what happened at the ball he felt it was definitely warranted.


The ball had certainly been an interesting experience for Samuel. Between what had gone on with the students and their scuffle and the conversation he had had with the head of Ravenclaw, it certainly had been a night of mixed….emotions. However, he didn’t have time dwell on that know, especially having heard the knock on the door. “You can come in” he called out as he went to stand next to his desk with his arms folded.


@cecilia

A few days had gone by since the ball, and Cecilia had actually believed she’d gotten out of having to have a meeting with her head of house. The school was always crazy right before exams, and it was always possible that it had slipped his mind, or that it had seemed far less important to talk about after the fact. She had thought that, at least, but since nothing apparently was capable of going her way at the current time, eventually she was called to come to his office. She was just glad that it hadn’t been immediately after the ball or very soon after, because now she felt completely confident that she could make this be a quick meeting. Really, Cecilia was unsure what he wanted to talk to her about, but she supposed being partially the cause of a Slytherin choking out another Slytherin in the middle of a dance was worthy of some sort of conversation. Boy troubles… if only it were that bloody simple, though she hoped that her professor wasn’t going to try to talk to her about that in particular—she couldn’t think of something more awkward for her head of house than trying to talk to his female student about boys.

But that could work for her, really. It would be better for him to think it was something shallow like that, so if she had to play up the fickle teenager girl, then she would. Of course, that was if brushing off the entire situation didn’t work first. She supposed she would just have to see how it went, unfortunately. This might actually be the first conversation she’d had with just about anyone since the ball, having been avoiding all manners of human contact. Hell, she hadn’t even heard from Trey, which was surprising since she’d been sure he would want to hurry along in irritating Roman even more. She had no idea if he was just already bored or actually cutting her a break, but either way she was taking advantage of that by avoiding anywhere that she could run into anyone, including her favorite place at the Quidditch pitch. Classes were irritatingly unavoidable, and the ones with Slytherin were certainly the damn worse; but she simply came in literally seconds before class began and made sure to be the first one out the door.

Sighing slightly, she knocked on the door to Professor Copeland’s office, vaguely wondering why it wasn’t on the seventh floor. It would have been a hell of a lot more convenient for her, since walking all the way down here had risked her seeing people she didn’t want to see, but obviously there was nothing to do about that. Once she had heard him say she could enter, she pulled open the door and stepped into the office. Prior to Professor Copeland arriving to the school and taking over this position, Cecilia had been in here numerous times, as her temper had gotten her into a hell of a lot of trouble. This year, though, it really hadn’t, which meant this was actually her first one-on-one with her head of house. Nothing against him, but she really could do without it. “Hi,” she said, warily, noticing that he was still standing up.

Samuel hadn’t really prepared much for this talk with his student, apart from reading over her file beforehand, he only had one question he had in his mind and he knew she was smart enough to work out what that was. What had happened at the ball was a bit of a surprise to him. He of course didn’t keep up to date with who was dating who, it wasn’t part of his job obviously. But he was observant; he had to be, not only as a Head of House but also in his classes. When they practiced new charms, there were always a handful of students who no matter how much guidance you gave them, always got it wrong. He watched as she slowly opened the door and entered his office. A small smile fell on his face as she walked in further. Cecilia wasn’t in trouble, he just needed to get to the bottom of this, even if this meeting went longer than she would like it to.

“Afternoon, Miss Hill, you can sit here or over on the couch, your choice” he said pointing to the two chairs in front of his desk then the brown leather couch against a nearby wall. Samuel didn’t normally sit when he met with his students, this may throw them off but it was just how he did things. He waited until she had taken a seat before speaking. “Had a good day?” he asked with genuine interest. One thing he had learnt from being both a student and now a professor was that after some public fight or disagreement took place it was harder for the students involved to go about their normal activities. He also knew that in the top five things what Gryffindors like to, other than pranking and flying was to gossip, so he couldn’t imagine how rife that was in the tower right now. The professor hoped the girl would answer him honestly following that question and any other he was going to put forward. It would make this meeting so much more worthwhile.

The professor obviously didn’t know how the head of slytherin was going to deal with her students of if she was going to do anything but his primary concern was the girl he was currently meeting with. Samuel could tell that she was upset, annoyed and even possibly embarrassed but he just wanted everything explained to him.

Cecilia wasn’t at all happy that Trey had chosen the ball as the setting for that ridiculous display, as it had made everything even worse. Of course, he’d tell her it was because she took too long to break up with Roman, which she supposed was annoyingly true, but Merlin forbid it took her more than a few days to prepare herself to break up with her boyfriend of over a year just because of his cousin’s whim and possession of sensitive information. If she had just broken up with him, then he would hate her once she started ‘dating’ Trey, but he had made it look like she was bloody cheating on him with his cousin. After all, she knew that she had been a little bit edgy ever since her father had started contacting her, and now Roman could probably look back at that and think that she was distant because she’d started things up with Trey. Bloody ridiculous situation. Why he had chosen such a public setting was beyond her… well, no, it made perfect sense, but now they all had to deal with the ramifications of professors witnessing it. Hence why she was here to begin with, though she was sure that she could make the meeting quick once he started asking questions about what was going on or whatever else he wanted to talk about.

Nodding in response, Cecilia dropped down into one of the chairs in front of her head of house’s desk, waiting for him to begin to speak. He still wasn’t sitting down, but to each their own, she supposed. It seemed as though he was expecting her to act upset or nervous at being in his office, but she knew that she was well practiced at hiding her true thoughts about just about anything at this point. It was impossible to live with her family and have a mind of her own, so she was far too good of an actress for anyone to realize that she was still mildly on edge about her current situation. No, she could play off being a fickle teenager if it came down to it, making her head of house believe that she flip-flopped from one Rudolphi to the next and it caused a scene at the ball. Once Professor Copeland realized that this was a ridiculous situation that didn’t require an intervention from a professor, then she was sure that he would leave it alone. “Well enough, I suppose,” she answered, shrugging. She did hope that he got to the point soon, because this small-talk was not something that she wanted to waste too much time on.

The Head of Gryffindor watched closely at how the girl behaved with taking her seat. The old adage of ‘actions speaking louder than words’ was something he firmly believed and it was something that played on his mind in regards to another witch at Hogwarts. But he tried not get swept up in those thoughts for the moment. Samuel could tell that his lion was neither upset or nervous to be meeting with him, more disinterested in being there. He didn’t blame her honestly, it wasn’t something he wanted to do but it was something he needed to do. Finally after Cecilia sat in front of his desk, Samuel sat on the side of his mahogany desk. Sure it wasn’t normal for a professor to do that, but it was his style. “Well enough? As long as you’re preparing for your exams Miss Hill” he smiled at her as he crossed his arms. He knew just how intelligent she was, he had seen it for himself in class and her assignments so he had no doubt she would do well in Charms or any of her other classes.

“Obviously you know why I asked you to meet with me..” he trailed off, in case she wanted to disagree with his assumption. “Can you tell me why mister Rudolphi attacked his cousin at the ball the other night and why he was unaware that you and him were no longer together?” he asked her giving her a pointed look. He of course had heard the words that had been exchanged between the trio, though he didn’t like it, he couldn’t change it and it wasn’t what he wanted to focus on in this meeting. “By the way you should know I did know you were together” he had to make her aware that he was more observant than she or any other lion gave him credit for. If they had broken up than he was pretty much certain Roman wouldn’t have acted the way he had. The professor waited for his student to answer before speaking again.

On the off chance that this meeting did happen, though she’d been holding out hope it wouldn’t, Cecilia had already planned out what she was going to say. She knew that she could brush it off easily enough, and make it sound just silly enough for her head of house to not want to further discuss it. After all, he wasn’t obligated to involve himself in situations like this other than making sure that nothing bad was going on that could cause further problems. That should be easy enough. Cecilia watched as Professor Copeland sat at the side of his desk, wondering if he was going to continue to hover this entire time, or if he was just attempting to be informal. “I’ve started studying, don’t worry,” she replied, laughing quietly. Studying had actually been a hell of a good distraction from everything else going on, and she also suddenly had a lot of spare time on her hands to do just that. Or at least, attempt to, though her focus wasn't exactly at a hundred percent.

Of course it was obvious why he asked her to meet with him, she had simply hoped it wouldn’t actually happen. But since it did, it really meant that her head of house was about to ask her to explain what looked like ridiculous teenage boy drama. Cecilia nodded in response, since it seemed he was giving her a moment to agree or disagree with him. Merlin, she hoped that she would be able to almost even embarrass him into cutting this meeting short. He was young enough to not want to hear about this ridiculousness, or so she could assume. There was no way he’d want to be discussing this all that long. “Why he was unaware we weren’t together,” she repeated, once her professor had spoken. Really, she was unsure that the incident had come off like that, as it seemed pretty clear that his words to his head of house had been him breaking up with her. Or, perhaps she was just biased since she knew the situation. “We were together,” she stated, figuring that was the best way to just make her look extremely fickle. “I was just also with his cousin—that sounds bad, I know,” Cecilia said, shrugging. Boys—she was bloody talking to her head of house about boys. This was bloody ridiculous. “I was going to break up with Roman eventually, so that I could just be with Trey, but… well, I guess I was just being selfish and putting that off.” Teenage girl wanting both blokes and it eventually coming to blows at the ball—that sounded pretty damn frivolous, and although she was probably losing all and any respect that her head of house had for her, it was better to just have this situation completely brushed aside. “I didn’t think Roman was coming to the ball, so I went with Trey and … well, that’s that.” She concluded, evenly, “I’m not exactly proud of my actions, and I do apologize that it came to such an… unfortunate end at the ball, but I can assure you nothing like that will ever happen again.”

When he was a teenager himself Samuel couldn’t recall an event like the one other night at the ball happening at any school function he had during his time as a student. He had gone to many of them but then again times were different when he was in school. Merlin! He sounded old whenever he thought about it, even if he was only about to turn 30. He wondered if his head of house would have handled such a situation in such a manner. But they may have not even have spoken to the student or students involved. He supposed they wouldn’t have but with Cecilia he had this niggling feeling that something deeper was behind it. After all she didn’t appear to him as to play two boys against each other like that. He nodded at her answer. He wasn’t going to doubt her. “Well I’m glad to hear that” he replied smiling. He would not like to speak to any student about their poor marks. Even, if it would be an easier topic to discuss with them. If Hannah came to find out he was discussing boys with a female student of his, he was certain he mock him senselessly for it.


It was good that Cecilia at least knew her reason for being her and wasn’t going to act ignorant about it. However he was prepared for that scenario too. Samuel had hoped this meeting would be easier enough to get through for both of them but depended on his student of course. He had heard every word that was exchanged between the students involved at the ball and now he just needed an explanation. As the girl repeated his question to herself he arched a brow and waited patiently for an answer; of any sort. “Yes it was as if Mister Rudolphi had missed an owl that you two were no longer together” he said quickly. The professor’s eyebrow stayed in it’s arched position as she started explaining it all to him. He was confused as to why she would do such a thing, have two guys at once, of course it was not unheard of but it was not something he ever saw coming from one of the Hogwarts students. Well, he was wrong on that assumption. “You were going to break up with him when exactly miss Hill? When he saw you and Trey together in Diagon alley?” he asked as he looked at her with a pointed look. Thankfully that didn’t occur, who knows what would have happened between the cousins if that had come to fruition. “And what made you think Roman wasn’t coming to the ball? Did he tell you he wasn’t?” he kept putting the questions forward. Of course it wasn’t a compulsory event for students but most students did come by even if only for a few minutes. And did Cecilia think that no other student, her friends, think that it was odd she was with one Rudolphi cousin when she was dating the other. “Your apology is appreciated but I must ask is something else going on?” the Gryffindor head of house asked, even if he could already predict her answer.

This was an absolutely ridiculous conversation to be having with a professor and if she weren’t bloody sitting here experiencing it, she would have doubted that situations like this even ever existed. Cecilia understood trying to vaguely figure out what happened since it had resulted in quite the… display at the dance, but she certainly didn’t think that he needed to know much more about it than it wasn’t going to happen again. But now he was bloody questioning her about it, and that just seemed unnecessary. Particularly since it didn’t seem that he was listening, and she didn’t know why he would even want to know. “We were together,” she repeated, slowly, as she had just bloody said that, or so she thought.

Merlin, this conversation had just begun and she already wanted it to come to an end. Hopefully it would soon enough, but at his next words Cecilia was raising her eyebrows. Now he was going to scold her for her dating decisions? This was just bloody absurd. “With the utmost respect, Professor, it really isn’t your business when I was going to break up with him. I’ve admitted I made a mistake with my choices, and I promise that nothing like the altercation at the ball will happen again—at least not involving me, but other than that, I don’t need my head of house judging the choices I make in my personal life.” She had come in here assuming she’d have to give a brief explanation and potentially get into a brief bit of trouble for even being involved in any sort of fight, but Cecilia would have skipped the meeting altogether if she’d known that he wanted to hear details and then judge her for them. Bloody ridiculous, she thought, as she crossed one leg over the other. “He told me he wasn’t,” she answered, though anyone with eyes had to realize that Roman wasn’t exactly the most sociable person this year. Him not wanting to go to the ball wasn’t exactly news or something that anyone would be surprised by. “Something else? No,” she replied, wondering just what he could possibly think was going on.

He was starting to wonder if at all this meeting had any purpose. Sure yes, him calling the Gryffindor to his office and having her explained what happened was necessary but Samuel even though he hated to admit was lost as to what would else could be done, he couldn’t really punish her, for what? Kissing a boy at a dance, which set off a fight between two students? There wasn’t anything in the students’ handbook that related to what had gone on at the ball and no school property been damaged. The professor just needed to ensure all was well with his student. He couldn’t even deduct house points because there was no reason to do so. The man nodded as she spoke. Of course he knew they were together, he had seen it for his own eyes. Despite what some students thought, the professors saw more than they let on.

When she spoke to him claiming it was none of his business what choices she made in regards to dating or breaking up with some, Samuel dreaded immediately the way he had phrased what he previously said. He really struggled when it came to speaking to teenage girls about boys, Merlin help him if he ever had a daughter one day. “Forgive me Miss Hill I didn’t mean to come across as if I was judging you, as I wasn’t” which was the truth, why would have any reason to judge her or any other Gryffindor? How could he speak to them if was supposedly going to judge them? “I’m happy you’ve realised you made some mistakes with your choices” Bloody Godric, help him!  Even if he and Hannah were on talking terms at present, Samuel wasn’t sure if he would have sought her advice on what to ask or say to Cecilia. “ Okay so Roman told you he wasn’t going and then you went with Trey” he concluded. However he noted that on the night both students had arrived separately but since they were in different houses that was a given. Especially, if those two houses resided at opposite ends of the castle. Samuel didn’t know Roman so he couldn’t say anything on the boy or even Trey for that matter. He got up from his sitting position on the side of the table and sat in his chair. Which, was something more normal for a Head of house to do. “Nothing outside of school?” he asked the girl as he leant back in his seat. Knowing it was possible, he of course knew a bit of her background but he was definitely going to pry into that area unless he really needed to and probably not now given how badly he come across before.

If she wasn’t in trouble and he had gotten his brief explanation, then she was unsure why this was still occurring. It wasn’t as though he wanted to talk to her about boys, that was more embarrassing for him, since Cecilia wasn’t easily embarrassed. In fact, it took a hell of a lot to embarrass her and it normally involved her family being… themselves around others, her mother in particular. She recalled being embarrassed when Roman had met her mother, and that was the only situation that came to mind, and that was only because Oriana was just bloody ridiculous. As were her stepfather and stepbrother, but that was just a different situation entirely. Cecilia nodded in response to his comment, not having anything further to say about it. More than likely, he didn’t have a lot of practice in this types of conversations, which only further made her wonder why he’d bothered with it to begin with. Though, it did also make her wonder how he hadn’t considered his previous statement to be judgmental, but she supposed he could be the type that was holier-than-thou without realizing it. “Well, I’d be ridiculous not to consider anything resulting with a fight in the middle of a ball to be a mistake.” It had been a mistake in its truest form, obviously, but that had actually been stalling the inevitable for so long. She should have known that Trey would have took it upon himself to make the situation worse. That was what he bloody did.

Cecilia wanted to roll her eyes at his next question, but refrained. It was luckily that she was skilled in playing whatever part she needed to because she found her head of house’s incessant question asking to be incredibly aggravating. Why did it matter if Roman was or wasn’t planning on going to the ball, or how and why and when she’d met up with Trey? It was like he wanted her to slip up so he’d know she was lying, but he should have no reason to not believe her. “Yes, Roman said he wasn’t going, and I technically met Trey there.” Her head of house had been in the room… did he actually expect her to pretend she’d shown up with Trey when he obviously knew she didn’t? Cecilia was confused by this entire damn conversation. She watched as he moved to sit down, wondering why it had taken him that bloody long to do so, though she was slightly less wary now that he was seated. “Like what?” Cecilia asked, raising an eyebrow. What deep-seated issue did he think was going on outside of school that would make her two-time cousins? “Nothing is going on at home.” She added, finally, having been too curious to not ask what he had thought could be going on, but certainly wanting to verify that bloody nothing was going on.