Good Samaritans of Observational... er... lessons. (Aurie/Dave)

Closing Clockwork Prince, the latest book he was reading to keep up with his muggle heritage, David looked up at the clock. He knew he had a visitor soon, an old student, he believed, named Aurelie. The purpose of the visit he wasn't completely sure, but as a professor he was obliged to help, and she was sweet so he didn't mind. He also had a feeling Blaire was helping, so that was a benefit.

It was pretty dark in the room, and David sighed. Winter was drawing in close. He ignited a few candles and the fire in the grate, chucking a newspaper article on whether muggle studies was in fact a waste of time in it as fuel, and waited for Aurelie to arrive, straightening a few books in his tip of an office to make it slightly more acceptable.

Aurelie took a deep breath and knocked on the solid oak door. It made a sort of dull thud and slid open and she stumbled into the room.

There was Professor Arterton, standing around and straightening a few books. Candles were lit, giving the room a dim glow that caught in the Professor's hair and lit the otherwise dark classroom. There was a half-way burned newspaper in the grate of the fireplace -- he had tossed it in merely a minute or so earlier, because the fire was still flaring up. She could still see something about "Muggle Studies: Waste or--" but the rest was burned. Evidently, the Muggle Studies Professor didn't like newspaper articles questioning and compromising his job.

She looked around, rather harried, and saw a book on his desk: Clockwork Prince. She had no idea what it was about, but it had just been read, she could see that clearly. The cover was still a bit bent.

"Professor Arterton," she sputtered, folding her hands behind her back. "I--uh--sorry about the door. It was open and I knocked and it opened and...Professor Vandever sent me!"

"Hey Miss Bones," David greeted cheerfully. "Come on in. Take a seat." He knocked an armchair back for her to sit in and grinned. "Do you want a drink? Tea? Coke? Fanta? Pumpkin juice?"

He grinned as she mentioned Blaire having sent her. "Ahh, brilliant. So, what exactly is it that I can help you with, Miss Bones? I doubt if Professor Vandever sent you it's about muggle studies." He smiled slightly. "Oh, and do excuse the fact that this place looks as if a bomb's hit it. I'm telling people that's what happened, but they know I'm just a messy bugger."

Aurelie Bones took a few more steps into the room and sat down in the armchair. Red velvet, old. There was a stain on the arm. Coffee, most likely --

She looked at it a bit more closely.

Tea.

"Um," said Aurelie, and then said the first thing that came to her mind: "The room's a lot cleaner than mine." She shrugged, fingers gripping the chair arm, and then went back to his original question. "Professor Vandever was...talking to me earlier and she said that you were one of the more observent people she knows and that you could...help me."

She winced, knowing that the rest of what she was going to say sounded terribly vain, and she most emphatically didn't want to say it, but then there wouldn't be any point in coming here at all. "She told me that I was very...very observant and that you could, um, help me in a way because you could...teach me how to...hone that gift..." She faltered for a little bit and then went on determinedly. "She said that you could teach me spells and other suchlike things. And that in time, I could tell the ingredients in a potion by just merely looking at it."

The hot heat of the fire made her cheek burn and she put a hand to it to cool her cheek, and waited.

Pouring a can of coke for himself, he laughed a little as she said Blaire had called him observant. "I guess I can be sometimes," he said with a little grin. "But not as observant as that. Well, I don't think I am, anyway."

He put his feet up on the desk and leant back thoughtfully. "But sure! I'd be happy to help if you think I'm the right guy to. Is there anything you want to start with? Emotions? Potions? Or something simpler? Or..." He thought for a second. "You could tell me what you already know. Use your powers of deduction, Sherlock... Bones." He was quite proud of himself by this nickname as he passed her an old sheet of marking paper that he had doodled on recently.

(OOC: It's completely yours to make up, my lovely )

"Okay," said Aurelie, taking the piece of paper and staring at it. There was doodling on it and she laughed a bit at the name, 'Sherlock Bones.' "If it's alright, I won't write. I think that I think better out loud."

She stared around and then took a deep sigh. "All right. Here goes."

"You're a slob, though you like to joke a little bit, showing that you are a very light-hearted person, though I daresay that you can be serious at times. You like to read muggle books, pertaining to the fact that you have a muggle heritage of some sorts. It's a fire on a warm day in the winter: you like fire or you like the heat. You didn't have the candles on before I came because the wax hasn't pooled yet. The newspaper that you burned: it had been about the muggle studies and whether they were useful or not, and you don't like that because you think that it might take away your job or you just don't like the idea of Muggle Studies being questioned.

"I've never seen an adult doodle before, and you like to doodle rather childish things with a freehand ballpoint pen instead of a quill. Even though the quill is more widely used. You have a great many books in here, but most of them look brand new so either you take care of them, mend them magically or you just keep them around for show. But the ones that you actually read are well-thumbed. Before you were reading 'Clockwork Prince' and the person who sits here likes to drink tea because there are four or more tea stains. You have a flask of tea on your desk, so I can assume that you like this chair. Your favorite color is red or blue because you have a great many red or blue things.

"When you pushed the armchair for me, you used your left hand. Many things are positioned for left handed people, and so you are left handed. Also, you are sweet on PRofessor Blaire Vandever and talk to her a lot, although you hide the fact. You like coke, and you like making up nicknames. You leave your door unlocked because you don't have much to hide and you've replaced the handle lately because there are no scuff marks."

She folded her hands and waited.

David let out a low whistle and clapped his hands together. "That's pretty well bang on. I'm impressed. Definitely Homes-worthy." He grinned cheerfully at her, wondering whether he should ask for her observations of Blaire.

"I don't know what you'd need me for really, other than for finding a use. So, you can make all these observations, but can you tie them together? You know, use them for something?" He grinned. He didn't doubt that she probably could. "For instance, say I'd nicked something, could you link with why?"

He shrugged, and made a small smile. "Do you by any chance want to be an auror? Or something like that? Or do you have another reason for wanting to make observations?"

"I-I," sputtered Aurie, turning red with both embarrassment and pride. He seemed to be thinking something that made him smile.

"If you nicked something...I don't think I could link it with why," said Aurelie shyly. "Maybe that's why Professor Vandever wanted you to teach me...so I might be able to do stuff like that."

Auror.

What a thought.

Aurelie shrugged. "It's like...all my life, I've been mediocre. And now I've just been told that I have this talent...this gift...and that I should develop it. It's overwhelming, y'know. Do...do you think you could help me?"

David grinned. "I can understand that." He nodded. "Well, I'm happy to try and help you, to say the least."

He pulled his hands through his curly hair and smiled, yawning. "Jeez, I'm knackered. It can't just be me." He shook his head.

"First I think we should agree to meeting sometime. Do you want to do this like in lessons, or one-off meetings, or what?" Davie asked, looking up at Aurie. "If we arrange some kind of meeting we can work out a way of developing this skill."

Aurelie watched him yawn. So he was either bored if her, or just sleepy. She hoped that it was the latter. And when he said that he was knackered, it was confirmed. "I'm tired too, I guess," she said tentatively.

"We can, um, meet here once or twice a week, I guess," Aurelie said. "Ma-maybe Mondays or Tuesdays..."

She wished that she could visit every day or so. There was just this calming and humorous air about the teacher that made her relax around him. And he seemed quite smart.

Dave nodded, grinning. "Okay, Mondays and Tuesdays it is." He nodded, clarifying it.

"Well, we know already that you are very astute, that you can pick things up very quickly. That's definitely a talent. So, now we need to tune it." He smirked. "I'm repeating myself. I'm getting old." He winked at Aurelie and took another drink of coke. "I'll plan some stuff for us to do to help you.

"For now, I can test you on some riddles. Riddles require you to be observant, but to be able to use that in a way to find the answer to the question." He grinned. "The way you've just picked me to pieces shows you should have no problem." He thought hard for a riddle from his youth. "I'll start easy, shall I?"

Dave did rather hope that Aurelie knew some things about muggle culture; even though the 'easy riddle' could apply to wizarding he couldn't help but wonder.

"Okay," he said, clapping his hands together. "What cheese is made backwards?" This one didn't require much observation; it was more of a break in to riddles.

Riddles.

Aurelie loved riddles.

Like, loved them so much it hurt.

"What cheese is made backwards."

Oooh, she knew this one.

MADE backwards.

"Edam cheese," she said with a grin, completely delighted.

David grinned widely. "Correctomendo. Next one."

He thought hard. "Okay. Another slightly harder one. A trainee co-pilot walks into the bar at the hotel they're staying at and sees his boss there wearing a dress and make up. What should he do about it?" He loved this one. When he was little it had really stumped him.

"I think the pilot's a woman," Aurelie said tentatively, "but I've no idea what to do about it." She grinned sheepishly.