To ALL of Hogwart's Staff!

Professor Finch looked up to the portrait of the grotesquely ugly, humped-back witch and spoke the words, " Canto Cantus!" and with a frightful screech, the witch sang, "ENTER!" as the portrait swung open to show a doorway behind. Elizabeth stepped through to a large, circular, domed room with a huge round table in the center. there were overly plushed chairs scattered and she decided to settle down in one nearer the grand fireplace.
It was the evening and classes were over, the students had had their dinner and was now in the hands of teh prefects. Elizabeth summoned a lovely, pipping hot pot of tea from the tip of her want and pulled the drawbell to ring for a house elf.
"CRACK"
An elf appeared.
"Hello Madame, I'm Brouthie the house Elf Ms., what do you require Madame?" said the timid little Elf.
"Oh Hallo Brouthie, I'm Professor Finch." she smiled.
"Aren't you a lovely little thing! yes, right, I'd love some plum pud with my tea, if you'd be so kind..."
No sooner had the words escaped her lips, the Elf was gone and back again with a huge dish of the Plum Pudding.
"Here Ms..." he sat it on the tea table next to her.
She grinned and patted the Elf on the head with her thanks and off her "CRACKED" again.
Elizabeth started into the pud and was waiting for other Professors and faculty to arrive as so she could meet them and introduce herself, being new to the staff herself.....

Lynx entered the staff room and saw a woman there he hadn't seen before, perhaps she was part of the Hospital Wing staff he thought to himself

He then rang the bell lightly for the house elf to come, when it arrived, Lynx kneeled down so he was at it's eye level and greeted it with a smile "Is there any chance I could get a green tea please?" Lynx asked sweetly, the elf nodded and returned with his tea

Lynx then sat down in a armcahir, and gave a brief smile to the woman before sipping his tea

Eliizabeth looked up from her cup of tea she was sipping and looked kindly out of her eyes to him.
"I say, lovely things, the house elves, aren't they?" she said to break the ice while grinning.
"I say, I'm Elizabeth Bracknel Finch, the new Care Of Magical Creatures professor. How do you do?" she said as she arose and reached out her hand for him to kiss. She was jsut certain he had heard of her before....

Lynx smiled back "Yes they're wondeful, im family never had one. Only recently has my mother enlisted the help of one". Lynx was surprized to hear she was a the new COMC Professor, she seemed a little old and fragile

Lynx looked at the woman's hand then back at the woman, trying to hide his puzzled expression, but he figured she grew up in the era where is was a customary. So Lynx quickly kissed her hand

"Well pleased to meet you, im sure the students and animals will keep you on your toes. Im Lynx Miller, I teach Transfiguration" Lynx then paused for a moment he had heard that last name before

"Say, you wouldn't be the wife of Stratford Finch would you?" Lynx asked curiously

Grinning back at young man with kind eyes she said, "..tis' good to see manners are still employed by the youth," in regard to his kissing her hand.

"And you don't worry about me darling, I can quite handle most anything that should pop up, I assure." she said now mulling over Lynxs' question.

".. Oh yes, you've heard of my dear late husband then? Amusing isn't it? *His name always seems to preceed mine," she said with a giggle. The old woman arose out of her chair, summoned her tease away with a swish of her wand and walked closer to the fire to warm herself.

"My goodness, Transfiguration you say? Lovely subject, wasn't much for me though," she said with a wrinkle in her nose.

"I don't know if you're aware or not, but if you tickle the foot of the statue of former Headmaster Storms, outside of the transfiguration classroom, you'll find a passage open behind the statue which leads to a lovely little boudoir, cute cozy and a lovely place to 'dissapear' for a while and take tea!" she said with a wink.

Elizabeth started to mull over all the secrets and passages of the castle and then she thought, she must be the only one of the old set still living and aware, aware of the great war in the prior century, she lived through it, fought it's battles, she saw a lot of the castle reduced to rubble. She only knew of these secrets and passages because she was a head on the committee of rebuilding Hogwarts and was quite instrumental in placing a lot of them. In a way, she thought, she WAS a secret keeper of Hogwarts!

"I tell you this for it was quite a favorite hideout of mine, in my youth, and I wouldn't really use it now for I'll probably never be in that part of the castle much and I feel if I don't tell someone a few things about the castle, that I know, some things shall jsut be lost to time!"

"Oh I feel so old!" she said with a giggle....


Her exspression turned solemn, she remembered it all too well, she was there and fould though all this...

Lynx nodded as Elizabeth said that she could handle things, though Lynx still had his concerns espcially when it came to 5th years in his experience

Lynx's mouth dropped slightly as Elizabeth comfirmed she was the late wife of Stratford Finch, he was truely an incrediable wizard, Lynx then smirked at the womans comment "Well you know what they say, behind every great man is an even greater woman"

Lynx then leaned foward a little on his chair as Elizabeth told of a secret passage, he then leaned back thinking about it "Wow, no I didn't know that all. And right outside my classroom to!" Lynx exclaimed, he began to wonder how many other people knew of this passage

"I'll be sure to tell my little sister about it. In fact she might even be in one of your classes, she's a second year; Starla Miller. A Gryffindor like I was" Lynx said proudly

Elizabeth looked at the young chap. How kind he was, sincere, there was truely something special about him, she could tell. Who else with lissful youth would have made such a remark, to try and make an old lady feel good, pay attention to and old lady at all. 'Yes' she thought, she has a very high opinion of the lad.
"Oh tosh! you're too very kind m'dear! And yes, I do believe I have your sister for class, or I think I recall her anyway. Being new, it shall take me a few days to learn my students," she said with a glit in her eye.

"So tell me about yourself. Who ever is your Mumsy & Dadum, or rather I should ask, who are/were your grandparents, I am sure I am bound to know them or know of them. Working in the public as so I have my whole life and being in the public eye with my Stratford, I've learned a great many people and made some very lovely friends along the way," she said looking to Lynx in earnest.....

Lynx smiled back at Elizabeth, she seemed like a rather sweet woman it was almost surreal meeting someone so famous. He had always imagined her to be abit snobbish but that wasn't the case at all

"Oh well my grandmother is Edith Miller, though she was originally Edith Greengrass, then she married by grandfather Gregory Miller" Lynx then sighed at though of his grandpa, it was sad he had lost nearly all his memory

"My grandma was a trainee Mediwitch, though she never completed her training unfortunately after she gave birth to my dad, its a shame she definately had the capacity to do so"

"Oh I say! Are you REALLY?" Elizabeth said excitedly.
"Would you believe I was one to help instrument the Mediwitch course lessons and in the early stages I had your dear Grandma'ma? Oh my dear little Edi, how lovely she was, I just knew she'd be great. I was switch to field training later and lost tabs on little Edi. I say, isn't it a pity?"
The old woman arose slowly out of her chair and walked over the the young lad. She looked up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "..you'll go on to be great someday love, picking up where your Gran left off, you'll show us good in thw wizarding world again, this I am certain of!" she said as she patted his cheek, her eyes sparkling brilliantly as she smiled up at him. She turned and took her seat again. She looked back to Lynx in admiration, she wished she could have had a child or grandchild like this young man, he was something special.....

Lynx began to blush as Elizabeth compliment him, though he couldn't see how he was going on to greatness or change the wizarding world, though it was touching of her to say

"Oh im nothing special, seriously im just your average professor" Lynx then took a sip of his green tea, and thought for a moment

"Actually you know im thinking of writing a Transfiguration book, hopefully get published to" Lynx had always toyed with this idea, but Elizabeth seemed to inspire him to pursue this goal

"Darling boy, everyone is special in their own way, it just takes someone extraordinary to single in on it and I am quite sure you've the ability!"
Elizabeth finished her tea.

"I say, a book then is it? You're quite right to do so, it's a lovely way to look into one's mind, and I rather feel anyone should write a book of some sorts, I've done 14 myself!" she said with a hint of proudness in her voice.

"I'll have to give you the information of my publishers, 'Brackmoore, Cudler, & Toad,', lovely lads located just off Diagon Alley!"
Elizabeth looked into her carpet bag to pull out some student essays she needed to grade. She snapped her fingers and held out her hand and in it appeared her pince-nez, half moon specks. She put them on and smiled at Lynx.
"How ever are classes for you this year, love?"

Lynx was surprized to hear that Elizabeth had written 14 books, he had heard that she written a few but didn't know it was that many "Goodness that is a lot of books, im not sure I could write that many, far to exhausting"

Lynx made a mental note of Elizabeth's publishers, perhaps once he eventually finishes his books, they might actually publish it for him, espcially if he mentions Elizabeths name

He then leaned backin his chair as the woman as how his classes were this year "Well my 4th years are just fantastic so eager, they were brillant last year too. Though the other years somedays its abit of a push, and doesn't help Transfiguration is not the most simpliest forms of magic"

..."Darling boy, when you've lived as long as I, you've had the time to write as many!" she said with a chuckle and glint in her eye.
She half listened to his response while half looking to the essays and then took interest in what he said.

"Oh yes, I quite know what you mean, I find the fourth years, most obliging, but my fifth years are quite the little toads, nothing though a bit of undercover mischievous magic played on the students won't handle!" she said with a giggle as she tapped her finger to her nose.

"Oh how this castle feels so very different when you view it through much older eyes, but its magic is still astonishing none-the-less…” see said with a feeling of being home..

Lynx let out a laugh as he picked up on Elizabeth's hint that she used magic on some of her students, it seemed that she was quite capable of handling them

"Ah I see, I often wish I could Transfigure some of my students" he said with a chuckle, Lynx found it sweet that Elizabeth had such passion for this castle, I guess after you help rebuild it your sure to have some emotional tie to it

"It is a lovely castle, I don't think anybody will find out all its secrets, not even those eager Ravenclaws" he said with a smirk

Elizabeth winked to the young man.
"No, I suppose not, I feel the castle is a living, breathing, ever changing thing and it, itself doesn't even know everything about it. Just this morning, I found a store cupboard just off the Library I could swear, hasn't seen the light of day since 1838..." she said remembering the date on the calender and the photo of Queen Victoria's Coronation.

Elizabeth looked at the boy, she drifted off. How so he reminded her of her dear nephew Grey. She missed him, she worried about him, she wondered if he was hungry, tired, in trouble, alive even. She hadn't heard from him since her dear sister Tilly was mur.., passed on. Her eyes teared up, she took her hankerchief she had tucked into her watch band and dried her eyes and looked up to Lynx to show a forced smile....

Lynx noticed Elizabeth drift of and stare into the distance he then saw she began to become teary, as he forced a smile out, Lynx could tell something had upset her, he then got up and walked up next to her placing an arm around her

"Elizabeth, whats the matter" he asked in a concerned tone