Hrothbert "Bob" Bainbridge

Congratulations to our newly minted Prefects and Heads of Houses. I'll be looking forward to working with you all again this year.

Castiel, I see that Marco is in the staff room now, if Lilith could be persuaded to join him there. Do you know where any of the other kittens are at the moment?


[[Filtered to Spencer]]

Spencer, my skull is in my classroom. When do you plan to head out?

[[/filtered]]


*checks that his office door is fastened and properly warded against, ahem, Peeves and takes the scenic route up the stairs instead of going straight through the ceiling*


[[Totally backdated to yesterday. Remember, kids, sign up for Ancient Runes here! Also, some of you may presently get uber-late last-week comments from my characters. >___> Sorry they're so very uber-late.]]

[[Filtered to Ancient Runes students]]

To those of you who will be here this morning for your first exam of the week, good luck. Just think, another few hours and it will all be over.~ Other years will have to wait a day or even two before coming to this point; try not to exhaust yourselves with anticipation. Scholastically speaking, I would call this a productive year for us all, so most of you have little to fret about.

And if I find out who switched all the sorrel inks with the etching acid, there will be.... consequences. After all, somebody has to replace that washbasin.

[[/filtered]]


*list of heavily locked notations, with "erfidityes" and "ins aeternum ocu" barely legible if you really look for it, trailing off into an exasperated scribble*


....................Has anybody seen my cat?


*...........who, for his part, is elsewhere in the castle, methodically shredding the edge of a tapestry<3*


[[Feel free to have done the prank, if you want to accept the Consequences (plumbing repairs and detention for a week).~ Also note: this is not the exam post. It will come in a day or so when I finish writing it. ^^]]

*paces his empty classroom* Hm, none the worse for wear after the past fortnights. Excellent; excellent... the charms on the perishables have held; that'll be fifty-eight fewer bottles of wyvern tears to order for next year. The clover parchment, though... Hmph. If I had an assistant, these things might not happen.

( Filtered to Harry )

*walks out through the closed door into the deserted hall; orders it to open so his journal can float out, checks the wards and passwords, orders it closed again, and drifts down the stairs with a feeling of purpose and accomplishment*

Let me see. Textbooks: Wright's again, I believe, and Haldah's Languages, and if Cove's brought out her new edition.... and Peeves hasn't graffitied my door again. Small mercies. New horizons, all well and good, but I suppose there's really no place like....

*walks through his office door, where Filch left his skull while he went up to check on the classroom*

*and backs out again slowly*


.....a dark closet full of spiders.

*eyeroll* Ah, the glamorous life of a teacher.


[[Strike unhackable. Bob should learn to be careful what he wishes for. XDDDD]]

*pacing, at the extreme limit of his fifty-foot tether, through walls, rooms, and people without the slightest regard for where he's going, muttering furiously and clutching a translucent parchment which he occasionally smooths out, snarls at, and crumples again*


[[Private]]

Confound that Fudge whelp! And the Spirit Division, countersigning such utter drivel -- it's got Podmore written all over i.... *remainder obscured by inky pawmarks*

[[/private]]


*..which continue out of the secondary staff-room as Marco, his paws covered with Ever-Renewing Ink, splatters his way up the stairs and about his business*


[[He's annoyed over internal ghost matters at the Ministry, but may be amenable to conversation with people prudent enough not to ask. XD]]

A small notice: those of you who have been taking my class in second year will have the choice of whether or not to continue it into your upper years. Naturally, I would advise you to do so. A proper understanding of rune inscription and syllabic interpretation will serve you well, whatever field you decide to go into once you graduate.

*Marco bats at the pen, causing a splatter of ink, and he swipes at the cat, shooing him off the table with his cold, misty hands*

..May you all have a fine, productive summer.

( Filtered to first-years )
( Private, 30% hackable to staff )


[[Strike unhackable. Ancient Runes is canonly a requirement for second-years, so Bob is speaking to the whole lot of you firsties. XD To help advance various plots, he will only be allowed out of Hogwarts for two weeks at a time, with no two fortnights spent in the same place.]]

*the tattooed catman slinks into the Great Hall and leaps onto a bench, crouching there with a good view of the room*

..I want a Chocolate Frog.


[[Private, on one of the less tattered pages of Bob's journal]]

Harry is still in Hogwarts. He wasn't sent to Durmstrang after all. That's....

*pauses, feeling that the simple phrase isn't adequate*

..Harry is here.

He's been here the whole term. It's incredible that we never encountered one another before... not that Ravenclaw Tower isn't usually outside my range, but this -- it's absurd, it's more than improbable... the curse of a doomed soul upon his lying relative! I didn't even permit myself to look for him.

And young Harry is still under his thumb. But I'm not. I am not. That has to count for something. Perhaps I can make a difference to him after all.

[[/private]]


That settles any last chance of leaving my journal in here again. I will need somebody to sort through the mess and move the salvageable material back to my office. ..And where is that confounded animal? *ghosts out of the staff room, conflict writ large on his face, to brave the day's chaos and search for his 'cat'*


[[..i.e. feel free to encounter either or both. :D The rescue-Harry thread isn't finished yet, but this post is set sometime after Bob finds someone to let him out.]]

*saunters back toward the staff room, carrying a dead^* mouse and looking insufferably pleased with himself*

*unfortunately the door is closed, so he drops the mouse at the threshold and begins to MEOW*


[[^* For a given value of 'dead'. *shifty eyes*]]

*without warning, a tattooed, hairless cat darts out between the legs of whoever just walked into the secondary staff-room -- and said cat, after being cooped up for over a month, is very curious about what has been going on in the castle*

*races up the nearest stairwell and commences to get acquainted with the first person he meets, thus....*


MIIIIEEEOAAAAUUUUUUUU!!!!


[[Bob will notice his absence pretty soon. In the meantime, feel free to be haunted by his somewhat less-than-ghostly familiar. XD]]

( Private, first paragraph 50% hackable )


[[Filtered to Bob's students]]

As a follow-up to last week's discussion of summoning circles, you are to pick one notable instance of a summoning involving runes and describe the procedure -- and whether or not it worked -- in no less than six inches. Advanced students may create a non-volatile diagram as well.

One more thing: summoning circles and crop circles are not the same thing. Crop circles have nothing to do with runes. We will not be discussing crop circles at this time. I trust I have made my position sufficiently clear.


As for this weekend's prank, those who were affected may hand their work in two days late. However, I expect to see everyone in class, regardless of size or material composition, AND DO NOT DRAW ON THE LITTLE PEOPLE where you will conduct yourselves with all due decorum.

[[/filtered]]

( Private, a few words hackable here and there )


[[Filtered to Bob's students]]

Bring your Wright's workbook to tomorrow's lesson. We will be examining early circles of summoning and how their efficacy changes with the alphabet used in the rim. If you have already taken three or more years of Runes, you will find a more detailed explanation in the first chapter of Linguistic Secrets Revealed. After the discussion, there will be a five-inch practical to be handed in at the end of class.

[[/filtered]]


[[Filtered to Daisya]]

How is the book?

[[/filtered]]


*peers out through his door and is greeted by a number of expectant-looking cats*

..Oh, not again.