Who's In Charge

Zada walked in to the Hogwarts staff common room, carrying nothing more than her wand. Grindlewald had assigned her to make sure his plans for Hogwarts were carried out. And so it would begin.She had summoned the Hogwarts staff to the staff common room for, well, proper introductions and perhaps a few new rules. Maybe just a few. She expected some degree of kickback, but that actually bothered her very little. Anyone who didn 't respond would be "dealt with."

She wanted to assert her position. She chose a Slytherin green long cheongsam dress that went almost to the floor with a slit up her leg. She had added tall gold heels that mad her look even taller. Her jewelry was vintage gold dragons with emerald, jade and diamond sets. Her hair was done up and held into place with a pair of jewel encrusted chopsticks. On her wrist was a cuff bracelet that matched the rest of her jewelry--a gold Oriental dragon with jade, emerald and diamond sets wound its way around her wrist.

She chose a large wingchair for herself and updated the upholstery with a simple transfiguration spell. She changed it from the time worn brown leather to sleek black leather. She made herself at home the chair and in the room.

The staff was most likely unsuspecting what was to come. This might well be fun, she decided.

"Staff meeting my ass." Felix thought to himself as he strode down the corridor, smirking at the students, a few smiled at him, and he made an effort to pat them on the head and compliment a piece of homework he couldn't remember a thing about. It seemed his role of teacher was being generally favored among the students, he was a nice teacher, though many people had heard of his rather horrible detentions, they also knew that they were not as bad as some of the other teachers. Lines, cleaning things, working with the caretaker for the night, nothing overly dangerous or scary, no torture, or fear involved, just a bit of friendly detentions that meant they wouldn't be doing what they had done in the first place, again.

Felix knew this wasn't a staff meeting though, oh no.. it was a way for Zada to show off that she was Grindy's little pet, but in fact, he knew that Grindelwald only put up with her. She did a few valuable things, but other then that, there was no competition, there were other more high approved Death Eaters among the ranks, and Zada just liked to show off. Mickey for example, was running the Newspapers, and she had already done a fine job at getting him out of the spotlight, and a worse light on Robert, and she hadn't been working there very long, Zada on the otherhand... Felix hadn't heard anything about what she was up to, until he learnt of her involvement in the staff meeting.

Felix opened the Common Room door and strode in, his eyes darting to the woman in the armchair before looking boredly around the room. He didn't spend much time in there, and in fact hadn't really seen anything about it at all before today, So while she lounged and tried to look menacing (and failing at it as well), Felix went over to the fire and warmed up his hands. "Fancy seeing you here..." He said glancing over his shoulder at the woman and smirking lightly. It was obvious that she thought herself a lot tougher then she actually was. 'Bring it on..."

If Grindelwald’s plan was to make Amelia even more uncomfortable in her new teaching position than she already was, he was certainly succeeding. Between showing up unexpected in her classroom and now holding a staff meeting at which she would be expected to demonstrate her competence as an employee of Hogwarts, Amelia was feeling the pressure. She was feeling it in the classrooms, in the corridors, at dinner, and in Ravenclaw tower. Although she had been nearly invisible as a student, her elevation to a staff position had made her a person of interest, and Amelia was struggling to adjust.

Breathe, you’ll be fine… Amelia thought to herself as she descended the stairs and strode toward the door to the staff common room.

You know, it is truly astounding how often you need to be reminded to do basic, life-sustaining functions… Amelia’s subconscious piped in with a roll of its figurative eyes.

Feeling self-conscious that even her own mind thought she was over-reacting (ironic, really, because it was to blame as well…), Amelia took a moment to steel herself before pushing open the door and entering the staff lounge to find Zada Forbes and Felix Barker already present.

Amelia hadn’t known it was possible to be under-dressed to a staff meeting, but apparently she had been wrong. Zada was wearing a floor-length gown that made Amelia’s simple cream colored sweater dress and black leggings look dowdy. The woman was intimidating, even lounging in the leather armchair, and Amelia inclined her head with the deepest respect in Zada’s direction. Amelia hadn’t ever had a direct conversation with the blond woman, but she knew Zada answered directly to Grindelwald, and Amelia had no intention of making herself difficult for the reigning regime. She had far too much respect – and, to a certain extent, a healthy amount of fear – for their authority, which kept her quiet and respectful now.

Felix was already brooding near the fireplace, so Amelia moved to the opposite corner of the room, standing behind a chair with her pale, lithe fingers gripping the wooden back of it as a means of steadying herself. Felix was another entity Amelia had yet to come to understand, but she had a certain amount of hesitance about getting too close to him. She had read so much about his supposed actions in the past, only to hear his name had been cleared just a few months ago. The explanation in the paper had been weak at best, so Amelia was still stuck without enough answers to truly inform her opinion on the werewolf.

“Good evening,” Amelia said deferentially to the room at large, inclining her head toward Felix as well, though not as deeply as she had for Zada. Amelia may not have been the most socially conscious person ever, but she knew the pecking order here, and she was definitely on the bottom of this particular food chain.

Maybe the possums got it right. Would it really be such a bad idea to play dead?

'Well, well,' Zada thought to herself, 'the little fish in a big pond who thinks he's a big fish in a bigger pond.' That was alright with her. He could live deluded if he wanted to. What did she care. "I would have thought you would have expected me, Barker," she said casually. She saw the youngest professor come in and saw the young woman's anxiety.

"Professor Lyons," Zada said. "Right on time. Thank you." She saw Lyons looking, perhaps a bit warily, at Barker. She was not about to let Barker harm the young professor if she could help it. However, she didn't see Barker as necessarily stupid enough to take a professor hostage without Grindlewald's permission. She didn't entirely trust him, though, because there was something odd and perverse about him overall. "Come sit, Ms. Lyons. It appears that the rest of our staff is lingering along the way. Come tell me how your first term in these hallowed halls has been going. There are few other mentions in Hogwart's history of a graduate turning straight about and becoming a tenured faculty member. Tell me how that has been going for you, then."

Surely if the girl could survive her first term, she would have it made. She was sure that there must be some strife in regards to her young age. She recognized the insecurity in the young woman, but she herself had had to deal with that at a much earlier age than Lyons current age. What she liked about Lyons was her brilliance. She had read her academic file, some of the essays she had written, some of the tests she had completed. There was every reason to think she might do well, if she were molded correctly. The potential was strong. It was an intriguing thought she had in twisting about in her mind, much like a woman twisting her hair about her finger. Turning the raw stone into the rarer gem. That might prove interesting indeed.

(Yes, yes... I am late, I know -.-)

Wilson wasn't rushing to get to the Staff Common Room because he knew Doyle wouldn't, too. He had, in fact, visited his friend not long ago and they discussed this staff meeting briefly. Doyle was, probably, getting ready to attend just as he was walking towards the door of the common room. He took a deep breath, wiped his dark blue suit and entered. He observed the two unfamiliar faces, well, they were familiar, but they weren't part of the inventory, and Amelia, his former pupil. He smiled at her, deciding not to greet the two puppets that kept her company.

He walked slowly, observing every detail. He was calm, that much you could say, but he wasn't relaxed, his defences were not down, that much was sure. He calmly took a chair and put it next to Amelia, deciding to act as some sort of protection for her, although that was only his own thought. ''Hi, Amelia. I trust you've adapted well?'', he asked in a low voice with a smile on his face.

After having tea with Wilson, Doyle decided it was high time he made himself present on the meeting that was supposed to be summoned by him. He turned the television set off, grabbed his cane and started limping downwards. Luckily for him,, the Common Room was on the Ground Floor, so he did not have much ground to cover, which made the pain tolerable for him. His leg was hurting, but during the years, he had gotten used it. The interesting thing was that nothing he managed to mix in his lab made the pain go away. It was lighter, but never would it disappear.

He soon limped to the entrance and he made his grand entering by opening the door with a loud bang with his cane. He stood there, observing the lot that was there. Grindlewald's idiots, Wilson and Lyons. A pretty miserable bunch, himself included, but it would surely do. ''Shouldn't I be the one calling these meetings?'', he ejaculated loudly. He then observed Zada's position, which made him intervene. He flicked his cane and mover her chair more to the left, so that she was closer to the professors. He grabbed a chair for himself and took her position. ''This should be my place, right? After all, I am the one in charge!'', he said, stressing the personal pronoun. ''Now, I suppose it wouldn't be appropriate for me to dismiss you all right now, would it? Just, get on with it, my soap opera starts soon! It won't have any effect whatsoever!'', Doyle said with an irritated tone. He wanted to get this meeting over with. Formalities were stupid.

Meetings like this one were stupid.

They all seemed to go along the same lines. Some official, normally a Witch or Wizard from the Ministry, would get up and give some sort of speech, normally riding on their high horse and letting the power rush to their head, letting them know how crap they were, how they were bad people, and how they were going to be replaced by security trolls, before wrapping up and leaving, thinking they'd had some massive impact on those they had spoken to.

The problem was, they were mandatory, and aside from the obvious typical death threats that usually accompanied said messages, if you failed to turn up there was a strong chance you would lose your job, and that in itself was usually the best case scenario.

So it was with that message in his pocket, a scowl etched on his face and reluctant feet that Jess found himself walking into the Staff Common Room right behind Professor Amelia Lyons, an ex-student of his who looked like she was walking to her awaiting death sentence.

Come to think of it, maybe they all were...

Hmmm, what an interesting thought.

Anyway, thought or no thought Jess caught the door as it swung back and pushed his way in, looking around the room and rolling his eyes.

"Evening," he grunted, barely meeting eyes with Forbes (The High Horse herself) and not even bothering to look at the piece of slime standing over by the fireplace, Barker, as he continued to follow Amelia to the seat she had chosen to... stand behind.

"Here," he said, walking to the other side of her and pulling the chair back to allow her to take her seat, noting to himself the unnaturally strong grip she seemed to have on it. "Let me help you with that," he told her as he pulled it back, before turning and taking his own seat by her side, the sound of his chair scraping on the floor drowning out the noise of the door swinging open to allow Wilson and Doyle to enter.

"Oh," he said, looking up as he recognised James' voice. "This oughta be interesting," he said, cracking an ear to ear grin as he looked up at the pair of newcomers who were approaching his end of the table.

"Evening James, Headmaster," he said, overly emphasising the respectful tone in his voice in attempt to draw a clear contrast between his tone with Zada.

"I need to have a word," he added almost inaudibly once James had taken his seat, apparently sharing the same thoughts as he had by choosing to sit on the other side of their youngest colleague. "We'll chat after this, shall we," he said, his voice low enough to only be heard by James and, of course, Amelia, who was standing between the two of them.

Michael never explained himself if he didn't have to, and he didn't intend on explaining why he was a few moments late. He merely walked in casually as if he had nothing to fear, carrying a mug of steaing hot Earl Grey. He saw the chairs left were straight back chairs and refused them as they were. He flicked his wand at one of them and changed it into a leather club chair and sat down without a word. He looked up to see Forbes looking at him. He remembered her from the battle here months ago. She had gone on a murderous rampage and had been singularly responsible for a good many of the deaths that day.

Now she seemed to be giving him a slightly amused smile. he had seen that look before. It usually meant that someone had thought he was in a place where it was most unlikely for a catburglar to be and they were amused with the thought of it.

"It doesn't look like I have disturbed much yet," he finally said.

''Wait, didn't I fire you, you old bat? What are you still doing here?'', Doyle ejaculated upon seeing Michael enter. He began to like the old guy. They were very similar and Michael was probably an older and more sociable, or caring, although you could use the two as synonyms from time to time, version of himself. Although frightening, it was nice to see similar people around you, it was practical from time to time. ''Disturbed? All you did was made us wait, you bat! I could have been back in my office, but no, I have to wait for your fat arse to bless us with its presence! Just sit here, drink your hot water and shut up so that the crow can say what she wants and so that I can get back to my office!'', he added in his usual tone.

Although he was about to reply to Jess, the situation was starting to be come 'doylely', which meant that the Headmaster would take all the attention in the room. This time, it was positive and comical, although some people might think it different. A laugh escaped Wilson's face, which was a rare occasion. Then, he turned to Jess and nodded. He did not know what he wanted to discuss, but he would give him a certain amount of time to say what he wanted. ''No problem, lad'', he said in a low voice.