Relaxing in the staff room [Open to all staff members, come say hi!]

Jemma was doing some work in the staff room today, a bit unusual for her. She normally stuck to working in her private study, as other people's thoughts and conversations could interrupt her mind when she was working. However marking the third year's dream diaries didn't require nearly as much thought as she would have liked, some of them clearly hadn't bothered to put any effort into it at all, so she was open to any distractions at this point.

She sighed as she put the rolls of parchment to one side, deciding to continue with it later, and went to make herself a cup of tea instead. Not for reading the tea leaves this time though, she just really could use a nice warm drink at the moment.

Zelia was pretty darn tired. Students had decided it was a great idea to try and 'tickle a tentacula', and it had ended up badly. A kid was sent to the Hospital Wing, and her poor Venemous Tentacula was traumatized. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair as she trudged her way up to the Staff room. If there was one thing she needed for a bit, it was peace and quiet from her plants. She loved them dearly, but after that kerfuffle, she definitely wanted a break.

She stepped into the staff room and glanced around, seeing Professor Tiquelle getting some tea. She smiled warmly and walked over to the older Professor, reaching for a mug as well. "Hello!" She greeted, cheered by the adult company. "Long day?" She went to put a teabag in her cup, and as she did, she brushed off a bit of dirt from her robes. She swore she tried so hard to stay clean, but being perpetually surrounded by plants that liked to attack, well, it wasn't always easy. She stirred her cup lazily and reached for the sugar. "Hopefully, a little better than mine." She rolled her eyes and picked up the mug with a grin.

Jemma turned as she heard someone else enter the room, and smiled when she saw it was Zelia. She had always got on well with the Herbology Professor in the past.

"Just a bit frustrating. For some reason all the third years thought Divination would be an 'easy option' for OWLs, and now I've got to read through all this nonsense they've turned in that they've clearly put about two seconds of thought into." Jemma tried to avoid ranting too long, but it was nice to have an adult to talk to - sometimes as a Professor you really just needed an adult conversation after dealing with children all day long.

"What's been happening with you? Not more student pranks down in the greenhouse I hope." she asked, knowing that some of the students thought it was amusing to mess around with various plants, much to the Professor's despair.

Cassiopeia walked into the staff room, it was her first time here. She had never been allowed to be here before. She was new to teaching here. She had just recently joined as an astronomy professor. As a student back many years ago she couldn't come here.

"Oh, hey," she said to people who were there. She wasn't sure what else to say right away. She took a seat on of the sofas there. "What tea is it?" she asked with a smile.

Zelia let out a long sigh as she stirred up her tea and took a long deep breath. "Oh, you know... children think it's so fun to go into the greenhouses and try and poke the actually very dangerous plants there. Today I had a couple of younger students who had only just gained access to Greenhouse Three try and... Tickle a Tentacula." She rolled her eyes heavily and went to sit down as another Professor entered the room. The Astronomy Professor, if she remembered correctly, was new, and she'd not seen her around the staff room yet.

"Hello! Welcome, honestly, I'm not sure, but it tastes nice." She laughed and took a sip, and set the cup on the table near her seat. "Was just regaling Professor Tiquelle here about the wonders of students thinking it's a good idea to stick their fingers where they don't belong." She shook her head again, her big hat flopping about a little bit. "How was your day?" She asked Cassiopeia with a smile.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I guess they'll learn not to now, but it seems there is a never ending stream of young students thinking they're invincible." she replied. Tickle a tentacula? That was a new one to her. The students here always found new and creative ways to break the rules, though this came with an additional side of danger which was more concerning.

"Just your regular English Breakfast tea. Perfect for when everything else seems to be going wrong and you need a pick-me-up." she answered the new Professor who had joined them. Jemma didn't recognise her, but had heard there was a new Astronomy Professor, so assumed that she had taken up the vacant post.

"Just Jemma is fine, I'm only Professor Tiquelle to the students." she added to Zelia's brief introduction, not wanting to be too formal. They were all colleagues together now after all and she preferred to be on a first name basis - especially given her age, as she had taught a lot of the younger teachers, she wanted to make sure they didn't feel like students any more and that they settled into life on staff as easily as possible.

"Are you the new Astronomy Professor? I heard they filled the role recently - it's great to meet you. I teach Divination here, plus I'm the Head of Hufflepuff as well." she quickly introduced herself, trying to make the new staff member feel welcome here.

"Oh I see, well yeah they tend do it yes. Some kids seem to love to sneak into Astronomy tower at night times," she said with a sigh. At least it wasn't as bad as getting bitten by some plants or so. She knew very well how dangerous some plants can be. She did study here.

"I see, well I would love to have some then too," she said and ended up pouring herself some tea too. Once that was done she sat back where she had sat before. "It's nice to meet with you both. Oh sure I will keep in mind that," she said about Jemma. She nodded her head there now.

"Yes, I'm the new Astronomy Professore. My name is Cassiopeia Cheshire. You guys can call be Cassie for short. But yes my name is after constellation," she said with a smile. She knew very well where it was even in the sky. She was very good at locating it most days. "Also fun fact about me, even if middle name starts with C, my parents really loved to letter C when I was born," she said with giggles.

Zelia laughed and nodded. "They have clubs where they plan to get hurt, I swear." She shook her head with a sigh. "Though I'm more worried about my poor Tentacula... thing was traumatized... Spent almost all evening trying to soothe it. Finally got it to settle down before coming up here... student ended up in the hospital wing, but you know they fix them up in a split second for cuts like that." She rolled her eyes again and then nodded to Jemma.

"Well, always better to be safe than sorry. You may call me Zelia." she nodded to both Jemma and Cassie in this regard. She nodded once more to what Cassie said about sneaking into the Astronomy Tower. "I do hope they don't hurt your equipment when they do that... I'd be worried about things breaking with the rate these kids cause damage." She laughed softly, taking a sip of her tea.

"Did you ever think you'd be an Astromony Professor? Given your name? Seems quite fitting." She laughed and then looked thoughtful. "Though I suppose Juniper is quite fitting for Herbology as well.. funny how things like that work out."

"I hope your plants are doing alright now, that's real shame to hear that they were hurt in the process." Jemma said, nodding alongside Zelia.

"That's not great to hear about the Astronomy Tower either. The Divination Tower has usually been fine in the past, I always just thought the students were too lazy to bother climbing all of the stairs, but if they're now sneaking around the Astronomy Tower I wonder if it will be next." Jemma hoped it wouldn't be, but going by what Cassie said, things could be heading that way. Crystal balls were expensive these days and some of the older tea sets would be near irreplaceable if anything happened to them.

"Maybe we should start securing some of parts of the grounds a bit more outside of classes. The students shouldn't really need to be there outside of lessons anyway, and I worry that it is starting to get out of hand." she suggested, trying to come up with a solution. After years of teaching it sometimes seemed like an endless loop of the teachers setting rules, students breaking them or finding loopholes, going round and round, until they graduated and the next lot started up. All of course to help their students have the best education possible during their time here at Hogwarts - which included minimizing trips to the hospital wing and preferably no destruction of school property.

"I guess I'm the only one not to have my name lined up, ironic as my mother probably could have predicted I would become a Seer." Jemma figured she knew the reason why though, but she didn't fully advertise it. Her mother was married to a muggle, her father, and hadn't told him about being a witch. Jemma never to this day knew what her mother expected to happen - she was bound to have a magical child, it would always have come out in the end. Jemma had never asked her, never had really wanted to and now it was too late. Blinded by love was all she could come up with

"I'm sorry to hear about your plants. Hopefully everything is okay now," she said with a small smile on her face. She knew that plants had feelings too, some of them did for sure.

"So far nothing hasn't been broken, expect few chairs. Not sure what happened there. But yes we need to find better way to lock it," she agreed with it. "Or at least make sure they ask premission first. I don't mind them learning about starts at their free time but I would to know if someone is there," she added.

"Many kids know alohamora these days. I know there is charm to make sure it doesn't work. Forget what it was," she said with a sigh now.

"Well no I didn't expect to be one when I was younger. Maybe at my last year. When I finally decided to be professor. But yeah I had daughter soon after college. She is only 3 still. And I'm single mother. That's why im just now here," she added. She would have loved to come work here few years ago already.