The Clock!?

“Nope, nope, nope, no!” Keera hissed as she through one book after another,
to the floor. She was in search of something interesting to read, but so far, could
only find books about plants and such- well, it was to be expected in a Herbology
teacher’s office. Keera was having doubts, doubts about her mental health, doubts
about her plans; ever since her little ‘episode’ during one of the classes she had
substituted, she had been off- and more than usual.

Keera groaned and plopped down in an old, wooden chair that sat in front of the
desk she had also been given. She pushed off of the edge of the desk with her feet,
balancing on the chair’s back legs as she drank from her flask. She coughed; the
water she had filled it with was older than she thought it had been, she could taste
the dust that clung to the sides of the flask, and was disgusted. Keera frowned and
set the flask down on the desk, folding her hands, resting them on her stomach while
she stared at the greenhouse ceiling.

“Anyone There?” Keera heard a voice call from within the greenhouse. She moved
her feet and the chair slammed back down on all four feet, nearly knocking her over
backwards. She stood up and walked around the large wooden desk slowly, head-
ing towards the main section of the greenhouse. “Mhm. Hello,” Keera replied, step-
ping towards the man as she scanned his face, she had seen him before at the staff
table in the great hall during meals, but never had she spoken to him, or paid him any
attention at all for that matter; she wasn’t interested in the teachers at Hogwarts, her
goal was to collect students, not adults, they had too much ‘common sense’.

Keera swept her long, leather vest backwards to put her hands on her hips, watch-
ing the man closely as she always did when she was confronted by someone she
didn’t know well; she liked to know the ‘tells’ of everyone she spoke with, so that she
could tell what they were thinking and feeling on the inside simply by examining their
facial features.

“Do you have a watch on?” she asked quickly once she remembered to; the last thing
she needed was to freak out in front of a staff member.

Keera frowned and closed her eyes for a second, preparing herself so that she would
not lose control too easily, “Can- Can I see it?” she asked him, opening her eyes once
more to watch him; something about closing her eyes while in the presence of other
person scared her, as if she was defenseless with them closed, and so, she only ever
closed her eyes for a small amount of time when she was with anyone else. She had
felt relief from the stinging sensation in her eyes when she had closed them and had to
rub her face for a moment to ignore it.

“Well, I am glad you approve of me then, sir,” Keera joked, smirking now, clearly amused.
“Seeing as I’ve only spoken a few simple words, I would guess that looks would be the
cause,” she added with a raspy laugh, her laugh sounded as if it hadn’t been used in a
while, and she was a bit surprised by the sound of it; the last she had remembered, her
laugh had been just as normal as anyone else’s, but now it sounded as if she was a he-
avy smoker. Keera frowned, she never had smoked, or drank for that matter, she knew
that if she ever did anything like that, her already fragile mind wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Her sanity was only hanging by a small thread that could be snipped at any moment, the
only reason why it hadn’t yet broken was because of Keera’s fear of losing control; she
was so very terrified of that possibility.

“I’ve been here for about a weak now, maybe longer, I don’t like to keep track of that sort
of thing; it makes me feel like i'm wasting time- or losing time, it really depends on the way
you look at it, but there is a negative affect either way,” she replied thoughtfully, drumming
her fingers against her waist as she stood there.

As soon as the man pulled the small golden watch from his pocket, Keera
could hear it, it was ticking a few seconds offbeat from her mind’s perma-
nent little clock, causing her to go wide-eyed as she stared at it. She had
anticipated it of course, for she knew she would need to before she even
asked to see his pocket watch, but she hadn’t expected her heart to slow
down like it had, or for all thoughts in her mind to freeze. It truly was get-
ting worse, and there was nothing Keera could do about it.

Tick, tick, tick, tick. Keera turned around for a moment, her eyes rolling
up into the back of her head. It was all she could hear other than the sound
of her heart beating in her ears. “It’s a nice watch,” she croaked, trying to
bounce back. She wasn’t sure what had made her ask him to show her the
watch, but it was clear that it had been a bad idea. Kill it! Kill the watch!
Keera felt her hands began to shake at her sides, No, I will not, I cant aff-
ord to upset any of the important people here at Hogwarts.

“It seems that you failed to mention your name…” Keera stated, turning to
face him again, but she couldn’t hear her own voice, and her vision was bl-
urred slightly, making her feel completely defenseless, though she didn’t ex-
actly expect this man to attach her any time soon, it still wasn’t a good feeling
at all.

Finally, Keera reached forward, extending her fingers, pushing the watch
back into his pocket as gently as she could manage, but it felt like wrapping
her fingers around the throat of a traitor, and she had trouble keeping control.
“Wouldn’t want that to get broken,” she muttered quietly, a broken smile on her
lips as dropped her arm at her side. She had managed to get out of one mess,
but she had no way of predicting when she would find herself in another one.

“I didn’t take the job because of any particular interest in plants, I took the job
because I wanted to be at Hogwarts again for a little while. This place and the
people in it interest me, you see,” Keera replied, happy that she had managed to
say something that was at least half true. Lying bothered her sometimes, it grew
quite tiresome and she didn’t have a very friendly conscience(sp?). "My favorite
class while I was here had to be either Divination or Potions, but I have never
enjoyed plants.

Keera smirked, he was a very mysterious man, in both the way he spoke and the way
he was, and she couldn’t help but find herself wanting to know more about him. “Yes,
but you already knew my name, unfortunately, I have been around here long enough for
just about everyone to know it by now, and therefore, wear it out,” she replied titling her
head to one side thoughtfully. She watched him carefully still, unable to figure him out.

“I liked Divination because I would think how interesting it would really be to be so many
steps ahead of everyone else, to know what fate’s next move would be, but the thing is,
unless you are a very gifted person, there is no chance of that happening. I knew that,
before I started taking the class, but I suppose I had to try first before giving up on it com-
pletely,” Keera replied, recalling her school years there at Hogwarts. “Oh, and what sub-
ject do you teach?”

Tell him. See what reaction we get out of him when he knows. Keera shook her head,
No, she knew that this man could get her kicked out of the school if he tried, and that
was not something she could afford. “I believe that with each decade, these students are
becoming more powerful, and are retaining even more of the information they are taught.
Now, this does not apply to all of them, but so far I have met quite a few that fit the
description,” she answer, sure it was true, that was one of the key reasons why she
was so interested in the young and powerful students, but the rest would be kept a secret.
“Recruiting? My, for what reason would I recruit underage witches and wizards?” she
asked, though she herself had to admit, the lie wasn’t as convincing as most of her lies
usually were.

“Interesting opinion,” Keera replied, trying to see things from his point of view
so to understand how he felt about Divination, but either way she knew she
would always enjoy the subject. “What subject do I think you teach? Well, all
your talk about potions has me convinced that that is your expertise,” she said,
wondering if she was in fact, correct.

Keera was rather taken aback when he stated a reason for someone to obser-
ve and recruit Hogwarts students; ever since she set her plans in to action she
had been rather secretive of her believes, and it was rather shocking to hear
them spoken aloud so casually. “No, no you cant ever be certain,” she replied,
though she only spoke to fill the silence as she thought to herself. You can trust
this one, he is smarter than the others, her mind insisted, but there was still that
heavy feeling in her stomach that told her it wasn’t a good idea.

Something about the genuineness of his smile threw her off, knocked into her bri-
ck wall and sent a few of the bricks crashing to the greenhouse floor. She looked
down, actually expecting to see said bricks before her feet, and she was quite
surprised when she found that they weren’t literally there. Keera looked back up
at James and furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think of some sort of reply.