The Mane Office

Ursula was sat in her special chair that she had lumbered around with her through the ages and spent a while smiling inanely at that thought. If objects were meant to tell you anything about yourself then this chair would tell you everything about Ursula. Materialistic? Probably. Sentimental? Definitely. With an I.

She tapped at her cold coffee mug and wondered what she was doing, spending tonight in her office. With nothing to do. Nothing to mark, and nothing to plan; all the lessons had been prepared well before the Summer Holidays. Emily had even chipped in, and that had cut a lot of corners.

So what was she to do now?

Emily had decided to pay her aunt, well professr Sparrow, a vist. She quickly found her office it wasn't that difficult to find. She walked to the door she was pretty sure led to her office and knocked twice before opening the door a little.

When the young gryffidor saw she was there and alone she steeped inside, closing the door behind her.

"hello professor" she smiled.

Looking up, Ursula visibly brightened when her niece Emily graced the room. Pushing her desk aside she pulled Emily into a tight hug and sat her down promptly in her own chair.

"Hello, Professor," she said meekly, winking at the girl.

Emily smiled as her aunt hugged her and she hugged her back before taking a seat across her desk.

"anything intresting happening?" she asked her, though she doubted it seeing as she was sitting in her office by herself.
She found it odd that she didn't even have a cross word infront of her or cheescake. Or anything for that matter.

"Anything interesting?" she repeated, watching those oh so familiar lips to her sister's talk to her about such things.
"The first day back at Hogwarts, Emily. What else is there?" Ursula said, shaking her head. "My my, I would've thought that would have been something in itself! So, m'dear. How have you found your first day? I know it's mostly been on the train and not exactly your first day so to speak, but how are you finding the castle? And the people? Gryffindor, how is Gryffindor?" she sighed happily.
There really was no better house.

Emily smiled "I just mean that"she didn't finisih her scentence, she worried far too much.

"yeah tha train was long but I love it here already, the castle is pretty awesome though I did get a bit lost on the way to the common room. The people are nice so far and gryffindor is cool" she said.

"Then I don't know anything," she said with a broad smile, "anything interesting was never my forte."
Ursula imagined in her head the perfect scene: Emily looking up in wonder at the hovering candles above the tables in the Great Hall, the ceiling bewitched to look like the midnight sky. She'd read it in Hogwarts: A history. Yep.

"Gryffindor is cool. I'm glad you mentioned. All the best people come from Gryffindor, you have got to remember that," she added seriously.

Emily grinned "yeah there's some really nice people in gryffndr well all of them are awesome!" she said, all the ones she had so far were really nice.

Emily was unsure if her aunts comment, about all the best people coming from gryffindor, was her way of flattering herself? But she seemend serious about it

"huh?" she said a bit confused, her aunt seemend so serious at th moment it was something Emily had only seen a few times.

"by the way do you have any cheescake?" she asked she was kinda still hungry becuase she had been talking so much she hadn't eaten that much for desert.

"Gryffindor always seems to end up with my favourites, or most of them anyway," she said dreamily, thinking back a while. Most of her friends back in the day had been from Gryffindor too.

"Cheesecake?"
It was at this question Ursula's face broke into an unbreakable smile.
"Oh my lovely lovely niece, have you forgotten me? Of course not, you're just testing. You know me too well," she said, opening her draw to bring out an intact cheesecake with a case over the precious dessert.

"My favourite. Take a slice. A big slice."

" oh I see" she said nodding a little. She smiled as her aunt appered to think back and remember something.

She grinned and rolled her eyes. She knew she would have some if her office somewhere. It was something her and her aunt shared, a love in cheescake. Well really Emily had only grown to like it. When you lived with someone who ate a lot of it and loved it, it was difficult not to grow to like it.

She happily took herself a big slice and began to eat.

"And your lessons, have you started your lessons yet? Which of the many offered did you choose? I know a girl in our house that has only chosen one," she said wanly, thinking of the owl she had gotten, asking her opinions. In truth, Ursula hadn't seen the syllabus of lessons this year for the other classes and merely avoided suggesting Fig in fear of sounding too big headed. But nevermind.

Ursula summoned a spoon from a lower drawer and indulged in a fine slice of Cheesecake herself. Not too much, of course. She had a dancer's physique to maintain, however painstaking it was to make that slice small.

Emily smiled "I took defense, history, charms, herbology, care of magical creatures and fig" she said.

"yeah a few herbology, charms, history and defense. They seem okay" she shruged. So far history and herbology had to be the best ones, but she looked forward to fig, hopeing she would manage to keep up okay seeing as she had read a lot of books on the subject.

"So you've got quite a few to keep you busy, haven't you?" said Ursula to herself more than her niece. She knew that back in her day she had taken only the basics. None of this Divination or COMC malarky. It was simple, honest, Potions, Fig, Charms, Astronomy and Herbology. The rest had all been added in over the years anyway. Or maybe Ursula had just ignored them. The Transfiguration Professor most definately avoided anything that had anything to do with HoM. It sent chills through her.

"And how about today? What do you fancy doing today, dear niece?"

" yeah I do it's god though. I'll never get bored" she smiled laughing alittle. It was true the ammount of work she would get would keep her busy barely giving her time to think never minding to be bored.

"today? I have no idea I might go exploring a little see if I can meet anyone knew" she said. She wondered about going to that room on the seventh floor, the one that always seemened to change. Perhaps she would go back their and try and figure out what it was.

"Exploring sounds like fun, m'dear Emily," agreed Ursula. "An admirable Gryffindor trait an old fuddy duddy like myself can only remember fondly doing. I'd pay extra close attention to the tapestry on the fourth floor next to the gargoyle of Warbeck if I were you," she added, winking.

With that, she straightened up her papers on her desk and levitated them to reside in the little box behind her door. Work for her lessons.