2nd November 1893 - Herbology Office

For the attention of Mason Skeeter

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Ignatius had come to the office of his colleague, a man he who had briefly been his own professor and now someone he saw as a friend. The portraits were at it again, perceiving the world through the narrow window they inhabited and spreading badly informed rumours. It was quite unfair on the poor girl "walking about unchaperoned" of all things, making @"Emma binns" out to be some kind of temptress, she was on prefect duty and doing her rounds. The faculty knew this which is why she had not suffered sanctions, but, rumours were rumours, and there was, as always more to it.

"How are you feeling? That business after your party has everyone shaken up?" he asked his colleague. Ripples had gone through faculty. Professor Prince himself was quite accustomed to untimely deaths in his travels to the less safe parts of the world as a cursebreaker, but to see a colleague perish in such a way was... well it was never a kindness.

"I hear there are rumours about, can't say I blame you leaving the party early, they can sometimes be taxing. I... suppose you've heard the other rumours regards that night?" He asked, just on the off chance that he hadn't.

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Thank you MJ for making my Ignatius set!

Ten years. Ten years without so much as a gruesome injury (right? He couldn't remember anything too jarring in his tenure, but perhaps he was getting old.) and now the loss of Miss Bixby over the summer and Pembroke's unfortunate accident all within a few short months. Oh and the new flight instructor. Maybe he was cursed. Why had he agreed to become a Head of House again?

Mason wasn't used to using his inside office this much. He much preferred the one attached to Greenhouse One on the grounds, it was where students still searched him out, so much so that he had to put a sign up with office hours and directions to his office within the building. It was coming along, not nearly as tidy as he would like, but it certainly lacked the clutter of his other space. At least that was nice.

It was an open door policy, Mason too claustrophobic to physically close the door anyway, and so he wasn't surprised when Prince came through the door. The question about the business after his party perplexed him though. The party for all of the promotions was near a month ago, what had he missed? Was it Pembroke's death? "Ah? I'm afraid I'm very unattuned to the rumor mill." For good reason. Unless somebody was in danger, Mason really didn't want to know.

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   Ignatius Prince

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Ignatius grinned at response from his colleague the rumour mill of Hogwarts was very vibrant. It was an inevitability with several hundred teenagers boarding together, and the portraits seemed to get a kick out of messing with the residents too, a little rumour here, a tall tale there and then watch the fun unfold.

"I too try to avoid that particular part of school life, it does nobody any good" The Professor now began to wonder whether troubling Professor Skeeter with this was the correct course of action, but then again, he had come here to have an honest discussion with a man he knew and trusted if Mason was not aware of the ever worsening rumours, then perhaps his objectivity would only improve.

He let out a little sigh. "The particular rumour involves myself and one of the prefect girls, Miss Binns, Sixth year." he waited a moment to ensure that the name registered with the other man. Nothing had actually happened on the evening in question, but it was hard to hide the obvious affection he had for the girl when he mentioned her name.

"I ran into the girl in the night, she was on prefect duties, and we chatted, it was pleasant. But these portraits and their love of salacious rumours...." he rolled his eyes and laughed. "You know me, I've handled worse than idle gossip in my career, but the situation does concern me for how it might affect the girl... and." he hesitated, there was clearly more, but he wished to allow Mason to respond to his first comments, whether he had in fact heard the rumours. Or whether he had insight, to give Ignatius more idea how his next news might be taken.

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Mason Skeeter @"daffodil potts"

  

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Thank you MJ for making my Ignatius set!

Mason had a feeling he knew where this was headed and he wasn't so sure he was the best qualified to handle it. Rumors could ruin lives, that he knew for sure, but hopefully Prince was being smart enough to steer clear, especially so early in his teaching career. Mason went so far out of his way to avoid these things that he'd practically become a hermit to the greenhouses for the first half of his tenure.

"I'm sure you can imagine what I'm going to say," Mason had grown somewhat straightforward in his old age, especially as one of the more seasoned professors. His colleagues, most of them much younger than himself, were still learning the ropes, not only of the job itself, but the added responsibilities of their occupation. "No matter how innocent the conversation, she is a young lady, a student, and you should protect both yourself and any of them, by never speaking one-on-one. This is why we have matrons for each house." Mason either always had them in a small group or with another adult present, he wasn't about to jeopardize his livelihood on the whims of teenagers. Being written about in Miss Farley's journal had been bad enough, but he would have lived in blissful ignorance had it not gotten spread about.

"Their education and their wellbeing are our top priority." Mason added after a moment. "You obviously see how it could affect her, so you should tread carefully." Perhaps he should speak to his fellow heads about arranging prefects to move in pairs instead of solo, especially in the evenings.

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   Ignatius Prince, Jessamine Parkinson, Rosie Flitwick

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Ignatius smiled and nodded as Mason Skeeter spoke and described the perils of inviting further rumours. Stories, however fanciful could easily be taken and turned them into something harmful. "What you say does not surprise me even slightly and whilst I am well aware there are worse things that can befall a girl than being spoken to alone, it's a risk I shall take in mind in future." He scratched the scar on his face as he spoke. It was a strange situation, they had to be treated with kid gloves as if they were fragile, and yet only a day ago, Emma turned seventeen and the clock started counting down on her being married, how was she supposed know to be a girl or a woman.

"Their education and their wellbeing are our top priority."

"This we absolutely can agree on..." he said with a large smile. To take this as open endorsement to take any action that he deemed met this criteria would obviously be naivety of the highest order, but Professor Prince could certainly see his own argument to that matter. "Miss Flitwick tells me she is in a situation where her education will immediately end, and she will marry the first suitor her Father finds once she turns seventeen, which was yesterday. If I were to find myself in a position to prevent such a travesty, would you agree that I something I should at least consider?" He was more than considering it, his letter to Mr Flitwick was written and an owl waited to send it, but if he framed it like this, and it was the truth after all, then people would hopefully think more of him and not less. "I plan to ask Mr Flitwick If I may be the one to take her hand. If any man shall do it, someone who knows her and has her interests at heart is better for her." He braced himself for the likely chastisement, but being dishonest about it would only worsen things and ask for it to be treated as sordid as some of the rumours suggested. Professor Skeeter had taught him and whilst they had not remained in contact during the years between his graduation and his return, he hoped he would judge him fairly.

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Note - Binns family has been retconned to Flitwick

Mason Skeeter @"Daffodil Potts"

  

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Thank you MJ for making my Ignatius set!

Mason could not have entreated his advice any more earnestly than he thought he had. Ten years of being a professor was not nearly as long as some, but he also liked to think himself in a middling position that allowed him both the wisdom of experience, yet the benefit of being young enough not to be so out of touch with the students and their lives.

However as Prince went out, and the more Mason listened, the higher his eyebrows rose. Certainly Prince could not be serious? "Are you daft?" He said rather seriously, not a hint of sarcasm or malice in his words. "You will cast a cloud over not only your career, but your judgement and her reputation as well. You have already been cornered unchaperoned. You will smear her name throughout the halls and in society." Mason was not the kind to pay attention to the whims of society at large, but he couldn't deny the ramifications that would undoubtedly follow.

"Not to mention, her educational career will be over regardless. They do not allow students to be married." Nor did he think Black would allow both of them to remain at school for an engagement; one of them would have to leave.

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magic by MJ the magnificent

Ignatius was not shocked, but was a little taken aback by the forthright manner that the other professor spoke with. "My family is of an appropriate station to for her father and if I were still a cursebreaker, there would be no question about whether I was a suitable candidate. I have never taught the girl, nor am I likely to. But I do unfortunately see your point. Reputation is an ass, the girl should be forced into a miserable existence with someone like my cousin, just to spare the blushes of people who should mind their own bloody business." he realised he was holding a cigarette in his and and was tapping it nervously before flipping it over again and again. Maybe a career I'm teaching would turn out to not be for him. He would rather not be forced to resign over something so petty as public perception, particularly considering the reason he had left his last posting as a curse breaker.

"I apologise for my language. Please to not use the crude terms of the gossip. We were not "cornered unchaperoned" A painting saw a girl on her prefect patrol speaking politely with a professor who happened to be getting some air on the bridge and decided to tell a tale."

He let out a long sigh. "I do not intend to wed the girl while she studies, nor make it a public spectacle. There are a couple of NEWT girls, and even OWLs who are engaged and it does not affect their studies." A curious look crossed his face as he leaned in a little closer to ask a question he had already posed to himself privatelty. "I am aware that the headmaster married a student not long after she herself graduated, one who would have been in Hogwarts at the same time as Professor Skeeter. May I ask how considered amongst society?" he knew very little of the details beyond what he had endeavoured to learn when he first joined the school, perhaps it was an entirely different situation, perhaps it was not.

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Mason Skeeter @"Daffodil Potts"

  

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Thank you MJ for making my Ignatius set!

Mason was wondering why Prince had come to see him if all he was going to do was argue with him. The man's complete lack of common sense was starting to show. Or perhaps he'd been away from people too long while cursebreaking. "You are in fact, no longer a cursebreaker, you chose to be a professor. Cornered unchaperoned or spotted chatting by a painting, it makes no difference, there is a mark upon reputations and people will always question it from here on out." Gossip was gossip and it was hardly concerned with the truth. Mason didn't like it either, but he knew how to skirt around it so as to keep himself and his students out of the mill.

"I am entirely unsure as to where you get your information, but the rules are clear; you cannot be engaged or married while a student at Hogwarts." Upon his appointment to Head of House, Mason had brushed up on the finer points of everything he could think of concerning the rules, both academic and societal. "Being engaged is for young women who have debuted in society, who are ready to wed, which the young ladies are Hogwarts are not. There are likely old pureblood families who have betrothed their children, but that is a promise to be engaged when of age; it is not an engagement itself."

The mention of the Headmaster's own nuptials was also not news to Mason, but the fact of the matter remained; as far as he knew, and he had been in school with Mrs. Black at the time, as they were in the same year, there had been no mentions of them being seen together prior to her departure from the school. "I don't suggest you throw that in Black's face when you try to argue this with him," Mason warned. "I was a student at the time and a prefect, nothing hit the mill then. You've already miss-stepped, it is impossible to go back now." Sighing heavily, Mason leaned back in his chair, the semblance of an apologetic grimace on his features. "Your choices are limited. Resign and marry the girl, in which she will still have to leave the school, or hope she is not engaged before she graduates, but it will never appear straightforward and will always appear untoward in society, your good intentions aside, whether you like it or not." This was exactly why Mason's own romance pool had been limited to women he had never taught.

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   Elisabeth Champagne, Fortitude Greengrass, Ignatius Prince, Melody Crouch, Rosie Flitwick

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Ah yes, the semantic deifference between an engagement and a betrothal, both promised marriage between specific parties at a specific juncture, this was indeed a misstep by the professor, too many years away, but a semantic difference was one that could be rectified. "I have no intention of throwing anything in the Headmaster's face, he is an honorable man, I only sought to understand how he himself handled such a situation." he sighed again as the other Professor outlined what he saw as his options. He did not intend to marry Miss Flitwick until after she was allowed to graduate anyway, it was the whole point, so the options did open up a possibility.

"It does baffle me that a noble establishment such as this, particularly one that itself stands on the outside of society, would seek to expell a promising girl based solely on the fact that a gentleman had signaled his intent to one day marry her." it would be amusing if it wasnt true, although the thought crossed his mind of some of the more unpleasant girls in his own time in Hogwarts. Perhaps it would have been fortuitous had he asked his father to find them grooms and rid him of their presence at school.

He pondered the options, why had he overlooked the option of betrothal? "OK, my intention is for Miss Flitwick to remain to study, as she wishes, it was to be a condition of the arrangement with her father. Would she be allowed to remain a student if she were betrothed? Or would her punishment be the same if she were to be engaged?" Would he be allowed to? It was legal, it was within social convention if her father accepted so he saw no reason other than personal resentment to the idea by the headmaster. As much as he had other options should teaching not work out, he enjoyed it here, it made him happy and it soothed the wounds from his previous career. "It is unfortunate that society sees that girls are of age the day they turn seventeen, had her father been willing to wait to find a suitor until she debuted after she graduated, none of this would ever have been a concern." she shrugged apologetically but also with a measure of defeat, sure the ridiculous rumour that a professor dared to speak to a student would circulate, but it would die down, it did make him wonder who might be fueling further rumours about the situation as he an Emma had not even spoken outside of running in to her in the great hall since that night, but children could be malicious for no reason but for fun at times.

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Mason Skeeter @"Daffodil potts"

  

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Thank you MJ for making my Ignatius set!

It took far more willpower than he would care to admit to prevent himself from snorting at hearing Black called honorable. More like miserable and slightly terrifying. Mason had felt that way as a student and still felt that was as a tenured professor. "Noble, but archaic," Mason pointed out. He could feel a headache forming at his temples. "Education and marriage do not go hand-in-hand in the eyes of most." It wasn't his opinion on the matter; Mason thought women to be perfectly capable of both. He also thought both had a time and a place; their students were still children, even if they turned of age near the end. Marriage was for those who had completed their education or finishing, whether academic or societal. The boys were afforded their education without the looming prospects of marriage, the ladies should be allowed the same if they wanted.

Truthfully, Mason couldn't even conceive to think of his students as anything but. He even struggled with former students, some of whom he had watched grow up, as adults who could, technically, be in his range for marriage. Prince had only been here for a little while. He hadn't watched Miss Flitwick enter the hall as a first year like Mason had, and grow into the young lady she currently was. The whole thought process still made Mason shudder involuntarily.

"It's a unprecedented case. Your position at the school is not something that has ever been considered, as far as I know. I fear it would likely appear suspicious for a student to be betrothed to a professor. I like to think myself an open-minded person, and it still gives me pause." Certainly Prince had to see that? There was no way to shape this in a positive light that Mason could see. There was too much scrutiny at play. "Ultimately, it would be up to the Board of Governors." An auspicious group that Mason wanted to cross even less than Black.

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   Ignatius Prince

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