point of disgust --- Scully

[mitzeh]

Regulus looked into the mirror one last time, readjusting his robes for what seemed like a thousandth time. He was anything but vain, even though he knew he was good looking, but he had already done everything he could to postpone leaving the dorm for his Care of Magical Creatures class. Including making his bed, which was a sign of how desperate he was, because really, he never made his own bed, leaving it to the elves instead. Apparently making sure there were no wrinkles on his expensive sheets – he had brought his own, so he wouldn’t have to use the ones the school provided – had not taken him enough time. There was a possibility he was already about ten minutes late… Which wasn’t nearly enough. Regulus would gladly stay in the dungeons for the next few hours, doing anything – honestly, there were very few things he could think of that would be less productive than this class. And the teacher! Salazar, don’t even get him started on Fenn.

The boy grimaced slightly and sighed, but moved nonetheless. He was one of the top students in his year and he was a Black – skipping classes was not an option, no matter how tempting it seemed at times. Really, why did he have to take COMC? It wasn’t like it would be useful for him. The teenager stalked through the Slytherin common room, giving off vibes of such irritation that some first (or second, who knew) years eyed him suspiciously, seemingly contemplating whether it was safe to stay or not. Well, at least it took him another ten minutes to pass the grounds and finally get there. Regulus eyed the rest of his class with as much disinterest as he could muster, just so he knew what ridiculous thing they were learning about today. He had long given up hope that he would actually enjoy these lessons.

Hands still in the pockets of his coat, the Slytherin made his way towards their teacher.
“Sir?” he began, making a face at having to call this man “sir”. Regulus wasn’t usually one to disrespect anyone, much less his elders, but this man was a mudblood. Why should the heir of the Ancient House of Black show any respect to someone whose parents were Muggles? He still remembered the distaste on his Mother’s face when he’d told her who his COMC teacher was. She probably wouldn’t even mind if he did decide to skip these lessons from time to time. “I apologize for being late.” There was no remorse whatsoever in the boy’s monotonous voice, and he didn’t even try to hide his lack of concern as to whether Fenn would accept his apologies or not. He glanced around quickly, before smirking at his teacher. “I’m also afraid that… whatever we’re supposed to be doing requires a partner, and everybody seems to be paired already. I presume I can just watch from afar?” He raised an eyebrow at the much taller man. Rarely did Regulus allow himself to be this cheeky towards anyone, but it wasn’t the first time he – or anyone else from his House really – showed Fenn what they all really thought about people like him teaching at Hogwarts.

[scully]

[/b] he addressed them, “They’re fascinating creatures. Adorable!” he reached into the cage and held one up. “Adorable, yes, but quite sneaky. Might I ask everyone to kindly remove all jewelry and money from their person and place it in the labeled bags behind the cages? I wouldn’t withhold anything valuable, if I were you. These creatures are crafty and aren’t beyond chewing through a hand for a bit of gold.” He grinned and waited, then set them all to work. Something was wrong, though; a student was missing, which meant he had an even number of students. While the students were filling the cages with dirt and giggling over the adorableness of the tiny creatures, he skimmed the student list and didn’t even need to pass the b’s to figure out who was missing; Black, Regulus. Oh, of course. As a muggle born, he’d never held much popularity with pure-bred Slytherins, obsessed with their silly ideals, and this young man was no exception. Well, skipping or not, the class would go on without him.

For another few minutes, he paced along the rows of students, giving no critique. It wasn’t, after all, difficult to pack a cage with a foot of soil, enough for the Nifflers to burrow in, but he was meant to supervise, all the same. He caught two boys torturing one, one with its wand out, trying to use a growing charm on it. He snatched the boy’s wand out of his hand, tossed it into the bag with the galleons he’d pulled out of his pocket, and glanced up. Ah, there was the Black boy, running late and looking oh so apologetic. He sighed. Well, here we go.
He disliked the boy’s tone, but for the most part, it didn’t bother him. He’d heard worse. He gave him a very cheerful smile and replied, “It’s no bother. I’ll just take a few points from Slytherin the next time it happens. Can’t have recurring tardiness, can we?” it was standard procedure, of course, but he felt exceptionally good for saying it to the cheeky young man. At the last part of the boy’s dialog, he only grinned broadly.

“Now, how could I allow you to do that, and miss out on all the action? You’re in for a treat today; I’ll be your partner. You can assist me in showing the other students what to do. Of course, if you don’t think you’re qualified enough…” his voice trailed off as he reached into a cage and drew out a Niffler. “See, we’ll be breeding these. Want to hold – oops!” the niffler was one step ahead of him, and he was afraid he’d forgotten to tell the lad to empty his pockets. The small creature leaped from his hands, clung to Black’s robes and immediately climbed into them, sniffing and searching for treasure. Some students had noticed, and began to snicker. “Now Tegan, come out of there,” he chided the Niffler, but made no attempt to remove it. He desperately wished to see how this played out.
[/size][/ul]

[mitzeh]

It was of course nothing surprising that the dislike between pure-blood Slytherins and their COMC teacher was mutual – not many people were able to ignore being nothing short of hated by stuck up aristocrats just because they didn’t come from an old family of wizards and witches, Scully Fenn was no exemption here. Still, Regulus found it utterly disgusting, not to mention somewhat angering, that the man had the guts to dislike him. As if he had any right! Who did he think he was, the filthy mudblood? Granted, being a teacher he had temporary power over the boy, but outside of Hogwarts? Dear Salazar, his parents wouldn’t even let this man into their house. He was a disgrace to all magical society, he and those like him, who, for some unfathomable reason, had been allowed to study at the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Naturally, none of these emotions showed on Regulus’ face as he spoke to the man; he had been taught better than that, besides, why would he let everyone know that the teacher had managed to irritate him? The boy’s tone was as cold as his gaze as he met Scully’s eyes with no hesitation whatsoever. “Naturally,” he answered immediately, no hitch to his voice, “It would be most unacceptable, sir.” Every time he said the “sir” part it was like he was spitting out an insult. There was no menace, no hatred in him then – only flatness that barely managed to hide the boy’s disgust, which was probably even worse. Hatred, now, that would indicate that he at least respected the man, and that would be something already. But how could he have respect for someone who was so obviously below him? Regulus didn’t really care how humiliating Fenn found his attitude, if he found it humiliating at all. He had the power of old blood and old money and old traditions with him, he knew who he was and where he came from, and what did Fenn have? Nothing, that’s what. His parents had brought him up right; Regulus could not understand how some wizards, even those from old albeit less wealthy families could insist that mudbloods were their equals. Take that Potter, for example, who had even managed to convince Regulus’ own brother of his foolish views. Even Snape didn’t seem to mind some of them, but then again Snape wasn’t a pureblood either, so it was hardly surprising. Now, the younger Black wasn’t the violent type, unlike his older cousin Bellatrix, who seemed to take great pleasure in casting torturing spells, sometimes even on him if he did something to displease her – and he didn’t much like the thought of Voldemort’s methods, but the man’s goals made sense to the young wizard. There should be no mingling between the two worlds, wizards should stay in theirs and Muggles in theirs. There was something utterly wrong about letting a person from a non-magical family learn magic as if they belonged here. And to think some of them were even allowed to teach later…!

His train of thought was broken, however, as the man kept talking. This time it took much more of Regulus’ self control not to show his discontent with what he was hearing. “Charming,” he answered flatly, looking most disinterested at the prospect of spending the next hour in Fenn’s company, although he was actually cursing himself for not having skipped the class after all. Oh well, too late for such afterthoughts. “And how could I not be qualified, having a teacher so great. Breeding Nifflers. How fascinating.” He hoped he did manage to sound like he was about to die of boredom. Before he could elaborate, however, the animal in the teacher’s arms became a furry blur and soon Regulus knew why – it would be hard to miss it, seeing as the creature all but threw itself between his robes. Nifflers. Right. He had a galleon or two in his left pocket, he remembered quickly. Now, Regulus’ first instinct was to catch the little bugger and curse him with some really nasty spell, one of those Bella kept teaching him in the Room of Requirement where no one could see them, but he quickly realized that it probably wouldn’t be very smart. He could get away with practicing the slightly less malicious ones in the dungeons, if he knew how to cast them non verbally or without a wand he could perhaps hex some of the more irritating students should he want to, but using dark magic in front of the teacher? That would have him expelled sooner than he could think of an excuse, no matter how influent his family was. Oh well. He had to settle for catching the squirming creature and holding it out between his two fingers, nose scrunched as if he found it most disgusting. The Niffler had a galleon in his paws and would probably look quite satisfied, was it not for Regulus’ iron tight grip. He couldn’t care less if he hurt the thing, really.

He had heard the snickers, of course, most of them probably coming from the Ravenclaw kids. They weren’t laughing anymore, he knew that some of his House mates were probably smirking though. They didn’t like Fenn any more than Regulus did. The boy raised an eyebrow at the older man, not losing his composure even for a moment. “Lovely creatures,” he said with a smile that was not in the slightest pleasant. The Niffler squeaked, as if in pain. “Like I said, I am sure today’s lesson will be fascinating.”

[scully]

[/b] he shook his head, grinning. "I say, you're doing a very good job of making this entire situation unpleasant. May I have that back? I'm afraid it's school property, and you can't keep it. Heartbreaking, as I see how overwhelmingly fond you are of her." he held out his hand with a charming smile, his mind now far from the unpleasantness and only on returning the Niffler to its cage. [/size][/ul]

[mitzeh]

Regulus, observant as he was, hadn’t missed Scully’s half followed instinct to reach for his wand. Anger swept through him – how dare this man even think of casting spells at him? – but of course he let nothing on. Instead he slowly looked up, his expression unreadable as he met the teacher’s eyes, raising one elegant eyebrow in silent question. He almost dared him to just do it, oh, that would be something! Regulus would be more than delighted to inform his parents, along with certain authorities, of the teacher’s unforgiveable behaviour; the mudblood would find himself unemployed sooner than he could start regretting his actions. It was a pleasant thought and the young Slytherin entertained himself with it for a moment, before turning his full attention back to the man in front of him.

“I try,” he replied icily, not at all pleased with Fenn’s cheerful attitude. He had hoped to upset him just a little, or at least provoke him so that he would give him – or rather, his parents – a good reason to pull a few strings, yet nothing of sorts had happened. Regulus almost sighed. So much for a good day on his part; this encounter would leave him irritated for the next few hours, as if he didn’t already have enough on his mind.

The boy shrugged, handing the creature to Scully with surprising obedience. That was, however, understandable, as he was less than happy about having the squirming creature anywhere near him and getting rid of it was more than welcome. Especially that he had a nasty suspicion that such occurrence wouldn’t last long – he had been assigned as Fenn’s assistant for this lesson, after all. It would probably mean that he would have to spend more time with the Nifflers than he would ever care to; not something he looked forward to for sure. Still, he wasn’t sullen enough not to respond to the teacher’s provocative words. “Indeed, I can feel my heart bleed inside my chest. Perhaps I should have Madame Pomfrey check on me?” he asked, cocking his head to a side. Regulus suspected that he was going too far, if not because the consequences of being this cheeky towards a teacher would be rather dire, then because he did not usually enjoy being this insolent towards anyone, let alone authority figures. Not in the slightest because he respected them, no; he simply was not a person who would willingly seek trouble, or found any kind of pleasure in stirring it. He was a calm boy who didn’t like messing with other people’s business, as long as they stayed out of his as well; the argument with Fenn, however not unjustified as far as Regulus was concerned, was unnecessary disturbance of his otherwise peaceful existence, something he would often go out of his way to avoid. Oh, well, the damage was already done.

[scully]

Surprisingly, Scully’s mood was still quite unaffected by the unpleasant boy. He recovered easily, accustomed to being the unpopular one. As much as he was sure the Black boy was disappointed with having to answer to one of ‘dirty blood’, he did have a class to teach and wouldn’t stand for much more interruption. Of course, he wasn’t one to do much for it, especially since his mind moved past the conflict so quickly. That was one of the best things about Scully, really, his ability to cope with having his pride stepped on, to move along and ignore the trivial people that happened to put their feet on it. It was frustrating for a little, but he often found a way to respond and come out feeling good about himself, regardless. He wasn’t an idiot and refused to get angry with a student, anyway. He gave the sarcastic boy an odd look and replied, "No, I don't think that would be necessary. I'm sure Madame Pomfrey has much more pressing things to attend to. Much more pressing than a whiny fifteen-year-old."

That being said, he moved on with the lesson, examining the students for a moment and sizing up the situation he had; right, so for this class, he had ten Nifflers, not including the one he kept aside for example. Each group had one niffler and a cage for it (set upon various beaten up tables Scully had scrounged up) which they had to prepare. There really wasn’t much left to do, honestly. He was supposed to teach them about feeding the next day. He supposed it was a badly thought out lesson plan. But, as he was Scully Fenn, he had a solution seconds after he realized the problem.

“Right. You, there,” he gestured impatiently to Regulus, “Over here, by this one’s cage, out of the way. Don’t touch anything.” he actually didn’t mean to be rude to the boy; he had reason to, of course, and didn’t mind being rude, but he was very wrapped up in the lesson and quite impatient to get things going again. “Nevermind the interruption,” he addressed the students, “Back to work. Have those cages filled soon, and once you‘ve done that, we‘ve got something else entirely to do. It’s a bit of a treat, so let’s rush, yes?” he grinned, then turned to Regulus. “Seems like I won’t be needing your services after all, Black. You can stand there until we’re ready to set off.”

He’d suddenly changed his mind about that day’s lesson plan, which wasn’t uncommon for the teacher; he often got bored with teaching one thing and would segue into another to liven up the class a little. He knew that nifflers weren’t the most fascinating subject, so he’d decided to resort to another plan, one that he’d used once before to help with a class that had become particularly dull. It would require them to set off a bit deeper into the Forbidden Forest than usual, but with his own supervision if the students didn’t stray he was sure it would be perfectly safe. And if one of them was foolish enough to go off the path and get lost and/or eaten, well, that was their own fault.

Hands in pockets, he waited for the cages to be finished. After ten minutes, he checked the time; he had forty-five minutes left of class, which was just enough to accomplish what he wanted and to come back. Looking back up, he noted that a few of the slower students hadn’t finished yet - regardless, he clapped his hands loudly and gestured to them all. “Lines of two, please, behind me. We’ll be heading into the Forest. Black, up here with me. We’ll lead, yes?” he tapped his foot as the students lined up. “I’ve got something special lined up for you lot. Didn’t think I’d stick you with nifflers all day, did you?”

[mitzeh]

Regulus barely suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. There was insolence and then there was insolence, after all. He had already made his point, besides, after so many years of being a part of the Wizarding World Fenn had to know just how much he was disliked by people from certain social circles; arguing further would make him look, well, childish indeed. That, and honestly, how was he supposed to answer to such direct insult? An irrelevant one, too, because as far as the Slytherin was concerned Scully had entirely missed the point of his brilliant remark. He settled for snarling at the teacher, eyes narrow and dangerous. Yes, years of such treatment had to have taught the Muggleborn just how much some of the wizards would love to send him back to where he belonged.

Surprisingly though, Regulus obeyed the teacher’s orders with no further comments, even without so much as making a disgusted or displeased face. Probably because giving Scully even more of his attention would look bad, almost as if he cared. Now that would be ridiculous! The Black heir was far above that, anyone who knew him could say so. He looked around, practically radiating boredom as the teacher kept rambling about Nifflers. Honestly, who in their right mind would even bother to learn anything about Nifflers? They weren’t useful, they weren’t even dangerous for Salazar’s sake. They looked… cute, or at least Regulus guessed that would be the word some people (females, most likely) would use to describe them, but cuteness wasn’t enough to pick up his interest. Now beautiful, that would be different, but even then he wouldn’t really feel inclined to learn how to take care of such a thing; he was wealthy enough to have people do it for him, after all.

So the boy closed his eyes and let his mind wander, Scully’s voice reduced to nothing but a background noise in his head as he proceeded to amuse himself with thoughts much more productive than Care of Magical Creatures would ever get. Various spells, what he would have to learn for his trainings with Bella, how to solve an especially difficult Arithmancy problem he had encountered. Regulus had actually become so lost in his thoughts after a few minutes that he almost missed the teacher announcing his decision to leave for the Forbidden Forest. The Slytherin opened his eyes slowly, slightly confused as to why he was supposed to move at all. Hadn’t Fenn told him to just stand back? And it surely wasn’t the end of the lesson yet. Weird. It took Regulus a moment to register his teacher’s words, and all he could do this time was sigh with resignation. Oh well, at least he would get to have a walk, that was always nice.

He hadn’t ever been to the Forest before, yet he was not scared of it. If anything, he felt rather curious, even though he didn’t allow himself to get his hopes up too much; he seriously doubted Fenn would show them anything worth their – his – attention, however, even a trip like this was more interesting than just watching other students taking care of Nifflers. Anything but the Nifflers. (Okay, so maybe not really; these were, at least, lively, and that couldn’t be said about all the creatures they had had to learn about so far.) “I’ll have you know feeding me to acromantulas would have a disastrous effect on your career,” he whispered to the teacher, this time not sounding too offensive. For Slytherin standards, he might even be joking. Granted, he was tempted to ask what they were going to learn about in the Forest, but he kept his mouth shut. He wasn’t going to show interest in the lessons at this point, no way.





ooc; sorry I made you wait so long for such a shitty reply .___.