Lesson Material (Open)

[justus]

The tinkle of a bell cut through the relative quiet of the book shop, as the door opened and a customer entered. Ducking in from the hot, sticky, summer day, Eamon Justus wiped the sweat from his brow and breathed a sigh of relief as the cool air engulfed him.

The shop keeper hurried forward to greet him. "Eamon, how good to see you again. Looking for anything in particular?" The small, rather weedy looking man inquired. "Advanced Charms, please. I'm teaching at Hogwarts this term." Eamon replied. The shop keeper made a impressed sound and led the tall man to the back, stopping in front of two large shelves. All the books looked extremely old. "Here's Advanced Charms. There are the Beginner and Intermediate books, if you're interested." He bustled off to tend to a young couple that had just entered.

Eamon examined the shelves interestedly. He had only taught Charms once before, for a brief time. He was looking for a couple good volumes that he could brush up on with. He grabbed a weighty, tattered tome from the top shelf. The front cover read An Overview of Charms: Volume I Pulling up a chair, Eamon flipped to the first page. It was dreadfully boring, but had useful information. He carefully placed it in his bag. He also grabbed a couple of beginner and intermediate books for reference. He had nothing else on his schedule, so he opened An Overview of Charms once again, continuing through it's dull pages. Flourish and Blotts was as good a place as any to read.

[Juan Marcos]

(Great, summer… daytime… A vampire’s worst nightmare. Here goes nothing.)

A cloaked figure practically flew through the open doors of the bookstore. He was covered from head to foot in black material with a mask beneath the hood and gloves upon his hands. The man walked at a brisk pace to the back of the store where the sun’s rays could not reach.

Once safely away from the entrance to the store, he removed the cloak and stripped his face and hands of the mask and gloves, respectively. He brushed off his clothes with a hand as if dislodging some invisible dust or dirt. Others present in the store could not help but stare at the individual’s entrance and, quite frankly, his appearance.

The man had rather pale skin which stood out visibly in contrast with his jet black hair. His hair was layered in feathery wisps about his face and reached below his ears in the back. The left half of his face was concealed beneath a portion of his hair that was longer than the rest. Curious bloodred eyes looked about the store as he read various book titles from a distance. He wore a black tattered sleeveless top and black pants, with black boots to match. On each wrist was a black wristband to complete the outfit.

The man was a vampire. His name was Juan Marcos and he was to be the new Astronomy Professor at Hogwarts.

“Such an annoyance,” he thought with a sigh, “Business hours are just not vampire-friendly.”

[justus]

Eamon looked up from his book as a wave of heat followed a very strange man into the shop. Closing the book, he watched the new customer. The man was dressed all in black, and he stripped off gloves and a mask as he entered.

Eamon glimpsed scarlet eyes through clumps of dark hair. A vampire. Eamon’s face hardened, his eyes narrowing and his brow furrowing. His hand twitched toward his wand, tucked into his robes.

Eamon had had bad experiences with vampires. Experiences such as seeing a vampire rip his comrade’s throat out and devour it. It had been one of the most unforgettable instances in his career as a hit-wizard with the Magical Law Enforcement Squad.

They had thought it would be a simple operation. A rogue vampire on the loose in Scotland. Take fifteen hit-wizards and two Aurors to take him down. They hadn’t known he would have three wives. It was a disaster. Five hit-wizards dead. Three in St. Mungo’s for weeks. Eamon himself had broken most of his ribs.

Eamon shook himself back into the present, taking a breath and calming himself. He would not let his prejudices rule him. He reopened the heavy tome, trying to put the vampire out of his mind. As he continued to read, his concentration began to slip. Surreal flashes of the incident ripped into his mind. Blood spattering on flagstones. His bones shattering as a dark adversary slammed him into a brick wall. Watching a hit-wizard’s eyes roll back in his head, coughing scarlet into his lap.

Eamon rubbed his temples. He needed to talk to the vampire. He needed to know that this one wasn’t homicidal. The vampire was currently browsing the shelves, looking neither murderous nor inhuman.

[Juan Marcos]

Juan sighed as he felt the eyes of the other customers upon him. No matter what he was doing, wherever he went, it seemed that he was always suspected of plotting some terrible act. Currently, Juan was innoccently browsing the store in search of books he could use to plan his lessons and familiarize himself with the material before the summer break was over.

He let the pile of clothes fall to the floor from his arms, landing in a heap. He would retrieve them later; for now he needed his arms free so he could take books off the shelf. Juan didn't even bother asking the storekeeper for help. Judging from the blatant stare he was recieving, he wouldn't get much of a response anyway or if he did, it would not be a positive one.

Finally spotting a section that appeared to be about Astronomy, he walked over to a set of bookshelves farther back. Juan ran a finger over the spines of the books as he mentally noted titles: The Basics of Astronomy, Heliocentric Theory, Stars and Stardust Volume I and II, Lunar Magic...

There were a lot of books on the subject and it appeared that he would have to read them all before deciding which ones tied in with his still in progress syllabus.

Figuring it was a good place to start, Juan was taking The Basics of Astronomy off the shelf when he became aware of a particularly cutting glare coming from one of the other customers. Apparently he would have to wait on deciding whether or not it would be any good for his students; Juan could never focus on reading when stares went from general to personal.

He turned around to face the man, "Is there any reason in particular, señor, that you seem to be trying to burn a hole in my head with your stare?"

[Juan Marcos]

((Is this topic dead or what?))