Winter Sun [Open]

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

It was a cold, but bright November day when Felix decided to take a break and walk out into the fresh air. The air around Hogwarts was always fresh, and never failed to wake him up from the relatively dull jobs that his career had given him on a daily basis. One walk outside per day made him feel fresh and rejuvenated, ready for anything that Hogwarts had to throw at him. 

Leaving his office, he made sure to get his winter cloak on, as well as his dragon-hide fingerless gloves and began the walk through the cold corridors of the ancient school. Apart from a few barked reprimands for students running through the corridors or playing around unnecessarily, it was a relatively uneventful walk, and he eventually came to the vast front doors and pushed them open to the courtyard. 

It was mostly deserted, save for a few students huddled in corners in groups for warmth. Felix walked over to a statue on the left hand side and sat, pulling out a pipe to smoke which he lit with the tip of his wand. Taking a drag, he then rubbed his hands together as he exhaled a mixture of smoke and cold breath, savouring the quiet and cold.

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The green of the shrubbery seemed bleak against the background of the grey, cloudless sky. Tammy pulled her cloak tighter across her slender frame. Her pale thin figure moved swiftly through the near empty courtyard. Her breaths turned to steam as they escaped her parted lips. The transfiguration professor had found some free time that required occupying. Her bright hair was tied back. Its red stood in stark contrast to the pale grey that manifested itself all over. Her steps halted as her eyes caught hold of a familiar face. Felix, the charms professor, was indeed… charming. Her cheeks flushed a little. It was ridiculous how foolishly childish she could be at times.

She bit her lip, before walking up to him. Her eyes traced his finely chiselled features. He was suave with his pipe. She watched the smoke leave his lips in a seductive, entrancing manner. She closed her eyes tightly for a second, cursing her stupidity. 

“Felix,” she greeted warmly, her lips curling into a shy, tentative smile. Tammy was not well known for her friendliness. She often took to solitary walks but remained warm with her fellow professors. 

“How are you?” she inquired, genuinely interested.

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Silently puffing along on his pipe, emitting plumes of smoke, Felix was staring intently at a bird that had fluttered down and landed on the central fountain in the courtyard. It was a weird looking thing, all blue and majestic, it began to bite its own feet ravenously. Felix surmised that it was simply scratching, but it unnerved him and he looked away. As his gaze moved back down to ground-level, he noticed that Professor De'Ath, known as Tammy to fellow professors, was approaching. He smiled and lowered his pipe as he watched her walk towards him, with a curious smile upon her face.

"Tammy." Felix replied, with a warm smile. He stood up and extinguished his pipe; he tried to avoid smoking near others, as he was afraid they may take offense at the second-hand smoke. When she got close, he moved in to kiss her once on her left cheek, and once on her right. He was part French, so it was habit for him to take part in this custom. "I am very well, thank you. Just enjoying a break from marking assignments. Such a bore." He laughed. "How are you? You're looking well."

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Surprise was certainly an initial reaction to Felix’s rather French behaviour. Being brought up in a near affectionless, intellectual household made Tammy rather weary of strange acts of affection. She smiled uncomfortably as he moved backwards. The conversation flowed superficially. Once she had given her words, she knew that the conversation would halt. Perhaps another pleasantry would fill the silence.

"I am doing well," she responded amicably, a little at loss as to what to say next. She paused, and bit her lip. Her eyes followed the waning wisps of smoke that drifted upward, blending in with the grey sky. 

"I was just going to patrol the borders of the forest," she started lamely, unsure of what to say. Perhaps Tammy was a little socially awkward. "I should probably go do that."
Her words trailed off lamely. Well this is certainly awkward, she mused to herself as she stood dumbly in front of him. A shy, stupid smile touch her lips before she turned to leave. 

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Felix felt slightly abashed at Tammy's small - but obvious - reaction at his greeting. He sometimes let his enthusiasm get the better of him, and it had caused many people to run away from him like frightened children, not used to his exuberance. He looked away, looking a little abashed as she smiled at him somewhat uncomfortably, but he didn't let it make him feel too embarrassed. Tammy, the resident Hogwarts Transfiguration professor was a highly intelligent, lovely person, but is perhaps on the shy side, somewhat introverted. Felix didn't mind that though, and he hoped to count her amongst his good friends at some point - so long as he ceased with the apparent flirtatious greeting.

"I'm glad." He said, as she responded to his question. Tammy then said that she was off to patrol the borders of the forest, a typical thing that professors do on a daily basis, partly for peace of mind, but mostly to prevent any students from running into the forests and either getting lost or - worse - killed. He couldn't tell whether she was mentioning it as an invitation, or rather a 'I'm going now, leave me alone, weirdo' insinuation, but he took it as the former, just to keep the conversation going. "Oh, ok then. I was heading off to do that soon anyway, I'll join you. We can keep each other company." He wasn't, but he wanted to continue talking to her, he wanted friends. Felix stood up, wrapped his collar around his neck for warmth and caught up to Tammy. He cleared his throat as they walked out of the courtyard and into the grounds. "So...do you have any plans for this evening? Hopefully yours are a little more entertaining than mine." He laughed, hoping that if he verbally prodded her a little, she would be a little less awkward. If that failed ... well, there was always physical prodding.

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Tammy’s awkwardness faltered a little as Felix joined her effortlessly. He was certainly quite comfortable keeping the conversation going. She found her hesitate for a second before she relaxed into walking with her fellow professor. Felix was quite alluring. He seemed rather the uncomplicated type, although, perhaps she was wrong in that. A better description might be that he seemed rather well balanced. The smallest of comfortable smiles broke through Tammy’s unsure façade. “I would certainly like your company,” she responded, warmly. A little quick of sparkle entered her eyes. “It gets quite lonely up in my office with only assignments to keep me company – I sometimes believe students really do only start their work the morning of.” “Alas,” she sighed in mock exasperation, “I have little to do this evening beside mark and gain some respite of this madness with a bottle of firewhisky. So, in fact, I will be alone, with alcohol, and the wise words of students. Perhaps I have succumbed to madness.” She glanced up at the grey sky, and watched a flock of birds move through the clear, crisp air. The smile that had formed upon her lips gained some relaxation. She glanced back at Felix, her eyes softening. “So, Professor, what are your not so exciting plans for this evening? Surely they do not reek of sad and alone?” she said lightly, finding her footing in the conversation.

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Sensing that Tammy was feeling a little less awkward by the way she smiled a little more comfortably, he gained a little in confidence. She was a pretty, intelligent woman who he had sometimes, but not often, spoken to in the past, but he was eager to get to know her a little better. She was an interesting character - quiet, thoughtful and even brooding, like she had a difficult past but tried to cover it up by bamboozling those who spoke to her by way of fierce intelligence.

A small laugh left Felix's lips, "Indeed, I too get quite lonely up in my office." He put his hands in his pockets as they walked, entering the long, wooden bridge that led to the grounds. "All I have to occupy myself is mountains of assignments to mark, and a small radio to listen to." He sighed and looked out over the edge of the bridge, marveling at the misty and frost-bitten grounds below. He turned back to Tammy and continued: "Ah, firewhiskey? Good choice, good choice. I favourite of mine too. However, if you were left alone with just firewhiskey and the ramblings of students, then I'm afraid, your madness is already confirmed!" He laughed, wishing that his fate was any different.

Felix sighed, wishing that he had plans for the evening, anything to make his life that little more interesting. "No, besides usual teaching rubbish." He laughed again, feeling a little foolish. He decided, after Tammy's warming behaviour that was such a difference to the first part of their conversation, he would be bold. They walked off the bridge and onto the grounds, they both walked automatically towards the outer rim of the vast, black forest. "If you're free tonight, we could be sad and alone together? I find company helps me to focus, which may help grading students - I wouldn't want to give them a dud mark now, would I?" He smiled cheekily.

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Felix was charming, in a wonderful sort of way. A stupid, girly giddiness lifted her mood. Internally, she shook her head at herself. “Then I am mad, indeed!” she exclaimed lightly, her eyes dropping to the floor. A wry smile found its way to her face. She dashed off to the side of the bridge quickly, as Felix looked over the edge. The sight took her breath away, as it always did. It certainly provoked awe. She glanced happily back to Felix who had returned to walking. She gave the edge one more glance before quickly going to join him. Tammy was strangely delighted to hear that Felix had little plans for the evening. Perhaps this sparked a little hope that should have been extinguished sooner. Still, she composed herself. Felix was good company. She regretted not getting to know him a little sooner. Eva was startled by his question. Wide eyed she glanced at him, before gaining some composure. She was such a fool! “Your place or mine?” she asked, a note of playfulness had entered her voice. “Firewhisky and being alone and sad with you sounds really pleasant.” She halted at the forest edge, a stupid grin had found itself upon her lips.

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Feeling the air around them get ever more comfortably, and Tammy's face becoming more and more relaxed, Felix felt a lot more happy in walking with her to patrol the border of the forest. Back in the courtyard after he perhaps foolishly kissed her cheeks in greeting, he felt like running away and hiding in a corner, but now, he didn't want to be anywhere else - which is perhaps because anywhere else would probably involved a stack of un-marked assignments and a quill, which he was trying to avoid for as long as possible. Felix looked to the right and saw that Tammy looked ten years younger, almost like a giddy teenager - he was surprised she had gotten so comfortably so quickly, but he was very happy about it.

Tammy also wandered over to the side of the bridge as they crossed it, and he couldn't blame her - the views either side were simply breathtaking, and he could look at them all day. As they wandered out across the crunchy, frost-bitten grass, he noticed Tammy look quickly at him with wide eyes at his bold question, and he instantly felt a little abashed. However, he needn't have felt embarrassed, as Tammy accepted his offer with a quirky, almost flirty response. Felix grinned and laughed, thankful she didn't slap him and run off. "Well, I still haven't unpacked properly, so it's up to you, really. Either way though, I think we'll both need some firewhiskey to warm us up after this!" He pulled out his wand and lit the end of it, so that its bright beam bounced from tree trunk to tree trunk. "Let's see if there are any rebellious students - or worse - wandering around..."

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Tammy enjoyed the quirkiness that had entered the conversation. There was a softness that had entered her expression. Felix’s ability to shrug off her awkwardness had drawn her into a place where she was able to feel comfortable and relaxed. The huge pile of assignments (most written terribly) lay almost forgotten at the back of her mind. Tammy had spent ages walking these paths by herself. Perhaps that was a little sad – yet she enjoyed the peace that the Hogwarts’ grounds possessed, even though that peace was interrupted by unruly, wild students. Yet, she was happy to be sharing this space with the new professor. She had yet to really get to spend much time with him. She nodded in regard to him not being unpacked yet. “We can do my place then? Besides the piles of assignments, it is relatively cosy,” she offered a little shyly. “Firewhisky and a warm fire… I certainly like the sound of that!” The cold hit her cheeks. Even those she was wrapped up warmly, the cold seemed to penetrate her protection. The freshness, and the presence of Felix, however, kept her wide awake. “And giving students drunken marks is much better than giving them dud marks.” She winked playfully at the younger professor. The thought of being drunk and marking seemed much more pleasant than being sober for the painful experience. Well, not all students were terrible. It was only the majority. She grinned at the promise of looking for reprobate students to terrorise in the woods. After all, if a professor did not catch at least one rebellious teenager a week, then the job became a little more boring. The cheekiest of smiles lit up Tammy’s face. Perhaps this was a terrible idea, but she offered it anyway. “You know students hardly stick to the edge of the forest,” she started. “They always like to go in a little deeper. We should probably go look a little closer. ” She slipped her wand out from her cloak, mutter lumos, under her breath and took a few steps to the second line of trees within the forest before turning back to grin at Felix. This, was perhaps, very stupid, but Tammy had never lost her sense of adventure.

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Even though Felix wasn't feeling particularly stressed, he still had a pile as large as he was of unmarked assignments on the desk in his office, and that was a worrying thought. Felix usually tried to stay on top of work, and he often succeeded, but sometimes a brisk walk in the grounds, especially with good company, was just enough to clear his head and get him back on track. Tammy was certainly in the bracket of 'good company', and for that, he was exceptionally grateful for her being there. He hadn't spent that much time with the Transfiguration professor, but after the short time he had spent in her presence, he knew he wanted to continue spending time with her, and more of it.

When Tammy suggested that they go back to her office, as opposed to his, he could still tell that there was a hint of cheekiness, perhaps she was even casually flirting, and Felix smiled knowingly at her. "Your office sounds great, I look forward to it." He noticed Tammy felt the cold as a brisk wind blew over them, and he did too. Pulling his collar ever higher to protect at least a portion of his neck and lower cheeks, he nodded. "Yes, a considerable amount of firewhiskey after this expedition will be very much appreciated!" After Tammy winked at her drunk comment, Felix laughed. "I'm not sure how they - or indeed the Headmaster - will take that, but it's a risk I'll be willing to take." He winked back, and continued walking. Felix wasn't one to drink a lot, but sometimes the thought of kicking back, relaxing and drinking until he's happy is a wonderful prospect.

Yet another cheeky smile crept upon Tammy's face, seemingly at the prospect of catching students out of bounds. It was a beautiful smile, that Felix thought - or hoped - showed the true Tammy, rather than the awkward, almost shy façade that was evident earlier. As she spoke up, stating that she thought that students were more likely to go deeper into the forest rather than skip around the outside, Felix mirrored her cheeky smile and laughed. Tammy also pulled out her wand, lit the end of it and walked into the forest. Felix bounded after her and joined her at her side. Lifting his wand, he muttered a spell of his own invention. "Specialis Homenum Revelio!" This spell was an adaptation of the normal Homenum Revelio, which revealed human presence in the vicinity, but a focusedversion, which would defer from the thousand-or-so humans in Hogwarts behind him. A wave of invisible magic ejected from his wand, then almost immediately came back to him, like a strong wind. "There is someone in here. Besides us, of course." He frowned. "Whether they are students, however, is a different matter." He quickened his pace, grinning back at Tammy. "Is it just me, or is doing something that is potentially dangerous like this quite exciting?" He winked. "I wouldn't want to be a student in here right now - between us, they are bound to be caught."

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Tammy smiled at the Felix’s remark that he was willing to take a risk on the drunken marking. The smile lingered, and then stretched out into a cheekier smile. “Well, the work is generally either right or wrong,” she stated. “I am sure, being an expert in my field; I will be able to discern their answers in any state of mind.” She was sure that was partially true. However, perhaps she would be a little more lenient on them as she strained to see their scrawl. She shrugged the thought off. Tammy was hardly irresponsible. She would probably check and then recheck her marking in case she had truly messed up in her inebriated state – also, she doubted she would drink too much, lest she begin to become a little too honest. She watched Felix curiously as he cast a spell. Well, he certainly had a flare for finding students – she would give him that. Tammy often prowled around in her Amur leopard form, sniffing out the students. A rather old school approach, she thought. Although, it was priceless to catch students out of bounds while stalking up on them as a large predator – their faces were entertaining to say the least. The wind jolted Tammy a bit. Her eyes widened for a brief moment before she relaxed. Another human presence? The notion was exciting indeed. Although, Tammy sincerely hoped that it was a student. She did not want to fight anything more dangerous. Felix’s relaxed nature made it very easy for Tammy to trust his judgement. She grinned back at him as he winked. Students certainly did not stand a chance… something large and humanoid may however have an advantage over the two professors. “This is far more exciting than it should be,” she laughed. “After all, we may just regret this whole expedition, should something more formidable show up!” Her eyes twinkled happily as she strode forward, wand raised. It was easy to get into a comfortable stupor with Felix. Too easy – after all, this was still the Forbidden Forest.

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Felix had to laugh at Tammy's comment that she would, as she was an expert in her field, be able to distinguish between right and wrong in an assignment question no matter how inebriated she was. In truth, he could probably do the same, and he would likely not truly mark them, but rather just settle down, enjoy a glass or seven of firewhiskey. Drinking with a beautiful woman in a warm, cosy office was preferable to marking scrawled, last-minute assignments any day of the week. Tammy looked at him curiously as he cast his spell, sent out to discover if there were any students - or other humans - in the vicinity of the forest. His spell could only scan a small area of the vast wood, but it still reported back to him that there was someone in the area, other than themselves. 

Reporting this to Tammy, he expected her to be slightly worried - perhaps even scared - at the possibility that there was more in the forest than students, but she looked positively excited. Felix laughed at her comment. "Yes, but if two highly-accomplished professors cannot deal with whatever it is that is in here, then perhaps we should hand in our resignations." He winked sideways at the Transfiguration professor, hoping that he wasn't about to eat his words, and continued walking, crunching along as the twigs and leaves were crushed underfoot.

Moving deeper into the forest, the darkness engulfed them, and before long, their wand lights were the only things illuminating the vague, treacherous path before them. They were walking for about five minutes, getting deeper and deeper into the vast, ancient and not-to-mention creepy forest before Felix stopped dead, looking somewhere to his left. "I just heard something." He said, pointing his wand in the vague direction of where he heard the noise. "It was a sort of...humming?" He shook his head, of course something wasn't humming, unless they were about to be attacked by a swarm of bees. Felix took a tentative step off the path, towards the noise, and suddenly a large Acromantula jumped out from the bushes, into Felix, knocking him over. For a magical spider, it was relatively small, but still the size of a common dog, and the impact into Felix sent it tumbling off several metres past them. Felix was winded, but quickly scrabbled around for his wand in the darkness, hoping that Tammy was alert and ready.

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Tammy laughed uncomfortably when he mentioned that if they could not handle what was in the forest they should hand in their resignation. There were some creatures she would not want to dare to cross. However, they had not ventured too deeply into the forest. The more dangerous creatures tended to live deep within the forest’s bowels. Well, maybe that is what Tammy hoped. She was enjoying this reckless company though. The forest grew darker and Tammy’s excitement faded to a glimmer of anxiety. The path they had chosen grew fainter and overgrown with each step and the thickness of the trees let no light through the canopy. “Maybe we should…” Tammy would have ended that sentence with go back, but Felix noted a sound. Tammy stiffened, ready for whatever was out there. “No…” she said slowly. “Not humming… clicking.” She barely had time to think about any creature that would make such a noise before it came barrelling into view and knocking Felix over. The Acromantula – classified as a XXXXX, known wizard killer and impossible to domesticate. Book knowledge seemed pretty futile now, except that its venom was extremely poisonous. Tammy improvised, leaping into her Amur Leopard form and tackled the large spider. Oh, Tammy could think of a hundred things she would rather be doing than taking down a great hairy spider. She managed to pin in on its back. The clicking sound increased as the thing became agitated. Tammy glanced behind her to see how Felix was doing and she could just make him out scrabbling in the darkness for his wand. She snarled at the creature, fearing to unpin it but also fearing that more would come. She leapt back quickly, and transformed back and raised the wand at the creature that was struggling to get back up. She cast a wordless immobilisation spell and waited. "Felix, you okay?" she called.

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

After commenting that they should be able to cope, between them, with anything that the forest could throw at them, Tammy laughed, but there was a sense of awkwardness in the laugh, making him think that she was a little more suspicious of what actually could be in the forest, waiting for them. He wouldn't admit it, but Felix felt a little prang of nervousness in the pit of his stomach at the sight of the pitch-black forest looming in front of him. He was a highly trained wizard, as was his companion, but now he thought on it, there were things hidden in magical forests - especially the Forbidden one - that even a group of skilled magicians would have trouble going up against.

Tammy silenced herself when he raised a hand, indicating he could hear something. When the spider jumped out and knocked him over, Tammy immediately disappeared. After he managed to get hold of his wand, he scrambled to his feet and lit it, pointing in the direction that he could hear the scuffling. What met his eyes was astonishing - a beautiful leopard was crouched over the spider, pinning it to the forest floor. Quickly, it leapt back and transformed into Tammy, which shocked him even further, but when he thought on it, it should have been obvious that the leopard was Tammy in animagus form. She immobilised the spider and looked back at Felix.

"Yes, I'm...fine, I think." He brushed his robes down with his free hand, keeping his wand on the spider. Felix looked around, raising his wand to extend the beam, looking for more horrible creatures. "I would love to say that this is the only thing in here that will attack us, but I'd be lying." He turned back to Tammy and smiled. "Thank you, by the way. I didn't know you were an animagus. It's lucky you were." He moved closer to Tammy and left it up to her to decide. "Should we continue, or go back to your office and enjoy some firewhiskey, spider-free?"

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The forest loomed ominously around them. She concluded, very quickly, that if students were out in the forest, they would most certainly be dead. She shifted uncomfortably, taking a glance back at Felix. The two of them would be no match for an entire colony of Acromantulas. She bit her lip, keeping her wand raised, as she squinted into the darkness. “I think we should return to my office, immediately,” a slight sternness entered her voice as the anxiety grew. She slowly retreated back from the spider, closer towards Felix. She gently took him by the arm and kept moving backwards, her wand flitting between the immobilised spider and the path ahead. The light swept briefly across Felix’s face, catching a line of red. Concern crossed her face. Acromatula’s poison was particularly dangerous and Tammy could not tell whether the wound had come from the spider or the encounter with the ground. The trees had begun to line, letting streams of light gently filter through the thick canopy. “You’re bleeding,” she said stupidly, probably stating the obvious. She gently reached up to touch the skin next to the cut, assessing how serious it was.  “We should really get back up to the castle so I can look at that in the light. Plus, if you act all pathetic about it, there may be extra care up for offer.”

[FELIX FAIRBOURNE]

Standing up next to Tammy, he felt slightly more safe than he did on the ground. She was a highly-skilled witch, and she had an ace card up her sleeve in the form of being able to turn into a wild, ferocious big cat - complete with razor-sharp teeth and claws. He quickly looked to the right, where Tammy was standing, looking quite fearsome as she looked around, perhaps searching for more magical, blood-thirsty spiders after them. "I agree." Felix said after Tammy recommended they retreat back to her office. "I hope you don't keep any spiders in there." Felix looked at Tammy with a worried expression, and then laughed nervously.

Tammy then took Felix by the arm and they moved backwards, slowly enough so they didn't trip over any precarious tree roots, but fast enough so that they didn't spend a second longer in the forest more than they had to. Suddenly, Tammy was squinting towards him, as if he had something on his face. "What?!" He said in a panicked voice, fearing he had some kind of creature on him. He quickly patted his cheek and immediately felt some kind of sticky liquid. "What is i..." Felix heard what Tammy said. "Oh...I wonder how that happened..." He said stupidly, wondering whether it was the impact with the spider, or the floor, that did it. "I'm sure it's nothing..." He said quietly, not wanting Tammy to make a fuss. However, as she was leading him away ever more quickly, her words made him grin - her cheekiness distracted him from the pain that was now seeping into his nervous system. "Oh?" Felix said with a cheeky wink. "Does that mean I get cocoa as well as whiskey?" He winked at the Transfiguration teacher.

As they were leaving the overhanging trees of the forest, Felix stopped and turned his wand towards his face and siphoned the excess, dried blood off. It was still bleeding, but he didn't trust himself enough to sort it out. Walking further and further up the slopes towards the main entrance, Felix kept close to Tammy and was glad that he got rid of most of the blood, as there were still a few students milling around. Once they saw the two teachers coming towards them, they quickly made a dash for entrances to the castle, in an attempt to stay hidden. "Get inside the castle, please!" Felix shouted at them. "Don't come out here after dark again, or I'll take points off your houses!"