Favour Required ((Dana))

[Professor Amaryllis Hardy]

Amaryllis walked slowly along the first floor corridor, a blue china bone mug in her hand, filled with tea. Some people called it dishwater. Amaryllis had been brought up not to, and she herself enjoyed it nowadays. Just a habit, really. Today she had a quest. Dana Coran's last OWL had finished about four days ago, the duelling classroom still embarassed Amaryllis as possibly the most dull and tired looking place in the school, and the lower years were going to finish their own exams in not so much time. Amaryllis hoped that Miss Coran would not turn down her request, although she would be perfectly entitled to. It wasn't exactly the best way to spend your after-exam period, supervising little people as they got let loose after their exams with nothing less than a can of lively coloured paint and a big brush. But the idea was that they would be able to have fun, otherwise Amaryllis would just do it herself. It couldn't be allowed to get out of hand. From what Amaryllis had heard from other staff Miss Coran had a good way with children... young adults if they would... younger than herself.

So Amaryllis had spent her time searching the timetables until she found Miss Coran's combination of subjects, her name on the side of the timetable. That had allowed her to know where Miss Coran was at the end of the day, and that was why she was walking towards that classroom just now. There were still about ten minutes left until lessons ended, although these being post-OWL students, they might get let out a little earlier. Amaryllis finished her tea and quickened her pace a little, no longer having to worry about spilling it. She waited outside the relevant classroom, careful not to peek her head through the door to make sure the Professor inside did not have to stop their lesson for her. Although judging from the sound levels, there wasn't much of a lesson as such going on. Just as well there weren't any exams going on in the vicinity. The bell rang and eventually fifth years began pouring out noisily, although they knew instinctively not to tread on Amaryllis' feet. Hiddden by the stream, it took a while for Amaryllis to spot Miss Coran when she did come out, but she made towards her quickly when she did.
"Miss Coran," she greeted the fifth year. "I trust your Defence Against the Dark Arts exam went well?"

[dana]

Dana was in class. Were at least, theoretically it was suppose to be a class. No one did any work actually, so Dana was sitting back-ways in her seat and conversing with a couple of friends as they shared their thoughts about the OWL examinators and summer plans. With the OWLs being long past them, everybody breathed easily, even the Ravenclaws let themselves loose now and enjoyed the warm weather and freedom.

The class-bell rang and deciding to let other people stream out of the class-room first, as she didn’t care to be trampled. Dana turned around and pushed a piece of parchment and her quill back into her bag, before calmly swinging it over her shoulder. Pulling out an apple from her bag and biting into it Dana finally starting to make her way out of the class-room exchanging a couple of more phrases with her friends as she stepped out of the classroom.

Almost immediately professor Hardy approached her and Dana swallowed the bite in her mouth quickly.
“Good day, professor Hardy, and yes my Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL went well,” a brilliant smile appeared on Dana’s face as she smiled at the professor, “Considering the amounts of practice I got inside your classroom, it wasn’t very hard.” Actually Dana expected to receive an ‘Outstanding’ for it. Dana shifted the bag on her shoulder to a bit more comfortable position and tilted her head curiously, wondering why Hardy would look for her. School was practically over and Dana doubted that there would be any more duels coming this year. So she just smiled calmly: “Can I help you in any way, professor?”

[Professor Amaryllis Hardy]

Amaryllis raised her eyebrows just slightly at Miss Coran's response. It was typical of the fifth year Ravenclaw from what she had seen of her - confident, calm and collected, without the arrogance and anger at failure she had seen in one of Miss Coran's opponents. OWLs couldn't really be described as 'not very hard', but it was true that the fifth year had probably been assisted by all the duels she undertook. The question that followed was natural, and of the sort Amaryllis had been expecting. She didn't very often seek out students, in fact there were probably some students further down the school who hadn't encountered her at all, since she was a duelling professor and not a regular teacher. But she had a reason for seeking out this fifth year, and was glad to hear the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam had gone well. A lot of work had gone into it, and Miss Coran only deserved to reap the rewards.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you do anticipate me correctly," she replied, just a tiny twinkle in her eyes, something that was probably barely noticeable from the generally rather reserved, even cold teacher. "I'm sure you can't have failed to notice the rather shabby state the Duelling classroom is in in all the time you spent in there, and one of those you duelled against, Mr. Feynman, I do believe, was indeed correct when he mentioned I appeared to have plans to remedy that. I'm hoping to get the first three years to help paint it, and obviously not all the paint has to go on the walls. What I will need however, is someone older to help make sure things don't get out of hand, and I was rather hoping you could fill that position. Although I realise this may not be the most attractive way to spend the post-OWLs period." Amaryllis stopped strolling along the corridor, calmly regarding Miss Coran as she waited for the fifth year to make some comment.

[dana]

Professor Hardy seemed to evaluate her for a moment and Dana wondered what might have lighted the twinkle in her eyes. She seemed like a cool and rather reserved person most of the time. Shrugging Dana just tilted her head and listened to her words with a flash of smile curving her lips for a moment at the memory of the duel with Perseus. Dana was proud of that duel – beating a Slytherin sixth year wasn’t exactly and easy task.
It took a moment for the words to fully registrate in Dana’s mind. Hardy wanted her to come and help supervise the painting of her classroom. For some reason or an other Dana had always enjoyed washing windows and cars and painting something or n other the muggle way. It was relaxing and fun!

Dana grinned broadly: “I would love to come on the condition that I get to paint as well. And watching over the younger kids shouldn’t be too hard. I know a surprising number of them anyway. Handling Kris and his friends in Slytherin has been good practice anyway. And for me this is an almost perfect way to spend some of my free time.”
Dana tilted her head and beamed with joy – painting was fun! And most probably some of the colour from her paint-brush would not end up on the walls either: “When will the painting start?”