[22/5/17] Professor McGriffin/Ria [Astronomy Tower]

Saturday had been a late night for Professor McGriffin. The Seventh Years finally completed their very lengthy pre-N.E.W.T. exams at around 1:30am, postponed from Friday due to inclement weather. With post-exam discussions taken into account, Quinn didn't get to the tent in her office until well after 2 o'clock. As always, before she retired she set up her web of detection and privacy wards in the office, and a few low-level alarms in the corridor beyond. She left a bottle of Pepper-Up Potion next to her pillow, and her wand was secured in her right hand through the use of a powerful Sticking Charm. With Pepper-Up she could be at 100% no matter how little she slept, at least for long enough to evacuate as many people as possible out of the castle. She always slept fully dressed, including her trousers with their Undetectably Extended pockets and sturdy boots. Judicious application of the Cushioning Charm allowed her to be comfortable in her small, hidden sleeping spot in the walk-in closet of the second bedroom inside her tent. Hidden from both the magical and the mundane, and with her detection suite and the protective enchantments on her tent, she was about as safe as she could reasonably be expected to be in friendly territory. If someone came into the office and released FiendFyre, she might not make it out, but that was just a risk she would have to take.

A little bit after sunrise, not even 6 o'clock in the morning, her corridor detection alarm was triggered, and Quinn was awake in a flash. Oh, that was not nearly enough sleep. There was an adult mage knocking on the Astronomy classroom door directly beside Quinn's office/living quarters. Probably a professor. Which one? With the Pepper-Up in her left hand and her wand still stuck to her right, Quinn ran out of the tent.

Around 30 seconds after the knocking, the door to Ria's left marked "Astronomy Office" was flung open. Quinn's rather hoarse voice called out into the corridor, though she didn't show herself in the doorway. "Professor! What is it? Emergency?"

At the professor's unworried tone, and since Ria didn't have a wand drawn, Quinn flicked her own wand to light the inside of her office. She gave a heavy sigh and lifted the potion vial to her mouth, allowing three small drops to hit her tongue. That would be enough to keep her clear-headed for the length of a conversation, and then she would go back to sleep. Such was the life of a socialite, it seemed.

"Come on in, Professor Ria. I'm glad it's only for pleasure." Quinn tried to sound relieved, but she was still slightly frustrated at being woken up. The office was filled with large, flowing charts and parchments, as well as student classwork, diagrams of rituals, lists and all manner of other documents (both parchment and paper) that the Astronomy Professor needed quick access to. Off to one side was an alcove, and sitting on the floor within it was a small, two-person tent. It seemed to be absolutely ordinary, just a standard tent any muggle could have bought in 1971, but it was well-maintained, without rips or imperfections. "I'll put the kettle on," Quinn said as she waved Ria over to the tent and ducked inside.

As a high-quality magical tent, there was in fact an entire flat contained within. A kitchen complete with plumbing (though no electrical appliances), a cozy sitting room with a fireplace and tchotchkes from around the world hanging on the walls, a master bedroom concealed behind opaque french doors, a smaller second bedroom beside it, and what was obviously a magical workshop. With a few nonverbal spells, Quinn got the tea going, and then she slumped not quite gracefully into a cushy armchair in the sitting room. "Well, Professor, it's good to finally meet you in such informal circumstances. You look rather stunning in that dress, ready to be out of the castle, I'm sure! What brings you up to my high tower?"

"Well, here I am, Aisha. You may call me Quinn," the disheveled mage said, a small grin coming to her lips. "Ask what you will, and I will answer. I could also give you a dossier or my C.V., if you like. I have them around here somewhere..."

She relaxed into her armchair, eyes intent on her colleague. This was obviously suspicious, it wasn't even 6 o'clock in the morning and here Ria was, calling on the Astronomy Professor. Ria wanted something from her, and it would behoove her to figure out what that was. She knew that having things that people want was very useful, indeed. With a few flicks of her wand, she smoothed out her hair and clothes and otherwise cleaned herself up from her swift awakening.

I've read your dossier, it's only fair... She didn't say it out loud. Not the right time. "The Pepper-Up will keep me lucid enough to complete a conversation, I assure you. No reason to delay." A tea tray floated in, having finished its business in the kitchen. On it was a pot and a single cup, which was soon filled with piping hot tea. The tray floated amiably at Ria's side, waiting for her to take the cup. Quinn didn't have a cup, and didn't seem concerned about it.

"Ahem, as for who I am? Nothing more than an academic. I have experience in the mundane and magical worlds, I fought in the Second Voldemort War in my twenties, as many did, and I have certain political views which may or may not be shared by others. My specialty is deep magic. Astronomy, of course, and astral rituals. Sacrificial rituals. Alchemy. Magical theory. I also have various other academic interests, such as cognitive psychology and grand strategy, but those were borne out of necessity more than curiosity, I fear..." She trailed off, and her calculating look softened for something more admiring.

"What about you, Aisha? You are so young, for a Hogwarts mistress! Your family must be quite proud. It's obvious that you are a talented mage, if McGonagall sees so much in you that she hired you to her own favorite position. Who are you really, though? Or, how do you wish to be known to the world?"

Quinn simply nodded, and looked around her impossible tent as if in reverie, seeing beyond the canvas to the stone walls and floors of Hogwarts. "A noble goal. This place is... truly grand, in a way I never comprehended when I was a child. Only when I was fighting through its halls at the end of the war did I understand the castle's importance. It is a place of power, a place where great things are begun... And where great things end." She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, as if to inhale the magic in the air. After a moment, she opened them again and fixed their glinting points on Ria. "Magnificent. You may not care for fame, but we do great work here, Aisha. Greater work than anyone else in these Isles, if I may be so bold. Hogwarts shapes this nation's future, and we are both a part of that, now."

The glinting eyes grew sharper, but the voice remained pleasant, if hushed. "Tell me, what do you see in the future of your students? Who do you want them to be?"

The glinting eyes brightened, and Quinn gave Aisha a hard smile. "Indeed! Guilty as charged, but I believe we're kindred spirits. You want them to be free, you say. As part of that, shouldn't you wish to help them find the path that they would take if they were more capable and smarter than they are now? That way, they are directly more capable of making their own decisions intelligently. From such a perspective, I do wish them to take a set path: the path of self-optimization. What good is freedom if you make your choices foolishly? Such a one will be overtaken by those more clever than they, and thus lose the freedom we wish so desperately to give them."

Quinn's face fell. Ria didn't get it. Another one for the list, it seemed. Okay, really think about what she said. Don't just throw it away. Is there anything new in there?
"Have to make their own mistakes," yeah, if they're idiots ... "What we do could be futile, so why bother," always a classic rationalization for inaction ... "Destiny gives us a single place, and you can't improve past your given station," ugh ... best of all, "You can't change the world," that ancient standby, dating back to the apes who decided this "fire" business was all a bunch of nonsense and they weren't having any of it. No. Nothing new.

"Ahem, so you are a determinist, a fatalist. Well, I learned long ago that it is very difficult to debate on topics of pure philosophy, so I will simply say this: empirically, as far as I have delved into the mysteries of the soul and the deepest of magics, I have not found any ideal persons floating in the aether that each individual is meant to be. There is only the person that they are, right now, and the person that they will be, as matters of fact. Each person only has so much control over themselves and their lives, only a limited number of choices, a limited freedom quotient, as it were. If one values freedom, there is no reason not to maximize their own quotient, and no reason not to help everyone else do the same. And when I say maximize, I mean it. We are mages, damn it. We tell the laws of the universe to bow down before us... My dream is not to guide the students to find their correct places as cogs in the one eternal machine, but to have each and every one of them build their own eternal machine."

Quinn spoke still in a hushed tone, as if discussing sacred matters and ancient secrets.

Quinn just waved off her comments on the universe, saying "Yes, yes, of course, can't beat the universe at its own game. Pipe dreams, as always. The bottom line is, I shouldn't castigate you, and I'm sorry. We're on the same side. I may have different ideas about scale and the role of fate, but we both value freedom, and that's what matters."

When Ria changed the subject it finally clicked, and Quinn laughed, putting a hand to her face to cover her mouth. "Haha! So, you're investigating on behalf of the Headmistress. That's why you're here at the crack of dawn! Well, I'm sorry to have caused you the trouble, but I will relay the events as faithfully as I can. I do have quite a good memory..."

She sat back in her armchair and thought for a good while. "I will make an effort to exaggerate to my own detriment, if I exaggerate at all, to guide the bias of the retelling. We were discussing the specifics of my Battle League (tch, talk about pipe dreams), and there was an exchange regarding how to handle political support. My original point included something like 'we should spin the project to look like a sports league', with the implication that the spin would be directed at the Ministry of Magic, as well as a different spin that depended on the support of the war heroes who now work at the Minsitry in positions of power. I was obviously talking about the sort of political plot that a Slytherin would employ, that note is important. Professor Adamson objected, stating that we 'can't spin anything to the Ministry, we have to be upfront with them'. Something like that, anyway. He's under the impression that the Ministry is a reasonable institution of government, it seems... Anyway, my response to that was heavy incredulity. Here I was, talking to the Head of Slytherin House, and he's telling me that we can't use any political strategy to achieve our goals. I gave what was in hindsight a condescending lecture about how being a Slytherin means using every strategy available to you, and... Well, I even called into question his motivations for teaching at Hogwarts, if he wasn't going to use every available strategy to prepare the students for the hard world of adulthood. That whole thing was a mistake, obviously. I must have gotten caught up in the moment and the debate over the other particulars. He was being rather an idiot about most of his points, including the one about political strategy, but I know how to deal with idiots who have power over me, and that wasn't it."

Quinn looked Aisha in the eyes, and shuddered a little. "He got very angry, very quickly. That smile... Bloody hell. He presented his wand, laying it openly on the table as if to imply that he knew damn well how to use it, and went into a diatribe about how he was 'the wrong guy to be disrespected!' I had insulted his role as DADA Professor, which I quite foolishly did, and I had even insulted his ancestors, who of course were all Slytherins... That's when you know you're in deep water. Aristocrats," she said, shaking her head as if in disbelief. "They take everything so personally. Some choice exact words after that were, 'if you were any other person besides a professor I would truly show you just how much of the snake I have in my blood', I remembered that quite clearly, and there was something or other about making people who hurt his students 'suffer and beg for death', oh, oh, there was 'don't cross me or else,' pretty basic bravado." Whenever she quoted Adamson, she intoned it dramatically with sharp eyes and flaring nostrils, then reverted to her usual self to make comments.

"Final thoughts? He takes things personally, like all prideful folk, and he's a raging hypocrite, but aren't we all? I condescended to him once, and I very well won't be doing it again. That's my report. Skinning me alive was an extrapolation on my part, I will admit, based on the 'snake in my blood' comment. He certainly threatened my life over a single insult, though, and while that may be normal among aristocrats I wouldn't exactly call it welcome in academia." She shrugged. "My Battle League isn't going to happen like I want it to while he's in the DADA post, but I'm a patient woman. I will take the time to convince the Headmistress and Adamson of its benefits. I'm very good at compromising with intelligent people, and the Headmistress at least isn't too caught up in herself to see the big picture."