Another Teacher I Can Trust? (Tag Jasper)

((Wow, did I choose an original place for them to meet or what? XD Jk, jk.))

Jim's fingers tapped anxiously against his leg as he made his way towards the History of Magic classroom. No doubt Professor Alexander wanted to see him because he hadn't handed in that last history assignment. Well, last two history assignments. Okay, so he had missed three, but Jim felt like he couldn't help it. He was still trying to get over what had happened in the Shrieking Shack, and even though Evaine was with him constantly, he still felt like he had to look over his shoulder constantly, or check his room to make sure he was absolutely alone. His paranoia ways were starting to come back to him, and that was making it harder to focus in class. No doubt he was going to get a lecture from Professor Alexander about being diligent in schoolwork, turning essays in time, the usual stuff that Jim had heard during the past four years. He sighed as he walked inside, shutting the door behind him. This was going to be a long day.

Jasper growled quietly at the stack of papers in front of him, he hated grading these stupid things, and half the time he judged the grade on how much he liked the student. In fact, the homework assignments were usually based on how he was feeling that day, the early morning students really got it bad, Jasper wasn't a morning person and when he was forced to be woken up to deal with students he gave them lots of pages to read and long papers to write.

He sat at the front of the class, behind his desk as he glanced around at the students. To be honest, he wasn't even sure what they would cover today. His eyes searched over the top of the stack, the name "Aileen Quinn" standing out in delicate handwriting in the corner, he was sure she knew what they were studying at the moment and skimmed her paper to see where he had left off last class so he would be able to find the next chapter with ease and a false precision like he had known all along.

However, at the sound of the door closing once more he looked up and spotted Jim Hawkins. He had taken the time to actually memorize this boy's name, there was rumors that there was something different about him and from what he had heard it was something quite interesting, if the rumors were said to be true. He seemed dazed, confused, not quite in the right mental state for any class at the moment. A silent smirk spread across his features.

"Class is dismissed for the day. I expect a four page paper on the past couple of classes, and I'm speaking of small handwriting anything marble sized when be expected to be eight pages and anything larger than that will receive an immediate fail. This is not primary school, you are no longer a child, there is zero excuse for your sad excuses of chicken scratch to take only fit three words on a line of parchment."

Jasper said in a stern yet oddly calm tone, enough to establish his dominance in the class from the rest of the snarky little students. As the students began getting up and retreating out of the door quickly, as if the professor would change his mind he cleared his throat.

"Jim Hawkins? I'd like to see you before you leave."

Jasper said loud enough for him to hear over the footsteps and door shutting. He seemed nonchalant about it, thumbing through the papers on his desk with a lack of interest.

Jim had to resist the urge to gulp nervously. He just nodded in Professor Alexander's direction. It looked like he was having a bad day. Or was he always like this? Jim couldn't recall. He didn't pay attention much in this class, for obvious reasons. History of Magic had always been the bane of his existence. Jim, don't be such a coward. He's just a teacher. What's the worst he can do? But by the time he pulled himself out of his thoughts, the rest of the students were already gone and it was just him and Professor Alexander in the room. He shuffled towards his desk. "Um, you wanted to see me...sir?" So much for sounding confident. He sounded like a first-year going into detention for the first time.

Jasper rolled his eyes at his papers, he threw the stack back into the corner with a dissatisfied huff, he'd bribe a student later to pretend to read through them for a few Housepoints in their House's favor. As the class was entirely empty, except with one Jim Hawkins he stood up, suddenly and flinched a bit, wounds almost recovered from the night he'd bring into question. Jasper folded his arms behind his back as he stood tall, proud, like he was more accomplished than he actually was, but no one needed to know that.

He tilted his head slightly in the direction of table closest to his desk as he stepped around his dark oak fortress. He then leaned back against it, keeping his eyes diligently focused on the younger male.

"So . . . "

Jasper started, clicking his tongue in thought as he attempted to think of a proper way to word his thoughts without scaring or offending the boy.

"I heard. . . you were one of the students that were cursed a few nights ago."

He said quietly, with a false sincerity, and curiosity in his voice. Naturally he had known that, he had been the one to curse him, but none of the students would ever find that out that little secret.

"You've been ignoring your work . . . I couldn't help but notice."

A heavy sigh broke past his lips.

"I . . . just wanted to make sure everything was alright. . .and if you ever needed to talk to someone . . . well, birds of a feather flock together do they not?"

Jim's fingers clenched and unclenched around the handle of his satchel. He always got nervous when alone with teachers. They always gave the impression that he was in trouble. Sometimes they actually didn't think that, but Jim's paranoia often got carried way and thought it all the same. At the mention of him being among the group of people affected by the Imperius Curse though, he swallowed, not able to stop the images from running through his head: the terrifying fear he had felt inside the Shrieking Shack, the horror at what he had done to Evaine, the fear of losing Valerie's friendship for good. He shut those images away, but they had still been in his mind for a moment, as they usually did when someone mentioned the incident. He still couldn't think about it without cringing a little.

"Yeah, um..." Jim cleared his throat, trying to sound a little more confident about himself. "Sorry about...that. Things have...gotten a little crazy. No doubt you've...noticed." Jim was sure that the teachers had their hands full while trying to sort out this mess. He sighed, running a hand through his hair, but he looked up again. "Birds of a feather? What do you...mean?" What was Professor Alexander implying? Had he gotten hurt during the whole Imperius Curse thing?

By his sudden silence and the clear pain in his eyes, Jasper knew he had found more than just a typical weak spot, and it would be his first step to unwinding this boy, brown strand by brown strand. He sat silent as he spoke, taking in his words quietly with an actual interest, he had to be aware of everything at this early stage. As Jim mentioned that he would have noticed he chuckled internally, but refused to make an audible sound, if only the boy really knew.

Jasper hated to show weakness but perhaps his weakness for the moment would actually benefit him here. He sighed heavily, clearly disappointed in himself. It took him a moment to actually spit it out, it hurt his pride with each poison word that spilled from his lips.

"I was attacked by one of the students here . . . if it wasn't for Professor Bell, I wouldn't be standing here in front of you today."

He said, in a surprisingly grateful tone before shaking his head.

"It seems like the school is already up in flames and we've barely returned for this year . . . but even if the sky is spilling fire Jim, I want you to know."

Jasper said before lightly placing his hand on the brunette's shoulder.

"This is always a safe place for you, whenever you need it."

"Oh God..." Jim couldn't believe it. A teacher had actually been severely hurt during all the mayhem? Sure, he himself had probably come close to attacking Alliss or Craig, but it sounded like Professor Alexander would have died if Professor Bell hadn't stepped in at the last second. Jim almost wanted to ask who attacked him, but he dismissed the idea. It was probably too personal a thing to bring up. "Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "Can't imagine what else can happen here..." He shook the thought away, not wanting to imagine worse things happening, like a Death Eater invasion of the whole school. But his thoughts were interrupted when the professor put a hand on his shoulder. He looked up. Professor Alexander actually seemed to be...concerned about him, even cared for him. That didn't happen often with Jim's teachers, except with Alliss. Maybe...Professor Alexander was another ally that could help him, keep him steady when things went crazy. "Thank you. I'll...remember that." It sounded like a cliche thing to say, but that was all Jim could think of at the moment.

Jasper rose an eyebrow at the boy's reaction to his own attack, it seemed if anything, that would help him in the long run as well, not only were the two Ravenclaws, but now they had both seen the terror that was Lord Voldemort's magic, even if he was a loyal follower. As the boy looked up at him he saw the twinkle of hope in his eyes, he had to imagine it was because the werewolf trait, it was a threatening trait, it was no shock that teachers who knew, if any, would want to stay away just in case something happened and he started to change. Jasper even mustered up a smile, which was beyond rare and in fact he could only remember actually smiling at someone twice in his entire being . . . but this wasn't one of those times, it was convincing enough though. He gave the boy a light pat as he released his shoulder and nodded, good he was starting to trust him, at least that's what he was making it seem. The professor took a step back and leaned against his desk once more, he clicked his tongue before chuckling quietly and shaking his head.

"Tell you what Jim, I'll ignore your past couple of blunders with my class and allow you to write me one decent length paper on the past few weeks. I know what's like when personal matters come into play and ruin one's work ethic."

Never before in his short teaching career had Jasper Alexander offered such a trade off, and never again would he. It was for the sake of his 'work', his work on Jim at least, when word spread that the horrible professor Alexander so willingly gave slack to him it would surely spark the rumors of him possibly having a heart and it not being entirely frozen over by now. He folded his arms over his chest, keeping his eyes on the male.

"How does that sound Jim?"

It seemed like things were actually looking up for once. Jim's life was so consumed with his friends these days, he hardly had any kind of relationship with his teachers. And yet here was one, offering him help if ever needed it, a reassurance that he would be there whenever he needed it. Jim knew that he was probably going to end up coming to him more than once throughout the year, especially if things were starting to get crazier. Professor Alexander, Professor Rivera, yes, those were two very good people to know during times like these. They were capable, kind, sort of everything Jim wished he could be. His face brightened up a bit when the teacher suggested an alternate assignment to do. "That sounds great," he replied, smiling. "Thank you so much, I...I won't let you down." If Professor Alexander had faith in him, Jim wanted to be sure that that faith wasn't wasted.

Jasper rested his aquatic hues onto the boy, he seemed to be taking the bait rather quickly, which was strange, he didn't even put up a struggle. He had to assume that this was to due the fact that the poor kid was already broken mentally and was desperately grasping for anything that seemed to be offering a hand of good faith, even if it was just a facade. It was strange but for a moment it was almost as if there was something real about his concern, the sheer dependence that Jim seemed to have on anyone who was willing to help him made the challenge . . . not as fun, and it was strange, Jasper couldn't remember a time that he felt this way towards one of his targets . . . it almost seemed as if he really cared. But of course Jasper would tell himself this was due to himself being such a great liar, he even believed he cared.

The boy seemed to lighten up about the assignment and to be honest he wouldn't actually grade it, he'd make a student stay after with the hope of obtaining some extra house points but either way he'd make sure Jim was rewarded for his efforts, even if it was just like another piece of bait that he was luring the werewolf in. He shook his head, a small grin on his lips as he looked towards the door.

"I suppose I can let you run along now, I have to imagine your fellow students are already thinking I'm tearing you to shreds or something obscene like that."


[ Damnit Jim, let me force adopt you. Fwuh. ]

((Oh jeez, I giggled so hard at that. XD You'll have to battle it out with Alliss. She probably wants to adopt him too. XD))

"Oh...yeah. My girlfriend always worries if I'm out of her sight for too long." Of course, Jim was the same way about Evaine, so he couldn't think too badly of it. Besides, he liked being around her all the time. It was nice to be able to depend on someone to help him out. "Thank you, again." He gave a little smile before heading out the door, his steps a little more light-footed than before. Finally, he was catching a break somewhere. He felt like he could relax a bit, put away one more thing that he didn't have to worry about. Maybe History of Magic wasn't going to be such a bad class after all.

((I guess we'll end it here, unless you want to add something.))

[ You honestly ended it so preciously that I don't have the heart to add anything else. I really look forward to these two interacting again though . . . he gives Jasper such strange human feels that he doesn't know how to entirely function correctly. . . it's kinda funny to type actually. ]