Not My Day [Ginny]

[annie le beau]

Annie stalked the halls, cranky.She had been minding her own business, before two particularly unpleasant encounters had put her in a foul mood. First, the seventh-year had been reminded why she missed Beaubaxtons as much as she did. This castle was not only drab in comparison, but it was home to ghosts, poltergeists, and all manner of unpleasant creatures. Peeves had been antagonising Annie, pelting her with something he'd taken from the kitchen, and leaving large red stains on her dress. That had been easy enough to deal with she had simply ducked into a bathroom and cleaned them off by way of magic. However, she had of course stumbled into the bathroom belonging to one Moaning Myrtle, who, after some 'encouragement' from Peeves had began to flood the entire first floor, leaving Annie wet, and due to her waling, irritated. Cleaning up was fine, but if anyone had seen her after either situation, she felt her reputation may never have recovered.

Indignantly, she walked, nose in the air, catching a glimpse of red hair too late to stop herself, She'd colided with Professor Weasley. As if today couldn't be any worse, now she was likely to lose points for her house, and if the word got around as to what had happened, her ambitious house would be none too happy with her - They were only just ahead of Gryffindor as it was.  Annie didn't even think to hide the nasty scowl on her face, as she picked herself up off the wet floor, her dress dirtied for the third time today.

"C'est ridicule!" The french girl declared angrily, in lieu of an apology to the professor... She had never liked professor Weasley to begin with, and she was glad that she had dropped History of Magic after her fifth year.

@ginny

[Deleted]

Ginny was not having the best of days. In fact, this was something of an understatement; in fact, she was having the worst day that she could recall having in quite some time. Her first years this morning had been an absolute nightmare, refusing to listen to a word that she said, and then she had spent a few hours marking, finding much to her irritation that out of fifty essays, not one was correct in even the smallest of details. After all this, it was rather obvious that her mood was a little strained, and it was a cruel twist of fate that the next thing which the world held in store for her had been a rather complicated issue with some of her Gryffindors, involving two boys, six girls and a succession of broom cupboards, about which, so far as Ginny was concerned, the less she knew the better. Unfortunately her role as Head of House did not allow for her to forget it, and so she had had to spend further tedious hours in attempting to unpick the knot; an effort which had not been successful.

There were times when Ginny seriously regretted her decision to leave journalism in favour of teaching, but at least the hours were regular, the pay was good, and the food was wonderful, and so the redhead was just beginning to recover her natural good humour as she made her way down the corridors. It would seem that the roll of the die was not in her favour today, however, since the woman rounded a corner to collide suddenly with a tall girl whom she vaguely recognised as a Slytherin. Ginny was about to apologise when the exclamation that met her ears stopped the words on their way up her throat, and suddenly she was irritated again. "Excusez-moi?" she enquired icily. Spending a fair few years with a French sister in law and her sister had done wonders for the woman's skill in the language, though she would certainly not claim to be fluent.

annie le beau

[annie le beau]

Of course the woman she had collided with spoke French. Of course Annie had just made things worse for her. She decided it may have been best to try to put her best foot forward. Suddenly her smile was a mask of angelic sweetness. For all the world it seemed genuine - if it weren't for those cold eyes, and the slight high note in her voice that betrayed her veela temper. She may not have been over to throw fire like her grandmother but right now her palms would have been uncomfortably warm to the touch none the less.

"Zis is ridiculous, professor." She said in English. "Not you... Just Peeves 'as been 'arassing me, and zen ze bathroom floods. and my dress is ruined again." Her sweet tone and her veela charm might have earned sympathy from most, and Annie of course, had no idea that Ginevra Weasley had 'enjoyed' the company of a quarter-veela woman who had later married her brother. She didn't realise that this woman would likely be more annoyed than sympathetic, remembering the way her sister-in-law used to behave.

Annie looked as though she may have been on the verge of tears. "I am sorry if I 'urt you, professor." She said, her usual mask of sweetness faultering to betray the disinterest she felt in Ginny's pain or lack there of.

[Deleted]

Ginny raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the sudden shift in the girl's expression. Something flipped in her brain, and a little voice at the back of her head murmured Veela. Merlin, this took her back to the weeks... which had felt like months... before Bill and Fleur had moved out of the Burrow, where one couldn't round a corner without meeting Fleur, being beautiful all over the place and practically dripping in contempt. And that contempt was definitely present here too; however hard the girl before her tried to hide it, and Ginny was not impressed. She didn't expect anyone to curtsey when they met her in the corridors, but she was a professor and a Head of House and she felt that she was entitled to at least some respect.

To give the girl her due, though, it sounded as though her day had been almost as bad as Ginny's, and the redhead flicked her wand over the girl's dress to remove the miniscule particles of dust which were apparently adhering to it, then raised her eyebrows at the Slytherin. Had her efforts not been satisfactory? Honestly, she could not care less. There were more important things to her than some teenager's wounded pride.

"No, Miss le Beau, you are not sorry." the redhead stated flatly. "You are attempting to appear sorry in an effort to avoid the repercussions of your actions. Perhaps if I were to give you detention for a month, you would be sorry. Although I doubt it, and in any case, this would achieve nothing."

[annie le beau]

That was too much for her. The threat of detention. The idea that this professor could punish her for her accident, on a day like today was simply not going to fly. The fact the older woman had known, so certainly that Annie hadn't even been the least bit sorry had unnerved her. Usually batting her lashes, and pouting about her problems was enough to get her out of trouble. She felt confronted and the infamous terror of her kind flared in her. The same rage that her grandmother had felt when she burned the family home to the ground. Veela rage was as strong as their charming beauty, and far, far more blatant and nasty. "'Ow do you know if I am sorry or not!?" She scoffed, shaking her gorgeous blonde head.

"Do you even remember what it was like to be a student in zis 'orrible school? Or 'as it been too long?" she hissed. If Annie had been thinking things through, she might have walked away, and demonstrated discretion, but the serpent's angel mask had been cracked, and her foul temper was on full display. A tantrum was coming, and while it may have been unbecoming of a very clever witch who was now of adult age. Ginny Potter had aged well, but she would never hear that from Annie. Particularly not in this wrathful mood.

"Go ahead, and give me detention. I will not apologise for 'aving a bad day." She challenged the teacher, and in this moment the selfish, narcissistic young lady believed for all the world that she was totally justified in her attrocious behaviour. She would respect her elders when her elders stopped making threats.

[Deleted]

Of course Ginny had no intention whatsoever of giving the girl a detention for walking into her around a corner; accidents could happen and it had been just as much her own fault as it had been the Slytherin's, but she did object to the girl's attitude. Of course, she objected even more strongly to having to be responsible for educating her students in basic manners, which she felt ought to have been instilled in them by their parents before they began even to attend primary school, never mind coming to Hogwarts. But she was not going to stand for being treated like that, and equally, she was not going to let the girl think that she could get away with speaking to her like that. Ginny knew very well exactly what was going on in the girl's mind. Just the same things as had been going on in Fleur's mind- an innate belief that she as a Veela was superior to everyone else around her, and especially and particularly Ginny. But she had had that for years, she was used to it, and she was damn well not going to give in to it. She was in the right here, she had the authority, and she was going to show this girl who was in charge. Ginny had no desire to show off or abuse her authority, but this girl was testing her sorely just now.

"I know very well that you are not sorry, Miss le Beau, since you display no signs of remorse. I may add that I am not so ancient as you may believe, and that I clearly do not believe this school to be as awful as you do as I happen to teach here. And I will not be giving you a detention for having a bad day, but I may be tempted to give you one for your attitude." Ginny's Weasley temper was inflamed, but she was doing her best to keep herself in check.

[annie le beau]

Annie wasn't the least bit apologetic, and her temper had her inflamed but she was starting to realise that Ginny Potter would neither be bullied, or caroused. It wasn't something she dealt well with, the failure of both charm and temper had left her feeling cornered. She could offer another hollow apology, but it seemed evident that it would be a waste of breath. She could walk away but that would be telling Ginny that she was right. It would be giving Professor Potter the validation, that, realistically she deserved, but that someone like Annie would never actually allow her to have. She was normally polite, and carried herself in such a sweet way that most would never see this side of her, but now that Ginny had, and it hadn't rattled her, she didn't know what to do.

She stood, seething, silent and scowling, an ugly look on a pretty face. "It's 'ard to show remorse when I am being threatened, professor." She said coldly. "I will admit... I was rude. I shouldn't 'ave insulted you for your age." She said, not admitting that the insult itself was wrong, not complimenting the professor or actually showing contrition. Still She knew she had been rude, and as much as she wasn't sorry for expressing her frustrations, she knew that she couldn't behave this way for the sake of her house. "If you believe I deserve a detention, so be it."

Annie looked positively outraged still she hated the idea that she was actually giving in after her outburst... She would apologise as little as possible, give Ginny only the contrition that she felt was necessary to avoid the worst of her punishment. Her hot hands slowly clenched into fists and released again as she tried to manage veela outrage.

[Deleted]

There was no way on earth that a Weasley woman in a righteous rage would ever give in to a snarky Veela, and Ginny might have married a Potter but that had not diminished her capacity for tenacity or for anger, and this Slytherin was coming dangerously close to receiving the full brunt of it. It wasn't all the French girl's fault, Ginny would admit; she had been having a bad day all around, and she was sure that no one would blame her for giving the girl a detention just on the merit of her behaviour today. Professor Snape would no doubt have taken several hundred points for such a cardinal sin as daring to be cheeky to a professor, and there were certainly teachers who would not hesitate to do the same today. But that, in a way, was what stopped her from doing so. She was determined that she would not be like Snape. She was not here to cause misery, she was here to educate. And that was exactly what she was going to do. She intended to educate this girl in how she ought to behave.

"No, Miss le Beau, I am not threatening you, because if I was threatening you, you would know about it." Ginny snapped and immediately regretted it. But this girl was sorely trying her temper, which was always close to the surface, and she was only human, after all. "I shall not be giving you a detention because it is quite evident to me that it will have no effect on you whatsoever. I shall, however, be keeping a very close eye on you, and if I hear of this kind of behaviour from you towards a professor again then I shall take some more serious action. Understood?"

[annie le beau]

Annie's rather pretty face looked very stupid for just a moment her jaw went momentarily slack as she searched for a retort to the professor's snapped remark. She was at a loss for words much less actions. How was she meant to respond to an educator making a comment like that. It wasn't that Ginny was out of line, she wasn't and even Anabel was well aware of the fact that Ginny's response was perfectly reasonable, even if some indignant, entitled part of her mind wanted to snap back, wanted to fight this authority figure who had dared to wrong her. She couldn't quite bring herself to. There was a genuine fear of the consequences that she couldn''t allow herself to show, or justify by hiding behind concern for her house's victory.

"Understood." came the girl's cold, angry response, she did her best not to back down, and to compose herself. She refused to show how rattled she was. Annie did her best to limit her reaction to icy grace.

[Deleted]

Ginny would be telling a lie if she was to say that she didn't feel any sort of satisfaction at the look of shock which appeared on the Slytherin's objectionably pretty face. On the contrary, she felt very satisfied indeed. She wasn't entirely sure what it was, but the appearance of any kind of Veela had a tendency to instantly set her nerves on edge, and Ginny was somewhat tempted to attribute it to Fleur and how she had behaved around her. The redhead was not a proud woman, but she did object to having it implied that she was inferior, and any Veela seemed to do that with their very presence. She knew, though, that she was not being hard on this girl solely because she was a Veela, but also because she was an arrogant, spoiled brat, who by the looks of it had never been subject to any kind of discipline at all. There was no way that she could be justly accused of being unfair.

"Good." she responded implacably to the girl's acknowledgement.

[annie le beau]

Annie decided she was best off leaving. There wasn't going to be any salvaging this situation. But she realised it would be essential for her to try and behave at least somewhat appropriately. She looked the professor over considering her for a moment. She didn't know how to play this. She bit her lip to avoid letting out a sigh of contempt as she attempted to contain her displeasure at the situation. She wanted to be defiant, to refuse to be cowed by this woman, but she knew, deep down she was in the wrong, and she knew that Professor Weasley, kind as she was, would never actually have been one to tolerate misbehaviour. 

"May I please be excused, Professor?" She said doing her best impression of someone with a scrap of respect for the redhead. There was something intangible in her voice, while she did her best to maintain icy dignity there was a sort of falter to it that indicated her defeat, and her... Fear wasn't quite the word but the wariness that Professor Weasley had instilled in her. 

[Deleted]

Had she been in the wrong, Ginny might have begun to feel a little guilty as she calmed down from her initial irritation, but this was not the case. She knew very well that the girl was the kind of person who rang rings around most teachers by pretending to be an absolutely perfect student and usually got away with it. But that cut no ice with Ginny; in fact, it barely cut water; and although she might have spoken a little more sharply than she would otherwise have done thanks to the terrible day which she'd been having, her sentiments had been precisely what she actually felt, and she was certainly not going to apologise for them.
"Yes, Miss Le Beau, you may go." the redhead responded curtly. She felt more satisfied than she probably should have done, she admitted, but it had at least made a bad day just a little better for an overworked professor.

[annie le beau]

Annie felt as though she had gotten away with it... She was nervous, yes. She knew that this likely wouldn't fly again. as she walked away though a smirk stretched across her lips. The lookw as half genuine, and half Annie trying to convince herself that she had gotten away with ehr unacceptable behaviour. She wanted to laugh or brag, and when she was safely back in the underground den of Slytherin House, she certainly would. Of course, that was likely to be a long journey away, if Peeves decided he wasn't finished with her, or if she surcame once again to the slipping hazard that was the castle's flooding floor and moving staircases.

Almost as if on cue, the poltergeist resurfaced. and there was a loud wet squelching noises as her dress was Once again destroyed, before the troublesome little spectre once again took off down the hallway cackling, and singing of the mess he had made of the french woman. With a huff and a wave of her wand, Annie cleaned herself off again. Stunned. Would the professor have anything to say, would she simply walk away pretending she hadn't seen a thing? Annie would probably have done the latter if she was in Professor Weasley's position. That much was true.

"We shall see what Ze Bloody Baron has to say about zis, Peeves!" She threatened, though the poltergeist was outside of earshot by the time the words found her.