DIRECTIONS, PLEASE? [CARCER]

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Working as a Curse Breaker, Odette was often thrown into dangerous situations. Her most recent briefing ending in the instructions to recruit Hogwarts Alchemy professor, Simon Callahan. She had not yet been instructed on the specifics of said expedition but she knew it must involve alchemical ruins if an alchemny professor was involved. So Odette was back at Hogwarts for the first time since she graduated. Being in the Entrance Hall brought back memories of her own days at Hogwarts, spent with the likes of Victoire Weasley and Teddy Lupin. She hadn't heard from them in a long time and briefly wondered how they were doing but brushed the thought away as it was probably just the nostalgia speaking. She brushed her hair off her shoulder and with a sigh entered through the doors and found herself quickly standing in the middle of the Entrance Hall. She looked around. Not much had changed at all.

Perhaps the only thing that had changed was Odette's dislike for younger people. Still quite young herself, she really had no right to have such feelings but she could not help but find the youth of today going down hill as a group of Gryffindors (fourth years by the look of them,) came running past her with some Weasley products. The former Ravenclaw rolled her eyes at them. It was a weekend, and she wondered why these children weren't off doing better things like hanging out in the grounds rather than running around the Entrance Hall like foolish baboons. Nevermind it all. Odette took in a deep breath and headed toward the stairs.

A thought then came to mind that caused Odette to stop, however. Where exactly was the alchemy classroom? Odette hadn't taken alchemy but once and that was nearly ten years ago. Had the class perhaps moved? She stood at the bottom of the main staircase and bit her lip as she glanced around, looking for someone she could possibly ask for directions. But Odette wasn't really into engaging with younger students all that much...

@carcerronaldhagrid

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If there was one thing Carcer and his brother could do that nobody in the school could equal, it was eat. In particular, being part-giant gave them a more carnivorous diet than humans. Not to say that humans didn’t eat meat, but their health depended on a balanced diet. The Hagrids could eat and digest any of the same kinds of food, but their part-Giant physiology allowed them to stay healthy on a diet of pure meat, if they so chose. And while the elder Hagrid brother didn’t mind the occasional fruit or vegetable, and in fact was overly fond of bread, meat and fish were absolutely the top of his preferences. And, being thirteen feet tall (the tallest kid in the school not counting his brother was maybe half his height), Carcer could certainly pack it away. He often showed up very early to meals and stayed longer than most people. When you needed to fuel over four hundred pounds of thick, solid muscle, there was no skipping mealtime. Not that Carcer couldn’t go a few days without food if he had to—but he didn’t have to.

Still, even the hungriest get full, and the half-giant lumbered out of the Great Hall, a long skewer of roasted meat in his hand that could feed a normal person on its own. Carcer was surprisingly quiet for his size, to the point that he could quite easily sneak up on someone who wasn’t looking toward him. So it was that the half-giant saw the younger students barreling through the castle before they saw them. Sigh.

Well, he was a prefect.

Carcer raised a foot and brought it down with a little force. The stomp echoed through the entrance hall, the rafters above shuddering and shaking dust. The younger students froze, and as one, looked over at him. Carcer pointed his skewer at them, one eyebrow raised. “There’s lots of room to run outside, if you need to burn energy that much.” One of the kids nodded, and they beat as hasty a retreat as they dared. Carcer sighed again, before tearing off a chunk of meat from the skewer. They’d be running full-tilt again the moment they got out of his sight. For all of his size, his strength, and his skill, he wasn’t scary when he wasn’t around. He didn’t have the aura of someone you didn’t want to be caught by a second time, or that indescribable ability to make people obey you out of a desire not to disappoint you, like some of the professors.

That was fine, though. He started to go for another chunk of meat, noticing for the first time the dark-haired woman standing not too far away, looking a bit lost. “Headed somewhere in particular?” he asked, before biting into the roasted lamb.

@odette

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How could she not remember where the alchemy classroom was? Odette was a student only five years ago and she highly doubted that classrooms changed that often that she would have to search for it. An older, unfamiliar woman walking the halls was bound to get attention though and that was something that Odette did not want. However, she didn't want to ask for help either. It was a lose-lose situation. She tried to rack her brain for names of professors that were professors when she was still in school... she could only think of professors Longbottom and Aguillard. Professors seemed to be getting younger and younger these days, but she supposed it made sense if they were looking to teach for the remainder of their lives. She sighed quietly in frustration as she looked around the entrance hall, wondering to herself what her next move was.

While she was scanning the hall and avoiding the eye of any students, Odette was slightly startled by the loud thud that echoed, followed by the shuddering of the rafters above her. Immediately, the curse breaker furrowed her brow in confusion and annoyance. Her eyes now scanned the hall for the source and when she found it, her eyes widened slightly; impressed.

Odette did not expect to see a half giant standing only a few feet away. She narrowed her eyes at him a moment as he seemed to be shooing off the younger kids. By the looks of his robes, he appeared to be a Hufflepuff. He seemed to also have some sort of authority about him, but perhaps it was just because he towered over the other students. Odette didn't realize just how much he towered over the others until he seemed to be approaching her. She couldn't help but watch him, her chin raised in interest as he did so and then spoke to her as well. "Very intimidating," she nodded, impressed. He had handled the younger kids so calmly yet they had acted a little frightened in their hasty retreat. She always did appreciate a mature student, and in the case of this one it seemed that his demeanor mirrored his height.

"I am, as a matter of fact," Odette finally answered. "I'm looking for the alchemy classroom?"

@carcerronaldhagrid

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“Very intimidating.”

Carcer laughed at those words, shaking his head. “The younger ones pretty much consider me a Professor because of how big I am. I suppose I just look like an authority figure. The ones who grew up around me know better than to be afraid. Although they usually don’t bother trying to run if I catch them…” One disadvantage to being a prefect—Carcer was often excluded from things because he might turn people in for stuff. And the belief wasn’t without merit: the half-giant overlooked some rule-breaking, but if he thought the rules were being ignored for a silly reason, he would put his foot down.

“I am, as a matter of factly. I’m looking for the alchemy classroom?”

Alchemy? Nobody came all the way to Hogwarts to visit Professor Callahan without something of profound intrigue. Callahan wasn’t the professor you went to if you had a mundane problem. “Alchemy’s on the sixth floor. We—” he paused and looked at the oversized wristwatch he’d been given when he turned 17. No, no good that way. “The stairs just changed. We’ll have to detour at the fourth floor through the Astronomy tower.”

The Hufflepuff finished the lamb he was eating and pulled out his wand, Vanishing the wooden skewer. Then he turned to the woman. “Do forgive me, but since I don’t know who you are, I can’t let you wander around Hogwarts unsupervised currently. I should also warn you that I’m authorized to snap you like a twig if you try to attack anyone.”

Then he grinned and held out a massive hand. “Carcer Hagrid, Hufflepuff prefect.”

@odette (I am forever late and I am sorry :C)

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Odette's eyes widened only slightly, but she was still impressed. She eyed the student up and down for a moment. For a moment, he almost had her thinking he wasn't even a student until he explained about how the younger students mistaking him for a professor. After a moment, one eyebrow furrowed as she looked up him. "I take it you have giant in your blood?" She asked, kind of already assuming the answer would be yes. Actually, Odette would have been more caught off guard if there wasn't giant in his blood.

As the tall blonde looked at his watch, Odette continued to watch him. "Wow," she nodded, once again impressed. "I never memorized the stairs like that when I was in school." She said it with a hint of jealousy in her voice that she had never thought to time them in such a way. She could remember always running late to her classes because of a random change in the staircases. She had always hated those things. "Just as well," she shrugged, folding her arms across her chest. "I never really liked those things. And I'm afraid if I were to get on them now after these last few years, I would likely get sick. So a detour is much appreciated." And of course, Odette figured she would not be allowed to roam the castle alone. Not with the news of what had been going on around the school. It came as no surprise that this student said he had to escort her. However she did crack a smile at his "twig" comment.

Odette kept the small smile on her face as she looked at the massive hand in front of her. "Should have known," she commented, taking the hand (what she could of it,) and shaking it with her own. No wonder the other kids had ran off; he was a Prefect. "Odette Greyback, Curse Breaker for Gringotts."

@carcerronaldhagrid

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She asked if he was part giant—though it was as obvious as ever—and his last name served plenty well as proof of that particular status. She also mentioned that she'd never memorized the stairs, an oversight a lot of people encountered, from what Carcer had noticed. It was odd. People memorized trick steps, false doors, when certain doors went somewhere else, but never when the stairs changed. To be fair, the task seemed daunting on the surface. It wasn't as though Carcer had memorized all of the staircase movements, but each year he memorized the timing for the stairs he needed for each class. Granted, he could still get up the stairs himself, but it would be rude to pick this woman up and go jumping from staircase to staircase.

Carcer headed toward the grand staircase. He'd intended to use the moving staircases to hit the fourth floor, but they could take an alternate route if the woman—now identified as Odette Greyback—was afraid of getting sick on the stairs. He glanced at her for a moment when she mentioned her profession. “Huh. I'm joining Gringott's as a curse breaker myself when I graduate. Guess that means this won't be the last time we meet, then.” He turned left and headed down one of the first-floor hallways.

@odette (it's soooo late and so bad Dx)

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Odette was beyond relieved when the Prefect seemed to lead her in a different direction than that of which she seemed to remember the moving staircases being in. "Oh?" She said, intrigued now by the half-giant. At least, more so than she was. "Really? Are you a seventh year, then?" She asked as she began to follow him down the hallway. Odette had been a Curse Breaker for a little over two years now and she loved her job. While it was often dangerous, there still wasn't a thing she would trade it for. She hadn't seen many new recruits since her own group had gone through training, so the idea of fresh blood was a fun one. Come to think of it, they could use someone with giant's blood, too.

@carcerronaldhagrid
No biggie, no biggie.

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Carcer nodded at Odette's question as they moved along the corridor, stopping for a moment to allow a group of students to pass by rather than crowd them out with his size. “Yep. Graduating this year, top of Transfiguration. I'm pretty awful at written stuff, but unraveling complex magic...that's my favorite thing.” He led her to another set of stairs, immobile and heading almost all the way up to the sixth floor. It was rather fortuitous, he supposed, to run into a future coworker so early. “The challenge of cursebreaking is just...appealing. I also trained as an Animagus. Flying squirrel. Makes it easier to fit through places.”

@odette

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Odette followed the half-giant through the hall, a sense of nostalgia overcoming her as she did so. It had not been long since she had been there herself but it had been years since she roamed the halls with her best friends whom had always been years older than her and had graduated a few years before her. After they had left, though, Odette still had Liliana and she still did. They had both gone on to be Curse Breakers and it was weird to think how they had all met here.

Odette's eyebrows rose when the half-giant mentioned he had top marks in Transfiguration. And an animagus? He had an impressive repertoire, that much was certain. "Fascinating," she said quite enthusiastically. "We could definitely use that on our team!" Odette didn't think any of the others were animagi, and having one that could turn into something small would certainly come in handy. In fact, having a half-giant wouldn't be so bad either. "Well, good thing curse breaking is definitely more physical than anything," she attempted a light hearted joke but Odette was not very good at small talk.

They continued to walk and Odette raised her eyebrow at the half-giant as she turned her head and looked up at him. "So, what exactly made you want to become a curse breaker?"

@carcerronaldhagrid