Go the Distance [XIULAN]

[Deleted]

Frank had to admit it, but he was excited to get back to teaching. After a year of homeschooling his twins, he had been very pleased with their NEWT results when they had come in this past July. Now he was starting a new role with the upper school, Lufkin Institute for Further Education, or LIFE as it had been affectionately dubbed, teaching Ancient Studies to students specializing in that particular field of work. He felt that with this new system, the students who enrolled in his class were all students that would be interested in the subject, which admittedly not all were back at Hogwarts.

Something he had learned though after settling into his new office, was the idea of seminar lectures. Archie had come up with three rather brilliant lecture ideas for Cursebreakers, and he wanted to follow in the younger professors footsteps. However, he had a jumble of ideas rolling around in that brain of his, and needed help narrowing it down and focusing on one or two ideas to present to the board. He’d owled Xiulan, who was always great with advice, to come to his new office that afternoon when she had the time, so she could help get his ideas into plans. So he waited, tea brewing in the kettle with two cups and saucers ready for his friends arrival. Hopefully this would be a very productive afternoon.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

Hogwarts had reopened after a year of closure, reorganized as three separate schools for different stages of education on the same campus where the castle had once stood. Xiulan had never been to Hogwarts as it had been before Elaine Dupree had destroyed it, but she had received an invitation from Frank Lancaster to visit him at his office at the new Lufkin Institute for Further Education to help him with some seminar ideas he had. In spite of her hesitation, she knew that it was probably easier to meet with Frank in his office because she had Nessa living with her. She didn't know if Nessa had been a student of his before she had finished her education at Beauxbatons, but she didn't want to make anything awkward for her.

A potion later to get rid of her discomfort, Xiulan arrived at the Lufkin Institute, which was apparently more commonly referred to by its acronym of "LIFE". Although she wasn't sure exactly where Frank's office was in the building, she found her way there once she realized that there was an Ancient Studies wing there. Naturally, his office would be there.

She knocked lightly on the door to Frank's office, knowing that he was already expecting her.

@frank

[Deleted]

Frank opened the door and smiled as he saw Xiulan waiting for him. “Good, glad you found the place alright,” he said by way of greeting, inviting her into the study and flicking his wand at the teapot. Steam poured from its; spout as it lifted, filling two cups with hot water. “I couldn’t quite remember how you take your tea,” he admitted, adding two lumps of sugar and honey to his own tea and sitting back down behind his desk.

When they were situated with their beverages, Frank brought out a notebook where he had been jotting down some of his ideas. “So as you know I took this last year and summer to homeschool the twins and take them on an adventure as a family, before they decided where they wanted to go next. I was talking with another professor in this wing and he mentioned he’s doing some seminars on specifics with Cursebreaking, since he was one before going into teaching.” Frank paused, waiting for Xiulan to absorb what he had said so far. He sounded more like his old self he noted, excited, eager, and ready to give back. He’d always had a curious nature, and now that he was older and had seen and done so much, he could share that with his students. “I was thinking of a seminar on Ancient Archaeology, but I could use someone to bounce details off of. Would you be willing?” he asked Xiulan, looking hopeful.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

Frank opened the door to her and let her inside his office, where a teapot was already steaming. He commented that he couldn't remember how she took her tea, but Xiulan wasn't offended by it. It was trivial, really, and she laughed softly as she prepared her cup with nothing added to it but the tea.

"You've had enough on your mind, I'm sure," she told Frank, setting her purse on the back of her chair.

And it seemed that Frank had had enough on his mind, too, because he soon got out a notebook. He further explained his thought process, saying that he'd been talking to another professor in the same wing of the building. That had led him to thinking about holding a seminar on Ancient Archaeology, he elaborated, and he sounded genuinely excited by the possibility. She was there to act as a sounding board for him, as she had already agreed to by being there, but Frank asked if she were willing.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Xiulan smiled. She had made it to Frank's office and was interested in hearing his thoughts on this seminar. Of course, she couldn't say that she was particularly knowledgeable about the subject matter. Divination was her strength, but she could at least let Frank know if what he was saying made sense from the perspective of someone with very little background in it, which would likely be the case for some of the students.

More than that, it was good to see that Frank seemed to be back in his element. Xiulan honestly couldn't recall the last time that she had seen him so happy. She wasn't sure that he was aware of it, but she didn't want to call his attention to it, either.

@frank

[Deleted]

Frank chuckled as Xiulan quipped she had come to respond to his call for help. “I’m just warning you I may get sidetracked on a tangent,” he said, only half-joking. If you let him get started, according to Cat, he would talk one's ear off for hours if left unchecked. He opened up his notebook to the marked page, and began to rattle off his ideas. “So my first idea is to put together a magical archaeology seminar, with both in class and field work. It’s different from Cursebreaking because you’re not going on behalf of a bank or an individual to gain treasure or valued items. It’s more about discovering ancient wizarding settlements and learning from the artifacts found to expand our knowledge on how their civilization worked. Culture, transportation, food, anything really.” Frank paused here; this was the idea that he had spent the most time with, seeing as it was his passion. He knew how exciting it was to find traces of ancient wizarding settlements with his father, lovingly and carefully excavating the site to discover how wizards from hundreds, if not thousands of years ago lived.

“Then I was thinking of introducing a seminar the semester after that would take the artifacts that the students found and were brought back to the Institute for research studies. They would first pick from what they personally discovered, along with what else was discovered during the field work, and perform testing on them to carbon date them, or to find out exactly where and when their particular finds are from.” This seminar would be linked directly with the archaeology course, and his hope was that students from the first would want to continue with the second course, and really learn about the ruins of the ancient civilizations they’d just been excavating. “What do you think so far?” Frank asked her, hoping for some good feedback to tailor his ideas to.

xiulan zhou

[xiulan zhou]

Lightheartedly, Frank cautioned her about the possibility that he might end up on a tangent. Xiulan wasn't too worried about that, other than the risk that she might need to ask Frank to repeat himself because she hadn't caught what he had said the first time around. Because he had told her to, though, she braced herself, honestly happier than anything that he was so excited about these ideas he had.

His first idea, he explained, was a magical archaeology seminar that would include fieldwork as a component. From Frank's description of what he was planning, Xiulan thought that it sounded ambitious but not so much so as to be unrealistic. It would be good knowledge for the students to have, learning more about other civilizations besides their own. She couldn't see how anyone would be opposed to that, although not being from Britain might have made her slightly biased.

The next seminar, Frank continued, would follow the one that he had just mentioned. The students would take the artifacts they'd found during their fieldwork and do research on them back at LIFE to learn more about the artifacts in question.

"What do you think so far?" Frank checked.

He fortunately hadn't gone on any hard-to-follow tangents by that point, so Xiulan was able to give him her feedback on what she had heard from him without any issues.

"It sounds fascinating. I mean that. It's very thorough," she replied. Xiulan almost wished that she could have taken a course like that. It would have been far better than her actual experience with formal schooling. "Where would you take them for the fieldwork? Abroad?" she wondered, assuming that Frank had some location in mind already. Traveling with a group of young adults who could do magic on their own would be much easier than traveling with a group of children, but Xiulan knew that she wouldn't be up for that task.

@frank