Scapegoat (Andrei)

His tale was not uninteresting per say, but it was cliche. Too many times Adelaide had heard of people being inspired to pursue a line of career they hadn't considered before. Andrei however seemed to be among the rare group for whom the risk taking actually worked out. Otherwise the redhead was more used to these stories ending with how the once inspired individual had made a grave error in judgement and should have stuck to his or her original plan.

His idea did have merit, and the witch was sure they would be able to find kind souls willing to facilitate these talks for free. Everyone loved a good charity op these days and getting the school featured more regularly in the papers with the right kind of stories wouldn't hurt the bottom line. Perhaps the Runes' professor had a better idea of business than he let on.

"Well, these are all certainly good suggestions," she smiled, smooth and professional. "In fact, I admire your passion for the venture so I would like to count on your to maybe arrange such a talk for the beginning of the next school year say? Since the schedule for this term seems rather packed?" The suggestion was more a test to see how much responsibility he'd be willing to take on outside of actual teaching, and to subtly insinuate that he would be looking to renew his contract at the end of term.

Of course, if he wanted more responsibility, they would need a longer chat. One which may turn out to benefit both parties involved. Bu for now, Adelaide simply waited to see how he would respond to actually facilitating his ideas.

Ah, here it was; the heart of the issue and the reason for the meeting. These things always felt like a dance to the runes professor. This dance had strange variations to it be with a haggling herdsman in Egypt, an adamant merchant in Hong Kong, or a stern businesswoman at Hogwarts. However, the basic steps were almost always the same: avoid the main topic with small talk until the last possible moment. The whole thing was really rather childish, but Andrei danced well nonetheless.

"Yes, it has been rather hectic as of late," Andrei agreed with a grin before biting into the meat of the conversation. "And I'd like nothing more than to arrange just such a talk; I was thinking that a delegate from the upcoming Convention meeting would do nicely as no matter the outcome it will be an interesting subject."

He took a small leap of faith here and assumed that the headmistress was worldly enough to keep track of current events. If not? Well, oh well; ya win some and ya lose some.

"That said, as you well know, my contract is up at the end of this school year. And given the uncertainty around your announcement over the holidays, I found it prudent to shop around a bit. At the moment I'm sitting on two offers for museum directorships."

This might have been a slight distortion of the truth. He had one solid offer in writing from a museum in Germany and one verbal one with the museum he used to work at. Apparently, they'd found an anonymous donor to hurry along the renovations and cure their financial woes.

"Now, I'll be quite frank with you, I have my family to think about. While I can no doubt support them on year-to-year contracts given Hogwarts' generous compensation I don't think it is nearly worth the job uncertainty inherent in such an arrangement. It isn't fair to Marie or the kids. So, while I'd like to see this idea through I don't see how I can given the current arrangement."

Andrei's voice fell into the same tone he often took with students when explaining a difficult concept. He spoke clearly, steadily, and confidently. The last thing he wanted to do was to come off as looking for a handout. No, he simply told it how it was—funny how even a decade ago he wouldn't have even brought up the subject of uncertainty. Age truly did lend perspective, go figure.

"Ah the ICWW Summit," Adelaide nodded, picking up on his suggestion. While Hogwarts had remained relatively free of political opinions over the last few years, the Headmistress was nonetheless intrigued at his notion of trying to fix that. It would only be when Andrei started actually shopping that he would realize how difficult it was to recruit a candidate who was both an authority on the subject matter and still divorced from impressing an opinion on the students. But that would be his woe, not hers.

So instead of pointing out the possible flaws, she merely added "My husband is leading an independent counsel on that very matter, looking into the Confederation's interests in the coming months." This was the first time she had mentioned Harvey's work to a member of staff, for the simple reason that no one had broached the subject with her. But Adelaide was still proud of Harvey and opportunities to show that did not come often.

It was almost effortless the way they segued into the meat and potatoes of the conversation so to speak. Adelaide listened patiently as he described the job opportunities he had waiting and what it took to keep his family going. Of course, he did not mention how uprooting his children would affect the harmonious nature of said family, nor did he mention the love of teaching he had previously touted. The witch couldn't blame him, he was now arguing from the different side and using whatever he thought would put him in a better negotiation.

"Only two?" A perfectly threaded eyebrow arched on her forehead. "You mustn't have been looking very seriously." A small pause to allow for a laugh or an admittance should he wish before Adelaide spoke once more. "Well in that case, I might have a proposition for you, Andrei." The next words on her lips would have to be carefully delivered in the event he chose to hold her to a binding verbal contract. Something the affable professor wasn't likely to do but old habits died hard. Adelaide had started her career as a legal secretary.

"If you can arrange for the proposed talk to be held in September, complete with an appropriate speaker who would generously donate his or her time to this cause, and have all the paperwork signed and ready by the end of this term - July if we're talking specifics - I shall write a letter to the board recommending your contract be renewed for two more years." The Headmistress paused, letting that information sink in before adding the piece de resistance. "My recommendation would also include giving you more responsibility, like say Head of Ravenclaw House and Deputy Headmaster? With the appropriate increase in salary of course."

Of course, the most attractive part of the offer was one he would have to work out himself. After Deputy Head, only one position remained for the conquering. And Andrei was presumably sharp enough to put that together with her very public announcement that she intended to vacate her own position soon.

"How does that sound?"

“What can I say?” he shot back smoothly at the woman’s surprise regarding his job prospects. “I’m a bit picky.”

In his youth, Andrei often went fishing with his father. Now, he didn’t particularly like fishing all that much, but he liked his father well enough at the time, so he actually got pretty deep into the hobby. However, he never kept up with the hobby as an adult. Indeed, the only remnants of his once off fascination with flies, hooks, and rods lived on in a rather strange vocabulary. In fact, as the headmistress laid out the offer, a phrase occurred to him that his father always used to repeat religiously after he saw a tug on the line, that’s it boy, now set the hook.

“It sounds,” he paused for a moment searching for the right word, but gave up and settled for the trite over the profound. “…interesting. That said, I hope you’ll understand that I’d need to see the specifics in writing and, of course, I’d need to talk to Marie about the whole thing. She had hoped to move closer to her mother.”

It took considerable effort on Andrei’s part not to jump at the offer as it was all he’d hoped for and more. Honestly though, it sounded too good to be true and, in his experience, if something seemed too good to be true it often was. Yes, for the moment he would keep his ambition on a tight leash, there were more important things to think about than personal glory…if only he could remember what they were.

Headmaster Kessler, it did have a certain ring to it.

"Well, let's put it this way," the witch rephrased, an ensnaring smile now blossoming on her lips. Andrei had a good poker face, she'd give him that. Unfortunately for him, reading poker faces was her specialty. The excuses of needing to discuss with his wife and whatnot were mere pretext to accepting the offer. Adelaide was fairly sure the compensation in gold and perks alone would dull Mrs. Kessler's pain at being away from her mother. And what with the additional financial leeway, she could even visit this alleged mother more often.

"The sooner I get the paperwork for the talk on my desk, the faster an owl carrying my strong recommendation will fly to the board. Metaphorically speaking of course, we switched to emails years ago." And good thing they had, the headmistress really couldn't be bothered with owls in this day and age. In Adelaide's opinion, the birds were more a token of the past than some of the Runes Andrei taught in his class.

"And of course the sooner my recommendation gets to them, the sooner they will start on the contract, which means you well have more than ample time to look it over and discuss its finer points with Marie." Of course, the process would be more complicated if he chose to make it so, but the board had its priorities clear. They were willing to pay up to a certain amount and no more regardless of the candidate's qualification so in the end it might just be a game of stretching a rubber band to its widest girth without it snapping.

But that was really an HR thing, her job was mostly done.

"Very well," Andrei relented—he could play the non-committal game as well. "Thank you for the kind offer; I'll consider it over the weekend."

He pushed back in his chair signaling the end of the meeting. Another trick to meetings such as these was knowing when to bow out of them. Overstaying one's welcome never went over well. Plus, the longer he stuck around the higher a chance there was that he'd say something he regretted—the businesswoman still rubbed him the wrong way.

"If that's all," he stood up and extended his hand in a friendly gesture. "I should get back to grading if I want to make my date."

He'd finish all his grading last night. Assuming the headmistress did not have anything the further to say and regardless of if she took his handshake, Andrei would take his leave of the woman. He certainly had a lot to think about, for better or for worse.

Probably for better though.

Probably.

Taking his profiteered hand, the headmistress shook is briefly before bidding him a good day. Now that the matter of his job promotion was on the table and the conditions to gain it outlined, there was little reason to continue the meeting. Thankfully the professor was not one to overstay his welcome and left promptly, leaving Adelaide to get back to her work.

This was the most precarious meeting of her day, and as was habit, she had chosen to get it over with first. The next three meetings would simply be offering notices of termination to staff members who simply hadn't performed up to the standards of the board. First one up was the Dueling instructor who - after a non work related injury- had decided he would take much longer to get better than necessary.

Adelaide hoped non of them would cry, she really didn't want to have to pretend to comfort anyone today.