A Serious Discussion [Adelaide]

To say that the man wasn't surprised, would be an understatement. It wasn't every day that the Grecian was being called in to talk by the Headmistress of Hogwarts, and for a mere moment, Odysseas found himself wondering if he had broken any rules of the school. Was he in trouble? But why would he be, he had done nothing wrong. His lessons were going smoothly, his presence in the school was discreet and he created no trouble. He was a Pureblood man, after all. He knew how to act, especially when in position of power.

Could it be the extra time he had been spending with Miss Clement? But, even that was justified. When he had asked the Hufflepuff witch to spend some extra time with him, it was not for personal company, but because she had shown great interest in the creatures, and because he was in need of the extra help. When he had asked her to follow him in the Forbidden Forest, it was after he had received approval from the Headmistress, and had also informed another Professor. So, this would definitely not be the reason why he had been called in.

Pulling himself together, the older wizard arrived at the Headmistress' office as soon as possible, not able to wait any longer. He was going to deal with anything she threw his way, and it better not be a lie. Cause Odysseas Venizelos was going to crush anyone who dared to lie and slander the Venizelos name.

After knocking on the door softly, the wizard waited for the Headmistress voice to allow him entrance, before he made his way inside. Odysseas' eyes immediately found Adelaide's, trying to pick out any sort of feeling, before speaking up. "I was informed you required my presence, Mrs. Goshawk?" The man inquired, making his way closer to the woman's desk and waiting. He was about to learn the reason he was called in. It wouldn't be long now.

Spring was in the air.

Flowers blossomed, birds chirped, students ran listlessly through the grounds and bars of sunlight started permeating the castle, making the suits of armour sigh in contentment and the ghosts look up from their dreary existence. Teachers began to take lessons outside and Hogsmeade trips were now planned with more frequency.

And how Adelaide Goshawk disliked it all.

The weather outside was no excuse to act like irresponsible airheads, a lesson more than a few of even the upper years could stand to learn. So the Headmistress naturally combated this by enforcing stricter rules around the castles. No loitering, no unauthorized visits to the grounds, no chattering about in hallways and especially no recreational trips to the kitchen. if the students couldn't gorge themselves enough during meal hours, they would have to confine themselves to snacks found in their common rooms.

Children really were the worst nuisance in the world, the redhead reflected from her desk, a shiny new laptop open in front of her. It was an odd accessory to be sure but today, it was a necessity. When the knock came, the witch Whitley bid the visitor enter, knowing straight away who it was. She had summoned him after all.

"I was informed you required my presence, Mrs. Goshawk?"

"Please, feel free to call me Adelaide," the older witch replied in greeting, flashing her usual polite but professional smile towards the young gentleman. Objectively, she could see what all the fuss was about. The Grecian man was pleasing to the eye, but then again after a meeting with Andrei Kessler, so was Nearly Headless Nick.

Unfortunately, good looks were not the epitome of one's accomplishment, as Oddyseas Venizolas was about to learn. "Please, have a seat. I hope this isn't a bad time." Of course in truth the witch had no such hope, but that was how meetings started.

"How are you finding your stay at our humbkle school so far?"

As the older woman insisted that he would call her by her first name, Odysseas simply nodded and gave her a polite smile in return. The Grecian has avoided calling her by her first name, out of respect for her. She was, after all, a married lady, and his superior, at least in the school. Therefore, the man would continue calling her by her last name, until she told him otherwise. And now that she had, he would grant her that wish. Not that he expected to have a lot of conversations with her, especially outside of Hogwarts.

Taking a seat, Odysseas cleared his throat, taking a good look around the woman's office. It was elegant, filled with books and papers, something that reminded him of his own office here, but also back home. All in all, it was a beautiful space to work in, in his opinion. But the man was not here to judge the Headmistress' office, or the Headmistress herself. He was here for something else entirely, something that he had not yet learned.

"How are you finding your stay at our humble school so far?"

The question took Odysseas by surprise. He did not expect to be called in, in order to be asked about his stay at Hogwarts. It was Spring Term already, and if the redhead wanted to learn about his stay at the school, she had plenty of opportunities to do that earlier in the year. No, this was definitely not why his presence was needed, but the wizard was going to play along, nonetheless.
"Hogwarts is beautiful. Gigantic, but beautiful. I must admit, it took my some time to find my way around, but with the help of Miss Clement, whom you were so kind to assign me, I was able to learn fast. The weather was the most difficult part, but it's getting warmer, so I should be fine." The man admitted, giving Adelaide a polite smile.

"But is that, truly, what you wanted to learn?"

Adelaide was surprised at the amount of honesty she detected in the Grecian's statement. Polite lies were something of a habit for business insiders. Nothing more or less than the reply to "how are you" being a standard "fine, thank you" regardless of whether one was fine or not. It was... refreshing.

"I'm from Ireland myself," she indicated, at his comment on the climate. "So the weather wasn't as hard to adjust to as the architecture here. I can sympathize with how you find everything entirely too gigantic." The redhead had once made the same comment to Harvey who had joked about the Englishmen needing to overcompensate due to personal shortcomings.

"And no, while I value your comfort here at Hogwarts, that is not why this meeting is taking place,' she admitted, her tone back to business. The witch pointed to the sleek silver laptop on her desk. "Are you familiar with this contraption?" she asked, awaiting his reply.

Once he'd spoken, she turned the device to face the wizard sitting opposite her, the screen showing a still image of what he would recognize as himself standing out in the snow, a bowtruckle barely visible on his shoulder as it played with the man's fine curls.

"This was recorded in one of your winter classes,' the Headmistress explained, giving him time to adjust to the fact that someone had recorded one of his lectures. "From a mobile phone I believe. plenty of our students have them now, even those of wizarding descent."

Adelaide reached out to the laptop and tapped the space bar, playing the short video. instantly, the sound of the Grecian man asking his class about the creature filled the office. Then one by one, the students responded. Adelaide merely watched the Care of Magical Created professor as he observed himself and his reaction. He was intelligent enough to know which part of the video was pertinent to this meeting today.

Once the video was over, the witch snapped the laptop shut, moving it to the side. "The footage was owled to my assistant anonymously in a thumb drive. It was marked urgent so I had the laptop brought in to view it. Do you have any idea who would do something like that?"

"And no, while I value your comfort here at Hogwarts, that is not why this meeting is taking place,'

Odysseas kept his face neutral at that, not wanting to give out any sign that he was already prepared for an answer like this one. It was very much obvious that his well-being was not what Adelaide was interested in, but the Venizelos heir would allow the typical protocol to go down, before they actually got to the point of the discussion. As the older witch asked him about the Muggle device called a laptop, and whether he was familiar with it, Odysseas only had the time to nod, before the woman had turned the laptop towards him. To his surprise, Odysseas found himself staring back at... himself.

"This was recorded in one of your winter classes,'

Even if Adelaide hadn't explained, the man would be able to recognise himself in one of his lessons. The woman mentioned that this was recorded from a phone, a widely used contraption by all students, nowadays, and Odysseas couldn't help but shake his head in confusion. Why would someone record his class, and why would he feel the need to send it to the Headmistress? The slightest bit of worry overtook him, but the Venizelos heir remained unmoving.

The male watched carefully, as Adelaide hit play, trying to find something, anything that would explain why a video of his class was being shared around the school. Though, the more seconds past, the better Odysseas understood. No, this was not about his class. It was about a specific student, a Slytherin that Odysseas had put in her place. The reason behind all of this was but a child.

Mimosa Harrington.

"The footage was owled to my assistant anonymously in a thumb drive. It was marked urgent so I had the laptop brought in to view it. Do you have any idea who would do something like that?"

"I do not have a name, but it's obviously someone who's fond of Miss Harrington. It's obvious you've watched the video, so I believe that you are aware that I did not subtract points without a good reason. Therefore, I would like to ask, am I here because my decision to take away those points was false, or is there something I do not know about the young Miss?" Odysseas was a clever man, that much was known, but there were things that eluded him, from time to time.

As the Grecian watched the video, Adelaide studied him. For the most part, he remained poised though the redhead could fancy she saw a small gleam of worry or confusion in his otherwise clear eyes. It could have been a trick fo the light of course, but she tucked the information away just in case.

When the man had finished, he admitted to not knowing he culprit who had filmed this but offered that it was someone who was fond of Miss Harrington. Adelaide herself had nothing to do with the child but from what she knew, that narrowed the list of suspects down to almost every occupant of the large castle. The Slytherin was in a host of clubs, played Quidditch and was Student of the Year last year.

She had also been inveigled in a house elf related controversy last year that had made every elf at Hogwarts indebted to the young American.

"You reasons," Adelaide began, her voice still as pleasant as ever because there was nothing to prove, it was all on that video. "Were two fold, incorrect answer and being stupid." The redhead paused, her gaze lingering on the Grecian. "I'll be the first to admit that I have never taken an interest in magical creatures, or classes pertaining to them. But I am told that bowtruckles dwell in wand quality trees?"

His answer would make the argument for her, so she didn't bother pushing it further. "As for stupidity, if I could dock points from every student who displayed a lack of intelligence in my class, we would be running on negative numbers by October."

Still, this was not a hearing, and Adelaide wanted to see how he man explained his actions. She could understand better than anyone how intolerable idiotism was. "That depends, what do you know about this girl, pray tell?'

As Adelaide started speaking, Odysseas remained calmly in his seat, listening to everything the redhead had to say. The Grecian was sure of himself, in that moment, therefore, whatever the Headmistress threw his way wouldn't worry him too much. He had not taken those points away without a reason, he had not outwardly called Miss Harrington stupid, and he was not going to sit around and watch the young Slytherin speak all the idiotic things she comes up with.

"I'll be the first to admit that I have never taken an interest in magical creatures, or classes pertaining to them. But I am told that bowtruckles dwell in wand quality trees?"

"I can not give her credit for it, when all she speaks is nonsense for the majority of the time. Take this lesson, for example. Tree huggers? I completely understand she is a child, but she's much more than that. This is not just child naivety." The man countered, making sure to keep his tone neutral and his face calm. He was not going to show anything that could potentially make his stay here harder. No, Odysseas was a businessman, and he was going to act like one.

Though, as Adelaide asked him about his knowledge on Mimosa Harrington, he frowned. Should he have known something about her? If Adelaide was asking him something like this, it meant that Odysseas was obviously missing something here, something that could be the key to a lot of things. Curiosity touched his features as the man leaned forward slightly, staring back at the readhead woman before him. "Miss Harrington is a Slytherin Second Year. I am familiar with the fact that she is fairly famous, and playing Quidditch. But there is more to her. And I am obviously unaware of the situation." Odysseas admitted, knowing that the only way to learn more was to admit he knew nothing.

"I can not give her credit for it, when all she speaks is nonsense for the majority of the time. Take this lesson, for example. Tree huggers? I completely understand she is a child, but she's much more than that. This is not just child naivety."

The persistence on his part was enough for Adelaide. Though if this was a hearing, it would be over by now. Luckily, the Headmistress despised most students almost as much as this man despised the little girl. "So her answers were correct on all three counts," she pressed on. "Bowtruckles do dwell in trees, they do prefer wand quality tree and they are not generally allowed as pets, correct?' The witch let him come to his own conclusions from there. Even if he would never see it the way it was presented, he was intelligent enough to know that nearly everyone else would, especially whe there was such compelling video evidence of a grown man lashing out at an eleven year old child.

"Now, I will be the first to agree that Miss Harrington's answers are far from textbook, but was the expectation that all answers be textbook made clear at the beginning of your class? I don't mind teachers deducting points in the least, Odysseas, I think it should happen more, but only under icon clad justifiable terms."

She allowed him time to ponder this, hoping he would see this as the gift she was offering him. He could be as nasty to the students as he liked given he could prove they had broken rules clearly outlined to them beforehand.

"As for who she is, that answer is extremely complicated," Adelaide began, a more serous note in her voice. The Headmistress did not care for the little girl or her precious self esteem, she cared for the business she was trying to run. "Mimosa Harrington sometimes goes by an extended surname - more specifically, Mimosa Harrington-Clement." Which Clement needed no clarification, any European pureblood family who breathed would know that name. "Miss Harrington was dubbed a ward of the Palace of Versailles when she was but five yeas old. She enjoys all the privileges the actual Clement children do and the palace insists there be no difference in how she is treated."

Of curse, Adelaide had her own interpretation of those orders, but that would come later. "She is the reason our school is now equipped with state of the art internet technology, the Slytherin Quidditch team is replenished with the best equipment gold can buy and the reason our library now boasts a special needs section on reading and writing." the redhead paused, evaluating how much more tor reveal to the Grecian.

"In addition to being a Clement, she is also a Harrington. If you are a fan of the arts, you would have heard of Kenneth Harrington, the young lady's grandfather. And an heir to the Harrington-Royce family right here." Adelaide also suspected a Murray connection seeing as House Murray had rededicated all of the greenhouses at Hogwarts under the name of an Azalea Harrington - a relative of Kit's she assumed but that might be too much information.

"She is also the youngest student we have, at only eleven, and dyslexic, and she suffers from a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which all put her firmly in the special needs category. So you can see how your video of that class is just a giant lawsuit waiting to happen."

As Adelaide pressed on, making it obvious that she knew that Miss Harrington's answer was correct, on all three counts, Odysseas felt his jaw set. He did not want to show any expression, but the Headmistress was making this harder and harder for him to keep a straight face. Yes, the young Slytherin had indeed been right, but Odysseas was not going to sit around and listen to her being childish. Mimosa could have simply said that Bowtruckles frequented on trees and that they were not commonly owned as pets, and Odysseas would have never deducted any points. But she had to go around spouting nonsense about Bowtruckles hugging trees, in an attempt to give an answer who she thought sounded smart. The man knew that the girl had been right, he knew that Adelaide knew that too, but he was not going to explain himself further. Stupidity was not something he could deal with, and Mimosa Harrington was obviously not the brightest witch of her age.

"The girl's answers were correct, I just wanted correct terminology." Was all the man said, pushing away the need to add more. No, he would have to play smart now, and this was not the time to get on Adelaide Goshawk's bad side.

Though, as the woman began speaking again, explaining that Mimosa Harrington was a complicated subject, Odysseas became far more interested. It was obvious that there was so much more to this young girl, though nothing prepared the man for exactly how much.

"Mimosa Harrington sometimes goes by an extended surname - more specifically, Mimosa Harrington-Clement."

Clement.

The one name Odysseas hated to hear, had just been connected to the young witch that was threatening his image, because of her utter stupidity. This was the only thing Odysseas didn't, and at the same time did, want to deal with at the moment. The Clements seemed to be part of his life for the last couple of years, and Odysseas was growing more and more impatient with them. First, they were taking over his country and now... now their little ward was threatening the Venizelos name. No, this was not going to happen.

"Miss Harrington was dubbed a ward of the Palace of Versailles when she was five yeas old. She enjoys all the privileges the actual Clement children do and the palace insists there be no difference in how she is treated."


Oh, but there is, the man thought, his mind already forming a plan. The situation did not look promising in the least, but Odysseas was a politician, above everything else. He knew how to manipulate situations and people, to get what he wanted, and even though young Miss Harrington was threatening his reign, he could, perhaps, use her to get what he wanted. And that was the destruction of the Clement name. He wanted his country back. His power back. And she would be the little detail no one could think of.

Adelaide kept on explaining about Mimosa's background, and the Grecian did nothing more than keep notes of all the important people she was connected to. It was obvious that Mimosa was the center of attention, because they had put her in the spotlight. But was she truly worth it? Oh, of course not. The child was simply born into a good family, was taken in by another 'good' family, and was spoiled to the point of no return, it seemed. But she had done nothing to deserve all the attention. She hadn't contributed anything to either name, to be lavished in all the gifts and glory.

But she was. She was living the life of someone else.

Elenore Clement.

"She is also the youngest student we have, at only eleven, and dyslexic, and she suffers from a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which all put her firmly in the special needs category. So you can see how your video of that class is just a giant lawsuit waiting to happen."

Odysseas fell silent for a mere moment. The silence was calming him, allowing him to think everything trough, before he actually spoke up. His next words had to be picked very carefully, and Odysseas had no time for mistakes. Not when things seemed to brighten up, just the slightest bit. "I fully understand the consequences of my actions. I can not take what happened back, but I am willing to set things right, one way or another. For Hogwarts, and for you. We both know, I wouldn't want my name to be tainted because of a..." Stupid child.

"Because of a misunderstanding." Odysseas finalised, giving Adelaide a small nod of understanding. But things were not ending here. Oh, no. They were merely beginning. "You did mention, though, the the Palace insisted she is treated equally. I do not see Elenore Clement, the rightful heir to the Clement name, be treated the same way, though. Unless... it's all a misunderstanding as well?" Odysseas inquired, staring back at Adelaide with evident curiosity. This was definitely more that what he had bargained for, but he was going to take it.

It wasn't especially surprising to hear the Venizelos heir admit that he had been wrong, that particular conclusion could be easily reached in light of the facts. What did please the Headmistress was that he had mentioned making amends. With any luck, this whole thing could blow over by tonight and they need never speak of it again.

"Yes, we can certainly try to make things right," she nodded seriously, retrieving a file from one of the many hidden drawers underneath her desk. "If our anonymous filmmaker is indeed a friend of Miss Harrington's, it means word has not spread yet. The girl herself has made no complaints and I've not received any letters from the palace so I'm assuming the matter hasn't spread very far." Opening the file, Adelaide traced a long slender finger down a list of numbers, calculated housepoints for the year.

"I'd say Miss Harrington deserves the usual ten points for her attendance, as well as ten apiece for each of her correct answers. You can make your way to the hourglasses after this and rectify the matter, it should be enough to appease our unknown friend." The records showed the Grecian had only awarded the young Slytherin ten points throughout the entire year. Another forty ought to round it off nicely.

The redhead put away the file and was almost ready to call the meeting over when Odysseas broached a new topic of conversation, one that Adelaide actually found interesting. She would be lying if she said her guess was as good as anyone's because the truth was, Adelaide's guesses were always more calculated. A lifetime in business had curated her "gut feeling" into a finely tuned weapon supported by facts and observations.

"It could be a misunderstanding,' she began carefully, her tone even and her green eyes hinting at something deeper. "But if it is, it happens remarkably often to be coincidental." Of course, the witch had no proof, or at least no written proof. But she did have two eyes, two ears and a brain.

"One can't hep but think though, it isn't the Hufflepuff house team the Clements sponsor. And all those packages marked with the Palace's coat of arms always fly to the Slytherin table. Lady Clement's personal assistant is often here to check the progress of and deliver messages and missives to the young Miss Harrington, not the young Miss Clement." Adelaide paused, wondering what kind of implication the man opposite would derive from her statements. Despite the seventh year being in her class, Adelaide knew very little about Miss Clement other than the fact that she had a promising mind and that she never seemed to have many friends in the class.

"Jacques Clement visits us often,' she continued thoughtfully. "He's been here for every game Miss Harrington has played in so far, and then the odd visits to bring her presents, take her to Hogsmeade or just spend time with her. To my knowledge, he has only requested to see his sister once last year, and they borrowed my office for the meeting. I can't imagine it having been a pleasant one."

Then of course there was the fact that Adelaide spoke conversational French. And while the redhead was in no means fluent in the tongue, she knew the words "my favorite", but that was another point not to beleaguer in front of the Care of Magical Creatures Professor.