Martin couldn't help but grin as Annabelle verbalized her train of thought and then caught herself. A certain, unfamiliar sense of warmth flooded him as she expressed that she was attracted to him, too. It was the best feeling in the world. Then she smudged some dirt on her face, wiped it, and accep...

"Oh?" A spark of hope grew within Martin as he emptied a packet of seeds. He picked one of them up and poked it about four inches down in the soil with a gloved finger. "I actually didn't have any prior plans to attend," Martin answered. "But it's mostly on account of not h...

Martin paused to consider the problem, and he tried to reconcile what Prof. Dextera was saying and how he envisioned this playing out. "My idea was to first take the meditation potion, which would help me to clear my mind of any spurious thoughts, and hopefully, also any preconceived notions of...

Saturday morning, Dec. 17, 2005 After their encounter in the library, Martin and Annabelle had approached Professor Fah and gotten her approval to proceed with their extracurricular project. Greenhouse eight was special. It was partitioned into several zones, and through the clever use of charms and...

This thread follows A Ravenclaw's Ambitions Sometime in mid-October, Martin returned to Prof. Dextera's office on a Thursday evening. He wasn't dressed in his Hogwarts robes, but instead a pair of pajamas and slippers. This was beyond unusual for him, as he rarely appeared under-dressed, but he had ...

Martin closed his eyes and allowed Annabelle to embrace him for however long she felt comfortable, reciprocating this time by lightly wrapping his own arms around her. Up close like this, he noticed the pleasant scent of her hair. "Thank you for that. Honestly, I don't think I'd ever get tired ...

Martin couldn't help but smile at Annabelle's exuberance. Sometimes he had difficulty gauging other peoples' emotions, but that was certainly not the case now. It was refreshing in a way, not having to second-guess himself. "I'm also--" , he began, but he was cut off by a surprise hug. Tha...

Martin glanced up with Annabelle accidentally bit her lip. Somehow he thought it was endearing when she worried her lip, but he couldn't explain why. At Annabelle's comment, he turned his head to quickly survey the library from his chair. "Proabably because it's a Friday," He speculated. &...

"Well, if you insist?" Martin said as he folded the handkerchief up with the ink on the inside so it wasn't exposed, and proffered it to Annabelle. "True, being at the groundskeeper's hut would probably deter vandalism as well," he noted. There really weren't many places on the ...

Martin couldn't help but grin when Annabelle showed such enthusiasm for research that he previously thought only he was interested in pursuing. He set his quill down and turned in his seat to face her as she flipped in her notebook to a list of other potential plants and showed it to him. He leaned ...

"In my experience, people tend to be a lot more receptive to change if you can demonstrate how something would work instead of merely giving them exposition and hypotheticals. That does, however, mean that you often end up having to invest all the time, money, and effort yourself to develop th...

"Hmm. I'd wager they teach different spells at Ilvermorny too, spells that have similar effects but different names, incantations, and wand movements, which could be confusing if a professor suggests using a spell by a different name than the one you're familiar with. I sometimes get a glimpse...

"You chose urtica torpens pertinax as well? I guess you really did need this book, then," Martin commented. "Oh, you attended Ilvermorny? I didn't realize they gave students a head-start on specializing for a profession there...I hope switching to Hogwarts didn't set you back too far...

Martin had only managed to read half a page, when he suddenly heard a girl's voice addressing him, and he paused to look up at her as she explained her need for the same book, then he glanced back down to the book. "Oh. Yes, of course, I'm happy to share... I was researching a rare Tibetan plan...

Friday, Dec. 2, 2005 Earlier that day, Professor Fah had assigned an essay to her fifth-year students, requiring everyone to research a plant of their choice. Martin, being Martin, decided he would write his on the most-obscure-yet-potentially-useful plant he could find, and came up with a Tibetan h...

Martin nodded when Prof. Dextera answered his question and the answer was something he could relate to, making it feel intuitive, though it did make him wonder whether anyone had ever attempted legilimency on him in the past. He glanced up to the clock and realized he should probably get back to his...

Martin nodded as Prof. Dextera confirmed some of his intuition about occlumency, pleased to have been on the right track with his answers. "Regarding your castle metaphor, if we were to imagine Hogwarts itself as representing someone's mind... in addition to the battlements, portcullises, and s...

"I can easily accommodate Mondays and Thursdays," Martin readily agreed. "If I were a procrastinator, Thursday would be more of a challenge since so many teachers have essays due on Fridays, but I prefer to get such things done at the first opportunity." He blinked when Prof. De...

"What days would be the least inconvenient for you?" , Martin asked when Prof. Dextera suggested two occlumency lessons per week. "I've no doubt my schedule is far more flexible than yours." Martin sipped his fresh cup hot cocoa as he puzzled over the problem in his mind. "...

"Given how many other challenging things I want to tackle, I might never get around to the stock market prediction system," Martin conceded. "I really should prioritize based on what's most achievable, what's of most benefit, and what my current access to the Hogwarts staff and libra...

If such machines were buildable, and indeed had already been built, then of course a former Unspeakable would be aware of them. Martin supposed that somewhere, some Potions Master was using a machine to sift through ingredient reaction tables, to speed development of new potions and push the boundar...

Martin nodded patiently as Prof. Dextera prepped the drinks. "Not horology per se, at least not yet," Martin answered. "I think the mysteries of time are probably beyond me as yet--it's certainly not something I can experiment with currently. But there's something deeply satisfying ab...

"This is how I normally speak," Martin protested, mildly annoyed. "I apologize if it's too formal for your taste, but it's not something I can adjust without a conscious effort." In his mind, he was making the appropriate compromise between concision in precision. It was hard to...

That was the first time Martin had ever been addressed as 'Sir', and it felt... weird . He knew students didn't normally address one another that way, but he didn't understand that it was meant to tease him. He didn't question it though, because the girl's health, or more specifically, the apparent ...

Martin had seen Prof. Dextera's office before, though in the past it was always with the intent to discuss transfiguration in some capacity, usually regarding extra credit assignments or to borrow a book for a deeper dive into some aspect of the subject. He was curious as to what the professor was d...