Safe subject? (Doctor and Othala)

The Doctor was humming in his office at Durmstrang as he continued to pour over a large textbook he had found in someone's library. Of course he would bring it right back to the owners considering he knew them and had borrowed it from them. Could have been worded better in his head, he admitted.

As he read through the book he waved his wand a teapot and cup began to float over to his desk. The teapot poured into the cup even as he turned the page. He paused when he looked up and noticed the cup overflowing. He tsked,

"Still haven't figured out how to adjust it so it knows when it's full..." he muttered, vanishing the excess liquids and sending the teapot floating back to the nearby table. Humming as he sipped his tea, he nodded in appreciation, "But milk and sugar arrays in the cup are working perfectly... maybe a little sweet."

He sighed before taking a sip of his tea, setting the book down to instead leaf through some student files. It was always nice to know his students after all!

Othala was a new student at Durmstrang, she was in her first year however she was a year older than she should have been. At 12 years old she was here, hopefully it wouldn't mean that she would be picked on but she didn't have high hopes for that. Frowning softly as she made her way through the corridors of the school, Othala allowed herself to explore the features of each corridor, in case she got lost.

Of course she did get lost, and she got lost often.

It was a good job that the professors were here to help point her in the right direction whenever she did get lost, even though she might be a little bit afraid to approach them - some looked at her like she was stupid when she spoke and it made her deflate each time.

By the time she was arriving at the door to the Highmasters office she was practically walking with a slump, Othala knew that the Highmaster would think that she was stupid as well. She had only just gotten out of her home and now he was going to send her back, saying she wasn't ready for school! Othala was ready, she knew it!

Knocking on the door softly, she waited to be allowed in.

The Doctor hummed a little bit when he heard a knock at the door. He glanced at his wall clock, one of many around the room, and frowned. Checking on his pocket watch, he tutted at the wall clock. It was half a minute fast... how had he missed that? Thankfully all the clocks had silencing charms so the ticking wasn't audible. Pressing down on a rune under the surface of his desk, The Doctor smiled as the door to his office opened,

"Good morning there Othala!" he greeted her with a bright little smile, "Fancy seeing you here... anything I can help with at all?"

Did he have the heart to tell the girl that he had actually already known she would arrived due to travelling through time to his own future?

No he didn't, let it be a mystery to the poor girl.

He waved his wand and the chair in front of his chest transfigured itself into a comfortable armchair as he smiled,

"Please, sit down." he told her before humming and levitating the teapot back over and filling a cup of tea for her, "Milk and sugar?"

Othala gently stepped into the Highmasters office, she looked around at the decoration and she couldn't help but think that it was a pleasant place to be. It wasn't scary or dark like she had imagined it would be, it was light and it had comfortable seats that she could sit on - it was nothing like her bedroom at home that had only wooden chairs with no cushions. They were not comfortable at all.

When the Highmaster already knew it was her, she was a little shocked but didn't think on it at all. Perhaps he just knew what all the students looked like from their files?

"Hi." she greeted, quietly only using small words she knew she would be able to say properly "Want to ask about class. Okay?" Othala asked, looking up at the Highmaster through her fringe so that she didn't have to see his reaction to her speech.

Swiftly she moved over to the chair that he had asked her to sit down upon, and was quite amazed to see it change from a horrible hard chair to one that looked far more comfy to sit down on. In fact, it looked like it would be comfortable to sleep on as well. Smiling gently she sat, and her feet gently scuffed the floor.

"Thanks." Othala hummed with a nod "Yes, please." she replied in his request to give her some milk and sugar in her tea. It was strange that she was having tea with a professor, she thought that he wouldn't have time to speak to her - she thought wrong though she supposed in the end.

Playing with her skirt, to occupy her hands, Othala accepted the tea when it was given.

The Doctor had been warned/whined at/told about the way that Othala spoke and he had drawn some conclusions as to why she spoke this way from her file. It contained more than many other student files did because he'd called into the Ministry to lift their file on her and the rest of the Thormund family.

What he had found had not made for light reading.

He smiled at her warmly as he pulled out a box of bertie botts every flavour beans,

"Want one? Only nice flavours left." he told her with a grin before humming a little bit and nodding with a smile, "I'm here to help students. I'm here to help you Othala. So yeah, it's okay. Ask away and I will tell."

She was far too amazed at the chair turning into a comfortable armchair. Such a small display of magic and kindness should not be getting this level of surprise from a child. It looked like she had honestly never been asked to sit down in anything as comfortable as the chair. And the thing was it was just a hasty transfiguration, it was likely too soft or something like that,

"There we go." he told her as he tapped his own cup and her's glowed dimly once, "There's milk and two sugars. I have biscuits somewhere in my desk if you'd like me to look for them too... but maybe I shouldn't be too soft eh? They'll think I'm going soft."

He winked at her to show he was joking.

Othala couldn't help but look at the Highmaster with a small expression of confusion, he was being so nice to her and offering her sweets. Normally she didn't get sweets unless it was a special occasion but here she was getting to choose a bean that she would like. Gently she slipped her hand into the box, keeping her eyes on the Doctor as she placed her hand within the box until she withdrew her hand and looked at the colour bean she had gotten.

"Oh," she exclaimed quietly "Green one. Apple? Pear?"

Popping the bean in her mouth Othala blinked as she chewed it and grinned happily when she tasted that it was in fact apple flavour - it was one of her favourite flavours. She wasn't here though to eat beans she wanted to ask the Doctor for some help, like he would want her to if she was unhappy.

"Worried about...people." Othala admitted with a small sigh, rubbing her hand up and down her arm "They mean to me cause I no do magic proper."

It was true, she couldn't use her wand right, and it was like every time she tried it just malfunctioned. Perhaps it was because she didn't need the wand in order to do magic? That was what the special pictured were for maybe? Biting her lip she looked up at the Doctor and waited for him to say something about her worry.

Silently she sipped on her tea and a soft smile crept onto her lips;

"It nice. Thanks. It okay, no need biscuits."

The Doctor was already beginning to draw conclusions just from the files he had on Othala and her family but he was confirming it right now. Othala looked like this was the first time anyone had offered her sweets and that was just messed up. There was that and there was the fact that even when she accepted his offer she kept her eyes firmly on his own. It was honestly like she expected him to have set this up as some kind of trap to punish her.

This didn't bode too well.

"Apple in my experience." he supplied helpfully, "I've already had the green pepper one."

He was glad that she enjoyed the sweet but the fact of the matter was that it was just wrong that she should be so surprised by the simple act of sharing some sweets with her. But when she began to explain her problem he listened attentively. He hummed a little bit,

"What do you mean can't do proper magic?" he asked her gently before waving his hand slightly, "Ignore the people... they don't matter. I shall tell the teachers to grow up and act nicer don't worry."

The Doctor smiled a little bit before humming slightly. He picked up a muggle fountain pen and wrote a rune down on a piece of paper idly, without thinking, as this was something he did when he was thinking about something intently,

"Who is being mean to you?"

Othala tilted her head to one side when she heard that The Doctor had already had one of the sweets, it seemed he had a lot of the sweets if the half packet was any indication. Normally she was told that adults shouldn't eat sweets, that they were something for children but...her mother and father ate far more sweets than she had ever did. Maybe those people were wrong then, and they were for adults?

The fact was she wasn't interested in beans, she wanted some help with her problem because she felt so sad sometimes in Durmstrang that she would rather be back home, or slip off and not attend classes.

Taking out her wand, Othala sighed; "When try, it go wrong! Watch. Wingardium Leviosa."

As she waved the wand in the air, trying to cast a simple charm to levitate a bean out of the packet, Othala found that the spell did something completely different and it grew the bean to about ten times the size it was supposed to be. Pouting in sheer frustration Othala wanted to kick the bean for making fun of her!

"See, that not what want do." she sighed, flicking the bean "No spell go right."

Watching the Doctor draw one of her special pictures, Othala recognised it, it was the one that she had on the index finger tip on her left hand. Poking the paper with her finger tip, another version of the rune appeared alongside his own. Not looking at the Doctor, Othala remembered just who had been mean to her, and sighed again;

"Most people. Adult, kid...most people."

The Doctor had to admit that he was mildly confused as to what was going on with her magic. She was just a normal girl after all, why was she not able to do it? He looked her over again and for a split second he thought there was something... off, about her. Her perfect, pale, white skin seemed blurred for some reason.

Watching her cast, he notice small mistakes in her wand movements but not enough to completely stop the spell from working.

...

And definitely not to change the spell so utterly!

Shaking his head a little bit, he poked at the bean before vanishing it with his own wand. This was making absolutely no sense. When she touched the paper and another rune appeared? Well now this was just making fuck all sense! Frowning, he shook his head,

"Well we shall have to work hard to make sure that no one is mean to you." he told her with a smile before reaching out for her hand, "I'll not let them be mean."

As soon as his finger touched her hand the glamour she had been wearing disappeared. She likely wasn't even aware of it because she didn't react. But for The Doctor her once featureless pale skin was now full of runes. His eyes widened,

"I think I know why your magic is all over the place..." he muttered before pointing to the rune she had made, "Do you know what this means?"

Othala didn't quite know what was wrong with her but if the Doctor's expression was any indication it was something that even he had not seen before. It seemed as if her little pictures were the things that were making her magic wrong - if she had said it wrong or she had done the wrong movements then the Doctor would have corrected her and given her pointers on how to do it better in the future surely?

When it seemed as if the Doctor wanted to shake her hand, Othala gently, rather timidly placed her hand in his own and shook it softly;

"Want work to...toge-ther." she stated with a firm nod "Make sure no mean." Othala grinned, happy that she was going to get some help to stand up for the bullies that she was surely going to be getting when the year got into its full swing.

The picture that she had poked onto the paper, it had a name? She didn't know that they all had names but she supposed that they might do. Deciding to be honest, Othala merely shook her head and ducked her gaze away in a small shameful gesture. Was she supposed to know what they were called?

"No. Don't know had name. Makes cloud." Othala stated with a small hum, gently pressing the rune, she waited a small while and a rippling grey cloud rolled around the room, drizzling a little bit on the carpet before disappearing.

The Doctor had to admit that Othala would likely never be able to use traditional magic. With so many runes on her body, and all of them active, she was likely never going to be able to get a wand to work since she had so much magic acting on her body all at once. On the other hand, Othala likely possessed as much sheer magical power as most fifth years if his estimate was correct. Constantly powering all those runes, without being aware of it, would have drained her core and made it stronger and bigger over time.

He grinned a little bit,

"Exactly Othala, from now on you and I are partners." he told her with a grin, "And if anyone messes with you... they mess with me! Can't have them messing with the cutest little first year in school now can we?"

He smirked and ruffled her hair a little bit.

So she had the runes all over her body, her family were shrouded in mystery and she had no idea what these runes actually were. When she made the cloud though he just chuckled a little bit. She had something that hard... done in one second? Well that was something he had never seen done before,

"You are a miracle Othala." he told her with a grin, "You are going to do great things my dear... great and wonderful things! Can you show me a picture that makes things float?"

Othala wasn't too sure whether the Doctor was going to turn out to be a nice person in a few weeks time, or even a few days time but she hoped beyond hope that he would be because she was already drawing closer to him. She wanted to believe that he was going to be one of the people she would be able to count on through her time here at Durmstrang and maybe even afterwards.

All that depended on what happened now however, and she wanted everything, for once, to go just right.

"I like that. Want partner to be cool, like you." she admitted with a shy smile, but she couldn't help but blush softly when she heard that he called her cute "I...cute? Thank you."

Of course when he complimented her again, calling her a miracle, she thought that he was being silly and perhaps he didn't actually mean it when he had called her cute just before. She wasn't that great at magic she could just do really cool things with her special pictures, it almost made it worth what she had to go through to get them.

"I not." she stated with a blush "I just know 'bout pictures."

Nodding her head, Othala gently rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and pressed a picture on her upper arm, it immediately lit up and as she focused her attention on the thing she wanted to levitate, the small tea cup rose up off the table, and then the tea pot and the Doctors tea cup as well. Softly Othala let them all back down on the table.

"Did good?" Othala asked with a grin.