The students were finally gone, and the tower was quiet. His mood was considerably raised, if you considered depressed better than humiliated and annoyed.

Well, it wasn't that bad. He'd nearly gotten this flying thing figured out and was even starting to find it kind of - dare he say it - fun. This was actually coming in kind of handy...of course, having hands would have made this easier.

He stood next to the globe, a box of books open before him. Open wasn't accurate; with his lack of hands he'd had to tear the box open with his teeth and hooves and so what remained was in tatters around the jumbled pile of books. All this was part of his quest to actually get all of his book collection back into place, and with his lack of hands it was going about as well as could be expected.

The now severe hunger wasn't helping, either. He'd missed lunch and dinner, but his stomach was acting more like he hadn't eaten since yesterday, and he was finding the carpets strangely appealing. He was also thirsty - an attempt to drink from his coffee mug had just spilled and broken it. Unable to do anything about the broken glass, he'd just given up and licked the coffee off the stone floor. It had tasted about as good as he'd expected, and the broken mug still lay on the floor by his desk. His office/classroom was becoming a terrible mess and the inability to fix that was making him even more angry at the hag and Landis.

He had a solution to the books, though. Carefully reading a title, he gingerly picked the book up in his teeth, flapping his wings until he lifted off the ground, hovering next to the shelf. Then he'd carefully slide the book into place and nudge it with his nose til it was snug against the others.

He was on his tenth pass of this, hovering over the stair well, when the door below opened. Surprised by the sound, he lost his grip on the book, which fell and tumbled down the stairs towards the door, followed by a hiss of "Bugger!"

Aileen picked up the book that had clattered at her feet, turning it over in her hands and letting the door shut behind her. Was that hissing she'd just heard? She pulled her hand away from the cover, frowning at the slimy feeling on her fingers. This was not a good sign.

Casting a wary glance up the stairs, she went up each step thinking about the rumors circulating around the school. Tapendra had angered the centaurs. Tapendra had crossed the Beauxbatons Headmistress. Tapendra had been cursed by a fruit basket, and couldn't leave his tower without growing carrots out of his ears.

She reached the top, and called his name.

A small horse flew into her view. A horse. Flew. Aileen stepped back, lost her grip on the book, and bent to pick it up again, still blinking at the professor. She wouldn't have believed it, but it looked like him! The eyes especially, the... fur on top of his head, the Ravenclaw zebra stripes, and the glasses still on his nose.

Aileen had grown up in the wizarding world. This had to be the oddest (and most hilarious) sight she'd ever seen.

"You," she held up the book as evidence, unable to finish her sentence.

Aileen slowly moved forward, set the book on the shelf, and then paused. She didn't dare look at him. She picked up another stack of books from one of the open boxes with curious chew marks on the sides. Yes, she was being helpful, because falling over laughing just wasn't dignified!

Her lips pursed, Aileen managed to ask, "Where do you want these put away? Here?" She gestured at the empty shelves. Yay or neigh?

It was just too much!

Aileen. Of course it was her! It couldn't be someone pleasant, like, say...actually, she ranked about as bad as everyone else, really. He sighed slightly as he hovered in midair, wings flapping away. Well, he'd been laughed at by everyone else today, it seemed. Even if they didn't mean it cruelly, it wasn't exactly fun.

"Yes, me," he said, dryly, eyeing his book with a worried eye - that was a first edition. If the cover was dented, he wouldn't be able to repair it and have it be the same -

Aileen was acting oddly, however. She wasn't laughing; though a subtle shaking to her shoulders and sides indicated she probably wanted to. "Third shelf," he answered, unable to think of any other response.

He sighed, landing with a thud. The desks were a jumble, too, left out of place from the students vacating the tower. He looked between them and Aileen, then shook his head...and neck. His glasses promptly fell off his head and landed on the floor. He looked at them darkly and then sighed again.

"Oh, just laugh and get it over with," he said, finally, pushing his forehead against a desk and trying to push it back into its proper place.

The place was a mess, and smelled faintly of... horse. Imagine that. Aileen stood by the bookcase, staring at him hovering in the air, and watching him land ungracefully. It was so weird!

When his glasses fell off, and he looked as if the world was conspiring against him, Aileen clapped a hand over her mouth and lost it. Shoulders shaking, she rested a hand on a desk and laughed. First snickers, then gales of laughter.

Tapendra was attempting to nudge the glasses back on his nose, which only accomplished nudging the desk across the floor with a squeak, and Aileen shook her head. That wasn't helping!

"You need to stop doing that. Just... float still for a second," she picked up his glasses - dusty and crooked now, and set them on his nose. Her amusement faded a bit at the strangeness of the situation.

Aileen blinked at him, stepped back, and pursed her lips again. "What happened?"

Oh, good. Aileen was pissing herself laughing at him. It was nice to know some things never changed. Now if only she'd get her panties in a bunch and get uptight and snippy over something. Then he'd be right at home.

Not!

"Laugh it up," he muttered, as he tried to hook his glasses with his soft velvety nose. He wasn't having any luck and the desk scooted with a series of squeaks as it slipped across the floor. Aileen's voice made him stop, though, and she placed his dirty glasses delicately back on his face. He wiggled his nose in an attempt to settle them, but Landis's sticking charm had evidently faded and they slipped off his ears and balanced on his face by the bridge, the sides swinging back and forth. He sighed.

Then she got serious again, as he carefully let his glasses slide onto the desk and glared at them. He looked at her, wings and ears drooped slightly.

"Morgan and I had to go and...convince a Hag to leave part of the woods," he said. "Apparently Morgan hasn't heard of being diplomatic. This is the result." He wasn't about to tell her why the Hag had cursed him; the Hag's leer and all-too-eager tones of her, "I've always wanted  one of you," left enough room for his imagination to run wild.

He sat down, his pony-butt hitting the floor with a thump. "It's a curse of some sort. I don't know if -" he shook slightly, having been trying not to confront this fact himself. "I don't know if it'll wear off, let alone when." His tone was, for once, morose.

Aileen sat on the edge of one of the desks and stared down at him, no longer at risk of bursting into laughter. The story was so outrageous that for a moment she wondered if he was joking. But he looked so sad. Aileen frowned slightly, and sympathy wormed its way in among her amusement and bafflement.

If that had happened to her, Merlin forbid, she wouldn't have the courage to leave her office. Only a Ravenclaw would continue to teach when he could be looking for a solution.

"I'm sure it isn't permanent," she reassured him as much as herself. "Hags aren't all-powerful, after all."

Aileen idly waved her wand and began cleaning up a few things around the room; fusing the broken cup back together, and straightening desks and papers. What would she do if Tapendra did remain a horse? She couldn't laugh at him all the time. That was too mean, even for her, and after a day or two the hilarity would wear off. He needed to revert back to human form so she could trade barbs with him and make fun of his bare feet, not his hooves. Tapendra just couldn't be pathetic and have a good reason to be pathetic. It wasn't an option.

"What have you tried so far? To solve this?" Aileen raised her eyebrows, afraid she already knew the answer to that.

But what if it isssssssss, he whined, thankfully having the good sense whine in the privacy of his own head. He watched her curiously as she started fixing things up, repairing the cup and cleaning the messy room.

"Thank you," he said, unsure if he should be touched or not, though part of him was - even if the long-abused surface of him reminded him of the fact this was Aileen. No doubt she'd demand a favor in return.

He frowned as she asked what he'd done, looking as sheepish as a horse could manage...which was a lot, surprisingly. "Nothing," he answered, honestly. "Aside from Morgan attempting ot dispel the effects, I've - well, classes -" He nodded at the globe. "It's the first day. I couldn't just not turn up! Besides, no one here knows the material well enough to substitute on such short notice."

It was true! He'd have to train any substitutes that tried it and he'd been late to his first class as it was.

"I was going to go see Nadge," he said, shuffling a hoof against the carpet. "When it's - when the castle's not so crowded." He tapped his foot on the floor. "And, ah...I - I couldn't get the door open. The one to the classroom. To get out."

Aileen nodded in response to his thanks, not thinking much about it. She was already there, and perhaps it would help the smell.

She did, however, slant him a look when he admitted he'd done nothing. Priorities! Then came the hoof-shuffling and the excuses, and while it was slightly amusing to hear him fumble for valid reasons, Aileen didn't smile.

"I see," she sighed, sounding like Abby had just told her she couldn't clean up her own dishes because she was a squib.

Aileen rose from the desk, strode over to the top of the stairs, and pointed her wand at the door, causing the sides to widen. The charm should last for a little while. Then she sat on the desk again, and silently criticized the librarian for not taking better care of things. He was still human. He had no excuse.

"Your dedication to your work is admirable," she muttered, "But you won't have a job to obsess over if you stay like this for long." Which she was sure he already knew. For once, she felt a bit guilty about pointing out the obvious.

"Why don't I speak to the Transfiguration professor? Or I can ask Nagde to visit you here." This was simple, Aileen thought.

"Pick one."

Hiding behind the couch would have been a good idea, he decided. Yes, hide until Aileen left and stopped looking at him like he was a total idiot. Well, that was how she always looked at him, but he usually had his dignity intact to guard against it. Now it just made him want to hide under something or promise to clean his room more often.

He settled for finding the carpet incredibly interesting, though he shot her a look when she mentioned he'd get fired for this. "If that's the case, I'm doomed either way," he said with a sigh. "I'd tell Reid, but I'm sure he already knows..." God, and he'd never even met with the man yet. "I'd rather this isn't his first impression of me, but it's a bit late to change that now, isn't it? Maybe I'll get lucky and the complaints about the muggle stuff with get buried under protests about trained animals teaching." He smiled slightly; when you're doomed it's easier to find the situation funny, really. He couldn't do anything about it.

Tapendra looked back at Aileen, surprise open on his face...and then he considered for all of 5 seconds, smiling slightly. "Have you seen Tawse? I'd rather - wait, Tawse left." He paused. The new one was some old bloke with a beard like he'd swallowed a cat, but he hadn't met him properly yet. "Nadge. She's good with...err, awkward."

"Alright," she agreed, somewhat surprised he wasn't picking a fight with her in his miserable state. She probably would have, if she were reduced to squatting on the ground with a furry bum.

"The Headmaster can't fault you for your... situation yet, especially if he ordered you and Mr. Morgan out there," she told him. "As long as you're making some effort to try to fix it, Tapendra." Aileen wasn't going to comment on the muggle theory. He knew his methods were risky, but that was his choice, and she simply didn't want him to get fired for something so ridiculous, which 'flying horse' fell under!

"I can speak to him as well, if you like," she offered in a casual tone. Her uncle must have heard the news by now, but he'd likely want an update, and she could tell him that Tapendra hadn't felt fit to leave his tower. Some excuse so he'd understand why the professor wasn't desperately flapping his wings at the gargoyle statue while Peeves picked that time to mock him.

"How were the students? Terrible?" Aileen shifted her posture and gave him an almost sympathetic glance.

"I'll take your word for it," he said. Somehow, after half a year of Snark, it was just easier to be paranoid . Reid had promoted Ignan, however. If he was lucky, he could just hide behind his old friend.

Figuratively, of course.

He looked up at her yet again, unsure really of how to react. She was being surprisingly nice, which was...well, nice, but just weird. It was a good weird, but - "That'd be nice?" He half-asked, unsure of what to say. Maybe she was setting him up. Still, it was nice. Yes. Nice. He clung to that word to avoid having to think the word "sweet".

He looked at the globe and shook his  head, his short black mane wiggling with the movement. He stood back up, shaking himself off, wings flapping as his black-striped body shook. "They were as you'd expect. I - most of them finally just listened, though. After they - they laughed. A lot." His aura of morose shame was back.

"Sasha was very helpful, since...no wand, so I couldn't do what I usually do for visuals. Most of...err." He fluttered into the air again, this time alighting on the globe top again. His hooves promptly slid again, and he repeated his landing from the earlier class; slide, land on his stomach, gasp for breath and then get comfortable. The globe was a handy perch, at least. And put him back above her eye level. It was odd to look Aileen in the bellybutton.

"I think most of the foreigners think I'm always like this," he admitted miserably. "So much for getting any respect. On the bright side, no one walked out. I'm doing better than last year, apparently." He snorted, a hint of dark humor entering his tone.

Aileen pursed her lips, resisting another laugh as he flopped on the globe and struggled to catch his breath. It didn't surprise her that Sasha had been helpful, that most of the students had laughed at him, and no one had walked out. In fact, this little stunt might go in his favor and encourage a few students to sign up just to see him teach in horse-form.

Glancing around the classroom, she had the fleeting thought that she could make it squib friendly like she did at home for Abby, but without hands, that did him little good.

"I would say so," she agreed with an amused look. "Perhaps you can combine class subjects now," Aileen continued in an exaggeratedly innocent tone. "A bit of Care of Magical Creatures, a bit of Divination with the centaurs, some Transfiguration, and we can't forget the muggle theories."

She paused, shrugged. "You'll have the most well-rounded class at Hogwarts."

Aileen just couldn't resist poking fun at him.

Tapendra narrowed his large blue eyes at her, in an over-exaggerated expression of suspicion. But he replied anyway, in a tone that indicated he was playing along. In an odd sort of way exchanging barbs with her was a relief.

"Oh yes. I can teach 'em Aerodynamics, too. Fly round the room and have them take notes?" He suggested, lowering his head til it rested on his extended front legs. "Get some bio-mechanics in there, too. Be a regular treat. Or possibly a nightmare." He wondered if Aileen even knew what half that was.

He yawned, tongue extending for a moment as he did. But when he was done, he looked at her more seriously, ears pricked forward. "How is your class, then? The foreigners looked utterly lost in mine. Didn't have any issues with that Durmstrang Runes woman?" If her attitude matched her appearance, Maras was likely to kick the door down and duel Aileen for control of the course.

Aileen smirked at his response, not quite sure what those terms meant, but able to figure out the gist of it well enough. She certainly wasn't going to admit to any lack of knowledge in front of him, even if they were muggle concepts. He had stopped moping for a few moments. Things were back to normal.

Well, as normal as they could get with Tapendra making horse gestures.

"Not yet," Aileen replied with a relieved sigh, rolling her shoulders back. "But it's only the first day. If something doesn't blow up in my face by the end of the week, I'll be surprised. Professor Maras reminds me a bit of Storm, without the grimness," she admitted. Fierce grin, high energy. "We're supposed to team-teach some of the lessons," she paused.

"I must admit, I'd rather have her stand at the front of the class and make threatening wand movements at the troublemakers, while I do the teaching. Suppose that'll work?" 

But Professor Reid!- ZAP.

"Most of the foreign students have experience with Runes though, so it will be interesting to see how they approach their assignments," Aileen glanced at him, not surprised that the foreigners were confused by his class. Between the wings and the muggle material, they had much to adjust to!

Tapendra couldn't help it; he snorted and then laughed at that mental image. "That might be a good idea," he said, with a thoughtfulness that was only half joking. "I saw your roster. She could just stand next to Sellaphix and glare at him whenever he opens his mouth or dozes off." Sellaphix might actually learn something that way. Wonder of wonders!

"She doesn't seem the type to play hired flunky, sadly," he said, with a sigh. "Just make sure she doesn't muscle in, eh? S'a bit too easy to imagine her teaching style being a bit..." He trailed off, trying to find the word. He eventually settled on "Bombastic." He'd never seen Aileen teach, come to think of it, but he doubted her style was anything like Maras's.

He opened his mouth to speak and started sliding down the globe; this meant he paused for several seconds as he scrambled to stay on top, his small hooves banging against the concealed metal and his wings flapping.

When he finally got his balance back he flopped against the globe, head and wings drooped down. "I think," he said slowly, "That I had better go and see Nadge. Maybe I'll get lucky and she can turn me back. Or make me a centaur or something."