A Session of Snark

Vivianna Varnes had yet to walk into the bloody room, and she was already done with this sh!t. Damn it all to hell, what was her Professor thinking, assigning her mandatory counseling? Apparently her teacher had "become worried" that her "constant after-hours wanderings" were "less a disregard for the rules and more a cry for help." The student in question was almost certain that was a load of doxy droppings. Knowing the Professor, she just didn't want to deal with having to take time out of her own day to supervise Vivianna's detentions. Or perhaps, an even worse alternative, the adult had realized that these meetings would be far more torturous to the redhead than any detention ever could be.

Truthfully, the teenager did have a lot of problems. She wasn't blind to that. It was even possible, although it was the most miniscule of possibilities, that this counseling could actually help. Would it help, however? No. Because there was zero chance of the girl opening up to some random stranger who talked to people about their problems for a living, and spilling her guts. It would take hours upon hours to share all of her issues, anyway. Not to mention that many of her problems were due to, or somehow involved, illegal activities performed by the Slytherin herself. She'd like to graduate before landing herself in jail, thanks.

Walking into the room with head held high, Vivianna closed the door behind her with slightly more force than was strictly necessary. Eyes locking with the man already in the room, the witch threw herself down into a chair. Body exuding as much irritation as physically possible, the teenager twisted her lips into a mockery of a smile.

"Hello good sir," she said sarcastically, "my name is Vivianna Varnes. I'm a seventh year Slytherin, and I work at a wand shop. I like potions, my cat, and long walks around the lake. This appointment was made by one of my Professors, who thinks that a nice chat with you will resolve any and all issues that I may or may not have. What's your name?"

There were times where Keiran and Millie were overflowed with appointments, and Teddy's rent-a-counselor services became needed at Hogwarts. With the marriage law abolished, there were tons of students trying to figure out how they were expected to go back to their normal lives. Many of the students had gone into their marriages not ready for commitment and terrified of their partners. They had come out of it, though, all muddled and confused. They had permission to fall in love with someone, they had been asked to procreate. Many of the students had decided they were in love after all was said and done.

Teddy, of course, was not going to touch that problem with a ten-foot pole. Adolescence angst was way to beyond him to worry about, so he was going to leave that to the happily married Hayes, while he... well he was still doing his thing.

Speaking of the reason he was single...

"Bern, I don't know what you want from me," he said, rubbing his head as he looked into the bluebell flames on his desk.

Valerie lifted her eyes. "I just... Please. Valerie would love to see you there. I know you hate her shows, but I miss you so much. And guys always hit on me at the club like crazy. I'd feel safer with you there."

So, on the up side he would be there for the girl he was in love with. On the down side, he would have to watch her get hit on all night, watch her girlfriend show more skin than he wanted, and watch Bernice become more and more entranced by Valerie.

"Fine, I'll be there," he sighed. He checked the time. "Look, I gotta go, okay. Can you please see if at least Sawyer can come?"

She shook her head. "He can't, but Audrey will be there."

"Bernie!" he called, but she was already biting her lip, pleading with her eyes. He sighed and shook his head. "I'll be there."

She beamed. "I love you! Thank you." And she was gone.

Teddy heaved a sigh, dropping his face into his hands. There was a small ding, indicating that a student was approaching, and he lifted his head, running his hand over his eyes. He had to forget his issues with his friends, because he was about to face... well, the professor called her 'a piece of work' so he needed to focus up. Still, he knew that those large blue eyes, that open trusting face was going to be etched onto his eyelids for the rest of the night.

The girl entered and he put on a smile, though it was definitely not the convincing one he would have liked to given her. Instead, he gave her the smile of someone who wanted to care, truly did, but had been doing it for far too long to be convincing. "Hello-" he began, but she was already speaking. His hands slowly moved to pick up her file, moving it in front of him. He began to open it, when he realized... that was not going to be much help to him.

She asked for his name and he folded his hands over the file. "I'm Teddy Lupin. What issues do you might or might not have?"

((OOC: Sorry for the late reply. Viv is being difficult.))

Vivianna chuckled a little at the man's question. It wasn't like she was going to admit to all her problems just because he had asked, but the extent to which he appeared unfazed was nice. A little impressive, really. The redhead hadn't been expecting that.

"Far too many to share, dear sir," the teenager admitted wryly. Even if the girl had wanted to tell the man of all the problems, Vivianna wouldn't know where to start.

There was her father, bastard that he was, and her mother who had been wasting away for years. The redhead wouldn't be surprised if she received a letter informing the girl of her mother's death before the school year was up. Then there was the family that actually raised her, which she would love until the day she died but would never fit in with. Being the only human in a house of four vampires had not been easy, and while she was glad not to thirst for blood, Vivianna could only wonder how different her life would be if she did.

Blood family aside, there was Bertie, who had died only to turn up later very much alive. Those months had torn the witch to shreds, and the sight of the Ravenclaw's unmoving body still appeared in her nightmares, even now. And then, of course, there was what any decent counselor would probably consider the biggest problem of all. Her addiction. She'd stopped drinking the vials, a few months back, something the Slytherin was infinitely proud of even if she had to keep it completely to herself. The potion, after all these years, didn't want to release it's hold on her so easily, however. While the shakes, tremors, inability to sleep, and tendency for her food to come back up only minutes after consuming it, were all long gone, other things remained. Well, one thing, really. Vivianna still craved it. She'd destroyed all her bottles, and locked away all her notes someplace where she wouldn't be able to get them until she had to leave Hogwarts for good. Still, Vivianna could brew her drug of choice in her sleep, and even now had to step out of the potions labs on occasion to prevent herself from brewing what her mind was convinced she needed.

The NEWT student had always had very strong wills, but fighting against her own mind and body was something completely uncharted. Some days, Vivianna could have sworn it was killing her.

As if all that hadn't been enough, there was Reid. The teenager allowed her eyes to trace the man before her, taking in everything she possibly could from only a glance. If the redhead could speak about anything, it would be the other teenager. After all, a teenage girl going to a counselor about the guy she loved certainly wouldn't be rare. Hell, it was practically expected.

"There's this guy," Vivianna started, before snorting, "I may or may not be in love with the bloody b@stard." There was a short pause, where the teenager cocked her head to the side, before continuing to speak, "Good Merlin, I'm shutting up now, I'm starting to sound like my dormmates."

"There is something I wouldn't frown on getting advice about," Vivianna admitted with a bit of a sneer a short time later, "my cat keeps eating other people's pets, you would happen to have any useful tips for that, would you?"

She was a tough girl. Or so she thought. Teddy had grown up surrounded by tough girls. Lily. Casey. Bernie. Audrey. But something he had learned about tough girls was that most of them were open wounds. They came off as tough but if you prodded them at all, their injuries ripped and bled and they attacked. People thought a girl who could attack on command was a tough girl, when in fact she was one who would rather not have been poked or prodded in the first place.

Teddy had learned not to prod. As a counselor, he had to do some investigation, sure, but he was not a confrontational guy. He did not push people if he didn't have to. So he had no plans on pushing this young redhead. He would do his job and leave it at that.

He doubted his weary heart had strength for anything more.

She was starting with the guy. That meant something. She must have figured that her romantic problems should have been the least of her problems. She had probably never thought she was going to be the sort of girl that had a guy problem to even bring up to a counselor. But she had one. And that's why, deep down, that problem was one of the ones that bothered her most too. She would not have brought him up if there wasn't some secret desire to be allowed to care about that issue as much as she wanted to. Interesting.

Open wounds.

She covered this little trip with a joke about her cat. He blinked and stared at her - he couldn't do this. How could he tell this girl how to live her life when he had almost lost his godsister. If he couldn't help family, how could he help this girl?

"If you don't want to really talk about your problems, that's fine," Teddy said, his low voice rumbling through his chest, crisp on his tongue. "I'm a big proponent of helping only those who want to be helped. But you've been assigned some time to spend in this office. I'm willing to look for a way to spend our time effectively if you are - I don't like wasting time."