Professor Afton
Chapter 11- Professor Afton
Michael was very glad that he wasn’t a head of house after seeing Severus the morning after the feast. The man was more tired than usual and had a sneer fixed on his face.
“You know, my mother always said that if you made faces like that, they would stick.”
“Shut the hell up Mike.”
Michael chuckled.
“So, when the hell is my first class? I never got any sort of schedule.” He changed the topic.
“It should be in your classroom, if it’s not send Minerva a Patronus. It wouldn’t surprise me if the headmaster simply misplaced it.” The man’s sneer grew. Michael laughed a bit and took a sip of his coffee.
Michael didn’t stay at breakfast long, excusing himself a bit early in order to prepare for his classes. He was grateful for the closeness of his classroom, as some kids had a tendency to stare. Lucky for him, the headmaster had in fact left the class schedule as well as class lists on the desk, so he could mentally prepare himself. His first class wasn’t until third (3rd) period so he had plenty of time.
He mostly spent it reviewing his lesson plans, checking his classroom supplies, and making a room plan for the new furniture he bought. He wanted his room to be comfortably modern, maybe see if he could add actual lights. At some point he went about taking down old decorations and cleaning out all the drawers and cabinets. By the time his first class was due to start the room was bare, save for the teaching desk, student tables, and chalk board.
He opened the door to his class of third (3rd) years. The thirteen (13) year old’s were standing bright eyed and ready for their first elective class. Mike stood back letting the kids in.
“Sit anywhere you like, I ordered some new furniture so a seating chart would be pretty pointless right now.” He smiled. They all dispersed, rushing to pick the “Best Seat”, although he noticed that the houses tended to stick close to one another. He waited for everyone to sit down before speaking again.
“Hello everyone, I am professor Afton and I will be your muggle studies teacher for the foreseeable future. I am fully aware of the reputation of this class, however I will warn you all now that I have changed the lesson plans from previous years.” He passed a stack of packets to each table with a quiet instruction of ‘Take one, pass the rest down’. The students seemed confused at first, but did as told.
“Each of you should have gotten a packet. I have printed out a list of the subjects we will be going over this year. We won’t go over much until I’ve gotten all of the things I’ve ordered, but I want you all to know what you’re getting into. I have made a lot of changes this year in order to properly teach this subject.” He made his way back to the front of the room, picking up the stack of looseleaf paper and wordless and wandlessly floated two (2) cups with pens and pencils respectively. The class seemed awed at the casual display, although Mike barely noticed.
“The first major change is that I will not be accepting parchment paper. Muggles haven’t used parchment and quills in decades, unless it’s a hobby.” The class erupted into whispers and he gave each person a pencil and pen. A student in yellow raised their hand.
“How are we supposed to keep our papers from getting ripped in our bags?”
“I was just about to get to that.” He smiled. “I will be ordering everyone a notebook for notes and assignments. Should anything happen to it just come talk to me and we’ll get it sorted out. With that being said,” He picked up a sheet of paper, “Please write down your name and what color notebook you want on this sheet. If you don’t I’ll just give you a random color, so if you don’t want to end up with a bright pink notebook I suggest you write something down.” A few Gryffindor boys grimaced.
The paper was quickly passed around the classroom, each child writing something. He noticed some kids struggling with the paper and pen, seemingly confused at where to write. Each time Mike or a muggleborn student would point out the lines and margins. Soon enough the requests ended up in Michaels hands.
“Alright! Was everyone able to put something?” They responded in a chorus of ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes professor’. He nodded, then placed the paper back on his desk. When he turned back a kid with a blue tie had a hand raised. Mike pointed and nodded at them.
“You haven’t done attendance yet professor.”
“Wait really?” He checked the sheet of names, seeing it unmarked. “Oh, shit, looks like I did. Thank you for reminding me.” The kid looked expectant. Michael ignored it. Some of the other kids seemed to be a little tense, then Mike went over his words again. “Oh please, you all are thirteen (13) I’m sure you’ve heard worse things.” He waved it off. A few kids chuckled.
“Now! I’m going to do this a little differently so I can get to know you all. We’ll go row by row. I want you to say your first and last name and whatever pronouns you use. If you go by a nickname or a different name in general, you can use that instead and I’ll make a note of it. I only need your last name to mark you down.” He looked around to make sure they understood. A few seemed a little confused, but they would probably get it soon enough.
“Alright, I guess I’ll start.” He began once the noise died down. “I am professor Michael Afton, or just Mike, my pronouns are he/him.” He said casually and pointed to the end of the first row. He marked names as he went down each line, making note of a few nicknames or those who preferred to just use a last name here and there.
“Alright, now that we got that over with, I don’t have anything more planned until tomorrow. So, are there any questions for me before class ends?” He asked. A few students raised their hands.
Michael happily answered a few questions, laughing off any that were too personal, until the class ended.
Maybe this teaching thing wouldn’t be so bad.