The Dark I Know Well // Jarek

[Sarafina Salazar]

Sarafina clipped down the hallways, most students stepping out of her way of their own accord, as Sarafina's head was buried in a stack of paperwork a foot high, quill with red ink in hand (and floating behind her), glasses falling down her nose and an angry scowl wrinkling her face. An owl, or rather, her owl, flapped behind her, making noises at some of the students and even diving at some of their heads. Sarafina's owl, Athena, could always sense her owner's mood and often acted as a sort of bodyguard when she felt that the woman was upset. And boy, was she upset. Sarafina had just been alerted to another lame attempt for her to step down as Headmistress. She knew that nothing would actually happen as it had already been proven that all of the governers would not sign. (It was good to know someone was still on her side). While she wanted to tell the Ministry to go shove it, she knew that would end poorly for her, so instead she had to write back a lengthy, detailed, diplomatic letter back explaining why they had absolutely no authority over her, Hogwarts or any of the other staff members. Which is why Sarafina was currently scaring students into corners; her entire being radiated anger.

After turning a few more corners and scaring a few more students, Sarafina stomped into staff room, slamming the pile of letters onto the table as she finished off her signature, the the curve taking up the rest of the line. She threw the quill on top of the pile, pointing her wand at the ink and having it join it there. Sarafina then harshly flicked her wand towards the small kitchenette, causing a tea pot, some hot water, a tea bag, sugar and cream to do a sort of dance as they created a pot of earl gray that poured itself into a cup which Sarafina's fingers immediately snatched up. Not taking into consideration that the tea was still hot, she immediately took a sip before dropping the cup and spitting the liquid out of her mouth in surprise. Inwardly swearing, she waited a moment to let the pain on her tongue to subside before repairing the cup and putting it on the table.

Sighing, she plopped heavily into the stuffed armchair, completely collapsing onto it. Sarafina groaned at her feet before pointing her wand at them and changing her heeled shoes into a more comfortable pair of boots. She hated wearing her heels, but she had to head to the Ministry earlier (as seemed to be the normal lately) and she honestly just didn't feel like dealing with the dirty looks. Whistling, Sarafina called her owl down to her leg before summoning over the top three letters from the stack, all three of which had to be sent to the Ministry. She tied them to Athena's leg, gave her a treat and sent her out throw an open window. Sighing, Sarafina again collapsed even further into the chair, this time closing her eyes, hoping for just a moment's rest.

[Jarek Burns]

“And Suzy Sue she was a loosy who went on down to Hooker Corner,” Jarek sang bawdily under his breath as his read the last two pages of the Daily Prophet. His not so good singing degenerated into humming as he skimmed through the classifieds, there was a lot of great items for sale this time around. A gold plated gobstone set for example, now that he had to have. Five hundred galleons was a bit too pricy for him at the moment however. He made a mental note for next payday. Jarek folded the paper in half and slapped it down on the table before him. He was in the staffroom. It was a comfortable little lobby. Thick carpets covered the floor and the Lion, Snake, Eagle, and Badger peeped down at him from banners hanging on the wall. Squashy armchairs lined the wall and a little fully stocked kitchenette stood off in one corner. To the other was a big ugly old wardrobe and beside that was a door which led to the bathroom. A grandmaster clock stood on the right side of the entrance. In the middle of the room was the large wizened oak table with several highback chairs, one of which Jarek was now comfortably occupying. A crystal chandelier of lit candles gave the room a soft orange glow which matched the DADA teacher’s content mood.

He leaned his chair back and propped his expensive dragon skin boots on the table and issued a loud yawn. He still had a mile’s worth of essays in his own office that needed his attention as well as three more classes to teach for the day. Men he could scarcely wait for the weekend. He seriously needed to distress. Maybe he’d go hiking in the hills around Hogsmeade this time, he had read that there was a serious demand for Ashwinder eggs on the Apothecary market. If he was lucky he wouldn’t have to wait until payday for that gobstone set after all, not for twenty four Galleons per egg. The thought made him grin. He picked up his wand and with a complicated twirl a stack of papers appeared before him with a pop. Another wave summoned a quill and a well of red ink. In the meantime he would continue earning his meager teacher’s salary. The very first essay cause Jarek to put down his quill and rub his temple and part exasperation and despair. God these children were stupid. He knew he simply hadn’t been this slow as a kid. He simply hadn’t. He had reviewed the defensive traits of a Dementor five times. five. Yet this student was certain that Dementors had Troll like strength, chameleonic skin, and the ability to breathe fire.

Jarek closed his eyes as he self soothed. On second thought he’d need a little extra encouragement. Another wave of his hand summoned the half finished bottle of merlot from his office. The minutes slid by steadily with only the clink of a bottle, the rustling of paper, and occasionally the scratch of a quill making negative comments and generally giving low marks to break the silence. It wasn’t long before the bottle was empty, the papers only half gone, and Jarek’s bladder completely full. With a yawn and a wave of hand he vanished the empty bottle then rose to use the bathroom. After completing his business and washing his hands Jarek examined his reflection in the mirror. Seeing nothing out of place he exited the restroom but he froze at the door upon seeing someone else now occupying the teacher’s lounge.

A very haggard looking headmaster to be precise. Jarek watched curiously as she agitatedly slammed a bunch of papers down then bustled over to make tea which scorched her mouth causing her to drop the cup with a lot of spluttering. Jarek fought back a snigger at that. She repaired the cup and placed it on the table before making her way over to one of the armchairs and sinking into it with a sigh. Apparently she still wasn’t aware of his presence. He watched as the new headmaster transfigured her shoes then called over an owl which Jarek hadn’t notice before. Feeling a bit like a voyeur Jarek decided to make his presence known. He stepped forward and closed the door loudly behind him just as Sarafina had finished fitting the owl with letters she had summoned from the pile of papers she had brought along .

[Sarafina Salazar]

Sarafina visibly started at the slamming of the door, her entire body snapping to attention, her hand immediately snatching up her wand, pointing it in the direction of the noise. She thanked her quick, visual reflexes for keeping her from casting a spell as she felt that hexing one of her professors was probably against the rules...unfortunately. Honestly, she wouldn't have minded hexing this particular professors every once in awhile. Professor Burns. It's not that she didn't like him...well, actually that's exactly what it was. She didn't like his past.

A scowl started to spread across her lips, but she quickly shut it down, changing it to a tight smile instead. Sarafina just didn't trust this man. Why should she? Hell, she didn't trust half her staff to be honest. And he gave her no reason to. She never did understand the past Headmaster's decisions when hiring his professors. Maybe he thought they all deserved second chances. Maybe he was desperate. Or maybe he was just plain bat-crazy. (Sarafina often believed the the bit about him being crazy.) Whatever the reason, Sarafina felt that Jarek Burns was a poor choice, and if it were up to her, he would have been fired the first day she started the job. Alas, he wasn't and Sarafina had to suck it up and play the diplomat.

"Professor Burns. How lovely to see you in the staff room. And how have your classes been lately?"

The words came out higher-pitched than normal with a slight squeaky quality to it. That, and the clipped endings to her words made the words seem foreign on her ears. She nearly had to turn her head to the side and mouth the words "what the hell was that" to herself. Instead, she held her composure (though anyone watching close enough would have noticed the slight twitch of her lip). It was her job as Headmistress to remain as neutral as possible with her staff, which gave her one more excuse not to socialize (always a plus in Sarafina's book), but when it came to inevitable moments such as these, she found that sticking to the subject of classes was the safest. She didn't have to worry about slipping up and revealing something personal, and she didn't have to worry about them sharing personal information she had no desire to learn.

[Jarek Burns]

Jarek noticed Sarafina jerk towards a wand. Five years of professional dueling was not simply erase from the mind, drills that had been practiced into muscle memory saw that he leapt to the side while simultaneously drawing his own wand. It was pointed between her eyes as quickly as hers was pointed between his. A tense moment pass where Jarek half wished the headmaster would do it, had it be anyone else he already would have. He didn’t take to pointed wands, thank you very much. But this being the person that could fire him, he had to make certain allowances. Finally the headmaster’s wand lowered. With a snort Jarek followed suit.

“A bit quick on the draw, madam.” Jarek said in a voice dripping with contempt while giving her his best smile. He noticed offhandedly that she looked especially nice that day. Not that he really cared of course, his standards weren’t that exclusive but still he just didn’t do frigid bitches who thought themselves untouchable. Madam Sarafina was a textbook example. He watched her face closely as she gave him an obviously forced smile, he didn’t return the gesture. He had no personal grievance against the woman, to be honest they didn’t communicate enough for any to ever form, but what he had seen of her attitude just rubbed him the wrong way. She reminded him way too much of the people that had ruined his life. Of stuffy magistrates that sat in their high back chairs looking down their long noses at the world; passing judgments down as if they were a higher power unto themselves. Jarek stalked forward slowly and returned himself to the table as the headmaster addressed him.

“Couldn’t be better,” Jarek replied almost snappishly. He caught himself then hastened to add, “This year intake seem to be a right bunch of geniuses they are.” The lie made his upper lip twitch. The man warily resumed his former seat, silently grateful that it was positioned where he would still have her in sight. Sitting with his back to her was not something he was comfortable with, as the old saying went just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean the world isn’t out to get ya.

[Sarafina Salazar]

"Old habits die hard, don't they Professor Burns?" Sarafina shot a pointed look at the professor, quirking an eyebrow as if to say "you should know." "But it's good to hear that you seem to be producing geniuses."

A small smirk tweaked Sarafina's lips at the statement. She highly doubted that many of them could get an O on all of their O.W.L.S. let alone be considered geniuses; at least, not if her experience as a professor was any clue. Sure, the students weren't that bad...well, most of the time anyways, and there were always those special cases that actually worked hard in all subjects and went on to achieve great things, but those students were far and few between. Sarafina liked to think that she was one of those rare cases and that her academic achievements proved it, but there was always a small part of her that doubted herself and all that she has worked on.

Sarafina eyed Burns as he sat down, fortunately within eyesight. He didn't sit right with her, and she would have been comfortable with him out of her line of vision. Hell, she would have been uncomfortable with anyone in the same room but outside of her line of vision; it was the auror in her. Burns wasn't on her "bad" list in the same way that some of the other professors, like Davenport; Davenport was on her list because of suspected activity, something that had never been proven by the school or the Ministry. Burns, on the other hand, had been accused and convicted in America, and for not nearly enough time, in Sarafina's opinion. After she had become Headmistress, Sarafina had pulled some strings in the auror department to find out some information on Burns (she had actually done the same on all of the professors), and when she found out that piece of information, she was immediately put on edge. She couldn't understand how someone with such a background had ever even been hired at Hogwarts, and knowing that she had been working with someone with such a background had seriously startled her.

And so now Sarafina found herself eying Professor burns suspiciously. With everything going on with students being caught with dark magic, everyone was on Sarafina's suspect list, but Burns was definitely near the top. She had been meaning to talk to him about it lately...With a quick glance around to make sure there would be no other staff popping out to surprise her, Sarafina cleared her throat before looking pointedly at Burns, making sure to do her part to keep eye contact.

"So Professor Burns. These...geniuses you've been producing...have any of them, by any chance, been the students recently expelled because of their use of dark magic? Because I would hate to think that you consider those fluent in dark magic to be geniuses."

[Jarek Burns]

Jarek merely replied with a grunt as the headmaster answered; her voice simply dripping sarcasm. As far as he was concern the conversation was over. He had an hour left before his next class according to the clock hanging on the wall and he had no intentions of spending it making idle chatter with possibly one of his least favorite persons at Hogwarts. That said Jarek began to peer down over his paper, trying his best to pretend that Miss Salazar no longer existed. It worked for all of two seconds until she spoke up again, shattering his fantasy world where she was a nonfactor. Her words were as effective as any hex she could have casted. Maybe even more so.

Jarek slowly rose his head so as to better lock eyes with her. His rage was so great that for a long while the only thing he could hear was his blood rushing. One hand tightened on the quill while the other made a half twitch towards his pocket before he managed to stop himself. He knew the intent behind her ambiguous words as well as she did and they struck at a wound that was still far from healed.

“No madam as a matter of fact they haven’t,” Jarek said keeping his voice low even though it was thick with anger. “But yet there remains an issue of rampant Dark Magic usage throughout the school. Odd though, that such a thing coincides with your coming to office. Ill luck wouldn’t you agree?” He ended with a nasty smile. Jarek was beginning to gain back to composure he lost when she subtly accused him not a minute ago. If she wanted to play nasty he could play nasty too.

Subconsciously he couldn’t blame her for suspecting him. He was known user of Dark Magic, had in fact been imprisoned for years for using the Cruciatus Curse on a muggle family. It was natural then that under the circumstances he be looked at twice. He couldn’t care less however; the woman had just bought herself a top spot in his bad books. A permanent spot too.
“How goes the investigation headmaster,” Jarek continued. “Are you any closer to catching the culprit or culprits of these shenanigans?” He asked with another smile as he knew full well that she wasn’t.

[Sarafina Salazar]

Sarafina felt the anger boiling inside of her at Jarek's little remark about how everything started when she was Headmistress. She couldn't deny that the comment bothered though, though she would never admit it to Burns knew how to push her buttons, and Sarafina hated it. Mainly because, in this situation, it happened to be true. Everything did happen around the time when she had been appointed Headmistress, and despite the fact that Sarafina acted confident in herself and everything she's done for the school so far, there was a part of her that doubted her ability of performing her abilities, and the fact that all of this dark magic had started when she was appointed didn't help. Sarafina ground her teeth together in an attempt to keep herself from biting back at him, though she did feel that her wand hand twitch in anticipation, though this time it was only partially her auror training kicking in, while part of it was her just wanting to jinx his ass. She knew that such an act would get her fired on the spot more than likely, but she was still tempted. What kept her more in check than even that was knowing that she was better than that - better than him.

Of course, her resolve nearly shattered at his question of how the investigations were going. She was almost positive that him and the rest of the staff already knew how the investigations were going - that they weren't. She was doing her best - truly, she was - but there were no answers. They had tried to interrogate the students, but since they were underage, they couldn't do that without parent permission, and those parents wouldn't let them near their kids. And now? Well, now they were at a loss for leads, no one to interview, and her own head on the chopping block. So no, the investigation were going absolutely nowhere, but hell if Sarafina was going to tell Burns that.

"The investigations are going fine, thank you for asking, Professor," Sarafina ground out. "We actually have a few leads. The suspect list has been quite easy to gather thanks to the fact that we have certain professors with...special histories. Like your own, actually. Heard anything from the Ministry lately? I'm sure you're at the top of their suspect list with your imprisonment in America for torturing some poor, innocent muggles. But, I don't need to remind you of that now, do I."

Sarafina spit out her last sentence towards the professor. If he had any doubts of her stance on this investigation before, she was almost positive that it was clear now.

[Jarek Burns]

Jarek was upon his feet so fast that his chair practically flew backwards. It clattered to the floor with a raucous noise. Rage mixed with hatred contorted his face almost beyond recognition. This woman! This bitch! She…..how dare she……..he simply could not believe her. Her words hammered him one after another like blows to the stomach, they simply suck the breath out of him. A torrent of long suppressed memories burst forward from the back of his mind. His hand chained together as he stood in a painfully bright circular room………….a panel of hard faced men and women staring down at him without an ounce of pity in their eyes………… a fat graybeard old man standing above him on a podium and pointed down at Jarek with all the authority of faith itself as he willfully handed down judgment……..

Jarek slammed his hand on the desk so loud that it echoed around the room like a gunshot. Papers scattered all about and the bottle of ink was overturned.
"You go too far!” He bellowed his face strained with his fury. “Too far!”
The candles on the chandelier above exploded casting the room into sharp relieve for a moment before it fell into semidarkness while raining hot wax everywhere. Jarek didn’t care, he marched forward towards the transgressing woman one hand clenched tightly while the other jabbed violently at her as if though he could kill her with the very motion.

“I think the ministry would be much more interested in a substandard talentless witch who probably gained her position on some governor’s dick running their school than on false charges levied against me in my past!” Jarek shouted jabbing his finger at her with every word as he kept on approaching her. In his anger all civility was gone, so was all self control. This stupid, stupid woman! “The fact that this all started when you ascended to power headmistress” Jarek sneered the title as he came to a stop just a feet from her. “Can mean only one of two things: either that you are involved or you are incompetent!” He shouted the last and balled both his fists at his side as he stared the woman down, oh how he would love to hit her. To hit her until her stupid face broke. In his anger even magic was forgotten.

“So secure in your power aren’t you?” Jarek snarled. “Feel like you so big don’t you? Like you’re the best. If it weren’t for your title you would already be a million different pieces right now.” Jarek said once again pointed at her chest. “That’s the only thing stopping me from putting you in your place.”

[Sarafina Salazar]

Sarafina held steady as she watched Davenport lose his cool in front of her. She had pushed his buttons a little better than she had expected to. She knew that what happened in America couldn't have been easy to endure, but she most definitely didn't expect such a violent reaction from the man. Years of auror training kept Sarafina from flinching as he slammed his hand down on the table; she wasn't able to help herself from flinching when the hot wax hit her arm, however. She wrinkled her nose and swept it away, but there was a mark made from a burn. And if she thought she didn't expect Davenport's reaction, then what came next surprised her even more. She would never have believed the man to march over and point his finger in her face like such, let alone speak the way he did to her. To say she was becoming furious was an understatement, but she also knew that she was able to keep herself in control for now. She listened to him rant and rave, all the while her temper rising, her eyes trying to ignore his finger and keep eye contact, but unable to as it was just RIGHT THERE. She nearly reached out to grab it and bend it backward, or even better, bite it, but then the thought of what kind of diseases he might have crossed her mind and she thought better of it. Instead, she continued sitting and listening to the man rant and rave. He was getting to her, she couldn't deny that, but she did her best not to show it, despite the narrowing of her eyes and the sense of powerful magic that seemed to radiate from her, threatening to burst loose.

And then he upped the stakes.

The second he mentioned that she might have slept her way to her position was her breaking point, and she was not about to let such accusations go without any sort of punishment and being put into place.

"That is enough!" Sarafina bellowed as she stood up abruptly, the now lightless chandelier shaking slightly. "Sit down Professor. Now."

Sarafina waved a chair over and sent a spell at Burns to shove him back away from her, seeing as he was right in her personal space.

"Now let's get one thing straight. You might not like me, and you might not like the way I run this school, but you choose to work for me. I am your boss, not some muggle girl you can curse and intimidate. And you certainly cannot talk to me like that. I have every right to be in this position, much more than you, that's for sure. And I sure as hell did not sleep way into this position. And let me tell you - I can promise you that you better keep an eye out because both the Ministry and I have a close eye on you. You can deny what happened all you want, but you were convicted and sent to prison, and for not nearly enough time in my opinion. But I guess you get out early when mommy bails you out. Now, I don't know what the Headmaster saw in you, but whatever it is, I don't see it, so you better watch your step. One more toe out of line, and you will be working on docked pay. Is that understood?"

[Jarek Burns]

Jarek was about to continue on. Oh he had so much to tell this woman. So much! From a wide range of topics as well, including and not limited to her parents, her personal hygiene, and her sexual practices.
He would have said it all as well or tried to say it all if he hadn’t notice the sudden movement of her wand hand. Jarek reacted with explosive speed, his own wand hand snapped out tracing a counter curse that powerful enough to send the woman, or what would be left of her after the curse had hit, halfway through the castle. It was only after the gesture was complete that Jarek realized that there was something horribly wrong. There was no wand in his hand! It was still there on the table!

Jarek’s eyes widened at his stupid mistake just a moment before he was knocked backwards into a chair by the headmaster’s spell. That he didn’t at once burst into murderous fury was a testament to the wild look of anger in the woman’s eye. His self perseveration won out in the fight against his vicious anger, he was unarmed and she was armed. He was a man and she was a woman. He had a record as a criminal and she was an X Auror. There was nobody else around. There was every chance that she could kill him here and walk on a self defense cause; he didn’t want to give her any more of the needed incentive.

“I choose to work for the previous headmaster,” Jarek snarled out clenching the armrest of the chairs so hard in his anger that his hands ached with the strain. “The one that actually knew how to run a school!” He made a scathing sound in the back of his throat and gave a derisive laugh when she insisted that she didn’t sleep her way to position. Like hell she didn’t! There was simply too many more eligible professors around Hogwarts for anything else to have occurred. Headmaster Sarafina sure as well wasn’t fooling anyone with that tune. Jarek’s laugh however slowly tapered out and his face bore a very ugly expression indeed when the bitch made her snide remark about his mother bailing him out. No, that was enough! He was simply shaking with fury but he fought to keep his voice steady.

“Okay then headmistress,” he said adding as much contempt to the title as he possibly could. “Let’s see you prove me wrong about your ability and about the things that you undoubtedly did to get that position.” The look he gave her was one of anger laced with open contempt. “Let’s see you really put me in my place.”