Fergus Hannigan

So when you're sicker than a dog and you miss an entire week of school, it takes bloody forever to get caught back up. Just thought I'd share that little bit of information.

[Hermione]
Oi, miss. Dinner tonight? My place? I feel like I owe you a dinner or eight. I'm sorry.

Hell and damnation Someone gave me the flu. I feel like hell and when I just looked in the mirror, I scared myself.

For those of you with children in my class at the primary, Mrs Frazzle has agreed to take my class tomorrow and Wednesday, and from there a substitute will be able to handle it.

I'm going to go die now. No, I don't want any soup, potions, or anything else, before any of you ask. Mam will take care of all of that, as she's been here for an hour already.

Yeah, so this week is strange. I haven't actually gotten sick, but so many of my students were that on Monday we didn't do much other than play some games. Don't worry, the focused mainly on spelling and maths, so it wasn't a completely wasted day. The strange thing is, I sort of miss the little anklebiters.

Happy belated Valentine's Day, by the way. Mine was pretty excellent. How was yours?

[Warded Private]

Prague is a beautiful city. I feel bad for taking a day to see it -- around lunchtime I actually missed the kids -- but it was worth it to see Hermione's face when she walked into those churches and palaces. It was magical, really.

I have never been so surprised than when she showed up at my house last night. Never. I don't know where this is going, or how long it will last, but God, she's beautiful and she has so much passion that I'm not sure she knows how to use it, how to let herself experience it.

I'm afraid that I'm going to hurt her without ever meaning to.

[end ward]

So, how's things?

All right, as a teacher, I believe I have every right to say this:

What in the bloody fucking HELL were Meitzer House Publishers thinking? Yes, Wendy Roper has written some really fanstastic books, but for God's sake why have her - HAVE ANYONE - write a CHILDREN'S book on a war that was frightening to adults? These children will learn that war is hell. They will. But right now, they need to learn how to read and write, and why Fluffy the dog went to sleep and didn't wake up. They don't need to know about stupid prejudiced arses who thought they owned the world.

My class has decided they want a class pet.

And so, because I am a brilliant teacher, we're going to use this as an exercise in how the voting system for our government works. All this week we will be nominating different animals, and then they will have to cull it down to two, and learn how to debate them. And then next week we'll vote on the animal.

And the kids are pretty excited. Already there are factions of rabbit versus hamster.

My students are brilliant.