Alexander is at his best when he is teaching. It's really his calling. Which makes it rather a pity that he's so very obsessed with revenge, because he's unlikely to be able to continue teaching when there are no more students to teach.

But that's in the future.

He's doing practical demonstrations in a conference room in the upper level of the Ferguson Memorial Library. It involves tapping into one's own potential, no matter how far buried it is.

Quite a handy trick, actually. And it will mean that he gets more energy from his students in the end... You know, he's not thinking about that. He's concentrating on the magic and on what he's drawing out of them now.

He's smiling, which is rather unusual. For him.

It had taken quite a lot of searching, but she had done it. She'd finally found him after oh...about an hour of searching? Yes, about an hour. Of course, that's including transit time and bad directions, but Katrina was determined.

She wasn't running through the halls, no. She was walking. Quickly. Really quickly. Power walking, let's call it. Her face was sort of what you might call glowing. Excited, definitely. Try downright ecstatic.

Quickly peek through the small window, just to make sure it's the right room. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time that day she'd been given bad directions. Of course, her quick glance didn't tell her whether or not she was interrupting.

Imagine her surprise when there was a roomful of people. Imagine her further surprise when a strange feeling suddenly lept through her, catching her completely unawares.

"Oh shit."

Katrina has probably never heard Alexander swear before. She's also definitely never seen him use magic before, and the next word out of his mouth is Latin, and the door slams shut behind her.

"Miss Sullivan. Hello."

He looks at the other students and they are obediently silent.

"What are you doing here?"

Was the frantic beating of her heart the shock, excitement or something else entirely?

She shook her head and she didn't seem to notice the door closing of its own accord. She smiled again, dismissing the start entirely.

"Look! Look look, I made a B on my last Chemistry test!" She began to saunter up and show him but that odd feeling persisted.

"Woah.." she swayed, "Oh God, this is really weird.."

"I'm not surprised," he answered, with an incredibly dry and unamused tone. "You weren't supposed to be caught in that."

She wasn't supposed to know this kind of thing existed. He's a tad annoyed with her. Just a tad.

He folds his arms. "Do you have any idea what you've just done to yourself?"

"What?" That incredulous look on her face was really there and, might I add, also a little hurt. What was with his sudden...rudeness?

"This is my fault, is it?" yes, she did just raise her voice.

"Partially. And partially mine. I should have shielded the room." He sighed and shook his head.

"That is, however, beside the point. It doesn't matter whose fault it is, as it's happened and I'm going to deal with it." A glance at the other students. "We'll pick this up next week."

They nod and leave. Alexander's orders are to be obeyed, even when they're only implied.

"Now. Miss Sullivan, obviously you don't realize what's happened. Are you at all familiar with magic?"

Wait, why was everyone leaving? What was going on? Had something bad happened? How was it that her professor suddenly knew something was wrong..and he'd caused it? What? Please forgive the slight...fright that took a hold of her.

"No," she'd said automatically, "Wait, what? Magic?"

Katrina felt confused, lost, and suddenly very, very small.

"Yes, magic. I am a mage. You walked in on one of my unofficial classes and seem to have been caught in my demonstration, and that triggered potential in you. So."

He is frowning. Very much. It's not so different from his usual stern expression, but it's more angry and worried than usual.

"There are two options. I can lock your magic down again... or I can teach you to use it."

The thought most prevailent in her mind was that all that anger was directed toward her. Perhaps at one time or another, she'd have jumped at the chance to have more lessons with him. But at the moment, and with the circumstances prompting extra lessons...Katrina needed to think.

"...what can I expect," she began slowly, "if I wait..to answer?" So she can have time to think and to decide whether he's crazy or not.

Alexander closes his eyes and mentally looks her over, then nods to himself.

"I would say that you will be all right, as long as you don't try to do anything with it." He is very familiar with the temptation to use magic for everything. He uses a lot of magic without even thinking about it.

"Using it is largely a matter of will, and if you do not will anything strongly, it should remain somewhat dormant. At least long enough for you to decide what to do about it."

For the record? He is not angry with her, exactly. Just with the situation in general.

If this hadn't happened...she knew she would have labeled him as crazy. But that foreign..feeling (because there was no other way to describe it) wasn't something she could just dismiss as a mental imbalance. If she had him lock it away, could she go on, comfortable with the thought that he was an overenthusiastic Tolkein fan? Could she be comfortable with him as her teacher? ..and could she be sure that if she waited nothing out of the ordinary would happen?

"I don't..." take a breath, "Um.." keep calm, "I can't..I need to.." The forgotten Chemistry test fell to the floor and hid itself under a chair. Her blond hair fell in front of her face and she refused to look in his direction. Backing up, her shaking hand found the doorknob.

"I'll just go.."

"I'm not insane, Katrina."

... oops.

He decides to ignore that he's just used her first name, and murmurs a word. A ball of blue light appears above his hand, pulsing to his heartbeat and casting odd shadows across his face and body.

"I also cannot allow you to leave that be for more than a few days. It could easily be dangerous."

Katrina gasped.

Something inside of her reacted. It wouldn't have been very strong to the experienced, but it was enough of a something to an anxious teenager to send off a few signals. And now she couldn't even deny what she'd felt. Now she'd seen and had been effected by it, scared by it.

Miss Sullivan could be said to be a woman ruled by her emotions. Everyone is, at the soul and center of things, but her will was so attatched to her emotions that they were essentially the same things. At the moment, strong reactions were likely to trigger something, pronounced feelings were going to have more rule over her than logical thought.

Katrina didn't even know that he'd known her first name. So many things about him confused her before, the magic only added an extra degree of frightful unknown, and now he was speaking more familiarly than ever. Was it an attempt to be comforting? She didn't stay on that thought long. In fact, she didn't stay on any for more than a second or two and that didn't help any. She liked things in an orderly manner where she could comprehend them, but the day was turned so quickly she lost her footing.

The light blinked out.

"Good lord, will you relax? You'll set something on fire if you aren't careful."

He's back to his usual half-good-natured self. The anger is gone. The worry is gone. He's just... Alexander.

It's a mask, just so you know.

"Imagine that you're a teenaged girl, away from home for the first time in her life, not having the best week and you've just been hit with a metaphorical sledgehammer and see how you feel about it."

She'd prefer if he were a little more sensitive.

She has no idea how close that hits to home, does she.

Of course, she has no idea that he used to be a teenage girl.

"Miss Sullivan, I realize it's difficult to accept." A faint, faint smile. "You haven't screamed, so far. I consider that rather impressive."

Pause.

"I can wipe your memory of this, if you'd rather."

She doesn't like that idea. It was one thing to make yourself believe it had never happend. It was a whole nother ball of wax when someone else had the permission to go rummaging around and erasing things permanently.

"I don't know what I want to do with it," Honestly, after a few moments, who would? Well, OK, yes. Some people would, but the point is that she wouldn't.

"Yet. After I've thought some..should I just g-go to your office and try an' find you or..?"

As far a hanging question marks go, it was a good one.

"That will do. Or you may call me."

A business card appears in his hand. No, he doesn't carry them on his person, he just made it. He's usually more subtle about doing that, but what's the point right now?

"Here."

... for the record, he doesn't usually give business cards to students.

Had she known she would have felt special. And then mentally kicked herself for it.

"M'kay. Um thanks, I guess..." The card was slid into her right back pocket, where she kept everything she wanted to keep track of.

She didn't even look at him when saying thank-you. In fact, she hadn't even looked at his face since shortly after the other students left.

"Um.." nervous breath, "bye," the door is opened and Katrina slipped through as silently as she could.