"...You know ho-o-ow much I want you bad...you can't hide...can I....uh, oh...." Garrin stopped his slightly off-pitch singing, looked up from his current activity of shelving new books, and listened again for what he thought was a knock at his door.

Still humming softly, he hopped to his feet with a grunt, did a little jog over to his office door, and swung it open.


ooc: closed

Outside of the door were two Hufflepuff students whom Garrin should be familiar with. Cody and Chayce to be specific. Cody at least seemed to have on a wide grin, they had fairly good news considering, and Cody seemed to be excited about it. Though he excited easily.

"Dad, dad! You're never going to guess!" He spurted out, speaking fairly quickly. He paused for a second before continuing "Chayce got on the quidditch team! Isn't that cool?!?" He said, still perfectly excited. It was a bit strange really, his excitement. He probably was still a bit giddy from all of the other exciting things of the previous days. He liked quidditch, and was happy for his cousin. Just because he stunk at it didn't mean that his entire family did.

He decided to stop for a few seconds, maybe giving Chayce a chance to talk about herself rather then himself saying it all for her. He couldn't help it really, when he was excited he was excited. Even if it was over small things. Plus Hogwarts invited excitement, with all of the various classes teaching spells and extra-circular clubs and all sorts of other things.

Chayce had opened her mouth to speak the moment her Uncle Garrin had opened the door, but she found herself instantly silenced by her cousin Cody. Okay, so he'd kind of stolen what she'd been about to jump and squeal and maybe even sing about, but oh well. "I made Beater! Can you believe it?! I'm a first year, too! But then again, I hear there are a lot of them on the team this year."

Chayce bounced up and down, green eyes lit with excitement, which showed exactly how happy she was to have actually made the team. "Dad and Mum are going to be so proud! Well, Mum will be happy, anyways-- she's never been a big fan of Quidditch... But Dad'll be thrilled! I mean, I'm sure he wanted me to get Seeker, but at least I got a position I love!" Chayce had always enjoyed playing Beater, as her whole family knew.

"I think I messed up a couple times, but I guess I still did really well." She smiled enthusiastically.

Garrin's dark brown eyes swept from one kid to the next, waiting to get a word in edgewise, sporting an amused grin at their obvious excitement. It brought back memories of his first days as a student.

"I'm sure you were brilliant," he said in a sort of breathy laugh, quite pleased to see Chayce so happy.

"Too right you are, your Dad will pin that letter home up with pride for sure." He reached to lovingly mess up his niece's hair as a form on congratulations, beaming at her in the process.

"Good job, kiddo," he said with a happy sigh. His eyes met his son's face, and Garrin gave a little snort of a laugh.

"Couldn't let Chayce share the news herself, eh? Goofball...." He grinned and playfully rolled his eyes.

Cody grinned at his fathers comment, though he secretly felt a bit bad for not letting Chayce speak first. It was one of those fleeting feelings though. He was tempted to do a reenactment of Chayce's tryout, with the 'Wusshh'ing sound effects and all, but decided that it would probably make him regress mentally at least five years. So he just did it in his head and let it rest.

"She was awesome!" He dared to add in, his hand motions were very animated, and probably said a lot more then his words. His grin was still fairly wide, and seemed to shine with the reflections of various light sources nearby.

Garrin chuckled for a moment at Cody, then scratched absent-mindedly behind his ear, as he usually did when thinking best how to word something he wanted to say.

"Cody, you know, I've always said...with a bit of practice, you could really do well in Quidditch. Maybe you could try out for the team next year." He cleared his throat and gave a casual shrug. The last thing he wanted to do was push his son to do something he didn't want to do, but it would be great to see him involved in school activities like Garrin was.

Blast, don't compare your son to you...no re-living your youth vicariously, nuh-uh, not allowed!

Cody resisted the urge to laugh. While he would love to play for Hufflepuff, he knew that unless for some reason he suddenly was gifted at the game, he probably wouldn't be very good; though he didn't really care if he was good or not, he could keep on practicing, and maybe one day become good enough to tryout. Though he secretly doubted he would ever be as good as his father or Chayce.

"We'll see about that, dad." He said, still smiling. Maybe he would give it a shot; even if it was just trying out for fun. Who knows. Maybe he'd get lucky. In the back of his mind a little movie was playing about how he would go on and become the house captain and win awards and things. It was a nice little fantasy when he thought about it.

"A positive attitude can get you anywhere" He repeated to himself in his head over and over again... You know... He did see a sign up sheet for understudies in the Hufflepuff common rooms. And it would make his dad happy...

"Hey buddy, it's only if you want to, right?" he said, nodding his head in an exaggerated manner to ensure they had an understanding. He backed into his office a little, nonverbally inviting them into his office. He started for his tea table, still talking to Cody over his shoulder.

"Parent cliche number, er, oh...we'll call it number...twenty-nine. 'Whatever makes you happy is what I want you to do.' Er, provided it doesn't involve seeing if you can break the record for most rules broken, or something similarly absurd as that." He shook his head in amusement and smirked, then nodded to the table.

"There's fresh ginger snaps here, help yourself." He frowned, however, staring determinedly at his tea table.

"Odd..." he mumbled softly. "My...saucers are missing," he said, his lips slightly pursed together in a baffled expression.

"Okay, well, maybe I was just a little bit awesome," Chayce blushed happily, beaming with pride. "I'm sure you could make it if you practiced, Cody!" Even Chayce didn't sound totally convinced, but at least she made an effort. She even put her thumbs up with an encouraging smile.

"No problemo Uncle Garrin, you don't need plates to enjoy ginger snaps!" Chayce picked up a few, tore them in to a few pieces, and popped each in her mouth one after the other. Though Allison Hamren would have been rather embarrassed at her daughter's behavior, but what Mum didn't know, wouldn't hurt her. That had been Chayce's philosophy for her parents for her life; like when they hadn't known she'd been awake when they yelled at each other a few months before. That had been the night before Chayce, Ryan, and James had been sent to stay with Uncle Garrin.

Cody nodded in agreement with his father. "Right" he muttered, chuckling a bit at his parent cliche bit. "Aww man. I was hoping to be able to see how many floors I could dirty before I got in trouble." He added in his 'joking' voice. He snapped his fingers while saying this, and stepped into Garrin's office. This was the first time he got a good look at it, and it reminded him of their house a bit. It had the same type of feeling around it for sure.

He grinned again at Chayce's comment
"Thanks" He muttered. He knew that she most likely was just saying it for encouragement, but still it was a nice thought and that was all that counted.

When he heard his father's mention something about ginger snaps he started gravitating toward the table. Sweets were always a good thing, though at the moment he didn't really need any sugar as he was already hyper enough. Though an interesting thought occurred to him; if he got too hyper and excited would he just explode from all of the energy? He didn't really want to test this, and decided that a few cookies couldn't hurt him.

As he grabbed a couple, he noticed his dad his dad saying something quietly about saucers. He walked back over to him, a slightly puzzled expression on his face. "Were they there when you answered the door?" He asked, though he knew that barely anyone used them. Usually only the other professors or adults.

"I hadn't...checked but...so strange," Garrin replied, still in a bit of a mumble. He scratched his head, looked around briefly as though expecting the saucers to suddenly appear at his feet, then proceeded to make tiny little nods, mentally retracing his actions that day.

"...and then Professor Coltum...or was it her...no...oh hang it all, I never liked those ruddy saucers to begin with...."

He sighed, clearly still intent on remembering where they went to, then spotted a box in the corner, which played host to a stack of books waiting to be shelved. He distractedly waved his hand at the box, and the books rose to the air, and shuffled themselves among their fellows.

"Well, at any rate, Cody, I am so proud of you for making Hufflepuff---course I'd be proud of you even if you died you hair purple and landed yourself in Slytherin, but...you catch my drift. Please though, don't dye your hair purple. Saucers!"

At that moment, the missing white plates rose from the box, and along with the books before them, shuffled into the shelves.

"You know, I think they rather belong there...it'll make for an interesting conversation piece...or pieces, rather...an ice breaker for my clients." He placed his hands on his hips and gave a silly smirk, envisioning the potential questions he would get.

Cody watched his father work out where the plates were, enjoying some of the ginger snaps while watching. Eventually he noticed that his father started talking about him getting into Hufflepuff. At this he beamed some more, he seemed to do that a lot if you investigated into it or knew him very well.

"I'm pretty sure I don't want to dye my hair." He muttered, one of his hands running through his hair now. Purple wouldn't be a good color to dye your hair, plus dying your hair was a bit frivolous, or at least it seemed so to him. He never got why so many people here had dyed hair, but he figured it was a personal taste thing.

He couldn't help but jump a bit when he heard the plates. He let out a short laugh at himself then saw them putting themselves on Garrin's book shelf. It looked a bit funny, but that was probably the point. No one could read china, even if they could read Chinese.
"I'm sure they'll find it interesting" he said somewhat cheerfully for lack of anything else to say.

He looked back over the room. From the fire place to the table with the various snacks on it it seemed like a nice place. It needed to be for his dad's line of work. Usually if people were in a cheery type of location, they would be a bit more inclined to open up then if they were in the dungeons or some where like that.

"So," Garrin transitioned, pulling a sickle out of his pocket and tossing it up in the air. He caught it, threw it again, and went on like that, pacing as he spoke.

"Either of you planning on joining any clubs? Because with Quidditch, and other activities, things start to pile up, including homework, and I don't have to tell you that's got to be your priority," he said, looking both at Cody and Chayce.

"Whoops..." With a slip of his fingers the coin dropped to the floor. Garrin grunted softly as he leaned over to pick it up, using the arm of his sofa to keep his balance.

"And you know, of course, I don't mean to lecture," he added, flashing a grin so that his dimples showed. He continued smirking softly inwardly, then produced his wand and gave it a pointed jab towards the box that not too long ago was filled with books. The box disappeared on the spot, and Garrin sighed, still smirking.

"Right well, Chayce, congratulations again. You two had better be on your way, it's getting late. And, eh, take the snaps with you, would you?" He made a bit of a face, and slapped his tummy. "Age goes up, metabolism goes down...." His smirk returned, then he nodded to the door.

"Good night, you two."