Prof. Maxim Trevelyan

Thank you Sky for my shinies. I always treasure each and every one that gets added to my collection. *pats his shiny hoard* Iverian, it was a pleasure working with you on HOL and passing you in the Den's halls. Good luck with all your RL pursuits! :) To all the rest, congratulations on your shinies too! :D

"I dunno," Maxim gently shook his head from left to right. "I love taking interesting classes," he paused after his emphasis on interesting. "But I think I love grading them even more," Maxim mused. "Must have a lot of teacher blood in me," he grinned and took a swig of pumpkin juice (which lacked the content of his hair, thank you). Maxim whooped when Sky replaced the roll she so dreadfully stole. Since he knew from his Transfiguration and Charms that food cannot be conjured out of this air, Maxim wondered which poor table lacked a rather delicious look roll. "Have I thanked you for letting me bother you in basic and Advanced Herbology?" he asked Sky and took one of the rolls out of principle, looking pointedly at his friend before gobbling it down. "The assisting I mean," Maxim explained quickly, "not the general annoyance that comes with me being literally anywhere."

"Drama is never finished," Maxim sighed deeply, putting his left hand over his heart. "Though to ace NEWTs coming after you," he winked and tried to gently bump Sky with his elbow. "Although to be honest, it would not be the end of the end of the magical world if I had to repeat my 7th year. Two more terms with classes, ey!" Maxim snorted. His eyes bugged out when Sky mentioned the soup. Maxim squeaked and quickly took to checking his reflection in one of the brass goblets on the table. He was a rather vain peacock when the situation called for it. His hair certainly were Maxim's pride and joy. "You are so mean," Maxim halfheartedly complained and tried to get the roll back to no avail. "How would you feel if I went to your table and started chomping food down?"

"I recognize that walk and I can feel you judging," Maxim loudly said to what he was pretty sure was Sky. They worked together for a long time and were friends for even longer, so he pretty much already figured out most of her quirks. "Have mercy on me, I just finished with my NEWTs," he rolled his head to the side and peered at the Gryffindor. "You remember how they were," Maxim added, a bit of accusation in his tone. He conveniently left out that he was always in such a state at the end of the year (or end of terms) to no one's fault but his own. "Is this heaven?" the Head Boy added and slowly, but surely, moved into a better sitting position. "It has food, relative peace and quiet."

Maxim walked into the Great Hall, zombie-shuffling and feeling like one too. If one was to strike a conversation, he either would not hear the person or let out a sound not unlike a drawn-out groan. He sat near the end of the Ravenclaw table closest to the raised podium where the staff sat and without much fanfare, dropped his head on the table, almost right into a plate filled with pumpkin soup. "I hate the end of term," Maxim mumbled, more to himself than anyone else and sighed as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He swore he could still feel the cramps in his hand from holding onto the quill, writing like crazy for NEWTs. They were kinda fun, Maxim admitted to himself, but incredibly demanding. At least he had the summer to look forward to. If he survived the burnout, that was.

For those that cannot interpret my artistic genius (so everyone, because I suck at free-hand art), this is a tarp suspended and attached between two trees.

Raevia's got the right idea in using stones. But I would stack them like this to denote which path I already took or just that I was here. Though, Emerald's path looks very delicious. :D

One of the more unusual ways of finding food is to go up. I am quite an experienced climber (rock climber, but proper trees are easier to climb than a rock), so I would have no trouble climbing up the trees in this season and looking for nests. Bird eggs are quite a good way of nutrition, especially if you are not that comfortable distinguishing mushrooms, berries, and other flora of the forest floor. I am also partial to wild garlic, but by itself, it is hard to eat, though in a pinch, it will do. It is best eaten in a salad! As for what I would avoid, I am not that knowledgeable about mushrooms, except one or two that I absolutely can recognize, so those would not be my first food pick when lost.

I am a pretty easy-going guy, I have been to wilderness many times, or out in open nature. There is a lot that I am used to and can cope with. However, I absolutely hate being cold at night. During the day too, but even the hottest days in summer can turn very cold at night. If you are outside with little else in terms of extra clothing, it can get pretty chilly. With no wand, you cannot really do much either. You could gather many leaves, but they need to be dry and there needs to be a lot of them to even get a chance in warming you up. Not an ideal situation to be in, to be sure.

The rustling in the bushes set me on edge. That was never a good sign in the Forbidden Forest. Just as I was about to do a strategic retreat, something blue flashed and hit my chest. As I was about to knock it away, I saw it was just a pixie. A Cornish one nonetheless. “What are you doing so far away, little guy?” I asked it as it flew to my eye level. It made some rude gesture, but its general demeanor was rather…droopy. “How about we find our way out of here, eh?” I tried to smile and put it in my pocket, but it blew a raspberry, tugged my hair and made a beeline through some more bushes with one last throw of an acorn at my head. “Rude,” I murmured, shaking my fist in its general direction and started up again towards where the trees appeared to be thinnest.

I am getting pretty thirsty and I cannot find the water. I can hear gentle run of water, but it seems to come from all direction. I remember from Gail's Survival class that one can gather moisture with so called dew traps. They are pretty straightforward way to get some moisture and water into your body, at least until you find a river or a lake. I have to be conscious of my plants and trees as while dew is safe to drink (especially out in the country), some surfaces it gathers on may not be. Am I not glad to be an assistant for Herbology right now? I take off my shirt, as it is pretty clean and give it a few shakes to lose as much dust and foresty things on it as possible. I go on a hunt for plants in shaded areas that are still moist. I wipe the shirt over plants that are soaked in dew. Since I have no container, I turn towards the sky and wring the shirt completely right into my mouth. It is not perfect but it will do for now. Now where is that danged stream?

Collage shows a collection of survival items such as, a compass, matches in a box, old map, a tent, a black cat for companionship, food, water bottle, warm blankets and a whistle.

I have no idea how I got here. I do know that contrary to usual happenings around the castle, it was not my fault. I remember going with my companions and, more importantly, my wand, looking for rare plants, but we stumbled upon a clearing in the forest. At first glance, it was as your usual clearing, but when you looked hard enough and from the side, there was a golden shimmer in the air. We all stilled and the more still we were, the more shimmer turned into a golden fog. I was the only one brave enough to try and walk through it, but when I did, everything turned upside down! I powered through it, but when I came out on the other side and upright again, I was alone, without my wand and my clothes were torn and muddy. What happened?

Peeves chose a rather ordinary day for this prank, and the only thing students and staff had in mind were normal classes. As people started milling into classrooms, anytime someone spoke or wrote, English transformed into another language! Languages were randomly chosen, and there was only one per student. Some bi- and multilingual students and staff got lucky, but these were rare occurrences. Everyone thought they were speaking English and could think in English, it is just their spoken and written language that got mixed up. Strangely enough, this only happened in classrooms. People circumvented this by teaching from their offices with Sonorus, while students sat in the hall. The prank stopped at midnight and the next day, everything was back to normal.

My daydream would be to do absolutely nothing and have all the time in the world. I would be in my bed, or in the night weather outside, with a slight breeze to cool you down. I would be in the company of my cats, who would be well behaved for once. No sounds of traffic, just nature and calm birdsong and buzzing to soothe the nerves, with the smell of grass and flowers wafting from the environment. Very peaceful and very quiet, just what I need!

Oh, there could be so many songs that she could sing, but I think that “Flattery Will Get You Everywhere” by Lynn Anderson is quite appropriate for The Fat Lady. This is a country song and rather short for modern standards, so students and staff would not need to wait for ages for her to stop singing. It can be taken literally as an advice to people how to treat the lady, but it is not condescending towards the singer, and rather empowering when it comes to the end. Just classy!

"...and four of those might be mine," Maxim joked and frowned at a jar of pickled toads that he found in the Order of Merlin golden gilded cabinet. "How did that even get in there? It is supposed to be locked and spell proof?" he questioned aloud, muttering as he took his wand out of the pocket. Maxim started to spell the locks on the cabinet, but had little luck. "I do not suppose there are any lock-picks around here?!" Maxim yelled at Sky. "For honest reasons before you ask."

Bertie Bott’s, pepper tots, flavors all the way! Oh what fun, it is to try, Every Flavour Beans, hey! From banana to ear wax, liver, toothpaste and flax, People all ages enjoy, Berte Bott’s Every Flavour Beans ahoy!

Maxim yawns as he moved towards the Trophy Room. He heard the commotion at night, but figured the professors would be dealing with it. Oh, how wrong he was. When he arrived, he noticed Sky and one of the students he did not recognize talking. Maxim glared at the mess in the room and swore he would find a way to send Peeves to the afterlife once and for all. "I would ask what is the damage, but I can clearly see it," he snarked and took a few minutes to take it all in again. "I will start with the Quidditch area, because that is just sad," Maxim waved to the display cases, which seemed to host everything but appropriate trophies. "Anyone who wants to join me, do so," he half-asked, half-ordered and moved a short distance away and began removing the awards, sorting them into piles.

Shiny -hoards on top of his pile- Thanks lions, this is the one I always look on with pride (hehe, get it? :P). <3

It was really hard to pick my last classes as a student. I am already a student of two year-long classes (The Tudors and And the Oscar Goes To, Take 1), so choosing just three was nearly impossible! Well, two really, since I already knew I will be taking Muggle Studies: Hidden Powers II since I simply loved the "beginners" class. In the end, I went with a classic HOL class, Magical Creatures Lore (I remember it back from when it was taught by Prof. Dragonfly) and one of the few Rorey classes I had not taken, A Visit to Hogsmeade.