Jill, from Katherine Kerr's Deverry books

[turtledove_jill]

A young woman with short blonde hair walks in, stops, and looks around in surprise. She is wearing worn baggy trousers, a slightly stained linen shirt, boots, and a swordbelt from which hang a sword and a silver dagger.

"By the Lord of Hell's black hairy balls! Since when did Brin Toraedic have a room that looked like this(OOC: This Jill is from

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[estebanmd]

Stephen hung back awhile and listened to the applicant's conversations with other Hogwarts denizens before finally addressing her himself.

"What, pray tell, is dweomer? This word I have not heard in any language known to me."

[turtledove_jill]

"Dweomer is...." Jill pauses for a moment to think. "It's part of the world, but not everyone is able to learn it. It's scrying, and astral travel, and spells, but it's so much more than just that. It's knowing the proper names for everything, and the seals, and keeping the natural world and all it's planes in harmony. Laura called it magic."

[estebanmd]

"What you describe," said Stephen, thinking, "sounds much like the sort of magic one of my former students had been researching. His name was Dib, and he is no longer with us. What we do at Hogwarts differs from it in several respects." By no means the least important of which being that the practical and businesslike, non-mystical way in which Hogwarts magic was undertaken seemed far less troubling to Stephen's 19th-century Catholic sensibilities than the arcana into which Dib had delved. Yet Stephen had followed Dib's research and had found a use for the work.

"I take it you are not here from any perceived lack in your own magical education, from what you have said to others."

[turtledove_jill]

"Really?" Jill says with some interest. "How do you practice dweomer here? And no, Nevyn's about the best dweomer teacher I think I could get. He's been around for four hundred years, after all. I'm here...well, I seem to be here by accident. One moment I'm in Brin Toraedic, next moment I've walked into this Hogwarts place."

[estebanmd]

"I think we do not practice what you term dweomer here, by and large,' the doctor replied. "My own work I find to differ from what I had done in my own mundane practice only in that the wizarding world knows certain plants and animal-derived ingredients that the mundane world does not. I should explain that I am potions master here," he added, "and had been a physician before arrival at Hogwarts. The compounding of medicines and the making of potions have much in common." At least, the sort of pharmaceutical work Stephen had done in the 19th century had much in common with the making of potions. He had become aware that the students from more technologically advanced worlds and ages found working with cauldron, mortar, and pestle more similar to what might be done in a kitchen than what might be done in a laboratory.

[turtledove_jill]

"I don't know this word 'physician,' good sir, but it sounds to me like you're a herbman," Jill says, suddenly seeming much happier when Stephen talks about plants and potions. "Is that right? My teacher, Nevyn, is a herbman, and he's been teaching me herblore and treating the sick as well as teaching me dweomerlore. Some aspects of herblore and dweomerlore are similar, with the humours and the elements, but it sounds as if here is one step further, and herblore is combined with dweo...er...magic. Is that right?"

From what little has been said, this potions stuff sounds very much like some of what Nevyn has been teaching her. Ian had just started her thinking about how to continue her studies here at Hogwarts, and now someone's talking about herblore. If that's not an omen, she doesn't know what is.

[estebanmd]

The parallel made sense to Stephen. "What your Mr Nevyn does, I think, sounds very like the work Mistress Nutter does in the hospital wing; she is from a time before even my own, and I may be considered somewhat antiquated by the general population here." The corner of his mouth quirked upward, a slight self-deprecating grin. "The purging of ill humors and the existence of any elemental correspondences do not feature prominently in potions work here, not as I perform it. There is always room to learn more; perhaps I may learn as much from you as you from me, unless there be aught in your lore that depends on the specific properties of your world, if they differ. We receive such a range of students here that it strains my capacity for hypothesis to speculate upon the differences between worlds," he added.

[turtledove_jill]

Jill listens closely, occasionally repeating an unfamiliar word silently. At the end, she shakes her head. "From what little I know, it all depends on the properties of the plants, good sir, rather than anything else. Of course, I suppose that if we didn't know about other worlds, then we wouldn't know if the properties change," she adds, the idea coming to her as she was speaking. "I shall have to meet this Mistress Nutter, I think, and see if she'd like a student. And I would be very interested to see how you do your potions work."

[estebanmd]

Stephen nodded. "It should be interesting to see whether your world and this one share a common flora, I expect. The places and languages you mention are completely unknown to me, whereas my own world shares much with this one in such terms; I was unsurprised to find the animals and plants of this Scotland to be much the same as those of the Scotland of my time. Some familiarity with the procedures and disciplines of such work would benefit anyone, in any case. I shall tell Mistress Nutter to be prepared to hear from you, then, Miss --" He hesitated in polite formality, waiting to be told what he should call the newcomer.

[turtledove_jill]

"Well, seeing if they do shouldn't be too hard," Jill says. "Beyond places and names, I'm not sure how different this world is from mine. This whold moving between worlds thing is very...strange...." She pauses as a thought comes to her. "Or maybe I haven't moved worlds after all. Maybe I've just gone...back...."

She blinks and shakes her head. "Miss? That's not my...oh, right, that title thing Darcy was talking about." She gives a rueful smile. "I'm sorry, I've been getting so wrapped up talking with people that I keep forgetting to introduce myself. I'm Jill. Well, Gilyan, but I never go by that."

[estebanmd]

(( Eep, so sorry for the delay on this -- I'd better get Stephen's vote in before the Hat makes the final call. He'll be sure to try to talk to her after the Sorting soon, though! ))

"Gilyan, called Jill," Stephen repeated. "I too have been remiss in the matter of introductions. I am Dr Maturin." What other names he went by would not be a topic for discussion.

"Your studies make you a plausible candidate for Ravenclaw, but I think you must be a Gryffindor, Miss Jill, and that is what I shall term you. Welcome to Hogwarts."

(( attention Hat: that's a Gryffindor vote for the tally.))

[estebanmd]

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