August 11, 2014 - English
August 11, 2014 - English
Alt Title: Day 11 - English Professors Keating & Chloe
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: **For the 2014 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. Death may have closed one door for them, but it allowed a window to open as well.
Chapter Crossover: Dead Poets Society; Smallville
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 848
Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Warning: a more somber feeling chapter
Timeline: Just after the DPS movie (shift the timeline forward to match); late Smallville (AU…let’s say after Jimmy died, Chloe decided to leave)
A/N: I know I promised, but when I saw that Robin Williams died this morning, I had to bump today’s story until tomorrow.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Smallville characters belong to DC Comics & WB. Dead Poets Society character belongs to Tom Schulman and Touchstone Pictures. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Metropolis
She shouldn’t have been able to see the ad since she was a ‘Muggle’; that was the supposed rule. But like every other rule, there had to be exceptions, and Chloe Sullivan could practically define herself as exceptional. She wouldn’t, but she could.
As a fan of the weird side of life, the idea of a parallel world existing alongside of hers intrigued Chloe. Instead of powers derived from meteors, these people were born with their abilities, and they weren’t considered superhuman. In addition to learning something new, Chloe hoped that maybe they had abilities that could fight the meteor-infected when Clark couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
So she called the number listed at the bottom of the ad.
Two days later, a smartly-dressed blonde and a distinguished-looking gentleman met her at a coffeehouse to discuss the possibility of offering her a job at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The gentleman took care of the introductions, “Hello, my name is Rupert Giles and this is my associate and the Headmistress of Hogwarts, Buffy Summers.”
“Chloe Sullivan,” Chloe replied with a smile.
“Well, to jump right in…” Buffy said after they received their drinks, “We’ve read your resume and some of your articles. You definitely shouldn’t be thrown by anything at the school. Your grades are excellent, but I’m concerned about having you responsible for students in the upper grades. There are other young teachers, one even younger than you, in fact, but he’s teaching the first and second years…maybe third years if necessary. Would teaching preteens be a problem for you if we could find a teacher for the older grades?”
“What subject?” Chloe asked.
Buffy blushed in embarrassment; in her mind, the obvious choice was English, but she sort of forgot to say that out loud. “English. One thing to remember is that only the muggleborn students have ever studied English in a school setting; it isn’t currently offered at Hogwarts.”
“Muggleborn?”
“Witches and wizards that don’t have magical parents,” Giles explained.
Chloe felt a spark that she thought had died with Jimmy and that made her smile. “I love a challenge. If you don’t mind a suggestion, I know of a fantastic - if slightly controversial - professor. In the spirit of full disclosure, he was just fired from his current job - no matter what ‘mutual decision’ line they came up with - but the reason he was fired was because he wanted his students to think for themselves.”
Buffy fake-gasped, “The horror of it all! He sounds perfect; these students need somebody like that. A lot of them seem like grade-A Kool-Aid drinkers to me.”
Hartford, CT
“I have to admit that your call came as a bit of a shock to me,” John Keating started the conversation after introductions were made. “I wasn’t expecting another job offer for quite some time, given the way things ended at Welton.”
“You weren’t…inappropriate with any of your students, were you?” Buffy asked bluntly. She didn’t mind quirky or slightly dangerous, but pervy? Not a chance!
John looked confused for a moment, then quickly shook his head. “Not in the way you’re thinking. There were parent complaints that I encouraged their boys to seek their own dreams instead of just following the family plan, but no…I never behaved like that!”
Giles took over the questioning and inquired, “Could you tell us what led to your dismissal from the Welton Academy?”
Although it was painful at places, John shared the story of his time at his alma mater. The highs and the lows. The amusement when Charlie took the phone call from God in the assembly. The pride he felt when he saw Neil portray Puck onstage. The anguish that followed when he heard of Neil’s suicide. And finally, the gratitude that filled him when Todd stood on his desk and uttered, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’
By the end, Buffy was unashamedly crying into the hanky that Giles provided her, and his eyes were suspiciously bright as well.
“You know that you couldn’t have foreseen Neil’s death, don’t you?” Giles remarked kindly.
John gave a wry smile. “Another teacher tried to tell me that as well,” he said. “While I know it in my head, my heart disagrees.”
“We would love to have to teach at Hogwarts,” Buffy offered. “But I understand if it’s too soon for you. You’d be facing the same kind of family dynamics there as at Welton, but the difference is that you’d have the rest of the staff trying to get the students to think for themselves, too. We’re trying to change their society so they aren’t a bunch of sheep, waiting to be picked off by the next wolf to come along.”
Taking a deep breath, John considered his options. Wait and wallow, or get back on the horse again? If he didn’t want to be a hypocrite, he knew that his only real option was to take the job…try to reach the youth again to mold a brighter future. He set his cup down and asked, “Can you tell me more about Hogwarts?”
A/N: This was a hard one for me to write for personal reasons, but I felt it was important to get it out today. Robin William’s death kind of pushed my grief meter into the red coming so soon after a friend’s death last Friday. Maybe it shouldn’t have since I don’t know him, but it did. I apologize if the chapter isn’t up to the standards of the previous ones.
Tomorrow…Don’t want to promise again, but I’ll cross my fingers.
Alt Title: Day 11 - English Professors Keating & Chloe
Author: mmooch
Chapter Summary: **For the 2014 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. Death may have closed one door for them, but it allowed a window to open as well.
Chapter Crossover: Dead Poets Society; Smallville
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 848
Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Warning: a more somber feeling chapter
Timeline: Just after the DPS movie (shift the timeline forward to match); late Smallville (AU…let’s say after Jimmy died, Chloe decided to leave)
A/N: I know I promised, but when I saw that Robin Williams died this morning, I had to bump today’s story until tomorrow.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Smallville characters belong to DC Comics & WB. Dead Poets Society character belongs to Tom Schulman and Touchstone Pictures. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
Metropolis
She shouldn’t have been able to see the ad since she was a ‘Muggle’; that was the supposed rule. But like every other rule, there had to be exceptions, and Chloe Sullivan could practically define herself as exceptional. She wouldn’t, but she could.
As a fan of the weird side of life, the idea of a parallel world existing alongside of hers intrigued Chloe. Instead of powers derived from meteors, these people were born with their abilities, and they weren’t considered superhuman. In addition to learning something new, Chloe hoped that maybe they had abilities that could fight the meteor-infected when Clark couldn’t or wouldn’t do it.
So she called the number listed at the bottom of the ad.
Two days later, a smartly-dressed blonde and a distinguished-looking gentleman met her at a coffeehouse to discuss the possibility of offering her a job at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The gentleman took care of the introductions, “Hello, my name is Rupert Giles and this is my associate and the Headmistress of Hogwarts, Buffy Summers.”
“Chloe Sullivan,” Chloe replied with a smile.
“Well, to jump right in…” Buffy said after they received their drinks, “We’ve read your resume and some of your articles. You definitely shouldn’t be thrown by anything at the school. Your grades are excellent, but I’m concerned about having you responsible for students in the upper grades. There are other young teachers, one even younger than you, in fact, but he’s teaching the first and second years…maybe third years if necessary. Would teaching preteens be a problem for you if we could find a teacher for the older grades?”
“What subject?” Chloe asked.
Buffy blushed in embarrassment; in her mind, the obvious choice was English, but she sort of forgot to say that out loud. “English. One thing to remember is that only the muggleborn students have ever studied English in a school setting; it isn’t currently offered at Hogwarts.”
“Muggleborn?”
“Witches and wizards that don’t have magical parents,” Giles explained.
Chloe felt a spark that she thought had died with Jimmy and that made her smile. “I love a challenge. If you don’t mind a suggestion, I know of a fantastic - if slightly controversial - professor. In the spirit of full disclosure, he was just fired from his current job - no matter what ‘mutual decision’ line they came up with - but the reason he was fired was because he wanted his students to think for themselves.”
Buffy fake-gasped, “The horror of it all! He sounds perfect; these students need somebody like that. A lot of them seem like grade-A Kool-Aid drinkers to me.”
Hartford, CT
“I have to admit that your call came as a bit of a shock to me,” John Keating started the conversation after introductions were made. “I wasn’t expecting another job offer for quite some time, given the way things ended at Welton.”
“You weren’t…inappropriate with any of your students, were you?” Buffy asked bluntly. She didn’t mind quirky or slightly dangerous, but pervy? Not a chance!
John looked confused for a moment, then quickly shook his head. “Not in the way you’re thinking. There were parent complaints that I encouraged their boys to seek their own dreams instead of just following the family plan, but no…I never behaved like that!”
Giles took over the questioning and inquired, “Could you tell us what led to your dismissal from the Welton Academy?”
Although it was painful at places, John shared the story of his time at his alma mater. The highs and the lows. The amusement when Charlie took the phone call from God in the assembly. The pride he felt when he saw Neil portray Puck onstage. The anguish that followed when he heard of Neil’s suicide. And finally, the gratitude that filled him when Todd stood on his desk and uttered, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’
By the end, Buffy was unashamedly crying into the hanky that Giles provided her, and his eyes were suspiciously bright as well.
“You know that you couldn’t have foreseen Neil’s death, don’t you?” Giles remarked kindly.
John gave a wry smile. “Another teacher tried to tell me that as well,” he said. “While I know it in my head, my heart disagrees.”
“We would love to have to teach at Hogwarts,” Buffy offered. “But I understand if it’s too soon for you. You’d be facing the same kind of family dynamics there as at Welton, but the difference is that you’d have the rest of the staff trying to get the students to think for themselves, too. We’re trying to change their society so they aren’t a bunch of sheep, waiting to be picked off by the next wolf to come along.”
Taking a deep breath, John considered his options. Wait and wallow, or get back on the horse again? If he didn’t want to be a hypocrite, he knew that his only real option was to take the job…try to reach the youth again to mold a brighter future. He set his cup down and asked, “Can you tell me more about Hogwarts?”
A/N: This was a hard one for me to write for personal reasons, but I felt it was important to get it out today. Robin William’s death kind of pushed my grief meter into the red coming so soon after a friend’s death last Friday. Maybe it shouldn’t have since I don’t know him, but it did. I apologize if the chapter isn’t up to the standards of the previous ones.
Tomorrow…Don’t want to promise again, but I’ll cross my fingers.