"Or something," Richard muttered as he walked past Addie. 

"Well," Professor Clowers said, dropping the book with no great care onto a side table, "I certainly wouldn't mind, it would be more useful than notating [i]that[/i] pile of garbage. So, ask away." He looked at them with polite interest. 

Richard let River walk right by him as he addressed the teacher. "Well, you probably know the new professor is teaching out of your book..."


Apparently he did not know this, as he looked around between Richard and Addie in surprise. "Good heavens! I didn't, but that does explain why you'd come to me." 

Richard made a mental note of that. 

"Oh, well... he is. So our main focus has been defense against other wizards. A lot of people are focusing on the war, but we wanted to look into smaller scale dark magic."