Chapter 3: November 2014

"Did anyone catch the dates for Emeric the Evil?" Julie asked one afternoon as Molly and her friends studied in their fifth floor study space.

"1042 to 1046," Sarah replied immediately.

"That's just his reign of terror though," Molly corrected. "He lived from 1014 until 1046."

"So he was only thirty-two when he died?" Debbie questioned. "That doesn't seem right. I though he lived to be older than that."

"You might be getting him mixed up with Egbert the Egregious," Molly pointed out. "He lived until he was forty-one."

"That long?" Julie commented. "Impressive."

"But he was a lot older than Emeric the Evil," Sarah clarified. "When he defeated him in 1046, he was already thirty-nine."

"So his reign only lasted two years?" Debbie asked. "No wonder we didn't talk about him much."

"Who defeated Egbert the Egregious?" Molly frowned. "It seems to be missing from my notes."

"Nobody knows," Sarah replied. "Professor Binns said he just turned up dead one day with his throat slit and his wand was missing. How did you miss that?"

"I guess I was still writing down the part about how the death of his daughter drove him to madness," Molly replied.

"Wasn't that Emeric?" Julie pointed out.

"Shoot, you're right," Molly frowned, looking at her notes like they were written by an alien – or maybe a Hufflepuff. "I'm going to have to re-write this whole thing," she sighed. "I've got everything mixed up."

The girls descended into silence as Molly produced a fresh piece of parchment and got to work. While she was scribbling out a fresh copy her notes, with occasional input from her friends, the other girls revised the material from that day's lecture in order to firmly cement it into their heads.

It was a common practice in their little study room. Their theory was that if they internalized the material from the beginning, then come exam time they would have it much easier than the other students. There would be no frantic search for lost notes or panicked realizations that they'd forgotten to study one subject or another.

"Achoo!" Debbie sneezed loudly, spraying her notes with spittle. "Aw, gross!" she cried, wrinkling her nose. "I think I'm going to recopy my notes too," she declared. "Because I don't want – ACHOO!" she sneezed again.

"Debbie, are you alright?" Molly inquired. Her friend's sneeze had caused her to rock back violently in her chair and she was pinching her nose to stop a third sneeze.

"I'm fine," Debbie assured her. "I'm sure it's nothing."

"Are you sure?" Julie checked. "I'm sure if you went to see Madam Eldridge she'd give you a potion to stave off the sneezing.

"No really, I'm fine," Debbie replied. "I don't need a potion. And I don't have time to go all the way to the hospital wing. I've got notes to recopy."

Julie shrugged, not particularly minding either way. "Alright, it's your call," she said, resuming her internalization of the day's History of Magic lesson.

"Do we know Emeric's daughter's name?" Sarah wondered aloud.

"Amelia," Molly replied.

"No, that's Egbert's daughter," Julie corrected. "Emeric's daughter was Alissa."

"Ugh," Molly grumbled, angrily crossing a line out in her new notes. "What is wrong with me?"

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As it turned out, Debbie's sneezing was indicative of something more. The following morning, she'd been feverish and unwilling to get out of bed. Julie had dragged her to the hospital wing and left her in Madam Eldridge's care, assuring her that there was no point going to classes if she was only going to sleep through them. Madam Eldridge could get her back on her feet and back in class sooner than she could on her own. Debbie reluctantly agreed.

"I'm just glad it didn't happen to me," Julie said that morning in the charms classroom as they waited for Professor Flitwick to arrive. "I mean, she's probably going to miss a whole day of classes. She's going to be so behind."

"We'll help her catch up though," Molly said. "She'll be back on track in no time."

"I'm not doing any such thing," Julie frowned. "I don't have time to help sick people catch up. I have my own studying to worry about. She'll just have to catch up on her own."

"It's not like she got sick on purpose!" Molly cried. "What if it had happened to you? Wouldn't you want her to help you?"

"Well it didn't happen to me," Julie pointed out. "It happened to Debbie."

Molly looked to Sarah for support, but to her dismay, Sarah agreed with Julie.

"We don't have time to be pulling Debbie's slack," Sarah said apologetically. "I don't like it, but Julie's right. If we take the time to catch Debbie up, we're going to lose out on our own study time, and we can't afford that. I certainly can't. Not if I'm going to be top of the class."

"You mean second," Julie smirked in Sarah's direction.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "You wish," she said.

Molly was silent. Sarah and Julie made an excellent point. Catching Debbie up would take at least the entire afternoon once classes were over. Which would mean that Molly would lose out on an entire afternoon of revising time. She'd be a whole day behind her friends. That simply wouldn't do. Her father would be very disappointed if she only managed to be third in her class. Second, Molly could tolerate, but third was unacceptable. But third was what she'd be if she let Sarah and Julie get ahead of her while she helped pull Debbie out of the bog.

"You guys are right, of course," Molly allowed, inclining her head just as Professor Flitwick arrived to start class. "I don't know what I was thinking. Debbie will just have to figure this out for herself."

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When their final class was over, Molly, Sarah, and Julie made their way to their study room to get their newest assignments done and to revise the day's material. The only homework from charms and defence was to practice, which Molly decided she would do later – practical homework wasn't as fun as written assignments. For herbology, she had to read a chapter of her textbook and for potions, she had to write a short essay indicating where to find the various ingredients of the wiggenweld potion in nature (the wiggenweld potion had been chosen, Molly presumed, because it had so many varied ingredients and not because they would be brewing the complicated potion anytime soon).

She elected to start with herbology, though she'd already read the entire textbook. She liked to re-read the textbook as it was caught, to remain up-to-date on the information they were covering in class. Not to mention, the herbology chapter would be a useful resource for her potions essay later.

"What do you think Debbie's doing right now?" Molly wondered, about halfway through the chapter.

"Probably sleeping," Julie muttered, looking up from her herbology book, which she was also reading from. "Why do you care?"

"I don't know," Molly shrugged, going back to her reading.

She was finding it hard to concentrate. She knew she needed to focus, but she kept thinking of Debbie, trapped in a hospital bed, begging Madam Eldridge to let her leave and get her assignments and being refused.

It wasn't any of Molly's business though. Molly had to focus on herself and her own grades. She didn't have the time or the energy available to devote to Debbie. She didn't even have the time to think about Debbie right now – every minute that she wasn't reading her herbology textbook was a minute wasted.

And yet… Molly couldn't help but wonder. What was more important, really? Was it more important to be top of the class, or was it more important to be a good friend? Dedication to her studies, or compassion? Wasn't she being selfish, thinking only about herself and her grades? Wouldn't her family want her to help her friend in need? Even Aunt Hermione had helped Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron with their studies after all, and she'd still managed to be top of her class. Maybe Molly didn't have to sacrifice one for the other.

"I'm going to do both," she decided.

"What's that?" Sarah asked absentmindedly, looking up from her charms notes.

"Nothing," Molly shook her head, not having time to explain herself. "I've got to go."

She started packing her things away and Sarah and Julie gave her confused looks.

"Go where?" Julie asked. "We have hours yet before supper, and a potions essay to write."

Molly shrugged. "I guess I just have something better to do," she said, grabbing her now filled bag and leaving the room before her friends could ask her any more questions.

Now out in the corridor, Molly hurried to the hospital wing, practically running in an effort to save time. If she was going to help Debbie and get everything done that she needed to, she was going to have to be fast.

As she reached the hospital wing doors, she found herself crashing into another student who was on her way out.

"I'm sorry!" Molly cried apologetically, grabbing her bag, which had fallen to the ground in the collision, and pushing forward.

"Hey, wait stop!" the voice of the other girl called. "Molly?"

Molly froze and turned around to discover that the girl she'd collided with was none other than her cousin, Dominique.

"Hi Dominique," Molly said, even her speech coming out in a rush. "Sorry, but I've got to – "

"Okay, slow down," Dominique said, stepping forward and placing a hand on either of Molly's shoulders. "Take a deep breath and tell me what happened. Are you hurt? Is someone else hurt?"

Molly frowned and then understanding dawned on her. Dominique thought she was running so fast because of a medical emergency. She didn't realize that Molly was just trying to maximize her study time.

"I'm fine, Domi," Molly assured her cousin. "I'm just trying to get to my friend Debbie, to give her today's assignments because she was sick and had to miss class today."

"Okay, well slow down," Dominique told her. "She can manage a minute more without them. She made it the whole day, after all."

Molly shook her head. "No, you don't understand, this is important, there's no time to spare. Julie and Sarah are upstairs studying as we speak."

"Look Molly, nothing bad is going to happen if you aren't studying every minute of every day," Dominique said.

"Sorry if that doesn't mean much coming from you," Molly said, wrenching away from Dominique and hurrying into the hospital wing without a second glance.

It wasn't hard to locate Debbie. She was at the far end of the hospital, closest to Madam Eldridge's office and farthest from the door, and her arm was magically handcuffed to her bed.

"Molly!" she cried when she saw her friend. "Please tell me you're here to give me my assignments! I've been begging Madam Eldridge to let me go and get them myself, but she keeps insisting that if they're important, someone will bring them to me."

Molly smiled, having perfectly predicted the state her friend would be in. "Yeah, I've brought the assignments," Molly smiled, taking a seat next to Debbie's bed and getting Debbie's food table in place in front of her to act as a makeshift desk. "And I've brought my notes as well, for you to recopy for yourself."

"You're an angel," Debbie said, reaching over to give Molly a hug. Unfortunately, with her hand still trapped, she couldn't move as much as she wanted. "Darn this thing," she muttered angrily. "Madam Eldridge!"

The hospital wing matron hurried over to see what the trouble was.

"Can you please take this off?" Debbie begged, gesturing to the trapped hand. "I swear, I'm not going to go anywhere. Molly brought me my assignments and I need both hands to do them."

"I suppose as long as you're not trying to escape anymore, there's no harm in removing it," Madam Eldridge allowed. "Though I'd really rather you rest than exert yourself with homework."

"I'll rest once I've completed my assignments," Debbie promised. "But until I do, I wouldn't be resting anyway, I'd just be thinking about them."

"Yes, I can see that," Madam Eldridge nodded. "Well take one more dose of your potion before you start at least."

Debbie obediently took the potion that Madam Eldridge handed her and downed in, handing it back and then shooing the woman away. Then she turned to Molly, eager to get started.

"So Charms was first," Molly said, running through what had been covered that day. "It was a practical class, so no notes. We attempted the unlocking spell for the first time and the only homework was to continue practicing."

"I'll have to find something I can practice unlocking," Debbie frowned, looking around at the objects in the near vicinity. "To bad I'm not situated near a door."

"I'll grab a lock from the charms classroom on the way back from dinner," Molly promised. "That's what we practiced on in class, and you'll be able to stay in bed that way."

"Thanks," Debbie said gratefully.

"Next was Herbology," Molly continued, pulling out her Herbology notes. "You'll want to read these carefully as you copy them out, it was an important class. And we're to read chapter four of the textbook for homework. We'll have to share mine though, because I didn't bring any of your stuff with me."

"I don't mind sharing," Debbie said. "If you don't, that is."

"Not at all," Molly shook her head. "I've almost finished re-reading it anyway, so you can have it as soon as I'm done with it, which shouldn't be a problem since you should go through the notes first anyhow."

"What was next?" Debbie urged Molly to continue. "Potions, wasn't it?"

Molly nodded. "We talked about collecting ingredients from nature," she said. "Here, I've got notes from that as well that you should recopy." She pulled her notes out of her bag and placed them on top of the Herbology notes. "And Professor Abbott-Longbottom assigned a short essay on where and how to collect ingredients for the wiggenweld potion."

"The wiggenweld potion?" Debbie frowned. "But that isn't in the textbook."

Molly nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, we're not going to brew it anytime soon. It's just an example. Professor Abbott-Longbottom gave us the list of ingredients with the assignment. It's a good example because it requires lots of different ingredients." She produced the assignment instructions and put those on top of the potions notes.

"Oh," Debbie nodded, understanding. "Alright. And Defence?"

"Another practical class," Molly rolled her eyes. "Such a waste of time. We practiced the knockback jinx on pillows – Professor Derlid didn't want anyone getting hurt if they went too far off course. It was like a giant pillowfight or something."

Debbie rolled her eyes, in agreement that it sounded like a waste of time. "Let me guess… the homework was to continue practicing?"

Molly nodded. "Yep," she said. "And only on soft objects."

"Luckily I have a plethora of pillows at my disposal," Debbie laughed.

"Luckily," Molly agreed.

By mutual agreement, the girls then got started on their work. Molly took up the Herbology textbook to finish the chapter while Debbie got started recopying Molly's Herbology and Potions notes on some spare parchment that Molly provided her with.

Molly finished reading pretty quickly, and moved onto the potions essay while Debbie completed her recopying of the notes and all too soon, Molly realized it was time for her to go to supper.

"I'll come back as soon as I'm done eating," Molly promised. "And I'll bring you that lock from Flitwick's classroom."

"Can you leave your Herbology book here?" Debbie requested. "I've almost finished with your notes, and I think I'll do some reading with my own dinner, since I'll have nothing better to occupy myself with."

"Sure," Molly agreed, electing to simply leave her whole bag with her friend. It would be less cumbersome this way, after all.

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"So you went to the hospital wing," Julie smirked at dinner. The three girls were sitting at the Ravenclaw table tonight – they'd sat at the Gryffindor table at lunch.

"I did," Molly replied, keeping her head held high. "It was the right thing to do."

Julie shrugged. "It's your funeral," she muttered. "If you get poor marks, that is."

"I don't expect to," Molly replied. "In fact I've already finished my Herbology reading and am close to finishing my potions essay."

"Have you practiced charms or defence at all?" Sarah wondered.

Molly hesitated. "Well no," she admitted. "Not yet, but – "

"Or have you revised your notes since taking them in class?" Julie wondered.

"Well I still have time to – "

"Look, it's fine that you want to help Debbie," Julie said. "Really commendable. Just don't come crying to us when our grades are higher than yours."

"Whatever," Molly muttered, stabbing her mashed potatoes with her fork. She pushed her plate away. "I'm not hungry," she declared. "I'm going to go."

"Back to the hospital wing?" Sarah asked, making a face that was half 'are you crazy' and half 'I feel sorry for you'.

"So what if I am?" Molly demanded. "So you guys don't have to worry about me anymore. Less competition. You should be happy."

She stomped away, emotions roiling inside of her. When had things gotten so complicated, she wondered.

MmMmMmMmMmM

"Thanks for grabbing this," Debbie said, gesturing to the lock that Molly had brought her. "Now I can practice all night."

"Try to sleep some too," Molly instructed her friend. "You do want to be discharged tomorrow morning, don't you? You wouldn't want to miss another day of classes."

"Oh I feel much better," Debbie assured her. "I have no doubt Madam Eldridge will let me out."

"Well if I don't see you in class tomorrow, then I'll come by after," Molly promised.

"Thanks," Debbie smiled, as Molly packed up her things. "You're a good friend."

Molly left the hospital wing then and made her way back to the study room. Now that Debbie was set for the night, Molly needed to finish her own revising before curfew came around and she was forced back to Gryffindor Tower.

"You're back," Sarah noted when Molly opened the door and collapsed behind her desk.

"Yeah," Molly nodded. "Debbie's good for the night, so I figured I'd leave her be and get my own work done."

"How much do you have left to do?" Julie wondered.

"Not much," Molly replied. "I feel good about the knockback jinx – we practiced on some of the hospital wing pillows until Madam Eldridge got fed up of being hit in the head." Sarah and Julie both chuckled at that image. "And I'm finished with potions. I just want to revise my herbology notes once more, and then there's the unlocking spell that I have to work on."

Julie hesitated. "If you want… Well if you want to stand on the other side of the door and practice unlocking it, I can stand on this side and lock it again for you. Since we haven't learned the locking spell quite yet."

Molly immediately recognized this for what it was. Julie was extending an olive branch – trying to make up for her comments earlier.

"I'd appreciate that," Molly smiled, getting up and going to the other side of the door. "Thanks."