1/8/21
bel-esprit
[ bel-es-pree ]
noun
a person of great wit or intellect.
1/7/21
prolixity
[ proh-lik-si-tee ]
noun
a tendency to speak or write at great or tedious length.
As Professor Binns droned on and on and on, Hermione checked her notes and noticed he had covered this topic last year near the Yule holidays. With a frown, she raised her hand and waited for Binns to call on her.
It didn't take long.
The rest of the students began to rouse as they realized that the ghost called on the 4th year Ravenclaw, and had paused his diatribe.
"Yes, Miss…"
"Granger, sir. Sir, I have notes here that say that we covered this topic last year on December 14th. I just wanted to make sure, sir, that we cover all of the content that we need to. The 1666 Battle of Vertic Alley, which caused the fire of 1666 in London, was something that we ended up spending three days on, and as I was checking my notes, you were repeating, word for word, exactly what I had written down from your lecture last year. I apologize for sounding presumptuous, but...sir, are those your notes for the third years, and not the fourth years?" she asked. Binns blinked at her, looked down at his notes, and then back up to her.
"Are you not all third years? This is when the third years always are," he replied back, his expression looking lost a bit. Hermione bit her lip before replying.
"Sir, they switched up the timetables to account for the extra students joining us for the Triwizard tournament. Fourth years got switched to this hour," she replied, ignoring the whispering and pointed looks from the other students. Binns floundered for words for a bit, looking between her and his notes, before he suddenly straightened himself and turned away.
"Class dismissed. Thank you, Miss Granger, for bringing this to my attention." He then floated through the wall, and Hermione just...sat there, in shock. She didn't meant to get class cancelled!
The students all clamoured around her as they hurried to pack up and leave. They essentially got half a free period, and they were going to use it to their advantage. Harry nudged her side to catch her thoughts, and she looked up at him, somewhat in shock.
"I didn't mean for it to go this far! His prolixity is usually fine with me, because I can check my notes and refine them instead of sleeping like the rest of our classmates, but...I didn't expect for him to just give up!"
"I bet he's just using this time to compose himself and check the time tables. It always astounded me that he's been able to read from his notes, even as a ghost. He's not corporeal enough to turn the pages, not like Peeves is," Harry replied, grabbing her bag for her after she packed it up. The two headed out the door to head to lunch early.
"Hmm, I never noticed that before. And how does his notes for each class get to the classroom? It's possible that he's actually not reading his notes, and instead is going from memory. He could be a bel-esprit." Hermione paused at Harry, who went cross eyed at her term, before giggling. "It means a person of great wit or intellect." Harry started to mouth the term a few times, prompting more giggling, before he turned his attention back to her.
"Go on," he prompted, and she nodded.
"He could have all of his notes memorized, so he wouldn't need to have different sets of notes, just a list of which class at what time gets what topic," she replied.
"And that's why he just drones on and on without variation! He's basically reading a script!" Harry exclaimed and Hermione grinned, nodding.
"Exactly! So him being told that his script was wrong today-"
"Made him get off track! And that's why class got dismissed early!" Harry looked excited at the prospect. "If he has to redo all of his lesson plans, do you think we'll learn something other than the Goblin Wars?" Hermione snorted in response as they entered the Great Hall.
"I doubt it!"