Terry Boot and Professor Binns's Extra Credit Assignment
Chapter 2: Professor Binns's office
The next morning Terry went down to the great hall for breakfast, having for the most part cast aside thoughts of the previous night. He sat down next to his friends, Mandy Brocklehurst and Padma Patil, and started buttering himself some toast.
"You're going to beat Hermione, Terry, right?" Mandy asked him as he started eating. "Show her that she can't mess with Ravenclaw."
"I'm not sure. It's not her fault that Snape doesn't like her and is giving her an unfair grade. She really is rather smart, actually. Maybe she even deserves to be top student."
"Come on Terry, she wouldn't be doing as well if she was in Ravenclaw and not in Gryffindor. Most of the teachers grade us harder and give us more work than any other house because we are smarter. You just have to prove it," Padma added.
This wasn't going well. He had no idea that house pride ran that deep. Wasn't Mandy the girl who said she would rather wear a pink tutu for the rest of the year than attend a single Ravenclaw house Quidditch game? Didn't Padma make a whole deal of purposefully losing one hundred house points (and costing Ravenclaw the house cup in the process), protesting against the manipulation of the student body into unnecessarily competitive behavior in the third year? And now they were getting obsessed over something like student rank...
"I didn't say I was going to give up and make it easy for her either."
"Now that's our Terry, come on, let's go to Charms," Mandy said.
"We still have half an hour, Mandy. Let's eat," Padma said, taking another bite out of her melon, and glaring at Terry's bacon (having a best friend who is a vegetarian can be annoying at times).
"By the way, do you know where Professor Binns's office is?"
***
After having asked everyone he could, and not getting the information, Terry was beginning to think that no one knew. Whoever went there anyway? He was about to give up when he saw Fred and George Weasley walking down the hall. Figuring he would never get an answer, he decided to ask one last time. Besides the Weasley twins seemed to know more about the castle then anyone should rightfully know.
"Excuse me..."
"Who are you?" Fred said.
"Isn't he that Shoe kid, Fred? Jerry Shoe," George added.
"Erm, it's Boot actually, Terry Boot. I was wondering if you knew where Professor Binns's office is."
"Why would you want to go there?" Fred said wide-eyed.
"Hey, if I had a choice, I wouldn't know where Binns's classroom is," George added.
"I have to talk to him about the grade I got on a paper," Terry said, thinking that if he said that he wanted to do extra-credit, they would have thought him mad.
"Ravenclaw..." Fred said shaking his head.
"I think we went there once, to paint something like 'The first Goblin rebellion happened in Binns's underpants.'" George said.
"No. We wrote 'Binns doesn't know History, he lived it.' If I remember correctly, the office is in the third hallway going left after the library entrance," Fred said.
"Thank you," Terry said, making his way to the library.
***
Professor Binns's office was exactly where Fred and George said it would be. Terry saw, written on the door "Where the past meets the future and promptly puts it to sleep.- Padfoot"; "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, those who do are doomed to this office.- Moony"; "Prof. Binns, Winner of the most inattentive Hogwarts teacher award, 110 years and running.- Prongs"; "History is the art of taking the most interesting events and making them mind-numbingly dull.-Wormtail"; and "Binns doesn't know History, he lived it. Actually, he is it.- F+G". In addition to that, there was a cobweb covered piece of paper, which he assumed must be the assignment.
He blew off the cobwebs and read the paper.
"Write a twenty foot paper describing the lives of the founders. Then, have three members of each school house and each head of house read it and give comments. Must have a proper bibliography, and a minimum of five sources. Can be in the form of either a scholarly paper or a narrative. Good for one letter grade."
No wonder no one had done it yet, twenty feet! Terry thought about it a while, then decided to try. Everyone was counting on him. But it wouldn't be fun.
Disclaimer: JKR and the WB own all rights to the Harry Potter universe, so I reject the right to earn money from this fic.
Chapter 2: Professor Binns's office
The next morning Terry went down to the great hall for breakfast, having for the most part cast aside thoughts of the previous night. He sat down next to his friends, Mandy Brocklehurst and Padma Patil, and started buttering himself some toast.
"You're going to beat Hermione, Terry, right?" Mandy asked him as he started eating. "Show her that she can't mess with Ravenclaw."
"I'm not sure. It's not her fault that Snape doesn't like her and is giving her an unfair grade. She really is rather smart, actually. Maybe she even deserves to be top student."
"Come on Terry, she wouldn't be doing as well if she was in Ravenclaw and not in Gryffindor. Most of the teachers grade us harder and give us more work than any other house because we are smarter. You just have to prove it," Padma added.
This wasn't going well. He had no idea that house pride ran that deep. Wasn't Mandy the girl who said she would rather wear a pink tutu for the rest of the year than attend a single Ravenclaw house Quidditch game? Didn't Padma make a whole deal of purposefully losing one hundred house points (and costing Ravenclaw the house cup in the process), protesting against the manipulation of the student body into unnecessarily competitive behavior in the third year? And now they were getting obsessed over something like student rank...
"I didn't say I was going to give up and make it easy for her either."
"Now that's our Terry, come on, let's go to Charms," Mandy said.
"We still have half an hour, Mandy. Let's eat," Padma said, taking another bite out of her melon, and glaring at Terry's bacon (having a best friend who is a vegetarian can be annoying at times).
"By the way, do you know where Professor Binns's office is?"
***
After having asked everyone he could, and not getting the information, Terry was beginning to think that no one knew. Whoever went there anyway? He was about to give up when he saw Fred and George Weasley walking down the hall. Figuring he would never get an answer, he decided to ask one last time. Besides the Weasley twins seemed to know more about the castle then anyone should rightfully know.
"Excuse me..."
"Who are you?" Fred said.
"Isn't he that Shoe kid, Fred? Jerry Shoe," George added.
"Erm, it's Boot actually, Terry Boot. I was wondering if you knew where Professor Binns's office is."
"Why would you want to go there?" Fred said wide-eyed.
"Hey, if I had a choice, I wouldn't know where Binns's classroom is," George added.
"I have to talk to him about the grade I got on a paper," Terry said, thinking that if he said that he wanted to do extra-credit, they would have thought him mad.
"Ravenclaw..." Fred said shaking his head.
"I think we went there once, to paint something like 'The first Goblin rebellion happened in Binns's underpants.'" George said.
"No. We wrote 'Binns doesn't know History, he lived it.' If I remember correctly, the office is in the third hallway going left after the library entrance," Fred said.
"Thank you," Terry said, making his way to the library.
***
Professor Binns's office was exactly where Fred and George said it would be. Terry saw, written on the door "Where the past meets the future and promptly puts it to sleep.- Padfoot"; "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, those who do are doomed to this office.- Moony"; "Prof. Binns, Winner of the most inattentive Hogwarts teacher award, 110 years and running.- Prongs"; "History is the art of taking the most interesting events and making them mind-numbingly dull.-Wormtail"; and "Binns doesn't know History, he lived it. Actually, he is it.- F+G". In addition to that, there was a cobweb covered piece of paper, which he assumed must be the assignment.
He blew off the cobwebs and read the paper.
"Write a twenty foot paper describing the lives of the founders. Then, have three members of each school house and each head of house read it and give comments. Must have a proper bibliography, and a minimum of five sources. Can be in the form of either a scholarly paper or a narrative. Good for one letter grade."
No wonder no one had done it yet, twenty feet! Terry thought about it a while, then decided to try. Everyone was counting on him. But it wouldn't be fun.
Disclaimer: JKR and the WB own all rights to the Harry Potter universe, so I reject the right to earn money from this fic.
