Full Title: First Year Blues: Never Mind, I Don't Want the Extra Credit

With a name like Merrythought, one would think that the professor in question would have a personality of rainbows and sunshine. Maybe some pictures of cats or dogs in sweaters hanging on their office wall, the type of person who would put smiley faces or frowny faces next to grades. Perhaps one would imagine a person who had biscuits and chocolates in their office when students stopped in and grandmotherly smiles.

That person would be wrong .

Professor Merrythought was a ruthless taskmaster with no-nonsense for silly wand-waving or misfired spells, or roughhousing that was unprompted (and she meant at her prompting, thank you very much James Pruise, one of the Ravenclaw boys who had learned this the hard way when she petrified him and left him to stand in the corner of the room to watch the rest of the class). However, despite being the Head of Hufflepuff House, something that Tammy thoroughly enjoyed holding over him, she did not favor any of the houses in her teaching methods. She was equally harsh and constantly pushed the students to the ends of their ropes with her demands and requirements for maintaining their grades. Students were regularly stressed by her class, and more than once before finals had someone broken down in tears.

Tom loved every minute of it. Years of dodging the bullies at Wool's and having less than a favorable amount to eat meant he was the lightest on his feet in the class and had the best reaction time for dodging spells lobed at him. Merrythought was in the habit of having them substitute spells with rubber balls in class, and several times a month would make them spend half the class practice dodging and footwork because, in her words, " it doesn't matter how many fancy spells you know or how strong you can cast them if you're dead because you didn't dodge a killing curse." Tom was rarely ever hit and had managed to knock Nott in the face without consequence on a consistent basis, and these days were usually the highlight of his week. Merrythought had been an auror before she'd retired and became a professor at Hogwarts and had written several books on the art of self-defense. It was also lesser known that she was actually married to their Herbology Professor, which was an odd juxtaposition considering the older man was jovial and sweet and almost grandfatherly in a way, while Merrythought looked like she might strangle someone if they bothered her. Tom only knew of this from Septimus, who said Professor Beery had once excitedly shown him pictures of their grandchildren when he was serving detention in the greenhouses.

Currently, the woman was lecturing at the front of the classroom, which was not as common in Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was largely a practical class. With Spring Break behind them and finals looming on the horizon ( "three months," Lyall had groaned loudly the night before), she was beginning to review the material that they had learned throughout the year.

Tom was mostly paying attention, though occasionally he would realize he was spacing out when he would notice he'd drawn swirls in the corners of his parchment and he'd bite the inside of his cheek and forced himself to pay attention once more. A muggleborn name Carter Bates shared the desk with him and he was completely zoned out, sneakily reading a book that wasn't the Defence textbook.

Despite this, the class made it through her lecture with only one book thrown at Avery, who had fallen asleep and begun snoring, so Tom counted it a success. Given it was his last class for the day when the bell rang he packed slowly and only slightly smirked at Avery getting cornered by Professor Merrythought as he tried to practically run out of class. He was beyond grateful for the non-spillable ink that Professor Slughorn had gifted him, since he hadn't had any more incidents since winter break. While Tammy, Mia, Lyall and Chadwick would all be finishing their Astronomy class and heading to flying, he figured he'd head to the library in case Sable or Delaney decided they needed help, otherwise he'd work on homework until dinner.

"Mister Riddle, a moment please," Professor Merrythought called from the front of the room and Tom paused and looked to where she was leaning against her desk, Avery standing uncomfortably in front of her.

"Yes, ma'am?" Tom asked as he shouldered his bag and stepped forward.

"You spend your time studying with that little group in the library, correct?" She asked. Tom blinked and then slowly nodded. He didn't know how or why Marrythought new about them studying as a group, but perhaps she'd seen them at some point or another. "Good. How would you like to earn some extra credit?"

Tom perked at the notion. He didn't actually need it, he'd much rather Professor Dumbledore offer him extra credit in a class since he tended to have a harder time getting his transfigurations to stick, but he'd take what he could get. "Of course, Professor."

She gave an approving nod, "Mister Avery failed his last exam and if he fails the next one, I will be writing a letter home to his parents," Avery's ears burned bright red at this and he folded his arms over his chest uncomfortably. "Would you please take him along with you and go over the homework and the materials for the next test over the next couple of weeks?"

Tom gave a quick look to Avery and then took a deep breath and nodded his head. "Yes, ma'am." Not that he particularly wanted to, but it would look poorly if he said no, both rude of him as a fellow first year and as a house and dorm mate of Avery's. However, he didn't particularly want the grade Avery got, especially if he was such shite at Defense, to reflect on his own.

"Good, I expect your homework to be turned in on time and to get full marks, do you understand me, Mister Avery?" She demanded, and Avery nodded his head, still glaring sullenly at the ground. "Good. You're dismissed."

Tom turned and paused at the door to the class as Avery grabbed his bag and wondered if the boy would be even willing to accept any assistance after the verbal thrashing he'd just received, but the boy gave Tom a glare and joined him on the way to the library.

"Not. A. Word," Avery hissed a few minutes later as they finally hit the stairs. "Or I'll hex you."

"I didn't say anything," Tom said, raising an eyebrow.

"'Course not, you're not failing any classes now are you," Avery snapped, his brows furrowed in what Tom assumed was frustration. Or agitation that he was being forced to study with him.

"No," Tom conceded, "But I'm not great at Transfiguration- Baggley helps me with it usually."

Avery just huffed and they continued on in silence. Tom hoped and prayed Sable or Delaney hadn't stopped by, but both girls were there, sitting at their normal table and gave him a look when they saw Avery with him.

"Hello Miles," Sable said with a small smile. "How was it?"

Avery glared at her and Delaney gave him a sympathetic look as she pulled the chair next to her out a bit, "Merrythought's a bit of a tyrant, isn't she?"

Avery took the offering and flopping into the chair with his bag in his lap. "Right old bitch," he swore, pulling his textbook out of his bag. Tom wondered if he should explain the boy's presence or leave it be. He didn't particularly want to give the other boy any reason to complain to Nott and start-up more harassment from the other boy, so he decided to keep his mouth shut on the matter.

"I'm going to start on my Defense homework and prepping for the test," he said instead, looking at Sable and then Delaney. The fact that they were there meant they likely needed help on something, but it wasn't uncommon for him to try and finish homework the moment it was assigned.

"Good," Delaney said, sliding her chair over so she was closer to Tom, "I only just barely passed that last test, my mum wrote me and told me if I didn't get at least an Acceptable in all my classes she'll have me go stay with my grandmother over the summer."

"What's so bad about that, doesn't your grandmother have horses and live by that Wizarding town outside of Edinburgh?" Sable said with a sigh, "That would be nice."

Delaney scrunched up her nose and made a face as she untied a ribbon from her wrist and began braiding her inky black hair into a braid. "The horses are nice, I don't get to ride when we're in London nearly as much, but she spends a lot of time studying history and family lines and suggesting books for me to read the entire time."

"Sounds wonderful," Tom said, with only the tiniest bit of sarcasm. It did sound wonderful to him, he'd never ridden a horse and was mildly terrified he'd be kicked off of one the moment he tried, and spending time looking at family lines and reading dusty old books that hadn't seen the light of day in Merlin knew how long- that sounded like a dream come true.

"Anyways," Delaney said with a roll of her eyes and she tied the ribbon off at the end of the braid, "I can't believe she assigned us an essay, she hasn't done that in over two months."

"So we were overdue for one, is what you're saying," Sable said with a sigh, dipping her quill into her ink.

"It's rubbish," Avery finally said, also pulling his quill out. "The assignment doesn't even make any sense. Detail ten ways to outmaneuver your opponent. Do not list spells of choice. Don't give me that look," Avery snapped at Tom, who was raising his eyebrows, looking slightly judgemental of the other first year.

"Go on then if you know some off the top of your head," Delaney said, turning and poking him with her quill.

"Ducking, dodging," Tom said, raising his fingers as he counted them off and Delaney shoved him slightly.

"Show off," she grumbled with a small smile, "Keep going then."

"Not if you're going to assault me before I can even finish," he quipped back. "Besides, she just meant she didn't want us to list specific spells, we can still say doing something specific while doing a spell."

"What do you mean?" Avery asked with a frown, dipping his quill into the ink.

"She always says, outside of our neck and head, our most vulnerable spots are our knees , you could say you're aiming just about any spell there to knock them off center- and ducking and dodging are also both legitimate answers, you just have to expand a bit and just her words against her, no point in any spells if you get cursed or killed because you sat still instead of bobbing about."

Delaney was already scribbling down notes on her parchment, not starting her essay immediately, but that was normal for her, while he and Sable preferred to dive straight into the essay writing.

"You could be a barrister one day," Sable said with a smirk, already tying up her first paragraph. "You certainly know how to talk just so to the professors."

"Writing essays and reading things from the textbook is the easiest part," Tom said simply, waiting as the ink dried. After a day full of notes in his classes his right hand was beginning to cramp up and he switched the quill to his left hand and continued on.

"It's not," Avery retorted, "I'd rather spend all day using every bit of my patience and magic on practicing Charms and Transfiguration than trying to do all this running about and reading."

"I didn't say I'd rather spend all my time reading," Though arguably, that's what he was generally of a mind for, but that had more to do with the fact that books had always been a constant and calming companion to him, while people tended to be much more hit and miss, usually for the worse more often than not. "But it's physically the easiest."

There was scratching on parchment as the four began the assignment. "Couldn't you also use something instead of a shielding spell to block any spells?" Sable asked, running the tip of her quill over her nose in thought. "It's be like dodging or ducking but instead… I don't know, using something as a physical shield?"

"I don't see why not," Tom agreed. Sable didn't generally need help with her Defense homework since she did pretty well in the class, but she would usually work on it with Tom as they both helped Delaney. The group continued on, Avery peeking over at Tom and Sable's papers occasionally and Sable seemed to have more patience for the other boy than Tom had, so he let her take the lead. He was certain Avery would rather say he was getting help from Sable if anyone ended up asking anyways.

They continued on like this until shortly before dinner. By then, their homework that had been assigned earlier that day was done and Tom and Sable made a list of things Avery needed the most help on for the next test. Avery was the first to flee from the library the moment he was able, gathering his stuff and giving a quick thanks to the girls, ignoring Tom as he left.

"Ugh, they're so stupid," Delaney grumbled slightly as she finished slipping her books into her bag.

"Hm?" Tom questioned, looking over his shoulder at her. Sable was at her side, already walking slightly behind him.

"Miles, and Theon, listening to that pratt Preston," Delaney snipped, giving a loud sigh. "Miles didn't even thank you and you sat there with him all patient as can be that whole time."

"Sable worked with him more than me," Tom pointed out, pausing to step in time with them. "Besides, I'd rather them leave me alone if they're going to behave like a bunch of stray dogs."

"Yes, thank you Tom," Sable cut in, rolling her eyes and then giving her best friend a light glare, "I did spend more time helping him study, I'm glad someone noticed."

Delaney blushed. "Tom spends the most time of any of us helping the rest of us, he's the only one getting E's or up in every class."

"I nearly got an Acceptable in Transfiguration last term," Tom said, blushing at the praise.

"You're modest," Delaney said earnestly, grabbing his arm and squeezing it before releasing it. "Anyways, dinner, I'm starving and then I'm going to take a shower and sleep- I almost fell asleep in Defense as well, I couldn't blame Miles for nodding off-" Delaney and Sable slipped on ahead of him and Tom wondered how long Avery would hang around for studying, especially once he saw Tammy, Mia and the Gryffindor boys at the table the next day or on Thursday.

A/N: I'm sorry for posting a day late, I was very busy yesterday and I didn't even open my laptop. I had planned to post it at night once I got home from dinner, but I ended up passing out and then this morning was taken over my chores and meal prepping. It was easy to edit but felt so short after the insanity that was the last chapter. Tom is really good in all his classes, but the weird relationship with Dumbledore kind of throws him off and he's not infallible so he does need to have a subject he's not beating everyone else out in, otherwise it just feels bit unbelievable.

As always, this is something I'm doing in my spare time, but I do have all the chapter planned out up until the reboot of Empathetic, and a good bit already written out. If you want to support me or read more of my writing, I'd really appreciate it if you checked out my original works at StrongwindAcademy dot com, or on our WattPad, if that's your preference (wattpad dot com (/) user( /) strongwindacademy).