Year 1: Star Gazer
Chapter 9: May 2016
With the arrival of May, Louis felt for the first time what it was to be at Hogwarts pre-exam time. It was chaos. The seventh years were worried about their N.E.W.T.s, because their results would determine their future careers. The fifth years were worried about their O.W.L.s, because their results would determine the N.E.W.T. classes they'd be eligible to take. The third years were panicking, because they had more classes to study for this year. It seemed that everyone was worried about something.
And Louis had no idea what to expect.
Thankfully, each of Louis' professors had scheduled after-hours review sessions throughout the last two weeks of May. They were optional of course, but there was no question in Louis' mind that he would go. The sessions would give students the opportunity to ask questions and get some extra practice time with their Professors present. It would be foolish to miss them.
The first of the first year review sessions would be for potions. It was scheduled to take place immediately after dinner, so as soon as classes were over for the day, Louis and Justin made their way to the library to quickly go over all their potions notes and make notes of anything they still didn't understand so that they would remember to ask questions and receive clarification.
It was while Louis was shuffling through his first term notes that Flint walked up, his fellow Slytherins flanking him.
"Hey nerds," he greeted the two boys.
Louis frowned at the greeting. He and Justin were hardly nerds. Just because they were in the astronomy club, and spent a great deal of time in the library didn't mean they were any better at school than the rest of their grade. In fact they were rather average, except for in astronomy. But Louis wasn't about to argue.
"Flint," Louis said, trying to hide the waver in his voice. When Flint came by, it was never a good thing. At least this time he'd chosen to corner them in the middle of a crowded library. He couldn't get physical with them with so many witnesses.
"I assume you're both going to the review session after dinner?" Flint asked.
Louis nodded. "Are you?" he wondered.
Flint shook his head and some of his friends laughed outright.
"I wouldn't be caught dead," Flint replied. "Extra school? I don't think so."
"Right," Louis nodded. What did Flint want? No way was he just here to chat.
Picking up on Louis' internal questioning, Flint dropped a sheet of parchment onto the table in front of the boys.
"What's this?" Justin wondered.
"That's a list of everything we in Slytherin need clarified," Flint declared. "By tomorrow we expect to get it back with answers to all our questions."
Louis looked down at the sheet and gasped. There must be over fifty questions on there!
"Wouldn't it make more sense for you all to just go to the review session and ask the questions yourselves?" Louis wondered.
Flint made a face. "I already told you, none of us would be caught dead at a review session," Flint insisted. "You'll get us our answers and return them to us."
Louis gulped and nodded. He knew what it would mean to refuse.
"And you'd better make sure that your answers make sense," Flint warned. "If you only confuse us more, we won't be happy."
Flint walked away and Louis turned to Justin, dismayed.
"This is impossible!" he cried. "Even if we ask all the questions to Professor Abbott-Longbottom, it would take all night to write out the answers in a coherent way."
Justin sighed. "Well we have to do it," he said. "We're stuck."
"I hate this," Louis grumbled. "I hate that he can just make us do whatever he wants."
"Well he can," Justin said. "Unless you want to break your arm this time?"
"Definitely not," Louis shook his head. He was still so grateful that Justin had shielded him from injury that one time. Louis would do anything to avoid being in that situation again.
"Here, let's split the questions," Justin decided, folding the parchment at the halfway mark and then ripping it in half. "And I bet we can answer some of these on our own. Better not to bother Professor Abbott-Longbottom with simple questions.
Louis nodded, taking the top half of the questions while Justin held onto the bottom half.
"And who knows?" Louis said, trying to see the bright side. "Maybe going over their questions will help us to solidify our own understandings of the subject."
"Excellent point," Justin nodded.
Louis knew if they were going to get this done in time, they had to get started right away, so he immediately started to read the questions on his half of the parchment.
When to use different kinds of stirring rods?
What's the point of a thick-bottomed cauldron?
Why do I have to wash my mortar and pestle every time I use them?
Louis found himself laughing at some of the questions. "This shouldn't be too difficult," he said out loud.
Justin agreed. "Listen to this one; where do bezoars come from? How can they even ask that, it was the first thing we learned about them!"
"This will be a piece of cake!" Louis declared.
When it was time to go to dinner, Louis had already answered over half of his questions. While many of the questions had been straightforward, others were more complicated and Louis found that he also was unclear on some of the topics. He made little stars next to the questions he didn't have answers to and made a mental note to bring those up in the review session later.
During the review session, Professor Abbott-Longbottom was very impressed with how prepared both Louis and Justin were. Not only did they have Flint and the others' questions, but they had some of their own as well.
When the session was over, the two Gryffindors retired to the common room, where they wrote out their final answers to all the questions. Some were simple one-liners, while others required paragraphs of explanation. When they were finally finished, they were exhausted and practically collapsed into their beds.
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The following day was their herbology review session, and so when class finished for the day, Louis and Justin once again got settled in the library to flip through their herbology notes to find questions and clarifications to bring up with Professor Longbottom. As expected, Flint and the others approached, looking for their potions answers.
"Here you go," Louis said, handing over the papers. "It should all be in order."
"Excellent," Flint nodded. He dropped a new sheet of parchment on the table. "Here are our herbology questions. We'll collect them tomorrow."
The boys left and Louis found himself groaning. They'd barely managed to finish the potions questions last night, and now they were going to have to start all over with herbology?
"There's even more questions this time!" Justin cried as he counted in order to divide them evenly.
"When are we supposed to have time to work on our history paper?" Louis demanded. Just because review sessions were happening didn't mean they didn't have assignments still for other classes.
Justin shook his head. "Well there's no review session scheduled for tomorrow thankfully," he said. "So maybe we'll get a small reprieve."
"I hope so," Louis said, taking his half of the herbology questions. "I'm not about to fail first year because I was too busy making sure a bunch of Slytherins pass."
Many of the questions this time around were again extremely simple. There were questions about the benefits of certain pots over others, different soils over others. Some questions had to do with why certain plants needed to be watered more than others, and why some plants needed more sunlight than others.
Just like last time though, some of the questions were ones Louis couldn't answer, and so he marked them and then tucked the parchment away for the review session, where he would voice the questions.
Professor Longbottom was just as impressed with the boys as Professor Abbott-Longbottom was for coming so prepared. When Louis and Justin returned to Gryffindor Tower to write up their final answers, Louis thought about their situation.
"This might suck," he said. "But it's almost like a blessing."
"A blessing?" Justin frowned. "Being treated like Flint's personal servant and being threatened with force is a blessing to you?"
"Well not that," Louis shook his head. "But all this extra work. It's long and it's tedious, but we're learning a lot, and our Professors think we're great. It's like a blessing in disguise. I'm almost hoping to get more questions for the next review session."
"Well I'm not," Justin said. "I'd much rather do my studying on my own terms rather than their terms. Maybe you'd like to take all the questions next time?"
Louis shook his head vehemently. "I don't think I could manage that," he admitted. "Especially not if they keep giving us more each time."
"See? It's not really a blessing. You're just fooling yourself."
"I don't know," Louis shrugged to himself. Justin simply didn't understand. "Maybe not…"
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The next day, the boys were grateful to have a reprieve. With no after-dinner review session scheduled for the first years, there was no additional parchment full of questions presented to them. Flint showed up to get the herbology answers and then disappeared without a word.
"We should definitely finish this history paper today," Justin declared once they were left alone. "Tomorrow's the transfiguration review session, and you can bet we won't have a free moment for work then."
Louis agreed, and the boys worked well into the night, polishing off their final history papers.
By the following afternoon, they had their parchment full of transfiguration questions and were more than ready to tackle it. If Louis had the time to pay attention, he'd say he was getting much faster at working his way through all the questions.
Professor Tonks was as impressed as the other Professors with the boys' preparedness, and when Louis and Justin found themselves back in the common room that night, Justin discovered that he understood Louis' statement from two days earlier.
"I wouldn't call it a blessing," Justin said. "But I see what you mean. It's like now that we've done this, I won't have to study as much later."
"Exactly," Louis said. "It's like we benefit from this too, even if we are getting the short end of the stick."
Relieved that Justin understood, Louis redoubled his efforts and finished his questions with time to spare. He even managed to complete his most recent charms assignment before going to bed that night.
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The next day, things got more complicated. Their final review session of the week was in defence, which was a much more practical than theoretical class. When Flint dropped off his and his friends' questions for the day's review session, Louis wondered if he should say anything to that affect.
"Hang on," Louis heard himself saying as Flint retreated.
He regretted speaking at all as soon as the words left his mouth, but it was too late now.
"What?" Flint grunted, clearly not in the mood to converse.
"It's just that…" Louis hesitated. "Don't you think you should come to this review session? Even if you don't go to any of the others, I don't know how well we'll be able to communicate the practical onto paper."
"Figure it out," Flint said, leaving without giving Louis the chance to explain himself.
"What was that about?" Justin demanded. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
"He wouldn't kill us," Louis rolled his eyes, trying to lighten the mood. "Maim sure, but not kill."
"Gee, now I feel better," Justin said sarcastically.
Louis looked down at the questions before him.
"It's just… how are we supposed to answer some of these?" Louis asked. "We can describe a wand motion on paper with a thousand words, but the only way to really make someone understand is by having them learn it kinaesthetically."
"Kinaesthetically?" Justin said, making a face. "Look who sounds like a nerd now."
"Whatever," Louis shook his head, seeing that Justin was going to be no help.
Louis started with the questions he could answer – theoretical details of certain spells, issues of the legality of duelling, all the questions about ghouls and hags were easy enough to answer as well. When it came to the wand motion questions, Louis decided to draw a picture, figuring this would be easier than trying to describe things in words. Hopefully Flint and the others would understand his arrows.
The hard part was when he came to questions about dodging and other physical aspects of the subject.
"I don't even know how to answer this one," Louis said, staring in dismay at one of the questions.
"Let's hear it," Justin said.
"If a spell is coming at you and you don't have time to cast a shield, should you dodge left or right?" Louis read.
Justin had to stifle a laugh.
"It's not funny!" Louis cried. "One of them really asked that!"
"I'm sorry," Justin shook his head. "It's just… seriously? How is that even a question?"
"How do I answer?" Louis wondered.
Justin shrugged. "Just write that you can only know in the moment," he replied.
Louis though about this. What Justin said was true, there was no rule for this sort of thing. But would Flint be mad if he left the answer so vague? Louis decided to just make something up.
"You look like you're writing a novel," Justin observed as Louis scribbled away.
Louis shrugged.
"What are you even saying there?" Justin asked, grabbing the paper away from Louis. He started to read and then started to laugh. "Wow, seriously?"
"What?" Louis frowned. "It's good, sound advice."
"It won't always work though," Justin noted. In his answer, Louis had indicated that should the spell be targeting one's left side, one should dodge right and vice versa. But even Louis knew this was only basic rudimentary advice.
"It's something," Louis pointed out. "It's better than nothing at all."
"If you say so," Justin shrugged, going back to his own work.
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Over the weekend, the boys took a nice break from all the studying. The other first years thought they were crazy, but both Louis and Justin agreed that they'd done enough studying through the week to deserve a couple days off. Besides, exams weren't until June.
Saturday afternoon found Louis and Justin lounging in the common room when a familiar voice shook Louis from his relaxed state.
"Louis?" Louis jumped and turned to face his cousin Molly, who was in the process of climbing through the portrait hole.
"Molly," Louis acknowledged his cousin. So far, he'd tried to avoid her at Hogwarts as much as possible, she not being his favorite cousin.
"What are you doing?" Molly cried.
Louis frowned. "What on earth do you mean?" he asked.
"You should be studying!" Molly exclaimed. "What will your parents think?"
Louis shrugged. "I'm taking a break," he informed her. "But I promise you, I've been studying plenty."
"A break?" Molly parroted back, as if unable to comprehend the word.
"Yes," Louis confirmed. "A break. You should try it sometime."
"Well that's simply – absurd!" Molly cried. "To even suggest such a thing…"
"Shouldn't you be studying now?" Louis wondered, only asking because he wanted Molly gone.
"Of course, you're right," Molly nodded. "I just had to come back and get my herbology notes. So I'd better – "
"You do that," Louis nodded as Molly rushed for the stairs that would lead to the girls' dorms.
Once Molly was gone, Louis turned to face Justin, who was making a face.
"My cousin," Louis said by way of explanation. "Not the most friendly of people."
"She's pretty intense," Justin nodded.
"No kidding," Louis agreed. "I find it best to steer clear of her whenever possible."
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The following week passed much the same as the previous. Monday was the charms review, and as usual, Flint dropped off a list of questions in the afternoon, to be picked up the following day. On Tuesday, it was time for a history review session, and the list of questions Flint handed over was longer than for any other subject. Which was good, actually, since Louis himself struggled with history more than many other subjects.
Wednesday was the real challenge. Neither Louis nor Justin had had any intention of going to the astronomy review session, since they both excelled at the subject and knew more than most of their classmates combined. But when they saw the questions on Flint's sheet, they found themselves stumped. Of course, most questions they were able to answer easily, but there were a few that even they didn't know the answers to.
"I'm surprised to see you boys here," Professor Brunwell said when they slunk into the astronomy review session after dinner that night. "I'd have thought you'd already know everything there is to know."
"I'd have thought so too," Louis replied. "But we came across a few things in our revision – things we hadn't even considered before."
"Well I'm glad to have you both here," their Professor nodded. "I look forward to hearing your questions."
The review session actually went extremely well. Professor Brunwell was impressed by their questions, and Louis felt a little bad for passing them off as theirs, when really they belonged to the Slytherins. But by the end of the session, both boys felt extremely confident about their upcoming astronomy exams and were sure that they were now as prepared as they could be.
"They're not as dumb as we thought," Louis noted as he wrote up the answers to some of the questions that night.
"Who aren't?" Justin wondered.
"The Slytherins," Louis replied. "Flint and the others. This whole time, we've been talking about them like they're dunces, but some of these questions are really insightful."
"Don't forget these are the same people who asked where a bezoar comes from," Justin pointed out.
Louis thought about that. It was true. Some of the questions were so primary, even his little cousin Hugo could have answered them – and he was only eight years old. But other questions were more complex, well-thought out, and very smart.
"There are five of them," Louis realized. "And this is a compilation of all their questions. They might not all be smart, but at least one of them is."
Justin thought about that. "You might be right," he agreed. "Whoever asked about bezoars couldn't be the same person who asked about the mathematics of planet plotting on a map."
"No way," Louis confirmed.
Justin leaned back in his seat. "I wonder who it is then," he mused.
"Who who is?" Louis frowned.
"The smart one," Justin clarified.
Louis nodded. "Does it really matter?" he asked.
Justin shrugged. "I'd just be interested to know, is all."
"I'm sure they're all differing degrees of intelligent," Louis said. "It's not for us to decide that. And maybe some of them are better in some subjects than others. Who are we to judge?"
"You're right," Justin agreed. "We should just focus on finishing these questions."
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The next day, Louis and Justin passed the final sheet of answers over to Flint. Though they'd found the exercise rewarding in some ways, they were more than glad to be done with it all. Now they could focus on their own studying instead of someone else's.