Year 3: Left Behind

Chapter 25: January 2017

School. Studying. Straight O's. Molly repeated her new mantra in her head over and over again as she boarded the train and prepared to head back to school.

School. Studying. Straight O's. These were the three sacred S's that would guide Molly's thoughts, words, and actions for the rest of her days at Hogwarts.

School. Studying. Straight O's. As long as she focused on that, there was no need to think about anything else. There would be nothing to distract her from her goal, nothing to keep her from being the top student at Hogwarts ever.

As Molly walked along the train corridor in search of an empty compartment, she didn't even think twice when she saw Julie, Debbie, and Sarah all crammed into a compartment together with their textbooks. She didn't even spare them a second glance, because they meant nothing to her now. They were distractions. She was focused. Her eyes were on the prize and nothing was going to slow her down.

The entire ride to school, Molly read. She absorbed everything there was to absorb from her transfiguration textbook, then her arithmancy textbook, and then her history of magic textbook. She'd already read them of course, but you don't become the top student ever by only reading your textbooks three times each. You read them until you know them inside and out, backwards and forwards, upside down and upside right.

When they arrived at school, Molly went to the welcome back feast just to grab a bite to eat, and then she skipped out before dessert so that she could go through her herbology textbook again before bed.

When Sarah and the rest of her roommates returned from the feast, Molly didn't acknowledge them. It wasn't that she was being rude; she just didn't realize they were there until she'd finished her reading and put down her book. At that point, she just shut the curtains of her bed and went to sleep. A good night's rest was crucial. She'd need to be alert and on point in all her classes from now on.

This was it. This was the big times. Everything up until now had been training. Now it was time for her shining moment. No longer was she competing with the dullards in Slytherin. No longer was she competing with airheads like Flora Bailey. No longer was she competing with average Ravenclaws or mediocre Hufflepuffs. No longer was she competing with students with split focus like Sarah and Julie and Debbie. Now she was competing with the best of the best, the cream of the crop. She was competing with like-minded individuals through time. Molly was already the top student of her year. Which meant that now, she was competing with the top students from every other year for all of Hogwarts' history.

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First class back was transfiguration and Molly was fierce as she walked into class and plopped herself down front and center. From the minute Professor Tonks asked the first question, Molly was answering them all rapid fire. She wasn't even raising her hand, she was just calling out answers unprompted. After all, you don't become the top of the class by being passive and waiting to be called on. You have to take initiative. You have to seize your moment, show off your knowledge whenever possible, and never let anyone else have a chance to look smarter than you.

Molly suspected that Professor Tonks was getting annoyed with her, but she didn't care. Being the best isn't about other people's feelings. In fact, it isn't about feelings at all. It's about knowledge and determination. It's about not caring what anyone else thinks, and doing what you need to do to succeed.

Molly continued this pattern in the rest of her classes that day and through until the end of the week. When she wasn't in class, she was in the library, or the common room, or sometimes if Flora and the others weren't there, she'd even study in the dorm. At mealtimes, she'd swing by the Great Hall and grab something, usually to go. There was no point sitting down for any extended period of time just to eat when she could be more productive studying.

School. Studying. Straight O's. From her first day back, Molly was dedicated to her cause. Every waking moment was a productive moment. If she was walking from one class to another, she was revising her vocabulary words for ancient runes in her head. If she was getting dressed in the morning, she was listing off the ingredients needed for some potion or other. If her professor was lingering on a subject she'd already mastered, she was reading ahead. Not a spare moment went to waste.

By the time Saturday rolled around, Molly was so far ahead of her classmates, her assignments, and everything, that she knew she needed a challenge. Just because she was so advanced didn't mean she could slack. She had to go above and beyond, take every opportunity to better herself, keep on striving for top marks.

So as soon as she'd had a bite of breakfast, Molly started going through the castle, office to office, in search of a professor at work. Professor Longbottom's office was empty, as was Professor Tonks' office. Molly headed to the dungeons next, and to her delight, Professor Abbott-Longbottom was seated at her desk, grading papers.

"Good morning, Professor," Molly greeted the potions professor.

"Good morning Molly," Professor Abbott-Longbottom replied. "Can I help you with anything?"

"I was actually looking to see if there was any extra coursework you could assign me?" Molly inquired. "Maybe on a topic we aren't covering as in depth as we could? Something the curriculum skims over? Something I could get extra credit for?"

Professor Abbott-Longbottom frowned. "Extra credit?" she questioned. "Why would you need extra credit? You're top of the class, and pulling a straight O average."

"That's no excuse to stop trying," Molly said. "I need to strive to be the absolute best I can, and since I've already finished all my regular assignments, I thought I'd try and get some new ones assigned."

"Have you considered using your free time to spend time with your friends? Get some fresh air? Do something besides schoolwork?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom asked.

"I'm not going to waste my time," Molly shook her head. "If I slack off, even for a second, then I've let myself down."

"Taking time to have a well-rounded like isn't letting yourself down. In fact, not taking time to have a well-rounded life would be the letdown. It's not healthy and you'll certainly come to regret it one day."

Molly didn't want to hear what Professor Abbott-Longbottom had to say. When she realized she wasn't going to get what she wanted from the professor, she made her excuses and escaped. As she began searching for another professor, she started rethinking her approach. Given her straight O's, her professors were unlikely to want to give her extra assignments. It would mean extra work for them in grading, and clearly that wasn't an attractive option. But Molly had other ideas.

When she found Professor Thicket in his office, she silently rejoiced. She had so many questions about ancient runes, and he could answer them!

"Professor Thicket?" Molly said, knocking lightly on the door.

"What can I do for you Molly?" Professor Thicket wondered.

"If you have some spare time, I had some questions I wanted to ask you," Molly revealed.

"Of course," Professor Thicket nodded, gesturing to the free chair in front of his desk.

Molly entered the room and sat down, rummaging quickly through her bag until she found her ancient runes notes. She'd brought her notes for all her courses with her today.

"Alright, my first question is about the passive voice," Molly declared. "How does that work in runes?"

"That's no simple question," Professor Thicket frowned. "To answer you, I'd have to teach you an entire verb tense you haven't learned yet."

"I've read ahead," Molly said confidently. "If it's any of the ones in the textbook, then I'd already know it."

Professor Thicket shook his head. "I don't teach this tense until fourth year," he informed Molly.

Molly smiled. This was going to be an even more interesting morning than she'd anticipated. "Alright," she said, grabbing a quill and moving to the end of her notes. She scratched in the date and the topic and then looked up at Professor Thicket expectantly. "Go ahead and teach me."

Molly spent the better part of the morning in Professor Thicket's office learning about the passive voice and its associated verb tense: the passive tense. It was a tense that didn't exist in English, which made it all the more challenging.

When lunchtime came around, Professor Thicket apologized, but told Molly they had to wrap up as he needed to eat and then had a meeting with Professor Slinkhard that afternoon. Molly didn't mind though. She'd had an extraordinarily productive morning and looked forward to an equally productive afternoon.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Molly found her way to Professor Flitwick's office, where she inquired about non-verbal magic. It was supposed to be an extremely advanced topic only taught at N.E.W.T. level, but Molly couldn't see any reason why she couldn't learn it now. Plus, as she understood, only certain classes taught it in sixth year, and if Molly happened to choose to discontinue those courses (not that she intended to drop any courses come sixth year), it would be useful to learn now.

Professor Flitwick was hesitant at first, but when Molly insisted, she consented to cover the basics at least. Molly was ecstatic, and even after Professor Flitwick kicked Molly out of her office later that afternoon, Molly now had something completely new to practice and to learn.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Molly continued to drop in on her Professors with questions about topics they hadn't covered yet, topics they hadn't gone as in depth as they might have with, and topics she didn't think they would ever cover. All the while, she worked on her non-verbal spellcasting until it was completely perfected. It only took about two and a half weeks.

Meanwhile, Molly got the feeling her professors were getting irritated with her. She couldn't understand why. They were professors. They were here to teach. But after the first couple of weeks, whenever she would drop into her professors' offices unannounced, she could sense a distinct sense of displeasure coming off of them. Their energy would drop, their expression would turn to a slight frown, and their voice would become hard. But Molly didn't care. This wasn't about being friends with her professors, it was about being the best. And as long as they were answering her questions, they were fulfilling their purpose.

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The following Sunday afternoon found Molly in the after-hours potions lab, working on a potion they weren't scheduled to learn until April. She'd had to owl-order a few ingredients that she didn't have, and borrow some others from the potions professor's stores – they were public stores after all, so it wasn't like she was stealing. It was a potion she'd suspected she would have trouble with when the time finally came to brew it in class, and Molly thought she'd get a head start on it now, have a test brew, and that way when they did brew it for real, she'd know what she was doing.

Without making any noise, Professor Abbott-Longbottom entered the room and stood at the back, watching Molly manically brew her potion. There was nobody else in the room. No other student wanted to spend their Sunday afternoon brewing potions, especially since it was one of the warmer days they'd had that winter, and most were outside enjoying the sun.

It wasn't until Molly turned around to grab some rat spleens that she realized she was no longer alone.

"Professor!" she exclaimed in surprise. "I didn't realize you were here!"

"I didn't announce myself," Professor Abbott-Longbottom said. It wasn't an apology, more of an explanation.

Molly nodded. "Well since I have you here, I actually had a couple of questions," she said eagerly. In the process of brewing the potion, she'd discovered so many questions she'd never thought of before.

"I'm not going to answer your questions," Professor Abbott-Longbottom shook her head.

Molly frowned. "But why?" she asked, confused. It made no sense. Professor Abbott-Longbottom was a teacher. Answering questions was what she did.

"Molly, we're worried about you," the potions professor said gently, stepping closer to Molly.

"We?" Molly asked, still confused. What was going on?

"We the professors," Professor Abbott-Longbottom replied. "Myself, Professor Longbottom, Professor Flitwick, Professor Tonks… all of us."

"Why would you be worried?" Molly asked. "I'm fine."

"You're clearly not fine," Professor Abbott-Longbottom shook her head. "You haven't interacted with any of your peers since term restarted, you've been much too focused on schoolwork, and you've developed an unhealthy obsession with learning topics beyond your current level."

"I don't understand," Molly said, totally lost. "This is school. Aren't I meant to learn? Isn't that the whole point of being here?"

"Yes, but we teach certain subjects at certain times for a reason," Professor Abbott-Longbottom replied. "We've paced out your coursework in such a way for a reason. If you get too far ahead of yourself, what will be left to learn in sixth and seventh year?"

"There's always more to learn," Molly disagreed. "Aren't you supposed to be a teacher?" This made no sense. Why would her teacher dissuade her from learning?

"I think I've gotten off track," Professor Abbott-Longbottom frowned. "It's not that I don't think learning is important, but it's not the only important thing."

"I disagree," Molly contradicted. "School. Studying. Straight O's. That's all that matters."

"But what about friends? Socializing? Being a kid?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom insisted. "Don't you miss recreational time?"

"Recreation is for people who aren't serious about their studies," Molly replied. She thought of Debbie and Sarah and Julie. As soon as they'd become interested in recreation, Quidditch specifically, their grades had begun to steadily drop.

"That's not true. I've had many straight O students who participated in various clubs and teams. You could join something! Perhaps the arithmancy club?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom suggested.

"I doubt they'd be able to challenge me," Molly shook her head. "Plus, I wouldn't want to focus too much of my attention on one subject and forgo the rest. It would be uneven."

"What about the wizard's chess club?" Professor Abbott-Longbottom suggested a second option.

"What would I get out of that?" Molly asked, confused again. Her professor was making no sense today.

"Interaction with other students, something to think about besides your coursework, not to mention chess is incredibly useful in developing skills in both logic and planning. It could stretch your brain in ways reading more books simply couldn't."

Molly wasn't convinced. "Nobody at this school could be close enough to a challenge for me to even consider it," she replied. "It would be me teaching them, and I don't have time for charity."

Professor Abbott-Longbottom sighed. "I don't know what you want from me, Molly," she said.

"I want you to answer my questions about this potion, and then leave me alone to finish brewing. Then I want to go to the library and check out a book on advanced transfigurations and read it until I have to go to sleep."

"But you need to have more in your life than just your studies, or you won't become a well-rounded person," Professor Abbott-Longbottom insisted.

"Are you saying if I don't join a club I'll be expelled?" Molly asked.

Professor Abbott-Longbottom hesitated. "Well no, I can't do that," she admitted.

"Will you give me detention?" Molly asked.

Professor Abbott-Longbottom shook her head. "No, you won't get in any kind of trouble," she replied. "I would just really like you to consider it."

Molly nodded, though she had no intention of considering anything. "You're not going to answer any questions for me today, are you?" she asked.

"Not unless they have to do with the subject we are currently studying, or a subject we have already covered in class," Professor Abbott-Longbottom replied. "I don't want to encourage this unhealthy behavior."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to finish brewing this potion alone," Molly declared. "I'll check out a book on the subject later and find my answers that way."

It was probably a better plan anyway. She would get more information from the book. Information she wouldn't even think to ask her teacher.

Professor Abbott-Longbottom looked sad, but obliged, leaving Molly alone.

She just didn't understand. Molly knew what she was doing. Her father had encouraged her in her new mission, and she wasn't going to let anything stop her from being the best. Not even her professors. She realized now that they were distractions too. She could only rely on herself. The library would be her new best friend. She would read as many books on as many topics as she possibly could. If she finished the books in the library, she would buy more, or convince her father to buy more. There would never be a lack of things to learn, and Molly intended to learn everything she possibly could.