Year 4: A Fresh Start

Chapter 32: October 2017

As September turned into October, Molly felt herself genuinely enjoying herself for the first time in her life. Even things like going to class and doing her homework – things she'd always done – were more interesting and enjoyable than before. And with a bit of help from Molly, Sarah was able to rejoin her friend at the top of the class. Molly truly had it all.

But then, slowly but surely, Molly discovered that she once again had to fight to stay on top. Julie and Debbie's grades began to improve, after plummeting when they'd joined the Ravenclaw Quidditch team last year. It seemed that they'd finally managed to balance their schoolwork with their practices, same as Sarah, and they were beginning to reclaim their top spots in the hierarchy of the class.

"You'd better watch out," Julie scoffed at Molly and Sarah. "We went easy on you last year because we felt sorry for you, but we're done with that now."

"Oh please," Molly bit back. "You weren't going easy. Just admit that you couldn't keep up. You had too much on your plate, and your grades suffered the consequences."

But the Ravenclaw girls had too much pride to allow Molly's comment to stand.

"We'll show you," Julie retorted. "Just you wait until we're top of everything. How will you explain that to your parents?"

And Julie and Debbie were true to their word. Almost immediately, the competition between the two Gryffindors and the two Ravenclaws became palpable. Other students in their classes even began to pick up on the tension, keeping as far out of the way as possible.

In defence against the dark arts, they had just begun to learn how to do shield charms and were practicing hex deflection. As usual, Professor Derlid would have them pair up at the beginning of the lesson and he would circulate throughout the room as he instructed them.

Molly and Sarah were nowhere near Julie and Debbie that day. The two pairs of girls were on opposite ends of the room, squaring off against each other as they tested their shield charm capabilities. As usual, the four of them had been the first in the class to succeed in casting the shield, meaning that their professor was paying them less attention than the rest of the class, who were still struggling to produce and maintain a strong enough shield to stop a hex from penetrating it.

Molly and Sarah, who were practicing closer to the front of the classroom, had started to practice with their eyes closed, the goal being for the defender to raise a shield while blinded. Molly had her eyes closed and was waiting to hear Sarah's voice begin the incantation for a hex or minor jinx when suddenly, she felt her entire body being slammed by some unknown force and she flew backwards into the wall. Pain shot through her as she crumpled to the ground and her eyes flew open in surprise.

"What was that?" she demanded, looking to Sarah. "I thought we were only doing smaller hexes."

Sarah looked just as perplexed as Molly.

"I didn't do it," she insisted, looking around the room in search of the perpetrator. "It came from over there."

She pointed and Molly looked over to find Debbie and Julie laughing at her expense. Storming over, hands on her hips, Molly confronted them.

"Think that was funny, do you?" she demanded. "Attacking someone with her eyes closed."

"You're the one that closed your eyes in a defence against the dark arts class," Debbie pointed out. "It's not our fault you couldn't see the spell coming your way."

"This isn't a first year class," Molly declared. "I didn't realize I had to worry about my classmates not knowing how to aim."

"Excuse me?" Julie cried in outrage. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me," Molly returned. "And furthermore, that spell you just sent at me? That was way more powerful than what Professor Derlid told us to do. You should be glad you didn't kill me."

"Oh please," Julie rolled her eyes. Molly got the impression it was she who had actually cast the spell. "It was a simple knockback jinx. A first year could cast it."

"A first year wouldn't be strong enough to pack that much force behind it," Molly said. "You're a fourth year, you're supposed to be responsible."

And with that, Molly stalked back over to Sarah, leaving Julie and Debbie in outrage over her insults.

"Alright, alright, let's all settle down," Professor Derlid called out then, realizing that there'd been an incident. "Please try to focus your spells on your own partners please. I'd prefer not to have to send anyone to the hospital wing today. I've already had to send two of my second years that way, so Madam Eldridge is already unhappy."

When class was over and the students began dissipating, heading to their next destinations, Moly fumed.

"She did it intentionally," she cried, still feeling the remaining soreness from the impact she'd taken. "She specifically targeted me. And for what?"

"To prove that she's better than you," Sarah responded. "Not that she is," she added hurriedly.

"Well I'll show her," Molly muttered. "I'll show her who's the best around here."

Over the next few days, Molly poured every ounce of energy she had into her schoolwork. She was determined that no matter how good Julie and Debbie's essays and assignments were, that hers would be better. She spent a full two days writing her essay on Golpalott's second law for potions class, and got almost no sleep, staying up late in bed reading about the goblin rebellions for history of magic from every library book she could get her hands on.

"You're going to kill yourself trying to beat them," Sarah pointed out one day. "You've got to slow down."

"Can't," Molly shook her head. "Not while I'm winning."

And winning she was. With each new assignment, Molly always managed to stay one teeny tiny step ahead of the Ravenclaw girls. She could tell that they were enraged by it, but there wasn't anything they could do. With Quidditch practice, they had a crutch that Molly simply didn't have.

Then one day, as Molly, Julie, and Debbie filed into their arithmancy class (Sarah had elected to take Muggle Studies instead of Arithmancy), Molly received back her most recent assignment and discovered that she'd received and E.

"What?" she cried in shock, her eyes going wide as she took in the grade that was not an O. "How did this happen?" she demanded.

"Well Molly, I'm afraid that while all your work was correct, you had somehow shifted your arithmantic chart so that the numbers corresponding to the various letters were all one integral off. It threw of your results, and thus your entire conclusion was wrong. I would have give a lower mark, since essentially the whole assignment was wrong, except that all your logic was sound," Professor Scalar replied.

Molly frowned. How had her arithmantic chart been shifted? As she looked down on it, she saw that she'd assigned the number one to letters B, K, and R. But she knew even now that the number one was supposed to be associated with the letters A, I, J, Q, and Y. She couldn't understand how she could have made this mistake.

Glancing about in confusion, she noticed Debbie and Julie looking at her and laughing from behind their hands, and without needing any more confirmation, she knew. They'd done something to tamper with her assignment. She didn't know how they'd managed it, especially given that she'd immediately realized what she'd done wrong upon receiving it back, but she knew that they'd interfered.

Molly was furious. It was one thing to curse her in the middle of defence against the dark arts. It was one thing to threaten her and to challenge her for top of the class. But to actually tamper with her assignment? With her grades? That was pushing things too far. Molly wouldn't stand for that.

"Maybe it was just an accident," Sarah suggested when she and Molly met up after class. "Maybe you really just got confused."

Molly shook her head. "You'd understand if you took Arithmancy," she said. "This isn't the kind of thing I could have messed up. I'd have caught it in seconds if my numbers had been shifted. They did something."

"What are you going to do about it?" Sarah asked.

Molly thought about it. "I'm going to mess with them, same as they messed with me," she declared. "And you're going to help me."

It didn't take long for Molly to devise a plan. So far in astronomy class, they'd spent the month of October studying the planet mercury. After learning about it extensively, they were to spend their next class using their telescopes to locate mercury and to map it, along with its moons and the surrounding stars. If Molly could get up to the astronomy tower a little early, she could tamper with Julie and Debbie's telescopes so that they'd fail the assignment.

"I don't know," Sarah was hesitant. "If we get caught, we could get in trouble."

But Molly wasn't thinking straight anymore. She was so consumed by feelings of revenge that all she saw when she thought of Julie and Debbie was red.

Sarah eventually agreed to help, if only to keep an eye on Molly. She was nervous for her friend and the path that she was headed along. The night of their astronomy class, they stayed up late in the common room, too keyed up to sleep, and about a half an hour before they usually would have set out, they left the common room and headed towards the astronomy tower.

As they headed in that direction, they suddenly found their path blocked my Mr. Clarke, the night watchman.

"And where do you think you're going, you two?" he demanded. "It's past curfew, you know."

"We know," Molly nodded. "But we've got astronomy class tonight. We're fourth years."

Mr. Clarke narrowed his eyes at them both. "It's a little early to be going to class yet," he commented.

Sarah shifted nervously next to Molly and Molly moved to stand in front of her, nervous that Mr. Clarke would pick up on Sarah's shiftiness as lying.

"We just like to be early," Molly informed him. "This way we can get settled before class starts and position our telescopes ahead of time."

While Mr. Clarke didn't seem all too convinced of their explanation, he let them go.

"Fourth years have got astronomy tonight," he muttered, mostly to himself. "Half an hour isn't much time for mischief anyway."

"That was close," Sarah said once they were out of earshot.

"Don't worry about that," Molly insisted. "We've got to get going, Mr. Clarke slowed us down."

When the two girls arrived at the top of the astronomy tower, Molly was relieved to find that Professor Brunwell had yet to arrive. Quickly moving to Debbie and Julie's workstations, Molly began fiddling with the knobs, misaligning the measuring equipment so that all their measurements would be off.

"Hurry up," Sarah insisted, jumping from one foot to the other anxiously.

"Calm down," Molly hissed. "We've got time, we're fine."

She finished messing with the equipment, and then she and Sarah hurried over to their own workstations to get themselves set up for class, hoping it would look like they were just eager to get to class that night.

"What about the rest of the school?" Sarah asked then.

"What about them?" Molly frowned.

"Well we're not the only class that uses these telescopes," Sarah pointed out. "What about the other students that use Debbie and Julie's telescopes?"

Molly shrugged this off, seemingly not worried. "Professor Brunwell will catch on eventually," she replied. "It'll get fixed."

Sarah didn't seem too impressed with Molly's answer, but there was no chance to question her further, as their Professor arrived at that moment.

"Molly! Sarah!" he exclaimed in surprise upon seeing them. "I didn't realize anyone was up here yet."

"We're just really excited about tonight's class," Molly said, not having to fake her enthusiasm. "I've been looking forward to mapping mercury for weeks now."

"Excellent, excellent," Professor Brunwell said, simply happy to have students so interested in his subject. "Well go ahead and get your telescopes positioned if you'd like," he said. "I daresay, being this early for class ought to at least have the perk of being extra prepared once we start."

Molly went ahead and did as her professor suggested, searching the skies until she located mercury and then locking her telescope in place so that it wouldn't move without her permission.

The rest of the students trickled in, Debbie and Julie among them, and once everyone was seated, Professor Brunwell started the class. Everyone knew the assignment, so he simply passed out the chart paper and let them loose, giving them until the end of class to complete their charts.

About halfway through the lesson, Molly heard Debbie and Julie debating with each other.

"This doesn't look right," Julie was saying, looking from her chart to Debbie's. "Yours are much too far apart, and mine seem too close together."

"You're right," Debbie agreed, frowning at their assignments. "And neither of these look at all like what the textbook said it should look like."

Molly watched as Professor Brunwell headed over, noticing the Ravenclaw girls' conundrum, and peered down at their work. He agreed with them that something seemed off, and taking a quick look through their telescopes, informed them that the alignment of their telescopes was completely off.

"Rats," Molly muttered grumpily to herself. She'd been banking on the Ravenclaws not noticing that anything was wrong and receiving a failing grade before Professor Brunwell realized the mistake. Now he would adjust the telescopes and they would be able to redo their assignments to perfection.

"Hey, at least they only have half the lesson remaining to do it in," Sarah pointed out. "They'll have way less time than the rest of us."

But this wasn't encouraging to Molly, as both she and Sarah had basically already finished. "They'll have plenty of time," she muttered. "It really isn't that complicated an assignment."

Try as she might, over the next few days, Molly continued to fail at messing with Debbie and Julie. There was simply nothing she could do that the girls didn't catch onto, or that wouldn't be obvious to the professors and other students. But as the days went on, Molly also noted that no more of her assignments were coming back with anything less than she deserved.

"Stop worrying about Debbie and Julie," Sarah insisted one evening. "They're not worth it. Just worry about yourself and your own grades."

"But they don't deserve to get top marks," Molly insisted. "They're spiteful and mean-spirited and they tear other people down to get what they want."

Sarah fidgeted uncomfortably. "Isn't that kind of what you've been doing these past few days though?" she asked.

And almost as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head, Molly realized that Sarah was right. In her quest to get revenge on Debbie and Julie, Molly had become just like them. She'd become so consumed with beating them, that she'd become the very thing she hated.

She'd vowed at the beginning of this year to be better, but she was even worse than before. Not only was she obsessing over her grades, but she was trying to make her grades better by intentionally tampering with others. And Sarah, her one and only friend, had been telling her for days that she needed to stop. And she hadn't listened.

Molly had to decide what was most important to her. Was it her grades after all? Or was it friendship? Was it petty competition, or was it getting the most of what life had to offer? Molly realized that it didn't matter that Julie and Debbie were in competition with her. They could compete with her until graduation for all she cared.

But she was going to stop competing with them. Because she was better than that, and because she had more important things to worry about than a couple of Ravenclaws who were so insecure about their grades that they had to use intimidation and interference. Molly didn't have to prove herself to anyone.

"I'm sorry," Molly said. "You're right, I haven't been myself."

Relief swept through Sarah's expression at Molly's words. "I'm glad you see it," she said.

The girls agreed that Debbie and Julie were beneath them, and not worth their concern.

"Shall we get started on our herbology homework then?" Molly suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," Sarah agreed.

And so instead of plotting how to destroy the Ravenclaw girls, Molly and Sarah spent a lovely evening writing their essays on the properties of bubotuber pus.