Year 4: A Fresh Start
Chapter 49: May 2018
On the first of May, Molly and her friends received an exciting letter. It was from Mrs. Alderton. The three girls had been in constant communication with Debbie's mother since the holidays and had requested frequent updates on Debbie's condition. While she'd been improving steadily, Mrs. Alderton hadn't been optimistic that Debbie would be well in time to finish the school year. But apparently, she'd been wrong.
After months of lying in a bed in St. Mungo's with doctor poking and prodding at her, casting spells on her and force-feeding her potion after potion, Debbie was finally healed. And she was returning to school.
"She's going to be so behind," was Julie's first comment. "Exams are a month away."
"She'll catch up," Molly said confidently. "We'll help her."
Debbie was scheduled to arrive back at school on Sunday evening. She was released from the hospital on the Friday, but Mrs. Alderton wanted to take her home for the weekend before sending her back to school. Molly spent the whole weekend working on improving her flashcards so that they made sure to cover absolutely everything Debbie had missed. She wasn't sure how much studying Debbie had managed in the hospital, but whatever the situation was, she was determined to make sure her friend passed.
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Finally, Sunday came. The day was one of the longest and slowest that Molly had ever experienced, but after the most excruciatingly long wait, it was seven o'clock and Molly and her friends were out in the Entrance Courtyard awaiting the return of their friend.
She arrived only a couple minutes past seven, her parents flanking her as they walked up the lane that led to the gates and Hogsmeade. When she first came into view, Molly was surprised at the number of scars littering Debbie's face. She'd thought that the whole point of tying Debbie down in the hospital had been to minimize scratching and thus to minimize scarring. Molly shuddered to think of how bad it could have been if not for the restraints.
"Debbie!" Julie cried, running out first to embrace her friend.
Molly and Sarah hung back nervously. Apart from when they'd visited her in the hospital when she couldn't speak, the last time they'd seen Debbie they hadn't been friends. It hadn't been until Debbie had fallen ill that Molly, Sarah, and Julie had all come together again. The Gryffindor girls were worried that Debbie might still hate them for everything that had happened the previous year. But when she finished hugging Julie and hurried over to give them each a hug too, they knew that their fears were unfounded.
"I'm so glad to be finally back," Debbie exclaimed.
"It's good to have you back," Molly returned. She wisely refrained from mentioning anything about the scars and hoped the rest of the students at Hogwarts would do the same. Debbie had been through enough without being reminded of her illness every time someone looked at her.
"Come on," Sarah said, leading Debbie inside. "Let's go to the fourth-year lounge and talk."
Molly and her friends almost never spent time in the fourth-year lounge. It was loud and usually crowded and definitely not conducive to studying, which was what they preferred to do with their time. But for tonight, it would serve their purposes splendidly. They needed to catch up with Debbie without the pressure of studies – that could wait until tomorrow. And as they were from different houses, the common rooms were out of the question. In the lounge, Debbie could relax, and they could catch her up on everything she'd missed.
There was a lot to discuss. Molly told Debbie all about the disaster with Flora and Amber in the dorm. Julie and Sarah updated her on the quidditch season. Debbie talked about her time in the hospital, and by the time curfew came around, none of the girls realized how much time had passed. They said their goodnights, and Molly finally got a sound sleep, knowing that her friend was alright.
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Over the course of the next few days, Debbie was bombarded with heaps and heaps of work that she'd missed. She'd left towards the beginning of November, so she'd missed six months of classes. She'd done a fair bit of studying while in the hospital, but she'd only been able to go over the theoretical stuff. After a few rounds of flashcards with Molly, everyone agreed that Debbie was pretty solid in her understanding of the theory of healing potions, the theory of cross-species transfiguration, the history of the goblin rebellions, giant wars, and centaur uprisings. Debbie knew all about werewolves and manticores and erklings, had a solid foundation of knowledge of each of the planets the class had spent the year studying in astronomy, as well as a firm understanding of the theory of summoning and banishing charms, blasting charms, and locomotion charms. The problem wasn't the theory, the problem was the practical.
Debbie hadn't brewed a single potion all year. She hadn't had any practical experience in performing cross-species transfigurations. She hadn't worked with any plants since last year and had completely missed the fourth year herbology project where each student was given a seed and spent a series of months growing the seed into a plant. Debbie also hadn't learned any of the charms or defensive spells that she needed to learn. What she needed was a crash-course in all the practical aspects of fourth year. And Molly was going to give it to her.
"I've booked time in the after-hours potions lab," Molly declared on Saturday morning to her friends. "We're going to brew every potion Debbie's missed this year."
"Seriously?" Julie frowned. "Is that really the best use of our time?"
"What if the end-of-year exam is practical?" Molly pointed out. "We've all had practice brewing these, but Debbie hasn't."
"But if she knows the theory, that should be enough," Julie insisted. "There's no point wasting a whole day brewing, how many potions did we learn this year?"
"Five that she needs to practice," Molly surmised. "One for each of the categories of potions we learned about."
"Do you realize how much we could study in the time it would take to brew five potions?" Julie demanded.
"But Debbie's been studying," Molly retorted. "What she needs is the practice."
"Maybe we should let Debbie decide," Julie declared, turning to the other Ravenclaw. "Debbie?"
Debbie shrunk back a bit, not liking the sudden attention of all three of her friends on her. "Well…" she said hesitantly. "I don't want to take away from your study time Julie," she nodded in Julie's direction. "But I think I'd like to try brewing some of these potions. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
Molly smirked at Julie.
"Well of course I'm going to come," Julie insisted, rolling her eyes.
So as soon as the four girls finished their breakfast, Molly led the way down to the after-hours potions lab, where she and her friends could guide Debbie through the brewing of all the potions she'd missed out on that year. They started with the wound-cleaning potion, which went well enough. Debbie got a little confused when it was time to add the knotgrass, and Molly reminded her of the properties to help her to understand what she was doing.
"See, this is why it's important to practice," Molly said, looking at Julie. "Practice is what makes the theory make sense."
Julie ignored Molly as they set the wound-cleaning potion to simmer and got started on a cough potion. Molly tried to let Debbie do as much of the work as possible, deciding that her role should be more supervisory, to make sure Debbie knew and more importantly understood what she was doing. Julie and Sarah watched on for a while too, but eventually grew bored.
"I could be working on my history of magic essay," Julie insisted. "Can't we take a break and go do that?"
"I've already written mine," Molly informed Julie. She'd done it the other night while Julie had been at quidditch practice. "And Debbie's been exempt from homework assignments so that she can catch up in her own way."
"But Sarah and I still have to write them some time," Julie pointed out. "And it's not like Debbie really needs us all here. We're not even doing anything."
"You really just want to ditch her to write your essay?" Molly demanded, shocked that Julie was behaving like this. "She's your best friend!"
"Which is why she'll understand," Julie insisted. "You should see where I'm coming from better than anybody Molly. Haven't you always been the first to espouse the belief that grades should come first?"
"Maybe I've learned a little something since I said that," Molly said. "Maybe grades don't mean anything without friends. Are you really willing to sacrifice Debbie for a better grade?"
"I'm not sacrificing anything," Julie insisted. "Debbie still gets her potions done and I get my essay done."
Molly sighed. "If you don't see what's wrong with that sentence, then I can't help you," she said, shaking her head.
Julie huffed and turned to Debbie. "You've been awfully quiet," she accused. "Do you care if I take off and go write my history paper while you work on these potions?"
Debbie looked from Molly to Julie nervously. "N-no," she practically squeaked. "No, it's fine. You already know how to brew these potions. I'm the one who needs the practice. You can all go if you want."
Julie smirked at Molly in satisfaction, but Molly stood her ground.
"Well I'm not going anywhere," she insisted. "Debbie, you've missed enough school. I'm not going to leave you alone to fend for yourself down here. I'm going to make sure you pass your exams."
"Whether or not she passes her exams is in Debbie's control, no one else's," Julie said as she headed for the door. "But I can control whether I pass mine."
She left, and as the door shut behind her, a chill fell over the room.
"I'm sorry you guys," Debbie said miserably. "I don't want to drag you all down. I know I have to learn all this stuff, but you should all focus on your own studies, like Julie said."
"No way," Molly shook her head. She'd already made the decision to help Debbie and she wasn't about to back down. "I'm staying. Besides, my essay is finished."
"Sarah?" Debbie asked, looking to the other Gryffindor.
Sarah looked torn. "It's not that I don't want to help you," she said to Debbie. "I just have a lot on my plate. And I actually have a quidditch practice in about twenty minutes that I need to get to."
Debbie nodded. "Go on," she encouraged Sarah. "Do what you need to do."
Thanking Debbie, Sarah gathered her things and left, leaving Molly and Debbie alone.
"I can't believe you just let them go like that," Molly shook her head as Debbie went about brewing a cough potion.
"If they don't want to be here, I won't force them," Debbie sighed. "I'm not their responsibility."
"They're your friends," Molly insisted.
"Our friendship was always based on convenience," Debbie reminded Molly. "We became friends because we were all serious about school and we could help each other to be better. But I can't do that right now. I'm not elevating anyone; I'm dragging people down."
"It's not your fault you got spattergroit," Molly insisted. "It's not fair that you should continue to suffer because of it even now that you're healed."
"It's not fair, but it is reality," Debbie said. "I've had months to come to terms with my situation. And the truth is, it's more than likely I'm not going to pass my exams and I'm going to have to retake fourth year next year."
"What?" Molly cried in horror and shock. "No, you can't!"
"It's why I've been exempt from homework assignments," Debbie stated. "None of the professors really think I'm going to make it through exams. And while I'm not going to sit back and give up quiet yet, I don't expect much."
"But you studied every day you were in the hospital," Molly pointed out. "That has to count for something."
"It might," Debbie agreed. "But it's not as good as going to the lectures and doing the assignments and the research and the essays and the projects. Like the herbology project I missed on growing plants from seeds? I'll never get another chance at that this year. There's not enough time to replicate the project. And that's fine. I'll learn as much as I can now so that I can be at the top of the class next year. But you shouldn't waste your time down here with me. You should make sure you're ready for your exams. Because you actually stand a chance of passing them."
"No way," Molly shook her head obstinately. "You stand as much a chance of passing them as I do. You blew through my flashcards like nobody's business. And they weren't easy questions."
"But I'll never be able to learn all those spells and charms in time," Debbie insisted. "Practicing brewing these potions is one thing, but learning spells takes time."
"I am going to help you through your exams," Molly declared determinedly. "Don't give up yet."
"I won't give up," Debbie agreed. "Just don't be surprised if things don't turn out the way you want them to."
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Over the next few weeks, Molly expended all her effort into helping Debbie to prepare for her exams. Though Debbie was sure it was a waste of time, Molly knew that helping a friend was never a waste of time. Besides, she had too much free time on her hands anyway. She could learn wandless magic next year. Plus, helping Debbie was like her own form of revision. It was a win-win situation.
Julie and Sarah remained disappointing. Molly couldn't believe that after everything, they'd be so selfish as to turn their backs on Debbie like this. Debbie didn't seem to think anything was wrong. She would happily sit and eat and laugh with them in the Great Hall and sit by them in classes and study with them in the library. She and Julie seemed to get along swimmingly whenever they were together in Ravenclaw Tower. But all the while Molly couldn't help but judge her friends. They'd pretended to be better than her, pretended that she was the bad friend. But they were the bad friends. They couldn't sacrifice even a second of their own revising time to quiz Debbie or give her tips on how to cast protection spells.
With the assistance of her cousin Louis, who was in the astronomy club, Molly managed to get exclusive access to the astronomy tower one Saturday night so that Debbie could study the skies and practice locating the various planets they'd spent the year studying. Upon requesting the use of the defence against the dark arts classroom in the evenings from Professor Derlid, Molly spent night after night offering herself up as a target and duelling partner so that Debbie could learn to cast all manner of counter-curses and jinxes.
The one thing that Debbie continued to lament was that she hadn't returned to school soon enough to rejoin the Ravenclaw quidditch team. Molly couldn't understand her obsession with quidditch in the face of so much learning that needed to be accomplished before exams started, but supposed it was a symptom of Debbie's sureness that she was going to fail the year. Every time Julie went off to a quidditch practice, Debbie would get sad. She'd arrived back at school mere weeks before Ravenclaw's final match, and after lying in a bed for six months, the Ravenclaw quidditch captain, Stewart Gray, had decided that it would be best to stick with Debbie's replacement for the final match.
Debbie did insist on attending that final match, and though Molly insisted that she should skip it and focus on her blasting charm, which she was still having trouble with, Debbie went anyway. Molly spent the time working on some of her own homework, which she'd been neglecting since Debbie had returned to Hogwarts. Unfortunately for Ravenclaw, Slytherin won the match, which put Julie, Sarah, and Debbie all in a poor mood.
By the end of the month, Molly felt confident that she'd taught Debbie everything she needed to know. She'd successfully brewed all the potions she'd missed in class, had mastered all the spells they'd learned while she'd been sick, and continued to fly through Molly's flashcards with ease.
"You might not get straight O's," Molly informed Debbie. "But I'm pretty sure you'll pass everything."
"I hope so," Debbie admitted. "Now that I've put in all this work, I kind of want to pass. Re-taking fourth year would be awfully dull."
"That's the spirit," Molly said in relief. It had taken all month, but Debbie was finally hopeful.
It was exactly what she was going to need if she was going to pass. She had the knowledge and skill, what she'd been lacking was the confidence. And now that she had it, Molly was sure nothing could go wrong. Her work here was done.