Chapter 10 – Homework
The weekend went too fast for Harrys liking, it was fun, and he didn't want it to end. On the Saturday because it was raining the three spent time indoors, after Madame Pomfrey had given Harry the all clear with his shoulder and left, they made a fort out of blankets, chairs and the table.
The two marauders let Harry decide the design and were not budging until Harry told them what to do. It took a little while for Harry to get the idea, however at the end of the day he didn't want to get out and insisted n sleeping in it. 'Indoor Camping' as Harry called it. On the Sunday it was drier, and they played in the garden, both Harry and Sirius in dog/wolf form chasing after the ball of Frisbee Remus was throwing. By 8 o'clock that night Harry was tucked up in bed and ready for another week in school.
Harry wasn't looking forward to this, especially after Friday morning, but he didn't want to worry Moony or Padfoot with his 'freaky thoughts' as his uncle would tell him day in day out back at the Dursleys. Harry didn't sleep well that night and was groggy the next morning. He was slow putting on his uniform and they were a little later than usual to get to school. The bell went just as they came up to the school gates.
Harry ran inside, feeling nervous but was a bit happier when he saw Michael. The lessons weren't as hard today, he was trying to concentrate hard.
At play time and lunch Michael didn't leave his side again and before Harry knew it the day was over. He was starting to feel a little at home now.
The next couple of days went by as quick as the first and with no incident like Friday happened He enjoyed PE for the first time ever, with his new ability he was faster than everyone else in his class and seemed to know where the ball was going to go (they were playing 'king ball' which was like dodgeball except only one person was allowed to throw the ball from the bench at the back of the hall each side) Harry became rather popular with his team after that, even though he was pretty much mute, they appreciated his skill.
On Wednesday evening, Harry came home a little quieter than usual and went straight upstairs and didn't come back down. Sirius and Remus thought something must have happened at school, but they were surprised when they saw the young lad crouched over a piece of paper on his desk in his room.
"Hey, Harry. What are you working on there" asked Remus
"Homework" replied Harry
"Do you need any help?"
"No thank you, I can keep trying, I won't be long"
"Alright harry, we will leave you to it, come downstairs if you need any help, we will come check on you in 30 minutes" Harry nodded in reply and crouched back I've the piece of paper, concentrating hard.
Harry tried and tried and tried, getting angry at himself because everything was confusing so many numbers and sums. He wrote and scribbled out many times and couldn't even get the first question done. Remus came back up to check on him because he was the teacher out of the two marauders.
"How are you doing Harry?"
"Good" Harry lied obviously angry with himself.
"Okay, will you let me look?" Harry knowing, he would have to obey took his arm on the piece of paper. Harry emotional almost cried at disappointment in himself. Remus looked and saw that harry had been trying hard and had got himself wound up thought for a moment. "Harry I can see you have been trying very hard, why don't we go downstairs, have dinner and then we can work this out together okay?"
Harry nodded and took Remus' hand they went downstairs where Sirius was serving spaghetti. Remus nodded at the other man to y not to mention anything about homework over dinner. Harry didn't speak through dinner, obviously anxious about what they would say when he couldn't do any sums.
After food, Remus and Harry went back upstairs and sat down, Remus had brought his wand up with him to assist with his demonstration. Remus cleaned the paper from smudges and pencil marks and sat down beside Harry.
"Clean paper look" as je magicked the pencil off
"Lets do this together" Harry nodded, and they covered the rest of the sums with paper so that they focused on one at a time. "Now Harry do you know what 7 away from 9 is?"
"Two?"
"Correct! Now how about 4 away from 15?"
"That's eleven"
"Correct again! How do you work those out on paper?"
"You write a stand-up sum like this" Harry showed Remus how he put the big number on top (on the line above) of the smaller one, put the subtraction sign on the left of the smaller number and drew two lines with space for the answer underneath"
"Very good Harry! That is exactly right!" Harry smiled at the praise "How would you show how to do it?" Harry picked up his pencil again and took 4 away from 5 and wrote it underneath and then he brought the one down to have his answer. "Well done Harry, now these sums aren't very different, all you have to do is when the bottom number cannot be taken away from the top is to cross out the next number in the tens column and take one away from it. Then write that one next to the remaining number in the unit's column, like this"
Remus took out his wand again and drew a sum in the air, 54 take away 6. He explained that 6 cannot be taken away from 4 and that he would take one 10 from the 50 to make 40 and add that to the 4 to make 14 and so 14 take away 6 was 8 and then they carried down the 4 to make 48.
Harry nodded and attempted his own problem, and with a little bit of encouragement from Moony he was able to do it. Remus couldn't contain his excitement and nearly yelled "Well done Harry!" Harry was beaming from ear to ear, he slowly but surely was able to do the rest of his homework correctly with the help from Remus. After they finished Harry gave Remus a huge hug.
"Thank you Moony"
"You are more than welcome Harry, remember if you need any help with homework ask me and we can work through this together"
At that they both went downstairs to play a game with Sirius before bed, Harry was so exhausted that he fell asleep on the table. Once Harry was settled the two marauders had an early night too both thinking that they had made sound progress today.