A Not-So-Fun Tutoring Session

[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah hurriedly made his way over to the Library after lunch as he was running a little late for his first tutor session with a Gryffindor girl named Anora, or Aurora or whatever her name was since he couldn't remember exactly. He pretty much loved History of Magic so was happy to help anyone who had trouble with the subject. However, when the fourth year finally arrived at the Library, he noticed that there was no second year student waiting for him at all. Asaiah simply shrugged his shoulders and figured that she was running late as well, so seated himself in a chair of one of the large tables and waited for the girl show up.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory wasn't looking forward to this stupid tutoring session at all. She had no idea how her parents had gotten wind of it, but they'd practically forced her to sign up for tutoring in her worst classes. Transfiguration might be alright, she figured, as she wouldn't actually mind being better at those spells, but History of Magic? Why would you ever need to know about boring things that happened too long ago to even remember exactly when they happened? The subject was just one of the school's many torture devices, she was sure of it. She had even contemplated not showing up to the session, but Rory knew her parents would find out about that too, and then she'd definitely be missing out on some sort of reward. She didn't know what exactly, but its promise in return for a passing grade had been part of the forcing that had brought her here.

Rory didn't even know what this tutor was supposed to look like, just that it was some older boy. Boys normally didn't care about school, though - maybe that would work in her favour and he wouldn't make her read over a ton of boring stuff. Not that he could make her do it anyway, Rory thought stubbornly. She'd like to see him try. Entering the library, late in an attempt to make the tutoring session shorter, Rory gave the people she could see a quick look-over. Nothing screamed 'tutor here to make your life hell' at her so, shrugging, she decided to just find him by process of elimination - that would take even more time out of the session she thought, grinning to herself. Rory turned to her left, heading towards the first older boy she saw. "Are you the stupid History of Magic tutor?" she asked, impatient for him to answer so she could go and bother the next one.

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

Lucky that he hadn't thrown away his copy of the second year History of Magic textbook, Asaiah started to read one of the chapters to remind himself what they would be going over during today's tutoring session while patiently waited for the girl he was supposed to tutor to turn up, hopefully soon. Asaiah did not mind that the girl was late, as he himself was late as well, but this was ridiculous; she was ten minutes late. Asaiah looked up every now and then to see if she had finally arrived but was still looking for him, since he figured that she probably didn't even know what he looked like. He looked up from his book and frowned when the girl asked if he was her tutor. His facial expression changed and he now grinned at the younger student. ''Are you the stupid Gryffindor girl that needs tutoring?'' the fourth year asked in return, and moved his stuff from the seat next to him so she could sit down.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory was severely put out to realise that the first person she had asked had in fact turned out to be her actual tutor. Seriously, what were the odds of that? She had counted on being able to waste at least another ten minutes 'looking' for him. This was terrible. She was also taken aback by the way he had turned her own words back on her, which she definitely hadn't been expecting. Eyeing the boy suspiciously, Rory sat down in the seat he had just cleared. If he had meant that she needed tutoring because she was stupid, she was definitely going to make him regret it. "I don't need tutoring, I was forced into it. History of Magic is a stupid class, I bet you'd never even use it after school." Crossing her arms across her chest Rory leaned back on the chair, tipping it off its front legs. "You can babble about how cool you think it is all you want, but that's just a nerd's opinion. It doesn't actually count." Maybe provoking an older student wasn't the best idea, but he had called her stupid stupid. Rory figured that made him fair game.

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah chuckled at hearing the girl's comment. ''Seems like someone thought you did need tutoring.'' he said while getting a blank parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink out of his backpack. ''Actually I am planning on using History of Magic after school. I want to become a Curse-Breaker.'' Asaiah had a feeling that the tutor session wouldn't go as he had hoped it would, specially after hearing the Gryffindor's following comment. Fine, if she was going to be stubborn about it than so was he. ''I won't babble about how cool this,'' he put his hand on the textbook in front of him, ''subject is since we've got no time to waste, but what I will do is help you out because clearly people think that you do need tutoring. So why don't you start by telling me what you're covering in class.'' Of course Asaiah already knew what the second years were covering in the History of Magic lessons, but asked it so he could figure out how well she had been paying attention during lessons.

 

[Aurora Night]

Already internally grumbling at the first thing her tutor had said (stupid parents), Rory outright scowled at hearing curse-breaking was an actual thing you could do. Damn, but that actually sounded interesting. How could something as cool as that need such a boring subject? Normally she would have immediately pursued the topic of conversation, but she didn't want to let him think she was actually interested in anything to do with history, or impressed by him for what he wanted to be when he was older. Instead, she just made sure he could see her roll her eyes in response. Rory knew this whole thing would be a waste of her time, but she hadn't realised it would be proved to her quite so soon. The worst part was that he actually seemed to be serious about tutoring her. Ugh. Shrugging, she answered. "I don't know. Something about famous witches and wizards I think." She remembered a few names, but nothing about them - her plan was to write down the important stuff the day before the exam and just stare at it for an hour before she had to go in.

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

He sighed at seeing Aurora rolling her eyes but knew better than to react, as it wouldn't help neither him nor her with why they were here if he would. Instead Asaiah bend over to get his second year notes out of his backpack as well. Before he could actually start tutoring her, even though it was very clear that she did not want him to tutor her at all, Asaiah needed to know what she did and did not remember about those famous witched and wizards, so in order to acquire that knowledge he turned to Aurora again. ''Can you tell me what you remember about the famous witches and wizards you covered in class?'' he asked, ready to highlight important paragraphs for her so she would know what and what not to read when preparing for the History of Magic exam she would be taking soon.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory was already bored and ready to escape, and they'd hardly even begun the proper tutoring stuff. Sighing in response to her tutor's latest question, she tipped her chair forwards onto all four legs again with a loud thump. "I don't remember anything. Except some of the stuff about Morgana La Fey, 'cause Merlin stories." She really strained her brain, trying to think back to what they'd covered all those weeks ago. "Oh, and the Nicolas Flamel stuff. Alchemy, Philosopher's Stone. But that's literally it." Rory always found herself zoning out whenever Professor Styx the Nicer was talking. She didn't mean to, but it was just so boring. Like this tutoring was. Eager to cut the session short, she eyed the older boy. "Can't you just, like, tell me what's probably gonna be on the exam, and I can just remember that?"

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah listened as Aurora listed what she could still remember from the lessons, and sighed again at hearing how little attention she had paid in class. ''You also covered Madam Mim and Proteus, what Alchemy is and by who it was said to be formed.. Oh, and a bit about Arthur.'' the Slytherin told her while scanning the notes he made during those lessons. ''I say that today we start with Madam Mim, as that was the second lesson of the semester, and you have probably forgotten about it.'' Without waiting for Aurora to agree with his lesson plan, because he was certain that she wouldn't agree with it at all, Asaiah turned the pages of his textbook so they could start immediately, and gave her his blank parchement, quill and ink to write down what she needed to remember. However, before they could finally begin the session for real, the girl asked him another question. ''If you cannot even remember the stuff you covered in class, what makes you think that can remember what's on the exam?'' Asaiah asked.

 

[Aurora Night]

Annoyingly, Rory couldn't disagree about not remembering exactly who Madam Mim was, although she knew she had something to do with Merlin again. It would be easier to just read one of the books again. Skim it. Whatever. Looking down at the parchment he had given her, Rory wrinkled her nose in disgust. Just what was he expecting her to do with that? She didn't need to write anything down until the day before the exam, that way it would be fresh in her memory. Doing it now would just mean the paper would get lost somewhere in a bag, and she definitely wouldn't be thinking about anything that was on it in the time between now and the exam. The answer to her question just exasperated her even further. "Duh, cause you tell me what is most likely to be on there and I just look at that stuff later. Not the whole stupid everything we learned." What kind of dumb studying was this guy doing if he couldn't even figure that out?

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

How was this girl even allowed into the tutor programme, and why did they pair him up with this stupid twelve year old. Couldn't they have paired him up with someone who thought that History of Magic wasn't boring? ''Look,'' Asaiah said, growing impatient because she was getting on his nerves and he didn't want to waste his time on this runt any longer. ''You can either work with me here, or go away right now and fail the exam. Because I'm a hundred procent sure that you will never pass it without my or anyone's help, capiche?'' He spoke in such a stern voice that it made him think back on all the moments his father had told him and his sister off everytime they were about to misbehave. Asaiah didn't wait for Aurora to open her mouth to speak up, because he couldn't be bothered anymore, so instead started reading the first paragraph about Madam Mim. ''Madame Mim was a witch who was one of Merlin's most powerful foes. She had the ability to transform herself, and did just so during the greatest battle of all time against Merlin. Mim transfigured herself into a mighty dragon..'' After the Slytherin was done reading the paragraph he stopped and turned his head to Aurora, hoping she had come to her senses and was writing down what he was reading.

 

[Aurora Night]

Rory crossed her arms and scowled as the tutor got angry with her. "I'm a hundred percent sure I don't actually care about passing," she muttered under her breath. Still, the tone of voice that he had just used on her made her remember exactly what was at stake. The exam she couldn't have cared less about, but she'd get something for passing it - Christmas was coming up; maybe they'd finally let her have that black Labrador puppy. Huffing, Rory pulled the parchment he'd set down towards her, and scribbled 'mim merlin foe battle dragon' as the tutor spoke. When he paused in his reading, Rory looked up, and glared when she noticed him checking if she was working. "Yes, I'm doing it. Hurry up." The sooner this was over the better.

 

[Asaiah Murphy]

Asaiah, happy to see that Aurora was finally doing what he wanted, continued his reading when she told him to hurry up. ''When Merlin saw the large beast flying above him he quickly turned himself into a field mouse to hide in the tall grass. Madam Mim transformed into a cat, Merlin did as well. Mim turned into a dog, Merlin did too. Mim changed herself into a large oak tree, and to mock the witch, Merlin transformed into a blue bird and flew up to perch on one of the oak branches. This eventually caused Madam Mim to erupt into a rage, suddenly turning herself into a big snake, set to kill Merlin for good. This shapeshifting went on for quite a bit. The witch changed herself into an aullay; a large horse with the trunk of an elephant, and charged at the wizard. Merlin, however, suddenly disappeared. A few moments later the aullay turned red, began to hiccup, swelled visibly. Madam Mim staggered three times before falling to the ground, dead. Merlin appeared again once she did; he had changed himself into the microbes of so many diseases that the aullay got ill. Merlin somehow managed to use medical properties to defeat his greates foe.'' After the Slytherin was done reading the rest of the paragraph he had written down in his second year out loud, he checked how Aurora was doing and if she managed to write along with him.