Closed Sunday Studying

[Calliope Cartwright]

The library was surprisingly busy for the time of day. Callie supposed she should have guessed people would bring their lunch here. It was the perfect place to eat - warm, and peaceful, if a little less peaceful for every person who had the same idea. Luckily, she'd managed to secure herself a table in the corner before anybody else arrived, and the piles of books all over it acted as a convenient deterrent for anybody looking for somewhere to sit. She chewed her lip as she wrote out another equation, striking through numbers that didn't look right. Most of them didn't look right. Ugh - this would all have been so much easier with a calculator.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Just because Eoghan was at Hogwarts and doing what he could to secure a future for himself and his sister, didn't mean that it would be easy if he didn't have some other subjects under his belt too. What was he supposed to do when he graduated? Apply for a job in his local area by convincing the business owners he was capable of waving a stick around in front of them. He didn't need to be any more of a laughing stock for those he lived near and that would just be the cherry on top.

Unfortunately, Hogwarts didn't seem to care about its muggleborn students, nor those who didn't intend to drown themselves in magic after school, as much as it did point them toward a magical career. That would have been wonderful but not everyone had the luxury of moving away from their muggle environments. As such Eoghan had taken it upon himself to fill in the blanks. Perhaps he was better suited to not reading the third and fourth year textbooks for Charms, but he could at least fill in his knowledge with Maths and Science.

Wandering the library, arms laden with books, he was looking for a spare spot to sit in. Everyone and their mother seemed to have gathered for a Sunday reading session. It was only when he spotted the graph paper lying on a corner table beside a younger student that he paused in his search, curious to see if his eyes had deceived him. He tried to look over her work without appearing too obvious, doing his best to make out the letters, no, numbers she was writing. It wouldn't have been arithmancy unless she was a very small third year. "Is that Math?" he asked, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.​

 

[Calliope Cartwright]

Callie struck a line through the entire page and looked up. "Yeah," she said, heat rushing to her face. He wasn't going to make fun of her, was he? He wouldn't be the first. "It's algebra. Did you need one of these books? Sorry - you can take them."

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

"No it's fine, I've got my own," Eoghan announced, turning one of the books in his own pile to show her. Statistics. "Are you teaching yourself?" He didn't like to wonder whether there was a whole entire club or class he'd forgotten about that could have fixed his very problem.​

 

[Calliope Cartwright]

"Oh!" Callie's face lit up at the sight of the statistics books. "Do they teach maths in your year?" Discovering first years weren't allowed to take muggle subjects had been devastating. Yes, she was a witch, and that was amazing, but what if she still wanted to be an oncologist when she grew up? No university would accept her without maths and biology, at the very least. She shrugged. "I'm trying. These methods must be about a hundred years old. I knew I should have brought my own books."

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan shook his head disappointedly, taking the moment between their words to slip into the chair opposite the student and hoped she wouldn't mind. "No, but next year I'll tell you what we do learn in Muggle Studies if you'd like," he offered. He'd already read through the first year textbook and it seemed to contain more information about the items you've have around the house, but surely they couldn't be expected to leave without doing any math at all? "You're a first year then?" Eoghan continued, glancing at the books the girl had in front of her. "Don't discredit the traditional resources, there's a reason they're still around," he added, lifting up one of the titles with a free hand. "Besides, if we can learn to figure it out without technology, we'll be ahead of the competition in the muggle world who has to rely on it."​

 

[Calliope Cartwright]

Callie moved her books to make room for the boy to put his own down, if he wanted to stay. "Thanks," she said, "but I already asked one of the professors. It's actually the study of muggles and their habits, not muggle subjects. But you can tell me anyway. I bet they've got all sorts of things wrong about us. I'm muggle-born, so it'll be easy for me, of course." Unlike maths, which was harder now than ever. The boy was probably right about the old resources, though Callie didn't believe in making things unnecessarily hard for herself. "Why are you studying maths? Do you want to go to university?"

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan's cheeks flushed crimson when the girl said she'd already asked. He felt like a fool, for all his reading he'd never considered just asking the professor, although at least this girl didn't seem to mind the extra help either. "You'll be an expert then," the Ravenclaw said, purely as something that didn't involve him telling her his blood status. Eoghan considered her question for a moment, but in truth he didn't really know. "I would like the option to," by the time they graduated Eoghan would have only just turned eighteen, which would mean he was still too young to attend University. That didn't mean though that he didn't want to make sure when he left he could still choose what he wanted to do. He knew he needed a job that paid well, so that left him with a few career options, all of which would require some sort of official training whatever that looked like. He considered voicing his thoughts and perhaps he would have if this student wasn't a younger girl he only just met. "What do you want to be when you're older?" Eoghan asked.​

 

[Calliope Cartwright]

Callie grinned. She was definitely taking muggle studies, if only to point out any mistakes in the syllabus and get an easy outstanding grade. The boy must have really enjoyed maths if he was willing to study it in his spare time without really knowing what he was going to do with it. Maybe he would be a good person to ask for help. "An oncologist," she said. She didn't bother to explain what that was. Either he already knew, because he was clever, or he didn't know, which would make Callie feel clever. "I want to help children - muggle children, who don't have access to magical healthcare. What about you? I'm Callie, by the way."

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan wasn't entirely sure he'd ever heard the word oncologist before. He felt as though he was fluent enough in English for the most part but there were still specific words that stumped him every now and then. -Ist would likely mean it was some kind of doctor or scientist though, so there was still a level of understanding that this girl would need to have a certain level of education. "Does that mean you don't need to learn magic at all?" He'd vaguely heard another student in his year looking to do something similar, but he didn't know either of them well enough to introduce. "I.. I'm not sure," Eoghan replied, slightly lost. He'd only ever considered working from the prospect of financial gain as opposed to something he wanted to do. "But, if there is a way that I can use magic around muggles I suppose that would be the best thing."​