Plosion tme (tag Professor X) on Teppenpaw Commons

Raine Collindale

December 30, 2017 12:19 PM

Plosion tme (tag Professor X) by Raine Collindale

The exams started on Monday. Monday as in the day after tomorrow. Until now, Raine had been able to keep that at an almost comfortable psychological distance with phrases like ‘next month’ and then ‘next week,’ but it had been like the flood waters encroaching on an ever shrinking scrap of land, and now she found that, whichever way she turned, it was lapping at her shoes and all really uncomfortably close.

She had tried a few different ways of coping. She had tried trying, trying as hard as she could with her work, but she still seemed to barely scrape acceptable marks. There were occasions where she’d just panicked on being given a pop quiz and her brain had totally frozen up and she’d ended up scoring Ts. She’d tried not caring, but she was almost as bad at that as she was at actually studying. She had tried to at least alleviate her misery by throwing herself at Joe and hoping to at least forget everything from time to time, but he hadn’t seemed to get the message.

This morning, she had woken well before dawn and been unable to get back to sleep. She had tossed and turned, thinking of the exams, until an idea struck her. She had fallen on the age old resort of those who had reached the end of their tethers, although in her case it was entirely rational and appropriate; she had tried to run away to (re)join the circus. Her plan, such as it was, had been to get as far as Tumbleweed, the nearby town, Floo to somewhere out of range of Sonora’s teachers, and then owl her parents to find out where in the country they were. However, after a couple of hours of wandering the gardens, with all the navigational skills and spells that life on the road had taught her, she had been forced to conclude that there was some kind of charm to stop them reaching the edge of the labyrinth.

Weary and frustrated, she returned to school. It had been just the end of curfew when she’d set out, figuring an early start would help her slip away undetected. Now the day was beginning in earnest. She could hear the noises of breakfast underway in the hall but couldn’t face people even though she was hungry from her walk. She trudged up the stairs, considering squirreling herself away in her room. The thought of her duvet was compelling but the stack of books she knew were beside the bed made her feel sick. She had really thought this morning, as she stepped out of the school, that she was leaving them behind. Her eyes filled with tears. She hesitated outside Teppenpaw. She had never felt less like dancing in her life. Her eyes drifted to the door along the corridor. They always said that, if you had trouble, you should speak to your head of house. She had never really taken this advice. Professor Xavier represented part of the system that was making her so miserable, and she could not imagine him having any power, or even desire, to change it and help make it better suited to her. But he was nice. She thought that she trusted him to be nice, or at least he was a more friendly prospect than her books right now.

She hesitantly knocked on his door, venturing inside only when called. She hadn’t even made it to the seat before the words and tears started tumbling out.

“I’m too stupid. I don’t want to be here. I can’t do any of it. And I tried - I really, really did try,” she insisted, looking earnestly at the Professor, pleading with him to believe that.

13 Raine Collindale Plosion tme (tag Professor X) 327 Raine Collindale 1 5

Nathan Xavier

December 31, 2017 5:55 PM

Oh dear. Don't plode. Ploding is messy. by Nathan Xavier

"Come in!" Nathan called when someone knocked on his office door leading to the outside hall rather than the Common Room. Coming from that direction, he'd expected someone panicking about their Herbology CATS or RATS exam (most likely the CATS, as that was the set of exams starting in just two days). At this early hour of the day on a Saturday, he figured it was probably an Aladren, and he was prepared to assure them that they had nothing to worry about. Crotali were supposed to be planners, so there was a chance it might be one of them, too, as they set up their next week's agenda. He wouldn't expect to see Pecaris before tomorrow night, though. Certainly not before lunch.

The door opened, and the entering student was neither an Aladren nor Crotalus. She wasn't a Pecari, either, though, so he'd been right on that account. He just hadn't expected one of his own House to come through that hallway door.

"Raine, take a seat," he said welcomingly. Given that it was Raine, he figured there was a good chance he'd been right about it being CATS panic. In her case, it might even be justified.

He was right. That didn't make it any easier to handle, but he'd been right on guessing the purpose of the visit.

"I know you tried," Nathan assured, scooting his chair closer and putting a hand on her shoulder in a way he hoped she found comforting rather than intrusive. He did believe her. He'd seen her trying, and he'd tried to help, too, but it hadn't worked. She was still barely passing his class, and he'd been a generous grader (as he was to everybody, not just Raine; she just needed it more). "And you're not stupid," he promised, "you just didn't have a strong academic background coming in." Which was true, though the school had tried to help her get up to speed with the academic support classes. It just hadn't been enough, and she didn't really have the drive to make up for it. And there certainly wasn't anything Nathan could do about that in the next two days.

"I think you can probably squeeze an Acceptable out of Herbology," he tried, hoping that vote of confidence didn't come back to bite them if she didn't. "You probably covered this in your Academic Support meetings, but just answer every question. Leaving it blank is as bad as getting it wrong, so even if it's just a wild guess, take the chance. On essays, work for partial credit. Just spill everything you know that's even distantly related to the topic onto the page and hope something in there is what they're looking for. And if you don't know anything, make something up, and pray for the best. That might get you enough to pull some As."

1 Nathan Xavier Oh dear. Don't plode. Ploding is messy. 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Raine

January 04, 2018 9:08 AM

Good advice. by Raine

I know you tried.

Raine swallowed her next sob. A lot more remarks followed this first pronouncement, and they jumbled through her head in quick succession, some sticking more than others. You’re not stupid, got a little bit lost, following so close as it did on the heels of the first statement, and being followed up by the idea that she was ‘not very academic,’ which she had heard before, and found hard not to automatically equate to stupid, just said by someone who was trying not to hurt her feelings (and not really succeeding, because it was so damned important to everyone in this system that she was academic, and it was the only way the school system was willing to deem her as having any worth as a person).

The rest of the advice was somewhat familiar, although it definitely didn’t hurt to have it repeated, for all that it was flying around, flung around in the snow shaker storm that was currently Raine’s thought process - perhaps when everything came to settle, it would find a home. Two things did stick with her, and beam out through the rest of the chaos. He knew she had tried. And he was talking about her getting an A like it might actually happen. He was being practical, and honest. He wasn't pretending that she was just going to get them or blandly shushing her, saying it would all be alright. But he was saying it, explaining it like an actual process, that really ended with her getting...

“An… an A?” she repeated, as if he had just named some rare and elusive creature - one that the books debated the very existence of. And, lip trembling, she stared at him, her green eyes still shining with tears, but her expression one of rapt amazement, as if he had just promised that said creature might just be waiting for her on the other side of the door, as she asked, “Do you really believe in me that much?”

13 Raine Good advice. 327 Raine 0 5

Nathan Xavier

January 04, 2018 10:27 PM

See, you are smart. by Nathan Xavier

"Yes," Nathan said with confidence, "I believe in you that much." He maybe wasn't 100 percent certain that she'd actually earn an A, but he could affirm his faith in her at least. He did think it was possible, at least. "What your academic support group probably didn't recommend, but which in your case may help, is just pick the two subjects you think you have the best shot in, and forget everything else, and just focus on those. I think you can make it in Herbology, so you just need to pick one more. If you'd like, I can help you today and tomorrow, going over the most important concepts of those two classes." He kept his tone calm and encouraging, hoping to settle her, because she was clearly still not in top form for thinking yet, and she needed to get past the panic and distress and start thinking.

"Most subjects just have one or two main themes, and everything else builds off of those, so if you can get a grasp on those themes, you can probably at least bluff and guess your way through the rest. You won't get Es or Os that way, but you can pass. I will recommend against DADA, though, partly because it's not as concise a subject and jumps between creatures and spellwork, and partly because I haven't taken a DADA class since I was your age, and I don't remember enough to coach you on it. But Professor Nash might be around," his voice, however, suggested that he kind of doubted it, since the substitute professor with a home off campus had little reason to hang around the school on a weekend, "if that is one of your relative strengths. And if not, Isis - er, Professor Carter - could probably help you." He felt just a flash of embarrassment at using Isis' first name in front of a student, but doubted Raine would read anything into it. Nathan called all of the staff by their first names, most of the time, with the sole exception of Headmaster Brockert, because the headmaster scared him just a little bit.

"Do you have a preference?" he asked, "Any class you like better than the others?" As her Head of House, he did get to see her grades before signing off on report cards, but the numbers were less important than the interest. She did have two more years to get through, so she ought to like the ones she chose to focus on. "Whichever two you pick, you're probably going to be stuck with them for your RATS classes, so pick your favorites. It doesn't have to be Herbology either, if you like two other classes better, I won't be offended, I promise." He was eighty percent sure he could keep that promise. He did try to make his classes interesting and enjoyable for everyone, but he was aware some people just found plants boring. They were wrong, of course, but there was no accounting for taste sometimes.

1 Nathan Xavier See, you are smart. 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Raine

January 05, 2018 7:46 AM

You're the one who came up with it by Raine

He meant it. He really, really meant it. Raine wasn’t sure a teacher had ever believed in her that much. She hadn’t even really realised Professor Xavier did. She assumed most of the staff saw her as some kind of problem. She didn’t get things right. She didn’t get good grades. Surely that made her hard work, and a headache.

And then… then he started telling her about focussing on one or two, and using a main theme, and bluffing. It almost sounded like cheating. It was what she’d been looking for, what she hadn’t been given by anyone else… It was a short cut. Learn this. Learn these few things, and repeat, and it will be ok. It seemed too good to be true. He mentioned that she’d never get Es or Os that way, but she was never going to get those anyway.

“I just… I just don’t want to get Ts,” she whispered. She’d had a couple, on practise exams where she’d just panicked, and they made her feel so awful about herself. She’d seen trolls - they couldn’t even use a quill for anything except scratching themselves, and the comparison was completely humiliating.

“I like Herbology,” she promised, when he said he wouldn’t be offended if she didn’t say it. She did feel a little like she owed him that response, and would have had a great deal of trouble admitting it if she didn’t, but luckily for her it also happened to be true.The rest… Not Transfiguration. She felt bad even thinking it, when Professor Skies spent so much time helping her but it was just so complicated. She was better at Potions theory and Defence than Charms, because a lot of the time they asked you about what you needed to do, rather than why things happened. Potions was harder because there were often lots of steps to remember, although Raine was halfway decent at things that she could rote learn. Defence and Potions also both had practical applications in her everyday life - several of the things they’d covered in Defence had been drilled into her since she was a small child, given how being on the road so much made them more vulnerable to many things. But Professor Xavier didn’t want to help her with that. She liked Professor Carter too, but she wasn’t sure about rejecting the Professor’s help. Charms asked harder questions, but she liked the spells more… “I’m not sure,” she concluded, “About the second subject, I mean. But maybe we can start with some Herbology and I can think about it a bit more?”

13 Raine You're the one who came up with it 327 Raine 0 5