Eternal Patience

New Friends

Barnaby's gut felt like lead as he watched Rowan go through all his graded homework. He'd gotten used to the teacher's disappointed scrutinization of his work, but Rowan was different. She'd devoted so much time and effort to helping him, and he let her down. 

October was nearly upon them. They'd been back at school for a month. Barnaby had studied more in this time than he had all his previous terms put together, but it made no difference. Rowan's eyebrows knitted closer and closer as she flicked through his papers. 

Poor...Dreadful...D...D...P...P...D...

She set the stack down on the table, taking a moment to gather her gather her thoughts and muster her courage before speaking. "Well, there's good news and bad news..."

Barnaby laid his head on the table. 

"The good news is that your grades on homework and tests during the term have no effect on your exam scores," Rowan continued. "These grades don't mean you can't perform well on your exam. The bad news is--"

"That I'm just as thick now as I was before," he said, his voice muffled due to his face being pressed against the table. 

"Don't let yourself get down," she said. "Remember, change your attitude--"

"It doesn't matter, Rowan! Can't you see we're wasting our time?"

"Shhh!" Madam Pince materialized from around a corner, her finger pressed to her lips. 

Barnaby knew he was being cross, but he couldn't help it at the moment. All month, he'd worked as hard as he possibly could to improve his marks. He'd hardly gone outside, he'd barely seen any of his friends, he hadn't touched a magical creature outside of class since the year began...he'd given everything he had to his studies, and if anything, he was worse off than he was before. 

He felt his eyes stinging, his jaw hardening. He wanted to hit something. He remembered feeling this way in his first year. He'd been so excited to escape from Lee Manor, to learn how to become a strong, powerful wizard, only to discover that his family had been right. He was dolt, an incompetent troll. Everyone made fun of him, so he'd turned to the one thing he was good at: fighting. Which had led him to working with Merula...

He didn't want to become that person again. He was just starting to like the person he was now. 

"Look," he whispered to Rowan. "Maybe we should just cut our losses. If this is going to be my last year at Hogwarts, I might as well enjoy it. You can go back to studying for your own exams, and I'll just...do whatever makes me happy. While I still can."

Rowan looked at him sadly. Before she could speak, she was interrupted by Tulip joining their table across from them. Barnaby quickly grabbed his homework and shoved it out of sight into his bag. 

"Hey, you guys here to meet with Sarah, too?" she asked, tossing her bag aside and rolling up her sleeves. 

"No," said Rowan. "I'm tutoring Barnaby. Why? Did she ask people to meet here?"

Tulip nodded. "She's hoping to find information on Beatrice's curse."

Barnaby felt some of the dark cloud surrounding him dissipate. He'd hardly seen Sarah since Beatrice had been trapped in that portrait. He supposed she'd been working hard to free her, but he was a little down that she hadn't asked him for help yet. He'd helped a lot with the last two vaults. 

Apparently, Rowan felt the same. "Why didn't she invite me?" she asked, her brow knitted. "I'm the best person to help her out in the library."

Tulip shrugged. "She probably didn't want to interrupt your studies."