Everything Changes // Fred Weasley

chapter 32: an excessive amount of meetings

April 8th, 1995

"Are you sure you can't come to the Burrow? Even for just a few days?" Fred asked as he packed his final things into this trunk.

The past few days had been a whirlwind of excitement and stress. I had attended meetings with each of the professors who assigned countless readings for me to do over the next two weeks. Even if I thought it was possible to sneak past my dad on the platform and go to the Burrow, I would have spent every waking hour in my room, pouring over textbook after textbook.

"You know I want to," I said as I flipped through A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration. I had been assigned to read the first ten chapters over the holiday so that I could fully understand the course and all that it entailed. As I flipped through the pages, I realized that ten chapters were over half of the thick textbook. I groaned as I slipped a single piece of parchment at the end of the assigned reading and jotted down 273 in the top corner. Two hundred and seventy-three pages. And this was just one of the many classes that I would have to catch up in over the next few months.

"You would think they would cut you some slack," Fred said, sitting down on his bed beside me. He picked up my Herbology textbook and noticed the parchment sitting inside. 75 was written in the top corner. Professor Sprout had assigned me three chapters of that textbook, but also required that I write 20 inches on why I believed that Herbology was a necessary subject. I had to pull resources from books other than my textbook to properly complete the essay, meaning I would have to spend my valuable time researching in the library about a subject that I personally found no purpose for.

"It's not your fault you are so behind." George offered from across the room.

"Exactly." I replied, "I didn't ask for the Ministry to lie to me my entire life. But I guess the professors don't really care because they all decided that I had to read the entire first year curriculum over the course of two weeks." I took in a deep breath. This would be fine. I'd worked ahead in school before, this was going to be the exact same. Except for the fact that it had to do with things I had never learned about before in my life.

But it was fine.

"Rubbish." Fred scoffed, handing me my Herbology textbook back.

"Precisely." I laughed, sliding the textbooks into my bag and throwing it over my shoulder. "I should go see if Nom needs any help packing. I'll meet you in the common room so I can walk you to the train?"

"Sounds good." Fred smiled and gave me a quick kiss before I headed out of his dorm.

I made my way back to my own dorm, passing by hordes of Gryffindors as they rushed to get their things in order before the train departed in an hour. I was glad that they were all so busy getting ready for the holiday. It took their focus away from me for the first time in the past few days.

As I walked across the balcony towards the girl's dorms, I noticed Professor McGonagall standing below, a clipboard floating beside her, checking off each student as they dropped their trunks near the portrait hole for the house elves to take to the train. Before I was able to slip into the stairwell unnoticed, she called my name from below. I took in a deep breath, bracing myself for whatever else she needed to speak to me about. Out of all the teachers I had met with so far, she's the one who had requested the most meetings. If she was planning on adding on more chapters for me to read, I was going to quit magic altogether. I had already gone this long without it, what was another lifetime?

"I hope you haven't acquired too much of a workload for these next two weeks." She said when I approached her. Her gaze was focused on a few Gryffindors who were running across the balcony. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not, but figured she wasn't the type to joke about that, so I stifled my laugh and shook my head. "Good." She said as she checked yet another student off on her clipboard while they placed their trunk in the pile. "Dumbledore told me you were staying on campus for the break, is that correct?"