Defence and Mayhem

Theories

They didn't actually manage to talk about the arrangement Harrison wanted to make. It was already time for the lesson, and they decided that Harrison would send a letter before the holiday as he originally planned.

But after that talk Tom found himself looking at the professor more. He started to notice more about him. The fact that Professor Peverell always wore a leather glove over his right hand, the fact that he brushed his slightly long hair backwards with his hand while grading papers, or the fact that he would sometimes hum an unknown tune when he was alone in the classroom, something that Tom found out when he walked in before the other students when the young man was busy and didn't notice his arrival.

But the one thing that Tom noticed most, was that even though he had thought the professor favoured him, he was wrong. He assumed the professor helped him and paid him special attention because he preferred him to the rest of the imbeciles he had to call classmates, but no. 

The professor was horribly fair. Soon after Peverell talked to him, he noticed that other muggle-raised or Muggleborn orphans were called to stay after the classes, and he heard a passing Hufflepuff in the corridor talking to her friends of Peverell's questions about her safety in the muggle world at times such as this. But that wasn't all. During the lessons, the professor never praised him more than any other student, even though he was clearly doing better than any other! Apparently, managing to perfectly perform a spell on the first try wasn't worth a single house point in the professor's book, but the less skilled students who only managed to perform decently after a thorough explanation of the theory behind it did deserve praise.

What he deduced was that Professor Peverell only praised progress. That was the only option.

And his deduction was confirmed.

"Good afternoon, here are the assignments you had to turn in last week, please note the parts that are highlighted in red ink and learn from the mistakes you've made. Most of you wrote good essays, but the few who got a lower mark than an A, you can rewrite the essay in order to get better marks and those will be the ones in your final grade. Any questions?"

The Ravenclaw who sat next to him raised his hand, giving him a nasty glare for Merlin knows what. "Yes, Ms. Runcorn?" "Professor, why did Riddle get the same grade as me? I wrote an extra foot for the essay, and I made no mistakes at all! How can you declare our efforts to be on the same level when I did more?!" Tom decided not to talk, wanting to hear the professor's reply, but made sure to look mildly offended instead of annoyed, which was an understatement for what he was feeling towards the foolish girl's words.

Professor Peverell, for the first time, actually looked angry.

"Do tell me what was the assignment I gave you, Ms. Runcorn," The professor said, his tone calm, dangerously so. The young witch did, of course, notice the change in the professor's demeanor, but couldn't find a reason for that change. She was in the right, after all! She worked harder and she deserves the appropriate reward for her hard work!

"The assignment you gave us was to write a two feet long essay about the Memory Charm 'Obliviate', and what are its differences from other memory modifying spells, professor."

"Correct. But you decided it was a good idea to write a longer essay, even though the instructions stated the length that your essay should be. The information you wrote was correct, but it seems like you forgot that there's a reason why the length of the essay is stated in the instructions for your work. Yes, it's to make sure that you write enough, but also to make sure you don't write too much. I never asked for you to give information about the history behind the charm, nor did I ask you to elaborate on every single memory charm you can think of in great detail."

"But it just proves that I did more research and that I made a bigger effort! I got this information from three different sources!"

"No. it doesn't. It shows that you didn't bother to ask Mrs. Cresswell to tell you what source fits best for your needs. Hogwarts has a librarian for a reason. Mr. Riddle, what source did you use in your work?"

"I used the book 'Memory Magics: All About Memory Modifiers', sir."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, professor."

"And there you have it. I don't want to offend you, Ms. Runcorn, your essay was good, and it deserves the O you got, but you need to stick to the given task. Let's imagine for a moment that in the future you need to hand in a report to whatever future employer you may have. Would you hand them a short, straight to the point but well-written report, or a well written, but long report that has unnecessary information about things you needn't write about? All I'm saying is, the length requirement of the essay, alongside its other purposes, exists to see if the students have the ability to recognise necessary details from a source, and incorporate them in a written essay without adding unnecessary information while fitting in the length limit. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes, sir, I do… I'll do better from now on…" The girl seemed to have calmed down. Took her a while...

"I'm sure you'll manage, you only need to know when to stop." The professor said, his tone calming and encouraging.

Tom let out an inaudible sigh. He was glad this was over, the girl's screeching wasn't doing his sanity any good. But besides that, Tom was happy that Professor Peverell was angry on his behalf. She insulted his abilities, and he wasn't happy about it. By pointing out the girl's mistakes, the professor acknowledged his work as superior, and he appreciated the praise as it came from someone who rarely ever gave it.

The professor brushed a stray strand of hair back with his hand. "Seeing as we already opened the subject of complaints, let's address another issue. In some of my classes, there were complaints about who gets house points and for what. I saw the dissatisfied looks you wore whenever you got an answer right but didn't get rewarded for it. Now my question is this; should you really be rewarded?"

Many students stood up and shouted, feeling wronged. Some sat in their seats, looking at the professor in disbelief. Tom didn't belong to any of those groups. He wanted to see if his theory was correct.

"Sit. Down." Those two words were said in a stern voice, devoid of any emotion. All those who were standing sat down but made their dissatisfaction clear with odd looks, one male even plopped down to his chair in a way that made a horrible screeching sound. Tom rolled his eyes at that, seriously, are those supposed to be fifteen-year-olds or toddlers? "As I was trying to say," he continued, "do you deserve a reward for knowing something you should already know? I don't believe so. Up until now, we mostly reviewed the material taught in former years. It's nothing new. Should I reward you for leaving the classroom with the same knowledge you had when you came in? No. I do, however, reward progress. If you've learned something new and showed your dedication you will receive praise."

Theory: confirmed.

I took a small break so I can stock on updates... I will now update more often....

Updated on Wednesday, February 9th  2022