The Tree of Blacks (English version)

Under the Beech Tree

June, 1976. Hogwarts.

The fifth year at Hogwarts was peaceful and quiet for Alya. It passed quickly, without any particular problems.

As at the end of the previous year, grades were excellent in almost all subjects and relations with teachers and classmates remained unchanged, based on admiration and cool courtesy. June was just around the corner and the only event that slightly shook Alya's mood was the upcoming O.W.L. exams. Their purpose was to assess, through the judgement of a committee outside the school, the knowledge and preparation of budding young wizards. The results of these tests were considered extremely important, capable of considerably influencing the students' future careers.

Unlike most of her schoolmates, Alya wasn't worried at all. The exams didn't frighten her. She knew she was highly prepared in all subjects. All of them, except Potions of course. That subject based on nauseating concoctions and granguignolous ingredients was her Achilles' heel.

Alya was perfectly aware that she would never make it through the Potions exam with her - meagre - skills alone. But the clever Slytherin girl was also aware of a detail which could work to her advantage.

Among the students there were rumours - and Alya was certain they were well-founded - that professor Slughorn passed secret information about the exams to his favourite students and those who were members of his exclusive Slughorn Club.

Despite the great risk involved in this action, Slughorn knew how to act with meticulous discretion. He knew how to astutely identify the weak link in the external committee, the person most prone to dissolve in useful revealing chatter. After all, this was not a difficult feat; Slughorn had been very good at weaving friendships with the right people within the upper echelons of the magical world. The Slughorn Club, after all, had been created for that very purpose: to secure valuable acquaintances among the powerful of the future. This would guarantee him certain comforts.

Alya yearned to get her hands on such information. It would have helped her pass the Potions exam without too much difficulty. But she didn't belong to Slughorn's exclusive circle of his favourite students.

In order to get hold of Slughorn's valuable information, all Alya had to do was to play one last, desperate trump card. Her noble family name.

Alya began to delineate within her cunning and manipulative mind a simple plan, but if put into action with timing and cunning, it could guarantee her excellent results.
All Alya would have to do was to show up in the Potions professor's office in tears, confessing amidst agitated sobs her concern about the exam. She would then accurately point out how much she considered him to be one of the best teachers at Hogwarts and how her noble family had also always had a high opinion of his unimpeachable professionalism.

Alya would end the charade by confessing that she had turned to him because she believed him to be the only person who could give her the right advice and the best tips to cope with the exam. Finally, in a voice filled with hope, she would remind her pompous teacher how she would never forget his kindness and helpfulness.

Having concluded her mock outburst, Alya would then wait. With a carefully mournful look, the brilliant Slytherin student would have waited for her words to hit the targeted spot.

After all, Professor Slughorn was an easy prey, given his soul as ambitious as it was naive. The fish would have taken easily the bait thrown by Alya. Slughorn wouldn't have missed the opportunity to secure long-standing gratitude from the daughter of one of the most noble and powerful families in the magical world. Even if Alya wasn't part of the small circle of Slughorn's favourite pupils, her surname would have exerted a certain attraction on him.