The Gathering: The New Order of Merlin Book 1

18. There's always one slacker student

       Minerva patiently waited for her students to file into the classroom. This morning, she had first-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. As the Deputy Headmistress, she was responsible for creating the class schedule, and it was no coincidence that she had the twins together in her class for the entire year.

The students came in, and the twins sat together, avoiding looking at her.

Minerva's mind kept drifting off to last evening's conversation with them. Yet again, she had tried to get them to open up about their past, and just when she thought that they would finally let go of their secrets, they clamped up, said nothing. How was she supposed to help them if she didn't know what scared them so much?

She had been trying for months to gain their trust and couldn't imagine what it was that she was doing wrong. Sometimes, she wished she could use Veritaserum on them to get this frustrating silence over with. It would be easy for a couple of drops of the truth potion to "accidentally" find its way to their drinks, not that she'd thought about it or anything.

Since the twins wouldn't confide in her, she made them promise that they wouldn't run away. If they had any other concerns, they were to come to her immediately. Her door would always be open to them. They agreed obediently and left her to her frustrated thoughts.

Once a runaway, always a runaway—she feared this logic would apply in their case no matter what they promised her.

She gave the class a brief introduction to this year's curriculum, had them take notes, and gave them the first task, to turn a match into a needle. She walked between the rows of desks to check on each student, to correct their pronunciation or wand movement.

One student was hopelessly failing.

"Mr. Ealdor, put a little effort in."

The boy said the spell wrong. She corrected him, he pronounced it right but waved his wand sloppily. She showed him the correct way to do it, but this time, he dropped his wand. Something kept happening, messing up his spell. He aimed it in the air. He held the wand backwards. He performed the move before saying the spell. It was as if he was doing it wrong on purpose! At last, he got a hiccup attack, making it impossible to say the spell at all.

"See me after class," she told him. She had spent too much time with him already and ignored the needs of other students.

"Sure, Professor," he answered with a smile, and she wasn't sure what he was so happy about. No student had ever looked forward to seeing her after class.

She went around the classroom, checked the children's progress, and finally arrived at the twins' table. She was very curious to see their progress in Transfiguration. It was a difficult branch of magic, but she had high hopes that they would do well. She remembered her first Transfiguration class. She turned that pebble into a button halfway through the lesson. It felt easy, but talent like hers was rare.

"Can I have a new match, Professor?" Elsa asked her shyly.

Minerva checked on what happened to the girl's match and got excited, seeing that it was transfigured but then her spirits deflated. The match was still a match but it was now made of ice. Minerva sighed and brought a new match for the girl to work on.

Jack was not making much progress either. His match slid down his desk every time he said the spell. It was only their first lesson. They had a lot to learn, just like the other first-years, but Minerva was slightly disappointed that they did not show a natural talent in her branch of magic.

She corrected Jack's wand movement, but he waved it too enthusiastically, which resulted in his match exploding into a burst of flurries. Jack put a hand over his mouth to hold in his laughter. He glanced at her and his smile faltered.

She smiled back to let him know she wasn't angry with him. She was frustrated with the secrecy, yes, but the worries these children gave her were not their fault. Maybe she wasn't qualified to be their guardian. Would they have opened up to someone else?

The class came to an end and none of her students made any progress. Most years, she had one or two students succeed during the first lesson. Her personal record was five. It had been at least a decade since there were none. Was she losing her touch?

"Do not become discouraged," she told them as they packed their bags. "The elegant art of transfiguration is an exact science with no margin for error. It will take time for you to get better at it. Keep practicing."

The students left, and Merlin stayed behind.

"Mr. Ealdor," she said, sitting down and folding her hands on the desk, "would you mind telling me what that was in class today?"

"It looked like everyone had a hard time with this spell," the boy said.

"No. The other students were trying. You did not perform the spell right even once."

"I'm sorry, Professor. I'll try harder next time."

Something in his tone made her think that he found this conversation amusing. Most students found her intimidating, which was how she preferred it. Mild intimidation helped keep the restless youth in line.

"Do not think that I will not fail you just because you are in Gryffindor. I expect the same level of effort from students of all Houses."

"Yes, Professor."

She still wasn't convinced that he took her warning seriously, but she couldn't do anything else at this point. Every year had a couple of slackers and underachievers. She dismissed him and prepared for the next class.