Power of the Musea

Chapter 3: N.E.W.T.-level classes

Melanie, Rhonda, Anthony, and Terry all walked down to Herbology together the next morning. While they waited for Professor Sprout to begin the class, Anthony started telling her the story of the hepisian plants that they had studied the year before. The story took so long to tell that, by the time he had finished, Professor Sprout had already given out the directions.

"Hermione, what are we supposed to be doing?" Melanie hissed across the table to where Hermione was working with Harry and Ron.

"You would know if you hadn't been too busy talking," Hermione threw back.

"I'm sorry, I'm normally not that distractible," Melanie apologized, giving Hermione a pleading look.

"You need to grab one of those Snargaluff stumps," Harry whispered back, despite Hermione's glare. Melanie nodded and walked to the shelves along the wall where several other students were grabbing giant pots. Melanie used her height to reach above the crowd to grab one, but her arm scraped against the stem of a nearby plant. The plant instantly sprayed a foul-smelling substance all over the crowd trying to grab pots.

"I'm sorry," Melanie apologized as Professor Sprout hurried over to clean up the mess. Professor Sprout shook her head.

"Didn't you remember that a Kilibush plant sprays whenever someone touches its stem? I'd thought you'd exercise more caution around it," she said as Melanie, blushing, returned to her place to work with the Snargaluff stump.

But the rest of herbology didn't go well, either. She was constantly leaning over to ask Rhonda for instructions, causing a few more accidents in the progress. On the way out of the greenhouse at the end of the class, she tripped over a giant tentacle from a particularly spiteful monster daffodil. Melanie left the greenhouse covered in sweat and dirt, and very frazzled.

Anthony and Terry had already hurried away as Rhonda tried to clean Melanie up as much as she could as they walked into transfiguration. They found seats near Anthony and Terry, and pulled out their transfiguration books as McGonagall walked to the front of the class.

"I think you all are aware that N.E.W.T. level transfiguration is going to be much more complicated and advanced than anything you have encountered before. First, however, we are going to work on non-verbal transfiguration since it will be expected from now forward. We shall begin with vanishing, since you all should have accomplished that on your O.W.L. I would suggest that everyone review their vanishing verbally a few times beforehand, and then move on to attempting it nonverbally. I will be walking around to check your progress."

The class quickly broke up to vanish the animals in front of them, Rhonda grinning as her rat disappeared. Melanie waved her wand, but only managed to vanish the rat's legs, leaving a very startled rat. Melanie just looked at the rat, not knowing what to do as McGonagall walked up behind her.

"I'm very impressed, Miss Harver. Not many students could vanish even part of a rat non-verbally so quickly."

Melanie blushed. "Oh, I wasn't doing it nonverbally, Professor."

McGonagall looked at the legless rat. "You mean you spoke the incantation?"

Melanie nodded sheepishly and McGonagall shook her head. "Well, I hope that your inability is quickly fixed. Otherwise, I may have to change my decision to allow someone with an acceptable O.W.L. into my class." Melanie turned white as McGonagall moved on. Anthony and Terry both sent her looks as she frustratingly tried to vanish the rest of her rat verbally. Their looks became even harsher when McGonagall gave twenty points to Gryffindor when Hermione managed to completely nonverbally vanish her rat at the end of class and Melanie had only managed to verbally vanish only parts of her rat. As the class left, McGonagall looked at unhappily at the tail that was flicking around where Melanie had been sitting. Melanie lowered her head and followed Rhonda out of the classroom.

"So, you had problems vanishing your rat," Rhonda comforted her as they walked back to their common room. "You almost had it down by the end of class. You knew you were going to have to work harder since you only got an acceptable."

"Yeah, but I got acceptables in all of my classes," Melanie reminded her.

"So. You're smart enough, you'll catch up quick enough," Rhonda encouraged her as they walked into the Ravenclaw common room.

Melanie went right back to her room and cleaned up and changed into cleaner robes before lunch and charms, where her day turned even worse as she struggled with even the easiest of Professor Flitwick's assignments. Rhonda, charms being her best class, managed to cover for her most of the time, but by the time that they walked back to the common room Melanie was on the verge of tears.

"It's okay. Today's just been tough because it's all of the hardest classes. You'll get better, trust me," Rhonda encouraged her. Melanie nodded.

"Well, I gotta study if I'm going to get better," Melanie said. She walked up to her room and curled up in her bed with some of her beginning books that she had studied over the summer. She stayed there all night, leaving only to eat dinner in the Great Hall with Rhonda.

For the rest of the week, Melanie studied nonstop through all of her free periods. It didn't seem to help. Professor Sprout quickly moved her, placing her next to a Gryffindor named Neville Longbottom to keep her from any more crazy accidents. In transfiguration, it seemed as though Professor McGonagall was speaking in a different language. Melanie turned to Rhonda so much for help that McGonagall twice accused them of not paying attention. In charms, Professor Flitwick started to suspect Rhonda of covering for her and threatened to separate the two. Her small accomplishment in defense was forgotten, and Anthony and Terry stopped trying to talk to her and began to ignore her when they were in class together. In fact, many people were starting to whisper behind her back. Draco seemed to enjoy the uproar and would throw taunts at her whenever he could manage.

"How am I ever going to understand this?" Melanie complained, walking out of the transfiguration classroom reading her book.

"You will. It'll just take time. It's only the first week of classes."

"I'm studying during every free minute, but I'm still not getting anywhere!"

"I know, Melanie. You're even bringing books to dinner. You know, if all you do is study, you're going to go insane," Rhonda told her.

"But I don't understand anything. I feel so lost." She shook her head as she continued to stare into the book. "I'm not used to this."

"What you need to do is relax. I'll help you with your studying, you relax and watch where you're going," Rhonda said as she steered Melanie away from running into a suit of armor.

Melanie closed the book. "Look at me, I'm pathetic. I can't even manage the simplest assignments, and people are starting to talk behind my back. Everyone thinks I'm an idiot."

"You're not an idiot. Have you even stopped to think about what you've done? You passed your O.W.L.s with only one summer of instruction. You're almost a genius!"

"Nobody else seems to think that," Melanie said as they walked into the common room and she received a few stares. She sighed. "I can't stand it, being in here when I know everyone's thinking about what an idiot I am."

Rhonda tried to stop her, but she was already on her way up to their dormitory. When Rhonda walked in, she saw Melanie sitting on her bed, trying to fix her hair that, like always, had gotten messed up in herbology.

"It...isn't...working!" Melanie said as she tried to arrange her hair with her wand.

"That's because you're so stressed," Rhonda said as she waved her wand and fixed Melanie's hair. "You need to calm down."

"How can I calm down, when I know it's just a matter of time before I make a fool of myself in the next class," she said, as she pulled out her charms book and started to read.

"You're doing the best you can. You're caring too much about what everyone else thinks. You need to just forget about everyone else and focus on your work. You'll do much better."

Melanie sighed. "I know. It's just that I'm not used to this." She threw the book onto her bed. "Back home, things were so easy. I knew how things worked; I had my place. Here..." she trailed off.

"This is a different place," Rhonda encouraged her, "of course it's going to take time for you to adjust."

"I've had all summer," Melanie argued.

"And so you need more time. No big deal. Just ignore them. You'll catch up soon enough and then everyone will forget about this."

Melanie nodded, taking a few deep breaths.

"Now, c'mon, let's go to lunch. I'll help you with charms before class," Rhonda said, pulling Melanie up.

Thanks to Rhonda's help, Melanie avoided making a fool of herself in charms, even though she was far from mastering the material. Her performances in herbology had become even worse, bringing laughs from many of her classmates. Her stress level increased, and it showed when, in potions, Melanie accidentally put in fairy wings instead of fairy legs and caused the potion to explode.

"Trust the Yankee mudblood to mess it all up," Draco snarled.

"Mister Malfoy, I do not appreciate that derogatory term being used in my classroom," Slughorn warned him as he waved his wand and cleaned up Melanie's mess. Melanie gave Slughorn a weak smile, hoping that that his statement would end Malfoy's endless taunts that she was starting to become thoroughly annoyed with.

Slughorn's warning only seemed to irritate Malfoy more, though, and he started humming "Yankee Doodle" in potions, adding the words that he had invented whenever a teacher wasn't around.

When the weekend finally arrived, Melanie spent every moment absorbed in her books. She pulled Hermione away from Harry and Ron on Sunday and they spent all day together, covering more things.

"You're doing fine, Melanie. Your homework's fine," Hermione assured her as she looked over the assignments that Melanie had finished.

"But I still feel so lost," Melanie complained, flipping through her charms book. "I understand what they talked about in class now, but I know that next week I'll be just as lost, and get just as many stares, and whispers, and..." she slammed the book shut and laid it on the table.

"You're just not used to it. You're smart, Melanie, you're catching on fine."

Melanie shook her head. "This isn't like me, though. I'm a straight-A student. I shouldn't be turning in 'just enough' work."

"Trust me, you'll be fine with 'just enough' for now. Harry and Ron have been getting by with it for years," Hermione laughed. "It'll get better with time."

Melanie gave her a weak smile. "Okay." She yawned. I think I'll go to sleep, then, and be well rested for class tomorrow. There's nothing like a good night's sleep to make you feel less stressed."

Hermione laughed. "Okay, see you in class."

The next week started off relatively well. Defense seemed to be the only class that she did not struggle with, mostly because Snape expected them to not know what was going on and was reviewing things for them. It was a quick, and mostly cruel, review, but enough for Melanie to instantly catch up with the rest of the class.

"See, you're doing fine," Rhonda told her as they left Snape's classroom. "You just need to calm down."

Melanie nodded as she walked along to the common room, her nose stuck in A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. Her nose stayed there until potions that afternoon. Professor Slughorn quickly assigned them a potion to make, and the class went to work.

Melanie started off well enough, but soon came to a point she didn't understand. She turned to Rhonda, who quickly pointed out her mistake.

"Oh, so the Yankee Mudblood can't do the potion by herself?" Draco teased from in front of her, confidently stirring his potion.

Melanie looked at him, blushing furiously. She took a deep breath and looked at him defiantly. "At least I'm comfortable with myself to ask for help when I need it," Melanie shot back as she turned to Rhonda for more help.

By the time the class period was over, Melanie had correctly brewed the potion, receiving a positive nod from Slughorn. She threw a smug look towards the Slytherin table as she happily marked the page in her book for the essay over it that Slughorn had assigned as well.

"I actually like Mondays," Melanie sighed as she walked with Rhonda back to the common room. "It's the two classes that I actually understand. Completely different from home, though. I always hated Mondays at home." They walked up to their room and Melanie grabbed One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and started to look through it. "Now let's see if I can just manage to make it through tomorrow without a nervous breakdown."