Vector's Challenge

Chapter 7

Emmy Vector was not a happy woman on that Friday. It had been three weeks, and Snape had actually managed to behave himself for that entire time. If he had managed to hold out that long, there wasn't much chance that he would mess things up in this last week, no matter how much provocation he got from his students. She was going to have to find another way to prove just how unfair Snape was. Her glance drifted over to her filing cabinet, and then the solution popped full-blown into her head. She opened up the drawer marked Students' Grades, and pulled out all the folders for the Slytherin arithmancy students. She carried them into her classroom, and set them down on her desk and started to work. It would be all pop quizzes today until she finished this off.

Emmy Vector looked through her graphs of her students' grades for the fifteenth time to check the results. The trend was clear. Millicent Bulstrode's grades had shot dramatically up during this term, far higher than her past history in Arithmancy would indicate. And if I remember correctly, Sinistra and Binns both said something about catching her cheating quite a bit in their classes first year. She looked out at her fifth-year, Slytherin/Gryffindor class as they took their quiz. But nothing ever happened to her, because Snape always turned a blind eye. If he's doing it again, I can get him for that, and then I win the bet. But how the devil is the girl cheating? I can't figure it out. She's not wearing a hat, I've been watching her practically the whole time, I have a Sneakoscope on my desk, I had the students put all their papers and books away under their desks, and she doesn't seem to have anything written on her limbs.

Bulstrode was the first to finish the quiz, and walked up to hand it in. As she turned away, Vector asked her, "Might I have a word with you after class, Miss Bulstrode?"

Bulstrode merely looked puzzled, but replied softly, "Yes, Professor Vector."

"Good. Please sit down and wait until class is over."

As the rest of the students finished their quiz, Vector checked through Bulstrode's answers. Absolutely perfect. No work whatsoever to do here. It's as if she had the answer key in her hand.

After all the students had left, Vector stood up and said, "Please come here, Miss Bulstrode."

Bulstrode came over to Vector's desk. "Sit down, Miss Bulstrode." Emmy let the silence build as she focused a steady glare on Bulstrode. No matter how hard of a Slytherin you are, my girl, I intend to rattle your cage at the very least.

Bulstrode indeed broke first, with the question, "What do you want to talk to me about, Professor Vector?"

Vector glared into her eyes. "Bulstrode, I have reason to suspect that you are cheating in this class. I cannot determine your method, so I am prepared to offer you amnesty and house points if you explain how you are doing it."

Bulstrode';s jaw dropped open. "I-I-I'm not cheating at all, ma'am!"

"My statistics do not appear to indicate that. Prove it to me."

Bulstrode looked upset and frightened now. Vector could see her eyes starting to glisten. "H-h-how, m-m-ma'am?"

Vector started to fire off question after question on the class material at her. Bulstrode answered every single one of them correctly, even starting to argue with Vector over the correct answer at some points. Vector took it up a notch, into sixth-year material, then into seventh-year, and finally into a discussion of an interesting problem that had appeared in the latest issue of Arithmantical Review Letters. Bulstrode had totally lost her stammer and any signs of hostility, and her gray eyes were glowing with sheer pleasure at the beauty of Number and Problem-Solving.

Vector paused. "So Bulstrode, if you're this good at Arithmancy, why did you do so poorly the last two years?"

"Because I was cheating then, Professor Vector," the impertinent chit replied.

"Why? If you know the material that well, why did you ever cheat before?" Vector asked, totally mystified.

"Because I needed the practice," Bulstrode replied, in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You needed practice in cheating? Did Professor Snape tell you that?" Vector asked, thoroughly appalled by such a Slytherin concept.

Bulstrode's plain face glowed at the mention of Professor Snape, like a bird in the presence of St. Francis of Assisi. Oh, God, I hope that she doesn't have a crush on the man, Vector thought.

"Professor Snape said that learning the history of the goblin rebellions is good training for NEWTS, but learning how to pass information without getting caught is good training for life," Bulstrode retorted.

"I see," Vector responded, in a tone that should have frozen the air around her. "Well, Miss Bulstrode, consider these following facts. One. I caught you using Arithmancy, so it does have some practical uses. Two. If you had showed your ability over the last two years, you could have won your House, oh, I estimate at least fifty points in those two years." And Slytherin would have won over Gryffindor in at least one of those years, if I remember correctly. Go chew on that for a while, girl. "Three. Consider well the sources of your information. If you had picked an informant of comparable ability to your own, you would probably have performed at least as well as Malfoy. Four. If you perform to the best of your ability, I expect you to beat everyone in this class hands down from now on, including Malfoy and Granger."

Bulstrode's jaw dropped again. "You expect me to beat everyone else in this class? Including Granger?"

Vector smiled. "Miss Bulstrode, that last problem we were discussing was one from the last issue of Arithmantical Review Letters. It was miles beyond an OWL-level or even a NEWT-level problem. In fact, I would be very interested in submitting a reply, with the two of us as joint authors."

Bulstrode's eyes were as wide as saucers now. "Oh, Merlin, Professor Vector. That's got to be the nicest thing that anybody's ever said to me." And she broke into tears as she sat in her chair.

Vector held the girl about the shoulders and patted her on the back while she cried. She's taller than I am, and she's only fifteen. Poor child. And to have one of the nicest things anybody ever said to you come out of being accused of cheating - Oh, God. The poor dear child. Somebody should shanghai you away from those awful relatives of yours. And at that moment, Emmy Vector resolved to save Millicent Bulstrode if she could.