'I wonder what caused this change of heart,' I wondered as I rang their doorbell early in the afternoon of Monday, 29th of June. The Finch-Fletchley's had seemed fine with letting Justin go through Hogwarts without dipping into Muggle education when I'd met with them in the past, so this was an interesting turn of events.
A servant greeted me, and I was escorted into a drawing room where Mrs. Finch-Fletchley was waiting for me on a couch.
"Good afternoon, Mrs. Finch-Fletchley," I said in greeting, and she beamed at me.
"Please, darling, you know you can call me Josephine," she replied.
"Old habits die hard," I claimed with a faint chuckle.
"True, true, and I suppose I can't blame you for being polite," Justin's mother said. "Now, how are you?"
"Doing well. Graduated top of my class at Woolingsby, as expected," I said, feeling proud at that. I'd escaped the hell that was public education. Time to dive into the nightmare that was higher education!
"Looking forward to Oxford?" she inquired, and I nodded.
"Yes, I'm eager to start attending."
"And I'm sure the fact Delilah is attending as well has nothing to do with your excitement," she teased me, and I couldn't help but blush.
"How's Justin doing?" I asked, deflecting, and she nodded back knowingly.
"He's been having some trouble adjusting to life with electricity again, and having a room all to himself," Justin's mother chuckled. "Other than that, he is eager to meet with old friends over the summer."
"I'll try not to bog him down too much with homework," I promised, and she grinned and nodded.
"Oh, by the way, before I forget, I will be gone for two weeks starting from the 17th of July until the 31st," I informed Mrs. Finch-Fletchley. "I'm having a bit of vacation in France. But don't worry, I'll make sure Justin has plenty of worksheets to do while I'm gone."
"How lovely! I do hope you have fun," she said. "And thank you for informing me, and giving my Justin the attention he needs."
Josephine then motioned for the door. "Come this way, we can find Justin in his room."
Justin's room was cluttered, bits and bobs from Hogwarts mingling with piles of stuff from his mundane side of things, and he looked up, a bit embarrassed, when his mother and I arrived.
"Sorry, bit messy," he apologized, moving some things off of a desk and onto a large, four-poster bed.
"No worries, I know how hard it is to keep a room clean," I said, thinking back to my first life.
"Have fun you two!" Josephine said, before leaving the two of us alone.
"So, any idea why your parents want you to take mundane schooling as well as Hogwarts?" I asked Justin as an ice breaker, who nodded.
"They told me it was because they wanted me to be well-rounded," Justin replied. "But I think they were just horrified by the curriculum at Hogwarts. Did you know we have to take Astronomy classes, but there's no math and science, or literature classes at all? I mean, I guess you could call potions a Chemistry class, but not really."
"Astronomy is useful to know, although only for potions and Herbology," I said. "I've always thought that class could be cut entirely from the Hogwarts curriculum because you can learn about the moon and stars and stuff when you need it. And don't let Snape hear you say that about his course."
"Yeah, we learned that right quick after a girl in Hufflepuff lost twenty points in our first lesson for comparing potion making to cooking," Justin said with a grimace.
"Well, the man's wrong," I said with a shake of my head. "It's not a one to one, but that's a completely acceptable comparison. I've read potion magazines that do the same. Honestly, why they keep him as a teacher when he's so terrible at it baffles me."
"Yeah, same. Nobody likes him. Well, maybe the Slytherins, but that's it," Justin replied.
"Well, let's get started on some basic worksheets and stuff," I said, turning to the main reason I was here. "I brought some of my old notes and tests from my time in Year 7 and 8 to see where you are, exactly. We'll do math and history first, which will be the most important ones if your parents are going to make you get a Muggle GED."
I laid out a few pieces of paper that had several mathematical equations on them, as well as some questions about basic history, onto his desk. I could see Justin droop out of the corner of my eye, and nodded sympathetically.
"Yeah, it's a bummer, but it's important to learn," I told him. Then, a clever idea hit me. "Tell you what! If you manage to do these worksheets, I'll throw in a couple lessons about magic that the other First Years likely won't know anything about."
"Really?" he asked, perking up, and revealing that he could have gotten sorted into Ravenclaw with that sort of excitement towards magic.
"Absolutely! I know a lot of things that aren't taught in First or even Second years. I'll even let you pick the subject," I told him. "But that's only if you finish these worksheets. You don't even need to ace them. I just need to know where you are, education wise, so I can plan your future lessons around that level."
"Okay!" Justin said eagerly, and he dove into the assignment I'd given him.
He was done in only an hour, but I hadn't given him all that much in the first place. Then, I quickly looked it over, and found he had history more or less nailed down, but his math needed some work.
I told him as such, which made Justin sigh. "Ugh, math," he muttered.
"I can tell you won't be taking Arithmancy when it's offered," I chuckled.
"Arithmancy?" he asked, curious.
"A third-year elective at Hogwarts. It's magical math, basically."
"Math that's magical?" Justin inquired, sounding intrigued.
"It's fascinating, but painfully dry and boring. Much like regular math," I warned him, causing Justin to flinch.
"So, as I said, I'll answer some questions you have," I told Justin.
"Neat!" he said excitedly, and opened his mouth to ask something, only to close it a moment later.
"Can't decide what to ask?" I guessed with a faint chuckle, and Justin nodded sheepishly.
"Yeah. I've got a whole bunch of 'em rattling around in my head, but I can't exactly figure out which ones I want to ask first," he admitted with a weak laugh.
"No shame in that," I assured him. "How about I teach you some magic anybody can use that doesn't need a wand?"
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