Chapter 84: Interactive Learning, and Illusion Of Help (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]
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Humming a pleasant tune, Quinn walked towards his office, ready to start another shift of quality consultation.
'I wonder how many will come today?' wondered Quinn, thinking about what kind of problems he would get to see today.
On an average day, Quinn would get maybe two to three customers. They would bring their problems to him, expecting a solution.
'Let's hope that some of them are non-homework-related problems,' sighed Quinn, hoping that something interesting would come along.
Homework-related requests consisted of Quinn giving homework-related resources to the clients and charging a few knuts for the information. The problem with this kind of problem was that there was no margin for getting students under his debt.
He couldn't do their homework for them as that would attract unwanted attention from professors, and second, he didn't want to do people's homework.
Quinn reached the office door and twisted the doorknob to open the door; he already knew that his assistant was already in there, so he didn't bother reaching for the key.
When he opened the door, Quinn saw Luna sitting on his office barstool behind his table with a client sitting in front of the table.
The chime above the door rang, alerting the occupants of Quinn's entrance, causing both of them to look at him. He greeted them.
”Good evening.”
Luna, who had her wand tucked behind her ear, waved a hand to Quinn and greeted him back.
”Good evening.”
The client simply nodded when he saw Quinn but didn't verbally greet him.
Quinn nodded back in response before silently walking to the workshop door and entering the workshop after unlocking the door. He didn't take over the conversation from Luna and let her deal with the client as talking with people was what he had hired her for.
He set his book bag down and removed his robe. Luna knocked on the door before entering the workshop.
”He has brought an interesting request,” informed Luna, twirling a few strands of her hair with her fingers. Quinn had told her to call him if the request was interesting.
It had taken some time before Quinn successfully taught Luna what he meant by interesting, but eventually, Quinn and Luna came to the same page on what interesting meant.
”Alright, I'll be there,” replied Quinn and asked a question. ”Are you done with your homework?”
”Uh-huh, I'm done,” responded Luna in a sing-song voice. ”I just need to bottle the potion in a vial for the class.”
”Excellent,” praised Quinn before asking. ”What about my assignments? How is the progress on that?”
Ever since Quinn had 'hired' Luna, he had been giving her topics to study every week. Sometimes it would be theory; other times, it would be practical. He had given her easy study topics, asked her to practice spells until she got used to them, or long-term projects like growing herbs and keeping track of their progress.
He had been giving her fun stuff like treasure map hunts and riddles, just like Friar gave him: but in place of deadly vaults, he had been placing mystery objects around the castle that Luna needed to find and figure out how to solve-slash-open them to get the treasure inside. Every mystery object would require some kind of transfiguration, charms, herbology, or potion brewing to open, making learning more fun for the quirky and eccentric Luna.
Quinn wanted Luna to learn and utilize more magic because teenage years were the age where magic grew more rapidly, and he wanted Luna to take advantage of it. He understood that people wouldn't go to the extremes like him by exhausting his magic core every day, but he could make sure that Luna would use more magic while making it fun.
All the assignments and projects that Quinn gave Luna were interconnected with each other. Quinn had planned out things so when she completed her fifth year, Luna would be done with her N.E.W.T level education in all subjects other than Care of Magical Creatures practical portion — as bringing creatures into Hogwarts was a hassle. But if canon Luna was anything of reference, then he was sure that his Luna would somehow cover that portion on her own.
On top of that, he intended to closely monitor her progress to see if Luna was progressing faster because if she showed more interest in learning, he would put in extra things that he thought she would learn and things that Luna would find interesting.
He didn't burden her with complicated things beyond her level or dump lengthy assignments which would eat away all her time. But he wanted to make sure that Luna would complete her N.E.W.T education by the end of her fifth year because, by that time, Quinn would be at the end of his seventh year, and that meant graduation, a.k.a, he would be leaving Hogwarts.
N.E.W.T level education by the end of the fifth year wasn't much of a challenge because a fifth-year student with a wand did have enough focus ability to perform all the seventh-year magic there was in the curriculum. And with Quinn making study plans fitting to Luna's needs and aptitude, he was sure that not only would Luna understand N.E.W.T level topics, but she would also have better magic capacity and control than her peers.
Luna twirled on the spot and smiled in a fun way, ”I'm still working on the blank parchment and riddle that you gave me.”
Quinn smiled as he thought of the riddle and blank parchment. The blank parchment was a secret treasure map, and the riddle was the clue to a potion that would make the treasure map visible and another indication that would give her a clue on how to open the mystery object that he had hid.
”I see. Well, keep working on it,” said Quinn, ruffling her hair. Now that he had caught up with her, Quinn asked, ”So what is he here for?”
Luna's answer put a smile on his face.
”Now that is an interesting request, alright,” smiled Quinn. He knew exactly how to solve the client's problem, but he wasn't expecting this particular request to come through his doors.
He walked to the office and looked at the client as he sat down on his barstool behind his desk.
”Mr. Longbottom, you have brought one interesting request. Tell me, what made you request something like this from us.”
On the client stool sat Neville Longbottom; round-faced, short, chubby but not overly fat, brown hair. The Longbottom child was clumsy, forgetful, shy, and many considered him ill-suited for Gryffindor house because he seemed timid.
He was the other child who qualified to be the prophecy child in Sybill Trelawney's prophecy as he was the child of the Longbottom couple, who had defied Voldemort thrice. Fortunately, Voldemort had decided to target the Potters first and had set in Harry Potter's fate to be the chosen one.
”Uhm, I keep forgetting the password to the common room. So I write the passwords on a piece of parchment in case I forget it, but one of the p-prefects caught me as I was looking at my note,” Neville's timid voice narrated his story. He was looking down at his lap as he spoke, not making eye contact with Quinn. ”He dragged me to professor McGonagall, and she scolded me for writing the password. Then when I returned to the common room, everybody was laughing at me.”
Neville looked like he was about to cry. Quinn could literally see tears pooling at the edges of his eyes.
”So you have come to me —a Ravenclaw— to help you with the Gryffindor common room pass-”
Neville's ears reddened as he heard Quinn's words and cut him by standing from his barstool and sputtered, ”I'm sorry, this was stupid. Please, excuse me. I will leave.”
Quinn raised his hand with a smile on his face and stopped Neville, ”Not at all, Mr. Longbottom. You have a problem, and you came to us to get a solution. We strive to solve any problem, so no, this isn't stupid.” He gestured for Neville to return to his seat. ”Please take a seat. I believe I can solve your problem.”
Neville blinked a couple of times at Quinn before sitting down. This time he made proper eye contact with Quinn, his eyes flashing with hope.
”As you said, you always forget the common room password; there is nothing wrong with that,” Quinn reassured Neville that this was something very commonplace. ”I'm sure a lot of your housemates also forget the password and have it written down somewhere. The prefect who caught you might have been having a bad day, and if not that, then we both can agree that he is a jerk.”
Badmouthing a third person behind their back, especially if that person wasn't well-liked, was a proven way to improve relations between two people. Quinn was using it to make Neville feel comfortable and assert that he wasn't at fault.
”From what I know, Gryffindor common room password changes once every three weeks, correct?”
Neville nodded in response to Quinn's question.
Of course, Quinn already knew that. He knew that Gryffindor and Hufflepuff common room passwords changed every three weeks, while the Slytherin common room password changed every other week. He had Recon long enough to figure out the change schedules.
”And you sometimes forget it, so you need a way to remember it. That is what you are asking me, correct?”
Quinn didn't even go in the direction where Neville didn't forget the password, as that would be a lengthy process that Quinn didn't want to overtake.
When Neville nodded, Quinn continued, ”Excellent, I have just the solution for you. It will allow you to keep a secret copy of the passwords with no one ever finding out. There will be no parchment trail; you just need to make sure that you are alone when you look at it.”
Quinn stood up from his seat and spoke, ”Please wait a moment, and I will be back with the solution.”
He left Neville behind in the office and walked into the workshop.
Inside the workshop, Luna was lying on the floor intently staring at the riddle parchment. The parchment was levitating above her, with Luna's wand in her hand.
As Quinn walked to a potion cupboard, he stared at Luna. It looked like she didn't notice Quinn walking as she kept staring at the parchment.
'She's weird,' thought Quinn with a smile on his face.
Quinn opened a cupboard and searched for a potion vial. It was one of the potions that he had learned to brew before Hogwarts. He brewed it because it sounded fun, and he had all the ingredients lying around.
”Ah, found it.”
Taking a vial of inky black potion out of the cupboard, Quinn walked to another part of the room, stepped over Luna's body, and opened a drawer to get a thick calligraphy brush.
Once again, Quinn stepped over Luna's body and walked outside to the office, and instead of sitting on his barstool behind the table, Quinn sat beside Neville in the other client's stool.