Работа не волк, в лес не убежит (Marja)

It was only the first week back at Durmstrang and Zhenya was already behind on her homework. After the frustrating and confusing European Junior Championships in artistic flying the girl had practised even more than ever. She felt enormous pressure to live up to the family name, their expectations, and her recent title. When she was not sitting in class, the girl was working out or practising on her broom. She was afraid that her family saw her as a failure, that Zina, whom she loved dearly, would replace her before she even had a proper chance to shine. It was scary. Zina had alreadyalmost beaten her at these past European Junior Championships. She, however, had disappointed despite her gold medal.

All Zhenya could think of were her mistakes during her routines - she replayed her programs in her head again and again, knowing what she had done wrong and thinking how much better she could have been - and, what was probably even more poisonous. she could not forget about the comments she had heard. In fact these hostile remarks were like a constant echo in her mind. 'You did not win a single event part and you only got the gold medal overall because the judges held you up. It's all only because of your family. You do not deserve this title.' To make things even worse one of those who had said the nastiest things to her, Iroda Alieva, had now transferred to Durmstrang. And, because this wasn't enough yet - she had been chosen to be Iroda's mentor.

Although Zhenya already had enough on her plate, she was also worried about her idol and distant cousin. The multiple-time champion Aglaya Tikhomirova had been hospitalised because of a poisoning and Zhenya didn't know how she was doing, if she was even recovering. The family kept this a secret, not wanting anyone to talk about it because they didn't want to feed the media with any detail. Rumours were spreading quickly anyway and the sixth year felt that it would be better to inform people than give them a reason to speculate. One younger student had even asked her if it was true that Aglaya had died and Zhenya had freaked out a little, wrote home immediately to tell her grandmother about the rumour and asked if there was any news on the athlete's current condition. Aleksandra had merely written a note back that that little girl was apparently misinformed. Nothing more. Yevgeniya wasn't sure why they were handling the situation this way. She wondered if it was meant to make them worry less but, if that was the case, they clearly achieved the contrary.

It was needless to say that Zhenya could not focus in class and surely not when she returned to her common room in the late evenings when she tried to get her homework done somehow. It showed already after just three days back at school - homework had piled up for her. She was struggling, felt stupid and hated it. Therefore, the girl had decided to go into the library to study instead of outside to practise today.

After an hour of tearing her hair and sighing, all that the girl had managed to write down was the topic of the Alchemy essay. She had absolutely no clue if the statement was correct and what to write on the matter.

Comment on the statement:
Plants are Alchemists too

The statement that plants are Alchemists is

By now she felt like crying and looked around for her friend and student librarian Marja more often than she looked at the pile of books and the parchment in front of her. Why couldn't life be easier? Why couldn't she be just like everybody else? Sometimes Zhenya wondered if she'd be better at school if the sport didn't take up so much of her time or if she was just not intelligent enough to keep up with everything at Durmstrang.


@Marja Kirkkomäki

It was her final year at Durmstrang. Marja felt bittersweet about it, she loved the school and would miss it but, at the same time, she was ready to go out into the World and become a dragonologist and change the World of Dragonology forever. She was confident that she would be able to find a job quickly, as she did exceedingly well in her OWLs, only getting less than top marks for two subjects.

She was convinced that being student librarian for the two years leading up to her exams had been the key to her success and the reason she had done so well. Being student librarian for Drakonya Krov for her final year would make it easy for her to gain access to information she needed quickly, and ensure that she repeated the same success for her NEWTs. Being student librarian wasn’t as flashy or impressive as some of the other student positions Durmstrang offered, but Marja loved it regardless. It truly suited her.

She still took her position and the responsibilities that came with it seriously but by now the Finnish witch had relaxed into it, and the tasks she carried out in the library were not so much a chore anymore as a pleasure.

It was only the third day of classes, but Marja had already created a lengthy list of studious individuals like herself who had checked out books in the library. She finished up the list by replacing the stickfast hex she had placed on the list for anyone who tried to tamper or steal it. Perhaps it was overkill, but Marja figured that one couldn’t be too careful with new muggleborn and Koldovstoretz students infiltrating the school once again. This terrible news had actually made her somewhat glad this was her final year, so that she didn’t have to watch Durmstrang’s downfall from the inside.

As she walked through the library and ensured that everyone was keeping to the rules, Marja saw her fellow housemate, Zhenya. Marja knew she was a good artistic flyer and had won something or another and that there was some weird rumour involving one of her family members, but Marja didn’t really care about or follow the sport. Unless it involved a dragon, Marja wasn’t interested. Zhenya did look sad however, and Marja didn’t think it would be very nice of her to ignore a friend clearly in need.

Marja strolled up to where her friend was sat, and pulled a chair out to sit next to her. “Hi, Zhenya.” She greeted her with a tentative smile and narrowed eyes flitting down to whatever Zhenya was working on. “Do you need some help, honey?”

"Marja!" Zhenya had been hoping and waiting to see her friend but she startled anyway when the other girl approached her. It was odd but Zhenya was relieved to know that Marja would likely not ask about artistic flying related things. She was feeling so tense that any question about the European championships or her distant cousin would likely result in her crying her eyes out. She was trying to appear normal, just as her family expected her to, but she clearly felt too stressed. The worst about it was that she was pretty certain that this was only the beginning and things were bound to get even more complicated, stressful and tiring.

She smiled gratefully at her friend as Marja sat down next to her and asked if she needed help. She clearly did. Help with the essay, help with school work in general, help with the artistic flying club, help to deal with her disappointment and her worries. However, she felt like she might have reached the stage where she already was beyond help. It was too much and she had no idea how she was supposed to handle her tasks and her feelings. Zhenya reminded herself that Marja was likely just referring to the essay though and tried to focus on that.

"I do," she said a little sheepishly. "I really do. Do you have time though? I wouldn't want to impose. I mean, you are certainly busy too with the library duties and your N.E.W.T.s this year..." Zhenya felt like she was blowing everything out of proportion again and fell silent.

"I think I'm just too stupid for school," she then burst out, blinking a few times as her eyes were watering and she clearly didn't want to cry. "I am a sixth year now and I feel like I know nothing. How am I supposed to write this?" Her voice cracked and the girl took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

Zhenya reacted as if she had been startled by Marja, which the elder witch found surprising. Something clearly bothering her friend. Zhenya was being very sweet, Marja thought, asking if she had the time to help her out. Marja didn’t mind at all, her library things were more a relaxing pleasure than a duty, and her preparation for NEWTs were going quite well so far, or so Marja thought. She was on top of her schoolwork, having only one essay to write for Illusions, but that was an easy subject for her and with the deadline being another two days away, it was not going to be too tricky. Marja thought she could easily do that later on in the day.

“You won’t be imposing at all!” Marja laughed, as she placed her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hand. “Look around, nothing is going on in the library at the moment,” Marja smiled, “and I’m almost done with school work for today anyway.”

Zhenya’s outburst about being stupid was surprising. Marja had no idea that her friend had really felt this way. The Finnish witch thought it was a silly thing to say too, as she knew that her younger friend was actually quite smart when she put her mind to things. “Where on Earth did you get that idea into your head?” Marja asked incredulously, shaking her head sympathetically. “Oh, I’ve had that feeling before.” Marja admitted, hoping that her relation to Zhenya’s feelings could help the artistic flyer a little, somehow. “The week before the OWL exams, I thought I hadn’t learnt anything too.” She chuckled, realising how ridiculous that was now. “You know more than you think you do, trust me.”

Marja patted her shoulder, hoping to encourage her. “Let’s see what we have here.” Marja said, switching from Russian to Swedish as she read the beginning of Zhenya’s parchment. “Alchemy… okay. Not my favourite subject in the World, but I can work with this.” She smiled at her friend, as she pulled her wand out from her pocket and summoned some parchment and a quill from her librarian desk. Marja hoped if she could write down some notes or pointers that it would help Zhenya a lot.

“Plants are alchemists too… I have to hand it to her, that is a hard one for the first week back.” Marja tapped her finger against her chin, as she thought, using her other hand to twirl her plaited hair around. “Well, first things first. Do you think the statement is true or false?” Marja already knew this answer, plants were one of the greatest alchemists in existence and they probably didn’t even know it, but she wanted Zhenya to do this herself, Marja figured she was just there to guide.

So Marja was almost done with her school work for the day… Zhenya sighed. Naturally the other witch was still keeping up with her school work. She was an excellent student anyway whereas Zhenya clearly was a hopeless case.

“It's true,” Yevgeniya muttered, her voice sounding strange as she was close to bursting into tears anyway. “I am too dumb for school. It's always been like that but now that the O.W.L.s are coming closer I know it for sure. I will fail them all. I won't be able to graduate.” Tears were now finally making their way down her cheeks and the girl looked down as the first one dropped onto the table.

“You...” she sniffed, “you were insecure about school work? But you are brilliant!” She took a deep breath, trying to calm down as she really did not intend to cry in front of her friend. She dried her face with the sleeve of her school robes.

Marja seemed so confident that they could work on that Alchemy essay and Zhenya admired the other girl so much right now. She clearly was a clever witch, she'd be successful as a graduate as well. As the older girl summoned parchment and a quill, the artistic flyer briefly wondered if she would even have been able to do the same. Deciding that she was being ridiculous now and that she could probably successfully summon things as well, she focused on Marja again as she read the topic of the essay.

“I know,” Zhenya whined as Marja admitted that the task was hard for a first week back at school although she felt it was generally hard, no matter if first week or later in the school year.

Yevgeniya was taken aback when Marja asked her if she thought that the statement was true or false. How should she know? The girl felt nervous now, she was probably about to prove that she really was stupid. While she clearly had no idea as she knew very little about Alchemy or plants respectively, she tried a different approach. Would Galina Viktorovna give them this topic if the answer was that the statement was false? What kind of essay would come out of that?

“I think it's true,” she said, nervously putting a strand of hair behind her ear. “Plants are Alchemists, too,” she looked at Marja, scared that her theory might be wrong.

Marja smiled encouragingly at her younger friend, shaking her head sadly as she wondered what on Earth Zhenya’s family had done or said to her to make the artistic flyer this way. “That isn’t true at all. You will not fail,” Marja said sternly, gazing at Zhenya disapprovingly as she quietly tapped the table and tossed her head slightly. “And you will graduate, because I am helping you pass these exams if it is the last thing I do.” Marja hated lazy and stupid people, it was true, but Zhenya wasn’t lazy at all and was at least trying to be decent at her academics. The Finnish witch couldn’t fault her for that, and was always willing to help out someone who actually wanted to learn and improve. “Don’t cry, or I’ll cry too and then we’ll never get this essay done!” Marja laughed, patting Zhenya’s hand lightly with an affectionate smile.

The seventh year witch smiled knowingly as Zhenya was clearly surprised that even she had her doubts about her academic ability. Sometimes maintaining perfect grades got harder and harder throughout the years as she began to expect nothing less, and got easily disheartened with anything below top marks. “Well, thank you.” Marja muttered, her head tilting to the side. “Believe me, you’re smarter than you give yourself credit for.” She added sincerely. Marja was brutally honest, and she was pretty sure that Zhenya was aware of that by now, so she hoped that her friend would believe her when she said it, because she really did mean it.

The student librarian gave a ghost of a smile as Zhenya whiningly agreed with her, as she waited for Yevgenia to answer her question. She hoped that Zhenya would choose correctly to give her friend a little bit of confidence that she so desperately needed. It was a fifty-fifty chance, so Marja sat patiently looking away from Zhenya so that her staring wouldn’t put her off.

Zhenya finally answered, correctly too, and Marja beamed. This was a good start. “Very good,” she praised, fiddling around with the ends of her french plaits. “Why?” She asked, narrowing her eyes slightly as she gazed at her friend. “And be honest,” she warned, “making stuff up won’t help anyone. I don’t mind if you think it’s a silly reason… I promise I won’t judge. Just tell me what made you think so and I’ll jot some things down.”

“How do you know that? I'm too stupid and I don't have enough time to keep up with school work...” Zhenya whined. She looked at her friend through tear filled eyes as Marja said that she'd help her pass her exams. “You do?” she sniffed. “That's so nice of you. It's probably a waste of time, though. I'm just...” she sighed, wondering how her relatives managed to survive school. It was quite a mystery to her. The junior artistic flyer thought that it was sheer impossible to do well at school and in the sport.

She nodded when Marja told her not to cry. Zhenya didn't want to cry, she really didn't. However, the emotional girl felt like it was impossible to keep her feelings in check. “I'm trying,” she muttered, lifting her arm again to dry her face with her sleeve.

“What makes you think so?” Yevgeniya asked, wondering if Marja knew anything about her that she wasn't aware of herself. She clearly didn't believe that her strength lay in academics. In fact, the girl was in a strange mood where she doubted having any strengths at all. She tried to smile at her friend though and wanted to believe her. She knew that Marja was an honest person and somehow this realisation made her calm down enough to stop crying and focus on the task at hand again.

Her smile widened as Marja praised her for having correctly answered the question but it soon faded again as the other girl asked her for the reason why plants were alchemists. She lifted her hands and buried her face in them.

“I don't know!” she then burst out desperately, letting her hands fall onto the table again. “Honestly… The only reason I said that they were alchemists was that I doubt that Galina Viktorovna would let us write an essay on it if the statement wasn't true.” She blushed and looked down at her hands.

“I guess… ugh...” Zhenya shrugged. “Plants do something that alchemists do as well. They do not brew potions though or… create a philosopher's stone.” She looked at Marja pleadingly now. “Give me a hint, please.”

“Oh my gosh, Zhenya, do you hear yourself? Who told you these things? You’re not stupid at all, stop with the pity party.” Marja protested quietly to her friend’s whining, though she kept silent about the part where Zhenya claimed she didn’t have enough time. The artistic flyer absolutely did have enough time, but it would mean cutting into the practice time on the broom that she was so obsessed about, and Marja had a feeling that Zhenya wouldn’t be up to listening to that suggestion. In a way, Marja could understand. Zhenya’s love for artistic flying could possibly be comparable to her love for dragons, though in Marja's eyes, her ‘obsession’ for dragons was an advantage on occasion to her academics and not a hindrance.

“It is not a waste of time at all,” the student librarian replied with a frown. “If I can even help you get a higher grade on just one essay… then I say that is time well spent.” She patted her friend’s hand gently again as she said this, hoping it was encouraging and not coming across as condescending or demeaning.

“Well, for a start you’ve made it this far without needing to retake a year or be thrown out of the school… and that is on a severely reduced studying schedule compared to the average student, let alone someone who lives to study like me.” Marja began warmly, meaning every word she said. School wasn’t easy and it was probably even harder when Zhenya had to juggle her athletic career at the same time and try to be successful in both. Marja admired her friend very much, even if she didn’t always understand what Zhenya was doing. “Besides, there is more than one type of intelligence.” Marja smirked, wondering how Zhenya would react to her words. “This is why I don’t like exams actually… They only cater to linguistic and logical intelligence.” She added as a side-note with a shrug. “But you have an intelligence that I will never have. You have bodily-kinesthetic and musical and spatial intelligence, all of which can’t be measured by how well you understand Alchemy or Melioration Magic.” The Finnish witch hoped this was a comfort to Zhenya, knowing that what she was saying didn’t really fix the problem. But, nonetheless, she hoped it made Zhenya feel a little better about herself. After all, Marja certainly couldn’t fly on a broom standing on one leg with the other above her head.

She smiled as Zhenya burst out that she didn’t know. Marja had almost expected such an answer. When she had been a first year, she too, had believed that her professor wouldn’t set an essay on a statement that was actually false. How wrong she was through, and it was a lesson she had quickly learned. “Ah,” Marja chuckled softly as she raised her index finger up, “that is your first mistake, Zhenya. Though you may be correct this time,” she began warmly, hoping to encourage and not frighten, “essays on statements that are actually false have been set before. In fact, in my own Curse Breaking OWL I had such a question.”

Marja tapped the quill against the table hoping to write something down as Zhenya struggled beside her but her friend couldn’t give her any kind of worthwhile answer; or in fact, any answer at all. The Finnish witch frowned at her Russian friend in thought wondering how she could guide Zhenya to the answer without giving it to her. The younger witch would not learn that way, she needed to come to her own conclusion. “Hmm…” Marja hummed to herself, tapping against her chin.

“Alright. What is the stereotypical thing you think of when you think of traditional alchemists?” Marja asked, hoping that Zhenya would pick up the trail of crumbs she was trying to leave and answer with something to do with turning things into gold. “And how might plants achieve a similar goal, even if the end substance isn’t exactly the same?” She added, hoping that would give Zhenya enough information to go on.

Zhenya covered her face in her hands as Marja told her to stop the pity party. She did not feel like she was pitying herself, at least not wrongly so. She was a bad student and while she liked to claim that it was because of the lack of time that she had to study, she felt that this wasn't the sole reason. The Russian witch felt certain that, even if she had more hours to study every day, she'd still fail. Often when she looked at her homework assignments her mind just blanked. It didn't matter how long she stared at her books, she just wasn't able to take anything in. It was frustrating and depressing. The girl wondered how it was to be as clever as Marja. It had to be great to read a book and understand everything that was written in it. Reading textbooks was more than just unpleasant for Zhenya. 

Marja was so sweet! Zhenya looked at her through watery eyes, grateful for her friend's kindness. "Thanks," she muttered, blinking in order to avoid shedding more tears now. She appreciated that Marja patted her hand, the touch felt somehow comforting and the junior artistic flyer was almost tempted to try and steal a proper hug from her friend. However, she didn't go through with this for two reasons - she didn't want to appear needy and she thought she'd totally break down sobbing then.

The student librarian went on saying nice things and Zhenya sniffed, feeling eternally grateful that her friend wanted to help her and even encouraged her. It meant so much to her. Much more than she could ever express. Nonetheless Zhenya did not feel any more confident now. "Even if I take more time to study I still fail, though," she said timidly. Marja was right, she didn't have to repeat a year yet but she was pretty certain that her O.W.L. year would finally bring her to her limits and make it impossible to move on. Maybe she could drop out after this year? She'd be of age then and nobody could force her to keep studying. The girl wondered if that would make her a senior artistic flyer prematurely or if she'd have to compete in juniors anyway. As she considered these options, the girl realised that her family would not accept it if she dropped out. They might even find ways to force her to keep trying. After all, in a worst case scenario, they could throw her out of the artistic flying school. Then she'd have nothing - no school degree and no sports career... She sighed deeply and tried to focus on what Marja said about different kinds of intelligence.

Okay, maybe she had bodily-kinesthetic, musical and spatial intelligence whatever that really meant but she did not have the kind of intelligence that was needed at school. Even if Marja called it intelligence Zhenya felt that her strengths had nothing to do with any form of intelligence. She might have other qualities but none of them helped her with school work or so she believed.

The girl sighed and covered her face with her hands as Marja said that professors might even set essays on a false statement. She clearly was doomed. She had literally no idea how to get through the rest of her school career. Marja seemed lost for words by now and Zhenya couldn't blame her. Her friend had probably just realised that she was indeed stupid and hopeless. The girl sniffed, not even daring to put her hands down and look at the Finnish witch.

When Marja tried to guide her by asking her questions that might probably lead to the correct explanation, Zhenya let her hands slowly sink on the table and looked at her friend feeling utterly scared. What if she could not even work out the correct answer now? She felt how her heartbeat quickened as she wrecked her brain for an answer that might not be entirely wrong at least. "They create gold from base metals such as lead?" she asked timidly, looking down at her hands now. "So they... change things... make one thing out of another..." Zhenya paused. So what did plants do? The sixth year went through all her knowledge about plants which wasn't a whole lot. "Plants do create oxygen?" she asked, not remembering from what they did and how they did it. She just really hoped that she was on the right track because if that wasn't correct she did not have an alternate theory.

Marja smiled kindly at her friend as Zhenya thanked her. The student librarian didn’t think that words of gratitude were really necessary, Marja was sure she’d do the same for any of her friends and it wasn’t like it was a great effort on her part. “You’re welcome.” She softly offered, her eyes crinkling at the edges as she smiled at Zhenya again.

The Finnish witch gave a little shake of her head, trying to school her expression and not give a pointed look at the artistic flyer in front of her as Zhenya said she still failed even when taking more time to study. Marja wondered how she could tell her friend that the results Zhenya was seeking from her ‘increased’ studying took more time than just one day of increased studying. She wondered how she could say that Zhenya was expecting too much from the little effort she was putting in without hurting the younger witch’s feelings. Of course, the fact that Zhenya had so little confidence in her academic abilities did not help the athlete’s case either.

“I really think that you don’t give yourself enough credit, Zhenya.” Marja stated, brushing some loose hairs from her face. “You expect too much,” she added, hoping that her honesty wasn’t too harsh for her friend. “These things take a lot of time sometimes to show improvements, a lot of effort.” Marja paused, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she tried to think of an analogy that Zhenya might understand. “I mean, you wouldn’t expect me to be able to do one of your little… handstand thingies on a broom within a few hours, would you?” Marja wondered if perhaps suggesting that they continued to have small study sessions together would be a good idea. Zhenya clearly wanted to improve, and Marja thought it’d even be quite fun for her too.

Zhenya gave her the answer she was looking for and Marja finally had a reason to write some notes down on the parchment, quickly jotting her answer down with a bright smile. “Yes, exactly!” Marja praised her friend, hoping that the encouragement would help Zhenya answer more questions correctly. The younger student continued and Marja nodded and hummed along pleased that Zhenya was on the right track, at least. The athlete eventually got to what the major part of the answer that she wanted, and the student librarian put her quill down to gently clap her hands together once. “Very good!” Marja exclaimed, smiling proudly at her younger friend.

“Now then,” Marja continued, narrowing her eyes slightly as she gazed at Zhenya, wondering how much she’d have to guide the artistic flyer to the answers she needed. “How exactly do plants accomplish that?” She picked up her quill ready to jot more notes down for Zhenya. “What is the starting material for plants that they create into oxygen? And do you remember what the name of the process is called?”

Zhenya was confused to say the very least. In her opinion Marja had just contradicted herself when the librarian said that she did not give herself enough credit but then said that she was expecting too much. To her this did clearly sound contradictory and that again was very confusing. Zhenya sighed, feeling that she was too stupid even to have a conversation with her friend.

If she needed to put in a lot of effort and time to see progress then, clearly, she was doomed. She had neither the time nor the energy to put in a lot of effort if she kept up her artistic flying training in the same way as she used to. She could feel how her expression became more hopeless and she hang her head to stare at her hands on the table.

Maybe dropping out of school was not an option but her only way. The girl felt more and more certain that she stood no chance to ever graduate from Durmstrang. Surely she'd have to repeat this year and maybe not even only once. Possibly Zina would graduate before she would. Maybe Ruslan would, too. Then again they probably wouldn't let her keep repeating her O.W.L. year. She almost imagined herself as an old woman sitting among teenagers saying in a quavering voice that even after sixty years in school she did not know what Alchemists and plants had in common. Would she still be a junior artistic flyer if she stayed in school for the next decades or would she be a senior flyer then with no chance to be competitive because she was still stuck at school?

The girl shook her head distractedly as Marja said that she would not expect her to do a handstand on a broom within a few hours of training, but that was not the point. Marja was not an aspiring artistic flyer. She did not need to try that if she didn't want to. School, however, wasn't optional. She had to deal with it even if she wasn't clever enough to succeed.

Marja's praise did not feel well anymore now. It felt like she was a little child who had just managed to count to three for the first time and Zhenya didn't really feel like going on trying. If the student librarian enquired further she'd soon have no reason to praise her anymore because, honestly, Zhenya had no idea how she should ever make any progress on this essay.

How did plants accomplish creating oxygen? Zhenya had no idea. She tried to remember what she had heard on the topic but there were only fragments that made no sense to her now. The girl chewed on her lips, feeling entirely embarrassed that she'd have to admit that she did not know any of this. “There's something with… light? And water? And...” her voice trailed off as she shrugged helplessly. “It's called photo…-something.” she muttered sheepishly.

“I don't know!” she then exclaimed a little louder now, her expression rather pained as she looked at her friend, hoping that she'd be kind enough and either give up on her or tell her the right answer.

Marja wished that she could relate to her friend a little more, maybe then she’d be able to do more to help. It was one thing to have a moment of doubt, but Marja had the grades and hard work to back her up… She knew that Zhenya did not, and it made it difficult to say that everything would be fine. Marja chewed on her lip, wondering what she could do as Zhenya sighed and hung her head.

What else could she possibly do other than do Zhenya’s work for her? But then, Marja supposed, that wouldn’t really solve Zhenya’s problem… it’d only be a temporary fix. And it wasn’t as if Marja was willing to do all of Zhenya’s homework for her all the time. Even then, by the exam, Zhenya would still fail because she would have never learnt the material herself.

Finally Zhenya gave her something useful that she could write down. “Yes, you’re on the right track.” Marja smiled encouragingly, as she began scribbling on the parchment. “You clearly do know, you just told me the answer to the essay!” Marja quietly laughed, as she pushed what she had written towards Zhenya so that she could see it.

“See, the process is photosynthesis. I find it helps to know the origin of the word… Photo meaning light, and of course synthesis meaning creation. Of course, this word is a bit of a misnomer since plants don’t create light, they just use it to create something else.” She smiled encouragingly at Zhenya again, tapping the feathery end of the quill on the part she wanted to highlight on the paper.

“I think an equation of sorts makes the process the clearest. You were perfectly correct on two of the needed ingredients, you’re just missing the gas. And of course, we’ve already established they produce oxygen, but they also produce something else that is even more important. Any ideas what that gas and something else would be?” Marja asked, as she pointed out the blanks they had in their little equation. She was encouraged though, once Zhenya figured this part out all she had to really do was expand on it a little, since they already had the main part of the answer.

It was great to have a friend who was clever and could help with homework assignments but at the same time it made Zhenya feel so small and stupid. Marja was a brilliant student and Zhenya felt that she was not even mediocre. She would never get a top grade herself, not even in one of her better subjects. While she knew that she had to write her essay, the girl almost regretted having asked Marja for help now. It would be a lot easier to just give up and accept that Galina Viktorovna would give her a failing grade rather than torment herself and try to work it out.

Apparently she had offered something usable. Zhenya looked up as Marja encouraged her, saying she was on the right track. Well, that was the problem with never really studying hard - Zhenya knew some pointers but could not figure out how to put everything together correctly. Besides, she was missing some facts.

She glanced at the notes that Marja took, feeling utterly embarrassed that her friend put in such an effort when she was already sort of resigning herself. The older girl said that Zhenya had given the answer to the essay already but the junior artistic flyer did not feel like she had. She didn’t understand it all yet even if she had coincidentally offered some words that would lead any decent student to figure out the whole thing.

“Photosynthesis,” Zhenya repeated, somehow hoping that repeating the word would remind her of more detail but nothing more did come to her mind. Marja explained the word now and Zhenya tried not to let it show that she had to force herself to try and follow. All that the sixth year really wanted to do now was to get out and mount her broom.

“Something else?” Zhenya’s voice was slightly desperate. There was even something else that was created in the process? Something that was more important than oxygen? There was something more important than oxygen? How should she ever be able figure out the ‘something else’ and the gas? Truth be told, she felt that the gas might be something she could possibly figure out. However, the ‘something else’ was a mystery to her.

“Is the gas carbon dioxide?” she finally asked, not daring to phrase it in any other way than an insecure question. If Zhenya was entirely honest she didn’t know many gases, oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide…

The girl looked at her friend pleadingly. “Can’t you just tell me the missing thing? I really don’t think I know it.” She just hoped that Marja would have mercy and wouldn’t try to make her figure it out by herself by just offering more hints. Zhenya was already wasting way too much time on this essay. She felt tense, thinking of all the other things she still had to do… and it was only the beginning of term! She was totally doomed.

Marja really wondered about Zhenya sometimes. She’d been patient so far, but her patience was wearing thin and turning her volatile mood quickly sour. The younger girl seemed to care more about being on that broom of her’s than literally anything else in the World, clearly even above her own education and future. What was the point in being a witch if Zhenya ended up being unable to do barely any magic properly at all because she didn’t know anything? Marja understood that perhaps her obsession with dragons could be paralleled in a few (and only a very few) ways, but Marja found the time to deal with both tending to dragons, being the leader of the dragon club, her studies, and her student librarian duties, and she put effort into her studies. Zhenya seemed to almost not want to put the effort in but get the results anyway. Surely, as an athlete Zhenya should have understood that there was no easy way out, that she should have put the work in from the beginning. Marja had to restrain herself from tutting and shaking her head at these thoughts.

“Mm-hmm.” Marja forced a strained smile on her face as her friend repeated the word, wondering if Zhenya had any clue what she was explaining to her, or if she even cared, even though the Finnish witch was positive that even her youngest siblings would understand what she was trying to explain to the other witch.

“Yes,” she sighed, trying to tame the sharper edge her voice was starting to develop, as Zhenya questioned what else plants produced. Trying to get Zhenya to engage with her and produce something of any value was beginning to feel like trying to find a bowtruckle in a pile of twigs. Marja thought that the answer was blindingly obvious, but apparently not. She really didn’t think this would be so difficult when she had offered to help, they’d be in the library forever at this rate.

“That’s right, well done.” Marja smiled as she wrote down the gas in the little blank of the equation she had written, grateful that she didn’t have to hold her younger friend’s hand to get to that part of the answer, at least. Now, there was one gap left to fill and Marja figured she could say that her work was partially done. She’d have given Zhenya the foundation of her answer, it was down to the other witch if she wanted to put the effort into making it a sensible and coherent essay or not. It didn't matter to her if Zhenya decided it wasn’t worth her time, but Marja would make sure to remind her of that bad decision if she ever went crying to Marja about her grades again.

The student librarian had to stop herself from rolling her eyes as Zhenya pleaded with her to tell her the final missing ingredient in their her equation. How did Zhenya make it as far as she had? There wasn’t really any way that Marja could dumb it down anymore, plants were living things that needed fuel, obviously they needed carbohydrates - simplified as just glucose - it wasn’t that difficult. “Well…” Marja debated with herself, not wanting to just give Zhenya the satisfaction of having the answer without putting any work in but also not wanting to draw out this torture any longer than necessary. “Alright, just this once.” She relented, but not without a disapproving look that betrayed she wasn’t happy about the one-sided effort. Marja scribbled down the answer in her missing gap and pushed the parchment over to her friend.

“See, carbohydrates or simply glucose. Plants, while they have magical properties, aren’t magic. They need fuel just the same as you or me.” Marja wondered why she was explaining this, it would probably go straight over Zhenya’s head and be forgotten by the artistic flyer by the end of the day. With this thought, Marja quickly circled the word and drew an arrow, writing ‘fuel!’ next to it.   

Right, that was enough for now, Marja thought. Could she escape somehow and make an excuse for not helping her further? Create a mess in her own beloved library to clean up without Zhenya knowing it was her? Her wand was still on the table, and Marja picked it up, twirling it her hands before spying a Koldovstoretz transfer student she could blame for her own subterfuge. “So, we have the basics now…” Marja began to distract Zhenya, flitting her eyes slightly in the direction of the bookshelf next to the unsuspecting transfer student, as she flicked her wand. All the books on the shelf began toppling off and on and around the student. Perfect!

“You!” Marja called out sternly, hastily jumping up out of her seat and aiming her wand at the student. “How dare you treat the library in such a way!” She added, lying flawlessly, as the other student began protesting. “Sorry Zhenya, I have to deal with this.” Marja turned back to face her friend with an innocent expression. “You’ll be okay on your own now, I am sure.” She added, not believing a word she said, before hurrying off to deal with the Koldovstoretz exchange scum and force them to put the books on the shelf one by one.

[out]

Zhenya was more than relieved when she learned that her guess regarding the gas had been correct. That was at least something. She watched as Marja wrote it down and hoped that her friend would just give her the last bit of information that was apparently needed for this essay. It was all so complicated, though, and the fact that Marja seemed to find it all too easy made it just worse. Zhenya felt that she was already developing a slight headache from all this work and the stuffy air in the library.

She exhaled loudly when Marja announced that she’d help this once, her lips forming a slight smile as she waited for her friend to scribble down the word. Carbohydrates… Zhenya nodded to herself. It did make sense, sort of. She didn’t think she’d have dared to make a guess here but maybe she could actually try to memorise this now.

“Thanks,” Zhenya whispered, feeling how her cheeks reddened. Would Marja avoid her from now on, deeming her too stupid and not worth her attention? How was she supposed to get through her O. W. L.s? She really was too stupid for school.

Breathe, Zhenya told herself, and tried to focus again on what the student librarian was telling her. Those were the basics, okay, she nodded. Waiting for Marja to expand on the explanation and tell her what she could write in her essay that wasn’t just the equation.

However, before Marja could go on telling her about photosynthesis, books toppled off a shelf where a Koldovstoretz transfer was standing. Zhenya frowned. This disturbance came at a quite inconvenient moment. Marja jumped to her feet and addressed the student, only turning back to Zhenya briefly, telling her that she thought that she could work on her essay on her own now.

Although the junior artistic flyer did not feel quite so confident she still nodded. “Yeah, I guess,” she offered, glancing at the parchment and trying to smile. “Thanks for all your help,” she muttered sheepishly. “I really appreciate it. I doubt I’d have got there by myself.” She gave a little shrug and as Marja hurried over to the Koldovstoretz student, she turned to her essay and began to write down what she had just learned.

[out]