Muggle Studies

Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

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PV @Maya Galim

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𝓐madea wasn't quite sure what had brought her into the Muggle Studies classroom on this particular day. She didn't have class and she wasn't struggling in the course, so she couldn't explain why her feet had brought her here. Maybe it was because her Common Room was located on the same floor and it was somewhere quite close to where she had been before. Maybe it was because she was feeling quite out of place right now and being in the Muggle Studies classroom made her feel closer to home. Whatever the reason was, Amadea found herself standing in the middle of the empty classroom with tears streaming down her face.

She thought that all of this had already been let out. She had cried plenty while she was home. Then it subsided and she came back to Hogwarts. Then she had started breaking down again (hence her long talk with Scott Alexander about her feelings). She thought that was the end of it. Everything would be fine. But no, here she was, standing in the classroom, bawling her eyes out. Amadea didn't know what was wrong with her. Every time she thought she had finally started progressing through the grieving process, a new wave of sadness hit her and suddenly she was back to square one. She hated it. She wished she could just fast forward to the end when everything was fine and she wasn't a mess all of the time. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon. Now she just wanted to go home.

Amadea sighed, wiping her eyes. The only thing she could do was keep moving forward and that was what she was going to do. She turned, ready to head out of the classroom and cry somewhere a bit less public when she heard footsteps. Her eyes widened immediately, knowing that the footsteps could only belong to Professor Galim, the Muggle Studies teacher. What was she going to think when she walked into her classroom and spotted Amadea, puffy eyes and runny nose, standing awkwardly in the middle of her classroom. Amadea quickly tried to wipe her face, removing any signs of her tears from existence and wracked her brain trying to think of any question she could ask Professor Galim to make it seem like she had a reason to be there.

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Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

Maya was not a morning person. To have one of her patrols to be in the early morning until afternoon was not her favorite at all. However, Maya knew that it was beyond important to complete the patrol hours as diligent as possible to keep the students safe. There were to be no hags on her watch. Once finished with her patrols, Maya made sure to get some coffee from the Kitchens prior to making her way to her classroom where she had loads of homework to grade on her desk. For a day that did not have Muggle Studies class, it was a lot busier than when she did have the class.

Step by step she walked to her classroom to find that the door was open. She knew she did not lock it, but she remembered it being closed when she left early in the morning. Maya, one hand holding her coffee cup and the other hand opened the door slowly. There, in the middle of her classroom, was a student who seemed lost. Maya walked in and closed the door behind her.

It was @Amadea Campbell. She was one of Maya's students. A bright young woman who always did her homework with outstanding marks. Maya wondered, though, why she would be in her class. "Can I help you with something?" she asked, her language barrier making her tone too blunt.

Maya made her way to her desk, but as she walked past Amadea, she looked at the young girl's face. It was red and her eyes were glossy. Maya, not wanting to make assumptions of any kind, ignored it. If she wants to say something about it, she will, she thought to herself. Maya set her coffee cup on her desk and turned around to face the third year Hufflepuff, waiting for her reply.

Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

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𝓐madea stood rooted to the spot as she watched @Maya Galim walk around Amadea to her desk. As the coffee cup hit Professor Galim's desk with a clunk, Amadea was snapped out of her stupor. She had to say something, anything to answer Professor Galim's question.

What could she say, though? Clearly, Professor Galim wasn't oblivious to Amadea's tearstained face, but wasn't asking about it, which Amadea appreciated. Now, though, she had to figure out what she could say to pass everything off as if she was just coming to ask a question. She couldn't ask anything about the previous lessons; Amadea had already received her marks for the year and there was nothing that warranted any questions. Of course, Amadea did have an advantage over some of her peers who were taking the course as she was from a Muggle family. Maybe Amadea could ask about the coming years.

"Professor Galim, um, yes, actually," Amadea stuttered as she tried to make the right words come out of her mouth. She quickly brushed her hand along her cheeks, hoping to remove any last traces of dried tears that had been dripping down. "I was hoping you could provide some guidance?" Amadea took a breath. "Well, I'm Muggle born, so this year in Muggle studies wasn't very difficult for me," she explained. "I really enjoyed taking your class, though, and while I would like to continue it in the future, I was just wondering if you thought I should? I don't know what I want to do as a career yet but my schedule is really full right now, so do you think I would be learning new information in Muggle studies or would it mainly be things I would already know coming from a Muggle family?" Amadea hoped she had explained herself well enough for Professor Galim to understand what she meant. She truly did love this class, but her schedule was already packed and she knew most of the information they had covered this year. As Amadea finished, she realized that coming into the classroom hadn't been such a horrible idea after all. This was something that she had been wondering about and now was the perfect opportunity for her to voice her questions.

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Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

"Have a seat, Miss Campbell," Maya said, pointing at a chair that was near her desk.

Maya, leaning back against her heavy, oak desk, listened to @Amadea Campbell . Her eyebrows were raised when Amadea mentioned that she may drop her class. Maya knew her class was not as popular as Divination and Ancient Runes. Hearing that she would lose another great student saddened her, but she would rather Amadea do what is right for her than to join because Maya said so.

"Only you can make your own decisions," she said, giving her input. Maya couldn't make her decisions. She could only guide the student to success. That was what a teacher is supposed to do. If she would give Amadea her opinion, then she would not be doing her job as a mentor to all.

Amadea had asked if she would be learning new information in muggle studies. Maya tilted her head to the side thinking if there was going to be anything new for a muggle born and then it hit her. "It depends, did you learn everything in the first ten years of your life?" she rhetorically asked. The girl in front of her only knows up to 10 years of muggle-based learning. The rest was magic through Hogwarts starting at the age of eleven. It was obvious that whatever Maya was going to teach in later years was going to be new and much more difficult. Maya was going to jump into muggle entertainment, history and war, and even philosophy. Was that easy for a muggle? Probably not.

Maya stood up straight, away from her desk, and walked around her desk where she sat in her chair. Maya then pulled her red hood down to reveal her hair which was dark and tightly tied back into a bun.

"Miss Campbell, are you changing your schedule based on the unknown idea of a career?" she asked, wanting to know more about the student in front of her. Maya took on the assumption that Amadea was unable to make decisions for herself or at least compartmentalize her thoughts to make decisions that was good for her.

Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

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𝓐madea hurriedly scrambled to sit down, thankful to be seated and not standing awkwardly in the middle of the classroom. Her heart beat quickly in her chest as she waited for @Maya Galim to respond. While Amadea had noticed Professor Galim's eyebrows shoot up as she talked, she hoped that it didn't mean that the professor was angry with her or disappointed. She hoped that some good advice could be given.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Professor Galim couldn't give Amadea too much guidance on the issue. While Amadea was aware that it was ultimately her decision to make, she never liked making huge life decisions (or small, non-life changing decisions either), and was hoping that maybe someone would just tell her what to do. Just as Amadea was losing all hope, feeling like she was on the verge of tears again, Professor Galim brought up a good point. Amadea had been homeschooled for the majority of her life until she had arrived at Hogwarts. While she had learned a lot (probably more than she would have learned if she had just stayed at school), she hadn't learned everything that she would have learned if she didn't attend Hogwarts. There was plenty about the Muggle world that Amadea hadn't studied; while this year had seemed to be introductory to the world of Muggles, it seemed like the next years would be going more in-depth about other topics.

"Well, I haven't made any decisions yet," Amadea said lamely. With everything that was going on in her life, she hadn't had much time to think about her future or her schedule. "Like I said, I still have no idea what I want to do?" She paused, thinking. "My schedule is really packed right now, though, and I'm thinking about dropping a class," she said. "You bring up a good point though, I feel like sticking with Muggle studies would definitely benefit me, especially coming from a Muggle family. Keeping up with learning about the Muggle world would definitely be a good thing..." Amadea trailed off, even more confused than she originally was. She had absolutely no idea what she should do. At least her mind was far away from the sad topics that she had originally been thinking about.

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Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

The way the girl scrambled to sit down, Maya could tell there was more on her mind than her schedule being way too busy for the academic year. Maya was once a young girl, and one that had quite a full schedule herself. Maya, a student of Uagadou, knew what it was like to have a full schedule. The school had pride in their competitive students. Maya, alongside Hjørdis Jensen, had their fair share of competitiveness throughout the years. Hogwarts, however, was different. The competitiveness in the school was baffling.

Which made Maya think that it was obvious that something else was the cause. Maya did not know the girl well enough to ask about it. She had to come out to her. This was the part of teaching that Maya was always overthinking. She was great at being intimidating and teaching, but to full-on guide the emotions of a student. There was never a class or professional development to help students through this.

Sitting at her chair, she looked at the Hufflepuff who Maya assumed looked so lost. She was a fourth year and she did not know her future. Maya, by the time she was a fourth year, knew what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to travel and study every culture she could from around the world. Her wall filled with flags and a map in the middle shows the areas that she has already been and cultures she had already studied.

"Is it your schedule or is it your mind that is too packed, Miss Campbell?" she asked, her Israeli accent thick. Maybe a question stated as so would help her come out a bit more. Maya could not let her choose her classes as it was her big decision. But she could help the child share what she was really feeling, that is, if there was more to her than the classes.

Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

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𝓣houghts were still swirling around in Amadea's mind as she looked up at the professor, desperate for any sort of advice @Maya Galim could give her. Evidently, it seemed like there was nothing that she could say to sway Amadea's decision.

Amadea sat helplessly in the chair, wondering if Professor Galim had been this lost at Amadea's age. Even though she and her friends didn't talk about it often, Amadea knew that most of them had a pretty solid idea of where they wanted to be in ten years and had a good idea about their careers in the future. Amadea had absolutely nothing. She knew that she wasn't going to ever end up as a professional Quidditch player or a scholar for the history of the wizarding world (her two least favorite classes) or a transfigurer (her worst class), but besides that she had no idea what she could possibly do. Perhaps it was because she was a Muggle born...all of the students who were aware of the wizarding world had their entire lives to prepare for this while she had been thrown into it only three years earlier.

Amadea sighed. Between worrying about her future and dwelling on her past, her mind was fairly busy all the time. She didn't know what she should do, which was why she had found herself minutes earlier in the classroom sobbing. "Is it your schedule or is it your mind that is too packed, Miss Campbell?" Professor Galim had asked. It was a straightforward question, hitting the root of Amadea's problems, the question that she herself had been trying to figure out.

It was true, her mind was very packed these days. Between the memories that surfaced when she thought about her father, the grief that hung over her like an endless rain cloud, and the loads of schoolwork and other extracurricular activities she had dedicated herself to, her mind was never calm. But the question was whether or not she could balance it all. So far, she had been managing, albeit with many more mental breakdowns than in the past. Though of course, Amadea attributed the majority of those breakdowns to her grief rather than her overpacked schedule. During her second year she had managed with all of her classwork while being a Prefect and Amadea considered the extra elective classes an equal trade-off for all of the work that was required of her as Prefect. But then she also had the death of her father to deal with. As much as Amadea wished she could snap her fingers and say she was cured and ready to move on, she was learning that grief did not work like that. It was a long and slow process, something that would last for a very long time. And Amadea wasn't sure how she was supposed to fit grieving into her schedule.

"I-I suppose it's both," Amadea finally answered. "I really don't know. I guess, I'm used to having a busy schedule. It's not something that's bothered me in the past. But for some reason now... now it is?" Amadea hoped she had properly conveyed how she was feeling to the professor. She wasn't quite ready to open up and spill all of the past six months of trauma that had occurred and she wasn't sure that Professor Galim even wanted to hear about her tragedy. She had come here for schedule advice, not a therapy session.

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Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

Maya was told that counseling was a big part of teaching. In a way, having many brothers and sisters growing up, Maya could be decent with helping those with larger problems in their life. The only problem was perhaps the language and culture barrier. When she was with her siblings, she was very straightforward as it was the language and culture. She figured that she could not be as straightforward with the student in front of her.

"Sometimes it is helpful to let out your thoughts. That is, if you're comfortable to do so," she said, displaying a smile for the Hufflepuff. "I won't push you," she added, making sure that @Amadea Campbell knew that it was to be her choice whether or not to share what was troubling her to Maya.

Maya began to guess what it could be in her mind. Was it a boy? Was it family troubles? Did she have mental health problems that were not being addressed? There were a lot of different perspectives to guess. But overall, she had to just wait for the answer than assume what it could be. That is, if the Hufflepuff was willing to share with Maya what was going on with her.

Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

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@Maya Galim

𝓐madea had heard the saying that talking about one's feelings usually made it feel like a weight had been lifted off of their chest and that they were "no longer shouldering the burden alone." Despite this, as she sat here in Professor Galim's classroom, she felt even more weighed down than she did when she had first entered the classroom. Perhaps it was because she had spent such a long time pushing down her feelings and trying not to acknowledge their existence, but she was feeling even more confused than before.

And yet, the Professor sat calmly, allowing Amadea to speak if she wanted to. Amadea wondered how they had been trained for this; sure, she knew the professors had probably taken loads of courses on their respective subjects but did they learn how to deal with a student who randomly walked into their classroom and started sobbing? It sure seemed like the answer was yes, because Professor Galim was handling this situation particularly well. Amadea knew that if this had been herself, she would have been so taken aback and felt so awkward. Maybe that was why she wasn't a professor.

"Well, I don't know if you know this," Amadea said, "But my father passed away last fall." She could say it without getting choked up; this was an improvement. She wasn't sure how many of her professors were aware of the situation; she had notified the school and then gone pretty much MIA except for receiving her assignments by owl and completing them. Of course, they all probably knew since she wasn't showing up to class and they probably needed to know why, but Amadea didn't know if they knew all of the specifics. "I stayed home from school for a while after that," she said. "It's been...really hard," Amadea continued. "I didn't really know....well I guess no one really knows until it happens. But I didn't realize it was going to be so hard. Well, I guess I kind of figured, losing someone important is a really big deal...I guess I didn't realize like. How much it would affect me for so long?" She was rambling at this point. "Anyway, I'm back now, but I guess I just feel kind of weird. Like I don't know who I am anymore. And like the whole world has just kept living and time has kept going by but I feel like I'm constantly behind, like I'm living in the past while watching the present slip by me." Amadea had no idea if her words made any sense, or if Professor Galim would understand, but it was the best way she could put her feelings into words. And to be honest, it did kind of feel good to say it out loud.

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Muggle Studies & Meltdowns  PV Galim   Closed 

@Amadea Campbell

Ah. It was the worst of the worst. To lose a loved one. No one at a young age should lose anyone; especially someone who could have been their role model and confidant in life. The child before her had lost her father. Maya could not specifically relate to the child as she still had both of her parents. But, she could relate by other means. She was a woman of war. She had taken lives from families as well as seen families with their loved ones taken from them. She could only understand as the third party looking in. Alas, no one should lose their loved ones. No one.

Amadea was a young girl who still had a future ahead of her. She was a fourth year and was co-captain of the Quidditch team. She was headstrong, but anyone could only be strong for a period of time before they break. This was, Maya guessed, her breaking point.

"Baruch Dayan Ha'Emet. I'm sorry for your loss," Maya said quickly in one breath for the Hufflepuff to hear. She knew that the girl would not understand the beginning of her words, as it was in a different language. It was a blessing for the dead for them to be free and content in the afterlife. It was automatic for her to say, but she did not think she needed to explain her cultural language. It wasn't the time to teach. It was the time to listen.

It was easy to put together the puzzle pieces. Amadea, a muggle-born, did not want a class that reminded her of home; a memory that is constant of losing her father. But it seemed that she was still figuring herself out. She could not come to a conclusion of exactly what she was feeling. But it was normal. Losing someone is never easy, and it creates a hole in one's soul.

"Thank you for sharing with me your thoughts. It must have been difficult," she said, validating the poor girl's feelings. No matter how much it was all over the place, the fact that she tried was brave of her. In a way, she admired Amadea. Maya always had a lot on her mind, but she never chose to share it with others. How could she share with others the kills that she's made, or the deaths that she had witnessed? It wasn't easy at all and to find the right person to talk to was also difficult.

"It will take time before you will feel whole again," she started. "Miss Campbell, I will understand if you want to take a break from Muggle Studies. It might be for your best interest," she said, pushing for the girl to stray away from the class that may relive many memories. She wanted her to heal, not suffer, in her class.

"When you feel ready, you're always welcome back into my classroom," she added.

Maya realized that she wasn't even hospitable. She was not going to ask Amadea if she wanted water. Instead, she got up from the couch and walked over to a shelf near her desk that had a row of clean mugs. She took a faded yellow mug and walked over to the nearby sink. She filled it up with water and brought it back to the girl. As Maya was sitting down, she handed the mug over to her. "Here," she said with a small smile on her face.