Homework

Rose gazed out over the lake, breathing in the fresh air it always seemed to provide. It was a clear day, with only a couple of fluffy clouds in the sky. Maybe this was the kind of day that most people would be swimming in the Great Lake, but the lake on Hogwarts' grounds was not just any lake. It was actually a very dangerous lake, with a giant squid, merpeople, and grindylows. Everyone in their right mind, and most people that weren't, didn't dare step into the Great Lake. It was rare for one to swim in there.

Plus, it was icy cold. Rose had been peer pressured into jumping in the lake once, and it had been as cold as ice. Rose had been surprised her blood hadn't frozen over in that moment. To be fair, that had been the fall, but being at the end of winter, Rose was sure that it would be the same today.

But her eye caught on somebody who seemed to be struggling with their homework. A girl. Maybe a first year? Rose couldn't just stand there and not help her, it was against her morals. She sucked up her courage and approached the girl, greeting her with a "Hi." Hopefully this would catch the girl's attention. "Um, do you need some help there? You look like you could use a hand in doing your homework. Uh, no offense, of course- I just..." Rose trailed off, waiting for the girl's response to her oh-so eloquent statements. Maybe this wasn't a good idea anyway.

Rose listened to Taylor explain that she hadn't been listening in class since she had been looking at a guy. Rose hadn't ever done that, to be honest. She usually kept her eyes on the teacher and her focus on the class. She seemed a little awkward, a little bashful. "Don't worry, it happens to the best of us," Rose told her with a gentle smile.

Rose was about to ask her what year she was in, because if she was a third year or higher, Rose couldn't help her with her homework. But if she was a first or second year, Rose certainly could. But before she could ask the question, Rose was asked if she knew what the three basic rules in Charms were. The redhead nodded. She remembered those from her first year. Then Taylor started to trail off, rambling. Rose really wasn't sure if her words were important to their conversation, but she waited until Taylor was done, engaged and listening to her words. Once the girl stopped talking, Rose spoke up to tell her the answer to the question that had come up earlier. "No, it's no problem. I remember them from last year. They're..." she paused to think, counting the three off on her fingers. "Concentrate on the spell, enunciate the incantation, and be exact with your wand movements."

Darn it, Rose forgot to introduce herself. Usually she did it as an instinct right as she approached someone, so she added casually, "I'm Rose, by the way." But what if this girl already knew that? What if they had met before and Rose had just forgotten? Rose cocked her head at Taylor, saying, "I hope you don't mind me asking, but you're a first year, right? I would feel really bad if you were a second year in one of my classes and I didn't recognize you."

The redheaded girl lowered herself to the ground across from the girl, not close enough to make her uncomfortable, but not far away enough that it felt like she was avoiding the girl due to some kind of disease. Which she wasn't. The girl looked really pretty and very kind, too. "Is there anything else you're stuck on?" Rose asked, wanting to help as much as possible. She remembered when she was in her first year, and she wished she had someone to fill her in on the lesson while she had been daydreaming, which happened only once or twice during the year. Rose had pushed through, though, and asked her older sister, and she knew that it was nice to have someone help you with your homework.

Rose didn't want to give all the answers straight to Taylor. That would be cheating on homework, and Rose didn't want to participate in that. She knew that some people- well, a lot of people- copied each other's homework, paraphrasing for the teachers that they knew would catch anything that was word for word, so Rose hesitated first, only for a split second. Taylor, who she still hadn't been informed of her name yet, wouldn't be able to see. "I'm pretty sure all those answers to your questions are in your textbook. You can just look up the spell real quick and find the answers there," she suggested. "I think you doing that would be easier for you to remember it later than me feeding you the answers." She said this casually and gently, like she said other things.

But she had to help Taylor somehow! She couldn't just offer help and then say she couldn't help, that would not only be incredibly rude, but just straight-up wrong. What kind of person would do that? A selfish person, that's who.

"Do you want me to show you the spells so that you can observe the incantation and stuff?" she offered, pulling her wand out of her pocket and into her lap.