Closed No more homework! PV Professor McLoughlin

12/10/22 • ava speaking • others speaking • mood: bad

The teacher looked quite unhappy when she saw the homework I had given her in a replacement to the real homework. She looked even more unhappy when she read the note.

“Miss Winchect, what makes you believe that I have all evening to do whatever I want?” I stared at her. If I had been expecting her to say anything, it wouldn’t have been that. I found it unnerving when she called me by my last name. Winchect. I hadnt’t done anything to get under her radar, had I?

“Do you have homework to do?” I asked her. Nope, she sure didn’t. I waited for her to respond before again continuing. “So what do you do with the rest of your night?” It was more of a rhetorical question, to be honest, but the teacher would probably respond anyway, even if I didn’t want her to.

"I cannot say anything about what homework you get from other professors, but I would like to believe that the homework I assign does not take too long and is not too difficult to complete." I stared at her. Honestly, her homework didn’t seem too difficult alone. But when it was stacked with countless other homework assignments, it felt much like a large load for every homework. I looked at her with a crinkle between my eyebrows. I didn’t like being wrong, and it felt even worse to be confronted by a teacher. I crossed my arms across my chest and stared at her with as much conviction as I could muster.

Nancy sighed at the questions from the student. She really wanted to be mad but she remembered when she was a student and hated doing homework as much as anyone else. "I do not have homework that I have to do in the evenings, but I do have plenty of work that has to be done in my free time. These plants do not take care of themselves and their are seven greenhouses. Not only that I have to grade all of the work that I pass out to you students." The blonde knew her words would probably not due much to help with how the student thought about her homework, but there was not much that she was able to do about that. Something she would be able to do was help when needed and talk to the other professors about the amount of homework students were getting.

"How about this?" Nancy spoke softly, keeping her voice as calm as possible. "I will speak to the other professors about the amount of homework that is being given out and compare it to the amount of homework I am giving out. I am not promising anything, but maybe we can come to an agreement on getting homework done. You do still need to get this homework done though, so come here tomorrow for a detention and you can do the homework then." The Herbology professor thought that was an appropriate punishment because it was not like the girl had caused a riot or broke something, just simply did not do her homework. She did hope the girl understood where she was coming from though and accepted her answer.

The professor was getting on her nerves, barely reacting to her. Ava wanted a reaction! On any other day though, she would applaud the professor’s cool. Hogwarts needed professors like her, ones that knew how to handle situations like this. She wouldn’t be pointing that out now, though. Afterall, you didn’t sympathize with the enemy. Truthfully, she didn’t really think the herbology professor in particular was her enemy, but she certainly was a convenient target.

"Well clearly, if it takes up your entire evening to plan and grade the homework, you’re assigning too much?" Ava tried, ignoring the part about taking care of the greenhouse plants. Sure, that had to be difficult, but in her classes the students were usually tasked with taking care of plants at their grade level. With that many hands helping, surely it wasn’t that difficult to tend them all. How many plants could the greenhouses possibly hold?

Not only did the professor keep her cool, but she also offered to take it up with the other professors. Ava had been looking for someone to pile and blame her problems on, and she wanted a reaction. She got a reaction, but not the one she wanted. She wanted the professor to get angry at her, then she could get angry at the professor.

Finally seeming satisfied, or maybe having lost her temper without reaction, she nodded. "Thanks, Professor." Ava decided to say, and she really meant it, despite how she had been acting earlier. She did catch the part about serving a detention, and sighed. "That’s fair." She said, and nodded her agreement.