A Helping Hand

The next few weeks flew by in a blur, and before I knew it, December was upon us, and Christmas break was rapidly approaching. Unfortunately, translating the journal was proving harder than I imagined, as my friends didn't have much time to help. It seemed like our teachers resented the two weeks we would be missing and were determined to force everyone to make up for the time we would be missing.

One night I found myself pouring over the journal in the Ravenclaw common room. Sick of trying to translate the scribbled writings of a madman, I rubbed my eyes in frustration.

Across from me I heard someone snicker, really annoyed at whoever was mocking my struggles, I turned and found Jessica sitting on the couch across from me acting all innocent.

Scowling at her, I complained, "Stop distracting me, I'm trying to concentrate."

Smirking at me, Jessica teased, "What's wrong? Finally, come across something you aren't instantly good at."

Pointing towards the journal, I grumbled, "Oh shut up, you can't imagine how difficult this is."

Jessica came over and sat next to me and asked, "What are you doing? That doesn't look like any of the homework we have to turn in. Unless you're taking a class I'm unaware of."

Glaring hatefully at the journal, I replied, "It's not; it's a personal project. I'm trying to translate this old journal I found. It's been incredibly difficult to translate."

Curious, Jessica asked, "What language is it in."

Closing the journal in frustration, I replied, "Latin."

Jessica's green eyes twinkled, and a delighted look appeared on her face. Shooting me a smug grin, she bragged, "Looks like I finally found something that I'm better at than you. I just so happen to be fluent in Latin."

Wanting to defend myself, I argued, "I wouldn't necessarily say that your better at this than me; I just haven't learned Latin yet."

Examining her pink fingertips like she didn't have a care in the world, she asked innocently, "Is that anyway to ask someone a favor?"

Fighting an urge to strangle her, I had mentally weighed my desire to have the journal translated or telling her to stuff it. In the end, I decided that having the journal translated was more important to me.

Sliding the journal over, I asked, "Do you think you could translate it for me."

Leaning forward, Jessica carefully opened the journal and started perusing the journal. After a few minutes, I asked impatiently, "Well, can you understand it?"

Flipping her long raven-hair to the side, she looked up and grinned mischievously, "Sure, but I seem to remember some a promise you made earlier in the year to help me out with my spell work. So, I propose a trade, I'll translate this for you, and you help me out with my transfiguration."

Not seeing any issues, I replied, "Deal."

Always happy to practice magic, I asked, "Want to get started right now."

Beaming at me, she replied, "Sure, I'd love to."

Not sure where to begin, I asked, "What do you even need help my help with? From what I've seen, you seem to be ahead of the rest of our peers."

Jessica huffed and replied immediately, " Not as far ahead as you are."

Jessica paused for a moment gathering her thoughts before saying, "I don't know? How about explaining how you don't seem to have any trouble when Professor McGonagall moves you on to a new object. When you moved on from matches to feathers, it didn't seem to faze you at all. Every time I move to a new object, it's like I regress back to the beginning, and it takes me awhile to get the hang of it all over again. How do you do it?"

As Jessica grumbled, I considered her complaint before carefully responding, "I don't think I should be the standard that you compare yourself to. It's not really a fair comparison."

Jessica's green eyes narrowed dangerously after hearing my response. Holding up my hand to stop her protest, I went on, "I'm not bragging, I just have a thorough understanding of my abilities. If you compare yourself to all the other students in our year, I'd imagine that you are one of the top students."

Jessica's jaw clenched in annoyance, and she asked, "Are you going to help me or not?"

Seeing how stubborn she was being, I decided she needed a small demonstration. So, I said, "It all comes down to the mathematical transfiguration formula." Pulling out a quill and some parchment, I quickly wrote out, T = (W*C/V*A)Z.

Seeing the formula, she groaned, "Of course, I know the stupid formula. T is the final representation of the transfigured object. W represents your wand power, which is based on the individual traits of a wand, such as wood type, core, thickness and length, C is mental concentration, V represents viciousness, which represents the liveliness of an object, A is the mass of the object and Z is currently an unknown factor. We know it affects the formula, but no one has figured it out.

Nodding in agreement, I said, "Exactly, that is what I use to help with my transfiguration."

Jessica sputtered in protest, "But it's just a theoretical representation of the spell, it doesn't actually do anything."

Shaking my head in disagreement, I said, "You're missing the point, while it's true you technically don't actually need the formula. It still gives you a good indication how much concentration and energy to use in the spell. Transfiguration is one of the most difficult branches of magic, it's not like the other disciplines at all, if you put too much energy in, or too little, and things can go seriously wrong with the spell. Not to mention the enormous amount of mental concentration that you need to have when picturing the transfiguration. Mastering the formula is half the battle because it lets you free up some of your concentration so that you can focus more on the actual transfiguration."

Mulling over my words, she questioned, "But last week when you were given a new object, I didn't see you do any calculation."

Raising my eyebrow at her, I asked, "Are you sure about that? Just how close have you been watching me."

Her face reddened, and she sputtered, "I always keep a close eye on my competition, and I'm sure you didn't do any calculations."

Knowing that she wouldn't be satisfied unless I revealed the truth, but also not wanting to crush her dream of outperforming me I gently said, "I did do the calculation, I just did it in my head, it only took about 20 seconds. I've always had a good head for numbers."

Jessica looked shaken at my explanation, and after a moment, she replied weakly, "But, its not just a matter of doing the calculations. There is information that is specific to every object; you need to find before doing the calculation, like the mass, and the viciousness of the object."

Shaking my head gently, I informed her. "Remember, the formula doesn't have to be exact, all the formula really indicates is how difficult the spell is going to be, and it's a good estimate on how much energy you need to put into the spell. So, when you're figuring out the mass if you're close that's fine, and I have been practicing estimating the mass of objects. As for figuring out the level of viciousness an object has. I have a near perfect memory, and there are books that give out the level of viciousness of all sorts of material. For example, let's say you're trying to transfigure stone; it's viciousness's base level is 1.5. Now having done all that, all I have to do is plug in the numbers and run the calculations in my head. That's why you don't ever see me calculating the formula in class."

For the first time since I had known her, some of the fire left her eyes, and she hopelessly mumbled, "How the hell am I supposed to compete with that. I'm never going to be able to catch up."

See her crestfallen expression made me sympathize with her. I knew she was under tremendous pressure from her parents to be number 1 in our class. Knowing that she needed a push, I said, "All you need to do is practice."

She scoffed at me, and bitterly replied, "How is practice going to help me? There is no way I can do the formula in my head."

Shaking my head, I replied, "Sure you can, when you were younger, and you start learning how to do basic mathematics, I imagine, you had to do the problems on parchment. But eventually, you got good enough to do it in your head. This is no difference, it may take you longer to get down, but if you do it enough, I'm sure you can do it."

Mulling over my words, some of the fire came back to her eyes, and looking me in the eyes she swore, "Just you wait, one day I'm going to surpass you, and the top spot will be mine."

Glad she was back to her normal self, I smirked and teased, "I'll be waiting."

We spent the rest of the evening practicing; I was surprised how much fun we had. I love hanging out with my other friends, but they just don't have the same passion about learning magic, but I found with Jessica, a kindred spirit for discovering the deeper mysteries of magic.

The next day I found my friends and told them the good news about Jessica being able to help translate the journal and that hopefully, she would have it finished before we left for the winter holiday.

Alicia let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thank heavens, I have had enough of trying to translate the writings of a madman."

Cedric silently nodded in agreement, but Anna narrowed her eyes and whispered, "You didn't tell her everything, did you? What makes you think you can trust her? She could give the journal to anyone."

Defending myself, I said, "Of course not, I just told her it's an old journal I was trying to translate. Besides, she wouldn't do that; I bet you would like her, she is pretty interesting to hang out with."

Anna's lavender eyes glared balefully at me, and she said through her gritted teeth, "I doubt it."

I was a little confused about Anna's reaction; this was supposed to be good news. Just the other day, she was complaining about being forced to learn Latin on top of Arabic. Now we would have the journal translated in a couple of weeks, and she didn't have to do a thing. What was she so annoyed about?

I sent a wordless plea for help towards Cedric; he always seemed to know how to diffuse Anna when she got worked up. Across the table, Cedric looked at me with pity, next to him was Alicia, who looked amused by the whole situation.

Luckily, Cedric came to my timely rescue like the good bro that he was and quickly changed the subject to the upcoming quidditch match later today. He said, "So who do you think is going to win later today, Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?"

Anna looked annoyed at the obvious change of subject, but before she could say anything, Alicia piped up and said, "Gryffindor, of course, we've got the best team." Shooting me a sly grin she added, Besides, you know Ravenclaw students are too busy with their noses in books, to be competitive quidditch players."

Even though I knew Alicia was trying to get a rise out of me, I decided that her quip needed answering, Sneering back at her I said, "Oh ya, I'm surprised your dull-headed team can even find their way to the quidditch field."

Anna, always happy to smear the Gryffindors, let go of her annoyance of the quick topic change and added slyly, "The best team? Didn't Slytherin flatten you guys earlier this year? I think that it is pretty obvious that Slytherin is the best team."

Cedric wanting to defend the Hufflepuff team, shook his head and added, "I don't know if I would agree with you on that. I think that Hufflepuff might have a shot at the cup this year."

Anna and Alicia looked at each other in astonishment, then simultaneously burst out laughing. A stubborn look appeared on Cedric's face, and he defended, "You never know, it could be their year." Shooting me a look of hope, he added, "Right, Alex?"

It took all of my willpower not to make a face at his declaration of a possible victory for the Hufflepuff team. For the first time in a while, one of my rules to live by, flashed across my mind.

Rule 51, always backup your bro, no matter what, even if he's delusional."

Hoping that my friends couldn't tell that the big smile I had on was fake, I nodded sagely and said as earnestly as possible, "Absolutely, all that would have to happen, is for Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin to lose the rest of their matches, Why Hufflepuff pretty much has the championship locked down.

Anna and Alicia shot each other looks of confusion; they couldn't tell if I was serious or not. After a moment they both scoffed, and the lighthearted bickering continued. As I watched my friends continue arguing about who has the best team and who would win the quidditch cup, I couldn't help but smile and be grateful for the friends I had.