Usual lessons were cancelled, replaced by a gruelling, nerve-shaking interrogation, thinly disguised as 'essay consultations'. Yes, those dreaded essays Austerlitz had set two months previously had been rigorously marked, red ink staining every inch of parchment possible. Everybody knew that the professor would be a harsh examiner, and the results had been... interesting. Of course, there were the few diamonds in the rough; students who showed potential, but Austerlitz had not been blown away by any of the manuscripts on offer. And then, on the opposite side, there had been some utter disasters. Unstructured writing, unconvincing arguments, unresearched assumptions and a writing style with enough grammatical errors to make the old woman's toes curl. On some unfortunate essays, Hildegarde had cringed. How were some young people so stupid?

Professor Austerlitz neatly arranged the essays for this consultation group, spreading them out in a neat line in front of her on the desk. She flicked her eyes over each one momentarily as a final reminder of the names. Flickwick - the girl had potential, but there was a distinct disinterest. Young - mediocre, and laced with syntactical errors. Dark - another average performer. And finally, Knight. She grinned, noting how his work had altered since their... conflict. She had to admit, the boy was trying.

The Medusa of Hogwarts reclined in her chair, drumming fingers against one another in contemplating. She gazed at the clock at the opposite end of the room, counting down the seconds. They had thirty seconds to arrive. After that, nobody would be allowed in. This group were one of the least problematic, the middle-grounders that needed improvement but hadn't utterly offended in their writing. Just a few errors that needed correcting.

Professor Austerlitz couldn't say the same for other groups, however.

-- Uniform. --

---

History. What a load of bollocks. Beatrix Dark usually made top scores, being the clever Ravenclaw she was... Except in History. History was by far the most boring subject Bea had ever taken. She would be dropping it so fast, the monster they called a "Professor" would... probably not be surprised at all, actually. Bea hardly participated in the class, let alone showed her giggly demeanor. Beatrix was a zombie in History of Magic. And not the good, brain-eating kind. She was simply quiet with her eyes glazed over and her head propped up by her fist. She passed the class with average grades, which drove her mad, but at least she wasn't failing.

Beatrix expected to get all O's and E's on her OWLs. Except for History. She would probably get a taunting A on her History OWL. Beatrix wanted to know about the past Wizard wars and Goblin revolutions... But she couldn't force herself to actually pay attention. It was boring. It had always been boring. She only wished the information would present itself in a non-boring fashion, but that was nearly impossible. Beatrix was stuck being average in that class.

So when the one-eyed monster History Professor called Beatrix to her room, she was definitely feeling a bit anxious. Her essay hadn't been dreadful, but she probably got some of the facts wrong. She had studied quite a lot, but she knew she couldn't get her active mind to keep it all in. That was Bea's issue... She was forgetful. But when she actually remembered, she could be rather marvelous. But Beatrix knew, deep down, that she was going to be chewed out for writing something wrong. Beatrix was creative with her writing, very easy to read and digest... But if only History wasn't so boring.

Bea clambered in earlier than the rest of her classmates, only mere seconds before them. The pink-haired girl locked eyes with Austerlitz, sitting by herself in her room. Beatrix smiled, warily, and sat down in one of the seats in front of her. Beatrix wasn't necessarily afraid, but she felt uneasy around the Professor. Hardly any Professor struck a nerve with Bea as Austerlitz did. In fact, no Professors did. She was the only one that made Beatrix fearful of what was going to happen.

Naturally, Bea's pink hair started to darken to a solid black. At least it matched her uniform.

Beatrix smiled once more, her skinny fingers wrapping around the fringe of her skirt. "Good evening, Professor Austerlitz," she said, blue eyes round with anxiety and fear, "Fine weather we're having, yes... Well... Kind of..." It was still rather cold out. Bea's gaze threatened to drop, but she knew she had to stay respectful and strong. She placed her bag to her feet before flattening out her skirt and fingering the fringe once more. Her uneasy smile flattened to a mere grin.

She didn't know why she was so worried. It must have been the presence of the monster that put her on edge.