Saturday evening was traditionally when Hogwarts students (perhaps minus certain Ravenclaws and those with rapidly-approaching exams) let loose and blew off some steam. So naturally, Pax was doing homework.

Curled up in one of the comfy armchairs, with A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration on one side of the table and two bags of sweets on the other, and his little grey cat Vesper batting at his quill, Pax felt a little dead-ended. The slowly-forming essay before him was attempting to 'Discuss the theory behind transfiguring food, and some of its practical applications', but much as Pax could stretch out the essay by waffling about the practical applications of this subject, it didn't solve the problem that he was still having trouble actually practically applying that particular transfiguration. Specifically, he was having trouble applying it to a bag of peppermint cremes, which he was trying to turn into strawberry cremes.

He had been alternately working on his essay and trying to transfigure the chocolates for about half an hour now. Trying to persuade himself that this time, he would manage it, he unwrapped one strawberry creme and one peppermint, popped the former into his mouth, and, trading his quill for his wand, muttered the necessary incantation, and performed the wand movement that was supposed to make the peppermint creme change flavour. But after trying for a good few minutes, the strawberry creme in his mouth had melted, and the one on the table was still stubbornly mint-flavoured. Pax sighed, swallowed the strawberry chocolate, and then ate the peppermint one as well to console himself. 'Pretty pathetic, huh Vesper?' he said around a mouthful of chocolate. Vesper didn't take any notice of him; she was too busy playing with the newly-relinquished quill.

Gazing distractedly about him, Pax noticed Mary Beth sitting nearby, and gave her a half-hearted sort of wave. 'Hey Mary Beth,' he greeted her, having first finished off his chocolate. 'How're you getting on with the Transfig homework?' Like him, Mary Beth didn't seem to have the easiest time keeping up with classes, and Pax genuinely wondered how she was faring with the workload for what was one of the most difficult classes for him.

Mary Beth ran her hand through her hair, staring with wide and frustrated eyes at a pile of rocks, marbles, and pieces of glass. Apparently she had some kind of... well, she had known kids at home who had learning disabilities, who couldn't speak right or who couldn't quite use their hands in the right way. Maybe there was something similar that just was put together wrong in her, something that forced her to transform delicious candy into hard, inedible junk. The thing that really ate her up was that she was actually a pretty fair cook, and she'd been sure that the skill would transfer over. Nope. No cigar.

She was also all thumbs at using a quill. She had spilled ink on her essays and been forced to start all over. At home she didn't have a computer but she could use the one at the library. No ink. No problem. Just backspace and start over. In this instance, she had written out seven or so clumsy sentences of mostly abject shite about the "mysteries" of transfiguration, the same types of things she had written to fluff up essays in the past.

"Hey, Mary Beth," she heard Pax's voice from the other end of the common room and perked up. At times like these even the smallest distraction was like water in a desert.

"Howreya, Pax?" she looked up with a defeated grin.

"How're you getting on with the Transfig homework?"

She snorted and scooped up a handful of her hard failure, allowing the rocks and pebbles and various debris clatter back down to the table. "Absolutely massive," she sighed. "I feel like Charlie Brown over here," she added, no longer expecting to ever get a reply for her stupid muggle references. "What about you, any luck?"

'Heh, Charlie Brown was lucky, he never had to transfigure anything,' Pax replied with a lopsided grin. Much as he liked Professor Tawse, even after only a few lessons, there was no ignoring the fact that Transfiguration was still arguably Pax's worst subject. Seeing no sense in having a conversation from opposite ends of the room, Pax scooped up his things and ambled over to his classmate.

'It's been going nowhere for me, as usual,' he said as he joined Mary Beth. Vesper promptly jumped up on his shoulder, no doubt wondering what Pax had done with 'her' quill. 'At least you're turning them into something,' he said in what he hoped was an encouraging tone of voice, gesturing to the collection of not-sweets. 'So you're doing better than me. Mine don't change at all, they're still peppermint. Want one?' he added, holding out the bag of peppermint cremes to her. Difficult though he found the assignment, at least he got to eat his failures.

She grinned. "Maybe you could just say you started out with strawberry cremes," she giggled. "D'you think anybody'd know the difference?" She popped a peppermint creme in her mouth and sucked on it a while before biting down on it. It was nice to be around someone who was having as much trouble as she was. She didn't want anyone to be doing bad, but she also kinda didn't want to be the only one.


"Hey, pretty girl," she cooed to the cat. Mary Beth loved animals and was, as of late, sorely missing her dog. He was an old grouch and she was constantly worried that he would pass away while she was at school. Even the billion photos she had tacked above her bed didn't really help.

"How much do you think he'd take off for making broken glass instead of candy?"

'Depends on how you spin it,' Pax replied with a grin, absentmindely helping himself to a peppermint creme too. 'I mean, the ones you turned into pebbles, you could say you were trying for rock candy and the spell just went a bit too literal.' Vesper, meanwhile, at the offer of attention, had nimbly leapt off Pax's shoulder and started nosing around Mary Beth's ankles in the way cats usually do when they want to be petted. 'Vess,' Pax tutted. 'Sorry, she's a bit forward. Don't think you two ever got formally introduced; Mary Beth, Vesper. Vesper, Mary Beth. Ignore her if she's bugging you, she'll lose interest.'

He picked up one of the marbles, examining it as the light hit it. 'You know, they may not be sweets, but they are pretty. If we were meant to be turning sweets into stones I'll bet you'd get really high marks. Hey,' he chuckled a little a random thought occurred to him. 'I wonder what'd happen if you tried to transfigure them into stones? Maybe they'd turn into sweets instead.'

The exercise in futility had worn on Mary Beth's normally very hearty nerves. Pax's encouragement, however, was a welcome refreshment for her morale. She giggled at the thought. "Should I say I was trying for marble cake, too? I'd believe me!"

"Bugging me?" she reached down to nuzzle the adorable kitty under her neck. "Course not, I'm always knee-deep in barn cats back home." It was true; every time she went to go feck off with ears of corn there was a cat waiting to be scratched. "My dog, at home, the second I get a bite to eat he's stickin' his big mug in it. It's nice havin' animals around again," she smiled.

"Well, let's just hope that's the next lesson. And I'm worried if I try to make rocks I'll end up with something even worse- snakes or a big fire or something. Have you had one backfire on you yet?"

'Fire and snakes would still be pretty impressive, though,' Pax insisted. Absentmindedly, he resumed practicing the wand movement for transfiguring food. He was thinking about Mary Beth's question, about spells backfiring. Had any of his spells ever had enough of an effect to really backfire? It wasn't as though he couldn't make magic happen at all, there were a few spells he'd got the hang of and he did manage to just about keep up with the class, though it took a lot of extra work.

'Well, I-- I guess there was this one time, I was trying to use the Colour-Change Charm on this little doll-house chair I'd painted. See, I wanted to try a different colour scheme, and I can kinda sorta do the Colour-Change Charm, at least a little, but um...' He grinned sheepishly. He hadn't mentioned this to any of the other first-years before; it was a bit embarrassing. Mary Beth was used to spells not working too, though, so she was unlikely to give him a hard time about it. 'I tried it while the paint was still wet. The paint didn't change colour, it just, well, flew off the wood, splattered everywhere.' He chuckled a little; he had been mortified at the time, but now he could see the humour in the situation. 'Ended up having to ask one of the seventh-years to Scourgify the dorm. And my school robes.'

Leaning back in the chair, Pax continued idly flicking his wand to and fro. Ordinarily, Vesper would have been watching the wooden stick like a hawk, waiting to pounce, but she was currently busy making herself at home on Mary Beth's lap. 'Y'know, apart from the mess, it was actually kinda nice to have something properly happen when I waved my wand.' He looked over at Mary Beth, eyebrows raised a little in curiosity. 'It's not always rocks you end up with, is it? I mean, what happens when you try stuff like charms, or defence spells?' Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts were probably tied for Pax's second-worst subject. So much of his class time was spent just trying to master spellwork that he didn't always notice how his classmates were faring.

Mary Beth laughed at Pax's story, but not unkindly. It was her firmly held belief that hard work involved getting dirty anyway, and learning was no exception. "You can't make an omelet without breakin' a few eggs," she shrugged, smiling. "My da always says that mistakes are way better than successes, because you can learn from them. So I feel like the two of us will be champions at this rate."

Having an animal around was good for her soul. There was a certain amount of unconscious heartache that had been eating at her for a while. Being separated from a pet was like losing a part of yourself. She idly nuzzled the cat in between talking, scratching between her shoulderblades and stroking her little kitty cheeks. Being a cat must be absolutely deadly, she thought to herself.

"Oh," she rubbed her forehead at his question. "God. I snuck into a classroom to try and turn a mouse into a snuffbox without everybody watching me muck it up, and... like, I don't even know how this happened, but I managed to turn it into a swarm of angry bees," she admitted. "I just slammed the door behind me and left. Nasty surprise for whoever came in there next! And I'm not nearly quick enough to be good at Defense Against the Dark Arts... Thinking on my feet sure isn't my strong point. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be complete shite at everything except flying and care of magical creatures by the time I graduate from this big bowl of failure," she giggled. "What do you want to do when you graduate?"

Pax beamed at Mary Beth's comments about mistakes being better than success. That was a fantastic way to think of it! He liked the sound of her dad; from that one piece of advice, he reminded Pax a little of his own father. Always with the reminders on how to focus on how to improve rather than dwell on what went wrong.

He had to cover his mouth to stifle a laugh as Mary Beth traded back her own Spell Gone Wrong incident (nearly poking his eye out with his wand in the process). It wasn't that he found Mary Beth's lack of success in her endeavour amusing, but there was something so cartoonishly funny about the mental image of a swarm of bees materialising as if from nowhere. He decided he'd got off rather lightly with just getting paint all over his dorm room.

'Ooh,' Pax murmured ponderously at Mary Beth's question, tapping his wand thoughtfully against his chin. (With all this talk of spells backfiring, one may have thought he'd be more careful where he pointed his wand. But then, he really was quite used to it accomplishing nothing.) 'Well... I mean, don't tell any of the Gryffindors, they'd probably make fun... But I think it might be nice to work for the Ministry, in wizard-creature relations. Like, y'know making sure werewolves and vampires and merfolk and all them are treated fairly? I think that'd be something I could do. And it probably wouldn't need too much spellwork, so that'd be a plus,' he added with a self-effacing grin.

'Why? What do you want to do?' He gave her a sidelong glance, smiling a little at how she got along with Vesper. 'You're good with animals, are you thinking you might do something to do with that?' She did already know she wanted to take COMC, something Pax was still uncertain about.

Mary Beth, on more than one occasion, had felt an overwhelming urge to leave school and go back to her home, way in the middle of nothing, crammed full of people. She missed having a fridge and going to see movies. More than that, even, she missed having a set of smart and capable parents. Teachers and older kids didn't really fit the same bill. "Wow, it's totally dorky to be homesick at age twelve, right?"

She grinned widely at hearing his career aspirations. "That's you in a nutshell," she said. "I think you'd be deadly at that job, Pax." And she did. She could very easily see him at the head of a huge campaign for the rights of werewolves or whatever.

"Is it weird if I say I'll probably just go back to work on the cattle ranch where my parents live?" She gave Vesper a series of nuzzling scratches behind her ears. "At this point, I don't think I'm qualified for any of these jobs. I mean, would you hire me?" The ranch was also way more comfortable- she had castrated animals, helped animals give birtth, groomed them, and done just about everything else, too. "I'm just not sure that I'm cut out for working in this....world."

Pax grinned in a pleased sort of way at Mary Beth's compliment. He'd never been called 'deadly' at anything before, it had a nice, impressive feel to it. The smile subsided into a concerned expression in fairly short order though. He lowered his wand and leaned forward attentively.

'It... wouldn't be weird,' he replied, thinking carefully through what she said. 'I mean, if you'd be happy doing that, and good at it, then why not, right? But I don't think you have to worry about not being qualified for stuff, I mean, we're only first-years. We've got plenty of time to improve.' Pax hoped six more years would be long enough for him to at least get the basics of wandwork down.

'And 'sides, for the record,' he added with a lopsided grin, 'I would totally hire you. You could be a flying tutor! You're wicked on a broomstick. And that's without even being born into a wizarding family.' He had the awful inkling that perhaps Mary Beth felt she wasn't good enough at being a witch, and in Pax's mind that couldn't be farther from the truth. He was certain that  every witch and wizard was good at magic, just in different ways. And Mary Beth did seem to have a natural aptitude when it came to flying and animals, both of which could be valuable in the wizarding world.

Mary Beth fiddled with her quill and grinned. Nobody had really paid her a compliment on anything she'd done here so far. Not that she thought she deserved one, but it felt very gratifying. She knew Pax was the type that took joy in making others feel better; at the same time, though, that didn't make his words any less sincere.

It wasn't that she was afraid or necessarily ashamed of herself regarding her lack of skills. She knew she tried her best and if she tried her best and failed maybe it was God's way of telling her that it just wasn't for her. Apparently some people thought that was something to be ashamed of, and one or two people had insinuated as such. In her typical sunny-side-up disposition she never took any failures to heart. "You're probably right," she giggled. "Wouldn't it be funny if we were, like, the best in our year by 7th year? I mean, it could happen."

"You're full of it," she said jokingly. "No one wants to hire a swarm of bees." Eating another bite of candy, she held up one hand in confusion. "Wait a minute, why aren't we going flying together like all the time?"

'Don't knock a swarm of bees, I'll bet they'd come in really handy as a defence spell. Or if you, I dunno, wanted to make honey or something...' Pax was still smiling at the idea of him and Mary Beth being best in the class by the end of seventh year. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility, after all! Although, he suspected Eirene would never forgive him if he got better marks than her.

'And believe me, I'd love to be out flying right now. I bet we'd be doing a whole lot more of it if it weren't for all the homework.' Pax pulled a face. He really did understand the necessity for homework, and he'd rather spend a great deal of his spare time studying than fall behind in class. But when it came to practicing the same spell over and over and over with no success, the whole process became a little wearing.

 'I'm so gonna make the most of not having school this summer. I'm gonna practice flying every day. I, um...' Pax smiled a little sheepishly. He wasn't in the habit of sharing his pipe dreams; they always seemed a little too far out of reach. 'I'm going to try out for the Quidditch team next year, y'see.' Popping another peppermint creme in his mouth, he tilted his head appraisingly at Mary Beth. 'Have you ever thought about trying out?'

"If I could only figure out how to ....bee..keep....... them, I bet people'd pay for honey made by magic bees," she giggled. Though she thought it'd be neat to be at the head of the class, the more she mulled it over the more she realized that she'd rather it be someone who really cared about doing well in school. Trying her best was always the plan, but when failure resulted it was rarely a genuine upset for her.

She wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, I reckon it'll get a little worse before it gets better," she said, slightly dreading it. She fully planned to shove her studies toward non-wandwork related classes in her latter years, but for the time being it was a parade of misfires. "I feel worse for people taking their big exams," she folded her arms. Thinking about the approach of OWLs and later NEWTs, no matter how far off they were for her, always intimidated her. "I think I'll probably be chain smoking by then."

The idea of going out for Quidditch had in fact entered her mind on several occasions. She had always suspected she'd make a good Beater. "I dunno," she said sheepishly, grinning. "I'd like to! It'd be really nice to have a way to take the things I'm good at and put them out there. ...And, Hufflepuff seems to be down a man or two," she added. "I think I've gotten a handle on the rules enough. What position do you want to go after?"

'Heh, yeah, Hufflepuff haven't had the best luck keeping all the positions filled this year,' Pax agreed, keeping his tone casual but still looking a little bit worried nonetheless. 'I'm sure Mysti'll manage to pull in enough players in time for the match next week though... Well, I hope...' It wasn't exactly a secret that Hufflepuff had needed to scramble a little for players. Heck, if Pax had been a better flyer, he probably would have volunteered by now.

'Me, I think... I think I'd quite like to be a Seeker. I mean, I could probably handle being a Chaser, but I'm not the best as passing, so it'd be good not to have to worry about the quaffle. I mean, obviously I'd have to be a lot faster if I wanted to be Seeker, but...' He spread his hands in a shrugging gesture, then resumed fidgetting with his wand, a little self-conscious. 'It's something to aim for. What about you, d'you have a position in mind?' Pax was quite pleased Mary Beth also seemed interested in trying out; he'd been worried about being the only second-year in Hufflepuff trying.