a little bit of everything - open

Aubri was panicking. Straight up, full blown, hyperventilating panic. She was standing outside of a classroom twenty minutes earlier than she was supposed to be and starring down at a long list of things she is supposed to know by next weeks final exam. She honestly didn't know how she could possible have learned all that through out the year. She didn't retain even a little bit of it. Shaking, she tried to roll of the parchment and ended up crumbling it into a ball and shoving it back into her bag.

The classroom entrances were usually pretty empty this early in the morning, which was why Isaac was there. Quiet spaces always allowed him to study better and with exams coming up he needed to do a lot of that. Of course someone had to be there, but that was alright. From the looks of it they may need the relaxing atmosphere more than he did. "Morning!" Isaac greeted cheerfully, sliding his bag off of his shoulder and letting it fall to the floor. "Are you okay? You look stressed." He barely managed to keep himself from making a comment about test anxiety, but only by a thin margin.

Aubri vaguely recognized the boy who spoke to her. He was in her year and was super smart. She waved the crumpled mess of parchment in front of her with a look of complete defeat on her face, "The Charms exam. How...?" She sighed and looked down. trying not to cry, "There's no much to remember for the written exam and I don't think I will pass." The tears fell even though she willed them not to, "If I don't pass I might not be able to come back next year."

"Hey, don't cry. It's not that bad, promise." Times like these Isaac wished he had a sister or something like that. He didn't know what to do with a girl when she was happy, much less when she was upset. Reaching over, he carefully took hold of the piece of paper and looked at it. What was she trying to do, memorize the entire class in a week? "What you need is a good study partner and to figure out a strategy." Surely she had to know more on here than she thought, she was just too panicked to realize it.

Aubri bit her lip and shook her head, "I studied with an older girl in my house, all it did was make me feel worse about everything." She hid her face behind her hands and shuddered, feeling discouraged. She knew she shouldn't be so negative, but something about exams made her whole body feel like it was frozen in ice and all she could move was head head. Saying that aloud, though, would just make her sounds crazy.

So he was right. "You have testing anxiety. That's okay, lots of people have it and they find a way to get through things." Isaac stated factually before taking the paper away from her. "I'll study with you. It's a proven fact that students of similar ages who struggle to grasp concepts taught to them by teachers or older students tend to pick them up faster from each other. I'll learn by teaching, and you'll get the practice you need to pass the test." It was a fool proof plan, at least in his mind.

Aubri's face betrayed her concern. She was definitely the kind of person who wore their heart on their sleeve, "You really think that could work, though? I mean..." She broke of her words as her thoughts took over her mind, "I really don't know this stuff. It will be like tutoring a five year old on the alphabet."

Isaac grabbed a quill out of his backpack and looked over the list for a second before picking a place to start. "How about this. I'll go through and help you figure out if you know some of this stuff and we'll take it off your list. Then we can focus on the things you don't know, especially if what you're worried about is the written section." Finding a fairly easy one, he poised the pen on the paper. A goofy smile crossed his face as he looked up at Aubri and fired of his first question. "Alright, which charm unlocks a locked door?" It was simple and one that he found himself using every other day, so she should be able to get it.

The question automatically made her jaw clench. He was testing her, or quizzing her, which was just as bad, "Umm.." She groaned, covering her face for a moment, "Damn, I should know this...." Her blue eyes found him and she bit her lip, "Lumos?" The minute it left her mouth she knew it was wrong, Lumos was like a light or something, "No that isn't right..."

"No it isn't, but I think you know what Lumos is. Maybe we should get some flash cards or something, to help you practice definitions." Some of these kids could greatly benefit from having a muggle education, but he wasn't even sure if she was full blood. Aubri might have went to a muggle elementary school for all he knew, but if she did it didn't help her learn to study. "Lumos is Light, Alohomora opens doors. Like letting you say aloha to your room." It was a bad joke, cheesy at best, but it could help her remember it and maybe make her smile. That would be progress at least.

Through the blurry tears she couldn't help but crack a smile, "Oh what a terrible joke." She groaned, giggling as she nodded, "Alohamora...of course..." She shrugged, "I should have known that. How is it that you know everything so well?" She truly didn't understand how the Ravenclaws actually understood these things. Aubri found it was difficult to even focus on class when you were trying to hard to cast charms and such.

"I come up with stupid things like that to help me out. Kinda like when people say 'lefty loosey, righty tighty.' It's silly, but it sticks." Isaac explained as he put a minus sign beside the two charms they had listed before looking over at her. This was going to be tougher than he thought, but they could do this. Nothing was impossible. "Your turn. Wingardium Leviosa makes things float, right? Come up with something silly that makes you put those two together so that you can remember it later."

Aubri was TERRIBLE at being put on the spot. She scrunched her face up into a wrinkled mess and stared at the word like it would just speak to her or something, which of course it didn't, "Windgardium? Like wind makes thing float?" She laughed at her own terrible word, "No that is so crappy!"

Isaac laughed louder than he should have, but it was funny. Well, it was his kind of funny at least. "No, that's actually really good. I need to remember that one." His tone was encouraging, but it was still tinged with laughter. Hopefully she didn't take offense to that. "See, you're good at this. Now give me one and I'll think of something." He said, handing the paper back to her.

Aubri looked over his shoulder at the list and pointed to the first one that looked like it would be way too hard for her to think of something, "Incendio! The fire charm!" She said, giggling, "Good luck." Yeah, there was no way she was going to be able to think of something for that! She was glad she had given it to him, he seemed smarter than her anyway.