Seeking Help

Blake sighed to himself as he shuffled his feet awkwardly outside a large brown door that appeared to loom over him. He read the gold, shiny letters that spelled out Professor Henley and only succeeded in feeling more intimidated. At least it was Professor Henley's office he was camped outside, he reminded himself. She was the nicest and if he had anyone else for potion's he probably would have been miserable.

Blake had been standing outside Professor Henley’s office for an extended period of time, undecided if he doing the right thing. He hated asking for help, especially from an adult. But he knew that he was in dire need of it. He couldn’t have a repeat of the latest potion’s class. Blake was so embarrassed by his potion’s skill that he had begun to sit alone, in an attempt to hide his woefulness. His attempt lost all cause though, when every student could see the smoke and wrong colour billowing out of his cauldron. Blake could feel his own face turning beetroot as he felt more and more unconscious as the minutes had ticked by. He really was beginning to hate potion’s class due to this atrocity. Blake’s embarrassment was what had made him come to Professor Henley’s office in the first place and the embarrassment that was still fueling through him spurred him on to step forward and knock on the door.

Blake held his bated breath as he entered; half hoping the room was empty and no one would ever know that he had come in search of help.

Lucia had had a long day of paperwork, and it was rather unsatisfying to stay inside all day doing paperwork in a dark office, when you knew that only a few meters above you, the sun was shining its warm ray of light on the grass, making it warm and comfortable. She sighed and craned her neck, having sit too long in the same position. She didn't really complain though; she was having the best time in this job. She had never thought she could be this happy with anything as amazing as teaching students potions, be they good at it or bad at it.

She finally did the last piece of paperwork and stacked the papers, putting them in a drawer and looked around the room. Ah, yes, the boomslangskin in the corner was surrounded by a very strange, purply light that made you blink when you looked at it. She had mixed the poison of an acromantula together with the essence of a horned snail and added it to the boomslangskin to see what would happen under a purple neon light that caused retraction to most common ingredients.

She was broken out of her reverie at the knock on her door. She was about to call out, but the person knocking opened the door and stepped into the room. Lucia tilted her head a bit to the side, seeing Blake Ralston, a student in second year, walk inside. As he was not only her potion student, but also in her own house, she knew a lot about his background.

Lucia hadn't failed to notice his performance in her class either, but she had decided not to do anything about it. Yet. She hadn't expected him to be the one to come to her for help. If that was even the reason that he was there. He could be there for a number of reason, but by the look on his face and how much he seemed to not want to be there, she could imagine it would be the potion classes that were at fault. Unless he wanted to discuss something else of even greater importance.

"Mr. Ralston," she said in a friendly greeting, "Please, take a seat." She looked at him, wondering if he was really as uncomfortable as he might seem. She hoped this showing up won't be for some sort of a very horrible reason. "Anything I can help you with?" she asked as she took the seat on her side of the desk.

Blake's chest constricted when he seen Professor Henley at her desk. Definitley too late now. But he began to breathe with more ease once more as the professor didn't seem to mind his interruption. Quite the contray actually, she was friendly and civiliased. Blake had always found it hard to believe that teachers had a life outside of the castle as who would want to know and hang out with them? But Professor Henley seemed different, well most like a normal adult out of the teachers at Hogwarts! He was also glad that she was his head of house. Imagine having Professor Malfoy, he couldn't even look him in the eyes at class.

Blake approached Professor Henley's desk, as he was instructed to do so and remained silent until spoken to. Blake began his explanation for being there, the words rushing out of his mouth awkwardly. "Well, I don't know if you noticed." Of course she had noticed! "But my performance in potion's isn't really up to scratch." In fact its dismal. "And I was just wondering if there was anything you could do to help?" Blake gulped, waiting for a response. He hoped she wasn't about to toss him out of there and tell him to just work harder. That was what had always happened to him in muggle schools. He was labelled lazy for not always completing his homework or coming late to class. The truth was though, he never had anyone to help him with his homework so sometimes he just couldn't do it. He would never admit that it front of all his peers though.

Blake spotted some interesting artifacts in the office, out of the corner of his eye and so badly wanted to look. But he knew he needed to give the professor his full attention, for now.

Blake's word made Lucia's inner nod to herself. Just as she had expected. She gave him a small nod, knowing he was probably not very happy about having to share this information and to ask for the help he needed. But Lucia was very glad that he did. The first step to wanting to get better was to realize the fact that help had to be asked for.

She listened to him finish with a question of how he could get better and she smiled softly at him. "Of course there is," she said kindly. She was about to expand on that when the boomslangskin laced with the mix made a weird noise and exploded. The pus didn't reach the desk that Lucia and Blake were sitting at, luckily and she blinked. "Well, I did not expect that to happen," she mumbled with an apologetic smile in Blake's direction.

She took out her wand and a simple clean-up spell was all that was needed. She walked over to the explosion scene and looked down at the boomslangskin. Not a desired effect. She sighed and switched off the lamp. She then returned to her desk. "Sorry about that. I was trying out a new mixture, but not a very good one," she said lightly.

She then refocused on the matter at hand. "I know that potions might be a difficult subject for many. And to get better in it, it might help to read a book about the ingredients and see how mixtures will react if they are incorrectly prepared," she said. "But I think that what might help most is if you'd be willing to help me prepare ingredients for my classes, and get to know the ingredients better in that way. This does depend on how badly you do want to get better, because it is hard work, and if I am to let someone help me, I need them to actually really want to help." She hoped he'd understand that she meant nothing harsh about this, it was just the way potions were. However, it would also be rather great to have someone who'd be willing to help. She looked to him, wondering what he'd think of the proposal.

Blake could feel himself inaudibly sighing in relief. He hadn’t realised how nervous he had been until he noticed that he was sitting in front of the professor holding his breath. He had felt instantly better once he had shared his problems and concerns. Professor Henley’s kindness had contributed to this feeling as she smiled kindly at him, putting him more at ease now. He managed a glimpse at the surrounding artefacts as his curiosity got the better of him. And he realised that a slither of one form or another was surrounded by some weird substance and it was right next to him. How had he not noticed that? He supposed had been too intent on trying to get the words out of his mouth so he hadn’t noticed the distractions. Now that he seen it the bright colour kept catching his eyes and he kept glancing at it, attempting to discern what it was. He tried to sit forward in his seat, to obtain a better view, but before he could it gave a loud bang and Blake jumped from his seat startled. Eugh, what was that? Blake glanced up at Professor Henley to see if she had been shocked too and by the time he looked back at the mess she had cleaned it up. He turned back to face her and had his eyebrows raised slightly in question, but bit down on his lip. He was here to get help and the sooner he got it the quicker he could leave.

He laughed, slightly nervously as Professor Henley commented on the disturbance. What had she expected to happen? Was it even safe to be concocting spells in such a confined environment? What if it had hit them? She didn't seem too concerned in the least, but Blake had been burned one too many times in potions to want to start getting burned outside of the classroom too. Well I hope that wasn’t the desired outcome! Blake said to himself as he realised how close the gross looking thing was to hitting them as the professor commented on the explosion. Blake was quickly beginning to question his safety in this room as he wondered what else lay in wait to explode abruptly.

He returned his thoughts back to Professor Henley and nodded eagerly when she made the suggestion of reading material related to the subject. He could do that, in fact he loved books. That was probably one of the best suggestions yet. He had never really considered reading up on the subject a possibility as he never really expected it to help his outcome in class. Blake suppressed a groan when she continued on and suggested giving up his free time. He should’ve known reading a book wouldn’t suffice. Not the best outcome, but sure what had he expected?

“Yes, of course I can do that.” He complied, actually becoming slightly more enthusiastic already. The first barrier already overcome in his mind as she hadn't thrown him out of her office. She was offering him help, which was more than he expected, and there’s no way he could continue to suck so bad. Plus she sounded pretty positive and she wouldn’t be offering to help him if he was a hopeless case he reasoned logically. “So when will I have to start?” He asked, excited to get stuck in now. Although, he wasn't too eager on having to touch anything along the lines of what had just exploded.

Lucia could see how relieved Blake seemed to be by her offering to help him. She wondered briefly what he had expected would happen, and thought of his background again. She wondered what experience he had with asking people for help, but didn't get to think too much about it before the explosion happened and she was briefly distracted.

Lucia smiled at Blake's reaction to the experiment. She gave him a reassuring look. "Don't worry, I'd never mix anything that is dangerous to mix in this environment," she said kindly, "Also, boomslangskin, which was the big part of the mixture, is anything but a dangerous ingredient unless mixed with jagged manticore claw." She then titled her head a bit to the side, "Not that this means anything to you. I'd be surprised if the minister knew this," she added lightly.

She smiled at his enthusiastic nod, and her mind soon turned back to the earlier thought she had about him. She wondered if she ought to ask him, but was once again distracted when his facial expression changed from excited to something less excited at her mention of preparations. She didn't comment, but she was slightly surprised that he'd believe that reading would be enough. She didn't want to scold him about this, but she needn't worry. He spoke up and seemed more enthusiastic again, making Lucia nod approvingly.

Lucia took some time to think about when he'd have to start. "Well, I suggest you start reading about the effects of the ingredients as soon as you can. There are several different books in the school library that I will suggest to you," she said smilingly, taking forth a piece of paper and scribbled down a few titles she could remember. "These are the ones I can think of right now, but I suggest you ask our librarian, as she probably knows quite a few more," she said, holding up the piece of paper for Blake to take.

She then looked scrutinizingly at him, for the third time remembering his reaction to her helping hand. "You seemed surprised when I offered to help you," she commented, continuing to look at him, knowing he'd understand that there was actually a question in that statement.

Blake merely nodded at Professor Henley's comment on boomslangskin. Was he expected to retain the information and relay it at a moment's notice, he had already forgotten the name of the piece of skin Professor Henley had cleaned up. He looked back up to the professor and realised how intuitive she was and also how passionate she must be about the subject she taught. No way would anyone be in their office by choice concocting new potions and risk the cleanliness of their room if they weren't thoroughly immersed in the subject. Blake wished he had something to be so passionate about, but anything he liked he wasn't very good at.

Blake was glad that he quickly rectified his answer and enthusiasm as Professor Henley didn't look too impressed with his first answer and she could be direct and blunt. Blake quickly took the sheet of paper off of the dark haired woman, not giving her an excuse to doubt his determination to learn. He quickly scanned through the list, skimming the names of the titles. Some he recognised, having become a frequent visitor to the library. None he had read though. He nodded in agreement when Professor Henley suggested he ask the librarian.

Blake looked up wondering if he was done. He half sat up in his chair, in an awkward seating position. He had never been to visit a professor in their office before so he didn't know if there was any formalities to follow. He wondered if he was to wait to be dismissed like he was in class.

He was about to ask if he could leave when the professor piped up again. He reluctantly sat back in his chair, it didn't look like things were going to be that easy. "Really?" Blake answered the question with another question. He was always so used to squirming his way out of answering truthfully, but he knew that wasn't going to satisfy the woman sitting across from him that was staring at him so intently. "Well it's just that if I do ever ask for help I don't really get it." Blake started off a little hesitantly, not knowing how honest he should be. "I don't know why and not that I don't think you'll give it to me" Blake quickly added, hoping he wasn't digging a hole for himself and she was going to take back her offer to help him. "I will, and I am taking potions seriously. I will spend extra hours studying and stuff." He was really feeling the need to defend himself now, but something was telling him that Professor Henley's concern wasn't completely centered around the effort he was willing to apply to the subject she seemed so fond of.

Lucia looked at him as he replied her statement with a question. She didn't pry, she simply looked at him and it did work. He told her how he wasn't used to getting help when he required it. Lucia listened to what he said and wondered what kind of an orphanage he had been raised in. It was horrible to think that people were actually this insensitive as to not care about kids.

She smiled softly at him as he quickly added that he didn't think she was like that. She was also glad to hear about his intent on taking potions seriously. He seemed to be trying to defend himself and, for the life of her, Lucia couldn't understand why. She sighed and wondered what to say for a brief moment.

"I don't know who the people you go back to during the summer are, Mr. Ralston, but I would never refuse to help a student," she said solemnly, "Especially someone from my own house." She gave him a light smile at this, hoping he wouldn't be too squirmy as she brought up the topic. She looked up somewhere above his head and smiled. "A very wise man once said that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who deserves it," Lucia said.

Her smile widened a bit and she looked back at him. "Unless there's more that you'd like to tell me, then I think we're good for today," she said softly. "You know where my office is, so anytime you feel the need to talk, just knock. I'll be more than happy to help."

Blake stayed silent as Professor Henley commented on his home life situation. Well of course she knew about it, he chided himself. She obviously didn’t know the full extent of it. Blake bit down on his lip, nearly letting it slip that last summer he virtually had nowhere to return to. He slipped in and out of an orphanage, one which he hated as it was so overcrowded and they didn't even keep tabs on him.  He didn’t know what her cryptic message meant when she said help would come to those who deserved it. Did he deserve it? Blake glanced over his shoulder as the woman seemed to be looking over his head, but there was no portrait of a person or anything like that. Who said it? It sounded vaguely familiar to him, like he had read it in a book or something.

Blake was pretty relieved when he figured he had gotten permission to leave. "Thanks Professor." He smiled genuinely at the woman, as he made his way out of the office, quickly glancing at the interesting artifacts on his way past. He sighed deeply in relief once he had left the room. Well that didn’t go as bad as he thought it would have. Blake actually felt a little better, and now he always had someone he could go talk to and someone he felt comfortable approaching. It wasn't like he'd be spilling his guts, but he wouldn't mind maybe asking for help again in the future.