Chapter 85: Interactive Learning, and Illusion Of Help

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

Humming a pleasant tune, Quinn walked towards his office, ready to start another shift of quality consultation.

'I wonder how many will come today?' wondered Quinn, thinking about what kind of problems he would get to see today.

On an average day, Quinn would get maybe two to three customers. They would bring their problems to him, expecting a solution.

'Let's hope that some of them are non-homework-related problems,' sighed Quinn, hoping that something interesting would come along.

Homework-related requests consisted of Quinn giving homework-related resources to the clients and charging a few knuts for the information. The problem with this kind of problem was that there was no margin for getting students under his debt.

He couldn't do their homework for them as that would attract unwanted attention from professors, and second, he didn't want to do people's homework.

Quinn reached the office door and twisted the doorknob to open the door; he already knew that his assistant was already in there, so he didn't bother reaching for the key.

When he opened the door, Quinn saw Luna sitting on his office barstool behind his table with a client sitting in front of the table.

The chime above the door rang, alerting the occupants of Quinn's entrance, causing both of them to look at him. He greeted them.

"Good evening."

Luna, who had her wand tucked behind her ear, waved a hand to Quinn and greeted him back.

"Good evening."

The client simply nodded when he saw Quinn but didn't verbally greet him.

Quinn nodded back in response before silently walking to the workshop door and entering the workshop after unlocking the door. He didn't take over the conversation from Luna and let her deal with the client as talking with people was what he had hired her for.

He set his book bag down and removed his robe. Luna knocked on the door before entering the workshop.

"He has brought an interesting request," informed Luna, twirling a few strands of her hair with her fingers. Quinn had told her to call him if the request was interesting.

It had taken some time before Quinn successfully taught Luna what he meant by interesting, but eventually, Quinn and Luna came to the same page on what interesting meant.

"Alright, I'll be there," replied Quinn and asked a question. "Are you done with your homework?"

"Uh-huh, I'm done," responded Luna in a sing-song voice. "I just need to bottle the potion in a vial for the class."

"Excellent," praised Quinn before asking. "What about my assignments? How is the progress on that?"

Ever since Quinn had 'hired' Luna, he had been giving her topics to study every week. Sometimes it would be theory; other times, it would be practical. He had given her easy study topics, asked her to practice spells until she got used to them, or long-term projects like growing herbs and keeping track of their progress.

He had been giving her fun stuff like treasure map hunts and riddles, just like Friar gave him: but in place of deadly vaults, he had been placing mystery objects around the castle that Luna needed to find and figure out how to solve-slash-open them to get the treasure inside. Every mystery object would require some kind of transfiguration, charms, herbology, or potion brewing to open, making learning more fun for the quirky and eccentric Luna.

Quinn wanted Luna to learn and utilize more magic because teenage years were the age where magic grew more rapidly, and he wanted Luna to take advantage of it. He understood that people wouldn't go to the extremes like him by exhausting his magic core every day, but he could make sure that Luna would use more magic while making it fun.

All the assignments and projects that Quinn gave Luna were interconnected with each other. Quinn had planned out things so when she completed her fifth year, Luna would be done with her N.E.W.T level education in all subjects other than Care of Magical Creatures practical portion — as bringing creatures into Hogwarts was a hassle. But if canon Luna was anything of reference, then he was sure that his Luna would somehow cover that portion on her own.

On top of that, he intended to closely monitor her progress to see if Luna was progressing faster because if she showed more interest in learning, he would put in extra things that he thought she would learn and things that Luna would find interesting.

He didn't burden her with complicated things beyond her level or dump lengthy assignments which would eat away all her time. But he wanted to make sure that Luna would complete her N.E.W.T education by the end of her fifth year because, by that time, Quinn would be at the end of his seventh year, and that meant graduation, a.k.a, he would be leaving Hogwarts.

N.E.W.T level education by the end of the fifth year wasn't much of a challenge because a fifth-year student with a wand did have enough focus ability to perform all the seventh-year magic there was in the curriculum. And with Quinn making study plans fitting to Luna's needs and aptitude, he was sure that not only would Luna understand N.E.W.T level topics, but she would also have better magic capacity and control than her peers.

Luna twirled on the spot and smiled in a fun way, "I'm still working on the blank parchment and riddle that you gave me."

Quinn smiled as he thought of the riddle and blank parchment. The blank parchment was a secret treasure map, and the riddle was the clue to a potion that would make the treasure map visible and another indication that would give her a clue on how to open the mystery object that he had hid.

"I see. Well, keep working on it," said Quinn, ruffling her hair. Now that he had caught up with her, Quinn asked, "So what is he here for?"

Luna's answer put a smile on his face.

"Now that is an interesting request, alright," smiled Quinn. He knew exactly how to solve the client's problem, but he wasn't expecting this particular request to come through his doors.

He walked to the office and looked at the client as he sat down on his barstool behind his desk.

"Mr. Longbottom, you have brought one interesting request. Tell me, what made you request something like this from us."

On the client stool sat Neville Longbottom; round-faced, short, chubby but not overly fat, brown hair. The Longbottom child was clumsy, forgetful, shy, and many considered him ill-suited for Gryffindor house because he seemed timid.

He was the other child who qualified to be the prophecy child in Sybill Trelawney's prophecy as he was the child of the Longbottom couple, who had defied Voldemort thrice. Fortunately, Voldemort had decided to target the Potters first and had set in Harry Potter's fate to be the chosen one.

"Uhm, I keep forgetting the password to the common room. So I write the passwords on a piece of parchment in case I forget it, but one of the p-prefects caught me as I was looking at my note," Neville's timid voice narrated his story. He was looking down at his lap as he spoke, not making eye contact with Quinn. "He dragged me to professor McGonagall, and she scolded me for writing the password. Then when I returned to the common room, everybody was laughing at me."

Neville looked like he was about to cry. Quinn could literally see tears pooling at the edges of his eyes.

"So you have come to me —a Ravenclaw— to help you with the Gryffindor common room pass-"

Neville's ears reddened as he heard Quinn's words and cut him by standing from his barstool and sputtered, "I'm sorry, this was stupid. Please, excuse me. I will leave."

Quinn raised his hand with a smile on his face and stopped Neville, "Not at all, Mr. Longbottom. You have a problem, and you came to us to get a solution. We strive to solve any problem, so no, this isn't stupid." He gestured for Neville to return to his seat. "Please take a seat. I believe I can solve your problem."

Neville blinked a couple of times at Quinn before sitting down. This time he made proper eye contact with Quinn, his eyes flashing with hope.

"As you said, you always forget the common room password; there is nothing wrong with that," Quinn reassured Neville that this was something very commonplace. "I'm sure a lot of your housemates also forget the password and have it written down somewhere. The prefect who caught you might have been having a bad day, and if not that, then we both can agree that he is a jerk."

Badmouthing a third person behind their back, especially if that person wasn't well-liked, was a proven way to improve relations between two people. Quinn was using it to make Neville feel comfortable and assert that he wasn't at fault.

"From what I know, Gryffindor common room password changes once every three weeks, correct?"

Neville nodded in response to Quinn's question.

Of course, Quinn already knew that. He knew that Gryffindor and Hufflepuff common room passwords changed every three weeks, while the Slytherin common room password changed every other week. He had Recon long enough to figure out the change schedules.

"And you sometimes forget it, so you need a way to remember it. That is what you are asking me, correct?"

Quinn didn't even go in the direction where Neville didn't forget the password, as that would be a lengthy process that Quinn didn't want to overtake.

When Neville nodded, Quinn continued, "Excellent, I have just the solution for you. It will allow you to keep a secret copy of the passwords with no one ever finding out. There will be no parchment trail; you just need to make sure that you are alone when you look at it."

Quinn stood up from his seat and spoke, "Please wait a moment, and I will be back with the solution."

He left Neville behind in the office and walked into the workshop.

Inside the workshop, Luna was lying on the floor intently staring at the riddle parchment. The parchment was levitating above her, with Luna's wand in her hand.

As Quinn walked to a potion cupboard, he stared at Luna. It looked like she didn't notice Quinn walking as she kept staring at the parchment.

'She's weird,' thought Quinn with a smile on his face.

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Quinn opened a cupboard and searched for a potion vial. It was one of the potions that he had learned to brew before Hogwarts. He brewed it because it sounded fun, and he had all the ingredients lying around.

"Ah, found it."

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Taking a vial of inky black potion out of the cupboard, Quinn walked to another part of the room, stepped over Luna's body, and opened a drawer to get a thick calligraphy brush.

Once again, Quinn stepped over Luna's body and walked outside to the office, and instead of sitting on his barstool behind the table, Quinn sat beside Neville in the other client's stool.

"We're ready," said Quinn as he set down the potion vial and calligraphy brush on the table.

He turned to face Neville and started,

"Alright, before we start, I would like to explain what is this about in case you don't want to go through this." Quinn needed consent before he did anything; he didn't want complaints after he was done.

"So this potion is a type of ink that is used on the skin. It is generally used by healers to mark parts on a patient's bodies if ever needed," explained Quinn, picking up the vial off the table. "But this is a little different recipe. I changed the recipe so that the ink sinks into the patient's body. That way, if the healer has drawn too many lines, they could hide some lines to avoid clutter. You know, small improvements to increase ease-of-use."

Quinn lifted the sleeve of his left hand and placed a finger on his forearm. "I'm going to stain a patch of your forearm in this ink and then change it so that it will read the Gryffindor common room password. When you need the password, you can make it appear, and when you're done, you can hide it."

Quinn looked up at Neville and asked, "Any questions?"

"W-Will it hurt?" asked Neville with a wince in his voice.

"Not at all," assured Quinn as he picked up the calligraphy brush from the table and showed it to Neville. "I'm going to use this brush to paint some ink on your arm. It might tickle, but after that, you won't feel anything. It won't hurt even when you make the ink appear or when you hide it."

Neville looked relieved to hear that it wouldn't hurt. Neville thought that Quinn was a cool person, and he didn't want to cry in front of him. Plus, there was that other girl inside, and if he cried she might come out and see him cry.

"We need a code word to make the ink appear," said Quinn. He wanted a code word that would reveal the password. "Tell me, Neville, what is your favorite tree, herb, plant, or any flora?"

Neville tilted his head confused, wondering why Quinn was asking like this but answered nevertheless.

"Chamomile."

"Excellent, then that will be your code word," clapped Quinn, smiling at Neville.

He knew Neville was a herbology lover, so assigning the code word as Neville's favorite plant would make sure that Neville would never forget it.

'Or I could've just used his name as the code word, but that is so boring,' thought Quinn before speaking. "Now, let's get started and ink your forearm. Lift your sleeve and hold it in place."

Quinn uncorked the vial and dipped the calligraphy brush into the vial. He waited as Neville clumsily pulled up his sleeve and awkwardly held it in place.

"Alright, let's begin."

Quinn removed the brush from the vial and gently painted a stroke back and forth, drawing nothing in particular and just trying to put more and more ink on Neville's hand. After half a minute, Quinn felt that the ink was enough for any phrase that would be chosen as the Gryffindor common room password.

"I think this is enough," said Quinn as he placed the brush on the table and pulled out his fake wand. Placing the wand tip on the inked area, Quinn fake-chanted.

"Immutatio."

The ink moved on Neville's skin and took the form of the words,

「Facta, nonverba.」

As Quinn removed the wand tip to observe the result, Neville asked with his jaw open in shock, "H-How did you know the password."

"That isn't something you should waste your time thinking about, Mr. Longbottom; some things aren't meant to be known, and this is one of them. Sometimes not knowing is better; knowledge can turn into a curse if you're not careful."

Quinn's voice was smooth and had a slower than usual flow to it, which made his words sound silky.

It stopped Neville from trying to continue the questioning. The Gryffindor gulped while nodding, deciding to forget he had asked that question.

"Please take out your wand and place it on the inked words," instructed Quinn.

Neville used the hand holding his sleeve to take out his father's wand, giving Quinn the chance to magically fold Neville's sleeve properly, unlike the awkward crumpled way Neville had done.

"Say 'chamomile' to set it as the code word," said Quinn as he once again placed his fake-wand tip on the inked words.

Neville nervously placed his wand beside Quinn's and spoke, "Chamomile."

The ink flashed, affirming that the code word was set, and immediately the ink disappeared as they sunk into Neville's skin leaving behind no signs.

"Try saying the code word to see if it is working," instructed Quinn.

Neville spoke "Chamomile" with his wand tip pressed against his skin, and the words 'Facta, nonverba' appeared on his skin.

Neville's eyes flashed with happiness as he repeatedly spoke "Chamomile," making the words appear and vanish on his skin.

"T-Thank you," said Neville, a smile on his face. He was relieved that now he wouldn't have to keep a parchment with the password written on it. He could just whip out his wand and would have the password on his hand.

"No worries. But you will have to come back every time the password changes so I can modify the words. Plus, this ink will slowly dissipate from your body, so you need to come back here to refill the ink."

Neville nodded without any discomfort or reluctance. He was ready to come here as long as he was able to keep the password in his hand.

"What do I have to pay?" asked Neville. He was so happy that he was ready to empty his pocket money into Quinn's hands.

"Oh about that, no need to pay me anything," smiled Quinn as he stood up with Neville following him. Quinn extended his hand for a handshake with Neville and spoke. "I scratch your back; you'll scratch mine. This was just me helping you out, so when in the future I need your help, help me out... You'll help me out, right, Neville."

Neville repeatedly nodded as he spoke, "Of course, I will help you. I will help you with anything. This is great, thank you. Thank you so much."

"No worries. Come back anytime you want," said Quinn with a kind and helpful smile.

After Neville left, Quinn cleaned up things and sat behind his table, thinking about Neville Longbottom's request.

While it seemed that Quinn had helped Neville with his request, the truth was that Neville was no better than before he entered the A.I.D offices. Quinn hadn't helped out Neville one bit. What he had provided was just an illusion of help.

Neville was now looking at his arm instead of paper. He could still very well get caught if he was careless and someone saw him revealing the password on his arm.

Plus, now, Neville was under the assumption that he would have to return to A.I.D offices to reset the password and refill the ink in his arm.

Neville had gone from simply writing the password on parchment, which he did on his own, to writing the password on his arm, which required Quinn's assistance.

Quinn, of course, knew all this, and despite that, had chosen to use such a 'solution.' No... to better phrase it, Quinn had given Neville the 'solution' knowing that it wouldn't help out Neville. Quinn wanted Neville to retain the problem and repeatedly return to his office to avail his services, as that would enable Quinn to increase the amount of 'help' he handed out to Neville.

A day would come in the future when Neville would feel that he had gotten so much help from Quinn that he wouldn't be able to refuse anything that Quinn asked from him.

Quinn sat on his barstool, looking at where Neville had sat as he tapped his fingers on the table.

Eventually, a soft closed-mouth smile made its way to Quinn's face.

Like a spider watching a butterfly flying towards its web.

Quinn West - MC- Provided 'help', and is ready to 'help' more.

Neville Longbottom - Gryffindor - Entered the cycle of problem and help.

Luna Lovegood - Weird - Put on an accelerated learning path without her knowing.

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