It had been a full day so far, even if he had risen early to get a jump start on it. One filled with lessons and grading and teaching, and now on top of them, open office hours where students tended to drop by to beg him to teach them “the good stuff.” Whatever that meant. All the spells he taught he would consider “the good stuff.” Gus was getting better at smiling at them and turning down their requests - he certainly wasn’t going to wind up in Headmaster Black’s office explaining why the students were running around casting curses they had no business knowing.

He had been surprised when one of those students had been Miss Dashwood; a seventh year, Gus wouldn’t have been dumbfounded if she had dropped the class after her OWLs and suspected she had continued on because her friends had. It was a common thread he’d seen, and even he would be lying if he were to say he hadn’t done the same thing. Transfiguration still confused him and he avoided using it at all cost, which seemed to bode well for him so far. (Plus now he had Basil to do that for him, knowing that he could offer the other a confused smile that would probably entice him enough to help him.) Gus wouldn’t have passed NEWT Transfiguration with Basil’s help, and he could only hope one of her friends was kind enough to tutor her.

The grading seemed to be never ending, as if someone had enchanted his desk to restack parchment after parchment each night, so when Ms. Dashwood had appeared at his door asking to be tutored, Gus had been happy to oblige. A memory spell meant to wipe away recent negative feelings, memories, or occurrences, although the young professor had had the NEWT students read about it, unkeen of the idea of them practicing it on each other. It appeared the young lady was interested in performing it, although a few others had come to him earlier in the day. (It did help, he had offered some extra credit for anyone who came to him with such a request, and maybe some house points if anyone could successfully hit him. Students:0, Gus: 2.)

Memory spells were tricky and difficult to fix, but Gus wasn’t afraid of any student being powerful enough to shatter his protection charm. Miss Dashwood had proved his thought process correctly. Gus threw a quick look at the open door behind him to ensure no one else was waiting before he turned back to her with a wide grin across his face. “Try it again, Ms. Dashwood. You need to use your whole hand when you make the spiral and not just your wrist.” He fixed the young woman across from him with a patient gaze, waiting to see how she would respond. His own wand was in his hand, at ready. He didn’t need it, not for these kind defensive spells at least, but there was something comforting to him about having it in his hand.

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