Cameron watched with wide eyes as she slid her notes towards him for examination. He’d never imagined one person could be so... thorough. Surely there had to be professors less organized than her. It begged the question: “How did you learn to do that to begin with?” he asked, brushing his fingers across the parchment. The best he’d ever learned was bullet points, and even those tended to lack a system other than separating separate thoughts.

“I told Sloane that I wanted to be a healer, too, you know. She said she we should compete for the highest grades,” he said, wondering if Alice had any advice to tie the two methods together. “Maybe it would help to have goals—you know, like ‘master all third-year potions by December’,” he suggested. He was terrible at this.

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"First year was a lot for me to process," she explained through some embarrassment. By Christmastime she was so thoroughly overwhelmed by the classes and her own lack of structure that she could hardly think past the nearing deadlines to actually complete the work. The system was born soon after that and added to over the years. "I needed a way to help me stay focused. Mum sent me this journal and I just wrote a list of everything I needed to do, and another, and another. Until it finally evolved into this."

That Cameron had told Sloane of his idea wasn't shocking to her. They were increasingly close as of late, especially after the Sisse debacle. Still, Alice decided to ignore the mention of her nevertheless. "A competition is a great motivator," Alice affirmed. "Perhaps a prize to be earned after every semester." What prizes they might like, though, she had no idea. "Goals are a good way of staying on track, too. We could make a list of them all to scratch off as you achieve them."

  

First year was also a lot for Cameron to process, but for different reasons. He was a muggleborn, and part of his first year was simply spent absorbing the magic of the wizarding world. It hadn’t helped that his mother hadn’t been too keen on magic at the time (though her stance on that had quite obviously changed in the past four years). He hadn’t worried too much about his class work, but in the years that followed it became more apparent that to remain in the magic world he’d have to excel—or at least do well enough to keep a place at school.

“My Mum wouldn’t talk to me about school until she got engaged to Mr. Bell,” he admitted. Love really did work in strange ways, didn’t it? “But you’ve got to teach me how to do that. Or something like that.” Not only would it be useful for classes, but for scheduling quidditch and coming up with new strategies. He could envision it perfectly.

“I don’t know what prizes would work.” Although he was certain that he and Sloane could come up with “prizes” on their own without Alice’s help or knowing. Winning itself was enough of a surprise, though; anything else only made it more interesting. “But anything helps. I still need to figure out how to get into NEWT Potions. Did you know Professor Valenduris requires an O?” He hadn’t, and now he was scared to look at his other class requirements.

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Sharing her system would be a new adventure for her, but Alice would willingly if it meant Cameron's success. "Can you owl for a new notebook? Or do you have a spare one?" She didn't have one to offer, the books were sparingly passed between the three school aged Dawson children. "I can go over how mine is set up with you and we can figure out what you like and dislike from it." Cameron wouldn't like every feature, seeing as she even had a calendar tucked in the very back to track her monthlies.

"We'll build your potions knowledge from the ground up. Perhaps Professor Valenduris would make an exception if you really proved your dedication to learning." He wouldn't, most likely, but she refused to let Cameron be discouraged from the start. "Potions is all about repetition and memorization, really. I can teach you my tricks to help." Alice and Edison both dreamed of the day Sloane and Cameron asked for help studying. She couldn't wait to relay the news to the prefect. "You can do this, I promise."

  

Cameron had three notebooks he'd never touched (but really ought to have—keeping three subjects in one notebook wasn't the most organized method) but he kept that to himself and simply nodded. "Another notebook. I can get one," he said, fully knowing that he would find them underneath his unworn formalwear in his trunk. He would get it tonight and pretend tomorrow that he'd received it from his mother early in the morning. It would save him the embarrassment of having to watch her look at him with disappointment in her eyes. He got that enough.

"I also talked with Sloane about talking to Professor Valenduris about extra credit opportunities. Projects, papers, internships. Anything to get experience." And change the professor's opinion on him. He needed Potions at the NEWT level. Nearly every ward required it for internsl. "But I'll do whatever it takes. I need to try." And for once, he really meant it: he would try.

(Growing up was awful though. He wouldn't budge on that.)

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She nodded. They would begin studying in the meantime, but keeping him on track would be all the easier with him being able to track his own goals and progress.

Extra credit from the older professor wouldn't come as easily, she thought. Any professor to require an O for such a basic foundation class cared more for the status than the students. Luckily for Alice,.potions came naturally for her, an ability forged from her learned memorization habits. She realized most students were not the same, however, and therefore continued in her belief that Professor Valenduris was wrong. "We'll figure it out. One step at a time. Where are you in the potions homework due next week? We can start there."

  

So he'd told Alice, and she didn't laugh at him. She seemed to have confidence in him, but who knew how much of that was her trying not to dissuade him from his efforts? She, more than maybe Sloane or Ned or anyone, knew how stubborn he could be when it came to studying. (But if she thought he could do it, maybe he really could.)

"Potions homework. Right. I think Sloane and I got to number... seven?" He had it on him somewhere, buried in a pile of parchment. Merlin, he really did need Alice's organization system.

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