Dec. 20th, 2012

alt_antonin: (Default)
To celebrate exams being over (and the successful completion of my first term at Hogwarts), I will be holding an informal get-together in my classroom, tomorrow (Friday) after the final exam slot of the day and until it is time for supper. I will provide light refreshments.

As all exams will have been given by that point, you will likely be able to persuade me into discussing the questions, and the answers I was looking for, should the uncertainty be such that it would spoil your holiday. Priority will be given to the questions of those who bring suitable bribes of chocolates or sweets. (Lest anyone take me seriously and cry foul: yes, that is a joke.)

Though it certainly has been an eventful term, I must say it has also been, on the whole, an enjoyable one. Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all of you, and I shall look forward to returning, refreshed and ready to tackle a new term, in January.
alt_antonin: (Default)
I've had something very odd happen this evening, and I thought to ask you both if either of you had any suggestions on how to handle it.

As I was marking the end-of-term essays from the theoretical class that they turned in this week during their exams, a house-elf brought me an additional sheet of parchment and told me it was the last sheet of Mr Longbottom's essay and had fallen behind his trunk before he turned in the rest. Since I'd already marked Mr Longbottom's essay, and it had not seemed to be missing anything, I thought it might have been a draft version, but I happened to glance at it and it read only "this is all lies".

I checked with the elf and apparently Mr Longbottom writes that invocation at the end of each of his essays for my class, then removes it before turning it in.

I must confess, I do not have any idea what to do in this situation. I have not found the boy to be disruptive in class, but neither is he very bright. And of course there's his parents to consider -- but at the same time I do not want to automatically condemn him simply based on the choices of his parents. My first instinct is to call him in after next term begins and see if I might get to the bottom of this, but he's repeatedly seemed quite wary of me (and with attitudes such that he feels the need to disclaim every essay he has written for my class, one suspects he will not respond well to either gentle coaxing or outright asking).

Do either of you have a better suggestion?