Chapter Eight
The Mystery Begins

On the Thursday afternoon knowing that she had been asked to stay behind after class to meet her new tutor, had left Bronwyn feeling more anxious than she thought possible. She could at least identify the feeling she had as anxiety as her heart raced and her brain span off in directions she had yet to venture down. Even if she had wanted to try and pay attention in the lesson this time around, there was no chance. Rather she allowed her brain to take her away, to wherever it chose, as long as it was not present in the current moment. Something she would have to admit was really sad, but she didn't know how else to cope. And she was starting to feel like she was entering a horrible spiral, one she didn't know how to get herself out of. 

Therefore waiting at the Professors desk at the end of the class, felt like a task so big yet so small at the same time. Bronwyn tried to recall on the words Hermione had told her before the older witch had left the classroom. The letter she had received that morning from her father telling her he was proud of her, for reaching out for help, for trying her hardest. Yet all these positive affirmations she was aware had been sent out towards her were not making the connections that she needed them to. The pathway they were upon to making her feel better was blocked. A roadblock she was unsure of its identity and how to fix it. How to remove it from her mind. Hoping that this roadblock when removed would be a big step for her to feel better. But she didn't know how to get there. 

She noted as a person came to stand on her left hand side, looking over to catch the green colouring to their clothing, the green and silver tie done so well. And knowing purely from the height who was stood beside her and Bronwyn wondered just why her path was crossing so greatly with that of Blaise Zabini. But part of her did not care, part of her wanted to continue to see where this path was going to lead her. To jump into the fire, into the dangerous territory it was going to bring. To the eventual feelings of sadness and hurt it could tell was somewhere down the line. And so she listened, she listened to the part of her which wanted her to hurt, to fail. Because her brain had already made the decision that she was a failure, so why not start something else she knew she was going to fail. At least her subconscious would have the satisfaction of knowing it was right. 

"Miss Weasley, Mr Zabini has agreed to the trial period of tutoring, I will review with both of you in three weeks. My support session is running this evening and I highly advise you trial a first session during it." Professor Flitwick was straight to the point and Bronwyn knew that even though his idea sounded like a way to not enjoy her evening, she also knew it was necessary. And at least she could eat dinner first. And bring a drink and snack along with her, she would need something sweet if she was expected to actually be able to do any work successfully. 

"Thank you Sir, I will be back after dinner for the session." Bronwyn agreed but didn't really want to spend too much time there at the moment, she was debating on just how she was going to prepare herself for later on. Socialisation at the moment took a lot of her energy, if she had a handful of spoons socialisation would talk all but one of them. She watched as the professor nodded in agreement to her words, and then waited for her newly assigned tutor to say something. 

"I believe that plan is manageable. I'll be here promptly for the start of the study session. I expect we will use most of that time tonight." With Blaise's seemingly okay-ish response, Bronwyn couldn't really decipher if it was actually a happy okay response or not. He was someone very hard to read especially for someone like her who was generally really really bad with emotions if they weren't; happiness, sadness, anger or pain. Rather she watched as he was the first of them to leave the classroom and was happy that there would not be a lingering awkward silence if nobody said anything else. 

Bronwyn upon entering where she would have her first tutoring session, very quickly worked out that she needed to find something smaller she could bring with her that provided comfort. She could not bring her blanket everywhere with her, and it would look stupid for her in particular to carry around a book. So she needed something small enough that it would fit in her blazer pocket and nobody would know it was there. Maybe that would be what she searched for on the first Hogsmeade trip they went on later this month. That would at least make the trip interesting she supposed. Rather instead, she just knew she would have to go knowing it would be uncomfortable for her.

Blaise Zabini was very much accurate when he said he would be there promptly for the beginning of the session. Bronwyn was a few minutes late, no more than five. And he was sat waiting on a small two person table in the left hand corner of the room. A table that wasn't there for the normal classes, and as she looked around was clearly done for these support sessions as there were more small group tables rather than the bench layout of the normal class. She quickly made her way over to the table taking the seat beside him silently. She was unsure how to start conversation with him, being more than aware there was pretty much nothing they had in common. Or at least there was nothing she could think. They couldn't be more different in her opinion. Two completely different sides of the Magi spectrum. 

"Weasley." He greeted setting the tone for the session and she was content with that.

"Zabini." A curt response would be more than enough right now for it. She took notice of the amount of items he had spread out around them on the table, her brain trying to figure out what any of it was. Noting at least some of it appeared to be his own notes and she reached out with her right hand to touch it. Unaware of just what he had been looking at as she moved her hand.

"Heiress Weasley." His words caused Bronwyn to pause, it had been the first time she had ever been addressed by the term. It was a title she knew she held, a title her grandmother had been fighting her to accept, knowing that it was for her benefit to acknowledge it. But it felt strange being called it, as if there was a very clear disconnect from what an heiress was supposed to be and the person titled with it. But she couldn't admit that she didn't mind the way of which he specifically spoke it. His words were enough to cause her to turn and look at him, only to be met with a smug look. As if he had just worked out a piece of a puzzle he had been thinking about for a while. "Will you not greet me back?" His smugness she could tell was also in his voice and the smirk he gave was enough to cause her head to spin. Something that was clearly done to make her feel bad shouldn't be making her feel this good. She didn't even know him, he was bad news. 

"Heir Zabini." She did cave and give in giving the response she knew he wanted. 

"Better, now I do wish to gather your understanding of the subject so I know where abouts we need to start. When was the last time you were confident in the material being taught to us." He remained having the clear smugness in his overall presentation. 

"When I stepped into the classroom."

"I will need more than that."

"Back in first year." Bronwyn mumbled but it was loud enough that Blaise was able to understand and he could not prevent the look of confusion that took over. If she was struggling so much why had nothing been put into place until their fifth year? 

"Yeah I have no explanation why. I really tried with the diagrams and copying the pronunciation but it's just never helped." 

"You need a basic understanding of the theory behind it before you can expect to be able to properly perform the charm." Bronwyn just sighed at his words, she understood this but she truly didn't think she had such a massive problem. Not until recently and she was really trying. But her brain didn't seem to want to co-operate and she was waiting on Professor McGonagall's test results she had completed at the beginning of the week. Until then she had no clue how to fix anything.

"I know I'm a horrible student, but that's what I'm trying to change." Bronwyn tried to make her words seem as genuine as possible. She just hoped that this wasn't going to crash and burn as quickly as it looked like it was going to. 

"In order to do that, we have a lot of work ahead. I don't think once a week will be enough. You'll have to show me your timetable and we'll organise something. Twice a week at first and then increase as deemed necessary." Blaise went to put his notes and current syllabus book away. Bronwyn watched as he stood from the table, leaving most of his belongings behind, and moved over to where Flitwick had the textbooks piled up. He quickly moved through the piles, before picking up two identical books. 

Having returned to the table a book was placed in front of Bronwyn. She looked down to see a familiar looking cover. 'The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One.' The brown book stared her back defiantly as if it was daring her to open the pages once again and attempt to actually learn it this time around. But Bronwyn wasn't ready for that. She was unsure of how she would be able to do that. 

"Are you sure Heir Zabini." Bronwyn added the title on to try and sweeten her words so he wasn't so annoyed by her. Something in her did not want him annoyed with her. 

"Oh I'm very sure Heiress Weasley." He didn't seem too annoyed with her and instead went to try and convince her to open the book and read the first page. Only to find her blankly staring at the book, on a single page, for much longer than he expected. He had nearly completed half of the first chapter and she had yet to move from the first page. And he had yet again found something about the tall red haired girl to take his interest. 

"Is there an issue?"

"No, sorry no issue." Bronwyn started to mumble again and this was when he had started to pick up that there was something she was not telling him. 

"Would you prefer I read it out to you?" He offered not expecting her to take him up on the offer, clearly thinking she would take offence at his words. But Bronwyn had never been more relieved to hear those words. After a long day of school work, a mountain of homework she had tried to start on, she couldn't do anymore. 

"Yes." Her voice was quiet but it was strong enough he could hear. And as she listened to him start to read right from the beginning she found herself relaxing a little. This wasn't half as bad as she expected it to be, rather it was the opposite. Everything was going really well. And as she sat there listening to the words he took from the page and turned into the clearest of lullabies, she found that feeling of comfort she had been craving for gently work its way through her body. As if it was moving from her fingertips toward her chest.