Week In, Week Out

Friends

24 March 1992

Professor Sprout found herself in an odd dilemma. The group had been running for months now, with great success. The students were getting on really well – to such an extent that they were helping each other out when they had crises – and she knew that even though they might not be ready to admit it, they were friends now. She could rely on them actually wanting to hang out with each other unprompted and no longer worried that they were spending too much time alone. They were all flourishing in their classes. Apparently even the few hours that they had arranged as a group had increased their grades significantly. Herein lay the problem.

She had organised the group with different subjects each week to make conversation easier, as she of course knew that they were all strangers to frequent socialisation. It had been a useful tool for making sure they got to know each other, as well as directing conversation in moments of confusion or anxiety. Yes, it had been a grand success. However, she had only designed meeting subjects for this term. After the summer holidays, there was nothing in writing. She had two options ahead of her: make a new plan with different subjects (she had no idea what else there was to talk about) or to let them begin leading the conversation. They were friends now; they could probably do it. Professor Sprout had a lot to think about.

This week, however, was one of the weeks that she had made a plan for. The group filed in, laughing about something that had clearly happened in the week that she had no idea about (she would swear to Professor Dumbledore if the need arose) and sat down.

The group had clearly realised how her system worked.

"What will I be speaking about this week, Professor?" Cho asked.

She was of course right, so Professor Sprout responded with the subject, "Friends."

She had been aware of the fact that it was a difficult subject when she had written the plan. It had been especially difficult to decide as to whether it was a subject that should be included as the entire group, at that point, had been friendless.

Cho clearly found the idea of talking about this subject fairly daunting. "Can I have a moment to think about it?" she asked.

"Of course, Cho," Professor Sprout responded, "and if in the meantime you get hungry, you are all free to start eating."

Cho sat for ten minutes, clearly thinking over what she had to say. Professor Sprout was aware of the fact that friendship is different to different people, so she completely understood. She never had been one to push either. At the end of this consideration, Cho began to speak.

"Well, friendship has always been a difficult idea for me," she started by admitting. "When I was a small child I went to muggle nursery, and I had friends. I remember having them. At one point I was even invited to two birthday parties on the same day. Then I went on to muggle primary school and I had no friends. No friends at all. I was weird, I had unusual interests and my accidental magic was out of control. I did have friends out of school though. Well one friend really. Marietta Edgecombe. Our mums worked together, and we were very much pushed together out of convenience. For years and years I was fine with having just one friend. When I started Hogwarts, I continued to only have one friend. I really thought that Marietta and I got on well. I thought that we were friends. For most of first year, I hung out with her all the time." Cho stopped for a moment to catch her breath. "Then, at the end of last year, I heard her laughing at me with another girl from our dorm. A girl who I had thought of as being perfectly nice, just not really my friend, more of an acquaintance. The girl from my dorm referred to me by a nickname that I got last year as I struggled to speak in class, she called me Choke Chang and Marietta just laughed along with her.