The next day came like a normal one, though I was scrambling to get my Divinations assignment done before the Professor took it up at the beginning of class. When the lunch bell rang and I sat across from Merideth to eat my meal, I couldn't help but glance around at the groups of Durmstrang boys scattered throughout the Great Hall. It dawned on me how they all knew their own language collectively, so there'd be no way I'd be able to spot out whoever I would be tutoring. One boy was slowly tracing his finger over a textbook, but I couldn't spot what it was.

Right around the last few moments of Transfiguration, as I was reading over the pages that held the casting words for animals to cups one last time, Professor McGonagall carefully placed a large, sealed envelope on top of my open pages, lightly patting it and giving me a smile before making her way back over to her desk. I was hesitant to open it; inside I found only the schedule for the week. It included every day for tutoring except for tomorrow, since the drawings for the Triwizard Tournament takes place after classes. Thursday had a circle around it with a small note of: 'Report to McGonagall.'

"Where ya 'aff tah go?" Merideth was looking over my shoulder to read the paper.

I said, "the library," as the toll bell rang for dismissal. I was required to be there in the next half hour, with a bunch of paper and quills ready for use.

So I had gone to the common room first to gather some things before leaving Merideth to her nap. She says she'll come by to see how all of it would be going for me, but she's also one to say she'll nap for a half hour and wake up an hour later. I was more prepared to be doing this on my own.

-«•»-

"Name please?"
"Tresella."

I couldn't hide being a bit antsy. The rumors that the majority of the girls from Beauxbatons had learned English during last year's curriculum were true, so there was no doubt in my mind I was getting paired with a Durmstrang boy. A stinky, smelly... Boy. He'll probably smell like fish from sleeping on that boat.

I held a shiver back as the Ravenclaw Prefect scanned the list for my name. She then snapped her fingers at the Durmstrang boy next to her, who read it. He then nodded for me to follow him, and I did. We went into an area of the library that was blocked off for tutoring hours, complete with quills galore and tables, chairs, and paper.

The Durmstrang boy told me to wait at the bookshelf, and I did. He went to a boy sitting at a table by himself, a quill shaking violently in his hand. I saw his leg bouncing under the table. They spoke for a moment before the Durmstrang boy came back. "Zhat's Isaac Dharskov. You'll be tutoring him zis term." He seemed to try to avoid pointing. "His grades are vropping and he's been ver-king harder zhan anyone else zhat came."

"What's his average?" I tried to ignore the fact that the conversation was starting to feel like one of my mother's soap operas.

"Vreadful to Ack-zeptable. He missed zhe English courses, so he is zhe far-zest behind. Prah-fezor Dumbledore has gotten him started with zhe letters, but even zhose are difficult for him."

"Does he at least know any English?"

"He knows his name, and 'No understand.'" He then handed me a stack of papers to use. "Zay, 'Veite, az sum...' and zhen your name to get 'iz attenzion." He then patted my shoulder, wished me luck, and went back to the desk with the Ravenclaw Prefect before I could question the pronunciation of his words.

The boy- Isaac, didn't notice me at first. He, with military buzzcut hair and a little facial hair from what I could see, was focused on steadying his penmanship, which was incredibly sloppy. He was trying to make the letter D look clean. He was failing at that miserably. With a heavy breath, I made my way over, not really wanting to interrupt his work. But I have to, anyway. "Isaac?"

He looked up at me with soft brown eyes and a nervous smile a half a second later.

I swallowed hard, praying that my mind would tell my mouth to form the words the right way. "Vey-it... Ahz soom... Sienna." He shook my hand with a strong grip when I held it out.

"Tutor?"

I nodded and sat down in the seat next to him. He surprisingly didn't smell like fish, or anything boat or ocean related. Pine, actually. "I will be tutoring you, yes." After that sentence, my mind goes blank. I'm pretty sure I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, or even how to do it. He doesn't know how to read, and I highly doubt he has any clue what I'm saying. Professor McGonagall, or even Dumbledore, never told me how to do this. It's like I was set up to fail both Isaac and myself I the timespan of the first week of classes--

"Come for... Ter... Tri-ee..." Isaac snapped me from my thoughts when he attempted to speak English. I gently offered, "Tri-Wizard Tournament?" He nodded. "Must poot name in... Goob-let... in Engliz. You teach spell, yes?"

I wrack my brain to put the words in order and fill in the blanks. I returned the reassuring smile when I piece it together. "You need to write your name in English?"

I saw his shoulders loosen up and he nodded. "Yes."

Wait, how in the bloody hell is his name spelled?

"Have you written your name on any notebooks?"

His smile faded. "I... No understand."

I thought for a moment before grabbing one of my notebooks from my bookbag, holding it up. "Do you have one of these?"

Isaac's eyes lit up and he rummaged for one, holding it out for me. I closed it and, sure enough, Aizik Dharskov was written across it in Professor Dumbledore's handwriting. That makes my current predicament a tiny bit easier. But the spelling was a total shock.

"Do you know these letters?"

Aizik squinted to read. He only pointed to three letters: A, K, and D. "Is my name... Yes?"

"Yes." I held back a huff. "Maybe we should start there."

"Vhere?"

I didn't answer as I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote out the entire alphabet in order, then writing "Alphabet" at the top. "Do you recognize any of these?"

"Sŭzhalyavam?"

I mentally groaned. I was expected to survive the entirety of the week doing this?

"Do you know? The letters." I pointed to the A.

He squinted, then pointed to the A. "Is A?"

I nodded. "Yes. Others?" Maybe, if I keep to smaller words, it'll be easier for him to understand.

"D?"

"Yes." I checked off the A and the D. "Others?"

This kept going for a while. He pointed out H, J, K, O, T, and X. Very few of those were vital to his name, but I check them off anyway, mostly so I can keep track of what he does and doesn't know yet. There was only a half hour left of tutoring by the time he was done scanning the list and was sure of what he knew. I had a smaller pieces of paper ready for him to write his name on; the Goblet doesn't need a very big piece.

But then came actually writing out his name. He only knew how to write an upper-case A. I slowly had to walk him through writing the lower-cases for I, Z, and K, the upper-case D, then lower-case H, A, R, S, and V. He figured out the O on his own.

Dismissal was made obvious when the others started gathering up their things to leave, so Aizik and I had done the same. As I strapped on my school bag, he grabbed hold of my hand and shook it with much more force than I was planning for. He gave me a smile, slowly stuttered out the word, "thank," and quickly ran out of the library.

At least, I think he said "thank." It sounded more like "zhank" or "vank," but I guess I'll never know, because it's rude to question it after he's already long gone from the "conversation." And I really didn't want to spend time confusing him with words he didn't understand at the moment.