The Paternal Optimist

Le Garçon Merveilleux

Two evenings ago, the Boy Wonder completed HP VI, having queued for half an hour for a copy at midnight last Friday. The PO is therefore fully up to date with who dies, who lives and who is half-blooded. The BW, meanwhile, has nothing to read on his holidays.

This evening, as part of the music course they have been attending all week, the BW and Button will be playing together in a string quartet, performing a Pavane by Gabriel Fauré.

Tomorrow evening, the Mother Superior, the Laughing Buddha, the BW, Button and Schmoo will be heading off on the long drive to the Poitou Charentes region of western France, the land of the original female action hero,  Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England and mother of Richard the Lionheart, where they will be staying in this wonderful spot. No doubt the BW will be eager to test his new-found prowess in the language of Molière at every opportunity, offering to run to the boulangerie to pick up baguettes and croissants and pains au chocolat every morning and carefully explaining to the fascinated locals that la plume de sa tante est dans le jardin and that le singe est dans l'arbre.

And of course next week, the BW will be flying back to attend the Lovebirds' wedding, at which he will be reading.

No rest for the wicked, as they say.

Who Does He Think He Is, Stirling Moss ?

Apparently not.

The Boy Wonder went karting with some of his friends this week.

"I didn't go quite as fast as the others," he told me, "But my friend's Mum did tell me that if her five-year-old daughter needed a lift home, I was the one she would be happiest for her to go with."

He won the Safest Driver Award, an achievement that would surely mark the pinnacle of any racing driver's career.

Perhaps he could give the Recluse a couple of lessons...

From Boy Wonder to Renaissance Man

It's not often the PO is lost for words.

True, he can be a grumpy old so-and-so at times, and he's not always the most garrulous of coves (particularly if he has had to get up before nine o'clock in the morning - which is unfortunately the case on most days).

But give him a pen and paper, or sit him down in front of a keyboard and screen and the words usually come tumbling out, positively falling over each other in their excitement to make the transition from the virtual to the real.

Nevertheless, as he sat down at his desk last night and read the BW's End of Year Report from the Dedicated Professionals at Hogwarts, words failed him.

It wasn't the shock at reading phrases like "his answers showed very effective revision had been carried out" (the Science DP) or "[the BW] takes his work seriously - it is only logical, therefore, that he should have dedicated a great deal of time to preparing himself for the end of year examinations and that he should have attained a high percentage" (ze DP for ze Frainch).

It wasn't the pleasure at discovering that the DT DP felt that he had had an "outstanding year" and had produced "remarkable paperwork" or that in Drama classes he has been "good company, gracious with his peers and an affable group leader".

It wasn't even the delight on learning from the Latin DP that the BW was "the first pupil I have taught here who was able to get more than half-way through a particularly challenging exercise in logic involving eleven 'had's, and clearly has a great future in an analytical subject like Latin".

No, it was the swell of pride - familiar by now to regular readers of this online rag - on reading the following comments from the BW's tutor :

Well, this is another excellent report with which to end the year. A silver in the Junior Maths Challenge is just one more feather in his cap, to go with a high Distinction for Grade Six piano and his many other achievements. He was very seriously considered for Dux [PO's note : D'oh ! So it wasn't the Ducks award for quacking work, after all !] of his year and this might be a goal for him next year.

[...]

Cricket, music and an excellent academic - the Boy Wonder is just the sort of Renaissance man who makes Hogwarts what it is. Few schools in the muggle world could hope to offer more than we do and it is for people such as him that this school exists. I am sure he will have an outstanding career here. I wish him all the very best.

Now, if you'll just excuse me while I go to the bathroom. There seems to be something making my eyes water...

This Just In...

The BW confirms that he scored a 1A in Science, meaning he scored the top grade in virtually all the important subjects. Mr Amazon is swinging into action as we speak...