"I'm familiar with some of Danson's work," John replied, somewhat impressed. "The part I found particularly fascinating of his master thesis, though, were the things that didn't correlate or transfer through different languages. How a word in one language is comprised of completely different letters, but somehow the magic knows it has the same meaning. It creates a lot of magical gray areas when you take into account tone, inflection, and context that make spell creation very interesting."
"For me, Miss Berg?" John asked, raising an eyebrow. "No, no. The special assignments I have in mind would be for you, for your benefit. You can get by on doing the general course work, or not doing it as the case may be. You can settle for that E. You can do whatever you want to. But what I have in mind is something a little more...shall we say...fun than that. You seem talented, and I think the best way for you to learn in my class is through experience rather than lecture and number charts."
He rose from his chair and circled the desk, coming to a stop a few feet in front of her. He leaned against the desk. "When I said practical examination, I meant that there will be no instructions. I will present you with something, and you must counter it with something better of your own design, or tell me how I did it. If you complete a series of four tasks, I will consider you qualified for the other assignments, which will be a combination of research, spell creation and whatever else I see fit at the time."
He considered for a moment. "If you decide you'd like to take on the extra work, you will earn more than an O score on your NEWT. I am prepared to offer you a full recommendation to whatever agency you prefer. I must suggest work with the Ministry, as I've recently vacated my position as Hit Wizard there and the recommendation would be received in highest regard."
"I must admit that I do have several personal projects I'm working on, so it might be slow going at first. But I will make this fun and challenging for you, Miss Berg, and you will walk away from my class not just thinking, but knowing, that anything is possible with magic. Anything."