2nd chances (Scorose)

Chapter 31

It was the culmination of five years' worth of work. OWLs. Scorpius and I had been intensively studying whenever we could for six weeks, in between lessons, during rounds and throughout our free periods. Wherever we were, we were quizzing each other on one subject or another.

But despite all the hard work, I still awoke on the day of my first exam, Care of Magical Creatures, panicking like crazy and practically hyperventilating. I couldn't even eat anything at breakfast as Al, Lucy and Dom began a last minute cramming session. More than anything, I couldn't help wishing that they hadn't brought the exam forwards. I'd have rather done the new syllabus which was being implemented at the beginning of June and have another few weeks of studying than do the exam early. When the first lesson bell rang, the rest of the students filed out of the hall, leaving us Fifth Years behind. Although it was a practical exam for Care of Magical Creatures first, we weren't allowed to go outside without being escorted by the examiners.

Dom, Lucy and I stood in a loose group, trying to forget about nerves. One of the examiners had already escorted Al and Scorpius outside and they were probably in the middle of their exam considering it was being done alphabetically.

We were escorted out into the rain by one of the female examiner who looked surprisingly young in comparison to them other four, and each of us was taken to our own individual examiner. I was taken to Mr. Forster, who promptly stuck out his hand to shake mine and introduced himself.

"Hi, Rose. I'm Tertius Forster, your Care of Magical Creatures examiner today."

"Hello," I replied nervously.

"Right, let's get started shall we," he replied, pushing his glasses up his nose and turning to lead the way towards the forest, where at the edge of the tree line there was a collection of tables bearing different animals in cages. "Could you show me the correct way to handle a Bowtruckle?"

With shaking hands, I picked up the wood-like creature and held it out to Mr Forster.

"Okay, thank you, and how would you care for a Bowtruckle?"

Feeling more confident because of the easy question, I answered, finding that perhaps my panic was needless because I managed to remember everything.

Mr Forster asked a few more questions, including the differences between Knarls and Crups, how to approach a unicorn and what the uses of their hairs and horns were, to pick something to feed a young Porlock and talk about the stages of growth in Fire Crabs.

When I returned to the castle, (avoiding being escorted back by an examiner due to the fact that there was no-one waiting to have their exam that I could talk to and tell them the questions) I found Scorpius waiting for me.

"How was it?" Scor asked, taking my hand and beginning to walk up the Grand Staircase with me.

"It went well, I think," I replied. "How about you?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Nothing too difficult, so hopefully I'll have done well."

We continued speaking as we made our way to the Library to study for the written Charms paper we would have as a mock exam that afternoon.

"So Switching Spells came up last year as an essay on the theories behind the use of charms," I mumbled.

"Which means they can't ask that this year unless it's a short answer question," Scorpius added, finishing my sentence.

"Right, so we could get something about levitation, growth charms, color-change charms - you'd do well on that one, Scorpius - summoning charms, the aguamenti charm, banishing charms, severing charms, disarming charms, freezing charms and Merlin knows what else."