INSTEAD, james potter [1]

Chapter Twenty

O.W.L.s were stressful. Many people decided not to care, but some cracked under the pressure. Lyra wasn't proud to admit it, but in the weeks leading up to the O.W.L. exams and after the first few, she was one of them. 

Madam Pomfrey said it was a new record, as she was administered four calming drafts in two weeks. She usually wouldn't give  out so many but she could see Lyra desperately needed to calm down. 

But the faster the exams passed, the better she felt. By the time she had reached the practical Defense against the Dark Arts exam, she didn't think she was going to faint like she did during Herbology. People said Sprout had never been looked so shocked, as she was usually so composed.

She was nervously writing while glancing up at Flitwick, who was keeping time for them. It was strange that the year's DADA teacher wasn't there, but she heard rumors that he was stressed and sick, not thinking he was going to be able to return the next year.  

"Five more minutes!" Flitwick called out. He was standing on some sort of stool to make sure he could see all the students. Many people started nervously scribbling as quickly as they could, having thought they had more time. 

Remus was trying his best, working as hard as he could. Peter was chewing on his fingernails, trying to remember more facts about werewolves. Sirius was casually leaning back in his chair, sending a thumbs up to his best friend. 

James was yawning and messing up his hair before smiling at Sirius's gesture. His gaze then turned back to where it had strayed mulitple times throughout this exam and all the ones before. Towards Lyra Black.

She seemed stressed, even though he suspected she was pretty much done. Once she felt his eyes on her, she glanced back. He smirked as he caught her eye, winking. She rolled her eyes before turning back to write. 

James had been done with the whole exam for ages, and mostly stayed behind so he could either stare at Lyra or mentally make fun of all those who were taking the exams so seriously. He had sat and doodled for a while.

He had a spare bit of parchment. He had already doodled a scarily accurate snitch, which he had spent at least five minutes on. Next to it, he was now tracing the initials LB in cursive, smiling softly to himself. 

"Quills down, please!" Flitwick suddenly called out. While most students listed to him, he still had someone to scold. "That means you, too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"

Over a hundred rolls of parchment rushed towards him, overwhelming the poor wizard. Being so small, it didn't take much to knock him backwards, so he fell to the ground. A few students from the front row quickly ran over to help him up. 

"Thank you... Thank you. Very well, everybody, you're free to go." Flitwick seemed embarrassed, avoiding eye contact with even his few confused favorite students. He just wanted to lie down and sleep, honestly. 

He didn't have to tell the students twice. They had all anticipated running around in the sun and almost being done with all of their theoretical exams. It meant they were one exam closer to summer break. 

Lyra wasn't an exception. She truly needed to relax and be with her friends for a while now that she was done. She quickly caught Rabastan's eye and grinned, calling out to him. "Hey, Rabastan! Wait up!"

James wasn't pleased as he noticed this, but he knew there was nothing he could do. Instead, he decided to lead his group of marauders out into the Entrance Hall, so they could spend their time doing more useful and fun things. 

Sirius smiled to himself, obviously quite pleased with himself after the exam. He raised an eyebrow at Remus as he remembered a particularly fun part of it. "Did you like question ten, Moony?"