𝙒𝙤𝙡𝙛𝙨𝙗𝙖𝙣𝙚 || 𝙍. 𝙇𝙪𝙥𝙞𝙣

O.W.L.s

The start of their O.W.L.s were tomorrow, and Ast was just about to go crazy. She had been studying non-stop for the past two weeks and if she didn't end up passing, she was seriously considering dropping out of school. Their examiners arrived a few hours earlier and they were not the happiest bunch of people. 

Her first exam was Potions, the theory paper was in the morning and the practical was in the afternoon. She had been practicing since early this morning. Everyone in the fifth year had been revising like mad. Even Sirius stopped lazing around and picked up a book. It was definitely a strange sight.

It was 11:00 p.m and all of the fifth years were still awake and revising in the common room. Everything was silent except for the occasional scratch of a quill or a turn of a page. Ast gazed at her Potions notes, unable to concentrate. There were tear trails left on her cheeks from when she believed she wouldn't pass and her hair had fallen out of her ponytail from when she had her third breakdown of the day.

She glanced at her fellow fifth years. They seemed to be in the same state she was in. The only people who seemed to be focusing were Lily and Remus, obviously. Sirius, whose hair was tied up with a little bow to keep it off of his face, and Peter had taken it upon themselves to play a sword fight with their liquorice wands and James was playing with his rather annoying snitch again.

No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't concentrate. It was well and truly futile. It was like the information was going in one ear and out the other. She was also doubting herself, she felt like she knew nothing and that she was going to fail. She felt hot liquid well up in her eyes again. 

This time, however, Remus noticed just as a tear splashed onto her notes. He sighed and leaned across the table towards Ast.

"What's wrong?" He asked calmly.

"What do you think is wrong?" She hissed. "I'm gonna fail."

"Don't say that,"

"But she did," Peter whispered.

Remus glared at Peter, who quickly turned back to Sirius. 

"You won't fail... you're the smartest in our year."

"Bet that was painful to say," Sirius smirked.

He too, was silenced by one of Remus's many death glares.

"I think I might just go to bed," Ast said honestly.

*****

It was all silent except for the scratching of quills. After Defence Against the Dark Arts, all that was left was their Transfiguration O.W.L and then they were finally done.

Ast turned her paper over and began on the next set of questions. She came across question number 10 'Give five signs that identify the werewolf'. She smiled and wrote down her answer. She looked up from her paper and saw James a few seats away from her. When Professor Flitwick walked past his desk, James turned around in his seat. He gave her a small wink and she stuck her tongue out in return. He grinned and then turned to Sirius, who gave him a thumbs up.

A girl was sitting behind Sirius and was gazing very intently at him. Only when Ast cleared her throat did she look back at her own paper. Ast looked to her left and saw Remus scribbling away at his paper, of course he was. He was probably cramming every last bit of information he could think of onto his answers.

"Five minutes left!" Professor Flitwick squeaked about half an hour later.

One more question was left, 'Where does one find a Grindylaw?' Thanks to Oscar's obsession with magical creatures, Ast knew the answer to that. Finally, she placed her quill down and re-read her answers. Once she had finished correcting and was satisfied, she swung her chair back onto its hind legs and relaxed. She observed the room again, James and Sirius looked like they were done and were communicating with their eyes. Peter was looking around hopefully, his eyes landed on Ast.