The Underground

Chapter 23 - 'Til Death Do Us Part

Winter came like a thick sheet of dread and chill. Dread of the upcoming midterm exams drove Elizabeth to 'the point of near zombification' according to Maria. She spent probably far too much time indoors, and drank probably far too much coffee. On the morning of the exams the world felt blurred as she reviewed everything she had ever learned. The corridors melted into the great hall and she somehow found her way to a seat and poured herself some coffee. The mug was wet as she picked it up and took a sip. Looking down, the world came into focus for a moment - long enough to see that she had mostly missed the mug and the coffee was seeping into the tablecloth. Groaning, she put down the coffee and pulled out her wand, muttering the charm, she missed the hand on her shoulder.

"Hey."

Looking up, Elizabeth saw that it was Francis. He looked far healthier than when she had last seen him, and his freckles didn't show so much on his face. "Oh, Hi Francis."

"You worried about the exams?"

"Yep," Elizabeth bit her lip, "How about you?"

"I think I'm ready, after all, I did spend a good... month, I think, studying."

"Well, good luck," Elizabeth said, eyeing the plates of freshly toasted bread.

"To you too!" Francis said. Then he got up and moved down the table to talk to a younger boy who had just sat down. Elizabeth grabbed a piece of toast and stuffed it in her mouth, and then got up to look for Maria.

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The first N.E.W.T test took place at 10:00, and Elizabeth's brain was buzzing, both from nerves and too much coffee. Her first exam was charms, and she felt somewhat confidant. She had always had a relatively high grade in charms, and as a result hadn't studied as hard for the test. Oh boy was she regretting that now.

Somehow she made it through the morning exams, all five of them. She stumbled to the great hall for lunch, bumping into Maria by the door. "Hey," She said tiredly, "How'd it go?"

Maria was only slightly less tired, "I think I may have completely failed history, but who cares about that anyway. The only person who ever gets a passing grade in history is a history teacher."

They sat together for the rest of lunch, Maria abandoning her usual table to sit with Elizabeth. They drank ridiculous amounts of orange juice and ate too many breadsticks. On occasion, one of Elizabeth's cousins came up to wish her luck for the afternoon exams. Martin gave her one of his highly intelligent looks up and down and declared that she would pass all her tests but one. Maria thought this was hilarious, and asked for her own exam fortune. Martin said that would fail all but five of her N.E.W.T.S, but be happy at the result. Elizabeth smirked.

It wasn't until after all her exams had finished that Elizabeth realised that her cousin was right. Despite all her revisions, she knew she had failed either history or arithmancy, and was hopelessly worried that it had been the latter. She knew that without a high N.E.W.T in arithmancy, she could kiss her medical dreams goodbye. In a panic, she went to find Martin at dinner. He was sitting with Isaac at the Gryffindor table, and Elizabeth hurried over to him. "-and then she said-you'll never believe this-"

"Martin!"

"What?" Martin looked up and Isaac stopped, mid sentence.

"Are you taking Divination lessons?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"When you said that I would pass all my NEWTS except one, was that a prophesy?"

"I suppose it was..." Martin trailed off, "I just had a feeling, and so I said it." He paused and took a drink of his orange juice. "Why?"