𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 •°𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴

[42]

'You called me love,' he said softly and Sara chuckled, reaching for his scarlet tie to tie it properly.

'It's really something you shouldn't stress over so much,' she continued, pretending everything was normal, but smiling brightly. 'You are one of the best students here, you'll be brilliant.'

'Not nearly as brilliant as you,' he muttered softly and the whole time, as they reread notes and ate, the smiles never left their faces.

Once breakfast was over, the fifth- and seventh-years milled around in the Entrance Hall while the other students went off to lessons; then, at half past nine, they were called forwards class by class to re-enter the Great Hall, which had been rearranged to be full of little desks and chair.

After they were alphabetically sorted by their last name, Sara found herself with Harry in front of her and some Hufflepuff behind her.

Nico was a few rows at her right, at nearly one of the last desks.

McGonagall stood facing them. When they were all seated and quiet, she said, 'You may begin,' and turned over an enormous hour-glass on the desk beside her, on which there were also spare quills, ink bottles and rolls of parchment.

Sara got through her examen with ease, smiling all the time because she felt Nico's eyes watching her at some moments.

They both walked out of the hall happily.

'I mean I don't think that there was any question I didn't answer, I loved them all,' Nico laughed and put a hand around Sara's shoulders, as they walked to the small chamber where they would wait for their practical exams.

'I did it!' Sara shouted when Nico returned to the common room, after his practical exam.

'So did I,' he grinned and fell on the couch next to Sara's Transfiguration notes.

As the Transfiguration and Herbology exams passed, Sara found herself in the DADA practical exam. It was the one she really stressed about because of Umbridge's poor teaching, but the DA lessons were enough to help her perform every spell correctly in front of professor Marchbanks, her examiner.

'Miss Potter, before you go,' the witch chimed and Sara followed her eyes to see Harry's patronus. 'Can you conjure a corporal patronus just like your brother?' she asked with interest and looked at Sara.

The redhead nodded and smiled at the examiner. She pictured the day she and Nico would finally have free time and spend a whole afternoon laughing over the amount of studying they did.

'Expecto patronum!' she said clearly and the silver lioness appeared, running around the room.

'Very well, Miss Potter,' the witch said and dismissed Sara, who got to her feet and was next to Harry in a second. They both sent mischievous grins to Umbridge as they passed her and high fived when they were climbing the stairs.

'The look on her face!' Harry laughed and Sara chuckled.

'That was worth living for,' she said and the twins each started talking about their performance in their DADA exam.

The Care of Magical creatures exam went well, but Sara was proud of her and Nico's performance in Potions. Without Snape to watch them, it was much easier to brew a potion.

The Astronomy theory paper on Wednesday morning went well enough. They had to wait until evening for their practical Astronomy; the afternoon was devoted instead to Divination.

'Well, we were always going to fail that one,' said Ron gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase.

'We shouldn't have taken the stupid subject in the first place,' said Nico.

'Still, at least we can give it up now,' Sara exclaimed cheerfully.

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'No more pretending we care what happens when Jupiter and Uranus get too friendly.'

'And from now on, I don't care if my tea-leaves spell die, Ron, die - I'm just chucking them in the bin where they belong.'

They laughed just as Hermione came running up behind them. Sara stopped laughing at once, in case it annoyed her.

'Well, I think I've done all right in Arithmancy,' she said, and Sara, Nico, Harry and Ron all sighed with relief. 'Just time for a quick look over our star-charts before dinner, then . . .'

When they reached the top of the Astronomy Tower at eleven o'clock, they found a perfect night for stargazing, cloudless and still. Each of them set up his or her telescope and, when Professor Marchbanks gave the word, proceeded to fill in the blank star-chart they had been given.

Professors Marchbanks and Tofty strolled among them, watching as they entered the precise positions of the stars and planets they were observing. Half an hour passed, then ar hour; the little squares of reflected gold light flickering on the: ground below started to vanish as lights in the castle windows were extinguished.

They all watched in terror as Umbridge and the aurors tried to arrest Hagrid.

Sara could see the tiny outline of Fang, attempting to defend Hagrid, leaping repeatedly at the wizards surrounding him until a Stunning Spell caught him and he fell to the ground. Hagrid gave a howl of fury, lifted the culprit bodily from the ground and threw him; the man flew what looked like ten feet and did not get up again. Hermione gasped, both hands over her mouth; Sara looked round at Nico, Harry and Ron and saw that they, too, were looking scared. None of them had ever seen Hagrid in a real temper before.

'Look!' squealed Parvati, who was leaning over the parapet and pointing to the foot of the castle where the front doors had opened again; more light was spilling out on to the dark lawn and a single long black shadow was now rippling across the lawn.

'Now, really!' said Professor Tofty anxiously. 'Only sixteen minutes left, you know!'

But nobody paid him the slightest attention: they were watching the person now sprinting towards the battle beside Hagrid's cabin.

'How dare you!' the figure shouted as she ran. 'How dare you!'

'It's McGonagall!' whispered Hermione.

'Leave him alone! Alone, I say!' said Professor McGonagall's voice through the darkness. 'On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such - '

Sara, Hermione, Parvati and Lavender all screamed. The figures around the cabin had shot no fewer than lour Stunners at Professor McGonagall. Halfway between cabin and castle the red beams collided with her; for a moment she looked luminous and glowed an eerie red, then she lifted right off her feet, landed hard on her back, and moved no more.

'Get him, get him!' screamed Umbridge moments later as Hagrid took of with Fang on his shoulder.

Sara and Nico exchanged worried glances, it was clearly not a good sign.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Enjoy this long OWL themed chaper:D