Magic? || Years 5-7

Dobby and Kreacher's Reports: Year 6

News spread quickly about the first Apparition Test. Anyone who was seventeen on or before the twenty-first of April was eligible for extra practice sessions in Hogsmeade. Sixth years were buzzing with excitement, eager to practice and get out of the horrid lessons with Twycross and his three Ds.

Unfortunately, both Amisty and Harry were several months too young to make the deadline and had no chance of taking the test yet. Despite the fact that they'd both managed it once.

She wasn't too bitter. Apparition wasn't very pleasant, but it was steadily growing on her the more she understood it. She was honestly just hoping she could skip the entire learning process and get to the whole doing part. Especially when it came to rapid Apparition. It'd be terribly cool to just zip in and out of existence while dueling.

Ron, who was old enough to take the test, was panicking. He hadn't quite managed to Aparate just yet and was incredibly worried he wasn't going to pass. But now, in the dying heat of the fire, he was struggling through the immensely difficult Dementors essay Snape had assigned. Amisty's general rule of thumb was to avoid Dementors, but that probably wasn't the answer Snape had been looking for. So, she'd written about Patronuses and prayed.

They were sitting in the common room on Sunday evening, pouring over their individual homework and textbooks. Sixth year was proving to be as difficult as ever, and Ron was struggling to piece together his own DADA essay since he'd spent so much time worrying over Apparition rather than finishing it.

"You won't find anything in there," Hermione said to Harry, who was rifling through his Potions book for a way to persuade Slughorn to give him the memory Harry so desperately needed.

"Don't start, Hermione," Harry said, nose buried between the pages. "If it hadn't been for the Prince, Ron wouldn't be sitting here now."

"He would if you'd just listened to Snape in our first year," Hermione said primly.

Harry ignored her.

"I'm telling you, the stupid Prince isn't going to be able to help you with this, Harry!" Hermione said. Loudly. "There's only one way to force someone to do what you want, and that's the Imperius Curse, which is illegal—"

"Yeah, I know that, thanks," Harry said dryly without looking up. "That's why I'm looking for something different. Dumbledore says Veritaserum won't do it, but there might be something else, a potion or a spell. . ."

"You're going about it the wrong way," Hermione insisted. "Only you can get the memory, Dumbledore says. That must mean you can persuade Slughorn where other people can't. It's not a question of slipping him a potion, anyone could do that—"

"How d'you spell 'belligerent'?" Ron asked, cutting her off as he shook his quill. "It can't be B—U—M—"

"No, it isn't," Hermione said, pulling his essay toward her and frowning down at the words. "And 'augury' doesn't begin O—R—G either. What kind of quill are you using?"

"It's one of Fred and George's Spell-Check ones. . ." Ron said, now frowning at his quill, "but I think the charm must be wearing off. . ."

"Yes it must," Hermione pointed at several parts of his essay, "because we were asked how we'd deal with dementors, not 'Dugbogs,' And I don't remember you changing your name to 'Roonil Wazlib' either."

"Ah, no!" Ron said, his face going pale and horrified. "Don't say I'll have to write the whole thing out again!"

"It's okay," Hermione said, pulling out her wand, "we can fix it."

With a big sigh, Ron slumped down into his chair, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes. "I love you, Hermione."

Amisty smirked.