Ron's euphoria at helping Gryffindor scrape the Quidditch Cup was such that he could not settle to anything the next day. All he wanted to do was to talk over the match. As it was another fine, warm day, they persuaded him to join them in studying under the beech tree on the edge of the lake. Ron was not particularly keen on this idea at first; he was thoroughly enjoying being patted on the back by Gryffindor's walking past his chair, not to mention the occasional outbursts of "Weasley Is Our King," but agreed after a while that some fresh air might do him good.
They spread their books out in the shade of the beech tree and sat down while Ron talked them through his first save of the match for what felt like the dozenth time.
"Well, I mean, I'd already let in that one of Davies's, so I wasn't feeling that confident, but I dunno, when Bradley came toward me, just out of nowhere, I thought — you can do this! And I had about a second to decide which way to fly, you know because he looked like he was aiming for the right goal hoop — my right, obviously, his left —but I had a funny feeling that he was fainting, and so I took the chance and flew left — his right, I mean — and — well — you saw what happened," he concluded modestly, sweeping his hair back quite unnecessarily so that it looked interestingly windswept and glancing around to see whether the people nearest to them — a bunch of gossiping third-year Hufflepuffs — had heard him. "And then, when Chambers came at me about five minutes later — what?" Ron said, stopping mid-sentence at the look on Harry's face. "Why are you grinning?"
"I'm not," said Harry quickly, looking down at his Transfiguration notes and attempting to straighten his face. "I'm just glad we won, that's all."
"Yeah," said Ron slowly, savoring the words, "we won. Did you see the look on Chang's face when Percy got the Snitch right out from under her nose?"
"I suppose she cried, did she?" said Harry bitterly.
"Well, yeah — more out of temper than anything, though . . ." Rigel said slowly
Ron frowned slightly. "But you saw her chuck her broom away when she got back to the ground, didn't you?"
"Er —" said Harry.
"Well, actually . . . no, Ron," said Hermione with a heavy sigh, putting down her book and looking at him apologetically. "As a matter of fact, the only bit of the match Harry and I saw was Davies's first goal."
Ron's carefully ruffled hair seemed to wilt with disappointment.
"You didn't watch?" he said faintly, looking from one to the other."You didn't see me make any of those saves?"
"Well — no," Eliza said, stretching out a placatory hand toward him. "But Ron, we didn't want to leave — we had to!"
"Yeah?" said Ron, whose face was growing rather red. "How come?"
"It was Hagrid," she said. "He decided to tell us why he's been covered in injuries. He has a half-brother."
The story was told in five minutes, by the end of which Ron and Rigel's face had a look of total incredulity.
"He brought one back and hid it in the forest?"
"Yep," said Harry grimly.
"No," said Ron, as though by saying this he could make it untrue."No, he can't have. . . ."
"Well, he has," said Hermione firmly. "Grawp's about sixteen feet tall enjoys ripping up twenty-foot pine trees, and knows me," she snorted, "as Hermy."
Rigel snickered. Ron gave a nervous laugh."And Hagrid wants us to . . . ?"
"Teach him English, yeah," said Harry.
"He's lost his mind," said Ron in an almost awed voice.
"Doesn't sound like it," Rigel said not raising his head from the trio.
Ron started. "Rigel how could you..."
"Ron if you had an abused half-brother would you leave him out on the streets?" Rigel retorted.
Ron opened his mouth but no words came.
"To me," Rigel said closing his charms textbook. "It sounded like he wants to protect his little brother from bullies."
The castle grounds were gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted; the cloudless sky smiled at itself in the smoothly sparkling lake, the satin-green lawns rippled occasionally in a gentle breeze: June had arrived, but to the fifth years this meant only one thing: TheirO.W.L.s were upon them at last.
Their teachers were no longer setting them homework; lessons were devoted to reviewing those topics their teachers thought most likely to come up in the exams. The purposeful, feverish atmosphere drove nearly everything but the O.W.L.s from Rigel's mind. Hermione was much too preoccupied these days to badger Harry about Occlumency. She was spending a lot of time muttering to herself and had not laid out any elf clothes for days.
She was not the only person acting oddly as the O.W.L.s drew steadily nearer. Ernie Macmillan had developed an irritating habit of interrogating people about their study habits.
Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy had found a different way to induce panic.
"Of course, it's not what you know," he was heard to tell Crabbe and Goyle loudly outside Potions a few days before the exams were to start, "it's who you know. Now, Father's been friendly with the head ofthe Wizarding Examinations Authority for years — old Griselda Marchbanks — we've had her round for dinner and everything. . . ."
"Do you think that's true?" Hermione whispered to Harry, Eliza, Rigel, and Ron, looking frightened.
"Nothing we can do about it if it is," said Ron gloomily.
"I don't think it's true," said Neville quietly from behind them."Because Griselda Marchbanks is a friend of my gran's, and she's never mentioned the Malfoys."
"What's she like, Neville?" asked Hermione at once. "Is she strict?"
"Bit like Gran, really," said Neville in a subdued voice.
"Knowing her won't hurt your chances though, will it?" Ron told him encouragingly.
"Oh, I don't think it will make any difference," said Neville, still more miserably. "Gran's always telling Professor Marchbanks I'm not as good as my dad. . . . Well . . . you saw what she's like at St. Mungo's. . . ."
Meanwhile, a flourishing black-market trade in aids to concentration, mental agility, and wakefulness had sprung up in the fifth and seventh years. Harry and Ron were much tempted by the bottle of Baruffio's Brain Elixir offered to them by Ravenclaw sixth-year Eddie Carmichael, who swore it was solely responsible for the nine"Outstanding" O.W.L.s he had gained the previous summer and was offering the whole pint for a mere twelve Galleons. But Hermione and Rigel confiscated the bottle from Carmichael and poured the contents down a toilet knowing that it was doxy droppings.
Rigel received his examination schedules and details of the procedure for O.W.L.s during his Transfiguration N.E.W.T lesson s. Their first exam, Theory of Charms, was scheduled for Monday morning. Rigel agreed to test Eliza after lunch on Sunday but she was very agitated and kept snatching the book back from him to check that she had gotten the answer completely right.
"Why don't you just do it yourself?" he said firmly, handing thebook back to her.
Eliza blushed before handing the book back to him and started all over.
Meanwhile, Ron was reading two years of Charms notes with his fingers in his ears, his lips moving soundlessly; Seamus was lying flat on his back on the floor, reciting the definition of a SubstantiveCharm, while Dean checked it against The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5; and Parvati and Lavender, who were practicing basic locomotion charms, were making their pencil cases race each other aroundthe edge of the table.
Dinner was a subdued affair that night. Harry and Ron did not talkmuch, but ate with gusto, having studied hard all day. Hermione on the other hand kept putting down her knife and fork and diving under the table for her bag, from which she would seize a book to check some fact or figure.
"It's only for two weeks," Rigel said reassuringly. "Just two weeks and it's all over."
Ron was just telling her that she ought to eat a decent meal or she would not sleep that night when her fork slid from her limp fingers and landed with a loud tinkle on her plate.
"Oh, my goodness," she said faintly, staring into the entrance hall."Is that them? Is that the examiners?"
Harry and Ron whipped around on their bench. Through the doors to the Great Hall, Percy could see Umbridge standing with a small group of ancient-looking witches and wizards. Umbridge looked rather nervous.
"Shall we go and have a closer look?" said Ron.
Harry, Rigel, and Hermione nodded and they hastened toward the double doors into the entrance hall, slowing down as they stepped over the threshold to walk sedately past the examiners. Umbridge was speaking to her very deferentially. Professor Marchbanks seemed to be a little deaf; she was answering Umbridge very loudly considering that they were only a foot apart.
"Journey was fine, the journey was fine, we've made it plenty of times before!" she said impatiently. "Now, I haven't heard from Dumbledorelately!" she added, peering around the hall as though hoping he might suddenly emerge from a broom cupboard. "No idea where he is, I suppose?"
"None at all," said Umbridge, shooting a malevolent look at Harry, Percy, Ron, and Hermione, who were now dawdling around the foot ofthe stairs as Ron pretended to do up his shoelace. "But I daresay theMinistry of Magic will track him down soon enough. . . ."
"I doubt it," shouted tiny Professor Marchbanks, "not if Dumbledore doesn't want to be found! I should know. . . . Examined him personally in Transfiguration and Charms when he did N.E.W.T.s . . .Did things with a wand I'd never seen before . . ."
"Yes . . . well . . ." said Professor Umbridge as Harry, Ron, and Hermione dragged their feet up the marble staircase as slowly as they dared, "let me show you to the staffroom . . . I daresay you'd like a cup of tea after your journey. . . ."
None of the fifth years talked very much at breakfast the next day either. Parvati was practicing incantations under her breath while the salt cellar in front of her twitched, Hermione was rereading Achievement in Charming so fast that her eyes appeared blurred, Percy kept on dropping his reading glasses and Neville kept dropping his knife and fork and knocking over the marmalade.
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 forward class by class to reenter theGreat Hall. The four House tables had been removed and replaced instead with many tables for one, all facing the staff-table end of the hall where Professor McGonagall stood facing them. When they were all seated and quiet she said, "You may begin," and turned over an enormous hourglass on the desk beside her, on which were also spare quills, ink bottles, and rolls of parchment.
Rigel turned over his paper, his heart thumping hard. . . . Three rows to his right and four seats ahead, Hermione was already scribbling. . . . He lowered his eyes to the first question: a) Give the incantation, and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly. . . .
Grinning. He bent over the paper and began to write. . .
"Well, it wasn't too bad, was it?" asked Hermione anxiously in the entrance hall two hours later, still clutching the exam paper. "I'm not sure I did myself justice on Cheering Charms, I just ran out of time — did you put in the countercharm for hiccups? I wasn't sure whether I ought to, it felt like too much — and on question twenty-three —"
"Hermione," said Ron sternly, "we've been through this before. . . .We're not going through every exam afterward, it's bad enough doing them once."
The fifth years ate lunch with the rest of the school (the four House tables reappeared over the lunch hour) and then trooped off into the small chamber beside the Great Hall, where they were to wait until called for their practical examination. As small groups of students were called forward in alphabetical order, those left behind muttered incantations and practiced wand movements, occasionally poking one another in the back or eye by mistake.
"Abbott Hannah — Black Rigel — Bones, Susan —Boot Terry.
"Good luck," Eliza said pecking him on the lips. Harry and Ron gave him a thumbs up and Hermione gave him a small hug. Taking out his wand, he trembled forward.
"Professor Tofty is free, Black," squeaked Professor Flitwick, who was standing just inside the door. He pointed Percy toward what looked like the very oldest and baldest examiner,
"Black, is it?" said Professor Tofty, consulting his notes and peering. "Sirius's son?"
"Yes sir, planning to follow in his footsteps." Rigel smiled.
Today laughed before having him make an eggcup do cartwheels. Once he was done with that, he had him do the Levitation Charm, the Colour-Changing Charm, and various other charms that he knew all too well. All in all, Rigel felt he did quite well with his exam if the supremely pleased smile on Tofty's face was anything to judge by while muttereing "Definently Kiara's son".
They had their Herbology exam on Wednesday (other than destroying a Fanged Geranium, he thinks he might've done well) and then, on Thursday, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Here, for practical, he knew he would pass, he had no problem with any of the written questions and took particular pleasure, during the practical examination, in performing all the counter jinxes and defensive spells right in front of Umbridge, who was watching coolly from near the doors into the entrance hall.
Tofty looked quite pleased with his performance and was about to dismiss him when they paused to watch as a stag Patronus cantered past them. Rigel immediately turned his head to grin at Harry, who looked quite pleased with himself. Not one to be outdone, Rigel turned to his instructor and asked if he could conjure up his own Patronus for bonus marks. Tofty looked surprised but nodded nonetheless. He pointed his wand, focusing on his first Christmas with his dad.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The grim erupted from the end of his wand and pounced at Umbridge who shrieked in terror and ran away. Professor Tofty clapped his veined and knotted hands enthusiastically.
"Wonderful!. You got auror blood in you. Very well, Black, you may go!"
On Friday, Harry, Eliza, and Ron had a day off while Hermione and Rigel had their Ancient Runes exam, and as they had the whole weekend in front of them, they permitted themselves a break from studying. They stretched and yawned beside the open window, through which warm summer air wafted over them as they played a desultory game of wizard chess. They could see Hagrid in the distance, teaching a class on the edge of the forest.
The portrait hole opened and duo girls clambered in, Hermione looking thoroughly bad-tempered.
"How were the runes?" said Harry, yawning and stretching.
"I mistranslated 'ehwaz,' " said Hermione furiously. "It means 'partnership,' not 'defense,' I mixed it up with 'eihwaz.' "
"Ah well," said Ron lazily, "that's only one mistake, isn't it, you'll still get —"
"Oh shut up," said Hermione angrily, "it could be the one mistake that makes the difference between a pass and a fail. And what's more, someone's put another niffler in Umbridge's office, I don't know how they got it through that new door, but I just walked past there and Umbridge is shrieking her head off — by the sound of it, it tried to take a chunk out of her leg —"
"Good," said Harry, and Ron together.
"It is not good!" Eliza said much to their surprise. "She thinks it's Hagrid doing it, remember? And we do not want Hagrid chucked out!"
"He's teaching at the moment, she can't blame him," said Harry, gesturing out of the window.
"Oh, you're so naive sometimes, Harry, you really think Umbridge will wait for proof?" said Hermione, who seemed determined to be in a towering temper, and she swept off toward the girls' dormitories, banging the door behind her.
"Such a lovely, sweet-tempered girl," Ron said,
Hermione's bad mood persisted for most of the weekend, though Rigel, Harry, and Ron found it quite easy to ignore as they spent most of Saturday and Sunday studying for Potions on Monday, He found the written exam a piece of cake (another 'O') and he could describe the effects of polyjuice potion extremely accurately.
The afternoon practical was not as dreadful as he had expected it to be. With Snape absent from the proceedings he found that they had found it much more relaxed while making potions. Neville, who was sitting very near Percy, also looked happier than he had ever seen him during a Potions class. When Professor Marchbanks said, "Step away from your cauldrons, please, the examination is over," Rigel corked his sample flask feeling that he might have achieved the best grades.
"Only four exams left," said Parvati Patil wearily as they headed back to Gryffindor common room.
"Only!" said Hermione snappishly. "I've got Arithmancy and it's probably the toughest subject there is!"
"Yeah and so do I" Rigel yawned.
Rigel was determined to perform well in Tuesday's Care of Magical Creatures exam so as not to let Hagrid down. The practical examination took place in the afternoon on the lawn on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where students were required to correctly identify the knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs; then demonstrate correct handling of a bowtruckle, feed and clean a fire-crab without sustaining serious burns, and choose, from a wide selection of food, the diet they would give a sick unicorn. Although he may have cheated since the unicorns told him. But it wasn't his fault he could speak to unicorns!
Arithmancy was as Hermione had said the toughest exam and without the help of his enchanted calculator, Rigel had to solve the equations by himself though he may scrap an E but definitely not an A.
The Astronomy theory exam on Wednesday morning went well enough; Rigel was not convinced he had got the names of all of Jupiter's moons right,
When they reached the top of the Astronomy Tower at eleven o'clock they found a perfect night for stargazing, cloudless and still. The grounds were bathed in silvery moonlight, and there was a slight chill in the air. Each of them set up his or her telescope and, when professor Marchbanks gave the word, proceeded to fill in the blank star chart he or she 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. All was quiet except for the rustle of parchment, the occasional creak of a telescope as it was adjusted on its stand, and the scribbling of many quills. Half an hour passed, then an hour; the little squares of reflected gold light flickering on the ground below started to vanish as lights in the castle windows were extinguished.
As Rigel completed the constellation of Perseus on his chart, the front doors of the castle opened and he got a clear view, Percy glanced down as he made a slight adjustment to the position of his telescope and saw five or six elongated shadows moving over the brightly lit grass before the doors swung shut and the lawn became a sea of darkness once more.
He looked down at his chart and entered the planet, Venus, there, but something distracted him. Pausing with his quill suspended over the parchment, he squinted down into the shadowy grounds and saw half a dozen figures walking over the lawn. If they had not been moving, and the moonlight had not been gilding the tops of their heads, they would have been indistinguishable from the dark ground on which they stood. Even at this distance, Percy had a funny feeling that he recognized the walk of the squattest among them, who seemed to be leading the group
He heard a distant knock that echoed through the deserted grounds, followed immediately by the muffled barking of a large dog.
He looked up, his heart hammering. There were lights on in Hagrid's windows and the people he had observed crossing the lawn were now silhouetted against them. The door opened and he distinctly saw six tiny but sharply defined figures walk over the threshold. The door closed again and there was silence.
Rigel felt very uneasy. He glanced around to see whether Harry, Eliza, Ron or Hermione had noticed what he had, but Professor Marchbanks came walking behind him at that moment, and not wanting to appear as though he was sneaking looks at anyone else's work, he hastily bent over his star chart and pretended to be adding notes to it while really peering over the top of the parapet toward Hagrid's cabin. Figures were now moving across the cabin windows, temporarily blocking the light.
Then he heard a roar from the distant cabin that echoed through the darkness right to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Several of the people around Rigel ducked out from behind their telescopes and peered instead in the direction of Hagrid's cabin.
Professor Tofty gave another dry little cough.
"Try and concentrate, now, boys and girls," he said softly.
Most people returned to their telescopes. Rigel looked to his left. Harry was gazing transfixed at Hagrid's
"Ahem — twenty minutes to go," said Professor Tofty.
Rigel jumped and returned at once to his star chart; he just need to fill out Neptune
There was a loud BANG from the grounds. Several people said"Ouch!" as they poked themselves in the face with the ends of their telescopes, hastening to see what was going on below
Hagrid's door had burst open and by the light flooding out of the cabin they saw him quite clearly, a massive figure roaring and brandishing his fists, surrounded by six people, all of whom, judging by the tiny threads of red light they were casting in his direction, seemed to be attempting to Stun him.
"No!" cried Hermione.
"My dear!" said Professor Tofty in a scandalized voice. "This is an examination!"
Rigel was moving before he could even register what had happened. He ignored the shouts of everyone around him as he bolted out of the tower and down the stairs, taking shortcut after shortcut as he went. He stopped suddenly when a hand grabbed his arm. He turned, pulling his arm out of the person's grasp and flicking his wand into his hand in one fluid motion. He only lowered it slightly when he saw it was McGonagall, who looked quite angry to see him skipping his exams.
"Black, what're you-"
"Hagrid's under attack," Rigel told her quickly. "Umbridge brought friends – they're going to hurt him. I have to help."
Without another word, he turned and continued down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He heard rapid footsteps behind him and turned his head slightly to see McGonagall following him, her face a mask of determination. The footsteps faded abruptly and he felt something brush past his legs. He glanced down to see a tabby cat racing ahead of him, disappearing around a corner.
He reached the doors that led onto the grounds only to find them wide open. He could see McGonagall's imposing form storming toward the battle now raging at Hagrid's cabin, and hear her voice calling to the people. Rigel pushed his pace faster, feeling pure adrenaline pulsing through his veins.
"How dare you!" McGonagall shouted as she ran. "How dare you! Leave him alone! Alone, I say! On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such —"
As though in slow motion, Rigel saw four jets of red light burst from wands and felt a rage as he had never felt in his life.
"PROTEGO!" he yelled.
The spells dissipated, illuminating his shield as he ran up beside McGonagall, his body shaking with anger as sweat poured down his entire being. He only spared her a brief glance, noting her shocked expression before he ran toward her attackers, who appeared quite stunned at the sight of a fifteen-year-old rushing toward them. Umbridge was the first to strike, sending a Stunner toward him that he quickly dodged.
"You bitch!" Rigel snarled as he sent her flying towards the roof of Hagrid's hut. He turned to the aurors who were ready to stun him but Hagrid's huge format and McGonagall's flying rocks knocked them all out.
"Rigel," Hagrid croaked. "Yeh shouldn'ta -"
"I don't care," Rigel interrupted. "You're my friend. No one messes with my friends and gets away with it. No one."
Hagrid released a choked sob as he wiped a tear from his eye. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped when he heard more shouting coming from behind them. He bit his lower lip before nodding at Rigel and McGonagall, clapping the former on the shoulder before he took off toward the forest. The two watched him before McGonagall turned to Rigel.
"Rigel," she said in a half-whisper, garnering his attention. "You attacked Umbridge in front of witnesses. You know what this means."
Rigrl remained silent but nodded all the same.
"But you should do fine in the forest," she paused, giving a small smile. "I am sure Bast will be of great help."
It was the name of his animagus. Not the one in Egyptian mythology but the Bast the panther God from a comic
"You must leave now, Rigel. While you still have the chance."
Rigel nodded before biting his lower lip and looking at her. He rushed forward, enveloping her in a tight hug that she swiftly returned. They released each other abruptly and he turned and ran toward the Forbidden Forest, seeking comfort in its dark trees and close quarters. He made it lower before he ran further into the trees, his footsteps turning into paw steps as he moved.
He was on the run now.