Time was passing by slower for Natalia than it was for some others. They had quidditch that they could busy themselves with. The last game was about two weeks ago and everyone was losing their minds over it.
In the end, Gryffindor came out victorious to Ravenclaw and won the Quidditch cup.
Now, all that was left was end of year exams and for Fifth years that meant Owls. 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.
It was one of the worst things Natalia had ever experienced. She hadn't gone to regular school since 1942 Italy during the Second World War, which couldn't really be counted as regular, so she had never experienced standardized testing, nor did she want to.
They received their examination schedules and details of the procedure for O.W.L.s during one of their Transfiguration lessons.
"As you can see," Professor McGonagall told the class while they copied down the dates and times of their exams from the blackboard,"your O.W.L.s are spread over two successive weeks. You will sit the theory exams in the mornings and the practice in the afternoons. Your practical Astronomy examination will, of course, take place at night."
"Okay, but what if I didn't show up?" Natalia asked Pansy who just shook her head with a small giggle.
"Now, I must warn you that the most stringent Anti-Cheating Charms have been applied to your examination papers. Auto-AnswerQuills are banned from the examination hall, as are Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink. Every year, I am afraid to say, seems to harbor at least one student who thinks that he or she can get around the Wizarding Examinations Authority's rules. I can only hope that it is nobody in Gryffindor. Our new — head- mistress" — Professor McGonagall pronounced the word with the same look on her face that Diyanisus had when he had to do his job "has asked the Heads of House to tell their students that cheating will be punished most severely — because, of course, your examination results will reflect upon the headmistress's new regime at the school. . . ."Professor McGonagall gave a tiny sigh. "However, that is no reason not to do your very best. You have your own futures to think about."
"Please, Professor," said Hermione, her hand in the air, "when will we find out our results?"
"An owl will be sent to you some time in July," said Professor McGonagall.
"Excellent," said Dean Thomas in an audible whisper, "so we don't have to worry about it till the holidays. . . ."
Their first exam, Theory of Charms, was scheduled for Monday morning, but Natalia couldn't find it in herself to study with everyone else.
During dinner, Theo was still studying his ass off. "So what are you going to do then?" Theo asked her as they were all surrounded by several textbooks.
She shrugged, "I don't know, wing it."
At this, Theo looked like he was about to have a stroke, "Oh, yeah, don't mention not studying around Theo," Daphne laughed as he tried to collect himself.
"Think about your future!" Theo insisted, looking at Blaise for help, but when he didn't get any he looked at Draco. They were both exhausted from having studied most of the day.
"What, my death?" Natalia asked with a laugh. "I'll study when I'm in hell." Theo gave her a dry laugh and looked back to his book, creating flashcards.
Through the
doors to the Great Hall they could see Umbridge standing with a
small group of ancient-looking witches and wizards. Umbridge looked rather nervous. "Well, that's interesting," Natalia smirked and the rest of the group looked over to the doors of the great hall.
"Oh, those must be the examiners," Draco perked up and started looking around the corner.
"Is it true that your family is friends with one of the examiners?" Pansy asked him with a smirk, crossing her arms and Draco glared at her.
"Yes, of course," Draco snarked back.
The others laughed at him and he glared even harder, "let me guess your father will hear about this?" Blaise asked with an amused smile and Draco fake laughed.
All of the Fifth years were trying to get a look at the examiners, but Umbridge hurried them away to get a cup of tea. The rest of the evening, all of the fifth & seventh years were studying to the point of exhaustion.
Natalia was doing her favorite method, just dumping all of the information she knew onto a piece of paper and looking in the book to see if any of it was useful. She could remember it all when it came time for the test if she made herself anxious enough. That's how she remembered what to do. It just all came easier to her under stress.
It was kind of a demi-god/ adhd type thing that she didn't really understand, but it came in handy. What to do when someone's bleeding out? She wouldn't know. But, put someone dying in front of her, she'll remember every single medical thing Will had ever told her.
"Hey, where do we go for testing tomorrow?" She asked as everyone was pouring over their textbooks. Pretty much the entire common room looked up at her.
"The Great Hall 10 o'clock, get there by half past 9," they all said at the same time and she backed away from the studying group of teenagers and slowly retreated up stairs to her bed.
~
The morning came and unlike usual, no one spared much time getting ready. Most of them made themselves barely presentable and took all their books and studying supplies to breakfast with them.
No one wanted to talk at breakfast so Natalia just played with the food in front of her. "Eat," Theo harshly whispered to her. "We have an exam today, everyone needs to eat something healthy."
Natalia looked at him with an amused expression, "okay," she said, but continued just playing with her food, making it look like she ate. "Is today charms?" Blaise looked at her annoyed and she raised her hands.
"You're gonna fail," Draco told her with a headshake. "There's no way you can pass." She just shrugged and took a drink of orange juice.
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 the Great Hall, which was now arranged differently. he 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.
"Shit," Natalia cursed silently. She took a deep breath before she looked at the paper in front of her. The first question: a) Gibe the incantation, and d) bescride the vanb nonevent repuired to make objects fly. She shook her head and tried to switch around the letters. Give the incation and describe the wand moment to make something fly. She was pleasantly surprised by the question. That was the first thing she was ever taught and Harry had a great story about it with a Troll in his first year.
She laughed before starting to write. Most of it felt simple, sure there was still alot she couldn't remember or just might've never learned as she missed a few years, but overall, it was good. Maybe everything was simple after having to fight for your life? Maybe she should go back to school when she gets back, actually get a real education.
By the time the test was over and the students went flying from the room, Natalia found Neville. "Hey, how'd you do?" She questioned and he looked defeated.
"I feel horrible, I didn't think I knew anything. I'm doomed," he complained and she cringed.
"Hey, it might be okay, I bet they're not that strict on grading," she promised him and he shrugged, shaking his head a little.
He then scoffed, "doesn't matter, my gran will still think I'm worthless."
This made Natalia glare at the ground in front of her and turn to him with a sharp look, "you're not worthless, never say that again. Your gran can shove it up her ass. Old lady needs a reality lesson and I'm not afraid to give it to her." Neville smiled at her.
"Thanks, Nat, have a good day, I'll see you at lunch," he waved before running off with Seamus and Dean. Natalia waved back before joining her Slytherin friends.
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.
Natalia was in one of the first groups with her name starting with a D. Ten minutes later, Professor Flitwick called, "Davis, Micheal— Darkwell, Halliee—-
Di' Angleo, Natalia— Duran, Zarachy." Natalia walked forward and entered the room with the other four.
"You can go with, Tofty, Davis," Flitwick pointed. Natalia got to him and he looked around, "you can go with Marchbank." She nodded and walked to the professor.
"Good afternoon," the professor nodded and Natalia nodded back.
"Afternoon." Marchbank grabbed a teacup and set it on the table infront of her.
"We'll start with levitation, make this cup do some cartwheels," Marcbank told her and Natalia nodded. She silently raised her wand and did the movement before spinning her hand and the cup following her movements. Natalia looked up and her face was filled with amazement. "Did you just do wordless magic?"
Natalia tilted her head and gave her a confused look, "Did I?"
Marchbank nodded, "yes, you did," the professor said breathlessly. They shook their head and went on to grab another object. They pulled out a rat. "Can you color this yellow?"
Natalia nodded, "Colovaria." The rat slowly changed from his brown color to a nice and vibrant yellow.
"Your pronunciations are impeccable," marchbank noted.
"Oh, yeah I'm Italian and I've studied Latin," Natalia lied. The rest of the test went fairly well. She definitely didn't mess up as much as she did during the written part. Thinking back on it, she probably misspelled a lot of stuff on the written portion. It was hard enough to read.
After the test, Theo couldn't stop studying for the next day's test, no matter how confident he felt about the last one.
The transfiguration test the next day was most of the same. Natalia had to really work to read the questions, but once she figured out what they said she was good. The practical was better, though, it felt like muscle memory from throughout the year. Draco was very frustrated after the test and claimed that his examiner hated him.
Wednesday was Herbology and Natalia talked to Neville after it and he went on and on about every single plant and how happy he was that the examiner asked about them. Natalia laughed and congratulated him, she didn't understand the plants and couldn't keep them alive, but she respected the people who could like the Demeter kids. Some of the plants were very deadly and without the proper care could kill their owners.
On Thursday was Defense Against the Dark Arts and Natalia had fun with the practical exam, she could remember everything perfectly thanks to the D.A. Her test was just coming to a close when Professor Marchbank, who was testing her again, asked, "So, your family is famous for their umbrakenisis work and I've seen some of the other things you can do, would you mind or could you show me any? For bonus points of course."
Natalia was taken aback, "e-excuse me?"
"Can you do any umbrakenisis work? The di' Angelos are famous for it," Marchbank reasoned, looking a little too excited about the possibility of it. Natalia looked around for something, for an excuse or for a professor to tell her yes or no. Unfortunately, the only one there was Umbridge, who looked very expectant at Natalia and nodded her to go on.
Natalia took a deep breath. She didn't know if she wanted to or even could inside the castle, but she closed her eyes and steadier her breathing. The shadows started pulling forward and she felt more powerful than she ever had. Whenever she used her powers in the past she was exhausted and was in a life or death situation. Was this how Percy felt? Was this how Jason felt? Was this how it was supposed to feel? She felt powerful, invincible.
The wind started swirling a little and all the candles in the hall went out. The shadows covered the large windows and the entire room was covered in darkness, making students start screaming. It pulled Natalia out of her thoughts and she pulled back. All of the shadow started to crawl back from where they came and Natalia opened her eyes, which to the examiner, seemed darker than before.
Umbridge and Marchbank just stood there slightly unnerved and impressed. "Spectacular, Miss di' Angelo," the professor told her, writing down the results and nodding at her. "Have an amazing day." Natalia nodded slightly and turned around to head for the exit. Her entire body felt like electricity. Her hands were shaking, wanting to feel it again.
~
Friday, Natalia had her Arithmancy exam. It went alright. It was almost a second divination, but with numbers and without Trelawney. Ever since then, she has had a bad feeling.
Something was going to happen. She didn't know what and it was so cliche, but someone was going to get hurt. In the cards– the numbers, it was set that someone was supposed to die. She just didn't know if she was supposed to help stop it or help kill them.
She had the whole weekend to recover from exams and 'hangout' (study) with her friends before the next week's worth of exams. Monday was potions and Natalia felt she did well, but she was bored and impatient with her potion. Usually, when doing them, she could talk and mess around with the people next to her, but with her just having to wait and stir it for 15 minutes, she felt like she was going to die.
On Tuesday, she was happy to be outside for the care of magical creature's practical exam. She was so happy to be out of the castle. All Natalia really had to do was feed a fire crab, identify a hedgehog from a knarl, and play with a bowtruckle. While living things didn't really like her, she and a few of the bowtruckles got along great and she thought they were adorable.
On Wednesday, Natalia and Draco both felt amazing for Astronomy. Draco's entire family has been named after the stars and constellations and Natalia grew up learning about the roman gods and how all of mythology relates to the sky. With that one out of the way, Natalia was free to head to their afternoon Divination exam. Daphne and Pansy made fun of Draco, Blaise, Theo, and Natalia for having to do any of it as they had dropped it.
Natalia was startled, in the crystal ball she saw something, it looked like the department of mysterious door that Harry was always going on about. It then opened and she was hit with darkness and a horrible feeling. She could hear voices calling out for help.
She pulled back and lied about what she saw to the examiner and had to almost run out of there. Her and Theo met up as they got out. "What did you see?" She asked him and he shook his head.
"It was bad, my supposed mother from the other universe got the dark mark and had a huge fight with Sirius Black, forcing him to run away from home and get disowned," Theo said, his face looked traumatized and he looked lost. "You?"
"Oh, just you know death and people calling out for help," she shrugged and he sighed.
"What a day, now we have practical Astronomy tonight," he groaned. It was at 11 so he was pissed he couldn't sleep.