Saros POV - Malfoy Manor
The room was dark and the air stiflingly hot. Though the sun was shining outside, the windows had long been blocked out by dark curtains and the room was lit by an eerie, pale glow that seemed to radiate from nothing. A long table lay down the centre of the large room, similar to that found in the Seratov Manor but somehow more sinister, small but intricate carvings of snakes weaving their way along the edge of the wood.
The people in the room where almost as dark as the hall itself: their dark cloaks were pinned at their necks despite the heat of the chamber; their faces shone like pale beacons in the dim light but their eyes glittered menacingly as they sat in utter silence; a few of the faces held a hint of fear - most of whom were the new initiates: the ones who didn't yet know the taste of blood, who didn't know the thrill of the chase, or who were only there because their parents had thought it a good cause - or the people who had disappointed their master, the ones foolish enough to beg for continuance of their pathetic existences and who were now desperate to please the great wizard they called leader, though he was really more of a tyrant. An even smaller proportion looked happy to be there - said people were whispering up at the far end of the table, where the favourites sat, and were largely under the Imperius curse - the only exception being Narcissa Malfoy, who had been protected by her husband and sister. Lucius and Bellatrix were also sitting with her and, though they were smiling and talking in a way that might fool some people, there was a dead glint held in their eyes which signalled them out as cursed.
The majority of the group looked totally devoid of emotion, he was part of this sector, a good enough Occlumens to pretend. Most of these people were the experienced ones, the people who had helped with enough missions to be trusted and who hadn't failed him yet. They weren't well liked and so couldn't disappoint their master, but they were also not visibly scared of the mere concept of the man, if he could even be called that. They were not fooled by the terrifying pretence offered by the room and knew what to expect.
The focus of our attention was a man in his sixth year of Wizarding school, he sat directly opposite his slightly older, and almost identical, twin brother. To anyone around him he appeared to be holding a silent staring contest with the man. However, the unblinking stare was really to ensure they maintained they strand of Legilimency that connected them like an invisible rope.
'What do you reckon is taking him so long?' The first one asked.
'I figure he is just trying to freak out the newbies, give them a bit of a fright by building up the tension and then striding in with a dramatic flair.' His twin responded, and he could almost hear the mental roll of his eyes.
'I think he might be coming, Bella and Lucius are falling very quiet.'
'Good point, well I will talk to you in person after this is over.'
'Sounds good.' He responded, carefully breaking the link.
Not thirty seconds later, the twenty foot high doors at the end of the room burst open with a loud BANG, and a figure walked in. All of the people sitting at the table rose to their feet in welcome of their master, the new initiates scrambling to copy the adults as they had not expected this to happen.
In true theatrical flair, the man had determined his seat would be the one farthest from the entrance to the room, allowing him to walk past all of his followers before taking a seat. Many of them visibly shook with fear as he approached them and gave almost inaudible sighs of relief when he moved on; one person actually fainting with terror. Said person did not have to remember his fear for much longer, as he was quickly dispatched of with a flash of green light. This act made most of the quivering people freeze before sitting upright and doing their best to compose themselves.
As Lord Voldemort sunk into his ornate throne of a seat at the head of the table, his followers dropped back into their own chairs and fell into a silence even deeper than the previous one. All eyes were fixed upon their master, his skin a greyish white and his face almost sickly because of the lack of hair which revealed his pale pate. His red eyes almost glowed as he observed his followers and his mouth stretched into a tight, cruel smile.
He sighed, casting a glance at his brother, only to find that the other man was already looking at him - this was going to be a very long meeting.
The last few weeks of proper schooling and supervised revision passed in a blink of the eye. Mariya and James spent as much of their time together poring over textbooks as they did going out and exploring the grounds, playing Quidditch, and visiting Hogsmeade. Admittedly, the time they spent studying could probably still be counted as fun because James didn't really care too much about revising and so spent a fair chunk of his time trying to make Mariya look up from her notes. Remus had straight up refused to study with them after he realised what James was like; he claimed it was too much work trying to revise for all of his classes without being distracted every thirty seconds. Jasper and Severus had both been forced into studying with Lily, though neither of them had complained about getting to spend more time with the redhead. And Sirius was taking a very interesting and unique approach to studying in that most of his library time was spent sleeping with his head resting on a pile of textbooks.
This display had brought another point of amusement for James and Mariya as the combination of his unflappable personality and how peaceful he looked when asleep, had attracted a group of avid followers. There were almost always groups of giggling fourth and sixth years sitting at the tables surrounding them - the fifth years have better things to do with their revision time - seeming to show up only once they were already sitting and leaving not long after them - James had snuck back in wearing his invisibility cloak to find out if they were really there to study or just to watch Sirius. On the rare occasion that Sirius did bother to actually revise with them, it became quickly apparent why he didn't usually bother, getting nigh on every single answer correct without any visible struggle. Having done this, he often disappeared from the library or went back to his sleep without much further comment. This had become so frequent an occurrence that Madam Pince wasn't even bothering to stop him anymore, instead appreciating that if the boy were asleep he couldn't be causing any trouble for her.
When the morning of Mariya's first exam came around, she had never felt more prepared for anything. It was Defence Against the Dark Arts and she and James had spent more time practising and revising it than any other subject, knowing that it would probably be more useful than the rest once they left school. When she woke up, her mind immediately snapped awake and she stretched out for a moment before climbing out of bed and running a hand through her hair. Taking a quick shower and using her wand to blow-dry her freshly washed hair, she pulled on her black heeled shoes and made sure that her tie was tied so she wouldn't find it annoying in the exam. Walking through the Slytherin Common Room, she was unsurprised to see a few groups of people trying to cram last fractions of information into their brains, clearly having not properly revised over the allocated time.
Making her way to the Great Hall, she took a seat beside Sirius and found herself some cereal and a jug of milk, knowing that the food would be filling enough that she wouldn't be thinking about it, without being so much as to make her sick. Quickly finishing the meal, she pushed her bowl away from her and smiled as it disappeared from view; the house elves were clearly keeping on top of everything despite the stressed state of most students.
By the time the bell boomed out through the school and the younger years disappeared off to their own classes, the group of students waiting outside the hall was small and all of those that were there were quiet. That is except Sirius and James, who seemed to be trying to be as loud as possible. Mariya suspected that that was their way of coping with the stress of standing there but also couldn't deny that it was quite annoying. After what felt like an age but was almost certainly only five or so minutes, one of the huge doors opened and a small woman with frizzy grey hair and bright purple robes appeared in the doorway.
"You may now enter, I would like to remind you that any talking once you have entered the examination hall may result in your exam results becoming null for one or all subjects." Her voice was squeaky and Mariya had to remind herself to take the words seriously, after all she needed as many qualifications as possible if she wanted to make it into the Ministry or any other well known organizations.
"Buena Suerte, good luck." She whispered to James as they shared a tight hug before entering the room.
Each desk had the same three sets of parchment - the first the question paper itself, the second their answer booklet, and the third a spare booklet of parchment in-case they ran out - all of which sat in perfect alignment with the edge of the desk, alongside two eagle feather quills and an inkwell. Mariya quickly found the desk with her seat number on it, thankful for the number of people separating her form the rest of the Marauders; she always found it difficult to concentrate when she could see her friends as she couldn't help but measure her success against how far through they were and how fast they were writing. Taking a deep breath and sweeping her hair up into a messy bun, she waited for the examiners to be ready.
After another minute of rustling papers and the loud scraping of seats against the wooden floors, the hall fell into silence and the witch who had let them in earlier nodded to the wizard standing next to her.
"You may open your papers and begin the exam." He told them, his voice loud and booming in the silent air.
Mariya took a deep breath before picking up her quill, dipping it in the inkpot and opening the book, grateful when the first question was one she knew about, as the started to scribble. The air filled with the sound of scratching quills and scratching heads as the students showed their varying levels of competency in a test that would change some of their lives.