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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO:
O.W.L'S
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The morning of the first O.W.L exam came around.
She stood outside the Great Hall alongside Luke. They were the first two people there. Given, the two of them had been awake what felt like the entire night trying to study. He stood beside her with his head resting across her own head. There was a comfortable silence between them.
"I'm gonna fail." she whispers. "I shouldn't even try with this. What's the point?"
"You'll never know till you try. Besides, who cares if you fail? One exam. One exam determines your intelligence, I say you beat the exam. We beat the exam. You studied. You did the work. After we finish this, you and me are going right down to the Three Broomsticks and we're celebrating."
She smiles at him. "I like the idea of that."
She would think of that as a motivation to get through these exams.
When more and more people started to come outside the Great Hall was when she looked at Hermione who same down with Ron. She sent her a glare and Hermione sent her one back.
"Hi." Harry says joining them both. He seemed a little surprised to see her actually here. He leans across and takes her hands into his. "You two up early?"
Aurora shakes her head. "Nope."
"Did you eat this morning?" Harry asked, to which she shakes her head. He reaches into his bag and pulls out a protein bar. "You want this?"
"Thanks but I can't eat right now." she says lowly, shaking her head. "Feel like I'm gonna be sick."
"Are you nervous about exams....?"
"No, of course not." she tried to say as convincingly as possible. Harry continued to look at her as if wondering why she was nervous. She quickly came up with lie. "Woman problems."
"Oh." Harry asked awkwardly. "Do you want me to get you something....."
Before she could reply, the doors opened to the Great Hall and there was three examiners who stood at the doorway. They signalled for them all to enter which they did. She entered the Great Hall which was now transformed into an Exam Hall. Their seats were all separated and they had to look for their names. When Aurora found hers, she sat down.
Ron suddenly came over, his seat to the right of her. She had been to the left of Luke. Harry had been a few sears away and beside Hermione, who sat down. She glances up when a familiar figure sit downs in front of her.
Theo turns around, and she rolls her eyes. "Good to see you, too. Excited for exams?"
"Do I look excited for exams?" she asked, no sting to her tone this time. She felt the opposite as to how she looked, she felt nervous. This was her last chance to stay next year. He raised an eyebrow. "I look horrendous. I haven't sleep in two weeks and I'm tired."
"I think you look beautiful." Theo says loudly, and Harry turns around at this and sends him a look.
"Hey you two!" one of the examiners bellowed, and it had been directed down at her and the boy sitting in front of her. "Stop the talking. Exams are starting."
A few eyes went towards them including Harry who gave Theo another look, but when he saw her he gave her an encouraging thumbs up.
The first exam was charms. The examiners came over and handed out a massive roll of stacked parchment to each student. However, when the examiner handed it to her she realised it was the exam.
"This is the exam?" she whispered to the examiner. Eyes widened. "This is almost as thick as the book."
"Good luck."
She made a face before opening the book. She wrote messy to every question as she went though. She wrote very messy, she just wrote what she knew. Everything she had mesmerised and practised over the last few months, she wrote, even extra. She got half way through the paper, slightly less confident than expected when the examiner said they had fourth minutes left. This meant the new uneven heartbeat got even worse in her chest.
"I think that went alright." Harry grins, as the two of them walk out of the Great Hall.
Aurora trailed behind him, "Sure. Guess so." Her eyes went towards Draco. "I'll be right back."
She went after Draco and he ignored it, until she caught his arm.
"Draco, please-"
"No Aurora." he shouts, causing an immediate flinch from him. "You've been trying to talk with me for weeks, alright! I'm done with you. You're the one one who left, you got disowned. We're not friends and we're definitely not family. You and Me? We're about as friendly as you and Parkinson."
"I care about you!" she yells back, less angry than him. "You're the only one I've ever cared about. Draco please just-"
"No." he cuts her off. "It would be better off for the both of us if you just left me alone. Just....get out of my life."
Draco saw the hurt in her eyes but didn't stay long enough to see anymore of it.
There was ten minutes into lunch before one by one everyone was called out for their charms practical exam. She was the third person. The third person to have to go into the room for it. The examiner wasn't bad. She did a complicated levitating charm and a few others. He seemed happy enough with it though
Charms was alright in short. She was sure she had passed.
The following exam was Herbology, and she had been much less confident with that one, which was expected. She was sure she got below a pass. The paper was to long and she barely finished it. She didn't even get to re-check it once she was done.
"I hate Herbology." she declared, sitting outside by the Black Lake with Harry. His arms were wrapped around her and she lay against him. "It's the worst."
Then on Friday there was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was probably her best on. Her practically went perfectly, and she knew it did. The defence spells were all very basic and not complicated. The paper was quiet easy as well she found, unlike others who argued it was the worst.
Ron, Harry and her had been in the common room. She and Harry lay on the couch whilst Ron flickered through his Divination book.
"Hermione has an ancient rune exam I wonder how long she is going to be." Ron mentions offhandedly.
In response to this, Aurora stopped listening to the rest of the conversation. Despite the fact she had a feeling they wanted her to say something. She reached up and played with the black messy untamed hair that sat upon his head. She only stopped when Hermione came in, huffing.
"How were the runes?" Ron asked her, yawning and stretching.
"I mistranslated 'ehwaz,' " Hermione told him furiously. "It means 'partnership,' not 'defense,' I mixed it up with 'eihwaz.' "
"Ah well," Ron mentions, "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!" Hermione yells at the two of them. "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,"
"Oh, you're so naive sometimes, Harry, you really think Umbridge will wait-"
"Harry I'm going upstairs." Aurora declared loudly, standing up.
Harry nods, and looked up. "Oh goodnight."
"To your room." she added.
"Oh. OH." he quickly got up off his couch and went with her.
The Potions exam on Monday went quiet well she found, or at least she thought it did. The questions were very detailed however, and she almost ran out of time. She noticed she got an inquiring side eye from some people when they saw she had been writing down answers quickly and finisher she early.
She was alone in the Muggle Studies exams, and it had been the one she had wanted to do the best in, because in simple terms she loved muggles.
The Care of Magical Creatures ended up being the easiest exam but Ron did not find this to be truth, neither did Hermione who she heard complaining about it.
"Only four exams left," Dean mentions as they walk out of the hall. He extends his hands happily and turns around with a grin. "Delighted!"
"Only!" Hermione's voice says snappishly. "I've got Arithmancy and it's probably the toughest subject there is!"
The Divination one had gone the best she found. However, when she left the room, everyone seemed the opposite.
"Well, we were always going to fail that one," Ron mentions gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase.
"We shouldn't have taken the stupid subject in the first place." Harry says, extending his hand back for her to take. She took his hand into her own one and walked closely to him.
"Still, at least we can give it up now."
"Yeah," Ron replied. "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." Harry laughed out. He turns back to her. "How did you find it?"
"Uh hard," she lied. "Yeah, not to good."
"Scrunch of the nose." Harry coughed.
"Shut up." she laughed.
Two nights later they ended up going up to the Astronomy Tower at eleven o'clock to do their Astronomy practical exam. This was now there last exam, she finished her written of the exam today and found it easy. However, that was expected she had always been alright at Astronomy.
Besides, she told Harry, smugly after the exam. "I am named after a constellation."
Harry wrapped an arm around her. "Maybe it's named after you."
"Possibly." she grins.
The following morning, Friday, she entered the Great Hall at two o'clock. All she could think about was after the exams, it was all that was on her mind. She had spent the last few days thinking about Harry, and about those three little words. Three simple words, she had convinced herself.
She had wanted to say them so many times to him. After Voldemort returned, the night in the Black Lake, so many times. She glances up towards Harry who had been running a hand through his hair.
"Turn over your papers," said Professor Marchbanks from the front of the Hall, flicking over the giant hourglass. "You may begin. . . ."
She pushed her thoughts away, and opened the exam. She went through the exams and started writing the answers.
In your opinion, did wand legislation contribute to, or lead to better control of, goblin riots of the eighteenth century?
How was the Statute of Secrecy breached in 1749 and what measures were introduced to prevent a recurrence?
Describe the circumstances that led to the Formation of the Interna- tional Confederation of Wizards and explain why the warlocks of Liechtenstein refused to join.
Half way through the exam she found herself feeling confident with how she did overall in the O.W.L exams. She had put in the work. She had really put in the work. She surely must have passed the exams, maybe she didn't get any EE/ and she definitely didn't get any O's, but she surely got an A.
Suddenly, she started to feel cold.
She glances around, and her eyes land on Harry. He hadn't been moving in his seat, and although she could not see his face she had a feeling something was wrong.
"Harry." she whispers, and it seemed to snap him out of whatever daze he was in.
Then suddenly he had slipped out of his chair turning pale within seconds. Her eyes widened, and she got out of her chair and went down to him. Everyone had turned back. Panic raced through her veins as his eyes went from being open and being closed.
"Back into your seat! Back to your exam." one of the examiners says.
She sends him a look. "I beg your pardon?" his mouth opened again but she had said. "Say that to me again. Tell me to sit in my chair, Sir, really do it."
Harry groaned causing her to look back down at the him.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
He stood up. "I-I had...." was all he had said before he was grabbed out of the Great Hall by the examiners, and she was coaxed back into her seat.
Luke sent her a look.
She sat down and looked down at her exam paper. She hadn't gotten it down. She was close but not close enough. It didn't matter anymore. She sighed, but didn't hesitate to wave up the exam indicating she was finished. Once the examiner took the exam she rushed out of the Great Hall to Harry. However she could not find him anywhere.
She went up to the Common Room, and the kitchens and he was nowhere to be found. When she went back to outside the Great Hall, she found Ron and Hermione. Before she could say anything, Harry came down the stairs.
"Harry! What happened? Are you all right? Are you ill?"
"Where have you been?" Ron demanded.
"Come with me," Harry said quickly. "Come on, I've got to tell you something. . . ."
He took her hand, and they all went into an empty classroom.
"Voldemort's got Sirius."
Her heart stopped. "What?"
"How d'you - ?" Ron began.
"Saw it. Just now. When I fell asleep in the exam."
"Where?" she managed to stutter out. Harry saw how quickly she had started to breathe. "Where did you see this? Where is he? Where's my dad?"
"I know exactly where. There's a room in the Department of Mysteries full of shelves covered in these little glass balls, and they're at the end of row ninety-seven. He's trying to use Sirius to get whatever it is he wants from in there. He's torturing him." he stopped for a second Says he'll end by killing him . . ."
Then suddenly she could not longer to breathe. The thought of being alone again had came upon her. It was like when Cedric died, she could almost sense something was going to happen. Like the way Sirius had described it.
She stepped back and cleared her mind.
"What are you doing?" Hermione asked. "What is she doing?"
"Aurora?" she heard Harry ask.
"That's not safe!"
She stopped listening to them, and stepped back. Voldemort's mind. His mind. She knew they were trying to talk her out of it but their voices were long out of her head. She focused on one, and only one.
She found herself in a cold room. Her thought got cold fast. Everything got cold fast. Her mind wasn't full of thoughts, it was full of ideas, plans. She didn't see Voldemort, she saw nothing, she felt nothing. She search through his mind but the layers were intricate. There were memories, but as she went through them, they got cut up in the last few minutes. It was almost as if his memories were being split up.
He wasn't at the Ministry. He was somewhere else.
She thought of Draco's father and his mind was so accessible that if she didn't feel like she was going to faint she would have laughed. He was a room, the same one Harry had said. He wore a dark mask, the same one from the night Cedric died. There were death eaters, many of them.
She was pushed out of his mind, and landed back into someone's arms, gasping. When she opened her eyes, Luke now arrived, and was the one who caught her. He lay her down against the ground.
"What's the hell?" Luke yells, "What is going on? What did you make her do?"
"I didn't see him. I couldn't hear this thoughts. Voldemort's not there. But the Death Eaters there at the Ministry of Magic, I saw them...But not Sirius."
It became silent. "You broke into the mind of Voldemort."
She blinks still gasping for air. "I....I did."
"Are you crazy?" Luke shouts, whilst Harry helps her up. Ron comes over and helps her stand. "You could have died! He's gonna know!"
"So you didn't see Sirius-" Harry starts.
"Give her a minute to breathe." Hermione says to Harry and Luke. She leaned across and placed a hand against her forehead and quickly withdrew her hand. "She's....freezing."
"I thought when you do that Occulmency that you get to warm."
Hermione did not hide her worry. "You do, she's like ice."
Aurora had been quiet. Her mind elsewhere. In the pit of her stomach an odd feeling arose. One she felt certain of but had no explanation to explain it.
Harry came over, and threw his jacket over her. He placed his hand on her face and made the same face Hermione did. He pushed some of her hair away from her face. "You're like ice. What's wrong?"
"Someone's going to die."
The four of them turned to her. "What?"
"I...I, Harry I don't know." she told him, shaking her head. Her words didn't make sense and she couldn't make sense of them but she knew. "I just.. I have a feeling. Someone....something is going to happen."
"Aurora I love you," Ron starts. "But a feeling-"
"The feeling your m-mum had?" Harry interrupts.
"Yes."
"How're we going to get there?" Luke questions, him and Harry both stood at both sides of her.
"G-get there?" Ron asks.
"Get to the Department of Mysteries, so we can rescue Sirius!"
"But - Harry . . ." said Ron weakly.
"There's a chance the only person the both of them has left is going to die." Luke says slowly to the two. "We have to go there. What happens if...if he's there?"
"I understand. But how did Voldemort get into the Ministry of Magic without anybody realizing he was there?" Hermione asks.
"How do I know?" Harry yells. "The question is how we're going to get in there!"
"But, Aurora, Harry, think about this," Hermione, begins taking a step toward them, "it's five o'clock in the afternoon. The Ministry of Magic must be full of workers. How would Voldemort and Sirius have got in without being seen? Harry they're probably the two most wanted wizards in the world. You think they could get into a building full of Aurors undetected?"
Aurora paused and thought about it.
"I dunno, Voldemort used an Invisibility Cloak or something!" Harry shouted. "Anyway, the Department of Mysteries has always been completely empty whenever I've been -"
"You've never been there, Harry," said Hermione quietly. "You've dreamed about the place, that's all."
"They're not normal dreams!" Harry yells. "How d'you explain Ron's dad then, what was all that about, how come I knew what had happened to him?"
"He's got a point," Ron agreed
"But this is just so unlikely! Harry, how on earth could Voldemort have got hold of Sirius when he's been in Grimmauld Place all the time?"
"Sirius might've cracked and just wanted some fresh air," Ron answered, sounding worried. "He's been desperate to get out of that house for ages -"
She zoned out for about five minutes when Hermione and Harry started to furiously fight with one another. What happens if Sirius was captured by Voldemort? What would happen? Everything would be worth nothing.
"You - This isn't a criticism, Harry! But you do sort of - don't you think you've got a bit of a - a - saving-people thing?"
He glared at her. "And what's that supposed to mean, a 'saving- people-thing'?"
She understood it immediately. He tried to save everyone, he saw the light in people; even people like Snape.
"I mean last year, for instance in the lake during the Tournament you shouldn't have, I mean, you didn't need to save that little Delacour girl. You got a bit carried away. I mean, it was really great of you and everything," Hermione manages to get out. "Then with Cedric. Then with Aurora you took a curse for her when you thought-"
"Because I love her." Harry says, in an obvious tone. "Also thats funny. Because I definitely remember Ron saying I'd wasted time acting the hero. Is that what you think this is? You reckon I want to act the hero again?"
"No, no, no!" said Hermione, looking aghast. "That's not what I mean at all!"
"Well, spit out what you've got to say, because we're wasting time here!" Harry shouted.
"SHUT UP! THE BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP! JUST STOP FIGHTING!" Aurora screamed causing a complete seize of their argument. When the two turned there were tears screaming down her face. "My dad could be dead. He could be dead right now,
and you two are here arguing about your saviour complex and you always having to be right."
Hermione and Harry both looked down. Suddenly the classroom door had opened, Luna and Neville walked in.
"I can hear your yells down the hall. Aurora are you alright?" Neville questions, and receives a small nod. "I was wondering whether I could help."
"Well, you can't," said Harry shortly.
"You're being rather rude, you know," said Luna serenely.
"Wait," said Hermione suddenly. "Wait . . . Harry, they can help." Harry and Ron looked at her.
Listen," she said urgently, "Harry, we need to establish whetherSirius really has left headquarters -"
"I've told you, I saw -"
"Im begging you both, please! Just try it first!"
"Please let's just check that Sirius isn't at home before we go charging off to London - if we find out he's not there then I swear I won't try and stop you, I'll come, I'll d-do whatever it takes to try and save him -"
Hermione came up with the idea to try contact him through Umbridge's fire. Aurora hadn't said anything and went along with it. Harry looked like he was on the verge of tears. Luke seemed worried. Ron was scared. She felt emotionless. She knew all of them had spoken to her but she didn't have the energy to reply.
Harry kept her hand in his.
"Now, we need to keep students away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin's bound to go and tip her off. . . ."
"Luna and I can stand at either end of the corridor," Neville offered promptly, sending her an encouraging look. "And warn people not to go down there because someone's let off a load of Garroting Gas."
"Harry, you and I, will be under the Invisibility Cloak, and we'll sneak into the office and you can talk to Sirius-"
"He's not there, Hermione!"
"I mean, you can check whether Sirius is at home or not while I keep watch, I don't think you should be in there alone, Lee's already proved the window's a weak spot, sending those nifflers through it."
"I . . . okay, thanks," he muttered.
Harry went into the Common room and up to his dormitory in search of the invisibility cloak. Aurora didn't move from her spot instead stood with her arms crossed looking down the hallway.
She scrunches her nose slightly.
"Got it." Harry came out of her office. "Ready to go, then?"
"All right."
"Let's go."
Not once had the feeling that someone was going to die stopped
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yikes
#RR you know....