The euphoric happiness of winning the cup lasted well into the next day, especially with Ron. All he wanted to talk about was the match, and Cole wouldn't shut up about it either. Nobody really minded Cole talking so much, as we'd all missed him so much.
The six of us decided to do homework out under the tree--though three of us were only attempting to do homwork. Cole and Gennie kept giggling and kissing each other, which was honestly cute as hell. Ron was discussing the match again, and I was certain the match would be in my dreams at some point.
"--I had a funny feeling that he was feinting, 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 asked, seeing that I was grinning. "Why are you grinning?"
"She's not." Harry said quickly, and I noticed a grin was on his face as well. He was thinking the same thing as me--that Ron was reminding us of another Gryffindor player who messed with his hair under the same tree. "Just glad we won."
“Yeah,” said Ron slowly, savoring the words, “we won. Did you see the look on Chang's face when Ginny 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…” Cole frowned, stopping randomly playing with a strand of Gennie's hair.“But you saw her chuck her broom away when she got back to the ground, didn’t you?”
“Er -” said Harry.
"Well actually, no." Hermione said quietly, as we all looked at her. “As a matter of fact, the only bit of the match Harry and I saw was Davies’s first goal.”
"Thanks for all the support guys, really." Gennie said. "My last match as captain and you guys leave... Great."
“You didn’t watch?” Ron said faintly, looking from one to the other. “You didn’t see me make any of those saves?”
“Well - no,” said Hermione, stretching out a placatory hand towards 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,” said Harry. “He decided to tell us why he’s been covered in injuries ever since he got back from the giants. He wanted us to go into the Forest with him, we had no choice, you know how he gets. Anyway…”
Harry explained about how Hagrid had decided to hide his giant half-brother in the woods. I wasn't that surprised, it wasn't the strangest thing Hagrid had ever done.
“He brought a giant back and hid it in the Forest?” Cole asked slowly. "Am I hearing this right, or did I take the wrong meds this morning?"
“You're hearing it right." Harry responded grimly.
“No,” said Ron, as though by saying this he could make it untrue. “No, he can’t have.”
"Well he has," Hermione said. "Grawp's sixteen feet tall and knows me as Hermy."
"And Hagrid wants us to teach him English?" I raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I think Cole's right, somebody has been messing with our meds..."
"Well that's alright, Sam knows giant she can do all of that..." Cole trailed off. "What? She thought it might come in handy, and I think it is now."
"Well Hagrid's lost his mind, that's all there is to it." Gennie said. "I know it's his brother, but Umbridge is going to find a sixteen foot giant at some point..."
“Yes,” said Hermione irritably, turning a page of Intermediate Transfiguration and glaring at a series of diagrams. “Yes, I’m starting to think he has lost it. But, unfortunately, he made Harry and me promise.”
“Well, you’re just going to have to break your promise, that’s all,” said Ron firmly. “I mean, come on… we’ve got exams and we’re about that far -” he held up his hand to show thumb and forefinger almost touching “- from being chucked out as it is. And anyway… remember Norbert? Remember Aragog? Have we ever come off better for mixing with any of Hagrid’s monster mates?”
“I know, it’s just that - we promised,” said Hermione in a small voice.
Ron smoothed his hair flat again, looking preoccupied. “Well,” he sighed, “Hagrid hasn’t been sacked yet, has he? He’s hung on this long, maybe he’ll hang on till the end of term and we won’t have to go near Grawp at all.”
As the exams approached, teachers were giving us more revision than new work. This was actually more terrifying, and I was starting to think I'd rather go through a maths exam than learn the twenty seven uses for a moonstone.
Hermione began muttering to herself a lot, but this wasn't the weirdest behaviour coming from my friends. Sam was becoming almost manic as exams approached. She kept asking people how much they were revising.
"How many hours of revision are you doing a day?" Sam asked Gennie, Cole and I as we worked on a plant together in Herbology.
"Maybe two, two and a half." Cole shrugged. "Depends if I have enough motivation."
"Why do you want to know, Sam? Are you planning on us doing group revision sessions?" I asked wearily, as Sam was exactly the sort of person to suggest such a thing.
"So less than eight?" Sam said, sounding disapointed.
Cole looked like he was about to faint from shock. "Eight. You're doing eight hours of revision a day?"
"How do you even find the time?" Gennie asked, shocked.
"I’m getting an hour in before breakfast every day. Then after dinner I go right up until maybe two in the morning? Or at least until Hannah or Susan tell me to stop muttering about antidotes... Why do you think I haven't been spending time with anyone on the weekends? I can fit in ten hours if I'm not disturbed--"
I was quite glad when Sprout said we could leave, so Sam stopped her revision plan, following Hannah and Susan off to her next lesson.
"How is she even awake right now?" Gennie said wearily, staring after Sam, who was reading revision notes on her hands.
"Wait until after the first exam," Cole said grimly. "She'll want to anaylse every question with me, I'll bet you."
Draco liked to induce panic into people in different ways. He began a loud discussion with me one day as we walked down the corridor hand-in-hand one day.
"It's who you know, as well as how much you revise." He explained. "My Father's been friendly with the head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority for years — old Griselda Marchbanks - we’ve had her round for dinner and everything…”
"Wow, that was an amazingly fake story." I smirked as we stopped by the library.
"I'll have you know that was a totally true story." Draco huffed, playing around with my hands.
"I told my friends what you said--for the third time this week and Neville said his Grandmother knows her, and she's never mentioned your family."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Okay, so we've never had her over for dinner. But a little bit of fear is good in the lead up to exams. Gets people revising more. Technically, I'm doing good."
I gave him a quick kiss. "You're lucky you're cute."
Possibly the most bizarre thing that happened was all of the black market trades popping up in the library and toilets.
I had been wandering around with Harry, Ron and Cole when Ben Emrys' tried to tempt them with a so-called 'Brain Elixr'. I thought it was a stupid idea, but the boys lapped it up when Ben claimed it was responsible for him getting nine 'Outstanding' OWLS last year.
When he explained it was only twelve galleons for the three of them, they started counting out money (blindly ignoring me telling them it was a scam) until Hermione showed up, took the bottle and threw it down the toilet.
Ben went off grumpily, leaving the three boys to shout at Hermione.
“Hermione, we wanted to buy that!” shouted Ron.
"Ben failed half of his OWLS last year, Arthur told me." I rolled my eyes. "Don't be bigger morons than usual--"
“Exactly, don’t be stupid,” Hermione snarled. “You might as well take Harold Dingle’s powdered dragon claw and have done with it.”
“Dingle’s got powdered dragon claw?” said Cole eagerly.
“Not any more,” said Hermione. “I confiscated that, too. None of these things actually work, you know.”
“Dragon claw does work!” said Ron. “It’s supposed to be incredible, really gives your brain a boost, you come over all cunning for a few hours - Hermione, let me have a pinch, go on, it can’t hurt -”
"Sam and I looked at it, it's dried Doxy droppings." Hermione said grimly.
This information stopped them looking for more black market trades, to everyone's relief.
We received their examination timetables and details of the procedure for OWLs during their next Transfiguration lesson.
“As you can see,” Professor McGonagall told the class as they copied down the dates and times of their exams from the blackboard, “your OWLs 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.
“Now, I must warn you that the most stringent anti-cheating charms have been applied to your examination papers. Auto-Answer Quills 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 - Headmistress —” Professor McGonagall pronounced the word with a dirty look on her face “- 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 -”
"Everybody better fail the exams, then she'll get kicked out." Cole said in a loud whisper, leading everybody to laugh, even McGonagall cracked a smile which she quickly disguised.
“- 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." McGonagall replied.
"Well looks like I can block off my memories until the results come." I said jokingly to Harry, who sent me a dirty look. "Oh come on, I'm hilarious."
* * *
The evening before the exams started was a terrifying one. Everybody was trying to revise but nobody seemed to be getting far. I went to bed early but stayed awake for hours, thinking about how McGonagall wanted to help me become a healer no matter what.
I was starting to wish I'd come up with a less ambitious career path.
Nobody talked very much at breakfast next day, either: Gennie was practicing incantations under her breath, while Cole flipped through pages quickly as he took his morning pills with a twitch in his eye. Sam kept muttering motivational things to herself, and I just stared at the words on the page until I felt vaugley sick.
Once breakfast finished we waited until everyone went to lessons while we stood in the hall anxiously. Then we were called into the hall class by class, into a hall that resembled my parents exam hall from the pensieve
Professor McGonagall stood facing them. When we were all seated and quiet, she said, “You may begin,” and turned over an enormous hour-glass on the desk beside her, on which there were also spare quills, ink bottles and rolls of parchment.
Harry turned over his paper, his heart thumping hard - three rows to my right and two seats ahead Sam was already scribbling - and lowered my eyes to the first question: a) Give the incantation and b) describe the wand movement required to create fire.
An image of a bunsen burner and extensions on fire came to mind. Smirking to myself, I pushed my glasses up my nose and got to work.
“Well, it wasn’t too bad, was it?” asked Sam anxiously in the Entrance Hall two hours later, pulling on the ends of her hair. “I’m not sure I did myself justice on Cheering Charms, I feel like everything just went into the toilet--"
"Sammy, you know I love you in a platonic way," Cole said sternly, putting hands onto Sam's shoulder. "But please, shut up."
Sam huffed. "Charming."
"While my boyfriend has no tact," Gennie said to Sam. "He has a point. Let's not go through the exams. I might have to turn into a wolf and run away."
We ate lunch with the rest of the school (the four house tables had reappeared for the lunch hour), then they trooped off into the small chamber beside the Great Hall, where they were to wait until called for their practical examination.
I sat there on the floor practicing wand movements until Flitwick called, “Parkinson, Pansy - Patil, Padma - Patil, Parvati - Potter, Aurora -Potter, Harry.”
"Good luck." Cole said, giving me a high-five as I went past. He looked pale as a ghost, but his name was right down at the end of the list.
“Professor Tofty is free, Miss Potter,” squeaked Professor Flitwick, who was standing just inside the door. I went towards the examiner, noticing Draco was half-way through his practical.
“Miss Potter, is it?” said Professor Tofty, consulting his notes and peering over his glasses. "The lost Aurora Potter?”
I noticed Draco grinning at me from the corner of my eye, and as I turned, he dropped the wine glass he was levitating. He looked sheepishly at the floor, and I tried not to laugh.
“That’s it, no need to be nervous. Now, if I could ask you to take this egg cup and make it do some cartwheels for me.”
It wasn't the weirdest thing I'd heard.
Surprisngly, it didn't go too bad. My levitation charm was better than Draco's I had to admit, and while I mixed up some spells, I managed to correct it before it went too out of control.
There wasn't much time to relax, I was back to revising and repeating for the next few days. Nothing of interest really happened in the exams until my defence exam.
I felt really happy perfoming all the spells I learned in the D.A right in front of Umbridge, who was watching with a scowl on her face.
“Oh, bravo!” cried Professor Tofty, who was examining me again, when I apparently demonstrated a perfect Boggart banishing spell. “Very good indeed! Well, I think that’s all, Miss Potter… unless…” He leaned forwards a little.
“I heard, from my dear friend Tiberius Ogden, that you can produce a Patronus? For a bonus point…?”
I raised his wand, looked directly at Umbridge and imagined her being sacked.
“Expecto patronum!”
The silver doe appeared from my wand, galloping around the hall and right around Umbridge's head proudly before disapearing.
“Excellent!” he said. “Very well, Miss Potter, you may go!”
As I passed Umbridge, I shot her a fake smile. Unless I was clueless, I think I might have just gotten top marks on the exam.
On friday, almost all of us had a day off from exams, apart from Sam and Hermione who were in Ancient Runes. We gave ourselves the day off, which involved pushing Cole into the lake, having piggy back races and sneaking onto the Quidditch pitch for a quick game.
Sam and Hermione appeared in the common room hours later, having a lengthly discussion about the exam.
“How were the Runes?” said Ron, yawning and stretching.
“I mistranslated ehwaz,” said Hermione furiously. “It means partnership, not Defense; I mixed it up with eihwaz.”
“Ah well,” Cole said, allowing Bilbo to walk over his face. “that’s only one mistake, isn’t it, you’ll still get -”
“Oh, shut up!” Sam snapped, sitting on the arm of the chair with a glare. “It could be the one mistake that makes the difference between a pass and a fail. And I didn't revise enough, I feel like an idiot..."
"Hold Bilbo, it'll de-stress you." Cole said, looking a bit terrifed of Sam. He held the growing cat at Sam, who reluctantly stroked it.
"Sorry, this exam thing is too stressful for me." She sighed. "To makes things worse, Hermione and I were going past Umbitch's office, and somebody let a niffler in again. It was trying to claw her leg off."
“Good,” said Harry, Ron and I together.
“It is not good!” said Hermione hotly. “She thinks it’s Hagrid doing it, remember? And we do not want Hagrid chucked out!”
"So what you're saying is, that I shouldn't have given Alia a niffler to chuck into the office?" Cole said absent mindly. "You should have warned me Hermione, gosh."
“He’s teaching at the moment; she can’t blame him or pin it on Alia.,” 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 towards the girls’ dormitories, banging the door behind her.
"Well this just proves how messed up the exam system is." Gennie said sleepily, leaning her head aginst Cole's shoulder. "People are ten times more mental than usual."
* * *
Everybody did seem to be more crazy as time went on. Exams were going better than I thought, and I was counting down to when they'd finally finish so I could get back to a semi-normal life.
One of the final exams was the astronomy one, which I'd been loooking forward to the least. This was because we actually had to do an exam at almost Midnight, which Cole deemed was child abuse.
We set up our telescopes along the tower, and were told we'd have an hour and a half to fill in a star chart. Everything was silent, apart from the squeak of a telescope or the rustling of paper. Half an hour passed, then an hour.
I was so tired, but I kept pinching myself to stay awake. Cole seemed to have given up entirely, slumping onto his telescope, and snoring lightly.
As I completed the constellation Orion on my chart, however, the front doors of the castle opened directly below, light spilled down the stone steps a little way across the lawn.
I adjusted my telescope, and watched as six shapes travelled across the lawn. The doors swung shut, and since the excitment passed I decided to examine Venus.
But as I looked down again, I noticed a familar squat figure leading. Why Umbridge was taking a group walk at Midnight, I had no idea.
But as I went back to Venus, I heard a distant knock which echoed through the deserted grounds, followed immediately by the muffled barking of a large dog.
I looked up, heart hammering. There were lights on in Hagrid’s windows and the people were stood outside. I felt uneasy, and looked around to see Harry looking just as anxious. We locked eyes for a second, before hastily returning to the telescopes.
Then a roar from the distant cabin that echoed through the darkness right to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Several people looked up, and Cole even jerked awake from his sleep.
Professor Tofty gave another dry little cough. “Try and concentrate, now, boys and girls,” he said softly.
Most people returned to their telescopes, but I noticed that pretty much all of my friends were watching. Cole had abanoned his work, and was staring intently through his telescope, biting his nails.
“Ahem - twenty minutes to go,” said Professor Tofty.
Hermione jumped and returned at once to her star-chart; I looked down at my own and noticed that he had mislabelled Venus as Mars. He bent to correct it. Cole was still looking through his telescope, ignoring an examiner who told him to get back to work.
There was a loud BANG from the grounds. Cole swore loudly. Many people went to their telescope immeadiatley. With shaking hands, I adjusted the view.
Hagrid’s door had burst open and he surrounded by six people, all of whom, seemed to be attempting to Stun him.
“No!” cried Gennie.
“My dear!” said Professor Tofty in a scandalised voice. “This is an examination!”
But nobody was paying the slightest attention to their star-charts. Jets of red light were still flying about beside Hagrid’s cabin, yet somehow they seemed to be bouncing off him.
Hagrid roared, “Reasonable be damned, yeh won’ take me like this, Dawlish!”
I could see the tiny outline of Fang, attempting to defend Hagrid, leaping repeatedly at the wizards surrounding him until a Stunning Spell caught him and he fell to the ground.
Hagrid gave a howl of fury, lifted the culprit bodily from the ground and threw him; the man flew what looked like ten feet and did not get up again.
The doors opened again, and a figure was sprinting towards the hut.
“How dare you!” the figure shouted as she ran. “How dare you!”
“It’s McGonagall!” whispered Cole. "Hell yeah."
“Leave him alone! Alone, I say!” said McGonagall’s voice through the darkness. “On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such -”
Sam, Hermione and Parvati screamed. I swore under my breath repeadidly. No fewer than four Stunners had shot from the figures around the cabin towards her. For a moment she looked luminous, illuminated by an eerie red glow, then landed hard on her back, and moved no more.
“Galloping gargoyles!” shouted Professor Tofty, who seemed to have forgotten the exam completely. “Not so much as a warning! Outrageous behavior!”
“COWARDS!” bellowed Hagrid, “RUDDY COWARDS! HAVE SOME O’ THAT - AN’ THAT -”
“Oh my —” gasped Hermione.
Hagrid was standing again with what appeared to be a sack on his back - then I realized that Fang’s limp body was draped around his shoulders.
“Get him, get him!” screamed Umbridge, but her remaining helper seemed highly reluctant to go within reach of Hagrid’s fists; indeed, he was backing away so fast he tripped over one of his unconscious colleagues and fell over.
Hagrid had turned and begun to run with Fang still hung around his neck. Umbridge sent one last Stunning Spell after him but it missed; and Hagrid, running full-pelt towards the distant gates, disappeared into the darkness.
There was a long minutes quivering silence as everybody gazed open-mouthed into the grounds. Then Professor Tofty’s voice said feebly, “Um… five minutes to go, everybody.”
I hadn't finished the chart, but I just scribbled some stuff down, desperate for the end of the exam. When it ended, nobody wanted to go to sleep despite it being early morning, and we were all talking about what we saw.
“That evil woman!” gasped Hermione, who seemed to be having difficulty talking due to rage. “Trying to sneak up on Hagrid in the dead of night!”
“She clearly wanted to avoid another scene like Trelawney’s,” said Sam, not hiding her disgust.
“Hagrid did well, didn’t he?” said Ron, who looked more alarmed than impressed. “How come all the spells bounced off him?”
“It’ll be his giant blood,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Isn't it really hard to stun a giant, like a troll?"
"But poor McGonagall… four Stunners straight in the chest and she’s not exactly young, is she?” Gennie said, chewing on her nails.
"What is the world coming to?" Sam shook her head. "I'll see you all tomorrow, I want to fit in an hour of revision."
People were drifting away, still talking excitedly about what they had just seen.
“At least they didn’t get to take Hagrid off to Azkaban,” said Ron. “I ‘spect he’s gone to join Dumbledore, hasn’t he?”
“I suppose so,” said Hermione, who looked tearful. “Oh, this is awful, I really thought Dumbledore would be back before long, but now we’ve lost Hagrid too.”
They traipsed back to the Gryffindor common room to find it full. Seamus and Dean, who had arrived ahead of us,were now telling everyone.
“But why sack Hagrid now?” asked Angelina Johnson, shaking her head. “It’s not like Trelawney; he’s been teaching much better than usual this year!”
“Umbridge hates part-humans,” said Hermione bitterly, flopping down into an armchair. “She was always going to try and get Hagrid out.”
"I'm surprised she hasn't found an excuse to chuck me out." Gennie sniffed. "I don't really count as fully human, do I?"
"Don't say that," Cole said, kissing Gennie on the cheek. "So you're part werewolf and like raw meat, so what? You're completley human in the ways that count. She's not taking you away."
“And she thought Hagrid was putting Nifflers in her office,” piped up Katie Bell.
"Well now I feel guilty," Alia said sheepishly. "I just thought she'd figure out it's me--I've been going on about how great Nifflers are for the last fortnight."
“She’d have sacked him anyway” said Dean. “He was too close to Dumbledore.”
“That’s true,” said Harry.
“I just hope Professor McGonagall’s all right,” said Lavender tearfully.
“They carried her back up to the castle, we watched through the dormitory window,” said Colin Creevey “She didn’t look very well.”
“Madam Pomfrey will sort her out,” said Cole firmly. “She’s never failed yet.”
It was nearly four in the morning before the common room cleared. I felt wide awake, and was seriously contemplating Ron's idea of throwing Umbridge to the blast-ended skrewts.
The final exam was the history one, but it wasn't until the afternoon. This left me a lot of time to sleep in the morning, because I knew I wasn't going to pass history at all. I just wanted the exams to be over, so I could sneak to Hogsmeade with Draco, something we'd been planning for ages.
“Turn over your papers,” said Professor Marchbanks from the front of the Hall, flicking over the giant hour-glass. “You may begin.”
I was finding it very difficult to remember names and kept confusing dates. I skipped a lot of questions, and spent time staring at Sam's head wishing I could use legimens to get the answer from her.
All around quills were scratching, but I couldn't think of a single answer. Slowly, I picked up the quill, chewing at the end of it.
Right, the Confederation had met ... Goblins had tried to attend and been ousted… oh wait, that was down already. But who didn't want to come?
I tapped my quill on the table, and an image crackled through my mind. The corridor. I clenched my fist. Why was I seeing this? I was awake.
Snaps of images like polaroids came into my mind. Corridors flashing, I was running... I was coming closer to the spheres... A figure was on the floor, moaning.
I could see the hall, but I couldn't stick onto reality, I kept flashing between the hall and corridor.
“Take it for me… lift it down, now… I cannot touch it… but you can." A voice came, and it was one that I recognised.
The voice of the man who read my bedtime stories, patched my skinned knees and tried to kill me... Mark Oswin.
The shape on the floor shifted. "Crucio!" Mark shouted
The man on the floor let out a scream of pain, attempted to stand but fell back.
“The Dark Lord is waiting." Mark hissed.
Very slowly, his arms trembling, the man on the ground raised his shoulders a few inches and lifted his head. His face was bloodstained and gaunt, twisted in pain yet rigid with defiance…
“You’ll have to kill me,” whispered Sirius.
"I'm not afraid to do that." Mark grinned.
I jerked back into reality, tears falling down my face, scar burning and body shaking. I was dimly aware of Harry falling onto the floor, screaming
But one thought was dominating my mind:
Mark was back. And he was hurting Sirius.
- - - - - - - -
A/N SECOND UPDATE OF THE WEEKEND CAN I GET A HELL YEAH
I'm so excited because next chapter all the exciting stuff starts and I'm so pumped! 8 CHAPTERS LEFT GUYS, WE'RE COMING TO THE END.
Can't wait for you all to see the plot twists that are coming our way :)))