Fire Whiskey in the Moonlight (Remus Lupin)

Chapter Thirty-Four: Revision

The next few weeks were filled with almost nothing else but revision for NEWTs, and it went by at an almost unbearably slow rate. I was lucky if I got to see Remus twice a week outside of class, but even my time spent with him was usually just him helping me study. Of course, the git refused to help me at all with my Defense Against the Dark Arts revision, saying that his help could give me an "unfair advantage." When he told me this I smartly decided to respond with "What's the point of dating my professor if I don't get extra help on my NEWTs." I had to tell him I was joking probably a hundred times before he let it go.

Katie and I were still on very rocky ground, I was done trying to be friends with Tyler and poor Eric was stuck in the middle of everything. Katie's bad mood never seemed to improve, if anything it was only getting worse the closer we got to NEWTs. Eric had blamed it on the stress of all the revising, but I knew it was because the NEWTs just reminded her that she wasn't getting the job she wanted. Some nights I would try to talk to her about it when we were alone in our room, but she would always shut me down, either changing the subject to Eric or just not responding to me at all. I was really starting to worry, especially when Eric had told me that she had screamed at two first years playing wizard's chess in the common room for being too loud.

I hadn't been there to witness it as I was spending most of my time these days with the Hufflepuffs. I was sitting with them at meals and Cedric, Annie and I were doing our revision together in the evenings. Cedric would quiz us on our NEWT subjects and in return we'd help him with his OWL revision. Sometimes he would study with the other fifth years but he had said it was really more helpful to revise with people who had already taken their OWLs. It really was for the best as when Cedric wasn't there to keep us in check we would usually get off topic and start talking about anything except the upcoming exams.

"Did I not tell Harry Potter that he had to get us out of exams this year?"

"You did, I was there. The boy who lived has really let us down this year."

"Couldn't he have started some duel with the Slytherins that ended up blowing up the astronomy tower or something?"

"There's still time, maybe he's waiting until right before our exams."

"It's probably for the best," I groaned. "I mean after his thing with Quirrell in fifth year we still had to take our OWLs, they just got postponed. Plus Remus would blow a gasket if Harry did something like that this year."

"Oooo Remus," Annie whispered as she jabbed me in the side.

"I don't know why you are oooo-ing, it's not like this is some new crush or something. We've been together for almost six months now. And if you want to be technical we first got together last August."

"Ya, but I missed a bunch of time to make fun of you about your crush so I have to do it now." She laughed.

"Shut up, just get back to your Charms revision before Cedric comes back and yells at us."

"Get back to your own Charms revision," she lowered her voice, "Mrs.Lupin."

"Shut up!" I cried but I was smiling up to my ears at the name she had just called me.

I worked for maybe ten more minutes before I piped back up, "If we get into the Auror program, will we be working with Tonks?"

Annie's ears went red, "Don't know, haven't really thought about it."

"Liar."

On the occasional nights that I would spend in my own common room, Eric would usually come over and sit with me. Leaving Katie and Tyler to their own devices. It was nice spending time with him, even if we were just studying. I could tell he was having a hard time with his Defense revision, and of course I had known he hadn't been doing very well in the class. As it was one of my best subjects, at least before I got distracted by my teacher, I tried to help him as much as I could when I was there. It wasn't the only thing he was having a hard time with, he had let it slip to me that he and Katie hadn't been doing very well.