After the War

Chapter 40

Thursday, March 21st

"I don't think I can do this, Hermione," Ginny said.

"You're being dramatic," Hermione instantly chided.

"No, I'm not. I can't suffer through another one of these classes. They are the death of me!" she added, not bothering to keep her voice low.

Hermione just rolled her eyes with a grim smile and took out her notebook. "You might be worse than Harry," she commented. "At least he only complained after class."

"Here, Ginny," Luna interrupted from Ginny's other side. "I have a spare copy of the Quibbler."

"Thanks!" She grabbed onto her spare magazine and started to flip through its pages idly.

"Honestly," Hermione tutted. "NEWTs are only a month and a half away and Professor Binns has been doing some great review of everything we'll need to know!"

"That's great and all, Hermione, but he's just so... boring," Ginny said, pursing her lips as she couldn't think of a suitable word to describe his monotonous droning that somehow qualified as teaching.

"Fine! But don't think I'll be helping you study!" Hermione snapped.

Ginny shrugged unconcernedly.

"Personally, I think it's very gallant of you to volunteer to take notes for the three of us," Luna deadpanned.

Ginny snorted and even Hermione's lips twitched at the corners. They all knew that her threats would be in vain. If one of them wanted to study History of Magic, Hermione would more than welcome the extra people, even if it meant sharing her notes.

"Good morning class--" Binns started as he floated through the wall.

"It's mid-afternoon," Ginny commented under her breath, making her two friends snigger.

"Today we will be continuing our preparation for your upcoming OWL exams," he droned on.

"OWLs?" Hermione instantly asked under her breath. "We're NEWT students."

"As you know, OWLs are vital to your futures and will determine if you continue taking this class next year."

"We won't even be here next year," Luna said.

"Thanks for that reality check," Ginny added, collapsing her head into one hand.

"So, to help you prepare for these extremely significant exams, we will be studying some more modern events that took place just last year in the most recent wizarding war. It is unknown if these will be on your OWL exams, but it is a possibility since OWLs typically go up to the present while NEWTs do not."

Hermione rolled her eyes and shot her hand into the air.

"Yes, Miss Grant?" Binns asked, slowly turning towards her.

"Professor, we're seventh year students." He said nothing, so she clarified further. "We're preparing for our NEWT exams, not our OWLs."

He blinked and digested this new information. "Even so, we will be studying the latest war today in class even if it will not be on your exam."

Hermione's bewilderment quickly faded into indignation. "He's not going to prepare us for our exam!?"

"Of course not, Hermione. He planned to teach about this all day, so that's what he's going to do," Ginny smirked.

"Well," Hermione huffed. "I'm going to study and be productive." She flipped her notebook open to an earlier page and began to read over her prior notes.