Liar. Harry Potter's sister ~ Book 2

chapter thirty-four

The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom was told so many times over the course of the next few weeks I was sure that it was going to become a Hogwarts legend. They had made it almost certain that nobody would be able to forget them too soon. For starters, the fireworks that they had set off in the corridors seemed to never die away. Two weeks later, we could still hear the occasional banging and whizzing coming from them. I was sure that one of the teachers like Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick could have got rid of them in an instant, but they appeared to be enjoying watching Umbridge suffer.

Clearly inspired by Fred and George's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of Troublemakers. Somebody had managed to slip a hairy-shouted Niffler into Umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects. Dungbombs and Stink Pellets were dropped so frequently in the corridors that it became fashion for students to perform the Bubble-Head Charm on themselves before leaving the classroom, supplying them with a source of fresh air. Filch prowled the hall, a horsewhip in his hands, ready to catch the miscreants red handed, but there was now too many of them that he didn't know where to turn.

Recently, it had become clear just how many Skiving Snackboxed Fred and George had managed to sell before leaving: Umbridge only had to enter a classroom before students began to faint, vomit, sprout burning fevers or even begin spurting blood from boat nostrils. Shrieking with rage, she began to investigate the mysterious symptom to their cause but the students all told her they were suffering from a case of 'Umbridge-itis.'

To make the situation even more chaotic, Peeves seemed to have taken Fred's parting words to heart. Cackling madly; he soared through the school, flipping tables, bursting through blackboards, toppling over statues and vases. He smashed lanterns, snuffed out candles, dropped a bag of Tarantulas in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast and juggled burning torches over the heads of screaming students. He even managed to flood the second floor, but stuffing the plug holes with toilet paper and letting the taps run. Along with this, none of the staff, besides Filch seemed to be going into any trouble of helping her. A week after the twins' departure, I witnessed Professor McGonagall walking past Peeves, who was determined to loosen a large crystal chandelier and I could have sworn I heard her mutter from the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way."

Alongside all of this chaos, the castle grounds began gleaming in the sunlight, as though freshly painted. The grey blanket that swarmed the sky has cleared, revealing the bright blue canvas beneath it. June had arrived at last, but for us fifth-years, that only meant one thing: our O.W.Ls were upon us at last.

The teachers had stopped setting us homework and our lessons were dedicated to revising topics that they thought would appear in the exams. The feverish atmosphere drove almost everything, but our O.W.Ls from my mind, leaving nothing hut revision, revision, revision etched into my brain. I felt like I was sprouting grey hairs and wrinkles because of the stress.

Neville had turned to me for help with revision: he questioned me about my schedule and how many hours I was doing. In the end, I just told him to tag along to some of my study sessions in the library. It was nice to have some company, but I could tell he still had mixed feelings towards me about the whole DA situation. I helped him organise his notes, showed him certain techniques that I found most effective and I could see that he was grateful for my help.

Draco also joined me in the library a couple of times a week. We made small talk over the books and subjects we were revising but we hadn't had a full, proper conversation in weeks. I liked being in his company, but I would have liked to spend some time with him outside of the library where we could just talk and enjoy the sun.

In our next Transfiguration lesson, we received our exam timetables. All of our exams were spread across the course of two weeks, with theory exams in the morning and practical exams in the afternoon, or night, in the case of Astronomy. Professor McGonagall explained to us that there were strict Anti-Cheating precautions put in place for the exams, to ensure that our work was completely our own and not copied. We were informed that our results would be sent to us sometime in July, much to my relief. We wouldn't have to worry about it again until the holidays, also ensuring me at least one piece of post to read in the summer.