The Captain's Jersey

Exams

There were only a few days left until the end of year exams. Harry and Hermione were outside, basking in the beginning of summer sunlight, and were sprawled out under the large tree down by the lake, crunching for their first exam, which would be Charms. Despite being in a relationship, there wasn't much talking going on between the two, especially from Hermione, who was concentrating on reading The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6 by Miranda Goshawk for about the thousandth time.

Harry was going through all the notes he'd been able to collaborate together from himself and his friends in an attempt to familiarize himself with spells, incantations and wand movements. It was about the third time he had sifted through them, because he was having a hard time with a few of the pronunciations which, annoyingly, all sounded very similar to one another and yet all did very different things.

The silence was interrupted by Ron Weasley, who wandered down the slopes of Hogwarts towards them with his own copy of the Charms book and came to a stop standing over them. Hermione didn't look up, but Harry did, and he immediately saw the look of amusement etched on his friend's face, as his eyes swept over the scene.

"What are you so happy about?" Harry asked irritably, as Ron plonked himself down and settled in the grass beside them.

"Oh nothing," Ron said with a big stupid grin on his face, "I just happened to notice that a certain someone is wearing a certain item of clothing again."

Harry noticed Ron staring towards Hermione, and when he looked, he suddenly remembered that yet again, his girlfriend was wearing his Quidditch jersey. However, she was so focused in on her book, that despite the distractions, she was not brought out of her reverie and she just carried on reading.

"Oh yeah," Harry said rolling his eyes, "well, she was just freaking out earlier about, you know, everything. And according to her, wearing that helps calm her—"

"How?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"You wouldn't understand," Hermione said under her breath, just barely enough for the two guys to hear it, who looked at each other and shrugged.

"It doesn't matter," Harry said seriously towards his friend, "the Quidditch season is over anyway, and as long as it keeps her from stressing out, I'm fine with it."

"Mad," Ron said, shaking his head and getting a look from Hermione, "what about when we take the exam on Monday? What are you going to do about your stress then, wear it under your robes?"

Harry chuckled nervously as Hermione disappeared back behind her book.

"Don't give her ideas,Ron."