I solemnly swear that I am up to no good | Professor Remus Lupin

Chapter 51 - exams

On the first day of the O.W.L.s I put a lot of pressure on myself, because I really wanted to get good enough grades, that maybe I could become an Auror. Some teachers had told me this already, I still wasn't sure if this was what I wanted, but I wanted to have this choice in my own hands and not blocked by not enough points in my exams.

Grace was nervous too, but she just hoped to get through the exams and didn't really care about her grades. When we sat down next to the twins at the Gryffindor table, they seemed as relaxed as always.

„You two look awful...worrying about unimportant grades really doesn't suit you" Fred and George stated.

„Unimportant?" Grace repeated in a high pitched voice, not believing what she just heard. „I just hate anything test-like in general, but Maeve wants to become an Auror, so this is really important alright?"

„An Auror?" George asked turning to his brother.

„She definitely has spend too much time with Mad-Eye..." Fred joked.

„I am just thinking about it..." I explained, but I got interrupted by Dumbledore, who coughed to get everyone's attention.

„Dear students of the fifths year I welcome you to the start of your O.W.L.s week. In front of you..." he said and with a flick of his wand papers appeared on the table in front of every student. „...lays your schedule for the exams for the two upcoming weeks, starting today. As you already know the theory portion is written in the morning and the practical portions in afternoon. Except the astronomy practical portion, this one, of course occurs at night. I wish everyone good luck!" He finished his little speech and I took a closer look on my schedule:

First week:

Monday: Charms

Tuesday: Herbology

Wednesday: Transfiguration

Thursday: Ancient Runes

Friday: Defense against the dark arts

Second week:

Monday: Care of magical creatures

Tuesday: Astronomy

Wednesday: Divination

Thursday: History of magic

Friday: Potions

Looking over the schedule I noticed that they did a good job splitting up the more important subjects and spread them over the days. So the first three days were more important to me and this Friday of course. We made our way to the charms classroom and sat down. Everyone had their own table and Professor Flittwick greeted us quickly and we immediately started with the theory part.

When I finished writing my answers down and felt pretty confident about them, I lifted my head up and looked around the classroom. I noticed Fred was struggling, he was sitting a few rows in front of me. When Flittwick wasn't looking, I dared and peeked onto his paper to see, which question he was at. The question he was struggling with was important and necessary to answer a few of the following ones. An idea popped up in my head.

Since I was done with the exam and probably the first one to finish, I stood up and slowly walked towards the front desk. Flittwick was smiling proudly, when he noticed I was already finished.

„Finished?" He asked me to make sure.

„Yes, professor Fl-" I answered, but stumbled when I walked past Fred. I „accidentally" let the paper with the question Fred was struggling with fall down. It gladly landed right, so he could read the pages. The whole class looked at me, but Flittwick ordered them to get back to their exams. I excused myself for my clumsiness multiple times to buy Fred more time, Flittwick didn't realized my true intentions and asked, if I was alright. After he worried a little more I turned around and winked at Fred, when he looked up from his pages with a smirk. I slowly collected my papers and let my eyes wander over Freds page before I turned around again. Fred had managed to read my answer briefly, but still enough to answer the question. I handed Flittwick my exam and I quietly said „Good bye" to him, before I picked up my bag and left the classroom.