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

Chapter 57 - OWLs

Multiple exam papers and practical tests later, I found myself exhausted sitting in the great hall on Friday morning, the last day of the O.W.L.s. Care of magical creatures at the start of this week had been fun and I had a good feeling, but divination on Wednesday had just gotten on my nerves, like Trelawney did pretty often. After the exam she had even wanted to ask me about my love life and if the tea leaf reading had been correct. Grace had started laughing and mocked me every day asking me this, imitating Trelawney.

Today was the last day, but probably the hardest exam. I was good in potions, sure, but I still feared professor Snape. What if he would grade me bad, just because he hated me? What if I would fail, just because of this? Potions was important, if I wanted to become an Auror.

„Merlins beard, Maeve! Have you had any sleep? You look awful" George asked worried, when he sat down with Fred next to me and Grace at breakfast.

„Not really" I answered.

„I can't tell you not to worry... Snape hates you, I would probably be worried too" Fred added earning a punch in his shoulder from Grace.

„Thanks, Freddy" I replied and let out a dry laugh. He wasn't wrong, but this wasn't helping me at all.

We ate breakfast, but I barely touched the food, I only drank my coffee. After the others were done eating and it was time for the potions exam, we walked down into the dungeons.

Snape was already standing in front of his desk, giving every student a death stare as we walked into the classroom. When his eyes landed on me his expression darkened even more.

„I think I will die today. It was nice knowing you" I said towards the twins and Grace in a low voice. Fred and George saluted me and we sat down at our desks, Grace took my hand and gave me a weak smile, before she walked to her own desk. My table was in the front row almost directly in front of Snape's desk. I didn't dare to look at him and kept my eyes darted onto my desk. I was definitely too exhausted and too scared, to fight with him.

Snape handed out the exam papers with magic and told us how much time we had. „I split the theory exam into two parts. You will finish the first one in under 45 minutes, as well as the second part. In between you will brew the Invigoration Draught. After that you will get the second part, when you are done with the first, so that, if you managed to finish earlier, you have more time for the second one." He explained to the class. Meaning that the theoretical and practical portion were held together.

I started to read over the pages, the first questions focused on the making of and the effects of different potions. I started write down my answers and surprisingly managed to keep my mind focused on the exam and less on my worries. After I had started writing I completely focused on the questions and forgot my surroundings, as I was answering the questions confidently.

I had lost track of time, when I looked over my finished first part. I noticed that everyone was still writing, so I stood up and handed Snape the papers.

„Done already?" He asked with a risen eyebrow. I just nodded. „If you think so..." he muttered with despise in his voice.

I quietly walked over to the ingredient storage at the end of the room and picked out the ingredients for the invigoration draught, that included: alihotsy leaves, dried billywig strings, peppermint, strewed mandrake, infusion of wormwood, honeyeater, vervain infusion, scurvy grass and lovage. I collected all the ingredients and measured them and took how much I needed, I put the rest back to the other ingredients and started brewing the potion. I repeated the steps in my head and after the three hours of brewing time I proudly looked at the perfectly brewed potion in front of me. Looking around, I noticed that many other students were in the last steps of brewing the potion. Snape slowly walked around the classroom and looked disappointed at some of the failed potions.

When he arrived at my desk he just gave me a fake smile before he handed me the second part. He dipped a small bottle into my potion, filling it with the orange liquid to put it to the closer test.

I sat down at my table again and read over the questions. They definitely were much more difficult and tricky than in the first part. I noticed a question on the second paper about moonstone, it was an surprisingly easy question, compared to the other ones.

Name three potions that moonstone can be used in and explain what is important when using moonstone?

Draught of peace, Wolfsbane and several love potions. The moonstone needs to be powdered, before usage or else the potion wouldn't have the wanted effects.

I didn't need to think twice and wrote down my answer. The other questions took me a little bit more time to answer and were hard and I wasn't completely sure with every answer I wrote down. When I was done I read over my answers again and placed the papers on my table.

„Professor Snape...I...I have a question about question 24?" A Slytherin student asked behind me, her voice was shaking nervously, probably also scared of our potions teacher. I remembered that Question 24 had been about the moonstone.

„Yes..." he replied slowly with annoyance dripping from his voice. The end of his lips curled up into a fake and cold smile as he looked at the student.

„We didn't talk about moonstone in class..." she answered, even more scared.

„That's a pity" Snape stated and glanced at me with a weird look. I was confused and wondered what that look meant and tried to remember, if we really never talked about moonstone in class. I couldn't remember a lesson we had this as topic, so I wondered where I've got the informations from...

Then realization hit me...Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane never had been a topic in class and by making this potion for Remus, I had learned a lot about moonstone, that was how I knew the answer. I asked myself, if Snape had put this question into the exam by coincidence or was because something else...?

Before I could continue thinking about it, Snape suddenly took my papers from my desk. „Done again?" He asked looking over my papers in his hand, but before I could answer he gave me a quick fake smile and walked over to his desk. I didn't know what to do now, there was no way in just deleting my answer from the paper and I just could hope, that this was just a strange coincidence and Snape didn't knew, that I had been stealing from his personal storage to make Wolfsbane for Remus.

Snape secured my exam on his desk and looked more than pleased. And the worst part was, that there was nothing I could do about it, I had messed up. I already feared what he would do, if he found out or already had found out...

Other students started handing in their exams and I just grew more and more nervous. I bit my nails and shifted anxiously in my seat. When the time was up Snape stood up and clapped his hands together. The loud sound made me flinch and I dared myself to look at him.

„Dear students, congratulations! You finished your potion exam, which was the last one of the Ordinary Wizarding level. To celebrate, I wanted to reward you" he told the class. This wasn't like him at all, something definitely was wrong. Looking around I noticed that other students looked just as confused as I did. Snape never had been this friendly and never would reward any of us.„...that's why I will show you the effects of veritaserum already today! Miss Lovegood, please join me."