Selenophile // Marauders

|60| Exams, Fifth Year

Riley woke up in the hospital wing once more, this time it was morning and everyone was gone. She must've fallen asleep after she got that strong headache. 

She looked around more, and then at herself. She still had bandages all over the wounds and the injuries. Even the little sounds bothered her, the birds chirping outside and Madam Pomfrey's footsteps around the room. 

"How do you feel?" Madam Pomfrey asked suddenly as she appeared right next to her. Riley jumped and looked up. 

"My head is killing me..."

"That's normal, but you do have an exam today, the Potions OWL I think," Madam Pomfrey. The realization hit Riley and her eyes widened. 

"Shit..." she muttered under her breath and Pomfrey didn't warn her. 

"So I think I'll have to let you go in an hour or so," she continued. Riley didn't even feel like walking, how could she take an exam?

She left the hospital wing and started walking towards the Gryffindor common room. She stumbled once or twice, trying to stand upright. She was getting weird looks from all the students, regardless of which house or year they were in, they had heard about it. Rumors spread fastly in Hogwarts, it was almost impossible to prevent them from staying in one place. 

She finally reached the Gryffindor common room. She stood in front of the Fat Lady for a minute or two. 

"Password?" the portrait asked. Riley dug deep into her thoughts... nothing. She couldn't remember the password.

"You know who I am, I've been in this school for five years..." Riley tried to persuade her to let her in but the portrait was sure. 

"Password?" she asked once again, this time louder. 

"Dragon pox," a voice from the back said. Riley turned around to see who it was. It was Mary. 

"Thanks..." Riley said quietly. 

"You can't remember the password, can you?" Mary asked as she put her arm around Riley's shoulder. "Neither could I when they cursed me, really messes up your mind, doesn't it?"

Riley sat on the couch right in front of the fireplace. 

"Why is everything so fucking loud?" she asked herself, only to get an answer from a person sitting beside her. 

"They aren't..." Sirius said. Riley turned around. 

"I didn't notice you were sitting here, sorry," she said. She then looked around, James, Remus, and Peter were also sitting there. 

"Can you test me on Potions?" James asked and handed his book to Remus. 

"I'm rubbish in Potions..." he said. 

"Mate, we have the OWL in an hour!" James said angrily. 

"Oh," Remus said as he realized Riley sitting on the couch, almost asleep. "How do you feel?"

Riley ignored the question for a while. She then looked at Remus, emotionless. 

"I— dunno..."

"How will you enter the exam like this?"

"Dunno..." Riley said. She took the book from James' hand who was now asking anyone who he saw around to test him. "It's better than not taking the exam, isn't it?"

"Woah— you don't look alright," James said as he looked at Riley who looked sleep-deprived and in pain. 

"Hadn't noticed..." Riley said. 

***

The fifth-years sat in the grand hall. Each one of them sat on a chair, an empty desk except for quill and ink on one side. 

Professor Horace Slughorn flicked his wand and the papers flew to each student, perfectly distributed with none extra left. The hand of the clock hit 11 o'clock with a ding. 

"You may start, good luck all!" Slughorn said and sat in his chair, watching each student quickly write down the answers on the parchment. 

Riley took a glance at the paper, it looked like a puzzle of words. Not a puzzle, it looked like a soup of words, scrambled around the paper. She blinked hard and refocused on the paper, everything made more sense now. 

Fifty questions in total with one hour on the clock. This was usually easy for Riley, she went through the questions very fastly, sometimes misreading some questions though. But she always had time to double-check her answers, at least ten minutes. 

Write at least three ingredients to brew a Wit-Sharpening Potion.

Easy, she thought, but it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. Normally, she would have written all of the ingredients in seconds, she had memorized every single word in that Potions textbook, but she just couldn't think. All she could think of was that she wanted to sleep for at least a month. 

"Newt Spleens!" she thought in her head. She quickly scribbled it down. She needed two more, but she couldn't think of them. She needed that Wit-Sharpening Potion to drink right now. 

Time passed, fifty-eight minutes of it. She had only answered forty-two questions and she was sure at least thirty of them were wrong. 

"Two minutes, everyone!" Slughorn said loudly. 

She couldn't focus, the people tapping their quills on the desk, the people tapping their feet on the ground. Some of them trying to cheat on the exam as they whispered. They all sounded too loud to Riley. She understood why Pomfrey was hesitant of letting her go. 

"Quills down, everyone!" Slughorn announced. "Accio!"

The papers flew to the professor. Riley buried her face in her hands. People started to leave the hall as some of them hugged and cheered. Riley also stood up and walked over to her friends who looked happy.

"What did you say for question eleven?" Remus asked. "Did the Wit-Sharpening Potion have Ground Scarab Beetles in it?" 

Ground Scarab Beetles! How did she not think of that? She knew it!

"Yes!" Sirius exclaimed. "That was by far one of the easiest Potions exams I've ever taken!" 

"Nah, it was sorta hard..." Peter said. "How 'bout you? You probably will get an O, you're amazing at Potions!" he said as he looked at Riley. Riley blinked, and then looked at Peter. 

"I— I'm pretty sure I— failed."

"You failed a Potions exam?"James asked confusedly. Remus nudged him.

"Think so—"

"But— I mean— you're great at Potions!" James said. "How come?"

"I couldn't really concentrate on anything— look, I really don't wanna talk about it—"

"Are you alright?" Sirius asked anxiously. Anybody could tell Riley didn't look alright. 

"You can talk—" 

"Talk to you I know! But I don't have to, alright?" Riley exploded with anger. She didn't understand why she was angry all of a sudden, she just was. "I'm going to the hospital wing," she said sharply and turned around to go up the stairs. 

———

A/N:  Chapter 60! Wow. Thank you so much for 2.8K reads <33 Ily!! I'm almost at 700 followers on TikTok, if you don't already follow me, it is: @  pygmypuffarnold