The Queen of Vipers || Fred Weasley

II.XVIII

The last day of exams couldn't have come any slower.

It was the first time she envied Cedric for being a Triwizard champion as he was excused from taking exams. He just spent the class periods while everyone else was hunched over their desks, quills scraping wildly against parchment, researching magical creatures for the next task (because practising countercurses was easily done together in an empty classroom).

Though, that being said, Cedric hadn't shown up to any classes this morning. Electra suspected he must be on the search for a new book in the library, or perhaps taking her advice and having a chat with Hagrid.

Cedric wasn't keen on running into any of the half-giant's creatures and Electra couldn't blame him, she'd had that single unfortunate run-in with one of his Blast-Ended Skrewts and that was enough for her to avoid Hargid's hut since.

With a sigh of relief, Electra set her quill down, the first of her classmates to do so during the written portion of their Transfiguration exam. This wasn't a surprise to her or anyone else in her class as she and Cedric were neck and neck in having the highest marks in Transfiguration in their year, Electra just behind Cedric.

A creeping smile tugged on her lips. Not this year.

Electra had turned her teacup into a gerbil and back again, transfigured herself to look remarkably like a taller and slightly older Ginny Weasley, in which George —who coincidentally was her partner and she reckoned would get a good laugh out of it— exclaimed in the middle of her exam, "Blimey! It's like I have a twin!", winning an unexpecting short laugh from McGonagall before she scolded him, and conjured a beautifully decorated lyre (which impressed McGonagall greatly) out of thin air and had it play a little tune.

"Showoff," she had heard Drusilla mutter as Electrareturned to her seat, her lyre successfully vanished as part of their exam. She'd only bit down on her lips to hide her wicked smile, remembering Drusilla's failed attempt to transfigure her face, and ended up having McGonagall transfigure her out of looking remarkably like Sloth from The Goonies.

Leaning back in her chair, Electra peered out the window, able to see the Quidditch stadium from her seat, trying to imagine the hedge maze. Cedric nearly choked up when he'd told Electra what had become of his beloved pitch.

Where is he? she thought to herself as she glanced up at the clock.

Twenty minutes left.

Time never seemed to move the way you wanted it to.

Electra sighed heavily, crossed her arms in front of her chest and sunk into her seat. She rested her chin on her chest and closed her eyes for the rest of the exam. After the tournament was over she could finally rest easily, but until then these little downtimes were all she could get that weren't restless like her nights in Slytherin's dungeons.

She could feel sleep weighing on her, the sun seeping in from the stained glass windows warming her face pleasantly. The hum of cicadas from outside and the scraping of quills against parchment were serene in her sleepiness, but before she knew it McGonagall had signalled the end of the exam.

Her eyelids fluttered open. Time's a bitch.

With a groan, Electra pushed herself up from the desk, stifling a yawn and stepped away to hand her essay in to Professor McGonagall at the front of the classroom. "Exceptional show of the Conjuring Spell, Miss Black," she praised as Electra handed over her parchments to McGonagall.

Drusilla groaned as she walked out of the classroom. Electra ignored her. "Thank you Professor," she said, pleased that her favourite teacher had noticed her hard work.