ABANDONED || Me and my Evil Cousin

XXIII - OWLs

Days were ticking by now like the hands of a clock. But the clock in question was not like a normal clock. The hands of this one would fly around at hundreds of miles per hour with no way at all of stopping them. Us fifth years tried to cling on to every single minute we had, to revise and study, but the problem is we barely had any minutes to cling on to at all.

You see, the OWL exams were coming up. The worst nightmares for some, well truthfully speaking, most of the fifth year students at Hogwarts. The exams were officially going to commence on the 19th of July, and it was the 2nd already. So you can imagine how we were all feeling.

A couple of days ago, we all had our careers advice session. It went OK, I think. But the only thing is, I still don't exactly know what to do when I leave Hogwarts. I've always been thinking of doing something literacy related, or academic. But I don't actually know quite what yet.

In general it was just pretty stressful. Whenever I tried to go down to the library, about 50 people, mostly fifth and seventh years would already be there, all the chairs occupied, with textbooks strewn over the tables messily.

Some of us would be revising for up to eight hours a day, but some people only stretched to five. My revision varied. Some days I felt productive enough to do a good amount of revision from textbooks, and some practical revision too, but some days I could barely do any good revision and just went straight to bed instead of staying up all night.

I guess that I need my sleep. We all do.

What with revision, strict schedules, and for Mary and I the ever-continuing sadness and trauma of the chamber opening, it was unmeasurably tiring and depressing each day.

But there was actually a bit of good news! Since there was enough mandrake revival draught for four people now, they gave it to the two seventh years and two fifth years : one of them being Liza. They gave it to them specifically so they could do their OWLs and NEWTs as normal. It must have been so hard for her to catch up.

And the day she woke up we informed her on the outcomes of things, and exactly as we thought she would be, she was so angry at the fact Tom was still here, as a student, and an innocent third year boy was expelled instead.

But the main thing is, she was here. Two became three again and I was no longer the sole one who was responsible for comforting Mary. Liza was the one who kept the spirits raised when things got hard and it was such a relief we had her back! Even though there was so much revision for her to do anyways.

There was exactly two days left until exams now.

As I was walking through the corridor on that day, I saw Elena, a Hufflepuff prefect 5th year who was one of my friends.

"Hey, Violet! Do you want to go to out study club with us after dinner?"

"Sure!" I said. Why would I refuse.

I eventually got there and it was pretty fun. Basically, most of the girls in the year were invited, which I wasn't expecting. Elena was one of the most popular hufflepuffs after all, probably one of the most popular students in fifth year. But she was still really kind and inclusive to everyone.

Then, after that day with the study club, it was the final day we had. The final twenty four hours. Everyone in fifth and seventh year was sprawled all over the common room, paper piled up, spells flying everywhere and incantations creating noise. I was one of these people. I have to get in all that I can.

Then it was the first day, and to begin with we had a Transfiguration written paper. I think it went pretty well! Next was a potions written paper which was probably the hardest thing of the day. I was so tired out by the end of it and even though it was only lunchtime I just wanted to go to sleep.

The final exam of the day was at night: Astronomy, which went alright.

On Tuesday, we started off with Divination, which I think I did OK in. What I saw was something that sort of looked like a ring. Luckily it wasn't any more yellow eyes and screaming. But what could be wrong with a ring? Nothing, that's what I thought.

The one before lunch this time was History of Magic, which I think went well but I would have probably done better if I didn't have Professor Binns as a teacher.

The final exam of Tuesday was a DADA practical! It was pretty hard but I still think I was good at it.

The next day, a Wednesday, had only one exam which I was pretty happy about, but this one exam turned out to be a potions practical. I felt like I did really badly, but I can only hope for the best, even though I can't hope for much because of my terrible potion-making skills.

On Thursday we started with Transfiguration practical and were instructed to turn an Armadillo into a pillow. I succeeded, but the covering on my pillow had still had a bit of a scaled texture.

And in the afternoon that day, it was a Charms exam: first of all we had an hour to do an essay on Entrancing Enchantments, which was unexpectedly easier than I thought. But next was the practical. We had to actually do a Disillusionment charm. I've actually had experience on that particular spell, since I had to use it when spying on Tom and it only failed when he broke the enchantment.

So in general, Thursday went well.

But I was nowhere near ready for Friday.

We had to wake up very early in the morning to get to our Herbology exam. After getting ready we had to water some agressive plants with sharp teeth. Once it was done, we went straight to our Defence against the Dark Arts theory paper. I guess I did well, but I have no idea. I am so tired after all these exams, I can barely concentrate.

We got a bit of a break after lunchtime, and I made the most of it by going for a walk in the grounds with Mary and Liza. But that barely cleared my head. And after that we had to prepare for the last OWL exam we would do: another Astronomy one. This one was at midnight, and was much harder than the previous one.

But after that, it was all done! Well, I guess I could say part of my future is decided now.