The Healer | Part 1: The Hogwarts Years

The Necessary Task

Edith

Before I knew it, the OWL exams had arrived. The Third and final Task of the Triwizard tournament would be on the final evening of term, the day we finished writing the exams. Then term would be over for another year and we would all go back home.

I still felt like I hadn't had a spare moment to properly think about how I was going to split up with Andrej. I knew I had to end it, but I hadn't seen much of him in the past few weeks because we had both been too busy with revising for our exams. I just didn't know how to tell him or what to say, or even how to bring it up. I'd never split up with anyone before.

In the end, I decided to wait until exams were over. We both had enough to be getting on with for the moment. The last thing I wanted was to stress him out even more right before he wrote his finals.

I stopped working with Madam Pomfrey at the Hospital Wing for the rest of the term. It had been her idea so I had more time for revision and I wasn't opposed to it. Me, along with every other fifth- and seventh-year student, were spending every spare moment going over our books and school notes.

We wrote Potions on the first morning of the OWLs with the practical portion after lunch. The room was divided in half with fifth-years on the left and seventh-years on the right. I was grateful my last name was close to the beginning of the alphabet, I didn't have to wait very long for my practical examination. Potions was my best subject anyway. I wasn't too worried about that one.

The next day was Charms. I felt like I performed alright in Charms, it was Transfiguration the next day I was most worried about. I stayed up until almost midnight revising and got up at five o'clock the following morning to continue to study and revise before actually writing the exam after breakfast.

The examiner for the afternoon, a tiny witch with puffy, white hair and glasses that magnified her eyes to probably ten times their normal size, instructed me to Switch the puppy and kitten on the desk and then Vanish them both. I was pretty sure the puppy's ears were a little more pointed than they should have been, but I did manage to Vanish them both completely.

I wanted nothing more than to collapse on my bed in the dormitory after the practical portion of the exam but I knew I had to start revising for Herbology the next day. I stayed up late again, but only until eleven o'clock that night and then up again at five to look at drawings of plants and pray that I would be able to keep them all straight.

The written exam wasn't terrible. In the afternoon, I had to demonstrate how to look after Dittany, a Fanged Geranium and how to prune a Venomous Tentacula. I only suffered superficial wounds from the Tentacula, but I was sure I would lose points for it anyway.

As soon as I returned to the dormitory, I dropped onto my bed with my school robes still on and fell asleep. I had a day off the next day, so I felt no guilt in doing so.

The rest of the OWLs felt like they dragged on forever and flew by at the same time. I knew when they were over I would be out of excuses to put off splitting up with Andrej and I was dreading it.

Overall, I felt the exams went alright. I was exhausted walking out of my final exam, Defence Against the Dark Arts. My Reductor Curse had reduced the boulder to chunks that definitely could have been smaller, but I was happy enough with how it had gone.

I dropped my bag off in the dormitory, I had an hour before supper and the Third Task would be straight after. I sighed.

I had to do it now, I knew it.

Andrej had finished his exams earlier in the week. He was staying until the end of the Tournament and then he would be going back home with the rest of the Durmstrang students.