A Young Wizard's Journey - Prisoner of Azkaban

Laid to rest

The elation at winning the match was quite short-lived for Y/N however. The loss of Quidditch and his lessons with Remus in his timetable had instead meant that he was nose to the grindstone with his homework and exam preparation. Something had gotten in the way of the last two years, and he was determined this year to keep up with Hermione.

Hermione didn't seem to mind this at all. In fact, she seemed quite grateful to have someone challenging her and, with the absence of her own Divination lessons, the two were now spending increasing amounts of time quizzing each other back and forth.

This had sadly led to less time spent with Ginny as she was now mostly revising in empty classrooms with Luna, but they'd promised to meet up and hang out again properly once the exams had passed. These were Ginny's first proper tests after the last years were cancelled.

The two of them had drafted up exam timetables for themselves that reflected around their use of the time-turner. Ron and Harry attempted to question them on this one evening, but Y/N simply waved them away saying it was for alternating weeks when in actuality, Y/N and Hermione could be found in both the Common Room and the library in most hours of the day.

Then, a few weeks before exams were due to start, Harry and Ron approached them whilst Y/N quizzed Hermione on the properties of Salamanders.

'Letter from Hagrid,' said Harry. 'Buckbeak's appeal is set for the sixth.'

'That's the day we finish our exams,' said Hermione.

'They're coming up here to do it,' said Harry as he continued reading the parchment. 'Someone from the Ministry of Magic-'

'That'll probably be the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures,' said Y/N, 'Or whoever headed the trial.'

'-and an executioner,' said Harry slowly.

'What?' said Ron, Y/N and Hermione all together.

'Reads like they've already decided,' said Harry.

'They can't!' yelled Ron. 'Me and you spent ages looking up all that stuff. They can't just ignore it all.'

'They did with our stuff,' said Y/N angrily. 'I bet it's Malfoy again. He's probably pushed another "charitable donation", especially after darling Draco cost them the Quidditch cup. Wants to uphold his name somehow.'

'As if anyone cares what happens in some silly school Quidditch match,' said Hermione irritably. 'The life of a creature is far more important.'

'Not to people like the Malfoy's,' said Ron bitterly. 'To them, blood is everything. It's why Malfoy hates my family so much. We're one of the biggest cases of being blood traitors in history. He'll have grown up hearing about how it's wrong.'

'It's pathetic,' said Y/N. 'I'm glad he at least lost the match. Shows how incompetent they are without a pile of money to hide behind.'

Y/N's frustrations at the Malfoys actually worked in his favour. For the first few days of Malfoy strutting around it was difficult not to jinx him, but soon the exams were upon them and holding onto that pent up frustration served him wonderfully during his practical examinations.

And of course, to kick it all off, was his mother's exam.

All things considered it wasn't actually as hard as it should have been, though it was certainly new. She placed a teapot in front of all of them with instructions to turn it into a tortoise. Much to Y/N's surprise, he successfully managed the transformation within the first twenty minutes.

He sat there staring at his tortoise in shock for a few moments before it attempted to crawl sideways off his desk, and he quickly stooped to catch it.

'How did you do that?' asked Hermione once they'd left. 'Mine looked like a turtle!'