(JILY) MARAUDERS AND VALKYRIES : THE FALL OF SERPENT

22. O.W.Ls and Mudblood

The Marauders and the Valkyries were sitting in the great hall for breakfast, Mary and Marls were in a deep question-answer session on Herbology, Peter was reading his notes again and again, while Remus was explaining Sirius the topics of ancient runes. James was still put off by yesterday's event and was poking the table with his fork, again and again, his chin resting on his hand, paying no attention to others. Lily was sitting opposite him, she kept stealing glances at him from over her herbology book.

 She slowly kicked his leg, he looked up at her. "Can you stop doing that? And do some study, we have our first exam in less than a day."

He groaned, "I don't feel like studying at this time." and then got back to poking the table, Lily kicked him again, he muttered "Sorry" and put down his fork and took out a parchment and a quill and started drawing the plant Belladonna and labeling its parts. 

"Hey look are they the examiners ?" said Mary and the others turned to look at the entrance, where Dumbledore was greeting a small group of old-looking witches and wizards.

"How are you, Dumbledore? The last I met with you was at the ministry I remember but I wasn't able to talk much, how are things going? I remembered examining you myself, and now you are heamaster." said a tiny witch.

"I am fine Marchbanks, and things are good, now let's have a seat while we talk" said the Headmaster and all of them reached to the staff table where more seats were put.

James sat in the farthest corner of the common room, avoiding everyone took out his walkman played some Beethoven music and studied his Herbology notes, where his  friends were nervous and panicking, well of course Sirius who was reading Remus' notes with a relaxed look and having a lot of candies in front of him. Lily has ordered the students below fifth year to be quiet but after 10 minutes everyone seemed to have forgotten her orders. 

James didn't wanted to be in middle of others and was keeping his calm and focusing on the notes. Soon one of the earplugs were removed from his left ear as someone sat beside him, he didn't have to look up to recognize who it was.

"Moonlight Sonata, really you always astonish me," she said and James grinned.

"So wanna go on a date with me?" he asked.

"Really, I would love that, "she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Has it become your habit to ask me out every time?" 

James laughed "Yeah, pretty much." Lily leaned into him to see what he was reading.

"Screechsnap, the semi-sentient, they are funny plants," said Lily "Do you mind if I stay?"

"Not at all," said James. After ten minutes of studying Lily put her head on James' shoulder. The other students were so absorbed in themselves to notice them.

Herbology went well for James, though he struggled in handling certain planet, the theory exam paper was lengthy, and James has written certain answers longer and thus ended up writing till the end, he was not satisfied. Peter and Remus were looking confident, Sirius didn't gave the paper another thought. Lily had done the written part well but in practicals she made few mistakes. Mary and Marls did okay.      

James' next exam was Potions, he was quite confident that he will nail it, as he will be focused on his potion rather than playing and planning pranks with marauders or looking at Lily.

"I hate potions" groaned Peter, they were in their dorms.

"You hate studying Wormtail." pointed out Sirius, who was scanning his book and memorizing instructions.