The Novelle Diaries & The Wampus Cub

Chapter 22: Cherishing Time

As the excitement and gossip about the Hogsmeade animal fights died down within the students minds, it was replaced by the out rage and disappointment of a very messy and dirty Quidditch final between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, concluding with Slytherin as the victors. A fact that the Slytherins loved to lord over everyone every chance they got but none, it seemed more than Prudence, who revelled in rubbing everyone's faces in it in every conversation.

Since Prudence had changed her tactics in regards to winning Erris' friendship from aggression to over friendly and passive aggressive comments about his choice of company, she had become rather a nuisance in class. She had made it a habit to roughly push Wren out of the way when pairs were required in activities or pinching the chair next to Erris a second before Wren or her friends could sit down. Wren had become rather exhausted constantly trying to intercept Prudence when she made a bee line for Erris and there were many times when she had failed. Erris' mood always became rather withdrawn and moody after a class sat next to Prudence though Rory had found a way of bringing some comic relief into their interactions with her. Every time Prudence opened her mouth to share one of her sickly sweet but arsenic laced comments, he would roll up his sleeve and blow a loud raspberry on his arm, drowning out whatever she was saying. This caused everyone around her to laugh and after a few attempts at speaking she would become so embarrassed and angry that she would storm off, stomping her feet as she went, leaving Rory and his friends in peace. Sadly, as it wasn't in Erris' nature to be able to resort to such childish solutions in class, he simply sat and ignored her as had always been his coping strategy with her.

As the term wore on, lessons and most of the children's free time became focused on the end of year exams. The four friends spent hours in the library making test cards, quizzing each other and researching topics that might come up. As Erris, Rosewaine and Wren had always been top of their classes, they were relatively confident that they would achieve well. Though compared to Erris And Rosewaine who simply seemed gifted in the ability to retain information, Wren had to put in many hours of work to attain the same level as them. Rory on the other hand was drowning in all the academic pressure. Book smarts had never been his strength so preparing for exams was his nightmare. His friends did their best to coach him through, trying different methods for him to learn but there were many study sessions that Rory would leave early because he was becoming so stressed and overwhelmed that he wanted to cry.
Eventually they managed to turn hours of studying into a game, throwing a ball in the Hogwarts grounds whilst firing questions and playing chase, the penalty for being court was being asked a question. These outdoor activities seemed to really help Rory learn and by the time it came to sit the tests he was almost confident though, in the line to enter the class room Erris had to calm him a little with reassuring words.

The morning after the last exam, Rory came skipping down the Ravenclaw table and squeezed in between Rosewaine and Erris, beaming and cheery. It was clear for everyone to see that now the stress was gone, Rory was back to his cheeky, happy self and his friends were very glad about that. It had been hard to see their friend struggle and doubt himself so much especially when they all knew how clever he was. Exams simply weren't designed to measure Rory's type of intelligence, or his skills, which Wren felt was rather unfair. She knew that if they had been given a practical problem to solve, half of the top scoring students would have failed but Rory would have come out a victor.

'Good mornin', my fellow miscreants.' Rory greeted them warmly, then began to load a plate with sausages and toast.

'Glad to see that you've found your sunshine again,' Wren grinned back at him.

'Ay, no' much o' tha' in Scotland so ya got tae mak'it ya self. Speakin o'which, now we are free, what do ya want tae do for th' next few weeks?'He asked everyone excitedly. It was evident that with exam pressure gone, he wanted to make the most of the time he had with his friends before the summer holidays.