Avacyn Lily Potter

First-Year Exams!

In the weeks that followed Quirrell seemed to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet. Every time we passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. The trio was acting weird, whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter. Hermione, however, had started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all her notes. Harry said "Hermione, the exams are ages away." she snapped at him "Ten weeks, That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel." Ron said "But we're not six hundred years old, Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all." she said "What am I studying for? Are you crazy? Do you realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me."  Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on us that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. 

While I was studying with Fred, George, and Lee, the trio was helping Hagrid with some illegal dragon hatching, and Hermione, Harry, Neville, and Malfoy got caught out of bed and lost us 150 points. At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the House points the next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could we suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than yesterday? And then the story started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost all those points, him and a couple of other stupid first years. From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the House Cup. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!" Only Ron and I stood by him. Ron said "They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them." 

Harry said, "They've never lost a hundred and fifty points in one go, though, have they?" Ron said "Well — no," Harry even offered to resign from the Quidditch team but Wood wouldn't let him. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to Harry during practice, and if they had to speak about him, they called him "the Seeker." Hermione and Neville were suffering, too. They didn't have as bad a time as Harry, because they weren't as well-known, but nobody would speak to them, either. Hermione had stopped drawing attention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence. I was laying in the grass as Lee quizzed me when George said "So How did they get sent to the forbidden forest?" I said, "They got caught in a tower." Fred said, "What were they doing in the tower?" I said, "They were coming back from giving Hagrid's dragon to Charlie's friends so they could take it to Charlie to raise." Lee chuckled "Of course, Weasleys are involved." and we went back to studying.

That night Ron and I fell asleep in the common room waiting for them to get back. I woke up as they came in and Harry and Hermione told me and Ron "Snape wants the Stone for Voldemort and Voldemort's waiting in the forest and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich." Ron said, "Stop saying the name!" Harry didn't listen and just kept rattling on "Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so. Bane was furious he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen. They must know that Voldemort's coming back, Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me. I suppose that's written in the stars as well." Ron hissed "Will you stop saying the name!" But again Harry dismissed him "So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone, then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off. Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy." Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort. "Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic." we continued to talk until daylight then we went to sleep.

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where we did our written papers. We had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti-cheating spell. We had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called us one by one into his class to see if we could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched us turn a mouse into a snuffbox, points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made us all nervous, breathing down our necks while we tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion. Our very last exam was History of Magic. 

One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and we'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until our exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told us to put down our quills and roll up our parchment, Harry and I couldn't help cheering with the rest. Hermione said, "That was far easier than I thought it would be, I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager." We wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows. I said "I'll see you later." and I ran off to the boys, Fred hugged me "All done?" I said, "Finally, I just hope it was enough to make it to the second year." Lee said, "You studied hard and you knew all the material, I'm sure you did fine." I sighed "I guess." and we just hung around for a while.