I'm Still Standing!~ Book 3

Cheating and Exams

Behind the Slytherin goalposts, however, two hundred people were wearing green *Jade included*; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Professor Snape sat in the very front row, wearing green like everyone else, and a bleak smile.

"And here are the Gryffindors!" yelled Lee Jordan, who was acting as a commentator as usual. "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley, and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years..." Lee's comments were drowned by a tide of 'boos' from the Slytherin end. "And here comes the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint. He's made some changes in the lineup and seems to be going for size rather than skill..." More boos from the Slytherin crowd.  

Jade rolled her eyes sarcastically at the comment and yelled; "Go Draco!!" Which had all the Gryffindors near her glaring. "Why are you even here if you're cheering for them?" asked Ron, who was sitting on the other side of Hermione. "I'm still a Slytherin and he's still my cousin... even if I am kind of mad at him..." Jade said fully aware he did have a point, mumbling the last part to herself. But she wouldn't dare boost his ego by telling him that.

"Captains, shake hands!" They heard Madam Hooch say. Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers. "Mount your brooms!" said Madam Hooch. "Three... two... one..." The sound of her whistle was lost in the roar of the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air.  

However, as time passed Slytherin's plan became as apparent as ever and Jade left to do some studying when she realized it. She wanted no part of their cheating, though as odd as it was to her she wasn't mad at any of them for it.

~A week later~

As June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry, and all anybody felt like doing was strolling onto the grounds and flopping down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake. But they couldn't. 

Exams were nearly upon them, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows. Jade had even spotted Fred and George Weasley studying for their O. W. L. s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) a few times in the past week. She heard Percy was getting ready to take his N. E. W. T. s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the highest qualification Hogwarts offered. 

What was so fascinating about that was if you disturbed him and you were in his house, gave very severe punishments. Jade wanted to witness it for herself but wouldn't sabotage her studying to do so. In fact, the only person in the whole school who seemed more focused was Hermione. Harry had told her he and Ron had given up asking her how she was managing to attend several classes at once, but as soon as they saw her exam schedule, she had drawn up for herself they couldn't stop themselves. The first column read:

Monday:

9 o'clock, Arithmancy

9 o'clock, Transfiguration

Lunch

1 o'clock, Charms

1 o'clock, Ancient Runes 

~Harry's memorie~

"Hermione?" Ron said cautiously because she was liable to explode when interrupted these days. "Er... are you sure you've copied down these times right?" "What?" snapped Hermione, picking up the exam schedule and examining it. "Yes, of course, I have." "Is there any point asking how you're going to sit for two exams at once?" asked Harry. "No," said Hermione shortly. "Have either of you seen my copy of Numerology and Gramatica?" 

"Oh, yeah, I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," said Ron, but very quietly. Hermione started shifting heaps of parchment. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had plenty of opportunities to speak to Hagrid. "Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told them, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still... we'll know the day after tomorrow... one way or the other..." 

~Back to reality~

They had Potions that afternoon, which for Jade wasn't any more difficult than it usually was. But when she looked over at Harry she noticed he was a disaster. Try as he might, Harry couldn't get his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape didn't seem to be making it any easier for him, standing over him in an intimidatingly mocking kind of way. Then came Astronomy at midnight, up on the tallest tower, History of Magic on Wednesday morning, in which Jade noticed Harry just scribbled everything Florean Fortescue had ever told him about medieval witch-hunts. 

To which, she shook her head disapprovingly at cause it seemed all wrong to her. Harry was half-assing his essay only writing about what happened to witches and wizards in the late 15th century. Jade however was writing about what happened in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

Wednesday afternoon meant Herbology, in the greenhouses under the hot sun; Most of her friends went back to their common rooms after, complaining about how hot it was in herbology, but she always enjoyed being outside in the sun so it never bothered her not even once.

Her second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken... a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a Grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of the marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a Hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new Boggart. 

"Excellent, Jade," Lupin muttered as she climbed out of the trunk, with a smirk.