All the Young Dudes ( Sirius' Perspective )

Second Year : Exams

May 1973

Unfortunately, it became more difficult for Sirius to ignore the looming future once exam season came around. Every student at Hogwarts was frantically revising, test schedules were posted, and professors kept harping on about year-end grades. To make matters worse, all of Sirius’s friends seemed to have lost their minds—James no longer had time for any pranks, Peter looked like he was about to cry every time he opened a book, and Remus—well, Sirius wasn’t quite sure what was going on with Remus.

The normally quiet boy seemed edgier than usual, and less in control of his magic. Normally, Remus was able to cast spells as easy as breathing (it drove Sirius mad, how quickly he picked up on things). But for whatever reason, as exams drew closer, it was as if every bit of magic he cast went overboard; he’d try to levitate a book and send it soaring up to crash into the ceiling, or mutter a simple Lumos and nearly blind everyone in the vicinity.

Sirius might have found this impressive if it wasn’t so annoying. The constant distractions from his own revision grated on his nerves; James and Remus had both pulled ahead of him in classes, and Sirius wanted to make sure they didn’t beat him in every subject. He gritted his teeth as Remus tried to levitate his gobstone set (for a third time) and sent it crashing through the dorm window.

“Reparo,” Sirius muttered, attention pulled away from his Astronomy revision. The shattered glass knit together seamlessly. He turned back to his notes as Remus sighed.

“You really need to relax, mate,” James suggested (as he had before, about five thousand times), “We don’t have any practical exams until next week anyway.”

“I’m so behind, though!” Remus frowned, collecting up his gobstones and putting them back in their box. Sirius rolled his eyes from behind his papers. ‘Behind’ for Remus meant that he hadn’t gotten around to doing a second reading of the texts, paired with some independent research in the library.

“If you’re behind then what am I?!” Peter said miserably from the floor, making everything about himself, as usual. He was desperately trying to review the texts for no less than five different subjects, taking up all the space with his books. “I know I’m going to fail Transfiguration, my rabbit hasn’t changed at all this year, and I know she’s going to make us do something really hard.”

“At least you’re good at Potions.” Remus shot back. “And Herbology, I can’t ever remember which leaves mean what…”

“You beat me on our last Herbology quiz,” James reminded him, “And you’ve got us all by the bollocks when it comes to History of Magic, I’ve been copying your homework all year.”

“But you’re best at Transfigur—” Remus started to reply, and Sirius felt a rush of anger. Why couldn’t they just shut up about who was best at what! He threw his Astronomy book to the floor, where it landed with a loud, satisfying, thump. Peter flinched.

“Will you all shut up?! I’m trying to revise!” He shouted, standing up. “Like a bunch of old women nattering. I’m going to the library.” He yanked his satchel over his shoulder and stormed out of the room before any of them could respond.

He knew, even as the door slammed shut behind him, that he wasn’t being fair to his friends. But he couldn’t bring himself to care as he stomped to the library, letting the dark mood settle over his shoulders like a familiar cloak. By the time he’d thrown his things down on a table and opened his astronomy text, he was so frustrated that he could barely concentrate.