Loyalties | Barty Crouch Jr

The O.W.L's

June 5, 1978 - Monday

For most fifth years, the dreaded two weeks of O.W.L's had finally arrived. Though for some students, such as Leonora and Barty, they didn't dread them at all, rather, they were quite excited for the exam weeks to arrive. They were both confident in their abilities to get O's on each subject.

The pair had stayed up well into the night reviewing Charms work from well back to their first year, as it happened to be their first exam. After breakfast, they'd take the written portion of the exam, and after lunch, the practical.

Monday morning, Leonora woke up quite late for herself, a throbbing pain pounding in her head. Because she had stayed up so late studying with Barty, the girl had only managed to get three hours of sleep, an amount that was less than satisfactory for the first day of exams.

Sitting up in bed, a groan escaping her lips as the throbbing pain in her head turned sharp for a moment, Leonora rubbed her heavy eyelids. She glanced around the dark room for Thalia and Illyria, though both beds were already made, both girls missing.

Looking up to the clock, Leonora realized that she had slept way later than she had thought. Her stomach dropped instantly as she saw that there were only fifteen minutes left until breakfast was finished. She couldn't be late to the first day of exams.

Springing out of bed, Leonora quickly dressed in her uniform, throwing her robes on over, before rushing out of her dorm. She didn't even bother to brush her hair, or her teeth.

The girl quickly ran through the corridors, students stopping to glare as she rushed past them. 

As soon as she reached the main floor, Leonora spotted all of the fifth years congregating outside of the great hall. Taking a deep breath, she pushed some stray hairs away from her face and sauntered over to join them. It took her a minute to push through everyone, but she finally found Illyria and Thalia among the crowd.

As she approached them, both girls widened their eyes at the state of their friend.

"Merlin, Nora, are you alright?" asked Illyria, concern swirling in her eyes. "You look sickly."

"Gee thanks, Illyria," Leonora spoke sarcastically. "I just didn't get much sleep. I was up late studying with Barty."

Illyria frowned. "Barty didn't look like he was on the verge of death this morning. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Well then I guess Barty is just lucky. Yes, I'm alright."

Illyria eyed her friend as if she believed she was lying but dropped it. "You know," she started, "I should've been up studying with you. I'm not very confident I'll do very good."

"Well, I wouldn't be very surprised if you did bad," Thalia spoke up, glaring at the girl before lowering her voice, "you had a mudblood tutoring you. Even if he was a Ravenclaw, what do mudbloods know about magic?"

Illyria's eyes swirled with fury at the comment, and Leonora could tell that the girl wanted to burst out screaming at Thalia. That, however, would out her to the girl, and Illyria couldn't have that. She stayed silent.

The doors to the great hall slowly opened before any of the girls had a chance to say anything else. Students began pushing their way into the room, ultimately separating the trio.

Upon entering into the great hall, Leonora immediately noticed that the four, long tables were replaced by single desks, one for each student. All fifth years had been reminded the day before that they were to sit alphabetically, leaving Leonora to sit towards the back of the room.