A Bloody Miracle: Book One *Harry Potter FanFic*

Chapter Fifteen: It All Ended Here

They returned to their common rooms a bit shaken up. Siren decided to call it a night and she trudged her way to the Ravenclaw dormitories, not too pleased about having to answer a riddle so late in the night. When Elisabeth, Harry, and Hermione walked through the portrait and were immediately greeted with a snoring Ron. Elisabeth marched up to him and shoved him off the sofa.

“Up! We have news!” Elisabeth said as a spluttering Ron stumbled to his feet.

Harry began to tell Ron what happened in the night. Every time he began to say Voldemort, Ron would hiss, “Stop saying the name!”  

Of course Harry would just continue to say the name and the conversation did not end until Hermione said her words of wisdom, “Harry, everyone says Dumbledore’s the only one who You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won’t touch you.”

Silence fell around them, and they didn’t know if that was because of Hermione’s genius or the realization that they had talked all the way until dawn.

Final exams finally came and all five of them were nervous wrecks. The over preparation from Siren and Hermione killed them mentally to the point Siren refused to invest her time and strength into changing her hairdo (she settled on her regular brunette hair).

The tests were split up by year and subject. First up for the first years were the written exams. All four hundred first years were placed in a sweltering hot room for about three hours and were given special Anti-Cheating quills to take the test with. Siren and Elisabeth had thirty different things on their minds and couldn’t fully concentrate. They weren’t only thinking of their exams but also of the big week ahead of them. They were both about to face Voldemort in the flesh for the first time.

Voldemort was no longer a fictional character that only plagued their nightmares for a couple days then everything carried out normally. He was about to become a harsh reality that they would live in fear of for the next six years. This is the first time that their time at Hogwarts was starting to mean something.

The bell tolled signaling the end of the written exams. Up next were practical exams. Jittery first years made their way to Professor Flitwick’s Charms exam the next day. One by one they were called in to prove they could make pineapple tap dance across the desk. Elisabeth’s pineapple did a sort of jig by accident which earned her extra points. Siren’s pineapple’s tap shoe went flying off the little thing’s foot and shattered a vase full of flowers.

Following the Charms practical exam was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall watched them as they turned a mouse into a snuffbox. Both girls did very well with their snuffboxes but Elisabeth did leave the mouse paws on the snuffbox and it scampered frantically around the table in a panic. Their final major exam was Potions the following day and that was no joy ride. Snape breathed down all their next as they tried to brew a Forgetfulness Potion from memory. Siren was tempted to slip some of her potion into Snape’s drink on the way out of the dungeons.

About a week after exams, Siren and Elisabeth were idling about the castle waiting for the moment when they were summoned through the trapdoor to face Quirrel and his mutant head. On one particular stroll down the hall, Siren and Elisabeth were bombarded by the frantic Golden Trio.

“Come on you two! We need to talk to Professor Dumbledore!” Harry demanded. Hermione and Ron looked flushed, but determined, behind Harry. Without questioning, the girls hurried after Harry.

Harry flung himself into Professor McGonagall’s office shouting, “WE NEED TO SEE PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!”

“Professor Dumbledore is away on business. The Ministry of Magic sent him an urgent owl and he flew off to London ten minutes ago,” McGonagall said coldly without so much as a glance in their direction. She seemed too engrossed in her paperwork to pay attention to the students.