The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 1: The Pendant of Life

Chapter 32: The Dragon's Belly

Chapter 32

The grass around Salem Academy was green and lush in the spring. As the school year came to a close, the school bustled with students running to and fro from classroom to classroom, making sure they were on time for their end-of-term quizzes and tests. Those in Master Bullavin's classes were extra careful to arrive on time. He locked the doors at the start of the appointed test times and admitted no one tardy. Master Wolf, however, was a little more lenient on the timing and punctuality of his students but he did not tolerate talking in his tests. He also gave a visual examination of his students' skills in the spells that he had taught for their specific year. Master Blessed's Potions and Master Wind's Transfiguration end-of-term tests were no less challenging than their colleague's tests. But, with a good amount of studying (and some input from Shade) mostly all of the students in the Junior Phoenixes got high marks.

The finals of the Salem Academy Quidditch Cup was a harried and brutal match between Bishop and Putnam. Yet, after a huge lead was lost when Dev caught the Golden Snitch, Putnam took the Cup after a ten year drought of not having won it. It was a good celebration.

Echo, though, alone of the group, celebrated with Dev. The others gave their congratulations, but considering that Sam, Dan, and Spirit were on the team, they didn't celebrate the win from Putnam as much as Echo and Dev did.

Echo took her N.E.W.T.s and passed with excellent grades in the Dark Arts and Defense and in Transfigurations. The testing professors admired how well she did, and even asked to see her Animagus form. She let them know of her intentions to join the Aurors as soon as she was out of school. Though some of them encouraged her to continue her education at the Salem Institution for Witches, which was like a college for profession-bound women, Echo wanted the Aurors and nothing less.

Dareo Hyrcanian didn't take his N.E.W.T.s. In fact, he dropped out of school and started hanging out with the Red Jackets. He replaced Finn Finnegan as Ravenus Rouge's right hand man. He skulked around town and did whatever he pleased. Shade tried a few occasions to talk to him, but Dareo would walk away. He always gave Shade a guilty look, as if he knew that Shade was disappointed in him but he gained a local notoriety for being a merciless delinquent. The local authorities, both Magical and Muggle, kept a sharp eye out for Dareo Hyrcanian.

Rain Fox, Cedrique, and Polly all scored very high on their O.W.L.s. Sky Heart did not do as well as her sister, but still passed with Exceeds Expectations, which made her parents very proud.

As school came to a close, the students all enjoyed the time at the end of the year together. The day of the End-of-Year feast was of note. Putnam was barely behind Bishop as Ward of the Year, and though they lost out, Putnam was extremely proud of itself.

Yet, nearly in the center of the room, filling up nearly half the Bishop first table, sat the group of students that became the Junior Phoenixes. The rest of the students of Salem began to call them that as well. Star loved the name the most, and began to mark her bags and books with a distinct "JP" on them to distinguish herself as part of their number.

Rain Fox, Star, Sam, Echo, Dev, Dan, Nymphara, Ignatia, and Spirit all sat together and would talk about the many things that had happened, and the adventures they were hoping were around the corner.

On the last day of school, Echo walked up and hugged Shade.

"What was that for, Tiger?" Shade asked her.

"Because you helped me out a lot, dude," she answered. "I was thinking about becoming an Auror. What do you think?"

"I think your mother will have a conniption if she finds out," he responded. "Not to mention she'd burn an eternal candle of hatred for me if you did."