A Dance Through Thyme (Harry Potter)

Prioritäten

Chapter 23: Priorities

“You may begin writing.”

There was several minutes of pages being turned, quills being dipped into ink pots and scraping chairs before there was relative silence. Quills began to slowly scratch across the page, pausing frequently. Several coughs were expelled and there was the odd clicking sound as somebody would successfully bite through their nail in nervousness.

Remus took a deep breath and turned to the first page of the exam paper. He read the question three times in quick succession, making sure that he ascertained the correct meaning from the words before exhaling and putting his own quill in his hand to write his response.

Once he had written the first few sentences, he found that it became easier to create an answer in his mind and progress to putting it on the parchment. He glanced up at the clock, glad to find that he was staying on track. There would be plenty of time to check over his answers at the end.

Sneaking a glance to his left, Remus could see James hastily scribbling away at his own paper. Suppressing a smirk, he could not help but think of how James had played down the importance of having NEWTs, despite the fact that he was now as heavily engrossed in the exam as every other student in the room. Remus knew that Sirius would be on James’ other side, however, he did not want to tempt fate and chance a look that far down the row of desks. He was sure that Sirius would be giving his own quill a good work-out.

James and Sirius were naturally intelligent wizards; there was no secret about that. If they only used their intelligence for good, then perhaps they would have spent far less time in detention. They did occasionally spent a bit of time helping Peter chug along with his own work, but that quarter of the Marauder’s was making himself more and more unavailable to them. Remus could not figure out how he was spending all this time away from them, but if it meant that they did not have to listen to his whining then he considered that a bonus.

The remainder of the exam passed reasonably uneventfully, however, Remus was sure that this was mostly due to the vat of calming draught sitting out the front of all the desks in the Great Hall. The rows of goblets were being depleted with alarming speed throughout the course of the exam as some students would occasionally burst into a flood of tears. Remus was on the verge of asking for a sip of the potion as he approached the final, more difficult questions of the exam, however, he kept his mouth pressed into a thin line as he continued to write. He did not want to seem weak in front of the others, and succumbing to his emotions to the point of needed magical restraint seemed like a very weak thing to succumb to. After all, it was only an exam. This was the mantra he replayed in his head over the entire two hours he was perched at his desk.

Finally, Professor Tofty spoke again.

“Quills down, please! No talking, or you’ll have your paper ripped up.”

He raised his wand in the air, and each sheet of parchment wound tightly around itself into a scroll. Each scroll zoomed its way to the front of the Great Hall, creating a neat pyramid just in front of the now almost empty cauldron of calming draught.

Remus closed his eyes and let out one slow, drawn out breath.

He turned to look at his friends, returning their thumbs up with a pair of his own.

HPHPHPHP

“Thank goodness that’s over!” said Sirius as the trio re-entered the Great Hall. They had spent the first hour post-exam sitting by the lake, enjoying the sun whilst they could before trooping back in for lunch.

“I have to admit,” replied James, “I did work up an appetite after sitting around for a couple of hours staring at some parchment. Oooh, and it looks like I’ll be having some of my favourite pork chops today.”