Dwelling on Dreams (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Mudblood

On the morning of their first exam the fifth years were waiting outside the Great Hall alongside the seventh years, the majority of them doing panicked last minute revision of things they were sure they would forget, or else telling their friends, in high and frantic voices, just how badly prepared for this they were. No one had found it very easy to sleep the night before and dinner, at least on the Gryffindor table, had mostly been taken up with people testing each other, revising silently or practicing various charms on the salt and pepper cellars. The only time the fifth years had stirred was when someone had spotted the examiners standing in the entrance hall with Dumbledore, and they had all watched them with interest as they tried to gauge which looked the nicest and consequently who they wanted to examine them in their worst subject.

Finally they heard the calls begin as each class filed into the Hall and took their places. The house tables had been replaced by many, many desks and Cassie sat down slowly. Every desk faced the staff table beside which was a large hour glass; once everyone was seated McGonagall turned it over and said, “You may begin.”

Cassie looked down at her paper and muttered a silent oath. Describe and explain the causes of the creation of the International Statue of Secrecy with named examples.

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That afternoon they had a break to revise before their Astronomy exam later that night so the fifth years returned to the common room.

“I think I got everything but I’m not quite sure,” said Lily as they climbed the stairs.

Cassie laughed, “I think I did decently but I made half of my essay on the Goblin Revolution up. Their names all sound the same anyway so I doubt they’ll notice.”

“I am undoubtedly going to fail Astronomy though,” moaned Mary, “I can barely remember the name of one constellation, let alone all of them!”

“Never mind, you have a while to revise,” Lily consoled her as they climbed through the portrait hole.

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The rest of their exams passed by relatively smoothly and Cassie felt quite confident about her performance in them; she had only made one mistake in her Charms practical as far as she was aware and thought that her Potions exam had gone well, considering how nervous she was beforehand. She had very nearly run out of time while she was making an Invisibility Potion but had reached the final stage in the last couple of minutes.

They had had Defence Against the Dark Arts that day and Cassie came out of the practical paper feeling very confident. She found Lily, Alice and Mary just before they left the Great Hall and headed outside to sit by the lake. As they sat on the bank, Cassie bowed to temptation and stripped off her shoes, dangling her feet in the water as she splashed the others, getting water all over their robes.

“Stop it!” they squealed as they splashed her back before Cassie hiked up her robes and waded through the shallow water.

“Come in!” she called to them as Lily joined her. They laughed as they ran through the water, giggling and playing as the tension they had felt since the beginning of the year began to disappear.

“Guys we should really revise for Transfiguration,” Lily finally said, breathless as she collapsed on the grass. Suddenly they heard shouts from the distance and their heads spun round to the source of the noise.

“Oh no,” muttered Alice as she saw what was happening. Just a couple of hundred metres away was a group of onlookers who were laughing at a boy who was lying on the ground. Lily recognised them and stormed over to where James was pointing his wand at Snape making bubbles stream out of his mouth.