A Forbidden Love

Chapter 11: All Goes Well

I wake up to see my friends sitting on the beds around the room. Until I remember they're Slytherins, their words shock me.

"How was detention," Blaise teases.

"You knew about that?" I'm shocked.

"Dude, we're Slytherins," says Theo. I asked him about it the other day. He says he prefers Theo anyway. "You left the note on the bedside table before you left. I couldn't help but snoop. It was sitting in my face."

"Ugh," I say trying to supress a laugh. Sometimes I love the way my friends roll.

"It was nice. Relaxing even," I say sarcastically. Now we're all laughing. "Okay but get this." The laughing stops. "Potter had detention too."

"No way!" says Theo.

"No wonder it was bearable," Goyle teases.

"Shut up," I say, probably blushing. Theo looks lost. "He's my crush." I answer his facial expressions.

"No! Him? Err... Sorry. I mean really? You seen to hate him."

"It's okay. You can laugh. I do too. But yeah. Him."

"Were you smooching," Crabbe swoons.

"Shut up!" I say, but I'm laughing. "No we weren't. But," I pause for dramatic effect, "I saved his life."

"Hey! Making your move I see," Blaise says, adding a nudge for good measure.

"I only hope it works." My face falls as I say it.

"Hey you'll get it. Who wouldn't love a kind, and only sometimes jerky, person like you," Theo says supportingly.

"Thanks man. I hope you're right."

Goyke checks the time. "Guys we should go for breakfast. We're going to be late."

That marks the end of our conversation. We disperse to get ready and meet in front of the Great Hall. We walk straight to our section of our table, barely sitting down before the food appears. Goyle. Always on it with the food. I laugh at the thought.

This morning is the last bit of fun I have the rest of the week. After breakfast, the week before exams starts. It's devoted solely to studying. It basically means no fun allowed, which sucks.

Finally after a dreadful week of studying and reviewing, Exam day arrives. It's Friday, the last day of the school year, and we all wake ready for exams.

Breakfast is spent quizzing each other, reviewing concepts and recipes, and practicing spells. Anything we can pack into that hour, we do.

At nine, the exams begin. We all sit in the Great Hall as we wait for our professors to call us to their classrooms. Each person in called in individually in alphabetical order. While one professor is busy administering their test to one year, the others are administering theirs to other years.

The first exam for the first years is Charms. Being an M, I go in somewhere in the middle. It's stressful to sit there and wait.

When I finally go in, I am first sworn to secrecy. Nobody can have more a chance to pass than anyone else. I swear on my life.

Next, the exam is explained to me. I must make a pineapple tapdance across Flitwick's desk.

"Tarantallegra!" I say. Using this incantation, the one he taught me, and the hand movement he taught, I flawlessly complete the exam.

I exit feeling pretty good. When I return, Blaise, Theo, and Pansy all ask me what the test was. None of them have been in yet. As I promised, I say nothing. It annoys them, but they know I have no choice.

The next exam is Transfiguration. Like the last exam, we are called in one by one. I am sworn to secrecy again. This time I have to turn a mouse into a snuff box. I follow what I learned in her class and produce a beautiful snuff box. I assume that'll get me at least one bonus point. Then I realize the box has whiskers. There goes at least a point. Hopefully the bonus will even it out.

I return to my seat awaiting two more exams. Potions and History of Magic are all I have left. Crabbe, Goyle, and I, since we've completed the Transfiguration exam already, study for these two.

Being in Slytherin, we got inside information about the Potions exam. It makes me feel a little guilty, but hey, it's what we do. The potion is the Forgetfulness Potion. I study it word for word, ingredient by ingredient, needing to get it right. I've never been great at memorization, so I study as much as I can.

When I finally get called in, I know it by heart. The exam begins similar to the rest. Then Snape releases us to complete the potion. To my relief, I only miss one rotation in the final stir, only causing it to be weaker. It goes better than I could've hoped.

Finally, the History of Magic exam arrives. This one we take as an entity. We are all sitting in the great hall as it is the biggest room.

Since there's no wait, we are not sworn to secrecy this time. They know we'll forget by next year, so they're not worried. Binns, the professor, explains that this test will be one hour in length with a series of questions. He passes out the test, and we take put our quills. Each of us got a special one for exam taking. It prevents us from writing anywhere but the test. That way we can't save answers for future students.

The questions are fairly simple. Each is open-ended, but the answers are easy. The hardest questions were the ones about inventors. I only struggled on the inventor of the Self-Stirring Cauldron.

After an hour, Binns releases us. I'm in a wonderful mood. I've never felt so good about my classes as I do leaving the Great Hall. It's not only that, though. We're free! Tomorrow is the closing ceremony, and the next morning we leave for home. I'm going to miss this place, but I'm done with learning. It's time to go home.

Back in the common room, we party to a great exam day. This time, nobody comes in to tell us to sleep. We're officially done worrying. The party is just what I need to relax after a stressful term.

When the party dissipates, sometime around midnight, my gang and I head to the dormitory. We're exhausted. I wanted to start packing tonight, but I don't have the energy. As soon as I lie down, I fall asleep, feeling more relaxed than I have since I came out.