Brontide

Chapter Eleven

:):):)

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The grandiose departure of Fred and George was retold so much that rumors had begun to circulate. A few days after they left, I'd overheard a conversation between Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who were debating whether or not Fred and George had unleashed a second Portable Swamp in Umbridge's office, complete with a ferocious colony of Grindylows. I wasn't sure where they got that idea, but instead of correcting them I decided to sit back and let the impending chaos ensue in front of me. 

Those boys sure as hell made sure that no one would forget them anytime soon, and much of that was depicted by the fact that the Portable Swamp was still bubbling away in Gregory the Smarmy's corridor. Umbridge had no idea how to get rid of it, and while I was sure someone like Flitwick or McGonagall was more than capable of disposing of it, they, like the rest of the school, wanted to watch Umbridge struggle.

In all honesty, it was absolutely odd not having Fred and George around to terrorize the school anymore. It was as though a huge hole had opened up in the middle of the school and the Great Hall had been swallowed by it or something. Something just felt off, like a piece of Hogwarts' very foundation had gone missing. However, people were quick on the uptake and continued their fine work, setting off dung bombs in corridors almost regularly and eating products from the twins' Skiving Snackboxes to get out of class with Umbridge. Peeves was the quickest to get on the bring-down-Umbridge train, knocking over tables and throwing paintings, juggling burning torches over classrooms and shutting Mrs. Norris, Mr. Filch's cat, inside suits of armor. It'd become pretty chaotic, to say the least.

"I still can't believe they didn't tell us they'd found a place for their joke shop," Rae said to me during the last weekend of May as we headed down to the Quidditch pitch. It was the last game of the season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, and they were one win away from taking the Quidditch cup.

"They probably wanted to make it a surprise," I smiled to myself, trying to maneuver through the crowd. We found seats near the back of the bleachers, which were filling up quickly.

"I suppose," Rae replied, pulling out her binoculars. "It was really nice of Harry to give them his Triwizard winnings, I'm not sure they'd be able to have a place already otherwise."

When the Gryffindor Quidditch team came out onto the pitch, we spotted Ron almost right away, screaming and yelling our support for him. We knew he was a horrible Keeper, but we tried to give him a bit of confidence over the Slytherin's horrible rendition of "Weasley is our King". And as we watched him play, he blocked one goal, and then another, and then another, to where Ron only let the quaffle in one time. We turned the song around to make it a boost of confidence, and in the end, Ginny, replacing Harry as Seeker, took the snitch right out from under Cho Chang's nose and Gryffindor had demolished Ravenclaw to win the Quidditch Cup.

June crept up on everyone and it was finally time for exams. Any moment not spent in class I spent with my nose in a textbook, skipping meals here and there. I'd never studied so hard for anything in my entire life, and I was almost sure information was pouring from my ears. Rae was concerned for my well-being but her words fell on deaf ears, as I was too focused on practicing wand movements.

Through the course of the next few weeks, I completed the N.E.W.T.s for Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. With Transfiguration I felt I'd surprised myself, having a much easier time than I thought I would. With the sloth they'd given us, I transformed it into a large, beautiful bird of paradise with violet and red plumes. Herbology and Charms I felt I'd done fairly well in. While I'd forgotten the wand movements for the Colour Change Charm, I was able to make a textbook flap around the test examiner's head while it sang opera. The Potions exam had been nothing short of a nightmare that I never wanted to relive again.