Damaged (A Marauders Era story)

First Year, Part 24 (The Final Exams)

The last week of May was spent studying frantically for Final exams.

I had daily studying sessions with Aileen and then Frank. Frank had been worried he wouldn't pass Charms, so I had helped him practice daily, teaching him any of the charms he hadn't quite grasped yet. In exchange, he helped me with Defence Against the Dark arts. He was rather good at it, both the teaching part and the actual subject.

Aileen and I quizzed each other daily on every subject, practicing the wand movements and incarnations to difficult spells we had been taught until we had mastered them.

When the first week of June had arrived, I had developed a case of pre-exam jitters. Aileen had been a bit nervous, but fairly confident she would pass each exam with acceptable grades, besides History of Magic she had told me. Frank had worried he wouldn't be able to pass Charms, Potions, or History of Magic. I had been worried I'd fail them all, not because I didn't know what the professors had taught us all year, but because my anxiety and nervousness would make me forget the answers to any questions they asked while we were being tested.

It turned out that I had been worrying for nothing.

I had thought the final exams would be filled with hundreds of questions on every single thing we had learned that year in each class as if we were expected to remember everything. But, it turned out they were a lot easier than I expected.

Each day we completed one examination for one or two subjects. The exams didn't last any longer than an hour.

In Charms, Professor Flitwick had us each enter his classroom, one by one, and make a piece of chocolate cake that sat on a plate get up and float over to him. I performed the charm with ease and had waited for the next task, but there was none. That had been it.

Professor McGonagall had us each turn a furry rat into a small bowl in transfiguration. Frank seemed to have a bit of trouble at first, but then he managed it, even if the bowl was somewhat furry looking in the end.

Professor Slughorn had us brew the cure for boils in Potions. Snape had been the first one to complete his potion, followed by Lily Evans. I had been close behind. Remus Lupin, who looked as if he had lost a great deal of sleep the following week, probably due to the fact that he had been one of the students who had studied from early morning until late at night all week prior to the Final Exams, had done something wrong to his potion, causing it to overflow out of the cauldron. It had been pink, the color it was supposed to be, so perhaps he had just made too much. Either way, Professor Slughorn only tsked at him and wrote something on a clipboard.

In astronomy, we had found and listed the names of 5 stars and 3 planets. Aileen had been the first student to complete this. It took me a while, but I was able to complete the task.

We all had to perform a knockback jinx in Defence against the Dark arts. I didn't know how good mine had been through, as it hadn't knocked my target back very far. Frank's and Aileen's jinxes had definitely been strong, sending each of their targets quite far away from them.

In Herbology, we had to write a whole page on the magical properties and uses of wormwood, each of us having to use the new quills we had received for the exams, which were bewitched with Anti-Cheating spells. I had gotten carried away and written over a whole page. I could have written more, but the exam had been timed and we had all had to set our quills down when the time was up.

In Flying, we each had to fly around the Quidditch pitch once, come back down and hover five feet over the ground before finally landing smoothly on the ground. Madam Hooch watched on, taking notes on a clipboard as one by one the students flew around the pitch. Quite a few of the students had had a bit of trouble with this, especially me, but it looked as if most of them had managed in the end. James Potter had not only flown around the Quidditch pitch, but he had also shown off by performing a few intricate flying moves we hadn't even been taught.