Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 52 - O.W.L.'s

Hermione and I were going over our Herbology notes when Ernie Macmillan sat down beside us. We exchanged a look before glaring at him.

"How many hours of studying d'you think you're doing a day?" He asked us.

"I don't know..." I shrugged.

"A lot, I guess," Hermione sighed in annoyance, "I don't really keep track."

"I'm doing eight," he said, puffing out his chest. "I'm getting an hour in before breakfast every day. Eight's my average. I can do ten on a good weekend day."

"Congrats," I said sarcastically as the bell rang. Hermione and I quickly gathered our things and rushed out of the Great Hall so that he would not follow us.

We met Harry and Ron in the greenhouse, where Draco was inducing more stress onto the students.

"Of course," he said, "it's not what you know, it's who you know. Father's been friendly with the head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority for years — old Griselda Marchbanks — we've had her round for dinner and everything. . ."

"Do you think that's true?" Hermione asked me anxiously.

"Of course not, Mione," I said reassuringly even though I was just as worried as her that it might be true.

It was during the next Transfiguration class that we got our exams schedules, which only seemed to increase the level of stress amongst us.

"Professor," Hermione said, "when will we get our results back?"

"An owl will be sent to you sometime in July," Professor McGonagall said.

This seemed to sit well with most, although Hermione and I immediately began to think about how stressful the holidays would be until we received our results.

***

Harry sighed heavily and threw his head back as he gave another wrong answer to the question I had asked him. We were quizzing each other in the common room before our first exam, Theory of Charms, tomorrow.

"Why did I say I wanted to be an Auror?" He said. "Should've set myself a more achievable goal..."

"No!" I said and gently hit him with the textbook I was holding. "You can do this, I know you can!" I said with an encouraging smile.

Ron was passing behind Harry and gave me a knowing smirk as I spoke, making me blush.

"Let's stop here," I said as I closed my books. "It's getting late and we need a good night's sleep."

It took me a while to fall asleep that night as potential exam questions kept popping up in my head. Fortunately, once I fell asleep I did not wake until the following morning. I had a quick breakfast before we had to wait until they cleared the Great Hall for the exam.

"You may begin," Professor McGonagall said once everyone was sitting quietly.

I took a deep breath before turning over my paper and smiled to myself when I saw the first question and knew the answer immediately. The rest of the exam was, to me, just as easy. I was glad and satisfied with the work I had done when I walked out of the hall.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Hermione asked. We both walked away from Harry and Ron, whom we knew hated talking about the questions after the exam.

After lunch, we had our practical Charms exam, which I also thought went really well.

***

After two weeks I was glad to say I believed to have done well on all of my exams so far, perhaps with the exception of Divinations, which I had no intention of pursuing next year in any case. I was waiting outside the Great Hall with Hermione before our last exam: History of Magic.