PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

twenty-two

"Oh come on, Clary," she muttered to herself, drowned out by the sounds of quills scratching on parchment reverberating throughout the room as she stared down at her History of Magic exam, "think."

Which of the following events occurred in 1289?

"Okay..." Clary mumbled, reading over the options once more, "we learned this in second year. You studied it last weekend in the library. It wasn't the Giant Wars, you answered with that one earlier. Nonverbal spells were way before this, making it..." she circled the fourth answer, The International Warlock Convention. "...there we go."

Picking up her messenger bag and slinging it over her shoulder, she gathered the pieces of parchment that made up the exam, hurrying to the front of the Great Hall where Professor Binns was slumped in a chair at the faculty table asleep, the setting sun glowing through his ghostly form from the window above. Professor Flitwick sat next to him, giving the girl a bright smile as he reached to take the exam from her.

"All finished, Miss Weasley?" he asked, and she nodded with a relieved grin.

"Yes," she confirmed, "all finished."

"Congratulations," he said, laying her exam at the top of the pile of those who had already finished, "you've completed your O.W.L.s and your fifth year. We'll see you in the fall."

"Have a great summer, Professor." she said with a smile, turning and walking back through the Great Hall, catching the eyes of her brothers as she passed, Vasantha, Newt and Cedric already having taken their leave, and waiting for the rest of them to meet up in the stairwell near Gryffindor Tower.

Clary nearly tripped in her excitement to climb to the seventh floor of the castle, and by the time she rounded the corner and caught sight of her friends she needed to stop herself, holding onto the railing for support and panting heavily. Oliver chuckled at the sight of the girl, stepping forward to help her close the remaining distance.

"Come on, Weasley," he chided playfully, "I know from running drills in practice that you can do better than that."

"S-sorry," she panted, taking a seat next to Cedric and resting her head in her hands.

"Can you believe we did that?" Vasantha cheered as Oliver resumed his seat next to her and threw his arm around the girl's shoulders. "We finished our O.W.L.s! We're officially sixth years!"

"And Oliver's officially old!" Newt chimed in, and the older boy nodded before shaking his head slowly.

"You adorable little children," he cooed, reaching forward to tousle Newt's hair, and the Scamander boy instantly reached up to fix it.

"Hey, what's all the commotion around here?" a voice barked from the stairs, and the group turned to see Fred, George and Lee reach the group, beaming smiles on all of their faces before they began to cheer. "No more exams!"

"Until the N.E.W.T.s," Cedric reminded them.

"You just had to ruin it, didn't you Diggory?" George chided, shaking his head.

"Those will be easy," Fred assured him, "for us, anyways. When we want to run our own shop, how is doing well on those exams going to help us? All we need to do is show up."

"They've got a point," Newt whispered to his best friend.

"I don't even want to think about the N.E.W.T.s right now." Clary sighed, resting her head against the wall and looking outside as the last rays of sunlight dipped behind the Black Lake in the distance. "For now, I just want to relax and escape the stress of this year."

"There you three are!" an exasperated voice exclaimed, and the group looked up to see Professor McGonagall reach their alcove of the stairwell, her eyes landing on the Weasley triplets. "I've been looking all over for you."