Empty Gold • d.meadowes

-40-

The first exam was Transfiguration.

Dorcas was in an unusually good mood that morning, probably owing to the stark neatness of the dormitories for the first time in seven years. Her roommates were still sleeping, and she took the opportunity to take a long hot shower and prepare herself for the day.

Maeve woke up when she was halfway through drying her hair by blowing hot air from her wand. They greeted each other with good mornings before the former groggily made her way to the bathroom. Dorcas then applied a spell on her hair that she had learnt from Madam Pomfrey once when she was at the hospital wing. It tamed her hair considerably, making it easier to tie up so that strands wouldn't fall out and distract her during her exams.

By the time Maeve came out of the bathroom, she was fully dressed. She came over and hugged her tightly. "Good to see you so excited about going out."

"I am actually," she said with a smile. "I was scared last night. But I think I can take it."

"I'm proud of you. Now wake those two up please."

Dorcas groaned. "Silver gets so cranky if we wake her up. Why can't we just let them wake up on their own?"

"It's the first day of exams, Dork. We don't want to rush."

"We still have three hours left," Dorcas reasoned. She wrung her fingers together, remembering how Silver had stolen her favourite jumper once as punishment for waking her up, not returning it until she had apologised ten times.

"Which will give us plenty of time to mentally prepare ourselves for the last exams of our school life."

Accepting defeat, Dorcas flopped down next to Silver and began to prod her with her finger, first on her arm, and when she didn't respond in any way, then on her cheek. "Silver," she said in a singsong voice. "Wake up. We're getting late for NEWTs. Do you want to miss your exam? We've all finished breakfast, and I'm afraid you'll have to miss yours."

This worked wonders. Silver's eyes flew open and she leapt to her feet, her body pillow still clutched in her arms. Standing on her bed, she looked around the room, eyes half open and hair a mess. When she spotted Maeve sitting indifferently in front of the dressing table and Heidi still fast asleep on her bed, she turned to glare at Dorcas. "How could you?" she said through gritted teeth. "I was in the middle of a wonderful dream and you ruined it."

Dorcas took her pillow and put it on her lap so that she wouldn't fall back asleep again. "Oh, what dream?" she said with false interest. "Do tell us."

She received a smack on the face with the body pillow.

When, an hour later, the four girls exited the Gryffindor tower, Dorcas felt a light flutter in her chest. She wasn't scared, no. She had thought she would be. She thought she would be terrified of coming across the people who had given her the wide berth for days after finding out that she didn't fit the conventions of society. She thought she would be extremely conscious of herself, she would want to hide, to disappear into thin air.

But surprisingly, she was feeling oddly calm as she walked across the corridors and down the stairs to reach the Great Hall. Although she did receive a few side glances from the people passing by her, the rest of the castle didn't seem as intent on giving her as much attention as they had given her the last couple of days. With relief, Dorcas sat down at the Gryffindor table by her friends, sitting quietly as Dumbledore gave a small speech.

A large variety of food had appeared on the table as always. But Dorcas only chose to eat a piece of toast with butter. She never ate much in the mornings of exams – she was always filled with nerves that made her stomach twist – and anyway an empty stomach helped her concentrate better. She nibbled absently on the toast as she ran some of the definitions through her mind.