Working Through the Rest

Sparks

About a week into term, the teachers set up a revision rooms for the fifth and seventh years to use. By the end of the first day, Scorpius, James, Rose and I have squared a corner that at least one of us is always occupying. During mealtimes, Lily has taken to bringing us food, as we barely come to the Great Hall for something to eat.

Scorpius is always working. I'm always with Scorpius. And anybody else working with us generally prefers the quiet. It's quieter when other people are eating. Which has the added advantage of reducing how much I think I'm being judged.

The weeks start to blend into one great mess of classes and revision and, generally, constant work. We all get continually more stressed and, two days before the exams start, Lily comes, effectively storming, into the revision room. She looks as if she could breathe fire, though I don't feel it's directed at us.
"Come on," she says expectantly.
"What's going on?" I ask, slightly concerned. "Is everything okay?"
"You guys are all working way too hard," she says grumpily. "So yes, there's something wrong."
"The exams start in two days."
"If you don't know it now, you've got no hope."

She's got a point.

"Come on. One family picnic."
"It's past curfew."
"Fine," Lily smiles. "One late evening robbing the kitchens."

I laugh, rolling my eyes, and then I nod, starting to pack everything away. She's right, of course. We do need a break. It's just that no one has been willing to suggest in fear of annoying someone. All of our tempers are very short.

I look at the others, who appear to have also heard Lily's suggestion and are starting to pack their things away too. We are going to get caught. That is almost inevitable. There are too many of us to be subtle.

And yet, through some sort of miraculous fortune, we are. Somehow, we end up back in the Hufflepuff Common Room, courtesy of Hugo, with several mountains of food, courtesy of the House Elves. No one else seems to mind us decamping in a corner and starting to let off a bit of steam.

Occasionally, we are joined by other Hufflepuffs, and no one minds. We've got enough food, and everybody is stressed, so it all helps. Scorpius asks someone to bounce questions off him and, pretty quickly, we're all chiming in with answers.

It isn't what anyone was expecting to happen in a 'revision' session, but it's fun, and I start to pick up on the things I kept forgetting. I think other people do too, because we don't stop until Hugo points out that it's gone past one in the morning and we do need to sleep.

Scorpius and I bid everyone an exhausted farewell, and attempt to make our way back to the Common Room. Due to the dark, we aren't particularly fast, and as we near the Common Room, we round a corner to find Professor Longbottom on an evening patrol.

I freeze, Scorpius coming to an unsteady, sleepy stop beside me. Professor Longbottom looks us up and down, eyebrows raised, and I bite my lip.
"Sir..."
"Albus. It's quite far past curfew."
"We were revising," I explain. "We ended up having a sort of mass revision – thing."
"Right," Professor Longbottom smiles. "Well, get back quickly and I'll let you off this time."
"Thank you, sir."

I seize Scorpius' hand, pulling him into a half-run until we reach the Common Room. It probably looks beyond suspicious, especially when it's accompanied by Scorpius' high-pitched giggling, but I don't care.

We probably won't get in trouble.