𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌 | 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳

42 || Buckbeak's Appeal

Even the weather seemed to be celebrating Gryffindor's win in the Quidditch Final. It was sunny and cloudless every day, and all anyone wanted to do was laze about in the sun drinking iced pumpkin juice, but we couldn't. Why, you ask?

Exams.

And boy were there a lot of them.

Luckily, Hermione and I had left the Divination class so we didn't have to deal with that. But we still had our regular classes plus the extra ones.

Harry and Ron, it seemed, had given up on trying to ask us how we were getting to our classes, but they couldn't restrain themselves when they saw our exam schedules.

"Hermione?" Ron said cautiously, because she was liable to explode when interrupted these days. "Er--are you sure you've copied down these times right?"

"Don't be thick, of course she has," I said flippantly.

"Is there any point asking how you're going to sit for two exams at once?" said Harry.

"No," said Hermione shortly. "Have either of you seen my copy of Numerology and Gramatica?"

"Oh, yeah, I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," said Ron, but very quietly. Hermione started shifting heaps of parchment.

The Care of Magical Creatures exam was fairly easy, as all we had to do was make sure our individual flobberworms stayed alive until the end of the time limit. We used the opportunity to talk to Hagrid.

"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told us, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still...we'll know day after tomorrow--one way or the other..." he broke off, unable to continue.

We had Potions that afternoon, and I did perfectly on my Confusing Concoction, though Snape turned up his nose at the fact that I didn't follow his instructions.

Then Astronomy at midnight, History of Magic, Herbology, and Arithmancy. My second to last exam was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

First, I had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a Grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish my way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a Hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new Boggart.

I was prepared for the Boggart to turn into my father, but what it took the shape of surprised me.

It was, in fact, my father. But he was holding Harry, with a knife up to his throat.

"Ash!" The Boggart-Harry said desperately. "Help!"

I knew I needed to pull out my wand, and that this was all fake, but my heart felt like it had stopped. I couldn't move.

"Ash!"

"Ash!"

A weird choking noise came out of my throat. I shakily drew my wand as Black cackled manically.

"Please, Ash," Harry's voice broke.

"Riddikulus," I whispered, shutting my eyes tightly. When I opened them, I was being helped out of the trunk by Professor Lupin.

"Are you alright, Ashlynn?" he said, kneeling down and examining my face. I swallowed and nodded weakly.

"What happened?" Ron said worriedly. I shook my head. I didn't want to say.

"It's alright, you don't have to tell us," Harry said quietly. I threw myself into his arms and hugged him tightly, as if to make sure he was real.