Wish Upon A Star

Beetle-catching

The next day Harry told them all about what he had seen in the Pensive in Dumbledore's office.

"Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who's getting stronger again as well?" Ron whispered.

"And he trusts Snape?" Ron said. "He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?"

"Yes," said Harry.

Hermione had not spoken for ten minutes. She was sitting with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees. Harry thought she too looked as though she could have done with a Pensieve.

"Rita Skeeter," she muttered finally.

"How can you be worrying about her now?" said Ron, in utter disbelief.

"I'm not worrying about her," Hermione said to her knees. "I'm just thinking . . . remember what she said to me in the Three Broomsticks? 'I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl.' This is what she meant, isn't it? She reported his trial, she knew he'd passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember . . . 'Ludo Bagman's a bad wizard.' Mr Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home."

"Yeah, but Bagman didn't pass information on purpose, did he?"

Hermione shrugged then looked at her watch. 

"We haven't done any practising!" she said, looking shocked. "We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We'll have to really get down to it today!

"Ashlyn," Hermione called. "You are awfully quiet today. And you look sick. You didn't get sick, did you?" she said worriedly.

"No, I just realised. We have exams coming up in a few days," Ashlyn said

"Yeah," Ron said

"I forgot," Ashlyn cried, looking horrified.

With all the mess going on, Ashlyn had forgotten about exams. She wasn't even hanging around Hermione, so she wasn't reminded of it. She would have remembered it if it was mentioned in the book. Then she remembered that Harry was exempted from taking the test. Lucky git!

"How could you forget something like exams?" Hermione said indignantly.

"I don't know. Oh crap, I'm so screwed." Ashlyn muttered.

None the less she wanted to help out Harry with his defensive spells and kept giving him advice.

"Rather than offensive spells, focusing on the defensive would be much more helpful, seeing as you have very less time. Protego, Expelliarmus, Impedimenta, Stupefy, Relashio, these would help. And Harry, sharpen your Expelliarmus, even if it is the last thing you do," Ashlyn ranted as they walked out of the classroom they had been practising in.

"Why are you so obsessed with Expelliarmus?" Ron snorted.

"Are you kidding me?" Ashlyn cried exasperatedly. "It is one of the best spells there is! It straight out knocks the wand out of your opponent's hands. Seriously! What is the point of knowing all sorts of weird advanced spell, when you can straight out say 'Sike, you thought' and the wand goes, 'yeet!',"

Harry, Ron and Hermione blinked, then burst out laughing.

"I have no idea what you just said," Harry wheezed. "But it was hilarious,"

"Okay, boomer," Ashlyn muttered. "And the bad news is, I can't even introduce you to the wonderful world of memes, because you will be forty-year oldies by then,"

"Ah, yes," Ron said sardonically, laughing. "Perfect sense. How wonderful, that we can all understand it perfectly,"