Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

42. Perception

Chapter 42 - Perception

"Bloody hell," I cried, collapsing noisily onto my bed and throwing my rucksack to the side. I could not bring myself to care that I had just dislodged my kneazle from her spot near my feet, or that throwing my rucksack had consequently made me hear something snap as it was crushed by a textbook. None of that was as important as my whining - I was certain of it. "Those were excruciating!"

"And those are nothing in comparison to the real OWLs," Lillian groaned, falling backward onto her own bed, letting out a frustrated growl as she tugged at her pale hair. I sympathized.

We had just come back from our third round of December precursors for our upcoming OWL testing. I had not realized that this week would be as difficult as it was, and since this was a mock-testing to show us what was expected for our OWLs coming up in the spring I had - of course - not studied past skimming stolen notes. I had not even cared that each fake midterm exam, which ran two a day for the week, would take up all my time - even though this didn't count towards our final grade.

But I had just failed fake-Transfiguration.

Which meant I was going to decimate my real exam.

"At least we got the tough ones out of the way," Greengrass said enthusiastically. It just caused the other girls and I to pretend to cry from the frustration of it all. Who cared whether or not the rest were easy; those ones had been too difficult to comprehend and I had not even cared about those. The next 'easy' ones were classes I was actually interested in pursuing - which I would not be able to do if I could not get a proper OWL grade. "With Defence and History of Magic, Charms and Astronomy, Herbology and Transfiguration out of the way, it'll be a breeze. All we have to worry about are Potions, Divination, and Care of Magical Creatures for the next two days...and those are easy."

Her reiteration was not comforting.

"I'm sitting beside you for them," Tracey sighed, flopping onto her own bed. I knew without looking her way that she was referring to me. "And I'm going to cheat off your paper - just so you're informed."

"Don't care," I mumbled honestly. And I didn't. It's not like if we were caught, people would think I was cheating off of her in those final subjects. At least those ones I would pass, without a doubt - it was whether I would get a high enough grade to continue taking them that made me want to panic. I had never been so concerned over grades before...so who cared if someone sneakily copied off me? I had graduating to worry about. "It's nice though, isn't it? Knowing that we don't have to do anything tonight. No rigorous study-grouping, no scrambling to learn; just making up dreams and figuring out ways for you all to copy off my paper. I think tonight I may rediscover the meaning of sleep."

Exhaustion waved over me even as I said it. Oh, sleep would be fantastic.

"Don't you have patrol?"

"Malfoy will take over," I said confidently, though I had yet to inform him of my decision. "He was going on about how these didn't bother him at all anyway. And he owes me for taking over during the surprise Quidditch practices Montague's been scheduling."

"Malfoy might take over," Tracey pointed out, her voice low. "You realize he only does you favours because it means spending more time with you? Taking an entire patrol over on his own would not count for points in this whole doing-favours-for-his-crush's-"

"Don't say it," I snapped. Tracey - already having seen the consequences of speaking about that-which-is-not-to-be-said - stopped midsentence. Apparently she did not want to risk me sprinkling anymore itching powder on her sheets again.