The Girl Who Fought | h.p |

Exams

The week Exams finally decided to stroll along, the happiness faded from the Hogwarts air. 

The third years emerged from Transfiguration at lunchtime on Monday, limp and ashen-faced, comparing results and complaining about the difficulty of the tasks they had been set, which had included turning a teapot into a tortoise. Hermione irritated the rest by fussing about how her tortoise had looked more like a turtle, which was the least of everyone else's worries. 

"Mine still had a spout for a tail, what a nightmare. . . ." 

"Were the tortoises supposed to breathe steam?" 

"It still had a willow-patterned shell, d'you think that'll count against me?"

Nova, however, showed no care. She was excellent with Transfiguration. She passed the examination with flying colors. 

Then, after a hasty lunch, it was straight back upstairs for the Charms exam. Hermione had been right; Professor Flitwick did indeed test them on Cheering Charms. Harry slightly overdid his out of nerves and Ron, who was partnering with him, ended up in fits of hysterical laughter and had to be led away to a quiet room for an hour before he was ready to perform the charm himself. After dinner, the students hurried back to their common rooms, not to relax, but to start studying for Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy. 

Hagrid presided over the Care of Magical Creatures exam the following morning with a very preoccupied air indeed; his heart didn't seem to be in it at all. He had provided a large tub of fresh flobberworms for the class and told them that to pass the test, their flobberworm had to still be alive at the end of one hour. As flobberworms flourished best if left to their own devices, it was the easiest exam any of them had ever taken, and also gave Harry, Nova, Ron, and Hermione plenty of opportunity to speak to Hagrid. 

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

"Hagrid. . ." Nova began in a timid yet curious voice. "Couldn't you just lie and say Buckbeak flew away and rename him. I happen to like the name Witherwings."

"You can't do that!" Hermione screeched. 

"Why not?" Nova objected. 

"It's against the law!"

"Laws shaws," Nova grumbled. 

They had Potions that afternoon. Nova, whose skill had grown due to the need to brew Dreamless Sleep Potions, did fairly well. Even Snape struggled to take off points. 

Harry, however, was less fortunate. 

Then came Astronomy at midnight, upon the tallest tower; History of Magic on Wednesday morning. 

Nova knew she did very poorly on the History of Magic exam, she always fell asleep during that class. Astronomy, however, Nova, who was forced to memorize star maps growing up, did well. 

Her extensive knowledge was perhaps the only good thing that came out of living with the Morgensterns. Excluding Binky, of course. 

Their second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling a pool containing a grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of RedCaps, squish their way across a patch of the marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a new boggart.