Chương 88: Exams II
The History of Magic exam was the most boring of all. They were cooped up in a hot classroom for an hour and a half writing endlessly about wacky old wizards and events from hundreds of years ago.
When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchments, James couldn't help but rejoice with the rest.
"My wrist hurts from writing so much," said Sirius, complaining as usual.
"My head hurts," said Peter, rubbing his forehead. He wasn't very good at memorizing. He had to pound himself these days to get all the information stuck in his head.
"It's hot. Let's go to the lake," suggested James, and the group walked out of the castle and plopped down under a tree.
"We already have the whole day off. Tomorrow is Charms and Potions. It's going to be hard," commented Lupin, who was looking at the celestial sky relaxed.
"Speak for yourself. I have a flying test in the afternoon," said Sirius with a grimace. He was regretting saying yes to James. The problem was that it was too hot.
"Don't tell me you're backing out, Black?" asked James with a smirk.
"Of course, I'm not! I'm a man of my word," said Sirius.
In the afternoon, James and Sirius started heading towards the quidditch training ground. There the Flying exam would be held. When they arrived they noticed that there were students from all the houses.
As the subject of Flying would no longer be compulsory from the second year onwards, very few students were attending the exam. James could see Rabastan, Mulciber, and Avery in the corner.
He also recognized Penny in the Ravenclaw uniform and Amos Diggory from Hufflepuff a boy he met at the Quidditch World Cup final. His parents were friends with theirs.
"Hey, how's it going? Want to have a flying duel?" asked Sirius in a teasing tone towards Rabastan and the other two. Sirius put a lot of emphasis on the word duel.
Rabastan scowled at Sirius. Then his gaze settled on James, who watched with a mocking look. The Slytherin boy snorted coldly and walked away.
"Don't push your luck, Black," said Mulciber in a threatening tone, following Rabastan.
"Oops, how scary. Look at me tremble," Sirius scoffed as he acted scared.
"Be careful, Black. Your father is on the Hogwarts council. He might expel you," warned James in a loud and overacted tone.
"No! What am I going to do now? Should I apologize!?" said Sirius with a frightened expression. After a few seconds both he and James burst out laughing.
Everyone who was there for the test watched Sirius and James in disbelief at what they were doing. They were the only first years who were encouraged to make fun of Slytherin boys who belonged to powerful pureblood families all the time, even though the two of them were purebloods too.
"Silence everyone," said Instructor Hooch, arriving on the field promptly.
"The test will be easy. As long as you've put in the effort in the previous lessons. First, call the broom, mount, and take off quickly and nimbly. Then you will do ten laps of the field, and you must land correctly. Come on, each to your broom!" explained Hooch quickly.
"Just ten laps, easy," said Sirius, and James nodded in agreement.
They all walked over to the brooms that were on the grass and waited for the instructor's signal, "Remember, don't compete with each other. Focus on doing the laps as fast as possible and without crashing. Now!" exclaimed Hooch.
At Hooch's shout, everyone shot off after mounting their brooms. As expected James was the first to finish the ten laps, having a speed and handling superior to most. Behind him, he was followed by Rabastan, Sirius, and Amos.
This was normal, since James, unlike the others, trained three days a week during the whole year with the Gryffindor team, so he had improved a lot. After the flying test, James and Sirius returned to the Gryffindor common room.
Except for James, the other marauders went over Charms and Potions.
As for James, he was studying Astronomy. He was confident in Charms and Potions so he preferred to emphasize a subject in which he was not as advanced.
At night, while everyone was sleeping soundly, James again went alone to the Restricted Section of the library, but this time he carried a large amount of parchment. He had an objective: to copy the entire book on Occlumency.
This way you can take the book home with you. As to whether or not it's legal, he doesn't know. Anyway, he broke a lot of Hogwarts rules this year one more wouldn't hurt anyone.
He decided to take a copy of the book with him, as he would be returning to Hogwarts in two months and wanted to continue reading and studying the book to further advance in Occlumency. So he spent two hours in the library in near darkness copying the book by lantern light.
Then he went back to his dormitory and went to sleep. The next day the first exam they had was Charms with Professor Flitwick.
It was easier than first expected James. The theoretical part was simple, questions about the different charms they saw during the year. The practical part was very easy. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into the classroom, to see if they could make a pineapple tap dance on top of the desk.
The only thing they had to know was how to control the levitation charm, something James had been able to do since he was 8 years old. It was a very poor test for his taste, although he understood this was because he was self-taught and got a wand before he was eleven.
The other marauders also passed the practical part easily. How they had practiced more complicated charms with James in the secret room, it wasn't a challenge for them. They even thought it was too easy.
"What one pineapple tap dancing on top of the desk? I could make ten pineapples do it!" said Sirius with disappointment.
"Yeah, I shouldn't have worried so much about the exam..." commented Toby with a strange expression. It was the first time this had ever happened to him on an exam.
"It's normal. We practiced with him crazy from training for hours more complicated charms," said Lupin, and by crazy he meant James.
"Hey!" said James, indignant at being called crazy.
"It's true. From what I heard a lot of people had a hard time getting it. Only we found it easy," Toby said with disbelief in his tone. He never thought he would say such a thing.
"Well, they have a point..." nodded Sirius. James rolled his eyes as everyone seemed to agree that he was a training maniac.
A few hours later, they headed to the dungeons to begin the potions exam with Professor Slughorn. Worst of all for many of the Gryffindors was that they had to take the exam alongside Slytherin students.
In addition to a tedious theory exam where they were asked about very particular potion ingredients among other things. They had a practical exam with a more advanced difficulty than the Charm exam.
They had to prepare the potion: Antidote against Common Poisons. As the name implies it counteracts common poisons, such as creature bites and stings. It had a beginner to moderate difficulty level.
"It's always useful to have on hand. Especially if you know you'll be mixing some poisonous ingredients," Slughorn said as he explained the guidelines for the exam.
The exam lasted two hours. Mostly because of the potion which had a long preparation time. James, despite having practiced and studied potions with his father before coming to Hogwarts had not brewed this potion, so it was a good experience for him with an acceptable level of difficulty.
The week of exams ended with Astronomy and Defense Against the Dark Arts assessments. In Astronomy they had to use a map of Jupiter and name several stars. For some reason, Sirius was very good at this subject. James thought it must be because his name was the same as a star.
As for the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam, it was half practical and half theory. The theory included questions about many dark creatures, such as imps, ghosts, witches, vampires, zombies, etc. The practical part involved using various charms they had learned during the year in a variety of situations, such as using Flipendo against the imp, among others.
"Finally, no more studying over!" exclaimed Sirius happily, stretching out on the grass, "You can cheer up a bit Peter. You'll stop having your panic attacks at night," he added in a joking tone.
"I don't know... now I'm more nervous. We have to wait a week to find out the grades," said Peter, rubbing his hands together.
"Just relax. We can't change anything anymore," said James, lazily lying on the grass with his eyes closed.
"In a week Hogwarts ends..." said Lupin in a strange tone.
"Just missing grades and the end-of-term party," said Toby in a strange mood. This had been the best year of his life for as long as he could remember. He was just an orphan living a normal life, but now he was at a magical school and had made some good friends.
"Do you want to depress me? Next year will be better. Won't it James?" asked Sirius, looking at his best friend, who was still with his eyes closed lying on the grass.
"I hope so..." said James, opening his eyes slightly and looking up at the sky. He didn't know if the budding war would explode and the conflicts would escalate, managing to affect Hogwarts.
On second thought, Hogwarts with Dumbledore the most powerful wizard alive considered by almost the entire magical community would be the safest place, but he couldn't take it for granted.
"Why does everyone sound so depressing?" asked Sirius.
"What are you guys doing for summer vacation?" asked Toby, trying to change the subject.
"My parents wanted to go touring in France..." answered Peter.
"I don't think so much. I'll try to read to be more advanced next year," said Lupin vaguely.
"Go watch Puddlemere United games with my family and practice flying," replied James. He would also train a lot, but he didn't want to be called a training maniac again.
"I'll have to put up with my mother's lectures and who knows how many stupid high society meetings..." replied Sirius with a grimace.
"It would be best if I could go for a few days with my Uncle Alphard," he added.
The marauders continued to lie on the grass overlooking the lake as they talked about what they could do on their vacations before starting their second year at Hogwarts.
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