Most Wonderful time of the Year
A one-shot
By: Josephine Granger

Two days, I have two days. Where in the name of Merlin's left sock are my History of Magic notes.

I rummaged through my backpack, coming across a couple of old crumpled essays and food that looked inedible. They must be in here, I know it. Continuing my search and causing a ruckus in the transfiguration hallway I made myself stop.

Alright Lily, breathe, just take a deep breath. In to four, out to six.. in to four, out to six.. in to four, out to si- oh, sod it, it's not working. But where are my notes! I need them, and I need then now. How could I, Lily, top student and bloody head girl lose History of Magic notes? And it's not like I could ask Alice for her's, I mean she just sleeps during class.

"Where are my bloody notes!" I realized just a smidgen too late that I may or may not have yelled that.. in the middle of the transfiguration hallway. Great, my life was going to shit.

"Lily, you need to calm down," my friend approached me with caution. I probably looked like I was on a rampage, but then again I was the queen of overreacting.

"I'm sorry Hayley, it's just that this exam is in two days and I haven't started studying." Oh, I never dreamed of the day that those words would come out of my mouth. I looked over to Hayley and saw that she was trying to stifle her laughter.

"What." I glared, I didn't know why I bothered to keep Hayley around at the moment.

"It's just, you're awfully flustered, just calm down Lily, you don't need to stress, especially not for History of Magic, that's a pointless class, I don't even understand why you take it." Hayley was one of the only people who could deal with me in a high-stress mood. She had a strange calming effect, maybe that was why I kept her around.

"Not. Helping." I continued to glare. Granted, a calming effect only did so much, it wouldn't magic new notes out of thin air for me.

"Lily, just calm." Hayley said with an exasperated edge. There goes the calming effect..

"No Hayley, you know what I can't just calm down because I have this exam in two days and I haven't started studying. Do you hear me, the studying had been non-existent. I can't fail this not now, this is a N.E.W.T. course and I can't afford to fail this," my voice continued to escalate "and Hayley, I just can't handle it anymore there is just too much to do and I can't, I can't I need to drop this course now. Where's McGonagall?" I was nearing hyperventilation.

"Lily," Hayley had a note of panic in her voice, she was getting awfully apt at sensing my oncoming panic attacks. And then came the hyperventilation.

"Lily, just breathe, calm down, there is no need to stress. You will do just fine, okay?" I nodded in my attempt to pacify her and after a couple more deep breaths I tried to get up. I failed. Hayley caught me and sat me down on the bench. I really did need to breathe.

I just loved it exam time. Bloody brilliant. And not to mention that everyone expected Lily to get top of the class marks, it really didn't help with the pressure. Sometimes I just wished that people wouldn't look at me as 'the smart one' I wanted to be someone else. I could be the funny one, I mean it's not like I lacked a sense of humour! And trust me, I wouldn't mind being know as the pretty one, or just anything else. Sometimes being the 'Smart One' was the worst.

Not to mention it was impractical to even think about getting work done during school. If someone didn't get it, they would rather ask me then the teacher. I should be paid. Honestly, now. It's not like the teacher bite, lets be practical, shall we? And don't even get me started about saying no. If you turn down someone's plea for help you turn into the 'Bitch of the Day'. A title that I probably held the most times.

Being smart was hell.

Alright, well, ranting will get me nowhere. I just need to breathe. I attempted to take in a few more deep breaths and I felt myself calming down.

"Look, Lily, you're a witch right?" said Hayley with an unnervingly serious tone.

I just stared at her dumbfounded and at a loss for words. I mean, Hayley wasn't top of the class but she was no where near dim enough to be asking these kinds of questions. I continued to stare. "Well..?" she prompted

"You know, Hayley, I have something to tell you, I'm not a witch I've only been posing as one for the past eight odd years." I was hoping she caught the sarcasm there, I did my best to make it obvious.

"Alright, Smartass," huffed Hayley with a mocking hurt look on her face.

"Why is that relevant anyway?" I asked, trying to get a sense of where this was going.

"Well, if your so desperate to fine them, couldn't you just summon them?" Hayley said as if it was plain as day. Well, I'll give that one to her, it was.

God, it was staring at me right in the face. Why hadn't I thought of that, I was supposed to be the smart one after all.

"Accio History of Magic notes," I murmured under my breath while attempting to keep the blushing under control, a negative side-affect of the ginger hair. I was sometimes a little too invested in the muggle side of me. I often forgot that there were conveniently easier ways to do things in the wizarding world.

And there they were, zooming round the corner and into my lap. Twenty pages of History of Magic notes, found and no longer misplaced.

"See," said Hayley, "All better," she smiled.

"Oh stop looking so pleased with yourself," I muttered as I began to make my way to the Gryffindor Common Room. I was planning to do at least three hours of hardcore studying, that would get me at least an A. Well, that was until Hayley grabbed my arm.

"Okay, what do you want now?" I turned round with a slightly murderous look in my eyes.

"Uh... no, I just thought you might need reminding, there's a Quidditch match tonight and the common room is going to be full, so unless your planning to watch, I wouldn't go in there. It's bloody mad." Hayley must have caught the murderous look as she said this gently, as if talking to someone who was about to be admitted into an insane asylum.

But on the other hand, she was right, I knew I had kept her around for something. Well sod it, you only have one life to live. "Alright then, I'm going to put my notes away, in a place that I'll actually find them, and get changed." I said, making a split-second decision, granted I wasn't betting my life but I had a nasty feeling that I was going to regret it.

"Wait, you're going?" Hayley looked at me like I lost it. I wasn't a huge supporter of Quidditch, in fact, I thought the sport was ruddy useless. Hayley, on the other hand, loved Quidditch. She was the Gryffindor Team Seaker.

"Yes, I am going, I'm going to watch my best friend play Quidditch for the last time and kick those Slytherin asses, are we clear?" That was a reasonable enough reason, I hoped anyway.

"Alright then," said Hayley with a final air about her.

I saw a cheeky grin forming on Hayley's face, "Well, are you coming?"

"Oh, right, I should probably get changed as well." That wiped the grin off her face, the prat.

Two hours later and I was changed and ready. Hayley and Alice had both left half an hour ago some 'pre-match rubbish ritual' that they had to take part in. I made my way down the winding staircase and out the Fat Lady's portrait. Luckily, she wasn't in the mood for a chat tonight. When the Fat Lady wanted to talk, you had to talk, there was very little choice in the matter, unless you wanted to sleep outside.

Making sure to jump all the trick stairs I made my way down to the Quidditch pitch.

The match started with Madam Hootch proclaiming that the game had begun. As for the rest of it, I didn't bother keeping track of the commentary. Three hours later, an unusually long for a game at Hogwarts, Alice finally caught the snitch.

I just hope that those bloody Marauders were bringing Butterbeer tonight, I was up for some beer pong.

The Next Morning

I was an affectionate drunk, or so I've been told. I may have had a bit more then Butterbeer. I may or may not have chugged a whole bottle of firewhisky on a dare, or so I'd been told. I was hoping that Sirius made that one up because I did not have the highest alcohol tolerance and the thought of things I would get up to with that much liquor in me made me shiver.

Merlin be with me, I was going to need all the luck I could get to pass this damn exam. I had less then a day to study, hungover me sleeping in to past two in the afternoon.

I never had a problem with going to Hogwarts until now. I could handle the course load (most of the time), the exploding snap tournaments at three in the morning, or even Peeves singing Christmas carol renditions about how I had no soul. I could take it, I mean I was living in a bloody castle after all. And there were perks of course, the house elves, three meals a day. I was living the life. However, the testing was ruddy horrible, I had gotten an O in my a History of Magic OWLs last year but I don't think I can even manage an A this year.

Come to think of it, I really don't know why I didn't let Hayley and Alice talk me out of taking History of Magic. It really was pointless and I think overachiever is way overrated at the moment.

Why do I care what the Troll's Declaration of Independence entails? Or which Goblin it was that cut off his own ear? Let me give you the answer, it's fairly straightforward. I don't. It's a good thing it took a very hungover me with only less then a day left to study to figure that out.

Wasn't there a potion that could help with the hungover part? I'm sure Potter and his friends knew something about that. Well, anyway, for the first time in my life I was considering cheating. Or I could just, you know, fail. I mean there is a first time for everything. Besides, Aurors didn't need a History of Magic, the bloody pointless course.

The End

A/N

Hello, all. Josephine here!

So this is my first fanfic, or at least the first one I'm publishing. I think I'm quite happy with it at the moment, if not I figure I'll just rewrite it. Anyways, since it is my 'first' fanfic I would really appreciate any and all reviews. So on that note, sort of as an incentive to get you to review, I suppose I'll ask you a couple questions you can answer with the review, Which Harry Potter book is your favourite, which movie is your favourite and who is your favourite character?

Here are my answers :)
Book: Deathly Hallows
Movie: once again, Deathly Hallows pt 1 and 2, I just can't choose..
Character: I really love Hermione, I feel like I can identify with her and I also love Lily, even though there isn't much character development I feel like there is so much potential. And same with Lupin, there is more character development there but I'd like to do something with him as a marauder at some point.

So on that note, please review, review, review! Let me know what you thought, how I can improve my writing, and feel free to answer my questions as well!

Many Thanks,
- Josephine