Chapter 9. Last Weeks and Farewells
The summer holidays neared, and so did the exams. And it could be said that all days didn't go as well as they could have gone. You see, the pressure affected the some students more than they affected the others.
"Bloody Merlin's fat arse!" Chastity cried out. She dug out a napkin from her pocket and started to clean her robe from the eel's eyes she had accidentally pushed over.
Professor Blishwick stood up from her desk and marched towards the table where Chastity was sitting with her brother. The professor looked very resentful with her brows furrowed and a sneer curling her thin lips. Thought the displeased face didn't really differ from her usual expression. She stopped in front of Chastity and slammed her hands on the table.
"Fifteen points from Hufflepuff for your manners and clumsiness, Miss Holmes!" she shrieked and then cleaned the eyes away from Chastity's robe with a simple yet effective scouring charm.
Chastity's eyes widened. "But...!" she tried complaining in shock but the professor silenced her with an icy glare.
"And this will be the last lesson you and Mr. Holmes will be working as a team in my classroom!" Professor added sternly. "Maybe you'll begin concentrating when you can't just sit there and expect the others to do all the work!"
Claude's gaze was blank as usual and he continued to stir their potion without a second thought after Professor Blishwick had finished her rant and returned to her desk. Chastity frowned but remained silent when Luke Corner snickered at her with his friends.
The class felt longer than ever. For the Ravenclaws delight Professor Blishwick had even started keeping her hawk eyes trained only on the Hufflepuffs after William had by accident managed turn his and Jeremiah's potion into a mud-coloured, bubbling slime. Alistair was happy he was walking with Mary who actually paid attention on was it three and half counter stirs or not. That still didn't mean that their potion had ever actually been worth praising.
When the class was finally dismissed and the Hufflepuffs were on their way to the Great Hall for lunch, Chastity was fuming. "She's such a harpy!" she shouted angrily and looked like she was ready to claw out eyes from the next person who said the wrong words to her. "Someday I'll hex her and I won't even regret it!"
"She always acts like that," Toby reminded her with a grin. "But hey, you saved yourself from detention. She didn't notice you had actually fallen asleep."
Chastity groaned loudly. "But she'll now separate me from Claude!" she said desperately. "You know how Claude is! Corner is a git and the other Claws aren't any better... His grades will drop and he won't pass his exams and his life will be ruined!"
Alistair sighed at the exaggeration but didn't say a word. He didn't want to get on Chastity's black list.
With the ever-increasing pile of homework and the first of June approaching there was no time for slacking anymore in the Slytherin dormitories. Instead of trying to study in the noise of the common room the four first year Slytherins had barricaded themselves into their dorm with snacks. Scorpius and Ven sat on their respective beds whereas Albus and Darius were on the floor.
Albus stood up and threw himself to Scorpius' bed. "Finally!" he said, holding up a scroll full of messy handwriting. "My essay of the house elf traditions in 18th century is finished! I'm done!"
"Congratulations. But you haven't finished your star chart yet," Scorpius said and placed the Astrology book he was reading to his lap. "Or more likely you haven't even started it."
"I have started it!" Albus said defensively. "I just don't remember where I've left it! There's a difference!"
Darius snickered and rolled over on the floor to face the ceiling. "Must be under your bed," he said cheekily. "Usually everything you lose finds its way there. Like all your left foot socks."
Ven frowned when the decibels went up; Albus started loudly complaining about how everything he had lost definitely hadn't find their way under his bed and Darius laughed at him. After a while it was getting too loud for Ven to concentrate so he raised his eyes from the essay he was supposed to write for Professor Norwood. He got ready to say a couple of carefully chosen words to his dorm mates. He knew he was easily frustrated by noise. He simply wasn't used to it.
It was true that Ven had shown his skills few times in Transfiguration class and usually gotten good grades from the previous essays but other than that Transfiguration was the only subject he wasn't actually very good at. In History of Magic, yes, in Potions, of course, and in Astronomy, which was still his favourite, he was exceptional. And he wanted to excel at Transfiguration and that was impossible if he couldn't even concentrate on writing his essay!
"Maybe it's in the common room," Ven tried and hoped Albus and Darius would shut up.
Albus blinked. "Yeah," he said slowly with a smile. "You're probably right." He nodded profusely as if remembering precisely where the chart was. "Now I'll just take a nap before…"
"Looking for this, Potter?"
The raven haired Slytherin girl waved a piece of parchment in the air and leaned to the door frame. She had a wide smirk on her pointed face. Ven rolled his eyes. Wouldn't it be just his luck if the only one who louder, and more annoying, than Albus and Darius combined came to find that stupid chart? And she would have no intention of giving it back.
"You can keep it, Rosier," Albus said as nonchalantly as he could. "Perhaps your grades will rise?" he sneered.
"Look who's talking!" Acacia Rosier laughed in a voice sounding more like hissing. She looked rather shocked that Albus hadn't even asked to get his homework back. "Lucinda and I have already finished all our essays due next week," she said and tossed the parchment on the floor. "So keep your stupid chart, Potter." She slammed the door shut and left the boys' dormitories.
"Well that was easier than I thought", Albus snickered and went to retrieve his chart on the floor before he slumped against the soft cushions of Scorpius' bed. "Now, Scorp, my intellectual friend…"
"I'm not showing you my chart," Scorpius said firmly.
Albus' face fell. "Oh, come on!"
"Mr. Holmes will work from now on with Miss Hiffgins," Professor Blishwick said dryly when Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws arrived to her class two days after Chastity's eel's eye accident. Mary moved quietly from her usual spot to the other side of the class to sit with Claude. "Miss Holmes instead will work with Mr. Nott."
"Thank Merlin she picked you," Chastity whispered and sat next to Alistair. Alistair just smiled nervously. Chastity wasn't the best to work with because she didn't really pay attention. She either slept or concentrated literally on everything else than on potions.
Professor Blishwick wrote instructions on the board.
"Today we will work with something simple since you seemingly aren't ready to move to the more complicated potions so pick up your cauldrons and turn to page 27."
After two hours and several boils later the class was over. Both Chastity and Alistair hurried to Mary who was cleaning her and Claude's potion remnants from the table. They helped her so they could get away from the dungeons as quickly as possible.
"Well? How did it go?" Chastity asked outside the class when she was sure Professor Blishwick wouldn't hear. She had been worried sick and her thoughts had been on Claude instead of her and Alistair's potion. Which they had failed miserably and gained murderous glares from the professor.
Mary smiled. "He's actually quite nice to work with when you learn to communicate with him," she said. "He even thanked me."
Chastity was overjoyed. "Great!" She practically danced her way to their common room entrance instead of walking. "Thank Merlin you were made his partner and not that prat Corner. Or Toby. Claude doesn't like him," she added with a wry smile.
Finally when June's second week started the exams were over and the results were out. Ven had passed all his tests with the grades better than the average. The Head of Slytherin, Professor Blishwick, had been especially proud when both Ven and Scorpius had gotten over ninety percent right in the test she had made and even brewed the draught correctly. Professor Binns instead couldn't care less about their grades; even Albus and Darius had passed their tests and they had been sleeping through the History of Magic classes for the better part of the year.
"Only one week and this is over," Albus sighed, staring out the window and hoping to catch a glimpse of the Giant Squid. "I can't believe it's summer already."
"We'll be coming back in few weeks," Scorpius said.
"Yeah but I have to spend my whole summer holiday listening James," Albus groaned theatrically. "About how they lost the Quidditch Cup to Ravenclaw and… Ugh! You should have seen him during the Christmas! He'll tease the hell out of me!"
Ven laughed. "But think about it," he said. "It's only few weeks."
"Only few weeks as the only Slytherin in our family," Albus corrected. "Perhaps I should hide in Kreacher's closet or something…"
"But we can always write to us," Scorpius said kindly.
"I'll send you a card from Bulgaria," Darius chimed in with a wide grin. He was going to spend his whole summer in Bulgaria with his parents and take part in a Quidditch Camp.
"If you see famous Quidditch players, will get me autographs from them?" Albus asked half-hopefully. Of course he already had autographs from 'the youngest Seeker of the century', 'the star Chaser of the Holyhead Harpies', and 'the Bulgarian bonbon', also known as his dad, mum, and Cousin Louis' godfather.
Darius stuck out his tongue. "Nope."
"Git," Albus retorted.
In the day of the Leaving Feast Alistair couldn't stop smiling.
He had gotten 98 percent right in his Herbology exam, and he had even passed Potions. He wasn't very sure what his father would say though but he was happy nevertheless. Toby instead had been overwhelming with happiness when they got their results last week.
"Norwood let me pass!" he had laughed and even hugged Crane in the common room. "And I suck at Transfiguration!"
"I got 100 percent right in Charms," Layla had announced and attached her test to the bulletin board where everyone could see it. "I can't wait till the next year," she had added to Mary. "Professor Flitwick said he'll teach us some advanced magic."
Chastity had been proud of herself as well. "Madam Hooch had mentioned my little hex on Corner to Professor Prosper," she had told with a faint blush on her cheeks. "He even flattered me. Perhaps I should hex that git more often."
Even Slytherins won over the House Cup couldn't flatten the mood in the Great Hall and the day went fast. Before even realizing it Alistair was in the train with his full trunk next to him and Iniga was sleeping peacefully in her cage. Snuffles croaked once in a while and tried to escape from his basket and Toby didn't shut about Quidditch.
"Hey, 'Listair," Toby said when they had arrived to the King's Cross station and exited the train. "We'll come pick you up next month." He grinned. "I'll send you an owl."
Alistair nodded with a smile. "I'll be looking forward to it."
His first year was over but his journey had just begun. After all, this had been only the beginning.
END OF THE YEAR ONE
