Chapter 10: Exams

Monday morning, Kelria woke at 6 with the alarm clock, groaning and rubbing her eyes. Then a single thought struck her. Exams…

She bolted out of bed, rushed through her morning preparations, and sat down at her kitchen table with a mug of hot tea, looking over her notes one last time.

Suddenly, there was a pop and Khyana appeared in the kitchen, looking terrified.

"I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to faaaaail!" she wailed.

Kelria rolled her eyes. "Grow up, Khyana, you're not going to fail."

"Yes, I am," Khyana said, sitting down at the table looking dejected. "What am I going to do, Kelria? I'm going to fail and then I'll never become an auror and then I'll have to go into International Magical Cooperation and I dropped my course so I won't know anything and I'll have to watch all of you become aurors without me-"

"KHYANA!"

Khyana was shocked into silence, and Kelria fixed her with a stern glare. "You are not going to fail. You sound like Lily in the seventh year."

"Well, I really am going to fail! Especially Professor North's exam. His are always hard, I never pass!"

Kelria rolled her eyes. "You always pass. You just need to have a little confidence in yourself."

Khyana shook her head. "No way. I know I'm going to fail."

Kelria wanted to slap her friend upside the head…so she did.

"What was that for?" Khyana demanded.

"For being such an insufferable prat," Kelria replied, and Khyana bristled. "Honestly, Khyana, grow up, you are not going to fail, you've never failed an exam in your life. So stop whining and get a grip!"

Khyana spun on the spot and disapparated, apparently going to look for someone more sympathetic. Kelria didn't mind; it gave her more time to study. The last thing she needed this morning was Khyana whining in her kitchen.

At 8 30, Kelria apparated to the auror school for her exam at 9 00. She walked through the mahogany front doors, and met a small group of peers in the front hall.

This graduating class was the largest in the school; they had almost managed to make two auror squads for their assignments. Kelria's group was a full squad and the other group was just missing one.

Khyana burst into the hall a few moments later, as Kelria was talking with Emily-Hope.

"Kelria!"

Kelria rolled her eyes at Emily-Hope. "She showed up in my kitchen at 6 30 this morning wailing that she's going to fail," Kelria hissed, and Emily-Hope giggled.

"Kel!"

"What do you want, Yana?"

Khyana hurried over, clutching her books tight to her chest. "I don't know any of this stuff, I'm going to-"

"Fail. Fine, fail then. I don't care," Kelria replied, glaring. "I'm sick of your whining, Khyana. Go tell it to someone who cares."

Being brought up as a Malfoy, Khyana didn't make an angry outburst; she just paled even more than usual and stalked off to talk to Lily.

"Wasn't that a little harsh, Kel?" Emily-Hope asked.

Kelria shook her head. "She'll be fine. She just wants attention."

At exactly 9 00, the doors to the exam room opened, and Professor Austeros let the students into the room.

Kelria was starting to feel a little nervous, but swallowed her fears, knowing she would do fine.

"Well, for Professor Dragh, that wasn't too bad," Lily commented.

"Wasn't bad? I totally failed."

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Shut up, Na."

Khyana shrugged. "Well I did," she mumbled.

"And tomorrow's Professor North's…I'm really dreading that one."

Everyone shuddered.

"Well, I think Yana should get out of the exam, she wrote so many essays for him this year!" Lily said.

"What's this? Is Lily getting angry about something a teacher did?" Khyana asked teasingly.

Lily made a face. "Shut up, Na."

Everyone laughed, and then everything was silent. The noisy pub around them stopped, and the group of friends looked up from their drinks, confused.

James was the first on his feet with his wand out, followed immediately by Khyana and Kelria.

The three figures in the doorway smirked.

"Well, well, well…mini aurors. We could have some fun with this."

Recognising the voice immediately, Khyana stepped forward, her face nearly transparent.

"Sod off, Malfoy."

"Tsk tsk," Malfoy said, shaking his head. "That's not a very nice way to speak to your older brother, Khyana."

"You're not my brother," Khyana hissed.

Malfoy raised his eyebrows. "No…no, maybe I'm not. In that case, I feel no remorse about killing you. Avada-"

"Protego!"

"Stupefy!"

"Rictusempra!"

"Expelliarmus!"

The curses and hexes were flying, over the heads of the patrons in the pub, who had all jumped to the floor at the first sound of Malfoy's curse. Kelria wondered who had had the presence of mind to shout expelliarmus when everyone had been shooting…had James shot a tickling spell? Kelria shook her head, then looked round. Lily was holding three wands besides her own in her hand, and Kelria smirked. Of course, it would be Lily.

"ENOUGH!" Lily shouted, and everyone fell silent. "I've had enough. You three," she said, gesturing to the Death Eaters in the doorway, "Leave. I'll mail you your wands…maybe. GET OUT!"

They looked at each other, and Malfoy smirked.

"We're not going to be told what to do by a mudblood like you, Evans."

"Here, then, let me help you," Khyana said in a dangerous voice. "Dispensare."

Suddenly, the Death Eaters were gone. Everyone looked at Khyana.

"Bloody Hell, Yana…" Kelria said softly. "What was that?"

Khyana shrugged. "Just something I picked up," she replied, sitting back down in her chair.

"Picked up where?" James demanded, sitting in his chair across from her. Everyone else filled in their chairs between the two.

Khyana shrugged again. "No where important. I got them to leave though, didn't I?"

"Did you do it illegally, Khyana?" James demanded. "I can't have my aurors doing illegal things."

"Your aurors?" Khyana asked, her voice dripping with contempt. "Your aurors? I am not your auror, James Potter. Do you really think I'd do something illegal?"

"Yes."

"Well, thank you for your confidence," Khyana said snidely, pushing back her chair and standing. "Well, I really must be going. Enjoy your little talk."

She left the pub abruptly, knocking over her chair as she left.

"It was definitely an illegal curse," Kelria said, nodding. "She wouldn't have reacted like that if it hadn't been. If it had been something you could find in Standard Book of Spells, she wouldn't have cared. And we'd all know how to do it."

Everyone nodded their agreement.

"Definitely illegal," Frank agreed.

The next day, as expected, Professor North's exam was killer. In the afternoon they had to write Professor Bow's exam, which was, as expected, the easiest one they had to write.

"Did I ever mention that I think Professor Bow is an idiot and his class is pointless?" Khyana asked as they left the exam room.

"Once or twice," Kelria replied, exchanging a grin with Lily.

Khyana had taken every opportunity of every day to tell everyone how she felt about Professor Bow and his subject, Case Studies. In his class, they studied how aurors before them had solved different types of cases…and Khyana always slept through it.

"I mean, why the hell do we need to know how Edward Scissorhands-"

"Bonefingers, Yana, Edward Bonefingers," Lily corrected her friend with a small smile.

"Whatever. Anyway, why do we need to know how he solved the case of the missing mummy?"

"It was the gold, Na, not the mummy," Kelria laughed.

"Whatever. It's not like we're going to use the same methods as him! I mean, come on! It took the guy two whole months just to get to Egypt!"

Kelria and Lily smirked at each other. "We know, Yan."

"Don't call me that. And another thing…"

Khyana went on and on about how pointless Case Studies was until the three girls met everyone else in the Three Broomsticks.

The friends had come to a consensus to not mention Khyana's spell from the night before in front of her. If she didn't want to share, that was her business.

"So, how did everyone find Bow's exam?" Frank asked.

"Well, I thought-"

"Do not get Khyana started, Frank," Lily said firmly. "We've already discussed Bow's exam. What did you lot think of North's?"

"Well, I for one, failed it," Kelria said firmly, taking a long swig of Butterbeer.

"What's this?" Khyana asked, smirking smugly. "Come on, Kelria, have some self-confidence."

Kelria, in a moment of amazing maturity, stuck her tongue out at Khyana, who smirked wider.

"Alright, you two, enough," Lily said firmly. "How many more exams do we have?"

"Three," James replied. "Donnelly, Philips and Austeros."

Everyone groaned. Unlike at Hogwarts, the Headmistress of the Auror School taught classes as well as all her headmistress duties. Her class was basically just a harder version of the charms class they had taken at Hogwarts. Donnelly taught the basic spell course, which was like a harder version of DADA, and Philips…well, no one was really sure what he taught. The title of his course was "Filling the Gaps"…and that's exactly what he did. Anything not taught in the other courses that people had questions about, that was what he discussed. And he took detailed notes about their class discussions for his exam paper.

"Philips' class is almost as much of a joke as Bow's," Khyana complained. "It's such a waste of time!"

"Oh come on, Khyana," Lily said teasingly. "You should have loved it. Who else answered 5 million of your questions about nothing in their classes?"

Khyana shrugged. "I had to keep him occupied. And I figured if he was going to be answering questions, they might as well have been mine. That way I don't need to study for his exam."

"And he's the only one who didn't yell at you every day for asking too many questions," James teased.

"Shut up, Potter. I'm not above hexing you into next week," Khyana replied.

Everyone shook their heads and took another draught of their drinks.

The last three exams were simple, and as Khyana had implied, most of Professor Philips' exam had to do with questions she had asked in class. She got an "O" in that class.

On the last day of exams, Frank, Remus, James and Sirius took their wives or girlfriends out to dinner to Marty's, as a special treat to Kelria and Khyana, and because they all wanted to try the food.

They spent the evening talking and laughing and having a good time, and celebrating the success of the auror students in their exams.

"They'll all be getting awards, you watch," Remus said teasingly.

"Not a chance!" Khyana cried. "There's no way North is going to let me get an award."

Everyone laughed.

"I don't think Menin was really very fair to you this year, Khyana, especially since he knows about your illness," Remus said gravely.

"Please don't call him Menin," Kelria said, shuddering. "It just seems weird that we're on a first-name basis with Professor North."

"He reminds me of Snape," Lily commented with a shudder.

At the mention of Snape, Khyana pursed her lips and became oddly quiet. Everyone looked at each other, but no one asked. They all knew better.

At the end of the night, everyone was in good spirits as they headed home. Kelria was very excited: she was now a full auror. She could concentrate on her assignments for the Ministry and the Order, and not have to worry about exams anymore. She felt free.

A/N: Well, there you have it. Based off my conversation with Kel on Monday before our math exams...My eyes keep sliding in and out of focus...I hate these contacts! And my ankle hurts...stupid sprain. Anyhow, R&R people! Maybe I'll even stop complaining!