Over the next two hours, all of them were teamed up with someone else. Sometimes with people they'd never even spoken to, which made for interesting dynamics. The remaining members of the old duelling team did their best to control their reactions and remain in the running for the final team. Francis was a little panicked over being partnered with Sabrina Maidwater, who he'd had a crush on for forever. While they still lost to the nimbler James and Emilio, they put up a valiant fight and he learned that Sabrina was astonishingly talented. She basically flew across the arena, while he tried to keep up and do his part. They actually managed to corner James, but Emilio outmanoeuvred them and the duel ended like all the others with the Southies taking the win. Sweating he sat back down on the bleachers, happy and glowing that Malfoy had not disqualified him despite his, as he felt, mediocre performance.
"Well done all. For those of you still remaining, you have made it to the final stage. You can all be proud of yourself. The final test will be a written exam, given by Professor Granger in lecture hall 221 A. You have thirty minutes to clean up and get there. Anybody not within the lecture hall until 3 pm will automatically be kicked off the team. Thank you." In a rush all students got up and started leaving the gym. Sabrina actually waved goodbye to Francis and he could barely believe it. Waving dreamily himself, he was jostled from his dream state by a clap to his shoulder. Looking over, he met Keisha's gaze. A bright smile was on her face.
"Good going, Francis." She said with a smile and a wink and left. Breathing deep, Francis smiled and left as well. Outside again a crowd was waiting for them. Again Clarence was waiting for him and he smiled brightly when he caught up with his room mate and friend.
"How did it go?" Clarence asked eagerly. Francis waved him on and both made their way to their dorm.
"Apparently I'm not a total failure. At least I'm not out, like Aster." He chuckled at that and Clarence joined him.
"Yes, he left alone and I assumed the try-out was over, but no one else left. Elisa asked where the rest was and he basically blew up. Kept yelling about how Professor Malfoy was an incompetent hack and that the Dean would hear from his family." Clarence snickered. Francis joined him.
"Let him. Professor Malfoy made it clear that it doesn't matter who you are or what connections your family has. Either you have the talent and the willingness to work with the program, or you're out. The Professor confronted Aster in front of everybody and gave no quarter. I mean, I never want to be on the end of the stare Professor Malfoy gave Aster. Anyway, I have to hit the shower again and be in lecture hall 221 A until 3 pm or I'm automatically off the team." Clarence frowned and looked over to the building in question.
"Why do you need to go the Exploding Hall?" He asked. The potions and herbology building had received this inglorious nickname after blowing up twice in one semester, after two different experiments went a little haywire and took most of the roof and one wall with it. Potioneers and herbologists had a reputation for being a little weird. Probably all the fumes and pollens they inhaled. Not to mention the many plants the herbologists tended to smoke for 'research' purposes.
"There is a written test too. I have no idea what it will be about, but I will take it." Clarence opened the door to their dorm room and sat on his bed.
"You know, this duelling team sounds as if there's much more to it." He mused. Francis shrugged.
"Maybe, but I can still take my regular classes and fit in the training in between. Shouldn't be too hard. And as I said before, it would look great on my resumee. I'm not part of any of the other clubs, so this is it for me." Clarence snorted and leaned back on his bed.
"I told you a hundred times you can come with me to the chess club." Francis took off his shirt and shook his head.
"Sorry, but chess is not really my game and I'm already a nerd. No need to put two crosshairs on my back." Chuckling Clarence threw a pillow at him, while Francis made his way into their tiny bathroom.
xXx
Little by little the lecture hall filled with the prospective duelling team members. Each of them looked around curiously, hoping to catch a glimpse of the third Professor their other coaches had been talking about. Apparently she wasn't there yet and so they each sat in clusters of friends. In the front row five young men and women sat, who none of them knew from around campus. Immediately the speculations sparked amongst the students, who these newcomers might be. They couldn't be Southies, as all knew those already. Heated discussions were going on, while time ticked by. At precisely 3 pm, the doors closed automatically.
"Welcome." The feminine voice had all of them look around. At the very back, Professor Granger stood on the top steps of the auditorium. The men sat up straighter at seeing her. Some of them gaped. She wore the black Professor's robes, but since they were open in the front, they also saw she wore an ivory silk blouse and a black pencil skirt, with black pumps. The slightly open blouse was paired with a pearl necklace. A very classy outfit, but at the same time it had all men wondering what was underneath.
"You are all here to take a written exam prepared by me. I will test you on charms, hexes, potions, herbology and defensive spells." As she spoke, she descended the stairs, her heels the only sound in the room. "Read the questions and answer those you can. You have two hours. I will collect the tests and then meet with Professor's Malfoy and Zabini. The results will be posted tomorrow on the community board. Those results are final and cannot be contested. Unless one of those chosen decides to drop out due to clashes between normal course work and the classes needed for the duelling team, you cannot apply for the team until next term." She had now reached the lectern and faced the students eagerly listening to her.
"I also want to welcome the Guards-in-training who are here to get another degree under their belt." She smiled at the five strangers in the front row. They smiled back at her and one of the men even winked. Shaking her head, Professor Granger swept her hand over the room and parchments appeared in front of all the students. "Quills are provided, you may begin now." The crackling of parchment was heard all over the hall and this was followed by the scratching of quills. All bowed their heads and most wore creases of concentration.
Emilio turned over the parchment and looked at the questions. The first few were easy. They were about standard spells and hexes he'd used almost all his adult life. The questions got progressively harder though. It entailed proper counters for spells he'd never heard of or simply read about one time in his tattered school book in high school. It only got worse when he got to the potions questions. Some of the herbology ones he remembered in parts. He glanced over to Jamal, who was scribbling like mad. Sighing he looked back to his own parchments. There wasn't even half the spaces filled out on his questionnaire. Sweating he hunkered over his test. Professor Malfoy had said he was on the team, but he wanted to earn his way. Just like the rest of the team. Francesca was grumbling next to him her quill scratching viciously through an answer she'd given. Her hair was mussed due to the amount of times she'd gone through it with her hand. Emilio felt for her. He wasn't doing much better, but his hair was cut tightly to his head, so it couldn't stand on end. He rubbed his hands on his pants, trying to dry the sweat on them. Trying to take a deep breath, he looked up and met Professor Granger's gaze. She smiled softly at him and nodded. Swallowing he nodded back, breathed deep and dug into his memories of what his underpaid teachers had been trying to get into his head. Before he knew it, a bell sounded and the parchment in front of him flew towards the lectern. Some of the others looked as concerned as him and threw the lectern longing glances; obviously wanting to get their test back to change or add answers. Sighing Emilio leaned back, looking to his friends. James' face was as impassive as ever, while Keisha and Francesca were nervously chewing on their hair. Jamal breathed deep and seemed also a little nervous. Only a few among the students wore confident expressions. Even the Guards-in-training seemed a little nervous, which served to calm Emilio a little.
Hermione looked over the prospective team members and smiled at the Southies. She could tell they were nervous and from the discussions she'd had with them over the last week, she knew that they were concerned about the gap in their education compared to the other students. She had talked with Malfoy about this concern of hers. She would not cut the kids any slack in her class. It would be unfair to the rest. So she would have to give remedial classes to them and they would have to work hard to keep up. Hefting the questionnaires on her hip, she looked over the assembled.
"Thank you for your time. I will go over these tests and then meet with Professors Malfoy and Zabini. Results will be posted tomorrow morning on the community board in the administration building. Have a good day ahead." With that she dismissed them. The five Guards-in-training left first, as they still had training to get back to, while the rest filtered out slowly, discussing the various questions in the test. Hermione made her way over campus and over to Duelling Hall and up the stairs to Malfoy's office. Both Malfoy and Zabini were already there, laughing about something, while sipping on firewhiskey. Pinching her lips she closed the door behind her.
"Drinking this early, gentlemen?" She asked with just a bit of snark. Zabini grinned and threw her an unapologetic wink. Malfoy set his glass down and steeped his fingers.
"We had a long day, Granger and decided to relax a bit. You should try it sometime." She regarded him coldly, while he only raised one of his eyebrows. Blaise hid his smile by taking another sip. Neither of them admitted it, at least not to him, but he could tell that despite their apparent argument, they were enjoying themselves. Well, to each their own.
"Enough with the drinking and the lounging around. If you think I will go through all these tests on my own, you are very much mistaken." Blaise frowned and sat up.
"Why? Grading multiple choice tests shouldn't take much time at all." Hermione rolled her eyes at his answer. Sighing she turned to him, missing Malfoy's eye-roll, as he rightly anticipated a lecture from her.
"A multiple choice test would not help to assess where the students are concerning their knowledge of spells and potions. As such, each question was to be answered in text form. So get comfortable, because all of these have to be rated until tonight, so that we can have the final list ready by tomorrow morning." Groaning dramatically Blaise rested his head on Draco's desk.
"Draco I'm not feeling well. I think I'll head back to my place and lie down." Hermione tsked and shook her head with a small smile.
"If you say so, Blaise. However if you do that, there will be no dinner for you." At that he sat up, his brow creased in thought. Weighing his options he thought what would be better. Turning in early and getting something from a restaurant close to his apartment, or working through a stack of tests and then getting a home-cooked meal from Granger. Grumbling he grabbed a bundle of parchment from her stack.
"You drive a hard bargain woman!" Smiling she sat down in the other chair in front of Malfoy's desk and primly crossed her legs, taking a stack of her own. The rest she left for Malfoy. When he nipped at his firewhiskey again without making a move to take his own stack, she raised an eyebrow at him. Holding her gaze, he swallowed another sip and licked his lips, to then reach over and take his stack. She'd noticed that he would sometimes do things like this. Openly sexual acts like licking his lips, looking at her chest, touching the small of her back and rubbing it. And she had no idea what it meant to him. Because he would never really follow up on it. It was frustrating the hell out of her. Was he trying to get into a physical relationship? Did he want an emotional one too? Could she get into any kind of intimate relationship with him? It was Malfoy after all. Sure, he'd changed, but at times he could still be his irritating old self, minus the racist views he'd spouted as a child and teen like the good little pureblood parrot that he'd been. On the other hand she couldn't deny that he was attractive, intelligent, caring for those under his care and hot. What?! No...well...yes. If she was perfectly honest, he was hot. He could keep up with her in conversations. Something that was astonishingly hard to come by, even in academic circles. And she'd found that it turned her on, when he started discussing theories with her, defending his standpoint with logical arguments. Then there was also his sense of style. While she by no means was into fashion, she appreciated his dress code very much. Even in slacks and a shirt he was absolutely delectable. Something the other female professors had noted as well. And curiously Hermione found herself territorial about Draco. But without any indication from him she would not initiate anything. She'd been burned good by her last experience with the other sex and was not eager for a repeat performance.