Chapter Nineteen
The end of the year came upon us rather quickly that year. Ravenclaw somehow managed to narrowly beat Gryffindor in the final match, though with the points, Gryffindor still won the cup. Gid was torn between giddy elation at winning the cup his first year as captain and reluctant acceptance at losing the match. But the party in their common room after the match helped his mood, as did sneaking out to the Room of Requirement for a bit of snogging.
But Quidditch was only a temporary reprieve for us Fifth Years. Monday brought back the reminder that OWLs were just around the corner, and our teachers were determined that we all pass them. They all gave us loads of revision, in addition to what we each thought we needed to brush up on. Many students visited the hospital wing for nerves, the majority being from Ravenclaw.
"They are the ones who are far too concerned with book learning," Danae told us the morning of our Charms exams. "Like Marigold Harper. She thinks, for some stupid reason, that she has to get no less than an E on every exam, and she's taking eight classes! Of course she needs something for her nerves," she added, calmly spreading jam on her toast.
"You could be a bit more concerned with your marks," Evander suggested, from underneath his load of books he was carrying to the Gryffindor table. "Mum will never forgive you if you don't manage at least four passing marks."
"Oh, don't worry, I'll pass," she said breezily. "I'm actually rather good at most subjects. I just happen to not want to be in class most days."
Her brother shook his head as he passed her to bury himself in revision. "One might think he was the Ravenclaw out of the two of you," Marly joked, allowing herself to be distracted for a brief moment from her notes.
Danae laughed. "No, he's just got rather a lot to live up to. He wants to beat Brontes, get better marks in everything, so he's pushing himself dreadfully. And me, well, I already know I want to study with Madame Dernier once I graduate. She's one of the most celebrated artists in France, and my cousin Appoline has promised to introduce me. And Mum promised me that if I graduate from Hogwarts with at least Acceptable marks in four subjects, she'll pay for me to go."
"Ugh, I wish I had your vision on what I want to do with my life," Lottie moaned, dropping her head to her Charms notes with a thunk. " I have no idea what I'm going to do after Hogwarts. Some days, I almost want to throw away my wand and live as a Muggle."
"It takes far too long to do makeup the Muggle way," I pointed out. I then grinned as my tea cup did a complicated tap dance in response to my nonverbal spell.
"I hate you," Marly told me without heat. "And yes, you wouldn't be able to live without magic, Lottie. You'd have to actually varnish your nails, and we all know how terrible you are at that."
This soon devolved into a discussion about makeup, which way would be better. It took the rest of breakfast, and before we knew it, the rest of the years were filling out of the Great Hall. "You'll be brilliant," Gid promised me, kissing me quickly on his way out and helping quell the sudden nervousness that attacked me.
When I looked back on OWLs, I never could really remember them very clearly. I remembered a blur of test questions and wand waving, translating runes and measuring ingredients, pruning plants and plotting stars, but nothing in detail. I couldn't have said what questions I answered, or what potions I made, or what plants I worked on. It was simply a two week blur of moving from one exam to another in a rather anxious state.
But, oh, was I excited when they were done! After the last one, we Hufflepuffs sort of collapsed on the couches in the common room. "If I never have to take another exam again, it would be too soon," Marly sighed, too exhausted to pick her head up from the couch cushion it had fallen onto.
"I don't think I can write another word," I moaned, flexing my poor, tired fingers.
Silence reigned for a long moment, before Tina suddenly jumped up. "I'm burning all of my notes," she declared, heading toward our room.
"I'm in!" Lottie exclaimed, following her.
"Sounds like a good idea to me," Thomas Reddington, one of the boys in our year, added.
Somehow, the idea to invite the other Houses spread, and soon enough, everyone in our year was gathered outside by the Black Lake. All the Houses were united, in that one moment, in our joy at being done with OWLs. Tina did, indeed, burn her notes, but only after I had convinced her to let me copy them all first. Lottie burned the notes Davey Gudgeon had given her. Marly threw an old jumper that had developed a hole during her Herbology practical into the fire. Nic had letters from his mother. Danae happily added her Potions textbook to the inferno. And I threw in every one of the old quills I could find in our room. A cheer rang throughout the room as each item was added to the pile.
"What in the name of all that is magical is going on in here?" Professor Sprout cried, scaring all of us.
Somehow, I got pushed to the front of the crowd, nominated to explain. "Well, you see, Professor, we decided," I began hesitantly, trying to come up with something that didn't sound utterly mad. "We decided that we needed to unwind a bit after our exams, so we each burned something that represented our exams and the work we did for them."
Professor Sprout was quiet for a moment, looking at each of us and the raging fire in front of us. "I think that's a splendid idea," she declared. "And I shall join you." With that, she whipped her old, patchy gloves from her pocket and threw them in the fire. A delighted cheer erupted in approval of her actions.
When the year was finally over, it was greeted with much relief, at least for some of us. "We're going to be Seventh Years, mates," Max said to Gid and Fab on the train. He seemed terribly concerned.
"That's usually what comes after Sixth Year," Marly retorted dryly.
"That means we have to take our NEWTs in a year," he continued, rather like his sister hadn't even said anything. Though that wasn't terribly unusual for the two of them.
Fab looked amused, a smirk dancing across his face. "I think you'll be just fine, Max. After all, didn't you get the fourth highest score on your OWLs in the Year?"
Max looked relieved. Until Gid added, "Of course, that was before you got hit in the head by Bludgers five times in two weeks. Or was it six?"
"Four times by the Bludger, twice by a Quaffle," Marly gleefully corrected. "I'm sure that's done something to affect your brain."
We were still laughing about his horrified reaction when an irate Lily came marching into our compartment, trailed by a sopping Severus and an amused Alice, though she was trying to hide it. "You've run into Potter and his friends, haven't you," I sighed, sending a warming charm at the boy.
"He started mocking Severus again!" Lily cried. "Saying things about his family that he had no right to!"
After a few moments, and rather a lot more raging from Lily, the whole story came out. Severus had actually started it, winding Black up about his family, and Potter had retaliated. Lily had only come in as Potter started in on Severus, as she had gone to find the trolley lady. She looked a bit sorry once she learned the whole of it, but stubbornly refused to budge. "Potter still shouldn't have said that about Sev's mother. He deserved what he got. I hope it takes him hours to get unwound," she sniffed haughtily.
"What do you mean?" I asked, a bit concerned.
"I used ferula," she said proudly, a huge grin plastered to her face.
"And Potter looked like a mummy!" Alice added gleefully.
Gid pretended to shudder. "Your sister scares me a bit, Pet."
I grinned at him. "Just remember where she learned it all."
Fab and Max utterly howled at the sudden ashen look to take over Gid's face. "I am never going to upset you," he promised me.
"Always a good idea," I said, kissing him quickly.
Mum's friend, Emma, was waiting for us at the station. She gave us all effusive hugs, or rather, tried. Severus merely scowled at her when she tried, and she merely moved on to Lily. "Your mum is terribly excited to see you!" she gushed.
"Then why isn't she the one here?" Severus asked, lowly enough for Lily not to hear.
I had never before wanted to hit another human being so much in my life. But Nic beat me to the punch, literally. He wrapped his arm around the much scrawnier boy's neck, ignoring his squirming attempts to get away, and whispered into his ear. After a moment, the two Slytherins parted, one paler and scowling more than usual, the other with a dark amusement glittering in his eyes. "Promise, Severus," Nic said cheerfully.
Somehow, they had managed to avoid garnering the others' attention as everyone around us said their goodbyes. "Love you, Pet. See you Thursday?" Gid asked hopefully.
"I'll be there," I promised. "After all, I can't wait to see how much Bill and Charlie have grown," I added mischievously, enjoying the delighted twinkle hiding behind his faked hurt.
"Honestly, Gid, if you hadn't already swept this one off the market, I would be in love with her myself," Fab said, pressing a loud, ridiculous kiss to my cheek.
I pushed him off me as I shot back, "You wouldn't know what to do with yourself with a steady girlfriend."
"She's got you there, mate," Max laughed. "And there's Mum. Got to go. See you next week, yeah?" He even helped Marly pull her trunk in an unexpected helpful gesture.
Arthur found Gid and Fab next, with a quick hello to the rest of us. "Charlie's teething, so Molly couldn't come," he apologized. "And Billy's been upset with all the attention he's not getting. Things have been a bit crazy at home," he sighed.
"Not to worry, Arthur, their favorite uncle is on his way!" Gid joked, kissing me once more quickly.
"And Gid," was Fab's rejoinder.
Nic slipped away then, trying to avoid his mother seeing him with us. And we found Lottie's mum while trying to find Alice's. Soon enough, we managed to pile three trunks, two pet cages, and three teenagers into Emma's car. The ride home was long, but she listened intently to all of our stories. Severus tried to stop us, saying "She's a Mu- you-know-what," but I just smirked.
"Emma knows all about magic. Mum told her the day after Professor Dumbledore came to visit us. And since we weren't the ones telling her, we can't get into trouble for breaking the Statute of Secrecy." I'll admit that I found his dumbfounded expression that followed a touch too entertaining.
Thankfully, Emma dropped Severus at his house before taking us home. That meant we were able to greet Mum properly, without him whinging in the background. She fussed over us both, hugging and kissing us many times. "Oh, you girls have grown so much! I've missed you so! But now you're here, and it's time to celebrate." And she insisted on cooking dinner, saying, "I've done nothing all day just so I could do this. Now, you two sit there at the table and tell me everything you've forgotten to share in your letters."
…
That summer was rather different from our previous ones. For one thing, Lily and I discovered that Mum and Molly had become good friends, exchanging letters over the last term. So, quite often, Molly would bring all four boys to Cokeworth, to the delight of us all. Bill and Charlie loved having somewhere new to go, and Gid and I loved spending more time together. Molly would then banish all but Mum from the kitchen, where they would spend hours laughing as she cooked many delicious dishes. And, much to Gid and Fab's dismay, she and Mum joined forces to get us to do our summer school work. "If you get it done first thing, you won't have to worry about it the rest of the summer and will have more time to work on your Quidditch plans," Mum encouraged Gid. Somehow, he had never thought of it like that, and so got all of his work done in three weeks.
With so much of our time being spent at our house, the rest of our friends often joined us. "Is this what it's like to have a big family?" Mum laughed, looking at the twelve teenagers spread out across her lounge.
"You could adopt me, I wouldn't mind," Nic quipped with a cheeky grin. One that almost hid the truth in his words.
"And for that, you get an extra biscuit," Mum told him, with a sad grin of her own.
Mum had her good days, and her bad days, though she tried to hide them from me and Lily. It didn't work, but she tried. And somehow, Molly always knew when she would have a really bad day and shoo us all to the park, or the cinema, or the library. "She'll be alright in a few hours," she promised me the first time it happened. "She just needs a nap."
I later found out that Molly had been giving her potions to help, both for pain and strength. She technically wasn't supposed to, since Mum was a Muggle, but I didn't care. I just gave her an extra long hug and played with her boys, giving her the break that she so desperately deserved.
…
Many hours that summer were spent with my head resting in Gid's lap. I would read, or nap, occasionally, while he worked long and hard on his plans for the Gryffindor team. And then, once Marly was awarded the Hufflepuff captaincy, they amicably argued tactics for hours. "Though it doesn't really matter what plans we make now, since we have to wait to see what we get with our new teams," Marly said reasonably.
"Yes, we'll need almost a new team," Gid despaired. "Only Fab and Max will be left."
"I'm starting completely fresh," Marly confessed. "I'll probably keep Kirkpatrick, since he's actually a decent flyer, but Montgomery will have to go. Unless I can't find anyone better. Though I think Pet could outfly him."
"Well, as I've not gotten on a broom since our lessons in First Year, that would most definitely not be true," I laughed.
Fab joined in then with, "And you still won't let Gid take you up. Don't you trust your boyfriend of- How many years is it now?"
"Nearly three," Gid pronounced proudly.
"And it's not that I don't trust him, I just don't trust the broom. Or the distance it gets off the nice, solid ground," I added with a grin.
AN: I'm so sorry! I know it's been forever since I last updated, and I'm terribly sorry! I've been in a rather large slump when it comes to writing, and then I had a brilliant idea for a scene and started to write it. Then I realized I'd forgotten about OWLs and there went all excitement. I'm so sorry. I will try to be better, though I keep saying that. But thanks for reading, especially for those of you who followed and favorited. A big thanks to Nanchih, Ms. Lady Wolf, and guest for your reviews, and a huge thanks to JamesTKent for not only reviewing, but PMing me to make sure I hadn't given up on this one. James, thank you for all of your encouragement for so many of my stories!