See early chapter for disclaimers

An early chapter because I'm going to be away next week, so I can't upload then.

Enjoy! :)

Chapter 21- The Week Of Exams

Lounging by the roaring fire, Peter Pettigrew groaned as he failed for the fifth time, to correctly get his books to move. He looked over at his friends jealously, who had properly masted the locomotor spells before the holiday had started. He, however, would have times where it merely twitched, other times where it raced across the table, and sometimes, nothing hapened at all. And this was one of the times, two days before the exam. Remus looked over from where he, James and Sirius were doing potions. It was the last subject they were practicing, despite the test being the closest.

'Peter, ditch Charms, come here, potions is tomorrow!'

'What a great way of spending Sunday evening-practicing for potions!' Sirius nodded in agreement.

'Come on, It's an essential subject! Besides, we only need to look at one more potion. Slughorn said this one is the post likely to come up, the hiccoughing pot...' Remus began

'Oh, that's simple, for Godric's sake, fill the caldron half full with sea water, boil for ten minutes, add five crushed rose thorns, add in 50g of dandelion roots and bicorn horns at the same, before stirring for five minutes. Finally add three drops of Horklump juice, and then the mixture, which should've been a dark blue before, should turn the potion pale green. Then leave it for several minutes too cool down. Once the bubbles stop appearing, it's ready. ' Sirius recited with a bored expression. His friends looked at him confused.

'As you all know, my parents banned me from basically everything in the holidays. I literally had no choice but to study. So I looked at basically everything I needed to, and near memorised all of it. It was torture, but that's not unusual for them' he than walked up to the boy's dormitory. it was the first time since they returned to Hogwarts, that he mentioned how his parents treated him, and in that time, Peter and James filled in Remus on everything Sirius told them n the train. There was a minutes silence, when Remus said softly,

'Well, at least we know exactly how to brew the hiccoughing potions.'

'You actually memorised what he said!'

'Of course. Come on, Sirius hardly ever stays in this mood for long.' They raced up to the dormitory, to find Sirius on James's bed, reading a magazine, looking as chilled as ever. He glared up as his friends filed in.

'You are the most dramatic person I've ever known. One mention of your parents, and you flounce off!'

'Well, I'd done all my studying, so I'd decided I should walk to the dormitory, to read the next issue of my magazine.'

'You didn't walk, you stomped gracefully here, scowling handsomely along the way.' James replied. Peter giggled.

'Well, I had a reason to be angry, I just reminded myself of my 'wonderful' parents!'

'Well, you can talk to us you know, about them. It hurts to keep it all in, and sometimes you need someone to listen to you, while you let it all out. Or maybe write a letter about it, and give it to us. Dramatically walking away will not help.' Sirius got a sense Remus was talking from experience, which he was, and wondered as he did several times, why Remus would know how he felt, what situation he must be in. The room was suddenly very tense.

'Yes, we can all be loving, loyal Hufflepuffs if we need too. Hufflepuff is a great house.' Peter exclaimed, breaking the tension. Everyone burst into laughter, as Peter made a weird face of surprise at what he had just said and done. The atmosphere had changed entirely. Peakes and Cootes then burst into the room.

'What happened? Everyone was studying, but then you got up, and ran to the dormitory, with the rest of you following!' Peakes exclaimed.

'Why, I came up here to read my magazine! It's the 'flying muggles' special edition. The two that just entered looked more confused than confused, causing James, Sirius, Remus and Peter to burst into laughter.

Then the exam week began for the first formers. They did end up getting the hiccoughing potion for that test, and, though they were in different rooms, James and Remus could see Sirius smirking. Peter actually say Sirius' smug expression as Professor Barchi revealed that they shall be brewing a Hiccoughing Solution. While several other students gave looks of horror, Sirius glided around the room, picking up the required ingredients, looking cool and collected. Peter too, seemed slightly more relaxed, as Sirius had helped them on this particular potion, giving them clear instructions on what to do, earlier that day. Soon they were done, and they left the class. The following day, they had both charms and transfiguration. Professor Flitwick had given them the taste of enlarging and shrinking various objects, while Professor McGonagall first made them turn their chairs into animal statues, and depending on the size of the animal created, they will be graded, since, even though the statues would have the same amount of matter, it was more difficult if the animal it is transformed into is bigger. Both James and Sirius attempted a lion, however James' lion had a chunk missing from his mane. He groaned loudly while Sirius laughed. Remus however, was staring at Lily, who had a statue of a wolf before her. Peter was staring in horror at what he had done, he had turned the chair into a beetle, which was rather silly if him, since he had s huge fear of creepy crawlies. McGonagall went around, writing a report about the various statues. There were several bugs, quite a few spiders, a bunch of rodents, but only seven amongst them had attempted something bigger than a rat. Three Slytherins, and four Gryffindors. Among the three Slytherins, there were two snakes, and an owl. Remus had a dog before him. He sighed. 'Oh well.' He thought. 'Fourth place isn't bad.' They were then asked to transfigure them back, before the bell rung.

'Well done everyone!' McGonagall shouted. 'You did well! Potter, Black, transfigure those chairs back to normal...no, I don't want them with red spirals on the back, change them to how they originally were! Oh, the bell went ages ago! Dismissed!'

'Two tests right after each other! In the morning!' Peter cried, everyone filed out to break. 'Where's James?' The messy haired boy in question, lingered behind, after seeing Sirius flinch after the Professor addressed him as 'Black.'

'Potter? Aren't you going with Black?' McGonagall asked from behind him.

'Actually, Professor, I wanted to ask you something...' James said, finding himself nervous for once. McGonagall noticed this, and thought James seemed a lot more like a scared first-former than ever before. She smiled kindly, a rare sight. However, she was rather fond of him, despite his mischievous ways, and was rather pleased with his excellent transfiguration.

'Go ahead.'

'Well, do mind referring to Sirius as Sirius, rather than Black? You see, his parents are really horrible to him...that's an understatement, they abuse him, and they are all 'pure bloods are the best' and stuff, so he hates his family, he hates being a 'Black'. So when you referred to him as that, he flinched terribly, and looked upset. I don't want him to be like that, to be constantly reminded of his family. So, it think it would really help him...' James looked up at McGonagall, slightly scared.

'Of course. And, as head of his house, I am responsible for his being, as well as the rest of the Gryffindors. Therefore, I shall go to each teacher and speak to them. Thank you very much James.' With another warm smile, and a fierce rush of pride for the boy, she dismissed him. James said goodbye, and left to join his mates.

They had double herbology the following day, so Professor Sprout set them both a practical and written exam. Their arms ached at the end of the exam, so they were excited for Defence Against the Dark Arts after lunch. However Professor Ackerley had set them all a written test too. James and Sirius grumbled throughout, though they were unheard by everyone other than Remus in their corner of the room. The lessons ended and soon dinner arrived. Despite the earlier exams, and the fact that they had two more exams left, James and Sirius were extremely cheery. Remus and Peter believed they were planning an 'end of exams' celebration, in other words, a prank.

But first they had their history of magic exam. In other words, an hour of torture. Even James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who used a book for HoM, rather than listening to Binns' flat emotionless voice, couldn't be bothered to do the work using their full effort. Eventually, the hour ended, though it felt like a year, and they then had no more exams for the rest of the day, but Peter had.

The following lesson was their flying lesson. They had had a test at the end of each half term, and James passed on his first test, with 'flying' colours. Sirius managed to pass on the next assessment, just before Christmas. Remus had passed just before Easter, so now, only Peter was left. The normally nervous boy, now looked determined. All of the Gryffindors bar him had already passes, and most the Hufflepuffs had too, only three hadn't. Peter desperately wanted to pass this time, and beat the Hufflepuffs in completing the exams. The Professor had an agility course set up, with thin gaps to pass through, bars to weave in and out of, and so forth. The four taking the test get ready. They had to get through all the obstacles in a set time, without hitting any obstacles. The instructor blew the whistle, and they started. Peter flew towards the first obstacle, poles sticking out of the ground that he had to zig zag around. He slowed down a bit, knowing he was not good at doing shark angles. He flew cautiously, making sure he turned on time and at the right distance. He passed the obstacle, but he found he was behind the others. Next, there were two blocks rather close to each other, that would test if he could fly in a straight line, and keep the broom steady. He watched as the Hufflepuff before him accidentally jolted the broom and ended up hitting one of the blocks. He was disqualified. Peter decided it was best if he tried to do it quickly to spend as little time as possible on it. So he zoomed through it, and very nearly hit it. However, since he didn't he had passed that part. Then, there were a series of hoops he had to travel through. He passed through three hoops, and then overtook one of the Hufflepuffs, who had decided to go much slower than him. He cleared the remaining hopes and was left with the last thing to do, a lap of the field, though there were a few hurdles he had to go over, and bard he had to go under. Peter raced around, only slowing when there was a hurdle or bar. He crossed the completion line, as the instructor shouted

'10 seconds left!' He saw the Hufflepuff from before pass the line in the nick of time. There was cheering from the crowd of first years, and Peter could hear James and Sirius, who had began this 'Well done Pe-TER! Well dome Per-TER!' Chant.

'Well done Mathias Kohler, Peter Pettigrew and Nina Turpin. You have passed you Basic Flying Skills Assessment. Congratulations.' She then turned to the small Hufflepuff boy behind her. He was a plain, rather unnoticed boy, with fluffy brown hair. She smiled at him, as he looked terrified. 'I"m sorry Matthew Maple, but I'm afraid you failed. You will have to try the final exam at the end of the term.' They still had a while left, so the instructor let them fly about while. James started some races, but stopped them after the first race as he had gotten third place.

'I...I went really slow deliberately!I didn't want anyone to feel bad as I'm so awesome at flying, but I misjudged how slow I needed to go, so Morgans and Horan overtook me!' James whined as soon as the lesson had finished. 'I'm obviously the best at flying, and at Quidditch, so surely you realised I had gone easy, right?' Sirius, Remus and Peter were all laughing. James had never looked this lost before.

'Of course we knew James.' Said Sirius affectionately, as, despite how hilarious it was, James was their friend. Satisfied, James stoped his whining and instead gave a smug grin.

'Oh, it's obvious isn't it? You know, you may also drop the hint to Breaches, the Quidditch captain. Seriously, I don't know why I'm not allowed in the team!'

'Well, first years aren't allowed in house teams...' Remus replied.

'Oh, I'm sure they can bend the rule for a Potter!' James shouted angrily, before plopping himself on the bench in the Great Hall. The then bit into his sandwich forcefully, like ha was angry with it, causing his three friends to dissolve into laughter again.

The first years had to go to bed early, as It was their astronomy night. They were woken up at eleven to get ready for their assessment. While the rest of the boys changed into their robes, Sirius merely asked his pyjamas to turn into his Hogwarts clothes.

'You got the best Christmas gifts last year.' Muttered James enviously. 'Technically you can live in them for the rest of your life!' Sirius wrinkled his nose in disgust.

'I would stink!' He replied in a loud whisper. They then left the room and sneaked down to the common room. Peter gave a yelp as they entered, as two fifth years were still up, studying. Peakes covered his mouth. James tutted.

'Here, have some chocolate. You need energy.' He whispered, placing some pieces on the table. The two girls and Remus picked up a piece. They them left the common room, where they found the Gryffindor girls and McGonagall waiting for them as usual.

'Come on.' They made their way to the astronomy tower for the exam. They met the Ravenclaws there, all of them looking awake, and several, slightly excited. They were soon joined by the Slytherins SMS Hufflepuffs. After Matthew Maple had gently walked in, the door was shut. Their final exam was that they were given a map and they had to place where certain planets and moons were that night. After an hour, the exam was over, and Remus, Sirius, James and Peter had all completed. McGonagall returned them all to their common room, and, after changing back into their night suits (except Sirius, who nobody but the first year Gryffindor boys knew, did the whole exam, in his pyjamas that changed into what he asked it too) they jumped into their beds, glad that their exam week was finally over.