O.W.L.s came with a force that Victoire hadn't even begun to anticipate.
"You ready?" Molly asked, as they traipsed down to breakfast on the morning of their Transfiguration O.W.L.
"Is anyone ever ready?" Victoire asked.
"I don't think so, no," Alexa said, "And somehow, I doubt we'll be exceptions."
"We'll be fine," Monica said, "I think."
"Very reassuring, Monica," Jade said. She grimaced, "I don't know what to make of this, honestly. I hope it goes well."
"Well, there's not much that we can do except for try," Victoire said, "I just hope that things go well, I really need to do well on this or they'll never let me be an Auror."
"We'll get into the Auror program," Alexa said, "I don't think that's something we should really be worrying about. I'm just concerned about living through the next week."
"Just think about it though," Monica said, "Get through this week, and then we're free for three months. We'll do it."
"It's not a question of whether or not we'll do it," Victoire said, "It's a question of how alive we'll be once we're done, because with how I'm feeling at the moment, I'm going to go with not very."
"Like Monica said, we'll have three months to regain our strength," Jade said.
"Yeah, but I'd like to be able to do more in those three months than just regain my strength," Victoire said, "It would be nice to be able to go off and do some things over the holidays, rather than spending them trying to regain my full brain capacity, you know? Besides, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to end up being dragged everywhere by Dom, and I'll also have to babysit Louis, so I'm going to have my hands full and my recovery time will be limited."
"It won't be that bad," Molly said, "Lou will just end up at Uncle Harry's all summer with Albus."
"Yeah, and they'll ask me a million and one questions about school, and I'll be forced to answer them," Victoire said, "You got off easy, Molls, your sister's already here. Al and Lily come up with enough questions to be twenty people, I spend most of my time with them answering pointless things about the dormitory and whatnot."
"They're just excited, that's all," Alexa said, "Can you really blame them? It's Hogwarts."
"I mean, I suppose not, but still," Victoire said, "It gets awfully exhausting, and they've heard everything at least five times already, since every new Weasley doesn't shut about school for at least a month after their first year is over."
"I'd be just as curious," Molly said, shrugging, "Besides, we asked our parents every question under the sun before we came."
"I guess," Victoire said, "But back to the real problem here. How in Merlin's name are we going to get through these ridiculous tests?"
They entered the Great Hall, which was shockingly quiet. People were hunched over books and pieces of parchment as they absentmindedly ate their breakfasts, and the usual cacophony of sounds that filled the Great Hall had lessened to a dull roar.
The girls made their way to their usual seats. Sam was sitting there, his Defense Against The Dark Arts book propped up against a jug of marmalade.
"Morning," he said, before turning his gaze back to his book.
"Morning to you too," Molly said, ruffling his hair and sitting down beside him, "Ready for your N.E.W.T.s?"
He groaned, "Don't even talk to me about them, I'm pretty sure I'm about to ruin my life."
"You're already signed to Puddlemere, I think you're good," Victoire said.
"You think I am, that doesn't mean that I actually am," Sam said.
"Are you doubting me?" Victoire asked, "Sam, I'm really offended right now."
Jade rolled her eyes, "You're not going to ruin your life, Sam, it's just some tests, and like Vic said, you're already set for post-Hogwarts. Just be happy that you're not a prospective Auror or Healer who's going to have to wait for results to come in and hope to everything they have that they get the scores they need for the programs that they want to get into. You get your scores, look at them, and then toss them in the bin, it's not like they really matter to you all that much."
"You're playing for Puddlemere next season," Monica said, "You really don't need to worry at all."
Sam made a face, "Point is, these are the culminating event of my Hogwarts career. I'd like to at least do somewhat decently on them, you know?"
"I mean, we want to do at least somewhat decently on our O.W.L.s, but only time will tell," Alexa said, "You'll be perfectly fine though, Sam, you're one of the smartest people in your year and I'm sure you'll achieve a N.E.W.T in every subject that you're testing for."
"I hope to Merlin that you're right," Sam said, "I do have to give Chels and Nick something to live up to, after all."
Molly laughed, "Sam, I'm pretty sure they've got a lot to live up to, whether you do well on your N.E.W.T.s or not."
"She's got a point there," Jade said, "You've set a perfectly good precedent for them already, you don't need to worry about adding to it. Besides, it's their last year next year, it's not as though they've got to live under your legacy for years of their Hogwarts career."
"Unlike the rest of the children of the Weasley-Potter clan, who have to live under Vic and me," Molly said, grinning, "They're going to have a lot of fun with that."
"I'm sure they'll manage," Victoire said, "They've done alright so far."
"Yeah, but we're here to keep them on the straight and narrow," Molly said, "Imagine what things will be like once we're gone."
Victoire rolled her eyes, "I don't know how much we've done to keep them on the straight and narrow, Molls. I mean, think about who you're dating and what he's gotten up to outside of academics and Quidditch during his years at Hogwarts."
"She's right there," Alexa said, "Need I remind you of the fireworks?"
Molly winced, "Right…"
"Point is, Sam, you'll be fine," Victoire said, "And if it should come to pass that you aren't, Molly's going to do perfectly on hers, and she'll provide for you."
Molly rolled her eyes, "Shut up, Vic."
"Not going to happen, sorry," Victoire said, helping herself to some toast.
"I figured," Molly said, sighing, "It was worth a try though, wasn't it?"
"That's debatable," Alexa said, "That's always debatable."
"Listen to Alexa, Molls," Monica said, "The girl knows what she's talking about."
Sam laughed, "You know, for a bunch of people that are supposedly so worried about your O.W.L.s, you're awfully chipper this morning."
"It's our coping mechanism," Jade said, "We act extremely silly and immature in order to ward off the feeling that we're about to completely destroy our futures, it's the best we could come up with on such short notice."
"You've known you would have to take these tests for at least five years," Sam said, raising his eyebrows.
Jade nodded, "Like I said, short notice."
Alexa laughed, "Honestly, Sam, I don't think anything in the world could prepare us for dealing with the stress over these damn things. Whoever figures out a cure won't ever have to worry about their finances ever again."
"You could always just use a portable daydream or eat a bit of Fainting Fancy," Sam said, "Take yourself out of the real world for a little while."
"Yeah, but then we run the risk of being late to or just straight up missing an exam," Victoire said, "Which would in turn up our stress level, hence our lack of use of such things."
Sam shook his head, "I practically lived off those things my fifth year. They kept me sane all through O.W.L.s week. The Snackboxes kept me sane all year, actually."
"I'm sure Uncle George is glad his products are going to such good use," Molly said, "But I'm fairly certain that my dad would skin me alive if he heard I'd so much as thought of taking a bite out of something from a Snackbox. The man take O.W.L.s very seriously."
"Uncle Percy takes everything very seriously," Victoire said, rolling her eyes.
"I honestly think that's the most accurate assessment of your uncle that I've ever heard," Alexa said, "He's nice, but Merlin is he stoic."
"He's loosened up a bit, if what Uncle Harry has said is true," Molly said, "If that's the case, though, I don't even want to think about what he was like before."
"I don't think any of us want to," Monica said, shuddering, "I'm pretty sure your dad hates me, Molls."
"He doesn't really hate anyone," Molly said, "Well, aside from the Lestranges and first generation Death Eaters in general. It's mostly that it takes him a long time to form an opinion of people, so he comes off as a bit harsh until he does. As long as you do reasonably well at school, he won't hate you, and you haven't gotten me into any major trouble, so he's not going to be inclined to have a low opinion of you."
"Yeah, most of the times that she's gotten in trouble have been my fault," Victoire said, grinning, "And I'm family, so Uncle Percy can't hate me too much."
"I think you're his favorite, honestly," Molly said, "It's actually kind of mental how excited he is to see you."
"It's because I'm the oldest of the lot of us," Victoire said, shrugging, "It doesn't actually have anything to do with me as a person."
"Keep telling yourself that, Vic," Molly said.
Jade laughed, "Your family's pretty dysfunctional, isn't it?"
Her mouth dropped when the other five in the group turned to her and chorused, "You have no idea."
They found themselves settled in the Great Hall again an hour later, only this time, the room was filled with solitary desks. The O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration students were split up and settled on opposite sides of the Great Hall for the written portion of their exam, and all that could be heard for nearly three hours was the scraping of quills against parchment.
Victoire met the others out in the entrance hall after the written exam.
"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Alexa said, "I was anticipating that they were going to ask us about all of those things that we just finished covering right before the exam, but they barely touched on any of them."
Monica shuddered, "I don't want to think about it, I don't want to know, I'd like to forget it ever happened."
"I'm sure you did fine," Jade said, "Besides, we still have the practical portion, I'm sure you can pull it together for that."
"I'm just happy they give us a break between the written and practical exam," Sam said.
Victoire shook her head, "I'm not. You have the advantage of having a last name that's close to the beginning of the alphabet."
"Vic and I are going to be here waiting almost the entire time," Molly said, "And unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that."
"Yeah, Jade and Monica have all the luck," Alexa said, "Alexander and Birchfield, you two will be in and out in a flash."
"Provided neither of us mucks it up," Jade said, "For all you know, we could be the ones who take three times as long as everyone else to complete the practical portion."
"If you are, I'll maim you," Molly said, fixing her eyes on the other girl, "I'll be very upset if Vic and I are forced to be here any longer than we absolutely need to."
"There's bound to be some idiot that's going to completely screw up," Sam said, "There always is. My fifth year, it was Ryland Barrett."
"You mean, the Ravenclaw?" Monica asked, her eyes widening.
Sam nodded, "We were all a bit surprised. He did alright in the end, obviously, but he was really struggling during O.W.L.s for some reason."
"Well, I'm sure that you two will be fine," Alexa said, looking at Jade and Monica, "You're certainly not idiots, as long as you don't completely blank you'll be out of there fairly quickly."
"We hope," Jade said.
They headed down to the classrooms a few minutes later for the second half of their exam. Sure enough, Jade and Monica were in and out of the practical examination within fifteen minutes. Alexa and Sam went a bit later. Molly and Victoire waited almost two hours before they were finally able to take the practical portion. Victoire was in and out in ten minutes, and she pocketed her wand with a sigh.
"I'm glad that's over," Molly said, emerging from the classroom a moment later.
"Me too," Victoire said, "Now we just have to get through the rest of these things."
"Yeah, but I vote we eat some lunch before we even think about worrying about what comes tomorrow," Molly said.
Victoire nodded, "Sounds good to me."
They went back to the Great Hall to see that the tables had been returned to normal. Sam and Teddy were sitting in the usual area, deep in conversation, and Molly raised her eyebrows at Victoire.
Victoire shook her head, "It's… Whatever. I'll deal, Sam's his best mate, he's allowed to be here."
"If you say so," Molly said.
They made their way to the table and sat down. Victoire helped herself to some food and looked at Sam, "So, Sam, how'd it go?"
He looked up, and jumped a little bit, "Merlin, I didn't see you two sit down."
"Clearly," Molly said, taking a bite from her apple, "But like Vic said, how'd it go?"
Sam shrugged, "It was fine. Could've been worse."
Teddy muttered something, and Sam looked at him, "You sure?"
With a nod, Teddy left and headed down the table to where Olivia was sitting.
Victoire raised her eyebrows, "He didn't leave because of me, did he?"
"It didn't have anything to do with you," Sam said. After a doubtful stare from Victoire, Sam relented, "Okay, it was a little bit, but only because he feels awkward, not because you did anything to make him mad or anything."
Molly sighed, "When will you two get over that?"
"I don't know," Victoire said, "When I feel like I'm ready to, okay? Is that good enough?"
"It's your life," Molly said, reaching for the roast beef.
"Precisely," Victoire said. She turned back to Sam, "So, your exam went okay?"
"I mean, I probably could have done better, but I thought it went alright," Sam said, "Not as bad as I thought it would be, that's for sure. People have done a really good job of being overdramatic about these things, they're honestly nowhere near as bad as people like to say they are."
"I'll take your word for it," Victoire said, "I just want to make it through my O.W.L.s alive, I'll worry about N.E.W.T.s later."
"Makes sense," Sam said, "What'd you think about yours?"
"Decent," Molly said, "But then again, I could get my results and find out that I got a T on Transfiguration, so I probably shouldn't say too much right now."
"You don't honestly think that you'll jinx it," Sam said.
"No, but I don't want to say I did well only to get my results and find out that I didn't," Molly said, "It'd be awfully embarrassing."
"I'm with Molls on this one," Victoire said, "I thought it went okay, but I could be completely wrong, you never know. I'm mostly worried about Potions."
"You'll do fine," Sam said, "You only need an Exceeds Expectations to get into N.E.W.T. level."
"Yeah, but if I don't get that, I won't get in, and then there goes being an Auror," Victoire said, "I'd really like to be able to continue with that, you know, seeing as it's what I've wanted to do since I was a kid, practically."
"Whatever made you decide that was what you wanted to do anyway?" Molly asked, "I never really thought about it, you've wanted it for so long."
Victoire shrugged, "I don't know, it just… Feels right. I know Mum and Dad are working for Gringotts and all of that, but I've always felt like I would be best suited to a job as an Auror. It just feels like the right thing to do, so I've never really thought about doing anything else."
"What if the Harpies offered you a spot?" Sam asked.
"I don't think I would take it, honestly," Victoire said, "I've known for years that I want to be an Auror. Playing for the Harpies is Dom's dream, not mine."
"She'll get it too, with the way she's been playing," Sam said, "They'll have a hell of a time after she's gone."
"Well, whoever's Captain after her will have played with her for three years probably," Molly said, "They'll have plenty of time to start thinking about how to replace her, and I'm sure she'll be going mad training a replacement for herself. Liam's going to have a massive job replacing you and Teddy, it's not like there are that many people that play as well with Alexa and Vic as Teddy does."
"We'll work it out," Victoire said, shrugging, "They'll just have to get a major crash course in all of our combinations, that's all."
"Vic and Alexa are resourceful, they'll figure it out," Sam said, "They're fairly flexible players, they'll be able to adapt to having someone new playing with them."
Victoire nodded, "It'll work somehow." She looked at Sam, "Do you know what's going on with the Auror program? Some people have been talking about how they should have their letters by the time we leave next Friday."
"Yeah," Sam said, "They changed it this year so that people can rush their results for a couple of Galleons. Any N.E.W.T.s that they don't need for the program are this Friday so that results can make it to the Auror office, and then I guess they work overtime for the first couple of days next week to review applications and let people in. There's a summer program or something like that which immerses them a lot more quickly."
"I guess that would be nice," Molly said.
"I'll probably end up going for it if they offer it our seventh year," Victoire said, "Just for the sake of having my results sooner though, I don't know if I'd actually want to apply to the early program."
Sam shrugged, "It has its advantages, I guess."
"It certainly reduces the waiting-for-exam-results stress," Molly said, "I'll probably end up going for it too, honestly."
"I just like to know those things," Victoire said, "It comes in handy sometimes. Plus, like Molls said, less stress."
"Any word on when you start practice?" Molly asked.
Sam shook his head, "I'm pretty sure they're giving me at least a couple of weeks after the year is over to go see family and all of that, but beyond that, I have no idea."
"Shame," Molly said.
"I've got recruitment this weekend though," Sam said, "I'm Flooing out on Friday afternoon, and I'll be back on Monday evening."
"Have fun," Victoire said, "From what Mel's told me, the professional teams have some interesting welcoming practices."
Sam laughed, "I'm sure I'll be fine."
Victoire rolled her eyes, "Well, if you come back with green hair, don't say I didn't warn you."
"Heard and understood," Sam said.
The next day was much the same, with everyone feeling reasonably confident about things, but Wednesday was when things started to go downhill.
"I c-can't d-do t-this," Alexa said, tears already falling.
"It's going to be fine," Victoire said, wrapping an arm around her best friend's shoulders, "I swear. It's just Charms, Lexa, you're an ace at Charms."
"I w-was," Alexa said.
Liam walked into the common room, took one look at his girlfriend, and sighed, "Let me handle this."
Victoire stood up and let Liam take her seat beside Alexa, "Good luck, we've been trying for the last fifteen minutes."
Liam rolled his eyes, "It'll be fine." He turned to Alexa and pulled her up against him before whispering something in her ear. As he spoke, she began to calm down, and when he stopped talking, she wrapped her arms around him.
"Thanks, Liam."
He smiled at her, "Anytime."
Victoire shook her head, "I don't know how you do it."
Liam grinned, "I'm magical, what can I say?"
Monica rolled her eyes, "Sure you are. Feeling better, Lex?"
Alexa nodded, "Sorry, guys, I don't know what came over me."
"You're stressed out," Sam said, shrugging, "It happens. You won't be the last one either. There's already been at least six people in and out of the hospital wing, there will be more. Yours wasn't that bad at all. My fifth year, one of the Slytherins got so nervous that he had to be sedated because he literally flipped a table over. He had to take his O.W.L.s specially, and they brought in a couple of Aurors to keep an eye on him just in case things got out of hand. Of course, that's the exception, not the norm, but point is, it does happen."
"I guess you're right," Alexa said, "I probably should've thought about the fact that I'm not the only one, but what can I say? When you're nervous, you're not exactly worried about being rational."
"You ready to go down to breakfast now?" Molly asked, "You're an ace at Charms, like Vic said, you'll do fine. You're just tired."
Alexa nodded again, "Yeah, I'm ready. You guys are right, I'm just nervous, that's all."
As they walked down to breakfast, Victoire turned to Liam, "I could have sworn you were completely fine last year."
He shrugged, "I was."
"How did you do it?" Victoire asked.
"I studied up until the week of, and then I didn't study at all during the week," Liam said, "I played Quidditch instead, you know how good of a stress reliever it is when you're just playing for the fun of it. It worked really well, I didn't panic at all the entire time. It was pretty great."
"I could never do that," Victoire said, "I like to study, it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something."
Liam laughed, "I wish I could say the same, but there comes a point where I feel like I'm just stressing myself out more. You probably have a much higher tolerance for it than I do, I can only handle so much before I start going absolutely barmy."
"I'm the same," Victoire said, "I've just been desensitized to it at this point, so I don't really notice anymore."
"You're lucky that way," Liam said, "I wish I was able to study without feeling like my head was going to explode, but apparently I was not fortunate enough to receive that skill."
Victoire grinned, "It comes in handy, I must say, but I'd still rather be playing Quidditch or spending time with the girls than studying for exams."
"I'm pretty sure everyone would rather be doing something besides studying for exams, but if you have an easy time of it, then you're awfully lucky," Liam said, "It means I have to space everyone out a lot more than you probably do in order to avoid overstressing myself and exhibiting a breakdown similar to Alexa's, tears and all."
"Well, you two are perfectly matched then, aren't you?" Victoire asked.
Liam rolled his eyes, "Except I tend to ditch things when they become too problematic in order to go play Quidditch so that I don't go mad, and some people don't find that to be all that appealing."
"I'm sure you're fine," Victoire said, "Lexa's not about to abandon someone who prefers Quidditch to problems. In fact, I think she'd probably really like playing Quidditch in order to resolve problems."
"You're probably right," Liam said.
Victoire placed a hand on his shoulder, "Wouldn't be the first time."
Thankfully, Alexa made it through the Charms O.W.L. without any further breakdowns.
The last two days of exams were both the best and worst.
Best, because they knew that they were nearly done.
Worst, because they were still exam days, and their end meant the graduation of the seventh years, something that no one was particularly excited about.
They all said goodbye to Sam on Friday afternoon, and then he left to go to Puddlemere's recruitment weekend.
"It's going to be strange," Monica said, as they were walking around the lake later that day.
"What will?" Jade asked.
"Sam and Teddy are going to be gone, Chelsea, Nick, and Liam are going to be seventh years…" Monica sighed, "It's just going to be strange. It'll be the first year without Sam and Teddy here."
"We'll manage," Victoire said, "We always do. Sam won't be that far away, it's not like he's leaving the country or anything, and you know he'll be at Hogsmeade weekends so that he can see Molls."
"And the rest of you," Molly said, "He's not about to abandon you lot just because he's dating me, you know that."
Victoire shrugged, "He has more incentive to see you, you're his girlfriend."
"And you're practically his younger sister," Alexa said, "He'll be back, we don't need to worry about him going too far away."
"I'll miss him a lot though," Molly said, sighing, "I wish he was here."
"Molls," Monica said, "He's been gone for literally an hour."
"I'm not used to him not being somewhere around the school," Molly said.
"He'll be back on Monday," Jade said.
"I know," Molly said, "You guys…"
"We don't get it, we know," Victoire said, "It'll be fine though, you'll get used to it. We'll all get used to it."
"Vic's right," Alexa said, "Nothing lasts forever, and much as we might want them to stay here, people have to leave. I'm just glad my best mates are in my year."
Victoire nodded, "Me too." She sighed, "Me too…"
A/N:
And now there is only one more chapter left! I would've posted this one sooner, but I have literally been working on homework, at a track meet, or practicing for my driving test pretty much every waking moment because it's a month until finals and I'm taking my test tomorrow.
I'm nearly done with the first chapter of the sequel, but there's a lot going on over the next couple of weeks for me so it might take a little while for me to get that posted after the final chapter of this one.
And yes, feel sort of bad for Danny right now, but I promise you good things will happen to him later! Not in this story, since there's not really time left, but in the sequel. He will be happy!
I'm off to do MORE work, talk to you all later :)
~AC