Rose had never been more stressed than the two-week period in which she sat her OWLs.
All her friends were hastily cramming for their subjects, and Sam had even given up on pranking Rose (which really conveyed the seriousness of the matter more than anything else).
'She's off her rocker,' was constantly thrown Rose's way – what with her tearing about the castle to the Slytherin Common Room to nick Sam's impeccable Care of Magical Creatures notes, staggering from the library carrying stacks of books and being a general disaster in her own Common Room practicing every spell, charm and hex she could possibly think of, in case it turned up in any of her practical examinations.
She had also been on top of confiscating dozens of black-market brain stimulants (thanks to a heads up from her mother) all spring, which caused the words 'menace' and 'bint' to also become one of Rose's trademark names in the halls.
It was a small price to pay in order to stop students consuming dried Doxy droppings 'guaranteed to aid in intelligence and focus.'
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One by one however, the exams raced by; Astronomy, Herbology, History of Magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms and Potions – after a short and exhausting week everyone was almost finished, with only one or two exams left to sit.
Rose was preparing for Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy (she had decided against doing her mother's record number of eleven OWLs, but was stilling sitting more exams than anyone else), whilst Bee, Annie, Corey and Sam sat Divination, and Adam, Jen, Greg and Al (who just wanted an easy OWL) sat for Muggle Studies.
By the end of Rose's Potions practical exam she had given up on cramming and found herself plagued by an impulse to do unnecessary and ridiculous activities completely unrelated to her studies.
"Folks, I have just put every letter I've received this year, in order by date. What is wrong with me?"
Most of her friends weren't paying any attention as they studied in the Slytherin Common Room, but Sam sniggered into Achievements in Charming and Al dropped The Standard Book of spells, Grade 5 before exclaiming, "Why would you do that Rose? Why?"
"I don't know! That's why I'm asking you what's wrong with me!"
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Sam set down Achievements in Charming carefully on the arm of the couch he was sitting on before responding in a soft slow voice, as if he was talking to a small child, "You are procrastinating. You're occupying your mind with menial and useless tasks to distract yourself from the stress and anxiety resultant of your looming exams."
"Ugh, I feel like I'm going mad!" Rose pulled at her plaits, then took off the ribbons on the ends and started undoing her hair.
"You're procrastinating again Weasley," Sam sang in annoyingly smug voice.
"Oh blast," Rose dropped her hands dejectedly.
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As they all sat hours later, still studying in the Slytherin Common Room, Corey's voice pierced the silence.
"Oi Anne. Annie. Annie! Annnn-ieeeeeeee-"
"WHAT?!" Ann shrieked at the top of her lungs, leaving Corey white-faced and speechless.
"Well I forget now…" he mumbled awkwardly turning his eyes away from the livid bundle of nerves that used to be Annie.
Adam guffawed at his foolishness as Corey looked back at his star-chart, still nowhere closer to filling it in.
Meanwhile on the other side of the group, Jen began to beat Fred Weasley with a huge tome on magical fungi, "I can't deal with your shit right now Weasley! Bug me again before the end of my OWLs and I'll put you in the hospital wing! Besides, shouldn't you be studying for your NEWTs you smarmy git!?"
But the harder she smacked him, the more he laughed, "Jen, my father is George Weasley, owner of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? I don't need any NEWTs, there's already a Fred-size position secured at the family co-operative, waiting for me once I graduate."
Jen just through her head back to look at the ceiling and shriek in annoyance.
"Yeah, sitting any exams at all is really just a matter of pride for Fred and James, they have a bet on who's bothered to get the most NEWTS," Molly added from a couch behind them as she half-heartedly studied for her Charms NEWT.
That was the point in which Jen repeatedly screamed jinxes until Fred had antlers growing out of his afro and tentacles sprouting from his arms and legs.
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Bee ignored all the sudden commotion and started moaning again about her Divination examiner, who she thought had taken a biased dislike to her because she had predicted his wife's imminent contraction of spattergroit in some tea leaves, but Greg simply used this as an opportunity to console her with her favourite Honeydukes sweet, Spindle's Lick'O'Rish Spiders, so that she might check his Muggle Studies revision notes.
It was clear to Sam that even though they were in the last stretch of exams, the stress was getting to everybody, so he suggested a quick break to lift spirits.
"Hey guys, anyone up for a walk outside? I need a break, and you all probably need one too considering how hard we've all been working."
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Rose eagerly jumped at the chance to stop re-reading the same Arithmancy question she had been staring at for the past half an hour, "Yes, I'd love to. Let's all go walk down by the lake guys, I am in desperate need of some sunshine."
A series of adamant 'no's from every one of her friends in the Slytherin Common Room (it was cooler and quieter to study in), meant it the walk was turning out to be just Sam and herself.
They had been on good terms since James' birthday party, but Rose could still feel a certain shiver of nerves strike her every now and then when they were alone together.
She pushed it aside, "All right Malfoy, looks like it's just you and me," and they walked out of the dungeons together.
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Rose seated herself beneath the large beech tree near the edge of the Black Lake, leaving Sam standing awkwardly, contemplating how much of a gap to leave between them.
For some reason Rose felt slightly nervous, although it was a completely different kind of nervous to how she felt before an OWL exam.
She tried to keep the mood playful, "Oh just sit down Malfoy, or have exams frazzled your brain so much you no longer have command over your limbs?"
"Shut up Weasley," but he quickly followed her orders, deciding a foot-long gap would solve things.
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They had thoroughly exhausted talk of OWLs and most of their shared exams on the walk from the dungeons and now they sat in silence soaking up the spring sunshine.
After another minute, Rose muttered a quick spell and transfigured a nearby stick into a guitar.
As she placed her fingers on the fretboard and strummed, but both she and Sam groaned as the strings twanged discordantly.
They laughed, and Rose set about tuning the guitar with a spell Hugo had taught her that caused the sound of a low E to be emitted from her wand.
Once she had tuned, she strummed the few simple chords that she knew and hummed a little.
"Sing me something, Weasley."
"No way," Rose replied instantly.
Who was he to demand serenading? What was he daft?
"Pleeeeaaaaasssse."
"No."
Sam smiled slyly, "Is that your final answer Rose?"
She nodded, jutting out her chin in defiance.
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Then, before she could say Merlin's pants, Sam had whipped the guitar out of her arms and run away with it.
Her mouth dropped in shock for a moment, then she was up in a flash, chasing him around the lake.
She dodged a group of fourth year Ravenclaws, jumped over a circle of Gobstones players and managed to grab the neck of the guitar in the midst of a band of first years (Why did sunshine have to attract people out into the grounds? They were getting in her way, damn them!).
"Let – go – Malfoy!"
Rose grunted as she pulled at the guitar.
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"Okay," and Malfoy grinned in delight as he abruptly let go of the guitar's body and happily watched the guitar shoot backwards, hitting a first year in the face and causing Rose to lose her balance.
An "Ooof," escaped her as she landed on the ground in shock, and she pressed her lips together suppressing a grin before taking off back towards the beech tree.
Sam followed, laughing so hard his stomach started to hurt and his chest burned as he gasped for breath.
Rose collapsed on the ground underneath the tree, belly shaking, laughing so hard no sound emerged from her open mouth.
She tried to talk, but the look on the first year's face was so hysterical that she couldn't get any words out, and tears began to stream down her face.
When either one of them would stop, mere eye contact would set them off again, and when they finally both managed to cease laughing, as soon as Rose attempted speech they both burst out again.
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Eventually Sam flopped down on the ground next to her, and they lay shoulder to shoulder underneath the tree, looking up at the branches, the guitar thrown down and forgotten.
Rose heard a rustle next to her ear and she knew Sam had turned his head to look at her.
He didn't move again, and when she couldn't stand his staring any longer she turned her head too.
Rose was instantly shocked at the sadness and disappointment painted on his features.
"What's wrong Sam?"
Sam sighed wearily and turned his face back up towards the sky.
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"What's wrong, is that you make it so hard Rose."
She sat up, confused, "Make what so hard?"
It seemed to take Sam hours to form his answer, "You make it so hard to talk to you, and tease you, and laugh with you, and write to you late at night in those stupid books – and then think of you only as a friend! Because every time I express my romantic feelings, you get angry and bolt like a racing broom. And I don't know what to do, because I really like you. Not as a friend, not as a schoolmate and not as my best friend's cousin. I, I, I fancy you!"
Sam seemed as shocked as Rose was, that he'd finally managed to get his feelings out.
He sat up, as if to leave, but then thought that if he'd gone this far, he may as well spit it all out.
Sam turned back, looking at Rose as though her eyes might tell him why everything about them always had to be so bitter-sweet.
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"You give me these crazy feelings, like I'm going barmy or something! I don't know what they mean, or even what they are, but I know that it should be amazing and exciting. Why do you always try to make it seem like fancying each other is so terrible? Am I supposed to just feel guilty and miserable, and awful for feeling something?"
He laughed bitterly at himself, "And now I've gone and said way too much about my feelings…"
Rose gave a little laugh, and Sam managed a weak smile before continuing.
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"I haven't even tried to forget about you, you know that?"
He shook his head as though he had never heard of anything so foolish in his life.
"After the Polyjuice Party, I should have sworn off you. But… it's like you've gone and planted a rose right in the middle of my brain and everywhere I look, you're there, at the very front of everything I see. Before my physical vision even gets a chance to tell my brain what I'm actually seeing, you're there."
Sam sighed again, and he wrapped his arms around his knees, trying to keep himself together and keep the lump in his throat down.
"I know it's useless, but I don't know what to do. All I know is it hurts Rose. Ever since James' birthday party, we've kind of gotten back to normal. We talk all the time, we write messages to each other, we study together, we joke together."
Rose smiled, she had really enjoyed getting back to normal with Sam recently, but her lips lost their joy when it became clear he didn't feel the same at all.
"I can feel myself thinking about what it would be like to… to be together, properly."
Sam paused and blushed even pinker, looking away from Rose to the roots of the tree intensely.
"And I know it's hurting me, but I don't want to stop. Because when you're right here in front of me, everything else disappears. But this is torture, and I can't to do it anymore. I'm sorry, but I think I need some space… I can't be around you this much, because I want more. I want more than this, and it hurts too much to ignore."
Sam stood up and walked back to the castle, leaving Rose sitting by the lake, wishing she had never asked Sam what was wrong in the first place…