Again, after a long hiatus, I'm back! There are only two chapters to go after this one and I have written the epilogue, so rest assured the story will be finished! It's been my baby for so long, I could never abandon it! Sorry for all those who have had to wait so long for this.

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The Monday after the funeral and Alice's talk with Dumbledore, the NEWTs began. Alice was completely stressed out; she had so much on her mind already without trying to cram seven years' worth of work into there as well. But, she knew these were the most important exams she'd ever have to take, and so over breakfast by the lake on Monday morning, she, Lily and Holly were frantically trying to cram in some last-minute revision.

Charms would be their first exam; they were set out pretty much like the OWLs had been, with the written papers in the morning and practical exams in the afternoon. Lily had been officially voted the resident Charms expert, and was demonstrating how to perform the perfect Shrinking Charm to Alice and Holly.

"Don't flick your wand too dramatically," Lily explained to Holly, who was watching in horror as her piece of toast shrank away to nothing. "You're making the spell too powerful. You need to move your wand more gently."

"Yeah, and you're making our breakfast disappear," Alice teased. Holly was looking absolutely terrified, and although Alice was trying to keep a calm face on, she was feeling exactly the same. Her stomach was in knots; she probably couldn't have eaten anything anyway.

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter came strolling up to them. "Practising for the exams?" James asked Lily with a wink.

"More than I can say for you," Lily retorted.

"I already told you, we don't need to practise," James replied. "Me and Padfoot are going to get all O's, you'll see."

"Speak for yourself," Remus said dryly, sitting down next to Holly and putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.

Lily glanced at her watch. "We should probably start heading inside," she said. "The exams will be starting in ten minutes."

The Entrance Hall was packed out with seventh and fifth years; for a fleeting moment Alice wished she were re-taking her OWLs again, they seemed so easy now she was about to start the NEWTs. Professor McGonagall called them all into the Great Hall, and as Alice entered, a sick feeling began in the pit of her stomach. Bile rose up in the back of her throat. What if she messed up? These exams were crucial to her entire future. She wouldn't get another chance. What if she panicked and forgot everything?

Behind her, Lily gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "You'll be great," she whispered. "You're a Ravenclaw, remember? Smart is your middle name!"

Alice turned around and gave Lily a small smile. That was why Lily was her best friend; she always seemed to know what Alice was thinking.

"I hope so," Alice whispered back. She took a deep breath, let go of Lily's hand and took her seat.

The exam didn't go as badly as Alice had thought, although she did mess up on a couple of questions. She hoped she would get an E, at least. The practical exam was after lunch, and this was the part that Alice was dreading the most. She had always been better at the written exams than practical ones. But, much to her delight, it went a lot better than she had hoped, and she very successfully made the knight that the examiners had borrowed from the Entrance Hall come to life and perform a tap dance. Professor Marchbanks, the tiny wizened little examiner, remembered Alice from the OWLs and told her she had done a fine job. Alice left the exam room joyfully, her spirits lifted. If all the exams went like this, it wouldn't be too bad. And tomorrow was Transfiguration, her strongest subject.

Alice found Lily and Holly, who had already taken the exam, lying on the grass outside, soaking up the early summer sun. "How did it go?" Lily asked as Alice approached.

"Not bad," Alice said breezily, flopping down next to her friends. "At least that's one over and done with."

"Yeah, but Charms was the easy part," Lily pointed out. "We've got Transfiguration tomorrow."

Alice noticed the panicked look on Holly's face; Transfiguration was not her strong point. "Why don't I help you guys revise after dinner?" Alice suggested. "Only if you help me out with my Muggle Studies, though!"

"Agreed," Lily said with a grin.

The Transfiguration exam the next day went well for Alice. She sailed through the written paper before heading off to lunch with a beaming smile on her face. Even Belinda shooting her a dirty look as she passed her in the doorway didn't sour her mood. "Maybe these two weeks won't be as bad as I thought," Alice announced at the lunch table, tucking into steak and kidney pudding.

"Speak for yourself!" Holly replied. "I don't think I did too well on that paper..."

"Holly, you'll be fine," Lily said, giving her a quick hug. "I bet you did better than you think."

"I hope Belinda and her friends fail all their exams," Alice said gaily as Belinda, Jen and Suzanne passed them, heading to the Ravenclaw table. "Oh, and Malfoy and the others."

"Alice!" Holly reprimanded her. "That's really mean."

"What?" Alice said innocently, grinning at Holly. "I'm only joking... sort of."

Herbology, the next day, went reasonably well too. This was one of Holly's stronger subjects, and she seemed to visibly relax throughout the exam. She seemed a lot more talkative that night, much to Alice's relief. She had been so worried the past few days about doing well; it was good for her to finally have an exam she felt comfortable in, to boost her self-confidence a little.

Alice and the girls spent the evening with James and his friends, revising for Defence Against the Dark Arts. This proved the be the most challenging exam yet, although James and Sirius were confident that they had passed with flying colours. "Arrogance is so unattractive," Alice remarked, as James bragged yet again that he and Sirius were going to get "O"s.

"You're just jealous that we're going to get better marks than you," James grinned.

"James, in our entire seven years here at Hogwarts, there is only once subject that you have been able to beat me at," Alice retorted.

"Yeah, which is Defence Against the Dark Arts," James pointed out with a smirk. "I can't help being naturally gifted at it."

"Shut up, James," Lily said, elbowing her boyfriend with a roll of her eyes.

Friday's exam was Ancient Runes, which none of them took apart from Remus, so the day was spent lazing around by the lake. Unfortunately, Alice's panic had started to mount again - Potions was on Monday and that was one of Alice's weaker spots.

"Revision is banned today," Sirius announced as soon as they had all settled by the lake. Alice had already got out her copy of Advanced Potion-Making.

Alice ignored him and opened the book. Since the funeral, the two of them had been in a sort of unspoken truce. He had been there for her when she needed comforting, and that had meant a lot to her. They weren't proper friends - far from it, in fact - but Alice was prepared to take it one day at a time. No matter how annoying he could be sometimes.

Sirius whipped the book out of her hands as quickly as she had opened it up.

Annoying most of the time, in fact. Alice sighed. "Sirius, do you mind?" she said, glaring at him.

"Revision is banned today," Sirius repeated with a grin. "It's too nice a day to be sitting around with your nose in a book."

"Some of us care about doing well, you know," Alice retorted, trying in vain to grab her book back. Sirius fended her off easily.

"I do care about doing well," Sirius replied. "I just don't twist myself up in knots worrying about it, that's all."

"How can you be so nonchalant?" Alice asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I just can," Sirius said cheekily. "And I'll do great even without stressing myself out, you'll see. You need to take a more relaxed attitude towards life, Tyler."

"So you've told me a million and one times," Alice said, crossing her arms and preparing to go into a sulk for the rest of the day. However, Sirius was right about one thing; it was a nice day, and soon Alice felt herself relaxing slightly. She had been cramming non-stop the past few weeks; maybe it would do her good to give the revision a break.

"Can you believe than in just a couple of weeks, we'll be leaving Hogwarts?" Holly asked, looking around at her friends.

It was a weird feeling, Alice mused. Hogwarts had been such a huge part of her life over the last seven years; it was weird thinking that they wouldn't be coming back. On top of that, she still wasn't completely sure what career she wanted, and she didn't have a lot of time to decide either. James, Sirius and Lily all wanted to be Aurors, but that wasn't really something Alice thought she wanted to do for a living. She had considered becoming a Healer like her mother, but she wasn't sure if that was right for her, either. She had always been very academic and enjoyed her studies, but she had never really given much thought to what she would do when it was all over.

At least she wasn't the only one; Holly wasn't too sure either. The two of them had made up their minds to talk to career advisors before school ended and see if that would be of any help.

"I can't believe we got through this last year without James and Lily killing each other," Peter put in cheekily, interrupting Alice's thoughts.

"More like Alice and Sirius," Lily added, sticking her tongue out at Peter.

Alice silently cursed her best friend for reminding everyone of her and Sirius's stupid behaviour over the past year. "We've grown up a little, thank you very much," she said haughtily. "Besides, we've got more important things to think about now." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sirius looking at her, grinning. She gave him a small smile back.

The weekend went by much too quickly, and before Alice knew it, it was the dreaded Potions exam. Truth be told, she didn't pay quite so much attention in Professor Slughorn's classes as she did in her others, mainly because she thought the man was an absolute idiot. He had his favourites, and Alice wasn't one of them. She had no respect for teachers like him.

The written paper went better than the practical one, which was what Alice had expected, but after the exam was over, she had the feeling that she probably hadn't done quite as well as she liked. It was the first time she'd had that feeling so far in her exams, and hopefully it would be the last.

Tuesday's exam was Care of Magical Creatures for Lily and Holly, and Muggle Studies for Alice. She felt fairly confident with this one; although there were a couple of things that still baffled her, her two best friends were both Muggle-born, so she had had a lot of help from them both. After that there were only two exams left to take.

Lily and Holly were visibly relaxed now; they only had Divination and Astronomy to take, which were relatively easy subjects. Alice, on the other hand, had Arithmancy, which although she didn't dislike like she did Potions, was still one of the most difficult subjects. The practical Astronomy paper went fine, and to her surprise, so did the Arithmancy one. It was a challenging exam, but not one where she found she couldn't answer any of the questions. That night, after the practical Astronomy exam, she bid goodnight to Lily and Holly and went straight up to her dormitory. The three of them were too exhausted to really talk, and planned to relax together the following day.

The rest of Alice's dorm mates were already there, but none of them were asleep yet. Belinda, Suzanne and Jen were gathered on Belinda's bed, twittering like three birds. Alice rolled her eyes and sank down next to Emmeline Vance.

"How did everything go?" Emmeline asked, smiling.

"Fine," Alice yawned. "Well, mostly fine, anyway. Potions and Arithmancy were a bit tricky, but I hope they both went OK. How were yours?"

"Not too bad," Emmeline agreed. "Hestia and I have been working like crazy this week." Hestia Jones was Emmeline's best friend, in Hufflepuff. "I feel like I could sleep for a week now, though!"

"Tell me about it," Alice groaned.

There was only a week left now before school was over for good. Career advisors were coming in next week to talk to them about their options. The Ministry was offering conditional jobs to the students leaving school, dependent on their NEWT results which would arrive in July. It was time for Alice to decide what she wanted to do with her life.

Her musings were cut short by the sound of Belinda's rude voice. "I saw Sirius Black with his arm around you last week."

"So?" Alice said tiredly. All she wanted to do now was go to bed. She couldn't be bothered to deal with Belinda's pathetic comments now.

"You can say what you like, but I still think you're shagging him," Belinda said crudely.

Alice turned to face her. "I'm not 'shagging' him, Belinda - nice choice of words, by the way. Just because you jump into bed with any guy who looks your way - David, for example - doesn't mean I do, too. Some of us have more class than that," she growled, hoping that Belinda would leave it at that.

Belinda sneered. "It's not my fault that Lily Evans is too boring to keep her boyfriend interested -" Her sentence was cut short, however, by Alice storming over to Belinda's bed and slapping her in the face.

Alice was shocked at herself - she had never been physically violent; she preferred to use her wand, and she didn't really know why she had done it. Belinda deserved it, of course, but that didn't mean she should behave that way. Maybe it was the stress and toll of the exams, or maybe it was because Belinda was insulting her best friend - yet again. That was something Alice had never been able to stand.

Emmeline had come over now, and put a restraining hand on Alice's shoulder. "Don't let her get to you, Alice," she said calmly. "Like you said, you and Lily have more class than her. You don't need to stoop to her level."

Belinda had a malicious look in her eye, her cheek pink. She was smirking; knowing she had gotten a rise out of Alice, and that made Alice even more angry. She knew Emmeline was right, however, and spun on her heel to go to bed. Only a week, she reminded herself. Only a week, and you never have to see that horrible little bitch again.

"You're going to regret that," she heard Belinda call over.

"Shut your mouth," Alice snapped, climbing into bed and pulling the covers over her head.

Emmeline put a hand on her arm. Alice couldn't see her, but she could hear her talking. "Just ignore her," she said softly. "She's just jealous; she's a nasty piece of work."

"I know," Alice said softly. "Thanks, Emmeline."

Luckily, Belinda didn't goad her any more, and the room fell silent. Alice's breathing was heavy; she was tryng to calm herself down. It took a while, but finally she fell into a deep, if uneasy, sleep.

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Alice awoke the next morning to find her dorm mates already gone. Thank Merlin, she thought to herself, and decided not to tell Lily and Holly about her altercation with Belinda the night before. There wasn't any point in dwelling on it. Belinda really hated her for some bizarre reason, but there was no need to drag her friends into this business.

It wasn't until she was on her way to breakfast, though, that she saw Belinda standing in the corridor, having an intense discussion with Lucius Malfoy.

Alice stopped, shocked. She had never even seen Belinda look at Malfoy before! Maybe she was trying to steal him from Narcissa. After all, Belinda seemed to be an expert at stealing other people's boyfriends. That didn't seem to be what it was, though. They were talking quietly, their heads together, but it didn't seem to be an intimate conversation.

Alice frowned. She knew Malfoy was mixed up in some dodgy business, but Belinda? Sure, she wasn't one of Alice's favourite people, but Alice just figured her to be a mean bitch. She definitely hadn't thought of her as the Dark Arts type!

Just at that moment, Malfoy looked up and caught her eye. He gave her a cold smirk, which caused Belinda to look up and turn towards Alice too. The smug expression on her face made Alice's blood boil. She scrunched up her nose at the two of them, to show she didn't give a damn what they thought of her, and sailed into the Great Hall.

Lily, Holly, James and the rest were all eating breakfast when Alice entered. "Has something happened between you and Belinda again?" Holly asked with a frown.

"Why?" Alice asked as casually as possible.

"Oh, she's just glaring daggers at you across the room," Holly replied.

"So what else is new?" Alice shrugged. "She's got a weird kind of vendetta against me, for some reason."

"Was that Malfoy she was talking with?" James asked with a scowl, watching the blond Slytherin make his way back to his own table.

"Yeah, I saw them out in the corridor," Alice said, spreading marmalade on her toast.

"Alice, you want to be careful," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. "You know he's been pissed off at you ever since the Christmas ball, and if he and Belinda are planning something..."

"I don't care," Alice said idly. And at that moment, she really didn't. She looked at her friends, all glaring back at Malfoy and Belinda, and felt a rush of affection for them all. There was only a week left to go of school, and with all her friends here for her, what else could possibly go wrong?

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Famous last words! This chapter was sort of a filler, and we've got a lot of action coming up in the next two chapters. Also, to warn you, yes, there is a character death in the next chapter!