A/N: Thanks everyone for telling me what I should do once the Hogwarts-part of this story has come to an end. I suppose it's best if I also post the chapters after that in here. It's going to be a loooooooooooooong story, though. And that loooooooooooong is not an exaggeration.
Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy and R&R. Thanks!
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The following weeks were all about studying and preparing for the exams. The seventh year students studied almost every minute of every hour of every day. The Professors had started to round up on their courses; they had extensively discussed all the NEWT subjects and were currently either repeating the most important spells and potions or giving the students the possibility to ask questions.
Fact was that Mary, Sirius and the others were spending more time with their noses in the books than ever before. The only thing that made it possible to go on was the thought that the end was near. It was almost time to put the learnt to practice, passing those bloody NEWTS and, by doing so, finally graduate from Hogwarts.
Mary was feeling more nervous about the exams every day. She knew that she had to achieve an E on all her courses (at the very least) to get into the Healing Program. This was attainable for all her courses, if it wasn't for that stupid Potions. Mary had been so nervous in a recent class that she had accidentally added an entire Valerian root to her Growing Draft instead of a half chopped one which caused her cauldron to explode and - to the amusement of James and Sirius – drench Severus Snape in the potion, enlarging his nose to dangerous proportions.
Needless to say that this embarrassing event didn't improve her faith in brewing potions a lot. Even though Sirius and Lily had tutored Mary for weeks and kept telling her that all she had to do was reading the instructions carefully and remain calm, the very thought of having to take that Potions exam all by herself was making her hands shake and her head spin.
Mary was talking about this with Brice the day before the practical Potions exam (the first NEWT of the period) while walking to the Common Room from the library. "It's getting worse every day. Mind you, soon the very word "Potions" will turn my hands into a trembling mess."
Brice grinned mischievously and looked down at Mary's hands. "Potionssssss," she hissed.
Mary rolled her eyes. "Haha. Aren't we being sharp today."
Brice laughed. "Oh come on, Mary, where is your sense of humor?"
She snorted. "It got probably lost somewhere in one of my books. But seriously, if I don't get that E on potions I can forget about becoming a Healer."
Her friend shook her blonde hair over her shoulders and shot her a look. "Hmm… Have you considered taking some Baruffio's Brain Elixir?"
"Of course not. That stuff doesn't even work."
"So what if it's just a placebo? As long as it gets you through that exam…"
"A placebo only works when you believe in it, so clearly that is not an option for me and-"
Mary and Brice had rounded the corner and walked straight into Regulus and his friends. His eyes narrowed at the sight of them. "Oh goody," Brice muttered.
"Having a good time, Woods?" Regulus sneered.
"I am doing great, yes. You?" Mary replied politely.
"Don't think your phoney act is going to deceive me."
"I'm not putting up an act for anyone."
Regulus scowled. He was nearly as good looking as Sirius, but missed that certain warmth his older brother had in abundance. "Did you get my latest owl?"
"Yes, I suppose it's one more threat to add to my already extensive collection."
"You would do well to take them serious."
Mary sighed. "Well, I'm not going to back away, so I suggest that you'll just have to live with the fact that your older brother is dating a Muggle-born girl."
She attempted to walk away but Regulus held her back by grabbing her arm. "You really have no idea what you're getting into, do you?"
Mary shot him a confused look. "What are you talking about?"
"The wizarding world as it is right now. Mudbloods like you will be eliminated first and dating a pureblood guy won't change anything about that."
Mary angrily opened her mouth, but got cut off by a furious-looking Brice. "You insolent prat! You could get in some serious trouble by calling her names like that. If James or Lily-"
"Evans would have no right of speaking, considering she's also a Mudblood."
Brice looked like she was about to hit him, but Mary stepped intervened right in time. "He's not worth it." She pulled her struggling friend along and shot Regulus a disdainful look. "And you can desist with those threats of yours, because they will never stop me from seeing Sirius."
"Maybe some day a killing curse will!" Regulus shouted after them, but she ignored his last comment.
Brice was still fuming when they had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "That guy is unbelievable. If I was in charge, he would be pickling salamander brains for a month!"
Mary shrugged. "I'm not sure if that would change anything. Fanged Frisbee."
When the girls had climbed through the portrait hole and walked to the others who were sitting at the large table in the corner, Brice said: "But his behaviour is simply intolerable. Threatening you, the nerve! Does Sirius know about this?"
"Shhh!" Mary hissed urgently, but Sirius was already looking up from his Defense book. "Know what?"
She shot Brice an annoyed look before smiling sweetly at Sirius and sitting down next to him. "Nothing, apparently McGonagall wants to forbid students from running down the halls."
He arched an eyebrow. "And McGonagall was threatening you because you were running?"
Mary, realizing this had been a lousy excuse, bit her lip and avoided his gaze. "Yes…"
"Mare, you're possibly the worst liar I know. Tell me what really happened."
"Alright. Me and Brice ran into Regulus."
Sirius frowned. "Regulus has been threatening you?"
"Well, he hasn't exactly asked me out on a date if that's what you mean."
"He called her Mudblood and threatened that she should get out of your life or… Well, you know," Brice said.
"How long has this been going on?" Sirius asked, shooting her a close look.
"Ehm… From the moment we started dating, actually."
Sirius grinded his teeth and crumbled a piece of parchment before making up his mind. "That little jerk. I'll show him," he said as he rose from his seat.
"Oooh, can I come?" Peter asked excitedly.
"No wait!" Mary and Lily said at the same time.
Sirius looked from Mary to Lily. "What?"
"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Lily asked, looking worried.
"I think it is," Brice stated loudly.
"-Really Sirius," Mary interrupted after she shot Brice a warning look. "He's not worth it. Just let it go."
He roled his eyes. "I'm not going to beat him up. All I want to do is talk."
"Oh," Mary said, and Lily looked relieved.
Sirius bent down to give her a sweet kiss. "Please be careful," she said pleadingly and he smiled. "I'll be back in a bit."
"So can I come too?" Peter asked again in an excited voice.
Sirius chuckled. "Sure Wormtail, as long as you behave yourself."
He winked at the girls and headed out the room. While Mary watched him and Peter disappear through the portrait hole, she thought about what Regulus said about being a Muggle-born in their current society. Was the rise of Voldemort really be as catastrophic as everyone feared? She remembered what Professor Zabini had told her the other day. Mary looked at Lily and Brice and wondered what they thought. "Don't you guys ever wonder?"
They looked at her. "About what?" Brice asked.
Mary fiddled with the feather of her quill for a moment before she sighed. "About how it's going to be when we're out of Hogwarts. How it will be to live in a world with the daily threat of running into Voldemort and the Death Eaters."
"I think about it at least once a day," Lily confessed after a pause. "It's not going to be easy, that's for sure. I just-"
Lily stopped talking when she noticed that James, Remus, Sirius and Peter were walking inside. Her emerald eyes literally lit up at the sight of James. Ever since their last private get-together a few weeks ago (as it happens, Sirius did inform James about the possibility to get into the girl's dormitories), they had fallen in love even more. Mary had always thought this was impossible, but after watching James and Lily cuddle over the last few weeks, she had concluded that she could not have been more wrong about that.
Sirius sat down next to her, pulled her onto his lap and planted several kisses near the back of her neck. Mary giggled. "How did it go?"
"He won't bother you anymore. If he does, James gave me his personal permission to personally kick him into the Forbidden Forest," Sirius grinned.
"Thanks, I guess…"
"But don't ever hide things from me again, even if you want to protect me." After a short silence he added: "I'm writing my mother in the morning."
"How did you?…" Mary said but shut her mouth when she noticed the look on Sirius's face. "Regulus told me, but Mare, I mean it: no more secrets, okay?"
Mary nodded as she stroke his cheek before looking over at Remus and Brice, who were sitting close to each other at the other end of the table. Mary smiled at the memory of Brice telling her about them being a couple. After all, Remus had kissed Brice almost a week ago in the owlery when he had insisted on letting her borrow his owl to send a letter to her parents. But although they had kissed more often since then, Brice insisted on stating that their relationship wasn't official. Mary and Lily assumed she was doing this because she didn't want to deter Remus, but he seemed to be okay with it. Mary hadn't seen him this happy in ages.
"So Mare," Lily asked. "What do you think about living in a world that is being dominated by Voldemort?"
Everyone at the table fell silent and stared at them. "What?" Remus asked.
Mary cleared her throat. "We were discussing this when you guys came in. We're just a bit worried about how it's going to be when we've graduated."
"Things aren't as bad as they seem, they cannot be," Peter said, looking hopeful, but Remus shook his head. "I'm sorry Wormtail, but it doesn't look that good to me. Did you hear about Joey Tomkinson's parents getting tortured to death by the Death Eaters last week?"
Brice sighed. "It's horrible. Joey's mum was one of my dad's co-workers."
James stared at all the gloomy faces at the table and he drummed his fingers on the table for a moment before saying: "Maybe it will all be fine. Why being depressed about something we haven't experienced yet? Who knows, perhaps one day some mighty superwizard will appear and get rid of Voldie and his goofy assistants in the blink of an eye."
Sirius laughed. "Honestly Prongs, you should stop reading those Muggle comics."
"Well, I don't know much about superwizards, but how about a magical supersquad?" Mary said, smiling mysteriously.
James, Sirius and Remus looked genuinely intrigued and Peter stared at her with big eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Zabini told me to keep it quiet, so keep this to yourselves, but-" Mary leaned in to the others and continued in a quieter voice: "Apparently there are plans to raise an army without the Ministry's knowledge."
"Wicked!" James and Sirius called, but Lily was frowning. "Who are we talking about here?"
"Dumbledore."
"No way!" Brice gasped.
Mary chuckled. "Way," she replied. "But listen, I'm not even sure if Zabini was telling the truth, but if he was… Should we consider… you know… joining this group?"
Sirius leaned his chin on her shoulder. "I think so. If fighting for a good cause would make a difference, then why not?"
"Because it would be dangerous?" Lily suggested.
James squeezed her hand. "What's life without a little danger, Lil?"
She shot him a look. "I'm just saying…"
"Look," Remus said calmly. "We still have time to worry about Voldemort after our exams. And whatever that means, we'll deal with it when we get there."
Everyone agreed that the most sensible thing to do was concentrating on making it through their NEWTS before focusing on destroying Voldemort. They picked up their books until they took a short break to have dinner before getting back upstairs to study some more. When Mary was unable to keep her eyes open any longer and was yawning widely, Sirius gently picked the Potions book out of her hands, put it away and forced her to go to bed.
She didn't sleep well that night. She only managed to snooze for a few hours and the one time she actually did fall asleep, she dreamed that her cauldron exploded and set the entire school on fire. Due to her restless night, Mary was feeling even more exhausted when she woke up than she did the night before. She dragged herself to the Great Hall, where she was the very first student to sit down and have breakfast, which came down to consuming not one, but two cups of strong coffee.
Mary was just considering if she should take a third cup when the others - besides Brice and Peter who weren't taking Potions - joined her and started to talk excitedly about the exam. Sirius hugged her close and she gave him a kiss. "Morning."
"Did you sleep well?"
She pulled a face. "What do you think?"
Sirius shot her an empathetic look. "That sucks, but look at it from the bright side: you still look hot as hell."
Mary huffed and sipped her coffee. "Good looks won't get me an E."
He laughed. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I heard Pierce is one of the judges."
Gregory Pierce was a famous Healer who had single-handedly come up with a remedy spell to cure most venomous animal bites in an instant. Mary sighed and spent the remaining time of the breakfast by staring at the enchanted ceiling, while she listened to Sirius, James and Remus discussing who should become the new coach of the Chudley Cannons.
After breakfast they slowly made their way to a distant corridor on the main floor where the practical Potions NEWT would take place. They joined the other candidates – Severus Snape and Alison Zabini among them - and patiently waited to be called in. Because their names started with the first letters of the alphabet, Sirius and Lily were one of the first students to be summoned. After she had wished him and Lily good luck, Sirius softly squeezed her hand and said things were going to be alright. She smiled back weakly and watched how he and a few other students disappeared through a heavy wooden door.
Thirty minutes later, it was Remus's turn to take the exam. James, who had always claimed he didn't even know how to be nervous for exam, was pacing up and down the corridor before he told Mary he was going to the bathroom. She kept glancing down at her watch and realized she still had to wait another while before she would have to take the exam. She flopped down against the wall and right when she was thinking about taking another look at her notes, she noticed that a rather familiar silhouette was slowly approaching towards her. Could that be…
"Hullo stranger."
Mary's mouth fell open. "Jonathan! What… What are you doing here? How?"
He stared at her. "Dumbledore was so generous to give me a chance and take the NEWTS at Hogwarts. I'm actually glad that I'm running into you. D'you mind if I join you?"
Mary shot him a cautious look but Jonathan looked sincere, so she nodded and he sat down next to her. He looked a lot paler and skinnier than she remembered. He pulled a hand through his curly hair before saying hesitantly: "I owe you an apology for my aggressive behaviour, but you must believe me when I say that I loved you and that it was never my intention to hurt you. I wasn't myself when I…"
"Threw me against the wall," Mary filled him in kindly.
"Yes, that," Jonathan said, smiling wryly. "I'm sorry, but back then I couldn't think straight. I was so afraid to lose you…"
"Correction: you'd already lost me."
"Yes, and my jealous behaviour didn't make it much better, did it?"
"Not really, no."
Jonathan put his hands in his pockets. "I hear Black has been taking care of you since?"
Mary smiled. "He did. And still does, I might add."
"I knew that git was after you from the beginning."
Mary gave him a friendly punch. "Hey, that's my boyfriend you're talking about!"
Jonathan snorted. "Alright, alright. Look, all I wanted was a change to apologize."
"Apology accepted."
He actually smiled for the first time. "Thank you. Now can we-"
"OI!"
James had returned from the bathroom and was shooting Jonathan a furious look. He pulled him back up and pushed him away. "Get away from Mary. Now!"
"No James, it's okay," Mary said quickly as she also crawled back to her feet. "Jonathan only came down to apologize."
James looked from Jonathan to Mary and back. "For some reason I find that hard to believe, but even so, you simply have no permission to be here. You'd do well to leave now before I'm going to change my mind and alert McGonagall after all."
Jonathan shot James an angry look and grinded his teeth, but then he nodded and said: "Fine, whatever. I already did what I came to do anyway. Goodbye Mary, I really meant what I said." He shot her a significant look and walked off.
Mary watched him disappear around the corner before turning back at James. "Why did you have to do that?"
He glared at her. "Did you forget what he has done to you?" But before he could have said anything else, the wooden doors opened and a tiny witch appeared who called in the next students, including James.
After he had disappeared through the doors, only three other students were left in the corridor: Samir Wouyeri, Alison Zabini and Svetlana Zhuriva. Mary smiled nervously at Alison before she started to pace up and down the corridor herself. This final wait seemed to last even longer than before. At first she thought she had started to imagine things, but then she noticed that the others were also constantly checking their watches. Instead of feeling annoyed, Mary decided to take this extra time as an unexpected opportunity to consult her notes one last time. However, she had only just reached the other end of the corridor and was checking the ingredients of a Memory Potion when she felt that two hands were clapped over her eyes from behind and heard a voice whisper in her ear: "Guess who?"
End of Update
A/N - hides behind her keyboard - No there is nothing here... Sorry about the cliffie, but I'll try to update as soon as possible! –Mara.