Disclaimer: I did not write 'Harry Potter'.

Chapter Fifty: Exams

"Sirius! I need to talk to you!" shouted my cousin, who was busy chasing Sirius around the courtyard. It was fairly pointless because Sirius was about as likely to sit down and listen to her as a blast-ended skrewt was - at least the skrewt would be easier to catch. As it was, Andromeda soon tired of running and made Ted chase after him instead. He didn't have much luck either.

I turned back to my studying. We were in the middle of exam week, so there was a still a lot of revision to do. I'd planned my revision six weeks in advance, however, so I was just doing a quick review of my charms book before the exam after lunch. Marcus had said it was stupid to study so much and that they were only first year exams. When I looked in his bag I saw he'd planned his revision timetable ten weeks in advance so he wasn't really one to talk.

Right now, I was hanging upside down from a tree in the corner of the courtyard. I'd used the 'Wingardium Leviosa' charm to hang my book in the air and it was a much more comfortable and less crowded place to revise than inside the library. I was currently looking up severing charms and warming spells. It would have been a lot more useful if they'd taught us the warming spells in December when it was freezing cold instead of last week when it was stifling hot.

"How did I know I'd find you studying?" asked Robert.

I looked down to see Steph and Robert standing beneath me. Robert was carrying what looked like a picnic basket and Steph was carrying a large jug of what looked like bubbly water. I momentarily lost concentration and the textbook fell with a clunk onto Robert's head. "Sorry," I said.

"We're going to eat lunch by the lake today so we can all sit together. Do you want to come?" asked Steph. I said yes and swung down from the tree. The three of us walked off towards our usual spot between the lake and Hagrid's Hut. On the way we passed Rabastan and Alecto telling Lucius Malfoy that they wanted to show him really interesting and funny. Without doubt it involved hurting someone, especially as they seemed to be carrying the rather limp form of a teenage boy of around Sirius's size with them. It definitely wasn't Sirius though, unless he'd had an 'accident' with bleach and hair dye – the hair was considerably lighter than James's or Sirius's and it didn't look like Remus's either. I had an idea of who it might be, but I had no idea what the three of them would want with him for entertainment purposes.

"Ignore them," said Robert, who had noticed I was seething. "They're too old to pick a fight with and by the time you've got a teacher they'll have done it and destroyed the evidence." He was right. It would have taken at least ten minutes for us to have gone and fetched a teacher, and I couldn't hope to win a duel against seventh years – 'Protego', which was a very difficult spell to get right, and dodging wouldn't be enough against unforgivable and NEWT level curses.

The four of them disappeared into the forbidden forest as we set out our picnic. I really didn't like it – I knew for a fact that Rabastan had successfully passed his apparition test and I suspected that Alecto could apparate too. I did the only sensible thing I could think of and ran up to Hagrid's hut. Robert ran after me. As I knocked on the door, I suddenly remembered that I'd never really spoken to Hagrid before. He was about twice as tall as me and about five times as broad. I was a little taken aback when he opened the door to us and asked what we wanted. I told him some older students had taken a second of third year into the forbidden forest and he strolled off to look for them.

The two of us ran back to our picnic basket where Steph had begun to unwrap shiny silver packages of sandwiches. She handed me one with tuna and lettuce in it, and gave a cheese-filled one to Robert.

"The house elves in the kitchen made these for us specially. They seemed delighted to see us – look how much food we've got!" said Steph. I looked inside the basket and saw enough foil-wrapped sandwiches for six people, a whole Victoria Sponge, ten pumpkin pasties, a dozen home-baked biscuits and what looked like a trifle in the bottom.

"Wow! What are we going to do with all this?" I asked.

"Eat it, obviously," said Robert. He'd finished his first sandwich and had taken out a second one. I nibbled the end of mine. It was nice so I ate the rest of it and took out a second one. This one had ham, cheese, tomato, cucumber and lettuce in it, making it a very thick sandwich – it was delicious.

It was as I was halfway through the second sandwich that we were interrupted by a loud, high-pitched scream. It sounded like Cissy, except that judging by the distance, it was quite a lot louder than any cry I'd heard from her. I paused mid bite and glanced in the direction of the forest where the noise had come from – I couldn't see anyone in there at all, though, because it was too dark. We stared out at the dark woods until ten minutes the later, the screaming stopped and three figures came running out of the forest. A moment later, Hagrid came out holding a body. They looked almost dead but I could just about tell they weren't because they were whimpering into Hagrid's enormous chest.

"Come on, let's go to our exam," said Steph. I had one last glance at Hagrid, who was hurrying towards the hospital wing, and set off towards the castle. Robert buried the picnic basket in the entrance to the tunnel under the whomping willow – you had to touch the knot on it to stop it from whomping. The only people I'd seen use the tunnel were Sirius and his friends and it didn't really matter if they found it.

I thought the exam went okay. The first part was a question paper that had twenty five short answer questions about charms that we'd learnt, and the second part was an essay on the back of the sheet. The questions were really easy and the answers to them were all in our regular charms textbook – all the extra reading I had done wasn't needed at all. During this, we were called up one at a time to perform a select few spells. I finished early so I watched the others go up – Millicent got flustered and couldn't get any of the spells right, while Robert accidentally levitated the Professor instead of the feather he was supposed to be levitating. Steph did everything perfectly, as did Becky (almost), Mulciber managed to blow the table up, and Grace managed to faint.

When it was my turn I did all the spells that I had been taught correctly. Professor Flitwick then asked me if I knew any other spells that he could give me extra credit for. I did 'aquamenti' and he said it was brilliant. I was sure I'd done enough to pass, and if I was lucky I would get and 'outstanding' and Mother and Father wouldn't be so angry with me.

…..

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story. This is the penultimate chapter and in the next one something exciting, but not dangerous, happens. I hope to end this story on a happy note, but leave everyone wanting more. By the way, all small details in the story come into it later, just like in the 'Harry Potter' books where people/things mentioned in passing become part of the plot. In some cases, like the Rosier side plot (more obvious in the next book), I didn't actually plan for them to become important, but they are - the same with Sarah from my other story, and Mulciber's tendency to blow things up. The 'marauder' side plot is entirely in cannon with the books.

I will not tell you which kid was taken into the forest. From the description it could be a second, third or fourth year - all of these could be about Sirius's height. The only other thing is that they do not have black hair and that they are not Remus Lupin. Remus happened to have been showing James and Sirius the shrieking shack when Regulus saw them using the passageway.

Also, do you think the Potters should be invited to Andromeda's wedding. It isn't really very important but I thought it might add an interesting twist to the story. The only 'Black' attending other than the bride is Regulus - Sirius is unable to make an excuse to go to it.

Please review and read the sequel when it comes out. I also have a poll up about my characters.