"Ah, Potter. I'm glad you're a few minutes early, I wanted to talk to you." Professor Kelly said, smiling at Harry who had poked his head into the classroom to see if they could come in.
"Sir?"
"You're not in trouble." Major Kelly said. "Come in, come in."
Harry stepped inside, and Tyler followed him. He sat at their usual desk as Harry stood by Major Kelly's desk. He was flicking through the papers in his desk drawer, and finally pulled out a thin booklet.
"I'd like you to do this for me today." Major Kelly said, holding up the papers.
"Is it a test, sir?"
"Of sorts." Major Kelly said. "Think of it as a... progress check." He stood up and lead Harry back out of the classroom to a single desk in the hallway facing the wall that was usually used if somebody was being particularly disruptive in class. "It should take you an hour and three quarters. You don't get extra time do you?"
"No sir. But, I've got French-"
Major Kelly nodded. "I've talked to Mr. Clarke. He is happy for you to miss his lesson, as long as you catch up on the work you miss. I would recommend going to him and thanking him as well."
Harry nodded and Major Kelly set the paper on the desk. Harry dropped into the chair in front of it and put his books on the floor, setting his pencil case in front of him.
"Do go in." Major Kelly said, waving at the class lined up against the wall before turning back to Harry. "Don't use your notes, and don't worry if you find it difficult, just do your best, ok?"
Harry nodded, pulling out a pencil, and Major Kelly smiled at him before following the class into his room and shutting the door.
Harry scrawled his name at the top of the first page, then began working through the questions. He was pleasantly surprised when he could answer the majority of the questions in the first section without too much bother. He skipped a few of the harder ones, planning on coming back to them at the end, and was part way through the translation in the second part when doors started opening along the corridor.
He received a few jeers and taunts for working in the 'naughty chair', but ignored them as best he could, trying to concentrate on the paper in front of him.
"Hey, Harry, tip's over." Tyler said, leaning against the wall next to him.
"I've got to do this." Harry said. "Clarke knows."
"Move along now Private Jefferson." Major Kelly said, coming out of his classroom.
As Tyler went down the corridor to his French classroom, Harry turned back to the translation, frowning slightly.
He had only written six more words when the noise of sixty boys heading to tips came down the corridor again as they started lining up against the walls. Major Kelly once more stepped out of his room. "Shut it!" He called down the corridor, and the noise reduced somewhat. "You have forty minutes left, Potter."
Harry nodded and scrawled a rough approximation of what he thought the last few sentences might be then flipped over the page.
His stomach sank at the sight of the first question. What the hell was an accusative pronoun? He chewed on the end of his pencil before noticing there were a few easier English into Latin sentences and he moved onto them, seeing that they were worth six and seven marks each.
Major Kelly came out of his classroom and Harry hurriedly scribbled down some random words as answers for the questions above, in the hopes that one of them might be correct.
"Put your pencil down."
Harry quickly wrote in the last word, then dropped his pencil with a sigh.
"How was that?" Major Kelly asked, picking up the paper and flicking through it with a smile.
"It wasn't too bad, sir. The translations were all right, I think, but I had no idea about most of the last section." Harry answered. "I ran out of time, too."
Major Kelly nodded. "I thought that's what you'd find most difficult. I can mark it now, if you want."
"Er, sure. I mean, please, sir." Harry nodded, picking up his folders and following Major Kelly back into the classroom.
"Help yourself to a biscuit." The stiff said, nodding towards the tin on top of the filing cabinet. Harry had to stand on his tiptoes to reach it, but he opened the tin and took a custard cream, then sat at the desk directly in front of Major Kelly's desk and nervously watched the man's facial expressions as he marked the test.
"Well, I'd say you've done rather well." He said a few minutes later, handing back the paper. Harry glanced at the front page and saw a large green 64% scrawled at the top. "Considering this was an O level paper I sprang on you with no warning."
Harry looked up. "O level? Sir?"
Major Kelly nodded. "I wanted to see if it was worth putting you in for the exam." He gestured to the paper Harry was holding. "I think it's safe to say it is, especially seeing as ordinarily you'd have two hours to do it in."
Harry looked at the back pages, noting the number of large green crosses next to his answers.
"Would I be correct in assuming that you guessed most of those answers?"
Harry nodded and scratched the back of his neck. "Yes, sir."
"I thought so." Major Kelly nodded. "It's better than just leaving it blank, but we'll have to do some work on those questions."
"I just don't have any idea what most of these words mean, sir." Harry said. "Like, 'accusative'... 'passive'... what does it mean when it asks what case a word is in?"
"That's stuff you've generally cover before you come to Coleshill, as most boys arrive age thirteen, and have done some Latin already. I haven't gone over it in any of your lessons because this is set three, and some boys are working towards an A level." Major Kelly explained. "Basically, in Latin, words are slightly different depending on their context in a sentence. For example, 'puella' means 'the girl', but 'puellae' means 'of the girl'; 'the dog of the girl', for example, or, in better English, the girl's dog. You understand?"
"Yes sir." Harry nodded.
"This is because 'puellae' is in the dative case. The word has a different ending that slightly alters its meaning. That's what you're reciting when you say 'puella puella puellam, puallae puellae puellas'."
For the next ten minutes, Major Kelly went over the meaning of each case, explaining it to Harry and answering his questions.
"When do you have, say... an hour of free time each week?"
"Well, I have pop on a Sunday afternoon." Harry replied.
Major Kelly nodded. "Perfect. Every Sunday after lunch, I want you to come here so we can go over this basic stuff that you've missed. It's not too much of a problem if you still don't understand it fully, because you can choose between these questions and the English into Latin, but a general understanding of the theory will help you greatly later on, and this will help you get the correct endings if you do do that instead. I'd also like to make sure you've got a solid grasp of all of the classics, as almost all of the translations are at least based on the myths and stories, and so if you know what you're writing about before you've even started that always helps."
"Yes sir. Thank you."
"Not at all." Major Kelly smiled. "We're going to get you an A in Latin five years early, hey?"
Harry laughed as he stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Kelly."
"Professor." The man replied. "I worked hard for that PhD, I'll have you respect that, thank you very much."
"Sorry sir."
Harry met Rex coming out of a history lesson, and walked back to the dorm with him, dropping his books on his desk.
"What were you doing during French?" Tyler asked.
"A practice O level paper." Harry replied, unable to stop the proud smile that spread across his face.
"O level?" Tyler repeated, eyebrows raised, and Harry nodded. "How'd you do?"
"64%." Harry grinned. "But I only got an hour and forty-five minutes when usually you get 2 hours."
Tyler flashed Harry one of his rare smiles and pulled him into a one-armed hug. "That's good. Are you doing it this year?"
Harry nodded. "Major Kelly thinks I should."
"That's great." Tyler said, pulling his military tactics folder off the shelf. "That's what? Three years early?"
"Five." Harry grinned. "I'm only in year six."
"Nice going titch." Tyler said, pulling him into a sideways hug as they left the dorm.
The twenty-first of May was a good day for Harry.
Not only did he have six good lessons, but looking at the menu pinned up outside the dining hall told him that the meals were good (chicken curry at lunch and shepherd's pie for dinner), and he also managed to finish the morning run seventh in the whole school, competing against people up to eight years older than him.
He waited at the door for Tyler to catch up, panting hard but feeling extremely pleased with himself. When Tyler finally arrived, sweat was glistening on his bare chest and his pale face was flushed red from the exertion. It was crazy how extreme the weather was in Llangollen; many boys ran in just their shorts in the summer, compared to January when Harry had run with his Tottenham scarf wrapped around his neck and face.
"What the trank man?" Tyler panted, grinning. "You could have told me you were secretly a crazy-runner person."
"That makes no sense." Harry rolled his eyes and laughed, and the two boys went up to the dorm together to shower.
"You've got your kit exam today right?" Harry asked as he tied his tie.
Tyler nodded. "1412."
"What the trank?" Harry laughed. "Why not just ten past?"
"ABRSM are weird." Tyler replied, shaking his head. "I have to be there twenty minutes early anyway."
"Well, good luck." Harry said, pulling on his boots.
They were two of the first down to breakfast, and Harry happily accepted the tray of hot porridge from Gladys before making his way over to their usual table.
Tyler pushed his porridge around with his spoon, staring at a stain on the table.
"Ty?" Harry asked, and the older boy looked up. "You ok? You're all winkered."
"Yeah, just nervous."
"About your exam?"
Tyler nodded.
"You'll be fine!" Harry said. "I've seen you practice, you're great!"
Tyler frowned. "When have you seen me practice?"
Harry felt himself flush. "Oh, er, I don't know. Just, sometimes?"
Tyler grinned. "You've been spying on me when I'm practicing."
"Well, not really."
Tyler laughed. "You totally have!"
"Oh shut up." Harry hid his face in his hands.
"Aw, titch, it's cute." Tyler said, ruffling Harry's short hair.
"Don't call me titch." Harry said half-heartedly, batting the arm away. It was more reflex now; he had given up on that particular battle months ago. "But at least you get to miss sport. It's going to be boiling later."
Tyler laughed. "Have fun in your helmet and pads and gloves."
Harry shook his head. "Yeah, thanks."
"I'll be thinking of you in the air conditioned music school, as I drink my glass of cold water." Tyler continued.
"You're a cank." Harry stated, eating his breakfast.
Tyler laughed and bumped Harry's shoulder. Harry ignored him, staring straight ahead, but couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face. Tyler nudged his arm again and Harry rolled his eyes. Tyler then started elbowing him gently, and leant on him with a grin, and Harry pushed him off, laughing.
"Get off me!"
"Get a room." Blake moaned, dropping into the seat opposite Harry.
Tyler flushed and flipped Blake off, then groaned as Lieutenant Atkinson called across the room.
"Five laps and a tardy, Jefferson."
"Cank." Tyler muttered as Blake hid his laugh.
Harry put on a serious face and straightened his tie. "Well private Jefferson, you really shouldn't make such crude hand gestures. They're unseemly."
"Ugh, you sound like my father." Tyler said, pulling a face.
Harry laughed and glanced at the clock on the wall. "I'm not used to having this much time in the mornings. We've got ages."
Tyler smirked. "Not like the first term when we'd only be getting in ten minutes before tips started."
"If that." Blake said.
Harry finished his porridge and stood up. "I might go and have a quick nap." He grinned.
Tyler shook his head. "I guess you do need your beauty sleep."
"You biff." Harry said, shaking his head and leaving the table with his tray.
Harry dropped onto his bed when he reached the dorm, not even registering Bhandi's remark. Presumably it was something witty and scathing.
Although he didn't have a nap, he grabbed Tyler's iPod and lost track of time listening to the music, and had to scramble to get his books together as the bell sounded for the start of lessons.
Harry put his beret on one-handed as they ran down to the classrooms and parted in the corridor, and slipped into Mr. Clarke's classroom just as he was about to shut the door.
"That's a tardy." He said as he dropped into his seat, then began lecturing in French about that day's tip.
Harry could see Tyler getting more and more antsy and nervous as the day went on, and had to force him to eat at lunch.
"Krana, chill." He said, putting a hand over Tyler's tapping fingers to stop the noise. "You'll be fine: Distinction, I guarantee."
Tyler shook his head. "I'm canked. I'm not going to pass." He rested his head in his hands. "Why did I even agree to do the exam this term?"
"Because you've been playing these pieces for over a year." Harry said, reciting what Tyler had been telling him for over six months. "Because you're going to crush this exam."
Harry only managed to persuade him to eat a few mouthfuls or rice and half a piece of naan bread before they were dismissed by Colonel Hatcher, who gave Tyler a tardy for wasting food.
Harry changed into his sports kit when they reached c-dorm, then he walked with Tyler over to the brick music school.
"Good luck." He whispered, giving Tyler a small hug. "I'll see you in the dorm later. You'll do great!"
Tyler just swallowed and nodded, trying to give him a small smile, and Harry ran down to the cricket pitches. He worried about Tyler's exam for the whole four hours he was meant to be concentrating on cricket, fumbling catches and getting bowled out on his second ball.
"That was an easy four Potter!" Mr. Smoke shouted as Harry pulled off his helmet. "What's wrong with you?"
"Sorry sir." Harry said.
"Take a lap." Mr. Smoke said, and Harry finished packing his batting kit into the bag before setting off around the large pond, ignoring the jeers from his teammates.
Harry flicked his hair out of his face as he walked into c-dorm, and spotted Tyler sat at his desk doing maths homework.
"How did it go?"
Tyler's smile was answer enough, but he launched into a blow-by-blow explanation of how the pieces had gone and what the examiner had asked in the aural questions. Harry didn't understand half of the musical terminology, but he smiled and nodded each time Tyler took a break from speaking.
"Congrats then." Harry grinned when he had finished, and Tyler laughed and nodded.
"I have to wait around six weeks to get the results." Tyler said, packing away his work.
"Cool." Harry nodded, pulling off his shirt.
"How have you not been sent down to the Ark yet?" Tyler asked.
Harry frowned. "What for? Oh, my hair? Yeah, no idea. I want to see who the first person to say something will be. My money's on Kelly."
"You haven't got any money."
"It's a figure of speech." Harry rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, I though Professor Kelly loved you." Tyler dropped onto Harry's bed. "You're amazing at Latin."
"He likes me in lessons, but he's serious about bills and trank." Harry shrugged. "He's sent me to Captain Adcock twice this year."
"I reckon Pearson." Tyler said.
"Ty, he doesn't even teach me." Harry laughed. "I've got sergeant Kent for maths now."
"Yeah but he still sees you around campus."
"I guess." Harry shrugged, pulling on his beret just as the bell rang for E.M.
"I'm rooping." Tyler said, grabbing his own beret.
Harry laughed. "That's because you didn't eat anything at lunch."
Blake was holding a stack of flashcards as they waited outside to be registered, and when they were in the dining hall, Harry noticed that lots of people had notes or textbooks at the tables, and he realised that they were all taking O levels or A-levels over the next few weeks. His stomach lurched when he realised that he would be one of those people.
He looked at Tyler, who had dived into his shepherd's pie with glee. "Are you doing any exams?"
"Well, yeah, I just had my drum one."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I mean like O levels."
Tyler nodded. "Chemistry, physics and biology."
"Is that it?"
"Yeah. I've already done French, and I'm doing most of the rest next year." Tyler explained.
"I didn't know you were that good at French."
Tyler nodded then grinned. "You should talk to Blake. He did his maths A-level when he was thirteen. He's doing his physics, history and business this year, and redoing further maths, because he only got a B last year. He was gutted."
"What the trank?" Harry laughed. "Thirteen?"
"He passed ze O level in primary school." Rex said. "He's crazy good at maths."
"Why didn't you tell me that when I got divved for failing that banco on probability?" Harry asked Tyler.
"Because it's so much more fun watching you suffer." Tyler said.
"Biff." Harry muttered.
Tyler wiggled his eyebrows, causing Harry to snort and almost choke on his mouthful of food. Rex thumped him on the back and Harry straightened, laughing.
"You are one special kid." Tyler laughed, shaking his head.
"You know you love me."
Tyler rolled his eyes. "Right."
Harry suddenly frowned. "We don't have kitchen duty tonight do we?"
Owen had just sat down next to him. "You guys are on Friday."
"Thank God." Harry said. "No way I'd be able to finish all my banco if we did."
"How come?" Rex asked.
"I've got that History essay, 500 words for Clarke, two separate bio sheets, plus I need to revise for Latin, and I've got a week's worth of laundry duty after EM from Doctor Norwood." Harry replied.
Owen looked up from his chemistry textbook. "What for?"
"Dropping a pencil and getting up to pick it up." Harry answered bitterly.
Tyler rolled his eyes. "Not quite what happened."
"It is!" Harry said. "I dropped my pencil and it rolled away, so I stood up, and he just said 'Potter, I've had enough of your nonsense today!' and gave me a canky ridiculous punishment."
"He was fidgeting all tip." Tyler said to Owen's raised eyebrows. "I thought puddles was going to stab him or something it was so annoying."
"I was not that irritating." Harry said. "Forsyth is used to it."
Tyler laughed. "Anyone who has ever spent more than five minutes with you knows you're practically ADHD." He said.
"I think the word you're looking for is annoying." Oscar said.
"Rude." Harry said, grinning at him.
"True." Oscar replied in the same tone.