* ~ The Eighth Year Universe Series ~ *

PART THREE

The Eighth Year

Chapter 60: Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests

The lead up to their exams had almost everyone feeling very stressed. As much as he denied it, Draco was nearly as bad as Hermione on the studying front. He stayed up late trying to cram in as much information as possible, and on one such night, he ended up alone in the common room with Lilly.

"Lil?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Can I borrow your glasses?"

Lilly looked up and raised an eyebrow at him, "Why?"

"Because I can't read the small print in this textbook," Draco replied. He rubbed his eyes.

Lilly snorted, "Do you need glasses?"

"No, but it's 4 am and my eyes are tired," Draco snapped, "So can I borrow them for two minutes, please?"

"No, I need them to see everything," Lilly yawned, "I'm practically blind without them."

"Give your eyes a rest for two minutes and let me have a shot."

"Nope."

"Lilly," Draco growled, "Give me the fucking glasses, or I'll tell Longbottom about that time you snuck out of the Room of Requirement during the war to get chocolate cake. Then cried on the floor for ten minutes because you thought you were pregnant with Michael Corners baby."

"Do you mind?" Lilly retorted, "Those were the worst ten minutes of my life!"

Draco held out his hand, "Glasses."

She thrust them into his hand and said, "I hate you."

"That's great, join the club," Draco said as he put Lilly's glasses on and quickly jotted down a piece of information. Just as he was about to hand them back, Harry stepped into the common room.

"What are you two doing up at – oh holy shit Draco, you do need glasses!"

"No, I don't, but my eyes get tired at 4 o'clock in the bloody fucking morning!" Draco snapped. He gave Lilly her glasses back and said, "Remember my threat, Moon!"

He pushed past Harry out of the common room, and Harry looked over at Lilly, "What the fuck?"

"Yeah, and he says Hermione is getting tetchy," Lilly scoffed.

"And he totally needs glasses," Harry sniggered.

Lilly snorted, "Why are you down here at 4 am?"

"Daphne is slightly losing her shit with revising, so I'm off to try and nick a coffee pot from the kitchen," Harry chirped, "Wanna come?"

Lilly grinned and abandoned her work, "Yeah, why the heck not?"

"Is she okay?"

"She's fine."

"Are you sure? She kind of looked like a murderer when I saw her…."

"She's just a little stressed."

"She practically roared at me."

"Just go up and get her."

"No, she scares me! You go!"

"No way! She's your girlfriend. You go!"

"You're her best friend. Why don't you go?"

At the foot of the stairs to the girl's common room, there was an argument about who would go up the stairs and get Hermione down.

"Why can't we just leave her? She needs the sleep for the charms exam tomorrow," Draco said with a sigh. He was worried about Hermione. She had barely been sleeping or eating over the last few days.

"That's a good idea," Harry agreed. He was only slightly worried about Hermione's reaction when she realised that nobody had woken her up.

"We should probably head to Divination," Daphne said as she glanced at the clock on the wall.

Sadie nodded, "Yeah, you're right."

"Stop worrying about it, you two. This exam will be the easiest of the lot," Harry said with a roll of his eyes.

"Good luck," Theo said with a smile as he kissed his girlfriend goodbye, "I'm sure you'll be brilliant."

Sadie smiled, and together with Harry, Daphne and Susan, she left the common room.

"Did you guys revise?" Susan asked.

Harry snorted and replied, "No, how do you revise for an exam that is all based on nonsense?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," Daphne mused, "I mean, I looked at some star charts, but that was pretty much it…."

"I revised," Sadie said, her cheeks flushed pink, "I looked over the textbook and memorised the star and dream charts."

"You'll pass then, Sadie," Daphne said with a smile. Sadie was quite like Hermione; she just didn't show how much she was freaking out.

After going down one staircase and up another, the group were exhausted and amongst the last to arrive at the top of the tower where Trelawney was calling everyone in one at a time, in alphabetical order.

There was five minutes of tense silence and then, "Bones, Susan!"

Susan smirked at the others and climbed the silvery ladder.

"I bet she'll get an O," Daphne said in amusement, "She's pretty good at coasting through this class."

"Well, it's not difficult, is it?" Harry teased, but Sadie didn't see the funny side as she hopped back and forth between her right and left foot nervously.

Susan returned after about ten minutes with a wide grin on her face, "Easy," she said simply, "Suppose I better get back to the common room and wake Hermione up, so she doesn't kill any of us."

Harry laughed and said, "Good luck with that."

After that, Sadie was called up, and she looked like she might faint as she made her way up the ladder into the room.

"How do you think she'll do?" Harry asked Daphne the moment the trapdoor shut.

Daphne chuckled and shook her head, "She'll be fine," she said with a smile, "Sadie has this tendency to worry about her exams a lot and then come out with O's."

"So she's the Slytherin equivalent of Hermione," Harry remarked.

Daphne laughed again, "Exactly."

Daphne and Harry turned out to be right because when Sadie emerged from the attic room ten minutes later, she had a large smile on her face.

"How did it go?" Daphne asked as she shot an amused look Harry's way.

"Good, I think!" Sadie said brightly, "Trelawney seemed pretty impressed!"

"Told you that you would be brilliant," Daphne said as she hugged her friend.

"I better get back to the common room. Mione will be freaking out with Charms tomorrow," Sadie said with a chuckle, "Good luck, guys!"

Finally, Trelawney got to "G", and Daphne was called into the room.

"Good luck," Harry said as he kissed her on the cheek, "Not that you need it."

Daphne smirked and ascended the ladder.

"Ah, Miss Greengrass," Trelawney said with a smile, "Do take a seat."

Daphne sat down across from Trelawney at a table with a cup of tea and a crystal ball on it.

"Now, there is no need to feel worried, Miss Greengrass. I will ask you to look into the crystal ball and read some tea leaves. I will also ask you some questions about your dreams and the position of the stars," Trelawney said. She kept her voice steady and smiled at the girl. Daphne had a feeling that she, Susan and Harry, were the Professor's favourites.

Daphne nodded, and Trelawney said, "Then we shall begin. Can you explain to me one of the dreams you've had in the last month?"

Daphne hated this part, she didn't remember her dreams very well, but she did remember one she'd had only the night before very vividly, so she began to describe it, "I was with my friend Sadie. We were on the beach, but it was snowing…I think it means that hard times are ahead...that the sunshine is going to be gone soon."

Trelawney had constantly been nodding throughout this and smiled when Daphne finished, "Fantastic. Now, can you tell me what the position of mars is at this point in the year?"

"It's June, so..." Daphne thought for a moment, "Mars is in the sign of the Gemini, which means that it is scattered and that those born at this time will likely be feisty."

"A textbook answer, my dear," Trelawney said proudly, "Now tell me, what do you see in the crystal ball?"

Daphne looked into the ball and tried to clear her mind. Trelawney kindly told her to take her time. The fog gradually started to create shapes, and through it, Daphne could make out the shape of a wizarding hat and then a boat.

"I see a hat and a boat," Daphne said honestly.

Trelawney nodded vigorously, "Ah, the graduation, I presume, my dear."

Daphne looked closer, and a scene began to materialise, "I see myself on a boat with Sadie, it's dark, and we're on the lake with Hagrid."

"Excellent," Trelawney said, "That is quite enough, my dear."

Daphne took her eyes away from the crystal ball. She knew Harry didn't believe in this branch of magic, but it had always worked for her.

"When you are ready, my dear, drink your tea so we may look at the bottom of the cup," Trelawney said, and with another nod, Daphne picked up the cup and began to drink the lukewarm tea.

"Were you close to your grandmother, Miss Greengrass?" Trelawney asked curiously as Daphne drank her tea.

Daphne frowned at the question, "On my mother's side? Yes, I was very fond of her. But not on my father's side."

Trelawney appeared thoughtful, "Your grandmother on your mother's side was known to have been part seer. I believe you share some aspects of her gift."

Daphne hadn't heard that before, but it made sense. She had always found this class easy and not because she lied her way through it, although she made up many dreams for the dream diary assignments. She finished her tea and looked into her cup to read the leaves.

"I see an angel," Daphne said slowly, "Which I believe means good fortune in love," she turned the cup slightly, "And I also see a bell which I think means good luck," Daphne said. She was worried that she wasn't doing so well in this part; she usually got at least one bad omen in her cup. She turned the cup once more and looked in it again. She narrowed her eyes to make sure she got the symbol right, "And here I see…uhh a cake I think, but I'm not entirely sure on the meaning."

"Perfect," Trelawney said, and Daphne looked up to see her smiling.

"Would you like to know the full reading of your cup?" Trelawney asked kindly, and Daphne nodded.

"The angel does mean good fortune in love, you were entirely correct about that, and you were also correct about the bell being a symbol of good luck. However, there are two bells in your cup, which indicates that a wedding is nearby. The cake you saw was perfectly correct, but it is a wedding cake which is symbolic of a fast and prosperous marriage in the near future," Trelawney said with a smile.

"Okay, thank you, Professor," Daphne said as she smiled back and hoped that she would be told she was allowed to go now.

Trelawney merely nodded and said, "That will be all, well done, Miss Greengrass."

Daphne rushed out of the attic room and made her way down the ladder where Harry was waiting with a smile on his face.

Daphne smiled at him, "Fine," she said happily, "I'm going to head back to the common room to cram for Charms. See you later, Harry."

Harry smiled and kissed her lightly before she left, "See you," he said cheerfully. He waited patiently after that until he was eventually called up to the room.

"Potter, Harry!"

Harry didn't feel nervous until he made his way up the ladder into the thankfully fog and fume-free room. He walked over to the table in the middle of the room where Trelawney was waiting for him and took his seat across from her.

"Good morning Mr Potter," Trelawney said with a smile, "I am just going to ask you some questions, and then there will be a crystal ball reading and the reading of some tea leaves."

"Okay," Harry said. He was reasonably confident that he could make up enough rubbish to get through this.

"Can you tell me anything about the position of Mars?" Trelawney asked, and Harry immediately started to think, "oh shit", because there hadn't been questions in his O.W.L exam.

"Uhh," Harry floundered as he desperately tried to remember the things they had learned in class about star signs, "It's in the star sign of this month which is…the twin one…um, Gemini," Harry said.

Harry glanced at Trelawney, who had a slight smile on her face and was nodding, "Which means?"

"That people who were born in June are angry," Harry guessed, and Trelawney struggled not to laugh.

"Okay, Mr Potter, can you explain a dream you had recently and its significance?" Trelawney asked, and again Harry hadn't expected this question, so he searched around in his head trying to remember a dream.

"Umm, well, I was walking through a dark forest, and I saw a badger eating a ferret, then the badger died," Harry said. He was making it up as he went along.

Trelawney didn't quite look convinced. She was even smirking a little as Harry continued, "So I guess the significance of it is that no matter how strong you are, a weaker opponent can eat-I mean kill you."

"I see," Trelawney said as she took a note down on her piece of parchment, "Can you look into the crystal ball for me, Mr Potter and tell me what you see?"

Harry looked into the crystal ball and saw fog, fog and yet more fog. He tried to narrow his eyes and look deeper, but it didn't work. He tried his best to clear his mind, and he managed to make out a faint shape.

"I see a ring," Harry said because there was some sort of circular thing that looked ring-like, and it was close enough, "It's golden and shiny," he added, although this was all complete bullshit.

"Ah," Trelawney said, she actually believed him now, and her eyes lit up, "I see an engagement in the future, Mr Potter."

Harry frowned slightly, "But Daphne and I are already engaged."

"I did not say it would be your engagement," Trelawney said cryptically, "Do you see anything else?"

After a further five minutes of staring, Harry concluded that he didn't. After that, there was an awkward few minutes when Harry tried to drink his tea as fast as he could. When he eventually finished it, he looked into the cup and tried to make shapes out of blobs and relate them to things in the textbook that he barely remembered.

"I see a…." Harry squinted slightly into the cup, "Tree, which means that I'm going to be happy in the future," Harry guessed, he remembered something about certain trees being good omens. He turned the cup and tried to make a shape out of another blob, "And I see a foot which means I'm going to move forward…in life."

Harry chanced a glance at Trelawney, who was watching him with a raised eyebrow. He had so failed this exam. He turned the cup for the final time and saw something he didn't have to make up for once, "Oh wait! I see a bird, which means something is going to free me…from something."

"That's quite enough, Mr Potter," Trelawney said, and Harry looked up at his vaguely amused teacher, "An adequate attempt, would you like me to explain the meaning of your cup?"

Harry thought it was all nonsense, but he nodded regardless.

"The tree you identified was, in fact, an elm tree which implies that happiness is coming your way. The foot you saw suggests that you will take a decisive step in a matter that will lead to an important change in your life and the bird you saw was a magpie. There are three small magpies in your cup Mr Potter which leads me to believe that there is a wedding in your near future."

Harry couldn't help but think that was accurate with Sadie and Theo's wedding in July and Harry and Daphne's own wedding at some stage in the future.

"That is all, Mr Potter," Trelawney said with a smile. Harry got to his feet and left the attic room. As Harry made his way down the stairs of the North Tower, he couldn't stop his mind from straying to the engagement ring and the hints that there would be a proposal. Neville wouldn't propose to Lilly; they had only been together for a couple of months. That meant that the only person he knew who could be thinking of proposing to someone was Draco...

"So, I hear you're having an affair with my girlfriend."

Harry snorted and looked over at Neville, "Am I? That's the first I've heard of it."

Neville chuckled, "According to Annie, you were spotted giggling on the grand staircase at 4.30 am the other morning."

"Oh, that did happen," Harry admitted with a sheepish grin, "But not for the reasons you think. We were trying to steal a coffee pot from the kitchen because Daphne was being Hermione-esque about studying."

Neville snickered at the very thought.

"But Lilly dropped it down the grand staircase, and from the yell, we're pretty sure that it hit Filch. Then we ran all the way back to the Eastern Tower, and she told me this hilarious story about Michael Corner, so we got the giggles. She's brilliant, isn't she? How I didn't notice her for six years amazes me."

"Me too, she's hard not to notice," Neville chuckled, "What was the story about Michael Corner?"

"Apparently, there was one time during the war when, without you knowing because apparently, you banned her from leaving the Room of Requirement because, and I quote, 'he was being an overprotective douchebag'."

Neville snorted, "I knew she snuck out. She acted like such a bloody saint, but I knew she wasn't that perfect."

Harry sniggered, "Well, she snuck out to the kitchens to get some chocolate cake because, and I quote, 'I was freaking out that fucking twat Corner hadn't cast the protective charm properly and had knocked me up'. Then she ran into Draco, crying and holding chocolate cake, and he patted her on the head like a child and ran away."

Neville shook his head in amusement, "She must have been freaking out. I think she'd take death over having Michael Corners baby."

"She gave me a list of fates she would prefer to being pregnant with his baby. They included death, slow and painful or quick, torture by fire and waterboarding. That was when I got the giggles," Harry admitted with a grin.

Neville grinned in amusement, "I fucking love her."

"Me too," Harry said, and they chuckled all the way to the great hall. When they sat down, Lilly eyed Harry suspiciously, "Did you tell Neville the Michael Corner story?"

"Maybe," Harry said with a cheeky grin.

Lilly rolled her eyes, and from slightly further up the table, Michael said, "What story is that then? Bet it was a sex story, right?"

Lilly snorted, "Not exactly."

Michael smirked, "Oh come on, Lil, you've got a thing for the hot guys in our year. You're getting a track record!"

"The hot guys in our year?" Lilly asked with a frown, "I mean, I've slept with two of them, Ron and Neville, you know? Who is the third one though Michael?"

Michaels friends guffawed with laughter at his expense, and Michael rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, she thinks she's funny, right?"

Neville sniggered, "Still not sure why you slept with him, Lil."

"You and me both," Lilly muttered.

"How he didn't know you were in love with him during the war, I don't know," Susan snorted from Lilly's side, "I mean you slept with Michael, just to get Neville out of the Dark Tower."

"Neville and Ginny," Lilly pointed out, "I could have been in love with Ginny."

Harry snorted, "You slept with Michael to save Neville?"

"Nobody was volunteering to get them out, things were really tough by that point, and it was dangerous," Susan explained, "So Lilly slept with Michael to get him to agree to help. She blackmailed a couple of other people. Then she told us we'd survive a six-floor drop into the devils snare when she actually had no idea if we would, all to save Neville."

Harry turned to look at his best friend, "How did you not work out that she was in love with you? Did you just look at that afterwards and go, yep, that's a friend thing? Cause I'd never sleep with someone just to save your life."

"Wow, man, I'm hurt," Neville joked, "I'd sleep with someone to save you."

"What if it was Snape?" Daphne asked.

"Or Dumbledore?" Hermione cut in.

"Or Alecto Carrow?" Lilly asked.

"Well," Neville said, making a fan, "Nah, but if it was a girl who was young and hot-"

Harry snorted, "Yeah, well, that would be great. I'd be alive, but then you'd be dead cause Lil would destroy you for shagging someone else."

Lilly smirked and said, "Good to know we understand each other, Harry."

Neville looked a little scared, "Yeah…good point. Nah, I wouldn't do it, Harry. You'd just have to die."

That night Daphne had a heart to heart with Sadie in their dorm room.

"Daph, what's wrong?"

Daphne didn't need to look up to know that the voice belonged to Sadie.

"Nothing," Daphne said as she looked up at the girl.

"Did your Divination exam go badly?" Sadie asked.

Daphne shook her head, "No, well, at least not really. I definitely passed."

"Then what's wrong? You look a little bit lost," Sadie said as she sat down on the edge of her friend's bed.

"Well, it was something that Trelawney said in my exam, actually. She talked about marriage and weddings in the future, but it can't be referring to Harry and me. We agreed not to get married until he finishes Auror training, and I've finished my Curse Breaking Course," Daphne said.

"Well, Theo and I are getting married soon," Sadie reasoned.

"I know, but I'm wondering if it's more than that...do you think Draco is going to propose to Hermione?" Daphne asked curiously.

Sadie's eyes widened, "I don't know. He could be thinking about it. After all, Theo and I are engaged, and Harry proposed to you."

"So what, you think Draco is just going to follow like a little sheep?" Susan's voice asked.

"Suse, what are you doing?" Lilly laughed as she looked over at the Hufflepuff.

"Just hanging," Susan said with a grin. She had her legs looped over the top of her four-poster bed, and she was hanging upside down. Her mess of red hair was all over the place.

Daphne snorted, "I didn't mean that Draco would do it just because everybody else is doing it. He really loves Hermione; it's obvious he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Why wouldn't he ask her to marry him?"

"I don't know why you're all putting so much thought into it anyway," Another new voice said from inside the closed curtains of Hermione's bed, "Divination is complete rubbish. You guys are literally relying on a bunch of bloody leaves in a cup."

Daphne rolled her eyes, she recognised the voice, but the comment was enough to tell her who had spoken anyway, "Hermione, divination isn't completely useless!"

Hermione rolled her eyes from where her curtains hid her. She pulled them open and said, "Yes, it is. It's such an unreliable branch of magic."

"What about the prophecy about Harry?" Sadie asked, "That was a real prediction; it was scarily true. You can't say that it never works."

"Yeah, and what about the prediction Trelawney made in third year? It came true too," Daphne added. They were both ganging up on Hermione now.

"And there have been times when a seer has reported a murder to the Ministry hours before it's happened," Susan said as she turned her head slightly to look at Hermione from her perch, "How do you explain that?"

"Easily," Hermione said rather smugly, "The seer that reported it is obviously the bloody killer!"

Daphne and Susan both laughed at this. Daphne said in amusement, "She does have a point. Remember that crazy cat lady seer who reported the death of like ten cats, and then they were all found under her patio?"

"Yeah," Sadie agreed with a chuckle, "But there are other times when it works, like the seers who work as unspeakables to track down missing people."

"Exactly," Susan added, she nodded vigorously, which was amusing given her position, "And they work with Aurors to find killers and stuff too."

"So maybe it works sometimes," Hermione said sheepishly, "But they are probably all charlatans."

"Aren't you at all excited by the fact Draco might propose to you?" Susan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not if it's based on some bloody tea leaves in a cup," Hermione retorted.

Lilly laughed, "I've got to agree here. It's not exactly a reliable source, is it?"

Daphne rolled her eyes, "Okay, so maybe it isn't. But just say he did, hypothetically. What would you say?"

Hermione smiled slightly, "I'd say yes, of course. I know that I love him and ex-Death Eater or not I would weather any storm with him."

"Wow," Susan said as she swung down from her perch and lay on her bed normally, "That was so cheesy I thought I was gonna barf."

Hermione laughed and said, "Well, I don't care. I'm a hopeless romantic."

Daphne smiled fondly at her friend and said, "Wanna know a secret? Deep down, so am I."

"Well, I'm not," Susan said.

"Me either," Lilly joked, "I mean, look at me, I'm so punk rock."

"With a secret stash of Danielle Steel novels," Hermione grinned.

Susan laughed out loud, "I do want to get married someday, though. Even if I do hate all of this cheesy romantic stuff."

"I think almost every girl does," Sadie said with a grin, "Theo and I are just adding the finishing touches to our wedding. It sounds weird saying that while we're studying for exams, though…."

"Speaking of exams," Susan said as she reached down and grabbed a textbook from under her bed, "Can somebody please summarise what we learnt this year? I have literally paid no attention."

There was laughter around the room as the friends helped Susan out with her revision.

Harry and Neville were sitting together in the common room. Both of them were silently looking at their charms books and notes when something interesting happened over by the fire where the girls and Theo were lounging holding books.

"Yeah, I think he will propose," Daphne was saying, they had just come down from the dorm room, and this was obviously a continuation of an earlier conversation, "I mean, I know Draco pretty well, and he probably thinks that it's the right time. I bet he'll want to do it before he leaves Hogwarts too."

Harry frowned, so Draco was going to propose to Hermione? He hadn't told him that! He made a mental note to corner Draco when he got into the common room so that he could question him about this impending proposal.

As it so happened, though, it was Draco who cornered Harry later that evening in the common room.

"Hey Harry, are you busy on Saturday?" Draco asked very quickly.

"No…" Harry replied slowly.

Draco sighed in relief, "Thank Merlin, everyone is busy, and I need someone to come ring shopping with me."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin, "Everyone else is busy… so I'm the last person you asked?" he asked in amusement, "Gee, thanks Draco."

"Merlin Pothead stop acting like such a girl," Draco said as he rolled his eyes.

"If you're trying to convince me to come with you, that isn't the way to do it," Harry joked as he and Draco walked towards the fire where the others were all sitting.

"I'll buy you an ice cream sundae," Draco suggested and with a chuckle.

Harry thought about it momentarily and said, "Bribery, now that's better. You've got a deal."

The pair disbanded at the fire, Draco went to sit with Hermione on an armchair, and Harry squeezed in-between Daphne and Susan on the sofa. He was going to question Draco thoroughly at the weekend when they went ring shopping together.

"How did you get on with the exam Harry?" Susan asked when he sat down.

"Badly," Harry replied, he shook his head in disbelief at how bad it had been, "I didn't expect her to ask questions, so I talked so much rubbish."

"What questions did she ask you?" Daphne asked curiously.

Harry replied, "Something about the position of mars and a dream description."

"She asked me the same two," Daphne realised in surprise, and Susan nodded, "Yeah, me too. I think they were the standard exam questions. How can you mess up those questions?"

"Well, I made up a dream and said something about a badger and a ferret eating each other," Harry said, and he got hit by a quill that Draco had thrown.

"What are you saying about me?" Draco asked with narrowed eyes.

"Oi, I wasn't talking about you this time!" Harry said back, he turned back to a sniggering Susan and a vaguely amused Daphne, "And I said something about twins and people being angry for the mars question."

Susan laughed and said, "Well, you're close enough with the mars question. Merlin knows about the dream one, though."

Daphne was chuckling, "I'm sure you did enough to pass, even if it is an A."

"Well, enough about that one," Harry said as he nabbed Daphne's charms textbook out of her hands, "And onto the next one."

Hermione was remarkably calm on the morning of the charms exam, which Harry and Draco decided was her new way of channelling her stress.

"Are you going to eat?" Draco asked carefully when he sat down next to his girlfriend at the table.

Hermione shook her head and took a deep breath, "No, I'll eat after."

"So, how was your therapy session with Trelawney last night?" Harry asked. He hid his smirk behind his goblet of pumpkin juice. Due to Hermione's stress being significant enough to affect her everyday life, McGonagall had been forced to send her to a compulsory therapy session.

Hermione smiled, which surprised Harry, who was expecting an eye roll, "It was good actually. I'm feeling quite confident."

"Okay," Harry said, and he shot a confused look at Draco, who merely shrugged. He was probably just grateful that Hermione wasn't shouting or crying every ten minutes.

"I'm going to do some last-minute studying before the exam," Hermione decided, and she left the hall, which left Harry and Neville to ponder whether Trelawney had brainwashed or poisoned her.

Whatever Trelawney had done, it had worked. Hermione was calm throughout the rest of the day, and then after the exam, she came out happy and convinced that she had done well. It was like Trelawney had sucked all the stress out of her; it was kind of freaky.

On Friday, Theo took his written Astronomy exam during the day and was pretty sure he had done well, and then he had the practical exam late that night on the Astronomy Tower. He nearly got disqualified by the examiner for making a Dumbledore joke; he hadn't realised that the examiner was Elphias Doge… after that bad start to the exam, he then fell asleep and drooled on his paper. However, he was still determined he had passed.

Hermione's calmness stuck for a while, although she was still nervous and always had her head stuck in a book, but she spent the weekend mixing her revision with fun. She even let Daphne take her out for a coffee on Saturday.

This was all part of Draco's plan for Hermione not to notice he was gone, of course. Otherwise, she might have suspected what he was planning. So the moment the girls left the castle, Draco and Harry followed them and apparated to Diagon Alley before they could be seen.

Harry smirked as they ended up in the jewellery shop where he had bought Daphne's ring, "So," he said as they browsed the shelves, "What kind of thing are you looking for?"

"Simple and elegant," Draco said with a soft smile, "Elegant like Hermione."

"Merlin, when did you become such a romantic?" Harry teased.

Draco chuckled at this, "Hey, did you hear your proposal to Daphne? It was romantic as hell."

Harry scoffed, "So? She said yes. That's all that matters."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me you had a ring or that you were going to propose to Daphne," Draco said a little huffily.

"Well, I didn't tell anyone I had a ring apart from Neville, who came shopping with me, and Hermione, who helped me hide it. I couldn't tell you when I was planning to propose either because I didn't know when I was going to do it," Harry said in amusement, "It was a spur of the moment thing."

"Charming," Draco joked.

"You've got a hard neck anyway. I was the last person you bloody asked to come with you today," Harry said jokingly as he glanced around at the many rings.

"Well, I asked you, that's the part that matters, isn't it?" Draco said with an air of sentimentality.

"I'm not really offended, Draco," Harry said with a smile, "I've sort of accepted that although we are a quartet, there are times when it's me and Nev and you and Theo," he said thoughtfully.

"You're starting to sound like Dumbledore again," Draco remarked with an amused glint in his eye.

"I can't say I mind too much," Harry said truthfully, "Dumbledore could be manipulative, but he was a wise old guy too."

"Hmm," Draco hummed thoughtfully as he looked along the cabinets for ages. He must have looked at every single ring in the shop in vivid detail before he finally found one that caught his eye. He asked to have a closer look, and the store assistant handed it to him while Harry looked on from beside him. The ring was expensive, but this was to be expected from Draco. It was 18ct gold, and it had a circular ruby in the centre. The band was thin and elegant and adorned with diamonds and garnets. It was expensive as hell, but it was elegant, that was for sure.

"What do you think?" Draco asked Harry eagerly.

"Honestly, I think it's perfect, on the condition that you never ever tell her how much it cost," Harry said in amusement.

Draco rolled his eyes, "I wonder if she'll ever realise that I'm rich, so I don't care."

"Oh, I doubt it," Harry said with a chuckle as Draco grinned and told the store assistant he would buy the ring.

Ten minutes and 600 Galleons later, Draco and Harry were sitting in the newly reopened ice cream parlour.

Draco shook his head at Harry as their ice creams arrived. Harry's was full of chocolate and caramel, "What is it with you and sweet stuff?"

Harry smirked, "What is it with you purebloods and spending a fortune on everything?"

Draco looked at his friend in amusement, "Harry, you're a pureblood too."

"No," Harry corrected smugly, "I'm a half-blood. My mother was a muggle-born."

"Technically, you're a quarter blood," Draco pointed out through a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, "You would be a half-blood if your mother had been a muggle."

"Either way, I don't spend money like you and Theo," Harry said as he swallowed a rather large mouthful of ice cream and got brain freeze.

"We don't do it on purpose," Draco said honestly, "I didn't pick that ring because of the price. I picked it because it was what I liked and I know it's what Hermione will like. I suppose the whole rich pureblood thing isn't that we spend a fortune on things because we can…it's that we have the money to have whatever we want, which means we tend to buy the more expensive things."

"Well, if you're all so rich, I might change my plans for Theo and Sadie's wedding present," Harry joked.

"What are you getting them for their wedding?" Draco asked curiously, he hadn't even thought about that yet, even though the wedding was only a month away and Draco was the best man.

"Well, you have to promise to keep it quiet. I haven't even told Nev the full plan yet," Harry said as he leant in closer to the table. Draco nodded and leaned in closer too.

"You know how I've got the house at Grimmauld Place that I haven't signed over to you guys yet?" Harry asked, and Draco nodded once more. Harry continued, "They want to redevelop that part of London which means the tenants in 1 to 20 Grimmauld Place have been evicted because the buildings are due for demolishment."

"Won't that mean your house will be demolished?" Draco asked with a frown.

Harry shook his head, "No, it's protected. Nobody knows it's there, so you can't demolish something that's hidden. You know how those sort of charms work. The house is in a different plane of existence, or something."

"Harry, this question was in our charms exam two days ago," Draco said with vague amusement.

Harry shrugged, "Then I vaguely got the answer right."

"So what does your house have to do with Sadie and Theo's wedding present?" Draco asked.

"Well, I'm going to give them number 11," Harry said simply, and he ate his ice cream for a moment as Draco tried to figure this out.

"How are you going to do that if it's getting demolished?" Draco asked as if this was an obvious question to ask about a stupid idea.

Harry rolled his eyes, "I have an idea, but I'm not telling you what it is until it works," he said on a note of finality.

"Can I at least pitch in with this house? I'll decorate it or something, then I don't have to try and think of something to get them," Draco said.

Harry chuckled. He thought that might have happened, "You can go halfers with me on the price of the house; they're bloody expensive."

"How much?" Draco asked curiously.

Harry replied, "331,325 Galleons, 5 Sickles and 5 Knuts."

Draco didn't seem fazed by the price, "That's not too bad."

"Well, if you want to pitch in, you can," Harry said with a smile, "But I do need to make sure my plan works first."

Draco narrowed his eyes at his friend. Harry only smirked, and he didn't give anything else away, "So when are you planning on proposing?" he asked Draco.

Draco frowned slightly, "Before we leave Hogwarts for sure. I'm just not sure if I'm going to do it at prom or graduation. I haven't decided yet."

"I was going to do it at prom," Harry said in amusement, "That didn't exactly go to plan."

Draco chuckled, "Well, I'm going to have it in my pocket around that time, and if the opportune moment presents itself, I will seize it."

"Sounds like a good plan," Harry smiled.

"Very romantic either way," A familiar voice said, and Harry frowned when Neville slid in next to him at the booth he was sitting at with Draco.

"What are you doing here, Neville?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Shopping," Neville said in amusement, "And eating ice cream," he added as he licked his mint ice cream.

"Oh, okay," Harry said, "Hey, I'll meet you at the Hogs Head in an hour or so. I need to discuss that thing with you."

Neville winked, "Got ya. Good luck with the proposal whenever it might happen. See ya!"

Neville laughed, and Draco frowned, "Wait, what thing?"

Harry grinned in amusement, "It's about Sadie and Theo's wedding present. I told you I would figure it out. I'm going to get Nev to help."

"Why can't I help?" Draco asked suspiciously. He also looked offended.

"Because I want you to be impressed when we manage to pull it off on our own," Harry said simply as he finished his ice cream.

Draco rolled his eyes, "You're such a cryptic tosser sometimes," he said as he paid for their ice creams, "And you actually ordered the most expensive ice cream in here."

"Hey, you're rich. You can afford it," Harry laughed as the two friends left the ice cream parlour.

* ~ TBC ~ *