Year 3: Friend Like You

Chapter 30: June 2014

Monday morning of their first week of exams, the Great Hall was practically silent as the students of Hogwarts frantically revised their notes. All that could be heard was the turning of pages and the clinking of silverware on dishes.

All too soon, students started to stand up and make their way out of the Hall.

"Is it time already?" Teddy blanched, looking up from his Defence notes.

"Looks like it," Victoire noted, reluctantly closing her Charms book and shoving it into her bag. "We'd better get going," she added, swinging around in her seat and standing up.

Her friends stood up, but Teddy and Billy remained seated.

"Aren't you guys coming?" Victoire wondered.

"We're in here, remember?" Teddy said. "O.W.L.s are held in the Great Hall."

"But don't you have to wait outside?" Victoire asked.

Teddy shrugged. "I'm sure they'll kick us out when it's time. I think I'll get in as much last-minute studying before that happens though."

"Alright," Victoire agreed. "Well good luck."

"Thanks," Teddy smiled. "Oh, and you too," he added, almost as an afterthought. Victoire didn't mind. She knew he was way more stressed out than she was. While you had to be pretty bad at a subject to fail an exam from first through fourth year, an average of a third to half of students would fail each O.W.L. For that reason, there was a lot more pressure on Teddy to do well.

"Ready for Charms?" Kara asked brightly as the three girls exited the Great Hall and headed up to the second floor.

"I'm never ready for Charms," Victoire grumbled. Charms was one of her worst subjects, especially as things had gotten more difficult in third year.

"Come on," Kara said. "Charms is fun."

"Easy for you to say," Victoire returned. "You're a natural at Charms. You'll get an O for sure."

VvVvVvVvVvV

"How'd it go?" Victoire asked at lunch when she and her friends met up with Teddy and Billy to eat.

"Miserable," Billy groaned. "And that was only the theory section."

Victoire nodded. While Hogwarts end-of-year exams were typically either practical or theoretical, many O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s were both practical and theoretical – which meant Teddy and Billy had to sit almost twice as many exams as the girls.

"At least the practical section will be over a lot more quickly," Victoire pointed out.

"Sure," Billy agreed. "But that also means we have a lot less room for error."

"How did Charms go?" Teddy wondered, not wanting to talk about the O.W.L.s anymore.

Victoire shrugged. "Terrible as usual," she said. "At least it was a theoretical exam this year. Last year was a disaster."

"You still passed last year though," Teddy pointed out. "It's not like you had to retake the class over the summer."

"I guess," Victoire shrugged.

"Don't worry about it," Teddy assured her. "I'm sure you did fine today."

"So what are you girls studying this afternoon?" Billy asked. Since non-O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students only had to write one exam per day, they were allowed to use their exam day afternoons to study, while the fifth and seventh years were stuck in the Great Hall.

"We've got History tomorrow," Brianna groaned. "And I still haven't revised anything on the witch hunts."

"That was like, half the year!" Victoire cried. "What were you doing?"

"Revising for Charms!" Brianna replied.

"Well you should really organize your time better," Victoire declared. "You're telling me you spent the past two weeks studying for Charms, and left all our other subjects to be studied the day before?"

"No," Brianna protested. "I just never got around to the witch hunts. They're boring! History is boring!"

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Come on, we should head to the library before the good seats are all taken."

VvVvVvVvVvV

By Friday evening, Teddy and Billy were complete disasters. They had completed Defence, Herbology, Potions and Ancient Runes already, and that morning had written their Astronomy theoretical exam. Since they couldn't do their practical exam until the sun had gone down, the afternoon had been devoted to History of Magic and now despite the looming weekend, the boys were frantically revising for their practical Astronomy O.W.L., which was to take place at midnight in the Astronomy Tower.

"You should take a nap," Victoire suggested when Teddy started nodding off into his bowl of soup.

"Can't," Teddy disagreed. "Have to keep revising."

"Come on, take a break, it's the weekend!" Brianna cried.

"Easy for you to say," Billy grumbled. "Your next exam isn't until Monday. We'll take a break when Astronomy is done."

"No you won't," Victoire disagreed. "As soon as you finish Astronomy you're going to start revising for Transfiguration on Monday."

"Do you blame us?" Teddy asked. "What would my grandmother say if I failed my transfiguration O.W.L.?"

Victoire blanched. Her parents were bad enough, but if she had to answer to her transfiguration Professor about failing transfiguration – that would not be fun.

"Okay fine," Victoire allowed. "At least it's only one more week though. Soon it'll be over."

"Sure," Teddy agreed distractedly as he studied a star chart.

Victoire rolled her eyes, but decided to leave Teddy alone. He had enough to worry about and he needed to focus.

VvVvVvVvVvV

That night, Victoire and her friends were up late playing exploding snap while the fifth years were clustered around the tables in the common room, pouring over their notes in preparation for their Astronomy O.W.L. As midnight neared, the tension in the room grew until Victoire and her friends finally decided to pause their game until the fifth years were gone – the sound of the explosion was loud in the almost silent room, and they were surely disturbing their fellow Gryffindors.

"I can't study anymore," Billy groaned, walking over to where the girls were sitting and plopping down in an armchair exhaustedly. "I feel like I need an energy potion or something to stay awake."

"It's a little late for that," Brianna pointed out.

Billy sighed. "Yeah," he agreed. "Have to be there in ten minutes so I should probably get going…"

Other students were starting to push their chairs back and make their way out the portrait hole. Victoire could vaguely hear the Fat Lady screaming about how it was after curfew before some fifth year boy informed her that they had their O.W.L. exam and were allowed to be out and about.

"I think someone should probably wake Teddy up," Kara said, pointing to the boy who had fallen asleep on top of his notes.

"I'm not doing it," Billy held his hands up in defense. "Teddy hates being woken up."

"I'll do it," Victoire rolled her eyes at Billy's antics. "He can't sleep through his exam after all."

Victoire stood up and walked over to her friend, gently prodding him on the shoulder in an attempt to rouse him.

"Teddy?" she said gently. "Teddy? Wake up!"

When Teddy didn't even move, Victoire tried a more violent approach. She walked around to the back of his chair and pulled it out from underneath him, causing him to fall to the floor in dramatic fashion.

"What was that for?" Teddy cried, jumping up and brandishing his quill angrily.

"You feel asleep," Victoire said, placing her hands on her hips. "I had to wake you up. Your exam is about to start."

"It is?" Teddy cried, his eyes going wide. "But I'm not ready."

"Yes you are," Victoire assured him. "Now go before you're late."

Frantically, Teddy grabbed what he would need, leaving the rest spread out across the table and hurried after the rest of his classmates with Billy, leaving the three girls alone in the common room.

"Back to exploding snap?" Kara asked.

"Let me just clean this up," Victoire muttered, gathering Teddy's notes into a stack and placing them nicely in his bag. She also closed his ink pot and threw that into the bag with his spare quills, zipping the bag closed and then placing it next to the boys' staircase.

"Ready?" Kara demanded, holding the deck in her hand, ready to deal the next hand.

"Yeah," Victoire agreed. "Let's play."

VvVvVvVvVvV

When the fifth years returned from their Astronomy O.W.L., the girls were still in the corner of the room playing exploding snap.

"So?" Victoire asked when Teddy and Billy approached. "Did you stay awake?"

"I did," Teddy smirked, laying down on a nearby couch. "Billy nodded off a few times."

"I did not," Billy disagreed with a yawn. "Okay, maybe I did."

Victoire smirked. "Maybe you two should go to bed," she suggested.

"Can't," Teddy disagreed. "Have to start studying transfiguration."

"First of all," Victoire said. "You're not going to get any studying done on that couch. Second, you have the whole weekend to study. You need sleep."

"I think Victoire's right," Billy decided. "I'm going to sleep." He slowly began to ascend the stairs to the boys' dorm.

"Hey Billy, take that bag with you, would you?" Victoire requested, gesturing to Teddy's bag. "I don't think he's going to have the energy to carry it."

"Whatever," Billy muttered sleepily, grabbing the bag and disappearing up the stairs.

"Teddy?" Victoire asked. "Are you going to go upstairs too?"

When Teddy didn't respond, Victoire circled round to the other side of the couch to find that he had fallen asleep right there in the common room.

Victoire rolled her eyes. "Seriously?" she demanded. "You were that tired?"

"Just leave him there," Brianna said. "We should head to bed now anyway."

"Hang on," Victoire said, casting her eyes around until she found what she was looking for. She grabbed a throw blanket from a nearby armchair and pulled it over Teddy's sleeping figure. "There, now we can go to bed."

VvVvVvVvVvV

By the following Friday, exams were finished and everyone was relieved.

"I never want to brew another potion for the rest of my life," Teddy groaned.

"Really?" Victoire asked. "You wouldn't take N.E.W.T. potions?"

"Not a chance," Teddy shook his head. "Would you?"

"I might," Victoire allowed. "What do you think you'll take?"

"Transfiguration for sure," Teddy said. "My grandmother wouldn't have it any other way. Probably Ancient Runes also, I'm pretty good at that. I guess I'll wait to see what I pass and what I fail though before I decide."

"Do you know what you want to do?" Victoire wondered.

Teddy shrugged. "I'll probably go to work for the Ministry or something," he said. "I'm not really sure. What about you?"

"No clue," Victoire replied. "But I have way more time to figure that out."

"I have plenty of time," Teddy claimed. "I don't have to start applying for jobs until mid-seventh year and I'm still only a fifth year."

"Barely," Victoire pointed out. "You may as well be a sixth year now."

"Slow down," Teddy cried. "I barely finished my O.W.L.s and you're already turning me into a N.E.W.T. student."

"I think you should take Herbology next year," Victoire decided.

"I don't think so," Teddy disagreed.

"Well I'm going to take Herbology when I'm a fifth year," Victoire declared.

"Good for you," Teddy said. He pondered for a second and then added, "I might take Charms."

"Eww, not Charms!" Victoire cried. "Why would you do that?"

Teddy shrugged. "Charms is a good class to take. Opens a lot of doors later on."

"But it's Charms," Victoire sneered.

Teddy shrugged. "Well you don't have to take it," he said. "I only meant I might."

VvVvVvVvVvV

Before they knew it, it was the Hogwarts end-of-year feast. Ravenclaw had won the House Cup that year, Gryffindor coming in third out of four houses, so the Gryffindor table was relatively subdued at dinner that night.

Just before everyone started to head back to their dorms to pack for the train ride home the following day, Headmistress McGonagall stood up to address the students.

"I would like to make a couple of announcements," she declared, causing those who had started to stand to sit back down.

"First, I want to say congratulations to everyone for making it through another year. Give yourselves all a round of applause," everyone clapped while the Headmistress adjusted her spectacles. "In other news, I would like to announce that after fifteen years of dedicated service to the school, Professor Leftbridge has elected to step down as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts for personal reasons."

As Professor Leftbridge stood to say a few words of farewell, Billy turned smugly to Victoire and her friends. "Told you so," he smirked.

Brianna rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she muttered. "They never said he was retiring."

"Technicality," Billy brushed it off.

They turned back to face the front of the room when Professor Leftbridge sat down and the Headmistress took the podium again.

"Finally," the Headmistress continued, "I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that after more years than I can believe, I have officially decided to retire."

At this, Victoire gasped. "She's leaving?" she cried. "But she'd been here forever."

"I think that's the point," Brianna pointed out.

"But she's been here since my grandparents' time," Victoire insisted. "Probably even before then. She can't leave!"

"I think it's probably time she did," Kara said. "She must be in her late seventies or early eighties by now. She deserves some peace and quiet."

"What do you think that means for next year?" Victoire wondered. "Who's going to be Headmaster?"

"Maybe it'll be Professor Longbottom," Kara suggested.

"He's too new," Teddy disagreed. "It'll be one of the older Professors."

"Surely not Professor Flitwick," Brianna cried. "He's got to be retiring soon too. Unless he plans on dying here and continuing to teach like Professor Binns."

"What about your grandmother, Teddy?" Victoire wondered. "She'd make a good candidate."

Teddy shrugged. "She hasn't mentioned it. Maybe they haven't even picked someone yet."

"Maybe it'll be someone from outside the school," Kara posited.

"Because that went so well last time," Victoire muttered, referring to the time of Dolores Umbridge back when her Aunts and Uncles went to Hogwarts.

"Well obviously it wouldn't be like that this time," Kara pointed out. "We're not in the middle of a war now."

"I guess we'll find out in September," Teddy shrugged. "No use speculating."

"Yeah," Victoire agreed. "I guess so."

VvVvVvVvVvV

The following morning, after breakfast, the students of Hogwarts climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express, finally heading home for the summer.

"I can't believe we're going to be fourth years next year," Kara said excitedly. "Fourth year is practically upper year."

"Except it isn't," Brianna pointed out. "We still won't get the good seats in the common room and we still won't be invited to the upperclassman parties."

"True," Kara allowed. "But it'll be the last year that we're underclassmen."

"I wish we could just skip fourth year and go straight to fifth," Brianna declared.

"Don't wish that!" Victoire cried. "You saw how stressed out Billy and Teddy were this year. That's going to be us soon. We should enjoy the time we have now before we get saddled with O.W.L. work."

"Speaking of Teddy and Billy, where are they?" Kara wondered.

Victoire shrugged. "Probably with their fifth year friends," she said.

"Oh," Kara said with a frown. "I guess I just got used to them being around recently."

"Yeah," Victoire agreed. "So had I."

The Hogwarts Express lurched, and the train began to slowly pull out of the station.

"Well, goodbye Hogwarts," Victoire sighed, gazing out the window. "See you next year."

"Don't be so dramatic," Brianna rolled her eyes. "We'll be back before you know it."