"Hermione. I have something to show you. We have a few minutes before the first exam start. Come here." Harry took the left arm of Hermione and dragged her out of the Great Hall to the amusement of the people present. Well, at least the amusement of those not being too stressed about the upcoming NEWTs.

"Harry, I have to study for the exam. I don't have time for this." Hermione was too nervous to appreciate anything at the moment. In a few moments it all would start. She would show the rest of the world that just because she was a muggleborn it didn't mean that she couldn't do magic. Even having the sweetest boyfriend in the world didn't help if she didn't do well enough on these exams.

Harry just grinned at her and she found herself melting slightly. "Well, Hermione. If you haven't studied enough until now, chances are great that you never will. I just wanted to do this." He leaned forward and kissed her passionately on the lips. Hermione discovered that she couldn't do anything but participate in the kiss, so she put her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

After a long period of time they didn't have any more air, so they simply had to break apart. By then they hadn't very much time left until the first exam started, so they made their way to the classroom. "Good luck on the NEWTs, I know you will manage just fine. You don't have anything to worry about." Hermione smiled at Harry before she sat down on her seat for the Transfiguration exam. He tried to tell her something but she didn't get the words exactly.

***

During the next days not one of the seventh years had any time to relax. Everything was about the NEWTs. They all studied while they ate, were in the bathroom; if it had been possible they would have studied in their sleep. Nobody played chess. Nobody played Quidditch. Everything was quiet. Even the other students didn't dare making too much noise. The oldest students would surely do something mean and horrid to them if they ever tried to make a single noise.

After the first exam it was one student that calmed down on the studying. Hermione had simply discovered during the Transfiguration exam that all the studying she'd done over the years had paid off. Hermione Granger did not need to study all that much for her NEWTs, she already had it in her head. That did not mean that she did not study at all, she just read up on the subjects and was finished with it. The rest of the time she used by worrying about the future. What would happen to her after she left Hogwarts? Would she go back to living in the muggle world? Or would she stay in the Wizarding world and forget all about the world she had been born to? What about her parents? What would they want her to do? What about Harry, what was he going to do after the leaving? His possibilities were endless, and where did she fit into his plans?

Hermione sighed. There were quite a number of exams to go, and the only one of them that was remotely hard was the potions exam. Not because she hadn't studied enough, but because Snape was almost certainly going to put something in there that he'd only mentioned once and was never mentioned once in the textbook. That was the kind of man Snape was, and then there was no use in studying the textbook more. If only some of the others had studied as much as she had, then she wouldn't feel so alone at the moment. No body had the time to talk to her; they were all too busy doing what she had been doing when they wanted to talk to her over the years. Studying.

***

Draco did not like Care of Magical Creatures. Not as much any more because of the teacher, rather because of the difficulty of knowing what to study for the exam. Besides who would need to know these things in real life? Ok, so Ginny's brother were sort of using it when he worked with the dragons in Romania, but no sane person would ever have the use for these things? Now learning about real life? Why couldn't they do that instead? Draco was sure that he would most certainly need that way more than he'd ever need to take care of a dragon or a hippogriff.

Since he wouldn't be living at Malfoy Manor any longer it was clear to him that he did need to know how to take care of a flat or a house. He didn't know which he would be living in. His mother and real father wanted him to come and live with them after their marriage had taken place, but he couldn't quite see himself living in the same house as Potter. He was on good terms with him for the moment, but living in the same house was a bit over the top nevertheless. Besides he was getting married as well, and he didn't want Ginny and Harry living in the same house. Well that they had been doing for several summers, but one could never know. Ginny had after all had a crush on Harry for a long time. Ginny and he would have to find their own place, not too far from civilization, but still not directly in one of the big cities. Hogsmeade would be a nice place to settle down, but it would all depend on what kind of job he would be able to get after the leaving. Which all came back to the number of NEWTs he would be able to get. Surely he wouldn't get as many as Granger, but as he wasn't a bad student at all, he would manage to scrape together a few.

But now he would have to get back to work at his Care of Magical Creatures textbook. It might not be important, but if it could get him an extra point in the chase of the NEWTs it was important enough to study for.

***

Ron was studying furiously. He would not be beaten by his little sister in the number of NEWTs. He would beat Gred and Forge's "world-breaking record" from two years ago, it wouldn't take much studying, but he really wanted to prove something to the rest of the family. Being beaten by Ginny would prove nothing. Now he regretted that he hadn't taken the advice of Hermione and studied more during the seven years he had spent here at Hogwarts. She had of course studied more than enough and today sat in an armchair in the Gryffindor Common Room and read what looked like a muggle romance novel. Totally out of character for Hermione, but ever since she had begun dating Harry she had been slightly out of character. More carefree and not quite so hung up about studying. She hadn't acted that way when she was dating Dean, then it was all about studying and trying to fit Dean in her schedule, now it was more like Harry all the time, and trying to fit studying into her schedule… Ron grinned while taking a short study break to think of his two friends.

He had never fancied Hermione, but he had always known that Harry did. But Harry was way too shy to actually do something about it himself, so when Hermione went to the Yule Ball with Krum Ron went ballistic, because Harry didn't. Back then Harry fancied himself with the idea that he was in love with Cho. Ron knew better. Harry thought he had a crush on Hermione and wouldn't do anything to hurt that. All the problems they could've avoided if they only talked about the things on their mind. But now everything was ok. Harry and Hermione were together, even if Hermione wasn't studying and Harry was things still were ok.

Now the Ginny and Draco thing could use some work, but Ron didn't want to get told off for interfering so he didn't even bother with that line of thought. At least they were talking now, not that he liked that all that much, but he supposed it was ok.

***

Pansy Parkinson stressed along with the rest of the seventh years for her NEWTs, the Dark Lord had kept her otherwise occupied during the year, so she had to do all her studying the last minute before the actual exam. Not that the NEWTs were all that important for her, after all she would be working for Lord Voldemort afterwards, but she would not be bested by all the others, and pitied. A Parkinson was never going to be the object of anyone's pity. NEVER.

***

Crabbe and Goyle sat together in the library. Draco was studying in his room, but hadn't invited them to study with him. They didn't mind, they had been spending an increasingly amount of time together just the two of them since the incident with Professor Trelawney. Draco did not hang around with them as much as he used to, he didn't need the protection anymore. So Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were studying together for their NEWTs in the library.

They weren't stupid; they just had trouble understanding some of the professors when they babbled on. When they sat down, just the two of them and just read, they understood most of the things. But if they were in class they were so used to always having Draco or Granger knowing everything, so there wouldn't be a point in answering some of the professors' questions. So they studied, as much as the next person when it came to the NEWTs, they only hoped all the studying would pay off.

***

Dean Thomas was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room with his best friend Seamus Finnegan. They were both looking over at the chessboard rather longingly. But it was a no-no until they had finished all their exams. They were sitting with a large stack of books reading fervently. Dean looked over at his ex-girlfriend. When they had been dating all she had been doing was nagging him over his studying or studying herself. Now she was the only one of them not studying. She was reading a rather thick book. A romance novel it looked like. Had aliens taken over Hermione? Not studying in the most important weeks of their lives?

Dean didn't understand Hermione. He had never really done that, even when they were dating. He liked her and she was nice, but he hadn't understood what made her tick, and she understood that and would have been the first to say that she did not understand him fully either. Now she was going with Harry, and Dean supposed she should have done that all the time. They were perfect for each other; himself and Hermione had just been too different.

Though at the time when they did start going to Hogsmeade together he would have said they were similar. They were both coming in from the muggle world; Hermione even knew what and who West Ham was. But coming from almost the same background was not enough to build a relationship on. There had to be more than that, she was an amazing kisser, he would happily admit that, but that was almost worse to build a relationship on than just similar background. He supposed he had been crude when they broke up, but he hadn't seen any other way to do it. It couldn't have been out of the blue for her, she was a participant in the relationship and had to know it didn't work anymore.

Dean Thomas made himself stop to think about his ex and their non-existing relationship. He had some cramming to do.

***

A/N: I think I'll finish the chapter there. I am currently sitting in a cabin in the mountains of Norway writing this… So I would have plenty of time to write more, but I'd rather start on a new chapter… Actually it is Easter, so a Happy Easter to all of you, whether you actually celebrate it or not…

I have an ache in my hip. Not a good thing. I don't know what it is, but if it doesn't go away I am calling my doctor. Hope it isn't anything Sirius. ;)

You could always join my group to get update-notices… http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/anastacyfanfic I am also working on a web-page, but since I am in the middle of nowhere (Believe me, I am) I won't get to work on that. I'll upload this as soon as I actually get to an Internet connection point… Please let it be soon.

Oh, anything Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling and the Warner Company.