Chapter Nineteen: Easter and Exams

It seemed to Harry that the exams had suddenly leapt out and surprised everyone, even Hermione seemed more nervous about them then usual. 'You do realise they'll determine what we go on to do next year?' she repeated every time Ron asked her to calm down, like some kind of sacred oath.

'Yes, which is why you don't need to worry about exams like Potions, who wants to keep doing that?'

'Face it Ron,' Ginny joked back, 'Hermione could keep doing every subject and still get better marks than you or Harry.'

'I know,' Ron replied, grinning at Harry. 'Irritating isn't it?' he added, then ducked to avoid the book that Hermione threw at him. Smiling, Harry gestured between his revision work and his broomstick before shaking his head. 'I know how you feel,' Ron replied to the silent complaint. 'Dean's trying to teach me everything about football in between revision.'

Once again, all Harry could do was smile, not even a laugh could escape his mouth at the moment, and still no one knew why. Even Harry, who had assumed it might have been something to do with the fear of knowing Kilmorie was after him, could not decide why his voice hadn't returned. Picking up a scrap of parchment he scribbled a note and chucked it to Ron; Going to be a good laugh trying to do Divination like this, it read, and Ron chuckled at Harry's wry face.

'At least you don't have to talk to her,' Ron replied, faking a gloomy voice and rolling his eyes, before returning to poring over his notes.

Even though it was the Easter holidays, it seemed to Harry that all of Gryffindor tower was spending their time revising for exams, either in the library or the common room. Even Fred and George were trying hard, seeking to make up for their lack of O.W.L.s with good N.E.W.T marks.

Since the day when Harry had lost his voice, and the bonds between all of them had almost been lost, Ron and Hermione had taken to revising up in the tower with Harry, so they could speak with him, even if he couldn't speak back. Ginny had also taken to revising with them, not only to reconcile with Ron, but also to stop her friends asking her what had happened.

Not even Ron or Hermione knew what had gone on that night, and Harry suspected that while Sirius knew who had been involved, he still didn't know the full extent of what Harry and Ginny had heard. In any case, Harry was sure that Dumbledore definitely knew, not only because Ginny had told him, but also because he always knew.

* * *

A meeting in the dark, once more a single candle burned, casting light among the people assembled in the dark chamber.

'Are we all here?' the old voice asked, sensing the curiosity among the rest of the group.

'What's this about?' the snappy voice asked brusquely, interrupting the silence, and increasing the tension in the room.

'I think you know,' the old one continued calmly, 'that Harry Potter has become aware of our plan.'

'Who doesn't?' the calm one remarked wryly. 'Unfortunate that it's happened this way.'

'Most unfortunate, especially as he has misinterpreted our plan.' Once again silence fell, and this time no one interrupted. 'He knows the Cambirer is after him, that is enough to scare anyone, but he also knows the Cambirer will attack his friends.'

'Then.that's why?' It was the old female voice that asked the question on everyone's lips.

'That is why he is still suffering the shock, he knows that one of his friends may well be killed,' the old voice replied solemnly. 'We can only hope this won't stop Kilmorie doing his job,' he continued, letting the others absorb the information, 'but warn him to take care when he does act. I want to avoid any unnecessary difficulties.'

'And you think that will happen with a Cambirer?' the snappy voice asked sarcastically.

'I'm allowed to hope,' the old voice replied, and the shadow nods to dismiss everyone, they all leave apart from the owner of the calm voice, who detaches himself from the wall again.

'It was me that Potter overheard, speaking with Kilmorie?'

'Yes.'

'Then it's not just you who is hoping Kilmorie will do this right,' Snape replied, and with a nod to the shadow he departed.

* * *

'That,' Ron moaned, 'was a new definition of pain, torture, agony, madness and general cruelty to-'

'Dumb animals?' Hermione cut in, laughing at the face Ron pulled.

'I was going to say innocent students, but if you're going to include yourself in that last one.' This time he wasn't fast enough to dodge the clip around his head that Hermione sent after him. 'I'm serious though, I swear Binns never teaches us half of the questions on his exam papers.'

'That's because you only ever go to a quarter of the lessons,' Hermione replied with a teasing grin, and Harry pulled off an admirable impersonation of a snoring Ron in class.

'Well you only make it to half of them,' Ron replied to Harry, giving him a light shove as his friend continued to sleepwalk around.

Ahead of them in the corridor they saw Ginny's class leaving their exam, and once again to avoid speaking with anyone, Ginny rushed up to the three of them. 'How did it go?' she asked, directing the question at Hermione and clamping a hand over Ron's mouth before he could say a word.

'Not bad, misery-guts was moaning that he hadn't heard of half the goblins,' she added, smirking as Ron tried to speak around his sister's hand.

'So that tells me what you thought,' Ginny continued, taking her hand away from Ron's mouth, 'Harry?' he gave her two thumbs up in response, but the wariness of the smile on his face suggested it could have gone better.

'How was Transfiguration?' Ron asked, nodding towards the classroom as they walked past it on their way back to the tower.

'Well, my teacup didn't have a tail when I was done with it,' she replied, poking her tongue out at Ron, 'but it squeaked when the kettle was put down beside it so I must have lost a few marks.'

'Was that your last one then?' Hermione asked as they started climbing the stairs up to the tower.

'Nope, Divination tomorrow, what about you?'

'Just Care of Magical Creatures for me,' Hermione replied, 'but they've got the wonderful Divination exam tomorrow as well.'

'Are you going to be okay?' Ginny asked Harry, 'Trelawney knows that you won't be able to speak to her.' Harry nodded in reply, and his grin was explained when Ron started complaining again.

'He'll be fine, he not only gets an extension so he can write down what he sees, if anything, but he can also re-sit the exam later if he has to.' The way Harry's eyes reacted to the last bit, Ginny could tell he wouldn't sit it again no matter what the result.

* * *

Once again Harry, Ron and Hermione found the Care of Magical Creatures exam undemanding, this time Hagrid has produced a Niffler based exam paper, and they managed to get through it in no time. The practical half of the exam was even easier, not trusting the Nifflers to be loose, Hagrid simply made them get their Niffler to find some coins hidden around a large cage.

Nodding and smiling happily, Hagrid walked over to talk with them as Neville's Niffler ran around the cage causing havoc as it dug up coins. Ducking a piece of flying earth, Harry smiled up as Hagrid sat down with them on the Great Hall's floor. 'Nearly there Neville,' he commented as Neville ran around picking up the various coins that his Niffler had thrown out so far. 'Just keep goin', yeh'll get them all in a second.'

'Hagrid,' Hermione commented, her voice slightly disapproving, 'Is there anyway to actually not get full marks on this exam?' But before he could reply, Harry poked Hermione in the shoulder and pointed to where Crabbe and Goyle sat, still trying to fill in their exam papers. She grinned happily, then rephrased her question, 'Is there anyway for a Gryffindor to fail this exam?'

'Well,' Hagrid said, coughing secretly but not managing to look conspicuous at all, 'Yeh'd have to be pretty unlucky for your Niffler not to find all the coins, so not really.' His grin was wide, 'Anyways, you lot have always known whatever I've asked yeh, so why shouldn't yeh be allowed to pass?' Looking up for a second his grin became wider as he saw Neville frantically chasing his Niffler which held the last piece of gold in its mouth still. 'Yeh've no more exams anyway,' he continued, 'shouldn't yeh be thinkin' of something else now - like the Quidditch match?'

'Don't remind me,' Ron groaned, 'I can see why Harry was getting mad at Wood - Angelina wouldn't let us go to sleep last night!'

'Yeh goin' to win though?'

'Course we are, right, Harry?' Ron said, and the nod from Harry only bolstered his spirits. 'So far we've beat the Slytherins at everything else.'

'Don't get too overconfident,' Hermione interrupted. 'It did take Wood a few years to win the Quidditch cup - even with his perfect team.'

'She's right y'know,' Hagrid remarked, 'of course, there were good reasons for yeh not winning those years.'

'Harry being unconscious for one,' Ron said, grinning at Harry as he let his tongue flop out and eyes wobble. 'Anyway - we always beat Slytherin, it was just bad luck the other times.'

'And there aren't any Dementors around either,' Hermione said. 'Harry made sure of that in the Defence exam.'

'I heard about that,' Hagrid remarked, and indeed most of the school had. With careful lessons from McGonagall, Harry had learnt to cast reasonably powerful spells through his wand by thinking the words. The basis of the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam had been practicing Patroni, something most of the students had managed quite well.

But when Harry had taken his turn, the Boggart they had been using had produced more than one Dementor. Not only had Harry managed to conjure up his Patronus with little difficulty, it had also managed to defeat every one of the Dementors in a few seconds. Everyone was puzzled as to why more than one Dementor had appeared, but to Harry the explanation was clear; it was because a group of them would be needed to inject the same fear in him that the Cambirer now produced.

Thinking back to when Lupin had been teaching them, Harry remembered what Lupin had told him the first time he confronted a Boggart. While Harry had only feared fear itself back then, he now feared for his friends as well, ever since Cedric's death in fact, and that was who the Cambirer was threatening.

* * *

That night, after escaping from Angelina's second last-minute strategy talk, Harry and Ron had gone straight to their room to sleep, but for the first time in a while Harry found an unwelcome dream disturbing him.

He had to speak, he had to say something or it would be too late. He was alone again, alone in the rain and cold, apart from the shadows, shadows all around him. There was a flash of light and another figure appeared, crumpled on the floor. Stumbling over mud and grass he turned them over to reveal Ginny's face, pale and lifeless. 'No!' he heard his voice return as he lifted her, shook her shoulders in vain, 'Ginny, no! Wake up! WAKE UP!'

His hand shook as blood crept onto it, flowing everywhere as his chest burned. Looking down he saw that it wasn't the Liefgema that caused the pain. Instead, a silver blade stuck out, Harry's own blood on it. Slowly, it travelled backwards, and a shove in his back sent Harry forward, still holding Ginny's cold body in his arms.

As they lay in the darkness, the world fading around them, he could see the shadows dancing in victory. Ginny's eyes opened weakly, the sparkle of light in them fading away with the rest as the shadows closed in. In the darkness, Harry saw his Liefgema in a burst of light, its colours raging in pain and agony, before calming, then slowly fading into the darkness.