Blood of Enemies, Blood of Friends
Chapter 49 – Life Goes On
In the weeks following the party in the Scooby common room everyone fell back into their usual routine. Narcissa found a cottage to her liking and left the castle. The faculty focused on lesson plans and getting their students ready for exams. The students focused on studying and homework.
Buffy and Faith reinstated nightly patrols of the Forbidden Forest. Regular patrols had been put on hold, so that there was more time to focus on preparing for the prophecy. The seventh year Slayers were scheduled to patrol every other night, since they would each be assigned to a hellmouth at the end of the school year and needed as much practice as possible before then. The younger Slayers were required to patrol only one night per week for the rest of the school year.
Wesley scheduled more frequent History of the Slayer classes devoted to Buffy and Faith sharing their stories. He wanted to make sure that there would be enough time for both Slayers to take the class through the battle with the First Evil the previous year.
Dawn found herself devoting quite a bit of time to her project for History of the Slayer. She greatly enjoyed reading Genevieve's Watcher's private diaries. Whenever Dawn needed clarification on something or if she was not sure if something was too personal to include in her paper, she would owl Genevieve. The vampire was always quick to send lengthy responses to all of Dawn's questions.
Dawn, Hermione, and Draco began to prepare for their final exams. Harry, Ron, and Shannon insisted that it was still too early to be studying, since there were another two months before exams. However, Ron, wanting to spend as much time as possible with Hermione, finally relented and began studying as well.
Ginny and Luna began spending almost every night in the library, studying for their O.W.L.s. Both girls often turned to Hermione and Draco with questions. Both had received outstandings on their exams the previous year, though Draco only received an exceeds expectations in charms because of the plate he broke, when he was distracted by Harry.
Since Luna did not have a lot of time to spend with Andrew during the week, he focused his attention on his recordings. Hermione had helped him a great deal in the beginning of the year by setting up an organizational system for him. Andrew worked diligently to add all that had happened in the past few months to the final version of his records for the Watcher's Council.
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Amidst all of their work, the faculty still found time to devote to their significant others. The students were fortunate in that they were able to spend at least a few hours with their significant other each night, even if they were only studying.
The two newlywed couples (Xander/Anya and Faith/Robin) were able to spend each night together. Wesley and Cat, whose relationship had progressed quickly, also spent most nights together.
Buffy and Charlie had agreed to spend every other weekend together, alternating between Hogwarts and Romania. Through the rest of the school year, neither missed a single planned weekend. When they were together, they were inseparable, making up for the long weeks that they were apart.
Giles spent each weekend in Hogsmeade, visiting Narcissa. They agreed to take their new relationship slowly. They spent most of their time together just sitting and talking, enjoying each other's company.
Willow spent most of her weekends alone, working on her recovery. She had once again begun regularly practicing meditation techniques that the coven had taught her after she tried to end the world. Willow began to feel more in control of her magic, but knew better than to slack off in her meditation, as she had done before. Willow did meet Tonks in Hogsmeade twice during the months before the school year ended.
Harry and Shannon would sneak off to the Shrieking Shack on most weekend evenings. It was the only place they could truly be alone. When Harry and Shannon disappeared, Dawn, Draco, Ron, and Hermione would spend time together. Draco had become fairly friendly with Ron and Hermione, but Harry still refused to tolerate the Slytherin.
Andrew, Luna, Ginny, and Neville also spent their weekend evenings together. The two couples did almost everything together.
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The members of the house quidditch teams spent a significant amount of time training for the final games of the year. With the current point distribution, each team still had a chance to win the quidditch cup.
The first of the final games was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Luna once again donned her eagle hat to root for her house team. Andrew wore a similar hat that she made for him. Dawn, Shannon, Hermione, and Ron showed their support for Slytherin, more specifically for Draco. Harry complained loudly that his friends were being traitors to Gryffindor by supporting Malfoy, but they ignored everything Harry said.
Everyone was feeling the intensity of the game. The chasers on both teams were in top form and scored many goals before Draco finally spotted the snitch. He immediately went into a dive, followed closely by Cho Chang, who had been shadowing him much like when she played against Harry. The dive was steep, and knowing her limitations, Cho pulled out of it quickly. Draco, however, refused to lose his chance at the snitch. He caught it, but did not have time to pull out of the dive before hitting the ground.
Slytherin won, and Draco spent the night in the hospital wing after Madame Pomfrey repaired his broken shoulder. She tutted the entire time about Draco spending more time in the hospital wing this year than Harry. 'At least I beat Potter at something,' thought Draco smugly.
The second game came a few weeks later – Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. The entire school turned out to see who would take the cup. In order to beat Slytherin, Gryffindor needed to win by 220 points. Therefore, Gryffindor had to be ahead by 70 points before Harry caught the snitch.
The game lasted several hours, as both keepers defended their goals with a vengeance. On three separate occasions, Harry had spotted the snitch, but Gryffindor had not been far enough ahead. Each time, he faked out the Hufflepuff seeker to prevent him from taking the snitch.
Finally, Gryffindor was ahead by 70 points. Harry spotted the snitch and put on a burst of speed to catch it. Unfortunately, he was so focused on the snitch that he failed to notice Ron letting a goal slip past him. Gryffindor won the match but lost the quidditch cup to Slytherin.
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As the school year approached an end, there had been no word about Voldemort or his Death Eaters. Everyone believed that the Dark Lord was biding his time, while working on another plan to gain power. Willow regularly scanned news stories on the Internet in the hopes of finding something that could relate to Voldemort's activity. Hermione did the same with the daily prophet. Neither had any success. Everyone would just have to wait until Voldemort made another move.
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The students soon found themselves cramming for exams. Hermione again presented everyone with a study schedule as she had done for midterms. Dawn and Hermione, having learned that their study techniques were different, went their separate ways to study for finals. Dawn studied either alone or with Draco and Shannon. Hermione studied with Ron and Harry. To Ron's delight, she agreed to institute the same reward system for him that Dawn and Draco had developed when studying for midterms.
Their first exam was in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The students were each given a prophecy of an apocalyptic event. They had to provide an explanation of the prophecy and three possible ways averting it. Dawn once again received the top score in the class, and this time Hermione could not argue that Dawn had an advantage, since Hermione herself had found the last prophecy, which they had to prevent from coming to pass.
Willow and Wesley once again gave a combined exam for their classes. The exam mirrored their midterm, consisting of a number of hypothetical scenarios to which the students must decide the best course to research. They had to list the specific reference books that they would use. The Slayers, Ron, and Dawn were also required to relate topics from the Watcher diaries that might provide additional information. When the exam ended, everyone was confident that they had done well.
All of the students also believed that they had done well in charms, transfiguration, and potions. Their exams did not contain anything that they had not studied.
The last exam of the term was Slayer Fighting Techniques. Buffy, Faith, and Robin once again asked the students to each find a sparring partner. Dawn fought Draco, Shannon fought Harry, and Hermione fought Ron. As couples, each pair moved together more easily than with an unknown opponent. Everyone, including Hermione who was must worried about this class, felt that they had done exceptionally well.