Disclaimer: Oops..forgot to add this the last time round; the poem Remus and James quoted in the last chapter was taken from Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
Thanks again to all reviewers!
Chapter 10: To convince an examiner
In the weeks preceding the NEWTs and OWLs, merriment in the house Common Rooms have progressively dwindled to a minimum. Fifth years were undoubtedly the most worried, having never sat for a exam before. 7th years were more blasē or pretended to be although a few more competitive ones did take to ordering juniors out whenever they wanted to study.
Sirius was not one of them. He didn't open a book during OWLs and it seemed that he didn't intend to touch one now either. Some fellow students maliciously whispered that Sirius wanted to topple Alexander Melliflus,a school legend who obtained 11 top grade NEWTs without visiting the library once.
The other three Marauders knew better. Sirius learned through action and listening; he was simply too restless to sit through a book. They learned to block him out as he paced though empty corridors, running his wands through intricate series of spells, whistling tuneless songs while they tried to read.
Remus had planned to run through his notes again before the exam started but the previous night's activities left him sleeping like the dead. He had just enough time to wash his face before grabbing his quill, still in slept-in robes.
"Whose great idea was it to raid the kitchens last night?" James groaned as they rushed up to the examination venue.
"Don't blame me – you're the one who wanted to celebrate," Sirius yawned. The four separated after exiting Gryffindor tower. The first exam for Sirius and James was Advanced Potions in the dungeons while Remus and Peter headed to one of the classrooms for Intermediate Runes and Hieroglyphs. The latter pair reached the entrance of the class just as Argus Filch was about to leave his post. Each year, he had taken it upon himself to randomly choose an exam venue and thoroughly check for possible cheating devices, hereby making nervous students even more rattled.
"You are late," he scowled. "Turn out your bags and pockets."
Remus shook out the contents of his bags, dug into his pockets – his fingers closing over the Marauders map. There was no time to find a better hiding place; he rolled it up and slipped into his pencil case but Filch spotted That straightaway.
"Aha! And what's this?" he growled, his face even more sour as he pulled the blank parchment out. Peter sent Remus a panicked look. Filch had always seemed to be of the opinion that any Marauder, even a Prefect, must be guilty of something.
"Just a bit of spare parchment," Remus said, recognizing the futility if protesting but trying nonetheless. "Check it." He regretted the words almost as soon as he said them.
"Pettigrew!" the caretaker barked as he held the map up to light. "Tell it to reveal its secret!"
Use a fake spell, Remus tried to telegraph to his friend. But of course, Peter tended to lose his head in a crisis. He did exactly as he was told.
Ink began snaking over the parchment. Remus sighed and leaned against the wall.
Mr Moony presents his compliments to Mr. Filch and respectfully requests that he stop taking out his frustrations on Hogwarts students
Mr Wormtail concurs with Mr Moony and adds that Mr. Filch is a sour, crabby git.
Filch's face mottled purple in rage. Mrs Norris meowed in protest.
Mr. Prongs would like to register his astonishment that someone had not yet murdered Mr. Filch in his sleep and suggests that a Kwikspell course might do wonders.
Mr, Padfoot agrees with all of the above but thinks that finding a girlfriend would help him more, preferably a blind and deaf one who can overlook his deficiencies.
The last made a vein throb on Filch's now red and purple face.
"You are on detention! Both of you! And I am taking this! Carrying highly dangerous contraband items smuggled from goodness-knows-where.."
"That's unfair," Peter burst out. "I didn't do anything."
"You ..."
"Is there a problem here?" a gray-haired witch appeared at the door. "The exam is about to begin."
"Oh no, Professor," he sent another murderous look at Remus. "Nothing that can't be taken care of." He prodded the two students to the door. "Go on then! You heard her!" he snapped as if they had been dawdling around for the fun of it. He walked off, crumpling the map in his hand. Remus stared after him, unable to believe that the map, which had survived so many expeditions both in and out of school, had fallen to a mere routine check.
"Well, then?" the witch now tapped her foot impatiently.
"James and Sirius will get it back," Peter whispered to Remus. "Don't worry about it."
Remus wished he could feel half as sure.
In the dungeons, James was having problems of his own. The exam required them to choose 2 out of 5 prespecified potions, write down the ingredients and procedure as well as concoct a sample of the potion.
James groaned inwardly when he saw the list of potion options. All of them were complicated to make; needing constant monitoring and unswerving concentration. It was also difficult to tell whether the end product was the correct solution since tell-tale signs like change in colour or presence of vapours were absent.
"Stir 13 times clockwise," James mumbled under his breath. " Add in 3 drops of dandelion juice..Blast." He had forgotten to get the juice from the main supply table. he swept up the room hurriedly, his robes trailing after him. Only to have a sleeve catch hold of Snape's cauldron in front of him which promptly toppled. Both students forze as the potion splashed on them.
Severus was the first to recover.
"You..you," his pale face turned red with fury . "You did that on purpose, Potter!"
The accusation stung James who was on the verge of apologizing.
"It was an accident," he said coldly. He waved his wand. The solution flew back to Snape's cauldron which righted itself on the table. "There."
"It's contaminated!" Severus yelled at him. "OF the dirty tricks!"
"What is going on here?" Griselda Marchbanks, chief invigialtor for the day, descended on them, frowning. "This is an examination! There should be absolute silence!"
"He knocked over my cauldron on purpose!" raged Severus. "He's wants to prevent me from winning the Potions prize!"
"I didn't," James protested loudly. "It was an accident. And you won't win any prize unless you kill half the class." Titters ran through the class who was by now straing all agog at them.
"Enough," the examiner intereceded. "Young man, go back to your seat and make sure you don't leave it again," she said pointing to James who made an exaggerated show of getting his dandelion juice and returning to his seat. "I will give you an extra 10 minutes but another outburst and its an automatic D."
Severus seethed. She sounded like she was doing him a great favour when it was that Potter who ...Did he think he could get away with sabotaging his potions?
"Evanesco" he hissed at his cauldron. The solution immediately vanished. He had now only 35 minutes to make two potions from scratch.
"What a day!" James groaned at dinner later. "To think Snivellus actually thought I wanted to sabotage him...its a good thing the examiner didn't believe him."
Remus and Peter exchanged nervous glances, deciding to save the news about the map to later. "I guess he is hoping for a Pentagram in the subject." Pentagram awards were conferred on the top two students in every NEWT level subject offered.
"I heard that getting a Pentagram will be a great advantage to anyone interetsed in the teaching," Sirius said, helping himself to more pudding. "You should aim for one, Moony."
"How did you know I wanted to teach?" Remus stared at him. "I didn't tell anyone."
"I guessed," Sirius crowed. "Now, I know."
Ignoring the laughter, Remus frowned. "I don't see what I can get a Pentagram for, though."
"You are quite good at Arithmancy," Peter piped up. "And Defense Against the Arts."
"Any number of people can get the DADA prize," Remus said lightly. "Sirius or James, or even Alice, Bellatrix or Snape."
James shuddered. "As long as its not Snivellus!" He sat up. "Maybe we can pay him a midnight visit..for old times sake. Get the map and my Cloak and..."
Remus cleared his throat delicately. "There is a slight problem, Prongs." Both Sirius and James looked aghast when he related what happened.
"You can get it back, can't you?" Peter said hopefully. "Sneak into Filch's office like you did when he confiscated the fireworks?"
Sirius shook his head. "That only worked because we did it before he locked it up in the Confiscated and highly Dangerous drawer. Once there, I don't think anyone except him can open it. I wonder who helped him put a ward there... even we can't open it, remember, Prongs?"
"Yep," James agreed. "Damned thing almost blew up in our face. Although," a gleam entered his eyes. "if we distract him into leaving it half-open...let off some Garrotting Gas or something."
"We can't do that," Remus said automatically. "Can't disturb everyone during exams. It's rude."
It was a surprise when Sirius agreed with him. "Yeah, face it, Prongs, the map is gone. It's a sign, mate. We are almost at the end of school forever. Irresponsible, troublemaking days are over."
Everyone turned to look at him as if he had grown two heads.
"What?" Sirius asked. "I have my rational moments." He smiled; the charming grin that sent a few girls at the next table giggling. He lifted his glass. "Here's to us."
"You make it sound like we are dead," James pointed out.
Sirius shook his head confidently. "We won't ever die."