Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen
Is There A Test or Not?

Rachael woke the next day, thinking it was a Monday for some odd reason. She looked over her to her clock to discover that it was half past nine. Frantic, she rolled off her bed, landing with a loud and painful thud on the dormitory floor, and proceeded to climb to her feet, but she was tangled up in her beds sheets.

Untangling herself as fast as she could, she jumped up and started to run to the bathroom, after grabbing a pair of robes. Then she realised something. If it was a school day, why were Lily and Alice still sleeping? She crept over to Lily and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Lily?" she whispered.

Lily gave a long moan and rolled over onto her stomach, muttering something about that it was too early to be woken up on a Sunday.

"It's Sunday?"

"Yeah, now leave me alone," Lily answered groggily.

Rachael nodded and went back over to her bed. There was nothing to do now, no reason in going back to sleep since she was already awake. She decided to get dressed and go down to the Great Hall to check if James and Sirius were there. If they weren't there, she'd just eat breakfast and head off to check if Remus was out of the Hospital Wing yet.

Walking through the common room, she saw that the Quidditch team was assembled around the table, talking in hushes. They were probably discussing this year's plays and opponents. The Gryffindor team was comprised of sixth year and captain for three years, Alexandra Lewis, Beater, a pretty brunet who fed off Quidditch; if they canceled Quidditch at Hogwarts she would literally have a heart attack right then and there, which is why the staff avoided doing so. There was one time when she made the team practise night and day for three weeks for a big match with Ravenclaw. The game was canceled due to an injury on the Ravenclaw team and Alexandra started hyperventilating, and had to be rushed to the Hospital Wing.

Alexandra's fellow Beater was Craig Johnson, an African seventh year who had been on the team as a reserve for Billy Braxton, but was moved up when they saw how spectacular he was. Some said the Bludgers cowered in fear of him. One second they would be swerving right towards a Chaser and he would just twist his broom towards the Bludger and it zoomed right past his teammate and into an opponent.

Next there were the three Chasers, the scorers of the games. They take the Quaffle, a large red ball, and shoot it through one of three hops. The Chasers were third year Benjamin Patil, seventh year, Bridget Becker, and fifth year, Malcolm Higgs. They were the most skilled Chasers in the school; they manoeuvered all of their moves perfectly, and never missed a shot.

Then there was Kirk Gamballi, the fourth year Keeper. Tall and large he was, thus he was perfect to block a hoop. Last was the Seeker, Melanie Bigg. The Seeker was the most important. She had to catch the tiny golden snitch and win the one hundred and fifty points for the team. Melanie was extremely talented at Quidditch; she had only lost them a game three times in the four years she had been on the team.

"Hi Rachael," Kirk said, looking up from a long sheet of paper with all sorts of arrows doodled on.

"Hi," Rachael answered back. "First game's next week, right?"

He nodded and said they were going to massacre Hufflepuff.

Rachael climbed through the portrait hole and set off down the passageway to the Hospital Wing. She peered through the small glass window on the door and saw Madam Pomfrey replacing the sheets on some beds.

She knocked on the door and Madam Pomfrey gestured for her to come in.

"Is my brother here?" she asked, poking her head through the door.

"Oh no, I let him go just a few minutes ago. He should be in the Great Hall right about now," Madam Pomfrey said as she fluffed a pillow.

Rachael made her way down to the Great Hall, only to be stopped by Peeves overturning a full to bursting garbage pail on her head, covering her in filth and muck. Luckily, just as Peeves was gliding away, Professor Lupin appeared as he was heading down to the Great Hall to eat and told Peeves the Bloody Baron was going to be hearing about it and he cleaned his daughter up.

In the Great Hall, she saw James, Sirius, Peter and Remus sitting at the very end of the Gryffindor table, closest to the staff. She slid into the seat besides James and listened in on their conversation as she loaded some eggs on her plate.

"Dunno about that," Sirius said as he took a spoonful of oatmeal. "McGonagall isn't going to give us a test when we just had one three days ago."

"Yeah, but Evans said McGonagall said we were going to," James argued. "Besides, we haven't done anything except review the transfiguring of a match box into a tissue box, which was on the first test anyway."

"Why don't you just ask her?" Remus muttered.

"I don't want to go giving her ideas!"

Sirius sniggered in his oatmeal, but quickly changed it into a hacking cough.

"Remus, you feel okay?" Peter asked, peering at Remus.

Rachael took a quick glance at her brother to see his face was pale and had dark circles under his eyes; at least his face wasn't cut up like it was when she found him the other day.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said in a way that made it clear this wasn't a topic to discuss.

"But-"

"He said he's fine!" Rachael said for him, she wasn't going to let Peter press her brother about this subject anymore than he already did.

They spent the rest of their breakfast debating about whether or not they were going to have a Transfiguration test. James was still fretting about having one. But the only reason he thought they were going to have one was because he heard Lily telling Alice they were. Other than that, he had no other proof. Sirius, Remus, Peter and Rachael said they weren't going to have one and he had nothing to worry about.

Besides, James had panicked the last time they had a test in Professor McGonagall's class. He hadn't studied, unless you called playing Exploding Snap studying, and ended up blowing up the matchbox he was supposed to be transfiguring into a tissue box.

"Yep, I've never seen a box go up in flames like that!" Remus joked.

"Oh shut up!" James laughed as he flicked a piece of bacon in Remus's face.

"Well, you couldn't exactly say you were studying either, Remus," Rachael said.

"I studied!"

"Yeah you did... a half hour before class. You spent all night making a rubber rat float into our dormitory."

"Well, I was practising my Charms, Flitwick would be proud. I passed anyway."