4: Reason to Worry

With the Quidditch season over, and the House Cup in its proper place adorning Professor McGonagall's office, we could finally shift our focus to our schoolwork, without the constant interruptions of practice or the anxiety over the games. I could catch up on all the classes I had fallen behind in, and Alicia and Angelina could begin to properly stress over their O.W.L.s. I was only too glad that I had another year before I would have to worry about the tests.

Most of the fifth-years had been stressing over the standardized tests for months now, but Alicia and Angelina had managed to push them out of their minds in order to concentrate on Quidditch. Truthfully, Angelina was probably the only one in their year who didn't actually need to stress over the O.W.L.s, but Alicia just hated thinking too much about them. She had a habit of panicking over tests, but at some point she had discovered that if she pretended they didn't exist, there was nothing to panic over. Quidditch had been the perfect distraction for her.

But now that there was nothing standing between her and the mounds of studying she'd have to do, the panicking began. For a while, she had it under control, but then she began to shy away from Angelina and me. She surrounded herself with other friends, acquaintances. She called them study groups, but I hardly thought they were actually studying. It was more like a large social circle. Still, Alicia seemed to be happy with it, and she insisted she was getting good study-time in.

I began to worry when I found Alicia huddled in a corner of the common room, clutching her history book to her chest. I sat down in front of her. Despite the panicked look on her face, she looked good. Her hair was neat, her robes pressed, and her skin flawless, as usual.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Oh, I'm just waiting for someone," Alicia replied. She attempted a half-hearted smile.

"Who?" I asked suspiciously. I was probably acting the part of the over-protective friend, but to be fair, Alicia looked like she needed it.

"Does it matter?" The smile faded, and the words came out snippy.

"Look, if you need help studying, I'm sure Angelina would be happy to-"

"Angelina is too caught up in her own obsessive study schedule to care!" Alicia said.

She smiled at someone behind me, and I turned to find a group of fifth-years I didn't know too well waving at her. She got up, still clutching her book a bit too tightly, and frowned at me as she walked away to join them. I was left sitting on the floor, wondering what the hell just happened.

I decided maybe Angelina would have some insight on the situation. Once I got over the initial shock of the way Alicia had treated me, I went to find her.

Angelina was in her dorm, alone. When I opened the door, cautiously calling her name, she reacted with a violent lurch, as if she was genuinely surprised that anyone would be interrupting her study-time. She glared at me in a very un-Angelina like way, and I suddenly felt like I didn't belong there.

After a moment, however, she said, "come in."

The floor was covered with parchment. Angelina must have had her notes from the past five years at Hogwarts spread before her. She had several books open, and a stack of parchment with a quill poised above it. Her fingers were ink-stained, and I could see dark circles beneath her eyes.

"How long have you been doing this?" I asked her.

"What?"

"This." I gestured to the room around me. Angelina looked at the stacks of notes, and shrugged.

"Have you been sleeping?" I asked.

"I don't have time to sleep, the O.W.L.s are in nine days," Angelina replied. She bent over one of the books, apparently looking for something. She found it, and wrote something. Her hand was shaking.

"If you don't sleep, you really will fail your owls," I said. "Come on, Angelina, I know you're smarter than this."

She looked at me with sad eyes that made me wonder if maybe I was wrong.