Chapter 15 – Exams
The end of the Easter holiday sent Hogwarts lurching into the final weeks of the school year, and it was clear to Harry that the teachers had big plans for what little time remained. The set homework, which had already increased in amount before Easter, now wanted a complete synthesis of everything they had encountered that year – and not just in the subject in which the homework was set. Flitwick expected his students to draw on their transfiguration knowledge to answer questions fully; Snape demanded a full and proper knowledge of herbological properties and functions of ingredients; McGonagall wanted an extensive evaluation of astronomical spell synergies; and even Quirrell kept sneaking cross-subject material into his assignments in a rare display of initiative and drive which would have shocked Harry rather a lot more if he'd had the time to dwell on it.
The first years didn't even get a break in their Common Room, as the prefects had arranged mandatory Homework Club sessions for all Slytherins after lessons every day until the exam period started – mandatory Homework Club backed and endorsed by Snape, so nobody felt able to skip it. Instead of spending his days lazing around at the edge of the lake, or playing games with his friends in the dungeons and occasionally flicking through one of his schoolbooks to revise, Harry found himself sat in an uncomfortable chair at one of the tables in the Common Room with his nose stuck in a textbook almost every day.
"They only do this because it makes them look good for Head Boy and Girl," complained Blaise in a low whisper. "'Slytherins look out for each other'. Bleh! They're only in it so they can say to Snape, 'we were so good with how we helped all the firsties with their homework! Look how amazing we are! Make me Head Boy!'"
Harry didn't disagree, although Gemma Farley had corrected a misconception of his on the nature of switching spells that he'd been carrying on with since near enough the start of the year, so he wasn't too angry at the prefects' self-interest. If Harry had learned anything from his first year as a Slytherin, it was that helping someone else and helping yourself at the same time was a worthy ambition. An efficient use of everyone's time, too.
Although Harry did miss sitting in on the Quidditch team's practices. For whatever reason, cramming bits and pieces of history into his head that he should have paid attention to during lessons wasn't as fun as watching the Slytherin team fly. Flint had even had them into the air a couple of times.
"Do you think we have to know the goblin leaders' names?" Harry asked. "I keep getting 'Gogwort' mixed up with 'Trogwort'."
Blaise shrugged.
"I haven't bothered learning them," he said. "We can probably just get away with 'the goblin leadership', or something like that in the essay question."
"It helps if you can remember that Trogwort was killed by a troll before the war ended," said Theodore, "but Gogwort lasted the whole rebellion. So if the question is about the end of the war, it can only be Gogwort."
"That just sounds like more to remember," muttered Blaise. "How is that helpful?"
But Harry grunted and scratched out Theodore's advice onto his parchment. His notes for History of Magic were a mess of dates and names, some which he could remember from classes and others which seemed entirely new to him. Daphne's notes were much better laid out, with different kinds of things written in a different colour of ink, so the three boys had had a copy made which sat on the table in front of them as reference material.
"They really need to get a better teacher," said Harry. "I know he doesn't need sleep or rest or anything, because he's dead, but…"
"That's a thought," said Blaise. "Do they even pay him? Who do they pay? His great-grandchildren? What does a ghost do with money?"
"I've been wondering how he marks our work, myself," said Theodore. "It's not like he can hold a quill, is it? But, we always get properly marked essays back."
"Maybe one of the upper years does it for him? So Binns reads the work and tells whoever it is what to put down?" suggested Harry.
"Ugh. I'd hate to get saddled with that job," said Blaise. "Can you imagine?"
"Oi! You lot, back to work!" shouted one of the fifth year prefects from the other side of the study area. "You'll make us look bad if you fail."
"If they care that much they should be giving Vince and Greg one-on-one sessions," sniggered Blaise. "The rest of us would be fine…"
Harry grunted in agreement. Vince and Greg probably did need a bit of extra help, but Harry felt confident the rest of the first years could muddle through without mandatory Homework Club, even if none of the prefects would have agreed. Harry put his head down and returned to copying relevant bits and pieces from Daphne's notes onto his own parchment. He had a lot left to learn, and History of Magic was only one of the exams he would have to sit.
The start of exams crept up on Harry rather a lot faster than he would have liked, and he ended up feeling grateful for the extra Homework Club sessions – if nothing else, they had provided a bit more structure to the first years' revision, and being centralised into one area meant they could all share notes and help each other. That had been especially helpful given Daphne's very thorough note-taking.
On the morning of his first exam – the Astronomy practical at midnight – Harry felt quietly confident about his abilities, although that unfortunately didn't quite last through the day. By the time the first years gathered atop the magically-enlarged Astronomy Tower for their exam Harry felt quite nervous.
At least the weather was nice; the Astronomy practical exam took place at night, like all the lessons had, but it was neither too hot nor too cool, with clear skies and no major wind.
"Tonight's exam will account for fifty percent of your overall mark for this year," said Professor Sinistra, "with the other half being made up by the theory exam. When I call out to begin, you are to set up your telescopes—you will be marked—and work your way through the exam scrolls. Professor Dumbledore has arranged clear skies and the blackest of nights with the Ministry for easier identification of celestial bodies so you do not need to worry about the weather or visibility. All the teachers in the department will be going over this hour repeatedly using a Pensieve as part of the marking, so don't worry; you will all get the same attention. You have one hour, and I wish you all the very best of luck! Now, begin."
Harry moved to set up his telescope. He took it out of its carry box and extended it, popped out its legs, and stood it on the flagstone floor at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Getting it stood up properly was easy; getting it pointed at the right thing, with the right focus, was much harder. Once he was sure he had everything done right, he scanned the scroll of parchment containing their instructions and the questions for the exam. The first few questions were easy. Things like 'find the North Star', which Harry made sure not to mix up with the Dog Star, or 'locate Mars', but each got progressively more difficult. The last half of the scroll contained much more difficult tasks like 'locate the North Galactic Pole'.
Harry took a deep breath and counted slowly to ten in an attempt to settle his nerves before the exam. He caught Tracey's eye and got a double thumbs up. Harry gave her a nervous grin in response and then set his eye against the telescope to search for the North Star. After a rough couple of minutes, he found it, and he eventually got into a good workflow as he completed each task on the exam scroll to the best of his abilities. In what seemed like only a few minutes, but which must have been the full hour, Professor Sinistra called out for all the first years to stop what they were doing as the exam was over.
Thankfully, Harry had managed to get something down for each task that required it, and he thought that he'd managed to find everything that he'd been asked to find. Once he'd finished packing away his telescope, Harry gave Ernie a little wave before the Hufflepuffs left the Tower. He did think briefly about going over to join him, but the other boy was surrounded by Hufflepuffs, most of whom Harry barely knew. Instead Harry joined the other Slytherins on their journey from the very top of the castle to the bottom; he made sure to avoid Daphne and Theodore who were going over the exam in favour of Tracey and Blaise, who weren't.
"Glad that's over," Blaise was saying as Harry joined the pair. "Honestly, a midnight exam on the first day? Ludicrous."
Tracey yawned widely.
"I know! At least we can go to bed as soon as we get back," she said. "Fancy stopping by the kitchens for a mug of hot chocolate before bed?"
"That's a brilliant idea," Harry said. It would be nice to get straight to bed, but a quick mug of hot chocolate wouldn't delay them too much...
By the time Harry got back to the dorms after a nice, relaxing trip to the kitchens for chocolate, he had barely enough energy left to clean his teeth and fall into bed. When he did, he ended up dreaming about stars and planets and black hole at the centre of the galaxy.
The first years were dropped right back into it with two exams the day after Astronomy's practical – History of Magic in the morning and Astronomy theory in the afternoon. Despite Theodore's assertion that his mnemonic was the best and easiest way not to mix up the absurdly similar names of the goblin leaders, Harry was sure he'd mixed them up in the essay question anyway. Other than that he felt reasonably happy about how the exam went, which was enough to send him into the Astronomy theory exam with a nice little bit of extra confidence.
The day after that, Harry sat his first Defence Against the Dark Arts exam, and found it shockingly easy. Quirrell's exam walked them through all the basic concepts they'd covered over the year, from the differences between jinxes, hexes, and curses to the most common Dark creatures and pests one could encounter in daily life. Even the essay question, which several of his friends found difficult, only really asked for the basic anatomy of a counter-jinx, which Harry could talk through in his sleep. He'd been expecting at least a little bit about counter-hexes and counter-curses, so he did sneak a few lines in about them at the end, just so all his revision didn't go to waste.
Still, it was a full exam, which Harry hadn't really expected Quirrell to produce. That was ... something. Perhaps Quirrell hadn't really written it, and had left it to his apprentices, which was why it had been easy. And it if had been too easy all that meant was that Harry would do well and not have to worry about at least one of his subjects.
That afternoon when Harry was called into the classroom for his practical Defence Against the Dark Arts exam, he hadn't expected Quirrell to look quite so twitchy. The poor man's turban wasn't quite so tightly wrapped as usual, and he had dark circles under his eyes. The ever-present stench of garlic wafted through the air and filled the small room.
"S-stand h-here, Mr P-potter," said Quirrell. He pointed at a spot on the floor in front of where he stood. "This sh-shouldn't t-take very long."
"Yes, sir," said Harry. He gripped his wand tightly. As his first spell-based practical exam, he had no idea what was still to come, and wanted to be prepared. That morning he had gone over all of the most important spells they had covered that year, from the really simple spells that just shot out sparks, to spells like the Jelly-legs Jinx. Quirrell had never given them particularly hard tasks before, so Harry was sure that he wouldn't start now, but just in case it had seemed like a good idea to practise – and as the Slytherin first years were practising spells on each other, it had been a good bit of fun before the exam, too.
"Shoot green sparks from your wand," said Quirrell after a few moments.
Harry nodded and did just that, shooting a cascade of metallic green sparks from the end of his wand.
Quirrell immediately moved on. Wordlessly and with little flourish, he conjured a rat and held it out towards Harry.
"Use the Jelly-legs Jinx on this rat."
Harry thought that was easy enough: they'd spent two whole class sessions practising with Jelly-legs, sending each other wobbling all over the classroom. It had been a good bit of fun, and unexpected from one of Quirrell's lessons. He'd even cast it a couple of times that morning on Blaise and Theodore.
Harry pointed his wand at the rat and took a deep breath to steady himself. It wouldn't do him any favours to cock up such a simple jinx through overconfidence.
"Locomotor wibbly!"
His spell struck the rat and, once Quirrell placed it onto the ground, it began wobbling across the floor, squeaking all the while. Quirrell cast a wordless spell at the rat and it started to move much more slowly, then he paused for a few moments watching it before speaking again.
"Demonstrate the Full Body-bind. Quickly, now."
They had practised this in class, although only to learn the counter-spell – and then again after hours on each other while mucking about. Harry felt like he could probably cast it again now, but he hadn't been expecting to cast the curse during the practical so he hadn't practised it specifically. The practical was supposed to be a test of their abilities to defend against Dark spells, after all, not to cast them and it hadn't been on Quirrell's list of spells either.
Still, Harry had always found it easier to cast the jinxes and curses than perform the counterspells, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
"Petrificus totalus," he said. The rat froze in place. Harry lowered his wand, but Quirrell spoke without so much as a pause.
"Now remove the curse."
Harry nodded. That would be easy – the Full Body-bind didn't have its own, specific, counter-spell, and instead used the general purpose negation spell that had learned and used in all of their practical classes. He had more than enough practise with it in and out of classes. He'd never used it on a rat, but that shouldn't be a problem...
"Finite incantatem."
The rat began to scurry across the room once more.
We've got to be done now, Harry thought. He'd gone through all the key spells on the list – and several more as well – so he started to put away his wand.
"Cast the Pimple Jinx on the rat," said Quirrell after immobilising it.
Harry frowned. They had gone over the theory of the Pimple Jinx in class, but hadn't progressed to actual casting practise. In fact, he distinctly remembered Quirrell stating that they wouldn't be tested on its use at the end of the year. Even so, Harry thought he remembered the incantation – furnunculus, and not furunculus like Millicent kept accidentally saying to comedic effect – although he could have been wrong.
Harry cast the jinx on the rat and a series of raised, pus-filled, pimples and boils appeared all across its skin. It gave out a high-pitched squeak of discomfort. Quirrell stared at Harry for a few moments, a piercing gaze aimed right at his eyes.
A sharp pain radiated out from Harry's scar like a hundred tiny pricks of a needle which subsided only when Quirrell looked away.
"You may go."
Harry shook himself off and walked across the rest of the room quickly. He glanced back to see Quirrell vanish the rat, and then left through the door behind Quirrell. Harry emerged into an empty corridor and quickly made his way back to the Slytherin Common Room to re-join those of his friends who had already taken the practical. Most of them were back already – a cursory glance told him that only Blaise was still to finish – and had gathered around a small table.
"How'd it go?" asked Tracey once Harry had sat down.
"Alright, I reckon," said Harry. "It was a bit weird though—did he ask any of you lot to cast the Pimple Jinx?"
"I only got asked to show sparks and do counter-spells," said Tracey.
"He asked me to show him a Full Body-bind," said Draco.
"I had to do a Jelly-legs on a rat," said Theodore. "I wasn't expecting to have to do one, to be honest."
Vince and Greg had also been asked to show a Jelly-legs, although neither had managed it. From what the rest of the group had reported, their practicals had consisted of showing the strange professor simpler spells such as Nox, sparks, and the counter-spells that they'd covered in class after Quirrell cast the jinxes. It seemed as if only Harry and Draco had been asked to demonstrate the nastier spells.
"I would have thought we'd all get asked to do the same thing," said Daphne. "And he said we wouldn't need to know how to do the Pimple Jinx. I remember because I wrote it down."
"I hope that doesn't mean you two get extra marks," said Millicent. "I know you did more but he didn't even ask me, and I can do a right corker of a Body-bind…"
"No idea," said Harry. "Who knows what's going on in his head? I bet he was just curious, or something like that… anyway, our next practical is Herbology, right?" said Harry in an attempt to change the subject. "What d'you reckon we'll need to do? The Hufflepuffs were saying we might need to wear earmuffs for the exam…"
The Herbology practical, invigilated by Ms Root, Harry found almost laughably easy. All he had to do was pot and repot several not particularly animated and utterly boring plants, and deal with a little bit of leaf damage to a couple of the specimens. The theory exam more than made up for the practical's lack of difficulty, however, as it asked more than a few deviously complex questions about subjects as obscure as Bouncing Bulbs, which they had only covered a single time in lessons as far as Harry could remember.
The first years didn't even get time to rest after the double Herbology exams, as Flitwick's practical session had been scheduled for the very next day. Students entered the exam room one by one, and left through a different door so they couldn't confer. The setup made Harry more nervous than he'd thought he would be, but when his turn came up – after Perks, Sally-Anne – he found Flitwick had set a firm but fair test of his students' abilities. The small professor had Harry begin with a simple Levitation Charm, and then worked up progressively to the more difficult charms they'd covered over the year such as the Unlocking Charm, to a finale using a locomotion charm on a pineapple.
Harry sailed through the first lot of charms with ease, but faltered somewhat on the pineapple. He did manage to send it dancing across the desk as requested, but it moved a bit sluggishly and didn't look especially graceful doing it. Nonetheless Flitwick appeared pleased with Harry's performance and sent him out with a cheery wave. After the practical was over, the first years went into the theory exam almost right away.
The essay question asked about esoteric symbolism, which Harry thought was a bit unfair, but nevertheless he felt that he'd managed to answer it well enough. And even if he hadn't, it marked the end of exams – at least for the weekend – which meant he could finally get in a good bit of relaxation.
The Prefects had other ideas, of course, but four of the six Slytherin Prefects were sitting OWLs and NEWTs, so didn't have the time or the inclination to micromanage the first years, which meant Harry and his friends got to take the whole of Saturday off from revision. In the morning they had the very last Quidditch match of the year to watch – Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw for the honour of being second place to the Slytherin team – which ended in a Ravenclaw victory over the Gryffindors.
After the match and then after a long lunch, Daphne – with support from Theodore and a few others in Adder group – suggested they go back to the Common Room for a revision session, but that group lost out to the much larger and much more insistent group which advocated doing literally anything else. Instead they all made their way to the grounds to lounge in the sun and to forget, at least for a brief while, that they still had to sit the two most difficult exams next week: Potions and Transfiguration.
Near enough all of the Slytherin first years ended up sat at the edge of the lake, although they did splinter off into their smaller groups. Most of Harry's group of Slytherin friends sat under the large tree at the edge of the lake near to Hagrid's hut – newly rebuilt after the incident with the dragon – and talk had turned to what everyone intended to do over the summer.
"We usually go to visit the French branch of the family," said Draco. "You know, stay in the ancestral chateau, that sort of thing."
"We're going on holiday to Tanzania this year on safari," said Daphne. "The Maasai witches make really amazing beadwork jewellery, and Daddy said he'll get me as many as I like so long as I do well in the exams."
"Ooh, nice," said Tracey. "That sounds brilliant! Have you ever been before?"
"No, never," said Daphne. "Daddy said it was a present because he missed me this year at school. Usually we'd go somewhere in Europe—my sister's, you know, she isn't… well, anyway. This year, Tanzania!"
"I'm actually quite jealous," said Blaise. "Not of the beads—that sounds boring—but I've always wanted to go on safari. Think about it—you could see nundu and erumpents!" His face lit up. "Are you going to see the Tanzanian national Quidditch team? They're really good at the moment, it'd be a real treat to see them!"
Daphne sniffed at the suggestion.
"No, thank you," she said. "I'm not going halfway around the world to watch a Quidditch match! I want to see the really interesting things. Did you know there's a spa on top of Kilimanjaro? And there's a café in the volcano core, and Mummy said we can go there to eat after the spa… She told me all about it in her letter this week."
Talk of the spa nearly put Harry to sleep, although he did perk up when Daphne mentioned a café in the middle of a volcano's core. It must have taken serious magic to get that set up. Of course, Harry himself had no plans, firm or otherwise, for the summer, so all he could do was imagine the things his friends were going to see. If he were lucky, his aunt would decide to go camping somewhere in Cornwall as anything further afield was impossible, since Harry didn't have a passport. Although, he did think that perhaps things had changed now that he finally knew he was a wizard – Petunia had been dying to visit Venice for years, but always complained she couldn't for reasons Harry hadn't understood at the time but which were probably in some way related to him being the Boy-Who-Lived.
"I don't think we'll go anywhere this year," said Millicent. "Because of the new baby. Well, we'll probably go visit my mum's parents but that's not really a holiday, is it."
"There's always next year," said Daphne. "And then the baby can come as well! Maybe he'll be walking by then!"
"We're going to Spain this year," said Tracey. "Nan wants to visit one of her old friends, so we're going to see her in Barcelona. I've never been to Spain before but I've heard it's quite nice!" She paused. "Ooh, everyone's going to have lots of stories when we come back next year! I can't wait!"
"What's your plans for the summer, Theodore?" asked Blaise.
Everyone turned to look at the quiet boy, and Theodore shrugged.
"Nothing, probably. It was always my mo—My father isn't one for travelling," he said. "It's not—I mean, we will go and see some of the World Cup, but he doesn't like to go very far, so I won't be going anywhere exciting."
"Me, neither," said Harry. He got the impression Theodore didn't want to talk about it, so tried to steer attention away from the other boy with an announcement of his own. "My aunt and uncle never take us far. We go to Cornwall sometimes camping. I've never even been on an aeroplane!"
"It takes an awful lot of effort for Muggles to get anywhere very far," said Daphne sympathetically, "but it's not fair that you should suffer for that! You know, I'm sure you could book an international Portkey for your Muggle family, people must do it all the time…"
Harry wasn't quite sure booking an international Portkey involved, but he was absolutely sure that neither his aunt nor his uncle would want to book one – not even if Harry paid for it. Strange magical modes of transport were not something he thought they would ever be comfortable with.
"I'll look into it," he said, although he didn't intend to.
"I don't think they should let Muggles use Portkeys, personally," said Pansy. "It's dangerous for the Statute, isn't it?"
A few of the others nodded in agreement, although Millicent huffed in frustration. Harry didn't see what the fuss was – any Muggle using one would presumably already know about magic – but knew better than to argue the point with Pansy. It would only put the girl into a mood and ruin the day for everyone else. In any case the conversation moved swiftly on and Harry lost his chance to make his point. Instead, he sat back against the tree and let the ebb and flow of the conversation wash over him.
After a rather mixed weekend of Quidditch, relaxation, and on Sunday a little a bit more rather quite hurried revision, Harry and the rest of the first years were dropped into their first ever Transfiguration exams. McGonagall had rather predictably set quite a devilishly tough theory exam for the morning, followed by an equally challenging practical in the afternoon. Harry flew through the first few tasks – turning a match into a needle and series of switching spells – but did have a more difficult time with changing his mouse into a snuffbox. He got everything done eventually but realised at the very end that its outside still had fur. Still, Harry felt very pleased with his performance and hoped that McGonagall wouldn't be too strict in her marking.
Harry knew that he wouldn't have that luck with Snape, who was notorious for his strict marking even towards Slytherins when it came to the end of year exams, so spent the rest of his evening furiously cramming every last little bit of trivia into his head. A few of the other first years had set up their cauldrons to go over the most likely of the set potions, but Harry felt far too tired to bother with that.
He almost wished that he had the next day when it came to the practical exam, since his friends had practised the very potion being examined – the Sleeping Draught – the evening before. The theory exam in the morning had asked quite a few questions on the Sleeping Draught, so Harry did feel more or less prepared even without that. Of course, it didn't help matters that Snape stalked the dungeon laboratory, stopping at cauldrons seemingly at random and making all sorts of sceptical or displeased sounds whenever he did, no matter whose cauldron he stopped at. Rather more encouragingly, Mr Shafiq wandered around the room and offered smiles and the occasional thumbs up instead. The double brewing session passed by faster than Harry had anticipated, but he came out at the end with what he thought was a passable Sleeping Draught.
Snape had the students exit the laboratory one by one after depositing a labelled vial of their Sleeping Draught into the rack on his desk. When Harry emerged into the dark, damp, and somewhat dreary dungeon corridor, he realised that he was free… at least until the end of summer.
"Well, we did it," said Blaise. "That's it—we got to the end of first year and through our exams."
"Only if we pass," said Theodore. "I am a bit worried about the shade of my—"
"No," said Blaise. "None of that. Don't want to hear it. Exams. Are. Over."
"You've not got anything to worry about anyway," said Harry. "You'll pass everything, easy."
"Well, maybe… I just don't think my Sleeping Draught was—" said Theodore.
"No! I said stop!" interrupted Blaise. "None of it matters now. Let's just go." He set off along the corridor in the general direction of the Slytherin Common room, followed by Harry and, a little more reluctantly, Theodore. The first years settled in amongst the rest of the students to enjoy the last few days of the summer term, and to celebrate the end of exams.
Harry spent the rest of the day, and most of the evening, playing Exploding Snap, chess and catching up with his friends in Slytherin. They all stayed up late into the night until the fires had burned down to embers, before being finally shooed off to bed by the prefects.
Harry got up the next morning a little bit late for breakfast along with the rest of his dormitory, and most of the girls, but feeling much more relaxed than he had felt for weeks. He settled down to his slightly late breakfast with the rest of his House, secure in the knowledge that he wouldn't have to rush off to lessons or a last-minute revision session. Mid-way through breakfast Ernie and Susan appeared at the end of the Slytherin table.
"Morning!" said Ernie, loudly and cheerfully, seemingly ignorant of the irritated looks several of the Slytherin first years had given him. "Fancy a last round of games later this morning?"
"Definitely!" said Tracey. "Harry, you up for it?"
Harry swallowed his cereal and nodded vigorously. He hadn't seen much of his friends in Hufflepuff over the exam period, and with the summer looming, he wouldn't see them again until after the holidays. One last morning and hopefully afternoon spent playing games in the dungeons felt like the exact thing Harry needed.
"Yeah, of course," he said with a big grin. "Can't wait! We'll finish up here and then meet up at, erm…" Harry pulled back his robe sleeve to glance at his watch. "Half past nine? Quarter to ten in the usual place?"
"Brilliant," said Susan. "See you later, then!"
Susan and Ernie walked back over to the Hufflepuff table where they slipped back into place next to Justin and another Hufflepuff Harry felt sure he should know from lessons, but didn't.
"I can't stand Bones," complained Pansy once the pair of Hufflepuffs had gone. "It's always, 'My aunt Amelia' this and 'Aunt Amelia said' that. So boring!"
Next to Pansy, Daphne rolled her eyes.
"You never have anything nice to say about anything, though, do you," she said. "Didn't your mum ever tell you, if you haven't got anything nice to say, shut up?"
"I already said sorry for that," snapped Pansy. "Can't you just let it go? Little Miss Mud—"
"You cow!" said Daphne. "You horrible, nasty little—"
Harry looked on confused. Although Daphne and Pansy often had little arguments and spats, it rarely erupted into anything quite as vicious as it seemingly had that morning. Tracey leaned in closer to Harry and whispered to him.
"Pansy said something nasty about Millie's new brother this morning," she explained. "I'll tell you later."
By that point the two girls looked as if it were about to come to blows, and a prefect intervened.
"Oi! No fighting. It's too early…" shouted one of the senior prefects. "Just cool it, yeah?"
"Ugh! Fine!" said Daphne. She turned in her place away from Pansy, who did the same. The rest of breakfast passed by in awkward spells of conversation as the rest of the group tried to talk around the almost tangible cloud of anger surrounding Daphne and Pansy. Harry took the first opportunity to leave after saying a rushed and truncated goodbye to Theodore and Blaise, before heading off to the dungeons with Tracey.
"Pansy called Millie's dad a mudblood," said Tracey in a low voice once they had left the Great Hall. "Then she said it was a shame her mum had to have his baby… she didn't think Millie was in the room, but she was and she heard everything. I thought she was going to slap Pansy, but she just ran off into the bathroom…"
Harry grimaced. He wasn't stupid; although most of the other Slytherins, upper years included, avoided saying 'mudblood' around Harry and some of the other halfbloods in particular, he had heard the word more often than he would have wanted, and knew what it meant.
"Why is she always so horrible?" he said.
"I think she's just jealous because Daphne likes Millie more than her," said Tracey. "But it's a really horrible thing to say about someone. I was so angry, I was going to say something—but then Daphne just screamed at Pansy, and threatened to curse her unless she went and said sorry."
"Did she?" asked Harry. "Curse her, I mean."
"Well, no—Pansy followed Millie into the bathroom and she did say sorry," said Tracey, "but we could all tell she didn't mean it. But she did say it so Daphne didn't curse her." Tracey shrugged. "I wish she had, though—Pansy deserves it."
"That's why Millicent wasn't at breakfast, then," said Harry. He had wondered.
Tracey nodded. They stopped outside the part of the dungeon wall containing the secret entrance to the Slytherin Common Room.
"Tradition," she said, and the door opened. She lowered her voice. "Yes, but she should be really happy that we're going to play games with Ernie and Susan and Justin, so I'm hoping it cheers her up! I'll go get her then we'll go?"
Harry nodded. He stepped inside the Common Room and watched as Tracey raced off to the girls' dormitory.
While Harry waited for Tracey to return with Millicent, the entrance to the Common Room opened, and Professor Snape stepped out of it.
"There is an intruder in the castle!" he shouted. "All students are to remain here indefinitely!" He shot a look towards Harry. "You especially." Then Snape gestured to one of the fifth year prefects to follow him, and then left the Common Room. By the time Tracey got back with Millicent, the Common Room had erupted into total chaos.
"What's going on?" asked Tracey. "Everyone's saying that—"
"Sirius Black's got into the castle again, hasn't he?" interrupted Millicent. "Right in the daylight, too…"
"And with Dumbledore gone to the Ministry!" said Tracey.
"Right, Potter—get away from the door!" shouted the Shafiq. "You heard Snape."
Reluctantly, Harry moved away from the entryway to skulk in one of the adjacent alcoves.
"Ernie, Susan, and Justin won't know," said Harry quietly to Millicent and Tracey. "And if it is Black, he'll be—he'll be coming through the dungeons for… well, for me."
Tracey went pale.
"Oh, no! You're right—they won't know! We need to tell someone—Shafiq? One of the prefects, anyway…" she said.
Millicent marched over to Shafiq right away, and did just that, only to be sent away.
"He said one of the professors will have sorted it already," she said, "and we should just stay here because of what Snape said."
Harry frowned. Black was known to be completely and utterly ruthless – he'd betrayed his best friends to Voldemort, murdered twelve Muggles and then another of his own friends, Peter Pettigrew – so three random kids were unlikely to stay his wand. And that had been before Azkaban.
"I've got an idea," said Harry, "but I'll need a distraction…"
