It had been Gryffindor's first quidditch cup win since Charlie Weasley had left, so the whole of Gryffindor house remained in an upbeat mood for the next week or so. The entire squad were treated with almost reverence by the rest of the house and Ron was lapping up the attention. He regaled them about the team's victory constantly even though he had played minimal role in the final match and had even lost since Diggory beat him to the snitch.

Ginny had nudged Dudley, grinning, as she pointed out Ron regaling two girls in her year about his victory over Slytherin.

Fred and George celebrated the victory by performing more pranks than ever before. On the morning after the victory they let off an entire crate of Dr Fillibuster's fireworks in the entrance hall and one night, borrowed Dudley's invisibility to sneak out and bewitch all of the suits of armour in the castle to shout "Gryffindor Rules!" whenever anybody passed.

As for Wood, he seemed almost in a daze when he walked around, as if he couldn't believe his luck. He had told the team that he had trials for both Pride of Portress and Puddlemere United in the summer.

During their next Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Hagrid, who was had been a Gryffindor himself when at Hogwarts, congratulated Ron loudly. Dudley had smirked at the angry look on Malfoy's face. That lesson, much to their surprise, they were studying House Elves. Hagrid had borrowed one from the Hogwarts kitchens and it stood there, looking awkward and nervous while Hagrid told them all about it.

"There are about 100 working at Hogwarts. They do the cooking, cleaning, bring food and anything else the headmaster wants." Hagrid said.

"Surprisingly magical. They can apparate even inside hogwarts-somethign wizards can' do. Show 'em, Cranky."

The elf, Cranky, disappeared with a loud crack, then reppeared 10 seconds later.

"Cool," Dean said.

The House Elf bowed to him.

"If yeh own an elf, yeh can call 'em from anywhere. No matter where yeh are, call the elf's name an' they'll come ter yeh," Hagrid said.

Dudley raised his hand. "I have an elf of my own."

"Do yeh now?"

"His name's Dobby, he used to belong to the Malfoy family, but after Malfoy, erm, fired him, he came to work for me," Dudley said. He shot a smirk at Malfoy who looked furious. Hermione had tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing Dobby last year and Dudley had offered the elf a job. He now lived at the Weasley home.

"Can yeh try ter summon 'im here? Jus say Dobby, I need yeh."

"Dobby, I need yeh … I mean, you. Dobby, I need you," said Dudley.

There was a sharp crack and there, Dobby was. He had added another three hats to his collection, all of which he wore. He had also tied a towel around his neck as a cape.

"Master Duddy Durzy called," Dobby said, bowing.

Lavender and Parvati giggled. "Ah, he's cute!" Lavender whispered.

"Dobby thanks Duddy Durzy's classmate,"

The pair of girls giggled again.

"Very good," Hagrid said. "Yeh can summon 'em anywhere an' they'll come. Dead useful, house elves are."

Dudley kept Dobby with them until the end of the class, as he thought it would do Dobby good to have a break. Dobby seemed to enjoy the attention, especially from Lavender and Parvati—though, when he caught sight of Draco Malfoy, he had bared his tiny teeth and stamped his feet angrily.

They didn't have much time to relax now, exams were upon them. Instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows.

Even Fred and George Weasley had been spotted working; they were about to take their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels). Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the highest qualification Hogwarts offered. As Percy hoped to enter the Ministry of Magic, he needed top grades. He was becoming increasingly edgy, and gave very severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the common room in the evenings. In fact, the only person who seemed more anxious than Percy was Hermione.

Dudley, Dean, Neville and Ron had given up asking her how she was managing to attend several classes at once, but they couldn't restrain themselves when they saw the exam schedule she had drawn up for herself. The first column read:

Monday

9 o'clock, Arithmancy

9 o'clock, Transfiguration

Lunch

1 o'clock, Charms

1 o'clock, Ancient Runes

"Hermione?" Ron said cautiously, because she was liable to explode when interrupted these

days. "Er — are you sure you've copied down these times right?"

"What?" snapped Hermione, picking up the exam schedule and examining it. "Yes, of course I

have."

"Is there any point asking how you're going to sit for two exams at once?" said Dudley.

"No," said Hermione shortly. "Have either of you seen my copy of Numerology and

Gramatica?"

"Oh, yeah, I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," said Ron, but very quietly. Hermione

started shifting heaps of parchment.

They had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified disaster. Try as Dudley might, he

couldn't get his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of

vindictive pleasure, scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his notes

before moving away.

Then came Astronomy at midnight, up on the tallest tower; History of Magic on Wednesday

morning, in which Dudley managed to only answer a handful of questions. Wednesday afternoon meant Herbology, in the greenhouses under a baking-hot sun; then back to the common room once more, with sunburnt necks, thinking longingly of this time next day, when it would all be over.

Their second to last exam, on Thursday morning, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor

Lupin had compiled the most unusual exam any of them had ever taken; a sort of obstacle course

outside in the sun, where they had to wade across a deep paddling pool containing a Grindylow, cross a series of potholes full of Red Caps, squish their way across a patch of marsh while ignoring misleading directions from a Hinkypunk, then climb into an old trunk and battle with a

new Boggart.

The last time Dudley had battled a boggart, he had failed. He closed his eyes to compose himself as once again, the boggart took the form of his friends.

"I never liked you!" Boggart Ron said. "You really think I'd be friends with you?"

"Riddikulus!

Crack!

It became Hermione. "You really are stupid. I only study with you to laugh at you."

"Riddikulus!"

Crack!

It became Luna. "I hate you Dudley Dursley. You and me will never be friends!"

"Riddikulus!" Dudley shouted, concentrating with all his might.

A band of sticky-tape covered Luna's mouth so she couldn't talk and the Boggart vanished.

"Well done, Dudley," Lupin said, approvingly. "You didn't quite—nice perseverance."

Dudley hung around to watch Ron and Hermione (Dean had already gone). Ron did very well until he reached the Hinkypunk, which successfully confused him into sinking waist-high into the quagmire.

Hermione did everything perfectly until she reached the trunk with the Boggart in it. After about a minute inside it, she burst out again, screaming.

"Hermione!" said Lupin, startled. "What's the matter?"

"P-P-Professor McGonagall!" Hermione gasped, pointing into the trunk. "Sh-she said I'd failed

everything!"

It took a little while to calm Hermione down. When at last she had regained a grip on herself,

she, Dudley, and Ron waited to watch Neville have his go. He did flustered with the grindylow, almost getting dragged under, but managed to perform the rest of the exam fairly well—he almost got caught by a red cap, but a well-timed stunner spell got him out of trouble.

"Nice one," they congratulated Neville afterwards.

"I reckon we all passed that," Ron said, confidently.

Hagrid too had devised an interesting exam for them. They had to select the correct diet for a Hippogriff, demonstrate the collect way to clean a Fire Crab's shell and correctly handle a Streeler. Then, using the Monster Book of Monsters as a reference, find facts about different magical creatures based on something Hagrid said.

"Find me a creature native to Australia, Dudley," Hagrid said.

Dudley checked the book, cross referencing Austrlia. "Drop Bear," he said.

He then had to find which creature had red and orange spikes and which ate a diet solely of rhubarb.

"Nice work, Dudley," Hagrid said, approvingly after he had finished.

Dudley had the feeling he had gotten a very good grade in that exam.

The Muggle Studies exam took place at the same time as Divination. Dudley found it easy, answering most of the questions on forms of muggle transport, muggle communication and other assorted things. He felt confident that he had achieved a high score.

When he returned to the common room, Ron, Dean and Neville were waiting for him.

"Divination was rubbish," Ron said, afterwards. "I reckon Trelawney's cracking up. After my exam she went loopy—started muttering rubbish about You-Know-Who returning, his servant and something about the Dog Star. The usual nonsense."

Dudley laughed. They were all in a good mood after finishing their exams and had a game of wizard poker to celebrate. Lee Jordan, Fred and George had finished their owls and decided to join them, so did Ginny. They played for various candy, snacks and even chocolate frog cards or gobstones—whatever they had to gamble.

"No chance is a red gobstone worth a Bowman Wright card," George said, scornfully. "Come on, Nev, up the ante."

Neville added two more gobstones to the pile.

"I always know when you're bluffing, Georgie," Fred said. Raising the vid with a box of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.

Dudley wasn't good at poker and both he and Hermione were soon out. He in his bag for the chocolate frog he now owed Lee. "Hang on, my Monster Book of Monsters is missing," he announced.

"Did you leave it down at Hagrids?" Ron said, looking up, he had lost early and was now reading a comic.

"Maybe," he looked at the clock. There was still time before curfew.

"I'll go down and check," Dudley announced.

"I'll come too," Hermione said. "I want to ask Hagrid about the exam. I'm worried I made a mistake cleaning the Fire Crab."

"See you later, then," Ron said, settling down to read his comic.

Dean was still involved in the game and looked set to win big from the Weasley twins. Neville was watching intently with Lee Jordan and Ginny.

Together, Dudley and Hermione headed for Hagrids.