I'm sorry.
I've done this in some of my other stories, but I don't think I've ever done it for this one. Basically when I use canon lines I italicise them to differentiate it from my own writing. (Not everything in italics is canon but most of it is.) Just thought I'd mention that.
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Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and only the story line and any OC's belong to me.
Again, I'm sorry xxx
The remaining time leading up to OWLs was brutal: fifth years were napping in corridors, on staircases, in nooks and crannies—anywhere they could, and whenever they could find time between classes and burying their noses in books. There were some students who were practically living in the library, bringing their own blankets and pillows, and making little nests for themselves in secluded corners where they could get some peace. (Madam Pince didn't have anything to say as long as people didn't bring any food near the books, and she oft kicked them out a couple hours before classes, insisting that they showered, changed their clothes and got some food in them.)
Everyone seemed to be sleep deprived and extremely cranky, Hermione could only smile when Kira hissed at her the other morning when the raven haired girl shook her awake—the electric blue eyed witch had fallen asleep with her blanket half on her, books strewn everywhere (that her body was contorted and curved around, and Hermione would never know how she did it).
It's absolute chaos and even Hermione and Draco were swept up into it: ensuring that the other Marauders were studying (though it was only really Peter that needed their help since the others pretty much had everything covered) whilst finding time to review on their own.
The NEWT students somehow looked more haggard than they did: Draco errantly mentioned that Marlene told him about a Seventh Year Slytherin girl who had set her boyfriend's eyebrows on fire when he commented on her dark circles and how dreadful she looked.
The Fifth year Gryffindors had practically no time for frivolity and lawlessness: especially Lily, who Hermione had barely seen for the past month and it saddened her greatly—Lily spent her time buried beneath a vast mountain of books and piles of parchment, or, she attempted to distract herself from all her stress by fiercely snogging David Miller.
Lily had absently commented on one of the rare moments when she was in the Great Hall for Breakfast at the same time as the rest of them—she was oft the first in on a morning and also the first to leave after she'd scarfed down some sustenance—that Severus didn't like David. Snape thought David was dim and in no way challenged Lily intellectually, even going on to say that she was slumming it with the Hufflepuff.
The conversation had occurred when they were in the Potions classroom after school preparing for their upcoming practical; Lily had ignored the comment at the time, patting Severus on the shoulder and asking him to pass the Eye of Newt as she stirred her Potion thrice anti-clockwise.
At the beginning of May, Lily had just exited the library—book open in her hand—to see a Sixth Year boy having cornered teeny Dorcas Meadowes. Dorcas was trying to shove the boy away, and Lily paused long enough to smack the boy over the head with her thick, four hundred page book; the boy might have retaliated if he hadn't witnessed the raw fury sparking in the almond shaped, bright green eyes.
James had kept his promise to Draco and he hadn't hexed or bullied anyone in the past few months. Anyone besides Severus Snape that is: the two boys had never been more at odds, the acidic slurs and fights had gotten nastier—it was an absolute mess, and despite Hermione and Draco's efforts, James was stubborn as an Ox, and Snape was constantly antagonizing James which made him no better really.
It was at a tipping point, both of them going way overboard.
Of course, wherever James went, Sirius was not far behind (and he was certainly not going to steer James to take the high road in this case), especially since Sirius was not feeling particularly warm and special towards Snape at the moment; Snape's friends had tried to hex Riley and Mary in the last few weeks—only serving to ruffle both boy's feathers.
James was irate for days, even though Snape's defense was, "I wasn't the one to hex Potter's little girlfriend nor yours, what Amycus does is none of my business...though I shall admit he had the right idea." Snape had said in a cold voice when confronted.
Thankfully Hermione had been there to stop James from throttling Snape.
She figured the severe lack of sleep and tensions that were running high only exasperated the whole situation.
Then exams began and the fighting died abruptly, the dirty glares didn't, but the fighting did—for a time anyways.
Quiet.
The four House tables were gone. Instead there were more than a hundred smaller tables, all facing the same way, at each of which sat a student, head bent low, scribbling on a roll of parchment. The only sound was the scratching of quills and the occasional rustle as somebody adjusted their parchment.
Hermione gnawed on her lip as her hand sailed across the parchment—not scribbling furiously like the first time she'd sat her DADA written exam—she didn't feel the same intense need to prove herself this time around (even if she had gotten an Exceeds Expectations on her first attempt).
Sunshine was streaming through the high windows onto the bent heads, which shone chestnut and copper and gold in the bright light.
Hermione glanced up from her paper to surmise how her fellow Marauders were doing (Professor Flitwick had purposefully scattered them across the Great Hall): Peter was scratching his head in thick confusion, the tip of his quill kept approaching and retreating away from his parchment as he was contemplated on the answer to whatever question he was on.
Draco was leaning back languidly and his hand smoothly glided across the page as if he had all day to pen his answers.
James ran his left hand through his hair at least five times in less than two minutes.
Sirius looked almost bored as he scrawled his answers down.
Remus, her darling Moon flinched harshly and Hermione frowned for the split second in which it took her to realise what question he was on—he smoothly recovered however and soon his quill was scratching his answers down.
Hermione marvelled at the way the sun danced across his sandy blond locks, and with a small smile she resumed her exam.
She didn't catch the fact that she wasn't the only one who had paused in completing the task at hand: Snape was a several tables back on Hermione's right, and he found his gaze kept flicking to the raven haired girl. They were hiding something, he just knew it.
He almost snorted at the simplicity of the next question as he read it, 'Give five signs that identify the Werewolf.'
Halfway through answering it he froze, his gaze now shifting instead to a very pale, very poorly looking Remus Lupin.
There was no way.
Snape ducked his head down, his lanky and greasy hair flopping onto the table, his hooked nose barely half an inch from the surface of the parchment as he scribbled.
Something overtook him in that moment, and he just kept writing, and writing and writing, time flew by and his hand kept flying across the parchment; he had written at least a foot more than his closest neighbors, and yet his writing was minuscule and cramped.
"Five more minutes!"
The voice made Hermione jump, worrying her lip between her teeth as she looked over her parchment, with a soft exhale her eyes flew across the page, scanning for any errors.
If I don't get an Outstanding this time around, then this thing is ruddy rigged, Hermione thought.
"Three more minutes! Finish up those last thoughts and sentences! Dots your i's and cross your t's!" Professor Flitwick announced, his voice reverberating throughout the Great Hall; Hermione's eyes rose and quickly settled on the top of Professor Flitwick's head moving between the desks a short distance away.
She saw that he had just passed by James, who was straightening up now, putting down his quill, pulling his roll of parchment toward him so as to reread what he had written.
James yawned hugely and rumpled up his hair, making it even messier than it had been. Then, with a glance toward Professor Flitwick, he turned in his seat and grinned at the boy sitting four seats behind him.
Hermione followed her brother's line of sight and rolled her eyes as she saw Sirius give James a
thumbs-up. Sirius was lounging in his chair at ease, tilting it back on two legs.
Hermione narrowed her eyes slightly as the sunlight hit Sirius, seemingly making his eyes glow and she found herself thinking how good-looking her best mate was; his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance.
Hermione shook her head before properly facing forward again (it seemed Flitwick hadn't even noticed, that she had been facing backwards in her chair, again), exhaling softly through her nostrils as she rolled her parchment up and carefully dropped it onto her desk. Absently she plucked her quill off of her desk and began to twirl it between her fingers as she once more examined her surroundings.
Lily was so close to her parchment that Hermione had no idea how she could even see what she was writing.
Wormtail looked anxious; he was chewing his fingernails, staring down at his paper, scuffing the ground with his toes. Hermione's eyes narrowed to slits when she noticed that every now and then he was glancing hopefully at his neighbor's paper. Apparently giving up on trying to answer all of the questions through the merit of his own abilities—she would have to scold him about it later.
Her gaze finally settled on Remus—he was fully absorbed in the exam: As he reread his answers
he scratched his chin with the end of his quill, frowning slightly. Errantly she thought about making him some hot chocolate later, and giving him a potent pain potion for the migraine that was probably creeping up on him right now.
"Quills down, please!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. "That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"
More than a hundred rolls of parchment zoomed into the air and into Professor Flitwick's outstretched arms, knocking him backward off his feet. Several people laughed. A couple of students at the front desks got up, took hold of Professor Flitwick beneath the elbows, and lifted him onto his feet again.
"Thank you . . . thank you," panted Professor Flitwick. "Very well, everybody, you're free to go!"
Hermione slowly stood up, standing on her tiptoes and stretching her arms high above her head, she made a satisfied noise as she heard and felt her back crack.
Hermione caught sight of James stuffing his quill and the exam question paper into his bag, which he slung over his back, and stood waiting for Sirius to join him.
She neatly stowed her own belongings into her bag as she slipped it onto her shoulder. She glanced back at Sirius, moving to join her friends, but then she glimpsed Snape a short way away, moving
between the tables toward the doors into the entrance hall, still absorbed in his own examination paper. Round-shouldered yet angular, he walked in a twitchy manner that recalled a spider, his oily hair
swinging about his face.
Hermione cocked her head to the side in curiosity, she knew he took his examinations seriously, but he'd looked perplexed and there was a certain determination about him that unsettled her.
"I think I mucked up question four," a voice said sadly from Hermione's left and she almost jumped out of her skin.
Hermione's head snapped in the direction of the voice and saw a sullen Lily Evans—her hair was slightly limp since she hadn't washed it in three days, but you could hardly tell as she'd pulled it back into a messy updo.
"You did not. You did brilliantly, I'm sure of it, love," Hermione assured her friend as she looped her arm through Lily's.
Lily shot Hermione a sardonic smile, "that's kind of you to say, Mione. Even if it is utter bollocks."
Hermione adjusted her bag strap as the two girls strolled out of the Great Hall—it was only then that Hermione noticed the other Marauders had already left, and on top of it she'd lost sight of Snape.
"Oh."
"Oh?" Hermione asked with a quirked brow.
"I broke up with David yesterday," Lily said.
"Oh."
"He was too clingy...and too—"
"Nice?"
"If you say so," Lily shrugged, which drew a hearty laugh from Hermione as the two witches crossed the threshold of the Entrance Hall out onto the front steps.
"Look, the others are all heading down to the Lake, you want to go with them?" Hermione queried, pausing in her tracks after they descended the stairs and stepped down onto the grass.
"Definitely, Alice was saying that she had some sweets in her bag for the three of us to share after the exam."
"I could definitely do with some sweets right now," Hermione smiled as they began to move again and strode off down the lawn toward the lake.
Hermione stuck her tongue out at her boys as they'd stopped in the shade of the same beech tree on the edge of the lake where Harry, Ron, and Hermione had once spent a Sunday finishing
their homework—they had thrown themselves down onto the grass and she caught a snippet of their conversation.
"How did you find it, Dray?"
"Piece of cake," Draco replied lazily, pulling out small bunches of grass as he reclined on the ground, his head laying on his book bag.
Hermione shook her head as she and Lily instead went to join the other girls.
The sunlight was dazzling on the smooth surface of the lake, on the bank of which the group of laughing girls who had just left the Great Hall were sitting with shoes and socks off, cooling their feet in the water.
Hermione and Lily dropped their bags beside the other girls's, quickly divesting themselves of their shoes, socks and outer robes—laughing gaily as they raced to the water's edge.
They stopped just short of the lake, and Hermione slid an arm around Lily's waist as they waded knee deep into the water together.
With a smile Hermione propped her other hand on her hip and sent a pointed look Alice's way, "I was told we were promised sweets."
Alice held up a clear bag of green hard candies, reaching in and tossing one Hermione's way with a laugh—Hermione hastily released Lily and caught the sweet just before it hit the water.
"Alice!"
Alice merely shrugged, her grin as radiant as the sunlight skipping across the lake to bathe the girls in its warmth.
"Can you believe we still have Transfiguration?" Kira groaned dramatically, falling sideways into Nancy's lap—the strawberry blonde silently threaded her fingers into Kira's untamable mane and began to massage her best mate's scalp.
From Kira's resulting purr, Hermione could only ascertain that she was clearly enjoying herself.
With a fond shake of her head, she unwrapped her candy—pocketing the cellophane wrapper—and plopped the sour sweet into her mouth; she hadn't been expecting it to have such a punch to it, so at Hermione initially scrunched up her nose in surprise, but soon the green apple flavour washed over her taste buds and she began to enjoy it.
Lily laid her head on Hermione's shoulder and tucked herself into her side.
Examinations were almost over—freedom was so close Hermione could taste it—it was a gorgeous day and things were calm and serene: Hermione relished in the soft, jubilant chatter of her friends surrounding her.
Hermione closed her eyes, and drowned out everything, the gentle summer breeze tousling through her locks, the cool water lapping at her legs.
Hermione was just thinking that nothing could ruin this moment, but then she stiffened because her ears perked up and barely caught a voice say "excellent," from across way, and the voice—which she recognized as Sirius's—said softly. "Snivellus."