We're almost at my favourite few chapters! I love the Marauders era, I really wish J.K. Rowling would write about them or a movie or series would be made about them, I'd find it very interesting. Anyhow, hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 14

Exams

As June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry. Rachel often found herself longing to go outside and lounge in the sun, but that was nearly impossible, for exams were coming closer each day. Instead of being outside in the perfect weather, Rachel was stuffed up inside, trying to stuff her brain with information from all her classes.

Everybody else was studying, too. Fred and George Weasley were about to take their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels), and Percy Weasley was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Levels), the highest qualification Hogwarts offered. Percy needed top grades to enter the Ministry of Magic, he became increasingly edgy and gave severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the common room in the evenings.

The only person that seemed more anxious for exams than Percy was Hermione, and Rachel could see why, with her stuffed schedule. Rachel, Harry, and Ron had given up asking her how she managed to attend several classes at once, but when they saw her exam schedule, they couldn't restrain themselves from asking. The first column read:

Monday

9 o'clock, Arithmancy

9 o'clock, Transfiguration

Lunch

1 o'clock, Charms

1 o'clock, Ancient Runes

"Hermione?" Rachel 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 Harry.

"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 around on her table, looking for the book. Just then, there was a rustle at the window and Hedwig fluttered through it, a note clutched tight in her beak.

"It's from Hagrid," said Harry, ripping the note open. "Buckbeak's appeal—it's set for the sixth."

"That's the day we finish our exams," said Hermione, still looking everywhere for her Arithmancy book until taking Rachel's book.

"And they're coming up here to do it," said Harry, still reading from the letter. "Someone from the Ministry of Magic and—and an executioner."

Hermione looked up, startled.

"They're bringing the executioner to the appeal! But that sounds as though they've already decided!"

"Yeah, it does," said Rachel slowly, feeling slightly scared.

"They can't!" Ron howled. "I've spent ages reading up on stuff for him; they can't just ignore it all!"

Rachel doubted that the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures would ever listen to Ron, or any of them, for that matter.

When exam week began, an unnatural hush fell over the castle. On Monday, Rachel compared the results of her Transfiguration exam to those of her classmates. One of the tasks was turning a teapot into a tortoise. Rachel's tortoise ended up fine, except being a minty-green colour, which was quite unnatural for a tortoise.

After lunch, they hurried back upstairs for the Charms exam. They were tested on Cheering Charms, like Hermione told them, and Rachel, who was great at Charms, cast the perfect Cheering Charm on Lukas, and in turn, Lukas cast the spell just as good on her. After they finished dinner, Rachel went back to the common room with her classmates to study for Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy.

The Care of Magical Creatures exam was quite easy. Hagrid had provided a large tub of fresh flobberworms for the class, and their flobberworm had to still be alive at the end of one hour to pass the test. Since flobberworms flourished best if left to their own devices, it gave Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Rachel plenty of opportunity to speak to Hagrid.

"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told them, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still… we'll know day after tomorrow—one way or the other—"

That afternoon, they had their Potions exam. Rachel was just as good as Potions as she was at Charms, and her Confusing Concoction was perfect at the end of the exam, and Snape had nothing snarky to say.

Astronomy was at midnight, up on the tallest tower, followed by History of Magic on Wednesday morning. That afternoon, they took their Herbology exam, and all Rachel could think about was that she wanted to be done.

Hermione had already taken her Arithmancy exam, but because it fell at the same time as the Transfiguration exam, Rachel headed down to Professor Vector's classroom that evening with several other students who were unable to attend their exams. It was a combination of three third-years (including Rachel), a fourth-year, and two sixth-years. When Rachel finished her exam, she headed back to the common room to prepare for her final exam, Defense Against the Dark Arts.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts exam was the most unusual exam Rachel had ever taken; Professor Lupin had made a sort of obstacle course outside in the sun. 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, and then they had to climb into an old trunk and battle with a new boggart.

Harry went first out of the four of them, while Ron, Hermione, and Rachel waited to be called forward. They each waited patiently, and Ron was called after Parvati Patil went. Then was Rachel, and she did quite well. She managed to avoid the grindylow, dodged the Red Caps that came at her with their clubs, and she managed to ignore the hinkypunk until she reached the trunk. There, she climbed in and waited until she heard her own voice screeching, where she promptly cast "Riddikulus!" and her voice stopped cackling with happiness and Lukas and Jeremy's voices disappeared behind the children's song that filled the trunk.

"Perfect, Rachel," said Lupin, smiling, as she exited the trunk. "Full marks."

Rachel grinned and joined Harry and Ron to watch Hermione. Lukas went before Hermione and came out of the trunk with glitter in his hair, which he brushed off, disgruntled, before joining Rachel and hissing that the grindylow messed him up.

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, Harry, Ron, Rachel, and Lukas went back to the castle. Ron was still slightly inclined to laugh at Hermione's boggart, but an argument was averted by the sight that met them on the top of the steps.

Cornelius Fudge, sweating slightly in his pinstriped cloak, was standing there staring out at the grounds. He started at the sight of Harry.

"Hello there, Harry!" he said. "Just had an exam, I expect? Nearly finished?"

"Yes," said Harry. Hermione, Ron, Rachel, and Lukas, not being on speaking terms with the Minister of Magic, hovered awkwardly in the background.

"Lovely day," said Fudge, casting an eye over the lake. "Pity… pity…"

He sighed deeply and looked down at Harry.

"I'm here on an unpleasant mission, Harry. The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures required a witness to the execution of a mad hippogriff. As I needed to visit Hogwarts to check on the Black situation, I was asked to step in."

"Does that mean the appeal's already happened?" Ron interrupted, stepping forward.

"No, no, it's scheduled for this afternoon," said Fudge, looking curiously at Ron.

"Then you might not have to witness an execution at all!" said Ron stoutly. "The hippogriff might get off!"

Before Fudge could answer, two wizards came through the castle doors behind him. One was so ancient he appeared to be withering before their very eyes; the other was tall and strapping, with a thin black mustache. The old wizard squinted at Hagrid's cabin and said, "Dear, dear, I'm getting too old for this… Two o'clock, isn't it, Fudge?"

The black-mustached man had a shining axe in his belt. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but Hermione and Rachel nudged him hard in the ribs and jerked their heads toward the entrance hall.

"Why'd you stop me?" said Ron angrily as they entered the Great Hall for lunch. "Did you see them? They've even got the axe ready! This isn't justice!"

"Ron, your dad works for the Ministry, you can't go saying things like that to his boss!" said Hermione, but she too looked very upset. "As long as Hagrid keeps his head this time, and argues his case properly, they can't possibly execute Buckbeak…"

"They're executing Buckbeak?" Lukas gasped, anger in his voice. "Unbelievable, it was Malfoy's fault!"

"That's what we said," said Harry gruffly. "But his father's got the Ministry wrapped around his finger, they're all too scared of him."

They joined the Gryffindor table, and Rachel was very glad that she dropped Divination, for she had no exams anymore. While Harry, Ron, and Lukas went off for their Divination exam and Hermione went to take her Muggle Studies exam, Rachel returned to the common room and flopped down on the couch with a yawn, ready for a nap.

"That tired, are you?"

Rachel opened one eye and saw Zaine standing beside her. Rachel pushed herself up on her elbows and brushed her bangs out of her eyes.

"Don't blame me," yawned Rachel. "I was up late for Astronomy on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I was writing my Arithmancy exam and I wasn't done until nine o'clock, and then I still had to study for Defense Against the Dark Arts…"

"How did it go?" asked Zaine, falling down on the seat beside Rachel. "I saw it from the window. Some sort of obstacle course?"

"Grindylow, hinkypunk, Red Caps, and another Boggart," said Rachel. "I got full marks, according to Lupin."

"Good job," said Zaine.

After several minutes of sitting in silence, one of Zaine's friends came and told him that his girlfriend Hallie was waiting outside the portrait of the Fat Lady for a walk around the lake, leaving Rachel on her own. She had almost fallen asleep when Ron came into the common room.

"How'd your exam go?"

"Terrible," said Ron. "We had to look into those stupid crystal balls. I just came up with some weird things and she told me that it was great, and then I left."

"Did Harry go yet?"

"Not that I know of," said Ron.

Hermione and Lukas joined them a little while later and the three of them began to talk about what they would do once Harry had finished his Divination exam, and when they would meet up over the summer. Ron had told Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas enthusiastically that the Quidditch World Cup would be held that summer, and Rachel and Lukas promised to be there after attending a wedding from some extended family in America.

Just as Ron started to ask about America, there was a ticking at the window. Rachel turned and saw Hedwig and jumped up with a shout, running toward the window and letting Hedwig enter.

"It's from Hagrid!" said Rachel, tearing the note off Hedwig. It was dry, which gave Rachel a little bit of hope, but when she opened the note her shoulders dropped.

Hagrid's note was dry this time, no tears had splattered it, yet his hand seemed to have shaken so much as he wrote that it was hardly legible.

Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset.

Nothing you can do. Don't come down.

I don't want you to see it.

Hagrid

"No!" said Hermione. "They can't!"

"It's unfair!" shouted Lukas.

Rachel sat down and buried her forehead in her hands, taking shaking and uneven breaths. Ron rubbed her back in an attempt to be supportive, and the portrait hole burst open and Harry sprinted into the nearly empty common room.

"Professor Trelawney," Harry panted, "just told me—"

He stopped abruptly when he saw their faces.

"Buckbeak lost," said Rachel weakly. "Hagrid's just sent this."

"We've got to go," said Harry at once, after reading the note. "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!"

"Sunset, though," said Ron, who was staring out the window in a glazed sort of way. "We'd never be allowed…'specially you, Harry…"

Harry sank his head into his hands, thinking.

"If we only had the Invisibility Cloak…"

"Where is it?" said Hermione.

"I left it in the passageway under the one-eyed witch that day Malfoy saw me at Hogsmeade, but if Snape sees me anywhere near there again, I'm in serious trouble."

"That's true," said Hermione, getting to her feet. "If he sees you… How do you open the witch's hump again?"

"You—you tap it and say, 'Dissendium,'" said Harry. "But—"

Hermione didn't wait for the rest of his sentence; she strode across the room, pushed open the Fat Lady's portrait and vanished from sight.

"She hasn't gone to get it?" Ron said, staring after her.

"Probably," said Lukas. He turned to Harry and Rachel. "How come you never tell me of any of this?"

"Didn't you say that you thought these sort of adventures were dangerous?" said Rachel.

"Roo, come on," groaned Lukas. "Drop it."

"Are you coming with us to Hagrid?" said Ron.

"I am," said Lukas firmly, nodding. "Hagrid deserves all the support he can get."

Hermione returned, the silvery cloak folded under her robes.

"Hermione, I don't know what's gotten into you lately!" said Ron, astounded. "First you hit Malfoy, then you and Rachel walk out on Professor Trelawney—"

Hermione looked rather flattered as Lukas grinned proudly at her.

They went down to dinner with everybody else, but didn't go back to the Gryffindor Tower when they were done. They skulked in an empty chamber off the entrance hall, listening, until they were sure it was deserted. At last, they heard a pair of people hurrying across the hall and a door slamming. Rachel poked her head around the door and saw nobody.

"Okay," she whispered, "no one there—cloak on—"

Walking very close together so that nobody would see them, they crossed the hall on tiptoe beneath the cloak, then walked down the stone front steps into the grounds. The sun was already sinking behind the Forbidden Forest, gilding the top branches of the trees. Lukas was very excited about the cloak, and they continuously had to remind him to be quiet.

They reached Hagrid's cabin and knocked. He was a minute in answering, and when he did, he looked all around for his visitor, pale-faced and trembling.

"It's us," Harry hissed. "We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off."

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered, but he stood back, and they stepped inside. Hagrid shut the door quickly and Harry pulled off the cloak.

Hagrid was not crying, nor did he throw himself upon their necks. He looked like a man who did not know where he was or what to do. This helplessness was worse to watch than tears, Rachel found.

"Wan' some tea?" he said. His great hands were shaking as he reached for the kettle.

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" said Hermione hesitantly.

"I—I took him outside," said Hagrid, spilling milk all over the table as he filled up the jug. "He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an'—an' smell fresh air—before—"

Hagrid's hand trembled so violently that the milk jug slipped from his grasp and shattered all over the floor.

"I'll do it, Hagrid," said Hermione quickly, hurrying over and starting to clean up the mess.

"There's another one in the cupboard," Hagrid said, sitting down and wiping his forehead on his sleeve. Rachel sat down as well, handing him a handkerchief.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to Hagrid. "Dumbledore—"

"He's tried," said Hagrid. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared… Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like… threatened 'em, I expect… an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's… but it'll be quick an' clean… an' I'll be beside him…"

Hagrid swallowed. His eyes were darting all over the cabin as though looking for some shred of hope or comfort.

"Dumbledore's gonna come down while it—while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter—ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore…"

Hermione, who had been rummaging in Hagrid's cupboard for another milk jug, let out a small, quickly stifled sob. She straightened up with the new jug in her hands, fighting back tears. Rachel was trying to stop tears from falling, too.

"We'll stay with you too, Hagrid," she began, but Hagrid shook his shaggy head.

"Yeh're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway… If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, yeh'll be in big trouble."

Silent tears were now streaming down Hermione's face, but she hid them from Hagrid, bustling around making tea. Then, as she picked up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug, she let out a shriek that made Rachel jump.

"Ron! I—I don't believe it—it's Scabbers!"

Ron gaped at her.

"What are you talking about?"

Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table.

"Scabbers!" said Ron blankly. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"

He grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. He was thin, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he desperately writhed in Ron's hands.

"It's okay, Scabbers!" said Ron. "No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!"

Hagrid suddenly stood up, his eyes fixed on the window. His normally ruddy face had gone the color of parchment.

"They're comin'…"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas whipped around. A group of men was walking down the distant castle steps. In front was Albus Dumbledore, his silver beard gleaming in the dying sun. Next to him trotted Cornelius Fudge. Behind them came the feeble old Committee member and the executioner, Macnair.

"Yeh gotta go," said Hagrid. Every inch of him was trembling. "They mustn' find yeh here… Go now…"

Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Lukas picked up the cloak.

"I'll let yeh out the back way," said Hagrid.

They followed him to the door into his back garden. Rachel cried silently when she saw Buckbeak tethered to a tree behind Hagrid's pumpkin patch. He turned his sharp head from side to side and pawed the ground nervously, as if knowing what was coming.

"It's okay, Beaky," said Hagrid softly. "It's okay…" He turned to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas. "Go on," he said. "Get goin'."

But they didn't move.

"Hagrid, we can't—"

"We'll tell them what really happened—"

"They can't kill him—"

"We were there—"

"This is just so unfair—!"

"Go!" said Hagrid fiercely. "It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all!"

They had no choice. As Hermione and Lukas threw the cloak over Harry, Ron, and Rachel, they heard voices at the front of the cabin. Hagrid looked at the place where they had just vanished from sight.

"Go quick," he said hoarsely. "Don' listen…"

And he strode back into his cabin as someone knocked at the front door.

Slowly, in a kind of horrified trance, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rachel, and Lukas set off silently around Hagrid's house. As they reached the other side, the front door closed with a sharp snap.

"Please, let's hurry," Hermione whispered. "I can't stand it, I can't bear it…"

They started up the sloping lawn toward the castle. The sun was sinking fast now; the sky had turned to a clear, purple-tinged grey, but to the west there was a ruby-red glow, and though the sight was beautiful, it didn't calm Rachel's racing heart at all.

Ron stopped dead.

"Oh, please, Ron," Hermione began.

"It's Scabbers—he won't—stay put—"

Ron was bent over, trying to keep Scabbers in his pocket, but the rat was going berserk; squeaking madly, twisting and flailing, trying to sink his teeth into Ron's hand.

"Scabbers, it's me, you idiot, it's Ron," Ron hissed.

They heard a door open behind them and men's voices.

"Oh, Ron, please let's move, they're going to do it!" Hermione breathed.

"Okay—Scabbers, stay put—"

They walked forward; Rachel tried desperately to shut out the voices behind them. Ron stopped again.

"I can't hold him—Scabbers, shut up, everyone'll hear us—"

The rat was squealing wildly, but not loudly enough to cover up the sounds drifting from Hagrid's garden. There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then, without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe.

Hermione swayed on the spot.

"They did it!" she whispered. "I d—don't believe it—they did it!"