Allo! And how are you today? This chapter was actually surprisingly easy to write… funny, I thought it'd be quite hard…
Thanks to: MarianneP, rowellylovesgryffindor, Sam and the Anon for reviewing… you're all immense
Disclaimer: Am I J.K. Rowling? No. so I don't own Harry Potter. But I do own Mia
Chapter 15: Panic
"Ok… ok, ok, ok…" Mia said, licking her lips. "The antidote to the Draught of Living Death is the Wiggenweld potion… Wiggenweld… Wiggenweld…" she licked her lips again. She was sitting on the common room floor, hunched over a stack of notes with her hair pulled back into a plait. "Um… Draught of Peace needs to simmer for seven minutes… seven minutes, not eight… Syrup of Hellebore… with an 'E' after the 'L'… oh my God!" she scrunched her eyes together and cover her face with her hands.
Since Fred and George had left, Mia had spent most of her time revising. She'd started off doing it with Angelina and Alicia, but eventually, they kicked her out of the little 'study group' because she kept reading her notes out loud. So she resorted to sitting in a corner- usually until quite late at night- revising by wand light.
She sifted through her potions notes, licking her lips. "Gah!" she groaned, "seven or eight minutes?" she searched back through her notes and found the Draught of Peace note. "Seven… seven… seven…" she chanted, until the number was stuck in her head.
"I HATE REVISING!" she suddenly yelled, throwing her notes away from her. The few people left in the common room (a couple of fourth years) glanced at her, alarmed. But she just sat their, her eyes flicking around at the scattered parchment, breathing heavily. She licked her lips again and started fiddling with her necklace. She dropped her wand on the floor and clenched her fists- one around the necklace and the other around air. Her eyes glazed over and she started shaking her head. She licked her lips again.
"I'm gunna fail… oh my God, I'm gunna fail…" she muttered. She clutched her scalp and licked her lips again. "Wait a minute… I was like this during the OWLs and I got through them alright… and… oh my God, I'm talking to myself!" she licked her lips. Again. "Ok… um… no, that doesn't matter… Jess talks to herself all the time…" the fact that her cousin did it calmed her slightly, "just… calm…" she breathed in, then out. "Ok… what's the time?" she checked her watch. "MIDNIGHT?" the fourth years looked at her again. "Oh for… ok… get some sleep… um… and carry on tomorrow…" she stood up and gathered up her notes, rubbed her eyes and passed the fourth years. They looked up at her oddly. She stopped. "Wait 'til you're doing your NEWTs! You'll be the same!" she told them, and went up to the dormitory.
Just after she'd changed into her pajamas, she stopped, groaned and went back downstairs. The fourth years were still there, and her wand was lying in the corner, where she'd discarded it minutes before. She went and picked it up, before traipsing back upstairs.
A few days later, Mia sat on her bed with her Transfiguration book open on her knees. Angelina and Alicia were getting ready to go and play Quidditch against Ravenclaw. "You are coming… aren't you, Mia?" Alicia asked.
"Hm? Oh… um, I dunno…"
"Why?" Angelina asked.
"I… I need to revise!"
"We need you there!"
"I don't even do anything!"
"Oh please," Alicia scoffed, "you cheer us on! And don't say it wont make a difference, 'cause you've got the loudest voice in the school, and I swear I can hear you screaming abuse at the opposite team!" Mia looked at them, standing in their Quidditch gear.
"You've been revising twenty-four seven since Fred and George left… you need a break," Angelina said softly. Mia continued to look at her.
"Um… ok," she sighed, closing her book. The two Chasers grinned.
Down on the Quidditch pitch, Davies, the Ravenclaw captain, caught the Quaffle immediately. He flew down the pitch, dodging Katie, Alicia and Angelina, and threw the Quaffle towards the goal.
"CATCH IT, RON!" Mia screamed. Unfortunately, the ball soared through the hoops. "Oh my God, JUST CATCH THE EFFING BALL!" the Slytherins started singing Weasley is Our King. Alicia managed to get the Quaffle, but dropped it my dodging a bludger (sent by one of the Gryffindor beaters). One of the Ravenclaw Chaser caught it, and sent it flying towards Ron. The Quaffle fell just short of the posts and Katie caught it. Together, she, Alicia and Angelina flew across the pitch, tossing the Quaffle between them. "C'mon… c'mon… SHOOT!" Mia yelled. Katie launched the ball away from her, and the Gryffindors cheered as it went through the hoop.
Ravenclaw managed to get the Quaffle back up and flying towards Ron. "BLOCK IT, RON!" Mia stamped her foot. She watches as Ron stretched out his hands… and caught the Quaffle. For a second, it seemed as if nobody realized what had happened… and then the Gryffindors screamed. "YES! GET IN THERE!" Mia yelled, punching the air. After that, Ron managed to catch the Quaffle a lot more. Slowly, Weasley is Our King got louder and louder, and Mia noticed people around her were singing it. She stopped for a second and listened.
Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He didn't let the Quaffle in
Weasley is our King.
Weasley can save anything,
He never leaves a single ring,
That's why Gryffindors all sing:
Weasley is our King.
Mia grinned and started singing along. They sang louder then the Slytherins- some of students literally screaming the lyrics. Up by the goal posts, Ron grinned, going in for another save.
Finally, Ginny caught the Snitch. Gryffindor had won. The silver Quidditch Cup was handed to Angelina, but she immediately shoved it into Ron's hands. He just looked down at it for a second, before holding it up. "YES! WE WON!" Mia screamed, "Oh, if only Fred and George could see this…" the Gryffindors flooded down onto the pitch, and Mia pushed her way to the front. "WELL DONE!" Mia yelled to Ron, ruffling his hair. He grinned at her before he was hoisted up by someone.
The joy of Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup didn't last for long. Mia joined in with the party after the match, but soon slipped back upstairs and grabbed her Transfiguration book.
The next Monday, they were given their exam timetable. "Just like when you took your OWLs," Professor McGonagall was saying "you will sit your theory papers in the mornings and your practical examinations in the afternoon. Remember that all anti-cheating charms have been applied to your examination papers. Auto-Answer Quills are banned from the examination hall, as are Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs and Self-Correcting Ink. Of course, every year there is at least one student who tries to find a loop hole. They fail. If I remember correctly, when you all took your OWLs, it was nobody in Gryffindor. Make sure it is the same this year."
Mia looked at her schedule. She had Charms on Monday, Defence Against the Dark Arts on Tuesday, Herbology on Wednesday, Potions on Thursday and Transfiguration on Friday. "Are we gunna get our results the same way?" she asked, not looking up.
"Yes. An owl will deliver your results sometime during July."
"Oh god…" she muttered under her breath.
Finally, it came to Sunday night. Mia sat in her corner of the common room, reading through her Charms notes. "Aguamenti," she muttered, prodding her wand at a little bowl. A few inches of water shot out. She nodded. "and then… Exaresco," the water evaporated. She nodded again. She probably wouldn't have even gone up to bed if Angelina hadn't of come over and forced her too. Even then, she lay awake in bed for a good few hours before finally drifting off to sleep.
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," she licked her lips as the seventh years entered the Great Hall the next morning. She sat down at the single desk. "You may begin." As one, everyone in the hall turned over their papers.
Question One: Give the incantation that sets objects alight.
Indo? She thought. No… Inodio! No… Incendio! She began to write.
She managed to get most of the questions done. She only missed out one about halfway through and didn't have enough time to do the last few. She didn't eat much during lunch, and kept filling her glass up with water, then evaporating it again. After lunch, the seventh years gathered in the Chamber off the side of the Hall, waiting to be called into the practical. "Homing, Mia."
"Good luck!" Alicia and Angelina told her. She smile weakly and went into the Hall. She was sent to a middle-aged examiner.
"Miss Homing?" the examiner asked and Mia nodded. "Very well… first, can you please fill this bowl with water? Preferably non-verbally." Mia nodded and waved her wand at the bowl. Nothing happened. She licked her lips and looked up at the examiner. "Try again." Mia flicked her wand again, and water fell into the bowl, almost filling it to the brim. She licked her lips again and the examiner told her to set alight some parchment.
On the whole, Mia felt the exam went… alright. She had to attempt a lot of the charms twice or three times non-verbally before they worked, and when she preformed Avis, only one bird came flying out of her wand.
That night, she revised for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Angelina literally hauled her up off the floor and pushed her up the stairs.
The paper was harder then the Charms one, mainly because Mia paid hardly any attention to Umbridge over the year. Several of the questions were on creatures, and the only one she knew she'd answered correctly was the one about the Dementors. She even gave an example of a Corporal Patronus- a hawk. But the practical was better. She thanked Harry for that. She preformed all of the jinxes and counter-jinxes at a moderate standard. She missed a few times, once narrowly skimming her examiner.
That night, she revised for Herbology. Again, Angelina had to force her to go to bed.
Wednesday morning, she didn't eat any breakfast at all, and just stared down at her eggs. She had a feeling she would never eat eggs again.
During the theory paper, she kept glancing up at the large hour glass up the front, licking her lips every time. She spent ten minutes on question fifteen (describe a Venomous Tentacula) because she knew what a Venomous Tentacula was! Finally, the plant literally popped into her head, and she quickly wrote down the description before she forgot it again. The practical went better. They had to harvest some Venomous Tentacula leaves- Mia heard a Hufflepuff girl mutter 'oh yeah, that's a Venomous Tentacula…' very quietly.
That night, she revised for Potions. She revised in the dormitory, and only stopped because Angelina turned out the lights.
On Thursday, four nights worth of bad sleeping caught up with her, and she struggled to keep her eyes open.
Both the theory and the practical went better then she thought they would do. Luckily, about a quarter of the questions on the paper were to do with Healing, and the others she didn't have to think about that much. In the practical, she had to create the Draught of Living Death, and a difficult antidote for a rare poison. The antidote was one of the ones listed in Medicine Magic: a Guide to the World of Magical Medicine, and she had read over it countless of times, so she was sure she got that one right.
That night, she revised for Transfiguration. Stupidly, she stayed up later then ever; revising by the light of the Gloww Ball Alicia had gotten her for her seventeenth birthday.
Question twenty-three on the paper asked her to describe a Protean Charm, and she had no idea why a Galleon kept rolling into her head. She stared at a small spot on the desk, licking her lips, imagining the Galleon was sitting there. The numbers around the side of the imagined Galleon changed, and she cocked her head. DA… she thought, Hermione… NEWT level… PROTEAN CHARM! In the practical, she accidentally changed her examiners hair from brown to blonde, instead of turning her pig into a mouse, but the rest of the things went alright.
She left the Hall, and breathed out a sigh. They were done. The exams were over. She stood in the brightly lit Entrance Hall for a second. The double doors were wide open and the sound of laughing ands shrieking students flowed over her. The lucky students who didn't need to do any major exams. She turned and made her way to Gryffindor tower.
She passed through all the fifth years who were studying for their OWLs that started the next Monday. "How did the exam go, Mia?" Hermione asked, glancing up briefly from her notes.
"Pray you never have to do them," she replied darkly, ignored the slightly afraid look on Ron's face, ran up the stairs and flung herself onto her bed.
Ok… so I am really sorry if you found this chapter boring… but… y'know, it's the NEWTs… it needed to be put in… its important… but the exciting stuff should start up again in the next chapter… so, again I'm sorry if you found it boring
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