That was probably the hardest week. George wrote to me every night and every morning, and I wrote back to him. But it just wasn't the same. I missed his hugs, his laughs, his pranks, his warmth; I just missed him. I buried myself in my studies, spending every spare moment reading and revising in an attempt to distract myself from the depression I was burying myself into. I hadn't laughed once since George had left, and the rest of April, and most of May passed by in a haze of papers and books. Harry and Ron tried to distract me from studying, but I never stayed with them long before I started to feel the pain again. I was closing in on myself without George. It didn't help that Umbridge had tightened the leash on the decrees. She'd even made the library off limits for me. I couldn't study in there anymore.
Terry had stayed in his pranked state for two weeks. He'd made the mistake of taking a shower, and his hair had grown ten feet long, growing right back anytime he cut it. The entire fifth year of Ravenclaw tried to transfigure him back, but they had no luck.. He hadn't asked me out again since then.
Winning the Quidditch cup was by far the highlight of the month. I couldn't believe Umbridge didn't come up with some sort of crazy way of denying us the win, but she didn't. However, Ron recounting the win every five minutes did get old very quickly. Prefect work picked up with the introduction of brain stimulators, none of which actually worked. I must have thrown away a hundred gallons of the stuff, yet it still kept coming. Ron and Harry even tried to buy some.
In the end, it was Angelina that dragged me out of my funk. She'd lost Fred, too, and she'd had him for a whole extra year. They loved each otherand frequently reminded each other of that fact, and she was handling the separation much better than I was. I was studying on the couch when she found me. She sat down beside me, quiet at first, but once I dropped my guard, she pounced. She snatched the book from my hand and dragged me out of the common room. She dragged me down the hall, out of the castle, down the grounds, and right to the lake. She plopped down next to a oak tree exactly like the one in the Weasley's garden and waited patiently until I joined her.
She didn't say anything at first, just letting us sit in companionable silence for a few minutes.
"It's hard isn't it?" she said quietly, eyes on the calm lake. I looked at her questioningly and she continued. "Losing your source of happiness."
I started at her statement, feeling shocked that someone else could understand, could know what I felt. I'd lost my laughter, my happiness. George had been the constant sunshine in my dreary world. He'd been the bright spot in this dark night, the one thing I could count on to be happy, to laugh and make inappropriate jokes. Now that he was gone I didn't have anything to make me laugh, to make me smile. It was worse than a Dementor - there was no spell to make this better.
"I just... I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm letting him down, being so glum, but I can't laugh. Nothing's funny anymore."
She smiled ruefully at the lake. "Makes you want to smack him, doesn't it?"
I laughed darkly at that. "I didn't have this problem before him; I didn't realize what I was missing."
"Their joy's addicting. I feel like I'm on withdrawal."
"Exactly!" I exclaimed, excited at how perfectly she'd described it.
"You know what we need to do don't you?" she said softly, staring at the water wistfully.
"What?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"Get Umbridge, and get her good." She paused, a spark of determination filling her eyes. "Give them something to laugh about when we see them again." She smiled - a true smile - and looked at me.
"You'd have George glowing with pride if you actually pranked her."
My lips twitched up ever so slightly as a thought, an evil, wonderful idea, filled my mind. "We can study later…. I have an idea."
And we began to scheme.
I couldn't believe what an affect the simple act had on me. It was like part of him was here again, I could almost hear him laughing as he saw me make my plans. We set the date for a week out. That gave us time to plan, and study too. After all, I still had OWL's and she had her NEWT's. The time flew by much faster than it had been, and I was actually smiling some. Not as often as I had with George, but I was smiling.
The day of the prank arrived and I was a nervous nut. I was giddy with excitement too, though; I couldn't wait to see her face. Umbridge was going to be livid. I made it a point for Angelina and I to walk by her office at two o'clock, right when Malfoy passed the halls, that way I knew we'd have an alibi. Harry and Ron were safely tucked away in the common room, lots of witness as to their whereabouts. I walked down the hall, almost giggling in anticipation. We reached her door, and then we heard it. A deafening shriek, hundreds of hisses and then a crash as hundreds of items fell to the floor.
The door to the office burst open and Umbridge ran out, her face a livid red. She saw me and Angelina instantly and glared, her eyes nearly red with fury.
"YOU DID IT!" she shrieked, her voice thin and high. Draco paused in his steps and turned towards Umbridge, a look of utter surprise on his pale face.
"Did what, Headmistress?" he questioned carefully. Umbridge was stalking towards Angelina and me, pure murder in her eyes.
"My cats," she hissed, her voice deadly. "They pranked my kitties. A dog attacked them, they panicked, and fell," she rambled, eyes still livid.
We had charmed her plates, connecting them to the other portraits for a while. I had then convinced every single dog in every single portrait to go after them. It hadn't taken much; they couldn't stand the stupid felines.
"Umm, the girls didn't do anything, Headmistress," Draco said quietly, looking slightly fearful. His eyes shot to mine, and I looked at him with the most sincere,fearful eyes that I could manage. He looked momentarily taken aback, then for a moment, so fast I was sure I dreamed it, he looked protective before his face froze behind its usual hard mask.
"I watched them as I walked the hall. They were talking about OWL's, and their wands were in their pockets. If I may be so bold, I believe that a more likely culprit would be Lee Jordan." I tried to make my eyes look worried, scared even, as she continued to glare at us. She breathed heavily for a moment, before she forced her face to go back to its sickeningly sweet façade.
"Of course, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions." Her voice was painfully sweet as she smiled at us, I felt like someone had just filled my mouth with stinksap. She made me nauseous.
"You may run along. I'll just check up on Mr. Jordan's whereabouts." I smiled prettily at her, trying to act slightly intimidated as we made her way around her. We ran the length of the rest of the hall before we broke down laughing.
She never figured out who did the prank. Lee was with Alicia, studying for his NEWT. I couldn't stop myself from smiling every time I saw her glare from the head table.
We received our examination timetables and details of the procedure for OWLs during our next Transfiguration lesson. We would do the theory papers first, and then the practicals in the afternoon. There would be, of course, anti-cheating charms placed, and the like. It was terrifying to actually hold the timetable and I had to fight the urge to hyperventilate.
Our first examination was Theory of Charms, and it would be Monday morning. I didn't think I slept at all that night. The whole fifth year of Gryffindor was in the common room, most of them trying to memorize five years worth of Charms in one night. I had been telling them to study for months, but had anyone listened to me? No! Well, at least I knew all the answers… Yet I still panicked. Harry offered to help me study, and I knocked the poor boy in the nose with the book in my desperation to check and see if I was right.
After breakfast Monday morning we had to wait around in the entrance hall with all the other fifth and seventh years. Angelina sat next to me, I was reading Achievements in Charms, and she wrenched the book from my hand, tossing it aside. I almost dived for it, but she held me in place.
"Hermione, breathe. You have to relax. That's the number one rule to OWL taking. Breathe, it's not that hard. You know most of the spells without studying, and what with the tasks last year I imagine you probably know every charm out there." She smiled reassuringly at me, giving me a firm hug.
The actual exam passed by in a blur. I did know all the spells, having used several of them to save Harry sometime in the last five years… The practical went well too, I thought, but one could never be too sure. Still, it was with incredible relief that I settled onto a couch in the Gryffindor common room. I'd done my first OWL, and I hadn't had a nervous breakdown.
We had Transfiguration on Tuesday, Herbology on Wednesday, Defense Against the Dark Arts on Thursday - which I passed largelythanks to Harry - and Ancient Runes on Friday.
That Saturday was tense. Everyone wanted to relax, but the impending exams was a threat that no one could forget about. We were sitting in the great hall for lunch, listening to her loop through the stupid decrees for the third time when I couldn't take it anymore. I needed a laugh, a smile, anything to break the tenseness of the situation. What would George have done? I asked myself.
Broken every rule he could.
Proper dress and decorum must be observed at all times. Umbridge's voice sounded over the speaker. Angelina was sitting next to me and was the only one who noticed my putting down the fork.
"Leaving already?" she questioned, poking absentmindedly at her potato. "But we're having such fun," she said, rolling her eyes.
I smiled, mischief filling my eyes. A faint grin lifted her lips. I deliberately reached up to my tie and loosened it, undoing the knot. Her eyes grew wide, realizing what I was doing.
Music is not to played at any time.
Harry was looking at me now. I'd taken off my tie, tying my hair back into a ponytail with it. I'd undone a few buttons on my shirt, and rolled my sweaters sleeves up. His eyes widened as he stared at me, drawing the attention of Ginny.
Boys and Girls must maintain at least eight inches between each other at all times.
"Are you rebelling?" Luna asked airily. She'd come up from behind me, walking over to Ron with a dreamy expression. I seriously thought the two of them were interested in each other, but I didn't think either of them knew the other was interested yet.
I nodded my head yes to her question. Ron grinned widely, swallowing a bite of potato before undoing his own tie and un-tucking his shirt. Ginny laughed softly and did the same, tying her tie like mine. Harry stared at us like we were crazy before grinning and joining us. By now several Gryffindors had noticed us.
"What are ya doing?" Seamus asked, leaning over Dean to look at us.
Angelina and I grinned. "Rebelling," we said. He smiled and took off his tie, tossing it behind him uncaringly while he un-tucked his shirt.
All joke products are prohibited.
"You'll get detention!" Neville warned, fear and awe on his face.
"So what?" Ginny questioned as she swallowed a green bean. "Gryffindor has no points to lose and I've already got a scar on my hand - what's another one?"
We had nothing to lose. In a matter of minutes, every single Gryffindor was not in proper decorum. We started laughing loudly, sitting closer than eight inches. Music started blaring from the plates, but no one knew who started it. Umbridge was furious and tried to figure out who started it, threatening us with detention.
She picked the wrong table. We weren't as loyal as the Hufflepuffs, but we were recklessly brave. No one said a thing, and she couldn't punish all of us. We also couldn't come to her office at nights with the OWLs and NEWTs going on. She settled for just making us go back to our common room without dinner. No big deal - we just sent Harry and Ron to the kitchen with the cloak and a bag with an undetectable extension charm.
The weekend passed and another week of exams started.
On Monday we started over again with Potions, an OWL I was not looking forward too; Tuesday was Care of Magical Creatures; Wednesday was Astronomy; Thursday was Arithmacy, a really difficult one, but I thought I passed; and Friday was History of Magic.
Wednesday night was terrible. I couldn't believe they attacked McGonagall and forced Hagrid to run. I'd lost my two favorite teachers in one swoop. All my friends and allies were leaving. No one would be left soon. Dumbledore, George, Fred, McGonagall, Hagrid, it was getting terrible, and I was slipping back into depression.
However, nothing could have prepared me for Friday. Harry collapsed partway through the History of Magic Exam, and we couldn't go see him. I finished the test in a flurry of nerves and ran from the room, Ron on my heels. We ran towards the hospital wing, knowing that would be where Harry was, when he ran into us.
A/N: Thanks to Ninja Goldfish for taking the time to beta read this!