The Bad Gryffindor

Chapter 15:

End of the Year Exams: Place Your Bets!

Raven groaned and rolled her shoulders as she walked out of her last exam for the year. She had full confidence that she did excellent in all her exams and couldn't wait for the results to come out. There was a grunt and a popping of bones from beside her, she looked over to Jesse who was popping his fingers- hoping to get feeling back in them after writing with a quill all day long. Surrounding the two second year friends were their older friends in Slytherin, Adrian Pucey, Graham Montague, and Cassius Warrington. The three third years were looking just as exhausted as their two second year friends.

"I'm glad that's over with." muttered Jesse. "It never gets any easier does it?"

"Nope." answered Adrian.

"Now all we have to do is wait for the results." sighed Raven. "I'm ready to take a nap!"

Jesse looked over to Raven as if she was crazy. "And miss one of the most rewarding feasts ever? You know how good the feast is after everyone's finished their exams!"

"I'm too tired to eat!" whined Raven.

"Give it an hour or so, you'll be starving." chuckled Cassius.

Raven snapped her head towards Cassius giving him a harsh glare. "What are you trying to say?!" she hissed.

Cassius took a step to the side to put some space between them. "Nothing!" he replied putting his hands up in surrender.

"Are you trying to say I'm fat?!" screeched Raven.

Adrian, Graham, and Jesse practically scattered several feet away from the two.

"No! That's not what I said!" defended Cassius with wide eyes.

Raven's glared hardened and she growled, "It sure sounded like it!"

As the two bickered the three innocent bystanders muttered to each other.

"Don't think she'll kill him, do you?" asked Adrian with an amused smirk.

Jesse huffed with a roll of his eyes, "Maybe not kill, she might hex him into next year." he replied, "The last thing you want to do is say anything about how much a girl eats."

"You might want to tell him that." commented Graham who pointed to a wide eyed Cassius.

"I'm just saying you like to eat! There's nothing wrong with that!" shouted Cassius.

"Now he's going to die." sighed Jesse.

Adrian and Graham nodded, muttering a "Yup." before the group took several more steps back.

The glare that Raven sent to Cassius was enough to kill an army if it could. Cassius immediately took a step back and was about to retreat the other way or give in to grovel for his life. Much to his horror, Raven's face softened and a grin broke out across her face with a giggle escaping her lips. "Well, you do have a point there!"

Cassius backed up to the group of boys behind them and slightly hid behind Adrian the second he seen her happy expression. "She's smiling about it." he muttered to his friends.

The other three were just as uneasy as Cassius and rooted their feet to stay where they were. "I think she's gone loony..." muttered Adrian as they watched her skip towards them.

With each skip towards them, they took one step back- taking note that Raven was calmly reaching for her wand. Jesse widened his eyes and hit Cassius in the shoulder yelling for him to apologize to spare them from whatever she was going to do. Adrian, Graham, and Jesse jumped out of the way leaving Cassius on his own. Raven pointed her wand and gave Cassius a heart melting smile.

"Aqua Eructo!"

A jet of water shot out of her wand and slammed Cassius into the ground from the force of the water. After a few seconds she flicked her wand and the spell stopped. Cassius rolled over and coughed up water.

"There, there. Does someone need a hug?" soothed Raven, as she patted his back causing Cassius to glare at her.

The three Slytherin's stared in shock. "The fact that she's comforting him is scary enough." muttered Jesse.

"Scarier than the fact that she could have drowned him with the spell?" asked Graham.

"Not as scary as her smiling as she did it." replied Adrian.

The three gave a collective nod as they watched the second year Gryffindor giggle as she stood up, pulling a ticked off Cassius with her. Raven pointed her wand and cast a quick drying spell on Cassius. The disgruntled Slytherin nodded in thanks and also apologized. Sighing with relief the other three Slytherin's rejoined the group and they made their way into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was buzzing from students who were relieved to have finished their exams and get a week off from classes. The group walked over to the Slytherin table and too their seats. Raven took a seat beside Draco Malfoy, who looked exhausted as the rest.

"How'd your exams go, Draco?" asked Raven.

Draco looked at her with a confident smirk, "Better than Longbottom I can assure you." he replied. "What about you?"

"Better than this lot here." replied Raven, nodding her head to the group beside her. The four boys glared at her.

"You try making a prediction!" scoffed Adrian.

Jesse smirked, "Bet I did better than you in most of our exams."

Raven's brow quirked up in irritation. "I'm sorry what was that?" asked Raven, lifting a hand to her right ear to hear him better. "Did you say you think you did better than me?"

"Here we go..." sighed Adrian, Cassius, and Graham. Draco looked at the three third years in confusion.

"You heard me." said Jesse.

"Care to wager that, Reynolds?" challenged Raven, who had a mischievous glint in her eye. By now they gained some attention from most of the Slytherin table and a couple of Gryffindor's the next table over. "I doubt you can make anything passed a C minus."

Smirking, Jesse stood up and dug a small bag from his bag and threw I on the table. "Five galleon's per subject I beat you in!"

"You're on!"

Adrian stood up with a smirk, pulling out some galleons, and slamming them onto the table. Now everyone in the Great Hall turned towards the commotion coming from the Slytherin Table. "I bet 10 galleon's that I top your grades!"

Raven stood up with a scoff and a flip of her hair, "Oh, I didn't know you actually made a prediction in Divination? Tell me, did you predict the future of you losing?" The look in Raven's eyes was that of someone who had the upper hand. A collective of 'Ooh's' and 'Aaah's' were sounded from the Slytherin's and a few others throughout the room.

Adrian opened his mouth to reply but couldn't find the words to say anything. He clicked his tongue and sat back down in a huff. Various Slytherin's placed bets on who would get higher grades before putting it into another bag and handing it off to a Slytherin, who went to hide it away. After that things settled back down and most of the students dispersed to kill time until dinner. Raven waved to her serpent friends as she left the Great Hall with Jesse right behind her, who lifted his hand as his sign of goodbye. The two friends headed down to the ground floor of the Grand Staircase to take the portrait shortcut to the dungeons. When they got to the dungeons they went straight to the Slytherin common room, where Raven plopped down on one of the sofas in the corner and Jesse taking up the chair next to her.

"Wake me up when it's the last day of school..." yawned Jesse.

"Better get yourself a different alarm clock, mate." replied Raven as she stretched out on the couch before making herself comfortable and taking a quick nap.

"She's just so innocent when she's sleeping." commented an amused Adrian.

"And to think she almost killed me this afternoon..."chuckled Cassius.

Raven cracked open her eyes to see her serpent friends, "And I'll do it again if you don't let me sleep." she grumbled.

"Time to get up, Princess." smirked Graham. "It's dinner time, wouldn't want to miss the best feast of the year."

Raven immediately shot up and hopped over the couch, skipping towards the exit with her friends not far behind her chuckling at her in amusement. The smell of dinner permeated the air and left the Gryffindor salivating at the thought of digging into the most delectable food of the year. She sighed happily as she entered the Great Hall where eager students, mainly second year and up, were waiting for the feast to begin, even Percy was eager to dig in! She sat down and happily kicked her feet under the table with a bright smile on her face.

"What's got you so happy?" asked Draco.

"It's almost dinner time~!" she replied.

"So?"

"So? SO?!-"

Jesse reached over and covered her mouth before she could yell any louder and replied in her stead. "After all the exams are over the feast tends to be more amazing than those previously. A reward for us hardworking students, whether we all passed or not."

Raven nodded her head as Jesse removed his hand and Draco hummed in understanding. It wasn't long before every student filed in and sat at their house tables and Dumbledore made his annual speech congratulating every student for finishing their exams and hoped we all passed. As soon as he sat down the tables blossomed with every delectable food imaginable. Raven filled her plate with a perfectly seared steak with roasted potatoes and peas with a cup filled with pumpkin juice. Like a refined young lady that Narcissa trained her to be she couldn't go savage at digging in, no matter how much she wanted to RIP that steak apart, and slowly cut it to pieces before shoving it in her mouth. She heard a chuckle from beside her and she turned to glare at her best friend.

"So lady-like," chuckled Jesse, "unlike last year."

"Yes, well..." she trailed off with a roll of her eyes, "shut up and eat before I decide to cut out your tongue and shove it down your throat." Laughing, Jesse said nothing more and they talked to the rest of their friends as they ate.

When dinner was over Raven sighed in content and leaned her head on Jesse's shoulder. "I'm so full!"

"You were right," groaned a content Draco. "It does taste better than the other feasts."

"See! I told you!" giggled Raven. "Now all we gotta do is wait for our exam results, which will surely show that I am the winner of our bet."

"Keep dreamin', mate." scoffed Jesse. "I know I'm gonna win!"

It was late at night when Raven left the common room, having celebrated another year of finishing exams with her friends. She trudged up the stairs before she stopped at the third floor entrance. She stared at the middle of the staircase that led up to another landing. Her eyes narrowed as she seen a small shift of reality. Again with the invisibility cloak... She took one step forward and hear someone's breath hitch. Raven knew who was underneath the cloak and she knew what they were going to do. Her father was located in the bottom of the castle where he would be searching for the stone with that incompetent, uttering fool of a teacher. Harry Potter was after all a hero, a hero who kept shoving his nose where he didn't belong. She stretched her arm out and placed it on top of their head- she had no idea who it was she was touching but she knew that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would get the message. She smiled softly at the invisible trio, "Good luck and come back to us safely." she whispered holding her gaze with the group for a minute longer before she slipped her hand back to her side. Side-stepping around the group, Raven continued up the stairs smiling sadly as she heard the faint opening and closing of a door.

She muttered the password to the sleeping Fat Lady and stepped inside. Raven appeared calm on the inside but she was stricken with worry. Taking a seat in front of the fire, she gazed into the faint flickering flames. What if they don't make it? Wha-What if he succeeds... It was at times like this when she wished she could slip up to her brothers dorm room and cuddle with them, where she could feel relaxed and believed everything would be okay. Raven leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees as she pushed the palm of her left hand against her forehead. She couldn't go to them, not with their dorm mates in there, not with the way she has been acting all year. Tears slipped from her tightly shut eyes as she silently sobbed in the common room.

Please come back safe... I don't want to lose my brother, my friends...

Hi everyone!

I know it's been a SUUUUPER LOOONG time since I've updated! I hope you guys have stuck through this long wait for this rather short chapter. I just wanted to let everyone know I haven't forgotten about TBG and that I'm still working on it. Please continue to stick through to the end with me! We're almost through with year one. I haven't decided if I wanted to stop it at the end of year one and do year two in another story in itself or keep going through this one. Let me know what you guys think!

RavenMichaelis