Moments

I don't own anything in the Potterverse, it all belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 31:

It happened overnight. Inferi walked the halls of Hogwarts. No? Those weren't zombies? I must be mistaken. They look like zombies, they walk slow, dead on their feet, lifeless eyes, some of them can't even speak incoherently. Nope, they're just the seventh years. It's only been one day since NEWTs started. I can't believe some people are taking seven NEWTs. Those are the ones who can't even talk properly. Their brains are so scrambled. I took two out of my three test yesterday and I feel perfectly fine.

A group of first years huddled in a corner looking like the end of the world. Someone should tell them they don't have anything to worry about. Regular end of term exams were easy. A fifth year prefect was threatening to give anyone who breathed too loudly a detention. The Gryffindor Common room has become too glum. I imagine this is what the Ravenclaw common room looks like year around. This place needs major cheering up.

An idea hit me. Of course, there's only one way to change the mood around here.

"Don't even think about it."

I looked to my right where Fred was sitting. He had three books hovering nearby his face, open and turning themselves every thirty seconds or so. In his lap sat a pile of notes and revisions. Plus he was writing things in a memo pad as he read through it all. I had no idea how he was doing it.

"Think about what?" I asked innocently.

"You can't bullshit me. I know that face. I own that face. Save the pranks for after NEWTs" Fred replied.

"What? You can't be seriously thinking about pulling a prank right now" Jace spoke up from my left. I couldn't see him under the pile of books he was sitting behind.

"It's so dull in here. I don't know what you're all being so stressed for. Either you know the material or you don't" I shrugged.

"Says the guy only taking three NEWTS" Brendan said. He was currently practicing nonverbals near the fire. I should probably warn him that's dangerous, but what the heck, You live you learn.

"One technically, I already took the other two" I replied.

I could feel the glares even if I couldn't see them.

"Oh come on, Fred you don't even need NEWTs. You're going into the family business. Your parents can't even give you crap because your dad didn't even finish his seventh year. Jace, you're trying to be a dragon tamer. You only really need care of magical creatures, charms, and potions. Two of those you took yesterday. Easy up a bit. Brendan's the only one who really has to try. The bastard wants to be a healer. Good luck with that."

"Two words James: my mum" Fred replied.

I winced. Yeah, I don't think Aunt Angelina is going to let him off easy.

"And what if I don't get in at the dragon reserves? I have to have something to fall back on. I can always get a boring ministry job."

Three of us snorted.

"Hate to say it Jace, but boring ministry job isn't in your future" I replied.

"You'd get fired after one week, and we'd hear about you through the Prophet as one of those angry laid-off employees who comes back to torch the place" Fred added.

"Hey, I'm not that bad" Jace said.

"You kind of arrrgh!" Flames shot out of the fireplace and crawled up Brendan's arms.

I probably should've helped but I laughed instead.

"You're all a bunch of arseholes" Brendan claimed after he put out his own fire.

"Look at it this way, future healer, now you can practice burn wound care on yourself" I joked earning snickers from the guys.

"Oh shove off."

Eventually my friends got tired of my attitude and I was bored to just sit around.

One hour 'til my final NEWT testing. I wish Ali were here, she'd keep me company. Ah, well I better head to the kitchens, nothing better than comfort food to keep me going.

The house elves' cooking was supreme like always. I wouldn't admit it in front of my Nan, but Hogwarts House Elves makes the best Treacle Fudge in the world.

The house elves kept shoving food at me, I nearly forgot I had somewhere to be.

I made it to the testing area with three minutes to spare.

After stuttering through my name, the Defense examiner told me he expected pretty much perfection out of me. No pressure and all that jazz. My dad might have defeated the darkest wizard in history, and yeah he became the youngest head auror ever, but apparently to some people it all comes down to whether he passed those genes down. I can already hear the whispers if I get anything less than an O. Good thing I don't care about crap like that.

They made us duel, that was the exam. All you had to do was best your examiner. Despite the fact that the majority of examiners looked like they were pushing 100 years old they were still good. The key was being fast and anticipating your opponent's attack, and countering that attack.

"I'm dying" Bredan gasped as he slid to the ground next to me after the exam. We had an hour until the written part of the exam and not everyone had finished the physical part yet.

"You're not dying. Bleeding a little but you'll be fine. How'd you think you do?" I asked.

"I got bested by a hundred and fifty year old woman" Brendan said between gasps for air.

I rolled my eyes. "It couldn't have been that bad, you're still alive."

Fred came out of the hall whistling. From his merry demeanor I take it he got an O. I narrowed my eyes when I saw he was wearing a bracelet. Isn't that a shield bracelet from WWW? Well they never said you couldn't wear defensive clothing to the exams.

"How'd it go?" I asked.

"It was a breeze. Now for the written part. I wonder if the test is going to be more dark creature based, or anti-dark spell based."

Turns out it was a mixture of both.

#83. What are Lethifolds? where do they live? How would you survive an attack against one?

I was writing down my response when the doors burst open.

"Miss, you can't be in here."

"We're in the middle of an examination."

"James!"

I looked up at the sound of my name. Rose was rushing past exam proctors.

"Rose, what are you doing here?" I asked as she got close.

Something was wrong, I could tell just from the paleness in her face.

"Ali..."

I was instantly on my feet.

I rushed to Rose who was having difficulty breathing.

"What happened?"

"She...hospital…"

"Is she in labor?" I asked. The exam proctors were trying to calm things down but I barely heard them.

Rose nodded.

My eyes widened. Holy shit. But...but…"She's not supposed to have the baby for another three weeks."

"We need to go, now" Rose said.

Like I'm going to argue about that.

"Potter what about your exams? You can't just leave" a proctor said.

"My wife is in labor. That trumps NEWTs any day" I shouted back as I rushed out of the great hall.

I followed Rose, well it's more like she grabbed my arm and was dragging me along.

"Wait, we have to use the floo in Minnie's office. It's this way" I told Rose trying to slow her down.

"She's not at St. Katherine's she's here" Rose responded.

I frowned. "Wait what?" I pulled Rose to a stop. She rolled her eyes, but I didn't care. "How did Ali get here?"

"I don't know. Maybe she came to surprise you at the end of your exams or something. All I know is that I was in the hospital wing when they brought her in. She begged me to come get you so I did."

That didn't make any sense. Why? Well I better save my questions for later.

I heard her before I even made it to the hospital wing. Ali's screams were like a thousand needles stabbing my ears.

I dropped Rose's had and rushed into the wing. There was complete chaos and so much noise.

"James you made it" I rushed past the nurses, or healers, or teachers, whoever, I pushed past them all and rushed to Ali's side. I took her hand in mine.

"I wouldn't miss it" I told her as she squeezed my hand and let out another scream.

What was going on? It wasn't supposed to be like this, was it? I know I read somewhere that labor could last for hours but contractions weren't supposed to be this close.

"We really need to get her to St. Katherine's, before she gets worst" Nurse Patil said.

"Portus" I recognized Minnie's voice."Everyone grab a hold of a bedrail. It's leaving in three, two, one."

I felt a jerk from my navel and suddenly we were spinning.

My head throbbed as we twirled and the sounds got the better of me. I didn't let go of Ali's hand.

We landed in the center of some sort of waiting room.

Healers rushed out immediately.

"What's the status?" a healer asked.

Medical jargon flew over my head and I didn't understand any of it.I kept up with them as they jogged Ali's bed into a private room.

"Healer's only" they said when we got to the doors.

"You can't keep me out!" I replied. I tried to push my way into the room.

"Mr. Potter!"

"No, that's my wife. My baby. Let me in" I had to know. Something wasn't right."

"James" Rose placed a hand on my arm.I hadn't even noticed she came. There were tears in her eyes. "There's nothing we can do. We'd just be in the way."

"They said I'd be allowed in the room when the baby is born. Something must be wrong. I have to be in there. I have to."

This wasn't the 17th century, men were allowed in delivery rooms now. Plus it wasn't like they let Rose or Minnie in either.

I had this feeling in my gut. I need to be in there.

Since when have I ever been one to follow the rules anyway. Mind made up I headed for the door.