Chapter 40 - Exams

It was strange not having to get up and go to class.

They'd had the same routine for the past seven years: an alarm would go off at 7.30, and they'd all eventually drag themselves out of bed and head to the Great Hall for breakfast before the slog of the school day fell upon them. It was predictable – how Sirius would always be surprisingly chipper first thing in the morning – how Remus would bury his head under his pillow and groan – how James would attempt to flatten his hair and give up within a few seconds.

Now when Peter woke up, it was to an empty dorm room. He must have slept in, he figured, sitting up and pushing away the thick quilt. They were supposed to be using the few weeks without classes to revise for their quickly approaching exams, but although NEWTs were closer than ever, none of them really seemed to be making much progress. It wasn't intentional by any mean; Peter was actually quite good at getting to the library most days. He'd lay out all his books and notes, get settled in the comfiest seat he could find and then just – nothing. He'd stare at the words and they would jumble in his mind, not making any sense. It seemed that whenever he tried to actually learn the material he was supposed to his brain got stuck and he couldn't take any of it in.

At other times, like today, he'd intend to get started on revision early, but in actuality would wake up at – he glanced down at his watch, and discovered that it was already past lunch time.

"Great," he muttered to himself, standing up and pulling some clean clothes out of his trunk. Now he was going to have to waste even more time going to the kitchens to get food.

His eye was caught by the brightly coloured square of parchment magically stuck to the wall beside his bed.

Peter had made all four of them revision schedules weeks ago. His currently said that he should be well into three hours of Care of Magical Creatures work, but despite his best efforts and tireless colour-coding of their different subjects, no one seemed to be using them a whole lot – himself included. He found himself getting irrationally mad, standing alone in the dorm with the early summer sun glaring at him through the window and making him feel too hot. His first exam was in little more than a week, and no one seemed to be taking the most important tests of their lives seriously at all. It made it even harder to concentrate when his friends were talking about the future. Peter wasn't really a future kind of guy – he struggled to see past the now, and what was happening in the now seemed to be the imminent failure of his final year at school.

Once dressed, he headed down to the common room, where he immediately spotted James. He was leaning on one of the tables by the window, which was covered with open books.

Sitting at the table were a frazzled looking Mary and a slightly calmer Chloe, who were frowning at James and trying to dislodge their books from under his elbow.

"James," Mary was saying as Peter approached, "I know quidditch is important but I have this exam in 3 days. It's one of my hardest subjects!"

"Yeah man," Chloe agreed, "I have OWLs coming up, not to mention a birthday party to help organise for my brother before term ends and Benjy and I are supposed to bebooking a trip somewhere. I don't have room in my head for anything else."

James looked extremely distressed. "If we win this last match we win the cup!" he told them, which did absolutely nothing to change their expressions. "Do you think Hufflepuff are just sitting around 'revising?' "

"According to Alice that's exactly what they're doing, yes," Mary told him. "Maybe you should be doing the same?"

"Urgh," James moaned, "fine, whatever, pass your exams if it means that much to you."

James turned around and saw Peter watching him. Immediately some of the tension went out of his shoulders, and he stepped over a pile of books on the floor to reach his friend.

"Can you believe those two?" he asked seriously.

Peter squinted at him. "They just want to do well; have you even started revision yet?"

"I've done a bit here and there," James shrugged, "I know people get all worked up about exams but if no one takes a break they're all going to explode."

Peter noticed that he was looking at Mary and Chloe not just with annoyance at their unwillingness to train, but with something much more like concern.

"Where is everybody?" Peter asked, flattening himself against the wall as two stressed-looking fifth years hurried past them.

"Remus and Lily went to that weird study group that the Ravenclaws set up," he said in distaste, "and Sirius is lying on the sofa transfiguring that girl's quill." He gestured to the opposite side of the room and Peter saw that Sirius was indeed flicking his wand back and forth, turning an oblivious third year's quill first into a cup – then a flower – a candle stick – and a toad – all as Peter walked towards him.

"Hiya Pete," Sirius said as he approached. He apparently forgot all about the newly transfigured toad and it hopped down off the table. "Sleep late? We brought you some lunch back."

He pointed to the table next to him and sure enough there was a plate piled high with sandwiches and pork pies. The fact that his friends had thought to bring him something lifted his mood considerably, and he grabbed the plate before pushing Sirius' legs off the sofa and sitting down beside him.

"Why were you transfiguring that girl's quill?"

"Bored," Sirius sighed.

"You could be revising like everyone else?" Peter suggested. "No one is using the timetables I made."

"I look at the timetable every morning," Sirius assured him, "but then I remember that exams aren't real and I'll probably be fine anyway."

Peter frowned at him. "What do you mean they aren't real?"

"What do they really test?" Sirius asked, "whether or not we can memorise some useless facts about spells. We can do the spells," he shrugged, "so what's the point?"

"Er, not to fail the year?"

Sirius waved the comment away. "It'll be fine, the practical's will make up for anything I get wrong in the theory."

"You know theory is worth like 70% of your final mark, right?" Peter asked as he finished off one of his sandwiches. "Do you know about Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration? I heard Moony going over it yesterday – sounds complicated. I've never been more glad I dropped transfiguration."

"Gamp's what now?" Sirius asked, looking mildly panicked. "It's really worth 70%?"

Peter nodded, strangely pleased that Sirius seemed to actually be taking him seriously. "Do you want to go to the library or something?"

"Er," Sirius said, glancing around the room full of mostly fifth, sixth and seventh years – the majority of whom were looking over their notes. "Yeah actually, maybe that would be a good idea. I'm sure it'll be fine but... just to be safe."

"Why are we doing this again?" Remus asked.

He and Lily had just left the Great Hall after having met with a number of other seventh years to practice spells. It had been surprisingly helpful, though Remus was still having a hard time getting his head around the finer details of some of his subjects – potions, especially, continued to baffle him.

Which is why he was a reluctant accomplice as Lily cast a spell to unlock the door to Slughorn's classroom; he didn't want to give anyone an excuse to mark his papers more harshly.

"I've been practicing transfiguration and charms," Lily told him, "and I came up with this spell – it's quite delicate but I think – " she paused as she opened the classroom door and looked back at Remus. "Slughorn and I talked after the incident in potions and he was... understanding. Surprisingly so, actually. He's a good person."

"So you're transfiguring something in his classroom?"

"More like leaving a parting gift," Lily smiled, "since we'll be leaving so soon."

It was now less than a month until their last year at Hogwarts would be over, and Remus was sure that the stress everyone seemed to currently be under wasn't just down to exams, but also the dread of having to leave the place they'd called home for so long.

He followed Lily into the classroom and watched as she filled a clear bowl with a few inches of water from her wand. Then she muttered a spell that Remus had never heard before, and an intricately designed Lily crafted itself into the surface of the water, almost as if it was being sewn into something solid.

"It's beautiful," Remus admitted, "but what's it for?"

"Watch," Lily said.

She tapped the lily gently with her wand, and it began to slowly sink downwards. Just before it reached the bottom of the bowl, strings of spell-work started to spin from the center of the flower itself, creating a whirlwind of colour before the magic settled again, and in the place of the lily emerged a small fish.

"That's -" Remus let out a huff of laughter. The sight of the newly transfigured fish swimming around, still with the visible pattern of the flower, filled him with an unexpected burst of joy. "That's incredible."

"I like it too," Lily smiled. She waved her wand once more and the spell reversed, leaving the lily as it had been, sitting on the water. "It should happen automatically when Slughorn finds it, and stay as a fish for – well, I think forever."

"You could create your own business," Remus joked as they left, "Lily Evans' Everlasting Fish."

"It does have a nice ring to it," Lily said.

By the time they'd all had their first couple of exams, stress levels had reached an unprecedented high; every night Peter heard his friends tossing in their beds and he'd heard a fair few arguments as tempers began to fray.

At lunch, James was eating as slowly as possible to put off doing more revision. "If I never finish my lunch break, I never have to practice that damned revealing charm again."

"Good luck with that, mate," Sirius said. He absently tapped his wand against his temple as he tried to remember a spell. "It begins with an m, I swear."

"Mobilicorpus?" Peter suggested. "Melofors?"

He tried to think of another spell to suggest, but before his brain could supply the information, Sirius tapped his wand against his head again and promptly turned his hair bright pink.

James choked on his pumpkin juice and Peter had to slap him on the back while trying not to dissolve into giggles. Once James could breathe again he laughed so hard that half of the people in the Great Hall turned around to look at them and grinned when they saw Sirius' hair.

"What?" Sirius said, frowning. "What are you laughing at?"

Smirking, James leant forward and tugged on a strand of Sirius' long hair. When he saw it, Sirius looked horrified, which only made Peter and James laugh harder, until eventually Sirius was laughing too.

"Come on," James said. "Let's go find a Professor to fix it."

"Can't we show the whole Gryffindor tower first?" Peter asked.

"No!" Sirius said, then reconsidered. "Well, maybe. Does it suit me?"

"Idiot," James said. "Come on, I think I just saw Professor Kettleburn."

Though this had significantly improved Peter's mood, once he'd made it back to the Gryffindor common room he was beginning to feel glum and annoyed about the studying he had to do. Maybe people seemed to be in a similar mood, so it was therefore not all that surprising when Peter clambered through the portrait hole in time to see Remus throw a textbook across the room. It landed not far from Peter's feet so he picked it up and returned it to Remus, sitting down in the empty seat next to him.

"No, keep it away from me," Remus said. "I can't even look at it anymore."

Peter glanced at the title. "Achievements in Charming," he read. "I thought you liked charms?"

Remus glared at him. "No, Peter, I hate charms. I HATE IT. It's my mortal enemy."

"Two weeks ago you said Professor Flitwick was one of the best teachers."

"Well, I've changed my mind. He's a terrible teacher whose evil subject is torturing me. I hate him."

Flipping the textbook open, Peter skimmed a paragraph that sounded vaguely familiar; he suspected he'd read it for homework at some point.

"What are the advantages of non-verbal spells?" he asked Remus, who replied automatically: "They give you a split-second advantage in duels because the opponent doesn't know what spell you're casting and can't counter it.

"Okay, now..." Peter turned the page. "Why is knowing the Latin roots of spells important, and should new spells still be based on a dead language?"

Peter tried hard to listen to Remus' long-winded explanation; he understood about two thirds of it, which was more than he'd thought he knew.

"See, you know things," Peter said. "You're good at charms. You actually know all that theory stuff that everyone else ignores in class because we're too busy making things fly and accidentally setting things on fire."

"I think it's generous to say that Sirius sets things on fire accidentally," Remus said, but he was smiling now. "Hey, I think your timetable actually says we should be doing charms this afternoon. Want to test each other?"

"Sure," Peter said, handing the book back to Remus and trying to focus. He was surprised to find that he actually knew the answers to the majority of questions Remus asked – maybe helping his friends had led to him absorbing some of the information he needed after all.

It was relief when, a little over a week later, they all took their final exam – Defence Against the Dark Arts – and went straight from the exam hall to Hogsmeade. The seventh years were officially done for the school year (other than the final quidditch match, as James kept reminding them) so they were allowed to come and go as they pleased, which of course meant that they used their first evening of freedom to go to The Three Broomsticks.

"First round's on me!" Sirius announced, taking Remus with him to the bar to help carry the drinks and also sneak in a quick celebratory snog. Lily and James were doing much the same thing opposite Peter at the table, so he was glad when Alice and Mary sat down with them.

The first round of drinks didn't last long – and nor did the second. They were onto their third round when the door opened and Alice let out a squeal of delight.

"Frank! What are you doing here!?" she asked, clambering over Mary to get to him.

"I thought I'd surprise you," he said, smiling. "And since I couldn't find you at Hogwarts it wasn't that much of a stretch to figure out that you'd be here."

In response Alice merely kissed him very enthusiastically, to a chorus of groans.

"Get a room!" James said.

"Get one yourself!" Alice retorted.

Frank just grinned. "Congratulations on finishing exams, everyone."

"To the end of exams!" Sirius shouted, lifting his glass in a toast, which everyone joined in, clinking glasses and sloshing drinks onto the table.

"To Hogwarts!" Mary said.

"To the future!"

"To Professor McGonagall!"

"To Gryffindor winning our next match!"

"To never having to share classes with the Slytherins again!" Lily said, and everyone laughed.

"To no more detentions!"

The toasts got increasingly silly until they'd drunk to every good thing they could think of and needed to get more drinks.

When they'd quietened down, Remus asked Frank how he'd been, as they hadn't seen him in the year since he finished Hogwarts. Peter listened with interest, since he had no real plans and wondered what other people had done once they'd left school.

"Oh, this and that," Frank said vaguely. "I've not entirely settled down into anything yet."

"You must have done something worth telling us about," Sirius said. "Spill it."

Frank looked a little uncomfortable. "I'm not sure I should really talk about it. It's not like I've officially joined or anything, but I've been talking to Marlene…"

"Marlene?" James said, suddenly sounding soberer than he had a minute ago. "Is this about the group Dumbledore's forming?"

"How do you know about that?" Frank asked sharply, but then he shook his head. Lowering his voice, he said, "Never mind. I can't talk about it – not yet, and definitely not in somewhere so public. But the Daily Prophet isn't telling the real story of how bad things have been getting. There are more and more fights – and more deaths. Everything is changing."

Peter felt like the silence following Frank's words would never end, but then someone dropped a glass on the floor with a loud crash and just like that the moment was gone. The conversation moved on, first awkwardly and then naturally, and in minutes it seemed like everything Frank had said was forgotten. They drank and laughed and talked about the future, but Peter had grown quiet.

Hogwarts had been their home for seven years, had been a sanctuary for all of them in different ways, and without it he didn't know what would come next. Peter looked around at all of his friends, talking and laughing together, and realised that they'd probably never be together again in quite the same way. In a lot of ways he still felt like the little boy who had been blown away by the sight of the castle looming before him all those years ago. He was still the boy who had been so happy to be included in a group of friends – but they were growing up, and perhaps that meant growing apart. Peter wasn't sure what his place in the world was now.

Frank was right; everything was changing.

Maybe that meant that Peter had to change too.