Chapter 23

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JK Rowling's fabulous characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOTgive permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

Professor McGonagall gave Elsie a schedule as they sat at breakfast, to meet the various professors in their free periods to test her knowledge and spell casting ability. Charms was first, straight after breakfast and it was lucky she'd already almost finished eating because the food in her mouth turned to dust and her breakfast sat heavily in her stomach. Neville tried to reassure her that Professor Flitwick was one of the school's favourite professors and she'd be fine but it wasn't helping. She'd forgotten to bring her wand to breakfast and they hurried up to get it, then Neville walked her up to the charms classroom before running across the castle to get to the Transfiguration classroom for his own class. He had difficulty concentrating and Professor McGonagall scolded him when the rat he was supposed to be turning into a teapot turned into a miniature tiger and tried to attack Ron and Harry. Harry waved his wand and immobilised it and Hermione transfigured a broken quill into a cage for it, earning back the points Neville just lost. Harry grinned at Neville to show there were no hard feelings for the accident.

In the otherwise empty Charms classroom Professor Flitwick started Elsie on the fourth year spells, hoping to be able to gauge her level of casting and calm her nerves and build her confidence before moving onto the more difficult spells likely to be on the OWL practical examination. Elsie performed them all easily enough but unfortunately the diminutive professor had vastly overestimated her casting endurance (or more probably hadn't even thought about it as a potential problem) and they were barely a quarter through the fifth year spells before she was sweaty and pale and he needed to give her a break and send an elf for a pepper up potion.

"I'm never going to be able to do this am I?" Elsie said dejectedly.

"Nonsense my dear, you were doing very well. You won't need to perform more than five or six spells on your OWL examinations and you won't have more than one practical examination per day. You just need to know them all because there is no way of predicting which spells they will ask you to perform or to write an essay about," Filius Flitwick said kindly. "Sit and answer these short and long answer questions so I can assess your theoretical knowledge and get your energy back. You're headed to Arithmancy and Runes after this aren't you so you won't need to cast again this morning after finishing with me. Make sure you eat a good lunch and you'll be fine."

Elsie managed nearly half of the remaining spells and Professor Flitwick was able to give her some tips on the others and instruction to begin the attempt to break a bad habit he'd noticed in her wand movements which would strengthen her charms and reduce the amount of power she needed to use.

"I think, provided your theory matches your casting, that with daily practice and a little tutoring you would have a very good chance of passing your Charms owl at the ministry in July, possibly even with an 'Exceeds Expectations', if you wish to out the effort in but I doubt that you could learn enough in the next week to pass it now. I'll correct your written responses and get them back to you in the next few days. It's entirely up to you whether you sit it in July or join the OWL class next year but regardless, I do want you to try to spend more time spell casting every day without fail. Cast until you feel tired enough to need to stop three times a day and try to increase the number of spells you can cast at one time on one day and the power you put into them on alternate days. You will find yourself hungrier than normal and I want you to eat every time you're hungry and to plan to rest in the afternoon if you need to nap to be able to cast like that three times every day without becoming run down, you'll soon get use to it and not need to nap. It will serve you well next year whichever level you're in. You will often have two or three practical wand based classes in a day, especially if you have a schedule that crosses year levels," Filius said at the end of the hour.

Elsie nodded and thanked him more than ready to lie down and rest but she still had four more classes to complete that day. The purely theory classes were easier and she was confident she had done fairly well though she also believed she could've done better if she wasn't so exhausted. She made her way to lunch and wearily tried to eat as much as she could following Professor Flitwick's advice, barely able to pay attention to who she was sitting with much less the conversations around her.

From the high table Filius looked on worriedly and had a quick word with Minerva advising her to reschedule the afternoon's testing for the new Mrs Longbottom.

"We need to know where her weaknesses are as soon as possible if we are to get the child successfully through her OWLs," Minerva protested.

"Her biggest weakness I found was her spell casting endurance. She's barely half way through learning the fifth year charms work and I cannot recommend she sits the OWL next week but that's able to be overcome in time. Take a look at her, she cast two dozen spells this morning and she's almost too exhausted to eat. You will be unable to get an accurate measure of her abilities this afternoon, until after she has had some sleep," Filius replied.

"Could she take a pepper up potion?" Minerva asked.

"She's already taken one to get through my assessment and she'll probably need more than one to complete yours if she has to do it today. I wouldn't like to see a student strain their magic like that unnecessarily, especially so close to possibly sitting her OWLs," Filius replied.

"Is her magic going to be strong enough to complete her OWLs even next year?" Minerva asked concerned.

"I believe so. She had enough magic to perform the charms she has mastered but she tired very quickly. I believe she has never had to perform so many spells in succession before. Being privately schooled did her no favours, her parents coddled her and allowed her to stop and take a break every time she showed the slightest signs of fatigue so she's had no opportunity to build up her spellcasting endurance," Filius replied.

"Yes I see. I'll postpone her session with me this afternoon until the day after tomorrow and have her complete the non-wand assessments first.

Elsie was relieved to have the afternoon off, though she was slightly humiliated when she realised the reason Professor Flitwick had asked Professor McGonagall to change her schedule. She retired to her room and slept for the rest of the afternoon, not waking until Neville came to get the things he needed to complete his homework.

"Are you okay? Was the testing very dreadful?" Neville asked.

"It was very tiring, but the Professors were all very kind so far," Elsie replied, not wanting to admit that Professor Flitwick had said she wasn't ready for her Charms OWL and Professor McGonagall hadn't even been able to begin her assessment.

"I'm glad," Neville said slightly surprised and unsure what else to say. He wouldn't have used the word kind to describe any of his professors but on reflection he agreed that other than Snape he wouldn't have called them unkind either, he'd just never thought of them that way.

"There's about an hour til dinner Lavender, Parvati, Seamus, Dean and I were going to sit in the common room and do our transfiguration essay, if you'd like to join us. Or I could stay here with you if you would like?"

"No thanks Neville, but I think I want to have a bit of a wash up before dinner, I feel grotty, you go and work with your friends," Elsie said sitting up. She was hungry but she wished there was a way to get dinner without having to answer questions about how her testing had gone, she realised that most of Neville's friends meant well and were just trying to include her and show an interest but Professor Flitwick had intimated that they'd all been casting much more magic than she could every day for years and she felt humiliated.

"Okay, I'll come get you to walk to dinner then," Neville said trying not to feel rejected.

"Thank you," Elsie said forcing herself to sound grateful. She wanted to ask if it was allowed to have a friend bring dinner up to the dorms for you but she also didn't want Neville to think that she didn't like his friends, or that she was trying to set up a romantic date, things were awkward enough without forcing themselves to try to be a romantic couple.

Elsie accompanied him to dinner and they were joined by Ron and Eloise who she'd met the night before and Neville re-introduced her to Dean and Leanne who she hadn't seen since the wedding.

"Good to see you again. Excuse me for being a bit distracted, I've been studying for my NEWTs all afternoon and I'm exhausted," Leanne said smiling tiredly.

"Hermione was telling me that you were frantically trying to finish a Runes project last night, did you get it done?" Elsie asked.

"Yes thank heavens, it's one less thing to worry about. We finally got the runes working the way we intended, I was so relieved," Leanne said.

Elsie spent the evening studying Herbology with Eloise with Neville's help. Neville was thrilled to be able to help Elsie study but he didn't realise that the fact he knew so much more than she did intimidated her and she became more and more concerned that she wouldn't pass that OWL either and Neville was going to think she was so stupid.

That night did not go any better for the newlywed pair, both beginning to think that the other disliked them, and neither having the courage to ask and sort out the misunderstanding.

-o0o-

Neville arrived back to their room just before dinner on Elsie's second day of testing to find his wife lying on the bed crying, not just quietly shedding tears but full-on sobbing and wailing.

"Elsie, what's wrong?" he said hesitantly wrapping an arm around her not sure if he would be welcome.

"He said I didn't belong here," Elsie wailed, throwing herself into his arms.

"Who said that? That's total rubbish, of course you belong here with me," Neville said trying to sound supportive instead of interrogatory, while fuming with anger at the idiot who had upset his wife, while enjoying the fact she at least liked or trusted him enough to turn to for comfort.

"Professor Snape! He said I'm barely more than a squib and don't have enough magic to even pass first year defence. That I'm hopeless and I should just go home and stop humiliating myself pretending that I wasn't just a hedge witch," Elsie wailed.

"That no good nasty greasy dungeon bat!" Neville exploded. "Don't listen to him. He's a terrible teacher, he couldn't teach anyone to defend themselves from a kneazle."

"He's a professor. What if he convinces the others not to let me come to Hogwarts next year? Or puts me in with the first years? Defence is a mandatory class."

"That won't be a problem, he won't be teaching defence next year, we've never had a defence teacher last more than a year. They say the position is cursed, there's always some reason they can't teach a second year even if they planned to, all sorts of really horrible things happen to them," Neville replied cheerfully. "I'm sure he doesn't really think that you belong in first year defence, he was just being trying to upset you. He hates me, he was trying to get you to refuse to come back because he wants to make me miserable. He's a bully and a git and you shouldn't listen to him."

"But why would he do that?" Elsie asked.

"He hates all Gryffindors but our year level particularly because of Harry. He's one of the worst teachers. He knows his stuff which is more than a couple of them did but he's useless at teaching people who can't just learn from a book. Fortunately, I know the best defence teacher we've ever had would be more than willing to help you," Neville said.

"Who's the best teacher you've ever had. Why aren't they teaching defence? Is he afraid of the curse? Why don't they get a curse breaker in to get rid of it?" Elsie asked.

"Harry's the best defence teacher I've ever had. He's amazing at defence and really good at explaining how to cast the spells and seeing what you're doing wrong, and he's very patient and kind. He taught a defence group last year because the professor wasn't even trying to teach us anything and every one he taught learned heaps, even the seventh years," Neville said.

Neville persuaded Elsie to wash her face and come down for dinner and she watched anxiously as he explained the situation to Harry and Hermione.

"I'm afraid that's my fault, Professor Snape and my parents were in the same year level at Hogwarts. He hated my father and I have to admit that my father and godfather were horrible pranksters and Snape was one of their favourite targets and he treats all of my friends badly, not that he's nice to any of the Gryffindor's, I'm sorry he treated you that way just for hanging around with me at meals," Harry said apologetically.

"You said you never have the same defence professor two years in a row but you talk about Professor Snape like he's been around since you started?" Elsie asked confused.

"He used to teach potions until this year," Neville explained.

"And he was a much bigger bastard as a potions Professor than he is in defence," Seamus stated irreverently, only to be slapped on the arm and scolded for his language by Parvati.

"I recon Dumbledore gave him the DADA position as a way to get rid of him," Dean suggested.

"I was wondering whether you could have a look at Elsie's defence skills and let her know honestly whether she's ready to sit the OWL examination? I doubt Snape judged her fairly between all the insults he threw at her," Neville asked Harry as the rest of the table began speculating on what horrible fate would befall Snape to prevent him from being able to teach next year.

"Of course, I'll help. Neville's right he was probably just being as big a nasty git as he could be. Meet me after dinner, I'll go now and set up the DA room before someone else nabs it," Harry agreed cheerfully. He'd just left the room when the desserts appeared.

"Doesn't Harry like sweets?" Elsie asked.

He does, and this is his favourite. I'll wrap some up for him to have later," Hermione said wrapping up several pieces of treacle tart.

"He gave up his favourite dessert to help me?" Elsie asked shocked.

"He would, but he also knew that I'd bring him some of whatever was portable," Hermione replied. "He often prefers to snack before bed rather than eat dessert with his meal." She'd come to realise that Harry's snacking wasn't the same as Ron's insatiable appetite but a result of not being able to eat quite enough at mealtimes after only being allowed very small meals for so much of his childhood and every summer until now, but she didn't think the others had realised what was going on and didn't want to risk embarrassing Harry by speaking about it.

"Oh okay. I'm glad he isn't going to miss his favourite dessert because of me. Do you know what Neville's favourite is?" Elsie asked.

Hermione rapidly thought back over the things she'd seen Neville eat over the years. "He loves trifle, he always has two helpings of that and cake, sponge or orange or lemon cake, not chocolate cake and never chocolate or choc-chip icecream for sweets though he likes chocolate itself he's not fond of chocolate frogs, for main he prefers the lamb roast and roast potatoes. He'd choose beef or lamb anything over chicken or pork nearly every time unless it was spicy, he doesn't like curry," she said, surprised she could recall that well.

"Can you recall what all of us eat?" Lavender asked.

"The favourite things you eat all the time or talk about hoping for, maybe, except for Ron. He eats everything. In fact, I don't think he even takes time to taste it half the time, though he still tends to avoid anything green," Hermione deflected.

Lavender and Parvati laughed at that and dropped the subject.

They headed for the seventh floor and the Elsie jumped in surprise when the door appeared out of nowhere and then flinched when it disappeared after her. "It's to stop other people coming in. If you think about wanting to leave it will reappear," Harry explained, wanting to put her at ease as much as possible.

"Thank you," Elsie said in a small voice. She thought hard for a moment and then grinned as the door reappeared then disappeared.

"Okay, why don't you start by showing me the offensive spells you know. The training dummies are designed to react like a real person, so if you damage one you know that's the damage the spell would do to a witch or wizard, they fix themselves too so don't worry about that," Harry said wanting to get an idea of what her level was before asking her something that might be insultingly easy or too difficult and reducing her confidence. In the OWL you'll be given a situation and you'll be marked on choosing the right spell, how quickly you can make the decision and cast your spell, how well you cast it and hitting the target. So, I'm going to give you a scenario and I want you to cast as soon as you can after I say go. I'll give you an example, in this instance the dummy is a witch who is going to curse you when she gets her wand out of her handbag so you don't have to worry about shielding for the moment and she's not looking so you don't need to use a wide area spell because she's not going to be able to dodge while she's not looking. You need to stop her from being able to hex you but not I haven't said she's trying to kill you so you want to cast something that isn't lethal or permanently maiming. Go!"

Elsie hesitated a little too long, cast a weak Stupefy missing her target by almost a foot.

Harry stopped her and showed her where her wand movements were a little sloppy and said gently. "You have to be sure you mean it. When you cast an offensive spell you need to want the enemy to feel it, otherwise if their will is stronger than yours there is a chance that they'd be able to fight off the spell's effects. We can work on aim a bit later just cast as quickly and strongly as you can. I find it helps to cast the first spell you think of, you'd still get points for speed and quality even if you chose the wrong spell but if you dither about you might run out of time allowed without casting anything. Your next target is a Grindylow. Go!"

Harry gave her several more scenarios before she started to look visibly tired and he called a halt. "I'm afraid that Snape was right that you're not ready to sit your defence OWL next week though it's nowhere near as bad as he made things sound, it's going to take quite a lot of work to be ready in July but if you're willing to put the effort in and train with Neville every day, I could come and help a couple of times a week and I'd give you a better than 50 percent chance of passing but you still might be better off joining the fifth years because you'll need an Exceeds Expectations to continue into the NEWT class, we'll see how you progress," Harry said, calling for Dobby to bring them some butter beer and chocolate.

"What are your other plans for the summer Harry?" Neville asked, not wanting his friend to give up his own plans for his first Dursley free summer for them.

"We're staying with Hermione's parents. At least for the start of the summer and we've been invited to several weddings, but other than that I don't know. I want to start renovating my godfather's house but I'm not sure how hands on I want to be about it," Harry admitted cheerfully.

"My parents have invited us to spend a few weeks with them on holiday in the south of France, quite near Beauxbatons actually," Hermione said.

"I've never been to France," Elsie said.

"Neither have I, but Hermione loves it there so I'm looking forward to it," Harry agreed.

They finished eating and Harry asked Elsie if she knew the colour change spell. Elsie nodded confused.

"It's worth learning because it was one of the spells we were asked to cast on our charms OWL but the reason I asked is that it doesn't hurt to be hit with it and it doesn't take much energy to cast. We often have mock battles with it, it's a fun way to practice targeting and dodging without getting hurt," Harry explained.

The room of requirement provided two change rooms and Hermione dragged Elsie in to change with her. "Leave anything you don't want to risk damaging in here. Harry's great about being able to remove most charms on things he can see but different fabrics hold colour change better than others so you might end up with a white shirt that still has pale blue or green stitching, and I hope you aren't wearing your favourite knickers because you're not going to want to show them to him to get them changed back and if Harry overpowers the spell neither Neville nor I will be able to fix them for you," she said.

Elsie giggled. "Mum's going to have a fit if I come home with scarlet knickers."

Hermione laughed, "I can imagine. We'll team up we can be pink and the boys can be blue. A bit cliché but it's less likely to upset our Mums, unless of course you'd like to give your mum a fit?" Not that it would upset Emma Granger, Hermione was happy to show Harry her underwear and ask him to fix the colours when it was his fault they weren't the colour she'd bought.

Elsie shook her head in denial, shocked that Hermione would even joke about upsetting her mother like that.

They came out and found the room transformed with solid objects to duck and hide behind and the two boys already sending blue and red colours at each other.

"Stop we're going to play in teams, you and Neville against Elsie and I you're blue," Hermione said.

They played for an hour, laughing and enjoying the game but Neville was aware of Harry almost exclusively targeting Hermione and still holding back a bit and watching all of them, evaluating their accuracy against each other. It was a little annoying to realise that because he was still beating them all a little too easily. Hermione and Neville were also using shields but Elsie and Harry didn't, Harry because he was slippery like an eel when it came to trying to land a spell on him and it evened the playing field a bit and Elsie because she was afraid of exhausting herself again. At the end of the hour they were all splashed with colour, though both the Potters were more colourful than the Longbottoms because Harry and Hermione were a lot more ruthless when it came to cursing their own spouse than the newlyweds were.

"Your aim was getting better towards the end there Elsie," Harry said. "Play again after dinner tomorrow, we'll invite the others too?"

"That sounds like fun, but will you have time? You have exams coming up too," Elsie replied shyly.

"I think we're all due for a night off," Harry said glancing at Hermione.

"You are," she agreed. "I don't think Ron, Seamus or Parvati have earned a night off."

Harry just laughed, "An hour or so off to play won't hurt. They'll get there in the end Hermione. No point fussing at them," he said gently.

Hermione huffed.

"Hermione's always been the one that encourages everyone to get their homework done and not to leave studying for exams to the last minute. I wouldn't do half so well without her help and encouragement," Neville explained to his wife, making Hermione blush and Harry grin and nod in agreement.

"Thank you, Neville, it's nice to be appreciated," Hermione replied.

"I appreciate you," Harry cried in mock indignation.

Elsie was quiet as she followed Neville back to their room. Neville wanted to ask whether working with Harry had helped at all, but he didn't want to risk upsetting her again.

"Harry agreed with Professor Snape, I'm hopeless," Elsie said. "He was nice about it of course because he's a nice guy. But I couldn't hit the targets, my spells were too weak and I was too slow."

"You weren't any worse than most of us when we started the DA," Neville tried to reassure her.

"What's the DA?" Elsie asked.

"It's what we called the defence group Harry taught last year. Harry's a defence prodigy, he was even able to teach the seventh year's how to fight better though none of them were as good as he is. I'll never be as good as he is, it just comes naturally to him, like Herbology does to me," Neville explained. "Anyway, what I was saying is that before Harry started teaching us and started the colour war games none of us were very good at hitting our targets or casting shields strong enough to last more than one spell. Harry taught us and he said he could teach you. He wouldn't have said that if it was hopeless. It might not be enough to pass your OWL in July but he'll definitely have you ready to join the new fifth years next year and hold your own."

Elsie nodded and collected her night things to shower and prepare for bed. Neville stood there awkwardly for a moment wondering what he should do, should he get into bed and pretend to be asleep to make things easier for Elsie, but he wanted a shower too so he decided to wait and picked up a book to study while he waited for a turn in the bathroom.

A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

Stay safe everyone.