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Chapter 31

At first, Angelina's plan for Quidditch practice had been fun, a welcome break from O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. studying for almost the entire team and an excellent way to blow off steam. However, when she had wanted the team practising their drills over the Black Lake during the Hufflepuff-Slytherin match, the whole team told her she was going too far and threatened to quit. Their captain had a small breakdown at that and reminded them that this was her only opportunity to get the House Cup as captain. The team had sympathised with her but reminded her that they were people, not golems. There had to be a line, and she was doing everything in her power to cross it.

The whole team went and watched the Slytherin vs Hufflepuff match, where Hufflepuff were putting in everything they had. If they won the match by over a hundred points and Ravenclaw lost to the Gryffindors, then it was possible that the badgers could steal second place. The Slytherins weren't taking it lying down either, in their opinion the Puffs belonged at the bottom of the table and Slytherin wasn't going to accept such a humiliating result for themselves.

Unfortunately for the Snakes, they were still handicapped by having a seeker who bought his way onto the team rather than earning his position with practice and talent. The chasers on both teams held their own and which team was in the lead changed a bunch of times throughout the three hour match. When it came to the snitch chase though, Summerby had Malfoy completely out classed even if he was only flying a Cleansweep. Draco lost so badly Harry wondered what was wrong with the blond git, he had flown against Malfoy enough times to know he could do better than this. Maybe with the cup out of Slytherins reach yet again. Malfoy just didn't have the motivation to put in the effort. In the end, the Badgers won 260 to 100.

Two days later and it was Harry and the Gryffindors' turn to play. He had just left Hermione after their regular pregame kiss for luck, and in the changing room the boys quickly took off their regular robes and pulled on their Quidditch gear. They had to be quick because the girls on the team would join them on the male side shortly for the pregame pep talk, and the last thing they wanted was for the girls to walk in on them changing; after all, they didn't want the girls too distracted to play. When the girls did walk in, though, they were all surprisingly quiet. Angelina tried to say a few words but they seemed to get caught in her throat. Seeing what was happening, Harry was surprised when Ron stepped up.

"OK guys, this is going to be a tough match. Not because Ravenclaw has some unbeatable team or fantastic play, we have seen them all before and they are just as beatable this year as any other. This team has the skill and talent to take the cup again this year. No, the reason this match is a hard one is because this is our last game together as a team. Win or lose, we can't escape the fact that by the end of today over half of our team is hanging up their Gryffindor Quidditch gear for the very last time. That's why when we go out there today, we are going to have fun. This could be the last time we all fly together, so let's make it something we will remember for the rest of our lives. And most of all, let's show everyone sitting in the stands why we are the best team this school has ever seen. We are Gryffindor! Let's go show everyone what that means!" Ron finished picking by picking up Angelina's broom and holding it out to her. "Lead us out cap'n."

Angelina took hold of her broom, and with a confident smirk on her face she turned towards the exit that led to the pitch. "Come on guys, we have a game to win." They all grabbed their brooms and marched out onto the pitch, Ron's words having gotten them all past their nerves.

Unnoticed by any of the teens, Professor Babbling was standing in the doorway that separated the girls and boys changing area. She had heard about the friction in the team over the last few days and had come to see if the team needed a pep talk. This wasn't really her area of expertise, but it was her duty as the head of Gryffindor. Before she could say anything though, Mr. Weasley had done an excellent job. As long as Mr. Weasley's O.W.L.s were good enough, she was pretty sure she had just found next year's Quidditch captain. With a happy smile on her face, the professor made her way up to the Gryffindor stands to watch the match with her lions.

The Gryffindor team was having the game of their lives. The chaser's teamwork had never been better, and the twins were diving around like lunatics, wild grins plastered on their faces as they batted magical cannonballs at the Ravenclaw's. Ron wasn't doing quite as well as normal, having let in almost as many goals as he had saved. However, as the chasers were keeping the quaffle well down the other end of the pitch, there hadn't been much for him to save anyway.

Harry was circling the pitch and the players, looking for the snitch. He hadn't found anything yet, but he had still been busy during the match. Harry had done his best to fly in the most awkward of places for the Ravenclaw team, and because Cho's strategy was to stick close to the other seeker and try to steal their catch, that had her following him as well. Harry was just glad she had, at least with him, given up on the flirting to win strategy. Considering that Ravenclaw were meant to be the house of the wise and the intelligent, it was all too easy for Harry to disrupt their plays just by putting himself between the Ravenclaw with the quaffle and one of the other chasers.

Though, Harry supposed the fact that he had a much better broom than the Ravenclaw chasers made it easier for him to get into position and hard for them to get out of it. Still, the result was Harry often had one of the Ravenclaw chasers out of play and the Flying Foxes of Gryffindor were able to tackle the others with a three to two advantage, causing Gryffindor to rack up the points. Normally this was a risky strategy, but as long as Cho was marking Harry hoping to snatch the snitch from him when he found it, all he had to do was keep an eye on the other seeker in case she spotted the snitch first. Harry still had the faster broom, after all.

Gryffindor was five goals up when Harry spotted the snitch. He had been a little late to prevent a pass from Chambers to Bradley, but decided to intercept the quaffle instead. It was against the rules for a Seeker to handle the quaffle, but he never touched it. Instead Harry brought the tail of his broom whining around and batted the quaffle to Katie, who was in the best position to receive it. When he whipped his broom around, he caught the glinting of the snitch in the sun. The Ravenclaws were all too busy crying foul for Harry's move, and he took the opportunity to dash off towards the snitch.

A few seconds later, the house of wit realised that Madam Hooch wasn't blowing her whistle at Harry. Cho was after him, and the twins suddenly had to defend Harry from both bludgers. The Claws were so focused on Harry that only their Keeper noticed that Katie was belting up the pitch at top speed, the quaffle in her hand as she headed right for the hoops. Harry didn't notice either. His falcon instincts had come to the surface a little, and all that mattered in that moment was the hunt. The snitch was his prey and he was going to catch it.

The whistle blew a split second before Harry's fist closed on the snitch, and his heart sank. Had he been wrong? Was it against the rules for a Seeker to manipulate the quaffle with their broom? It was almost impossible to know all the different ways it was possible to commit a Quidditch foul. One thing he did know was that it was definitely a foul to catch the snitch while gameplay has been stopped for a penalty. In that circumstance, his catch wouldn't count and they would need to release a new snitch for the game, as snitches have catch memory to handle a disputed catch.

Harry was just about to try and explain to Madam Hooch that he didn't have a chance to stop after she blew the whistle and to hopefully avoid the Ravenclaws being given a second penalty when the voice of Lee Jordan shouting into his microphone filtered past the adrenaline from the chase. "Absolutely incredible folks! Gryffindor's Katie Bell scores just before her team's Seeker catches the snitch, adding 160 points to the 90 they already had! The final score is 250 to 40, Gryffindor wins the match and the Quidditch Cup!'

The Gryffindor stands were going wild, and after a few moments it finally sank into Harry's head that he hadn't fouled and they had won the match. He held the snitch up in the air and the cheering from the Gryffindor section got louder. Harry could even hear Hermione calling his name as she cheered.

The party in the Gryffindor common room was absolutely ridiculous. Not only was it a celebration for winning the Quidditch Cup, but it was the party for the last game of so much of the team, especially because it was the last party the Weasley twins were ever going to throw in the Gryffindor common room. All that together had the twins abandoning any level of restraint they had. Even Professor Babbling and McGonagall joined them for a few hours and told them that they weren't going to bother enforcing curfew for the night. There were still three days until they were back in lessons on Monday, so one all-night blow out wasn't unreasonable. Though Professor McGonagall did vanish the bowl of punch when she tried it and found that someone had spiked it.

The twins had apparently been inventing a lot for their joke shop and used the party as an opportunity to show off. They had a new type of firework that would fly around overhead for a few hours, avoiding hitting anything and sending out a constant shower of rainbow sparkles that everyone (including the two professors) were rather impressed with. The twins said that "Weasleys' Wowful Wizzers" each lasted for an hour and were only three Galleons each, or five for ten Galleons.

Harry knew the twins had other fireworks as well, ones that were more impressive. but they were rather mayhem-inducing and definitely weren't exactly indoor friendly. Luckily, the twins didn't break those out for the party.

-ϟϟϟ-

The euphoria of winning the Quidditch Cup had the younger years of Gryffindor riding the high for weeks. The older years, however, were very aware that their end of year exams were just a few weeks away now. For Harry, that stress came far quicker as he had to present his doorway-of-drying project. He had spent the night before lying in bed, both Hermione and Fleur on their mirrors in their own beds, going over his presentation.

This year Harry had been told that the panel assessing his work would be Professor Babbling, as both his Head of House and the Runes Professor, and the other two Heads of House were Professors Sprout and Flitwick. He was actually pretty happy with the panel this year compared to the first one that had Snape on it, who still couldn't seem to give Harry a fair mark. He was also glad that Professor Babbling agreed to have the panel meet in the classroom that Harry had built the doorway in. The frame he had built to hold the doorway was bigger than the door to the classroom, and Harry didn't want to have to dismantle it and put it back together again. After what happened with scaling up the design, he was wary about using any type of resizing magic on it.

Hermione sat with him outside the room as he prepared for the presentation, trying to distract him by having him help her with revising for their History of Magic O.W.L. Harry was getting sleepy just imagining the facts they were reviewing being spoken by the boring monotone voice of their professor, so he had to admit the revision was probably proving a good distraction. Whether drowsy was a better idea than anxiousness for his presentation was another question entirely.

Harry had no need of an assistant to help him demonstrate his creation this year, so when he was called in he went alone, but not before Hermione could hug him and give him a kiss for luck. In the room, Harry found the three professors sitting behind a large desk waiting for him, as always Professor Flitwick with a stack of books on his chair so that he was at the same height as the other professors.

"Well Mr. Potter, you can begin when you are ready," Professor Babbling said.

Harry took a calming breath and pulled off the sheet that was covering his creation before turning to face the professors. "Okay. This is my instant drying doorway. It is a Runes-based project that vanishes all surface water from anyone or anything that passes through the opening. This device has the potential to aid people in a number of situations."

Harry went on to show them everything that the doorway could do. He soaked some tools then floated them through, he passed a cup of coffee through turning the steaming hot drink into an instant coffee powder, and finally he soaked himself head to foot. After walking through the doorway, he was completely dry. Harry told them about his process from idea to finished design, starting with an array that vanished every bit of water from everything that passed through it, how he worked on targeting the effect to only water on the surface of anything passing through. The professors seemed impressed with the idea and the execution. Then he started talking about the runic arrays and how and why he had done everything the way he had.

He was a little surprised to learn that Professors Flitwick and Sprout both were having trouble keeping up with him. Harry learned from a few odd comments the two made that, while both professors had taken Runes as an O.W.L. subject, Sprout hadn't progressed to her N.E.W.T., and neither had used them heavily since leaving school. In fact, Professor Sprout admitted she thought Harry was probably more knowledgeable about Runes now than she had ever been. Apparently she had a few arrays that she had developed not long after her O.W.L. that controlled the conditions inside her greenhouses, but apart from applying the ones she needed when starting a new greenhouse she really didn't do anything with Runes now. Harry had to wonder if the only reason that Professor Sprout was on the evaluation team was because they had to be Heads of House, and it was quite possible Professor Sinistra had even less experience with Runes than Professor Sprout.

Once Harry was done, he answered any questions the professors had about the doorway. All three of the professors also insisted on testing the project themselves. It was fun to watch all the professors soak themselves before walking through the doorway just as he had. Then it was finished, and he was sent to wait in the corridor as they talked. Hermione was of course sitting there waiting for him, her bottom lip showing that she had been chewing on it with how worried she was about him. Harry just gave her a hug, sat next to her, and made a mental note to himself to discover if it was possible to learn some basic healing magic from Madam Pomfrey next year

Harry was officially there to answer any questions they could come up while they talked everything out. Unofficially, he was there in the hope that once they were done one of them would either give him a sign or would let slip if his project was worthy of a decent grade. When Professors Babbling and Flitwick left, Harry gave the Runes professor a pleading look. She just smiled and gave him an almost imperceptible nod. He took that to mean he had at least passed, although he would have to wait until the summer to learn exactly what his grade was.

-ϟϟϟ-

The run up to the O.W.L.s went just as you would expect: stressful. There seemed to be a student who broke down from the stress and needed a calming draught from Madam Pomfrey every other day. Professor Babbling called a House meeting and warned the Gryffindors about students who tried to sell study aids such as powdered dragon claw, telling them that not only did they not work, if they did their O.W.L. results would be invalidated for cheating.

Then she gave her final warning. "Besides, most of the time it's not even what they claim it to be. Any potion is most likely just watered down flobberworm mucus with a bit of colour added to it, or the sweepings off the floor transfigured to look like something powdered. When I was in school, one particularly troublesome Ravenclaw had the idea to transfigure dried up dragon dung to look like powdered dragon claw, and 'proved' his dragon claw was 'genuine' by casting a charm on it that checked draconic magic. Over thirty students ended up mixing it with their morning pumpkin juice and drinking it before he was found out."

That story, whether true or not, did a lot to reduce the number of Gryffindors who were willing to try stimulants to improve their grades. Finding out they might end up drinking dung seemed to leave them feeling rather sick. It didn't stop some from trying anyway, Ron actually wrote to his brother Charlie hoping to score some real powdered dragon claw. Luckily Charlie had written back refusing, which Harry was glad about. He didn't want to be in a position where he would have to confiscate something Ron thought could help him.

Luckily, Harry and Hermione still had plenty of the Red Bull they had brought with them. This was in large part thanks to Fred and George, who in exchange for a share of the drink were more than happy to cast the Refilling Charm on a nearly empty can a dozen times a day each, so there was also plenty to share with Daphne and Tracey. The drink fell under the same school rules as coffee, so it wasn't going to cost any of them their O.W.L. or N.E.W.T. results. They also made sure to check in on Ginny a lot. Finding out that you had dark magic from Voldemort infecting you and creating a connection between you was bad at the best of times. Ginny, however, was already depressed and was grieving for her father when she found out, so naturally Harry and the others were worried about her. Luckily for her, the truth was nowhere near as bad as she had convinced herself, and combining that with learning Harry was in the same situation and she wasn't alone had helped her improve a lot in the last few weeks. Not that Harry and Hermione could claim to have had much of a hand in Ginny's improvement, they and her brothers all had important exams to prepare for, and that had eaten a lot of their time. Luckily, where they fell short Luna had stepped up. The blonde Ravenclaw had attached herself to Ginny like a limpet and the constant support seemed to have a real positive effect on Ginny.

Hermione did end up taking her suppression potion again for the month that that their exams were in. Both teens were rather disappointed when Hermione worked out that her in-heat day would be right in the middle of their exam week. Neither of them were prepared to risk their O.W.L.s, but they freely admitted to each other that they had come to enjoy those days quite a lot. Eventually, the fifth year's last day before their exams came. The last few weeks the first through fourth years and the sixth years had sat their exams, but they were just internal school exams. Tomorrow it was the start of the O.W.L. exams and the week after the N.E.W.T.s.

Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Tracey were revising but they were also taking advantage of the nicer weather and were doing so out in the late May/early June sun. Because they were outside, the two of them were among the first to see a couple of the school carriages coming up to the castle from the main gates. The two carriages made their way directly up to the main front doors of the castle, and about eight older people that none of them recalled ever seeing before climbed out of the carriages.

"Who do you think they are?" asked Harry.

"They're probably the examiners from the Ministry. The O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s can't be monitored by the professors, remember?" Daphne answered him. Harry considered what kind of mark he would get for Potions if Snape got to mark his O.W.L. and was happy that Daphne was right. The examiners made their way into the castle, and Harry had just enough of an angle to see Professor McGonagall greeting them before leading them off somewhere deeper in the castle.

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry's exam schedule was almost as full as his class schedule. The only reason there was any breathing room in it was because classes like History of Magic and Ancient Runes didn't have a practical exam.

They were going to tackle two subjects a day, first the theory and then the practical for one subject, and then it will be right on to the next subject. The only difference Harry and Hermione had in their timetables was that Harry had a free spot on Wednesday morning where Hermione was going to be taking her Arithmancy exam.

Monday

Care of Magical Creatures theory

Break

Care of Magical Creatures practical

Transfiguration theory

Lunch

Transfiguration practical

Tuesday

Potions Theory

Break

Potions practical

Defence Against the Dark Arts theory

Lunch

Defense Against the dark arts practical

Wednesday

History of magic theory

Break

Arithmancy theory - Hermione only

Runes theory

Lunch

Astronomy theory

Thursday

Charms theory

Break

Charms Practical

(Thursday afternoon was Muggle Studies for those taking the subject)

Friday

Herbology theory

Break

Herbology practical

(Friday afternoon was Divination for those taking the subject)

And last of all, on Friday night when they didn't need to worry about an exam the next day for anyone, was the Astronomy practical. All in all, it looked to Harry like a week from hell that he would just need to try his best on.

Care of Magical Creatures seemed to go well. For the practical side Harry could see Hagrid watching nervously from down by his cabin. Harry's year was the first to take the O.W.L. for Care of Magical creatures who were entirely taught by Hagrid, so this year would be a major test for him as well. Transfiguration went amazingly, Harry was positive he managed to get a high E.E, possibly even an O. With their first day over, there was no time to relax. Now it was time to hit the books for Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. They just wished that the younger years realised that just because their exams were over didn't mean that everyone was in the same position.

A/N
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