I closed my eyes, drew back the curtain
To see for certain, what I thought I knew
Far far away, someone was weeping
But the World was sleeping
Any dream will do
May I return to the beginning
The light is dimming
And the dream is too
The world and I
We are still waiting
Still hesitating
Any dream will do
-Excerpts of Any Dream Will Do by Tim Rice from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Jeez, I love that play
Chapter Six: Any Dream Will Do
January passed with more bickering between the over-stressed 7th years, more studying was done, and a well deserved break was approaching. The dance was the next night and they entire class was very anxoius to have it. Of course, most of the 7th years were trying to fit in as much studying as possible the night before to make up for the time lost at the dance.
James and Lily, being Head Boy and Girl, helped decorate the Great Hall with pink and white streamers, red and black candles floating about ten feet from the ground and to add elegance, about six or seven teensy faries floating lazily in the air. The tablecloths were made of lace and Dumbledore had conjured up a stage for the Witches Three. The classes seemed to fly by, and the dance was finally here.
Lily, Hazel, and Molly spent three hours in the Girl's Dormitory. Molly came down first, in navy blue dress robes that sparkled like the summer sky, her bright red hair tied back into a bun. She and Arthur left for the Great Hall and Hazel came down to meet her date. (which happened to be Sirius *wink* hahaha) Hazel was wearing hazel dress robes, pun intended, and her light brown hair was down and straight, flowing gracefully down to halfway down her back.
Lily was the last to walk out of the dorm. She was wearing brilliant emerald dress robes that brought out her already amazing eyes and had her auburn hair pulled back into a bun and a flower sticking out of it. James noticed, with pleasure, that she was wearing the lily earings he had gotten her. Lily stepped over to James rather nervously and their eyes locked together.
"You look stunning." James whispered. Lily giggled and murmered,
"Thanks."
They started to walk down into the Great Hall when, suddenly, James paused.
"I got you a present." he blurted out. Lily turned a light pink.
"You did?" she asked sweetly. James nodded and reached into the pocket of his robes. He pulled out a small white box and handed it to Lily. Lily smiled at him and opened it up to find a snowglobe with a heart in it and snow falling down upon it.
"You have my heart." The card read. Lily looked at it lovingly and said,
"James, this is wonderful. I got you a present." she added. She, too, pulled out a small box. This one was smaller than James's and was red and gold. James took it awkwardly and found a ring inside. The ring was gold and had a silver engraving. The words read, "James and Lily, A&F".
"A & F?" James questioned, fingering the ring in his right hand.
"Always and forever." Lily said quietly. James smiled to himself as his spirit was lifted ten thousand feet and klonked into his spine. Okay, that made no sense, never mind. Anywho..
James put the ring on slowly and embraced Lily.
"It's amazing, Lily, just like you." he said sweetly in her ear.
They arrived at the dance later than everyone else because of this. Did they care? What do you think, reader?
Lily smirked to herself, watching Hazel and Sirius dancing. She could only dream of what was going through her best friend's mind at that very moment...
"Omigosh, is my breath okay?" Hazel thought anxiously, "Are we dancing to the same rythme?"
The Witches Three was playing a very fast song when they entered and neither of them felt like moving their bodies back and forth at a fast pace and decided to have something to eat first. The menu was the normal Hogwarts meal, but the desserts were something special. Heart shaped pastries with red and pink icing covered the tables along with some sort of pinkish-red punch. Lily put some steak on her plate and James dug into everything at arms lengh. not really caring enough to see what it was.
"How do possibly choke down all of that food?" Lily questioned him, looking at the food mixed together with a slightly disgusted look.
"It's easy." James said. He gestured to the food, brought his fork to his mashed potatoes, put a blob bigger than his fist on it and down it went. Lily squinted oddly at the food and decided not to comment. When a slower song came on, but not too slow, they walked onto the "dance floor" and started to, well, dance. Lily rested her head on James's shoulder as they gently rocked back and forth to the beat of the music. Suddenly, James laughed.
"What?" Lily inquired, looking up at James.
"McGonagal and Dumbledore are dancing." James said, gesturing to Professors McGonagal and Dumbledore who were, indeed, dancing slowly to the music. Lily's eyes suddenly went to a glassy state.
"Professor McGonagal. She told us to read chapter 37 in Advanced Transfiguration from pages 834 to 912 and to highlight on page 864--" Lily was cut off by James kissing her. Let me tell you, that didn't shut her up.
"--paragraph 4, section C." she finished. James sighed.
"You're studying way too much, Lily." he said edgily. Lily raised her eyebrows.
"Maybe you're just studying too little. I told you before, if I don't pass these tests, my life is over! Done! Caput! Finito!" Lily said wildly.
"Lils, everyone is like that. If any if us fail them, our lives are over." James said soothingly, but still, Lily shook her head.
"People like you could become a national Quiddich star, but I can't. Hell, the last time I was on a broom was never! I skipped those classes! But anyways, like I said, you have something to fall back on. All I have are my hopes to become an auror." Lily said glumly.
"Yeah, but Lily, you're smart. You must be the smartest witch of 7th years! You'll do fine without always having your nose in some book about Divination or Charms for the next four mon--" James was cut off by a gasp by Lily. She looked down at her watch and groaned.
"Charms! I need to study charms today, and then Divination and then--- oh, I'm sorry, James, I can't stay." Lily said miserably.
"You're leaving? We've only been here for about an hour!" James protested.
"I know, but I really need to go study, I'll see you later, love you, bye!" Lily said in a rush, giving James a kiss on the cheek. She let go of her hand and dashed out of the Great Hall. James sighed and trudged over to the table where Sirius and Hazel were sitting.
"Hey, Prongs." Sirius said, glancing at James as he took a seat, "Where's Lily?"
"She just left to go study Charms." James said grumpily. Hazel suddenly jumped up from her seat.
"Is it time already? I have to go, too, sorry." she said sincerely, looking straight at Sirius. Sirius sighed, but decided not to say anything about it.
"Well, bye." Hazel said nervously. She took a deep breath, leaned in and kissed Sirius on the cheek. She smiled at him and darted out the door.
"N.E.W.T.'s suck." Sirius said shortly, returning to the chicken soup he had been eating. James nodded in agreement. He didn't feel very hungry. He noticed with a pang of annoyance that none of the 7th years were there except for the slackers. Most had gone to either snog their dates or study.
"Well, I'm not going to stick around here looking like an idiot without a date. I'm going back to the common room, you coming?" James said after a few moments where the only sound was Sirius slurping away at his soup.
"Sure." Sirius said after taking one last slurp. The two annoyed mauraders got up from their table and trudged up to the common room. Again, no one looked up as they entered the common room. It looked like all the 7th year Gryffindors were working on the twelve page essay on the bezoar Professor Kettleurn assigned them that night.
"Yeah, but if you do find the stone in it's stomach, it dies, doesn't it?" Frank was saying. Lily shook her head.
"It depends on how you take it ou--ouch!" Lily turned around as someone poked her in the back. "Oh, hi, James!"
She leaned in and kissed James, oblivious of the people around her.
"Hey, lover girl, we're still waiting for the answer." Hazel said exasperately. Lily didn't turn red (for once). She just pulled away from James and continued talking like nothing happened.
"If you take it out through it's anus, it doesn't die. But if you extract it from it's throat, then and only then, it dies." she finished.
It was a long night in the common room. A twelve page essay is a lot, I'm sure we all understand that. But enough to forget to go up to your dormitory and fall asleep in the common room? I think not.
But that's what happened. All 16 of them fell asleep in the common room.
Not a good idea, ladies and gentlemen.
Hazel was the first to wake up. She gazed around the common room. Lily fell asleep on James's shoulder, Molly and Alice were both sprawled out on the ground, Remus had curled up in the corner, and so on. She glanced at her watch. 9:34 blinked back at her.
"WAKE THE HELL UP!" she roared. The other fifteen of her classmates stirred and glared at her for her rude awakining. "WE'RE LATE, YOU IMBICILES!"
The whole common room suddenly more alert.
"For what class?" Sirius asked calmly. Lily winced.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts." she said, biting her lip.
The 7th years wasted no more time. They quickly changed from their dress robes into normal robes, didn't even brush their teeth, the girls didn't get to brush their hair, and Peter forgot to put on a second sock. The sixteen of them filed into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom anxiously.
"Late. That's what you are. Late. Let's see, it is now 9:40 and there are sixteen of you. I think I'll do 16x4 which is 64 so that will be 69 points off Gryffindor." Professor Lestrange said simply.
"Why 69?" Peter piped up.
"I took off another five points because Mr. Black is eating candy."
"No I'm not!" Sirius protested.
"Shut up, Black."
"Today," Professor Lestrange said slowly, "Is, lucky for you, a double period. So we still have about fifty minutes left. We're going out onto the grounds and I'm sending a few of you into the forest. Pettigrew, detention."
Peter looked up with wide eyes.
"He didn't do anything!" Sirius said forcefully. Professor Lestrange just shrugged. Next, she brought the 16 of them outside to the edge of the forest where a Care of Magical Creatures lesson was being taught to the sixth years. Lucius Malfoy watched with interest from the group of 6th years as Professor Lestrange led them to where the trees began.
"Potter, Black, Evans, and Lupin go into the forest and bring me back the dementor I released last class." Professor Lestrange demanded. Lily raised her eyebrows.
"How?" she said faintly.
"That's for you to figure out. Everyone else is going to have different jobs, and this is yours. If any of you fail to do this, you automatically fail your N.E.W.T.'s and no re-takes are available. Now, go."
A pale Lily and three Mauraders walked into the forest and could hear Professor Lestrange's voice instructing other students to enter the east side of the forest and bring back some herb.
"How the hell are we going to bring back a dementor?" James asked disbelievingly. Remus hung his head, for everyone turned to look at him for the answer.
"Don't look at me, I'm a werewolf, not a dementor. I'd say we trap it in a circle, do the Patronus charm and go on from there." Remus said lamely. They walked in silence for three minutes when suddenly Lily gave off a shrill scream.
"Something just crawled up my leg!" she sqeaked. "Lumos!"
A small light appeared at the end of her wand and fell across the forest floor. There, on the ground, was the most disgusting sight any of them had ever seen. About 100 or so roaches were squirming around through the dirt and over their shoes. They had to be the biggest roaches ever! Their lengh was about the lengh of a full grown male's middle finger. Lily's eyes bugged out and she turned around. She didn't scream, she just groaned and out came last night's dinner...
"Oh great, I forgot she's sqeamish.." James moaned. He grabbed Lily's hand. It was cold and shivering. "Just do it for the N.E.W.T.'s."
Lily nodded, turned to face the roaches. her face had a greenish tint to it, as it normally does after you vomit. They carried on, Lily stepping ever so carefully, as to not step on a roach and hear that horrible, disgusting crunching sound *author, who is terribly afraid of bugs of all kind, shudders and hugs pooh bear in fright*. When they passed that large, repulsive super insects, they were forced to face something even worse.
And it wasn't the dementor, folks.
Something large and dark moved in the shadows of the trees ahead of them. There was a scream from somewhere else in the forest from the other students.
"Just what I was looking for." came a sly, snake-like hiss.
These poor seventeen year olds, with no amount of studying, prepared them for what came next. They were soon face-to-face with the darkest wizard the face of the Earth has seen.
Voldemort's face was screwed into a sneer. His eyes, two red slits, glowed with the intensity of the sun. Scars littered his ghostly white face. He was wearing dark velvet robes that were torn around the edges. His hands were hidden in matching gloves. In an instant, he pulled out his wand. It was long and thin and shined in the darkness that was drowning them.
"Jamessss Potter." Voldemort's "s"es came out as a low hiss, as if part of a snake resided in his mouth, speaking for him.
There was a flash of lightning from above the ceiling of leaves that covered the forest. James felt a throbbing pain in his forehead and blinked, dazed. He was not in the Forbidden Forest, as he had been just a few moments ago--or was it a few moments ago?--. He was in a dungeon of Hogwarts not even he and Sirius found on the Maurader's Map. Huge statues of snakes were perfectly alligned along the sides. An odd, greenish gloom hovered around the wide room. James looked over to his side and saw no one there.
"Welcome, Mr. Potter."
James jumped up, making his head ache even more. He, once again, was in front of Voldemort. Voldemort's mouth was screwed into a triumphant smile.
"I hope you enjoyed your seventeen years of life, Potter, because this is where it all ends." Voldemort said menacingly.
Those words spread through James's mind like venom. "He's going to kill me," he thought fearfully, "He's going to kill me and I'm going to die."
Voldemort raised his wand and suddenly, voices ran through James's head.
"Lily, take Harry and run! He's here!"
James was dragged down to Earth as Voldemort's icy voice echoed of the walls of this hidden chamber.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
James had no idea what he was doing untill he did it. He leapt aside as a beam of green light the shade of Lily's eyes flew past him, right to where he had been standing. "Lily..." he thought suddenly, "There's no way I'm losing this battle!"
He stood up obstinately. Voldemort smirked at him and a James felt a surge of hatred towards him that he could not explain.
"So wee little Potter wants to play games?" Voldemort hissed. He threw his head back and laughed. James stayed silent and raised his wand. Voldemort noticed out of the corner of his eye and stopped laughing.
"Think you're going to kill me, hmm?" he said tauntingly. He seemed very calm about this all and James was trying his best to act the same way.
Still, James said nothing with his wand raised. He had no idea what spell he was going to use against the darkest wizard ever, when suddenly Flitwick's words popped into his mind.
"It is for self defense. To those oblivious of the magical community around you, which I hope is none of you, the threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is increasing and you have to be prepared for the worst."
"Imperslewia!" James yelled suddenly. Voldemort's eyes showed emotion for the first time: shock. But soon, Voldemort disappeared. At James's feet was a lime green snake about twenty feet in lengh, fangs removed. Voldemort slithered over ot James's leg and sank his remaining teeth into James's flesh. It pinched and made him quite dizzy. He fainted without another thought.
He wokeup with another throbbing pain in his forehead. His vision was foggy and he realized he wasn't wearing his glasses. He instantly reached over to the nightstand next to him and slipped on his glasses. As everything slipped into better focus, he realized he was in the hospital wing and about six people were crowding around him.
"You're awake!" came a tearstrained voice. James found himself in the tightest hug he had ever experianced. He recognized the auburn hair immeadiately.
"Don't go and break his spine, Lily." Sirius said, though his tone sounded excited and delighted. Lily let go of James and he saw that, other than Lily and Sirius, Remus, Peter, Professor Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagal were sitting around his bed.
"What happened?" he said slowly. It ached to move any part of his head, including his jaw.
"I'm sure one of your classmates can explain, because the beginning of the story is rather fuzzy to me." Dumbledore said, motioning to Sirius.
"Okay, well, we were in the forest and Voldemort--" Peter flinched, but no one else, "--appeared and there was a flash of lightning and you were gone. We didn't see you for a week and we were starting to get worried, especially this one, " he motioned to Lily, "So we all went and told Dumbledore about it and he had a hunch of where you might be. He called it the Chamber of Secrets and it turned out he was right. As for what happened down in the chamber, we have no idea and were hoping if you could fill us in on it. But anyway, we brought you here and you were unconsious for about two weeks."
James raised his eyebrows in surprise. He wanted very much to tell them what happened in the chamber, but it killed to move his jaw. He pointed to his jaw, trying to tell them this and McGonagal nodded.
"Write it down." she said, handing him parchment and a quill. Quickly, James scribbled down all he could remember of the events that occured down in the Chamber of Secrets and passed it to Dumbledore and McGonagal. Dumbledore nodded and gave it to the other four to read.
"I see." he siad slowly, "Well, I'd say you should rest up, Mr. Potter. N.E.W.T.'s are coming soon and you want to be able to talk for the practical parts of the test."
Without another word to the students, he and Professor McGonagal got up and left the hospital wing, conversing in low whispers.
"What day is it?" James wrote down on the parchment. He passed it to Lily.
"March 8th." she said. James raised his eyebrows and scribbled down,
"I can't believe I was gone that long!"
Just then, Madame Pomfrey rushed over with a cup filled steaming grayish liquid.
"Here, Potter, drink this, it should help ease the pain in your jaw." she said swiftly, handing him the steaming cup. James smiled at him and choked down the foul liquid. He licked his lips. It tasted like...
"Squid.." he murmered.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Three days later, James was able to go back to classes. Rumours were flying everywhere.
"--I heard Potter ate a snake and the venom knocked him out--"
"--No, he made a death eater eat a snake and death eater knocked him out---"
The strangest one would have to be this one.
"--I heard You-Know-Who suffocated him with his earwax--"
James had a very hard time trying to convince everyone that he didn't eat a snake, that he didn't make a death eater eat one and most of all that Voldemort did NOT suffocate him with a great amount of earwax. The only people that really knew what happened was Lily, the Mauraders, and the staff.
"C'mon, Lily, won't you tell me?" Hazel moaned. She, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were walking to transfiguration.
"Hazel, we all know you have one of the biggest mouths Hogwarts has ever seen! We all learned that in our first year..."
~fLaShBaCk!~
"You threw up?" Hazel squeaked. Lily nodded weakly.
Lily had just come back from detention with Filch and wasn't feeling very well. Hazel, who was feeling fine, bombarded Lily with questions until her mouth was sore about what just happened.
"There were maggots in the trophy? EWWWW!"
"How many times did you puke? You still look green..."
"Is it contaigous? I hope not!"
This went on all night and Lily was almost sure Hazel would shut up the next morning.
How very wrong she was.
Hazel was paired up with Sara Ablad, a loud mouthed Slytherin, in potions class. They were instructed to concoct what Professor Salandar called a Boillarel Potion. It was supposed to cure boils.
And one of the ingredients were freshly cut maggots.
Hazel twisted around in her seat to look at Lily.
"Will you be able to go through with this?" she asked her. Sara looked at Hazel oddly.
"Why wouldn't she? Oh yes," Sara said this with fake realization, "She's mudblood, of course she can't."
Lily glared at Sara and so did Molly, her partner.
"No, because she's terrified of bugs, Ablad. She threw up when she saw them last night." Hazel said smugly. Sara raised her eyebrows and laughed. She turned to a reddening Lily.
"You threw up, Evans? Ha! Wait 'til everyone hears about this!" Sara said gleefully.
~EnD oF fLaShBaCk!~
"Oh, come on, Lily, that was just one time!" Hazel pleaded. Lily sighed.
"Go on, you can tell her." James said after a moment or two of thinking.
"Yes!" Hazel cried triumphately. Lily sighed again and told Hazel the story of what happened to James.
"No way!" she said disbelievingly as they reached McGonagal's classroom.
"That's what happened, Haz." Lily said simply.
Lily decided to sit with her friends this time, so she seperated from James and the rest of the Mauraders and she and Hazel went to sit next to Molly.
"How's lover boy doing, Lily?" Molly said slyly as they settled into their seats.
"James? He's doing great." Lily said cheerfully.
Transfiguration was just one long, lengthy, prolonged, wordy, elongated, extended, lingering, extensive, and all those other big words in the thesaurus speech about N.E.W.T.'s. James and Sirius were half asleep during the entire speech, but the students like Lily and Alice and Molly and basically all the students studying their eyes out, payed attention all the way through. Lily had put off her constant studying during the period that James was unconsious, but now that she was back to normal, she was trying her best to make up for lost time. Their first N.E.W.T.'s test was in exactly fifty two days (A/N Yes, I know, very precise) or May 2nd. March 11th, May 2nd... March 11th, May 2nd... I dunno, does that sound like a long time?
As the dedicated author of this fanfiction, I'm thrilled to say "Professor" Lestrange was fired for putting students in danger by sending them into the forest without adult supervision. Peter was extatic about this. His detention with her was terrible. She had made him clean the Slytherin common room, a place he hoped he would never have to return to. But, of course, Sirius was the most optimistic about this.
So you're probally wondering who is the DADA teacher for the rest of the year. Well, it was almost time for the N.E.W.T.'s and the O.W.L.'s, so Dumbledore was not going to cut those classes. But, he couldn't waste valuble teaching time looking around for a new professor. But as we all know, dumbledore knows how to solve problems like that.
"Welcome, 7th years to Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I am Professor Dumbledore and I will be your teacher until the end of this term." he said warmly. A lot of the students cheered. "Now, today, we're learning about dugbogs..."
Fifty two days may seem like so much to you or me, but they seemed to fly by for the Hogwarts students and everybody was becoming, if possible, the grumpiest ever. All of the 7th years were acting like they were having the worst P.M.S attack ever! Okay, not the best way to put it.
"Alice, could you--" Frank was cut off.
"No, now shut it." Alice snapped. Frank opened his mouth to say something, but a motion to shut up from James told him he probally shouldn't.
As you probally know, everybody handles stress differently. Like, take Hazel as an example.
Hazel sat in a squishy armchair, biting her nails, trying to memorize how Neptune effects how people act.
"If it's in the seventh house, people who were born as an aquarius experiance great jealousy..."
Hazel would be off in LaLa Land, trying to memorize these kinds of things, oblivious to everyone around her.
But, like I said, everyone handles it differently.
Molly would sit on the floor, chewing on muggle chewing gum. In the past week, she had gone through thirty six packs of gum with five sticks in each pack. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's 180 pieces of gum, folks.
As March melted into April and the pressure increased amazingly, even James and Sirius found themselves studying like crazy. After three months of saying that they didn't need to study like mad like the other 7th years, they found themselves with everyone else's schedules. Well, except during meals. They wouldn't give up their meals.
"That's where we draw the line." Sirius had said.
Halfway through April was the last Quiddich game of the year. If Gryffindor lost this game, they would be out of the running for the Quiddich cup. It was Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. All of the 7th year Gryffindors agreed that they deserved a break and would go and show their team their support.
James felt much better during this game than during the last. There was a large banner with huge letters reading "LiOnS 4 tHe CuP!". And as Madame Hooch blew her whistle and James and his fellow players rose into the air, he felt his spirit rise with him.
"And there is Longbottom with the quaffle, passes to Lastler--" came the voice of the commentator, Jake Jordan, a Gryffindor, "Lastler fakes left against Bones and yes! Gryffindor scores, 10-nil!"
James payed no attention to Jake, as he was scouting the pitch for the snitch (there's that rythme again!) and so was the oppisite seeker, Amos Diggory. Amos Diggory was a fifth year, but was pretty good. Of course, James thought himself to be better...
"Sema has the quaffle, Hufflepuff in possetion, Sema is against Esor and he shoots-- and Esor saves! Still 10-nil to Gryffindor!"
James squinted in the sunlight. Was that the glare of the sun or a flash of gold? James decided to take the chance and took a dive. Screams were erupting from the stands, the audience were on their feet. Diggory, noticing James had obviously seen something promising, tailed him. James, about five feet ahead of Diggory, figured he had seen wrong and pulled up from the dive. But Diggory wasn't fast enough. A sickening CRUNCH echoed through the pitch as Amos hit the ground head first.
"Ooh! That had to hurt! Looks like Diggory just got fooled by a Wronski Feint performed by Potter. And, yes, he's up again, not looking too stable, though." Jake said, squinting out onto the field.
As the Hufflepuffs and most of the rest of the school were watching Diggory twirl around aimlessly on his broomstick, some Gryffindors had risen form their seats again. James was in a break neck dive and this time, he was sure he had seen the snitch. A split second later--
"Yes! YES! POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH! 160-NIL, GRYFFINDOR JUST WON THE QUIDDICH CUP!!!" Jake yelled. A monstrous amount of noise erupted in the audience as James flew around the pitch, holding out the snitch for everyone to see. He was grinning like mad as Professor Dumbledore gave him the large, silver trophy he had dreamed of winning ever since his second year at Hogwarts when he joined the team. He was crushed as six scarlet robed figures piled on top of him.
He was still being patted on the back and congratulated in the halls two weeks later. James felt on top of the world and nothing could bother him. Not even Snivellus.
But, like I said, this was two weeks after the game.
Here it is, ladies and gentlemen! The N.E.W.T.'s!
Dun,
dun,
dun....
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Omigosh, they're here!" Lily sqealed. She, the Mauraders, and Hazel were at breakfast. The other five spun around and saw about six or seven old witches and wizard file into the Great Hall and walk up to Dumbledore in an orderly line. The seventh and fifth years went silent until the testers reached the staff table.
"I remember the one on the far left, Professor Binkely I think is his name." Hazel said, squinting up at the staff table.
They were soon passed out their schedules for the tests ahead.
"We have our Charms test this morning, practical and written." Lily said, peering at the schedule.
"Oi vay, this is going to be a looooooong day." Hazel sighed. (A/N Ignore the 'Oi vay' thing, Hazel is odd that way)
And she was right.
As the 7th years waiting impatiently outside the Great Hall doors, some so nervous they were ready to pee their pants *coughcoughpetercough*, they all quized each other on what may lay ahead.
"Now, the levitation charm is what?" Hazel asked, testing Molly.
Molly's eyes grew wide and she chewed on her tongue, since no gum was allowed.
"I don't know! I'm going to FAIL!" Molly cried fearfully. Lily sighed.
"It's Wingardium Leviosa, Molly, we learned that it first year." she said quickly.
The time that followed had to be the most nerve-wracking for the 7th years. After studying like crazy for four months, the time had come.
"1. What charm opens locked doors?" James read to himself, "Easy!" he thought and he scribbled down the answer.
"2. Those who can transform into animals are called what?" Sirius read, "I KNEW I didn't have to study!" he thought to himself.
But some were having trouble with the test..
"3. The first ever charm was performed by who?" Peter read, scanning the page, "Oh, no! I don't know the answer!"
Fifty questions later, Professor Flitwick collectedd their papers, some confident they had done well, some confident they had flunked. Next, came the practical exam.
"Abbott, Ronald; Ablad, Sara; Black, Sirius; Dolohov, Antonin." Professor Trinket called. James, Remus, and Peter wished Sirius good luck and he left to take his practical test. Sirius was supposed to test with Professor Spears. He performed them all pretty well, including the Patronus Charm.
"Evans, Lily; Jones, Molly; Lupin, Remus; Parsley, Hazel." Professor Trinket announced. Lily took a deep breath and led her friends behind the curtain. Her patronus took the form of a stag. She smiled to herself when the smoke took form. Molly's patronus was an owl. Why? No idea. Remus's patronus took the form of a werewolf, not to his surprise. Hazel's took the form of a big black dog with a kind face. The mostly did fine, except for when Molly levitated Professor Simpson's glasses off his face instead of the glass plate.
"Pettigrew, Peter; Potter, James; Rookwood, Augustus; Rosier, Evan."
Lily mouthed 'Good luck' to James as she left the testing area and he entered it. As we already know, James's patronus takes form a phoenix. But Peter's took the form of seal, to his surprise (the seal deteriorated after a couple of seconds). Rookwood's took shape as a dragon and Rosier's was an otter. James passed with flying colors. Peter had done okay. He probally would've done better if he didn't trip on his shoelace when he tried to do the charm to remove blemishes and ended up removing his tester's socks.
"One test down, ten more to go.." James moaned.
Most of their tests went smoothly after that. Lily was a nervous wreck during the divination test and couldn't focus enough to see what was going on in the crystal ball, so she faked it.
"Um, I see a a hotdog with mustard and a whole lot of.. relish." she said slowly.
After almost peeing his pants a billion times, it actually happened. During their practical potions test, Peter wet himself.
"I have never seen you turn THAT red, Wormtail." Sirius chuckled as they walked to their Muggle Studies written exams. Again, Peter turned red.
That night, the 7th years were crowding together in the common room, going over Transfiguration spells and heroes and Herbology statistics. Nothing huge happened during the Transfiguration, but Evan Rosier's hand was almost yanked off by the Devil's Snare during the herbology practical. The next day, Wednesday, was their day off. Many of them stayed out on the grounds, putting their feet in the water as they had done two years ago in their fifth year. James and Lily talked about random things, both glad to be off the subject of testing. They both found it amusing when Sirius and Hazel strolled by, Sirius's arm around Hazel.
"It's amazing how much things changed over the years." Lily said wisely. James nodded.
"I'm glad about it, though. I dunno what I'd do if I never actually got you to go out with me." he said thoughtfully. Lily smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"I can't believe we're leaving Hogwarts in a month.." Lily said, gazing up at the castle with wet eyes. That's when it hit James like a bludger. They WERE leaving in a month. Only a month of Hogwarts left, only a month of all the classes, the great food.. would he ever see his friends again? Definitely Sirius, seeing as they live together, but what about Remus and Peter? What about Lily? All of this thinking was starting to make his head hurt and he decided to think about it a different time. "After testing would be nice," he said mentally.
They had two more days of testing left and four more tests to complete. Astronomy, Muggle Studies for the Mauraders, Ancient Runes for Lily, Hazel, and Molly, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Care of Magical Creatures. The next morning, half of the 7th years went to Muggle Studies while the other half trudged off to Ancient Runes. Lily was terrified she would forget some of the "symbol things" but at the end, she felt she had done pretty good. James was sure he goofed at least three of the questions on his Muggle Studies quiz. One of them was how plugs work. "Like I would remember that!" James had thought angrily. That night, everyone had the astronomy tests out on the top tower. It was freezing out, not very good for thinking, so nobody was exactly at their best. The few students who did arithmancy had to get up extra early the next morning to do those tests. Those he didn't do it were very glad about that, because the arithmancy students had to wake up at 5:30.
Care of Magical Creatures went well. Lily was VERY close to vomiting when they had to feed super sized worms to baby horklumps, but managed to keep her breakfast down. Everyone was a bit aprehensive waiting to take their last test, Defense Against the Dark Arts. They found waiting behind the curtains where they would take their practical tests, the oddest assignment.
They had to charm a pogrebin to sleep and then perform the Imperslew curse on it. Now, I am very well aware they learned that curse in Charms, but it was to be used against Voldemort's followers, therefore it falls under the Defense Against the Dark Arts category. It didn't exactly work out for Hazel though, because as we know, her's makes the bone in an elbow *shudder* stick out of the skin. But, a pogrebin, being a demon, doesn't have any bones. Go figure.
It was a great celebration that night in the common room with the 7th and 5th years. James and Sirius brought back some food from the kitchens and they all celebrated the end of their testing. The 7th years were determined to spend as much time together as humanly possible, seeing as they had only twenty days left of Hogwarts.
But, trust me, the 7th years didn't get to just party for twenty days. They had to help out with the younger kids' classes and they still had prefect duties. Lily and James helped out with the first years' potions classes.
"Five hours in the dungeons with a bunch of eleven year olds and Professor Salandar. Wha-hoo." James said sarcastically as he and Lily walked down to the dungeons.
"It can't be too bad..." Lily said optimistically.
Yeah, well, Lily was wrong. During their duties, they were sprayed with various potions, sworn at, and in James's case, bitten. They walked out every day with a bulbous nose or green hair and trudged down to the hospital wing to fix it.
So, readers, I guess this is where our story draws to an end. *author sobs sadly* Before they knew it, it was time to board the Hogwarts Express one last time. Sirius pulled his end of year prank on Snivellus, though what he did bothered Lily. A LOT.
He had taped to Snape's back a piece of parchment that said "I'm a greasy ass whole who loves Lily Evans."
"Simple, but funny. Well done, Sirius, mate." James said whole heartedly. Lily breathed out through her nose, glared at Sirius, and put her luggage on the train. She, Hazel, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter shared a compartment on the way home.
Many times during that train ride, Lily and Hazel cried. They had been sharing memories aloud and the sentimentality just finally overpowered them and they cried. James held Lily in his arms, wishing that the year wouldn't end. But wishing doesn't always fix everything.
The six of them bid eachother their sad goodbyes when they reached King's Cross Station. James left with Sirius and his parents, feeling kind of low. He and Lily made sure they would see each other soon, but he felt horrible about leaving Hogwarts. On the long ride home, he fell asleep to a familiar dream.
"Lily, take Harry and run! He's here!"
THE END *SOB*