𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐋𝐒 | draco malfoy ✔️

69. out with a bang

TRAINING WHEELS

OUT WTH A BANG

Cedric had always told Amora that O.W.L.s were a piece of cake and that she'd get past them fine so long as she revised enough. What Cedric failed to remember, however, was that he had always been a better wizard than her. Things always came quite naturally to him, whilst Amora, more often than not, had to attempt things more than twice to even get a decent result.

It wasn't that she was a bad witch or stupid or anything, but if she wasn't interested in something, then she found that she had no motivation to perfect it. With all of the revision she had been doing for the past few weeks though, she was feeling oddly confident as she stood in the line outside the Great Hall on June 10th - ready for her first exam.

People all around her were repeating spells to themselves or quickly going over things with their friends. Draco looked calmer than anybody, his arms folded across his chest as he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. Amora could remember him saying that his father was close with the Governor of the Wizarding Examinations Authority, so he reckoned he'd be fine either way.

Draco was smart, though. She didn't really doubt him for a second.

Eventually, though, it was time to go inside the Great Hall. The four house tables had been swapped out for individual desks that all sat at least two feet apart and at the front of the room stood Professor McGonagall as well as an older witch who Amora assumed was the invigilator for this exam. It was quite nerve wracking as she made her way all the way to the front of the room, looking at all of the name tags as she went by them.

'BUCKLEY, AMORA.'

Nearly sighing in relief, Amora slid down into her desk and immediately placed her quill down in front of her, staring numbly at the exam paper that had been turned over to hide the questions. The next hour or so could impact her entire Charms grade, no matter how well she had been doing in Flitwick's class beforehand.

Lavender Brown sat down in the seat in front of Amora, and Amora took the time to work out that, based on surnames, it would be Millicent Bulstrode behind her. Eventually, McGonagall told them all gently that they could start the exam, and there was a collective turning of paper as everybody read the first question.

For the next hour, the room was filled with the scratching of quills, the rustling of paper and coughs and sniffles and creaking desks. Amora found herself getting distracted a couple of times by the invigilator walking up and down the rows, her shoes squeaking along the way. It was only towards the end that she realised the person in the row next to her was actually Leon, but luckily he couldn't say anything seeing as they were in exam conditions.

In fact, Leon hadn't said anything to her at all since the day of Draco's birthday. She assumed he didn't know about Pansy and Kathy, even though the pair weren't a thing. Kathy hadn't mentioned it to Amora and Amora didn't pry, but as far as she knew, the two hadn't met up again. The whole situation was mind blowing to Amora.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Blaise said as the five friends all gathered beneath the tree at lunch.

There was no time to rest, though. Once the lunch hour was up, they had their practical exam. Amora was peering over Pansy's shoulder, the two of them reading from their Charms book and muttering small spells beneath their breaths.

"Flitwick made it out to be horrible," Theo agreed, "But I think they do that so we revise more. I reckon I did well in that exam, actually."

"I think I messed up the fifth question on the counter charm for the summoning charm," Amora admitted worriedly, a frown tugging at her face. "I know it was Depulso, but I completely forgot the wand movement for it and it said to explain it so I just made one up."