good things fall apart • sirius black

Out of hand

Exams were finally upon them, but that wasn't all, for Gryffindor's last match against Ravenclaw had also arrived too.

With their winning streak so far, the lions were in to win the house cup after this match, but if they didn't, the eagles would take the trophy as they'd won their other two matches as well. It was fair to say that everyone was tense for the game, on top of exam stress, and all the awkward Gryffindor practices recently.

After the incident with Darren Wayne, Ellie didn't particularly like the idea of being ordered around by him, and the two black haired boys were no happier either. Sirius spoke back constantly, usually ending up in a heated argument, and if he wasn't disagreeing with the Captain, he wasn't paying any attention whatsoever. James also had trouble cooperating with Darren, but it was more because he didn't agree with the game plays, always interrupting with strategies he thought were better. The three Marauders just made practices difficult for everyone, and they never got much done.

It got so bad, that Darren couldn't even look at Ellie without turning vibrantly red in embarrassment for how he'd reacted, not to mention the fact he was still wearing a hat all the time because his hair was still growing back - something Sirius never failed to mock him about. The sixth year had tried to apologise to Ellie, saying that he'd just been caught off guard, but she hadn't wanted to hear it. In fact, deep down, she was quite glad of an excuse to get distance from him.

Not surprisingly though, this lack of team unity didn't reflect well in the game, and for another year running, Gryffindor didn't win the house cup.

If James wasn't trying to get Mable and Sturgis to try different strategies halfway through the game, throwing them all off, Ellie was refusing to fly close enough to Darren to deter bludgers heading for him. And Sirius just relaxed the whole game out of spite.

However, there wasn't much time to dwell on the loss, for they were quickly swept back up into their exam timetable.

On the morning of one of their written exams, all the fifth year students congregated outside of the entrance to the Great Hall, waiting to be called in so they could take their seats. Even after their practical Potions exam yesterday, Ellie was feeling confident for their next one, because despite it supposedly being impossible, her and Sirius had managed to cheat. Perhaps not the fairest way of ensuring they got good grades, but the handsome boy had been adamant about getting her into N.E.W.T level next year, for he didn't want her absent from the lessons, and so drastic measures had to be taken.

They had made sure they got benches next to each other (though that was something they'd done in every exam), and they had shared ingredients right under the examiners' noses. Sirius worked a lot slower than he usually did so that Ellie could copy every one of his movements, and she made 'notes' on the missing steps of the potion they were working on, just happening to put it in his eye line. It was one of the simplest forms of cheating, but they got away with it so easily they were both shocked.

"Are you two actually gonna know any of the content? Have you at least briefly looked at the textbook this morning?" Remus asked the pair as they all huddled together, waiting for their exam, surrounded by their year group who were all anxiously chatting with each other too.

"Don't panic Moony, it's all up here." Ellie replied swiftly, patting Sirius on the top of his head in the process, but someone nearby scoffed.

At first, she'd thought it was perhaps Remus, or maybe James, but the sound had come from behind her, and she whirled around to see who it had been. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to come face to face with Severus Snape.

"Is there a problem, Sniv?" The Slytherin rolled his eyes at her words.

"Not exactly. I just find it odd how you can say you're prepared for an exam in Defence Against the Darks Arts, when clearly you're not talented at martial magic."