NOX° SIRIUS BLACK

Chapter Forty-Five

     "As you can see," Professor Binns informed Calypso's class during her History of Magic lesson when they received examination schedules and details of the procedure for their upcoming O.W.L.s, "your O.W.L.s are spread over two weeks. You will sit for the theory exams in the mornings and the practical in the afternoons. Your practical Astronomy examination will, as usual, take place at night.

     "I must warn you that powerful Anti-Cheating Charms have been applied to your examination papers after the fiasco two years ago involving the Prewett boys. I have full faith that you all will do your best and think very carefully about your futures."

   Calypso gulped and Professor Binns released them from the class. Sirius waited for her in the hallway, leaning casually against it and staring boredly at the people that passed him by. His face lit up when he caught sight of Calypso walking towards him. Calypso ignored the whispers that came from a few other students when they saw the pair approaching each other. Word had spread around school that Sirius and Calypso were in a relationship. While a lot of people weren't surprised in the least, Sirius's fan club were taking the news especially hard and had resorted to glaring at Calypso whenever she was in Sirius's proximity.

     "Excited for O.W.L.s?" Sirius asked, falling into step beside her. Dorcas sent Calypso a wink before she hurried off to walk beside Pandora. 

      "Not in the least." Calypso slipped her hand into Sirius's and he smiled down at her as she did so. "Now that we're dating, does that mean you'll finally start sharing your Potions notes with me? You always take better notes than I do."

      Sirius laughed and dug through his bag to pull out his notes. Calypso gasped happily.

     "I love being your girlfriend." She beamed and she took the notes from him.

     "How's Mary?" Sirius asked. Calypso winced. At the end of May, Mary had been attacked when she was walking through the hallway by Mulciber. Mulciber tried to use some dark hex on her, but Mary was quick to defend herself and ended up putting Mulciber in the infirmary. Ever since the attack, however, Mary had hid herself away and was too afraid to be at Hogwarts. It had taken a lot of convincing to get her to even sit in the Gryffindor common room.

        "Better, I think. She went to all of her classes yesterday and she's been studying with Emmeline and Alice for the exams, so we're hoping she'll want to sit for them." Calypso frowned. 

          "It's too bad Mulciber isn't getting more than a few detentions as punishment. He's a Death Eater in the making." Sirius grumbled. Calypso couldn't disagree with him on that. She hated thinking about which one of her classmates would be capable of joining Voldemort's army, but the Prophet always mentioned how Voldemort was growing more and more powerful. Calypso shook her head and shoved all thoughts of the rebellion to the back of her mind.

     Though their first exam — Theory of Charms — wasn't scheduled until Monday morning, Calypso spent the rest of that night studying with James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter in the common room, though James used a majority of the time to tease Calypso and Sirius by bragging about how he knew the pair of them were going to end up together. 

     The evening before Theory of Charms was a tense one. Dorcas fell asleep by the window after hours of being quizzed by Cassandra and Pandora took breaks from creating a potion that would help mental concentration to help them study.

     None of the fifth years spoke during breakfast the next day either. Even James was quiet while the students who weren't too nervous to eat shoveled food in their mouths.