𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐞 • 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘰𝘺

We Have To Save The Stone

Looking back at it, I don't quite remember how I had managed to get through the exams when I half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment. Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door. 

It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where we did our written papers. We had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti-cheating spell. 

We had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called us one by one into his class to see if we could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched us turn a mouse into a snuffbox- points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. Snape made us all nervous, breathing down our necks while we tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion. 

I did the best I could, trying to ignore the feeling of connection I had felt in the forest. I talked to my brothers about it, and Theo nodded along with me.

"I felt him too," I remember him saying. "I remember the feeling deep inside of me. It felt nice, but I knew it was wrong."

Tom hadn't felt it, fortunately, but he still tried to help us the best way he could. He would bring us chocolates, or tea, and dissimulate it as 'trying to calm the exam nerves,' but I knew his true intentions, and I smiled every time.

Maybe it was because they hadn't seen what Harry, Theo, and I had seen in the forest,or because they didn't have haunting nightmares of their father, but Ron, Tom, and Hermione didn't seem as worried about the Stone as I was. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn't keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn't have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to.

Our very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and we'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until our exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told us to put down our quills and roll up our parchment, I couldn't help cheering with the rest. 

"That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as we joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds. "I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."

"You do too much," I told her with a smile, as I stretched. "I hope you take this week off to relax."

She smiled at me. "Don't worry, of course I will. Even though we still have loads of work to do."

Hermione always liked to go through our exam papers afterward, but Ron said this made him feel ill, so we wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid, which was basking in the warm shallows. 

"No more studying," Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass. "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet." 

Harry was rubbing his forehead. "I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting - it's happened before, but never as often as this."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Tom suggested. 

"I'm not ill," said Harry. "I think it's a warning... it means danger's coming...." 

None of us could get worked up, it was too hot.

"Harry, relax," I said, "the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry."