Jupiter | Harry James Potter

xvii ; the exams

As Exam Week started, the euphoria from winning the Quidditch cup and the relief that being close with Harry again was quickly short-lived. And of course, the unknown factor of my supposed "father" didn't help. The stress of exams mixed with my family made me worry about the chance of the dreams returning to me.

The common room was always crowded with NEWT and OWL students, leaving the rest of us to either be forced to sit on the floor or in our dorms. My dorm was practically un-focus-able with Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown in it. The two of them were always crying or chattering excitedly over Professor Trelawney's stupid predictions, so that left the floor.

"Have any of you seen my copy of Numerology and Grammatica?" Hermione asked, searching through her pile of books that were scattered around our small corner of the common room.

"Yeah. I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading." Ron smirked quietly. Percy had set a very strict "no non-academic talk" in the common room until exams were over, and none of us were going to risk losing any more house points than we already had.

There was a rustle at the window above us, causing several older Gryffindor's to scowl at us. Hedwig was standing on the sill, a letter clutched in her beak.

"It's from Hagrid." Harry whispered, grabbing the letter from her and ripping it open. "Buckbeak's execution. It's set for the sixth."

"That's the day we finish exams." Hermione muttered, still searching for her book.

"We've got to do something." Ron sighed quietly.

"I don't know if we can." I said softly. "My uncle isn't exactly forgiving. If he wants to kill Buckbeak, he'll find a way."

"But he can't!" Ron groaned loudly. "I've spent ages reading up stuff for him!"

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Ronald." Percy snapped from the other side of the room, pushing up his glasses.

"But-"

"Do you want to make it twenty?" Percy asked.

"No." Ron sighed, letting his head fall into his hands.

"We should go visit Hagrid at the least. He's got to be devastated, we all know how much he loves Buckbeak." I whispered.

"We aren't allowed to leave the grounds, you know that." Hermione muttered, her once organized study space slowly becoming more chaotic as she continued her search for her book.

"We'll just use Harry's cloak." I shrugged quietly, looking over to Harry, who winced.

"Yeah, about that..." He sighed softly, his lips pursed.

"What did you do now, Potter?" I hissed. He leaned back slightly as if he was expecting me to hit him.

"It's in the One-Eyed Witch passageway." He quickly murmured. I could barely make out what he was saying, and now because it was quiet.

"Let's just go get it, then." I whispered.

"I tried." He scoffed quietly. "Since Lupin took my map, I didn't see Snape nearby. Now he's suspicious of me and he's been guarding it ever since."

"Why'd you leave it there, anyways?" I muttered angrily, and I watched as Harry began to twirl his quill between his fingers as he looked down to the floor.

"It's a long story." He mumbled nervously.

"Tell me or I'll un-forgive you." I hissed, and his green eyes quickly darted back up to mine.

"Well, when you were rightfully mad at me, I went to Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione, and we... ran into Malfoy." He sighed.

"Keep going." I uttered. He looked nervously over to Ron and Hermione, who had stopped her search for her book briefly to pay attention to our conversation.