The next week was gone before I knew it, and exams were upon us. I wasn't incredibly nervous about whether I would pass, because Wren had made sure we spent over a month studying, but tests always make me stressed. I suppose all the anxiety that had built up throughout the year didn't help.
I breezed through Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Transfiguration. It didn't take much to realize that my strong suit in the wizarding world were spells. After I finished an exam, and sat waiting for my classmates to complete theirs, I would try to use nonverbal magic again, with very little success. However, it was encouraging to see my quill lift a quarter of an inch into the air just by thinking the spell and focusing.
Potions was hard. I performed on an average level, really, but I was just happy to be done with that class for the year. History of Magic was boring, like normal. I've never liked history much, and this was no exception. The only history books I enjoyed were those children's books that outline daily life of historical people.
Herbology, our last exam on Friday, wasn't hard. That might have been due to the fact that Professor Longbottom had been an outstanding teacher all year, because I don't think I had any particular aptitude for the subject myself.
"One whole week of freedom," Albus said, sighing contentedly, as we strolled back to the castle after our exam.
"One week of no studying," I added, grinning.
"One week until we get our results," Wren said nervously.
"Hey, you did fine," I said, smiling reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. Just relax."
We walked up to the common room, and found Luke trying to teach the other Gryffindor first years how to play BS. I had seen him doing tricks with his deck of cards before, but to my knowledge he'd never actually played any card games with anyone.
Wren, Albus, and I joined them on the floor, and I took over the explaining from Luke, who was hopelessly blabbering about how, "You could just say liar but that's not as fun," and not telling anyone the actually rules.
"Ok, Luke, shut up," I said, drawing laughs from the group. I took a seat between Eric and Luke before continuing. "Luke's passing out all the cards, and then you're going to look at your cards, without letting anyone else see. Luke, you go first so they can see us do it."
"All right." He finished passing out the cards.
"Luke will put down an ace, and say, 'One ace.'"
"Or two, or three, or four."
"Right. But he could be lying. If you think he's lying, say, 'BS,' and he'll flip the card-"
"Or cards," Luke said.
"Yeah, or cards, over. If he was lying, he takes the stack. If he wasn't, you take it."
"So...we all put down aces?" Iris asked, frowning.
"No," Luke said, rolling his eyes. "Astra will do twos, then Eric does threes, then you do fours, and it'll keep going till someone runs out of cards."
"That might take a while," Rose pointed out.
I shrugged. "Yeah. It's really fun."
YOU ARE READING
Star of Gryffindor - Book 1
FanfictionAstra Lewis is not normal. In fact, some would go as far as to say she's a freak. Strange things happen around her, things that no one can explain. But maybe she's not a freak. Maybe she's just different. When a woman with flaming red hair arrives...
