Daydreamer - The Girl Who Lived

Chapter 14

At every moment of the day, I half expected Voldemort to burst through the doors and kill me. This lead me to feel incredibly impressed with myself that I had managed to get through all of my exams without having a meltdown, but with everyday that past, and I was still breathing, I knew that Fluffy was alive and still guarding that trap door.

Not only did we have written exams, which everyone complained about since they were too 'hot' but I couldn't understand why people were complaining, we had practical exams to go along with them. In Charms, we had to make a pineapple tap dance across a desk, while Professor McGonagall had us turn a mouse into a snuffbox, which I did score highly in since my snuffbox was incredibly pretty (given that I seemed to be able to change the colour of things easily). Snape didn't help us at all during our potions exam, breathing down our necks while we brewed a Forgetfulness potion.

Nothing was helped by the stabbing pains across my scar, which meant the back of the left side of my face and down my neck, which hadn't stopped causing me pain since the forest. I couldn't get much sleep at night, due to the old nightmare I've had now reoccurring with the hooded figure making an appearance with the unicorn's blood dripping down his front.

Ron and Hermione were more concerned about studying then anything else, possibly because they hadn't seen what I had in the forest and they didn't have a burning scar that wouldn't let up and give me moments of relief. Voldemort wasn't visiting their dreams, so why would they be worrying about it as much as me?

When Professor Binns called out for us to put down our quills and roll up our parchment after an hour of having to write about the wizard who invented self stirring cauldrons, I cheered with everyone else since they was out last exam and we were free.

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

Hermione has the annoying habit of wanting to talk about the exams afterwards, Ron, however, always felt ill if she did that, so I had to be in the middle and say that Hermione could make one comment that summarised everything and that was it.

"No more studying," Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass as we sat under a tree, watching the twins and Lee interact with the giant squid. "You could look more cheerful, Esme, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."

"My scar keeps hurting." I told him, rubbing my neck. "I just want to know what it means."

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.

"I'm not ill," I dismissed, "I know it's a warning, danger's coming."

I think Ron was too hot to be bothered by anything. "Esme, relax, Hermione's right, 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. And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."

I nodded and didn't say anything else, but that uneasy feeling didn't go away. Ron was right, Hagrid wouldn't let Dumbledore down, Hagrid would never tell anyone how to get past Fluffy... unless...

I suddenly jumped to my feet.

"Where're you going?" Ron asked sleepily.

"We've got to go and see Hagrid, now." I ordered them, already starting to move.

"Why?" Hermione called out, the pair of them hurrying to catch up.

"All Hagrid wants is a dragon, and he happens to meet a guy who has an egg in a pub?" I point out to the pair of them. "Who walks around wit a dragon egg if it's illegal? It's lucky tey found Hagrid!"