eloquence | sirius black ✓

CHAPTER THREE

THE ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVELS

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ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVELS were something that the fifth years were not looking forward to. They were, of course, hard. No one would deny that it was easy, except for those who probably had already studied harder than James did, that was for sure, as James was quite lazy at studying. Except maybe Transfiguration; he loved that subject dearly and it was his favourite subject, unless Quidditch counted, of course.
That was, at least, James Potter's opinion. O.W.L.s could be worse than last week, when Gilderoy Lockhart somehow signed his name in a large scale at the Quidditch field. That Ravenclaw wasn't the epitome of a true Ravenclaw at all. And now, James Potter was in the middle of a boring Transfiguration lesson.
"And now for the boring lecture of the importance." whispered Sirius to James, who sniggered back at him. In truth, James knew that the tests were important, as they decided which classes he could join for the N.E.W.T.s, but he didn't care about it much, if he had to be honest with himself. He would prefer riding a broom instead of spending countless of hours in the library studying for his exams; that sounded boring to him.
The two chuckled silently as Professor McGonagall began explaining about the importance of O.W.L.s to the students.
"You cannot pass an OWL," said Professor McGonagall grimly, "without serious application, practice and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an OWL in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work. I do expect this class to be working hard for the exams this year, as it will be unlike your previous years' final exams. Much harder, in matter of fact, and will require serious studying, and yes, Mr. Potter, it will need you to actually read the books," said Professor McGonagall sharply at James, who flinched slightly at her words, stifling a groan out of his mouth.
Peter made a sad little disbelieving noise.
"Yes, you too, Pettigrew," said Professor McGonagall, looking down at James' fellow Marauder. "There's nothing wrong with your work except lack of confidence. Therefore, today we are starting on the topic of Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until N.E.W.T. level, but they are still amongst the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your O.W.L.s," she explained.
She was quite right; James found the Vanishing Spells quite difficult. By the end of a double period, neither Sirius nor Remus had managed to vanish the snails on which they were practising, though Sirius said hopefully he thought his looked a bit paler.
James himself, on the other hand, successfully vanished his snail on the third attempt, earning him a ten-point bonus for Gryffindor from Professor McGonagall. He was the only person not given homework; everybody else was told to practise the spell overnight, ready for a fresh attempt on their snails the following afternoon. He grinned, thankful of that fact. Sometimes he loved Transfiguration, and the "sometimes" was when he excelled in class. Of course, it was quite rare, but nonetheless James was thankful about the fact that he was quite intelligent in Transfiguration, though Lily Evans and Diana Allister certainly surpassed his skills in the subject. Them both were usually tied for the top of their year since first year.
The Marauders went out of the classroom quickly, not wanting to stay there any longer.
"Still can't believe how bloody James Potter did it on his third try," said Sirius, snorting. "Evans couldn't do it. But I must admit -- Allister did it on her second try. James's got competition!" he exclaimed, and James groaned at that. He knew about Diana Allister and how intelligent she was, and quite frankly, James was surprised that she wasn't sorted to Ravenclaw, but then again, Ravenclaws didn't always have to be intelligent. That was just a stereotype, after all. Same case with Gryffindors, in matter of fact. Not all Gryffindors were brave and daring; they had their fears too. Everyone had fears.
"He's the best in our grade in Transfiguration," said Remus. "Almost tied with Diana Allister. Diana's a few points ahead."
James let out a light grunt.
To nobody's surprise at all, especially the Marauders; they expected it already, Professor Sprout started their lesson by lecturing them about the importance of OWLs. James wished that all the teachers would stop doing this; he was slowly getting sick of it, a feeling that worsened dramatically when Professor Sprout gave them yet another essay at the end of class. James hated writing; his hand got tired easily sometimes, and he was very exhausted from all the writing. Remus appeared to be exhausted too, and he wasn't the one who usually got tired when it came to work. Tired and smelling strongly of dragon dung, Professor Sprouts preferred type of fertilizer, the Gryffindors trooped back up to the castle an hour and a half later, none of them talking very much; it had been another long day. They were very tired about it, and they wanted a rest.
But his week had become better when it was time for Quidditch tryouts. Quidditch had always been James's favourite. He was, after all, the Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. And the newly appointed Quidditch Captain. Quidditch Captain!
But being the Captain didn't mean that James could skip the tryouts, unfortunately. He had to go through the members and pick out who would be the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. It was his duty as the captain, after all. To go through the tryouts and pick who he thought was the best one for the position. When they left the Gryffindor table five minutes later to head down to the Quidditch pitch, they passed Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadowes. They looked like they were going to try out. Marlene was definitely going to try out for Seeker, and James thought that Dorcas might try out for the position of Chaser; she was quick, and that would be a great thing as a Chaser, as you had to quickly pass the Quaffle around.
As James had expected, the trials took most of the morning. Half of Gryffindor House seemed to have turned up, from nervous-looking third years to seventh years who were trying to look intimidating, which didn't work for James.
They were just trying to look intimidating, after all, but James knew that they were actually not as intimidating as they seem.
James had decided to start with a basic test, asking all applicants for the team to divide into groups of ten and fly once around the pitch. It was quite simple, and his previous captain, who has recently graduated, had done the same. This was a good decision: the first ten was made up of second-years, and it could not have been plainer that they had hardly ever flown before. Only one boy managed to remain airborne for more than a few seconds, and he was so surprised he promptly crashed into one of the goal posts. But one girl did stay airborne for nearly a minute, and luckily when she fell, people helped to bring her to the Infirmary so that Madam Pomfrey could take care of her.
The second group was consisted of ten of the silliest girls James had ever encountered, who he could refer to as girly girls, giggling with makeup on. James sighed, knowing that he had to deal with them, unfortunately. After a while, he ushered them out and they did, though some did so with their arms folded. James couldn't blame them for being angry for being kicked out, but they weren't the perfect people for the Quidditch team, and it was surely a decision he did not regret at all. In matter of fact, they annoyed the hell out of him.
The third group had a pile-up halfway around the pitch. Most of the fourth group had come with broomsticks, luckily.
After two hours, many complaints, (a crap ton, in matter of fact, and James was sweating after dealing with them) and several tantrums, one involving a crashed Comet Broom and several broken teeth and possibly arms or legs, James didn't know for sure, James had finally picked the members for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.
James himself was going to be Chaser, along with Dorcas Meadowes and the former Gryffindor Quidditch Team Captain's brother, Alexander Wood, whom he called Alex.
The Beaters were going to be Sirius Black and John Ackerman; they were a great team together, fortunately. Then you had the Seeker who of course was Marlene McKinnon, who had beat her record on catching the Golden Snitch last year, which they had cheered on about. And lastly, they had their Keeper; Rosiana "Rose" Smithers, a very kind fourth-year with black hair and brown eyes, and a heart-shaped face; she was very sweet, and James had been friends with her for quite a long time by then.
"That's my final decision," said James. "Hoped you liked the choices, 'cause this is what we all are going to stick with for the rest of the year. Actually, make that our whole Hogwarts year, which technically includes next year, but that's a whole different topic."
Neither of his chosen Beaters had the old brilliance of Michael Thompson and William Waterdove, but he was still reasonably pleased with them: Sirius Black (James clapped for him) and John Ackerman, who James was very pleased with.
He thought that John was a very good Beater, in matter of fact, and he could see that the Gryffindor Quidditch Team would do better that year compared to the last year; Marlene nearly fainted which resulted to the Slytherins winning the Quidditch Cup, as Marlene flailed to catch the Snitch. James wouldn't want that to happen again, at all.
After fixing the time of their first full practice for the following Thursday, the Marauders bade goodbye to the rest of the team and headed off toward the castle.
"Congratulations, new Beater." said Remus, smirking at Sirius.
"Please. I have always been a good Beater, Lupin," said Sirius with a smirk. "Don't I deserve a better compliment than that?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Peter let out a soft chuckle and shook his head, and Sirius joined in laughing with him. James grinned at the two, happy that they were still getting along well, after all those years.
It was certainly going to be an eventful year.

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q: current read?

a: some philosophy book i have to read for uni

i've decided that i'm too lazy and have no time to edit this, so ima just republish everything as it is. feel free to ignore any plot holes. cheers!