Ravenclaw's Shadow

Chapter 61

"Team meeting," Tilly sighs, swinging her feet onto the table, "which means bad news."

It's late February and our testing has been scheduled and rescheduled four times now. Due to a new enclosure being put up during the summer they've brought graduation forward to the first of May so that we're all ready to help, should we choose to stay on.

"It might not be bad news this time," Lucas points out. No one replies. Selena walks in with our mentors and Kim gives me a sly thumbs up, which causes us to sit up, interested.

"Right, guys," Selena says, pulling a chair out and sitting on it backwards, "finally, some good news."

"Finally," Tilly says, "hit me with it."

"Your testing starts tomorrow," Selena says, "you have six weeks of supervised activities, then two weeks of writing and paper work and all that fun stuff, then graduation. So, today is your last official day with your mentors."

"Well, shit," Tilly says, "that's unexpected."

"Will they be with us?" I ask, "during the testing?"

"Nope, you're on your own," Selena says, "but honestly, I think you'll all be fine. So, go do your last day, get a good nights sleep and prepare for eight weeks of stress!"

"Shit," Tilly repeats.

"Come on, Til," Charlie says, "we've got some dung to shift."

"What are we on?" I ask Kim as we walk outside.

"Baby duty again," she says, "we get to spend the day cleaning out their cages and forcing dead rats down their throats."

***

The next morning I'm woken by Tilly coming in, fully dressed, and pale.

"What will I do if I fail?" she asks, opening my curtains, despite my protests, "I'll have no future."

"You'll be fine," I say, dragging myself out of bed, "Kim said we have to wear dress robes to graduation."

"Fucking what?" Tilly asks, "dress robes?"

"Yeah," I say, stepping into the bathroom to get dressed, "you know, hair up, makeup on, that kind of thing."

"Yeah, nah," Tilly says, "I don't swing that shit."

I laugh at her and pull my hair into a ponytail.

"Let's ask the others," I say.

"Aurelia is right," Charlie confirms after we pose the question at breakfast, "it's tradition."

Tilly is looking at us all in disgust, making us laugh even more.

"Right, well, let's get this testing on the road," she says, "no need to dress up if I fail."

The testing is a lot like what we've been doing, except the examiners keep their distance and observe, while we just work as part of the team. I can't believe they're going to spend a whole six weeks doing it, but Charlie explains that it's about consistency. It's easy to keep up a pretense for a week, less so for six. By week four I can see his point. We've been trying so hard to impress them that we're burning out.

"This is when the real testing starts," Kim says after we confess this to her, "you'll start to relax a bit more, maybe make mistakes. Making mistakes is fine, as long as after that you react properly. As long as no one is seriously injured, you'll be fine."

I don't find this as comforting as I think she feels it would be.

"Aurelia, you're with us today!" Jonathon, an older American guy, calls to me. I walk over to their group and the examiners that have been tailing me fall into step behind us.