ELIXIR: A Harry Potter Fan Fiction

Thirty Three. Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.

"I literally have no idea why I'm even bothering to study for this," said Marlowe. He and Sean were thirty five minutes away from their Care of Magical Creatures N.E.W.T. It would be their third exam. They'd had Charms the previous morning, and Defense Against the Dark Arts in the afternoon. Marlowe was mentally exhausted and also, as of very recently, a little jaded about the whole school thing.

"I mean," he said, for the thousandth time, "I have a job. And I don't need any of this to do it."

"That makes one of us," said Sean, who had, to counter Marlowe's extreme laxity, been short and irritable ever since the excitement of the last quidditch match had finished, leaving his mind free to focus on the upcoming exams and – to make matters worse – the Third Task which was just a week away.

"You know you don't even have to take these, right?" Marlowe asked, also for the thousandth time. He had already proposed a trade on several occasions. Sean had not found this little joke very funny.

"I'm not required to," he said again. "But I need to."

"Well aren't you wasting time you should be using to prepare for the third task?"

Sean jabbed his pencil against the open page of his textbook. "It would feel that way," said Sean in a low voice, "if I had any idea what the third task was. Now if you don't mind, some of us would actually like to study."

Marlowe sighed dramatically and slid down low in his seat to pout. Caiti had just left for her potions final which she had actually been excited to take – so excited that she couldn't resist leaving far too early. He'd offered to let her take his potions N.E.W.T. for him, but she had not found the offer any funnier than Sean had. She did, however, promise to help him prepare.

Marlowe opened his notes again and pretended to go over them one last time. It wasn't that he didn't care, really, it was just that, now that he had almost secured a job – he hadn't gotten around to signing the contract yet, though he'd have to do so in the next two days – he'd lost any motivation to prove himself. At least for the time being.

And anyway, he'd had enough of proving himself lately. The whole second half of the year it seemed like it was all he'd done.

He just couldn't focus. And he figured if he didn't know it now, he wasn't going to know it for the exam anyway. He put away his notes again and pulled out the contract. It was a little crumpled from carrying it around in his bag the whole week, so he smoothed it out the best he could on the table and looked at the little line at the bottom where he was expected to sign.

It should have been so easy to do it. He'd wanted this his entire life. He still wanted it. He didn't doubt that, at all.

But he still hadn't brought himself to sign it. He read through the fine print again, the only thing he'd been able to focus on at all. He didn't have any qualms with any of it. It was a three year rookie contract at the minimum pro salary (which was still plenty in his opinion), after which point, they would either offer to renew his contract, moving him off the reserve list, or he would be free to market himself to other teams in the league in the hopes of more money. 

He really couldn't have hoped for better. Still every time he picked up a quill to sign it, he couldn't. He was hoping to talk to Caiti about it that night. He and Sean had a free exam slot that afternoon, but he was sort of wishing Evelyn were free too. She was another person he would have liked to discuss the situation with. Marlowe didn't know anyone else who had such a clear outlook on life. He always felt better after he talked to her.

But Evelyn wasn't free. She had her divination N.E.W.T. And after all, it was Caiti who was to thank for getting him the contract in the first place. If not for her, he wouldn't be staring at that empty signature line at all.