Miss Quinn

85 ~ Exams

The Gryffindors' euphoria at finally winning the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week. Even the weather seemed to be celebrating; as June approached, the days became cloudless and sultry, and all anybody felt like doing was strolling onto the grounds and flopping down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake.

But they couldn't. Exams were nearly upon them, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows. Even Fred and George Weasley had been spotted working; they were about to take their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels). Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), the highest qualification Hogwarts offered. As Percy hoped to enter the Ministry of Magic, he needed top grades. He was becoming increasingly edgy, and gave very severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the common room in the evenings. In fact, the only person who seemed more anxious than Percy was Hermione.

Harry, Venus, and Ron had given up asking her how she was managing to attend several classes at once, but they couldn't restrain themselves when they saw the exam schedule she had drawn up for herself. The first column read:

Monday

9 o'clock, Arithmancy

9 o'clock, Transfiguration

Lunch

1 o'clock, Charms

1 o'clock, Ancient Runes

"Hermione?" Ron said cautiously, because she was liable to explode when interrupted these days. "Er -- are you sure you've copied down these times right?"

"What?" snapped Hermione, picking up the exam schedule and examining it. "Yes, of course I have."

"Is there any point asking how you're going to sit for two exams at once?" said Harry. Emma rolled her eyes, she'd thought they'd given that up.

"No," said Hermione shortly. "Have any of you seen my copy of Numerology and Gramatica?"

"Oh, yeah, I borrowed it for a bit of bedtime reading," said Ron, but very quietly. Hermione started shifting heaps of parchment. Emma pulled the book out from under Hermione's bag and handed it to her.

"Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed," Hagrid told them in Care of Magical Creatures, bending low on the pretense of checking that Harry's flobberworm was still alive. "Bin cooped up too long. But still...we'll know day after tomorrow -- one way or the other --"

They had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified disaster for Harry and Ron. Try as Harry might, he couldn't get his Confusing Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of vindictive pleasure, scribbled something that looked suspiciously like a zero onto his notes before moving away. Ron on the other hand, made his too thick, and Snape shook his head and mocked Ron of his lack of skill.

The only person Snape seemed genuinely pleased with was Emma, which was not surprising. She'd been successfully passing his Advanced Potions lesson all year, and was top of the class. For the most part, Emma tried to keep her powers on the downlow, but Potions came so naturally to her that it was hard not to show off at least a little.

After her regular Potions exam was her Advanced Potions exam. So instead of going up to the common room with her friends, she stayed in the dungeons and waited for the rest of the sixth year class to file in. The one thing about this class: it was N.E.W.T. level. That meant Emma would be taking her first N.E.W.T. in third year, something that was very rare. So once the rest of the class was there, Snape told them they'd be making a potion called the elixir to induce euphoria, which would lessen the effects of depression for a short while. Emma opened her book and set up her cauldron. The potion didn't need very many ingredients, and was not particularly difficult, especially compared to the Draught of Living Death. Emma prepared her ingredients, and then began to make the potion. When she was finished, Snape came around and looked into her cauldron. He nodded his head, poured some of the potion into a flask, and wrote something on his clipboard. Then he moved away, and Emma breathed a deep sigh of relief.