The Keeper

Chapter 51

I listened to Miss Jackson by Panic! at the Disco and LOLO, Migraine by Twenty One Pilots and Wish That You Were Here by Florence + The Machine.

Please vote and comment <3

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I woke up immediately due to a large amount of pressure on my abdomen. I sat up, terrified that something was wrong. Turned out I was wrong. Sasha was lying across my torso, flanked by Aleeza and Louise either side of my bed.

"Oh good," Aleeza said. "You're awake!"

I groaned, lay back and pulled my duvet over my eyes. "Why? Why am I awake when I could be sleeping?"

"Because breakfast started thirty minutes ago and we get our results in less than two hours," Sasha explained nonchalantly, picking at her nails. She knew it would get my attention.

My eyes widened and I threw the duvet down. Pushing Sasha off of me, I brushed my teeth and dressed faster than I had ever done before. I couldn't be late. As I was hurriedly pulling on my socks, I realised that I never usually slept in on a big day unless I was really happy. I smiled. Gryffindor's victory and the subsequent time spent with Oliver had kept me content enough to let me sleep in.

"Okay, I'm ready," I announced. 

The trio leant against the door frame, unimpressed. I brushed past them and pretended that I wasn't the reason we were all late for breakfast. But it appeared that many other students had also either overslept or decided to skip receiving their results in public. The majority seemed to want to get it over and done with, including us.

I wasn't very hungry but Sasha made sure that I ate a bacon sandwich. My stomach loves to be difficult when I'm nervous. Somehow, I managed to keep the food down long enough until the professors filtered all of the fifth years into the exam room.

We were told to sit in our houses. We managed to sit in a group of four desks and Oliver weaved his way through the crowd to sit on my right. Smiling, he gave me a thumbs up.

"Good luck," he mouthed and I reciprocated.

The room was filled with soft chatter until it was pierced by Professor McGonagall's sharp voice. "Silence!" she ordered. "Your results are in the envelopes here. When you receive your envelope, do not open it until we instruct you to do so."

Dozens of sepia envelopes started to fly overhead, darting onto the wooden desks below. I resisted the temptation to bite my nails as I waited. Eventually, a dainty envelope slid in front of me. I wanted to open it but my fear of Professor McGonagall overpowered that quite easily. However, I did pick it up. My fingers were trembling. I glanced at my friends, hoping for some sort of communication to ease my nerves. But they were all staring down at their envelopes too.

It seemed like an eternity before Professor Flitwick announced that we could open our envelopes. I ripped it open and pulled out the parchment inside. When I finally, finally read my results, I involuntarily let out a breath.

All Outstanding.

I could've cried from a mixture of pure relief and overwhelming happiness. Other students dotted across the hall also experienced strong emotions. I bit my lip as I heard a few muffled sobs but felt a bit better when some people started cheering.

Ecstatic, I looked around at my friends. They all had massive grins on their faces too. My chest swelled with pride.

"Congratulations!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed, mostly as a way to get us to be quiet. Her commanding voice did just that. "Please leave the hall one row at a time. There will be no lessons today-" she raised her hand to combat the sudden cries of happiness. "There will be no lessons today so you may stay in your common rooms or the Great Hall."

She didn't bother trying to suppress the surge of noise, instead striding to the back of the hall to start dismissing students.

We were sitting closer to the front which left us time to talk amongst ourselves. Louise spoke first.

"Stupid History of Magic, I swear," she groaned, waving her results at us. She had received mostly Es and Os, with a single A in History of Magic. "I know it's because I forgot everything about the warlocks from Liechtenstein."

Aleeza brandished her parchment to us. "At least you only got one A," she said. "I got two! Ancient Runes and, of course, History of Magic." Slipping the parchment into her pocket, she turned to Sasha and asked her what she got.

"All Outstanding except for one!" she announced proudly. I smiled, also proud of her. "I'm so happy but at the same time, I'm very tempted to go up to Professor Sinistra and ask her to round up my Astronomy grade."

"Y/N?" Louise asked. "What about you?"

A blush crept onto my cheeks. I never really liked receiving boatloads of compliments or being perceived as a show-off. But after Louise asked again, I gingerly showed them my results. I couldn't help but blush harder when their mouths dropped.

"Straight Os?" Oliver exclaimed. "How on earth? Y/N, that's amazing!"

The girls joined in with his praise. They all gave me a big hug which saved me from melting into a puddle of embarrassment.

"I'm too ashamed to show you what I got now," Oliver said, punching my shoulder lightly. "But if everybody else has, I guess I should."

He showed me his parchment for a few seconds before putting it in his pocket. Mostly Os, with the odd E or A. My eyes widened.

I kissed him on both cheeks. "That's so good! I'm so proud of you!" I said, something that was confirmed by my friends.

Oliver beamed and took my hand as Professor McGonagall dismissed our row of desks from the hall. "We have a lot of celebrating to do."