Miss Quinn

145 ~ McGonagall Saves the Day

Emma and Venus spent most of Saturday and Sunday revising for Potions. Emma didn't really need to, she was pretty confident in her abilities in that particular subject, but Venus needed the help. And so did Harry and Ron, it seemed, since they kept asking Emma to double check that they were memorizing the correct stuff.

The morning written portion was easy as pie. All Emma had to do was describe what effects potions had, what certain ingredients were part of similar potions, and match names to definitions.

The afternoon practical was even simpler. They were tasked with brewing a potion Emma had perfected in third year. She finished long before Professor Marchbanks said, "Step away from your cauldrons, please, the examination is over." Emma corked her sample flask confident that she'd received an 'O'.

"Only four exams left," said Parvati Patil wearily as they headed back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Only!" said Hermione snappishly. "I've got Arithmancy and it's probably the toughest subject there is!"

Nobody was foolish enough to snap back, so she was unable to vent her spleen on any of them and was reduced to telling off some first-years for giggling too loudly in the common room.

Care of Magical Creatures was on Tuesday, and Emma wasn't too worried about it, seeing as she wouldn't need to continue her lessons in that subject beyond this year. The practical examination took place in the afternoon on the lawn on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where students were required to correctly identify the Knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs (the trick was to offer them all milk in turn: Knarls, highly suspicious creatures whose quills had many magical properties, generally went berserk at what they saw as an attempt to poison them); then demonstrate correct handling of a Bowtruckle; feed and clean out a Fire Crab without sustaining serious burns; and choose, from a wide selection of food, the diet they would give a sick unicorn.

Emma could see Hagrid watching anxiously out of his cabin window. When Emma's examiner, the older man that examined Harry in Charms and DADA, smiled at her and told her she could leave, Emma gave Hagrid a fleeting thumbs-up before heading back to the castle.

The Astronomy theory paper on Wednesday morning went well enough. Emma was not convinced she had got the names of all Jupiter's moons right, but she named all the constellations correctly based on demigod knowledge. They had to wait until evening for their practical Astronomy; the afternoon was devoted instead to Divination.

Emma made up random visions from the crystal ball, read tea leaves with minimal accuracy, and informed her examiner that she should be expecting something incredibly strange to happen to her in the coming months. The thing about Divination was that as long as one sounded confident in their predictions, they usually were graded well. The witch examining Emma seemed satisfied with her performance.

"Well, we were always going to fail that one," said Ron gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase. He had just informed them how he had told the examiner in detail about the ugly man with a wart on his nose in his crystal ball, only to look up and realise he had been describing his examiner's reflection.

"How'd you do, V?" Emma asked her blonde friend.

"Pretty good, I think. Tea leaves are easy, and the other stuff I just made up some things."

"We shouldn't have taken the stupid subject in the first place," said Harry. Ron nodded in agreement.

"Still, at least we can give it up now."