Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) - Book One (Marauder Era)

Chapter Eighty-Seven - Exams

After Defense on Friday, Remus disappeared into his books. He sat on the floor of the dorm with books everywhere as he went over notes, took new notes, clutched at his hair, and wondered if it would be easier to just become a feral wolf in the forest. His friends tried to convince him he'd do fine but after Remus glared at James with practically full on wolf angry eyes they decided it'd be better to leave him be.

At Study Group everyone was present, and everyone minus Silverlocke was stressed out. It was as if suddenly everyone realized this was it, the last weekend before exams. The exams that would determine whether or not they'd progress on to the second year. Deep down everyone knew they'd at least do decently well enough to pass but there was always that fear. Plus this sort of set the bar for the rest of their time at Hogwarts. After everyone returned to their common rooms Remus and Lily stayed up. They weren't the only ones: the common room was full of students studying.

Lily had made cards with various questions on them and they divided them up, shooting the questions at each other. They went through all the various subjects, going from Transfiguration to History to Potions rapidly.

"Who discovered the magical properties of moondew?" Lily asked.

"Cliodna," Remus replied immediately. "What did Hengist of Woodcroft do?"

"He's the one that founded Hogsmeade?" Remus nodded and Lily smiled, taking another card. "What is origanum dictamnus and what is its main use?"

Remus's eyes flickered to the ceiling as he thought. "That would be..." Crap, what was it? "Erm... oh!" He jabbed his finger in the air. "It's dittany, and healing. Name the five main stars of the constellation cassiopeia?"

"Alpha and beta," she said, rubbing her forehead. "Ummm... beta... delta... gamma... um..." She began flapping her hand as she tried to kick her brain into gear. "Epsilon!" she practically shouted, snapping her fingers. "What is Levina Monkstanley known for?"

Remus bent forward, trying to pull the name out of the depths of his memory. "Um. Um." He pressed his fingertips against his temple, closing his eyes. "Levina Monkstanley... shoot... she... did something with charms..." He took in a deep breath, beginning to smack his head, trying to shake loose the answer, feeling a tremor of panic. What if this was the most important question on one of the exams? And he couldn't remember? And failed? And then when he tried to come back his mother said 'look at this terrible grade it's pointless to go back'? The panic made it harder to remember. "Um... L--Lumos?"

"Yes." He breathed a sigh of relief, slumping down. "Remus... are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said, plucking another card from the pile. "What--"

"You started looking rather ill just a moment ago," Lily interrupted him.

He gave her a rather exasperated look. "I mean, I want to pass everything."

Lily toyed with the card in her hand. "Yeah, that's true. Sorry, I just don't want you pushing yourself. You were just in the hospital earlier this week. I got worried when you looked--well, not... very good."

"I'm fine," he promised, brushing his fringe back. "If it gets to be too much I'll lay down."

Lily smiled. "All right, then. Go on, ask me the next question."

That night Remus stayed up as late as he possibly could, doing just what he said he wouldn't, stuffing his face with chocolate in hopes it would help keep him up. He wound up passing out at around four in the morning, waking up way later than he wanted. He grumbled at himself, quickly went to the bathroom, then just climbed back into bed to resume studying, completely losing track of time until the other Marauders came in, rather concerned since he hadn't shown up for lunch.