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chapter twenty-four,
nosebleed
As the year progressed and fall slowly turned into winter, the second-years' workload only continued to increase. Beatrice was almost glad that her short-lived friendship with the highly academic Lily Evans had been terminated so quickly when she saw the young girl drive Mary Macdonald to the verge of tears over a particularly difficult practice quiz she had made for her friends. Beatrice had never had so much work to complete before and couldn't help but snap at Regulus when he complained about a rather tricky charms assignment ("You think that is hard? Just wait until you're a second year! I have to write five whole paragraphs on Gallagher's law for Friday!), only to be put in her place by an even grumpier Lucius who was all but despairing over a potions essay he failed ("Oh, shut up! Second-year is easy.")
It was likely due to the aforementioned reasons that Beatrice was always feeling weary those days, with a sore head and strange cramps all over her body. Lucius said this was an entirely normal reaction to stress, and if she just got a little more sleep than it would all go away, whilst Alice Fortescue discretely mentioned a more feminine cause to her problems. Beatrice nodded along stoically, but couldn't help but feel there must be a more concrete cause for her troubles than school-work and "lady problems".
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"Miss Salvatore, are you paying attention?"
"Huh?" Beatrice's head snapped up off her desk and Professor McGonagall gave her a sour look.
"As I was saying, you need not stress too much over the evaluation I am about to give you for it will not be included in your final mark. It will, however, give you a good idea of what to expect from your exam in June, and maybe point out what you should be reviewing over the holidays."
Beatrice nodded along wearily with the rest of the class, and cursed herself for having dozed off.
"You can start as soon as I give you your paper, and will have one hour to answer the forty listed problems. Any questions?" James's hand shot up into the air, but Professor McGonagall didn't bother to call on him. "Yes, Mr Potter, it will be multiple choice."
James and Sirius not-so-subtly fist-bumped under their desk, an action which caused Lily to give a rather loud sigh and roll her eyes.
Alice turned to Beatrice with a rather put-off expression on her face as Professor McGonagall began to pass out the tests. "This is rubbish, a test right before the Christmas holidays? They would never get away with this kind of stuff at my old primary school."
