Second Year, Exams and Electives
Tuesday April 17th 1973
The end of the year sprint had begun again. Days seemed to speed up, jogging along at an ever accelerating pace. Examinations would only start mid-May, yet they had already overtaken all other topics of conversation. Quidditch practice had been put on a low flame; all matches had already been played, therefore the team captain, Adil Deshmakh, didn`t deem it necessary for them to continue practicing at such a consistent schedule. Marlene thought this was rather tactless; only because they had won the Inter-House Cup, didn`t mean they should suddenly loose the reins. Now especially was the time to get ahead of the game; come up with new tactics and improve their flying techniques.
Besides, without the consistency of quidditch practice on Saturday morning, Marlene felt like her time to exert all her frustration and energy had been taken away. With the constant pressure of revision, she really needed a place to put all that pent up anxiety. Fortunately, she wasn`t the only one who thought about it that way, for the only person who was more fanatic when it came to quidditch was James. When she headed towards the quidditch pitch on her own, he almost always was already there, sometimes with Peter sitting in the spectator stands, other times alone.
Mary teased Marlene that the only reason she continued to head out towards the pitch in the dead of morning was to fawn over James. This couldn`t be further from the truth. Marlene accepted that Mary would probably never understand her pure admiration for quidditch; the way it made her feel completely at home.
After a couple of mornings waving cordially at eachother, she had started training together with James. And, to her surprise, it had actually been rather nice. She was afraid she might feel nervous in his presence and make an absolute prat out of herself, but luckily that wasn`t the case. Those butterflies and weak knees Mary kept talking about when it came to Sirius, were holding themselves at bay. It was a nice change of pace to see James without Sirius attached to his hip; he was a lot more considerate and less haughty, the way he could be when he was trying to impress his friends. The two of them got along quite well actually. Most of the time Marlene forgot she was supposed to fancy James; they joked around like friends. At first Marlene felt distraught by the fact that James didn`t necessarily see her as a girl, but more so as a teammate or a comrade. Yet after she had gotten over that first bump, and banned Mary`s comments to the back of her mind, it actually made her feel more at ease. Unlike so many others, James didn`t undermine her skills, just because she was a girl. He wasn`t any less rough with her and wasn`t scared to be blunt or curse his head off. In many ways he reminded her a great deal of Danny.
It was especially nice to sit in the stands after practice and share some sandwiches that Peter had brought along; the three of them enjoying the crisp morning air. Marlene often took her sweater off, despite it being too cold; it felt nice to have the biting morning wind on her skin and cool it down from the exerted energy. Peter appeared a lot less nervous without Sirius around, probably because Sirius kept picking on him whenever he got the chance; Peter being the chosen laughingstock of the marauders. When around the two boys, Marlene felt like she didn`t compare herself as much to them as she did to Mary or Lily.
Lily had made their entire study group, this included Remus, a strict studying schedule to tow them through the last weeks of their second year. Though it was a bit excessive and annoying at points, secretly, Marlene felt grateful she had done it; planning not being her strongest suit. The more pressing point at hand was the fact that Lily had once again spiralled into a complete batty case of exam stress, contaminating anyone who was around her with it. As a result, Marlene was once again getting regular migraines and bad ones at that.
She was laying on top of her duvet, History of Magic book splayed open in front of her, but not taking anything in she was reading. A dull ache throbbed behind one of her eyes, sometimes splitting in sharp sprouts and radiating though her entire head. With her fingertips she was boring into her temple, making tiny circles. Cat was laying against her side, kneading into her legs, its nails pressing down hard trough the fabric of her school tights. It hurt, but Marlene didn`t try to pry the claws out of her skin, it was sort of nice to have another pain to distract her from the one behind her eyes. The cat kept on kneading, purring loudly as it perforated her skin.
`What on earth!`
Marlene stopped the circular motion she was performing on her temple and looked up from her textbook; she had a feeling she knew what this was about.
Looking absolutely disgusted, Mary came out of their bathroom, holding a bucket at arms length.
`Would any of you care to explain this?` she asked, gagging and putting the bucket on the floor.
Marlene sat up, `They`re my Gillyweeds.`
`Your what?` Mary replied, screwing up her face.
`Gilllyweeds.` Lily now spoked up, emerging from behind a large pile of books, wand stuck in her hair; one of these days she`d set her hair on fire, Marlene thought. `We examined them in Herbology.`
`I know that!` Mary replied bratty, squinting her eyes. `I`m just confused why they were in our bloody bath?` she turned to face Marlene. `Miss McKinnon? Care to explain?`
Marlene swallowed and resisting the urge to flinch from a sharp pain that shot to the back of her head.
`I`m propagating them. To take home.` she replied.
Mary raised her eyebrows. Last week they had covered some water plants in Herbology; one of them being Gillyweed. They had been handed some of the weeds to examine up close and pass around; Marlene had been the last one in line and, since she hadn`t known what to do with them, she had just pocketed the Gillyweed. Since it would be a shame to just throw them out, she had decided to grow them in a bucket, thinking they might come in handy this summer if she wanted to go swimming in the Loch.
`Ok,` Mary perched her hands on her hips. `Fine. But propagate them somewhere else. Not in our bathroom. I, for one, would like to take a bath without feeling like I`m submerged in a swamp, thank you very much.`
`Aye,` Marlene mumbled. `I`m sorry. I`ll keep them somewhere else.`
Mary nodded satisfied and disappeared back into the bathroom; Marlene started massaging her temple again, clenching her jaw.
`Marlene,` Lily sighed. `Please go to Madam Pomfrey to ask for a pain draught. You`re torturing yourself.`
`But I was already in there yesterday.`
`So?` Lily asked.
`She`ll think I`m an exaggerator. Or whiny.` Marlene replied. `Really, it`s nothing.`
`It`s not nothing. You`re white as a sheet and I can see you practically boring into your scull with your fingers.` Lily sighed.
Marlene slammed her book shut, a little too loud and she winced at the sound. `Aye, well I wouldn`t have so much headaches if it wasn`t for all yer bloody revision. Yer aff yer heid, Lily.` she spat meanly.
`Mars.` Lily pleaded, sounding hurt.
However, Marlene already stormed out of their dorm on her way to the hospital wing for her pain draught. Lily could piss off with her revision. Immediately, Marlene felt guilty for being angry; Lily had only meant to be nice.
She clambered up the stairs again to their dorm and creaked it open a smidge.
`I`m sorry, Lil.` she said softly, looking at the floor.
`I know.` Lily replied. `It`s okay.`
Marlene nodded and shut the door again, now going down towards the hospital wing for real. She encountered Remus on his way out of there; Remus had probably also been in the hospital wing to see Madam Pomfrey for his migraines, it seemed to hang in the air these days.
***
Thursday May 31st 1973
Exam season was far from being Mary`s favourite time of the year. The general atmosphere in their usually pleasant dorm room was tense, all three of them palpably on edge. Sparring matches seemed to emerge at every corner and there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary bickering. The four walls of their room appearing too small to contain the three of them at times.
However, there was one thing different about this year than last, as for the first time, she felt like she might come in top of a subject. Charms and Potions still belonged to Lily; Herbology and Astronomy to Marlene, though Mary gave her a run for her money in the latter. Defence Against the Dark Arts, however, had turned into Mary`s territory. Not that there weren`t other students who also excelled in the class, but it was a nice feeling to finally have something she was actually good at and, most of all, that interested her.
Their Defence Against the Darks Arts course had a written exam as well as a practical exam. Although the written exam was actually quite challenging, since it included having to recall a lot of important details about various magical creatures, it went rather well in Mary`s humble opinion. She breezed through the practical exam, preforming her curses and counter curses without any effort. It helped that the person she was teamed up with she thought to be especially annoying. When it came to performing curses, it all boiled down to intention and willpower.
Her other exams passed her by in various levels of success. Potions on the first Friday was absolutely dire. Only thanks to the fact that she had been standing next Marlene, who was actually rather good at potions, she was able to make it through in one piece. Luckily, Herbology and Charms were less of a disaster and her Astronomy exam went even better than she had expected. Nowadays the practical work was the least of Mary`s concerns, and it were the theoretical or written exams that gave her a harder time. With practical magic she could be more intuitive, draw her strength out of her emotions, instead of having to rely on tedious amounts of theory.
The last exam of their second year was Transfiguration, the one Mary had been dreading the most. It was the hardest of all their courses, mostly because so much could go wrong and Professor McGonagall wasn`t really one to bolster her pupils.
They needed to transform a rabbit into a pair of slippers. It had been hard having to revise for this, for it wasn`t all that easy to get a hold of a rabbit to practice this on. However, Lily had been insistent and they had spent an entire morning chasing rabbits around the Hogwarts grounds. The redhead had been truly persistent; Mary had found the whole affair to be highly comical. When Lily had suggested they practiced on Cat, Mary took that as a sign that Lily had truly lost her mind and they had gently coaxed her to bed to take a nap.
The exam itself was nerve wrecking. First, they had to wait until the Gryffindor boys had demonstrated their transfigurations.
`Excellent, Mr Potter!` Professor McGonagall practically gushed as James was able transform his rabbits into a pair of velvet red slippers with a truly lovely fur trim.
Lily rolled her eyes at this, tapping her wand impatiently against her leg. Sirius` rabbits turned into a gorgeous pair of black booties, and while Peter`s slippers kept hopping away, Remus` were neat and stayed in place.
The first of them to demonstrate their abilities to McGonagall was Lily; her rabbits turned into neat beige slippers with pink stitching along the sides, which earned her a rare smile from their head of house. Mary felt her heart palpitate in her throat as she watched how Marlene produced a pair of soft brown slippers after two tries.
Mary steadied herself to perform the spell and squeezed her eyes shut, scared as to what she might create. Yet, when she opened them, in front of her stood two tidy white slippers. She exhaled deeply in relieve, but just at that moment on both her slippers a pair of blinking eyes emerged; all three of them shrieked in horror. After three more attempts, Mary was able to produce slippers that didn`t stare around the room.
When all the rabbits were once again alive and breathing, McGonagall started handing out pieces of parchment. Mary sighed exasperated, she thought she was done for this schoolyear, what on earth had their head of house planned for them now.
`You will be aware,` Professor McGonagall said. `That in your third year you may choose a minimum of two additional subjects to take up to ordinary wizarding level. Here are your application sheets. If you will please think very carefully, reviewing each subject`s merits, then complete the form and return it to my office no later than the last day of term.`
The classroom erupted in excited chatters. Mary took the piece of parchment and glossed over it, it looked rather daunting. Quickly she pocketed it, she would think about that later, for now she wanted to celebrate finally being done with exams.
`What are you thinking of taking?` Lily chattered excitedly as they exited the examination hall.
`Please, Lil,` Mary pleaded. `Can we save the swot talk for a later date. I need to turn my brain off for the next couple of hours.`
`Fine.` Lily grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest.
`Oi, cheer up Lil,` Marlene said, putting an arm around Lily. `Let`s get ice-cream.`
Not much later, all three of them were holding large cones of ice cream, the sticky substance dripping down onto Mary`s fingers as they sauntered over the Hogwarts grounds towards the lake. The sky was a washed out blue, littered with soft fleecy clouds. Mary inhaled the sweet scent of the apple blossoms; Marlene bent down to pick a daffodil, extravagantly yellow. Lily had charmed a fan to follow them around, blowing a cool breeze their way to distract from the sweltering heat.
`Oi, oi, Evans!`
Mary heard Lily audibly groan and all three of them turned their heads to look at the marauders lounging in the sun on the grass.
`I`m not a dog, Potter.` Lily chipped to James` calling. `Don`t yell at me like one.`
Mary snickered, ever since the midnight feast James had been starting to act like a complete arse when it came to Lily. It was rather comical, to see James come so undone. Mary just hoped Marlene wasn`t too bummed out about it.
They approached the boys and went to stand beside them. Mary stared down at Sirius, his regal face basking in the sun.
`Hi Sirius.` she said and blinked at him.
`All right, MacDonald.` Sirius nodded back at her, tucking his hear behind his ear.
Remus had a scowl on his face as he stared at Sirius, Mary wondered what that was about. Peter was looking worried, his eyes fixed on a piece of parchment.
`Give us a lick then.` James winked at Lily. Marlene started giggling, her face turning red.
Lily remained quiet, arching an eyebrow as she stared down at James. Though her face was unmoving, Mary knew something was brewing underneath the surface.
`You do look like you need cooling off. Aguamente!`
With that, Lily aimed her wand at the boys and started spraying them all with water. Mary started laughing hysterically, regarding as the boys tried to get to higher ground. Lily could be so bold sometimes. Completely in shock, James and Sirius both got totally drenched, their shirts sticking to their torsos.
`What`d you do that for?` Sirius grumbled as he wiped his soaking wet hair from his face, suddenly looking a lot less regal.
`Thought you lot liked practical jokes?` Lily winked, sounding very innocent.
Mary took both Marlene and Lily by an arm and with a flourish they turned around to walk over towards the lake, cackling loudly. The boys were whispering urgently among eachother behind their backs, Mary picked up both the words nightmare and future wife. She laughed inwardly at this, hell would freeze over before Lily Evans would marry James Potter.
***
Saturday June 16th 1973
The weeks after their end of year exams were odd ones; filled with leisure and empty hours. They did still have lessons, but it felt like even their Professors were starting to long for the summer holidays. It occurred more than once that a class was being let out earlier, or completely dismissed due to lack of motivation on both parts, with as excuse that is was a shame to sit inside with such nice weather.
It was gruelling having to wait for their exam results. Though Lily was rather sure she had done well, her stomach still flipped at the thought of having mucked up on one of her written exams and accidentally having written the completely wrong thing down. Fortunately, there was one thing that kept her mind off her looming exam results, namely being the issue surrounding Remus` reading problem; or more precisely, her solution to it.
The acetate had finally come in the mail. One of her mother`s friends was a teacher at an elementary school and they used sheets of clear acetate for the projector. Her mother, being the helping hand that she was, had been more than happy to ask her friend to donate some to Lily`s good cause. However, it had taken Lily weeks to come up with an idea how to stick the charm to the acetate. The key to her problem had appeared during her Charms examination. This year, they had been examining magical objects; objects that had been enchanted, magically enhanced or had spells stuck to them. It had been when she had been asked to describe the effective forms of magical charming during her written exam, that the penny finally had dropped and she knew what she had to do. She needed to stick the spell to the acetate with a potion, it was as simple as that.
Fortunately for Lily, having access to the Potions classroom at all hours of the day and to the entire stock of potion ingredients, were a few of the merits of being a member of Slug club. So, while Mary and Marlene spent their weekend lounging about in the sun, Lily was cooped up in the dark dungeons of the castle, peering over the edge of a bubbling cauldron. The hardest part had been to shake off Severus. Though she didn`t think Professor Slughorn would mind her tinkering about, she was rather certain that Severus wouldn`t approve of what she was trying to do. Besides, she didn`t want Severus to find out that Remus had difficulty reading, the poor boy wouldn`t hear the end of it.
Her hair being held up by her wand, she finely diced her potion ingredients, crushing some of them with the flat edge of her knife. The potion needed to brew for some time before she was able to use it on the acetate, the longer she let it simmer, the stickier it would get and that was exactly what she wanted. She just hoped that she would be able to have it done before the schoolyear ended.
Steering in the gloopy liquid she peered over the edge, trying to see if it was getting to the right hue. It certainly smelled like it was supposed to. The door creaked open and Lily turned around with a jolt, ladle in her hand.
`Ah, Lily, dear girl.` Professor Slughorn said, waltzing towards her in a flurry of lilac robes. `Didn`t expect to see you here.`
`I`m sorry Professor.` Lily mumbled, looking at her cauldron. `I was only-`
`No need to apologize,` the Potions master waved a lazy hand. `You can come here any time you want. I`m just surprised to see you indoors on such a lovely day. No appetite to spend some time with your friends, eh?` he looked at Lily inquiring.
`Actually, sir,` Lily responded, turning pink. `I`m helping out a friend.`
Professor Slughorn raised his eyebrows and peered over the rim of the cauldron, `Care to tell me more?`
`Afraid I can`t, it`s sort of personal.` Lily replied. `I`m sorry Professor.`
The Potions master smirked impishly. `Is that so, eh?`
Lily nodded, `But, I`ll be just a couple more minutes and then I`ll be gone.` She already turned to her dicing again, pressing down hard on the cutting board.
`Actually-` Professor Slughorn began. `I would like a quick word with you. That is, if you don`t mind.`
Lily swallowed hard and she felt a knot form in her stomach. It usually wasn`t anything good when a Professor wanted to talk to you, even if it was Professor Slughorn.
`Your head of house, Professor McGonagall, asked me to talk to you. She though I might have more of an influence on you. Seeing as you are one of my apprentices in Slug club.`
`Oh.` Lily replied, feeling more scared by the minute. This was about her exams, it must be. She knew that she had mucked something up. She had failed, she had to flunk out. This was it. Say goodbye to Hogwarts. Mentally she was already packing her bags to board the train.
`It`s about your application for your elective courses.`
Lily exhaled sharply, feeling relieved. `But I`ve already put in my application, sir. I was in time, wasn`t I? Professor McGonagall did get my application right?` She had made very sure to put in her application as soon as possible.
`No, no, dear Lily,` Professor Slughorn shook his head. `That wasn`t the problem. Minerva got your application in all right.`
`Then what is the problem? Sir.` Lily asked, her brow furrowed.
`It seems to be that you`ve ticked every box.`
`Yes?`
`You have applied yourself for every subject, dear girl.`
`I don`t understand the problem.` Lily replied, crossing her arms over her chest.
`Well,` Professor Slughorn smiled. `While both me and Minerva admire your enthusiasm - and you certainly are a very gifted student- we are afraid you might have gotten in over your head. You see, it isn`t customary for a pupil to take all the elective courses to ordinary wizarding level.`
`Then why is the option to apply for all of them even there?` Lily asked cocky.
Slughorn chuckled, `My dear girl. I understand you want to prove yourself.`
`I don`t want to prove myself.`
`Right.` Professor Slughorn lifted a unconvinced eyebrow. `Whatever your motives might have been, I encourage you greatly to pick -at most- three courses you want to continue. However, in the end, the choice is entirely up to you. And I trust you to make the right decision. You are, after all, one of the brightest witches I have ever had the pleasure to know.`
Lily felt her cheeks glow hot and she stared shyly at her hands. `I-` she mumbled. `I`ll think about it.`
`You do that, eh?` Professor Slughorn gave her an encouraging pat on the shoulder before turning around and walking towards the exit of the dungeons. `Carry on with what you were doing.`
`Oh, Lily?` the Professor turned around, doorknob in his hand. `You can tell our boy Severus that he might want to split his crown with you this year.`
`I`m sorry?` Lily asked confused.
`I think you know what I mean, eh?` he smirked and shut the door behind him.
Lily smiled inwardly, pleased with herself. If she was correct, the Potion master`s vague remark meant that she had come top of the class, next to her friend. That would teach Severus constantly humbling her in Potions.
While she stirred her cauldron, she started to ruminate about what the Professor had said about boiling her elective courses down to three. It would be a harder process than he probably imagined it being. The thing was, that all of them sounded interesting; Divination, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and even Muggle Studies, seemed like they would all be absolutely enthralling.
She took her wand out of her hair and tapped the side of the cauldron, checking the viscosity of the Potion. Choosing which subjects she wanted to take in third year would have to wait, for now she had more important matters at hand.
///