Chapter Twenty-Five: Fear of Levels in Ordinary Wizarding?

Their map was still unfinished—while the newly christened Marauders' wanted to spend their free time researching Arithmancy and plotting Charms, they would have done so at the expense of studying for their OWLs, which Sirius and Peter might have countenanced but James, and certainly Remus would not. Remus already was worried, as there was a full moon only three weeks before their exams, which cut into his studying very much. This was the first time since their transformation that the Marauders had not decided to accompany him in their Animagus forms, feeling that time would be better spent studying.

When Remus had already been taken away by Madam Pomfrey, Sirius was studying in the library. Cornelia Crouch came over to sit next to him, for which he was grateful—their time together had become extremely scarce even after she had forgiven him for failing to testify at the Ministry about Fenwick's death—she too was unwilling to stop studying.

"Here, quiz me on Charms," said Cornelia, after they had sat together for what seemed to Sirius like hours.

"Oh please, like you don't know all of it. I'm bored," replied Sirius, noting with some annoyance that this would have been the time when he ordinarily visited Bellatrix. But they were certainly not on speaking terms any longer—not after he had given the ultimatum. Still, sometimes he wished that option were still available.

"You just need a break," said Cornelia, soothingly, looking down at her Charms notes through her glasses as though Sirius was just another errant student. But Sirius had already gathered up his things, for he had seen Bellatrix and Snape exit the library together, and his hackles were up. He caught up with them halfway down the hall, where Bellatrix looked somewhat pleased to see him, but tried not to show it and Snape looked nothing short of furious.

"Trixie, you seem to have lost your way," pointed out Sirius, pushing Snape out of the way.

"Cousin, I don't remember inviting you. If I recall, you had made your allegiances quite clear to me the last time we met—and I can't be bothered with people who change their minds," drawled Bellatrix, insinuating that Snape had certainly taken Sirius' place in her affections, which only irked Sirius more, as he couldn't bear losing.

"Now Snivellus—if you're very good, you might want to know what I have to tell you," retorted Sirius, turning his attentions to Bellatrix's greasy haired companion.

"How boring you two are. Well, I can't be bothered to wait around while you two have a cat fight. Please let me know who wins," said Bellatrix dismissively, her eyes lingering on Sirius's handsome form. As she left, Snape turned to follow her and found his way blocked by Sirius.

"Come on Black," he spat, "No one likes a sore loser."

Sirius looked at him patronizingly and waggled his finger like a parent reprimanding a misbehaving child,

"My very dear Snivellus, how do you think Narcissa would feel about this turn of events? And don't you think that I shall waste no time in telling her? Or for that matter, how Rodolphus Lestrange might feel about things. I know you two are in the same club together."

Snape's expression showed that he recognized that Sirius would indeed mince no words on this matter.

"Yes, that's what I thought. Well, why don't you be a good boy and meet up with Narcissa tonight instead of spending time with Bellatrix? If I know that you haven't been up to the Heads' Suite—and believe me—I will know, I'll tell Narcissa to meet you in the perfect location."

"Pray tell where that is,"

"There's a knot on the Whomping Willow that stops it from moving. Inside the passageway there's a secret room. I'll tell Narcissa to wait there for you at midnight. And I won't tell a word to anybody."

Snape looked like he was pleased, but was extremely loathe to believe anything that Sirius said.

"Oh come now, dear Snivellus. You don't think I'm Sirius Black for nothing. And don't be late—we wouldn't want Druella Black to come berate you again, now would we?"

That night after dinner, the three remaining Marauders' were discussing their plans for after the OWLs when the common room had emptied out, as was their wont.

"I'll be glad when I don't have to study anymore, it's an absolute wreck to my social life," announced Sirius, making the pencils on the table walk across to where Peter was sitting with his wand.

"Tell me about it! Oh Padfoot—I came to the library looking for you earlier but Cornelia told me that you'd left and something about not wanting to study Charms?"

"Oh yes, I forgot to tell you, I came up with the most brilliant prank."

And Sirius told Peter and James the story of how he had lured Snape into visiting the Whomping Willow that night when Remus was transforming.

"You did WHAT?" exclaimed James, his already pale face turning a very deathly white.

"Oh it'll be such a lark—he'll run out screaming for his life like the little pansy that he is," said Sirius scathingly, his grey eyes dangerous.

"Screaming for his life, Sirius! Are you bloody crazy? Let me just tell you—whatever the Black family might do as a prank does not count in real life," continued James, running up the stairs to fetch his invisibility cloak. As soon as he had run back down the stairs, he grabbed Sirius's shoulders and shook him roughly,

"When did you tell him to go? It's 11:45 now? Has he already gone? Remus must have already transformed."

"Calm down Prongs! I think I said midnight. But he's such a scaredy git he won't show up anyway—" explained Sirius, now starting to get the full impact of what he had done. James shook his head, his brown eyes very serious, and sped out of Gryffindor tower with the cloak in his hands. As soon as he could not see anyone, he flung the cloak over himself and continued out to the grounds.

As expected, the light from the full moon made the grounds around Hogwarts easily visible. James thought that he could hear the sounds that Remus made inside the Shrieking Shack, and he hoped against hope that Snape had not heeded Sirius's advice and looked for Narcissa past the Whomping Willow. As he came closer to the Willow, he could see the great tree's branches were flailing as they did typically. Unfortunately, he could also see the outline of a figure who seemed to be moving towards the stump that immobilized the Willow—Snape was not quite as afraid as Sirius had made him out to be.

James had barely caught him before he had gotten past the passageway, pulling him back right after he had glimpsed Remus's jaws before him. Fortunately, Snape had the sense to run and together, the two boys returned back to the halls where they came face to face with Argus Filch, who brought them to Professor Dumbledore, who seemed to have been patrolling the halls. Both boys were silent, and James looked up at Professor Dumbledore, whose face was oddly impassive.

"Well, you two are not students I would expect to find together. That is, of course, fifty points each from Gryffindor and Slytherin. And I would hope that neither of you, particularly you, Severus, will mention what you saw tonight." The two of them exited wordlessly from Dumbledore's presence.

Lily, Mary Macdonald and Cornelia were studying together in the library.

"I think that Cheering Charms are likely to show up on our OWLs," remarked Mary wisely as Cornelia nodded and Lily continued highlighting portions of her notes.

Lily saw Severus out of the corner of her eye as he was leaving the library and looked at him contemptuously as he looked rather surprised and continued his walk past Madam Pince. Last week she had seen him briefly when he appeared to be walking with Bellatrix Lestrange and she had been disgusted by the way that he simpered over her. When she had tried to greet him, he had ignored her, further justifying to her annoyance with that witch. When Lily left an hour later, leaving Mary and Cornelia to their high level theory discussion, she was found that Severus was still waiting for her outside.

"I was hoping you hadn't died in there," remarked Severus jokingly as Lily continued walking quickly past him.

"Oh is that so? I thought it might be easier for you to pretend to Bellatrix that I didn't exist if I did die? Isn't that so?" she retorted as they made walked down the stairs from the fourth floor to the central courtyard.

"But I thought we were supposed to be friends?" said Snape, looking a bit hurt, "Best friends?"

"We are, Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging round with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?"

"That was nothing, It was a laugh, that's all," shrugged Severus, thinking that Olivia Avery's exit from Hogwarts might have been for the best.

"It was Dark Magic and if you think that's funny—"

"What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?"

"What's Potter got to do with anything?"

"They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"

"He's ill, they say he's ill—" and Lily's green eyes looked sharp—she had always felt bad for Remus, with his shabby robes and his recurring illness.

"Every month at the full moon?"

"I know your theory, Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?"

"I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are," and Snape looked meaningfully at Lily, regretting that he had ever thought it was more important to associate with Bellatrix—she might have been powerful—but Lily was as she always was, a lovely silken thread that lures you, catches you…

"They don't use Dark Magic, though," continued Lily, dropping her voice, "And you're being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down to that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there—"

The indignity of this comment was not lost on Snape, who had felt cheated by the whole experience, especially as Sirius had managed to escape that night without losing a single house point.

"Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too! You're not going to—I won't let you—"

This made Lily furious. She was tired of everyone—Severus—James, especially James acting like she was their object. She knew she should have listened to Cornelia, who had always warned her against wizards in general (Although, a nasty voice in her head pointed out that Cornelia seemed to be rather bad at heeding her own advice—those who fall last, fall hardest).

"Let me? Let me?"

"I didn't mean—I just don't want to see you made a fool of—He fancies you, James Potter fancies you! And he's not as everyone thinks—just a big Quidditch hero," added Severus bitterly, feeling that the division between the houses and James and Sirius had rent his oldest friendship. Lily felt rather sorry for him, and continued,

"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag—I don't need you to tell me that. But Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them. And I won't even get to the story of Bellatrix…"

These incidents made the atmosphere around the castle even more tense as the arrival of OWLs became even more imminent. James was predictably incensed with Sirius—especially as the Gryffindors were annoyed that their Quidditch hero had lost them points trying to save a Slytherin—the other details of the story were naturally omitted. Remus was similarly furious that Sirius's actions had nearly made him the unwilling predator to a student, which Remus could not have conceivably overcome. Since Peter was loathe to go against the grain of the group, Sirius spent the last two weeks before their OWLs in comparative solitude.

Their teachers were no longer given them homework and were instead revising topics that they felt were most likely to appear on the exams. James and Sirius were in a silent competition in Transfiguration, with each student Vanishing larger and larger animals until Professor McGonagall told them that she would be Vanishing one of them if they didn't calm down.

The Fifth Year Gryffindors did not have any classes with the Ravenclaws, but Sirius usually made a point of meeting Cornelia after her Divination class and noticed that the slight witch was looking more and more frazzled as OWLs drew closer. This last time she hadn't even noticed Sirius standing there when she walked outside.

"Oh it's you again," remarked Cornelia as she finally lifted her head from her notes. Sirius was leaning against the wall beside the ladder down from Divination, looking very haughty and handsome.

"Well noticed. I never pegged you as the Divination type—why are you in that class anyway?"

To Sirius surprise, Cornelia looked amused rather than annoyed (which was her typical modus operandi in these trying times),

"My mother thought it would be a useful subject for me to be taking. But there's absolutely no chance that I'll be continuing at the NEWT level, so I've been using it as a chance to review other material. My father is actually much more sensible about these things, even if he is terribly short-sighted about so many others."

It was only the previous day that another Daily Prophet article had appeared, although Cornelia was rather relieved that the author had chosen to praise Barty Crouch's methods rather than excoriate them—she had not anticipated that the backlash from her testimony would be so harsh and so long. She had absentmindedly taken down her brown hair from its characteristic perch in the bun on her head, and Sirius found that her hair was quite long, and with her hair down and her hairband on, she looked rather like someone else that he couldn't quite place.

"I just asked if you were worried about exams."

"Oh, no. My parents aren't particularly concerned with things like exams—so I only have to do well in the subjects I really like. Well, that and I'd like to be an Auror."

"A Dark Wizard Catcher? Well, you'll be under the guidance of my dear father. He obviously expects me to do very well, it's rather trying really. Mother, of course, would like nothing better than for me to forget about all of this achieving and so forth, and settle down with a nice pureblood wizard," a remark that made Cornelia look up at Sirius and smile ironically.

"I think I would like to be a Healer. But they expect very high marks in NEWT level, so I've got to make it into all of those courses. Father, of course, wants me to go into banking," and Cornelia rolled her eyes as though this was quite characteristic of her father.

They had arrived at the foot of Ravenclaw tower. Cornelia had once again folded her hair into a bun and she looked at Sirius in an effort to delay their parting,

"I think I see Mary Macdonald rounding the corner. In Runes (which fortunately, Sirius had escaped taking) she asked me how many hours a day I'd been studying. I think exams are driving her mad," as the two of them rounded up the staircase.

The eagle knocker looked annoyed with Cornelia for keeping him waiting.

"Tall when young, short when old…breath is my undoing." (1)

Sirius never heard what Cornelia answered, as he had left her as he ran down the stairs—although he suspected that she had answered correctly, as he thought the door opened to let her in. He made his way east from Ravenclaw tower, and arrived in Transfiguration some minutes later, taking his usual seat next to James, who pointedly ignored him.

Professor McGonagall had put up their examination schedule on the board, and it looked grueling.

"Your OWLs will take place over two weeks, with the theory exams taking place in the mornings and you will sit for the practical in the afternoons. The one exception is the Astronomy practical exam, which will take place at night for ideal viewing. As expected, your examination papers have been imbued with anti-cheating charms, and any other examination aid is also banned from the examination. This includes Felix Felicis—although—if you manage to brew that potion yourself, I suspect you will do quite fine without its aid on at least one exam. An owl will be sent to you with your results sometime in July."

Sirius viewed this information rather grimly, as this summer promised to be an exhausting one—he suspected that the Death Eaters would be coming to call at Twelve Grimmauld Place rather more often and he did not wish to see Bellatrix any more than necessary.

Their first examination was Charms Theory, and Remus had finally forgiven Sirius enough to let him quiz him on the material, which Sirius figured was a fine method of learning the material himself.

James was reading his Charms notes again, which he had managed to organize into its own textbook. Lily—who everyone thought was the best their year in Charms—was reciting different aspects of Charms to herself and then checking her answers in their textbook. Mary Macdonald appeared to have fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion. Peter seemed to have given up studying entirely, and was relying on the Brain Potion that he had purchased from some Sixth Year over Lily's vehement objection.

The examiners entered that evening and Sirius was confused as to how they had all survived so long after being in close proximity to largely untrained witches and wizards who were beset by exam nerves. But they did all seem very old. The next few hours passed in a blur and Sirius's dreams were filled with thoughts of color changing animals and enchanted teacups. Before he knew it, it was morning and the Fifth and Seventh years were filing into the Great Hall. Just a second before they entered, James turned to him to wish him good luck rather unexpectedly, which had the fortunate after effect of calming down whatever exam nerves he had.

The four house tables had been replaced with many small tables, and Sirius moved to find his seat—which was in rather close proximity to Narcissa who was taking her OWL as well—but by the fate of marriage, rather far away from Bellatrix, who was taking her NEWT.

Sirius began writing, remembering turning Snivellus' robes a shocking pink as he expounded on the effects and methods of Color-Changing Charms.

As they exited the Great Hall two hours later, James gave voice to what all four Marauders were thinking—

"It's a good thing we did all those pranks— "

"Yes, I think that's the only way I would have known that the Cheering Charm had a counter charm for hiccoughs, although I'm not entirely sure that it was relevant to the question—"

The afternoon marked the practical examination, where Sirius felt rather more prepared. He had to go in before nearly everyone else, although he was heartened to see a disappointed looking Narcissa on the table adjacent to his examination.

Professor Marchbanks was taking his examination, and she was an ancient witch whose wrinkles seemed to have developed their own wrinkles.

"Now, if you could increase the size of this puffskein and then tickle it for me," she said after conjuring a puffskein from thin air.

After the examination ended, Sirius felt that he had done rather well—although he thought that he had heard the other examiner ask Cornelia to do a flying charm for extra credit, as he had seen her puffskein take to the air after his had finished.

The next day was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Sirius felt that he might be able to do well. Certainly, he had had enough practice defending himself during school holidays.

Their assigned seats for the theory portion had changed (to protect from cheating, Sirius supposed). Sirius was seated four seats behind James and in front of Lena Carrow, who had not done well in her Charms practical the previous day. Professor Flitwick announced that they could begin, and Sirius began writing.

After what seemed like an hour or more had passed, Sirius felt that he had answered every question quite satisfactorily and began adding new touches to his responses—perhaps the examination committee would enjoy his discourse on the advantages of the Impediment Jinx rather than the Reductor Curse in certain circumstances.

He put down his quill and was leaning onto the back two legs of his chair with his hair falling into his eyes. Professor Flitwick announced that there were five minutes left in the exam, and he saw that James had turned around and grinning at him—and Sirius gave him a thumbs up—happy that they had reconciled.

Professor Flitwick squeaked, "Quills down, please! That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"

This seemed to be a miscalculation on the part of Professor Flitwick as the hundred rolls of parchment zoomed at Professor Flitwick and knocked him over. He was helped up by Mary Macdonald and Cornelia, whom he thanked, and told everyone that they were free to go.

Sirius saw James waiting for him, and joined him in waiting for Remus and Peter.

"Well, that was a breeze," said James, quickly stuffing his spare parchment into his pocket.

"Did you like question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius, trying to see what the parchment said.

"Loved it. Give five signs to identify the werewolf. Excellent question."

James made a face, and continued,

"D'you think you managed to get all the signs?"

The four boys were waiting in line to get out onto the grounds—eager for a brief respite from the exams.

"Think I did," retorted Lupin, in James's serious vein, "One: he's sitting on my chair. Two: he's wearing my clothes. Three: his name's Remus Lupin." Sirius laughed hysterically and nearly fell over, to the annoyance of the nearby Hufflepuffs. James, who had retained better control of himself while laughing, managed to pull Sirius back to a standing position. Peter had remained silent.

"I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes and the tufted tail," he said nervously, "but I couldn't think what else—"

"How thick are you Wormtail? You run round with a werewolf once a month,"

"Keep your voice down," said Lupin, looking around the grounds to see if anyone had heard. They walked down the grounds towards the lake.

"Don't worry Moony, you can always bite them if they threaten you," said Sirius mockingly,

"I thought that paper was a piece of cake—I'll be surprised if I don't get an Outstanding on it at least."

"Me too," said James. He had pulled out a Snitch from his pocket, which made Sirius roll his eyes and look around for Lily, who must be nearby if James was going to go to the trouble of showing off.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Nicked it," replied James, letting the Snitch go and catching it again several times. Lupin was ignoring James, who seemed to be making sure that the group of giggling girls did include Lily. Sirius was looking to see if included Cornelia, but trying to make sure that no one noticed, especially Bellatrix, who had finished her exam around the same time.

James had caught the Snitch again, and Peter gasped and applauded again, which was now driving Sirius insane. He seemed inclined to take the Snitch out of James's hands himself if he didn't want to stay on James' good side.

"Put that away, will you—before Wormtail wets himself with excitement."

"If it bothers you."

"Merlin, I'm bored. Wish it was full moon," said Sirius, while James shot him a dark look, as if to say—remember what happened last full moon.

"You might. We've still got Transfiguration, if you're bored you could test me. Here…," said Lupin, holding out his textbook to Sirius, which he declined.

"I don't need to look at that rubbish, I know it all."

"This'll liven you up, Padfoot," said James, "Look who it is—"

Sirius turned his head and saw Snape, who had not forgiven him after the Whomping Willow incident in the least.

"Excellent," said Sirius, in nearly a whisper, "Snivellus." The two of them stood up, while Lupin seemed to be determinedly ignoring them.

"All right, Snivellus?" asked James loudly as Snape dove into his bag for his wand.

"Expelliarmus!" shouted James, and Snape's wand flew into the air and landed on the grass behind him.

"Impedimenta!" shouted Sirius, knocking Snape off his feet.

Other students were looking at them, including Cornelia.

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" continued James and Sirius added rather viciously—feeling that this was only just retribution for Bellatrix—

"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment. There'll be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word."

Snape looked furious at both of them, and none of his traditional band of Slytherins was nearby.

"You—wait," continued Snape, looking at them in utmost loathing.

"Wait for what? What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?" said Sirius, his handsome face contorted into an arrogant sneer.

Snape tried to hex them, but he was still too far away from his wand for anything to work.

"Wash out your mouth! Scourgify!" said James, pointing his wand at Snape's mouth to make pink frothy bubbles come out.

"Leave him ALONE!" yelled a voice. Sirius looked around to make sure it was not Cornelia, but was dismayed to find that she was looking at him with narrowed eyes. It was Lily Evans.

"All right, Evans," said James, who was trying to fix his hair so it looked more windswept.

"Leave him alone. What's he done to you?" said Lily firmly.

"Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean—"

"You think you're funny, but you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."

"I will if you go out with me, Evans. Go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and a giant squid," said Lily, her eyes looking at the lake as though daring the giant squid to try his luck.

"Bad luck, Prongs," said Sirius bracingly, and he saw that Snape had seized his wand again.

A gash appeared on James' face, and he flicked his wand so that Snape was hanging upside down in the air. Cornelia let out an involuntary laugh, but soon returned to her staid expression.

"Let him down!"

"Certainly," obliged James, and Snape appeared on the ground. Before Snape could gather himself, Sirius flicked his wand in a leg-locker curse, forcing Snape to keel over again.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE," shouted Lily, taking out her own wand.

"Oh Evans, don't make me hex you."

"Take the curse off him, then!"

"There you go—you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus."

And then, to Lily's very great shock, Snape muttered,

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" Lily's face turned very pale, but she retorted coolly,

"Fine. I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

"Apologize to Evans!" yelled James

"I don't want you to make him apologize—you're as bad as he is."

James looked annoyed,

"What? I'd never call you a—you-know-what!"

In response Lily continued on a tirade that Sirius only half heard, his eyes locked on Cornelia, whose lips had made a very thin line.

"…You make me SICK," ended Lily, turning her heel and running off.

James looked crestfallen.

"Evans! …What is it with her?"

"Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mate," said Sirius, his eyes still trained on Cornelia.

"Right."

There was another flash of light, and James was threatening Snape again. Cornelia looked at him and shook her head and left the way that Lily had gone.

(1) This riddle is from Eragorn, and the answer is a candle. Obviously, all of this material is copied to comment on the absurdity of wizarding culture.