James and Peter returned from Care of Magical Creatures with scars on their wrists; they were trying to tame griffins, creatures with the front legs and head of a giant eagle and body and hind legs of a lion. It was rumored that experts could tame it, but James said darkly that there were no experts in England, then, including Professor Kettleburn.
The morning of the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests was a beautiful day, in contrast to the storms and drizzles they had been having.
“We are cursed,” James mumbled as he dragged his feet into the Great Hall. “We are, quite simply, without a question of a doubt, cursed.”
”Cursed?” Lily sniffed, who was walking next to him. “How so?”
”We are! Normal people wouldn’t have to do this—this—“
“James, it’s only an exam,” she stated wearily.
“Yeah, but an exam that could kill us!”
Lily groaned. “I give up.”
”That works. But sit next to me, okay? I haven’t quite figured out what the point is of burning dragon’s blood to make that acidy potion…”
It was much harder than the Ordinary Wizarding Levels had been; in the first place, there were more questions, and they were covering things that most of the students had only heard once in a lifetime and never remembered, like what color the hippocampus was that was caught by merpeople off the shores of Scotland in 1949. The answer was pale blue, but some later revealed that they had given answers like ‘sixteen’.
The day passed more quickly than they thought it would; by three o’clock, the sixth year as a whole was finished, and they were free to leave. They weren’t free of studying yet, though; Lily, the Marauders, Lora, and quite a few others were hurrying to their books for tomorrow’s Divination test, an exam that most of them would very probably fail. Lily was surer of herself than most of the Gryffindors; she knew that she could make up things easily, and she was going to, if that was the only way to make a perfect grade in that class.
Professor Trelawney gave one of the most idiotic exams any of them had seen yet, though they were glad that they hadn’t received a harder assignment. They had to, using crystal balls, tea leaves, palms, and calculations, predict the amount of N.E.W.T.s they would receive.
Backwards psychology was needed here; all of the students except about one or two gave an impossible answer after giving up on the divination part. They told her that they would receive three N.E.W.T.s, which she loved; pessimism was her favorite aspect of her profession. She didn’t seem to recognize that no one, ever, had received three N.E.W.T.s; it was impossible to obtain below five.
Lily, on the other hand, knew almost exactly what score she was going to get, and, quite honestly, she told Professor Trelawney that she would accept twenty-two N.E.W.T.s, which was the amount of O.W.L.s she got last time. Professor Trelawney wasn’t too pleased, but she couldn’t fail Lily, because she knew that Lily would get that many or more, since she had ranked at the top of the fifth years in the magical world.
Finally, after a long, grueling week of testing, they were free, liberated, released from the monotony of the Great Hall and the scratching of quills on parchment, they had no more classes or testing to sit through, and they could lie on the grass in front of the castle and blow soap bubbles at the giant squid’s eyes to their heart’s content.
It was even hotter than it had been last year, which seemed almost impossible. But it was more comfortable next to the lake, which offered cool breezes that flowed over them. Scattered all over the lawns, Hogwarts’ student population sprawled, talking lazily to each other, performing Freezing charms on their friends’ hair, and poking their not-so-well-liked classmates with Tarantallegra hexes, which, besides the rather embarrassing quickstep one was forced to do, made a sweat break out, and the teachers had forbidden anyone from even dipping their toes in the lake. Actually, they had threatened the loss of one hundred and fifty points to the student’s House that even waded into the lake, but they had gotten the idea.
Lily was sitting cross-legged in a group composed of Sirius, Remus, Peter, James, Lora, Amanda, and Eva. Serena, Elspeth, and Diana had gone inside, after they had learned how to perform the Freezing charm properly, at which they had received the idea to charm the atmosphere in their dormitory. Lily snickered to herself, and when they had vanished, she burst out laughing.
She had tried that before, and it hadn’t worked, at least not in the way she had thought it would. It simply froze one molecule of the air at a time, and it was an impossible task to charm an entire dormitory one molecule at a time before school let out.
James frowned—he knew what she was laughing at, and he filled his friends in, too. He was the only one that wasn’t laughing at the end of his small speech.
“You mean they’re going to be freezing air, one molecule at a time?”
“Oh, what idiots!”
“Well, looks like someone’s going to lose their temper rather soon.”
“Exactly; it would take them years!"
James hit Sirius with the back of his hand. “Cut it out, will you?”
“Why?”
James glared at him.
“Oh, okay, okay! Fine. I won’t laugh now. May I snicker when she accidentally freezes herself?”
James glared at him.
“Okay, okay! Calmness…a virtue of great sorts…James, I won’t pick at her.”
Lora’s face widened into a smile, and James rounded on her. Her grin dropped.
“You ruin all the fun. Fine. I won’t, either.”
“Good.”
Lily couldn’t resist. “Just one little bitty snicker?”
If James could freeze with his glare, the sun would have been transformed into one large icicle if it had asked him that question.
It turned out that Serena didn’t lose her temper; and she didn’t do anything undignified of sorts. She simply reappeared, with her school robes off, and wearing only shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. It was no more extreme than anything anyone else was wearing, but on her it looked…well, it looked vulgar. She had a talent for that.
Quickly, the week passed, and Professor McGonagall was handing out their marks at breakfast on Saturday. There were excited squeals and disgruntled groans; satisfied “Phew!”s and disappointed “But…”s. The noises of tearing paper could be heard all through the Great Hall, into the entrance hall, and out onto the grounds.
James leaned back in his seat with a satisfied grin on his face after ripping his envelope in half and tearing his mutilated letter out. He had received thirteen N.E.W.T.s—he only had had twelve Ordinary Wizarding Levels last year. Coolly slurping a glass of pumpkin juice, he listened, pleased, to Serena’s congratulatory squeals.
On Lily’s part, she turned the parchment envelope over and over before opening it, fingering the ruby wax seal and her name written in sparkling emerald ink at least seven times prior to slitting it open with her butter-knife and pulling out her marks, also written in the glittery green liquid.
Dear Miss Evans,
Your scores are, for the following classes:
Transfiguration: 115%
Potions: 119%
Defense Against the Dark Arts: 125%
Charms: 156%
Herbology: 121%
Astronomy: 132%
Divination: 97%
Anatomy: 119%
A Study of Ancient Runes: 128%
Dear Miss Evans,
We are pleased to inform you of your scores for the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s). We would like to remind you that these are internationally standardized exams and that your score reflects your progress in comparison to other young wizards and witches of your age.
The amount of Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests you may hope to obtain is thirty; though hardly five wizards and witches per magical school obtain above twelve.
Your placement is, out of the sixth year Hogwarts examinees: 1 out of 151
Your placement is, out of the sixth year European examinees: 1 out of 18,954
Your placement is, out of the sixth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools: 1 out of 10,984,853
You have earned the honorable degree of twenty-four (24) Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s).
With our congratulations, we are
The International Board of School Directors
Lily looked up in a daze. They used exactly the same wording as they had when they gave her her scores for the O.W.L.s, but still…her fifth year, her scores were tops, and now this…She floated in a sort of dreamland until her marks were snatched out of her hands.
Sirius glanced up and down the parchment. “You didn’t!”
Lora, puzzled, leaned over. “What?”
“She got top scores. Again.”
“Top scores—lemme see that.” James ripped the letter cleanly out of Sirius hands and nearly choked on his pumpkin juice.
“Excuse me? What is this—out of the sixth years attending magical schools, excluding homeschools: 1 out of ten million something? And I thought I was good! You officially make me want to hit you!”
Smiling composedly, Lily retrieved her letter from his hands and folded it up, placing it in her pocket. Inside, however, she wasn’t nearly as unruffled as she appeared; she was tumbling and turning cartwheels and leaping off of two thousand-foot-high cliffs into the sea…
Eva simply beamed at her from across the table; she knew how her friend was feeling. “Lily, that’s wonderful!”
Eva herself had received nine O.W.L.s; she had done quite well, in comparison with some of the other fifth years. Amanda had nine, too; Lora had ten N.E.W.T.s; Sirius had twelve, Remus ten, and Peter seven. Lucius and Severus showed her theirs later on that day; each of them had eleven, and each pair of eyes that saw hers almost detached their own nerve cells and flicked themselves out of their skulls.
Almost unaware of them all, the holidays were coming up quickly. The morning of their departure, Lily was halfheartedly sitting on her bed, placing folded robes inside her trunk, and dreamily staring out of the window.
“I don’t want to go back. I feel more at home here than I ever will…with the people here…they’re more of a family to me than anyone else in the world. I know we fight, but so do siblings…”
The sunlight poured onto her upturned face as she gazed at a flock of birds circling the sun.
Before they boarded the train, Professors McGonagall, Maar, Flitwick, and Dorvan were handing out end-of term notices saying they weren’t allowed to use magic over the summer—Lily and all the rest either made faces or groaned as they received these. Still, they used the rest of the time they had with each other to pile into compartments and to pull out games; Lily shared one with Lora, Eva, Amanda, and Vanessa.
They had set up a game of chess on one of the seats; Lily and Eva were sitting on the two next to the chessboard; Amanda and Vanessa were challenging each other to a game of Exploding Snap, and Lora was building a card castle out of the remaining Exploding Snap cards, knocking it over and singeing someone’s sleeve whenever she thought they looked too interested in what they were doing.
Finally, Lily sat back and sighed, having just taken Eva’s queen. “You know, Eva—somehow I doubt whether anything’ll stay the same.”
Eva looked up, surprised. “What? Of course it will; what are you saying?”
“Nothing,” Lily checked herself. “I just wish things didn’t have to change…”
“Nothing lasts forever,” Lora intoned, sounding exactly like a bad actress in a terribly written play—unbelievable and fake.
“I know, I know…still, it would be nice if it did,”
The Hogwarts express roared on through the countryside, spilling grey smoke into the air…
They all spattered out onto the platform at King’s Cross as soon as it stopped; in the case of James and Sirius, before it stopped. The platform was filled with waiting families and grinning siblings, shouting welcome banners for the former seventh years and some lower years, and a pleased, family-like racket and mayhem everywhere. Casting one longing glance at a child that was given a large kiss on the cheek by her mother and swung into the air by her father, she markedly turned her trolley towards the barrier. Closing her eyes to shut out the families all around her, she pushed her luggage through it.
Lily opened her eyes to the Muggle world of King’s Cross. It was as usual; hurried men and women in correct business suits were walking past with absolutely no consideration for the children that had popped through a stone wall. Lily cast a glance around, looking for her parent and sister, but she couldn’t find them; she had already walked to the entrance of the train station before she saw them hurrying towards her.
With a vague, uncertain smile on their faces, Petunia and her father greeted her. By now, Petunia was seventeen, and she was starting to look down on her little sister. Her father, on the other hand, almost froze at the half-glare Lily gave him before she remembered what James had tried to hammer into her head and checked herself.
“Hello, Father, Petunia,” she greeted them, more constrained than she had ever said anything to them before.
“Lily, you’re here…good. Er—let me get your trunk—you can’t carry that…”
Lily felt herself surrounded by something unpleasant; the familiar, warm atmosphere that had surrounded her at Platform 9 and ¾ had utterly vanished when she met her father and sister…a strain of something close to dislike had spread over the barrier between them. When her mother was alive, nothing had ever been like this…
