“Study, study, study…” muttered Sirius.
“Then do more homework, and then… study,” added James tiredly. They both had huge bags under their eyes from staying up late the night before, trying to finish a very long essay they had stupidly put off till the night before it was due in.
“I wish something exciting would happen,” sighed Pettigrew.
“Maybe it’s bad karma, because of how you kissed Emily, and-“
“Not this again, Padfoot. We’ve all had enough. I think basically the whole common room now knows how much you disapproved of Peter kissing Bex’s friend.” Remus said wearily. Sirius made a noise that sounded like, ‘Hrumphey nhga!’ in a quiet voice, but Lupin just grinned.
“Something exciting did happen. It was only like… a month ago,” James said. He was, of course, referring to the incident in the Forbidden Forest, which they had been commanded by the teachers not to talk about. The students all knew that three Death Eaters had been caught in the forest, but they knew nothing of the fifth year’s part in it. McGonagall didn’t want any other students to think that they too could take on three (admittedly dim-witted) Death Eaters, and live to tell the tale.
“POTTER!” bellowed Lily’s voice. She thumped down the stairs to the girl’s dormitory.
“Yes?” James said meekly.
“WHERE ARE MY CHARMS NOTES?”
“I only borrowed them…”
“WELL YOU CAN JUST UNBORROW THEM BEFORE I COUNT TO THREE!”
James sprinted up the boy’s dormitory staircase.
“ONE!”
A muffled ripping and thumping sound came from the stairs, hinting that James had commenced a massive search for the Charms notes.
“TWO!”
Footsteps echoed in the stairway. Then everyone heard James say hurriedly,
“Out of my way!” and a seventh year came tumbling down the stairs.
“THREE!” Lily shouted furiously, and James was by her side, handing her the now crumb-coated and coffee-stained notes. Lily hexed him as payback for the condition he returned them in.
“We got along fine at the dance,” James said sadly, examining the spiders where his feet were a moment before. The poor arachnids sped away in opposite directions, dragging James with them.
“HELP!” he yelled, toppling over. Sirius was laughing. Peter was staring at James helplessly. Remus was getting out his wand and crying,
“ARACHNOID DISMISUS!” and the spiders detached themselves from James legs, and scuttled away. They left feet in their wake.
“Thanks for all your help, Sirius,” moaned James. Sirius would’ve made a smart reply, but he couldn’t. He was laughing too hard.
“Okay, I’m ready. Test me.” Emily said to Jess, who was sitting cross legged on her bed, across from Emily’s.
“Right then. What major incident occurred in the 1800’s involving a dragon, which led to the enforcement of stricter laws about magical creature control?”
“Umm…” murmured Emily. “Can I have a hint?”
“The incident occurred in the 1800’s in France.”
“And it involved a dragon… oh yeah! I remember now! An Antipodean Opaleye flew over from New Zealand, its native country, and destroyed a small French town. Unfortunately, a group of Muggles were there when it happened. By the time the French wizards got the dragon under control, the Muggles had fled and told the story to all their family and friends. The wizards had quite the challenge finding all the Muggles that had heard about the dragon, tracking them down and doing a memory charm on them.”
“Correct!” said Jess, joking around and using a ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ voice. “And, for bonus points, tell us a little about the dragon’s native land!”
“New Zealand is well known in the wizarding world for great scenery and some famous exports of high-quality magical materials. It is very popular with wizarding tourists. New Zealand exports dragon substances such as heartstrings, meat, scales, skin, etcetera, etcetera," Emily lectured.
“You know you should never use ‘etcetera’ in an essay, don’t you?” Jess said in a concerned voice.
“Yep," Emily confirmed.
“Okay then, carry on!” Jess told her.
“But they don’t export as much as some other countries because they have tougher laws about protecting their dragons. They also export the highest quality wands available in the Southern Hemisphere, and some other stuff, like small amounts of Floo Powder. They’re also famous because their highest mountain, Mt Cook, or Aoraki in its native name, is the most magical point in the world. Some people say it is the ‘essence’ of magic. Basically, all it means is that spells work much better when they’re performed on top of Mt Cook. Um… that’s all I remember…” Emily said.
“That’s good! You’ll pass your History of Magic exam no prob!” Emily breathed a sigh of relief.
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