The Marauding Seven - Year 1

The Marauding Seven Year 1 Chapter 10

Exams are a coming...

It was March, and the 'search and reveal' spell had revealed many secret passages, and the marauders had spent many an hour saying various words and spell at statues, doors, even solid walls. So far, they had got into nothing. And the exams were approaching.

"Exams start mid May, so I expect you all to start revising by at least the Easter holidays, coming up in just a few weeks," stated Professor McGonagall. "These exams are essential for you to get into second year," she said fiercely, fixing James and Sirius with hard stares. Out of the group they were the well-known slackers. "You all have the talent. Put in the hours and you'll have no trouble. Class adjourned."

The marauders trooped out of Transfiguration. "The hours?" asked Sirius. "At my old school I used to spend 10 minutes before that lesson."

"At your old school they wouldn't kick you out for flunking a test," reasoned Kate as they ambled slowly towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"Alright, so we'll study. Can we drop it now?" asked James.

"Mmm, yeah whatever. Just remember - Hogwarts wouldn't be the same without you two, okay?" replied Lily.

"We get the picture!" snapped Sirius. The discussion ended.

Lily was not having fun. She had been assigned 'passageway duty' that night, meaning she took James' invisibility cloak and spent a couple of hours saying meaningless words and phrases at concealed entrances. Great.

"Fincolo!" said Lily, twirling her wand at where the 'search and reveal' spell had said there should be a secret room. Nothing happened. "Finicolo!" she tried again. Nothing.

Wait... there was a creaking, like, like maybe, a door that hadn't been opened for years? She turned back towards the room. Sure enough, a gap in the wall had opened. Looking round, Lily slipped inside, and carefully shut the door behind her.

She scribbled 'Finicolo!' on the scribbled map showing the secret rooms and as if by magic, as she did so, the very dim light that had been being emitted from the flaming lamps brightened, and illuminated the room. The room was crowded with old books, almost like a second library. A closer look at some of the titles revealed these were specialist books, mostly on dark creatures and transfiguration. 'Might be interesting,' she thought, but she was too excited to sit still. She had to go tell the others!

Two hours later, the seven marauders were all up in the girls dormitory, talking excitedly. They'd been to visit the room, and had almost been caught on the way back to the common room, which would have been bad, as it was after hours. All of them agreed to step up the search, the discovery fuelling their enthusiasm. Kate however cut in on a gloomier note. The exams were only about a month away, and they hadn't started to study. As none of them wanted to be kicked out, it would be a good idea to start.

"Do they really kick people out?" asked Lily. She couldn't quite believe they would do anything so drastic.

"Yup," replied James, "a Slytherin in the year above my brother got kicked out in his third year."

"It seems kind of horrible, though," added Kate.

"I suppose if people are always slacking off they have to do something, its wasting good funds," said Wye.

"I doubt they'd expel you for having a bad day though," said Alex. "Would they?" she added a little timidly.

"Nah. They wouldn't," said Sirius. "Definitely not." This time, despite his confident look, his words quavered a bit, and he grabbed Kate's transfiguration book off her desk. At a few stares from his friends he shrugged his shoulders. "No time like the present."

After a late night studying, in which they'd all made extensive Transfiguration notes, the Marauders stumbled into the hall at 10 o'clock, thanking the lords it was Saturday. After a leisurely breakfast, the Marauders decided to spend the day by the lake, as the sun was shining, and perhaps look through some Defence Against the Dark Arts notes. It looked like there would be a lot of studying to do before the end of year tests. 'If it's like this,' Lily thought, 'at end of year tests, we'll have to start studying for OWL's and NEWT's in October.'