Past Present

On Monday morning, Harry thought Hermione was by far the most nervous one. While Harry and Ron simply wished Viktor well at breakfast, Hermione bombarded him with a barrage of "Oh, did you remember to..." and "You did reread that chapter that..." and "Do you remember who..." until Viktor, looking slightly bemused by the whole thing finally said, "Too bad the examiner is not here already. He or she could skip the oral portion." Harry could sympathize. Hermione's nerves tended to make both Harry and Ron more nervous on exam days.

The words were no sooner out of Viktor's mouth than Dumbledore walked into the Great Hall accompanied by a short, bald wizard with a long beard trailing down to his knees. "I would bet money that's the examiner," Ron observed, buttering his toast.

"I bet you would win. Better get over there before Umbridge goes telling him my English is horrible and he ends up spending the rest of the day shouting at me. Why is it you English speakers think that if you speak louder and slower, people who do not understand your language are going to suddenly be able to?" Viktor asked, shaking his head.

"Hurry up, she's on her way. Good luck," Hermione said, giving his hand a squeeze.

"Longer legs. And I am closer. See you all later," Viktor said casually, and struck out through the aisle between the tables. Hermione spent the rest of the day anxiously spouting her worries whenever she was around Harry and Ron, saying, "Oh! I hope he remembered the distinguishing characteristics of a werewolf! And the incantation for..." at every opportunity.

"For Pete's sake, Hermione! He's already taking the test, nothing you can do about it now!" Ron grumbled, rolling his eyes. "He'll make it fine. He's as much of a bookworm as you are, already," he said more gently when they started down the stairs toward the Great Hall for dinner.

"Oh, look, he must already be done," Harry said, pointing to Dumbledore, Viktor, Umbridge and the little examiner clustered just off the end of the staircase. But on closer examination, he saw that Viktor's scowl was firmly in place and his arms were crossed. All three of them were watching the examiner with interest, and they were just getting close enough to catch snatches of what he was saying.

"....don't know what could have happened... other room....sure of it..." the voice of the examiner filtered up through the other conversations taking place on the stairs.

"Hey! Hey! Slow down Ron! Hermione! Something's up!" Harry hissed. They dawdled as much as they dared, letting the others on the stairs off, until they could soon hear the examiner clearly.

"I really can't apologize enough. I've never had anything like this happen in all the years I've been an examiner, but I've looked everywhere. Of course, usually I don't collect theses, do O.W.L. exams mostly, but I put it in my satchel, I am sure of that, and I've been over the satchel and the room a dozen times. I'm sure it was excellent, I skimmed through a portion of it while you did the written exam, but I can't find it now," the examiner stammered. "It had to disappear sometime while I was administering the oral and practical portions. I'm sure we can work something out," he added pleadingly to both Viktor and Dumbledore.

"You lost my thesis," Viktor said evenly. There was no anger in the statement, in fact, it was so flat that at first Harry did not register what Viktor had just said. Beside him, Hermione came up short and clutched at her chest in her panic. He had to nudge her with an elbow to remind her to keep creeping steadily down the stairs. Arriving at the bottom, Harry tried not to make too big a production of untying his shoe by stepping on it with his other foot and then stooping to tie it back. But Harry figured his shoe tying was probably lost in the racket of both Ron and Hermione dropping their books and papers. Hermione, of course, had more than enough to keep them both busy picking things up for a while.

"Again, I apologize. I am sure the Ministry would be willing to give you an extension to replace it, surely?" the examiner looked questioningly at Umbridge. She looked positively rapturous, like the cat that had just eaten the canary.

"Unfortunately, the Ministry has no proof that this thesis ever existed, so I am afraid..." she began, tenting her fingers together in front of her horrible pink sweater.

"Oh, yes they do," Viktor said quietly.

"...we will simply have to place you on...what?" Umbridge seemed to register Viktor's statement late.

"Oh, yes they do," Viktor repeated. "Ample evidence."

"The examiner's having seen a thesis of some sort is no proof. The examiner merely skimmed a bit, and he has no proof until he takes it back and checks it that you had no help writing it or did not copy it from somewhere, no offense, Pullman," she said graciously to the examiner.

"None taken, Dolores. It is true, I merely took a quick look, I didn't have time to read the whole thing or perform the necessary charms to see if it was written solely by him, but the young man did take the time to hand something in, so surely..." the little wizard trailed off, looking at the other three faces, none of which were looking at him. Instead, Viktor was giving Umbridge a look that would cut stone and she was looking back at him with that awful self-satisfied look. Dumbledore seemed to be taking in the standoff with some suppressed amusement. How could he look so calm when he knew that not only Viktor's position, but his own depended on that thesis being handed in?

"Are you implying I would cheat?" Viktor asked, mouth barely moving, tone low and dangerous.

"I'm implying no such thing but with no essay..." Umbridge trilled.

"Then I will just haff to give him another thesis," Viktor said evenly, clenching his jaw. Harry got the distinct feeling that Viktor would be having a much bigger fit of temper if he and Umbridge weren't in the hallway in front of the examiner and the three of them bungling about among Hermione and Ron's scattered things. Hermione and Ron, though they were slowly gathering things up one piece at a time, were nearly done. Hermione was wandering around distractedly saying, "Oh, where did that extra quill go?" a little too loudly, pausing to sneak glances at the other group occasionally.

"Ah, see, I told you there would be no worries about it, Pullman. It happens to the best of us. Just the other day I lost my glasses, only to find them in my pocket," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And just last week I managed to misplace Hagrid. Thought he should be in his cabin and it turned out he was in the garden. And if one can misplace something as obvious as Hagrid, the occasional bundle of seven scrolls are sure to come up missing sooner or later."

"But the Ministry cannot give an extension..." Umbridge stammered, paling and looking about wildly, as though she were stranded in a foreign country and couldn't really be sure what language the natives were speaking.

"I do not need an extension. I just need another copy. Accio thesis," Viktor said casually, and a roll of parchment shortly came winging down the staircase from Gryffindor. "There you go. And if you happen to lose that, there should be a copy waiting for you when you get back to your office. I sent one to each examiner on the list, since I did not know who would be coming. And should that disappear between now and your arrival at the office, Dumbledore has a copy in his office. He was kind enough to look over it for me and make some suggestions," Viktor said calmly, offering the roll of parchment.

"But you said you couldn't owl it!" Umbridge spluttered, her eyes bugging.

"No, I said it was difficult to send my owl, when I did not know which examiner was coming. With ten of them, it was quite impossible to send one owl. That would haff been sixty scrolls in one trip! Luckily, the school has lots of owls. I sent them," Viktor said, relaxing visibly. Harry was almost sure he saw the barest twitch of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

"And you expect us to believe you copied out that many sheets of parchment by hand? That alone would have taken a week, wouldn't it?" Umbridge asked in a thin, weak voice.

"No, I would not expect you to think me stupid enough to try to copy all that out by hand. You see, I was a fair Charms student as well. I got the equivalent of a N.E.W.T in it. I don't know about here, but they teach Replicatum in your sixth year of Charms at Durmstrang. Took a small fortune in parchment, but that is my future there, and I was not about to take any chances that it might get damaged or..." here Viktor paused significantly, clearing his throat, "...mislaid. I also sent a copy to Cornelius Fudge. I think he might find it interesting reading."

"Well, I'll be heading back now, Albus. You all should hear the final results in a couple or three weeks. But if your written exam and the rest of this paper are half as good as your oral exam, practical demonstrations, and the small bit I read earlier, you should have no problems passing. It was a pleasure. Not many students manage a Corporeal Patronus these days. Or even know what an Anti-Disapparation Jinx is," he added, smiling at Viktor.

"Thank you. I had a great deal of help studying and practicing, though," Viktor replied, shaking his hand and taking leave of the group and heading toward Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Your other quill went clear over here," Viktor announced loudly, picking it up from under the edge of the stair, ending the big false production Hermione had been making of looking for it.

"Do you thinks she..." Hermione began when they had made it out of the hallway and into the Great Hall.

"Oh, I know she did. She took it, sure as I am standing here," Viktor answered.

"Well, tell me how it went, then," Hermione asked eagerly.

"Quite well. Sorry, you will haff to settle for the shortened version at the moment. I promised I would eat with Dumbledore, he got first rights on hearing how it went, so that means up there tonight. You three come up later and we will raid the kitchen or something, and I will go into more detail, okay?"

"Oh, all right. Umbridge looks like she has a right case of indigestion," Hermione said, watching the stubby woman stomp to the front of the room.

"Oh, she was all set to put me on probation and remove Dumbledore. Now by the terms of our agreement, she has to wait at least two weeks, until she finds out the results of my exams. Then, if I pass, she has to find a new victim. Probably take three weeks. A lot of the examiners are on vacation, and from what I understand, at least five of them haff to review my essay. Could be three weeks, easy. Valentine's Day at the latest," Viktor said with a subtle smile. "Let her stew. We can celebrate something besides the holiday, I guess."

At the mention of Valentine's Day, Harry's stomach gave a weak little lurch. Maybe he would have to do what Viktor had suggested and talk to Cho. He still had no idea what they would do in Hogsmeade.