15

15: Charms and Transfiguration (July 7, 2003 to July 9, 2003)

The holiday fun was over once they got back from the break and hit the books head on. At least that was what Hermione and Draco did, both of them quite determined to outdo the other academically. Well, Harry thought it was amazing that Draco was still so ferociously persistent after having placed 2nd to Hermione in scores for the last 5 years, but then again Draco was a notoriously stubborn bastard. It was good luck that he'd made so much of the stress relief potion for Draco, since Hermione had ended up imbibing quite a bit of it herself.

Meanwhile, Harry was quite content to watch them pile the books in front of themselves than join them in their ridiculous pursuit of the perfect marks. What did he care anyway? He'd never worked so hard at his schoolwork as he'd done this year, and he knew all the information. He was sure they did too- but why they were bothering trying to go over the material they already knew, hell if Harry knew. Didn't make sense to him, but he joined them anyway since he had nothing better to do now that term was almost over and both Poppy and Severus had insisted that he take the last few weeks to concentrate on doing well in his exams. Damn them. Now he was bored.

He guessed his sigh jolted Hermione out of her breakneck reading since he felt her eyes focus on him with deadly aim. "Bast, you should be studying not staring off into space! And this is the last day before the Charms and Transfiguration exams!"

"It's not like cramming knowledge into my head last minute is going to help me," Harry stated pointedly. "You two, at least know the material already so you're just reviewing it over to freshen it in your head. What you two are studying is way above my head." His eyes stared hard at huge textbooks in front of them that were The Complete Text on Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History, Potions, and Transfiguration. "Besides, I can pass all off them easily enough."

"But the point is," Hermione argued, "to make the best marks possible, not just to pass. Don't you want to get a perfect mark on your exam?"

"He's not a perfectionist like you," Draco drawled, leaning back in his chair and stretching out his sore muscles. "No one is."

Hermione narrowed her eyes and shot a glare at the platinum blond. "Like you should be talking," she snapped. "You've got your nose buried in the same book that I'm reading!" And if Harry thought he was off the hook, he was wrong when she settled her gaze straight back on him. "It's important to get good marks, Sebastian! This is important for your future. NEWTs are coming up next year and some of the Professors are taking up students that score best in their class on a one on one tutorials. Think of what help that'll be!"

"Just leave Bast alone," Draco muttered, hunching his shoulders back over the textbook. "He'll do fine on his exams, you've seen the marks that he's gotten all year. He'll get good marks, but if he doesn't want to study himself into a coma like you than he doesn't have to all right?" He lifted up his head and grinned wickedly. "Besides, he basically has tutorials locked up with Snape next year. I believe he's being groomed to be the next newest Potions Master."

Actually, Harry reflected privately, he was being guided by Poppy to becoming one of the youngest Mediwizards ever. She was fully convinced that he'd be able to pass the MEDs by the end of his 7th year without a problem. As long as he didn't get setback by anymore accidents. Thus far, there had been no word from Dumbledore about even attempting to try to return to his world. Even Harry had to admit that it seemed too dangerous to try, and he didn't particularly relish ending up in a coma induced healing anytime soon. The bed sores had been pretty horrible.

"I'm concerned about him!" Hermione cried out. "And he should study for Charms and Transfiguration even if he doesn't think it'll do him a lot of good. He could stand to improve his marks in those classes, even if it's not as bad as Herbology and History. Is it wrong to be worried about you, Bast?"

"No, it's not." Harry sighed and reached for one of the advanced Charms textbooks. "I'll study, all right? Happy?"

"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed cheerfully. "Very happy."

Draco raised his head and gave Sebastian a 'You were just manipulated by a Ravenclaw look.' What could he do? He hated worrying Hermione, which reminded him that he needed to speak to Dumbledore as soon as possible. Even if it was dangerous, they still ought to be doing something to find a way back since his Hermione over there was definitely worried, and he couldn't have that now could he?

For their exams, Ravenclaws and Slytherins were doubled up to take their Charms and Transfiguration on the same day at the same time slot. It was unfortunate, Harry thought, as it gave Hermione even more time to nag on him to study harder. He sighed and finally managed to get her to back off as they were walking down the hallway to the Professor Flitwick's classroom. Along the way, Ron Weasley had dropped a note of encouragement and had wisely avoided insulting himself and Draco. So Ron was learning. Good.

Too bad it was too late, Harry reflected. Hermione definitely only had eyes here on Draco, and who could blame her? Their best friend was the Slytherin sex god! A polling had been done a week ago on who was the most desirable guy at school and Draco had won by a landslide, though Hermione had pointed out only after narrowly winning the Slytherin ballot over Sebastian. She may think that Draco was gorgeous, but she wasn't about to let him get a big head over it. That was good, old Hermione.

"Relax, Hermione," Harry murmured soothingly as he placed his hands on her shoulders and massaged away the tension. "Take a deep breath and release all the stress out of you. You are going to do wonderful. Charms and Transfiguration are your best subjects."

She did what he asked and smiled. "Thanks, Bast."

Draco snorted, but instead of making a snide remark said in agreement, "He's right you know. Of course, it makes sense that your Flitwick's favorite as he's your Head of House but you're like McGonagall's protégée and she's the Head of Gryffindor! Even if she's quite fair about taking and subtracting points, you know she almost always favors her Gryffindorks!"

"DRACO!" Both Hermione and Harry called out at the same time.

He lifted his hands up in an innocent fashion. "All right, all right but they are you know."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him and luckily had no free hands to hit him with like she always did when he made a childishly condescending remark like that. "You know when you act like that you remind me of Ron Weasley."

Draco's eyes popped open and he looked like he was going to be sick at the thought. "I am nothing like that bugger!"

"Let's just get to class?" Harry broke in. "It's about time for the exam to start."

That caught both Draco and Hermione in mid tirade launches and drew their attention away from that back to the really important matter, acing the Charms exam. With focused determination planted on their faces, they marched into the room like they were ready to conquer the world while Harry followed behind them with a look of relief. Did he really believe Hermione when she said that they got along better?

They still argued quite a bit, though mostly it was over Ron Weasley. Hermione didn't approve of Draco insulting the Gryffindor, neither did Harry. Though he did have to admit that when Hermione and Draco teamed up together, they were a formidable pair. He sighed and took a seat next to Draco on the Slytherin side of the room, ready to start the exam. He figured it was going to be a very long day.

And he wasn't wrong either. The Charms exam actually went longer than the schedule four hour block. Two hours were for the written theory portion which discussed the history and background on each of the spells they were suppose to know for the Charms practical section. Harry had never been good on theory like Draco and Hermione and had only finished half of it. Luckily, the practical part counted as 60% of the final grade. That was certainly going to help him.

"That was easier than I expected," Hermione remarked, coming out looking even fresher than she'd looked going in. Draco and Sebastian gave her a bizarre expression, both of shaking their heads. "What?" They shook their heads again. "You both did just as well as I did. And Draco especially. Your glamour charm was outstanding! You really did make Bast look like a girl!"

Draco grinned. "Thanks, it was my pleasure." He winked at Sebastian. "I always thought he'd make a charming girl."

Harry glowered at them. "I'm glad I did as well as I did on the practical portion, my written part was weak at best. I suspect I'll be lucky to pull an A."

"I told you, you should have studied more!" Hermione exclaimed, wagging her finger at him. "If you had taken some of the potion that you'd made for Draco and studied all last night you would have done perfectly fine. Even Draco came within ten feet of my parchment!"

"Truly remarkable," he commented. "You do have a tendency to be wordy."

"I don't see precise description as being wordy!" she retorted.

"Professor Flitwick only asked for 30 feet for the entire written portion and you wrote 40!"

Hermione scowled. "That's the minimum."

"That's the recommended!"

Harry sighed. Exam season was really not when those two got along since their work methods were drastically different. "Transfiguration," he reminded. "Remember we spent an hour extra in Charms so we only have half an hour to get to Professor McGonagall's class and grab something to eat."

Again, whenever an exam was mention it was quite astounding how easy it was to wrench their attention away from arguing. This time was no different. Draco and Hermione were so predictable it was almost funny. They were dreadfully alike at times too.

For Harry it was the direct opposite of Charms. He got the written portion to his surprise almost exactly the recommended length, just a few inches short of Draco's own though several feet off of Hermione's. It was the practical portion that went horribly. He knew his stuff reasonably well in Transfiguration for most topics, but of course McGonagall had to go about choosing the one area that he didn't know for the hands-on part. Since when was being able to transfiguring a living creature into an inanimate object important?

He groaned, he knew he should have listened to Hermione when she'd been lecturing him on the virtues of brushing up on that particular advanced Transfiguration topic. But he hadn't listened to her, and he hadn't thought that Draco had either from the hard time that Draco was having trying to alter the cat into a bludger. Lucky bastard, Harry thought, at least she hadn't asked Draco to transfigure the cat into a snitch! At least the blasted animal was about the same general size as a bludger, decreasing the cat in size to a snitch while altering the make up was hard! No wonder he'd gotten it all messed up.

Though, knowing that he hadn't put much concentration to the principle, it wasn't like it being a snitch or bludger mattered. He'd still have screwed it up. It was such a pity too, since McGonagall had made a rather worthwhile promise to any student that impressed her with both their written and applied parts of their examination. He'd thought he'd have a chance after getting the theory and essay part out of the way, but not anymore he thought glumly.

"If any student," McGonagall had begun when all the students in the slotted exam time were in the classroom, "makes deep impression on me with both parts of their final exam, then I will be taking that student or those students up for private tutorials on the possibility of becoming Animagus." She glanced at them sternly over the tops of her gold-rimmed glasses. "Every year I offer this opportunity to my incoming 7th years, but rarely do any students show the potential." She then smiled at them reassuringly. "But I'm sure that you will all do very well today. Let the examination begin!"

It really was too bad he'd blown his chance at studying to be an Animagus, Harry thought dolefully. But it wasn't like he'd have time to actually pursue it. It was a miracle really that he was doing as well in his classes as he was. Between potion-making with Severus and medimagic theory with Poppy plus the Dark Arts lessons, Harry had even less time to study than he'd had in his world. Yet his marks were higher here, much higher.

Not as high as Hermione's though, never was going to be. She was as brilliant here as she was in his world. And he thought that she was much more content here where people didn't make fun of her mad study habits. After all, most Ravenclaws were like that- insanely bookish, and it was abnormal to see Hermione without her nose in a book. It was a relief to him to see her being able to do what she loved best without being poked and prodded at.

To see her shine when she'd altered the cat into a broomstick had made him grin with pride at her astounding ability. Hermione was truly a marvel. He couldn't really think of one class that she didn't excel in and succeeded in. While she was definitely brilliant, she did have to work quite hard to get the marks that she got. She put in the effort and was rewarded in doing so, but she had an amazing brain to import that much material and export it with effortlessness ease. The case wasn't always the same with Draco, though he too was equally outstanding. Harry felt dull in comparison.

"Damn it," Draco muttered underneath his breath as he walked toward where Sebastian and Hermione were waiting for him. His applied Transfiguration was the last one to be tested, thus one would have thought he'd learn something from observing others but no he hadn't. "Damn it, that was bloody horrible."

"At least your bludger looked remotely like a bludger," Harry commented point blank. "My snitch wasn't anything like a snitch. It wasn't even round for Merlin's sake! And mine still had the blasted cat's fur."

"You both did fine," Hermione reassured, patting both of their backs comfortingly. "You two definitely did much better than most of the class. Draco did the second best, and I think that Bast was at least fifth. And you two should ace the written part, after all it's everything we went over yesterday."

Draco rolled his eyes up. "You're just saying that to be the considerate Ravenclaw. Why don't you be Slytherin about it? After all, we're both Slytherins. You don't have to humble about what a bloody awesome job you did. I'm sure you're the one that McGonagall was aiming the speech at. You don't have to be all nobly Gryffindor around us. Never hurts to be arrogant once and a while. Or a know it all."

For that remark, he got elbowed in the side good naturedly by Hermione. She was too thrilled at doing so well that she didn't bother to really get annoyed at him for being such a prat. Instead, she decided she might as well tease him back. "Never hurts to stop being such a conceited git all the time either," she retorted playfully. "Why don't you take Bast's example for once? He's a perfectly likable Slytherin."

"Unfortunately," Draco responded with exaggerated haughtiness, "he's not the Slytherin sex god is he?"

"Thank God that he's not," Hermione replied with a huge sigh of relief. "Putting up with one Slytherin with an ego as big as yours is much more than I can handle at the moment already. If there were two of you, Merlin knows what I'd do. Probably shoot myself."

Harry chuckled and wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist, hugging her gently. "Don't worry about me every having as big of a head as Dray," he whispered softly into her ear, knowing that Draco would be absolutely bunny hopping crazy trying to figure out what he was telling her. Draco was really curious too much for his own good, quite a Gryffindor quality for the Slytherin Prefect. "That won't ever happen. There's no Malfoy in me. And I know that whispering into your ear has got to be making him burn with curiosity."

"What the bloody hell are you two talking about?" Draco asked loudly, trying to separate the two of them so that he could hear what Sebastian was whispering to Hermione. "Come on," he whined pathetically, "tell me what you were saying, Bast." He frowned then scowled. "I didn't know my closest mates would keep something away from me."

"It's nothing important," Harry commented.

"It's important to me," Draco retorted.

Harry broke out into a huge grin while Hermione shook her head. "Don't you see that he's trying to get you worked up, Draco?"

"Damn bastard," Draco muttered. "When did you get to know me well enough to push all the right buttons?"

"Since I started living with you," Harry murmured. "Since I started living with you."