Nastily Exhausting Wizarding [Practice] Tests

[Evelina Rosier]

With their NEWT tests right around the corner, Professor Swott had decided to really pile on the work. One of his more recent forms of torture had been assigning them pages and pages of NEWT practice tests. On the one hand, she appreciated the opportunity to hone her skills. Though, on the other, Lina was only interested in having to sit for the test once, so these practice ones were particularly irritating.

With a sigh she plopped her backpack down next to her chair and settled down at one of the small, round tables at the back of the library. Pulling out a stack of parchment, Lina started to pour over the list of questions. This test was proving to be far more extensive than the OWLs had been and she was determined to be as prepared as possible.

She was halfway through the second page when she heard footsteps approach. Looking up, she recognized the person as a fellow NEWT Transfiguration student. "May I?" They asked, indicating one of the many empty chairs at her table.

"Yes of course," she nodded, "Professor Swott seems determined to bury us under all the work he's assigned lately."

Open to one or more NEWT level students. Thread is to qualify for this plot.

  

[Henry Berkwood]

Harry was feeling more confident about his NEWTs than he had for his OWLs. For one thing, he'd dropped every class he'd scored below an E in, so he was less worried about whether or not he had the skills required. Still, the closer his exams approached, the more he had to buckle down. No use getting this far and then failing something because he got cocky, after all.

To that end, Harry was in the library, prepared to study for Transfiguration in particular. He wasn't surprised to find that he was alone in this as sought a table at the back of the library. Gesturing at the chair across from one of his classmates, Harry asked, "May I?" and took the seat when she said yes. "Hopefully this is good for preparing us and doesn't just wear us out," he said wryly.

  

[Evelina Rosier]

Lina smiled politely as her classmate settled himself in the chair opposite her. Inside however, all she could possibly think was: Why? Of all the students in her NEWT class, why did it have to be Henry Berkwood sitting across from her now? Why did the library have to be so full that literally the only seat left was at her table?

It wasn't that she hated the Ravenclaw on a personal level- in fact, in all the years that they had known one another, she couldn't recall a single personal detail that she had learned about the boy- it was that he was a mudblood, and a titled one at that! In her opinion, his acceptance to the school was done out of little more than pity and she had done her best to avoid unnecessary interactions.

Yet, academically, he had been an almost constant shadow. Lina had sincerely hoped that they would end up on different paths after their OWLs, but somehow they had still managed to pick several of the same classes for their NEWT years. It was like a nightmare that she just couldn't wake up from!

"Well, the man did work for the Ministry's testing bureau," she replied, determined to keep her proper society lady mask in place. Simply because Mr. Berkwood was chalk-full of flaws did not mean that she had to disgrace herself when talking with him. "All-in-all I'm pleased that Hogwarts recruited such a valuable asset for our testing year."

She glanced back down, shuffling her papers to find a section she felt more confident with. "How many pages have you managed to complete?" She asked quirking her eyebrow, a slightly competitive edge to her voice.

@'Henry Berkwood'

  

[Henry Berkwood]

Harry, for his part, was perfectly aware that he wasn't the sort of person Miss Rosier wished to spend time with, though he appreciated the fact that she knew how to at least be polite about it. And while he was not usually the antagonistic sort, it did occasionally amuse him to annoy those who disliked him for what he thought was such a silly reason. Though he supposed the humbling effect of being surrounded by people who didn't care who his father was--or didn't like who he was--was a good thing overall.

And at any rate, he rather agreed with Miss Rosier in this instance. Professor Swott was terribly difficult, but Harry liked the challenge. And he didn't believe he would fail. That might have been his own ego cropping up, of course, but at least he wasn't taking it as a guarantee and eschewing studying or anything foolish like that.

"Since I've sat down?" Harry asked, somewhat amused. "None. But let's see." He counted his own parchment before answering, "Five, nearly. I've two more questions at the bottom of the fifth."

  

[Evelina Rosier]

Lina quirked her brow, surprised that they seemed to be on similar footing. Though clearly Mr. Berkwood had done well enough on his Transfiguration OWL to continue on with NEWTs, she had certainly never considered him to be her equal. To her, his blood status alone would ensure that he would never be able to master magics the way that she could.

"What did you put down for number thirty? About which species of creatures are the easiest to conjure?" She asked, pretending to be genuinely curious about his work. In reality, Lina was sure that the Ravenclaw had made a mistake somewhere, and she was determined to find it.

@'Henry Berkwood'

  

[Henry Berkwood]

Harry scanned his papers before finding the question. "Anything small and relatively simple is always easiest," he said, "with animate or inanimate. A marble is simpler to conjure than a boulder, an ant is simpler than an elephant. I wrote an ant."

  

[Evelina Rosier]

Lina had to fight back the wicked smile that threatened to spread across her lips. She knew that the mudblood wasn't as good as he appeared to be and now she finally had proof! How the Ravenclaw had managed to make it into their NEWT level Transfiguration class she could not understand. Perhaps his father had to bribe some of the Governors in order to continue with his education- she honestly wouldn't doubt it.

"Hmm, ok, I'll write that in in the margins and look back over my notes," she said, scribbling down her classmate's completely wrong answer on the edge of her paper. Professor Swott had been very specific in class that birds and reptiles were the easiest to conjure- perhaps Mr. Berkwood was too busy daydreaming about potions that day to be paying attention.

Looking back up at him, Lina came up with a decidedly evil plan. Perhaps she could "help" her classmate get the grade that she felt he deserved. "Were there any questions you were stuck on or weren't sure of the answer?" She asked, in the most innocent and unassuming manner she could muster.

@'Henry Berkwood'

  

[Henry Berkwood]

Harry might have had the real answer buried somewhere in his notes, but that didn't mean he'd remember it. This was still better than his worst OWL exam, though. Harry'd actually burned his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook before that. His standards of preparedness may have been skewed.

That said, Harry didn't actually trust Miss Rosier farther than he could throw her, so he highly doubted any "help" would do him any good. Raising his eyebrows, Harry offered dryly, "A bit confused on number thirty-seven. About inanimate to animate transfiguration*." He was less confused and more had just read the question when Miss Rosier asked.

*aka I couldn't think of anything so I grabbed that XP

  

[Evelina Rosier]

Satisfied that the Ravenlcaw had seemingly taken the bait, Lina smiled sweetly before looking back down at her own work. "Hrm, thirty-seven?" She asked rhetorically, flipping through her pages to find the one that he was referring to. Quickly scanning over the answer she had jotted down, Lina racked her brain for a way to twist it to suit her needs.

"Well, of course, the difficulty of the transformation will depend heavily on the level of animation one is looking to achieve," she started, hoping to lull her classmate into a false sense of security by first providing correct information. "But, the main thing that I remember Professor Swott mentioning is that no matter the form of the inanimate object, attempting to turn it into the same animate object is essentially the same," she shrugged, lying easily. The truth was that turning a statue of a pig into a live pig was a much simpler task than say, turning a desk into a live pig.

She waited, hoping that Mr. Berkwood would fall for her little trick.

@'Henry Berkwood'

  

[Henry Berkwood]

There was a brief moment when Harry thought Miss Rosier was actually going to be genuinely helpful. He might have worried she was feeling ill. Thankfully, he was saved from having to inquire about his classmate's health.

"That's very helpful, thank you," Harry said, turning back to his paper. He may have written the correct answer in slightly bigger letters than normal, and may have tilted the page so that Miss Rosier could see him completely ignore her. Or it might have just been a coincidence.