Alex Weasley: Book 3

51

As time went by, the girls almost totally finished cataloguing the materials in Slytherin's chamber and moved onto Rowena's study. There were a lot of finished experiments, mainly focused on alchemy. It seemed to be Ravenclaw's preferred subject of study. They all had to practice for their exams though, Laila especially. By the time June rolled around, they'd managed to finish their overview of the study. They'd all decided to take a break and study and resume their project after the exams.

It relieved a lot of the pressure off them and Alex and Hermione used their time to prep Hagrid for the appeal. Alex was certain they'd win this time around, but she couldn't tell Hermione without telling her about her letter to Malfoy Senior. Still, working with Hagrid didn't take as long as working on the hidden areas. They had moved Slytherin's portrait to Helga's hall so Alex always managed to say hi to him on her way to feed Saphira. She also had a sneaking suspicion Laila came to visit him regularly, not that she minded. They'd stopped researching and finding out what they could about the four areas, but that didn't mean they couldn't visit.

"Hey." Cedric shook Alex out of her thoughts, sitting next to her as she gently stroked Kichiro's coat.

"Hi." She smiled, and leaned to give him a quick kiss. "How are you?"

"I'm okay, you?"

"I'm alright." She said. "Just thinking."

"When are you not?" He teased.

"How was your exam?" She asked. She knew he had a potions exam scheduled.

"I don't think I'll ever understand how you can do that for fun." He scowled, half jokingly. She grinned and leaned her head on his shoulder.

"That was your last exam." She said. "On the bright side you're done."

"That's true." He conceded.

"Mine start Monday." Alex said.

"You're excited, aren't you?"

"A little." She admitted. "It's boring sitting in class. At least I can demonstrate what I know in a test."

"You're such a swot." He grinned. She rolled her eyes. "Nerd."

"And you're such a jock." She said.

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" He asked. She didn't reply, and instead let go of Kichiro as he went to his mother.

"Do you want to meet Snuffles?" She had told him about the dog in the forest.

"He's real?" Cedric asked.

"Why wouldn't he be?" Alex frowned. "You didn't believe me!"

"To be fair you said you met a dog in the forbidden forest. A seemingly non-magic dog."

"Yeah, seemingly. He's in the forest so I'm sure he's somewhat magical."

"I thought you were having me on." He said and she glared.

"Snuffles the second is real, and for that, you're not meeting him."

"I'm sorry." He said. "I just really don't know when you're joking." He admitted.

"Forgiven, but you still don't get to meet him."

The exams came and went. Arithmancy was by far Alex's favourite. She'd taken it with the rest of the fifth years the week before, but it was just challenging enough. Her ancient runes class was her least favourite exam. Professor Babbling seemed to like her a lot after being presented with the hieroglyphs and showed her appreciation by being incredibly lenient, which sucked because now class was too easy.