Not only the students taking the O.W.L. Exams and N.E.W.T. Exams, but students in every other year at Hogwarts as well had entered exam season and officially begun their revision.
As the weather grew hotter and hotter, the campus seemed to be permeated by a restless atmosphere.
To the students, even the owls delivering letters and parcels at breakfast seemed noticeably more irritable. When they swooped down to drop off mail, they were more likely to flap feathers into someone's oatmeal.
Michael Corner had run into just such a thing. Looking at the feather floating in his Pumpkin Juice, he shoved it aside in disgust before unfolding the delivered The Daily Prophet.
"How novel!" Terry Boot, beside him, noticed Michael opening The Daily Prophet, and his tone turned strange. "You actually read newspapers?"
Glancing at the sandwich in Terry's hand, Michael rolled his eyes. "How novel! You actually eat!"
"Cough, cough, cough!" Chris Moen choked on the milk he had just drunk when he heard Michael's comeback.
After finally recovering, he asked curiously, "Michael, I remember you hardly ever read newspapers before. Why the sudden change? An owl's been bringing you one every day lately."
Terry immediately fired back, "Maybe he misses Anthony... misses the sound of him reading the newspaper."
"Sigh! It helps relieve the stress!" Michael ignored Terry's teasing and let out a long sigh.
"That Calming Draught works, but when I'm awake, I still feel anxious..."
"Oh, right! Has that Ernie McMillan from Hufflepuff been bragging to you about how long he spends revising?"
Terry and Chris first looked toward the Hufflepuff table. Only after confirming that Ernie McMillan was not in his seat did they answer in unison, "Of course! He's so annoying!"
"Once, he sat next to me..." Chris recalled. "He kept chattering away and