Not only the students taking their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, but students in every other year at Hogwarts as well had entered exam season and officially begun their revision.
As the weather grew hotter, the campus seemed to be filled with a restless air.
To the students, even the owls delivering letters and parcels at breakfast seemed far more irritable. When they swooped down to deliver the mail, they were more likely to flap feathers into the oatmeal.
Michael Corner had run into just such a problem. Looking at the feather floating in his pumpkin juice, he pushed it aside in disgust before unfolding the Daily Prophet that had arrived.
"Well, that's new!" Terry Boot, sitting 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. "Well, that's new! You actually eat food!"
"Cough, cough, cough!" Hearing Michael's retort, Chris Moen choked on the milk he had just swallowed.
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, "Probably because he misses Anthony... misses the sound of him reading the paper."
"Hey, I'm relieving 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 Macmillan 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 Macmillan was not in his seat did they answer in unison, "Of course he has! He's unbelievably annoying!"
"One time, he sat beside me..." Chris recalled. "He kept babbling through class,