Gryffindor House's team won the Quidditch Cup, and the celebrations lasted an entire week. Even the blue skies and brilliant sunshine seemed to be cheering them on.
May was an anxious month for Hermione. Though she doubted Professor Trelawney's predictions, whenever she recalled the warnings that she would lose someone vital to her life in May, a flicker of unease inevitably rose in her heart. Throughout the month, she wrote to her parents almost every day, pouring her longing and worry into her letters.
Yet as time passed, May drew peacefully to a close, giving way to a bright June. The days brought cloudless skies, and the blazing sunshine made everyone want to take a few bottles of chilled pumpkin juice out onto the open grounds, sit down at leisure, perhaps play a few casual rounds of Gobstones, or quietly watch the Giant Squid glide dreamlike across the surface of the Black Lake.
Reality, however, allowed no such leisure. Exams were drawing closer by the day, keeping the students cooped up inside the castle, buried in revision and struggling to concentrate even as summer breezes stirred outside the windows. Even Fred and George had begun studying hard for their upcoming Ordinary Wizarding Levels, or O.W.L.s.
"I told you Professor Trelawney's predictions were nothing but a scary story!" Hermione said softly to Jerry in the corridor outside the study room.
"Then why were you so nervous all through May?" Jerry replied with a teasing smile.
In the Great Hall, Jerry and Hermione had barely set their textbooks and revision materials on the long table when they noticed the gloomy faces of Harry and the others.
"Here," Harry said, handing Jerry the note Hedwig had just delivered. "It's a letter from Hagrid. Buckbeak's appeal is scheduled for the sixth."
"So soon? That's