Harry flicked the quill in his hand, in excellent spirits, and sighed. "If only time would go faster. Why isn't there magic to speed it up? If I woke up tomorrow
and someone told me, 'Final exams finished yesterday!'-I'd be so happy I'd jump into the Black Lake and swim a few laps."
"Then you'd definitely have overslept and missed your exams, Harry. Instead of indulging in these unrealistic fantasies, you could read a few more pages. Who knows, there might be a spell to speed up time in one of these books."
Hermione piled a great stack of books onto the table and looked them over from top to bottom, her gaze like someone admiring cute animals at a zoo.
"Have you finished looking through your schedules? What do you think?"
"I have to say, Hermione, you're amazing-but for some reason, I suddenly want to go back to class. Maybe that would actually count as a break. And I'll have a new pet soon, remember? Harry's godfather promised to give me one, because Peter Pettigrew went to prison," Ron said in a singsong voice.
After doing a few things to vent his feelings, Ron had now fully accepted Scabbers's departure-washing the mattress Scabbers had walked on three times, for instance, tearing his drawing of Scabbers to shreds, and even going out of his way to learn a rat-repelling spell from Brian.
Now he had finished reading his schedule-which was even more outrageous than it had looked at first glance. With a heavy heart and a hesitant expression, he exchanged a glance with Harry-who was looking back at Ron with an equally grave expression.
Their eyes met, and they wordlessly exchanged their sheets of paper. Then, at exactly the same moment, both let out a relieved "Ahhh," their eyes silently