Finals

It was already late when Aya got back. Even Harry and the others had returned from detention and gone to bed. When she reached her dormitory, she could hear Hermione snoring softly, but she still went to the bathroom and scrubbed herself thoroughly. This time she had summoned Duoduo in advance, and after only two washes, the strange smell was gone.

At breakfast the next morning, Harry pulled her out of the group of older students. The four of them put their heads together, and he quietly told her what had happened the night before.

"You ran into someone in a black cloak who attacked a unicorn and then attacked you too?" Aya asked, tilting her head. "Did you see who he was?"

"No, the cloak covered him too well." Harry shook his head. "The unicorn was already dead when we got there, and he was drinking its blood. And... and my scar hurt so much then that I couldn't run away. A centaur saved us."

"We think..." Ron leaned closer. Aya watched as the greasy hand he had used to grab a chicken leg touched Harry's sleeve. "The person in the forest was You-Know-Who. He's waiting for Snape to get the Philosopher's Stone out of the castle."

"Ah..." Aya sputtered, unsure what to say, then replied flatly, "That makes sense."

"What happened to your way with words today?" Harry looked at Aya suspiciously.

"...I uninstalled it when I ran into Headmaster Dumbledore last night. I haven't reinstalled it yet," Aya continued flatly.

"No!" Hermione looked horrified. "You ran into the headmaster while you were out at night?!"

"What does uninstall mean?" Ron turned and whispered to Hermione.

Hermione swiftly blocked Ron's greasy hand as he reached toward her. "It's a Muggle computer term. You wouldn't have any use for it even if I explained!" she said impatiently. Ron snorted and turned back around. Hermione continued, "Did you lose any points?"

"No!" Aya perked up. "I've unlocked the achievement 'Run into the headmaster on three consecutive nighttime outings without losing points.' You should give it a try too!"

"...What's that supposed to be?" Ron turned to ask Hermione again.

"...I don't know either."

"Anyway, we think Harry will be the first person killed after Snape steals the Philosopher's Stone to bring Voldemort back to life." Ron stopped dwelling on it and went straight to the conclusion.

"We thought Snape just wanted to get rich. Who knew he was so evil!" Harry said fiercely.

"Let's finish our exams first..." Aya thought about her grades and patted Harry on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Even if Voldemort kills you, I'll bring you back to life!"

"Gee, thanks." Harry rolled his eyes.

Professor Quirrell didn't appear again before the end of term. Dumbledore found a substitute professor, though it didn't matter who he was. He covered material in every class, then assigned essays and practical work as homework. Although he lectured without regard for anyone else, he was far better than Quirrell with his stutter and overpowering garlic smell, so everyone accepted him readily.

Only Harry and the others looked horrified, saying that Snape had already finished Quirrell off.

For the sake of her final grades—she needed Hermione, she needed her-Aya told them that Headmaster Dumbledore had already investigated and that there wouldn't be a problem.

During this time, Hermione also put her intellect to full use, earning Gryffindor quite a few points and successfully making up for much of the trouble her friends had caused.

At last, it was time for final exams.

As soon as the exams were over, Aya went straight to her dormitory and fell into a deep sleep. Forgive this wildling; she had even needed a potion to keep herself from outrageously falling asleep during the exams. She had never had to memorize so much before!

No, that wasn't right. She had never even read books before!

When she finally woke up, she saw Hermione sitting on her own bed, reading.

"Are you still revising after the exams?" Aya asked, barely able to open her eyes.

"No, I was thinking about what happened just now," Hermione answered reflexively. Realizing it was Aya's voice, she hurried over and whispered, "You're finally awake! We just went to the forbidden area on the fourth floor!"

"Huh?" Aya pushed herself up. "You left me out?"

"What? You disappeared as soon as the exams were over, and we couldn't find you anywhere! Harry found out that Hagrid had already told someone about the three-headed dog, and we didn't have any professors we could trust, so we went on our own."

"Oh..."

"But Neville overheard us talking and tried to stop us. We didn't have much time, though, so..." Hermione felt a little guilty as she said this, but circumstances had forced their hand. They had had to do it.

"Then we got through several obstacles. Fluffy falls asleep when he hears music, Harry rode a broomstick to get a key, and Ron knows how to play Wizard's Chess, but he got knocked unconscious. After that, we also ran into an unconscious Troll and a challenge designed by Snape. I got stuck at Snape's challenge, so only Harry could go on. But when he got there, he found Quirrell unconscious!"

"And then?" Aya was curious. She had thought Dumbledore had humanely put Quirrell down long ago.

"Harry was going to check on Quirrell, but he never expected there to be a person on the back of Quirrell's head!" Hermione recalled what Harry had told her, looking a little creeped out. "Harry thought Snape had hurt Quirrell, so he went over to help him up. Then he discovered that whenever he made physical contact with Quirrell, that strange thing on the back of his head would scream in agony. Then Quirrell disappeared because of the contact, and that strange thing on the back of his head-from what Harry said, it should have been You-Know-Who-turned back into a soul and escaped!"

"Where's Harry?" Aya didn't care much about the Dark Lord, whose ability to come back to life was so poor.

"He's still in the Hospital Wing. Headmaster Dumbledore said he needed to be examined, but it's nothing serious." Hermione patted her chest, still shaken. When she had returned from Snape's challenge, she'd had to take the unconscious Ron with her and notify Dumbledore after leaving the fourth floor. Her nerves had been stretched taut the whole way, and with the exams just behind her, she had been utterly exhausted by the time Dumbledore rescued Harry.

"Oh... what time is it? Shall we go see him?" Aya said, looking up at the clock.

"Sure. If we hurry, we should still make it in time for dinner." Hermione glanced at her watch. They had discovered that bigmouth Hagrid had let the secret slip just after their exams and had spent the afternoon running around. She had been lying on her bed for over an hour. Although she hadn't slept, she had gotten a decent rest.

"Does everyone know about Quirrell?" Aya and Hermione picked up Ron in the common room and headed to the Hospital Wing together.

"Even though it's supposed to be a secret-" Ron looked excited, "secrets always get out, so—a lot of people know!"

"I can't believe Quirrell was plotting to get the Philosopher's Stone after he left without a word," Hermione said from the front of the group. She still found it somewhat unbelievable. "He looked so weak. I even thought he'd gone to St. Mungo's because he was dying!"

"What's St. Mungo's?" Aya asked, stretching. Now that her exams were over and there was still no news about her task, she felt lazy all over.

"A hospital for wizards," Hermione said quickly. "But Harry said there was no sign of the Philosopher's Stone in the last room, and he didn't see it after everything was over either."

"Dumbledore probably hid it away?" Ron guessed.

They went to the Great Hall and packed up some mildly flavored food, which they put in Aya's backpack. Then they headed to the Hospital Wing, planning to have a little dinner with Harry.

"Harry!" Hermione pushed open the door to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey wasn't there, and Hermione was pleasantly surprised to see that Harry looked well. "We brought you dinner."

They moved some stools over and sat around Harry's bed. Aya laid the food out on it—the bedside table was already covered with get-well gifts from other people.

"Why do you still have to lie here?" Aya asked. Harry didn't look injured at all.

"It was Voldemort's soul." Harry was already hungry and eagerly took a piece of toast. "After Quirrell disappeared, Voldemort's soul came at me, but it seemed very weak. I dodged it—but not completely. Headmaster Dumbledore told me to stay here for observation for a while."

"Oh-" Aya nodded. "Thanks for your hard work. Then let's celebrate this great victory!"

As she spoke, Aya pulled the turkey they hadn't eaten during their earlier Quidditch victory celebration out of her backpack and plopped it onto Harry's legs. The platter was deep enough that the juices didn't spill everywhere. "My treasured stash. You're so lucky~"

"It's still hot?" Ron was pleasantly surprised, then suddenly realized something. "This isn't the one from last time, is it-"

"That's right!" Aya confirmed. "You should count yourselves lucky to have a friend who thinks of you like I do. I won't give anyone else what's meant for you!"

"Thanks so much." Harry was a little speechless and a little amused, but the weight on his heart was finally gone, and he was in a very good mood.

"...Is it still safe to eat?" Hermione asked hesitantly, looking at the fairly fresh turkey. After all, it had been several months.

"Of course!" Aya said confidently. "No matter what food I put in my backpack, it never goes bad."

As a great glutton, Ron was the first to dig into the turkey. "Mm! It's fine. It tastes the same as before; it hasn't gone bad!"

Only after seeing that his expression was normal did Harry and Hermione help themselves to the turkey.

They were all at an age when they were still growing, and they had exerted themselves intensely after the exams, so by dinnertime their stomachs were painfully empty. Aya's backpack, which they believed had an enormous capacity, really was a wonderful thing. Only after repeated reminders from Madam Pomfrey did they finish their little meal, say goodbye to Harry, and leave.

Of course, under Madam Pomfrey's deadly stare, Hermione and Ron cleaned up before leaving—they couldn't count on Aya to have the sense to do it.

After the exams, there was a week to wait for the results. During that week, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had one last match. After a day in bed, Harry couldn't wait to beg Madam Pomfrey to let him leave the Hospital Wing-he still remembered the hundred and fifty points they had lost on their last nighttime outing. Once he had her permission, Harry energetically took his broomstick to the match.

Perhaps it was the lack of pressure, or perhaps it was the incentive of those hundred and fifty points, but Harry played fiercely. Aya's arm was gripped tightly by an excited Hermione. In the end, Gryffindor caught the Golden Snitch first, earning more House Points. Wood was beside himself with excitement. It was his first time winning the Quidditch Cup since becoming captain. He bought sweets out of his own pocket and scattered them around the common room, then pulled Harry aside and gave him a lengthy victory speech.

With the points from the Quidditch Cup and Hermione's earlier efforts, the huge deficit was finally just about balanced out. Gryffindor's score was still second from the bottom, however, ahead of only Hufflepuff, while Ravenclaw was second, only a few points ahead of Gryffindor.

Only after the Quidditch victory did Hagrid bring Harry an album of his parents, looking guilty, and confess on the spot that he was an idiot.

What could Harry do? Looking at the photographs in the beautifully wrapped, leather-bound album, Harry forgave Hagrid with a forlorn look in his eyes.

Afterward, Harry and the other two went to apologize to Neville. But Neville had also heard what they had done and didn't blame them. He said he was glad they had petrified him, because otherwise he would surely have wanted to follow them, and that would have been terrible.

The students had been playing like mad these past few days-there were no classes, no revision, and the weather was lovely. They only calmed down a little when their final results came out the day before the holidays. Aya's grades were pretty good; she had passed everything and was very satisfied. Harry and Ron's results were a little better than expected, while Hermione came top of the year.

Many people sat together in the common room, discussing their results and the end-of-term feast that evening, regretting that the House Cup would go to Slytherin again this year.

By the time Aya and the others arrived, the Great Hall had been redecorated. Green and silver, representing Slytherin, covered the entire hall, and a huge banner depicting the Slytherin serpent hung on the wall behind the professors' table. Aya and her friends had arrived early, and after they found seats, the places around them gradually filled up.

"Another year has passed," Dumbledore said, standing to give a speech before the feast began. "Before we enjoy these delicious dishes to our hearts' content, I must trouble you to listen to an old man's platitudes..."

"First, we must conduct the House Cup award ceremony. The scores for each house are as follows: in fourth place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and sixty-one points; in third place, Gryffindor, with four hundred and thirty points; in second place, Ravenclaw, with four hundred and forty-six points; and in first place, Slytherin, with four hundred and eighty-three points."

The moment he finished, thunderous applause and cheers erupted from the Slytherin table. Aya covered her ears and looked over to see Draco shaking his two big followers and stamping his feet with excitement.

"However-" Dumbledore cleared his throat. "I believe a few recent events should also be taken into account." The Great Hall fell quiet again.

"Let me see-yes, first, Mr. Weasley... He won the finest game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years. For that, I award Gryffindor fifteen points." Applause broke out at the Gryffindor table. They were now in second place, and Percy stood up and happily told everyone that Ron was his youngest brother.

"Second, Miss Granger. Faced with fire, she reasoned calmly and successfully escaped a predicament. For that, I will award Gryffindor another fifteen points." Hermione quietly blushed, and several older girls sitting beside Aya raised their glasses to her.

"Third, Harry Potter. He displayed fearless daring and exceptional courage. For that, I will award Gryffindor another twenty points." Screams erupted from the Gryffindor table, and Harry sprang to his feet in excitement. They were only three points behind Slytherin!

"Fourth, Neville Longbottom." Neville, who had been cheering, froze. "It takes extraordinary bravery to stand up to our enemies, but it also takes a great deal of courage to stand our ground before our friends. Therefore, I award Mr. Neville Longbottom five points."

Neville gave a scream, his face pale and flushed, as his classmates crowded around and hugged him. "You're a hero! You won us the House Cup in the end!"

The cheers from Gryffindor grew louder and louder. Even Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw applauded Slytherin's sudden crushing defeat. Dumbledore had to raise his voice. "This means we need to make a few small changes to this year's decorations in the Great Hall!" He clapped his hands, and at once the green and silver decorations turned red and gold, while the enormous Slytherin serpent behind the professors' table was replaced by the Gryffindor lion.

Amid the excitement, the feast began, and Aya covered her ears while stuffing steak into her mouth.