#also if you see Figaro having a third eye its because its from my au where all of the older wizards have some abnormality with their body

[megawyatts]

If Bradley is like... 1000 years younger than the other Northern Wizards... he definetly counts as having the Generation gap jokes... right?

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch23

Here's a new chapter! Tbh, I'm not sure what to think about this chapter, it's honestly a filler chapter. However, I have something to show you! Here is the first piece of fanart my sister made! I thought I'd post the link now since she might still lazy out on me.

The rest few months until the Third Task went by quietly. And ‘quietly’ meant that Magnus didn’t fight against deadly beasts or finally get together with the girl-sometimes-boy of his dreams. What had every fifth and seventh year student in over their heads was something much different and much worse.

Exams.

The N.E.W.T.s and O.W.L.s were moved to an earlier time in the year since they normally would have happened at the week of the Third Task. Their new date had the students that would be sitting them in a frenzy; seventh year students in particular were rarely seen without a textbook in their hands or notes in their pockets. Many of them sported black circles under their eyes and the corridor leading to the kitchens smelt perpetually of coffee.

Magnus and his friends weren’t any better off. The earlier date of the exams meant that the weeks before the exams that were devoted in reviewing the material of each class were significantly cut down and most of their time now was spent cramming as much knowledge into their heads as possible. Bless Magnus and his house elves connections because they would have died of exhaustion long ago if he hadn’t been providing them with coffee and chocolate.

T.J was aiming for either Auror training or a position in the Ministry of Justice. He hadn’t been able to choose one, even though he had been thinking about it ever since his O.W.L.s, so he had decided to apply to both and see what happened later. A fine strategy, if only for the fact it meant he needed the N.E.W.T.s both jobs required. He might be good at studying, but it was getting a bit much even for a Ravenclaw.

Mallory was quite honestly lost about what she wanted to do after school ended. She decided to apply for Auror for no other reason other than that it seemed cool and she wouldn’t mind beating up people for a job. She didn’t have any problems with DADA but Potions were killing her. Last Wednesday she fell asleep on top of her Potions textbook. She had the instruction for a poison printed on her cheek when she woke up. Her other alternative was applying for an internship in Blitzen’s Best.

Sam, after some coaxing and support from her friends, had decided to risk it and try out for Quidditch teams. She had been approached by some scouts on occasion who told her that if she wanted to pursue it he should try out for their teams. She was nervous she wouldn’t succeed as a professional but her friends, especially Alex, had quickly called bullshit on that. She was studying hard for her N.E.W.T.s nevertheless because she was Sam and it was a matter of pride.

Alex wanted to get into art school so most of her time was spent going through her art to decide which she should put in her portfolio and studying so she wouldn’t flunk her N.E.W.T.s.  She had paint and clay on her nails all the time and Magnus would laugh every time she had come to breakfast with paint on her face from painting late at night.

Magnus was slaving over Potions and Healing textbooks. He wanted to become a Healer after Hogwarts finished and while he was good at healing he was nervous he wouldn’t go as well as he needed to at the other lessons.

Long story short, they were all missing sleep and suffering in the Hogwarts library. Halfborn would laugh at them in all the letters he sent them, most of them boiling down to “Ha ha, now it’s your time to suffer, I already went through this hell.”

The students of the other two schools had it just as bad with their respective exams and all of them bonded over a simple truth of life: exams suck.

And then, finally, the day of reckoning had arrived. Fifth and seventh year students of all schools were crowded outside the larger rooms of the castle, dreading the moment the large doors would open once the previous exam was over and they’d have to go inside or waiting anxiously for a friend who was already  inside every student’s hell on earth.

Alex was in the latter group. This particular classroom was one of the smallest exam rooms and the N.E.W.T.s of subjects less people took were held there. He had just come out of his Muggle Studies exam – a subject Magnus had chosen not to sit – and he was waiting for Magnus to finish his Healing exam. He knew Magnus would do well, heck, if there was a higher mark than “Outstanding” he would take it; he was talented at healing, probably the best in the class, even though the idiot wouldn’t admit it. He couldn’t help worrying a little bit, though – mostly about whether his boyfriend would write well without making stupid mistakes because he was going through the test too fast.

Finally, the door opened and the head of every student outside it turned to its direction. The Healing students came out, looking anywhere from tired to ‘I want to crawl inside a hole and die’. Alex caught sight of Magnus’s blonde head near the back of the group and he stepped to the side so he could ambush his boyfriend more efficiently.

“Maggie!” he yelled a bit too loudly, throwing his arms around his boyfriend and hugging him from behind. Magnus was just a couple centimeters shorter than him, which meant he was perfect for hugging (and stealing clothes from). “How did the exam go?”

“Pretty well. I might have made a mistake at the one exercise, but I think I did well,” he said, sounding fairly confident about himself and Alex kissed his cheek. At the start of their relationship Alex hugging him out of nowhere like he had now would have sent him toppling over and kissing his cheek in front of people would have made him flush and splutter. Now he hardly stumbled and okay, he blushed, but he didn’t splutter.

“I told you you’d do great. Do you want that congratulatory kiss now?” Before Magnus sat his Potions N.E.W.T – which Alex also took – he joked about getting a kiss for good luck. Alex, who was doing some last-minute cramming, told him he’d get a kiss as long as neither of them died during the exam. It had become a sort of joke between them and now they always asked the other for a kiss after they came out of an exam.

“I do, but maybe we should go somewhere else and not start making out in front of the exam room.”

Alex nodded begrudgingly and stopped hugging them to lace their finger together. They had been scolded a couple of times from teachers for their PDA, and while they hadn’t got in trouble for it, the general rule was that anything beyond a kiss on the cheek was only for more secluded places.

They made their way to the library hand in hand while Magnus told Alex about his exam, even though Alex only knew the basics when it came to healing. Still, he listened and made sarcastic comments here and then, making Magnus snort and laugh.

“And then there was this really basic question, like ‘What do you do if someone is unconscious and you don’t know why-‘“

“You slap them till they wake up so you can ask them!” Alex had cut in at one point and Magnus had laughed so loud at the enthusiasm in his eyes and voice that he snorted. The sound had made Alex laugh too and the portraits on the walls had been looking at them with anything from ‘Aw, young love’ to ‘Stupid children’.

“You know, if you keep calling me Maggie, I need to find a nickname for you too,” Magnus said with a grin after they had stopped laughing like idiots. “What about Ferraris?”

“What?” Alex snorted. Magnus calling him Ferraris made him imagine himself as a car from that Pixar movie and wow, was that a weird mental image.

“What about Figaro?” Magnus went on. He wouldn’t stop until he found a nickname that annoyed Alex just as much as ‘Maggie’ annoyed him.

Alex chuckled. “No.”

“Ferrero Roche?”

“What the-“ Alex started and Magnus made a mental note to use that one, or at least get her some of those chocolates at one point. He’d probably get punched for it but it’d be worth it.

Turning down a corner, Magnus noticed a group of students huddled over the Daily Prophet. An crying Helga screamed to the world from the first page. The fight after the Second Task had quickly made it to the headlines – the heir to one of the richest wizarding families revealing such things about her home life was like a chest of treasure for reporters. Someone had recorded nearly the whole argument and it had been sod for quite a price to the highest bidding newspaper.

Helga’s parents had been having a hell of a time trying to save their image but it was no use. Magnus had read some of the interviews they did in hopes of appearing good again but nothing they said could fix what had happened. On the other side, Helga was receiving letters from newspapers who wanted to interview her every day. She had been adamant that she had no wish to have an interview but the letters hadn’t stopped coming until a furies Agatha sent Howlers to each and every newspaper.  

Once at the library, Magnus noticed Louis and Raphael sitting at one of the tables in front of the windows. Raphael was bend over a book with his head in his hands, looking like he was about to either start crying or bang his head on the table in hopes it would get him to pass out. Louis looked much better on the other hand, a book and a notebook open in front of him and a pencil in his hand. A plate of half-eaten cookies lay between them and Louis swatted Raphael’s hand away when the other tried to take one. They heard Louis say something in French as they walked closer and Alex translated for him.

“He said ’I told you, you can only have one after you’re done with that chapter’.”

Raphael was in the middle of protesting when Magnus and Alex reached them.

“Hey, Raphael,” Magnus said in greeting. “Mind if we sit here?”

“Please sit,” Raphael replied, still frowning because he got no cookie. “I need witness of the horrors he puts me through for court.”

“Oh, stop being dramatic,” Louis said exaggeratedly. “You know as well as I do that you have to study this.”

Raphael was still pouting. “But doesn’t mean I like it.” Louis sighed and rolled his eyes.

“What are you studying?” Magnus asked curiously. He was pulling out his Healing book to check over the answers he gave in the exam while Alex was getting her sketchbook ad art supplies out of her bag.

“History of Magic,” Raphael all but groaned as he let his head fall on the textbook’s open pages.

Magnus flinched at the mention of that subject and Alex groaned. “I hate that subject.”

“I hate the way it’s taught,” Raphael said as he raised his head up from his book. “It could be so interesting if done correctly but our teacher just drones on and on. How are we supposed not to fall asleep?” Raphael’s voice rose higher and higher and the librarian shushed them angrily.

“Anyway,” the French champion continued in a whisper, “now I have to learn all of this shit for tomorrow, even all the useless details not even our teacher remembers.”

Magnus nodded solemnly; he had suffered horribly to learn what he needed to for the History of Magic exam.

The four of them went back to studying in companionable silence. Louis was taking notes from his text book, Raphael was groaning every five minutes, Alex was sketching something and Magnus the questions from the exam. At one point Alex leaned forward and took a cookie from the plate. When Louis didn’t protest Raphael pouted at him and called him a traitor. Louis grinned but otherwise ignored his boyfriend; he just wanted an excuse to procrastinate.

The blonde’s eyes instead fell on Alex’s sketchbook. On the page was an almost finished sketch of Magnus smiling as he read his book, the light from the window making his eyes shine.

“That’s really good,” Louis said with a smirk. “You want to get into Art School?”

“Yeah.” Alex turned the sketchbook away so Magnus wouldn’t be able to see what it was he had been drawing. He’s drawn him a lot without his boyfriend finding out and he’s not going let Magnus find out and start teasing him about it. “I’ve done better than this, though. It’s just a sketch.”

Louis grinned even wider and Alex glared at him with burning cheeks. He made a gesture like he was zipping his lips shut and the blonde Frenchman nodded.

“What do you want to do?” Louis asked Magnus, taking the subject away from Alex’s sketches of his boyfriend.

“I want to be a healer,” Magnus answered simply. He didn’t have a clue that Alex had been drawing him or that he had a sketchbook worth’s of such drawings. “You?”

“I want to open a pastry shop,” Louis said. His eyes were twinkling, like he could already picture everything about his future shop. “Wizards have so many unique sweets but they completely ignore Muggle ones. I want my shop to sell both as well as the ones I make on my own. I’ve been working on some ideas.”

“If the cake you gave me is anything to go by your shop will be a hit,” Magnus said with a smile. He was kind of bummed the shop didn’t already exist because he would love to eat everything inside it.

“Oh, it’s definitely going to be a hit,” Raphael said, smiling proudly. He wrapped his arms around Louis’s shoulders and nuzzled his face into the other boy’s neck. “My boyfriend’s awesome.”

Louis blushed but he turned his to the side and kissed Raphael’s head. “My boyfriend is more awesome.”

“Are we that cheesy too?” Alex whispered to Magnus’s ear. Magnus shrugged.

“What do you want to do, Raphael?” Alex asked, hoping it would stop the other couple from making out in front of them.

Raphael instantly perked up and he started explaining to Magnus and Alex what it was he wanted to do with the excitement of a small child. Louis watched him ramble with a fond smile on his face.

“I want to study magic in different countries,” he started, his eyes glittering. “My grandparents’ immigrated to France and they use some spells I’ve never even heard of. I want to study how magic differs from place to place.” His face fell a bit and he sighed heavily. “But I need to get really good CR.E.P.E.s to make sure I’ll be able to apply for the different courses around the world. That’s why I’m dying over these textbooks.”

Alex raised a brow in question. “Crepes?”

Louis snorted. “Yes. It’s the equivalent of N.E.W.T.s in France.” He sounded like he had memorized the words. They probably had to explain it to a lot of different people recently. “It stands for Cripplingly Exhausting Proficiency Exam.”

Magnus and Alex laughed at the name. They probably didn’t have the right to talk when wizarding exams at the UK were called W.O.M.B.A.T, O.W.L and N.E.W.T but it still seemed funny to them.

“Do you have an exam called croissant too?” Magnus asked, still chuckling a bit.

“Yeah,” Raphael said, deadly serious. “Though I always forget what that stands for.”

Leaving pastry named exams aside, the four of them went back to their business. Time passed by relatively easily, the silence of the library punctuated only by coughs and the pained groans of studying students. Once they decided that enough was enough and that Raphael would sustain lasting damage if he read one more page about the goblin rebellion they left the library together.

“Did you hear about what happened with the lawsuit?” Magnus asked at one point. After the second task, the parents of Louis and Agatha as well as several other angry parents had sued the schools for putting the three students in danger. The Headmasters were drowning in angry letters.

“I think they got away, but they’ll have to pay compensation to the Champions and the people they poisoned,” Raphael said. His shoulders were slumped and Magnus was pretty sure he would pass out if they didn’t put some caffeine in him soon.

“How did they even get away with that?” Alex asked incredulously.

“I heard it’s because the poison wouldn’t have killed us but just give us bad fever,” Louis said. He thought that was stupid and he didn’t try to stop it from showing in his voice.

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Magnus huffed.

“The second task was fucked up in general,” Alex grumbled. “I mean, what messed up psycho thought it be a good idea to force you to face the embodiment of your worse fears?”

Magnus squeezed Alex’s hand. After he had explained to Alex what happened during the second task, especially what happened at the Divination classroom, and needless to say the Slytherin didn’t like it. He spent the next ten minutes pacing up and down the Room of Requirement and shouting obscenities about whoever came up with that part of the task.

“Alex,” he had said, trying to get her to calm down. Alex didn’t pay attention to him.

“Who do they think they are? What if one of you had a panic attack or-“

“Alex!” He had spoken louder that time and it managed to get Alex to stop talking. “It’s alright,” he had continued, taking Alex’s hand and making her sit down next to him on the couch. “I’m alright. Nothing happened to me. I’m fine.”

“But you shouldn’t have to go through that,” Alex had protested. “You shouldn’t have to relive your mother’s death or see any of us die or…” Alex’s voice had broken and she took a deep, shaky breath. “I remember how broken you were in fourth year when your mum died. You shouldn’t have to go through that again. I don’t want to see you like that again.”

“Alex, I’m alright,” he had pressed on but Alex wouldn’t look at him. He had brought his hand up to her cheek and turned her face so she was facing him. “I’m alright,” he had repeated. “I know my mum’s dead and I can’t do anything to change that. I know you and everybody else are alright and I can do something to keep it that way. It’s alright.”

Alex had sighed and she wrapped her arms around Magnus, holding him tight to her chest. Magnus’s head had been buried the crook of her neck. She had started tracing circles on his back and Magnus had gotten lost in her warmth.

“You know we’re here, right?” She had said quietly after a moment. “You won’t lose us.”

Magnus had tightened his arms around her waist and nuzzled closer to her neck. “I know,” he had said. “Since when are you so affectionate?”

Alex had chuckled and the heavy tension between them had broken. “Since now,” she had said with a laugh before leaning in and kissing him softly.

“Magnus? Magnus?”  Alex’s voice snapped him out of his memories and he turned to him.

“Are you alright? You spaced out for a bit,” Alex went on.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I was just thinking.” Alex didn’t seem to be buying it but he let the subject drop.

“Anyway, I agree with Alex about the second task,” Louis said, continuing from where they had left off. “I mean, they didn’t know what your worse fear was, what if it made one of you faint or have a panic attack?” Louis’s face had gone red and his voice had risen an octave near the end. The though alone obviously made him nervous and his hands were twitching by his sides. Raphael reached out and took Louis’s hand in his own. The contact seemed to calm Louis down and he sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair.

“Sorry, Raph. It’s just…” he sighed. “You get anxious enough about exams as it is; I don’t want this to make it worse. I’m just worried.”

Raphael smiled and leaned in to peck Louis on the cheek. “(I’m alright, mon cher,)” he said. He was trying to be reassuring but it didn’t seem he was too sure about it himself.

“Was your worse fear exams?” Alex asked curiously. Magnus tugged at his hand and shot him a look. He shouldn’t have asked about that; Raphael might not want to talk about it.

“It wasn’t,” Raphael said, seemingly unfazed by the question. Louis was looking at him concerned. “It was my grave,” he went on. Magnus paled and from the look on Alex’s face he regretted bringing it up. “I was dead and everyone at my funeral were talking about how there were so many things I hadn’t done and would never be able to now.”

There was a moment of tense silence and Magnus refused to look at Raphael in the eye. He didn’t know how to react to something like that and it made him uncomfortable. If someone trusted you enough to tell you something like that you should say something, right?

“Shit,” Alex said tensely, finally breaking the silence. “That must have sucked.”

“Yeah,” Raph chuckled at the uncomfortable way Alex spoke. “It was. I spent at least ten minutes trying to get my family to realize I was alright and that I wasn’t dead. That was probably the worst part of it all;” Raphael went on, his thumb tracing circles on Louis hands as he looked at the other boy, “everyone I knew – my friends, my family, Louis – they were all crying over me. It was horrible to watch.”

“I’m sorry I asked,” Alex muttered.

Raphael snorted. “It’s alright. Maybe I’ll forget about it easier if I talk about it.”

Louis squeezed Raphael’s hand and smiled at him, an unsaid I’m here passing between them. Magnus and Alex remained quiet and after a while changed the topic to something lighter to cheer Raphael up. Unfortunately for Magnus, this new topic happened to be embarrassing stories about him. He would have frowned at Alex for bringing up all those stories if Raphael wasn’t laughing at them, everything that happened with the boggart forgotten for now.

They split up when they made it to the Hall of the Slain and went to have lunch with their others friends as they complained over exams. Magnus was tackled halfway to their table by little Cheyenne who came to hug him. She had made a habit of that since the Second task, probably as a way to remind him she was safe just like everybody else from Perthro. Like every day, he smiled at her and ruffled her hair as her little head was buried in his chest.

Cheyenne wasn’t the only one who would try to make sure he was alright after everything that happened in the Divination classroom. T.J would be more touchy than he already was, Mallory would tease him more, Sam would somehow ask him how he was multiple times a day and even Halfborn would sent more letters than before. He appreciated a lot, but to be honest, as cheesy as it sounded, they didn’t need to do any of those things. Eating together like always, laughing and teasing each other and complaining about school was more than enough to make him forget the boggart’s vision.

//////////////////

The day of the final task was finally here, as was the summer heat. With exams done and the students having sent in their applications, the castle of Hogwarts and everyone inside it were preparing for the big finale of the Triwizard Tournament. The audience for this task was expected to be at least twice as big as it had been for the last two tasks combined and it probably would be even more than that. Every inn and every available room in Hogsmeade was booked by people who wanted to be at Hogwarts for the Third Task and the celebration afterwards.

Shops from Hogsmeade, like Valhalla and the Candy Store, would be selling their fare at the stands, street vendors were trying to make a few extra cash by selling flags, caps and t-shirts supporting the three schools and students were making banners to support their respective Champions. And of course, the betting was stronger than ever. With all three Champions at a draw, the Third Task would be the one to decide who would win – whoever won in the Third Task would win the Tournament. Everyone was excited about what would go down at the final task and the Champions were trying not to let their nerves get to them.

The day before the Third Task, Magnus was planning to relax in his dorm and then go to sleep so he wouldn’t be tired the next day. Instead, his friends dragged him to the school grounds the moment dinner was over. With summer finally here, the days were longer and it wasn’t too dark after dinner to go outside. In fact, a lot of students were wandering around, enjoying the evening before they would have to go back inside. Looking out to the Quidditch field, Magnus noticed that the stands were much bigger now, so big you’d thing they were hosting the World Cup. He wasn’t able to think about that for long because Alex finally let go of the hand she was dragging him by and turned around to face him. They were at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

“Okay, can someone finally tell me what’s going on? Why did you drag me here?” He didn’t get an answer, just his friends grinning at each other. Before he managed to ask again, a blonde head peaked out from behind the trees and before he could react Annabeth was hugging him close.

“Surprise!” his cousin said when she let go of him. Percy was standing behind her, he was probably hiding behind the trees too. “Did you forget we were going to come visit?”

He did. With everything that happened this year he had completely forgotten Annabeth and Percy had said they would come see the Third Task with them.

“Oops?”

Annabeth chuckled. “It’s okay, I expected it. I can’t believe you’re Champion!”

“Yeah, I can’t either.”

“We were watching the Tournament with our friends from Ilvermorny,” Percy said. “They were disappointed they couldn’t come too, but they told us to tell you good luck for them. Leo also said to tell you that apparently being badass runs in the family.”

Magnus wasn’t sure how to react to being called badass, but Annabeth rolled her eyes with a smile, like it was expected for Leo to say something like that.

“Anyway, were staying at a room in Hogsmeade,” Annabeth continued. “We’ll be here for the celebration after the Tournament is over too.”

“We’re going to be the loudest people in the stands!” Percy said excitedly. He leaned in closer to Magnus and put a hand in front of his face like he was going to say something secret but he barely lowered his voice at all. “I brought a megaphone with me.”

Magnus couldn’t help laughing. The mental image of his friends taking turns to shout encouragements though a megaphone was hilarious.

They spent about an hour wandering around the school grounds and catching up. Magnus told Annabeth about his N.E.W.T.s, Annabeth told him about life at college, about how life was going in America.

“Dad’s been watching the Tournament. He’s really proud of you,” Annabeth said. “He said he’d love it if you were able to come visit during the summer. He’d come here but it’s not easy with his job.”

“My mom wanted to meet you too,” Percy said. “Though I warn you, she’ll probably adopt you the moment she sees you. That’s what she did you most of our friends.”

“His mom is an angel,” Annabeth said with the simplicity of someone stating the fundamental truths of the universe.

“I’d love to visit, though I’ll have to see how my N.E.W.T.s went first,” Magnus said. He knew his mum wasn’t on good terms with her brothers – you had to be to move an ocean away from them – but he wanted to meet the rest of his family again.

“I thought so. And hey,” Annabeth elbowed him playfully in the side, “dad said you can bring along a friend if you want.” The way she gestured at Alex with her eyes wasn’t subtle at all. Magnus blushed but a smile tugged at his lips nonetheless.

“Anyway,” Annabeth went on casually, like she hadn’t noticed Magnus’s pink cheeks, “we should get going. Your curfew must be about now and you need your sleep for tomorrow.”

Before Magnus could react she closed the distance between them and hugged him. “Good luck,” she whispered. She pulled away with a smile that made Magnus’s worries about tomorrow almost die down completely.

“Kick their asses, cuz!” Percy yelled dramatically, pumping his fist in the air as they headed back to Hogsmeade.

Magnus waved goodbye before heading back to the castle with his friends.

This was it. Tomorrow, after a whole year, the Triwizard Tournament was finally coming to an end.

So, the final amount of chapters for this fic is now 25... unless something changes. That said, next chapter might take a bit longer because you all know by now that the chapters with the tasks are ridiculously long. On another note, the lighting thief musical is AWESOME!