"I don't believe him. He's out of his mind. He's completely out of his mind! A giant! In the forest?! And he actually expects us... t-to teach him English? Fine, we'll just have to try between two swings or when he's not trying to grab one of us!" Hermione fumed.

They were making their way up the path towards the castle where other students were coming. They could hear cheering. Megan and Cedric were holding hands tightly. Megan's ribs were still sore from Grawp's grip, and every breath was painful.

"Hermione, calm down. We don't have to do anything yet..." Harry said.

But she was too wound up to calm down.

"Oh, don't be silly, Harry, Umbridge is never going to keep him here! Oh, Merlin's beard, why does he always make things so complicated!"

"... I don't know..." Megan sighed.

They could hear the cheering and yelling even louder now.

"Must be the Slytherins... boy, they don't half yell..." Harry said bitterly.

"They beat Gryffindor, they're beside themselves, of course..." Cedric sighed.

"Oh, let's get a move on, before we have to watch the Slytherins gloat..." Hermione said crossly. "I really don't want to deal with that too..."

But as they got closer and came in view of the crowd, Megan noticed that several students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, who should have been groaning, were grinning!

"What...?"

"Weasley is Our King! Weasley is Our King!" someone chanted.

"You don't think..."

"Weasley is our King!"

"YES!" Megan yelled.

"GUYS! WE WON!" Ron bellowed as he came running towards them.

Megan burst out laughing and threw her arms around him before hugging Ginny. Angelina, Katie and Alicia were coming, carrying the huge silver cup.

"WE DID IT!"

They waited till the biggest part of the crowd had gone before exchanging a look.

"We'll tell him tomorrow." Harry said.

"Yes," the others agreed.

And they made their way up to the castle with the others.

Ron was so caught up in his euphoria over getting the cup the others found it very difficult to mention Grawp. He was thoroughly enjoying his popularity.

"I mean, I'd let in one of Davies's so I wasn't so confident." Ron was saying in the common room that evening. "Then, I saw Bradley and I said to myself: you can do it! And I had only about a second to decide which way to go... I saw him aiming for the right... and I got the feeling he was feinting. So I went left... and, well, you know."

"Uh... actually, we don't, Ron." Harry confessed.

"What...?" Ron asked, confused.

He looked from one to the other, upset.

"We didn't want to leave, really," Megan said. "But... something came up."

"Yeah?" Ron asked grumpily.

"Yeah. Hagrid came up behind us and told us he needed to talk to us..."

And they told him the story in low voices. Ron's face fell with incredulity.

"You're joking..." he whispered. "You're pulling my leg, you've got to be..."

"I wish," Megan sighed.

"A giant... he brought a giant to the grounds..." Ron whispered.

"Yep." Megan answered grimly.

"And Hagrid wants us to... what, keep him company once in a while?"

"Yes..." Megan sighed, her head resting in her hands.

She looked up.

"He's lost his mind..." Ron muttered.

"I hate to say this, but I can't help but think he has..." Megan said worriedly. "And with Umbridge already breathing down his neck... but he made us promise."

"Well, yeah, but I mean, exams are this close," Ron said, placing his fingers about half an inch from each other, "and when has helping Hagrid ever turned out well for us, eh? I mean, think about Norbert who very nearly got us expelled, and Aragog whose children almost ate us, and don't get me started on Buckbeak..."

"I know," Megan sighed. "But I mean, if we don't do anything with Grawp, he could well get out of the forest... and that would be worse than anything..."

"... Well, Hagrid's still here, isn't he?" Ron said. "He's held out this long... Maybe we'll get lucky and we won't need to go near Grawp at all."

Megan glanced out at the sunlight, hoping he was right. Because they had other concerns: June was upon them, which meant one thing: OWLs.

The rest of their lessons no longer earned them homework, but were devoted to all sorts of revision and studying the topics the teachers believed most likely to come up in their exams. The atmosphere was tense and feverish, and almost everything but OWLs was pushed out of Megan's mind, though she'd occasionally wonder whether Lupin had ever discussed her Occlumency lessons with Snape. If he had, Snape hadn't said anything to Megan, who didn't mind. She was quite busy and tense enough as it was with her studying. And Hermione was, fortunately, too busy herself to badger her about it. Many people were nervous. And Draco Malfoy was not helping.

"Oh, it's not about what you know, you see," he was telling his girlfriend Pansy Parkinson and his flunkies Crabbe and Goyle one morning. "It's who you know. My father's very good friends with Griselda Marchbanks, you know, head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority."

As they headed to their next class, Hermione asked them:

"D'you think it's true?"

Megan sighed.

"Well, whether it is or not, there's not much we can do about it, is there?"

"I doubt it," said Neville beside them. "That it's true, I mean."

Megan looked at him.

"Why is that, Neville?"

He leaned forwards.

"Because Griselda Marchbanks is an old friend of Gran's. And she's never mentioned the Malfoys."

"What's she like?" Ron asked.

"... A bit like Gran, really." he said.

"I'm sure it won't hurt your odds, though." Hermione said encouragingly.

"Doubt it'll do any good to them. Gran's always telling her I'm no good compared to Dad... well... you met her."

Megan felt for poor Neville. He wasn't as bad as everyone thought, she knew it. He just needed to be believed in, encouraged. And relentlessly comparing him to his father sounded unfair. She reached out and squeezed his shoulder.

A few days later they received their exam timetables and procedure details.

"As you can see, your OWLs are spread over two weeks, with theory in the mornings and practice in the afternoons." McGonagall told them that morning. "And your Astronomy exam will, of course, take place at night."

She eyed them warningly.

"And I must warn you that the most efficient and stringent of anti-cheating spells are being put into place on your examination papers. Here is a list of all the objects that are banned. I would strongly recommend that you follow this list carefully, as there are always, I'm afraid to say, a few who believe they can bypass the Wizarding Examinations Authority's rules. I just hope none of Gryffindor will be among them. Our... Headmistress –" she seemed to speak the word like it was a swearword. "– has requested very strict punishment for cheats. Because, of course, your results will reflect upon her new regime at this school."

Megan could tell that she was tightly controlling her temper.

"Which is, of course, no reason not to do your very best." she went on. "After all, this is nothing less than your future we're talking about."

"Excuse me professor?" Hermione asked. "When d'you think we'll have our results?"

"An owl will be sent to you in July."

Megan sighed, imagining herself waiting in Privet Drive. At least she'd have that one piece of post that summer...