Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

The Ordinary Wizarding Level Exam, why did Snape hide this memory?

Harry’s curiosity grew stronger as he glanced around, feeling an inexplicable sense of anticipation and longing deep within.

Snape and his father were in the same year. If this were the site of the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examinations that year…

“Five more minutes!” The voice made Harry jump.

He turned and saw the top of Professor Flitwick’s head moving between the desks a short distance away.

Professor Flitwick was walking past a boy with untidy black hair … very untidy black hair…

Harry’s heart raced. He moved so quickly that, had he been solid, he would have knocked desks flying.

Instead he seemed to slide, dreamlike, across two aisles and up a third.

The back of the black-haired boy’s head drew nearer and nearer… He was straightening up now, putting down his quill, pulling his roll of parchment toward him so as to reread what he had written…

Excitement exploded in the pit of his stomach: It was as though he was looking at himself but with deliberate mistakes.

James’s eyes were hazel, his nose was slightly longer than Harry’s, and there was no scar on his forehead, but they had the same thin face, same mouth, same eyebrows. James’s hair stuck up at the back exactly as Harry’s did, his hands could have been Harry’s, and Harry could tell that when James stood up, they would be within an inch of each other’s heights.

“This is my dad!” Harry looked at him.

James yawned hugely and rumpled up his hair, making it even messier than it had been.

Then, with a glance toward Professor Flitwick, he turned in his seat and grinned at a boy sitting four seats behind him.

With another shock of excitement, Harry saw Sirius give James the thumbs-up.

Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, tilting it back on two legs.

He was very good-looking; his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James’s nor Harry’s could ever have achieved.

Sirius exuded a charisma Harry had only seen in Evan before, but Sirius’s was obviously stronger.

A girl sitting behind Sirius was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn’t seem to have noticed.

Like this girl, several others kept stealing glances in Sirius’s direction.

He was certainly popular with girls, even during exams…

Two seats along from this girl — Harry’s stomach gave another pleasurable squirm — was Remus Lupin.

He looked rather pale and peaky and was absorbed in the exam: As he reread his answers he scratched his chin with the end of his quill, frowning slightly.

So that meant Wormtail had to be around here somewhere too … and sure enough, Harry spotted him within seconds: a small, mousy-haired boy with a pointed nose.

Wormtail looked anxious; he was chewing his fingernails, staring down at his paper, scuffing the ground with his toes. Every now and then he glanced hopefully at his neighbor’s paper.

Harry stared at Wormtail for a moment, then back at James, who was now doodling on a bit of scrap parchment. He had drawn a Snitch and was now tracing the letters L. E. What did they stand for?

“Quills down, please!” squeaked Professor Flitwick. “That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!”

More than a hundred rolls of parchment zoomed into the air and into Professor Flitwick’s outstretched arms, knocking him backward off his feet.

Several people laughed, and the Great Hall echoed with laughter.

A couple of students at the front desks got up, took hold of Professor Flitwick beneath the elbows, and lifted him onto his feet again.

“Thank you … thank you,” panted Professor Flitwick. “Very well, everybody, you’re free to go!”

Harry looked down at his father, who had hastily crossed out the L. E. he had been embellishing, jumped to his feet, stuffed his quill and the exam question paper into his bag, which he slung over his back, and stood waiting for Sirius to join him.

Snape was a short way away, moving between the tables toward the doors into the entrance hall, still absorbed in his own examination paper. Round-shouldered yet angular, he walked in a twitchy manner that recalled a spider, his oily hair swinging about his face.

A gang of chattering girls separated Snape from James, Sirius and Lupin, and by planting himself in the midst of this group, Harry managed to keep Snape in sight while straining his ears to catch the voices of James and his friends.

“Did you like question ten, Moony?” asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall.

“Loved it,” said Lupin briskly. “‘Give five signs that identify the werewolf.’ Excellent question.”

“Do you think you managed to get all the signs?” said James in tones of mock concern.

“Think I did,” said Lupin seriously, as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds. “One: He’s sitting on my chair. Two: He’s wearing my clothes. Three: His name’s Remus Lupin …”

There was a burst of laughter, but Wormtail was the only one who didn’t laugh.

“I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, and the tufted tail,” he said anxiously, “but I couldn’t think what else —”

“How thick are you, Wormtail?” said James impatiently. “You run round with a werewolf once a month, but you can’t even—”

“James, keep your voice down,” implored Lupin.

This was the daily banter among his father’s foursome, a glimpse into their past.

Harry looked anxiously behind him again. Snape remained close by, still buried in his examination questions; but this was Snape’s memory, and Harry was sure that if Snape chose to wander off in a different direction once outside in the grounds, he, Harry, would not be able to follow James any farther.

To his intense relief, however, when James and his three friends strode off down the lawn toward the lake, Snape followed, still poring over the paper and apparently with no fixed idea of where he was going.

By jogging a little ahead of him, Harry managed to maintain a close watch on James and the others.

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