Closed OWLs

[Corn Seymour VII]

OWLs. OWLs. They had come far, far too quickly, and every time Cornelius thought about it he became mildly certain he was going to have an aneurysm. He was barely, barely scraping by in his classes as it was, and now it was OWL year. He was ruined. He could rattle off his father's long list of NEWT accomplishments in his sleep, and if pressed he could probably go right the way back through the stupid honourable generations. And he was going to ruin all of that. He was a stupid, useless, worthless piece of scum, and he was going to drive his family's legacy directly into the ground.

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion; every day the calendar ticked closer to the inevitable day of his death. He had drawn up his study timetables, then redone them because the time it had taken to make the timetables had thrown the timetable itself off, and now he was on his third iteration. But once this was done, then he could buckle down. He would buckle down. No excuses, no putting it off. He was going to study. He was going to study, and study, and revise, and read, and etch every stupid word of his stupid textbooks into his stupid head, and then he was going to flunk. Cornelius groaned and let his head fall forwards, thunking onto the table he was using to work on colour coding his beautifully organised timetable. It was all pointless. He might as well throw the whole thing in the bin and walk away into the forest. Maybe the centaurs were looking for a pet idiot.

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

School had barely started and Vanity was bored already. She didn't really care that much about her studies, so she had phoned in most of her homework for the first week and now had nothing to do. She was looking for someone to hang out with, maybe Friday, maybe Morrie. Even Briony would do in a pinch, but she didn't see anyone she knew. She headed to the student lounge to see if she could spot anyone, wandering around for a bit. Suddenly, she heard a groan and a thunk. Vanity turned to look at the dramatic boy she recognized from the feast last year. She snorted. "So boring it killed you?" She asked, not entirely unsympathetic. It looked dreadful, whatever he was doing.

 

[Corn Seymour VII]

Corn was so used to being ignored by his schoolmates that he almost didn't register he was the one being spoken to at first. When he recognised the voice he gave a small, weak groan. He hadn't ever really expected to talk to the girl from the feast again, and now she was here to see him wallowing in his ultimate despair. "OWLs." He groaned, as though that explained everything. And really, it did.

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity raised an eyebrow, studying the boy for a moment. She pulled out a chair and sat down near him, propping her chin on her hand. "OWLs only suck if you care about them." She told him, though she wasn't yet in her fifth year so couldn't really know what they were like. She twisted a strand of her hair around her finger. "That's my secret, I just stopped caring," she smiled mischievously. "Hey, is your name really Corn?" She asked teasingly. After meeting him at the feast last year, she had asked around a little. It seemed to be his name, or a very persistent nickname.

 

[Corn Seymour VII]

Cornelius cringed at Vanity's laissez-faire attitude, scoffing lightly. "You'll understand when you're in fifth year." He sniffed. "I'm going to do great things with my life, unlike half the dullards in this place. I can't afford to slack off." He raised his chin as he spoke, doing his best to represent the great line of Cornelius Seymours before him, though he knew he would never stack up to them, not really. His heart stopped as he heard Vanity say the absolute last thing he wanted to hear. "It's CORNELIUS." He said firmly. "Not my fault if idiots can't even handle the task of pronouncing a basic name."

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity raised her eyebrows at the boy's words. "No I won't, I still won't care in fifth year." She informed him confidently. She picked up one of his timetables, grimacing. "I think you should study instead of wasting time making this, though, even I can tell you that." She said, dropping the piece of paper back on the table. She jumped a bit when he corrected him on his name, then turned to stare at him. "Yikes." She said. "I think I might've stuck with Corn, if I were you."