A year ago, Emmeline would have sworn she'd be spending this time positively frantic with anxiety over her NEWTs. She was dreading the hours of obsessive studying, the waves of self-doubt and the nights of lost sleep she'd have to endure because of those blasted tests. She anticipated spending every moment memorizing her textbooks, taking down as many notes as she could and reading the same chapters over and over.

But things had changed since then. She wasn't chewing on the end of her quill, wasn't bent over a book, wasn't fretting over exams. In fact, she hardly cared about studying at all. Instead, she found it a much better use of her time to sit in front of the common room fire, quill twirling in her fingers, staring into the flames with glazed eyes. No doubt she had never looked so calm in her life.

The gangly Ravenclaw just didn't feel worried about exams. Lately, the only thing Emmeline had been feeling was empty.

It took a moment for Grady's words to register. She couldn't even find the energy to turn her head when she responded. "You're more than welcome," her voice came out in a flat monotone, murmured in her usual soft tone but otherwise completely unlike the old Emmeline. "Perhaps you'll find something more interesting."