The next morning Ron and Hermione grinned sheepishly as they sat down next to each other at the breakfast table. Right there, in the presence of his entire family, Ron gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. This managed to catch the attention of every one at the table. “Ron?” Mrs. Weasley was naturally the first person to pick up on the change in the atmosphere between her youngest son and his bushy haired friend.
“Um…” With a coaxing little smile from Hermione he completed his sentence, “Hermione’s my girlfriend.” Harry had never seen anyone make saying a sentence look so difficult. A wince was now drawn across Ron’s face as he awaited the reaction from his parents and siblings.
“Oh, Arthur! Our little Ronnie is growing up! Isn’t it wonderful? And with an exceptional girl like you, Hermione. I’m very pleased for you both.” She gave each of them a quick hug and a kiss. Fred and George immediately began to gag at the table.
“Harry, could you pass us a bucket out that cupboard behind you I think we’re going to throw up,” Fred asked as more frantic gagging gestures ensued.
“We’re just glad to see that you’ve still got your priorities right, Harry, no prefects badge for you, no girlfriend for you and mischief aplenty. We’re so proud,” George mocked his mother with surprising accuracy. “What is this family coming to? Bill’s giving private ‘English lessons’ (he used his fingers to make air quotations) to Fleur Delacour, Charlie’s all lovey-dovey with Ellie, and Ron’s getting cosy with Hermione. There’s something wrong with you people!” He and Fred threw their hands in the air in a gesture of complete surrender as if their family’s sudden obsession with romance bewildered them.
“We’ll see, you two will come around eventually,” Ellie smiled mischievously at them over the top of her cup of tea.
“NEVER!” the twins shouted in unison,
“You will, all men succumb to the charms of a woman in the end.” Ellie proclaimed defiantly. Harry couldn’t help but think that she was right. “As for you, Hermione Granger, just you watch yourself, expect the unexpected. The Weasley men are incurable romantics.” She gazed sweetly at Charlie who was sat just round the table corner from her.
“Are you complaining Ms. Dumbledore?” Far from looking ashamed, as Harry had expected him to in front of the family, Charlie grinned widely and took on a sarcastic tone.
“Me? Never, I happen to think that it’s wonderful that you’re not afraid to show you care.” Charlie leaned across kissed her gently on the lips and smiled at her. At this Fred and George could no longer contain themselves,
“On second thoughts no breakfast for us, Mum,” Fred said very seriously, “I don’t think that we could keep it down just now.” He put his hand in front of his mouth as a fresh wave of pretend vomiting took place.
“Let me just warn all of you though.” Mrs. Weasley wagged her finger at the table, or more specifically at those sat around it, “If there are going to be any weddings in the near future I want to know well in advance so that there’s plenty of time to for me to buy a decent hat.” At the mention of the word wedding Ron had become worryingly pale, but Hermione was quick to save him from further panic.
“We’re far too young to get married, we’re still at school.” She was looking at Ron reassuringly as she spoke.
“That’s very nice to hear, very sensible,” Molly nodded as she put plates on the table.
“I don’t know about that, look at mine and Harry’s parents, and Grandparents they were all married within six months of leaving school. You might need that wedding hat sooner than you think.” Ellie rested her empty cup on the table gently and wiggled her eyebrows at them all.
“Does that mean that you’ll want to get married soon?” amazingly Charlie looked completely non-plussed that his suggestion could result in his quickfire nuptials.
“Well, yes and no. I mean I don’t want to get married too soon, we’ve only been together two months but at the same time I’d like to be married within a year or so.”
“Again, very sensible,” Molly’s approval travelled from the stove. Charlie still looked remarkably calm. It struck Harry that he must really be in love with Ellie, if a girl turned round after two months together and told him that she quite liked the idea of marrying him in a few months time his reaction would definitely be one of panic, not calm. The rest of the morning’s breakfast was spent talking about what the various members of the family would be doing that day. Fred and George were going to their shop in Diagon Alley, Bill was off there as well but he was going to work at Gringotts, Mr. Weasley was off to the Ministry, as was Tonks. Remus was as usual staying at home with them all and Charlie and Ellie were off somewhere together for a day out. Just as Arthur rose from the table a phoenix feather appeared out of thin air and burst into flames.
“Ah! Dumbledore must be coming; we weren’t expecting him were we?” He turned to his wife questioningly.
“I don’t think so,” replied Ellie. Seconds later the fire burst into green flames and the tall, sweeping figure of Albus Dumbledore emerged from it.
“Hello, Albus, is something the matter?” there was a certain edge to Mr. Weasley’s voice as he spoke.
“No, no, Arthur, I just came to pass on some very important letters for the younger members of this household.” His eyes twinkled in the direction of Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny. “I also came to see that beloved granddaughter of mine.” His eyes landed on the seat right in front of the fire, Ellie turned to smile at him. Harry noticed that her eyes had the same twinkle as her grandfathers only his were sky blue and hers were chocolaty brown. She rose to greet him, wrapping her arms around him and snuggling in tightly. “Mr. Weasley, how are you this beautiful morning?” he flicked his eyes on towards Charlie.
“Very well thank you, Professor Dumbledore, if only you could have arrived half an hour ago, Ellie and I were talking about getting married,” Charlie spoke without the slightest hint of worry.
“Not too soon I hope?” There was the tiniest hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth,
“Not too soon, but perhaps within the next year,” Charlie spoke as casually about marrying Ellie as he did visiting Diagon Alley.
“Very good, I daresay you will want to ask my permission when the time comes?” the smile that had been threatening to break did.
“Naturally, don’t worry, Professor, when the time comes I’ll make sure to come to you before I do anything else.”
“I am very glad to hear that. Now I really must be going I have plenty to be getting on with, but I must hand over these.” He reached inside his crimson robes and pulled out four parchment letters, address to the four Hogwarts students with green ink. Harry, Ron and Hermione took theirs with trepidation. Everyone in the room was staring at them.
“What on earth are you lot waiting for? I couldn’t wait to get mine open.” Ellie was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
“As I recall she told me that she didn’t care if she’d failed them all she just wanted to know, although she needn’t have worried,” Dumbledore smiled affectionately at her.
“What did you get?” Hermione looked up sharply.
“I got ten in all, seven O’s, two E’s and an A, I was very pleased. I only just managed to scrape my O in Potions by half a point,” she shuddered at the memories. Harry began eyeing his envelope with suspicion. He could understand the feeling, he felt that he had survived so far without knowing; did he really have to find out? Hermione couldn’t even hold her letter, it was lying on the table in front of her and she was looking at it like it was a complete surprise that it was here, like she hadn’t spent the last few weeks desperately waiting for it. Ron on the other hand looked a bit sick. Harry knew why, he was the last of the brothers to sit the exams he felt a lot of pressure to live up to the standards of the others. Harry could only imagine the pressure that Ginny would be under next year. Finally he bucked up the courage and began pulling at the edge where the flap met the wax seal. He pulled out three sheets of parchment, the usual letter about the Hogwarts Express leaving King’s Cross on September the first. The second was the dreaded results sheet:
“OWL Results for Harry James Potter
Astronomy*:
Practical “ P
Theory “ E Final Mark: E
Care of Magical Creatures:
Practical “ O
Theory “ E Final Mark: O
Charms:
Practical “ E
Theory “ O Final Mark: O
Defence Against the Dark Arts:
Practical “ O
Theory “ O Final Mark: O
Divination:
Practical “ A
Theory “ A Final Mark: A
Herbology:
Practical “ E
Theory “ E Final Mark: E
History of Magic*:
Theory “ E Final Mark:E
Potions:
Practical “ E
Theory “ O Final Mark: O
Transfiguration:
Practical “ E
Theory “ E Final Mark: E
Result 9/9 OWLS
*A star next to the result indicates that there were extenuating circumstances and the Examination panel have taken this into account with the final mark
Congratulations on your success, we hope that you are pleased with your results and wish you the best of luck in the continuation of your studies
Yours Sincerely
Griselda Marshbanks
Senior Examiner
Wizarding Examination Authority.”
“You are now eligible to take the following classes at NEWT Level
Care of Magical Creatures Charms
Defence Against the Dark Arts Herbology
History of Magic Potions
Transfiguartion
It is customary for students to take no less than five subjects to N.E.W.T level. Please circle the subjects that you wish to take, tear off this section of the parchment and send it to us by the next return post. We have enclosed the booklist for all the above subjects.”
The final piece of parchment detailed the booklists for the seven subjects. Harry quickly looked up from his results to see the reactions of Ron and Hermione, to find that Hermione was still staring at the envelope. Ron on the other hand was gazing down his list.
“How did you do?” Harry leaned excitedly towards him.
“I got 8, Harry, I got 8. Four 0’s...”
“Oh, Ron! I’m so happy, did you hear that you two? Ron got eight OWL’s!” Mrs. Weasley alternated between scowling at the twins and beaming at Ron, “What did you get, Harry?” she looked at Harry with eager eyes and he answered back confident that he would make her proud.
“Nine, four O’S, four E’s and an A.”
“Well done, Harry, well done!” Her face continued to shine with joy
“That’s fantastic, Harry!” It was Ellie that now heaved the praise up on him.
“What did you get for what?” Harry turned back to Ron eager to compare.
“O’s for Defence, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions!” he was obviously in shock, “E’s in Transfiguration, Charms, Astronomy and History of Magic. I failed Divination though, s’pose it’s no big deal.s”
“No way, we always did say that Trewlawny was an old fraud,” Harry confirmed. Mrs. Weasley audibly gasped and it was then that it occurred to Harry that his Headmaster was stood only feet from him, “Sorry, sir.” He could do nothing but look back at the parchment in front of him.
“Sorry, for what? I believe we have discussed on previous occasions my recurring bouts of temporary deafness.” He pretended to stare off into the distance and not have a clue what had just been said.
“Yes, you’ve always suffered terribly from that,” Elizabeth grinned at him.
“It comes from all the years that I listened to your grandmother scolding me, it became quite useful and so I never got round to getting it seen to,” he continued with his pretend ignorance.
“What about you, Harry?” Ron finally snapped out of his daze.
“Almost the same as you, I got O’s in Defence, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms and Potions, E’s in Herbology, Astronomy, History of Magic and Transfiguration and I got an A for Divination.”
“Cool.” For the first time Ron realised that Hermione had yet to open her envelope.
“C’mon, Hermione, you must have done brilliantly if Harry and I did this well!”
He picked her envelope up off the table and handed it to her. She took it from him and began to open it slowly; she pulled out the bits of parchment and read each carefully. As she read through her results her jaw dropped progressively lower.
“Well?” Everyone spoke almost simultaneously
“I got them all, twelve in total…”
“Well done, Hermione!” Mrs. Weasley trilled and rushed round to give her a hug, “Good Lord would you look at that!” she was now reading Hermione’s results, “Eleven O’s and an E, Hermione that is spectacular!”
“Eleven O’s?” Ellie was staring at Hermione in complete disbelief.
“I think you’ll find that score was top of the year group,” Dumbledore added with a proud smile at Hermione, “One of the finest scores that Hogwarts has ever seen in fact.”
“My girlfriends a brain,” Ron said with mock disgust. He soon regretted it when Hermione punched him on the arm. Harry now looked to Ginny, knowing that she too would roll her eyes at the pair but she was staring at her hand with a look of utter amazement on her face. There lying in her hand was a shiny red and gold prefects badge.
“Congratulations, Ginny,” he smiled kindly at her.
“Thanks.” He wasn’t sure she was all that thankful; she was looking at her badge with a mixture of disgust and mystification.
“Ginny, what on earth is the matter with you?” Molly had turned her attention on her only daughters puzzling expression. As if in slow motion Ginny held up her badge, allowing everyone at the table to see it. There were several gasps, although Fred and George’s were definitely gasps of disgust rather than delight.
“How could you?” George stared at her furiously.
“Yeah, we had you down as the only decent member of this family left. At least the only one we were prepared to admit to being related to and then you go and do something like this,” Fred added pointing accusingly at the badge.
“Shame on you,” George punctuated his fury by folding his arms and looking enraged. Meanwhile Mrs. Weasley was typically over the moon, she appeared to be trying to squeeze the life out of Ginny.
“Another prefect in the family, how wonderful, so proud, just so proud,” she was positively bustling with delight. “What would you like as your present?” she waited eagerly for her response.
“I don’t need an owl because we’ve got Pig but I could really use a new broom, especially if I want to tryout for the Quidditch team this year, but it might be nice to get a cat.”
“Say no more, if it’s a broom that you really want then a broom it is. We’ll go to the shop and pick one out tomorrow; we’ll have to get all your books anyway. I think that a nice party is in order that way we can celebrate everybody’s success properly. Albus, would you like to come?”
“I would love to, Molly, although I do have business to attend to before hand but may I congratulate you all on your success and advise you to get your class choices in promptly. I shall see you all later. What time will dinner be, Molly?”
“About seven o’clock, will that be all right?”
“Delightful. Till then!” He squeezed Elizabeth’s shoulder before disappearing back into the fire.
After all the excitement the house’s occupants began to disperse to go about the business of the day. At that time however a devilish plan was forming in the mind of one Harry Potter.