The second week of his summer holiday had begun but Harry Potter still hadn't had a single note from any of his friends, though he had already received various pamphlets from the ministry which must have been sent to every wizard and witch in country. They all were instructing people on protecting themselves from Voldemort, however Harry knew that when Voldemort wanted you dead no number of leaflets could save you, but he was pleased to see the ministry taking him and Dumbledore seriously again.
He stood by his window, already dressed, looking out on the warm summer morning, he saw a regal looking tawny owl, which he recognised, at once as one of the school owls. It swooped down through his open window and landed on his bed. Harry took the first proper owl post he'd had this summer from its leg where upon it promptly ruffled its feathers and took of once more into the sky. Harry opened the envelope and read:
Dear Mr Potter,
Your OWLs results are included in this letter, once you have discussed them with your parents/guardians please submit your NEWT entries before the 31st of July. These will be confirmed along with your booklist towards the end of August. Remember that a pass is Acceptable or above, and a fail, Poor or below. You should also chose one or more other subjects in which you can further you knowledge and experiences without taking the NEWT. Note that for every two Outstanding result you are awarded an extra OWL
As is custom in the summer before entering their sixth year we schedule a week's work experience for post-OWLs students. During this week students will be allowed to use magic. This year it will be held between the 15th and 21st of August. Please get your parent or guardian to sign the permission slip and fill in the form with your choices. Return this before 20th of July.
If there are any problems surrounding the above matters please don't hesitate to contact your head of house.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
OWLs Results Pupil name: H PotterYour results are as follows:
Astronomy: A
Charms: O
Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
Transfiguration: E
Herbology: E
History of Magic: P
Potions: A
Care of Magical Creatures: E
Divination: P
Evaluation: You have passed 7 OWLs and have failed 2. You received 2 Outstanding, 3 Exceeds Expectations, 2 Acceptable, and 2 Poor OWLs results. Giving you a total of 8 OWLs
For NEWTs you will be able to take: Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Herbology, Potions (newly available from Acceptable OWL this year), Care of Magical Creatures.
Please submit your NEWT entries by 31 July.
Harry scanned the list, he grinned seeing that he had got two Outstanding OWLs and knew that he was never going to pass Divination anyway. Though, he wondered why he would be able to take Potions for NEWTs, as it was well known that Snape never let anyone take his classes after fifth year with anything other than an Outstanding.
He decided he should definitely take Charms, Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts but would see what his friends thought about everything else. He hadn't known about work experience before and put the slip in his pocket to get Uncle Vernon to sign at breakfast. At that moment a small ball of feathers came hurtling through the window, hooting gleefully. Harry chased it round the room for a minute before detaching its letter, opening it he saw Ron's lazy scrawl and Hermione's perfect lettering.
Dear Harry,
Hope you're having a great summer so far, don't get jealous, we're not, it's been so boring at headquarters so Mum's sending us to stay with Fred and George on the 3rd of August, and you're invited too.
We just got our OWLs results back – have you got yours? I got seven OWLs, which is average! I was really pleased until Hermione told me what she got. Anyway, obviously I want to take Charms, Tranfiguration and DADA for NEWTs, but what about Potions? I got A but I can still do it, you? I'm Quidditch Captain too! Can you believe it? Mum's gone mad, she's convinced I'll be the 3rd head boy in the family.
Did you get that thing about work experience? Fred and George never told my about it, but I suppose it was during the Quidditch World Cup for them, and they wouldn't miss that. What did you put down? Mum did mine, I know that sounds pathetic but she got to the post before I did!
Reply soon and see if you can catch the Knight Bus to Diagon Alley on the 3rd.
Ron
Dear Harry,
Are you having a good summer? I went to Spain with my parents last week but I'm staying at headquarters at the moment. Ron says he's already told you about staying with Fred and George, I hope you can come, though I'm not sure how safe a building owned by them would be.
Do you have your OWL results yet? I have 12! (4 Outstanding) Although I was hoping for more I couldn't take anymore subjects, I'm only dropping History of Magic and Astronomy, do you think I still have too many?
What do you want to do for work experience? I couldn't chose, it's so exciting, I put down Auror, teacher and House-elf welfare worker. What do you think we'll get to do? I'm sure we'll find out lots of really useful little spells and things.
Hope you're enjoying the summer and that we'll see really you soon.
Love,
Hermione.
Harry grinned imagining his friends, though he was rather annoyed about Ron being Quidditch captain even though he'd only been on the team for 1 year. After all he'd been on it since his first year; being the youngest team player in a century he thought he deserved some credit. But then again like Dumbledore had said about not being chosen as a prefect; he already had enough things to think about especially with the second war beginning. Staying with Fred and George sounded really fun, but like Hermione he wasn't quite sure how safe it would be. Glancing over the work experience form for the first time, he filled it in.
Please list your work experience choices in order starting with the most preferred. We cannot promise that everyone will get their first choice but we will try very hard to insure that most do.
Auror
Qudditch player
Broomstick tester
He knew the last two were slightly far-fetched, though they sounded fun, he doubted whether Hogwarts would really let him test broomsticks, so he stood a fairly good chance of learning more about Aurors.
He wandered out of his room and downstairs to the kitchen. All that could been seen of Harry's Uncle Vernon was 10 chubby fingers clasping the morning newspaper, Aunt Petunia was frying some eggs.
"Morning," Harry said brightly as he buttered his toast.
Uncle Vernon grunted. The Dursleys seemed to have decided that the best way of treating Harry, without upsetting his friends from the Order, was to completely ignore him but give him whatever he wanted as soon as he asked for it.
"I need to go to London on the 3rd of August, is that OK? I can get there by myself and everything. I should come back..." Harry paused, there would only be about a week left of the holidays after his work experience, "Actually I can stay there for the rest of the holidays."
Uncle Vernon looked up, "You can go, just, just organise it all yourself." He promptly went back to his newspaper.
A/N: I hoped you liked that, sorry it's so long, please review; I need some more ideas, and constructive criticism please. I won't write the next chapter, unless I get reviews from Spanna and Crawpy – you know who you are. So if anyone is actually reading this, review!
