Supervising the O.W.L.s

Severus Snape groaned as he read the letter. "Severus Snape," it read, "You have been selected to supervise the Potions, Divination, and Care of Magical Creatures Ordinary Wizarding Level (OWLs) exams and Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (NEWTs) this year. The Wizarding Examination Board will provide a substitute Potions Master to supervise your classes while you are absent. Once again the Board thanks you and appreciates your assistance."
'I don't know why they bother asking now,' he thought 'It isn't as if they are going to get another teacher to supervise potions and they only have about five teachers to choose from that fit their requirements.'

The first test the Potions Master had to supervise was the NEWT Divination exam; the whole first week was NEWT exams for Snape. Nothing eventful or out-of-the-ordinary occurred – well out-of-the-ordinary for a divination exam anyway.

The next exam of the week was NEWT Potions. Snape's students performed admirably. He always had a soft spot when it came to his NEWT kids. They were the best the Hogwarts had to offer – literally. He would not accept any less than that and those few that got in knew it. They became a close0knit group. Severus never had to take points off for misbehaviour after the first few weeks or so.

Snape knew the majority of the school disliked him but he couldn't care more about that. His senior classes were whom he cared about. 'Look at them,' he thought, 'Avery I mixing that Draught of Living Death perfectly. If nothing goes wrong with the rest of this practical, because I don't care about the written component, I'll ask if she wants to become my apprentice; she wants to be a Potions Mistress after all,' he grinned.

Snape's NEWT classes were the only ones to see him smile, something they were incredibly proud of. They often tried to achieve perfection or near perfection in their work in the hope that he would smile. They would give him small things, like flowers or potions ingredients – useful ones- as tokens of appreciation after one-on-one tutoring sessions sometimes – just to see him smile. Severus didn't understand why that was but it proved to be good motivation so he kept at it. A mall encouraging smile after a good essay; when a struggling student finally grasped a concept, when something good happened to a student and they chose to tell him about it – on their own time of course. It made Severus' day to see on of his treasured NEWT students beam back at him. All in all he had a wonderful relationship with them, which is why he wouldn't let Dumbledore have him put the E grade students into his class – an E was too easy to achieve. He didn't want the somewhat perfect, he wanted the ones who would work despite anything thrown at them to get into his class; they were the ones who deserved it, not the ones who put in some effort but didn't go the whole nine yards.

The exam went well as they always do – all his students finished and perfected their potions, with time to spare. He wished them luck on the way out for the written portion that would be held in a few hours, however Severus didn't think he would see them before the exam started and afterwards would be too late.

The written component went well. His kids knew their stuff – like always. They finished with time to spare, checked their work and could leave a whole twenty minutes early – which was significantly earlier than most other classes. Additionally, it was not only one or two of the students leaving early it was the whole class. He felt proud that they could leave early and let them know from his position by the door by giving them a small discrete smile, which was reciprocated by ear-to-ear grins, albeit exhausted ones.

The final NEWT exam that Snape had to supervise was Care of Magical Creatures. It was simple and straightforward, which bored Snape out of his mind. None of his kids did Care so he didn't have anyone to think about. 'It's a subject for the academically weak,' he thought after seeing a ninth student correctly identify a phoenix. The highlight was when a student was rejected by a Hippogriff, through no fault of his own, and was almost mauled. The student didn't loose any marks, as Hippogriffs are notoriously temperamental and the creature just didn't like him. The boy did everything right however you can't control the animals to respond a certain way. The written portion had no surprises so Snape was left wishing for the weekend to begin.

First thing next Monday was the Potion OWL. Severus had been dreading this all weekend as this exam could make or break his next two years. For example, if a known troublemaker like Alexandra Boyle got into his class, Snape could see the year passing by extremely slowly. On the other hand if Nymphadora Tonks, a girl Snape liked quite a bit, passed Snape knew he would have to provide tutoring for her clumsiness, however he knew that she would work very hard to please him. After the first hour though, Snape could see who was likely to be in his class, which looked like it would be filled with his favourites. Tonks, Williams and Miller from Hufflepuff were looking promising as was Harris and Wood from Gryffindor. From Ravenclaw, Severus thought Campbell, Scott and Rogers might get in; and from his own house Church, Simpson and Montgomery were key contenders. He thought it looked like a well-rounded, hardworking bunch. At the end of the exam Snape was almost certain that was the class he would have; it all came down to the written portion.

The written component was generally uneventful. Some of the answers made the Potions Master snort. 'The difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane is not that they are different sub-species of aconite; they are aconite, just by a different name,' he sneered to himself.

Next was the divination OWL. The predictions were enough to make anyone laugh. "I see a, a teacher. Yes a Hogwarts teacher. It looks like they're on the astronomy tower. It appears they're in an argument. Oh no! They've been pushed; they've, they've died!" one particularly idiotic child burst out. Snape saw the examiner roll his eyes and begin to question the child further on the 'vision.'

Finally on Thursday was Care of Magical Creatures. The students identified Flobberworms and Unicorns with ease and answered simple questions about those animals, such as "What does a Unicorn eat?"
'Really,' Snape thought, 'If you can ask these sorts of questions no wonder almost all students pass. Care does have the highest pass rate of all subjects.'

Finally all the exams were over. 'I feel like one of the students,' Severus thought swirling his glass of whiskey around, 'I must remember to ask Avery about an apprenticeship before she leaves.' The little understood Potions Master spent the night relaxing, not even thinking about next year's OWLs and NEWTs that he would surly supervise.

A/N: This is another one-shot that came to be (hit me light a freight-train more like). I read the title of my other fanfic "Supervising the Owls" (not to be confused with OWLs) and I though hey why doesn't Snape supervise the OWLs and NEWTs. And that is where this came from.

Please review.

Until next time,

Saelu