She Walked Away

CHAPTER THREE: OWL's, NEWT's and Dark Lords OH MY


Authoress Note: Okay..I lied you get three chapters. This finally gets you into the meat of the story. Next chapter will go up Wednesday or earlier depending on favs/reviews/follows.


Two months before OWL's and NEWT's all classes were cancelled in a traditional sense for fifth and seventh year students as no one could concentrate for very long as they were too worried about their revision schedules. Instead seminars where set up to held on the Third Floor Corridor, which had been converted into university style classroom settings, as they accommodated more students that way.

The notice had gone up in all the common rooms with a schedule for what would be covered when and all students were required to attend. The schedule itself was crazy but it was mandatory for all OWL students to attend the sessions, but they had the choice of attending the regular sessions or the Advanced Sessions; the only noticeable difference between the Advanced Sessions and the Regular Sessions was that with the Advanced Sessions the students would work through lunch and dinner and eat in the classroom and have five sessions a week per class they attended, which totaled up to ten hours of review per week per class which would give them eighty hours of review by the time their testing times rolled around. The cost of the review sessions was a staggering fourteen Galleons, fifteen Sickles, and six Knuts.


The Advanced Section had them getting up at four in the morning and gave them an hour to shower and eat breakfast before the first review session of the day started. Since the teachers were busy working with other students that were not OWL or NEWT level, they had brought in Masters from outside Hogwarts to hold the review sessions. From there it was straight to work from five am until nine pm. Whereas the regular sessions ran from 8:00 AM until 9:00 PM which only gave them twelve hours of instruction during the day and only one block hours to cover each class the student was taking as well as thirty minutes for lunch and dinner, which left them time to go to the library if they desired.

The Friday the notice went up about the review sessions the Great Hall was abuzz with fevered talk about how tough the schedule was going to be but most people needed the strict schedule to get everything done that had to be done by the time their OWL's rolled around.

"The schedule is crazier than mine but at least this way we'll make sure to cover what we need to know." Hermione said; glad to see that at least Harry was considering it.

"I don't study well without a tight schedule so this would probably be the best option for me." Harry said. He was somewhat glad that this was even an option for them; even if it cost a pretty penny.

"Ron you should look into doing this but if not we can give you a copy of the syllabus we get the first day and you can self-study." Hermione said, sounding doubtful, even to her own ears.

"I've only got eight Galleons." Ron said, blushing to his ears at his admission. "Mum said that's all I can get until the end of the school term."

"Keep it Ron. Let me pay and just consider it an investment in to your future because you really need to pass all your OWL's or your job options will be limited. If either of you are interested they are allowing students that are not in certain classes to sit in if they are wanting to take the OWL for that course but it would still be a lot of work, I plan on sitting in on the Divination one and taking the International Ordinary Wizarding Levels as it allows you to pick and choose your methods as long as you choose at least four but six is preferred." Hermione said, knowing that Harry had always regretted not taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes with her, as he had limited his career options greatly.

"I plan on sitting in on Arithmancy and Ancient Runes as I want to see what other career options this will open up to me." Harry said, hoping he had what it took to get both subjects down in two months.

"There's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow if you want to pick up the course books Harry. I need to do the same for Divination." She said, glad that she had been able to study the subject in a manner that she had wanted to, instead of studying everything there was to know about Divination in the hopes that what you studied would be on your OWL or NEWT level courses; although she would have to pick six more subjects for her NEWT in Divination if she wanted to pass it, as that was what was recommended.

"Harry when you have a break later today. Go talk to Professor McGonagall, tell her you have a time constraint issue. The only time she'll be free is from 3:30 to 4:15 and she's usually in her office then. That's when we have our break as well." She said, giving him a pointed look as Ron had never used a time-turner like they had, even if Harry had only used it once before; unlike Hermione who had used it for an entire year.

Harry liked how she thought and it would only be for two months which wasn't the crazy schedule that Hermione had been trying to keep up her entire third year but if he could just get those two OWL's under his belt, and then the NEWT's a whole other world would open up to him that he had yet to consider.


Waiting until three fifteen to talk to Professor McGonagall made his skin itch from the nervousness for some reason. Since he had picked his classes in the end of his second year he had realized he had made a mistake in how much he had limited himself, especially since the idea of becoming a Curse Breaker was something that had peaked his interest for the last few months.

By the time three fifteen rolled around he had already started making his way to Professor McGonagall's office and was pleased to see that the Transfiguration professor was not currently neck deep in paperwork as she usually was within her office.

"What can I do for you Harry?" she asked, even before he knocked, which shouldn't have surprised him in the slightest.

"I got to talking to Hermione. I plan on sitting in on the Ancient Runes and Arithmancy review sessions during the next two months but it's going to take more than that but due to time constraints I will not have spare time after the sessions to study, even if I skip dinner to take a session. Hermione mentioned that you might be able to help me out with the issue." He said, hoping and praying she wouldn't turn down his request.

"You realize you'll have to learn three years' worth of material in two months correct? That gives you basically two weeks and three days to cover a year's worth of material?" she asked, she had seen students do it before, but Mr. Potter's work ethic had left something to be desired in certain classes.

"Yes. Hermione said she would be willing to help me if you could help us around the time issue." He said, knowing that she could use the extra study hours, even if it was by less than perfect means.

"If Miss Granger is will to help you then by all means. Who am I to stop you and failing an OWL just means you won't be able to take it at the NEWT level, that does affect your prospects for certain jobs but I'm sure the Auror Corps or Hogwarts would love to have you for say, a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, if the classes don't pan out like you want to." She said reminding him gently but firmly that he still had options should he fail at this; at it sounded like she was expecting him to fail at it. That only made Harry want to work harder to make sure he passed both his Ancient Runes and Arithmancy NEWTs.

"I will go to the Ministry of Magic myself to collect your time-turner. If you and Miss Granger would both meet me back here after dinner this evening I should have it by then." She said, as she pulled out the necessary paperwork that it would take to get a time-turner, dismissing the young student in front of her.