Warning: This is not beta-ed or revised fully. My father hasn't read it yet and I am not at all pleased with the Weasley's nor Hermione's mannerism's. I will come back to it later, once I am happy with the following two chapters.

Chapter One

Tears Over Breakfast

Mr. Weasley sighed as he glanced at his in-tray – it had grown considerably large in height during the two minutes he had left the office to hand over a report on various Anti-Muggle protest items. As he settled behind his desk to start researching for a new case regarding exploding light bulbs, he grimaced when he noticed a pair of scissors viciously cutting anything within it's reach in half.

"Desino scissors," he said, jabbing at the air with his wand. The scissors shuddered in midair for a moment before falling onto the desk with a small clank, muffled by the many pieces of torn parchment. He looked forlornly at the mess that had once been a five scroll long report on self-walking slippers before shaking himself thoroughly.

"You're a wizard, Weasley," he muttered, "Resarcio."

The parchment instantly repaired itself and he gave a satisfactory smile. He pulled a quill and a pot of ink towards him, dipped the quill – a tawny-coloured, tousled one, which looked worn from use – into the pot and paused, merely inches away from the parchment.

Deciding to write the date, he wrote, in a quick scrawl that was similar to his son's, Ronald Weasley:

Friday, August 2nd, 1996.

Just as he lowered his hand to dot his 'i', a paper aeroplane flapped into the small office, the customary pale violet colour a burgundy grey as it fluttered into the shadows. He could scarcely make out the Ministry of Magic stamped across the wing as it flew down to land neatly on his desk.

Groaning, he picked it up and unfolded it, reading it aloud under his breath, "'Heading back. Results due today. Kingsley.' Interesting."

He glanced at his in-tray once more, shrugged and murmured, "OWL results first."

Picking up his worn travelling cloak and swinging it around his shoulders he left the office to meet the other members of the Order of the Phoenix before returning to the Headquarters, which his family had inhabited the past year.

***

"Morning, everyone!" Mr. Weasley said, entering the basement kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place through the fireplace, with several members of the Order following him; all of them had a knowing sort of smile on their usually grim-looking faces, for work had been demanding now that it was known Lord Voldemort had returned. They all settled into the mismatched wooden stools crammed around the long wooden table as Mrs. Weasley bustled from the stove, her wand directing a large pot of porridge, which was swaying precariously behind her.

"Good morning Arthur, dear," she said, kissing him on the cheek and waving her hand dismissively at the ladle to tell everyone they could serve themselves, "What is everybody smiling at?"

Glancing at Hermione and Ginny - who were seated at the opposite end of the table talking to Tonks - he leaned forward slightly and whispered, "Hogwarts letters today."

Mrs. Weasley's eyes widened and she beamed at her husband before replying, "I can't wait to see what our little Ronnie gets, still can't believe he's the fourth prefect in the family!"

"Now, Molly," Mr. Weasley said, smiling sadly, "Don't get your hopes up just yet..."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously over her spoon, "What do you know?"

"I know nothing," he said, raising his hands defensively, "I am simply saying that, well, perhaps his marks might not be as high as Harry's... Harry was, after all, the first choice, but Dumbledore thought..."

He was cut off by the roaring of the fire at the other end of the room. It glowed green for a few moments, as a rather tall man dressed in a royal blue robe stepped out and dusted himself down, before blowing out completely.

"Hello, Headmaster," Hermione said, "nothing's happened, has it?"

"No, no, dear child," he said, his eyes regaining the twinkle which had not been seen since the news of Lord Voldemort's return, "I merely come bearing mail."

Hermione gasped, her hand flew to her mouth and her brow furrowed in anxiety.

"Now, now, let me see," Albus Dumbledore said, looking at the names through his half-moon glasses, "Miss. Hermione Granger," he passed her letter over with a flourish, "Mr. Ronald Weasley-"

"I'll take it to him," Ginny said quickly, a smile playing on her lips, "he's asleep."

Albus nodded, handing her the letter and her own. After tearing hers open to find the usual message she left the table at a run.

***

"HOGWARTS LETTERS!" Ginny shouted, storming into Ron's room and switching the light on. She sighed as he mumbled something incoherently and turned over in his sleep. Thinking for a moment, she jumped onto his bed and began prodding his shoulder.

"Wha'?" He asked groggily, opening a eye and blinking several times.

"Hogwarts letters," she replied.

"Ugh," he said, swatting her away, "wake me up again later."

Ginny smiled to herself before leaving and walking quietly down the stairs. She entered the kitchen to find a teary-eyed Hermione being consoled by her mother and Tonks.

"What-?" She asked, but was interrupted by the entrance of her brother, dressed in his pyjama shorts and a fading orange T-Shirt, one sock held in his hand and his hair ruffled as he had not had time to brush it. The adults laughed quietly at his appearance.

"Where's my letter?" he asked, breathing heavily.

Ginny, still confused as to why Hermione would be crying – surely she had received 'Outstanding' for all her subjects – did not answer.

"Where's my letter?" Ron repeated, his eye's narrowed.

"Huh, oh here," she said distractedly, sitting down next to her friend and listening to Tonks explain in a hushed whisper as Ron hurriedly ripped his envelope open.

"She didn't get the marks she'd been hoping for," Tonks said, "I don't think she realised an essential marking procedure."

"What procedure?" Ginny asked.

"Oh, marks are rewarded for a correct answer," Dumbledore intervened, talking loudly so everybody could hear, "however, marks are taken away for an incorrect answer. Therefore, if you gave a correct answer, but ventured further than asked of you, marks would be deducted."

"I didn't," Hermione sniffed, her bushy hair clinging to her tear-streaked cheeks, "didn't know that."

"Not many do," Mr. Weasley answered, "I'm sure it can't be so bad, what did you get?"

Hermione did not answer, she merely pushed her paper forcefully down the table, where it stopped in front of Remus Lupin.

"Ancient Runes Outstanding, Arithmancy Exceeds Expectations, Astronomy Poor-" he was, as well as everybody else, shocked to hear this, although Ron explained the reason for this quickly.

"That was the night McGonagall," Dumbledore coughed at this, "Professor McGonagall was hit with four stupefying curses."

"Yes," Hermione said, "we still had a lot of time left and I wanted to make my star-chart neat and presentable, but well… you know."

"Care of Magical Creatures," Remus continued, "Outstanding, Charms Exceeds Expectations, Defence Against the Dark Arts Outstanding, Herbology Exceeds Expectations, History of Magic Exceeds Expectations, Potions Exceeds Expectations, Transfiguration Exceeds Expectations."

"That doesn't seem so bad," Emmeline Vance said, adjusting her violet robes.

"What career track are you hoping to follow?" Kingsley Shacklebot asked.

"You'll laugh," she paused to snuffle, then looked at Ron, "Or at least he will."

However, Ron wasn't paying attention, he was staring at his letters in horror. Noticing everybody had their eyes on him, he hastily stuffed the sheet of parchment containing his OWL scores in his pocket.

"Er – what?" he asked.

"Hermione was just about to tell us what job she wants when she's older," his mother explained.

"Oh," he said, then grinned, "she probably wants to take over from Madam Pince."

Hermione looked highly affronted. Straightening herself, she stood, placing her hands on the table and looking Ron in the eye.

"And what if I do?" she asked, before storming off to the room which she shared with Ginny.

Ron chuckled nervously as everybody looked at him.

"Oops?" he asked, and, noticing that his mother was about to ask for his results, he added, "Got to go!"

He had barely moved before –

"Ronald Weasley! Where are your  OWL results?" she all but shouted, standing with her hands on her hips and looked highly intimidating.

"Er, erm, lost?" he said, shrinking back into the shadows, "Here."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled looking piece of parchment. Molly Weasley took it and scanned the page, slowly sitting down as her stern expression turned into a disheartened one.

"Oh," she said, looking at him, "oh."

He scuffed the ground with his toe, not wanting to look her in the eye. He could already imagine the disappointed look on her face as she surveyed him.

Wordlessly, she handed the parchment to her husband, who read it quickly. The tension in the room mounted, as did the silence, if that was even possible.

"Very well," Mr. Weasley said, "I won't lie. I am disappointed in you, Ronald, but I'm sure you did your best."

Ron let out a breath he was not even aware he had been holding.

"If Hermione - poor girl - wasn't the highest in the year, Albus," Mrs. Weasley asked, "then who was?"

Ron looked up at Dumbledore, awaiting his answer.

"Oh, you would be quite surprised, actually, Molly," he answered, "However, I am not at liberty to say."

******************************

Author's Ramblings: Hmm, I wonder who the top of the class is? Actually, I don't wonder, because I know…

Desino: leave off, give over, cease, stop, end, desist.

Resarcio:  to repair, mend, patch.

I know, I know! Too much dialogue! There was even more before I edited a whole chunk of it out. I've read this chapter about 30 times now.

Well, there are Hermione's OWL results. I thought ten Outstanding's would be too cliché. I hope you find my reasoning okay, but I have taken two 'Maths Challenges' here in the UK which is a sort of competition and if you submit an incorrect answer then points are deducted – I thought I'd add in that twist.

Don't worry, Ron's will be shown later – if, and only if, things go to plan. Next sixth-year-to-be's results? Well that would be telling… oh okay, it's a couple of chapter's away and it's Harry's, which comes with a great deal of justification, because they're going to be atypical without it.

Evie; Catgrl52; QTBrit800; hermione_123; dkg : This was uploaded a few moments after the Deafult Chapter, however, due to… eh… complications, it didn't show up. Thank you for showing such enthusiasm though! :)