Harry joined Dawn and Hermione for breakfast the next morning, something he didn't always do when they had Potions. Buffy and Giles were still in bed. The owl arrived with Hermione's Daily Prophet. It had just departed when a second owl came and deposited two parchment envelopes on the table, one for Harry, and one for Hermione, both bearing the Hogwarts seal on the back. They picked up their envelopes, and then just sat staring at them.
"Well?" asked Dawn.
"It's our OWL marks," said Hermione.
"So, open them!" said Dawn.
"We're too terrified," said Harry.
"They're just marks!"
"These are OWLs!" said Hermione. "They affect everything! What courses we can take, what careers we can have!"
"And they aren't going to change by you staring at their envelopes," said Dawn. "Open them up! Get it over with."
Hermione handed her envelope to Harry. "Here, you do it!"
Harry gave his envelope to Hermione. "You do mine."
Harry ripped open Hermione's envelope first. He pulled out the sheet of parchment and quickly scanned it with his eyes. "This isn't good."
"What?" asked Hermione. "What happened? Ancient Runes, isn't it? That stupid mixup between 'eihwaz' and 'ehwaz'! I knew it would do me in!"
Harry tossed the parchment toward her. "'Outstanding' in everything. You're going to be insufferable for the next month! Now what did I get?"
Hermione opened Harry's envelope. She pulled out the parchment contained in it and read it carefully. "Well?" asked Harry.
"Let's see. You got an 'Acceptable' in Astronomy."
"I can live with that."
"'Poor' in Divination."
"Yeah, well, I've decided to embrace Buffy's philosophy when it comes to Prophecies."
"'Poor' in History of Magic."
"That's the one I fell asleep in. Come on Hermione. Let's get to the important stuff!"
"Oh! 'Exceeds Expectations' in Care of Magical Creatures, and Herbology."
"See! I told you Hagrid's a good teacher!"
"Another 'Exceeds Expectations' in Transfiguration!"
"You're really enjoying dragging this out aren't you?"
"Oh! 'Outstanding' in Charms!"
"Two to go."
"Hmm. 'Outstanding' with an asterisk in DADA. That means you were the top of the class." Dawn took a glance at Hermione's grades, which were lying on the table in front of her, and saw that half of her 'Outstandings' had asterisks beside them.
"Oh, I'd like to see how Umbridge would have reacted to that!" said Harry. "So what's the bad news? I know you've been holding back Potions till the end."
"This isn't good." Hermione shook her head. "Snape is not going to like this one bit."
"You mean…?"
Hermione tossed him the parchment. "'Outstanding.' Looks like Professor Snape is stuck with you for another year." She looked at Dawn. "Snape only takes students who score 'Outstanding' in their OWLs for sixth year Potions."
"Wait a minute," said Dawn. "Professor Snape has been talking like he expects me to be in his sixth year Potions class."
"Well, he seems to be stretching his rule a bit for you."
"You don't think I'm that good?" asked Dawn.
"No!" said Hermione. "You are that good. I can't believe how much progress you've made. At the rate you're going, I think you'd pass an OWL Potions exam by the end of the week. Not an 'Outstanding,' but a pretty solid 'Acceptable,' and that's after only two weeks! If we had another week, at the rate we've been going, you'd get that 'Outstanding,' no problem."
"Well, there's the problem that another week like this, and I think I'd drop dead." Dawn got up from the table. "Speaking of…time to be on our way. Want us to give Snape the bad news?" she asked Harry.
"Oh, no!" said Harry. "Wouldn't want him shooting the messenger. He probably knows already anyway. The marks go out to the teachers at the same time they go out to the students. Better hurry. He's going to be in a foul mood, won't want to make it worse by being late."
Dawn ran up to her room to get her Potions things. She was borrowing Harry's until she could get her own. She came back down and saw that Harry was still sitting at the table, reading over his marks for himself, with a goofy smile on his face. She smiled herself and went over to him. She leaned down and gave him a quick kiss. "Congratulations." Harry had an even goofier smile on his face when she and Hermione left the common room.
Harry got himself a quill and some parchment, and wrote Ron a letter to tell him the bad news about his and Hermione's OWL marks. He also told him to tell Fred and George that their fireworks had been a big hit the night before. He considered telling Ron about what he and Dawn had done when the fireworks were over, but decided that there were some things Ron didn't need to know. It was nearly time for his Occlumency lesson with Professor Dumbledore when he was finished. He went off to the Owlery to get Hedwig to deliver the letter.
Harry looked at his watch when he got to the second floor. He still had lots of time before he was due to see Professor Dumbledore, so went down one more flight of stairs, and down the corridor to Professor McGonagall's office. He knocked on the door.
"Come in." said McGonagall's voice from inside. Harry opened the door. Professor McGonagall looked up at him from her desk as he entered. "Is there something I can do for you Potter?"
"Um, we got our OWL marks this morning," said Harry.
"I am aware of that, Potter."
"I wanted to say thank you."
"I had no say in how individual marks were assigned. That is done entirely by the Wizarding Examinations Authority."
"I know," said Harry. "But I couldn't have done it without you. You stood up for me with Umbridge…" For once McGonagall didn't react at all to Harry's leaving off a professor's title. "…and you put in the extra time to help me get my Transfiguration and Charms marks up, so thank you."
A rare smile crossed Professor McGonagall's face. "You are welcome Potter. It is one of the great pleasures in a teacher's life, to see one of her students excel." She gestured toward the tartan tin sitting on the corner of her desk. "Have a biscuit."
"Thank you, Professor." Harry opened the tin, and picked out a Ginger Newt. He took a bite from it. "Well, uh, I gotta go. I have to see Professor Dumbledore, but I wanted to say that first."
"Very well. Good day Potter."
"Bye, Professor. Thanks again." Harry left her office, and hurried up to the entrance to Dumbledore's office on the next floor.
