Harry Potter, Heir of Gryffindor

O.W.L.s

A little more than a week later, on one of Harry's off days - days when he was not meeting with Dumbledore for Occlumency lessons, Harry and Neville were starting mock duels against their instructors. They had both progressed rapidly and were now using some of the most advanced hexes and curses available and their shielding charms were steadily improving. Harry was still quicker than Neville in the gymnastics and tumbling aspects of their training but Neville wasn't far behind. They were both getting the hang of the ballet they were learning and found it very useful when doing some of their leaps and dives.

As they left the park and turned towards Mrs. Figg's house Remus said, "You will be having lunch with us this afternoon, Neville. Albus spoke with your gran last night and she has agreed."

"Er, okay," Neville said hesitantly. "Why?"

Remus smiled reassuringly down at the boy. "Your O.W.L. results have come in and Albus and Minerva would like to go over them with you and help you and Harry select which courses you will be taking next term."

Harry and Neville glanced at each other with questioning looks on their faces then shrugged their shoulders. They had become pretty good friends over the course of the last two weeks and were beginning to work and train as a team. While Harry helped Neville with the curses, hexes and charms, thus giving the seemingly timid youth more confidence in his abilities, Neville was always willing to listen whenever Harry felt like talking. At times it almost felt to Harry as though he was sharing his fate with the other person the prophecy could have pertained to.

As they approached Mrs. Figg's house Harry noticed a strange tabby cat sitting on her porch. It looked familiar but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before. Then, as they were about to step up onto the porch he recognized the curious markings around it's eyes and realized that it was professor McGonagall in her animagus form. "Hello, Professor," he said to the cat as Remus rang the doorbell.

When the door opened the cat quickly ran inside and into the kitchen. Moments later Professor McGonagall emerged from the kitchen and nodded to Harry. "Hello to you too, Mister Potter."

Dumbledore, who was again sitting in the chair in the furthest corner from the door, chuckled softly. "Ah, Minerva my dear, I fear your disguise can no longer be used to fool young Harry."

Professor McGonagall turned and glared sternly at the aging headmaster, her lips pressed firmly together in an expression that clearly communicated her displeasure at his joke. "It would seem not," she said tersely. "However, we are not here to discuss the merits of my disguise. If I remember correctly we came here to discuss Harry and Neville's O.W.L. results."

Chuckling to himself, Dumbledore pushed himself up out of the chair and, reaching into his robes, said, "Yes, yes. Right as always, Professor." Withdrawing two envelopes from an inside pocket he glanced at them briefly then handed one to Harry and the other to Neville. "Your results," he said.

Harry took his envelope and sat down at the end of the couch nearest the door and turned on the lamp. Turning the envelope over in his hands he looked at the seal on the back and saw a stylized "WEB" inside of a circle and around the outside edge of this ring were the words "Wizarding Evaluation Board, Ministry of Magic, Great Britain." Quickly opening the envelope and retrieving the letter within he unfolded the parchment and read:

Dear Mr. Potter,

Below are the results you earned on your recently completed Ordinary Wizarding
Level (O.W.L.) Exams at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The
scoring is as follows:

O - Outstanding
E - Exceeds Expectation
A - Acceptable
P - Poor
D - Dreadful
T - Troll

Where applicable, your results have been broken down into Theory and Practical
scores. In these instances the first score will reflect you performance on the
Theory portion of the exam and the second will reflect you performance in the
Practical portion of the exam.

O.W.L. Results for: Harry James Potter
School: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Date: June, 1996

Transfiguration - O-E - 1 OWL
Charms - O-E - 1 OWL
Potions - O-O - 1 OWL
Defense Against the Dark Arts - O-O - 1 OWL
Herbology - O-E - 1 OWL
Care of Magical Creatures - O-E - 1 OWL
Astronomy - A-A - 1 OWL
Divination - P-D - 0 OWL
History of Magic - D - 0 OWL

TOTAL 7 OWL's

Sincerely,
Griselda Marchbanks,
Chairwitch, Wizarding Examination Board

Harry was stunned to say the least. His mouth fell open and he stared at the parchment, not willing to believe his eyes. "Well?" Remus said as Neville gasped at the other end of the couch.

Harry looked up at Remus, still numb with shock. "Seven owls," he said.

"WHAT?" Remus almost shouted as he grabbed the parchment away from Harry, studied it for a few seconds then started dancing around the room. "WOO HOO!" he shouted. "Seven owls! You did it, Harry! You did it!"

Professor Dumbledore smiled at Remus' youthful exuberance, his eyes twinkling and dancing merrily. Professor McGonagall, however, pursed her lips and shook her head. Harry could have sworn he saw her smile briefly, however. After closing his mouth Harry turned to Neville and saw that his mouth was hanging open from either shock or disbelief or both. "How did you do, Neville?" he asked happily.

Neville looked over at Harry, his eyes threatening to bulge from their sockets. "I got an 'O' in Potions," was all he could say.

Harry's mouth fell slightly open again but he quickly closed it again. "So did I," he said, smiling.

Professor McGonagall's mouth fell open when she heard this and turned towards Professor Dumbledore. "Albus, how . . ."

But Professor Dumbledore cut her off. "I believe there is more to these two than our Potions Professor gives them credit for."

When all of the excitement had died down Harry and Neville compared their scores and discovered that they had each received seven owls and that while Harry had scored higher than Neville in Transfiguration and Charms, Neville had scored higher than Harry in History of Magic and Herbology.

Mrs. Figg brought out a large platter with a variety of sandwiches on it, a large carafe of pumpkin juice, six paper plates, six paper cups and a stack of napkins as they got down to the business of selecting their classes for the coming term. "I thought you should know, Harry," Professor Dumbledore said as they began going over the class being offered, "that all of the fifth and seventh year students who were in your defense group received Outstandings on their exams. No other single group did nearly as well which is why we are instituting a new program next year. In addition to our regular Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, all students will be required to attend a laboratory course so that they can practice what they have learned in class. Various professors will be teaching these classes but I would like you to continue teaching the remaining members of your class."

Before Harry could object Professor Dumbledore held up his hand and continued. "You have earned the respect of your peers, Harry. Much as your father did before you. Although I must say that I am pleased that you were able to do it in a less destructive manner. I do not think we could have handled another James Potter."

Remus snorted then coughed to hide his laughter and Professor McGonagall glared at the laughing werewolf but said nothing. Professor Dumbledore's eyes danced merrily as he glanced around the room at the people in attendance. "We are not asking much, Harry. Just two hours, one night per week. We need to teach everyone how to defend themselves, and the best teachers are those who have had experience and those who have earned the respect of their pupils. You have both of these qualities, Harry, and I would like you to consider my offer."

Harry quickly ran through the arguments both for and against continuing the class then, deciding that Dumbledore was right and that they did need to teach as many people as possible to defend themselves. He looked up, a determined glint in his eye, and said, "I'll do it."

Professor McGonagall let out a sigh of relief and Remus let out a small whoop. Professor Dumbledore, however, simply smiled and nodded his head. "Good," he said. "I knew I could count on you."

For the next hour Harry, Neville, Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall worked out which classes the two students would be taking during their sixth year while Remus and Mrs. Figg looked on, proud of Harry's achievements. Harry and Neville would both be taking the advanced courses in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Charms and Transfiguration and, at Dumbledore's insistence, a special Divination course being taught by Firenze. They would also both be taking a special lab so that they could continue their training once the school year began. The only differences in their schedules were that while Neville would be taking Advanced Herbology, Harry would be teaching a lab in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

As Harry and Remus were getting up to leave Professor McGonagall said, "Not so fast, Mister Potter. I have some additional news for you."

Harry sat back down and waited as Professor McGonagall left the room and returned moments later with his broom. "I believe this is yours," she said handing him his Firebolt, a small smile creeping across her face. Harry gingerly took the broom in his hands and lovingly inspected every centimeter of its length. "Don't worry," Professor McGonagall said. "We sent it back to the company for inspection and they have assured us that all of the various hexes and curses Dolores Umbridge placed on it have been removed. It is perfectly safe." Then under her breath she added, "And Dolores Umbridge will pay for what she tried to do to you."

"Thank you," Harry whispered, overwhelmed by his emotions.

"I thought you might also like to know that your lifetime ban on quidditch has been lifted."

Harry didn't know what to say. He looked from McGonagall to Dumbledore to Remus, all of whom were smiling, and, after a lengthy pause, forcefully shoved his fist into the air and screamed, "Yes!"

That night, as he was getting ready for bed, Pig flew threw his open window and slammed into his chest, almost knocking him over. Harry caught the excitable little owl and untied the parchment from its leg. He was about to sit down and read it when Hedwig glided through the window, landing gracefully on the bed beside him, a piece of parchment tied to her leg as well. When she extended her leg Harry relieved her of her burden, a letter from Hermione, at which time Hedwig flew over to her cage and, upon seeing Pig resting in her cage, turned to look dolefully at Harry. Harry looked at her and shrugged. "I'm sorry, girl, but he just got in. I'll respond to Ron's letter and he will be out of here before you know it."

If owls could sigh then Harry could have sworn that Hedwig sighed deeply before turning back to her cage and climbed in, being careful not to disturb the small ball of feathers that was resting next to her water dish.

Setting Hermione's letter aside for the moment he turned back to Ron's letter and unrolled it. He knew that Ron had met with the Unspeakables from the Department of Mysteries that day and he wanted to know what they had said. As he unrolled the parchment, however, a second letter fell out and dropped to the floor. Bending down he picked it up and saw that it was from Ginny. He smiled to himself and resolved that on his next trip to Diagon Alley he would buy Ginny her own owl. Setting Ginny's letter aside as well he unrolled Ron's letter and began to read:

Dear Harry,

How you doing, mate? Mum and Dad and Ginny and I will be moving in a few days.
I guess Hermione will be joining us in about a week. No word on when you might
be able to come, though. Mum wants you here yesterday but Dad says Dumbledore
has his reasons for making you to stay with those stupid muggles and said we
shouldn't get our hopes up any time soon. I hope he will let you come soon,
though, because it's going to be dead boring without you.

The meeting at the DoM went well. They told me that the brains belonged to
some of the greatest wizards in the past two hundred years. They said that the
one that got me seems to have transferred all of its knowledge to me. Their
emotional memories weren't transferred (thank God) but I did get a full dose of
their knowledge and intellectual memories.

It's really confusing, mate. I have all of this knowledge and all of these
memories running around inside my head but I don't know what to do with any of
it. They say they are going to teach me some kind of meditation or something
that is supposed to help me sort things out. I hope it works because this is
really confusing.

I got my O.W.L. results today. Can you believe I got seven? Mum is ecstatic.
I guess all of Hermione's nagging was good for something. But I don't think I
would have gotten the 'O' in DADA without the your help. The only bad thing
about it is that I also got an 'O' in Potions and Mum wants me to take Advanced
Potions next year. Oh well. I guess. I'm not looking forward to two more
years of the greasy git but . . . I'm beginning to think that maybe the brain
attack wasn't such a bad thing after all. I can't explain it but for some
reason I seem to have an in-depth understanding of potions now. The weird
thing is that Dumbledore sent a note with my O.W.L.s and wants me to sign up
for a Divination class With Firenze. I wonder what that is all about?

I guess we'll be seeing you in about a week. Apparently we were named in
Sirius' Will and are supposed to attend the reading.

Your friend,

Ron

Harry read the letter again. He was glad that Ron seemed to be coping with the brain attack fairly well. He was also glad that Ron was going to be in his Potions class. And from the looks of it Ron would be in his Divination class as well. And, yes, he had to admit that Hermione's nagging had paid off. He didn't know if he was ready for the reading of Sirius' Will though. He and Remus had just started talking about Sirius' death that afternoon and it was still pretty painful.

Pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill Harry opened the bottle of ink on his desk and began writing a letter to Ron. He knew he couldn't tell him anything about Neville because that would lead to too many questions and he couldn't tell anyone about the additional training they were receiving. He could, however, tell him about his O.W.L. results and the classes he was taking. He could also tell Ron about getting his broom back and the fact that his quidditch ban had been lifted.

Fifteen minutes later, after finishing his letter to Ron, Harry turned to the letters from Hermione and Ginny. He was pretty sure what Hermione's was about, O.W.L.s and the charm they were working on, but he didn't have any idea what Ginny's would be about because he was only just discovering how complex and wonderful a person she really was. He decided to save Ginny's letter for last so that he could spend more time learning about the brave young girl who had already been through so much. His stomach gave a little flip as he thought about her but he ignored it because she was still Ron's little sister in his mind and there was no way he was going to start feeling that way about her.

True to her word, Hermione had completed her outline of the Buddhist's spiritual philosophy by the end of their first week back. He knew that she was currently working on the Hindu philosophy and that she was hoping to have it finished by the end of this week. Apparently she was putting her homework on hold to help them find the kinds of information they were looking for. As he unrolled Hermione's letter he couldn't help but smile at her opening statements.

Dear Harry,

I DID IT! I GOT TEN O.W.L.s! I GOT OUTSTANDINGS IN ALL MY CLASSES!

Have you heard from Ron yet? I wonder how he did? I hope he did well. He
has been awfully quiet lately. Do you know how his meeting at the Department
of Mysteries went? I hope it's nothing too serious.

I am working on the Hindu philosophy and should have it done by the end of next
week. I haven't found anything that might be useful yet but I will keep
looking. I may have overlooked something but I will keep searching until we
find something. I just know there has got to be something to counter the Unforgivables.

I will be traveling to London at the end of next week. Apparently I was named
in Sirius' Will and they want me to attend the reading. Hope to see you there.
After that I will be moving to where we were last summer. Still no word on
when you might be able to join us though.

With love from,

Hermione

Harry wrote a quick letter to Hermione, congratulating her on her O.W.L.s and telling her of his results. He then told her about his progress with the Jewish and Christian philosophies and said that, even though there was nothing concrete yet, he and Remus were starting to find some interesting possibilities. He then told her that he would be at the reading of Sirius' Will and that it didn't sound like he would be leaving Privet Drive any time soon because Dumbledore wanted him to stay as long as he possible this summer.

After the ink had dried on Hermione's letter he rolled it up and set it aside. Turning to Ginny's letter he broke the wax seal and unrolled it, holding it up to the light.

Dear Harry,

I really don't know what to think about Percy's coming back. A part of me wants
to forgive him but another part of me wants to hex him so bad he will never show
his face in public again. What he did to Mum and Dad is unforgivable. But then
again, Mum and Dad and Bill seem to be able to forgive him so I guess I will have
to at least think about it.

Hermione has told us what you and Professor Lupin have been doing. I hope you
are able to find something.

Ron went to the Ministry of Magic today to meet with some Unspeakables. I hate
to say this, Harry, but it sounds like he is going to turn into another Hermione.
Not that there's anything wrong with Hermione, mind you, but I don't know if I
will be able to handle living with a walking encyclopedia. I can handle Hermione
because that's just the way she is. But this is Ron we're talking about! I'm
used to him being a prat.

I don't know what to tell you about Sirius, Harry. From what little time I
spent around him, however, I think Professor Lupin is spot on: Sirius would
want to be remembered for the good things in his life, not the sad or depressing
things, and most definitely not for the years he spent in Azkaban.

Ron probably already told you that we will be moving at the end of the week and
that we will be at the reading of Sirius' Will so I really don't have much more
to add. Besides, Mum is calling me to help Ron degnome the garden.

Hope to see you soon!

Love,

Ginny

Harry smiled at Ginny's letter and for some reason actually found himself looking forward to going to Diagon Alley for the reading. He wasn't looking forward to the act of listening to the provisions of Sirius' Will but rather seeing his friends again. His aunt Petunia was trying to be nice and she was actually opening up to him a bit and telling him about his mother and what she knew of the wizarding world but it wasn't the same as being around people who he knew cared about him.

After crafting a quick, yet thoughtful, letter to Ginny he rolled it up with Ron's and sealed all three letters with candle wax. Then, after tying Ron and Ginny's letters together, he roused Pig, tied the letters to his leg and sent him on his way. Next he asked Hedwig if she felt up to a delivery while holding Hermione's letter up for her inspection. When Hedwig opened her eyes and saw that Harry had something for her to deliver she hooted softly, hopped out of her cage and extended her leg.

Harry tied the letter to her leg, told her the letter was for Hermione, thanked her and watched her as she vanished into the night sky. Fifteen minutes later, after practicing occlumency and clearing his mind, Harry was sound asleep and resting comfortably