Chapter 3- O.W.L's

Lying in bed with his eyes closed tightly, Harry felt like someone was standing over him, staring at him. He slowly opened his eyes and came face to face with Elisia.

Harry startled.

"You have letters," she said happily.

She threw them on his chest and skipped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Harry looked at the first envelope and saw the familiar Hogwarts crest stamped on the front.

His heart seemed to skip several beats as he realized what this letter must hold. With shaking hands he slowly opened the letter and out fell his O.W.L results.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that your O.W.L results have come in and you did extremely well. You received 8 O.W.L's. Your results are as followed:

History of Magic- P (he should have borrowed Hermione's notes more often)

Potions- O (whoa Dumbledore must have had something to do with that)

Defence Against the Dark Arts- O (that wasn't surprising)

Herbology- E (Neville had helped him study)

Divination- D (No duh!)

Transfiguration- O (Cool!)

Care of Magical Creatures- E (Hagrid would be so proud)

Astronomy- A (Well he had been distracted during that test)

Charms- O

We hope you have registered for all the classes that you need to further the career of your choice after you leave Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The N.E.W.T classes you have been accepted into are:

Potions

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Herbology

Transfiguration

Care of Magical Creatures

Charms

Your book list is included in this letter as are your other supplies list. Good Luck!

Professor McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Harry felt extremely pleased with himself! He decided to read the other letter before going downstairs to tell Elisia his good news. He picked up the last envelope and opened it. Inside were two letters; one from Ron and the other, Hermione.

Dear Harry,

I got 6 O.W.L's!!! I got into all the classes I need to become an Auror!!! I hope you did as well! Mum is very pleased! Hermione is ecstatic because, of course, she got all perfect scores... what a know-it-all! Well, we are expecting you to be here soon so just hold on a bit longer! Hope the exchange student is relatively normal!

See you soon!

Ron

He was happy for Ron; he deserved it. The last letter was written in Hermione's tidy script.

Dear Harry,

Oh my gosh... I got 11 O.W.L's!!! Ahhhh I can't believe it!! What did you get?

How's the exchange student? It's a great learning experience for her—I'm so jealous! Well, Harry, I just want to know how you're doing? How are you handling Sirius's death? You know you need to talk about it sometime, and I just want you to know that I'm always here for you.

Hoping to see you soon.

Love,

Hermione

Harry wasn't at all surprised that Hermione had gotten 11 O.W.L's; after all she was the smartest one in their class. He was extremely grateful for what Hermione had said about her always being there for him, but right now he didn't want to talk about Sirius or the prophecy. He knew Hermione and Ron would both freak out if he told them what was hidden in the smashed prophecy, so he had decided to keep it to himself.
Harry put the three letters under the loose floorboard and walked out of the room where he came face to face with Elisia.
"Guess what?" Harry asked "I got 8 O.W.L's!"
"Oh that's great Harry! Umm... what are those exactly?" She asked.
Harry thought for a moment if the whole Elisia being a witch thing was a dream. He decided to keep talking like she was anyways.
"They are tests that we take in our 5th year at my school," he responded.
"Oh, we call them R.A.T's, really annoying tests." Elisia said.

"Wow, there is a lot of stuff we need to learn about each other," said Harry smiling at her.