Chapter Three – O.W.Ls

The next week seemed to fly by in comparison to the time Harry had spent with the Dursleys. It was certainly a strange feeling being around so many nice, friendly people who actually liked him and enjoyed his company. However, this didn't mean that Harry was particularly enjoying his stay; although he was hiding it as best he could, he still found it very difficult being in Grimmauld Place without Sirius. He had spent the last few weeks trying to rid his mind of the guilt he felt, but here it just came flooding back, stronger than ever.

One evening, Tonks came through the front door and, as usual, knocked over the strange stump-like umbrella stand. It was only when he didn't hear the usual shrieks from the portrait of Sirius' mother in response to Tonks' clumsiness that Harry realised the portrait had been removed from the wall. Harry certainly didn't mind that Mrs Black's portrait was no longer there, she had pretty much summed-up the traditional Black family and their beliefs. As soon as she had seen anyone against the pure-blood-mania enter her house she would shriek until someone forced her to be quiet. Even so, Harry decided to ask Lupin about why she was no longer there, and went to look for him.

Harry found Lupin alone in the drawing room, sitting in an armchair by the empty fireplace, reading the Daily Prophet. He looked up as Harry entered and smiled.

"Hiya, Harry, you alright?" Lupin asked.

"Yeah, er…Professor Lupin?"

"Please call me Remus, Harry, or even Moony if you prefer. I haven't been your professor for over two years!" said Remus, chuckling.

"Alright, Moony, I was just going to ask what happened to the portrait of Sirius' mother? I just noticed she isn't in the hall anymore."

"Well that was actually my doing," said Remus, "after that night in the Ministry there were lots of Order meetings here. Anyway, his charming mother found out that Sirius died, and took to taunting anyone who walked through the door. Well, as you probably understand I didn't really take to this too well and one day my anger just got the better of me, so I hurled curses at the bloody thing until it was blasted off the wall."

Shocked partly by Remus' actions but also but the fact that he'd just sworn – something he'd never done before in Harry's presence, Harry just gave him a surprised look.

"Anyway Harry, how are you doing? I know it's really hard being here without Sirius. I've been here for weeks and I'm still not used to it."

"I'm fine, really," replied Harry. "I can't help but blame myself for his death, though. If I'd just tried harder at Occlumency he wouldn't have died. People keep telling me not to beat myself up about it, but being here just makes it worse."

"It was Voldemort, Harry. Not you. You didn't kill Sirius, Bellatrix did" said Remus, sadly.

"Maybe," replied Harry, his eyes glistening over, "but I certainly helped him, didn't I?"

"No Harry, Kreacher and the Malfoys helped him."

"Oh yeah, what happened to Kreacher?" Harry asked, his voice hardening as he remembered the house elf.

"No-one really knows to be honest Harry. He sort of just disappeared. We think that now there are no true Blacks left he just died or something like that. Next time you see Dobby you could always ask him what happens when the last remaining member of the family a house-elf serves dies. I'm sure he'll be able to tell you."

"I don't really want to know, I'm just glad he's gone so I never get the urge to wring his neck."

"Me too" muttered Remus.

"You've changed," said Harry.

"Our world is changing, Harry," replied Remus in a sad tone, "and not for the better."

After that Remus and Harry remained in the drawing room for a while, talking about school, lessons and life in general. Remus asked Harry if there were any girls in his life, besides Hermione obviously, so Harry told him about the whole Cho fiasco. Remus sympathised and told Harry that until about 6th year James had always been useless with girls too. Sirius had always been the lady's man, with his smouldering good looks.

Harry took the opportunity to mention Tonks. When he did a light red flush appeared on Remus' cheeks, but Harry gave him encouragement and talked about how much he liked Tonks. Remus admitted that it had been very hard forming any serious relationship with a woman over the past fifteen years for much the same reason that he could never find a decent job – being a werewolf seemed to make him very socially incompatible.

They only stopped their conversation when Mrs Weasley poked her head round the door to tell them dinner was ready. As she left Remus turned to Harry and said, "I know I'll never replace Sirius, I never want to, but I do hope that in time you're able to look up to me as you did to him. You know, think of me as a fatherly and brotherly figure. It's up to you, of course, I don't expect you to, obviously. Anyway, it's just that now you don't have a godfather anymore and you are still under age I just wondered…well?"

"You wondered if you could be my godfather instead? It'd be great, Moony. You're the first person I would have asked myself."

And with that, they went to dinner, both much happier that they had become more comfortable around one another once more.


The following morning Harry was woken up by a screech from somewhere near his bedroom. He looked at his watched to find that it was only 7.15am, so rolled over with a groan and went to go back to sleep.

His attempts were unsuccessful however, as Hermione burst through his and Ron's bedroom door a few seconds later clutching some parchment in her hand.

"They're here!" she exclaimed, her cheeks flushing from her anticipation.

"Huh?" replied Ron, groggily as he rubbed his eyes whilst sitting up in bed.

"Our results, our O.W.L results! They just arrived!"

"Don't wanna know," mumbled Ron and Harry in unison.

"Oh come on, stop being silly! Get out of bed and we'll open them together."

"Alright, alright," said Harry, climbing out of his bed.

Once they were up Hermione passed each of them their envelope with official-looking Ministry seals on. Harry really wasn't sure what to expect, but just hoped he wasn't going to be disappointed. He needed an O in Potions if he wanted to continue his ambition of becoming an Auror, but even though he had done better than normal without Snape breathing down his neck he still couldn't be sure that he had done well enough.

"Hermione, I really don't want to know. I'd rather just live in harmony than have mum yelling at me for the next three weeks! Can't I just open it the day before we go back or something? That way she might not have time to kill me," pleaded Ron.

"Don't be ridiculous Ronald! You have to open them so that you know which classes you can select. I imagine Hogwarts will be sending letters today as well. And anyway, you'll have done just fine. I'm sure Mrs Weasley will be happy with you. Surely you'll have done better than Fred and George in any case!" Hermione replied.

"Well if I haven't this'll be the last summer I ever live to see," moaned Ron.

"Ok, we're going to open them on the count of three. All right Harry, Ron?" she questioned, giving them an impatient look. Her hands were shaking as she prepared to undo the seal.

"Yeah," they replied.

"Three…two…one," said Hermione.

Harry opened his envelope and found two sheets of parchment inside. The first was simply a letter addressed to him.

Dear Mr Potter,

Please find enclosed your O.W.L grades. We hope that your results are as you hoped.

Please note that the results are graded as follows:

O - outstanding
E - exceeds expectations
A - acceptable
P - poor
D - dreadful

With regards to these marks, the standard pass grade is an A or higher. If you were deemed to receive full marks in any of your tests the grade will be recorded as an O (O star).

We hope that you enjoy your summer.

Yours sincerely,

Esmeralda Ponkins (Department of Magical Education)

Harry turned over to the next piece of parchment at almost exactly the same time as Hermione and Ron, and looked down to see a list of subjects and grades.

Transfiguration – O

Care of Magical Creatures – O

Potions – O

History of Magic – D

Astronomy – A

Defence Against the Dark Arts – O

Herbology – E

Divination – A

Charms – O

You have therefore been awarded 8 O.W.Ls

Harry looked up to see Hermione beaming at him.

"Well?" she asked.

"I got four Os, an O star, an E, two As and a D," Harry replied, smiling back. "What about you?"

"Oh well done Harry! I got all O stars except an O in Defence and an E in Astronomy! I'm so happy! But I can't believe they didn't mark us up in Astronomy – I mean Hagrid and McGonagall were attacked!"

"Never mind Hermione, those are amazing grades anyway. Ron, how about you?" Harry asked.

"Er I got an O star, three Os, three Es, an A and a P. Wow that's more than Fred and George put together! I can't believe it, Mum actually isn't going to kill me!" replied Ron, a grin spreading across his face as he looked up from the parchment in disbelief.

Hermione leant across and engulfed him in a massive bear hug, causing Ron's ears to turn pink. "What did we tell you?" she asked, letting go of him at last, "I knew you'd do fine!"

"Come on, lets find Mum and Dad," said Ron, getting up from the floor where they had been sitting. However, his movements were cut short and Fred and George apparated right into the middle of them, looking stern.

"Now Ron," said Fred, "we could hear far too many happy sounds coming from this room, so thought we'd better come on in and check you hadn't let us down by getting too many O.W.Ls."

"Yeah," said George, "else you do realise we'll have to get rid of you before Mum finds out."

Fred snatched the parchment out of Ron's hand and glanced over it before passing it to George.

"Dear, dear, dear," said George, shaking his head.

"Never been so disappointed in you little bro'," said Fred.

"Don't be so rude," said Hermione, looking annoyed. "He got brilliant results."

"That's the problem," said Fred and George together.

They all went out of the bedroom and started to make their way to the staircase until they were ambushed by Ginny who demanded to know their results before they went anywhere. They found the adults in the kitchen, talking quietly over cups of steaming coffee. Mrs Weasley was absolutely delighted with how well they had done, and Remus congratulated Harry on getting the grades he needed to help him on his way to becoming an Auror.

That evening Mrs Weasley cooked a massive dinner to which all the well known Order members were invited. It turned in to a party of sorts, as people kept congratulating the three teenagers on their results and stayed late into the night. Just before midnight Dumbledore arrived and greeted Harry, Ron and Hermione warmly.

"I felt obliged to come and congratulate the three of you on your excellent results," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles.

"Thank you, Professor," said Harry, "we're all really pleased."

"I dare-say you are. I took liberty of enquiring into your grades and feel sure that they have done you justice. Now Harry, there are some things I need to speak to you about. Could you please meet me in the drawing room at nine thirty tomorrow morning?"

"Ok, sir, I'll see you there."

"Thank you, Harry. Mr Weasley, Miss Granger – goodnight, enjoy the rest of the party."


It was only when the last two people – Remus and Tonks – made their way upstairs that Harry, Ron and Hermione also decided that it was time for bed. It had been a really fun evening; Harry for once had actually enjoyed being centre of attention. Maybe that was because he was able to share the attention with Ron and Hermione too.

Harry had just finished brushing his teeth when Remus opened the bathroom door.

"Oh, sorry Harry! Didn't realise you were in here, I'll come back in a minute."

"Nah, don't worry, I'm all done. Oh, Moony, do you know what Dumbledore wants to speak to me about? He asked me to meet him tomorrow," asked Harry.

"Yeah I do, but it'll take ages to explain. Just wait 'til tomorrow. Night Harry."

"Alright, good night Moony. Or maybe have a good night is more appropriate?" he added with a sly grin, "say night to Tonks for me!"

Remus just gave him a stern look and raised an eyebrow, but the sparkle in his eyes gave him away.