Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter Universe all other claimants to anything to do with the H.P. story are simply hangers on to her glory. I thank her for allowing us mere mortals to play in her world and I promise that while I have Harry in my care nothing bad will happen to him. I will leave that to J.K.R. herself in her books.
LOVE CONQUERS ALLChapter 15 of NEWTS.
The team were all assembled, as instructed, in the Great Hall at eight the following morning, they were in school robes and really none of them had any idea as to what to expect and they were standing around talking to each other.
Then an unknown voice sounded;
"Good morning students, there will be four tasks, if you fail any test your examination will end at that point, we wish for you to proceed to the Quidditch pitch and enter it through the main entrance. Of course there is a catch, there is a Hungarian Horntail Dragon guarding the entrance and we would prefer it if you did not kill the Dragon, you have thirty minutes for this test."
Harry set the timer on his watch to twenty-five minutes and said. "Right, lets move towards the Quidditch pitch, we will get into some kind of formation outside."
They left the Great Hall and went towards the Quidditch pitch they could see the Dragon as soon as they came out of the main doors of the castle, in all honesty it would have been hard to miss it. He arranged a formation. Front row, Ginny, Harry, Luna, Hermione and behind them in the three gaps Ron, Parvati and Neville, he asked.
"Myrddin CRYFDER, AES, how close do we need to be for a stunning spell."
"Twenty to thirty yards and the Horntail's fireball range is about the same." Myrddin answered.
Then Harry said, "You all wait here, I'm going to try something different" they were about forty yards away, Harry moved forward about five yards, took out his wand 'Sonorus' then loudly in Parseltongue.
"What a fine day it is Mr Dragon, I am afraid I do not know your name."
"You speak my language that is unusual, my name is Majesty, it is not a nice day and what is your name."
"My name is Harry Potter, Majesty and why is it not a nice day for you?"
"These ropes are uncomfortable Harry and they are stopping me sleeping, I want to go out to the middle of the lawn and sleep in the sun, for about a day, or so."
"Would you allow some of my companions and myself to aid you?"
"Two of your companions may help you." Harry called Ginny and Hermione and told them what they were going to do and all three of them put away their wands and moved forward, they removed the dragons bonds then he waddled across the lawn, curled up in the middle and went to sleep.
The examiners came up with Charlie Weasley, who said, "What have you done to Fred?"
Harry answered, "Hi Charlie, his preferred name is Majesty and he has gone for a sleep, he said he will be a day or so."
Charlie said grinning, "If ever you want a job as a Dragon handler you have one, see you later."
Then Mme Marchbanks said with a smile, "Well you seem to have passed the first test."
So Harry said, "I assume that the next task awaits us inside the stadium, may I escort you there." He put out his arm and she took it, the others followed smiling. When they entered the stadium Mme Marchbanks went and sat in the stand.
Hagrid faced them, he said, "For the next task you are to be in your groups of three you must decide who is going first."
Harry said. "Should I go first with Parvati, let Ginny, Luna and Neville come next, then you and Ron. I will keep you informed this way."
"That's ok with us," they all said.
Hagrid took Hermione, Luna, Ron, Ginny and Neville to a small soundproof room and said to the other two, you will go up a tunnel and see a big open circle, there is another opening opposite when you enter that you have finished, please try not to kill the creatures that will try to stop you. They went out into the tunnel and again Harry told Parvati to wait, he cast a silencing charm on his feet and put on his invisibility cloak, he went to the end of the tunnel and looked and came half way back, beckoning to her to join him.
He told her, "Now don't panic Parvati we can handle them, there are four giant Acromantula out there, you levitate two and I will levitate the other two, if anything is going wrong start to throw stunning spells, ok Parvati lets go." They stepped into the circle and immediately the four Giant spiders started to charge towards them, they easily levitated the spiders, which were not as heavy as they looked. They then walked across the circle, Parvati went into the tunnel then Harry backed into the tunnel they put the Giant Spiders down and shut their door quickly. Two tasks down two to go and Harry had kept Hermione informed all the way and of course she would be keeping the others informed as well.
When Ginny came out, like Harry she went to see what was there, she came back to Neville and Luna, when they came near the end of the tunnel they extended it with a glass one, straight across the open space and they walked through it. The giant spiders were going mad but they could do nothing.
Hermione and Ron did exactly what Harry and Parvati had done. The time was nine fifteen and they had completed two out of the four tasks.
All seven of them were sat at a large circular table surrounded by a dozen chairs; they had conjured these as well as tea and biscuits, when the examiners came in they were arguing.
Suddenly Mme Marchbanks raised her voice. "These tests have been approved by the Full Assessment Board, just because they don't do them the way you think they should and they seem to find them pathetically easy, is irrelevant. The tests are designed to assess the standard they should have reached to pass their NEWT if Professor Dumbledore took the tests do you think he would do what the average NEWT student would do? The tests stand as they are."
The students were slightly embarrassed, but they produced more cups and saucers, three kinds of tea and more biscuits.
Professor Worms who had been arguing with Mme Marchbanks snapped, "Can no one make coffee?"
Luna, without using a wand, produced a pot in front of him and said, "My dad says my coffee is a bit like mud, but still its coffee."
Professor Worms snapped again, "Has nobody told you to call your superiors sir when you speak to them."
Luna was quite relaxed and answered, "Well my superiors always say please when they want something and thank you when they get it," she turned her back on him and carried on talking to Neville who seemed a little shell-shocked.
Professor Worms was livid he opened his mouth to speak Mme Marchbanks cut him off. "Do you know who she is? Her father owns the Quibbler, if you want to become a published twerp, carry on she is right and you are well out of line. You will be reported, but you still owe her some thanks, an apology and you haven't drunk your coffee."
The disgruntled party all sat there for another five minutes and the conversation was very strained then Mme Marchbanks said. "Would you like to do the next task now or later?"
After a short discussion they decided to do it now, then Mme Marchbanks asked. "You know your pairs, so what order would you like to go in?" They decided that Harry would go first, Luna and Neville would be next then Parvati and Ron so last would be Hermione and Ginny.
The examiners all went back to their viewpoint.
Hagrid came in he said. "Thanks for not hurting my spiders, the time allowed for the next task is twenty minutes and once again you must try not to hurt the creatures," they weren't sure if this was one of the examiners rules, or one of Hagrid's, he continued, "as before you must cross the circle, the creatures, you are to subdue will be released when this door closes, the door on the other side opens normally but there is a minute delay before it closes, so you can't slip out quick like. Oh! And t' best of luck to you all."
The door opened and Harry could see the door, he had to reach, on the far side of the arena, he entered the ring and the door closed behind him. On the left hand wall he could see that the caged creature's they had, a lion's head, a goats body and a dragons tail they were two Chimaeras. They were released from their cage, Harry thought BRYSIO, CRYFDER, AES (Speed, Increase Power and shield). He hit both of the Chimera in quick succession with a stunning spell, both the Chimaera's staggered, then he stunned both of them in quick succession again both of them went down unconscious he ran to the exit door and opened it, Harry turned towards the arena watching the Chimaera's, he went through the door as it was closing, he had completed the third task.
Luna and Neville were next they threw stunning spells at each of the Chimera which slowed them down, then they used synchronised stunning spells at each of them, they walked across the arena and walked out of the door, they turned and watched the Chimeras until the door closed, two teams done. Ron and Parvati did a replay of Luna and Neville except one of the Chimaera's was charging towards the door as it closed, which only left Ginny and Hermione.
Hermione and Ginny hit both their Chimera with impediment jinx's and that slowed both of them down, the giggling pair of girls then headed rapidly for the far door, Ginny had opened it when the first Chimera started to speed up so Hermione hit it with another impediment jinx and Ginny did the same to the second one when it started to move, they both went through the door and waited, watching until the door had closed.
They had all completed the third task.
Harry asked, "What were you giggling at darling?"
Hermione answered, "Ginny told me ab…" then the pair turned bright pink and burst out laughing again and Harry realised that he wasn't going to get an answer.
The examiners came down to them again; first Mme Marchbanks congratulated Harry, because he had successfully completed all his NEWT tests. Then she told them that the final tests were the individual tasks and these would take place after lunch. They had to be back here in the holding area before two.
The holding area where they were all gathered was normally the Gryffindor Quidditch changing room and it was just before two. They were told that the order they would be competing in was, Mr Weasley, Miss Lovegood, Mr Longbottom, Miss Patil, Miss Weasley and Miss Granger.
Mme Marchbanks then explained to them that they would each be facing a mountain Troll, your duel finishes when either you or the Troll is incapacitated, she went back to the stand and Ron was called.
When Ron entered the arena and saw his Troll, it was huge, ugly and as usual, it stank, the Troll saw him and started lumbering towards him swinging its club in the air. Ron thought 'well it worked once', he levitated the club up over its head, the Troll stopped and looked up at its club floating twenty feet above it, Ron released the spell and its club fell hitting the Troll between the eyes. The Troll collapsed unconscious.
The examiners told Ron to come and sit in the stands, only then did he realise that there were quite a few people watching, including Harry sat with his brother Charlie and Tonks, so he went and sat with them.
Luna was next, she hit the Troll between the eyes with a stunning spell and her Troll fell like a tree, then Neville, who followed her did a full body bind on his Troll. Next in line was Parvati, she levitated her Troll twenty-five feet in the air she rotated it so it was upside-down and dropped it on its head, for some reason it did not seem inclined to move after that.
Then came Ginny, she saw her Troll and she was smiling, usually a bad sign, her Troll came towards her so she raised her right hand, it stopped as though it had hit a wall, she swept her left hand and the Trolls club disappeared, clattering some where over to her left, she raised the index finger of her right hand and started rotating it slowly, the Troll started revolving, she gradually increased the speed she was rotating her finger at and the spinning Troll was speeding up until eventually the Troll fell over and couldn't get up, it was too dizzy. She bowed to the examiners and asked if that was sufficient, it was.
Next came Hermione, she put her hand up, her Troll stopped as if in a daze, she flicked her little finger, the Troll's club floated gracefully across the arena and rested gently against the wall.
Hermione asked. "Only the one?"
Professor Worms answered disdainfully. "How many would you like little girl?"
"How many do you have, Professor?" Hermione asked sweetly.
"We have another four, Miss Weasley's is still too dizzy, and it won't be able to stand for a few minutes yet."
"Well may I borrow those, please Professor."
Mme Marchbanks was smiling.
The four Trolls came charging in and slowed to a stop whilst all their clubs floated away and parked themselves neatly alongside the first one; there were now five Trolls. Three of them walked to the centre of the arena, they stood in a line and linked their arms, they were facing the examiners, the other two linked arms and Hermione levitated them up so they were stood on the shoulders of the first three. She turned and bowed to the examiners then she turned back to the Trolls, levitated the top two back to the ground and waved her hand, all the Trolls laid on the ground, curled up with their thumbs in their mouth's and went to sleep, the noise from the snoring was deafening. The smell was also terrible so she waved her hand again and the Troll smell was replaced by that of fresh spring flowers and the noise of the snoring decreased to a gentle buzz, she turned and bowed to the examiners again.
They had all completed all of their tasks their NEWTS were over.
The handlers came out and removed the sweet smelling Trolls, then all the spectators and students made their way down into the arena, Tonks was ecstatic they were all going to pass she kissed each of them on the cheek. There was quite a party atmosphere, Harry went over and shook Professor Worms hand then went back to talk to Mme Marchbanks and Hermione. Mme Marchbanks asked him why he had bothered to shake Worms hand, she left out the honorific and Harry told her that he wanted to know if he was a Death Eater, he wasn't but she would learn more later on.
Hermione started talking to Mme Marchbanks about SPEW again, so Harry went off to find lighter company. Ginny was with Charlie and Ron so he was heading over to talk to the Weasley clan when the Headmaster beckoned to him and asked him about Worms.
Harry held Professor Dumbledore's hand and told him mentally that Worms was not a Death Eater, but he probably was a sympathiser, he hated Muggle born witches and wizards, even half and half. He abhorred the pure bloods associating with Hermione in any way and he even seemed to be cringing because I basically forced him into shaking my hand. Then Harry asked if they had confirmed who was responsible for putting the Imperius on Professor Boggles because it was perfectly possible that given his state of mind, Worms would have done it without any qualms.
The Headmaster told Harry to leave it to him.
So Harry resumed his journey over to Ginny, Charlie and Ron, but he noticed that when he had left him the Headmaster had gone straight over to talk with Mme Marchbanks.
This of course left Hermione free so he changed direction and went back to his love.
The gathering was breaking up and the spectators and students were heading back to the school to get ready for the dinner, which was to be in just over an hour. Charlie accompanied the gang back to the castle and they all went right up to the Owlery so that Ron, Ginny and Harry could tell their owls that they would be away for a day and not to worry, then Charlie accompanied them to the Gryffindor common room.
When they arrived in the common room Tonks reminded them that this was the last time she would be with them, after today at Hogwarts they would have to call her Professor Tonks. She also told them that they were to pack all of their things, because they would be leaving for the flat as soon as they had finished dinner.
After they had been back in the common room for about a quarter of an hour there was a knock on the portrait and as Charlie was the only one down stairs at the time he opened the portrait.
"Good evening Mme Marchbanks would you like me to help you in?" he asked.
"Certainly thank you and in here I am not called Mme Marchbanks," Charlie looked slightly puzzled but still helped her in and she walked to the bottom of the stairs and called up. "Oy! Rabble its Grizz, I need to talk to you all."
Every one of the team came happily scrambling down the stairs and greeted her, and then she continued. "I obviously will not be able to say too much later on so I thought that I would come and thank you for all the hard work you have done for me over the past week. I will try to keep in touch with all of you.
The examiners have reassessed all the OWL results from before the holidays, bearing in mind what that Umbridge wo… thing did and those will be awarded this evening as well. Oh, and Harry rest assured, you will not have to worry about Worms again, the Aurors have checked his wand he had cast the Imperious on Bogles, so it's a happy life in Azkaban for him!"
She went around and kissed each of them on the cheek then they all said goodbye to her and she left.
Charlie was dumbfounded, "Was that Mme Marchbanks, dragon-lady, evil queen of examinations? She seemed almost… human?"
Ron answered him, "Charlie she's super, you can't believe the good things we've done with her, this last week." Ron had finished his packing and was ready for dinner so he stayed in the common room to explain to Charlie what they had been doing with Mme Marchbanks.
But Tonks reminded him, "Keep it in mind Charlie that all this is confidential about our part, anyway, I should think that the cat will soon be out of the bag for the rest and the excitement will really start on Monday."
Then the seven of them went back up stairs to finish getting ready for the dinner.
The group were looking very smart because they were wearing their dress robes and when they entered the Great Hall there were about thirty-five people there, who all started clapping.
Tonks went to join the teachers and Charlie went and sat with the other Dragon handlers.
Two long tables were set in a "T", now there were only seven free seats three either side and one at the end at the bottom of the T, so they took those and looked at the top table. In the centre was Dumbledore to his right were Arthur Molly, Mr and Mrs Granger, Mr and Mrs Patil with Padma, then Professors Flitwick and Sprout. To Dumbledore's left was Mme Marchbanks and three other examiners, Worms was missing, Mr Lovegood, old Mrs Longbottom, then Professors McGonagall and Snape.
The Headmaster arose, and said, "We are here this evening to honour seven students who have spent their summer working instead of playing. I will call their names in reverse order of their achievements and the Minister of Magic will present their certificates. Mr Ronald Weasley, three OWLs and six NEWTs." Ron walked up to loud applause and the Headmaster told him that they all had to wait behind the top table.
"Mr Harry Potter, three OWLs and six NEWTs," Harry walked up to loud applause.
"Miss Parvati Patil, four OWLs and six NEWTs," Parvati walked up to very loud applause.
"Mr Neville Longbottom five OWLs and six NEWTs," Neville walked up to very loud applause, but his Grandmother was scowling and not clapping.
"Miss Hermione Granger, five OWLs and six NEWTs and I must add Miss Granger has set an all time record for OWL's with a total of twenty four in one year." Hermione didn't know whether to grin or blush so she did both as she went up to tremendous applause.
"Miss Luna Lovegood fourteen OWLs and six NEWTs," Luna walked up to even louder applause.
"And lastly, but certainly not least, Miss Ginevra Weasley fifteen OWLs and six NEWTs," Ginny walked up to tremendous applause.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Minister for Magic!" there was yet more enthusiastic applause.
Arthur had sat back down so Dumbledore pulled him to his feet again and he said, "Two of them are mine and I've been a dad much longer than I've been Minister and oh I don't know what to say, I'm so proud."
He went to cuddle his children and all the other parents rose and congratulated their children, Molly was trying to get past Ginny to cuddle Harry, she was telling him that he had made her youngest two the best of the lot and everybody in the hall was cheering and clapping.
Luna's father was very proud of her and was chatting to all of them, however Neville's Grandmother was still extremely piqued and he only spoke about three or four words to her. When they were sat down eating Neville told them that he had, had it with his Gran' and he wasn't going to be into making it up with her any time in the foreseeable future.
An hour and a half later, having been well fed, the eight of them were flying over the lake on their way to the Three Broomsticks and the apartment.
x-x
It was an unwritten agreement nevertheless they had all decided that Saturday was to be their day of rest, except Aberforth had apparently decided otherwise, by eight fifteen, the noise coming from below them was horrendous.
Harry got up, leaving Hermione with her head under a pillow, he went out of the flat and down stairs to see what was going on. Just as he was passing Aberforth's flat as the Headmaster's brother was coming out and said, "Hello Harry, I did not know you lot were back here, I thought you were all at the school?"
"Yes we were," Harry said, "but we came back last night and we are going to leave again tomorrow, what's all the noise about? Can you throw some sound proofing charms around please, the noise is deafening upstairs."
Aberforth waved his wand and the noise stopped, and then he said, "If I had known you were here I'd have done that before they began, sorry. Well, we're having ten telephone lines run into each of the two lower flats, they are being converted into temporary Muggle Studies classrooms. Albus couldn't think of anywhere else to put them, so they have to be ready by next weekend, luckily I've already moved all the walls around."
"How are the students going to get here from Hogwarts and then back to school again?"
"Were going to create portals directly into and out of particular rooms in each flat, that should keep them secure. I'm sorry I must get on, as you can imagine, I am very busy, have a good year, bye."
Aberforth went off down the stairs, Harry thought for a minute, then went back up to the flat and everybody, except Hermione, was out of bed, he asked, "Why are you all up?"
A very disgruntled Tonks said, "Because the noise stopped."
"But I stopped the noise so you could sleep, do you want me to go and start it again?"
Ginny answered quickly, "No, no thank you. We were hiding from the noise and when it stopped we wondered where it had gone, so we all got up to find out. Come on lets get breakfast." They started wandering into the dining room and Harry went to call Hermione.
"I am not getting out of this bed until I've had a kiss." Harry jumped on top of the covers and gave her a big kiss, when he stood up she leapt out of bed and dashed into the loo, she came out a couple of minutes later and Harry was reading the front page of the Daily Prophet.
"What is it darling?" Hermione said, he showed her the front page, the headline read, 'Revolution at Hogwarts.' The article was nothing like as dramatic as the headline it was simply about the revised priority of Muggle studies in the school curriculum. Hermione immediately went to get her copy of the Daily Prophet from her room and together they went through to the dining room for breakfast. He showed Tonks the paper and soon they had all read the article.
Tonks commented. "Well, I thought that it would start on Monday, I wonder who released it early? I suppose that they had a good reason."
The gang did not have long to wait before they found out because just before ten the Headmaster arrived and the first thing he said was that he couldn't stay long.
However then he told them that together with Mme Marchbanks they had decided to release the Muggle studies information, prior to the start of the school year. This way they believed that no one could accuse them of getting their children to the school without the revisions to the syllabus being public knowledge.
He also told them that Muggle Studies would be a compulsory OWL subject for this year's forth years, but they would be using the old syllabus, this wouldn't apply to the third years who would be using the new syllabus. Also a pass would be mandatory for any of them to progress on to NEWTs.
He then apologised and told them that he was extremely busy and left.
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful, Hermione and Harry with Tonks's assistance added a second locked compartment to their trunk's this gave them virtually a second empty trunk.
Taking a leaf out of Mad Eye Moody's book, Harry expanded his new compartment to make a room with two comfy arm chairs and a large bookcase into which he put a lot of the books he had brought from Sirius's vault. When Hermione saw what he had done she decided to do the same to her trunk but in hers she had put a love seat instead of the chairs. Harry asked Tonks if it would be possible to put a portal between the two trunk rooms and she told them that portals, like a lot of other forms of magical transport, could only be used between fixed locations and trunks by definition were not fixed locations.
By the evening they had all packed everything that they would be taking to Hogwarts, they had left out Muggle clothes for the morning and had their school robes packed in their magic bags. They all watched a video of Conan the Destroyer, after Ron had told them about twenty times, how much he fancied Grace Jones they all went to bed for what would be their last night in the flat for some months.
Their holiday was over so Hermione and Harry cuddled very close all night because tomorrow night they would be back in their dormitory beds.
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