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N.E.W.T.s
"HERMIONEEEEEEEE!" Ron shouted at the top of his lungs, "OWLSSSSSSSSSS HEREEEE!" Ginny clapped her hands over her ears.
"I'm right here, Ron, there is no need to shout," Hermione said, with as much poise as possible, as a large tawny bird landed on the table, clutching her future in its talons.
"Oy. How long have you been sitting there?" Ron asked, scratching his head sleepily. Hermione rolled her eyes at Ginny, though in all truth, she'd been acting a little loopy lately as well. Really though, no one could blame them; their N.E.W.T. results were approximately 4 days late and it was driving Hermione and Ron crazy.
"Well, whatcha waiting for?" Harry said, through a mouthful of English muffin. He was not being driven to the brink of insanity waiting for test results because he had not taken them. As he had sworn the summer before, Harry had not returned to Hogwarts for his final year of school. Unfortunately both the Weasleys and the Grangers felt a seventh year of school was of the utmost importance to Ron and Hermione, especially since they were prefects. That, of course, had not meant that they'd had to miss out on any of the action. In fact, it was their many nights out in Hogsmeade, sipping butterbeers while they poured over strategy and handy spells, that made Hermione fear the worst when their N.E.W.T. scores came late. Just now her hands were trembling.
"Ought we?" She mumbled, looking at Ron with fear in her eyes. He was looking a bit peaky himself actually.
"Well, at least I won't have the lowest scores in the family. Fred and George didn't even take them," Ron said, more to himself than anyone else.
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with not taking N.E.W.T.s, isn't that right Harry?" Fred said as he ambled into the kitchen with a hungry look on his face.
"Do you always stand around outside doors, eavesdropping?" Ron scowled.
"Yes. Always," piped up George, who had entered the kitchen behind Fred.
"Oh just open them already, will you?" Ginny screeched. Harry smiled her and squeezed her hand under the table. Patience had never been her most redeeming virtue.
"On the count of three then?" Ron squeaked. Hermione merely nodded. "One…two…three." Several seconds of dead silence followed the sound of ripping paper before Ron let out a low moan. He looked up at Hermione pitifully, expecting to see triumphant pleasure on her face. Unfortunately, the only thing written across her face was horror. That is until she fainted dead away, face first, into her porridge.
"Hermione! Hermione! Are you ok?" Ginny shouted, shaking her friend by the shoulders. When she finally came to she just made incomprehensible noises for a while before shoving the parchment with her N.E.W.T. scores at Ginny. Then she set about Scourgifying her face and clothes free of porridge. Ginny turned an unbecoming shade of puce upon reading the parchment.
"Are you ok Hermione?" She asked unsteadily.
"Oh yes, quite all right, I'm lovely, really wonderful, oh yes, I'm great," Hermione rambled, a manic grin plastered onto her pale face.
"Oh." Ginny mumbled, blushing, as she passed the parchment to Harry, whose eyes bugged out once he saw the grades listed there.
"Wouldn't you expect me to be great? After all those great scores? What do you expect Ginevra, tears? Hysterics? Ripping my hair out?" Hermione's face was getting redder and redder and her voice was becoming louder and shriller by the second. "Oh no, I am just swell, really. It's always been my dream to fail my N.E.W.T.s. Now I don't have to worry about what I'm going to do next year, because it does not matter. No department of the Ministry will want me. No Healing school will have me. No one will EVER hire me. I'll forever be known as the Head Girl who failed all her exams. I'll never get a job. I'll never make any money. My parents will disown me. The whole wizarding world probably will too. I'm going to have to live on the corner of some muggle street pulling rabbits out of a hat and hoping people drop ten pence pieces in my Styrofoam cup!" She was definitely screaming now.
"Maybe we could help," Fred piped up.
"We could?" George asked.
"We're looking for some help in the shop."
"We are?"
"We've been wanting to ask you for some time, actually."
"We have? Oh, I mean we have," George exclaimed, finally catching on with a stern look from Fred.
"Really?" Hermione whispered in a tiny squeak of a voice.
"Oh yeah, definitely," Fred insisted, nodding enthusiastically. Suddenly, Hermione launched herself at Fred in an extremely forceful hug, wetting the front of his shirt with grateful tears.
"You. Are. The. Best." She murmured through the hiccups. Fred shot George a devilish look and winked at Ron, who looked downright murderous.
"I know, love. Now let's get up to the city and we'll show you around the shop, alright?" Hermione nodded excitedly, drying the tears from her cheeks, though she still had not disengaged herself from Fred's arms. He seemed to have little problem with that though, as he tucked her safely at his side, an arm around her shoulders, and steered her towards the door.
"Well, kid, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Fred said, eliciting a giggle from Hermione. With one last wink over his shoulder to the kitchen full of flabbergasted onlookers, he had swept her out the door and down the walk.
"I think I'm going to throw up." And with that, George was gone as well.
A/N: This was written for a contest at a Harry Potter forum. If you'd like to join the site, visit my profile for more info!