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Harry Potter: Thinking like a Thief.
As he stood with his year mates outside the Great Hall, going over everything that he had learnt over the past 5 years at Hogwarts through private study and from the tutorials from the teachers, Harry didn't understand why nobody in Hogwarts during the exams, especially ones of this importance, bothered taking Calming Droughts.
Some of the others - the ones who had refused to accept his calming droughts - were panicking and making themselves ill whenever they had problems remembering a piece of magical theory; despite taking a calming drought herself even if she had not approved of his practice of charging for them (why would he sell them for free when he knew it would make a lovely little profit for himself?) Hermione was getting herself worked up but that was more due to her inability to absorb knowledge without panicking when she was under pressure, that was more of a habit than genuine panic. Indeed while he noticed that she was working herself up like always before an important test or one of the end-of-year exams, it did not have the same effect. In the meantime, he watched the others as well.
Harry doubted she had anything to worry about; Hermione might be a spy for Dumbledore, but he knew how she cared more for her education than anything else. Diverting his eyes from Hermione and Ron, who was slouching against a wall while he tried - and failed - to memorise what was in a book, he looked like he was on the verge of giving up. Harry paid him little heed, especially when he noticed how he looked over to Hermione. Harry didn't need to look into Ron's mind to see the thought there. The youngest Weasley boy wanted to use Hermione to help him through the exams, aka copying her. It wasn't going to happen; the examiners were veterans of discovering cheaters, and unlike the teachers, they weren't going to tolerate that kind of stupidity, not for the OWLs.
If he couldn't do it, that was his problem. Harry had discovered the examiners had hundreds of ways of discovering cheats. He only wondered what they'd use here.
Looking away from the spies, Harry turned his attention to the other students who were revising. The exam would be starting in another five minutes, giving the others time to get some last-minute revision in. Some of the others were panicking. Didn't they realise if they went into the exams so anxious and high strung they were bound to make a mistake?
While he didn't really care about his year mates, that had not stopped Harry from seeing that he could make a small fortune with the opportunity. Thanks to his house-elves, Harry had gotten a nice little profit by selling them for a Galleon each. It had made Ron and Hermione both suspicious about why he was charging the students for cash, and it made Hermione particularly disapproving, but he noted that the bushy-haired girl had bought one off of him anyway.
The Professors didn't care either way; they either got tired of seeing so many students year after weary year stress themselves out like Hannah Abbot was doing whenever the blonde Hufflepuff girl made a mistake the closer they got to the date the first exam was due to start, or they believed it was a good thing someone was doing something about it although their views of his charging them were beyond him. He didn't care either.
In the meantime, Harry continued to study for the OWLs, using the Room of Requirement using books and magazines relevant to the subjects he was going for. There were hundreds of different books out there, and he wanted to be prepared, especially since Hogwarts had gone down the toilet in recent years since Dumbledore had become Headmaster and anyone going for a job abroad had problems getting them because of the educational level they had reached. Harry did not want that, he wanted to have the best results possible for his future.
In the meantime besides the chaos of the OWLs, the school had been quiet. With the death of Malfoy and Snape, and many of the more unpleasant students who'd stupidly given their magic to Voldemort, the school was more pleasant. So far he hadn't been bothered by any more meetings with Dumbledore, but he was not sure if that was necessarily a good thing or not; while it was a good thing the old man wasn't bothering him at this point, it also made Harry wonder if the old wizard was going to plot something. He had his house-elves watching the old man, and they had reported nothing was happening, that worried him.
As a contingency, Harry had one of the house-elves with him at all times so then he could be popped out quickly. If Dumbledore tried anything then the house-elf would follow the order. It was a last resort measure since he didn't want the old wizard knowing anything about the house-elves. The old man didn't know he had house-elves, and Harry wanted to keep it that way.
Harry was snapped out of his thoughts when one of the wizened old examiners stepped out of the hall. Harry smiled privately, he had months ago contacted the people behind the educational exams and told them on the Q.T that he planned on taking many more OWLs than the norm. Not only was he taking the subjects Hogwarts offered barring Divination and Muggle Studies, but he was also going for Duelling, Warding, Languages, Healing. The time to hide who he was, in reality, was long since over. It would take a while for Dumbledore to discover what he had done, but when that time came, Harry would have gotten his OWLs and his NEWTs.
He had it worked out. When he left Britain, Harry would go for his masteries in the various topics he had been studying while he tried to have some fun. He planned on just travelling without committing any thefts before he came back to Britain. It wasn't like he didn't have enough money already. He could wait before he went for something again.
One thing he had managed to arrange, and fortunately it was one that wouldn't raise too many eyebrows in the Ministry was that Dumbledore would not discover what he had done until after the exams were marked and finished. It was not unusual for a student to make that kind of decision. The good thing was Dumbledore hadn't called
"Silence, everyone. Please, come inside and sit down at your seats that are labelled with your names," the examiner, a tall but stout old wizard who looked as old as Dumbledore, perhaps older which made Harry wonder how long an examiner could stay in their position before they retired. This one likely only had a decade left.
But Harry pushed that out of his mind and he walked in with the others. The Great Hall had been moved around with the house tables removed and replaced by desks with a single seat at them.
At the front was a large sign reading "ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL - TRANSFIGURATION Part One. Theory." Nearby on the teacher's podium, there was a massive clock without hands on the face. It took him a while to find the seat with his n name label, and he sat down. Once everyone sat down waiting, another examiner, a plump old witch who looked like she was in her 70s, but was likely to be older and was considerably sprier than the average woman her age, stepped forwards.
"Welcome to your first Ordinary Wizarding Level examination. I am Professor Marchbanks and I would like to give you some basic information. As you may be aware, each OWL comes in two parts, there will be a theory test and a practical test, except for the purely theoretical classes, such as History of Magic and Arithmancy. The written tests will take four hours in the morning, and the practical tests will take place in the afternoon, so today you will be doing Transfiguration and Charms before moving on to the practical examinations later today. All of you will be called into the practical tests in alphabetical order. But in between the exams, I would spend your time wisely and revise other subjects. Do not waste your time trying to pile on every single thing you have learnt about charms and transfiguration in the next few hours, you will regret it and it will be a waste of your energy. The theoretical subjects have written tests that will last just 4 hours. Now, in front of you are special quills. They are charmed to prevent cheating of any kind; I have stopped the exams for dozens of cheaters over the years, so I am warning you now do not try to cheat. I have seen people try to copy theory onto their wrists, I have seen students even look over the shoulders of others, or even whisper to others. I have a simple message, don't. If you try to cheat, then the quills will detect it, and we will kick you out of this exam and it goes against your grading. If you try to test our patience again, it will end badly. You will be banned from the OWLS and if that happened, then you cannot sit your NEWTs. If that happens, you will have destroyed your future."
"The ink has also been enchanted. You will write on the parchment sheets in front of you. There's enough space for you to give your answers. Write your full names, including any middle names, next to the Name label at the top right of the first sheet. There is a box in front of you. Take out your wands and put them in, Now."
Hearing the command, Harry followed everyone else in putting his wand into the boxes in front of them. The moment his wand was in the box, it sealed tightly.
"Don't be alarmed. You will get your wands unsealed at the end of this examination. We don't want you to cheat. If you haven't learnt enough, or if you haven't bothered to study, then that is your problem and you can't do anything about it now.
"If you need to go to the toilet, then raise your hand and you will be allowed to use the bathroom that has been unlocked at the front of the Great Hall, just behind the head table. There are small bottles of water you can take if you need to drink something. The bottles are full of mineral water, no potions, which is why you have been forbidden from bringing any kind of food or drink into this hall. Oh, on that subject; the examiners will hand your papers out will cast a detection spell to detect spells or potions. If they are calming droughts, then you will be fine as you will need to keep a cool head, but if they are anything that can help you cheat, you will be out of here and you will have failed automatically. Your Heads of Houses have already told you about this, but this is just a simple reminder."
Every student remembered the Heads of their Houses lecturing them several times in a row about those details. The Ministry examiners walked along the lines, setting down a set of examination papers on each desk and casting spells to see if they had taken any potions that could allow cheating. They detected calming droughts, but nobody had taken any potions that could allow them to cheat; either the students had been warned more forcefully than McGonagall had done with the Gryffindors, or they had the sense to know the examiners could start the landslide they had caused that would make their lives nothing but a misery.
Once the examiners told Marchbanks they had handed out the papers, the woman stepped forward. "Everyone's got everything?" Once she had confirmed they did, she tapped the clock with her wand. Instantly the clock hands appeared. "You may begin now. Keep in mind the time you have now."
There was a rustle throughout the hall as the students turned their papers and got to work.