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Chapter 9: Of O.W.L.s and The Hogwarts Express
"Marai, I am so sorry. And we never knew, all those years that you didn't get any letters from Neria..." Chandria trailed off.
I shook my head, "No, it's-it's okay, in some way I...I did know, but I didn't want to believe that could happen to Neria's mum and dad. I remember waking up that morning and looking at the front page of the newspaper and thinking it all had to be a horrible coincidence." I shook my head to force out the thoughts. It was years ago and there were more important things here and now.
"It doesn't matter right now, that was the past, and it's been years. We have now to worry about plenty without thinking on the past as well," I told the room.
"I don't suppose now would be a good time to tell you I've your O.W.L. results then?" the tall dark Shacklebolt asked.
My sisters and I turned to him as one.
"Do you-"
"Just say-"
"You have our O.W.L. results?" I finished for my sisters. Shacklebolt stared at the three of us for a moment then pulled out three envelopes from his cloak and handed then to Chandria, who was closest to him. Chandria silently handed one to me and one to Shashi then focused on the one remaining in her hands. It seemed none of us breathed as we carefully opened our perspective envelopes.
I slid the sheet of paper out of the envelope and unfolded it, bracing myself for what was written inside. My eyes skimmed over the words until I came across the grades, then I stopped and stared at the sheet, hardly breathing.
ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
Pass Grades Fail Grades
Outstanding (O) Poor (P)
Exceeds Expectations (E) Dreadful (D)
Acceptable (A) Troll (T)
Marari Liadan Yanamari has achieved:
Ancient Runes O
Arithmancy O
Astronomy O
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defense Against the Dark Arts O
Divination E
Herbology O
History of Magic O
Muggle Studies O
Potions O
Transfiguration O
I felt as if my eyes were bugging out of my head and I didn't look away until Shashi gave an excited woop from my left.
"I pa-assed. I pa-assed!" she sang while dancing around the room. She snatched my grades as she passed me before I could stop her. She let her eyes rove down the list and laughed.
"You bookworm, now how are you going to possibly choose what classes you're gonna actually take at school? My grades at least narrow down my choices." She smiled and waved her O.W.L.s sheet in front of my face until I took it, glancing at her grades.
Shashi Reanna Yanamari has achieved:
Ancient Runes P
Arithmancy P
Astronomy A
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms A
Defense Against the Dark Arts E
Divination A
Herbology O
History of Magic P
Muggle Studies O
Potions A
Transfiguration E
"We already knew I was hopeless in all things mathematic but even I would have disowned myself if I got anything less then an 'Outstanding' in Muggle Studies," Shashi laughed then lunged happily at Chandria, letting my grades flutter in the air in her wake. Hermione caught my sheet and glanced briefly at me, asking permission to see. I nodded at her and shrugged. As Hermione glanced through my grades Shashi dragged me over to Chandria to look at her grades. Chandria's grades were a happy medium to Shashi and my own.
Chandria Vernina Yanamari has achieved:
Ancient Runes E
Arithmancy E
Astronomy E
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defense Against the Dark Arts O
Divination A
Herbology O
History of Magic A
Muggle Studies O
Potions E
Transfiguration E
"So how'd you do Marari?" Chandria asked me and I shrugged. Shashi grinned and shoved me.
"Oh come on Marari, don't get all modest, we both knew you'd do better then us, all you ever did was read and study from the moment you got your hands on a Wizard book." I grinned then but still just shrugged.
Shashi sighed and rolled her eyes, "Sister dearest received top marks in everything but Divination, in which she got an 'Exceeds Expectations'. And no offence to Professor Lupin, but she couldn't have possibly learned Divination only from him otherwise she couldn't have possibly gotten better then an 'Acceptable'."
It was true, Lupin was a rather dismal Divination teacher, but I assumed it was because he didn't really believe in it.
Hermione suddenly appeared out of no where, her face flushed.
"Marari! This is amazing!" I opened my mouth to argue with her but she shook her head. "How did you take all of these classes? It isn't possible, believe me, I've tried."
"Oh, well, you see we didn't really learn we were witches until this summer..." I trailed off at the look on Hermione's face.
"You, you learned everything in a summer? All these classes, five years worth...how could you possibly..." Hermione's eyes were huge.
"Here, I'll explain it all Hermione, but it's got to be a secret, everyone else at school is gonna be told we attended a school in Iceland." Hermione nodded silently then seemed to think of something.
"What about Harry and Ron, can they know." I glanced at my sisters then nodded.
"As long as they understand that they mustn't tell anyone." Hermione nodded and I sighed.
"Okay, well, before we were even born our parents decided they id not want us to be part of the wizarding world..."
It took a good ten minutes to explain our story to Hermione, but she was silent and merely listened instead of interrupting with questions as one might expect someone to during a story such as ours.
When I finished Hermione looked sad, "I'm so sorry Marari, I knew that your parents were missing but I never realized...that you didn't know anything of this world. That you've never heard of magic being real before this. I can understand not knowing of magic, being muggleborn, but to have wizard parents and still never learn of the truth of their world..."
I shrugged, "We've moved on from that. Sure we confused, and a little hurt, but we got over that and now we're just excited and proud to be part of this world. I mean, we're going to Hogwarts, if that isn't a cause for excitement I don' know what is."
Hermione smiled, "Hogwarts is one of the best places on Earth. I love it there, it's amazing. I'm sure you'll love it there as well."
"I sure hope so," I responded then turned when someone poked me in the back.
"Are you done telling Hermione all about your own legacy?" Patrick asked with a grin.
"Yeah I suppose," I answered.
"Good cause I still gotta harass you for getting better O.W.L.s then I did at your age. What's up with that? Showing me up so now I'm not the best wizarding Yanamari child anymore!" Patrick teased.
I snorted, "You were the only wizarding Yanamari child until this summer," I respond.
"Exactly! That's why I was the best!" he tweaked my nose.
"And the worst," I retorted.
He just grinned and ruffled my hair, "Come on, Mrs. Weasley wants to celebrate your O.W.L.s with yet more food."
"I'm good with that!" Shashi pipes in and I laugh.
"Yeah, that sounds good to me." I stood and followed my siblings and friends down the stairs to the kitchen, glancing at my results clutched in my hand and smiling faintly. I was going to survive this world, and I was going to embrace it as my own. I belonged in the wizarding world in a way I never had in the Muggle world.
"Oh dear, oh dear! We'll be late if we don't hurry!" Mrs. Weasley fussed. We were also to King's Cross Station, where the train that was waiting to take us to Hogwarts waited.
"Don't worry Molly, we'll make it in plenty of time," Arthur told his fretting wife. I yawned and rubbed at my eyes, the one day my body seemed determined to sleep late and I couldn't. I yawned again, muffling it with a hand when Mrs. Weasley glanced my way, I didn't want her to start worrying I hadn't gotten enough sleep.
As the time came to leave I stood from the table and fingered the shrunken luggage in my pocket, making sure none had fallen out. Kyrie was upsettedly pacing her carrier which was spelled so that if any muggle looked in at her she looked like a normal dusty brown coloured cat, no matter how many bright shades she turned in her anger at the carrying case. I glanced at my sisters, Chandria seemed as tired as I was but waws better at hiding it. Shashi was far too excited to be tired. I envied her energy as see practically bounced across the room, the violet Othin in her arms. She looked disappointed when she had to put her rat into his carrying case but Chandria reminded her it was only until we got on the train that she had to worry about Muggle eyes. One last inventory of the shrunken luggage in my pocket and I picked up Kyrie's cage. I turned to a smiling Hermione and couldn't help but give and tired grin in response.
"Are you ready for Hogwarts?" she asked and I nodded.
"I sure hope so." I glanced at Ron and Harry, both of whom seemed to share my enthusiasm at being conscious. Hermione had told them about my sisters and I. She didn't tell me she had told them, and they hadn't approached me about it, but I knew from the way Ron sometimes would abruptly stop in the middle of a sentence, as if unwilling to broach the subject. Harry on the other hand seemed more comfortable because of it, he kept giving my sisters and I understanding glances but kept quiet. In a way I was glad, it had been difficult enough explaining it once, I didn't know if I could do it again so soon.
I gave Kyrie a reassuring stroke through her carrying cases bars when she gave an annoyed meow. She quickly began purring and butting her head against my hand and I smiled faintly at her mood-swings.
Next thing I knew I was being ushered out the door by a flustered Mrs. Weasley, still panicked that we would be late. We were to walk a couple blocks where three cars would be waiting to drive us to the train station. I hadn't the faintest clue how they expected all of us to fit in three cars but I trusted them.
When I opened the back door of one of the cars I was surprised to find that while the car was normal sized the back seat was easily the size of a couch. Mrs. Weasley hustled me into the car when I merely stared.
"Come now, dear, we've got to be on own way!" I crawled in, Shashi, Chandria, and Ginny easily fitting in the backseat with me, even with two owls, a cat, and a rat, all in cages. Teva and Tavia both fit in the front passenger seat. I buckled my seatbelt and watched out the window as Harry, Ron, and Hermione (clasping Crookshanks' carrier) climbed into the back of another car. Soon our car pulled away from the curb and I watched as the world outside the vehicle zipped past.
We arrived at the station with 10 minutes to spare, but Mrs. Weasley still pressed us on toward the platform. It wasn't until we reached a column that she paused and smiled.
"Good, we've made it," she turned to us. "Best get onto the platform dears," my sisters and I stared at her and I heard Hermione step up behind us.
"Mrs. Weasley, I don't think anyone has told them how. Here, I'll show you. Hermione stepped around us and smiled, glanced about her and when no one was looking she leaned through the column.
"Well that's one way to hide a platform I suppose," I comment as she disappears.
"It doesn't hurt does it?" Shashi questions.
"A small tingle, no more," Mrs. Weasley answers and I step forward, casualy glance about then step purposefully into the column. It was rather like walking in jelly, for a moment I couldn't see anything then another step later I left behind the column and stepped into an archway. Hermione smiled at me.
"I remember how strange that was the first time I went through, I couldn't believe I was actually supposed to step through a column." she laughed. I stood next to her a waited as the rest of our group stepped through in groups of ones and twos. As soon as everyone was through Mrs. Weasley ushered us on and I caught my first glimpse of the Hogwarts Express. The large red engine was impressive to say the least. It gave a loud whistle as I stared.
"That means it's time to board! Let's get over to the train then we can get your luggage back to normal size," Mrs. Weasley suggests then leads our group over to a door on the train. "All right, turn out your pockets and I'll take care of your luggage."
I placed the my minuscule luggage on the ground and stood back as Mrs. Weasley returned them to their original size.
"There you are, now up into the train!"
We stepped up into the train and were handed our trunks one by one. By the time the last of the luggage had been handed up the whistle had blown again, near deafening in sound.
"Goodbye dears!" Mrs. Weasley called as the train began to move, the noise wrenching the air. "Have a great year and stay out of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley was yelling now to be heard over the train. We all waved back at her and then pulled back into the train.
"Well we best go find a compartment," Harry suggested. Ginny, Teva, and Tavia had already disappeared to find their own.
"We can't Harry, remember, Ron and I have to go to the prefects carriage then patrol the corridors..." Hermione reminded him.
"Oh yeah, I forgot..." Harry looked downtrodden so I jumped in.
"Boy am I glad I wasn't here for the choosing of prefects, the job sounds frightfully dull, no offence Hermione," I said in attempts to lift Harry's mood. Hermione smiled, realizing what I was doing. Ron on the other hand looked as if he completely agreed with my sentiments.
"Come on Ron, we've got to go. See you all at Hogwarts, good luck with your sorting! We'll be routing for your entrance into Gryffindor!!" Hermione calls over her shoulder, dragging Ron toward the front of the train.
"Funny, I always thought Hermione would be in Ravenclaw," I mused aloud and harry finally laughed.
"Yeah, I think she did too, but we're Gryffindors all the way, Ron, Hermione and I. Ron's whole family was in Gryffindor." I thought of Arthur, Molly, the Twins, and Ginny and grinned.
"I can believe that," Shashi responded.
"So what do you say we find someplace to sit before my trunk pulls my arms off?" Chandria questions and Harry begins leading the way down the corridor, searching for an empty compartment.
This was shaping up to be an interesting year.
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