Yesterday's chapter I wrote a few days ago, but posting it then would have been in the middle of the Kai chapters so I thought I'd wait. Write this yesterday and so you're getting it this morning!

Kai had been up for hours by the time his owl arrived. This wasn't really by choice; Kai's sleeping pattern was rarely by choice. For one reason or another he never really slept more than four hours a night. The nightmare about getting his results which had woken him up this time was tame, absurd. Almost a relief compared to his usual fare. Still, he'd tried going back to sleep a few times and had just slipped straight back into it, and even the mildest nightmare wasn't exactly something to aim for. The clock had read five in the morning, and since the sun was up Kai figured that was the best he was going to get.

Plus, the earlier he got up, the less likely he was to be anywhere near his grandfather when the results arrived.

So he'd set up camp in a far corner of the grounds, Transfiguring a rock into a chair and ordering breakfast from the house elf most loyal to him. Or, least loyal to his grandfather, anyway. He didn't really care what Minin thought about him as long as he didn't report anything to his grandfather. If Grandfather asked then of course Minin would have to say, but that was fair enough. Plus, Minin was truly phenomenal at interpreting questions and even demands in the way that he wanted to answer them.

Kai always felt guilty when he used magic at home, these days. In a ridiculously soft moment he'd promised Hilary that he wouldn't. It had been at the end of third year, and she had just discovered that while all wizarding children were subject to the same rule of no magic outside Hogwarts, it was actually only Muggle-borns and those who were living around Muggles who could really be detected breaking the rule. The presence of an adult wizard, using magic all day every day, generally masked an underage student using the occasional spell. This, he had explained to a bitter, fuming Hilary, was because the rule wasn't actually about stopping young, untrained students from doing stupid things with magic. That was the more modern spin that the school put on it to make it seem fair. It was actually just an old extension of the International Statute of Secrecy, and its aim was just to stop anyone using magic around a Muggle.

That had set her off nicely on an old rant about the standard of Muggle Studies in Hogwarts. Kai had rode that out, ignoring Tyson and Max who were throwing him dirty looks for "winding her up again", and then afterwards, as she swiped at angry tears, he had promised not to use magic over the holidays when she was at home with her parents.

So yes, he sat more uncomfortably on his chair than his excellent Transfiguration warranted. Rationalising it was pointless. He was just prioritising himself over her. It was sensible.

Grandfather would be proud. Well. Didn't that thought make him feel sick. He un-Transfigured the chair back into a rock. To his surprise it went back perfectly. They'd only covered that in a few Transfiguration lessons.

(Kenny had asked, "But is it the same object that it was before you changed it in the first place? Or is it a new one?" and Tyson had thrown a bookmark at him)

He settled back onto the grass. It was a bit damp, but just from morning dew and not from rain. He would dry off.

An hour or so later, the owl arrived. Even though it was on the smaller side for a Hogwarts owl, it was hard to miss. There wasn't exactly anyone else around here for it to be flying towards instead.

It landed awkwardly on the ground next to him and hooted. He sat up.

"Shut up," he told the owl almost absentmindedly as he fiddled with the string tying the embossed envelope to its leg. The knot was tiny but he'd been looking after his nails for the last week and so in a relatively short space of time he was able to send the owl on its way again.

He stuck his finger into the corner of the envelope and tore. Gave himself a papercut, but that was literally the least important thing in the world right now.

Kai Hiwatari has achieved:

Ancient Runes: O

Astronomy: O

Care of Magical Creatures: E

Charms: O

Defence Against the Dark Arts: O

Herbology: E

History of Magic: A

Muggle Studies: O

Potions: E

Transfiguration: O

He breathed out. Read it again, and then again. Not bad. Not bad at all. He was amazed he'd passed History of Magic. Not even his best efforts could keep him awake in that classroom. The three Es made him pull a face. He knew that he should probably be more proud of the decent number of Os than he was. Anything other than an O in Defence would have been a hard slap to the face, though, he could fucking sleepwalk that subject, and he'd enjoyed Ancient Runes much more than most of the other subjects.

Muggle Studies, though. His grin stretched so wide that it hurt. Outstanding. A Hiwatari with Outstanding knowledge of Muggles. He really wanted to go and show his grandfather that, in the same sort of way that he wanted to jump off a cliff if it was too near, or touch a hot stove. It would do him active harm, but it was an exciting and intriguing thought nonetheless. Fuck you, old man. Fuck you and all of your worthless pureblood creed.

Now that he knew that he hadn't disappointed himself (much), he wanted to know how the others had done. Well. How Tyson had done.

With three of the community's children getting their exam results, the first generation to go back to Hogwarts for fifty years, results day was a bit more of an event for Ray, Lee and Mariah than it was for the others.

There were refreshments in the cobbled streets and homemade fireworks which had burned two cats so far, and neighbours kept craning to see through the curtains of the room that the three of them had barricaded themselves into.

Unlike Lee, who hated being the centre of attention and didn't deal well with nerves and so had immediately starting growling and swearing at people, Ray had actually quite liked the attention for a little while. The thing which had soured it for him instantly was the thought that if their results were bad, all the celebrations and nosiness would feel like the worst thing in the world. As soon as he'd thought that he found that he had to take refuge alongside Lee, and without either of them outside as moral support, Mariah had quickly followed.

"Even mum and dad keep telling me how proud they are! It's stupid! We could all have failed everything!" she grumbled.

"Shut up," Lee said miserably. "You might jinx it." Looking at him you would have thought that he was furious, not pissing himself nervous. His brow was furrowed, his arms crossed, his legs in a secure stance. This was just because Lee's default reaction to emotion these days was to hit things. Having known Lee his entire life, Ray could see underneath to the nervous tics.

"I can't jinx a result that was fixed a month ago!" Mariah shouted in frustration. (This wasn't the first time they'd had this argument). Ray tried to meditate, but their bickering kept drawing his attention instead. He was too nervous to concentrate anyway.

When the school owls eventually landed on their windowsill and knocked, Ray was certain that it was only Master Tao's quick charmwork which stopped Lee and Mariah's uncle grabbing for an envelope. Or possibly for the owl. It was a smart, well-fed specimen and Lee's uncle was the sort of man who knew where to sell anything.

They managed to get hold of their envelopes with nothing going wrong. The owls flew back to Hogwarts unharmed and in the same number that hey had arrived in. They stared at each other and at the envelopes in stressed silence. Footsteps and muttering outside the door: Lee and Mariah's parents were waiting anxiously.

"Together?" Mariah asked. The word meant a little something extra to this group, after all, and Ray clapped a hand on Lee's shoulder before agreeing,

"Together." He waited until they were all holding their envelopes. "And three, two, one …"

The creamy parchment fell into his hand. He flicked it open as quickly as possible. The letters didn't make sense to him for a good few seconds, until the frantic pounding of blood in his ears lessened.

Ray Kon has achieved:

Astronomy: A

Care of Magical Creatures: E

Charms: E

Defence Against the Dark Arts: A

Divination: E

Herbology: O

History of Magic: D

Potions: P

Transfiguration: E

An Outstanding in Herbology! He'd never expected that. Never. A bubble of hot joy welled in his throat and he blinked back tears. Four Es as well! He didn't care about Astronomy, he was just pleased he'd passed, and his dismal (ha, D for dismal) History of Magic result was just funny. He'd given up on that as a subject by about halfway through second year. Potions was maybe a bit disappointing, an A might have been nice, and he'd really, really wanted an E in Defence … but on the whole, he was overjoyed.

He spent nearly a minute working up the courage to look at the others. He didn't want to be gloating over good results if they had done badly, but equally he didn't want the awkward experience of being really proud of his results then finding out they had far eclipsed him. He got a lot of the latter, being friends with Hilary, Kenny and Kai.

Basically, if they had all done broadly the same …

Finally he met Lee's eye. Lee grinned and handed over his envelope. No Os for Lee, but no fails either. Straight Acceptables and Exceeds Expectations, all the way down, and more of the latter than the former. He yanked his friend into a tight hug.

"Congrats."

"You pleased?" Lee's voice rumbled through the hug. Ray nodded, and passed him the parchment. They both turned to Mariah. She went red.

"Fuck off, I'm still reading."

Lee rolled his eyes. "There's not that much to read!"

"Fine!" She thrust it in their general direction. She was twitchy and going blotchy at the neck, but that was just her reaction to anything that involved adrenalin so it left them none the wiser.

Ray turned the parchment over. Now that he and Lee had already celebrated, he really, really hoped that she had done ok ...

His mouth fell open. "Merlin's balls, Mariah!"

Lee snatched it off him, and choked as he read.

She had five Outstandings. Five. Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, Potions and Transfiguration.

Wow.

Ray did soothe his jealous soul slightly by pointing out to himself that she had failed Astronomy and History of Magic, though.

Lee flung the parchment back at her, grinning from ear to ear. "What were you even doing, trying to make us worry that you'd not done well!"

She had gone scarlet under their surprised reactions, doing that funny little torso wiggle she only did when she was both embarrassed and pleased.

"Yeah. It's amazing." She tucked her hair behind her ears with both hands and blew out a long breath of air. "Guess I know what my NEWTS will be." She held out her hand for the boys' results. Ray handed his over with a twist in his stomach. She had done so much better than him.

And NEWTS as well. He hadn't even thought about NEWTS, not really. He supposed that he would just do everything he had got an E in. Seemed sensible. And Defence, if he possibly could. He loved that subject.

Nervously, they opened the curtains and showed the small crowd by smiles and hand gestures that they had done well.

"Congratulations!" they heard over and over again as they ventured into the street at last. "Congratulations!"

Ray had a sudden thought which made him almost as tearful as his results had. He wondered how many of these eager friends and family members were so interested because they had secrretly wanted to go to Hogwarts too? Had any of them, like Lee, received their letter then had it snatched away?

He was so glad he had left them that year.

All opinions welcome!