This one is simple. Harry decides to change electives from Divination to Ancient Runes. This idea was suggested by a guest reviewer on October 24 in long list of ideas posted on chapter 52.

Though the end of his third year at Hogwarts had been quite eventful, there was something about the entire year that was bothering Harry.

He was sitting alone by the edge of the Black Lake reflecting back on the year and in between the Dementors, Buckbeak, and not to mention that whole Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew business, he also found room in his thoughts for an honest criticism of himself: He had made a very poor decision when he had signed up for Divination.

Quite apart from his annoyance at Professor Trelawney predicting his death every few lessons and the stifling hot fire in her classroom, Harry had come to understand that Divination was worthless as an academic subject.

Even if true Seers did exist, they would have to be born and not made. They would have to have the gift organically. It couldn't be taught. Seers were created by nature, not nurture.

As such, there was nothing to be gained by staring into tea leaves and crystal balls in Trelawney's suffocatingly hot classroom.

But what should he replace it with?

This time, Harry gave the matter far more thought than he had the first time around.

"What is an alternative elective that might be both useful and interesting?" Harry asked himself.

After mulling it over for ten minutes and ten nanoseconds, Harry arrived at his conclusion.

"The subject I should replace Divination with is Ancient Runes, " realized Harry, "Learning about Runes will be a lot more interesting than anything we did in Divination AND Ancient Runes could prove to be a very useful tool to have in my arsenal someday. In the Wizarding World, you never know if you might run into runes that need to be translated into English."

This was true. There were times breakthroughs on everything from Potion Making to Charms to how to better care for magical creatures to both offensive and defensive magic were attributable to witches and wizards who had translated writings from the Ancient Runes.

It was common knowledge that Hogwarts students were allowed to change electives between third year and fourth year, though very few did so because of the effort required.

Namely, students who wished to change electives between third year and fourth year were required to pass a third year exam to get into the fourth year class of the elective they wished to transfer to.

These exams were administered on the penultimate Friday before the fall semester started. In the case of Hogwarts, fall semester always started on September 1st.

However, to have any hope of passing said exams, students would need to study the third year material on their own over the course of the summer.

The standards required on the test change electives weren't exactly high, but they weren't exactly low either.

it went without saying that students who achieved either an Outstanding or an Exceeds Expectations on these exams would be allowed to make the change. On the other hand, those who could only muster Poor, Dreadful, or Troll would be banned from making the switch.

It was always a little liney and a little iffy about those students whose grade on this exam was Acceptable. The ultimate verdict was that an Acceptable was enough proof of competence to gain admission into the fourth year course, with the understanding that serious effort would be required to catch up and keep up with the coursework.

Harry was ready. And no, an Acceptable wasn't acceptable to Harry as far as he was concerned.

He was confident that with enough hard work studying the material that he could achieve an Exceeds Expectations on his test to change electives.

Harry was ready. He knew what he needed to do.

Later this day, he would fill out the application to change his elective from Divination to Ancient Runes.

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