A/N: Finally, my college course is complete, as is my education overall! Though this does mean I'll be working a few more days a week, I'm hopeful I will have more writing time from now on.
Next Chapter: Sirius does his first vote as Lord Black, and has his first proper meeting with his likeminded colleagues to start drafting proposals.
The next few days went by relatively slowly. Sirius had a few days off from the Ministry, as did Ophelia, and on the Saturday night, there was a very not-well-put-together plan for all of the residents of Black Manor to go out for dinner. It turned out, Black Manor was located in Gloucestershire, and the nearest town was some market town called Cirencester - which apparently had what Sirius called 'a damn good Indian restaurant'. Regulus also remembered the restaurant; apparently, when Orion and Walburga used to send their kids to Uncle Alphard for a day out (or sometimes days, depending when they could be bothered to be parents), Alphard Black used to take them out to the surrounding muggle areas on a strict rule that they didn't tell their parents. "Oh, that restaurant was so nice! I'm glad it's still going after all these years!" Regulus had said, before turning to them, "Be prepared to eat the best food of your life!"
They had to alter Regulus's appearance so that he could come with them - after all, the man was still faking his own death, so better to be safe than sorry. Dorea had no clue how Sirius had done it, but when he was done altering his brother, he was completely unrecognisable. 'Regulus' was now a thirty-something year old guy that had a dark blonde curly mullet and piercing green eyes. "Do you think we could just call me Reg? Or do we change my name as well?" He'd said, but eventually they decided to change his name to 'Jerry' temporarily.
And it turned out - this Indian restaurant was to die for.
They'd eaten until their hearts content. Nobody mentioned the OWL results, which were arriving on Monday, in fact nothing regarding school was discussed at all. It was just a relaxing, entertaining evening of both a family and a found-family.
On the evening of the fifth, the mood in Black Manor, and probably in every household of students that had sat OWLs, was nervy, understandably. They all had their doubts:
"I really hope I did enough for question three on the Transfiguration paper…" was Theo's worry.
"Come to think of it… I hope I didn't completely mistranslate the whole translation in Ancient Runes.." came from Dorea.
"I hope I didn't mix up Jupiter and Saturn's moons…" was Amelia's worry.
"We all thought Defence was easy, but what if we messed up? What if there was more required for it?" Blaise started fretting too.
"I'll kick myself if my Arithmancy ten-marker wasn't good enough.." Harry moped.
"All right, that's enough," said Sirius, neither kindly or unkindly. "I know you lot are all worried, but there is no need to be this dramatic. Quite frankly, I know how much work and revision you all put in - are we forgetting I was your Astronomy teacher? I saw how motivated and hard-working you all were in that class alone, so whatever the result, I know that your determination to do well will have also transferred over to all your other classes too. Besides, what do you think I'll do if you fail any? Kick you out? I'm not my parents, you know, and Black Manor is a refuge, a sanctuary. Even if you open the envelope and discover you all got T's in everything, it does not change anything at all. There are some students that retake OWLs in their sixth year, you know, it's quite common, and there's no shame if you have to do that. I think, Harry, you and me had a similar conversation back when you were studying to take Arithmancy and Ancient Runes - exams are not a proper telling of you as a student, but rather, they simply do not take into account any other factor except how well your memory and recollection skills are on a certain day. They're just glorified memory tests. Whatever happens, I'm confident that you all did the best to your ability. Remember that."
Dorea could tell that Blaise, Theo and her god siblings were taking that in, and it made them less edgy as a result. Her dad's words calmed her too.
Ophelia and Regulus both said a "here, here" to that, and Ophelia even gave Theo a pat on the shoulder to probably show that she felt the same way. Whatever happened tomorrow, Dorea knew it would be nerve-wracking regardless.
When Harry woke up the next morning, his dread levels instantly started kicking in. Today was exam results day, and even though he was only really worried about the Arithmancy grade, he couldn't help but feel nervous for all of them. The more he thought about it, the more that a million different scenarios kept whizzing around his head. Stop this, he told himself, Sirius won't mind regardless.
But Harry did have his doubts. Although Sirius had literally said in his mini-speech yesterday that their exam results did not matter to him, he knew that they kind of did. Because although his godfather had said that even if they failed he would be fine with it, would he really be? Harry couldn't help but feel that there would be at least a small bit of disappointment there; after all, failing a subject implied you were bad at it, and he didn't want Sirius to think he did not take school seriously.
His little fretting session was disturbed, when all of a sudden he saw a figure fly into the room and flop across his bed. He shrieked, before he realised it was Barnaby. "Christ sakes, Barnaby!" He exclaimed, sitting up a bit in fright, but he did smile a bit, "I could sleep naked for all you know! What's got you so excited?"
The dark-haired boy lifted his head and looked at him, grinning. "The Wizarding Examination Authority is sending out the results envelopes in half an hour. Sirius wants you all up, dressed and had breakfast by then." the boy explained, and Harry glanced at his bedside clock to see it was 09:30, meaning that the envelopes would be here by 10:00, most likely. He wondered how Theo and Blaise were going to get their results - considering they were traditionally sent to your residence, how would the WEA know to send them to Black Manor? Harry then realised that also applied to him, Amelia and Dorea - this was a top-secret location, so how would they know they lived here?
That question was answered when he eventually went downstairs after getting dressed (thankfully Barnaby left his room whilst he did that) to get his breakfast. "Dumbledore made sure that Black Manor wasn't on the envelopes. As far as the Ministry knows, Dorea still lives with Kaspar and Sofia, her old guardians, and I'm listed as living with them too, whilst you and Amelia are residents of The Burrow. Arthur will send the envelopes through the Floo. In terms of Blaise and Theo, well, Dumbledore managed to create a whole new address for Ophelia, and by default he just had Blaise theoretically live with Theo there. He'll be sending their envelopes through the Floo when they arrive."
As he ate his toast with hazelnut spread, Harry's nerves kicked in again. Regulus, who was sitting across from him, was trying not to laugh at his expression.
Sirius came through into the kitchen from the living room. "Good news - the Weasley's will be coming over after the results arrive. That way, you can all show each other what you got, and also have a little catch-up."
That cheered them up a bit, and Harry wondered if Hermione would be with them today. He was sure that she would have a certificate filled with O's, at least. He knew that Ron would likely have pass grades in everything except Divination and History of Magic as well. He wondered if Fred and George would be coming over to show their NEWT results as well, or if they were still getting the shop ready for its grand opening… which was days away now.
At 10am, the whole of Black Manor held its breath, for they were silently waiting to hear the chime that the envelopes were coming through the Floo. It was a bit anticlimactic when, at 10:03, they still hadn't heard the Floo signal.
"Floo channels must be pretty busy today, if you think about it," Barnaby chimed in, but then frowned, as if he had just said something wrong, "oh wait, they get sent via owl usually, don't they…"
At 10:04. They finally heard two separate Floo chimes, one after the other. Sirius all but launched out of his seat and went running through to the living room, where the Floo was. He came back through momentarily, large envelopes in hand, though he looked like he was counting them.
"Right, I think we have everyone. Dorea… Harry… Amelia… Blaise… Theo.." the man said their names as he handed each envelope to them. Harry accepted his letter with clammy fingers. Gosh, this is it…
"You know what would be cool? If you open them and read them at the same time." Ophelia said, and they nodded, however there were nervous looks on all of their faces. Even Blaise looked like he had nervous fingers all of sudden, and he was the least worried out of the bunch.
Harry, with one last deep breath, opened his envelope, and on three they pulled their letters out and unfolded them to read.
Harry wondered just what was about to greet him, and his eyes went instantly to the letters that represented his grades. As he heard the others making noises of what he assumed were delight or shock, he read his results silently.
They read:
"ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
MR HARRY JAMES POTTER HAS ACHIEVED:
Ancient Runes - O
Astronomy - E
Arithmancy - A
Care of Magical Creatures - E
Charms - O
Defence Against The Dark Arts - O
Herbology - E
History of Magic - E
Potions - O
Transfiguration - E
Additional Courses:
Healing Magic* - E
*Your additional certificate of grade for this extracurricular course is attached overleaf."
Harry read the parchment through several times, his breathing becoming easier with each reading. He almost felt himself shrieking. Though he felt disheartened about the Arithmancy result, he was really pleased with himself at the other results - all his courses had Pass grades!. He was simply delighted about the Ancient Runes O grade, and he just knew that when Professor Babbling found out about the Runes result (if she hadn't seen it already), she would be very happy for him. He wondered with mirth how annoyed Snape would be about that O in Potions. Best of all, he had done Remus proud, as he had an O in Defence Against the Dark Arts.
He showed Sirius first, and his godfather came trotting over, making a drum roll on the back of his chair as he peered over his shoulder. His godfather made a gleeful noise. "Harry! This is excellent!" the man said jovially.
He thanked him with a giant smile on his face, and then was pulled into a one-armed hug from the man. Finally tearing his eyes away from the paper, he looked around at everyone else's faces.
Amelia gave one last look at Theo, as she unfolded her envelope along with Harry, Dorea, Blaise and her boyfriend.
She made an excited noise and clamped her hand over her mouth, for she couldn't believe how well she had done.
The letter read:
"ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
MISS AMELIA LILY POTTER HAS ACHIEVED:
Ancient Runes - O
Astronomy - E
Arithmancy - E
Care of Magical Creatures - E
Charms - E
Defence Against the Dark Arts - O
Herbology - E
History of Magic - E
Muggle Studies - O
Potions - O
Transfiguration - E
Additional Courses:
Healing Magic - E*
*Your additional certificate of grade for this extracurricular course is attached overleaf."
Barnaby Lee was the second person to see her results, and the boy grinned at her. "Check you out - four O's!"
That caught the attention of most of the kitchen. "Woah, darling, you got four Outstanding's?" Theo looked amazed.
She nodded, and then reached over to try and look at his. "Here - swap -"
Dorea almost tore into her envelope, sliding her nail underneath the seal and pulling the letter out. Praying that she wasn't about to see all T grades, she took a deep breath and cast her eyes over the certificate.
It read:
"ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
MISS DOREA ANDROMEDA BLACK HAS ACHIEVED:
Ancient Runes - E
Astronomy - O
Arithmancy - E
Care of Magical Creatures - E
Charms - O
Defence Against the Dark Arts - O
Herbology - E
History of Magic - A
Muggle Studies - O
Potions - O
Transfiguration - E
Additional Courses:
Healing Magic - E*
*Your additional certificate of grade for this extracurricular course is attached overleaf."
Dorea let out a sigh of relief. She had passed everything! Though she was a bit perplexed at the A in History of Magic - she thought the exam was neither too hard nor too easy, and expected at least an E, it did not really matter - she wasn't going to continue with it at NEWT anyway. Though she hadn't totally decided on a future career yet, she knew it would not involve History of Magic. Unless Dumbledore turned around on the first day back and said that he had gotten a new History of Magic teacher, she would not be taking it anymore.
Blaise, who was sitting next to her, was gaging her reaction, she realised. "How did you do? You're awfully quiet, sitting there." The boy asked her with a curious smirk. She knew the boy fancied her, but had his crush faded after all these months of her and Fred dating? It was hard to tell.
"Passed everything!" she said in relief, "6 E's, 5 O's and 1 A."
Blaise let out a low whistle, as did Regulus, who was in the vicinity. "What was the one A?"
"History." she said simply, and Blaise nodded knowingly.
She was swamped into a well-done hug by Regulus and Ophelia, who was moving around the table between them all. Her dad came over pretty quickly and had a very proud look on his face. He didn't even seem bothered by the meagre A in History.
Blaise could definitely hear Barnaby saying something over his shoulder, where the boy was currently standing, but it was like he was speaking in the room next door, as Blaise was concentrating on reading over his exam results so much that Barnaby's voice was muffled.
His results read:
"ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
MR BLAISE MANUEL ZABINI HAS ACHIEVED:
Astronomy - E
Care of Magical Creatures - E
Charms - O
Defence Against the Dark Arts - O
Herbology - E
History of Magic - A
Potions - O
Transfiguration - E"
Blaise was pretty chuffed with himself. He just knew he would ace Potions, Defence and Charms, but it was great to see he had achieved top marks in them nonetheless. He was glad that he had E's for Herbology and Transfiguration, as they were required for a career as a Potioneer; and they were also needed to get into the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers, a place he was eyeing up after graduation. NEWTS, here I come.
He was meeting his dad, Manuel, in London tomorrow with Sirius's permission. He couldn't wait to show him the results; he knew that Manuel Zabini would be so happy for him. He knew he wasn't going to flip out at the A grade; if he recalled, his dad didn't do that well in History when he was in school either, so it was all good. And after all, an A was still a passing grade, so he couldn't really complain.
Theodore felt his mother peering over his shoulder behind him, and as he began to open the envelope with one hand, she gave his free one one last grasp - it was either anticipation or a silent good-luck, he didn't know, but it was welcome.
He glanced over to Amelia and slowed his opening pace to match hers, so that they pulled it out together at the same time. Even though Amelia was literally just sitting with a face filled with both concentration and anticipation, he couldn't help but think she just looked so effortlessly beautiful. She always looked so good just doing the bare minimum, in his eyes; she could literally sit and read the Magna Carta out loud and he would just fall in love with her all over again.
He was that busy just looking at his girl that he almost forgot to actually take the bit of paper out. On three, they took the parchment paper out of the envelope and unfolded their individual results.
Theo's read:
"ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS
MR THEODORE CANTANKEROUS NOTT HAS ACHIEVED:
Astronomy - E
Care of Magical Creatures - E
Charms - O
Defence Against the Dark Arts - O
Herbology - E
History of Magic - P
Potions - O
Transfiguration - E"
He had done better than he could have ever hoped. He wasn't overly surprised he had failed History of Magic, but it didn't really matter as he wasn't continuing with it at NEWT anyway.
His mother rested her head on his shoulder, and he swore she squealed. "Oh, Theo, well done!" she said proudly, ruffling his hair. "Seven OWLs!"
He heard everyone else congratulating him, and once he thanked them all, he turned back to his mum. "I'm sorry about the one P grade."
Ophelia looked at him with slightly sad eyes. "Oh, my boy, don't you be worrying about that. It's only History - I only just passed it when I was your age. Besides, I know how hard it is to do well in that class when Binns is your teacher. It doesn't affect your future career, so there's no need to be thinking about that one fail grade when you passed everything else!"
He really did love his mother. He smiled at her lovingly, and she kissed his brow. Then she was shuffling around the table to see how the others had done. He looked at his girlfriend, and she had the most heart-warming happy look on her face that made him grin. Then he heard Barnaby declare that she had gotten four Outstanding's. That was pretty damn good, if he said so himself. "Woah, darling, you got four Outstanding's?"
His girlfriend nodded emphatically. "Here - swap - "
So they did. Theo cast his eyes over Amelia's results, and he couldn't be happier for her. "Woah, you got an E in History?"
"Wanted to pass it for the sake of passing," she replied, and with that they swapped their results back. "Don't think I'll be taking it at NEWT, though."
At half past ten, after Sirius gave another mini-speech, this time saying how proud of them all he was, the Weasley's came through, with Hermione.
Mr and Mrs Weasley were the first through, and they were very eager to know their results. When Harry told them about his, they looked so happy they looked like they were about to burst. "Oh, wonderful!" Was Mr Weasley's words.
Ron sauntered through next, and he looked rather smug. "Only failed Divination and History of Magic, and who cares about them!" the boy said happily to them. Harry wondered how Mr and Mrs Weasley felt about the two failed subjects.
When Ron passed his letter to Harry to read over, Harry noticed that there was only one Outstanding - Defence. Everything else, barring Divination and History, had Exceeds Expectations.
"Ah, I just knew we'd all have top marks in Defence," Ron said when they swapped letters back. "All a credit to both Lupin and you, Harry."
Harry was a bit startled when Hermione came through, for she was clutching her letter rather close to herself. Had she seriously done bad?
"How did you do, Hermione?" Barnaby Lee asked.
"I - not bad," she replied in a small voice.
"Oh, come off it," Ron said, striding over and all but snatching the letter out her hand, and didn't even look at the paper as he handed it to them, "She was like this back at The Burrow - nine Outstandings and one Exceeds Expectations. No idea why she's acting like she got all Dreadful's and Poor's."
The one E that Hermione had was in Defence, surprisingly.
"I just don't know how I lost marks there!" She said, frustrated, "Harry's club and Lupin being Defence teacher again had all of us so prepared that we all knew the exam was going to be a breeze!"
"Hey, it's fine," Dorea said, trying to sound reassuring, "getting an O in Defence isn't mandatory, you know, it's still plenty to get you into NEWT. And I'm sure not everyone in the Senior DA got an O, there will have been plenty that got an E. You're hardly going to be kicked out of the club, you know."
Hermione chilled out a bit upon hearing that.
The Weasley's stayed a few hours, though Harry noticed how the kids were all ushered to do something to entertain themselves whilst the adults clearly were going to be having private discussions. He knew it would likely be Order business - quite frankly, Harry hadn't even heard mention of Voldemort since the end of school. Was he planning another jailbreak, considering so many of his Death Eater's were either in Azkaban or awaiting trial? That was very likely.
Whilst the adults talked, they spent some time just occupying the living room and chatting with each other. When the weather cleared a bit outside, they decided to just have a fly-around. Even Hermione joined them in that. They didn't even really play quidditch - they just cruised around the boundaries of Black Manor, glad to get some air and flying time.
The Weasleys and Hermione left just before lunch, and Ophelia, with the help of Ditsy and Dippey, insisted that she make them whatever they wanted as a reward for doing so well in their exams. A unanimous agreement was reached - and it seemed that pepperoni pizza was the winner. Within half an hour, lunch was served, and it was simply delicious - just like everything made by Ophelia Fortescue was.
"Damn, she's pretty." Blaise said.
"You said that in her first scene, Blaise, but yes, she is." Amelia giggled.
"So, this guy that's about to rescue her… that's her brother?" Theo asked from the other couch. Amelia, Harry, Dorea, Blaise, Theo and Barnaby spent that evening in one of the rooms of Black Manor that had a working television, sitting in the dark barring the light that was produced from the TV.. The girls had a brilliant idea to introduce them to films, and what better film to start off with than one of the most iconic ones.
"Yeah, the boy from earlier - Luke Skywalker. They don't know they are siblings yet, though."
"Wait-"
"-Shh! She's about to say an iconic line!" Amelia begged for silence, and Dorea looked giddy too.
On the screen, the white-clothed figure of Princess Leia moved a hand to her hip and simply said: "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?"
Theo, Blaise, Barnaby (and even Harry a bit too), looked confused. "Erm, how is that iconic?" Barnaby asked.
"It just is!" Amelia and Dorea said at the same time, and looked at them as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"So, all of this is happening.. Right now?" Blaise asked.
Amelia and Dorea had perplexed looks on their faces, but soon came to a silent understanding - poor Blaise was a pureblood, and movies were muggle artefacts. Amelia supposed it was all a bit confusing; seeing this happen on a screen, it was easy to draw conclusions that it was real life if you did not know of the concept of acting and film. When the boys had seen the character of Chewbacca for the first time earlier, they had jumped as if they had just been jumpscared by a horror film - well, to them, the concept of a very tall furry-looking animal that made a lot of loud noises was probably a bit unnatural and scary at first.
More questions had followed.
"Woah, how did they film that in space?" Theo had wondered with wide eyes, and was disappointed to know it was just special effects and not real.
"Erm, why are we still watching this, they're clearly about to be crushed to death!" Barnaby had exclaimed, barely able to watch during the scene where Han, Luke and Leia were in the garbage compactor.
"Those 'droids', as you call them, are barmy. How do they even… exist? And what is this electricity that you're on about?" Blaise asked, looking at R2-D2 and C3P0 as if they were alien.
Despite their nerves from earlier in the day, this was actually one of the most relaxed days they had had. Amelia even hoped that, once Blaise, Theo and Barnaby got more used to the concept of movies, that film nights would become a regular thing for them to have. It would certainly be one of her better ideas.