Silver Hourglass

OWL's and Dreams Chapter 49

Ron was more than displeased to hear about Grawp. Harry and Hermione decided to tell him together, so they waited till after the Gryffindors celebrated winning the Quidditch Cup to tell him. He rage and ranted about Hagrid's affinity to dangerous creatures, harking back to Norbert the Dragon from their first year.

Luckily for them, however, Hagrid has not been sacked yet, but their diminishing free time were quickly been eaten up by studying for the upcoming O.W.L.s. The closer the examinations came, the more frantic and worried everyone seemed to be. Draco tried to keep his cool, but Harry could see that he was starting to crack as they both were studying eight, even nine hours a day for them. Blaise and Theo barely left the library as Theo made sure they studied every single material, even all the way back to their first year. Hermione basically lived in the library during those few weeks that led to the O.W.L.s.

They received their examination schedules and details of the procedure for O.W.L.s during their Potions lesson. "As you can all see," Snape drawled on as the Slytherins copied down the dates and times of their exams from the blackboard, "your O.W.L.s are spread over two weeks. In the mornings, you will all sit in the Great Hall for the theoretical exams. In the afternoon, the practice. It should be obvious, but your practical Astronomy examination will obviously take place at night.

"Now, I must warn you all that the most stringent Anti-Cheating Charms have been applied to your examination papers. If you are stupid enough to try, Auto-Answer Quills, Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink will all fail." His eyes seemed to turn to the Gryffindors as he said, "Every year, at least one dunderhead thinks that they can get around the Wizarding Examinations Authority's rules. Naturally, I except none of my students," –this time his eyes roamed from the Gryffindors to the Slytherins—"to even consider using them. Now, our...headmistress... has asked the Heads of House to tell their students that cheating will be punished most severely—as your results will reflect upon the headmistress's new regime at the school. ... However! That is no reason for you to slack off, as the exams will affect your future."

Snape glanced at each and every student of his classroom as the silence continued. As usual, Hermione's hand shot up from the Gryffindor section and Snape just looked at her. "Professor, when will we find out our results?" she asked.

"You will receive an owl with your results in July," Snape said shortly before returning to his lesson.

Their first exam, Theory of Charm, was scheduled for Monday morning. Harry and Draco decided to test each other the day before, and were restless the entire night, both boys not able to get any sleep. The next day, Harry and Draco woke up early for last minute studying before going down for breakfast. Once breakfast was over, the fifth and seventh years milled around in the entrance hall while the other students went off to lessons. Then, at half-past nine, they were called forward class by class to reenter the Great Hall. The four House tables has been removed and replaced instead with many tables for one, all facing the staff-table end of the Hall where Professor McGonagall stood facing them. When they were all seated and quiet she said "You may begin," and turned over an enormous hourglass on the desk beside her, on which were also spare quills, ink bottles, and rolls of parchment.

Harry turned over his paper, his heart thumping hard. ...Three rows to his right and four seats ahead, Hermione was already scribbling. ...He lowered his eyes to the first question: a) Give the incantation and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly. ...

Harry had a fleeting memory of a club soaring high into the air and landing loudly on the thick skull of a troll. ...Smiling slightly, he bent over the paper and began to write.

"Well, it wasn't too bad, was it?" Hermione asked anxiously in the entrance hall two hours later, still clutching the exam paper. "I'm sure I did myself justice on Cheering Charms, I just ran out of time—did you put in the countercharm for hiccups? I wasn't sure I ought to, it felt like too much—and on question twenty-three—"