Dangerous Seekers AU

Chapter 29: Professor Alice's Announcement

It was an hour before lunch time in Hogwarts. The fifth years were in Transfiguration class, busy with written works. Professor Alice, sitting at her teacher's desk, was watching her students do their tasks while also reading over the announcement about the first part of Ordinary Wizarding Levels examination a.k.a. O.W.L.s.

Professor Alice had tasked the students with writing an essay about the Switching Spell. There wasn't a demo for this lesson, so she let them use their Transfiguration books as reference for the essays. Once they were done, they were to pass their parchments to her.

Lesley Vance was seated in the middle, three rows from the back with Fanny Skylark as her seatmate instead of Granger. Granger, in the meantime, was in the second row seated next to Hayabusa. To their right was Gusion Paxley beside Claude Bullet. And Guinevere Baroque was in front of them with Moskov Wildsand as her seatmate.

Lesley was now halfway through her essay. While Guinevere, always wanting to be the first to submit, was nearly done with her own essay.

Time passed and soon it was almost lunch. Once most of the students had passed their parchments, Professor Alice told them she had an announcement to make before they left the classroom. With only fifteen minutes left before lunchbreak, she collected the last of the essays and put them on her desk.

Alice raised her hand to get the students' attention. "Attention, class! I have an announcement about your Ordinary Wizarding Levels examination."

With that statement, the students turned their attention onto their professor. Gusion turned to look at Lesley and smirked, amused she was paying such close attention. Feeling someone's gaze on her, Lesley looked around. Her eyes landed on Gusion's face. She smirked back and focused on the professor once again.

"Your O.W.L. examination will be held in the third week of this month. It will comprise of the seven major subjects: Potions and Charms on Monday, Transfiguration and Herbology on Tuesday, Care of Magical Creatures on Wednesday, History of Magic and D.A.D.A. on Thursday and then Friday's a rest day."

Everyone cheered when they found out they had a rest day. Lesley sighed, reminding herself that she would have to work hard in the following days before the exam.

Alice cleared her throat and caught the attention of her students once again. The announcement wasn't finished yet. "Please listen carefully. As you all know, O.W.L.s are incredibly important as they affect the subjects you will take the following years and the jobs you can apply for. So, make sure you follow the rules.

"Quills will be provided by the Ministry of Magic so don't bring your own. Auto-Answer Quills, Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink are all banned from the examination hall as well. To further avoid any cheating, Anti-Cheating Spells are applied to all O.W.L. exam papers. Disobey any of the rules and you will get a serious offense from the Ministry of Magic."

Upon hearing this, Granger groaned, dropping his head in his hands. Professor Alice noticed his apparent agony and asked if something was wrong.

"Nothing," he sighed and slumped in his seat. "Just... nothing."

Gusion was sneering, but then he looked back at Lesley and blushed. She was still paying attention to the professor and Gusion couldn't help but think it was cute. He knew that with something like this, Lesley would be studying hard, day and night.

"Should I invite her somewhere quiet to study? The library, maybe? Or someplace else where no one, especially my fiancée, can disturb us," Gusion wondered. "I know Guin would probably invite me in this situation."

"Fifth years, I cannot stress this enough. Study as hard and as early as possible as some questions will be trickier and more difficult than the others," Professor Alice explained.