The Other Potter (George Weasley)

Eighteen.

The truth was, I was getting kind of sad at school without George. I mean don’t get me wrong, I knew I had friends, and I knew my friends loved to have me around, but George was the only thing making this year worthwhile for me. He was here when I needed a break from the stress of school, and he always made me laugh. With the O.W.L.’s coming up, I was so stressed out. I could use a good laugh from George right now.
   
Fred and George had sure left their legacy at Hogwarts, that was for sure. Umbridge couldn’t figure out how to get rid of their swamp. Eventually it was just blocked off, and Filch had to assist other students around it so they could get to class. Other trouble makers would set off stink bombs and someone even sent a Niffler into her office, and it destroyed her office looking for shiny things, and tried to gnaw her stubby little fingers off to get to her rings. Even Peeves was taking Fred’s last words to heart, he was terrorizing Umbridge. He would cackle loudly and blow loud raspberries after she spoke to him. He didn’t care what she said, he wasn’t going to stop. Us students loved it.
   
May came and went in another blur of a month. I was too busy studying for my O.W.L.’s next month to even notice the days turning into weeks around me. The last weekend of May, however, Hermione had convinced me to watch the Gryffindor VS Ravenclaw Quidditch game with her because it was the last game of the year. I decided I needed a break from studying to go watch the game. I do love Quidditch after all.
   
Watching Angelina play the last game of the season made me wonder if she missed Fred as much as I miss George. Harry, Hermione, and I were pulled away by Hagrid during the game. He took us to the forbidden forest and we met his half brother, Gwap, who he asked us to take care of.
   
Then it was time for the thing that I was waiting all year for, the O.W.L. exams.
   
The Ordinary Wizarding Levels, or O.W.L. for short, is an exam is a standardized subject-specific test taken during Hogwarts student’s fifth year, administered by the Wizarding Examinations Authority. The score made by a student on a particular O.W.L. determines whether or not he or she will be allowed to continue taking that subject in subsequent school years, and whether they might be successful in obtaining a particular job. There are one of three scores you can get, O for Outstanding, E for Exceeds Expectations, and A for Acceptable. If I don’t get an O in potions, Professor Snape won’t accept me into his class for N.E.W.T. level learning, and that means I can forget about being an Auror. So that is the one test I am for sure doing my best to get an O in, but I think that I will be okay. I’ve never gotten a bad mark in my class despite his history with my father. My father was usually the nicer one to Snape, it was the others who bullied Snape so bad.
   
The tests were spread out over two school weeks like so:

Monday: Charms.
Tuesday: Transfiguration.
Wednesday: Herbology.
Thursday: Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Friday: Ancient Runes.
 
Monday: Potions.
Tuesday: Care of Magical Creatures.
Wednesday: Divination and Astronomy.
Thursday: Arithmancy.
Friday: History of Magic.
 
   
Now, I was not worried about the first two tests, Charms and Transfiguration were some of my best classes, but they were both split into a practical and a written exam. Herbology, however, I had a hard time with. I assisted the help of Neville Longbottom to ace that one, and he helped me out a lot. Then there was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Which I was excited to actually do some defensive spells for once. The examiner asked Harry to produce his Patronus, and Harry did it for him no problem. He even made the stag run around me in a circle.
   
On Friday, Hermione and I had the Ancient Ruins exam to do. We spent a lot of the time studying for Potions on Monday. Harry, Ron, and I all want to become Aurors, so we need to get an O in Potions order to move up next year. We all found the written exam very difficult, Snape surely didn’t play around when it came to telling us how it was going to go down, but the afternoon practical was not at all as dreadful as the written exam.
   
We were all determined to do well in Care of Magical Creatures for Hagrid. We had to correctly identify a Knarl in a group of hedgehogs, and then demonstrate the correct handling of a Browtruckle, feed and clean a fire crab without burns, and choose from a wide selection of food what to feed a Unicorn. I passed that one with flying colors.
   
Then there was the Astronomy exam on Wednesday morning. Where we watched as Headmistress Umbridge and some Ministry goons went over to Hagrid’s hut and we saw her sack him. She waited until this morning to do it, I knew it. She wanted an audience to watch her sack another teacher just like when she sacked Professor Trelawney back in March. They tried to stun Hagrid but they didn’t do anything since he was part giant, the jets of red were just flopping off of him. Then we heard it.
   
“How dare you!” shouted Professor McGonagall, “How dare you! Leave him alone! Alone I say! On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing to deserve such –” but she didn’t get to finish her sentence as four of the Ministry goons turned their wands on her and shot stunning spells at her.
   
All of us girls all shrieked, and even the examiner was watching the drama on the lawn. Hagrid took off into the forbidden forest with his dog’s body on his shoulders. Umbridge screamed at her goons to get Hagrid, but he was already gone, and her goons weren’t moving, they were obviously scared of him now. It was kind of funny.
   
Hermione and I have the afternoon off, because we both believe that Divination is a joke class and we dropped it, so we got to hang out that afternoon. She asked me if I had heard from George at all. I sadly tell her no, that I haven’t, but I wasn’t that upset about it because I know why he’d rather not write to the school with Umbridge watching all the mail.