His Hope: Sirius Black's daughter Book 3

O.W.L.s

I was very worried when I thought about what Professor McGonagall would think if I failed to obtain Outstandings in Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Potions, which was a strict requirement for my chosen career.

 The teachers were no longer setting us homework; lessons were devoted to reviewing those topics the teachers thought most likely to come up in the exams. The purposeful, feverish atmosphere drove nearly everything but the O.W.L.s from our minds. We received our examination schedules and details of the procedure for O.W.L.s during the Transfiguration lesson.

"As you can see," Professor McGonagall told the class while we copied down the dates and times of the exams from the blackboard, "your O.W.L.s are spread over two successive weeks. You will sit the theory exams in the mornings and the practice in the afternoons. Your practical Astronomy examination will, of course, take place at night. Now, I must warn you that the most stringent Anti-Cheating Charms have been applied to your examination papers. Auto-Answer Quills are banned from the examination hall, as are Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink. Every year, I am afraid to say, seems to harbor at least one student who thinks that he or she can get around the Wizarding Examinations Authority's rules. I can only hope that it is nobody in Gryffindor. Our new — headmistress" Professor McGonagall pronounced the word with malice, "asked the Heads of House to tell their students that cheating will be punished most severely— because, of course, your examination results will reflect upon the headmistress's new regime at the school. . . .However, that is no reason not to do your very best. You have your own futures to think about."

"Please, Professor," said Hermione, her hand in the air, "when will we find out our results?"

"An owl will be sent to you some time in July," said Professor McGonagall.

"July but that's so far away!" I said starting to panic. "Wait no, it's too soon." 

"Calm down Miss Black, you will be fine." she said reassuringly

The first exam, Theory of Charms, was scheduled for the next Monday. I stayed up studying with Hermione and we didn't sleep until 3 in the morning. I skipped breakfast and went over the theory for the last time.

"Oh my goodness, this is going to be so bad! I don't remmember a single thing that I studied last night, I can't think..I I'm so nblank...I..."I muttered to myself  before the exam.

"Miley, please calm down. Breathe." said Rhine.

"Yeah, okay, I'm breathing....phew...I'm so afraid." I told her.

"Wow, now I can see that you are my daughter indeed. I broke down before my first exam too. In fact, I panicked before every single one of them." she told me.

"Really? How many OWLs did you get?"

""All of them. Nine Os and one E." she said bitterly.

"Where?"I asked.

"Potions, I didn't do so well on the practical exam, but you won't  have the same problem." she said. "Well, all the best then." 

Both the Charms theory and the practical exams were not bad at all. All the the  studying paid off after all. My eggcup had done perfect cartwheels during the practical exam.

There was no relaxing that night as we had Transfiguration next day. I went to bed, my head buzzing with complex spell models and theories. I was happy to see that most questions were about definitions of the different types of spells which I had memorised for the written exam next morning, but thought the practical was tougher. At least I managed to vanish the iguana, whereas poor Hannah Abbott lost her head completely at the next table and somehow managed to multiply her ferret into a flock of flamingos, causing the examination to be halted for ten minutes while the birds were captured and carried out of the Hall.