The Awakening Power

Chapter 7: Girls, Goblins and Getaways

The Awakening Power

by Sib

Chapter 7: Girls, Goblins and Getaways

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Harry was sitting at the breakfast table, along with Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Mrs. Weasley had fixed yet another huge pile of food, and now was upstairs taking care of some chores. Harry couldn't believe how much he had been eating lately. His ribs had been showing embarrassingly when he had arrived at the Weasleys', but in the weeks since he seemed to have gained a lot of weight.

But his appetite still didn't compete with Ron's. He watched in fascination as Ron piled up another enormous plate of food. He idly wondered exactly where it all went. Hermione seemed to notice as well as she cast a disapproving look at Ron.

"Great Merlin, Ron, don't you ever stop eating?" she asked.

Ginny giggled. "Give it up, Hermione. He's always been that way."

Ron took a generous helping of scrambled eggs, shoveling them into his mouth with gusto. Ginny paused, appearing to wait for him to commit to the bite, and then said with a grin, "His future wife is going to have to be able to keep him well fed."

Ron choked on his food and glared at Ginny.

As he started to respond, an owl flew through the window and dropped several letters on the table. Seeing the seal of the Ministry on the official looking envelopes, Harry felt a cold chill as he realized what had arrived.

Ron's retort to Ginny forgotten, he stared fearfully at the letters. His voice grew hushed as he asked, "Are those...?"

"Ooooh! Our OWL results!" Hermione said excitedly.

She grabbed her envelope and ripped it open eagerly. Quickly reading the letter, her face fell. "Oh, no!" she said with horror.

"What!?" asked Harry and Ron together.

"How many OWLs did you get?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, well," said Hermione, embarrassed.

"How many?" Ron asked.

"Er, thirteen," she said, turning away and blushing.

"Thirteen! How the bloody hell do you get thirteen? You didn't have that many classes!" said Ron loudly.

"Um, well, I took some independent study courses," said Hermione.

"You never told us that!" said Ron, a bit annoyed.

"After I overdid things in the third year, I received permission to just make independent studies of certain subjects without having to attend classes. I was able to make more efficient use of my time. I also did extra study during the summer. I didn't know how it would go, so I didn't tell anyone in case I ended up, well, failing."

"So what's wrong then?" asked Ginny.

"Oh, that." Hermione appeared to blush even deeper. "You remember the History of Magic OWL that got interrupted last year? I wasn't able to finish, much less go back and check all my answers. My grade was, uh, a little lower than I expected," she said.

"Let me see your letter!" said Ron suspiciously, as he reached over and snatched it from her hands.

"Congratulations, Hermione. You deserved it," said Harry, smiling. Hermione beamed back at him.

Ron looked awed. "You got an 'O' in every subject! Well, except for the one where you only got an 'E'." He snickered. "Wait until Percy hears about this with his twelve ruddy OWLs. I might have to let Fred and George know... they'll for sure want to hear about this."