Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 39 Ordinary Wizarding Levels

Eventually Albus's map buzzed, and he heard hoofs galloping towards them. Two dots, Celia Hernandes and Francisco Villodas, were moving into the forest. They disappeared, Albus thought Apparating away. He looked at his watch. It was almost lunch time, and their morning of relaxing was over.

It was going to be hard to relax this afternoon.

Boggarts.

Cleo turned to him and hugged him. "I'm sorry, Albus," she commiserated. "It was nice relaxing in the sunlight of a perfect spring day. But you know, you could relax! Your map warned us."

"I guess," Albus replied, enjoying Cleo's hug, but still somewhat uptight and aware, his body full of conflicting emotions. It was not always easy being Albus Potter.

*

That afternoon Rose and Scorpius went over, again, the list of what they could be tested on for their O.W.L.'s. Rose had set up a spreadsheet on her magical tablet, and duplicated it for Scorpius. It was still hard to charge things at Malfoy Manor, but with the modest solar cell instillation not impossible. The Hogwarts Castle had, over the last twenty years, gone from a Medieval castle with somewhat modern plumbing to a somewhat Medieval looking building with modern wiring.

"I think we could pass our O.W.L.'s today," Rose reflected.

"I'm just not confident that we both will receive Outstanding marks for all of them, though," Scorpius shook his head. "I'm not too worried about the written part, and we both can do all of the spells, but I think we need to do them quickly and easily to receive an 'O'."

"I've changed the spread sheet to show not just if we can do a spell, but if I think we can do it in an 'O' way or if it just an 'E' way of doing it," Rose pointed out.

*

Rose had duplicated her spreadsheet for Albus and Cleo, and Albus was going over it with Cleo.

"There is not any magic you cannot do, nothing on the Ordinary Wizarding Levels, Cleo," Albus confirmed. "It is just writing down what you do verses what witches ordinarily do that is going to be so difficult."

"I'm just going to show them that I can do it," Cleo replied with a huff. "They cannot fail me if I can do the magic!"

"I still think we need to talk to Professor McGonagall about this," Albus told his girlfriend.

*

"You wished to meet with me?" Professor McGonagall asked as Albus and Cleo entered her office.

"It is about the O.W.L.'s," Albus told the headmistress. "Cleo can do all the spells, all the magic that we are told will be on the tests, but usually not the same way we are taught."

"Every professor who has ever taught you has struggled with how to grade you," McGonagall told Cleo. "You can do all the magic, so they have to pass you, and usually you can do it easier and better than the average student. You just do it differently often, so it is hard to tell what you have learned. Most of the professors, when you have breezed through doing all the required tests, have given you marks of 'O' or 'E' just because you can obviously do the magic."

"So I should be fine with my O.W.L.'s?" Cleo wondered.

"I am not sure if all the examiners will be as open minded," McGonagall pondered. "This is not the first time Hogwarts has had a student who did not always do magic the way the teachers wanted them to do it."

"Who?" Albus wondered.

"Pandora Lovegood, Mrs. Scamander's mother, for one. She was an extraordinary and talented witch, but rather eccentric. I know she fought with the examiners for her O.W.L.s and her N.E.W.T.'s.