We were all talking for a while after that, trying to keep the subject off Harry and his destiny when Hermione suddenly stood up and asked in a hurry, "What day is today?"
"Thursday. Why?" I said drawing out the y.
She shrieked, "It's O.W.L. result day! I nearly forgot with Fleur around and everything. Our exam scores are supposed to come in the mail today. We have to go see if they've come yet! Come on."
She threw open the door and ran down the stairs. The rest of us looked at each other quickly then took off after her.
We made it downstairs just as she was asking Molly, "You're sure no owls have come with our results yet?"
Molly nodded, bemused, "Yes dear I'm sure. It's not even midday yet, I'm sure they'll be here soon."
Hermione didn't seem to like this answer. She plopped herself down at the kitchen table and began to pick at the grapes on a plate in the center of the table. It seemed as if she planned to wait here for her owl to come. We all sat around the table with her-even Ginny who had nothing to worry about.
Less than an hour later Hermione jumped out of her chair pointing out the window, "I see them!"
Sure enough, five beautiful owls were coming our direction. They looked like school owls. Molly took the papers from their legs as they came in before sending them on their way with a treat.
"Harry, Jessica, Blake, Hermione and Ron," she read as she gave each of us our envelope.
I opened mine, as the excitement in my stomach grew. There were a few classes I wasn't as strong in that I was curious to see how I had done. The paper read:
Ordinary Wizarding Level Results
Pass Grades Fail Grades
Outstanding (O) Poor (P)
Exceeds Expectations (E) Dreadful (D)
Acceptable (A) Troll (T)
Jessica Snape has achieved:
Care of Magical Creatures O
Charms O
Defense Against the Dark Arts O
Divination O
Herbology E
History of Magic O
Potions O
Transfiguration O
I let out a sigh of relief. I had done better in Herbology than I thought I would. It was probably because I had made Neville help me study for it. Everything else was as good as I thought it would be, though I was slightly astounded by the Outstanding in Divination, the test seemed easy, but I knew I hardly knew most of the material we had gone through during class.
"How did you do?" asked Blake coming to stand next to me.
"Outstanding in everything except Herbology, shocker. How about you?"
"I did pretty well. Got Outstanding in Potions and Es or As in everything else."
"Oi Harry how's yours?" I heard Ron ask as I listened in for his reply.
"I got an Outstanding in Defense Against the Dark Arts!" he exclaimed, "And I only failed History of Magic and Divination, and those don't matter. Everything else I passed, what about you?"
"Exceeds Expectations or Acceptable in everything except I got Troll on History of Magic and Dreadful on the Divination one."
Hermione was still reading hers over, her eyes scanning and rescanning the page but I pulled her out of it when I asked, "What about yours Hermione?
"I did alright," she replied.
Ron rolled his eyes and took the paper from her hand, "Damn I wish I did alright then. All Outstandings except in Defense Against the Dark Arts which is an E. Woah Hermione, Harry beat you in something."'
She seemed to have already realized that fact, and Harry looked mildly uncomfortable as soon as Ron said this so I tried to diffuse the tension by saying, "Well now they're over, now we are officially N.E.W.T. level students guys! Cheers!"
Everyone smiled and celebrated their exam grades as we began to eat a light lunch. Harry looked a bit downtrodden still. I knew that this was because he only had gotten an E on his Potions exam, he needed an O to take N.E.W.T. level Potions, and he needed Potions to become an Auror. He would be able to work something out, maybe retake the exam, or find a different profession he liked the same amount.
We spent the next week fooling around, playing Quidditch and talking. We all tried our best to avoid Fleur as much as we could. Every evening we would all eat dinner then listen to the news. There was always news regarding new deaths associated with Death Eater attacks. One night they announced that Ollivander had been abducted from his wand shop on Diagon Alley.
Soon enough our Hogwarts letters came. Harry was named Captain of the Quidditch team which I knew meant a lot to him because Hermione and Ron had been given the Prefect title last year.
With these letters came a trip to Diagon Alley. Harry had been given extra security that accompanied us there. There was a gloomy air on the once lively street while we shopped. George and Fred's shop seemed to be doing very well, and it brought some light to the rundown street. I got a matching Pygmy Puff with Ginny and Hermione while the boys all loaded up on little practical jokes.
We were just about to leave their shop when I saw a familiar head of blonde hair out the window, "Guys," I hissed.
Hermione, Ron, Harry and Blake came over to where I was standing at the window and peered out into the street with me, "I wonder where his parents are?" Ron muttered.
Blake scoffed, "Probably ditched them so he could act sketchy on his own."
Harry looked over his shoulder then muttered, "Get under here."
He had pulled out his invisibility cloak. Ron, Hermione and Blake got under it while I cast an invisibility spell over myself and walked out of the store behind them.
"Come on, he went this way," Harry whispered before continuing forward.
As we went on, Draco continued to pick up his pace and we did too until Hermione hissed, "Don't get too close, or he'll see us."
"He went in there!" I said pointing to a shop in Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burkes.
The four of us went over to the window and looked in. Draco was guestering feverishly to the owner of the shop, Mr. Borgin.
"If only we could hear what they were saying," Hermione said.
I was able to cast a spell when Ron pulled something out of his pocket and held it up, "We can. I have some Extendable Ears. Hurry, put them on."
The first thing we heard was Draco asking, "Do you think you can mend the one I'm talking about?"
"I might be able to. I'd need to see it, though. Can you bring it into the shop?"
We saw Draco shake his head, "You know I can't do that. I just need you to talk me through how to fix it. And make sure to not sell the one here."
"Of course, sir."
"Fine, I'll be back soon. And do not breathe a word of this to anyone, including my parents."
"Of course sir," Borgin replied again bowing low.
Draco came out of the shop and we all moved away to avoid being hit by him. He looked stressed, and I wish I knew what it was about. He had a lot of stress on him with being charged with killing Dumbledore, so if there was more stress in hi life that I wasn't aware of, I felt even worse for him. He wasn't as bad as I had once assumed, and we had bonded a lot during our time with the Snatchers.
Once we got back we told Mrs. Weasley that we had been in the back room the whole time. SHe didn't look convinced but we said goodbye to Fred and George then left to go back to the Burrow.