There was a strange sort of tradeoff to finally doing OWLs.

Harry thought it was because it felt quite good to finish an exam, and know that that exam was over and done with and you didn't have to worry about making mistakes in it any more, but if you thought about how important it was before or even during the exam you were more likely to get stressed out.

He did his best to just answer each question in the twenty-four-question Transfiguration theory exam, going down the list one at a time and spending no more than five minutes on each, and had a little trouble remembering the incantation of some of the standard spells.

Somehow in all the revision he'd done Harry had managed to miss out on revising the spell where you turned a mouse into a snuffbox, and the best he could do was to sort of guess based on other Transfiguration spells that it was 'snufflifors'. That might not be right, but it was better to guess than have no idea at all, and Harry resisted the urge to footnote it with an "I think".

If it was right, it was probably better to just leave it as it was, while if it was wrong it was wrong.

The Transfiguration Practical, on the other paw, didn't have the same problems.

Harry found himself quite proficient at Transfiguring what Professor Marchbanks wanted Transfigured, including when he was given a ferret and asked to Transfigure it into a teapot – which was a reversal of the usual trick of Transfiguring a teapot into a ferret, and took a moment for Harry to get correct (though, fortunately, he did get it on the first try). Then there was some Vanishing (which went well) and some Conjuring (which went well as well), and when Harry left the Practical he had a good feeling about his results.

In the Common Room that evening Hermione said that she'd discovered her examiner – one Professor Antimony – hadn't heard of dromaeosaurs.

"Was it easy or hard to explain?" Ron asked.

"Well, I had an example to point to," Hermione replied, thumbing through One Thousand Magical Herbs And Fungi. "It was just a bit hard to explain the features because I had the example, or I could talk."

"That's something I hadn't thought about," Dean said.

"Well, I think technically you're a dinosaur as well," Hermione frowned, thinking about it. "I think that's how it works? Just because Neville's a cat doesn't mean he's not a mammal any more."

"I was not ready for where this conversation went," Ron admitted. "Hey, Nev, what stuff do we need to really get in our heads for tomorrow?"

"Well, there's a lot to remember," Neville said. "Just, um… Professor Sprout said once that it's better to be careful than quick, in Herbology, most of the time. So in the practical don't forget about that."

"Did the examiners like the Animagus stuff?" Harry asked.

"Professor Marchbanks said she'd heard from my gran about Lapcat," Neville told him.

He smiled a bit shyly. "I didn't know she said nice things about me to other people when I'm not there. I hoped, but… you know."

"I can guess, maybe?" Harry said, thinking about it. "Wonder what it will mean for your marks."

"I'm actually kind of hoping I do awfully in one subject," Neville told him. "Maybe that'll show that my gran knowing Professor Marchbanks doesn't mean I get let off easily."

Harry thought about that a bit.

"I don't think your gran would let Professor Marchbanks off if she did that," he decided. "I think you'll probably be okay."

"I'm worried about people thinking it, though," Neville said.

"How do you tell the difference between Devil's Snare and a Flitterbloom again?" Ron checked. "Without, you know, it trying to kill you."

"Flitterblooms are more tolerant of bright light," Neville answered. "And fire – or, rather, they can't make a getaway attempt like Snare can."

Wednesday saw their Herbology exam, which as far as Harry was concerned went 'basically okay' (Dean overreacted a bit when a liverwort pot fell on him, but Professor Tofty assured him that they had plenty more liverwort and it wasn't an intrinsically magical plant anyway) and then on Thursday it was time for the exam that Harry had really been worried about – the Defence Against the Dark Arts exam.

It wasn't that Harry was worried about his own marks, because he thought he had a pretty good grasp on the subject – both in the theory paper in the morning, and in the practicals which were to come in the afternoon. Instead, Harry felt a vague sense of partial responsibility for everyone's marks in this exam, and hoped that as many people as possible got marks that were as high as possible.

Though, in a funny sort of way, he thought he'd be wanting that anyway.

The theory paper wasn't too bad, really. There were some questions on it which were longer than on the other ones so far, not too long – there were ten normal questions and one miniature essay, so it was about ten minutes each – but it was different, and unlike in the previous papers Harry was quite sure about the answer to every single one.

The positive and negative sides of the Stunning spell, along with the way to use it? That was something Harry could answer quite happily.

Examples of three protective jinxes and the best way to combine them? Harry listed off the Anti-Apparition Jinx and the Anti-Disapparition Jinx, and how you could combine them to make sure people could only enter but not leave or only leave but not enter – and only in a specific room, for example – and then the Anti-Intruder Jinx, which made it much harder to get into the protected area in the first place.

How to repel a Dementor? Harry listed off not just the Patronus Charm but also that you could avoid some of the effects by focusing on something that was a true but not happy thought, citing Sirius Black and his innocence as an example from personal knowledge.

Harry wrote more for the Defence OWL paper than for any of the other ones so far, and felt vaguely disappointed when he had to conclude his miniature essay without quite touching on all the points he'd wanted to. He did, however, manage to mention the argument from Slinkhard, though nothing from Dark and Dangerous Creatures had been really worth including.

Maybe this was how Hermione felt all the time. If it was, he could see why she liked it.

That afternoon, Harry ended up with Professor Tofty again in the examination hall.

"I've heard you have something of a knack for Defence, Mr. Potter," the Professor said, adjusting a pair of the glasses Harry thought were called pince-nez. "That it's you we have to blame for all the Patronuses turning up!"

"I did teach people that," Harry agreed. "I know it's kind of a hard spell, but I thought it was worth trying."

"It does have a reputation, indeed," Professor Tofty nodded a few times. "But you've clearly got a talent for teaching it, with how many people you've taught successfully!"

There was a soft flare of white light across the examination room, and Harry looked around to see that Draco had summoned his own Patronus for Professor Antimony.

"But we'll move on to that later," Professor Tofty added, and checked a piece of parchment. "Let's see… could you start with a shield charm?"

Harry duly cast the Protego charm, then demonstrated the Disarming Charm and the Stunning Charm as well. That was followed in turn by some hexes and in a few cases curses – including the Body-Bind curse – though Harry simply had to cast them at an object Professor Tofty had conjured for the purpose instead of actually using them on a person.

Counter-jinxes came next, just a few to make sure he knew what he was doing, and then it was on to spells for specific situations – like the Riddikulus spell to banish a Boggart, or the Placement Charm for defending oneself from Kelpies.

Though that was a bit of an odd one because you also needed the bridle. Maybe you could Conjure one if you needed it?

Harry was just wondering if maybe he should switch to using his breath or his tail when Professor Tofty put the parchment down.

"Very good," he pronounced. "I'm not really supposed to tell you how you're doing before you get your marks, but I've run out of questions and I haven't spotted a mistake. Fine work, Mr. Potter."

He smiled pleasantly. "If I could see your Patronus, though? I don't doubt you can do it, but it's always a delight to see a well-cast one."

Harry nodded, swallowing down a little flicker of nerves, and made sure to get a good memory fixed in his mind first.

"Expecto Patronum," he announced, and Ruth burst out of his wand in a flash of silvery light.

He knew that the Patronus was mostly doing what he expected a fire-lizard to do, and it didn't really have a mind of its own, but it seemed as though what he expected a fire-lizard to do in this situation was to show off a bit. Ruth flew a wide circuit around both Professor Tofty and Harry himself, pulled up to hover on wings made of condensed silver mist, then flew slowly over to Harry and waited there.

Professor Tofty applauded. "Excellent!"

Ruth dissolved into wisps, and Harry checked that that was all before heading to the door.

He wasn't quite there, however, when Professor Umbridge came in from the Entrance Hall at a fast walk – the sort that someone did when they wanted to get somewhere quickly but didn't want to look like they wanted to get somewhere quickly, so they did something that was as fast as a walk could get without technically being a run.

The moment she saw Harry, she stopped and stared.

"Good afternoon, Professor," Harry said, giving a little wave, then continued on his way towards the door.

Umbridge twitched slightly.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said, as Harry passed through into the Entrance Hall. "Did you see Professor Umbridge, at all?"

"She came into the exam room, but she didn't say anything so I kept going," Harry replied. "Is she all right?"

"We just had a discussion about her interrupting my careers meeting with you," Professor McGonagall told him. "I believe she was hoping to supervise your exam, though I can't imagine why."

Harry sort of thought he had a vague idea – maybe she wanted to make some kind of scene – and when he had that thought he immediately thought that perhaps Professor McGonagall knew that perfectly well herself.

"Good luck in your exams, Mr. Potter," she added.

"I didn't realize Professor McGonagall was that sneaky," Dean said, that evening.

"She has had us for seven years," Fred pointed out. "And Harry's dad and that lot for seven years before that."

"Was she the head of house for all of that time?" Ron asked.

"She's been Gryffindor head of house for forty years," Hermione answered absently, looking through her rune dictionaries. "She took over when Dumbledore became headmaster."

She paused, put her finger on a definition she wanted to remember, and looked up. "Actually, that means she must have been head of house when Sirius and the others became Animagi. I wonder if she noticed."

"Wouldn't she have told them off if she noticed?" Neville asked.

"We have just gone through how she's sneaky," Dean said.

"I don't think it makes sense," Harry told them. "That she noticed, I mean. Sirius said that the stuff in Azkaban wasn't set up to keep Animagi in, and if she'd known someone going to Azkaban was an Animagus she'd have at least mentioned they were."

"Unless she thought she might end up there!" George said suddenly.

He nodded sagely. "Cats are evil."

"Shouldn't you two be revising for your NEWTs?" Hermione asked. "Or do you want to tell Crookshanks that cats are evil?"

"He'll take it as a compliment, don't worry," Fred said breezily, but he did stand up. "I think we can tell when we're not wanted, Fred."

"If you could, I'd have a much more peaceful life," Ron countered.

"The mistake you're making there, Nutkin, is that you're assuming that we'd listen," George informed Ron gravely.

"When are the NEWTs?" Neville asked, a few minutes later. "The examiners are here, but the hall's busy most of the day."

"They fit NEWTs in around OWLs, at the weekends, and then have the rest of them the week after," Hermione answered. "They usually try to double up exams as well so there are two NEWT examinations happening at once, but it's part of why OWLs happen weeks before the end of term."

"Not just to give them time to mark it?" Dean checked.

"Why would that be a problem, mate?" Ron asked.

"It is in Muggle schools, or I'm pretty sure it is…"

"That's one of those things it's really hard to find out the answer to," Harry realized. "Because unlike a lot of Muggle things nobody actually at Hogwarts has done GCSEs."

"GCSEs is a weird word," Ron opined. "It's a lot weirder than OWLs."

Friday meant it was time for the Runes OWL, and the exam paper in the morning involved translating runes and writing about their interactions. It started off nice and simple, with single runes and what their elements or meanings were, but got more involved as the paper went on until the final question was about the meaning of the Norse word "Edda" when written in runic form.

It was a surprisingly fiddly question, because you could write it either EDDA (with Ehwaz) or AEDDA (with Eihwaz), and since one of them was an Earth rune and the other was an Air rune it had a significant impact on the result of the whole set – one complicated with how Dagaz, the D rune, could be read as either fire or air.

After about fifteen minutes of carefully writing out the interactions, Harry concluded that AEDDA was probably the correct way of writing it. That combination of runes could be read as all air, and associated inspiration with achievement of potential with spiritual growth – which seemed just right for a word that was so associated with stories.

Or possibly birds, because it wasn't entirely clear where the word "Edda" came from.

The practical in the afternoon was a bit different, and something Harry had never quite experienced before.

What he had to do was to bring his project notes (and, in his case and the case of a few other people, his actual runic object), and put them in front of the examiner (in Harry's case, Professor Antimony), and explain why they'd chosen the project and why the runes would work out the way they wanted.

There was no actual penalty for not having made a runic object, which Harry had to admit was a bit of a relief – not for him, but for those of his friends who were taking the class and who for one reason or another hadn't had a chance to make something. Hermione for example had assembled copious notes on a design for a small circle of glass that would act like a telescope all by itself, which Harry thought was really neat because it did something more easily than even a normal collapsible telescope could – it was much more portable.

Susan Bones from Hufflepuff had made a comb which presumably did something related to hair – Harry thought he was about the worst person to ask about how you cared for hair, with the possible exception of Empress who hadn't seen any hair in decades – and of course Ron had his rocket which was a bit impractical to fit in the Great Hall, so apparently he was going to be doing the demonstration part outside.

That didn't apply for Harry, of course, though he did have to check with Professor Marchbanks that it was okay for Neville to come and help him demonstrate.

Really, the Runes practical had an awful lot of set up involved, and it was probably a good thing that other subjects weren't like that.

"Let's see…" Professor Antimony said, once all that had been worked out, and she'd had a chance to read through Harry's notes. "So what made you interested in making a sword for your project?"

"It was a few things," Harry said, thinking back. "One of them is that Neville likes the idea, but really where it got started overall was just that magic swords appear a lot in Muggle books with magic. I think it might be more normal in those to have magic swords than to have wizards."

"I would imagine that some wizards have better sense than to be anywhere near where swords are being swung around," the Professor said dryly. "I can see that you went through several drafts on what the rune sequence should be. Can you explain this one here?"

"Oh, well, I started out trying to spell out Neville's name," Harry explained.

He pointed to the rune sequence in question, and then to the double-L. "But it didn't really seem right to have runes about the sustenance of life doubled up in a sword, because that might make it bad at being a sword – especially without a Hagalaz rune which you'd find on a weapon."

Professor Antimony made a note on some parchment, and Harry continued. "So I reworked the spelling so there was a Hagalaz, but it started to end up sounding a bit, um… evil."

"And why would that be a problem?" she asked.

"Because the word made by a rune set matters as well as the individual runes," Harry answered. "It sort of… affects the interpretation of the runes. So I tried using something with Neville's Animagus name instead, which didn't work very well either."

"Could you clarify that?" Professor Antimony asked him.

By the end of the exam, almost an hour later, Harry felt like his mind had been used as a dishtowel.

Professor Antimony had had him explain all the decisions he'd made – at least as far as the runes went, along with all the things that affected them – and to show how he'd worked out the interactions, along with why it was that Panther's overt magical effects had resulted from the runes he'd put on it.

She'd also had Neville demonstrate those magical effects, at least to the extent they could be demonstrated, and Harry really had no idea if she'd been satisfied or not. It was just exhausting when someone kept asking for more details and more details until you had to admit you didn't have anything else to say, and then they just moved on to the next thing and started asking again.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter," the examiner eventually (and mercifully) said. "You may go."

Harry stood up, stretched – flexing his spine and opening his wings to their fullest extent, twisting first his legs and then his arms – and gathered up all his notes, collating them back into a single sheaf and tucking them under his wing.

"Thanks for coming along, Neville," he said in turn, as his friend followed him on the way to the door. "I know you could have used the time for something else."

"It's fine," Neville assured him. "As long as you help me with the Potions stuff, anyway. I want to check I've got the right meaning for some of the materials prep, and that exam is on Monday."

Twenty minutes later, Ron reached the demonstration part of his Runes practical.

Harry was about as sure of that as he could be, given that he was currently in Gryffindor Tower – but, then again, it wasn't hard to tell.

He thought people in Hogsmeade could probably hear it.

"Have you noticed something?" Dean asked, over lunch on Sunday.

"I've noticed a lot of things," Ron riposted. "I've noticed that you shouldn't forget silencing charms on rockets, because people shouting to remind you about them are hard to hear over the sound of a rocket at a thrust of ninety percent of its mass. I've also noticed that I'm going to have a really weird sleep schedule on Wednesday."

"I think you should use the gap between one Astronomy exam and the other to do History revision, not Astronomy revision," Dean advised. "You've already got Astronomy pretty much set up, but History is a pain."

"Maybe, yeah," Ron admitted. "Or I could use it to get some sleep. Think it's worth using some potions for it or something?"

"I've heard Muggles do that sort of thing with coffee," Harry supplied helpfully.

"That only helps you wake up, not get to sleep," Hermione told him.

"Well, according to the Garfield books, if you drink decaf then you immediately fall asleep," Harry said. "That might just be part of the joke, though."

"Probably," Hermione agreed. "I can send an owl to ask my parents, though."

"Have you noticed something?" Dean asked.

"I just had this strange feeling of deja vu," Neville commented.

"Just look at the House point hourglasses," Dean told them.

Harry duly did, and was surprised to find that Gryffindor were in the lead by something more than two hundred points.

"When did that happen?" Ron asked, somewhat baffled.

"I think it's because Fred and George haven't done anything this year," Dean guessed. "Could be anything, though. Could be Quidditch."

He shrugged. "Could be extra points for basically teaching Defence – everyone's involved, but there's you two from Gryffindor and then there's only about one person from the other three Houses who's that involved."

"Probably Fred and George, though," Ron said, to general nods.

Potions went past without being anything of note, except that it was an OWL exam. Then Care of Magical Creatures did as well, featuring a Fire Crab (and in which Harry was told that while the examiners were quite aware that he was largely resilient to high temperatures he would nevertheless have to demonstrate the correct technique for feeding one without severe burns), and when Wednesday came around it was time for Astronomy and Arithmancy.

Of the two, Arithmancy was the one which Harry found trickier. It wasn't so much that it was something he was bad at, he was okay with the maths, it was just that with the Astronomy theory paper it was more to do with if you could remember something (mostly) while in Arithmancy's theory paper you had to do things a lot. Like solve a cubic equation, or simplify or redesign equations, and other things like that.

There wasn't a practical, either, so all of the difficulty of the OWL was sort of packed into the Arithmancy paper instead of being spread out. One question in particular was worth something like a quarter of the total marks on the exam and it took Harry more than thirty minutes to do, because it involved integration – something they'd only really started doing that year – and Harry had to use context to work out the intercept, or 'C', before determining which interval of the function had the highest total area under the curve, and then translate that into the most efficient wand movement for casting a spell.

It was a lot of work, and Harry left with the vaguely unpleasant feeling that he'd probably made at least one big mistake somewhere but without any idea where it might be.

Still, from all the groans and sighs he'd heard in the hall as he worked, he might not be the only one.

"I don't mind telling you, I'm glad Divination is over," Dean said, joining Harry and the others around a table as they revised the right way to plot different stars.

"Did you see anything useful?" Ron checked. "Like our marks?"

"Well, if I remembered right, the tea leaves I read for that Professor Tofty say that he'll be making a lot of money," Dean answered. "It was a sort of cloud shape, but there were dots around it."

He shrugged. "Honestly, the main thing I got from the tea leaf reading was that he puts the milk in first."

Neville hissed. "And to think I talked to him like he was a normal person."

"That's your mistake, mate," Ron said.

"Mind if I borrow your book?" Harry checked, and got an okay from Dean.

He paged through, wondering about something, and stopped on the appropriate page.

"Okay, so this says that human figures are generally good," he said, then flipped back a few. "But this tells me that a dragon is a sign of great change…"

"Don't remind me, I've been trying to stuff my head full of this," Dean said.

"But that's the thing," Harry replied. "The grim – you know, the black dog – that's a sign of death, but Sirius is a black dog and I don't think he's a sign of death. And a fox is a sign of treachery by a trusted friend, but Anna and Tyler can also be represented by foxes."

"Being fair, we do sort of trust them to be Slytherins," Neville opined.

Hermione had been silent so far, but she looked up then. "What's the correction you apply for the time you construct your star chart?"

Harry frowned. "Um… hold on… twenty four times… it's fifteen degrees an hour, right? Or a degree every four minutes?"

"Right," Hermione agreed with a nod, making Harry feel quite pleased with himself.

"Why that bit?" Ron checked.

"It wasn't on the theory paper," Hermione replied.

She made a note, then put her quill down. "Do we want to keep revising Astronomy, or try and get in some more History like Dean said? That exam's tomorrow afternoon, but after a late night tonight we might not have much time in the morning."

"History sounds good," Neville said, then made a face. "Actually it sounds a bit tedious, but I'm more confident about Astronomy so we should probably do History."

"Why do we need to do lots of star charts, actually?" Harry asked. "The stars stay in pretty much the same place, it's the other stuff like planets that moves or at least changes."

"I think it's the same reason why in geography class people have to draw maps," Hermione guessed.

Harry nodded, thinking that that was quite a good reason really.

"It's about showing you know how to do things, probably," he summarized. "It's not like they don't know what twelve cubed is, or what x is, but they're testing you about it."

"It's sort of funny, that, because a lot of magic isn't quite like that," Ron said. "With what you said about Alchemy, it sounds more like there they'd be testing that you're the sort of person who can do the things..."

The actual Astronomy practical was a pleasant experience and one Harry found sort of peaceful, as he and the rest of the Fifth-Years quietly did their star charts on top of the Astronomy Tower.

The sky was quite light, even at midnight, because it really didn't get very dark in northern Scotland in midsummer – the sun hadn't set until quarter past ten in the evening, and the air was suffused with a kind of ethereal lightness which Harry decided was quite beautiful.

It did make it a bit of a pain to actually check the sky, though, which meant it was sort of like a harder version of making a star chart under normal conditions. It also meant that only the brighter stars could be seen, which actually helped Harry out a bit – something he'd noticed in the past was that his draconic eyesight was so good he could see a lot more stars than most people could, and the lighter sky helped with that a bit.

"I wonder what the marking scheme is going to be like for that one," Ron said, on the way back downstairs. "Point for every star in the right place? Two points for a planet?"

"What I want to see is what a star chart looks like if you get a Troll grade," Neville replied, then yawned. "Actually, what I want to see is a bed."

"Isn't a Troll grade just a blank star chart?" Parvati asked.

"Well, apart from that," Neville shrugged. "I think it's funnier if doing nothing gets you a D and a T is worse."

He sniggered. "Actually I want to know what a T grade is like on all the subjects. You know… Transfiguration, T, Mr. Longbottom has only managed to turn his wand into a cloud of splinters. Potions, T, Mr. Longbottom has dissolved the bottle into which he put his answer."

Dean took up the same line of thought. "Care of Magical Creatures, T, Mr. Thomas was mauled by a flobberworm."

"How do you get mauled by a flobberworm?" Harry asked.

"It's not easy," Dean replied firmly. "Really, you'd think it would exceed expectations."

He held in a yawn, then shook his head a bit. "Anyway. Bed, or I'm going to fall asleep in History."

When it came to the final subject on Harry's OWL docket, History of Magic, he had to admit upon leaving the exam that he wasn't sure how well he'd done.

The problem with it all was that history was sort of messy and confusing. It didn't make sense, not like the other subjects – or as much sense as you could really say Charms made – and Harry was fairly sure that he'd got something wrong about the question involving Liechtenstein.

Liechtenstein was one of those really small countries, so were there really enough warlocks there for it to make a difference? Or was it that a lot of wizards from other countries had gone there and it had ended up sort of like the Hogsmeade or Ottery St. Catchpole of the Alps?

Either way, though, there was one thing that was quite important to Harry.

"That's it for OWLs," he said, as they went through the hole into Gryffindor common room.

"For you, maybe," Ron retorted. "Nev, Hermione and I have got Muggle Studies tomorrow."

"Oh, yeah, good point," Harry admitted. "Sorry."

He shrugged a wing. "I think I'm just… a bit relieved, really. Now I've got time to catch up on my reading, and other stuff like that."

"I'm looking forward to that," Ron said. "And Quidditch, too."

He paused, and sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to ask this, but… can you two help me revise a bit?"

"Sure," Dean agreed. "You're a mate."

Harry nodded as well, and Ron relaxed a bit.

"Thanks," he told them both. "So… look, I really need to make sure I've got this right… what is the offside rule?"

"Hold on, I'll go get my pencils," Dean said. "This is going to need a diagram."

Friday's weather was unambiguously glorious.

There wasn't a single cloud visible in the sky, and while the air was a bit hazy it was still clear enough to see the Cuillins on distant Skye.

Really, it was the sort of day that made you happy to be outdoors, and it was so nice that Harry spent most of the day feeling vaguely guilty about how Ron, Neville and Hermione were missing it (as he lounged outside with Dean, Daphne, Blaise and his copy of Domes of Fire, because if you were going to feel vaguely guilty anyway you may as well not waste what was making you feel that way).

"It's weird to think that we might be in none of the same classes after this," Dean said.

"Well, lots of people are going to do the wanded subjects," Blaise pointed out. "I know I'm seriously considering doing Defence Against Daphne's Aunt."

"...how long have you been saving that one up?" Daphne demanded.

"About five years," Blaise answered. "Maybe more. That's the thing with a good joke like that, you need to choose your time to strike from ambush."

"That's because snakes are ambush predators, right?" Harry checked, putting his claw in his book to keep his place.

"Of course," Blaise agreed.

"Lions are as well," Harry told him. "Or, sort of. They have this way of hunting where one of them goes out in the open making all the noise, and scares the prey into being caught by the other lionesses."

"What, really?" Daphne asked. "Huh. That sounds almost Slytherin."

"Isn't the most Slytherin thing to be a Gryffindor, so nobody will suspect?" Dean asked. "Or is it the most Slytherin thing to not be Slytherin-y but be in Slytherin so people will put you in a mental box, but really you're not sneaky but just being sneaky about whether or not you're sneaky?"

"Stop before you give me a headache," Daphne pleaded. "I thought we were done with exams!"

"We're done with school work, until Sixth Year," Harry corrected, then frowned. "Which… I think means that I actually have a completely open summer holiday."

Dean sniggered. "Yeah, me too. It's going to feel weird not having magic homework to do for summer."

"Just don't forget that you're still not allowed to do magic," Blaise advised. "I wouldn't mention it, but I understand you're not doing Muggle Studies so you might forget things about Muggles."

"Blaise, you're not doing Muggle Studies," Daphne pointed out. "The Muggle Studies exam is going on in there right now, Tracey is trying to remember what a video is or something."

"Is that the kind of thing that's on the exam?" Dean said, as Harry replaced his claw with a proper bookmark.

"I'm guessing," Daphne told him. "Because I didn't do Muggle Studies either."

A dinosaur came striding across the grass towards them, skidded to a halt and turned into Hermione – not that anyone had expected anything else.

"So, what was on the exam?" Blaise said. "We've been speculating about it for ages, and now you're here."

"I don't think that was ages," Harry frowned. "Ages usually means very long. In Middle-Earth an Age is several thousand years."

"But everyone was a minute old at some point," Blaise told him. "So a minute is an age."

"Well, I had to change a bulb, and wire a plug," Hermione answered. "Then there was doing exact change, which was pretty easy… and making a telephone call."

"What, with a mobile phone?" Dean asked. "Bit expensive for an exam, isn't it?"

"No, it wasn't a real phone, I just had to dial the numbers and so on," Hermione explained. "It was one of those old ones with a ring dial, though."

"Wonder what the NEWT exam is like," Dean mused. "Start in East Ham and get back to Diagon Alley without casting a spell?"

"Maybe it's just setting up a video recorder to record something," Hermione replied. "I'm not sure my parents could do that reliably."

Harry had to agree with the idea that that was difficult. He'd eaten three video machines over the years when Dudley had thrown them out of various windows from frustration.

AN:

Really, using a video cassette machine isn't that hard.

Of course, I haven't done it in considerably more than a decade, so it might be harder than I remember...