Three days into school the results from the first Ministry test arrived with the morning owls. Harry eyed his envelope nervously. He had been told by just about everyone that there would be no shame if he had failed. He however viewed that possibility as a personal affront, unfortunately he was also all too aware of how tired and out of it he had been on the test day.
Further down the table a seventh year who had taken the test for the second time over the summer had opened her results. She sighed and said, "Oh well, I still have the test offered here with the NEWTs before graduation."
Harry felt the lump in his throat grow. He wanted to have passed that test in the worst way. He had wanted to show his trustees that they weren't wasting their time helping him. While he was sitting there trying to work up the courage to open it. Hedwig arrived carrying the packet of presorted mail from Cassandra. Harry cheerfully removed it and fed Hedwig a piece of bacon, glad that he could avoid his results a little longer. He opened the packet from Cassandra. A letter from Lupin, another from Nicolas, Healer O'Shaunessy… Harry was about to open that one when Neville came over.
"Harry," Neville's voice held a quaver that puzzled Harry. "How did you do? Because I, I passed." Neville handed Harry his results.
Harry recognized the quaver now; it was disbelief. Harry found himself suddenly impatient to know his results. He pulled out his own results and ripped open the envelope.
Ministry of Magic Great Britain
Government Qualification Test Bureau
Test results for : Harry James Potter Test: Government
90% Pass
Students are reminded that a grade of 90% or better is required to pass, the test may be retaken for a six galleon fee as many times as is required. Once the Government test has been passed, students may undertake the Law tests 1-7.
Harry looked at Neville then down at Neville's results. Neville had gotten a ninety seven. "Congratulations."
"I can't believe it. I scored higher than you."
"I'm amazed I passed at all given how tired I was this summer."
"I owe it to you, you know."
"Rubbish, it wasn't me writing your test answers. Besides, you scored higher than I did."
"No, but you taught me how best to study and have believed in me until I could believe in myself. Maybe you should become a teacher, you'd be great at it. Think, you could spare some poor child from having a teacher like Binns, or Quirrell, or Lockhart."
Harry shuddered. "Possibly."
"First Hogsmeade weekend, let's celebrate! I'm buying!"
"Sounds good, Nev, but it's time for class; the celebration will have to wait."
By the end of the day Harry added Hagrid to the list of incredibly bad teachers Hogwarts had. It wasn't that the man didn't know his subject; it was he had no sense of appropriate level when it came to what he was teaching. Harry had cast a petrificus totalis on the hippogriff Hagrid had been showing the class before it could attack Malfoy for failing to absorb the part of Hagrid's lecture that said insulting the beast was dangerous. He had been given a week's detention for it. He was ready to kill his roommate, and it was only the first class. He vaguely wondered if it would do any good to protest through his Head of House. He liked his other electives. Arithmancy was easy thanks to the fact he was very good at math, and runes were simply fascinating. McGonagall had even mellowed. Durrand, while no Lupin, at least wasn't as bad as Quirrell or Lockhart so all in all the school year was shaping up to be a good one.
After classes were over Harry went to the library and finally dealt with his mail. Starting with the letter from Healer O'Shaunessy.
Dear Lord Potter,
I am writing to you only because I heard what you did with your Godfather's most recent letter to you. I realize neither he nor I have the right to ask this of you, but I beg you to consider meeting with him again. You hired me to help your godfather recover from dementor exposure. I realize and empathize with you that he has said unfortunate and immature things to you early in the course of his treatment. However, he has made significant improvement since that time, and I feel that he has progressed as far he can until he has the opportunity to apologize to you. To prevent further dispute I would come and supervise the meeting and promise to end the meeting when and if he regresses.
Finally, Lord Potter, I want to thank you for this opportunity, his case gave me an unparalleled opportunity for my research.
Sincerely, Paige O'Shaunessy
Harry frowned. The last thing he wanted was to give his godfather the chance to hurt him yet again. He had quite enough emotional pain in his life already. He put the letter to the side. He would decide later what to do. Harry moved on to his next letter the one from Nicholas Flamel.