No Longer

Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test Talk

Harry Potter**

"Harry, would you please come with me for a moment?" Flitwick asked him when they had returned to the Ravenclaw dormitories.

"Of course sir," Harry said politely, and followed his professor who was just a few inches shorter than himself.

They went into the man's office, which was very comfortable. Soft brown chairs, gentle lighting, and bookshelves lining the walls made the room very welcoming. Filius sat on a chair directly opposite an identical one, rather than behind his desk.

"Well my dear, I brought you aside to speak to you about your academic future. I've no doubt you've noticed, how shall I put it? The accelerated pace of your learning. The other teachers and I have spoken about it together, and the decision has been made to present you with more challenging assignments.

"If you're willing, a ministry representative will come and have you tested for your OWLs, or Ordinary Wizarding Levels. Then, there are NEWTs, which are Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests," Filius was looking at Harry intently all the while he spoke.

Harry decided it would be odd if he posed no questions, so he chose to present the most obvious one he could.

"What do the OWLs and NEWTs do?" he said, eyes showing naivete.

"They allow us, that is to say, the wizarding community, to gauge the grasp you have on magic and the categories of study you pursue. It is somewhat similar to muggles having their high school transcripts determine what college they can enter. Your NEWT results actuate what job you can get or whether a master will take you as an apprentice to dedicate more to that specific field of study."

"I don't understand," Harry said, "Then what are the OWLs for?"

"Well," Flitwick said, "I suppose they're rather like a high school diploma. Some jobs will accept you based on your OWL scores rather than NEWT scores."

"Okay," Harry said, "I'll be perfectly happy to take the tests," as if he didn't much realize the gravity of the situation.

"Very good then, you understand the situation?" Flitwick asked.

Harry felt that his Head of House had done a relatively poor job of explaining, but he didn't particularly care. He nodded anyways, and figured that perhaps he could get masteries in all useful subjects soon. It would definitely be fun to try.

"Very good then," the man said before flapping his hands in the direction of the door, "You go on now. You're first year so you'll have. . ."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry said helpfully.

"Yes indeed. Run along!"

As he was bid to do, Harry quickly left the main office, and used a bit of magic to ask Hogwarts for help. His short legs would never get him to class on time. This askance of his brought the memory of Hogwarts imprisonment, and he decided rather abruptly that he could just use his time warping abilities to get to class on time if it came down to it.

|Hogwarts| He said in a strong voice |I'm going to help free you from that awful man's grasp|

|Thank you dear one| she responded kindly, sounding proud of him.

Even though he had yet to do anything, that faint note of pride in her voice warmed him through. It felt so nice to be appreciated, and he was determined to earn it. Closing his eyes, he opened his internal energy enough to properly sense what was going on with the school.

There was a sort of thread-fine mesh of magic wrapping itself around Hogwarts' power, like a dolphin stuck in a fisherman's net. Harry was as filled with sorrow to see the school, which was an inherently good being, trapped as he would be seeing a dolphin trapped in a net.