VIOLET (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

9.

Caiti's N.E.W.T. results arrived early on Friday morning. She recognized the envelope from when Sean had received his the previous summer. That had been a big event. Everyone had been in the kitchen; her mum had nearly cried; her dad had spent days boasting; Sean had looked embarrassed.

No one was here today. Her parents had both left for work. Caiti sat alone on the back porch, still in her pajamas, a cup of tea in hand. She didn't want to open it.

She also really did want to open it.

She slid a finger under the seal and peeled the lip of the envelope back.

Inside was a single piece of parchment. The top listed her name and the dates of her test, the names of the test administrators, and contact information for the N.E.W.T. headquarters, should she have any questions or concerns about her results.

Below this were her scores, listed by subject in alphabetical order.

Ancient Runes - n/a

Arithmancy - E

Astronomy - E

Care of Magical Creatures - n/a

Charms - O

Defense Against the Dark Arts - E

Divination - n/a

Herbology - O

History of Magic - n/a

Muggle Studies - O

Potions - O

Transfiguration - n/a

Caiti was surprised. For as little time as she had spent on her homework all year, she had done well. Of course, Sean had gotten O's in everything he'd taken, even with the tournament and quidditch and everything else, but still. Caiti had never been Sean.

She was proud of herself. She'd done better than she had on her O.W.L.s and she's gotten an O in herbology of all things. She would have to send Professor Munslow a thank you for that one. Surely it was all that extra time spent learning to grow her sun violets.

Still, the list felt a little anticlimactic. Seven years of her life, reduced to this one piece of paper, a couple of letters. And now what was she supposed to do with it?

Some naive part of her had imagined that good N.E.W.T. scores were the secret key that would unlock the adult world for her and suddenly Caiti would understand things, have a plan. Her whole life, everyone had said this test was so important.

Edison was hopping around next to her and she scooped him up, holding him at eye level.

"Edison," she said. "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing."

—-

It was six o'clock on Friday evening. Marlowe had gotten home from practice about an hour ago so he could shower and change into regular clothes, but now he was supposed to be leaving to go to St. Mungo's and he just couldn't do it.

He'd talked to the people in HR like Caiti had suggested and they'd set up a time for him to go, had even had several pieces of merchandise custom made with his name and number on the back to give to the kid, and Marlowe knew it was the right thing to do, but he just couldn't.

The thought of going back into one of those rooms and remembering what it had felt like to lie there and know his life had taken such a severe turn was painful. The thought of seeing a little boy going through the very same thing was worse.