The next week or so went by quickly as Harry settled back into his routine. He had written Hermione twice since her first letter and could tell that something was bothering her. He had talked with Dudley and Remus and they decided that he would visit her in person the morning the OWL results arrived. She had seemed more worried than normal about her grades, like something bad would happen to her if she didn't get perfect scores. Harry thought it was a shame there wasn't the wizarding equivalent of a psychologist so she could talk to someone about her over obsessive need to be perfect.
Ragnok had informed him that his results would be arriving a week before his birthday so he had Dudley move his motorcycle to the gym's parking lot the previous morning. He would sneak out under his cloak and then use the bike to drive to Hermione's house. He woke up at his usual early time and after a quick breakfast headed out. He wanted to be close to her house when the scores arrived as he wanted to see or at least hear her reaction. He was sure she would do excellent and knowing how important the scores were to her he wanted to be there.
He pulled onto her street right as he saw the two owls approaching. He parked the bike, waited for one of the birds to land on his arm so he could get his envelope and then donned his cloak so he could slip into the house and surprise her. He saw her sitting at the kitchen table looking terrified of the parchment in her hand. Before he had the chance to let her know he was there her father came into the room.
Dr. Granger walked over to where his daughter was sitting and upon seeing the parchment in her hand forcefully grabbed it from her. "I told you I didn't want to see you using any of this stupid parchment this summer. Use paper like a normal person." The man snapped at her and went to ball her results up.
In a trembling voice, one that Harry had never heard her use before, Hermione told her dad. "They are my exam results. They just arrived a minute ago." She then put her head down as if ashamed of the results as her father started to read through them.
"What is this crap?" He bellowed at her with narrowed eyes. "You didn't even get all O's! Not to mention that you were not the top score in two of your exams! Plus it says here that you didn't receive top marks in ANY exam for all students taking it. I told you that I expected better of you! How do you explain this filth?"
Harry watched in stunned horror as his best friend was belittled and verbally assaulted by her own father for being a failure and a disappointment. The insane man had the gall to say that Hermione wasn't smart enough and that her nearly perfect scores were not good enough. It quickly became clear to Harry why she had always obsessed about her grades. She was terrified of her father who expected perfection when it was not needed or even possible. He wanted her to be top in every class and had expected her scores to be top across all the students who took the exams. That means top scores out of every witch or wizard their age in the entire wizarding world.
"I knew you would be disappointed," she told her father through her tears that were streaming down her face. "I knew that Harry would beat my score in Defense as it comes naturally to him, and I told you that my astronomy exam was interrupted which I why I only received an Exceeds Expectations."
"And I explained that you needed to petition your government to be allowed to retake that exam." He growled at her as if she was stupid.
"I did," she said quietly. "But I would have had to retake every single exam offered, not just for the subjects that I take."
"So you would have had to take two extra exams! How difficult could it be for you to take an exam about normal life or to make things up about seeing your future in the stars! I never thought you were so pathetic," he sneered at her and Harry was too closely reminded of Snape.
