A Red-Letter Day Indeed!

[alt_linus]

I have just received my OWLs results letter, as I trust all of you have, and suddenly all the toil and effort of the past year seem worthwhile. Hearty congratulations to all of you who have cause for celebration, and a rousing cheer for the chief ornament of Ravenclaw Corner. (Padma, when I saw that my class ranking was second place, my disappointment was lifted by the knowledge that first place went to such a worthy competitor.)

Now, as to NEWTs, what are everyone's plans? It's so exciting!

Comments

Private Message to Lines

[alt_padma]

Thanks.

It does feel like a huge relief. Only, Pav didn't do so well. She passed enough (8 total), but only TWO with a high enough mark to continue. Mum wants her to write to all her professors to see if one will let her go on. She wants to leave school and work with Mum starting next year.

It's...Well, it's not well pretty. And the Aunts are over here making suggestions about who she should marry instead. Which is not helping.

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_linus]

She what? How is that possible?

Sorry, sorry. Only, well, it's such a shock!

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_padma]

I dunno. I dunno what happened. She got six Acceptables. The only Outstanding she got was Divination, and she got an E in Charms. Mum pointed out that the letter says you can go on in Herbology with an A, and that would give her enough, but Pavs hates Herbology and doesn't want to continue.

She was ranked 30 out of the 34 of us.

Dad just came over and he's saying they ought to ask for that review thing in the letter, and maybe have her retest. He's sure she only missed a few E's by a point or two.

I'm trying not to be noticed, to be honest. Maybe I'll go see if Blaise got his results.

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_linus]

Is she going to put in a request for reexamination, then? Give her a comforting word from me, if you think it would help.

Sensitive though I am to the plight of your sister, I must ask the burning question about a different topic entirely: how did you do on the Divination exam??

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_padma]

Well, Dad wants her to request the reexamination. We'll see.

I think I'm going to get out of the house for a while until everyone cools down.

As for Divination, it's probably a good thing that was her one topic of excellence. I suspect Lav's was a good mark, too. I seem to have picked up enough from them to get an Acceptable.

You're not going to tell me you did better, are you?

Did you manage all 12, then?

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_linus]

Ah! A salve to my wounded Ravenclaw pride. I brought home an E. Wasn't that the silliest exam ever? I confess to asking myself, "Now, what would Lav say?" on several questions, and blending the result with a tiny bit of Byron's imagery, and it seems to have worked a treat!

And yes, all twelve. Father and Mother are over the moon about it.

So. NEWTS. What shall we do?

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_padma]

You never! But if you got an E and I still came in first then...How many O's did you manage? I wonder if they've ever had two students get all 12 in the same year. I bet Professor Vector would know.

As for going on, I'm really not sure. I mean, I'm obviously sticking with Potions, and Charms, and Defence and Noble Arts. And Transfigurations because it's well useful. And I would drop Herbology but it's too essential to good Potioneering. That's already six and everyone says that doing more than eight is next to impossible.

So that leaves Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Astronomy and History of Magic.

Well, obviously, I could do without any of them but I don't want to stop going to Professor Vector's lessons. They're too fun. And Runes, well, again, they're so useful. I'd drop Astronomy, I guess, only one doesn't want to offend Siz (or Raz, for that matter) and everyone says N.E.W.T. Astronomy's much more interesting than O.W.L.

And as for History.... Well, I'd feel a bit naff, leading History Club and not taking the course anymore. Even if Binns is well useless.

But I simply can't take all 10. I'd be daft to try.

What about you?

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_linus]

I have got a quartet of O's singing in sweet, sweet harmony: History of Magic, Noble Arts, Astronomy and Arithmancy. All else are E's; not an A in the lot. Why, how many did you get?

Excellent idea about asking Professor Vector. Do you want to, or shall I? I was going to send her an owl in any case, with a note of thanks for the additional problem sets she gave me this past week to take my mind off waiting for results.

There might be a clever way to reduce at least some of the pressure. I have looked carefully, and as near as I can tell, there is nothing to stop one from doing an exam-only NEWT just as we did for the OWL with Div. So... what would you think of not taking the class for History of Magic, and going with the exam only? Seriously, we could manage well enough with History Club, if we were careful to plan the topics to cover what we needed to be studying. (It might even pick up a few new members, were we to advertise that, in fact.)

As to the rest, hmm. I share your desire to do as many as possible, though.

Re: Private Message to Lines

[alt_padma]

Seven O's, three Es, and the two As. I wasn't expecting either of those, really, since I hadn't sat the lessons at all, so getting all twelve was really a nice surprise.

I wish it hadn't come along with Pavs' bad news, though.

If you've something to write to Professor Vector then go ahead and ask. It'll be interesting to find out.

Let me find out what Seamus plans to do. If he's going on in History then we really could drop the lessons because we'd have someone scouting what daft thing Binns is going to cover next.

I think he said he and Mr Rosier were taking a sailing holiday, though, so he might not be able to answer right away. I mean, I'm sure he has his journal, it's just that he might be fishing or something.