Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 952: Tryouts

“You’ve written this paper very well, almost covering all the pharmaceutical applications of Moonstone,” said Evan, looking at Hermione’s paper. “And these examples you provided are very insightful. Well, Snape gave you a fair grade.”

Harry made a noncommittal noise in his throat.

He had never received fair treatment from Snape, never.

Just look at his two potions assignments this semester, one scored zero and the other an unprecedented D. It was absolutely terrible.

“Of course, a lot can happen between now and the exam, we’ve got plenty of time to improve, but the grades we’re getting now are a sort of baseline, aren’t they? Something we can build on…” Hermione continued.

“Alright, Hermione, we all know you got an O, and I’m genuinely happy for you!” Harry interjected, attempting to change the topic. He didn’t want to dwell on this anymore. Instead, better talk about the performance of the Starcatcher. He had been looking forward to it for a long time!

“But……”

“If you want to know what grades we got, ask!” Ron snapped irritably. Madam Hooch suggested Ginny to take part in the tryouts for the Quidditch team, which made him worry. He knew Ginny, she was a strong competitor.

He couldn’t help but wonder what if he didn’t fly as well as Ginny this afternoon?

Even if he showed all his skills, what if Angelina favored Ginny? What should he do then?

“You know I didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted to say that we still need to work hard, but grades are really important,” said Hermione, wrinkling her nose. “Well, if you two want to tell me your grades…”

“I got a P!” said Ron, ladling soup into his bowl. “Happy?”

“Well, that’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said Fred, holding the Starcatcher. He and George had just returned from parting with Angelina. “Nothing wrong with a good healthy P.”

“But!” said Hermione, “doesn’t P stand for…”

“ ‘Poor,’ yeah,” said George. “Still, better than D, isn’t it? ‘Dreadful’?”

Harry felt his face grow warm and faked a small coughing fit over his roll.

When he emerged from this he was sorry to find that Hermione was still in full flow about O.W.L. grades.

It could be seen that Hermione was very interested in this topic. But he didn’t want to talk about it, and Harry’s attention was immediately drawn to Fred’s Starcatcher, the black broom that looked fantastic.

“So top grade’s O for ‘Outstanding,’ ” Hermione was saying, “and then there’s A…”

“No, E,” Fred corrected her, handing the Starcatcher to the impatient Harry and Ron. “E for ‘Exceeds Expectations.’ And I’ve always thought George and I should’ve got E in everything, because we exceeded expectations just by turning up for the exams.”

They all laughed except Hermione, who plowed on, “So after E, it’s A for ‘Acceptable,’ and that’s the last pass grade, isn’t it?”

“Yeah!” said Evan, after reading Hermione’s paper. He had to admit that it was basically impeccable.

“Then you get P for ‘Poor’, and D for ‘Dreadful.’” said Hermione.

“And then T,” George reminded her.

“T?” asked Hermione, looking appalled. “Even lower than a D? What on earth does that stand for?”

“ ‘Troll,’ ” said George promptly.

Harry laughed again, though he was not sure whether or not George was joking. He imagined trying to conceal from Hermione that he had received T’s in all his O.W.L.s and immediately resolved to work harder from now on.

“Well, Hermione, at your level, you don’t have to worry about getting grades below E,” said Evan. “Hmm, I think you still need to strengthen your Defense Against the Dark Arts and practical spellcasting. We can focus on that over the weekend.”

“Now that we’ve brought this up, I’ve given it some thought recently and it can be scaled up appropriately,” said Hermione. “We all now know what a dreadful teacher that woman is, and how we’re not going to learn any defense from her at all. But she got the job and we can’t get rid of her, Fudge’ll make sure of that. So, we need to learn by ourselves now. Teaching everyone magic now takes on a different significance.”

“We should indeed expand the scale and include Colin, Neville, and the others!” said Evan, looking at Hermione, “What are your plans? Do you have any good ideas?”

“Some, but I haven’t decided yet!” said Hermione, her brown eyes sparkling,  just like the passionate fervor she showed for S.P.E.W. and O.W.L.s. “But this thing is really important now, like Harry said in Umbridge’s first lesson, we need to be ready for what’s waiting out there. We need to make sure we really can defend ourselves, especially in the current situation…”

Next, Harry, Ron, Colin, Ginny, Fred, and George were discussing the Starcatcher, while Evan and Hermione began to discuss organizing everyone to learn magic with him. It was evident that Hermione had thought a lot about this matter, probably because Umbridge gave her a lot of stimulation. Hermione considered learning magic from Evan and studying Defense Against the Dark Arts to be of utmost importance. Her vision extended beyond just a few individuals within Gryffindor.

Because of the Gryffindor Quidditch team tryouts at five o’clock, everyone was a little absent-minded throughout the afternoon lessons.

When the last lesson was over, everyone came out of the castle and onto the school grounds.

Except for Harry, because he had to go to Umbridge for detention, where he spent seven hours writing ‘I must not tell lies,’ and he was not allowed to leave if he couldn’t write the required amount. It was truly agonizing!

From the window of Umbridge’s office, the Quidditch pitch could be seen in the distance.

If he was lucky, thought Harry, he might even catch a glimpse of Ron’s tryout. He separated from the others with this thought in mind…

At five o’clock, Evan, Hermione, Ron, Colin, and Ginny arrived promptly at the pitch below.

The tryouts were about to start, and the captain of the team, Angelina, was trying to maintain order. Nearly half of the Gryffindor students, ranging from first to seventh year, had shown up, and there were also many students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

Because of the Starcatcher, almost all the first years were there, even the Slytherins.

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