Chapter 354: O.W.L. Exams

After that day, Harry felt as though his life hadn't undergone any substantial changes. His relationship with Zhang Qiu remained the same, and when the two were together, they discussed "serious business" more often.

Of course, for the time being, the most discussed topic was naturally related to the O. W. L. exams. Perhaps Zhang Qiu hoped Harry would pass the exams on his own merits, so she constantly grilled him on knowledge points, especially those annoying History of Magic ones.

It wasn't just Zhang Qiu; Sirius also wrote specifically to tell Harry to review thoroughly. The professors stopped assigning homework to the children, and they had one practice session after another. On the first Tuesday of June, Snape even told him that his Occlumency had been completely mastered and he no longer needed to attend lessons.

That very day, Snape also told him that he had already discussed the plan with the White House, and the date for the plan's execution had been set for after the O. W. L. exams concluded—this left Harry with the last thing on his mind set aside, allowing him to throw himself wholeheartedly into that atmosphere of frantic struggle.

Even the Minister for Magic, Jim Hacker, asked him during his final internship: "How long do you review each day now? More or less than ten hours?"

"I guess less." Harry didn't count the daily class time as review.

"Ah, that's not good. When I was in school, I reviewed fourteen hours a day!" the Minister said. "Except for eating and sleeping, I was reading the whole time."

This indeed made Harry feel a bit anxious, especially when they were in the elevator and Sir Humphrey hinted that "the Minister's grades back then weren't good," which made him feel even more worried.

After Harry returned to the dormitory that day, he found Neville sitting on his bed in a daze, and Harry greeted him.

"I didn't find it." Neville looked at his hands, somewhat dejected. "It was the last day, but I didn't make it in time. I found that door, but I couldn't get in; I only saw that there were many glass orbs in there."

"Two staff members taking care of the snakes discovered me." Neville sighed. "I only thought after I got back that I should have drunk a little Felix Felicis, and should have asked Zhang Qiu to give me some."

"Aren't you worried about the exams?" Harry blinked. "That item can be found slowly, but the exams are right before us."

"Exams? Didn't Zhang Qiu organize everyone to make a Great Vow?" Neville looked completely unconcerned.

"But that's a way of fooling fate; I feel it likely won't have any effect..." Harry didn't intend to spread anxiety, but he truly felt that the so-called Great Vow shouldn't work.

"Grandmother once said that as long as I wish for it, fate will definitely stand on my side," Neville said confidently.

"That's for sure," Luo En poked Harry's arm. "Neville's grandmother knows the O. W. L. chief examiner; of course she would say that."

"Overthinking it." Harry shook his head. "Names are covered when grading written exams."

"But they lead the practical grading." Luo En counted on his fingers. "If the examiner intends to look after you, theoretically we only need to get twenty points on the written exam to pass, and the total value of the multiple-choice questions is..."

"You can't just aim for a passing grade." Harry said, shoving a textbook into Luo En's hands.

This book, *Spell Achievements*, stayed in Luo En's hands for many days. It wasn't until the final Sunday before the exams arrived that Luo En nervously announced he had memorized everything that needed to be recited.

When they were eating dinner that day, the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive. Harry and Luo En didn't say much; his brain was still churning with various knowledge points.

"Oh, look, is that the chief examiner?" Luo En suddenly pointed toward the entrance hall.

Through the Great Hall doors, they saw Snape standing with a group of elderly wizards and witches. Harry had never seen people so old who could still stand on their own, at least not in the Muggle World.

"The old bat is rarely putting on an expression of respect for others," Luo En clicked his tongue.

"I didn't see Griselda Marchbanks," Neville said somewhat puzzled. "But it's better if she doesn't come; she's famous for being strict as an examiner."

"It doesn't matter, it's all the same." Harry said calmly. "We've reviewed just about enough."

Even so, when they returned to the common room, they found that many people still couldn't sleep and were seizing this last bit of time, trying to cram more knowledge into their heads.

Harry didn't think that much; after mastering Occlumency, he found he had gained a wonderful ability: if he wanted to sleep, he would definitely not suffer from insomnia.

At 9:30 on Monday morning, they began to enter the Great Hall one after another, which had been transformed into a huge examination hall. The four house tables had been moved away, replaced by many individual desks, all facing the staff table at the end of the hall. Professor McGonagall stood in front of them, and after waiting a moment, she announced, "The exam begins."

Harry flipped over his exam paper; he felt his heartbeat quicken, but the first question soon came into view—it was testing the Levitation Charm. Harry immediately felt much more settled; his brain told him with disdain that this was a "gimme" question, and he only needed to write down those "well-known things."

An hour and a half later, when Harry finished the last gimme question and wanted to start writing the questions on the back, he noticed the exam paper was single-sided. So he was surprised to find that this exam seemed exceptionally simple; he didn't know if it was because he had learned too well. Just looking around, he found many classmates were still writing furiously, and Harry couldn't help but suspect he had learned too poorly. He realized that for some open-ended questions, like the hiccup-curing spell, he could have written a bit more.

So, after the original "Finite Incantatem" and "Finite," he added "Silencio."

After the last half hour passed, Harry felt his exam paper indeed had nothing worth adding, and at this time McGonagall finally announced the end of the exam.

"Phew, that's great, Harry." Luo En grabbed his shoulders in surprise. "What good luck, the things tested were all content I had reviewed."

Harry, who was somewhat sensitive to the word "good luck," suddenly realized that perhaps this year's exam paper was indeed simpler than in previous years. Could it be that the "Great Vow" had taken effect?

In the afternoon practical exam, Harry was assigned to a bald examiner named Jonak. When he heard the name Harry Potter, he suddenly showed extraordinary tolerance. Even though Harry mixed up the Color-Change Charm and the Growth Charm, causing the mouse that should have turned orange to swell up suddenly, it didn't seem to cause any negative impact.

"You must have been worried I couldn't see clearly, what a gentle child." Jonak gave him a high score with a smile.

When walking out of the Great Hall, Luo En said loudly with slight excitement: "I dare say that Professor Kape is the best examiner I've ever seen. When I accidentally turned a plate into a mushroom, he said he suddenly got dizzy and didn't see it, and let me do it again!"

"Yeah, he's really super nice." Another student on the side echoed, and then the students began to praise their examiners one after another, as if every student had received preferential treatment from every examiner.

That night, Harry met Zhang Qiu in the library and briefly talked about the overly lenient exam situation.

"Your Vow Spell took effect?" Harry asked in a tone of disbelief.

"I didn't even expect it to take effect myself!" Zhang Qiu was also full of disbelief. "And even if it did take effect, it should be that everyone feels they performed exceptionally well, not so blatantly; anyone can tell there's a problem."

"Then it might not be the effect of the spell." Harry analyzed rationally. "This is mostly man-made."

"But who has the ability to manipulate the O. W. L. examiners, and who has the motive?" After Zhang Qiu frowned slightly, she uttered the same name as Harry: "Arnold!"

"That's it, that's it; this must be Arnold deliberately letting the examiners go easy to demonstrate his political achievements." Zhang Qiu looked like she had suddenly realized. "How can he show that educational reform is effective? Of course, it's by seeing an improvement in grades, and the simplest way to improve is to make the exam papers simpler! Being both the athlete and the referee is just like this; I can only say everyone this year is really lucky."

"I'm actually thinking," Harry touched his cheek, "is it because you all made a Great Vow that fate arranged for Arnold to carry out educational reform in advance; or is it that after he carried out the reform, you all thought of making a Great Vow?"

"Don't say these brain-burning and buzzkill things; you'd better look at tomorrow's Transfiguration." Zhang Qiu frowned.

In the written exam the next day, Harry found that some of the more difficult spells weren't tested in great detail; the Conversion Charm only tested one spell and definition. The practical exam was even more lenient; Harry was certain he saw Hannah turn her ferret into a large flock of flamingos flying everywhere, but that examiner was still full of smiles and even gave her a thumbs up.

Wednesday was Herbology, and Harry felt he did quite well; Thursday was Defense Against the Dark Arts, and this time he sincerely hoped it could be harder, otherwise there was no way to demonstrate his level.

It was precisely after that overly simple written exam for Defense Against the Dark Arts that Harry truly understood why Hermione had looked listless for the past two days.

Fortunately, after the practical exam began, Examiner Jonak suggested Harry conjure a Patronus, which made him very happy to have a chance to show his level. He dared to say that for this Patronus alone, he would definitely get an Outstanding.

After Muggle Studies on Friday, Harry spent what was possibly the most relaxing weekend since his fifth year. Not only was there no external matter bothering him, but even the upcoming exams gave him a feeling of being a sure thing—as if he had a set of Seven Deadly Sins in his pocket this time too.

However, just like the last sure-thing Triwizard Tournament, where the focus wasn't on the competition at all, when Harry wrote the last letter on his History of Magic exam paper, he realized that the real test for him had likely only just begun. ===== CHAPTER 355 =====