Chapter 38: Chapter 38
After the unexpected visit from the Minister of Magic himself, Harry was much more careful with his surroundings and also much more attentive to the people around him. What had happened in Dumbledore's office had turned out to be quite a surprise, and had made him realize something that made him feel slightly uncomfortable, or rather, very uncomfortable, he was no longer invisible.
After having been invisible for so long, seeing himself in the spotlight of so many people at those moments made him feel strange and this led to him seeking out the solitude of his secret room or remaining in his bedroom, sitting on his bed stroking his cat... it was during those moments of tranquility when he reflected on people's reactions to his presence, and who had changed their way of treating him and how, and what he discovered was that the only one who had really changed their way of treating him was the Headmaster.
The boy had already shown long ago that he was no fool, and the sudden attention of the Headmaster, knowing what he was like, what he did, and why he had ignored him for so many years, made him realize that the only reason he was now being watched so closely was because he wanted to be able to control him and his magic, something that he did not like one bit, and he understood that he would have to be more cautious than he had ever been.
[T/N: F*cking Albus!]
It was exactly for that reason that the boy did not notice how time was passing, how the days were passing and he, due to his different loyal and self-imposed obligations, was totally clueless about it. It came as quite a surprise when, in one of his classes with the seventh years, one of his Ravenclaw classmates suffered a nervous breakdown due to the nearby NEWTS. It was not until then that he realized that he had only two weeks left to take his final year exams.
"This has to be a joke... " he muttered in disbelief." Only two weeks?
"Harry! What world do you live in, may I ask?" One of his fellow Hufflepuffs asked incredulously. "How can you be so calm? There's no way you didn't notice that exams were coming up!"
"I've been busy, and I haven't really worried much about the day I was living in."
"So you haven't studied enough for the NEWTS and yet you are one of the best prepared... this is all very unfair!"
[T/N: Oi! Don't be a jealous c*nt!]
Deciding to study for his exams, after classes he went straight to his secret room in order to use his personal library, certain that there he would have better reference material than the Hogwarts library, no matter how famous it was. There he took several reference books for his different subjects... and it was there that he found some information that left him quite impressed, a complete and quite long paragraph about Mages, what Remus had assured him a few months ago that he was. Curious, he read it quickly and then a little more slowly.
'Mages are magic users (witches or wizards) with above-average power and abilities far superior to others, and many of them with abilities that in many cases were believed to be lost to the magical races of the world.
It is also well known that the appearance of a Mage is derived from an unsustainable situation for the magical balance of the world. Whenever a dangerous situation appears, a Mage is born. Despite what one might think, it is a common fact throughout history that these magic users usually suffer hard and problematic childhoods.
Some of the great Mages of the past are names as important as Paracelsus, Joseph, or Merlin.'
Harry looked at the book with fascination, although he shouldn't have been surprised, after all, Remus should have found more books on the subject and when he finished his NEWTS he could research the subject properly, he had found this little bit here, but surely inside the library he would find more, much more.
On the day of his NEWTS, or rather, the day they started, the boy was even more nervous than usual, after all, he had only really prepared for two weeks, much less than his usual time.
It was quite strange sitting in the Great Hall with the rest of the seventh years to take their exams on this occasion... not far from him he could see Percy Weasley and Penny Clearwater, two seventh years with whom he perhaps had more of a relationship due to his friendship with the Weasley twins. After all, he was forced to meet their older brother and his girlfriend even though they were both from different houses than his own.
This time, the examiners said nothing when they saw him sitting with the rest of the students, probably remembering when they had raised a series of complaints about the boy's presence the previous year, claiming that he would be incapable of achieving good results and then getting magnificent grades. So, the teenager picked up the parchment that would be his exam and quickly read through its questions, so that he would be ready before he could pick up his quill... they were not allowed to touch their quills until they gave the go-ahead to begin.
"All right, ladies and gentlemen, you may begin your theory tests. You have exactly two hours, starting now."
It was almost as if someone had cast a silencing spell, suddenly all the lingering murmurs died away to give way to the soft scratching of quills as the students began to answer their exam questions.
When the boy looked at his questions he did so with fear, since he had only been studying for a few days and not with the intensity he was used to. But he was able to breathe a slight sigh of relief when he realized that if he didn't know the answers, they sounded familiar enough to him to be able to continue from there.
Once the two hours had passed, the examiners cast a spell that made the anti-cheat quills stop writing, much to the despair of many Ravenclaws who still wanted to write down a lot more information than they had already put into their parchments. Unfortunately for them, the officials' spells were very accurate due to the great practice they had using them year after year in these exams.
After the theory exam, there was the practical exam. This time, too, it was different from what he was used to... They had all the students outside the Great Hall and called them three by three to perform the spells or curses that the examiners asked them to do, then, to avoid having to explain to the others what they had done, they left through another door, thus avoiding the questions.
In general, the dreaded NEWTS were not how the young Hufflepuff had been expecting them. In fact, he had imagined them to be as strict as his OLWs had been the previous year, but it seemed that the massification made them much more relaxed than if they were done individually... of course, if you had them individualized it was because you were prepared enough to do them and surely much better than the others.
Perhaps what was worse for his classmates and himself was the wait between exams, knowing that in a short while you would have to take another theoretical exam or perhaps another practical one... that wait was truly unbearable.
During the time that the exams lasted, he barely had a moment for anything else, not even his friends... the only ones he could see a little were the Weasley twins, since that year they were writing their OWLs, and for the first time in a long time, if not for the first time in his life, the two Weasleys took their studies seriously and had applied themselves enough to get some good marks in their OWLs.
After a stressful week, at least for the vast majority of fifth and seventh years, the OWLs and NEWTs were over and many breathed a sigh of relief. Exams were over, and although everyone knew that in just a few days they would most likely be hysterical about the lack of news of their results, for the moment they were going to enjoy the atmosphere of peace.
"Very well, ladies and gentlemen," said the representative of the ministry when all the seventh-year students had gathered "You have officially finished your studies, now you must apply for the job you want... That is why you will receive your NEWT results at the latest sometime during the first week of July. Thank you very much for everything and good luck."
All the young students smiled and trooped out of the Great Hall to enjoy their two weeks of rest, while Harry looked in surprise at where the Ministry representative had been. He had not expected to know his results so soon, he thought he would not know anything until his birthday... well, all the better, that way he could start his studies earlier than planned.
Harry smiled before he gathered his things and went to find his friends, in order to enjoy his last days at Hogwarts as a student... as soon as his NEWT grades were up, he would begin his Potions studies. He found them near the lake, also resting from their own exams.
"You're done?"
"Yep" He laughed "I have officially finished my studies at Hogwarts."
"But..." Athenea began "You're not going to do your apprenticeship at Hogwarts? I mean, Snape will be your Professor, and he's the Potions professor at Hogwarts."
"Yes, of course, I will do it here, but I will no longer be a student but an apprentice, it will be different."
" Ah..."
[T/N: Harry and Athenea are gonna have some...teacher and student, ROLEPLAY...God NO!]
Harry laughed at her expression and calmly took off his shoes to enjoy the cool waters of the lake. He was about to dip his feet in when the images reflected in the waters blurred and other images appeared.
It was his village, Godric's Hollow, and it was full of Death Eaters everywhere, ready to carry out a massacre in the small, half-muggle, half-magic district. The Hufflepuff found himself there, in the middle of the attack, with his family not far from him, looking at them with indecision, obviously, he hadn't expected them to be there and see him.
The doubts disappeared when he saw how one of those monsters was preparing to torture and kill a little girl who couldn't have been more than four years old. He couldn't allow that and before the stupefied gaze of his family, he discovered that he was beginning the counterattack.
The image blurred again and he saw his parents and Dumbledore, they seemed to be arguing and his name was repeated quite often... especially how to control him now that they knew he was the White Phoenix. After that, the surface of the lake returned to normal, leaving a very shaken young man behind.
"Harry!" The frightened scream brought him back to normal.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
" You looked like something had happened to you," Draco murmured with worried eyes. " You had a vision, didn't you?"
"Yeah"
"Can we know what?"
" My parents are going to find out... they're going to know that I'm the one who stops the attacks... and they're going to try to control me..."
"No!"
" Yes... What am I going to do now?"
[T/N: OH, I don't know have your mentor who has full custody of you either emancipate you or just take you to live with her or Snape.]
"Don't worry, Harry " Draco began, putting his arm around his shoulders. "We'll find a solution."
[T/N: Holy sh*t! That ending snuck up on me. If you are enjoying the book then leave a comment, write a review, and drop some stones. If you're so worked up that you can't wait for the next chapter then check out the P@treon or the Ko-fi, also check out my other book by the name of {A Gamer in Game of Thrones} you can search for it or check out my profile to find it.]
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