Chapter Summaries

Wizet and the other students planned to expose the potion scam, while Voldemort discussed Hogwarts and his approaching plan with Calchas. Voldemort learned that Wizet had not recently met Dumbledore and pressed Calchas to reveal where Herpo had gone.

• Wizet decided to ask Snape for potion samples so students could identify the fake products, and Anthony and Michael offered to help spread the warning.
• Voldemort returned to the Durmstrang Headmaster's Office and questioned Calchas about Dumbledore, Snape, and Wizet.
• Calchas reported that Snape had shown no unusual behavior and that Wizet had not recently contacted Dumbledore or given him potions.
• Voldemort said he would abolish Gryffindor and destroy the Sorting Hat after taking over Hogwarts.
• Voldemort reminded Calchas that the plan's implementation was near and asked where Herpo had gone.

Voldemort tortured Calchas into answering questions, then learned that Herpo’s goblins had infiltrated the Ministry of Magic’s Time Chamber and that Circe was bewitching wizards and Muggles in Canaan. He ordered Calchas to alert him immediately if anything unusual happened at Hogwarts.

• Calchas pretended not to understand Voldemort’s recruitment attempt and insulted Herpo until Voldemort cursed him with Crucio.
• Voldemort stopped the curse and demanded that Calchas answer his questions, and Calchas agreed.
• Calchas reported that Herpo was disciplining his goblin servants and that some goblins had infiltrated the Ministry of Magic’s Time Chamber and set up a magical artifact.
• Calchas told Voldemort that Circe was in Canaan at a meeting between Muggles and wizards, where she was casting spells to bewitch them.
• Voldemort ordered Calchas to notify him immediately if anything unusual happened at Hogwarts.

Fifth-year students sought out older students for O.W.L. exam advice and were unsettled by rumors about examiners. As the group headed to Charms, Wizet offered Michael a way to strengthen his remaining Calming Draught.

• Fifth-years asked upper-year students about the O.W.L. examinations and heard both practical advice and frightening rumors.
• Michael Corner told Anthony Goldstein and Terry Boot that examiners would deliberately distract students, but Anthony doubted the rumor and Terry compared it to Potions Class.
• Michael described a nightmare about failing a Charms practical exam and said he had run out of Calming Draught because its price had risen.
• Wizet told Michael he could strengthen his remaining Calming Draught with added potion ingredients, and Michael hurried to find something to write with.

Professor Flitwick reviewed the Cheering and Summoning Charms, then went over the O.W.L. exam schedule and precautions. The class left with the exam details recorded and a clearer plan for revision.

• Michael wrote down what Wizet dictated before Professor Flitwick arrived.
• Professor Flitwick reviewed the Cheering Charm and reassured students who were anxious about the exams.
• Wizet recalled the Daily Prophet's report that Dementors had vanished and earned Ravenclaw five points.
• Professor Flitwick reviewed the Summoning Charm and explained that he would cover possible exam topics in class instead of assigning homework.
• Professor Flitwick displayed the O.W.L. schedule and examination precautions, and the students copied them down as he prepared to explain them.

Professor Flitwick explained the two-week O.W.L. examination schedule and clarified where the written and practical exams would take place. He revealed that the Ministry had prepared an unusual comprehensive practical examination in a courtroom on its tenth floor, while the practical Transfiguration exam might also differ from past years.

• Professor Flitwick outlined the first week's examinations, including compulsory subjects and electives, with History of Magic and Muggle Studies scheduled for Friday.
• Professor Flitwick explained that Divination and Arithmancy would be examined at the same time, and told Ernie Macmillan to speak with him after class if he had chosen both.
• Professor Flitwick said that the Astronomy practical would take place at midnight at Hogwarts Castle, and clarified that most examinations would be held there.
• Professor Flitwick explained that the practical Transfiguration examination would take place at the Ministry of Magic after the written exam and might be unusual.
• Professor Flitwick revealed that the final comprehensive practical examination could cover more than Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and that the Ministry had renovated its tenth floor courtroom for it.

Professor Flitwick explained the O.W.L. results, retakes, and strict anti-cheating measures. After class, Anthony suggested the unusual examination arrangements were connected to the Paris Region Incident and the exchange of High Inquisitors between the magical and Muggle worlds.

• Professor Flitwick told the students they could retake failed O.W.L. subjects and that their results would arrive by owl after July.
• Professor Flitwick warned the students that enchanted exam papers and experienced invigilators would detect attempts to cheat.
• Anthony awkwardly assured Professor Flitwick he would not cheat after Michael and Anthony joked about magical cheating tools.
• Michael asked Anthony why the O.W.L. examinations would be held in Ministry of Magic courtrooms.
• Anthony linked the unusual examinations to the Paris Region Incident and the High Inquisitor exchange announced by Dumbledore.

On the first day of the O.W.L. examinations, Wizet’s roommates struggled with nerves until Fred and George’s prank helped them relax. The students entered the Great Hall and began their exams, while Harry and Ron settled into their seats.

• Anthony, Terry, Michael, and Chris showed their anxiety over the Herbology examination by fidgeting, reciting, and overeating at breakfast.
• Fred and George offered their supposedly self-correcting ink, and Wizet explained that it was ordinary ink meant as a joke to ease the students’ nerves.
• Harry and Ron discussed whether owls could intercept results slips before an examiner called the fifth- and seventh-years into the Great Hall.
• The students passed through screening doorframes, and Ron spotted Vincent Crabbe having four prohibited magical items confiscated.
• The examiners handed out the papers, turned over a giant hourglass, and announced that the examination could begin.

After the Herbology O.W.L. written exam, Hermione worried she had not fully answered a question about collecting Bubotuber Pus, then compared answers with Neville, Hannah, and Wizet. The group discussed their newly developed potion for increasing the pus yield and how Neville and Hannah’s published research had helped classmates on the exam.

• Ron and Harry met Hermione after the exam and learned she was anxious about whether she had listed every method of collecting Bubotuber Pus.
• Neville described collecting the pus with improvised materials or a hollow needle, and Hermione confirmed she had written down both methods.
• Neville explained that he and Hannah had developed a potion, improved by Wizet, that made Bubotubers expel purer pus and increased their yield; Professor Lupin had helped them apply for a patent.
• Ron told Terry Boot about the potion’s planned sale through M.S.C., while Neville and Hannah credited Wizet and Wizet praised their work.
• Anthony Goldstein and Chris Moen said Neville and Hannah’s articles in Hogwarts Voice had helped them answer exam questions, leaving Neville and Hannah blushing at the praise.

After the Herbology exam, Griselda Marchbanks arrived at Hogwarts and questioned Wizet, Neville, Harry, Ron, and the others about its difficulty. She went to meet Dumbledore, leaving the students wondering whether she might influence their exams, but Wizet reassured them that the difficulty could not be changed once the O.W.L.s had begun.

• Michael Corner said his essay on Dittany had covered material from the exam, and Anthony pointed out that Dittany was first-year Herbology.
• Griselda Marchbanks greeted Wizet and praised him as an outstanding Wizengamot Youth Representative.
• Marchbanks asked Neville, Harry, Ron, and the others about the exam, then said she had come early to catch up with Dumbledore and walked away.
• Anthony explained to Michael that Marchbanks was the head of the England Wizarding Examinations Authority and one of Wizet's nominators.
• Neville explained that Marchbanks was friends with his grandmother, while Ron worried that she might raise the exam difficulty.
• Wizet told Ron and Anthony that the O.W.L. exams had already begun, so the difficulty could not be raised at the last minute.

Harry and Ron promised Hermione they would study Potions, but they got distracted playing Exploding Snap and had to talk their way out of trouble. On the third day of the O.W.L. examinations, Harry began the Potions written exam and recognized an unusual plant-identification question.

• Harry and Ron found Hermione studying in the library and brought her lunch before her Ancient Runes practical exam.
• Harry and Ron played Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap instead of revising, and the cards burned their eyebrows and damaged their books and notes.
• Hermione confronted Harry and Ron, who claimed they had been practicing how to handle accidents in the Potions practical exam.
• Hermione checked that Ron's books and notes were restored, then led Harry and Ron through a final review of Potions before dinner.
• Harry started the Potions written exam and smiled when he read a question asking him to identify two plants and name one scientifically.

Harry and Ron finished their Potions O.W.L. exams feeling confident, while Harry awkwardly revealed his concern for Ginny’s future exams. Their relief ended when Snape overheard Ron saying Potions was easy.

• Harry recalled knowledge from Wizet’s and Malfoy’s magical papers to answer the written exam, and he and Ron completed the practical exam smoothly.
• Harry and Ron discussed Marchbanks’s plan to raise the difficulty of future exams and wondered how Ginny would manage.
• Hermione joined them, changed the subject, and reminded Ron to prepare for Care of Magical Creatures and not disappoint Hagrid.
• Ron praised his performance and said Potions was easy when Snape was not supervising.
• Snape appeared at the foot of the stairs and challenged Ron about calling Potions easy.

Snape punished Harry and Ron with a detention that required them to use Transfiguration to prepare tools and process Frog Brain, and Hermione explained how the unpleasant task could help them practice. As they headed upstairs, Ron realized they had overlooked something.

• Harry, Ron, and Hermione told Snape that the Potions O.W.L. exam had been manageable.
• Snape assigned Harry and Ron detention on Saturday, requiring them to make tools with Transfiguration and process three barrels of Frog Brain.
• Harry and Ron tried to take the detention as Transfiguration revision, while Hermione explained Wizet's advice about mentally accepting objects before transforming them.
• Hermione suggested that Harry and Ron use their aversion to Frog Brain as Transfiguration practice.
• Ron suddenly realized that he and Harry had overlooked something and warned Harry.

Harry and Ron realized that their O.W.L. Potions results might qualify them for Snape’s N.E.W.T. class, which Harry needed to pursue his goal of becoming an Auror. The students traveled to the Ministry of Magic for their Transfiguration practical exam, and Snape lingered briefly by the door to the Department of Mysteries before following them downstairs.

• Hermione reminded Harry and Ron that Harry needed five N.E.W.T. certificates to become an Auror and that Potions was essential, so Harry accepted that he had to take Snape’s class.
• After the students’ O.W.L. exams became less intimidating, they completed the Transfiguration written exam and traveled by Portkey to the Ministry of Magic for the practical exam.
• Professor Sprout gave potions to students who felt ill after the Portkey journey, while Harry and Ron joked quietly about Snape handing them out.
• Professor McGonagall led the students through wand registration and warned them not to enter the Department of Mysteries on the ninth underground floor.
• Professor McGonagall guided the group down the hidden stairs to the tenth underground floor, and Snape paused to look at the black door before following them.

Percy Weasley led the students to the Wizengamot courtroom for their O.W.L. practical exams, where Ministry officials and reporters awaited them. After Professor McGonagall brought the first group, including Harry Potter, into the examination room, the remaining students suspected that the interviews were part of a pressure test.

• Percy Weasley led the students through the Ministry corridor to the Wizengamot courtroom, where Amelia Bones, Ludo Bagman, other officials, and reporters had gathered.
• Percy reported to Amelia Bones that he had brought all the students, while Ludo Bagman enthusiastically waved at them and reporters began taking photographs.
• The reporters interviewed the students, and Wizet suggested that the interviews were part of the examination; Professor McGonagall allowed them to continue.
• Professor McGonagall called ten students, including Lavender Brown and Harry Potter, to enter the modified examination room for the practical exam.
• Anthony, Terry, and Michael discussed whether the exam would test them under pressure, and Michael noted that the Disarming Charm would not earn extra points in their Transfiguration exam.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron finished their Transfiguration practical and were confronted by Rita Skeeter, while Wizet and the other students began theirs in a magically simulated battlefield. The chapter left Wizet facing the exam tasks amid the realistic sights and smells of war.

• Harry, Hermione, and Ron left the practical exam and discussed how unlikely it was that Snape would help them.
• Reporters ambushed Harry with cameras and questions, and Rita Skeeter asked whether suspected Muggles had examined him before leaving to write her story.
• Professor McGonagall called Wizet Lovegood and the other students into the courtroom for their practical exam.
• Griselda Marchbanks gave the students twenty minutes to clear junk with the Vanishing Spell, transform objects, and attempt a precision bonus task.
• Griselda transformed the examination room into a battlefield, and Michael realized that the simulated artillery and sensory effects would make the exam difficult despite posing no real danger.

During the practical Transfiguration exam, the candidates struggled to cast spells amid Griselda Marchbanks’s recreation of a Muggle war. Wizet effortlessly completed the first task and transfigured a desk into a phoenix, leaving the examiners and observers astonished.

• Ernie Macmillan and Megan Jones completed the Vanishing Spell task after struggling to concentrate through the explosions.
• Chris Moen’s rat repeatedly lost its progress, while Anthony Goldstein’s nearly finished sheepdog reverted to a desk after a shell landed nearby.
• Wizet silently made all the clutter vanish with one spell, astonishing his examiner.
• Wizet transfigured a desk into a phoenix, prompting the examiner and the suited observers to marvel at it.
• Wizet explained that the phoenix could be considered real for as long as the Transfiguration lasted.

Wizet demonstrated his Transfiguration skill by creating a phoenix whose tears healed David Morris’s wound, then transformed it into a precision gear for the examination’s final bonus question. After earning Griselda Marchbanks’s praise, he asked David whether the examination had been designed to test Transfiguration’s stability.

• Griselda Marchbanks praised Wizet’s phoenix, and David Morris introduced himself as a physicist who wanted to test its healing tears.
• Wizet cut David’s arm with Diffindo, and the phoenix’s tears healed the wound without a scar or much pain.
• Griselda assured Wizet that his performance already earned an O, but he chose to complete the final bonus question.
• Wizet shrank the phoenix into a gear, and David measured it and confirmed that it met the requirements precisely.
• Wizet asked David whether the examination questions were designed to assess the stability of Transfiguration.

Wizet explained that the examination’s final question was designed to test whether magic could be measured and trusted, and David Morris clarified that he sought cooperation rather than control. Wizet then demonstrated a new spell combination that he claimed could create a water sphere without impurities, leaving the examiners puzzled.

• Wizet deduced that the final question was meant to assess whether magic could be understood, measured, and trusted, and David Morris confirmed his reasoning.
• Wizet compared the examiners’ aims with an earlier attempt to regulate wizards, prompting David Morris to insist that his group wanted mutual understanding rather than control.
• Wizet and David Morris agreed that science and magic were both tools for explaining and changing the world.
• Wizet cast Aguamenti to form a water sphere, then used Petrificus Totalus to turn it into a glass-like ball.
• When David Morris guessed the sphere contained very few impurities, Wizet said his goal was to make it entirely free of them.

Wizet demonstrated to David Morris that Aguamenti could produce ultrapure water and gave him an ice sphere made with the Full Body-Bind Curse, which might be at absolute zero. Morris left the examination hall eager to investigate the evidence and continue the conversation between Wizards and Muggles.

• Wizet explained that skilled Wizards could use Aguamenti to summon exceptionally pure water, while magical work often embraced variables such as moonlight and morning dew.
• David Morris and Griselda Marchbanks agreed that both magical and scientific methods could study the world's rules, and Marchbanks credited Wizet with giving Wizards a way to express that shared ground.
• Wizet enclosed the ice sphere in a suitcase and told Morris that it had been frozen with the Full Body-Bind Curse, which rendered its target unable to move.
• Morris suspected the sphere had reached absolute zero, and Wizet invited him to research it, assuring him that magic would keep it from melting.
• Morris asked to leave immediately to investigate the sphere, thanked Marchbanks, and told Wizet he expected them to meet again soon.

After Wizet finished his O.W.L. examination, Griselda Marchbanks explained that the next day's practical exam would demonstrate magic's power to Muggle observers. Meanwhile, Voldemort and Herpo monitored the examination and learned that Severus had returned to the Department of Mysteries.

• Griselda Marchbanks told Wizet that the next day's Muggle observers wanted to assess magic's power and potential threat.
• The examiner dismissed Wizet after his examination, and Griselda Marchbanks advised him to rest.
• Calchas used the Eye of Heaven to track Wizet and reported that the examination was taking place in Ministry hearing chambers.
• Voldemort and Herpo discussed the Muggle involvement in the exams and their plans to remake the magical world.
• Voldemort ordered Calchas to check on Severus, and Calchas reported that Severus was standing outside the Department of Mysteries.