Testing 1, 2, 3
A bored wizard sat in the ministry atrium recording every visitor. Today was a normal day owls flying everywhere. People wandering around. Red Auror robes, black robes of administrators, and earlier the laughable purple of politicians. Now aside from the general annoyance that were owl messengers in a confined space and a few people taking an early lunch it was quiet and boring.
At the center of the hall was a newly built ridiculous golden fountain made up of a golden wizard and witch surrounded by golden magical beings admiring them. It rose almost to the ceiling with water spotting out of the wands of the two humans. The glint of coins danced in the watery depths. On either side of the statue was a large empty space with a few potted plants and a couple of tables and chairs. A few which contained gossiping secretaries on early lunch.
A black haired young man stepped out of the floo. Pausing at the newly erected statue for a second before pivoting. Septimus continued past the statue and finally saw the entrance of the ministry. Golden gates with a security station were set into the far wall. As he walked closer, Septimus spied a young man slumped at his desk clearly bored out of his mind.
“Hello” Septimus greeted the bored young man as he reached the desk. Most people who looked Septimius’ age would not see the man as young, the man being in his late 20s but to Severus’ eyes he was young.
The young man, unfortunately wearing robes of a similar blue to the ceiling, said without looking up from his book. “Tap your wand here.” He pointed at a golden disk centered on the front of the desk.
Septimus did as asked and a parchment slip popped out. The security officer read out “unregistered unicorn hair wand last registered to an Eileen Prince.”
“It's a family wand.” Septimus shrugged. The man nodded, not really caring. It was not strange for underage wizards to use family wands over the summer. His job was to note who visited and where they were headed, it was not to punish underage magic usage. He might find this job boring but he was not looking for more work. No ministry worker would go looking to do more paperwork; he let the black haired visitor register with a temporary wand.
The man muttered about how he needed to not be too obvious with breaking the underage magic rules, stuffing the parchment into something, and pulling a gold rod out. “Where are you off, kid?”
“Department of Education.” With such an age typical boring response the man lost interest in Septimus waiving the rod at Septimus. The first time Severus had visited the ministry he had been less sensitive to magic. Now though, after surviving two wizarding wars he could feel magic slide across him, tracing his height and weighing him, literally. The parchment popped out of the device it had been stuffed into and the security officer nodded at the results.
Severus leaned over the desk. Eyebrows rising at the sight of his new name scrawled above his current height and weight description on the parchment. His old name was not even listed. A final line stated his purpose of the visit as ‘Department of Education’.
Past the golden gate was a smaller hall with multiple lifts, their doors just as gold as the rest of the metal present. A lift opened letting a throng of wizards and witches out. Septimus slid in, pressing the correct floor button from memory.
The amount of favors he racked up from coming here and finding out results for anxious Slytherins or their parents and sometimes the odd ravenclaw. A Hogwarts professor could not influence results but they could see student results early. The ministry did not send out OWL or NEWT results until after the homeschooling students took their tests in the summer because the top scorer across the tests relieved a distinction on their score sheet which helped them stand out when applying for apprenticeship. This delay meant despite the tests being graded with preliminary results which did not include special distinctions you could not access them in time to schedule a retake. If you wanted to know if you should retake the tests during the same summer after taking them at Hogwarts you needed a Hogwarts staff member to get your results for you early. A Hogwarts professor was able to access it for free a student could pay a little over 2 galleons to know if they passed but without a professor you had no idea whether that pass was an Acceptable(A), Exceeds Expectations(EE) or Outstanding(O) if you passed or Poor Dreadful or Troll if you failed. Parents wanted their kids to have an O as the final result and would pay a lot more then 2 galleons to know the exact letter. Goyle senior gave him some excellent Abraxan fur to find out his son's grades. Crabbe senior got him a new cauldron to find out. Both boys ended up having to retake 3 tests.
It was one of the nice benefits of professorship and a great way to collect expensive potions ingredients and favors. Favors neing the currency of all great Slytherins.
The cramped office was the same as he remembered it. Edwina was behind the counter, the same as she was in the future. No grey hair yet but already a little round with some smile wrinkles forming. She was Examiner Marchbank's niece which when combined with her kind demeanor got her this nice stable job. He hoped she was as competent as she was in the future.
“Hello, ma'am. I am here to register for my OWLs and some NEWTs. I'm not too late am I?” Severus adopted a bit of hesitancy in his question. Edwina was always nice to polite teens.
“Oh yes sweetheart you still have 3 days to register.” She smiled at Severus’s neat appearance.
“Do you know which you would like to take? The OWLs examinations here begin this upcoming week and the NEWTs start 2 weeks from now. Do you know how much it costs?”
“I'm not sure how much it costs and what the exam schedule is?”
“Each OWL test costs only 6 galleons if it is your first time taking it and 16 if it's your second attempt. It is an additional 2 galleons to have the preliminary results ready within 2 days so you know if you can take the NEWT. In order to take a NEWT test you must have an Acceptable or higher on your OWL if it has a prerequisite OWL. NEWTs cost a galleon more than OWLs. Let's look you up, what's your name, young man?” She asked sweetly, pulling up a schedule and order form.
“Septimus Prince.” Severus crossed his fingers hoping he came up as having not taken his exams. Even if he came up as having taken them it would still be within his price range to take the tests he needed, but more than his rent for the whole summer's difference for one test was insane. It made sense why only Purebloods could afford to retake OWLs and NEWTs.
“Well it looks like this is your first time. Please write your name on the top of this order form.” Upon writing his name she gracefully took back the form filling in information like his date or birth and that he was taking them after self study.
Eventually she reached the section where she asked what he was actually taking “Which OWLS would you like to take. We offer Ancient Runes, Astronomy, Arithmancy, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Divination, Potions, History of Magic, Magical Law and Etiquette, the Olde Ways, Muggle Studies, and Herbology.”
With the lowered price he could afford to take as many subjects as he wanted. “Is it possible to take everything except Divination, Muggle studies, the Olde Ways, and Magical Law and Etiquette. Can I get some of them graded in order to take the NEWTs and some not?” He was confident he could pass all but the ones he excluded in his sleep. Dumbledore managed to remove Magical Law and Etiquette from Hogwarts syllabus in 6 years so Septimus was not as confident about passing it while the other two still offered at Hogwarts were useless subjects. There was no need to put himself through the joke that was a divination OWL without the power of sight. While the ‘facts’ Muggle studies tested you on were more often wrong than right. Plus only ministry jobs ever saw muggle studies as a benefit. Those were useless tests. The Olde ways was not offered at Hogwarts; it was a test only a few home school students took. And was only useful if you wanted to be a magical guide. After the first wizarding war most guides weby the ministry and anything related to the practice of the Olde ways was banned, erasing the test and marking those who took it for scrutiny. Not only was he not sure if he could pass it. Taking it could put him in danger in the future.
Edwina started checking off boxes on her form then circling time slots on the schedule. “You will be taking up every time slot provided on testing. If you took one more test you'd have to take it while we're finishing grading. Are you sure this won't be too stressful on you dear there is always next year?”
“No, I want to get it over with. So can I pay for only some of the OWLs for early grading to know if I can take the NEWTs and can I purchase taking the NEWTs too?”
“You can do both those things. But I would highly advise against that NEWTs are called nearly exhausting for a reason. A 6 day rest period between the end of OWLs jumping straight into NEWTs is barely enough to recover let alone prepare. It would be much more advisable at your age to wait until you are ready to take the NEWTs and not waste your first time discount on such a slim chance.”
“I appreciate your concern but it's my time, money and choice.” Edwina sighed attempting one last appeal to Septimus’ better judgement “You realize all tests are non refundable regardless of result. If you don't pass an OWL you won't get the money back you paid to take its following NEWT.”
“I know but I also heard I need to purchase my NEWT test this week or I have to wait a year.” Edwina frowned, nodding her confirmation to Septimus’ statement. While grabbing another schedule this time for the NEWT testing week.
“I want to fast track my results and sign up for NEWTs in Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, Astronomy, Transfiguration, Defense against the Dark Arts, and Healing.” He didn't need to take a NEWT in Defense against the Dark Arts but Severus wanted it on his record in this timeline but he was unwilling to take that class the any Marauders there was too much chance of getting hurt.
“That is a lot of NEWTs most people only take 1 or 2 at a time at the ministry. But if you can pay I will not stop you.” She smirked a thought probably crossing her mind about how he won't be able to afford it and will have to take less tests.
“Usually I would ask next ‘Are you paying by galleon or key?’ however this close to when we stop selling accepting keys. Can you pay. . . ” She glances down at her complete form “One hundred and thirty galleons?”
To her great surprise Septimus does not balk at the amount, only calmly nodding his head and placing the amount she asked for on the counter. 130 galleons was extremely expensive but Severus had budgeted for it to cost 15 galleons a test and had accounted for the cost to get results early so he could take NEWTs. Due to the cheaper price he was able to take 3 more OWLs and 1 additional NEWT than planned while staying just barely over half the allotted budget. From this perspective it was a steal.
Edwina's eyes grew larger with each galleon taking from his pouch. Severus stacked them in thirteen piles of ten. His placing of the last ten galleons seemed to snap her out of it.
With a tap of her wand the form she filled out glowed green than gold signifying the ministry had received full payment and filed permission for him to receive scores and prove competency. The results would be stored available for free public access starting next year.
“Congratulations! You are now officially registered to take the exams. This schedule is when you are scheduled to take the Owls. Starting Monday, come to this office prior to 8:45am and someone will direct you to the correct test room.” She handed Septimus the schedule. Everyday starting on Monday he had two exams. The day was divided into two time slots. A 9am to noon slot and a 1pm to 4pm one. Edwina was right. He had used up every normal exam time slot. On Monday he had Charms, Tuesday he had Defense Against the Dark Arts, Thursday was Transfiguration, Friday was Herbology, and Saturday he had Potions. On each of those days the morning was theory and the afternoon was practical application. While on Wednesday he had Ancient Runes in the morning slot and Astronomy in the afternoon slot. He would end the week with a morning History of Magic exam and an afternoon Arithmancy exam. Talk about torture.
They still scheduled the weekend for the most commonly retaken tests. The little things that corresponded with his memories of the future were really reassuring. He was a little curious how they would do the Astronomy exam without a night sky. Edwina placed another parchment schedule in front of him. “This is your NEWT schedule assuming you pass the corresponding OWLs.” It was slightly lighter with no exam in the Tuesday afternoon slot. Each NEWT exam was the same length as its OWL except for Potions whose practical took up both exam slots on Saturday. Healing which was only offered as a NEWT subject took up Sunday morning for theory and it's practical ran from 1 to 9. It was a grueling test but well worth the certification as only those with a Healing NEWT could buy certain potions ingredients. They could also always find work as a medinurse under a mediwizard. He wanted that certification back.
“One question: will you provide a quill and extra parchment or do I need to bring it?” Severus knew that when he started teaching, students had to bring their own supplies but in 1992 they reverted back to the ministry providing quill, parchment, in addition to the exam. He had no idea when the switch was made.
“We provide the quill and paper. The only thing you need to bring is yourself and your wand. Less accusations of cheating that way.” She smiled while Septimus nodded along. That was everything he needed to know.
***
For the next five days Severus did not leave his rented flat. A normal person his age in this position would be frantically going over notes and cramming for the test. He was not doing exactly that. Severus being a true Slytherin was leveraging every advantage his experience gave him.
One thing that made his life infinitely easier that he did not have at this age last time around was a mastery of occlumency. An Occlumens could defend against legilimency by blocking off parts of the brain to prevent Legilimency from accessing thoughts and feelings. But that was not all could do. In order to prevent someone from being able to access a specific thought or memory you needed to be able to find it first. Most trained occlumens had some kind of construction in their mind in which they used to organize and store memories. Severus’ was his Hogwarts potions storage room. The more familiar and comfortable you are with a space the easier it is to recreate.
Despite not having access to a pensieve he as a master occlumens and legilimens he could enter his own memories but it was slightly dangerous. If you were ambushed while looking through your memories you could not defend yourself or even know it happened while a pensive created a protective forcefield that could somehow absorb any spell including the unforgivables. Sadly, Pensive’s were really old and rare. Their production method was lost to history and they were so valuable no one had published or allowed research into how the protection mechanism worked.
With his rooms already warded with spells people did not even know existed in this time let alone how to disable them he felt safe using this method. He had created a spell in 6th year that mentally gave an alarm sound at a specific time instead of making noise into the air. Back then it was used to wake him up before his roommates without waking them. Later he discovered quite by accident that it could reach him while performing occlumency or legilimency.
So he entered an almost meditative state only leaving to eat from his meal box and sleep at an alarm's notice. The first day was spent reviewing the OWL exams he took in his fifth year. The second on all the OWL prep info he requested as a teacher to train his snakes. On the third and fourth day he went through several of his tutoring sessions with students. Studying with others not only helped you remember information, it also made you have to come up with a way to explain something in a way the others could understand. If you could explain a concept to someone else then you definitely knew the information. On his final day before testing he spent the morning meditation going through every wand stance, potting technique, or brew that might show up.
Instead of studying that last evening he took a break having a boxed dinner and relaxing long shower and let himself indulge in a short brew. After casting the counter-curse for Curse of the Bogies he had a perfectly made pepperup potion. Nothing was more satisfying or confidence boosting than creating a potion perfectly. He couldn’t wait to use his own wand tomorrow at the exam.
***
The first day of the exam had been so easy. There were only seven other people taking the Charms exam and none of them were in his Hogwarts classes. Honestly the only part to wrack his nerves was presenting Severus Snape’s wand at the registration desk. Turns out the ritual he did to accept his new name did not change his wand registration identity. Not that the man at registration cared that it wasn’t his wand.
On Tuesday was Defense Against the Dark Arts which unlike Charms had over 30 people taking the test. A quick notice-me-not seemed to hide his presence from the 14 of whom that were in his Hogwarts cohort. Fortunately the retakers were taken to a separate room from those taking it for the first time leaving him with the seven homeschooled children. As he remembered the practical did not take the full three hours instead he had to wait outside the practical room until being called in. Fortunately he was the last called in. The wait had been unbearable but everyone was so stressed about passing that no one seemed to pay him any mind. Well being ignored was good he wanted to show off a little. So when it was finally his turn after completing all the required spells perfectly, it took a lot of mental power to remember to say certain spells, he leaned in and asked conspiratorily “Does having a Patronus get me extra points?” his question almost knocked over his examiner with surprise. As the last one called it was just Septimus Prince and five examiners in the room
“You, Mr. Prince have a corporeal patronus?” the man asked in disbelief, causing the other examiners to drop what they were doing and look over at the question. He smirked and cast “Expecto Patronum” only to gape in shock along with the other examiners when out popped not his expected doe but a snowy owl.
Watching the owl sore overhead was like a balm to his soul. He was finally not in Lily’s shadow; he'd forgiven himself.
This time he did not need to dedicate himself to protecting and nurturing others. He just somehow knew this meant he had given himself permission to stop putting himself in the line of fire and instead cultivate his deep love of learning. A single tear of joy at his freedom slipped past his defenses before his occlumency took control of his emotions. The examiners were still looking on in amazement and his momentarily lapse in emotional control.
***
Nothing else exciting happened at any of his other exams. Every test day had a different number of takers. With History of magic having only adult test takers aside from him while Ancient Runes and Arithmancy having the second most Adult test takers. It soon became clear that the tests were not what made this hard. Instead it was avoiding those in his Hogwarts cohort. Fortunately, the ministry seemed to like to divide testers into those who had and those who had not. Thus he developed a system pretty fast; the seven kids he took his Monday charms exam with turned out to all be homeschoolers so all he had to do was place a notice-me-not and follow one of them to whatever room the test was in and drop the charm before entering. The Astronomy test had the coolest testing room. Only 10 people took it. The ministry seemed to have a planetarium. For the exam they were shown several sections of sky and had to answer based on each segment. While they did this each student was taken away for around five minutes to show they could use and manipulate a telescope to where exactly in the sky the answer to a particular question would be located. Astronomy was tough but fun. On the other hand his potions practical was a joke in Severus’ opinion they had to brew a Deflating Draught and a Herbicide Potion. He finished it an hour early and to the standards shown in an apothecary. Upon turning his Arithmancy exam in on Sunday he went home and collapsed on his bed.
It would be surprising if he got less than an O on everything. His confidence was proven on the next Thursday when he got his preliminary OWL results.
Septimus Prince Received the Preliminary OWL results in the following Subjects:
Astronomy O
Care of Magical Creatures O
Defence Against the Dark Arts O
Herbology O
Potions O
Transfiguration O
Passing grades
Outstanding (O)
Exceeds Expectations (EE)
Acceptable (A)
Failing grades
Poor (P)
Dreadful (D)
Troll (T)
His grades came with a second letter.
Congratulations Mr. Prince. You have achieved the required grades to take your NEWTs please bring the accompanying letter certifying your results with you on Monday, June 28th 1976. The exam starts promptly at 9am please arrive 15 minutes earlier to register and be directed to your exam room. If you arrive after 9:05 am you will not be able to take the exam. Please be prompt.
He had been meditating reviewing NEWT memories especially focusing on Healing for the past three days but being confirmed to take the exams was a huge weight off. Healing may not have a specific OWL prerequisite but if you did not pass Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms no Healing trainer would teach you. That helped filter out those taking the test. Eleven more days and he would be done with exams. Then it would just be a waiting game until results which usually arrived early August.
He could have fun brewing all August. With a little carve out for a necessary meeting.