RPG Year 1 -- Hogwarts Exam Ranking

Ryan had been one of those students who arrived at the Great Hall, grabbed some food from his house table, then headed back out. In his case, an apple for himself and his friends, then he wrapped some sandwiches to share. And some bacon for Toby, which hopefully he wouldn't mind was cold.

With that secured, he had a very important task to do before hurrying back to his dormitory to finish packing. Ryan had woken to his exams results, which was unexpected and not entirely the way he wanted to start the day, but he'd surprisingly done very well. All Os, apart from Herbology... which had dampened his mood. 

Arriving at the Entrance Hall, Ryan got out his Muggle notepad and pen. Staring up at the long list, his stomach was in knots trying to find not only his ranking but also that of his two best friends. Just in case they didn't come down and check, he would make note on theirs as well. 

The OWL students one looked scary. Those were a lot of points. Joe would be happy to know his Captain scored the best, though. Ryan made note of it to relay it later. It was nice seeing a Ravenclaw at the top.

Ryan did better in a lot of his classes than his friends, which he frowned at. He'd tried to remind him how important studying is, but he supposed they didn't listen or some other reason. It was confusing, as he knew they were smart enough. Still, some weren't too bad.

A grin spread across his face when he saw Joe had done the best in History of Magic. Maybe he had listened, then? Ezra did best in Charms, he noticed, and reminded himself not to note that down. Ryan stood there for a while, even after finishing his notes, to just stare up at it all as if he could devise all the meanings in the universe from it.

Sighing, he put away his notepad. He needed to do better. These scores weren't good enough. He hadn't topped any of his classes. Ryan glanced around, then turned to head back towards the Grand Staircase -- he needed to hurry up and finish his packing before it was time to leave. No matter how much he did not want to depart Hogwarts and return to the miserable and lonely life he'd had before it.

Orla had lingered in the corridors branching off the Entrance Hall until things were mostly clear. She hadn't seen any of her friends check the board; she assumed they were probably among the first to see where they placed.

She was glad to be alone. Though her grades had been surprisingly good, the whole morning seemed off and miserable.

Writing home was pointless - grades were never important with her family - and Orla had essentially been entirely alone for more than a day as the school tumbled from disaster to end-of-year activities. 

Orla felt as though she'd become some sort of spectre, not really bright or talkative or important enough to warrant attention.

Still, she'd come to breakfast, and spotted the ranking board with a thrill of curiosity. 

As the smells of breakfast filled the space and the low hum of hundreds of voices bounced off the stone, Orla slunk like a cat to the base of the wide noticeboard.

There were so many names but her eyes fell on Charlotte's first, picked out top of the class for Potions. Orla smiled, hoping that boosted Charlotte's confidence a little. 

She chewed on an edge of her robe sleeve but stopped and let her arm fall when she saw that MJ had not ranked as high as Orla thought she would. She scrunched her eyes, stood on tip-toe and looked again.

Well...these rankings were surely wrong! Apart from Charlotte's, of course...But the rest had to be wrong!

Orla decided to focus on the outrage she felt for MJ, and not the painfully middling position of her own ranking. With a sharp puff of her fringe, she stuck her tongue out at the ranking board and stomped off for breakfast.

[ooc: exit]

Kassia wandered over to the entrance hall to check her overall score. She was feeling better today, and was unable to hide her curiosity. She scanned the board with greedy eyes, looking only for herself.

So close to being the most distinguished student, just after Nordstrom. It was a shame she hung around Seabrook and Vargas. Speaking of, Kassia was right after Seabrook in potions distinction, somehow. Hopefully that boded well for OWLS.

But the most shocking thing was receiving academic distinction for care of magical creatures class. Kassia had been planning on dropping it. But she was the best student in the class?

She walked away, uncertain.

[Exit]

Oscar had been in a daze for most of the morning, so it was lucky that he was so used to packing his trunk and had found his scattered belongings the day before. His exam results had really knocked him for one, having been so sure that O's would be out of his reach.

At first he thought that he might have received someone else's results by accident, and had worried after the poor student that was probably stressing over his average grades. But no, that was definitely his name. There was no other Tinkle in his year.

Huh. Maybe the exams had just been easier than expected and the grading more lenient? That made the most sense to him.

He decided to lug his belongings down to the entrance hall to really see where he fell in the year, sure that it would turn out to be the middle of the pack.

Instead, after he had stood his trunk against the wall with Basil's cage resting on top, he found another surprise in that he was at the top of a couple of classes. History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures - the first a big surprise and the second causing a smile.

Well, at least that should please his Nonna. Even if he was not sure how it had happened.

After he had made a mental note of Arthur's class rankings as well, just in case, Oscar turned to drag his belongs into the Great Hall.