OWLs .... re: Mrs Figg

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 132831

Amiable Dorsai wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/132519 :

<< [Hermione] may even squeak out a divination OWL, assuming that one
can get an "A" just by knowing the theory >>

Hermione didn't get a Divination OWL because her Arithmancy exam was
at the same time as the Divination exam. IIRC in the afternoon between
the Astronomy theory (morning) and Astronomy practical (evening). So
I'm thinking that the Divination OWL doesn't have a theory paper and
would the Arithmancy OWL be only theory or only practical? 

If Percy and Bill got 12 OWLs each, then Hermione must have got either
12 or 13 (13 being the 12 Percy and Bill got plus Muggle Studies). But
canon only tells us of 10 exams she took: Charms, Transfiguration,
Herbology, DADA, Ancient Runes, Potions, CoMC, Astronomy, Arithmancy,
History of Magic. It seems to me that one possibility is that one of
these exams gives 3 OWLs or two of them give 2 OWLs. 

It kind of makes sense to me that History of Magic could give 2 OWLs,
one for the BC era and one for the AD era (possibly called History of
Ancient Magic and History of British Magic). I have been told that
that's different from O Levels, but the wizarding folk have some
unique folkways... 

Another possibility is about the Friday that was a day off for Harry
and Ron and Ancient Runes exam for Hermione: if the Ancient Runes exam
was only a half-day like the Arithmancy exam, she might have take
another half-day exam that day. It occurred to me that, the wizarding
world being its own thing, it might be a special OWL for Prefects
only, with questions about leadership and discipline and authority and
so on. Harry wouldn't even have known abou it, and I guess Ron
wouldn't have taken an exam that he had the option of not taking...  

I'd say we'll know in ten hours, but with JKR's maths, we may never
know.

Hickengruendler wrote in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/132600 :

<< While reading book 5 I was not the least bit surprised that Mrs
Figg was a Squib, because this information wasn't knew to me at all. 
I totally started reading the book knowing that she's a Squib. It was
only later that I realised that JKR never seemed to have said this, or
that at least I couldn't find the quote, and that it just seemed to
have been a fan-theory that I believed which turned out to be true by
accident. But that does prove that this theory existed. >>

We have only hearsay evidence, so it is not considered canon, but
people who attended Her reading and Q&A at the Toronto Skydome in 2000
(of which I have never found a transcript) said that She said there
that Mrs. Figg is a Squib. That led to a theory that the Arabella Figg
mentioned at the end of GoF, being one of 'the old crowd' must be a
witch, and therefore was Mrs. Figg's beautiful young niece, and
possibly Sirius's pre-Azkaban love interest.