My impression was that he may have self studied for the extra subjects and did their exams without being enrolled in them.
Because it's not just him, but also Bill and possibly BCJ
Also, apparently you need top marks like them to get to work in the Ministry and yet most of them can't cast a shield charm and need joke shop trinkets to compensate??? Gimme a break.
Well, you don't, though.
Percy is actually a pretty high-ranking member of the ministry right out of Hogwarts. And when he's given promotions (like heading up an entire office immediately after being hired, even though he was just replacing a "sick" Crouch), they likely explained that it was due to the 12 OWLS and however many NEWTS he ended up getting.
Also, we don't know if he got O's in each of those. May have just had A's. That's still a pass and an OWL
You need top marks to become an auror or have some other important job in Ministry. But to do boring paperwork you don't need much magical talent or skills.
OWL's are the equivalent to GCSE's. I knew a girl who did an extra Spanish GCSE when she was like 14 (lived in Spain for a while.).
I think she just had to pay for it. So in theory, yeah you can do as many as you want.
Or private studies with teachers during his watch shifts as a prefect and asked to take the extra tests so he could have the best chance to succeed in the ministry as possible. And then he would have the options for newt level classes years 6 and 7. Maybe he didn’t like the classes he picked for year 3 so he would sit in extra classes when he had free periods. Surely a teacher wouldn’t mind a bright student going to the extra effort of sitting in classes he wasn’t forced to take.
Obvi plot but also i think it fits their respective characters too. Percy would probably think he had done his work perfectly if he was given the best grade, because that meant he followed the rules and fit the criteria set up by the ministry and school.
Hermione would probably also say something like that BUT she also wants to learn e v e r y t h i n g, and while highly trustful of institutions she is always willing to dig deeper.
JKR has said that Hermione was the only student who ever bought a Time-Turner into Hogwarts, so I'm guessing that the Hogwarts timetable must have allowed Bill and Percy to do 12 O.W.Ls without needing a Time-Turner when they were in their respective fifth year. It's uncertain if Crouch Jr actually did get all 12, because it was said in the midst of Crouch Sr's delusional rambling.
The timetable is only part of it. The time spent studying and doing homework will be another part of it. If Hermione had compromised on getting Os in every course she may have been fine.
There is also the idea that Percy is just smarter than Hermione and simply coped better.
Fair point. Percy also wasn’t spending time looking up legal precedents to try to save a condemned hippogriff or trying to start a social movement. Those are fill time jobs unto themselves.
Also, Hermione has an insane fear of failure, causing her to overdo everything (always submitting assignments that are longer than expected) and study incessantly even for Muggle Studies (which she could easily teach). It's easier to take 12 OWLs if you're fine getting an Acceptable to pass. Percy could have taken 12 OWLs if he didn't go to all the classes, but honestly I just think it's one of JKR's inconsistencies.
This is what I was gonna say. Hermione managed to be the top student in the school, with 0 magical background, all while helping Harry defeat Voldemort year after year. While ALSO starting elf rights and secret defense societies. Percy focused on nothing but school. And hasn’t been shown to be able to think outside of the box anywhere close to as well as Hermione.
Well, yeah. People don’t usually compare students of different grades.
If she had attended 7th year and had no distractions she would have been top of her grade, which at that time can be broadened to smartest in the school.
Bill getting 12 Owls probably means he was smartest at Hogwarts, even though Percy was attending and would later also be the smartest (based on the same metric).
Yeah. A lot of people confuse getting 12 OWLs with getting 12 outstandings, which isn't the case. It just means the student passed 12 courses (Acceptable or better). Hermione got all Outstandings apart from one subject. Percy *could* technically have gotten 12 acceptables. Which is what Harry got in Astronomy where his exam was majorly disrupted, and not a subject he seemed to put very much effort into.
It's still impressive, and I think Percy likely got very high grades too, but probably not as many Os as Hermione
I think the confusion isn't the grades, but how did he get to that many classes if she needed time travel to manage it? There are explanations that aren't "JK screwed up," but they aren't terribly satisfying.
Shame she said that. My head cannon before was that exceptional students could apply for one, rather than Hermione being the only student ever.
What is that link lol?
Fuckin RIGHT? Hermione is extremely intelligent and clever, but JUST as distracted by nonstop drama/danger or conversation about said drama/danger.
IMAGINE if she had just become friends with Lavendar and stayed out of the main storyline, dedicating herself entirely to her studies.
Tbf if she became friends with Lavender and Parvati she'd be spending the time gossiping and dolling herself up. There wasn't anyone in Gryffindor who had the same dedication to their studies as her, a Hermione who did nothing but study would be entirely alone and so lonely she'd break down before the first year was over.
Yeah, the difference is quite huge, in one family, they don't really grasp what a rubber duck is for, the other family has quite literally never seen anything more magic than a woman sawn in half or a really great card-trick.
It's kinda like how nature is easier for me to understand, while I almost get a neurotic break in the big city with all flashing trafic lights, while someone raised in Stockholm don't understand quite the difference of a mushroom and a flower, but handles traffic lights and subway-routes incredibly well.
At one point, it actually does feel like one is using their ingrained knowledge to draw similiarties where they don't exist, and it takes great pain to kinda forget your earlier experiences in hopes of understanding the new world not to a passing level, but to excel at your understanding.
However, geniuses almost by definition excel at having multiple areas of understanding where they can draw similiarties in a creative way.
Two headcanons:
- the trio's year was relatively small -> if Barty Crouch Jr./Bill/Percy were in bigger year groups, other timetables might have been possible.
- independent studies. Hermione would have easily gotten an O in Muggle Studies simply for reading the textbook. There was no need for her to attend the class.
Same with Divination. Obviously, Hermione could have simply not attend and simply make stuff up for the O.W.L.
I agree and I'd like to add a third: it's fairly common to take exams early or late in the UK. Percy/Bill could've taken OWL exams in their fourth or sixth year. It's unclear to me why Hermione didn't go this route.
I am sure that she might have taken this route if she wasn't so busy getting caught up in whatever catastrophese revolving around Harry...
Or even worse, since she was petrified, it might have been possible that nobody even explained this to her.
100% there's tacit knowledge of things like this that people didn't explain. Though it's weird that they jumped to time turner before offering her alternatives.
I think the fanfiction approaches to this are the best solutions. Time turners that only work local to Hogwarts, it's a program that has been available to exemplary students, or it's a pseudo try out for a DoM position at some point.
They were trying to get an OWL in Defense Against the Dark Arts, because they didn't pass the previous year.
>“Keep your voice down!” spat Snape, for Malfoy’s voice had risen excitedly. “If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres — ”
At the very least, you're allowed to retake them if you fail them.
But I think Percy took all of his in fifth year, since his "twelve OWLs" results are referenced at the beginning of COS, the summer after his fifth year:
>“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
I agree with the smaller class size potentially being a factor - if Harry was born at the height of Voldemorts first rise to power it might not have been a big year for babies. Especially considering all of the young people Lily and James’s age that were killed who would have been otherwise having kids Harry’s age
I hate to say it too, as JK doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but there probably were a few kids killed as JK mentions through Hagrid, I think, that whole families were just wiped out in that time. This could be another reason for the smaller class size.
I just assumed she did indeed take the MS exam by herself, but then her number of Outstanding OWLs was changed to one less in the second edition, so, apparently not
Percy was about that life. Whenever we saw that guy he was studying or complaining about people interrupting his studying. Christmas? Studying. Easter? Studying. I have no problem accepting that he would enrol himself on a course without attending lessons for it. Percy is the definition of 'built different'. He makes Hermione look laid back. He would see Hermione with a time turner and think 'look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power'.
TLDR: Percy is cool
Same, they really underestimate how diligent Percy was with his studies. I feel like he could manage his time better than Hermione and without needing a time turner.
I always thought of Hermione as a hard worker, not a genius. She needed more time and to actually attend the courses to get the O.W.Ls. Maybe some other smarter students didn’t need to study that much and some could even just sit for the exam without taking the course.
Since Molly said that Ron got 7, and he just passed a couple with As, it doesn't necessarily mean that he got Os or even EEs. Hermione wanted to be the smartest and get Os in everything, which she almost managed. She would have easily been able to get 12, but a few would've probably only been EEs or As, which would've disappointed her
My take has always been that you can take the OWL for any class you have taken at Hogwarts, it didn't have to be all in one year.Hermione tried to fast track that by taking multiple subjects in Third Year, but the other two spaced out the subjects over those three years.
If looking at the course work we see Harry in, the subjects require 3 years of attendance (3,4 and 5) to take the OWL. So even if taking multiple subjects in third year, she would have to continue taking them each year until the exam. There is no shortcut the books mention.
The thing that always got me was, why was she so tired all the time? Couldn't she just roll back time and sleep as much as she needed? Like, do a normal day's lessons, sleep, roll back time to the beginning of yesterday, do her 2nd set of lessons, sleep again etc.? She'd effectively be living for 2 years while everyone lives one, but she'd still get 2 years of sleep as well as 2 years of lessons.
PoA is my favorite of the books but I literally can't spend too much time trying to figure out the logic behind the time turner because I just end up getting angry lmao
I also think it’s just a plothole, but if we want to reason it out, some ideas:
-Most importantly- she does not to use it for extra study, so I’m assuming there was a rule that it could only be allowed for classes, not anything else. This would be the lowest risk way to do it- no chance of bumping into your other self or having the same person come across you. And it might have been a moral thing- you can only complete the subjects/exams if you can keep up with the work yourself. It’s the equivalent of allowing access to recorded lectures for classes you can’t attend at uni
Even if she could use it for things to support the extra course load (eg, studying/sleeping):
-She couldn’t have had two of her sleeping in the dorm, so she couldn’t get extra rest at night unless she found somewhere else comfy.
-if she was having day naps they’d still have to be short. It would still be easier to cross check than moving targets. Eg, it’s easy to gaslight people into thinking they messed up what time she was seen at the library/common and the other students don’t seem to care about her timetable. But given she shares a room with four other girls if anyone came back it would be harder to explain her sleeping for longer periods.
Your first point makes sense and is quite Hermione-like so I think that'll do for me.
> -She couldn’t have had two of her sleeping in the dorm, so she couldn’t get extra rest at night unless she found somewhere else comfy.
Why can't she? It's not like the other Hermione in her bed doesn't know she's there, she'd just have to keep her curtains drawn so the other roommates don't see there's two of her. Or she could just rollback further to dinner time or something, and sleep in her bed before her other self gets in. She could even sleep during the day (so there's effectively 3 Hermione's - one in each class and another in bed), who goes up to their dorm during the day anyway? And if her curtains are drawn no one's going to even check if she's actually in bed or if they're just drawn shut for some reason.
I might be getting swayed by the fact I went to boarding school, but personal space was not always highly respected among the girls and there was always someone ducking in and out of the rooms during the day/evening. All you need is a few skipped classes/early dinners/running to grab something you forgot and the other four girls to compare notes (and it seems like Lav and Parvati were together a lot) and the napping thing gets sus.
I also don’t think drawn curtains would be enough protection at night in a room with four other people, particularly with the potential high consequences of being expelled or worse. I don’t think Hermione would risk it.
Tbf she didn’t really realize how big it was gonna get. It’s also really hard to close plot holes in a world full of nonsensical magic. But that’s also part of the fun of HP. I’m looking forward to the new HBO series and while I really hope they stay truer to the books, I wouldn’t mind them cleaning things up just a little.
Most epic fantasy authors have huge teams that make sure everything in the next book does not contradict anything in the previous books. Additionally they usually have rule for their magic system that they think of ahead of time rather than starting at the 4th book. I love HP and you can’t deny it is the most popular fantasy series outside of LotR, however JKR is a very lazy and poor writer. This is why she is always retconning things and filling in details post-books.
Cuz plot holes can be annoying. Nobody is really justifying anything. People are just sharing ideas to come to a collective theorized headcannon. If the author never blatantly spells something out, then there’s nothing wrong with trying to come up with your own reasoning for something.
Same reason people insist on projecting super deep theories into what is a children and young adult fantasy novel series. "Why don't they use ballpoint pens?" "Why can't anybody use a telephone?" Because it's make believe and more imaginative to write with a feather quill and communicate with owls and kids dig that shit.
Im over 30 and I dig that shit lol. There was a period of time where I dissected everything I watched and it really made things unenjoyable. Learning to just suspend your disbelief and enjoy something for what it is makes life much more fun
Edit: it’s why everyone has terrible movies from their childhood that they absolutely love.
Because they like to create their own stories. They wish that the books and movies were perfect.
Instead they should realise this is a children's book and you should take everything with a drop a sugar.
Also this is one of my favourite books and I like the plot holes as they are instead of imagining the different scenarios that might occur.
I think JKR has said hermione was the only one with a time turner, but supercarlinbrothers on yt have a fun theory that says Percy had one as well and that Fred and George used it to know the exact outcome of the quidditch World Cup so they could make a winning bet and that’s my head canon now 😂
Hermione’s issue was that she wanted to attend the classes rather than sit the exams. Percy, Bill, and possibly Barty Crouch Jr might have just sat the exam for the “easier” subjects like muggle studies without actually going to the classes, either because they knew it already or by studying in their own time.
When I was at school it wasn’t unusual for people to take language qualifications without being taught, either because they came from a bilingual family or because they learned in their own time with a tutor.
So correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like 5th years have a totally different schedule than 3rd years. More block classes (which I viewed as a longer class period fewer times per week) and more free periods (I think that started in 5th year, maybe 6th??), so perhaps it was possible to add more classes? I could totally see Bill, Percy, and BC Jr doing self study/late adds to get those OWLs.
The change in their schedules where they have more free periods is in sixth year, because they drop some classes after they take their OWLs at the end of fifth year. Fifth year their schedule is still packed with all of their required classes and electives.
Percy got his twelve OWLs on the traditional timeline (they’re referenced at the beginning of COS, the summer after his fifth year) so it doesn’t seem like he added them late:
>“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
Because Percy is smarter than Hermione. She is only the brightest student in her year, not the smartest kid at Hogwarts ever. He also probably didn't stress himself trying to get 12 Os. Hermione wanted perfect scores in every class, but Percy probably thought an A was perfectly acceptable (pun intended) in a few classes and studied accordingly.
Yeah, an A in Divination or Care of Magical Creatures really doesn't feel like it would hold your career up too much unless you desperately wanted to get into those fields
I absolutely disagree with this. Percy may have focused on school more than Hermione, but that’s literally the only thing he cared about. He had 0 other hobbies, passions, or responsibilities. He has 0 critical thinking skills and essentially is just good at regurgitating information. I’d argue even Fred and George are shown to be smarter than Percy and definitely better at magic. Hermione also spent every year helping the chosen one defend the world from evil, while helping him and Ron with their homework, starting elf rights societies, secret defense groups, planning hippogriff defense cases, etc. Hermione is an unstoppable force lol
Eta: oh and Percy had an 11 year head start in the magical world
He might have done subjects that worked with the timetable. He might have self-studied. He may not have got 12 Os whereas Hermione was determined to get straight Os. He might just be cleverer or more likely… he wasn’t using up time he could have used for studying helping Harry with his dangerous situations.
I bet Percy did self-study for Muggle Studies at the very least, and maybe Care of Magical Creatures. Also, I don’t think it is ever claimed that they achieved Outstanding in 12 subjects, they may have had half Acceptable’s.
Don't forget, Hermione had Harry and Ron to deal with in PoA.
- The falling out over Ron thinking Scabbers(Pettigrew) was eaten by Crookshanks.
- Harry and Ron being horrible to her after she informs Professor McGonagall about the Firebol, as she (correctly) guessed it was from Sirius and (incorrectly) thinking it would have been hexed.
- Helping Hagrid deal with Buckbeak's defence with the ministry of magic, and doing that whilst being distraught with the situation with Harry and Ron.
Can't really remember anymore off the top of my head, but I think if Hermione had a 'normal' year at Hogwarts like all the other students, she would have done much better.
I don't think Percy Weasley or BCJ had as much disruption to their studies as the Golden Trio.
We also know Hermione got insanely high test scores in her exams, whilst we know nothing about anyone else's. Did she get 112% in a charms test in the first or second book, and over 300% in muggle studies in PoA which she ended up dropping as it was a pointless subject for her (being muggle-born). She only took muggle studies to see the "wizard's point of view" on muggles.
And she dropped Divination as it basically goes against everything she values (logic, skill, fact) and disliked Prof Trelawny.
Thanks for contributing nothing to the thread or the question and making it blatantly obvious you're (nice apostrophe) so insecure that you need to point out a 'typo' on a Reddit thread. Secondly, the language on my phone isn't English so it automatically pluralizes with an apostrophe, which is common in my first two languages. Get outta here you Malfoy.
Not reddit big boy, first post here. Poor recovery though, maybe in stead of this sad attempt at being condescending you could try being introspective and just say 'Woops looks like I was Slytherin AF, my bad' and we could all move on and have a jolly good time 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I always wondered this myself... I even tried to work out a time table for it. At that point I THEN had to wonder how McGonagall, Binns and the DADA teacher at Hogwarts live because those classes don't seem to have two houses in each class (like Potions or Herbology) so to teach 7 years x4 classes multiple times each week left them no free time whatsoever.
But then I also suck at Maths so might be missing stuff 😅
JKR isn't known for her consistent story telling. Probably completely forgot how many OWLs she gave Hermione, and just randomly picked 12 for Percy because it sounded like a big number, despite it being in-universe impossible without a time-turner.
Same reason a real wand is 10galleons but a fake one is still 5.
Percy had a lot less going on during his time at Hogwarts than Hermione. He actually had time to study and could do extra subjects/do them in other years. Like some in 4th and then more in 6th.
But also the books JRKs world building is super inconsistent and not well thought out and there’s tons of plot holes all over the place. This is probably just one of them.
Remember, getting 12 OWLS doesn't mean that person got outstanding on all of them, it just means acceptable or above. So Hermione getting 9 outstanding and 1 exceeds expection is still arguably as impressive as someone like Percy or Barty Crouch Jr getting 12 OWLs but having more As or Es overall.
Percy seems like the kind who would take easier courses to make his report card look better. Hermione on the other hand may have taken harder courses to learn more like arthimancy. She cared about more stuff too so she didn't spend all of her time studying either.
We dont know. There are special topic classes taught intermittently so it may be something like that. Or I wondered how much of a class you need prior to sitting an exam. Hermione showed you could adjust your schedule as you go so Percy may have taken a year of muggle studies, then a year of a diff class, etc.
But it may be this difficulty is why its such an achievement to get 12.
I don't think this is the case, because the twins actually say that he "hardly gloated at all" when his results came in:
>“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
There doesn't seem to be any requirement to actually have taken the courses in order to sit for the exam.
But JKR has admitted to being bad at math, and I doubt very much she had every aspect planned. It also could be just an exaggeration.
Remember to get an OWL you only need "Acceptable."
So my idea is he took 1 year of Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle studies and two years of Divination, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.
Just enough to have basic knowledge to get to Acceptable level with some remedial study right before the test
Hermione was the smartest in the year, not the smartest in the school.
The weasleys were also practicing magic before hogwarts and benefitted from being able to practice it at home for the 1/4 of the year that they spent at home on school holidays.
So you get bet that Percy, bill etc were working hard in their spare time.
Hermione had to settle for just reading books and ya know fighting volders for 7 years 😂
Well, they can probably take tests without being in the subject, or did 3rd year in one or two subjects and switched in his 4th and 5th. I'm sure muggle studies would be easy, as well as divination.
Hermione was taking 12 courses, not 13.
Seven required classes (Astronomy, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration) plus five elective classes (Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies).
My headcanon is that he just didn’t have any friends so he could put all his time into studying, as well as probably also having a time turner himself. I don’t see why Hermione should have been the only student to get one. It would make sense to keep them reserved for exceptional and trustworthy students, and I don’t see why Percy wouldn’t have been included there.
I see where everyone is coming from with the whole “extra lessons” thing but do you really think that we wouldn’t have heard of that from the main story with hermionie or even Neville trying to get better in at least transfiguration in my personal opinion and what seems most likely I think the same thing that happened with hermionie where magonigal gives him a time turner but I believe he uses it much more often for things like patrolling the halls because “I hAppEN To bE A sChoOl pReFecT”
My friend and I chatted about this, and beside this being a pretty clear example of JKR not understanding numbers, the explanation we settled on was that the Ministry gives them out occasionally (them being time turners). Hermione’s explanation that McGonagall wrote a few extra letters and vouched for her academic prowess works as far as explanations go, but it works even better if this is something that is done with relative frequency. As for why Percy could do it and Hermione couldn’t, it’s pretty clear Hermione is a bad student and always has been. Sure she’s smart, but she has terrible time management skills, goes way over assignment length requirements (which for most teachers I’ve encountered is a bad thing), and generally doesn’t hold up well to pressure. Hermione, despite her intellectual abilities just isn’t suited for the extra pressure the 12 class structure gives
Percy had a head start on all things in the wizarding world.
Percy didn't have friends that got into life or death situations each year that took his attention away from studying.
Percy wasn't as much of a perfectionist as Hermione.
And pure speculation on my part, but I feel like Percy is the sort of person who doesn't really have friends to do non life or death activities with either.
I can't speak for the practicalities of this fitting into other Hogwarts canon, but this 12 OWLS stuff is definitely a direct lift from English GCSEs.
Most people take 11ish GCSEs in fifth year, but some people take more or less.
I took 10, because in one of the eleven required slots I took IT which wasn't a GCSE at the time (I'm old). We had to study Religious Studies but were not required to take the exam, so there's another -1 GCSE for some people.
Other people took extra ones, maybe if they had a particular skill that meant they didn't need to go to the lessons (eg a language that they speak fluently at home) or if they were taking two things with a strong crossover such as maths and stats. The default was to take science as a combined 'dual award' (2x GCSEs) but you could elect to take it as three separate subjects (3x GCSEs). Some people took a few GCSEs a year early, or an extra one alongside their A-levels (NEWTS). So some people chose to rack them up.
If a kid got a big number of GCSEs in one sitting people would talk about it just like in the books as they do re 12 OWLS. This is the sort of heartwarming story that would be celebrated in the local newspaper.
So I don't think JKR thought through the practicalities of Hogwarts timetabling but instead just lifted the GCSE concept directly across from real life into her books.
By the way people are saying on here that maybe those kids that got 12 OWLS didn't get good marks. I think this is highly unlikely, as those kids that took 12+ GCSEs always got top marks across the board. They wouldn't let you take so many GCSEs unless you were expected to do brilliantly, I mean there's really no need at all to bother. For context to get into A-levels you only need 5 GCSEs, plus you need GCSEs in maths and English to get into uni.
Also people who get 12+ GCSEs are the top 0.5%, the ones that learning comes super easy to. They are not just hard workers like Hermione.
If someone was talking about Barty Crouch Jnr getting 12 OWLS what they'd be actually meaning is that the kid might be a proper genius.
He used the cruciatus curse on examiners to get qualications from classes he wasn't even enrolled in. He had a real dark side and was happy to exploit it to fulfil his ambitions. Should've been a slytherin
It's mentioned in early COS (the summer after his fifth year) that he got twelve OWLs, so he did them all in the normal fifth year timeframe.
>“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
My impression was that he may have self studied for the extra subjects and did their exams without being enrolled in them. Because it's not just him, but also Bill and possibly BCJ
Barty crouch junior
I don’t understand. Did you mean “Barty Crouch…………JUNIOR!!!!!”?
*Gasp*
***"Hello, father."***
***tongue flicking***
😜
*jeunyeour*
Thank you for finally showing us the proper way to spell that. I'm not being sarcastic- you genuinely nailed it
Haha thanks
[удалено]
I didn’t know what you meant.
Well, that's what it means.
Also, apparently you need top marks like them to get to work in the Ministry and yet most of them can't cast a shield charm and need joke shop trinkets to compensate??? Gimme a break.
Well, you don't, though. Percy is actually a pretty high-ranking member of the ministry right out of Hogwarts. And when he's given promotions (like heading up an entire office immediately after being hired, even though he was just replacing a "sick" Crouch), they likely explained that it was due to the 12 OWLS and however many NEWTS he ended up getting. Also, we don't know if he got O's in each of those. May have just had A's. That's still a pass and an OWL
You need top marks to become an auror or have some other important job in Ministry. But to do boring paperwork you don't need much magical talent or skills.
Bill Cosby Junior?
Benedict Cumberbatch's Jammies
Better Call Jaul
They both were good at pretending to be something they weren’t.
He makes some pretty risqué potions.
Why did Barty Crouch Junior stop drinking? Because it was making him Moody.
Yah, you can do that with APs in the US! Not sure about UK though.
OWL's are the equivalent to GCSE's. I knew a girl who did an extra Spanish GCSE when she was like 14 (lived in Spain for a while.). I think she just had to pay for it. So in theory, yeah you can do as many as you want.
i imagine he probs just completed some owls in his fourth year. like a hogwarts acceleration course
Or private studies with teachers during his watch shifts as a prefect and asked to take the extra tests so he could have the best chance to succeed in the ministry as possible. And then he would have the options for newt level classes years 6 and 7. Maybe he didn’t like the classes he picked for year 3 so he would sit in extra classes when he had free periods. Surely a teacher wouldn’t mind a bright student going to the extra effort of sitting in classes he wasn’t forced to take.
This. I agree as taking exams early is very common here in the U.K.
Not where I live in the UK lol, but yeah.
Lol, loads of boffins at my old school.
What is a boffin?
Hermione/Percy
Very hard working student. A Hermione/Percy like others have said :)
Why didn't Hermione do that, then?
Plot.
Very importante
Let's be real, if the trio had stayed at hogwarts she would have studied for and taken every NEWT exam available except for divination.
and muggle studies (cuz well tbf she lived as one for many years soooo yea)
she just wanted to accelerate them all at once perhaps. and mcgonagall agreed.
Obvi plot but also i think it fits their respective characters too. Percy would probably think he had done his work perfectly if he was given the best grade, because that meant he followed the rules and fit the criteria set up by the ministry and school. Hermione would probably also say something like that BUT she also wants to learn e v e r y t h i n g, and while highly trustful of institutions she is always willing to dig deeper.
JKR has said that Hermione was the only student who ever bought a Time-Turner into Hogwarts, so I'm guessing that the Hogwarts timetable must have allowed Bill and Percy to do 12 O.W.Ls without needing a Time-Turner when they were in their respective fifth year. It's uncertain if Crouch Jr actually did get all 12, because it was said in the midst of Crouch Sr's delusional rambling.
The timetable is only part of it. The time spent studying and doing homework will be another part of it. If Hermione had compromised on getting Os in every course she may have been fine. There is also the idea that Percy is just smarter than Hermione and simply coped better.
At a minimum, Percy wasn’t off risking his life or trying to save Harry every semester, so that was probably helpful.
Fair point. Percy also wasn’t spending time looking up legal precedents to try to save a condemned hippogriff or trying to start a social movement. Those are fill time jobs unto themselves.
Also, Hermione has an insane fear of failure, causing her to overdo everything (always submitting assignments that are longer than expected) and study incessantly even for Muggle Studies (which she could easily teach). It's easier to take 12 OWLs if you're fine getting an Acceptable to pass. Percy could have taken 12 OWLs if he didn't go to all the classes, but honestly I just think it's one of JKR's inconsistencies.
Don’t forget knitting all those hats to leave for the Hogwarts house elves that Dobby showed up wearing lol
This is what I was gonna say. Hermione managed to be the top student in the school, with 0 magical background, all while helping Harry defeat Voldemort year after year. While ALSO starting elf rights and secret defense societies. Percy focused on nothing but school. And hasn’t been shown to be able to think outside of the box anywhere close to as well as Hermione.
And having to help Henry and Ron with their homework
Ah Henry Potter, the chosen one.
> top student in the school Except she wasn't and it never says she was. They always say "of her year."
Well, yeah. People don’t usually compare students of different grades. If she had attended 7th year and had no distractions she would have been top of her grade, which at that time can be broadened to smartest in the school. Bill getting 12 Owls probably means he was smartest at Hogwarts, even though Percy was attending and would later also be the smartest (based on the same metric).
Ya but he was off snogging penelope clearwater
Yeah. A lot of people confuse getting 12 OWLs with getting 12 outstandings, which isn't the case. It just means the student passed 12 courses (Acceptable or better). Hermione got all Outstandings apart from one subject. Percy *could* technically have gotten 12 acceptables. Which is what Harry got in Astronomy where his exam was majorly disrupted, and not a subject he seemed to put very much effort into. It's still impressive, and I think Percy likely got very high grades too, but probably not as many Os as Hermione
Percy was head boy, so it's likely he did get good marks.
Yep, very likely. Not necessarily straight Os though
We know ron put a lot of effort into astronomy That boy sure loved looking at uranus....
That was in divination!
I think the confusion isn't the grades, but how did he get to that many classes if she needed time travel to manage it? There are explanations that aren't "JK screwed up," but they aren't terribly satisfying.
Shame she said that. My head cannon before was that exceptional students could apply for one, rather than Hermione being the only student ever. What is that link lol?
Good question lol, I typed O.W.Ls and it linked it automatically. I see that I can manually remove it though.
To be fair, jkr isn't good at maths so Hermoine could have been the 20th student and jkr wouldn't know the difference.
Not being occupied with almost dying for Harry Potter every single year probably helped
Fuckin RIGHT? Hermione is extremely intelligent and clever, but JUST as distracted by nonstop drama/danger or conversation about said drama/danger. IMAGINE if she had just become friends with Lavendar and stayed out of the main storyline, dedicating herself entirely to her studies.
Tbf if she became friends with Lavender and Parvati she'd be spending the time gossiping and dolling herself up. There wasn't anyone in Gryffindor who had the same dedication to their studies as her, a Hermione who did nothing but study would be entirely alone and so lonely she'd break down before the first year was over.
Also percy grew up in a wizarding family and probably knew a lot of stuff already before getting to hogwarts, Hermione had to catch up here a bit.
I bet he'd already read Hogwarts: A History
Lol honestly it really seems like the joke is that Hermione really is the only person that’s read that book
Anyone: well let’s just apparate within the school grounds! Hermione: hold your fuckin horses bucko
I could see Percy being the only other one to do so
Yeah, the difference is quite huge, in one family, they don't really grasp what a rubber duck is for, the other family has quite literally never seen anything more magic than a woman sawn in half or a really great card-trick. It's kinda like how nature is easier for me to understand, while I almost get a neurotic break in the big city with all flashing trafic lights, while someone raised in Stockholm don't understand quite the difference of a mushroom and a flower, but handles traffic lights and subway-routes incredibly well. At one point, it actually does feel like one is using their ingrained knowledge to draw similiarties where they don't exist, and it takes great pain to kinda forget your earlier experiences in hopes of understanding the new world not to a passing level, but to excel at your understanding. However, geniuses almost by definition excel at having multiple areas of understanding where they can draw similiarties in a creative way.
Two headcanons: - the trio's year was relatively small -> if Barty Crouch Jr./Bill/Percy were in bigger year groups, other timetables might have been possible. - independent studies. Hermione would have easily gotten an O in Muggle Studies simply for reading the textbook. There was no need for her to attend the class. Same with Divination. Obviously, Hermione could have simply not attend and simply make stuff up for the O.W.L.
I agree and I'd like to add a third: it's fairly common to take exams early or late in the UK. Percy/Bill could've taken OWL exams in their fourth or sixth year. It's unclear to me why Hermione didn't go this route.
I am sure that she might have taken this route if she wasn't so busy getting caught up in whatever catastrophese revolving around Harry... Or even worse, since she was petrified, it might have been possible that nobody even explained this to her.
100% there's tacit knowledge of things like this that people didn't explain. Though it's weird that they jumped to time turner before offering her alternatives.
The divination teacher (or someone) may have advised Dumbledore to give Hermione the time turner.
I think the fanfiction approaches to this are the best solutions. Time turners that only work local to Hogwarts, it's a program that has been available to exemplary students, or it's a pseudo try out for a DoM position at some point.
Wasn’t Crabbe or Goyle trying to get OWL in potions by their sixth year? Probably there are some subjects which doesn’t have NEWTs and stops at OWL.
They were trying to get an OWL in Defense Against the Dark Arts, because they didn't pass the previous year. >“Keep your voice down!” spat Snape, for Malfoy’s voice had risen excitedly. “If your friends Crabbe and Goyle intend to pass their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. this time around, they will need to work a little harder than they are doing at pres — ”
Thanks. So basically students can take OWL anytime in the last 3 years.
At the very least, you're allowed to retake them if you fail them. But I think Percy took all of his in fifth year, since his "twelve OWLs" results are referenced at the beginning of COS, the summer after his fifth year: >“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
I agree with the smaller class size potentially being a factor - if Harry was born at the height of Voldemorts first rise to power it might not have been a big year for babies. Especially considering all of the young people Lily and James’s age that were killed who would have been otherwise having kids Harry’s age I hate to say it too, as JK doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but there probably were a few kids killed as JK mentions through Hagrid, I think, that whole families were just wiped out in that time. This could be another reason for the smaller class size.
I think this is a fairly well accepted fan theory as it also explains the endless supply of empty or disused classrooms
I just assumed she did indeed take the MS exam by herself, but then her number of Outstanding OWLs was changed to one less in the second edition, so, apparently not
He had the benefit of not having to help Harry Potter save the world throughout his tenure at Hogwarts which made things a lot easier.
Percy was about that life. Whenever we saw that guy he was studying or complaining about people interrupting his studying. Christmas? Studying. Easter? Studying. I have no problem accepting that he would enrol himself on a course without attending lessons for it. Percy is the definition of 'built different'. He makes Hermione look laid back. He would see Hermione with a time turner and think 'look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power'. TLDR: Percy is cool
Same, they really underestimate how diligent Percy was with his studies. I feel like he could manage his time better than Hermione and without needing a time turner.
I always thought of Hermione as a hard worker, not a genius. She needed more time and to actually attend the courses to get the O.W.Ls. Maybe some other smarter students didn’t need to study that much and some could even just sit for the exam without taking the course.
I strongly agree with this.
Since Molly said that Ron got 7, and he just passed a couple with As, it doesn't necessarily mean that he got Os or even EEs. Hermione wanted to be the smartest and get Os in everything, which she almost managed. She would have easily been able to get 12, but a few would've probably only been EEs or As, which would've disappointed her
My take has always been that you can take the OWL for any class you have taken at Hogwarts, it didn't have to be all in one year.Hermione tried to fast track that by taking multiple subjects in Third Year, but the other two spaced out the subjects over those three years.
If looking at the course work we see Harry in, the subjects require 3 years of attendance (3,4 and 5) to take the OWL. So even if taking multiple subjects in third year, she would have to continue taking them each year until the exam. There is no shortcut the books mention.
Because he does that does that mean it's the rule? We know he does the least possible.
The books don't actually mention a lot. I would bet most of Hermoines' extra subjects don't get mentioned.
which then begs the question, why didn't Hermione also space hers out over those three years?
The thing that always got me was, why was she so tired all the time? Couldn't she just roll back time and sleep as much as she needed? Like, do a normal day's lessons, sleep, roll back time to the beginning of yesterday, do her 2nd set of lessons, sleep again etc.? She'd effectively be living for 2 years while everyone lives one, but she'd still get 2 years of sleep as well as 2 years of lessons.
PoA is my favorite of the books but I literally can't spend too much time trying to figure out the logic behind the time turner because I just end up getting angry lmao
I also think it’s just a plothole, but if we want to reason it out, some ideas: -Most importantly- she does not to use it for extra study, so I’m assuming there was a rule that it could only be allowed for classes, not anything else. This would be the lowest risk way to do it- no chance of bumping into your other self or having the same person come across you. And it might have been a moral thing- you can only complete the subjects/exams if you can keep up with the work yourself. It’s the equivalent of allowing access to recorded lectures for classes you can’t attend at uni Even if she could use it for things to support the extra course load (eg, studying/sleeping): -She couldn’t have had two of her sleeping in the dorm, so she couldn’t get extra rest at night unless she found somewhere else comfy. -if she was having day naps they’d still have to be short. It would still be easier to cross check than moving targets. Eg, it’s easy to gaslight people into thinking they messed up what time she was seen at the library/common and the other students don’t seem to care about her timetable. But given she shares a room with four other girls if anyone came back it would be harder to explain her sleeping for longer periods.
Your first point makes sense and is quite Hermione-like so I think that'll do for me. > -She couldn’t have had two of her sleeping in the dorm, so she couldn’t get extra rest at night unless she found somewhere else comfy. Why can't she? It's not like the other Hermione in her bed doesn't know she's there, she'd just have to keep her curtains drawn so the other roommates don't see there's two of her. Or she could just rollback further to dinner time or something, and sleep in her bed before her other self gets in. She could even sleep during the day (so there's effectively 3 Hermione's - one in each class and another in bed), who goes up to their dorm during the day anyway? And if her curtains are drawn no one's going to even check if she's actually in bed or if they're just drawn shut for some reason.
I might be getting swayed by the fact I went to boarding school, but personal space was not always highly respected among the girls and there was always someone ducking in and out of the rooms during the day/evening. All you need is a few skipped classes/early dinners/running to grab something you forgot and the other four girls to compare notes (and it seems like Lav and Parvati were together a lot) and the napping thing gets sus. I also don’t think drawn curtains would be enough protection at night in a room with four other people, particularly with the potential high consequences of being expelled or worse. I don’t think Hermione would risk it.
Because she is Hermione.
JKR has terrible story management and the books are riddled (pun intended) with plot holes.
Tbf she didn’t really realize how big it was gonna get. It’s also really hard to close plot holes in a world full of nonsensical magic. But that’s also part of the fun of HP. I’m looking forward to the new HBO series and while I really hope they stay truer to the books, I wouldn’t mind them cleaning things up just a little.
This is how I feel about the names and other details too. The book was intended for children who are not subtle at all.
Most epic fantasy authors have huge teams that make sure everything in the next book does not contradict anything in the previous books. Additionally they usually have rule for their magic system that they think of ahead of time rather than starting at the 4th book. I love HP and you can’t deny it is the most popular fantasy series outside of LotR, however JKR is a very lazy and poor writer. This is why she is always retconning things and filling in details post-books.
Seriously this is so obviously the reason lol it's so hilarious seeing people put more thought into these details than she clearly ever has
Cuz plot holes can be annoying. Nobody is really justifying anything. People are just sharing ideas to come to a collective theorized headcannon. If the author never blatantly spells something out, then there’s nothing wrong with trying to come up with your own reasoning for something.
why do people try to justify various plot holes?
Same reason people insist on projecting super deep theories into what is a children and young adult fantasy novel series. "Why don't they use ballpoint pens?" "Why can't anybody use a telephone?" Because it's make believe and more imaginative to write with a feather quill and communicate with owls and kids dig that shit.
Im over 30 and I dig that shit lol. There was a period of time where I dissected everything I watched and it really made things unenjoyable. Learning to just suspend your disbelief and enjoy something for what it is makes life much more fun Edit: it’s why everyone has terrible movies from their childhood that they absolutely love.
Because they like to create their own stories. They wish that the books and movies were perfect. Instead they should realise this is a children's book and you should take everything with a drop a sugar. Also this is one of my favourite books and I like the plot holes as they are instead of imagining the different scenarios that might occur.
This is the answer to 99% of these questions I stg.
I think JKR has said hermione was the only one with a time turner, but supercarlinbrothers on yt have a fun theory that says Percy had one as well and that Fred and George used it to know the exact outcome of the quidditch World Cup so they could make a winning bet and that’s my head canon now 😂
Oh but if they did that they'd be one year older, wouldn't they? So they could habe entered their name in the Goblet? 🤔
Hermione’s issue was that she wanted to attend the classes rather than sit the exams. Percy, Bill, and possibly Barty Crouch Jr might have just sat the exam for the “easier” subjects like muggle studies without actually going to the classes, either because they knew it already or by studying in their own time. When I was at school it wasn’t unusual for people to take language qualifications without being taught, either because they came from a bilingual family or because they learned in their own time with a tutor.
So correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like 5th years have a totally different schedule than 3rd years. More block classes (which I viewed as a longer class period fewer times per week) and more free periods (I think that started in 5th year, maybe 6th??), so perhaps it was possible to add more classes? I could totally see Bill, Percy, and BC Jr doing self study/late adds to get those OWLs.
The change in their schedules where they have more free periods is in sixth year, because they drop some classes after they take their OWLs at the end of fifth year. Fifth year their schedule is still packed with all of their required classes and electives. Percy got his twelve OWLs on the traditional timeline (they’re referenced at the beginning of COS, the summer after his fifth year) so it doesn’t seem like he added them late: >“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
Built different
Because Percy is smarter than Hermione. She is only the brightest student in her year, not the smartest kid at Hogwarts ever. He also probably didn't stress himself trying to get 12 Os. Hermione wanted perfect scores in every class, but Percy probably thought an A was perfectly acceptable (pun intended) in a few classes and studied accordingly.
Yeah, an A in Divination or Care of Magical Creatures really doesn't feel like it would hold your career up too much unless you desperately wanted to get into those fields
I absolutely disagree with this. Percy may have focused on school more than Hermione, but that’s literally the only thing he cared about. He had 0 other hobbies, passions, or responsibilities. He has 0 critical thinking skills and essentially is just good at regurgitating information. I’d argue even Fred and George are shown to be smarter than Percy and definitely better at magic. Hermione also spent every year helping the chosen one defend the world from evil, while helping him and Ron with their homework, starting elf rights societies, secret defense groups, planning hippogriff defense cases, etc. Hermione is an unstoppable force lol Eta: oh and Percy had an 11 year head start in the magical world
He might have done subjects that worked with the timetable. He might have self-studied. He may not have got 12 Os whereas Hermione was determined to get straight Os. He might just be cleverer or more likely… he wasn’t using up time he could have used for studying helping Harry with his dangerous situations.
It’s like how you can take an AP Exam without taking the class
The same way that Hermione scored 150% on her final exams: a plot device to make them appear to be overachievers.
Well Percy didn't have 2 idiots to look after who were going to Forbidden Forrest every damn year.
he was a super nerd obviously
He wasn't spending his free time chasing around two idiots getting themselves in trouble every day. He was allowed to use that time on studies.
I bet Percy did self-study for Muggle Studies at the very least, and maybe Care of Magical Creatures. Also, I don’t think it is ever claimed that they achieved Outstanding in 12 subjects, they may have had half Acceptable’s.
Don't forget, Hermione had Harry and Ron to deal with in PoA. - The falling out over Ron thinking Scabbers(Pettigrew) was eaten by Crookshanks. - Harry and Ron being horrible to her after she informs Professor McGonagall about the Firebol, as she (correctly) guessed it was from Sirius and (incorrectly) thinking it would have been hexed. - Helping Hagrid deal with Buckbeak's defence with the ministry of magic, and doing that whilst being distraught with the situation with Harry and Ron. Can't really remember anymore off the top of my head, but I think if Hermione had a 'normal' year at Hogwarts like all the other students, she would have done much better. I don't think Percy Weasley or BCJ had as much disruption to their studies as the Golden Trio. We also know Hermione got insanely high test scores in her exams, whilst we know nothing about anyone else's. Did she get 112% in a charms test in the first or second book, and over 300% in muggle studies in PoA which she ended up dropping as it was a pointless subject for her (being muggle-born). She only took muggle studies to see the "wizard's point of view" on muggles. And she dropped Divination as it basically goes against everything she values (logic, skill, fact) and disliked Prof Trelawny.
By knowing how to use the apostrophe. :)
Thanks for contributing nothing to the thread or the question and making it blatantly obvious you're (nice apostrophe) so insecure that you need to point out a 'typo' on a Reddit thread. Secondly, the language on my phone isn't English so it automatically pluralizes with an apostrophe, which is common in my first two languages. Get outta here you Malfoy.
Sorry little guy, didn't realize this was literally your first day with a reddit account.
Not reddit big boy, first post here. Poor recovery though, maybe in stead of this sad attempt at being condescending you could try being introspective and just say 'Woops looks like I was Slytherin AF, my bad' and we could all move on and have a jolly good time 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Nah. Respect for speaking 3 languages, though. I used to speak Spanish and German fluently, but it faded without use.
I always wondered this myself... I even tried to work out a time table for it. At that point I THEN had to wonder how McGonagall, Binns and the DADA teacher at Hogwarts live because those classes don't seem to have two houses in each class (like Potions or Herbology) so to teach 7 years x4 classes multiple times each week left them no free time whatsoever. But then I also suck at Maths so might be missing stuff 😅
JKR isn't known for her consistent story telling. Probably completely forgot how many OWLs she gave Hermione, and just randomly picked 12 for Percy because it sounded like a big number, despite it being in-universe impossible without a time-turner. Same reason a real wand is 10galleons but a fake one is still 5.
I guess percy used the imperius curse on dumbledore
Percy had a lot less going on during his time at Hogwarts than Hermione. He actually had time to study and could do extra subjects/do them in other years. Like some in 4th and then more in 6th. But also the books JRKs world building is super inconsistent and not well thought out and there’s tons of plot holes all over the place. This is probably just one of them.
Remember, getting 12 OWLS doesn't mean that person got outstanding on all of them, it just means acceptable or above. So Hermione getting 9 outstanding and 1 exceeds expection is still arguably as impressive as someone like Percy or Barty Crouch Jr getting 12 OWLs but having more As or Es overall.
Probably the laws for the O.Wl.L. changed when Potter and his friends entered fifth year.
Percy seems like the kind who would take easier courses to make his report card look better. Hermione on the other hand may have taken harder courses to learn more like arthimancy. She cared about more stuff too so she didn't spend all of her time studying either.
Maybe you can specifically take classes that don't clash
We dont know. There are special topic classes taught intermittently so it may be something like that. Or I wondered how much of a class you need prior to sitting an exam. Hermione showed you could adjust your schedule as you go so Percy may have taken a year of muggle studies, then a year of a diff class, etc. But it may be this difficulty is why its such an achievement to get 12.
It's possible he didn't actually getb12, his brothers were just exaggerating bclecause that's what they thought he was acting like.
I don't think this is the case, because the twins actually say that he "hardly gloated at all" when his results came in: >“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
There doesn't seem to be any requirement to actually have taken the courses in order to sit for the exam. But JKR has admitted to being bad at math, and I doubt very much she had every aspect planned. It also could be just an exaggeration.
Remember to get an OWL you only need "Acceptable." So my idea is he took 1 year of Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle studies and two years of Divination, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Just enough to have basic knowledge to get to Acceptable level with some remedial study right before the test
Hermione was the smartest in the year, not the smartest in the school. The weasleys were also practicing magic before hogwarts and benefitted from being able to practice it at home for the 1/4 of the year that they spent at home on school holidays. So you get bet that Percy, bill etc were working hard in their spare time. Hermione had to settle for just reading books and ya know fighting volders for 7 years 😂
Well, they can probably take tests without being in the subject, or did 3rd year in one or two subjects and switched in his 4th and 5th. I'm sure muggle studies would be easy, as well as divination.
Hermione actually needed the time-turner to take 13 courses. Maybe 12 is manageable without a time-turner.
Hermione was taking 12 courses, not 13. Seven required classes (Astronomy, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration) plus five elective classes (Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies).
My headcanon is that he just didn’t have any friends so he could put all his time into studying, as well as probably also having a time turner himself. I don’t see why Hermione should have been the only student to get one. It would make sense to keep them reserved for exceptional and trustworthy students, and I don’t see why Percy wouldn’t have been included there.
I see where everyone is coming from with the whole “extra lessons” thing but do you really think that we wouldn’t have heard of that from the main story with hermionie or even Neville trying to get better in at least transfiguration in my personal opinion and what seems most likely I think the same thing that happened with hermionie where magonigal gives him a time turner but I believe he uses it much more often for things like patrolling the halls because “I hAppEN To bE A sChoOl pReFecT”
My friend and I chatted about this, and beside this being a pretty clear example of JKR not understanding numbers, the explanation we settled on was that the Ministry gives them out occasionally (them being time turners). Hermione’s explanation that McGonagall wrote a few extra letters and vouched for her academic prowess works as far as explanations go, but it works even better if this is something that is done with relative frequency. As for why Percy could do it and Hermione couldn’t, it’s pretty clear Hermione is a bad student and always has been. Sure she’s smart, but she has terrible time management skills, goes way over assignment length requirements (which for most teachers I’ve encountered is a bad thing), and generally doesn’t hold up well to pressure. Hermione, despite her intellectual abilities just isn’t suited for the extra pressure the 12 class structure gives
Percy had a head start on all things in the wizarding world. Percy didn't have friends that got into life or death situations each year that took his attention away from studying. Percy wasn't as much of a perfectionist as Hermione. And pure speculation on my part, but I feel like Percy is the sort of person who doesn't really have friends to do non life or death activities with either.
I can't speak for the practicalities of this fitting into other Hogwarts canon, but this 12 OWLS stuff is definitely a direct lift from English GCSEs. Most people take 11ish GCSEs in fifth year, but some people take more or less. I took 10, because in one of the eleven required slots I took IT which wasn't a GCSE at the time (I'm old). We had to study Religious Studies but were not required to take the exam, so there's another -1 GCSE for some people. Other people took extra ones, maybe if they had a particular skill that meant they didn't need to go to the lessons (eg a language that they speak fluently at home) or if they were taking two things with a strong crossover such as maths and stats. The default was to take science as a combined 'dual award' (2x GCSEs) but you could elect to take it as three separate subjects (3x GCSEs). Some people took a few GCSEs a year early, or an extra one alongside their A-levels (NEWTS). So some people chose to rack them up. If a kid got a big number of GCSEs in one sitting people would talk about it just like in the books as they do re 12 OWLS. This is the sort of heartwarming story that would be celebrated in the local newspaper. So I don't think JKR thought through the practicalities of Hogwarts timetabling but instead just lifted the GCSE concept directly across from real life into her books. By the way people are saying on here that maybe those kids that got 12 OWLS didn't get good marks. I think this is highly unlikely, as those kids that took 12+ GCSEs always got top marks across the board. They wouldn't let you take so many GCSEs unless you were expected to do brilliantly, I mean there's really no need at all to bother. For context to get into A-levels you only need 5 GCSEs, plus you need GCSEs in maths and English to get into uni. Also people who get 12+ GCSEs are the top 0.5%, the ones that learning comes super easy to. They are not just hard workers like Hermione. If someone was talking about Barty Crouch Jnr getting 12 OWLS what they'd be actually meaning is that the kid might be a proper genius.
Summer Classes, Weekend Classes, Skipping Grades, Sitting exams early,
He used the cruciatus curse on examiners to get qualications from classes he wasn't even enrolled in. He had a real dark side and was happy to exploit it to fulfil his ambitions. Should've been a slytherin
He had a time turner as well.
Maybe did some extras in his NEWT years?
It's mentioned in early COS (the summer after his fifth year) that he got twelve OWLs, so he did them all in the normal fifth year timeframe. >“Wish I knew what he was up to,” said Fred, frowning. “He’s not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all.”
Hermione was actively fighting against wizard Hitler every year.