Seventh year

A seventh year is a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who is in their seventh and final year of formal magical education. Seventh year students are usually seventeen to eighteen years of age.

During the seventh year

The seventh year contains the most important exams given at Hogwarts — the N.E.W.T exam pertaining to each of the subjects, concluding their N.E.W.T. level studies that they started their sixth year which they continued into the seventh year.

A student in the seventh year would have the same schedule he or she had in the sixth year, and would sit only those classes in which they received the O.W.L. grade needed and decided by the professor for that subject. However, not all students take N.E.W.T.s as many occupations will accept applicants who only received O.W.L.s. It's likely that specialised subjects only offered from the sixth year will be continued at N.E.W.T. level.

Every year, a male and female from the seventh year students are appointed as Head Boy and Head Girl respectively by the Headmaster or Headmistress.

Behind the scenes

J. K. Rowling said in an interview that there is some form of graduation ceremony for seventh years that includes riding the Hogwarts boats back across the lake as they leave, but that she chose not to include it in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as "to have a graduation scene on top of what just happened would've been an absurd bit of anti-climax."^[1]
J. K. Rowling also stated in the same interview that although Harry, Ron, and Hermione skipped their seventh year to hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes, Hermione went back to Hogwarts to get her N.E.W.T.s and properly graduate. Harry and Ron, however, did not return, and instead worked with Kingsley Shacklebolt to round up stray Death Eaters.
In another interview, J. K. Rowling has stated that Marcus Flint had to repeat his seventh year, due to failing his N.E.W.T.s the first time around^[2]^[3].
By Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Chapter 26, Gringotts, the Gryffindor 7th Year Boys dormitory was empty; Harry and Ron were out searching for Horcruxes, Dean was in hiding, and Neville and Seamus were in the Room of Requirement.^[4]
Sixth and seventh years in Hogwarts bear a strong resemblance to Sixth Form in England or 5th and 6th Year in Scotland, although sixth and seventh years in Hogwarts appears to be compulsory, whereas Sixth Form is not.

Appearances

Notes and references

Hogwarts years
1st · 2nd · 3rd · 4th · 5th · 6th · 7th

[1] PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, December 2007

[2] Online chat transcript, Scholastic.com, 3 February 2000

[Official_Site-3] Rowling's Official Site (text only), accessed 25th July 2011

[4] J.K.Rowling Official Site F.A.Q.

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Seventh year

Contents

During the seventh year

Behind the scenes

Appearances

Notes and references

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