Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 174 Fair, Fair, Fair
Hermione sighed as she watched Ron mumble his words while chewing his steak.

She took the class schedule that had just been distributed this morning and handed it to Sherlock, explaining:
"This year's classes are Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, and Astronomy."

"What about flying lessons?"

"It's occupied by Potions class," Hermione sighed. "Maybe the teachers think we're all already proficient in flying."

When she said this, Hermione couldn't help but glance at Sherlock, her face slightly reddened.

Her thoughts immediately went back to this summer vacation, when they all rode in Ron's flying car to Godric's Hollow.

Because the car was flying at a height that exceeded Hermione's tolerance limit, her fear of heights flared up in mid-air.

Everyone was invisible at the time, and in order to stop Sherlock from speaking, she blocked Sherlock's mouth in a hurry.

Looking back now, I was a little impulsive at that time.

Sherlock naturally had no idea that Hermione's thoughts would drift to more than a month ago.

At this point his attention was focused on the new schedule.

Gryffindor Second Year Class Schedule

Monday morning: Herbology, Transfiguration, afternoon: Defense Against the Dark Arts, evening: Astronomy

Tuesday morning: Herbology, afternoon: Transfiguration and Charms
Wednesday morning: Charms and Potions, afternoon: History of Magic
Thursday morning Transfiguration, afternoon Potions two periods
Friday morning: Charms, afternoon: Herbology, Defense Against the Dark Arts

Sherlock only took a glance and knew what was going on.

It seems that not only he is strengthening Harry, but Hogwarts is also strengthening all the students.

Not only was the break every Friday afternoon cancelled last year, but the length of each class was also adjusted from 30 minutes in the first grade to 45 minutes.

That makes sense.

Even for someone who has never been exposed to magic, a full year of adjustment is enough.

It's time to increase the input power for the little wizards.

The first day of the new semester, Herbology class, was at nine in the morning, with the Hufflepuff students.

Like last year, the study took place in the greenhouse outside the castle, where Professor Sprout cultivated many plants.

"Today we're going to the third greenhouse!"

Professor Sprout saw that the second-year students from the two colleges had arrived, and happily took them to open up a new map.

The students were also very interested in this.

Last year all of their classes were held in the First Greenhouse.

I've heard from senior students a long time ago that the plants in the third greenhouse are more interesting than those in the first greenhouse.

Of course, it is also more dangerous.

For example, mandrake, poisonous tentacles, and Chinese biting cabbage.

Just hearing the name, it sounds much more exciting than the plants I came into contact with last year.

When Professor Sprout opened the door, the smell of damp earth and manure hit his nostrils.

This reminded Sherlock of the case before the end of last semester.

He had smelled a similar odor when Professor Flitwick Apparated him to the crime scene.

However, the smell there is far less strong than here, and in addition to the unique smell of grass, there is also a rich floral scent.

The young wizards were dazzled and overwhelmed by the various magical plants they had never seen before.

In the corner of the greenhouse is a Devil's Snare that prefers shaded and humid environments. At the end of last semester, when Sherlock and his team tried to stop Quirrell from obtaining the Philosopher's Stone, they had a brief encounter with it.

Not far from the Devil's Snare is the blue Nightshade Blue Sunflower, whose pollen has a hallucinogenic effect. Once the flowering period arrives, the entire greenhouse has to be closed.

There is also the Ironthorn Fern, which is covered with thorns and has leaves with a strange metallic luster. It has a bad temper and when it is enraged, its thorns can shoot out with great power.

Professor Sprout led the little wizards who were looking around to a bench in the middle of the greenhouse, where more than twenty pairs of earmuffs of different colors had been placed in advance.

At her signal, all the students sat down.

Sherlock, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Neville, Dean, Seamus...

The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students took their seats, with Hannah Abbott sitting in the second row behind Sherlock.

Ever since Sherlock helped her solve Mr. Abbott's case before Christmas last year, her favorability towards Sherlock has always been very high. As soon as she sat down, she greeted Sherlock and Hermione beside him.

When everyone was seated, Hermione couldn't help but whisper to Sherlock, "These are umbrella flowers."

She pointed at the giant umbrella-shaped plants hanging from the ceiling and said excitedly:

"I've always wanted to see them in person, and I didn't expect to get my wish so soon. The book says..."

While Hermione was speaking, Professor Sprout suddenly called her name:

"Miss Granger."

Apparently, she had noticed Hermione whispering in class.

However, out of indulgence for the top student, she decided to give Hermione a chance:
"Please tell me, what are the properties of Mandrake?"

If Hermione could answer that question accurately, then she would pretend nothing had happened.

If she can't, she will lose points!
However, in this regard, Hermione does not disappoint.

“Mandra is a magical plant with extremely high medicinal value, also known as Mandrake root.

It is an essential component of most antidotes, restoring a person from an abnormal state to their original state."

"This is the standard answer from the textbook. Gryffindor gets ten points."

When I was in my second year, the professors seemed to be much more casual when adding extra points, and no longer added points one by one like they did in my first year.

After answering the question correctly, Professor Sprout generously gave Gryffindor ten points.

Neither the little lion nor the little badger was surprised by Hermione's double-digit score in the first class of the new semester.

Nothing special, just routine operation.

If nothing unexpected happens, this year's Miss Hermione Granger will definitely continue to be the scoring champion in the new season.

“Today, we are going to repot the mandrake.

Miss Granger was right when she said that mandrake is an essential ingredient in most antidotes, but…"

Professor Sprout glanced at the students:
“…It is also a very dangerous magical plant. Can anyone tell me why?”

Hermione raised her hand again, unsurprisingly.

The swift movement only just missed knocking Harry's glasses off.

Fortunately, Harry had followed Sherlock for so long and it was not in vain. He nimbly shook his head and avoided the crucial blow.

Professor Sprout frowned at this.

She felt that Hermione shouldn't be allowed to score points so easily anymore.

Unfortunately, the one attending class with Gryffindor today is the non-competitive Hufflepuff.

Even though the head of the house looked at them one by one, not a single Hufflepuff student raised their hand.

Even though many of them know the answer.

As for the Gryffindor students, it was even less likely that they would raise their hands.

Since someone knows the answer and is willing to answer the question, they are very happy to give the opportunity to this person.

After all, Professor Sprout is not Professor Snape, and he cannot ignore Hermione who keeps raising her hand.

Seeing that no one answered except Hermione, she finally nodded.

Hermione immediately stood up and said eagerly, "Because hearing the mandrake cry can kill people."

"Absolutely. Ten points for Gryffindor."

Seeing that the ten points were finally obtained by Gryffindor, Professor Sprout sighed secretly.

As the head of Hufflepuff House, Professor Sprout has always adhered to a principle when teaching:
Fair, fair, and fair!

Unfortunately, whenever they encounter such an opportunity to give away points, most young wizards often behave like this...

Give you a chance, you are useless!
In the end, Hermione got the better deal.

After giving Hermione extra points, Professor Sprout explained:
"But the mandrakes here are still very young, and their calls are not yet deadly.

But even so, we cannot take it lightly and must protect ourselves well.”

She didn't ask any more questions this time, otherwise it would be suspected of giving points to Gryffindor.

After a straightforward explanation, she began to settle:
"Now, everyone come over and get a pair of earmuffs."

At the professor's command, the students rushed forward and started snatching the food.

This time even the Hufflepuff students were unwilling to lag behind.

After all, no one wants to get a pair of pink fuzzy earmuffs.

On the contrary, Sherlock, the Gryffindor, did not fight for it. In everyone's surprised eyes, he slowly walked to the stool and picked up the only remaining pair of pink fluffy earmuffs.

The little badgers looked at each other.

Who is Hufflepuff after all?

The Gryffindor students sitting next to him winked at each other and showed full respect for the little lion king's choice.

But then neither the little lion nor the little badger had time to pay attention to this matter.

Under the guidance of Professor Sprout, everyone put on earmuffs and witnessed this magical plant with their own eyes.

It is called Mandrake, but when it is pulled out of the soil, the roots look like an ugly human baby.

Most of the students screamed - of course, no one could hear them because they were wearing earmuffs.

The leaf that Professor Sprout was holding tightly in his hand was growing on the head of this thing. Its skin was light green and spotted with spots.

Just by looking at its appearance, you can tell that it's screaming at the top of its lungs.

Of course, no one could hear it.

Next, Professor Sprout demonstrated how to repot a mandrake doll.

The first step is to pull the mandrake out of the small flowerpot.

Step 2: Put the mandrake into the large flowerpot.

The third step is to cover its doll-like rhizome with soil, leaving only the green leaves exposed.

Hey, it's that simple!
After personally demonstrating how to repot a mandrake, Professor Sprout brushed the mud off his hands and gave the little wizards two thumbs up - this was the gesture they agreed to take off their earmuffs after completing the repotting.

After the little wizards took off their earmuffs, Professor Sprout emphasized some precautions.

For example, although the cry of a young Mandrake will not kill a person, it can make a person unconscious for several hours, so be sure to wear earmuffs when operating it.

For example, when operating, you have to be careful of harassment from other magical plants in the greenhouse. When Professor Sprout just changed the pots, the poisonous tentacle next to her showed no respect and tried to sneak attack her, an elderly woman.

Fortunately, she was not careless and dodged.

After this comes the most important and difficult part of this class.

Work in groups of four to repot the mandrake.

The purpose of repotting is that as the mandrake continues to grow, it has filled the small flowerpot and is about to overflow.

Sherlock naturally shared a flowerpot with Harry, Hermione, and Ron, which disappointed Seamus and Dean.

Especially Neville and Seamus, Sherlock and Hermione often team up with them in Charms and Potions classes.

The feeling of being led by a big boss is so cool!

Unfortunately, today is the first class of the new semester, and the students are in groups of four. Harry and Ron will definitely not let Sherlock and Hermione get away.

So Neville, Seamus, and Dean formed a team with Hannah Abbott.

Because of Sherlock, Aibo seemed very friendly, so the four of them quickly became friends.

However, this does not help in the subsequent practical courses.

It seemed easy to watch Professor Sprout repot the mandrake, but it was completely different when he did it himself.

You will learn it once you see it, but it costs money to learn it.

Most of the young wizards were covered in dust, sweating, and had back pain.

The main reason is that Mandrake refuses to cooperate.

It was unwilling to be pulled out of the old pot, nor was it willing to be stuffed into a new pot.

This thing doesn't look big, but once it struggles, it's quite powerful.

The young wizard also understood why Professor Sprout arranged for them to do this kind of thing in a group of four.

There's really no way two or three people can handle this thing.

Fortunately, after more than half an hour of hard work, most of the little wizards successfully completed the task.

The few who were unable to complete the task managed to complete it before the end of the get out of class with the help of Professor Sprout.

A sense of accomplishment began to spread among them.

Compared with other young wizards, Harry and Ron's task seemed much easier with the two big bosses, Sherlock and Hermione, around.

Hermione has a solid theoretical foundation, while Sherlock has rich practical experience.

Faced with the mandrake that was struggling desperately and unwilling to surrender, Sherlock just slapped it, and the grass immediately became silent.

Seeing how effective this trick was, Dean also wanted to follow suit.

Unexpectedly, the slap not only failed to cause any harm, but the mandrake hugged him tightly.

"What are you—ouch!"

The black hand was tightly embraced by the green mandrake, and refused to let go no matter what.

At the critical moment, it was Professor Sprout who took action in time to prevent Dean from being bitten hard.

After seeing this scene, the other little wizards did not dare to act rashly and obediently followed the teacher's instructions.

"Sherlock, you're really strong."

After class, the nearby little wizards all looked at Sherlock with envy at how calm and composed he was, no different from before class.

This also made them vaguely realize that although wizards make a living by magic, having a strong body is also a good thing.

"Yes, yes! Sherlock is very strong!
Last year during flying class, he grabbed my broom and no matter how hard I struggled, I just couldn't fly!"

Neville Longbottom was also happy to tell others about Sherlock's good deeds.

In order to make the story more convincing, he even shared with everyone the embarrassing things that happened during his flying lessons last year.

The surrounding area was suddenly filled with a happy atmosphere.

"Haha, Sherlock, this Neville...it sounds like you did something to his broom."

"Ron, I think you're the only one who thinks that."

"That's hard to say! Old Ha, you can't tell what's on other people's minds. If you don't say something like this, who would know..."

"No, my friend. Based on my observations, I infer that you are the only one who thinks so, at least within the scope just now."

"..."

Because they were covered in mud, most of the little wizards chose to return to the castle to take a shower first.

An hour later, the Gryffindor students arrived at the Transfiguration class.

By the second year, Professor McGonagall no longer transformed into a tabby cat to observe everyone.

However, as she had said in the first class last year, Transfiguration was the most complex and dangerous spell taught at Hogwarts.

After the second grade, the difficulty increases sharply.

Last year’s first lesson was still about turning a match into a sharp needle.

By the first class of the second grade, the content had evolved directly to turning beetles into buttons.

This is no longer a matter of crossing species.

This is the transformation of living things into dead things, and animals into man-made things.

The only commonality Sherlock could find between the two was that they were both organic.

Harry's talent for Transfiguration was limited.

I clearly studied hard last year, but as soon as I started today, it was as if I had given back everything I learned last year to the teacher.

He spent most of the day trying, but in the end he just couldn't figure out what he didn't understand.

A beetle is still a beetle.

Ron's performance was not much better.

Even though he had a brand new wand.

However, the result of the spell was deformation, but not complete deformation.

Looking at a button with six legs and Harry's original armored beetle crawling side by side on the table, Harry and Ron looked at each other and fell into deep thought.

Is this a walking button, or a beetle whose body has become a button?
Others are not much better off.

Some accidentally crushed the beetle with their wands, some failed to complete the transformation like Ron, and some had no effect at all like Harry.

All this made Professor McGonagall unhappy.

But what can be done?

After teaching Transfiguration for so many years, she has long been accustomed to it.

Expecting everyone to grasp the essentials in the first class is worse than expecting Professor Dumbledore not to eat candy.

She turned her gaze to Sherlock and Hermione again, hoping that these two little wizards who had placed high hopes on her would not disappoint her.

The two of them did not disappoint her expectations.

Both Sherlock and Hermione succeeded in turning the beetle into buttons at once.

The buttons are beautifully shaped and appear to be lifelike.

Of course, after the transfiguration, it was real.

"Ten points for Gryffindor!"

Professor McGonagall was very pleased with their work.

Even in her second year when inflation was rampant, her judgment of college grades was still different from that of other professors and she seemed quite cautious.

Even though Sherlock and Hermione performed so well, they were still only given five points each.

If it were any other professor, the score would have been increased by 40 points by this time.

Of course Professor Snape had to be eliminated.

He was lucky not to have any points deducted.

As for extra points?

Don't even think about it!

Professor McGonagall looked around, and after making sure that no one else could succeed, she gently waved her wand.

The levitation spell made the two buttons float in mid-air.

She tapped her wand again, and the two buttons quickly grew larger until they became the size of discs and stopped.

"Everyone, please take note. Mr. Holmes and Miss Granger have given an excellent demonstration."

When the small button is magnified, the details on it are clearly visible.

It was then that the little wizards were surprised to find that the button Hermione had conjured up actually had a Gryffindor lion pattern on it, which was obviously something she had done on purpose.

In contrast, the button that Sherlock conjured up looked ordinary.

However, all the young wizards knew very well that this did not mean that Sherlock's attainments in Transfiguration were lower than Hermione's.

After all, this is a Transfiguration genius acknowledged even by Professor McGonagall!
In the first Transfiguration class last year, Hermione changed one end of the match, but Sherlock directly turned the match into a needle.

One end of the needle is pointed and very sharp.

The Lion King simply disdains to do these fancy things.

"I must stress to you once again that Transfiguration is the most complex and dangerous spell you will learn at Hogwarts.

Even if the Transfiguration is successfully performed, it does not mean that everything is fine.

Because from that moment on, the properties of the object itself have changed!
Here, I would like to emphasize again Gamp’s basic law of transformation…”

At this point, Professor McGonagall paused and looked around the room: "Does anyone know Gamp's basic Transfiguration Law?"

Not surprisingly, Hermione was the first to raise her hand.

Well, the last one too.

Professor McGonagall couldn't help but frown upon seeing this.

Although Hermione always answered her own questions correctly, she couldn't do it alone.

The little lions of this year are really not proactive!

Professor McGonagall is not Professor Sprout. Even though only Hermione raised her hand, she still decided to put some pressure on the other young wizards.

Her eyes passed Hermione's raised arms and finally stopped at Neville, who wanted to lower his head under the table:

"Mr. Longbottom, answer my question."

Neville's round face turned red when he was called by Professor McGonagall.

He stood up trembling, and because he was too nervous, the corner of his robe knocked over the ink bottle.

As a result, he could only frantically use the "Beginner's Transformation Guide" to hold down the flowing ink while stammering:
"Gamp's Law... means... you can't conjure up dinner?"

Suppressed laughter suddenly rang out in the classroom.

Seamus's beetle took the opportunity to crawl into Neville's sleeve, causing a crackling sound.

Professor McGonagall's mouth twitched slightly, and she tapped her wand to restore the ink to its original state, and the beetle obediently returned to Seamus's desk.

"Although... it's not accurate enough, it does involve the first exception."

Seeing Neville's timid look, and no one in the class raised their hands except Hermione, Professor McGonagall sighed, hesitated for a moment, and finally called Hermione's name:

"Miss Granger."

(End of this chapter)