Hogwarts: This holy light is righteously evil

Chapter 160 Hermione the tattletale, and... the Divination professor?

At least fifteen female students were gathered in this long table area, mostly Ravenclaw students, with a few Hufflepuff girls scattered among them.

Instead of chatting and fooling around, the group of girls had a clear division of labor and were well-organized. They sat in pairs, with a neatly written and detailed reference parchment spread out in the center of the table.

They kept their voices low throughout, exchanging ideas about their lessons. After finalizing the answer framework, they each picked up their pens and began writing. Once the group had completed their assigned work, they carefully passed the final draft and the core reference paper to their neighboring group.

The student taking over quickly browsed and verified the knowledge points, quietly raised two or three questions about the answers, and after communicating and clarifying the doubts, immediately started writing the section they were responsible for.

The entire process was quiet, orderly, and seamless, resembling a well-organized self-study assembly line with clear division of labor, making problem-solving far more efficient than studying alone.

Hermione's eyes narrowed.

This is blatant, collective plagiarism!

Once a template is circulated and spread, several similar assignments can be generated in a short time. This process of fission and circulation completely tramples on the original purpose of self-study and even desecrates the meaning of studying and researching in the library!

Deep down, she was bound by the strict rules and regulations of the school, and a strong sense of aversion arose in her heart.

Her competitive spirit and sense of rules made it impossible for her to stand idly by.

Hermione quickly gathered the books, pens, and paper on her desk, neatly packed them into her canvas bag, and pretended to browse through the books on the bookshelf. She slowly approached the group of long tables where students were studying, picked out a Hufflepuff girl with gentle eyes and a friendly demeanor, and asked in a low voice.

"Excuse me for bothering you, but I wanted to ask if you were all gathered together to work on your assignments?"

The Hufflepuff girl looked up, adjusted her glasses, and responded frankly and directly, "It's not a collaboration; internally we call it homework sharing and mutual assistance."

"Shared coursework?" Hermione frowned deeply.

Hmph, that's just a beautified version of plagiarism!

The girl immediately saw the resistance and doubt in Hermione's eyes and quickly put down her quill to patiently explain: "Please don't misunderstand, this is not plagiarism. This template only compiles fixed standard answers, such as the year and event in the history of magic, the inherent properties of potions, and the basic conditions for casting spells—these are hard knowledge points that cannot be wrong."

"The remaining points, the argumentation, the writing logic, and the case expansion all need to be written and revised independently by us. Previously, in order to save time, I copied the template word for word and submitted my assignments. All the sentences were exactly the same, and the professor who taught the class rejected them all. They were deemed unqualified and ordered to rewrite them. I was also deducted college credits."

The girl shrugged helplessly and, speaking of past mistakes, said, "Now no one copies the whole thing directly; it just saves the time of repeatedly checking the basic test points."

Hermione still couldn't accept this model, but curiosity overcame her resistance, and she continued to ask, "Who initially initiated and promoted this mutual aid model?"

Having grown up accustomed to studying alone and tackling academic tasks independently, she felt a mix of resentment and inexplicable apprehension upon first encountering a large-scale group study model.

"It first circulated among a small group within Ravenclaw."

The girl gestured with her chin to several calm and collected Ravenclaw girls on the inside, "Several top students in the school took the lead in compiling a general answer template and sharing their notes on wrong answers. Later, more and more students participated, and we Hufflepuff students who are stationed in the library joined in. After all, by saving time on checking basic knowledge points, we can finish our assignments earlier and do what we like."

After the girl finished speaking, she gave a slightly shy smile.

Just then, a parchment of spell study assignments came to the corner of Hermione's desk. Hermione, with her instinctive academic instincts, glanced at the bottom right corner of the parchment, where her name, class, and submission date were always written.

The clear and neat handwriting came into view, and the signature at the bottom read: Penny Lestrange.

? ?

Hermione has always regarded Penny as a bright and capable senior, and even more so as her strongest rival. She subjectively believes that he adheres to pure-blood rules, is rigid and traditional in his studies, and disdains opportunistic learning methods.

But the person who initiated the current trend of large-scale online course sharing is actually him???

She immediately made up her mind to report the incident to the school authorities and stop the trend!

Learning requires meticulous reading of classical texts and independent organization of knowledge points. Relying on templates to be lazy and take shortcuts will not lead to a solid foundation of knowledge.

The most suitable candidate to be nominated is Professor McGonagall, who is known for his impartial scholarship and strict discipline.

Cho Chang, who was writing at his desk, looked up and happened to see Hermione walking away in a huff, her face full of anger, and became suspicious.

She assumed the Gryffindor freshman was upset because he couldn't find the assigned textbook, and didn't think much of it, so she lowered her head and started writing again.

On the other side, Hermione quickly arrived outside Professor McGonagall's office, straightened the hem of her wizarding robes, calmed her rapid breathing, and knocked on the office's stone door.

A calm and capable female voice came from inside the room: "Please come in."

Hermione pushed open the door and entered. McGonagall sat behind her desk, thin-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, grading batches of homework from various classes on parchment. She looked up at the newcomer, her expression as serious and restrained as ever.

"Miss Granger, what brings you here after class?"

Hermione stood ramrod straight, her posture impeccable, and spoke urgently, enunciating each word clearly: "Professor, I have to report a major incident that is disrupting the academic atmosphere on campus. A large number of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students in the library are engaging in so-called 'course sharing,' relying on readily available templates to copy assignments. This is essentially collective plagiarism, violating academic rules, and should be stopped and the students involved punished immediately!"

Hermione's speech quickened, her points becoming increasingly clear and logical. Just as she was about to continue detailing the dangers, there was another gentle knock on the office door.

"Enter."

McGonagall opened her mouth without changing her tone.

The wooden door opened, and Puni walked in slowly, carrying a stack of neatly organized and categorized homework templates and optimized notes. He was calm and composed, with no sign of unease.

The next second, Professor McGonagall, who was always serious and rigid, smiled knowingly with amusement.

Hermione stopped speaking abruptly, standing frozen in place, her mind blank.

"You came to tattle on me, and you got caught red-handed??"

The moment the office door was pushed open, Puni, who walked in slowly, immediately spotted Hermione standing in the center of the room.

At this moment, Hermione was full of emotion, her face full of righteous indignation, and she was denouncing the chaos in the library to Professor McGonagall, her body language showing a stubbornness that was quite serious.

A flicker of doubt quickly crossed Puni's eyes.

He didn't know why this first-year Gryffindor student was so agitated in the professor's office, but the emotion was fleeting. He quickly composed himself and returned to his usual calm and collected demeanor, showing no sign of emotion.

On the other side, Hermione, who had been speaking rapidly and eloquently, suddenly found her words stuck in her throat and lost her voice instantly.

Puni raised his eyes and glanced indifferently at Hermione, who was frozen in place. His gaze was calm and gentle, without any probing, mockery, or hostility.

But it was this emotionless eye contact that made Hermione's cheeks burn and her ears throb. A wave of intense embarrassment and guilt instantly enveloped her, leaving her completely flustered and unable to even muster the courage to look up and meet his gaze.

Ignoring the stagnant and eerie atmosphere in the office, Puni walked straight to Professor McGonagall's desk, neatly laid out the thick stack of parchment he was carrying on the table, his posture upright and his tone respectful and polite.

"Professor, I have completed all the assignments you previously assigned. I have done a preliminary screening of all the submitted assignments, marked the knowledge errors and logical loopholes, and also categorized them according to the quality of completion. The final grading and review are up to you."

Professor McGonagall's smile vanished quickly, replaced by her usual serious and rigorous demeanor.

She bent down and picked up the parchment on the table, flipping through it page by page. She could clearly see that each page of the assignment had detailed corrections and annotations marked next to it. The key points of the wrong questions were clear at a glance, and the classification was clear and orderly. The workload was completed extremely well.

She looked up at Puni and nodded solemnly in affirmation: "You've done an excellent job, Puni. You've always been meticulous and reliable in your work, and you always manage to complete extra coursework ahead of schedule and efficiently, saving the professors a lot of energy."

After speaking, Professor McGonagall slowly raised her eyes, her gaze returning to Hermione, who was stiff and embarrassed.

She glanced alternately at the composed Puni and the uneasy Hermione, instantly grasping the whole story. Her glasses fluttered slightly, and the corner of her mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

"Miss Granger."

Professor McGonagall's voice remained steady and solemn, but it carried an added layer of intriguing meaning.

"The homework sharing you just mentioned has some cognitive biases. Hogwarts has always encouraged healthy academic exchanges and collaborative discussions. Ravenclaw especially advocates this learning model. Under the premise of ensuring independent thinking and that the final assignment has original ideas, students checking each other's basic knowledge points, jointly sorting out theoretical frameworks, and exchanging problem-solving ideas is a learning method recognized and promoted by the school."

"This collaborative model not only avoids basic common-sense errors, but also cultivates students' teamwork skills and teaches them to break down and analyze academic problems from multiple perspectives, which is not malicious plagiarism as you understand it."

After she finished speaking, Hermione's face turned completely red, and a burning sensation spread from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.

Her lips trembled slightly, as if she wanted to speak in her defense, but her mind went blank, and she couldn't find any suitable words to refute it. She could only stand there awkwardly, enduring this embarrassment.

Only now did Puni fully realize that the chaos Hermione had just passionately accused was precisely the collaborative learning model he had spearheaded within the library.

He turned to look at Hermione, whose face was full of embarrassment, his tone still calm and indifferent, without a trace of blame, simply explaining the facts objectively.

"Miss Granger, I think you have misunderstood the nature of the whole thing. Group learning in the library is never about copying and pasting. In the beginning, I was just circulating the basic knowledge framework that I had organized among a small group of Ravenclaw students to help everyone avoid basic mistakes."

"Indeed, some students took a chance and simply copied the text content to submit their assignments. After discovering this, I have rejected all assignments that were highly similar and lacked any personal thought, and ordered the relevant personnel to rewrite and revise them to eliminate the perfunctory learning attitude. Now, everyone's submissions need to be rewritten based on their own understanding, and there is no such thing as plagiarism."

As more and more students participate in peer-to-peer learning, the library's study areas are gradually being occupied by these students. With the surge in numbers, it is inevitable that a few opportunists will emerge.

All the professors on campus had already seen through the students' little schemes.

Teachers also have a unified approach to dealing with these kinds of lazy, perfunctory assignments that simply copy templates.

Since this mutual aid system was spearheaded by Puni, he is naturally responsible for addressing and rectifying all related issues, allowing the initiator to personally rectify loopholes and curb chaos, thus saving the school unnecessary management costs.

Professor McGonagall chimed in at the opportune moment, definitively establishing the rules: "That's exactly right. Plagiarism, which involves simply copying others' original ideas without any personal thought, is strictly prohibited by the school. All instructors are aware of the rules for this collaborative learning activity and have been supervising and reviewing the entire process. We will never allow any violations to occur."

Hermione stood frozen in place, overwhelmed by a profound sense of shame.

She was convinced that she was upholding academic integrity and maintaining the rigorous and fair academic atmosphere of Hogwarts, but in an instant, all her insistence turned into an absurd farce.

For the first time, she clearly realized that she was the one with a rigid and inflexible mindset.

Puni, whom she publicly reported and regarded as the source of the violation, was not an opportunistic student, but rather an outstanding student recognized by the school who actively optimized the school's learning model. She was the creator and maintainer of the entire positive mutual assistance system.

The enormous contrast made her feel ashamed, her throat dry and tight, and she could barely utter a complete sound.

"Professor, I understand my problem now. I'm very sorry to have disturbed your work."

Hermione spoke in a very low voice, her words almost disappearing into the air. Before Professor McGonagall could respond, she turned and quickly retreated, rushing out of the office in a disheveled state.

The heavy wooden door closed behind her, completely isolating her from the embarrassing scene that she would never forget.

This was the most embarrassing moment in Hermione's life, even more so than the awkwardness of struggling with Latin for so long only to find that English was the common language around her. It was a truly massive embarrassment.

The office was quiet, but the sound of hurried, hurried footsteps fading into the distance outside the door clearly indicated Hermione's hasty escape.

As Puni listened to the commotion, a faint smile appeared on his lips. He turned to look at Professor McGonagall beside him.

Professor McGonagall placed the collection of assignments that Puni had compiled on the corner of the table and set it aside for the time being.

"This year's Gryffindor freshmen include a little guy with a very strong sense of justice."

The playful look on her face faded, replaced by her usual serious and solemn demeanor, and her tone became fair and objective.

"This courage is commendable, but at this stage, her judgment is still immature, and she is easily swayed by subjective emotions, allowing recklessness to prevail."

As she spoke, she gestured for Puni to sit down, and he sat in the chair opposite the desk.

"I've observed that you've already thoroughly grasped most of the course content for this level. Tell me, do you have a clear plan for your future studies?"

McGonagall has always admired students who are clear-headed, diligent, and self-disciplined. Puni, who possesses both talent and diligence, is especially valued by her, and she is willing to personally guide and mentor him.

Puni had already planned out the entire learning schedule in advance, and without the slightest hesitation, he reported each point clearly and logically.

"I have developed a phased learning plan. My primary goal at this stage is to solidify all the required second-year courses and ensure that my grades in each subject are consistently outstanding. On this basis, I have already begun to study the advanced magic theory of the third year, focusing on the deep casting principles of polymorphism and spellcasting, in order to lay a solid foundation for advanced learning in advance."

Upon hearing this, Professor McGonagall's eyes showed clear approval.

Transfiguration was her main subject, and she had witnessed Puni's talent and hard work in this field throughout, always giving her high praise.

Puni then went on to explain his confusion and needs: "In addition, I would like to finalize my elective courses for the third year in advance, and I hope to get your professional advice. Currently, I am focusing on four subjects: divination, arithmetic divination, ancient runes, and protection of magical creatures."

When the topic of course selection came up, Professor McGonagall's expression turned serious, especially when she heard about taking over a course; her tone carried a hint of disapproval.

"Elective courses directly determine the assessment direction of your future NEWTs advanced diploma and will also affect your subsequent magical research path, so you must choose carefully."

She paused slightly before offering a frank assessment of the subject: "Divination is a highly subjective discipline. Since Professor Trelawney took office, he has developed a fixed habit of predicting a student's impending death each academic year."

"I am not denying her teaching qualifications or prophetic talent, but this teaching method that relies on creating panic and gaining students' attention is inappropriate."

She looked up and stared directly at Puni, her gaze sharp and earnest, offering the most candid advice: "Most so-called prophecies are highly subjective. Truly accurate prophecies are only controlled by a very few gifted individuals. I will not stop you from exploring this subject, but I hope you will always maintain rational judgment and possess independent critical thinking skills, and not be disturbed by various illusory omens or false narratives of fate."

"I completely understand your concerns, Professor."

Puni nodded, his attitude calm. "Instead of passively listening to others' opinions, it's better to learn through personal experience and verify the value of the subject yourself in order to make the most objective judgment."

McGonagall nodded slightly, acknowledging his rational and insightful mindset. She then proceeded to analyze the characteristics and difficulties of the remaining three elective courses one by one, providing him with a comprehensive analysis of their advantages and disadvantages.

"Arithmetic divination requires extremely high logical thinking and numerical deduction abilities, and requires a lot of time to calculate and deduce. Talent and patience are both indispensable. Ancient runes are the foundation for the study of various profound ancient magics and have extremely high practical value, but the content is dry and complicated, requiring long-term in-depth study and accumulation. Those who are eager to succeed will find it difficult to achieve anything."

"As for protecting magical creatures, it is one of the most popular courses in the whole school. The teaching mode is mainly outdoor practice, and the overall difficulty is relatively low. The specific learning experience depends on Hagrid's practical course arrangement."

"Okay, Professor, I understand. Thank you for your advice. I will think about it carefully."

Puni nodded and then took his leave.