The days at Hogwarts

The homework for the Christmas holidays is not collected immediately upon returning to school, but is collected when the professor of the subject starts teaching. This leaves a time difference, which is enough for Harry and Ron to work a miracle.

Hogwarts library, corner by the window.

In pursuit of speed, his handwriting was so continuous that it looked like the claw marks of a howling banshee. Ron looked at his 1.5 times line spacing and silently admired his own wit in his heart.

Harry finished his work at about the same time. He looked up and exchanged a glance with Ron. They smiled at each other, and everything was said without words.

After dealing with the basilisk incident, they felt free and had so much fun during the Christmas holiday that they didn't do any homework at all.

Neville stuck his head out and looked at Ron's paper curiously: "'Care and Growth Process of Mandrake in Autumn and Winter'?"

Let’s look at Harry’s paper on the other side: “The Cultivation and Maturation Process of Mandrake in Spring and Summer?”

Finally, I saw another densely written paper placed between the two of them - "Analysis of the Biological Characteristics and Functions of Mandrake".

Neville: "..."

He couldn't help but complain: "You split half of Hermione's paper into two other papers?!"

Harry smiled shyly.

Luna looked up from a strange-looking book called "100 Unsolved Mysteries of the Magic World" and looked at the two of them for a while. She was amazed and praised: "What a groundbreaking idea! When you graduate, you should go to work for my father's newspaper. He is always worried about the content of the newspaper. He will definitely like you."

Hearing this, Ron puffed out his chest proudly with a reserved smile on his face.

The silly look hurt Ginny's eyes, and she quickly pulled Luna away. Ginny thought it was a mistake to ask her little sister to accompany her.

Neville kept shaking his head: "Be careful that Professor Sprout finds out and asks you to fertilize the mandrakes and coax them to sleep."

Harry and Ron shuddered at the thought of tending the mandrake.

Harry patted his chest and comforted himself: "I've already written it, so let it be."

Ron nodded in agreement: "That's right, it's impossible to rewrite it anyway."

The two found courage from each other and mustered up their fighting spirit again: "Next subject!"

Hermione watched the farce from beginning to end, her eyes were always on Harry, and Dumbledore's voice echoed in her mind: "...the power of the mind...the power of magic..."

The little witch was a little dazed. What Dumbledore said had anything to do with the Harry in front of her... Anyway, she didn't see any sign of him being powerful.

In a trance, Loren's voice was closer and clearer in my ears.

"Hermione, Hermione?" Loren pushed the little witch's shoulder. "Why have you been so absent-minded these past two days? Did you not sleep well at night?"

"It's okay, it's okay," Hermione replied dryly.

She wanted to bring up the conversation that day and give Loren a good beating, but she also wanted to remind herself to keep the secret.

Hermione was struggling between the two mentalities over and over again, and she was so entangled that she couldn't concentrate on reading. Now she felt nervous when she saw Loren.

"By the way, why do you smell like white fresh essence? Where are you injured--"

Before Loren could finish his words, Hermione's brain suddenly froze.

Damn it! I forgot that Loren's Potions grades were always O's, and that he had a nose more sensitive than Fangya's!

Yesterday I practiced Apparition with Professor Flitwick. The dill essence was prepared by the professor to prevent splitting. I didn't expect that I could still smell it after a day.

Hermione was so flustered that she couldn't speak clearly: "No clone, no clone, just a spare..."

"What clone?"

Facing Loren's suspicious eyes, Hermione wanted to seal her mouth. Fortunately, her mind worked quickly: "What do you mean by split? You must have heard it wrong. I said that Lavender bumped into the foot of the bed last night and broke her head. We accompanied her to see Madam Pomfrey and used distilled essence. So I will have the smell on my body."

"Really?" Loren's tone was drawn out, and disbelief was almost written on his face.

The tip of his eyebrow raised, making Hermione's heart beat wildly. She pressed down the man's restless eyebrow and said affirmatively: "There is nothing to doubt about this."

The white and tender fingers pressed on her face. The slight medicinal smell of Baixian Essence mixed with the fragrance of detergent on the girl's body. Loren was more confused: "But——"

"Why do you have so many questions? Stop asking!"

"Oh."

-

The Animagus exam was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and there was also a History of Magic class that afternoon.

This is the first History of Magic class after the holidays, and the second-year wizards need to hand in their Christmas holiday homework, three three-inch parchment papers.

The students in the classroom handed in their homework to Professor Binns' desk one after another. Only Ron sat nervously in his seat, holding his double-spaced paper in his hand and not daring to hand it in.

Yes, he was restrained in his paper on herbal medicine, using only 1.5 line spacing. But when it came to Professor Binns, whose mental state seemed not so clear, he boldly adopted double line spacing.

All the little wizards in Gryffindor admired his courage and were eagerly looking forward to the result. If Professor Binns really didn't mind this initiative, the time they would spend on History of Magic homework would be reduced by half in the future.

However, having the courage to write homework in this way takes one kind of courage, and having the courage to hand it in in front of the teacher takes another kind of courage.

Obviously, Ron lacks this courage now.

Sitting around were Harry, Seamus, Dean and others. They peered around Ron, constantly encouraging him and giving him courage:

"Come on Ron, hand it in quickly."

“You are making history!”

"If you succeed, your name will be engraved on the Gryffindor fireplace, forever!"

Time passed slowly, and finally Ron was the only one who hadn't handed in his homework. He stood up tremblingly, and suddenly a surge of courage surged in his heart. He strode forward and casually spread the parchment in front of Professor Binns, placing it on top of all the homework.

Professor Binns' ghostly face, which had been expressionless for years, seemed to twitch, and his eyes showed some ripples.

But that was all. Ron felt at ease, breathed a sigh of relief, and sat back in his seat like a hero.

The little wizards around suppressed their eagerness, suppressed their voices, and shouted quietly but excitedly: "Weasley is our king! Weasley is our king!"

Hermione looked at Harry, who was leading the commotion, and had only one thought in her mind: Principal Dumbledore might have entrusted his services to the wrong person.

Loren, my deskmate, watched the action in front of him with great interest, enjoying the fun.

He didn't have any extra thoughts. No matter what subject the homework was, he would always complete it according to the teacher's minimum standard, never doing more and never being lazy.

Except for Potions.

If he met the minimum standard, Snape would assume he was being lazy and would give him more credit elsewhere.

Because of Ron's stimulation, Professor Binns became more lively, but when he started his lecture, the classroom returned to the familiar hypnotic atmosphere.

Loren didn't want to attend the class, and Hermione wouldn't let him sleep. Bored, he reached out to pick up the school badge on the sleeve of Hermione's wizard robe.

Produced by Madam Malkin's robe shop, the designated school uniform for Hogwarts, the quality is still very guaranteed. Even if it is picked up by fingernails, there is no broken thread and no thread ends are exposed.

Hearing the occasional "click" sound, Hermione looked helpless.

This was the case in History of Magic class. If she didn't let Loren sleep, Loren would find something to keep her busy, and he would just say it was to keep her awake.

In class, she couldn't stand up and beat Loren in front of the professor. After a few compromises, the two reached a tacit understanding.

But Loren was not content with just taking away her school badge, and he also took the opportunity to gossip about her, like now.

Loren poked the school badge with his index finger: "How's your Animagus exam review going? Are you confident?"

Hermione listened to the class carefully, but didn't answer and pretended not to hear.

Loren poked her arm again: "You went to Professor McGonagall to ask a question that day. What did you ask? Can you give me some advice?"

Hermione listened carefully to the class, didn't answer, and pretended not to hear.

The next second, the finger that poked her arm started poking her cheek. Her cheek was soft and tender, but the fingernails were scratchy.

Hermione elbowed him in the chest: "Just pay attention to the class, there are not so many questions."

Loren felt pain and finally calmed down.

Five minutes later, the sewn school badge was buttoned again with a clacking sound...

Chapter 232 Exam

Loren was still very confident about the Animagus teaching class exam.

Hermione dragged him to review throughout the holiday, and also did some random recitations to check for omissions and fill in the gaps. Basically, they reviewed every part that could be reviewed several times.

So he was a little surprised when he heard Hermione was going to Professor McGonagall to ask questions two days before the exam.

There have been precedents for Transfiguration Clubs before, but there has never been an Animagus teaching class. The young wizards used as references are all members of the Transfiguration Club and have a solid foundation.

Loren guessed that this time the exam might be more difficult.

After the History of Magic get out of class, Seamus, Dean and the others did not have to take the exam, so they happily went out to play. Loren and the others asked someone to bring the textbooks back to the Gryffindor common room, and they hurried to the exam room.

"Summon, disappear, transform..."

"Dew... saliva... Hawkmoth..."

"Amador, Animo, Animado, Animagus."

As always, Hermione recited various nouns and terms quickly, feeling both excited and nervous. She had reviewed everything she needed to review, but was afraid that she had missed something.

There was another Neville next to him, holding a red memory ball in his hand. He couldn't remember what knowledge point he had forgotten, so he could only recite it from beginning to end.

The two of them were like chanting a spell, and it gave Harry and Ron, who hadn't reviewed much, a headache.

Loren had been hypnotized a little too hard in the last class, and he leaned against the wall in the corridor, yawning lazily.

Waiting outside like them were Draco, the twins, Percy and Penelope, Cedric, Marcus, etc. The seniors were calmer, sitting in groups of two or three, talking about things that had nothing to do with the exam.

The bell rang, and everyone entered the examination room and sat in their respective seats, waiting quietly for the papers to be distributed.

Blank parchment and anti-cheating feather pens inlaid with silver wire were distributed to the little wizards, which was a bit like the process of a final exam.

The content of the test is mainly related to Animagus knowledge, interspersed with some basic principles of human body deformation. The difficulty is moderate, and the theoretical application of deformation and some subtle knowledge points are carefully examined.

It was not difficult for Loren. He finished the basic part of the three-hour exam in less than an hour.

The last few questions tested their understanding of Animagus, which required analysis based on real cases. It took some time to list them one by one.

As we were doing it, something interesting happened——

The reading material for the last big question took up most of the page, and the requirements of the question were rather vague, somewhat like a subjective question.

["Babbitty the Rabbit and Her Croaking Stump" is a classic chapter in magic stories. Please read the original story carefully, analyze the witch's application of Animagus, and cite examples in the story that do not conform to the rules of Animagus.

Reading materials are at the end of the article.

It doesn't feel like a question from the rigorous Professor McGonagall, but rather like the style of Dumbledore.

Why is it interesting? Like the Christmas gift from Dumbledore, The Wizard and His Hairy Heart, this story is also from The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Influenced by the Fountain of Good Luck and the Hairy Heart, Loren read all the stories in the book and also read many reviews and interpretations.

Most pedantic book reviews always focus on the symbolism of wizards teasing the Muggle king, attempting to prove the stupidity of Muggles, the social environment of Beedle the Bard at the time, and Beedle the Bard's own pure-blood tendencies.

Occasionally there are comments on magic, and the focus is always on resurrection. Except for the naive little wizards in school, most adult wizards do not think highly of the magic of Animagus. To skillfully and naturally transform from a human to an animal requires long-term study and practice. They think it is more valuable to spend their time on other things.

This question is not difficult. The witch Babidi's application of Animagus is to transform into a rabbit and hide in a tree stump when being chased.

There are two things that do not conform to the Animagus condition: first, the transformed animals cannot speak; second, the transformed animals do not have the ability to cast magic.

After finishing the last word, he casually threw the quill into the ink bottle. Loren wanted to hand in the paper early, but when he looked up and saw Professor McGonagall's oppressive gaze, he was forced to give up the idea and stayed in his seat doing nothing, looking around.

Hermione in the front right is still concentrating on answering questions. According to the little witch's personality, she wants to write down all the knowledge points. In addition, she always pays attention to the neatness of her handwriting, so it is normal that her speed is a little slow.

Cedric, Percy and the others were in a similar situation, except that they had more experience in taking exams and their progress was slightly faster than Hermione's. Although Neville was only halfway through the test and was the slowest, he didn't stop at any point to ponder, so it seemed that he should be doing well.

The most surprising thing was that Harry and Ron had already finished, and like Loren, they were looking around idly.

After the exam, several people walked out of the classroom together.

Loren put his hands on Harry and Ron's shoulders: "I can't believe you two are faster than Hermione."

Harry scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "No, I didn't write for most of the time. I couldn't remember anything at all, so I could only sit there and stare blankly."

Turning to look at Ron, he puffed out his chest with some pride: "I put down my pen before Harry did!"

……

This afternoon, Friday, is the second herbal medicine class for second graders after school started. This is the only herbal medicine class for the entire afternoon.

The last herbal medicine class was a theoretical course, and they also collected their holiday homework, so this was their first time in the greenhouse this semester.

The little wizards from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were already waiting at the door of the third greenhouse. They hoped that Professor Sprout would end the get out of class early because of their good behavior, so that they could have plenty of time to play at the edge of the Forbidden Forest for an entire afternoon.

Harry and Ron paced back and forth at the door nervously. According to the time, Professor Sprout had already reviewed their papers, so whether they would be scolded or not depended on today.

"We have two tasks today. First, we need to trim the dead branches of the Abyssinian shrunken fig seedlings. Some of them did not survive the winter. We need to cut off the dead branches to prevent them from hindering the growth of healthy branches. Second, we need to collect enough grass for the greenhouse compost..."

Professor Sprout took a key from his waist that was thicker than his arm and opened the door of the greenhouse.