Chapter 470: Chapter 470: Embracing the Thigh (Edited)
"Defense Against the Dark Arts" is an interesting subject. At first glance, it's a course that teaches students how to defend themselves against dark magic. But what is Professor Lupin's teaching content this year? Methods for dealing with boggarts, grindylows, hinkypunks, and red caps.
Are these creatures within the scope of dark magic?
It seems difficult to classify them under dark magic, much like labeling a wolf as a weapon of mass destruction. They are magical creatures.
The teaching content of Professor Lupin this year largely overlaps with the Care of Magical Creatures subject. Fortunately, there is a wide variety of magical creatures, so it didn't cause too much trouble for Newt.
Why does this happen? This brings us to the question of how one becomes a professor. In the non-magical world, you need to obtain teaching certification and then apply to a school. The teaching content is also planned, and you can't teach whatever you want. But in the magical world, it's different; you don't need teaching certification or prior training to teach at Hogwarts. You only need the approval of Headmaster Dumbledore. Additionally, for decades, there have been frequent changes in the professors of this subject, leading to different teaching styles.
Reading a book with Quirrell, Lockhart's reading comprehension, Lupin's magical zoology, Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Umbridge's politics...
In reality, the Defense Against the Dark Arts subject used to be a combat course. Young wizards would arrive at an empty field for class and engage in individual or paired duels. At that time, the House Prefect was usually the most skilled combatant student, and the Annual Prize went to the best fighter in the entire school.
In those days, students had to learn how to fight in this subject, how to undo all sorts of curses, how to deal with strange magical creatures, and even solve puzzles. In short, it was more like a comprehensive application course, somewhat similar to internships in the non-magical world.
However, times have changed, and the combat ability of young wizards has gradually declined, and the importance of practical training in Defense Against the Dark Arts has also decreased.
Professor Lupin, as the "Child King" of his time, has his unique understanding of the subject. Based on this understanding, he has created a very unique set of exam questions.
These exam questions turned out to be quite novel even for Tom. And when he learned that there were no qualification requirements at Hogwarts, a bold idea emerged in his mind.
...
Although Professor Lupin kept quiet about Tom's whereabouts, the young wizards had a rough idea. After all, it was already Thursday, and the third-year students were not the first to take the exam, so they had naturally heard some rumors.
Of course, the students had a strong sense of confidentiality and only mentioned a few loose words. With just those few loose words, it wasn't enough for the students to guess the content of the exam, but everyone could confirm that Tom Yodel was involved in some aspect of the test.
Professor Lupin divided the students into teams after allowing them to form groups freely.
Since it was about forming teams, there were many intrigues. Who wouldn't want to join the best to face the challenge together? The greater the difficulty of the challenge, the more comfortable it is if you have a great partner.
If we look at the entire third-year class of Ravenclaw, is there any better partner than Hermione Granger? There are only two great partners in the whole year: Yodel and Granger. After Yodel's disappearance, Granger became the best partner. Under normal circumstances, it's highly likely that they would both team up to take the exam, but Yodel disappeared, right?
Furthermore, there is a hidden benefit to joining Granger: given the relationship between Yodel and Granger, the exam is likely to go exceptionally smoothly.
Therefore, after Professor Lupin announced that they could form teams freely, Hermione was quickly surrounded by students.
The Ravenclaw students were the first to act, and then a small quarrel ensued among the young eagles: the girls collectively drove the boys outside.
The reason is simple: are you sure you can smoothly pass if Yodel sees you taking the exam with Granger? You are very likely to have some kind of accident that sends you to the school infirmary, which could affect your afternoon exam.
Under these direct threats, the Ravenclaw students quickly abandoned the idea of joining Hermione and sought out their good friends as partners.
Meanwhile, the girls grouped around Hermione, making noise and arguing to be her partner.
"Pick me, I won't bother you!"
"Hermione, let me be your partner, I can do everything..."
"I have secrets for skin whitening and hydration."
"I can..."
Hermione's head was spinning from the noise. Among her roommates, she had no special friends or arch-enemies, which made her choice very difficult.
"Stop!" Finally, she stopped her excited classmates.
"Let's draw lots! Whoever I draw will be on my team." This was the fairest way to do it, and no one had anything to say.
In the end, Padma Patil and Hermione formed a team together.
As for the order of appearance, it would be decided by Professor Lupin's draw. The first pair selected turned out to be Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Draco immediately refused to work with his two lackeys. He knew very well that aside from being able to act as human shields and cause physical harm, they wouldn't be of much help.
"Put this on," Professor Lupin gave both of them a bracelet.
"What is this?" Draco asked, surprised.
"If you faint, the bell in my hand will ring, and I'll come to get you off the field." Lupin waved a pair of bells in his hand.
Draco: ...
His facial expression instantly turned ugly.
"If something happens to me, I..."
"I'll explain it to Mr. Lucius," Lupin guessed what Draco wanted to say and interrupted him without emotion.
"Let's go!" Draco, who knew there was no turning back, took a deep breath and entered the classroom that Lupin had prepared along with Pansy Parkinson.
At the same time, Lupin glanced at the clock on the wall.
About three minutes later, the bells in Professor Lupin's hands rang simultaneously. The faces of the students around him immediately became serious. Did Draco and his partner only endure for three minutes?
Professor Lupin sighed and entered the examination room. In no time, he used a levitation charm to carry the two unconscious students out of the venue.
"They're just unconscious, not a big deal." After waking both of them up with a counter-spell, Lupin pulled out a notepad and jotted down a couple of things, recording their performance and completion time.
Once everything was settled, he declared that the exam for the two of them was over and escorted Draco and Pansy out of the examination room.
The exam continued.
Chapter 471: Chapter 471: Hermione's Exam (Edited)
Three minutes, four minutes, two and a half minutes...
Groups of students entered the examination room, but none of them could come out awake! The only difference between each group was the duration they lasted.
The faces of the students grew increasingly worried, especially as they saw the candidates who had entered before them leaving the examination room pale and exhausted. The tension was becoming unbearable. Furthermore, the students who had taken the exam earlier were expelled from the room by Professor Lupin, leaving everyone in the dark about the specific conditions of the exam.
Of course, there were two people who were very awake: Harry and Hermione. Both could guess the reason for the low pass rate of this exam.
It was Tom, Tom had been included in this exam by Professor Lupin.
After witnessing Tom's power that night, Harry felt that it would be difficult for him and his classmates to survive against Tom for even ten seconds.
However, something strange was happening. Instead of dispersing, the candidates stayed close to the examination room with distressed expressions on their faces.
Professor Lupin was also surprised. He didn't expect Tom to take this so seriously and treat all the students equally. Considering the physical and mental exhaustion caused by continuous fighting, Professor Lupin could only say that he had underestimated student Yodel.
Now, Professor Lupin's only regret was not saving Tom for the last test, which resulted in some preparations not being used.
Looking at the progress, Professor Lupin began to worry: more than half of the students had participated in the exam, but none of them had passed the final test!
According to the rules, none of them could get an "Outstanding" grade, but if they all failed, how could Professor Lupin face Dumbledore? Even he himself... shouldn't give up so easily.
'If things continued like this, I'd have to lower the grading standards.' Professor Lupin sighed to himself.
"The next group, Padma Patil and... Hermione Granger," Professor Lupin's eyes lit up. He considered Hermione's skill level comparable to Tom's. If Hermione could exhaust a bit of Tom's energy, the pass rate of the remaining candidates might increase slightly.
However, wouldn't this be unfair to those who took the exam earlier? This idea crossed Professor Lupin's mind, but he decided to go ahead with it. Where is absolute fairness in this world? Even other professors' exams didn't guarantee equal opportunities. For example, when Snape took exams, if he stood behind someone, that person's performance would be affected. Where could these candidates go for justice?
Padma, called to step forward, was very nervous. She grabbed Hermione's hand and tremblingly said, "Hermione, I'm relying on you. I'm not aiming for an 'Outstanding,' I just want to pass..."
Hermione had no choice but to constantly console her partner, saying things like "it's okay," "stay calm," "breathe deeply"... But obviously, these comforting words couldn't inspire much confidence in Padma.
"Don't worry, I'm very familiar with all of Tom's spells." In the end, Hermione could only say that to reassure Padma.
However, in reality, Hermione wasn't sure of herself. She couldn't guarantee that she could beat Tom in a spell battle.
But Hermione had no other choice.
After putting on the bracelet, she and her partner Padma started together.
When they entered the examination room, the environment changed dramatically. What appeared before Hermione and Padma was a deep pond.
"Be careful, I suspect there might be grindylows in the pond," Hermione warned as she picked up a stone from the edge and threw it in. The stone disappeared instantly, indicating that the water was deeper than they had imagined.
At the mention of grindylows, Padma immediately recalled the key points taught in class for dealing with them: the fingers.
"Let's hope there are no Water Folk." Hermione silently prayed. Fighting Water Folk in the water was not a good option, and Water Folk domesticated grindylows, so they might attack in coordination.
Fortunately, Professor Lupin was quite "lenient" with third-year young wizards and hadn't placed any Water Folk in the pond.
Hermione and Padma were only attacked by a few grindylows along the way. They could easily get rid of them with an Expulso Charm.
After swimming through the pond, they reached a hole in the ground.
"Lumos!" Both of their wands emitted a faint light, illuminating the path ahead.
"Be careful!" Hermione acted quickly and pulled Padma back.
"It's a swamp." Hermione pointed her wand at the spot where Padma had nearly stepped a moment ago. The light dispersed the darkness, revealing the true nature of the place: it wasn't solid ground but a mud puddle.
"Look!" Hermione waved her wand, illuminating the ground in front of them. What appeared before them was a swamp, complete with holes in the ground. Hermione suddenly felt that not everyone who had come before had been defeated by Tom...
"There's light over there, should we go check it out?" Padma saw a light on the front left and suggested that Hermione investigate.
Hermione immediately thought of a magical creature: the Hinkypunk, which lives in swamps and has no physical form, appearing as just a flash of light. It lights up at night to lure passersby into the swamp.
So, should they go in the opposite direction? Hermione began to feel indecisive inside. Because the Hinkypunk could also be a clue left by Professor Lupin here, and they might need to approach it and solve some task to move on to the next challenge.
Finally, Hermione made a decision: go in the opposite direction!
Because the light was there, if the route in the opposite direction was wrong, they could simply head towards the light.
After sharing this speculation with Padma, she decided to listen to Hermione and follow her footsteps.
Both of them walked with difficulty, taking uncertain steps in the opposite direction. The farther they got from the point of light, the more hesitant Hermione became. At that moment, the bell on Hermione's foot suddenly rang.
"Protego!" She quickly cast a Shield Charm on herself, followed by a strong wind slicing through the air and a "bang," Hermione felt her Protego Charm break, but the attacker was also thrown back by the reaction force.
"What happened?" Padma was confused.
Hermione raised her wand and saw a creature resembling a gnome appear in Padma's view, with a broken stick in its hand.
Hermione clicked her tongue. "It's a Red Cap. It seems we overestimated Tom's power."
She quickly cast a spell and knocked out this creature that liked to attack people with a stick.
"I bet there's a group of Red Caps around the Hinkypunk. This creature will attract other magical beings, and if we go there, we're very likely to be attacked."
Yes, yes! Padma nodded repeatedly, feeling incredibly lucky to be teamed up with Hermione!
Both continued their journey after dealing with the Red Caps.
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