Chapter 596
Before the Exam Coming out of Classroom 7, Hermione kept chattering.
"Totally unexpected! Much better than I thought. I thought it would be all kinds of practical exercises, like throwing you into the Forbidden Forest and letting a bunch of weird animals chase you... I mean, it's not bad, but I'd rather have some quiet and efficient thinking--" "
Who said it wasn't?" Ron retorted.
He and Harry's clothes were soaked with sweat, and their hair was askew, as if they had just gone through a rigorous Quidditch training.
Hermione didn't understand the meaning of the words. She was still sharing her feelings excitedly: "You can talk to the room directly and let it provide help according to your ideas - that's what I did, you know? I have always had a dream, that is, to be able to read more than a dozen books at the same time. Of course, they are all related, and they may be different interpretations of the same magic... I can use them for reference, and it really helped me realize it!"
"The best thing is that a drink will appear here every half an hour - I only found out later - you can choose between tea, hot cocoa and pumpkin juice, all of which are ghost food. But there is nothing wrong with this."
Harry and Ron looked at each other. They didn't get hot tea to drink, but a group of rotating dishes followed them, forcing them to perform Transfiguration. Harry swore that he didn't want to touch mushrooms for the next week. . .
"I heard that there is also a classroom mode, which is to imitate the situation of class, and a group of students get together to study." Harry changed the subject.
"Yeah," Hermione tried to recall, "I seem to have seen it, we can give it a try."
The next two weeks passed quickly. As June approached, fifth-year and seventh-year students spent all their energy on reviewing. Professors no longer assigned homework, but reviewed the questions that might appear in the exam in class. Students were dizzy every day, and the little time in class was not enough. They could only desperately remember the knowledge points, and then either spend the whole night in the library to memorize the materials, or appear in classroom 7 to practice casting spells. During
this time, Hermione also fulfilled her promise and demonstrated to some students the most difficult potion brewing methods in the exam range. There were four colleges among the students watching, but they could basically be divided into two categories: members of the front-line lookout and their friends, and a dozen Slytherin students.
The former made great efforts to simplify the potion process, and the latter-well, paid a lot of precious potion materials.
"I didn't see Goyle and Crabbe." After the demonstration, Hermione looked at Draco Malfoy's back and said softly.
"It's not just the two of them," Fred came over and said, "Now everyone who has relatives with Death Eaters is trying to distance themselves from them, but those who have direct relatives who are Death Eaters are in trouble and are not well received."
Harry suddenly realized something. He remembered reading in the newspaper a few weeks ago that Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Wizengamot.
"What about Malfoy? Isn't his father an undercover agent?" Ron asked.
"Him? Not bad," Fred said casually, "He was indeed ignored at first, but there are many smart people in Slytherin, and soon someone came to him," he added, "It may also be that their parents are smart enough."
"Of course there are people who are hostile to him, those -" George said.
"Those whose direct relatives are Death Eaters." Harry said affirmatively.
"That's right." George winked at him, "There are gains and losses. It's fair, isn't it?"
Harry was relieved. He was worried that the Slytherin people would cause trouble. He even wanted to ask a professor to come - of course not Snape, but Sirius. But Sirius was too busy. He complained to Harry privately that Dumbledore seemed to know that he would no longer teach in the next school year, so he was busy assigning tasks.
In order to motivate the students, Sirius made a bet with them: if anyone could get an "excellent" in the wizard level exam, he would give these students his experience in learning Animagus as a gift.
"Think about it, although Professor McGonagall also knows this knowledge, she will not teach it easily. As far as I know, this is a treatment only for the best students in the Transfiguration Club." He said casually, "Do you want it? Then get an "excellent" back."
"Professor Black, will you continue to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts class next year?" a student asked expectantly.
Sirius shook his head, "Only this year." Seeing the disappointed expression on the student's face, he hurriedly said, "Don't worry, I'll keep my word. The knowledge will be in Professor Hep's hands..."
'Professor Hep' didn't know about this until the third day. He basically stayed in the depths of classroom 7 during this period, and even made a temporary office for this purpose - the thinking hut and classroom 7 are a perfect match. Coupled with the endless emotions stimulated by the students because of the exam, his research progress is extremely fast.
"When did you give me the information about Animagus?"
One day at the dinner table, Felix blocked Sirius and asked in a bad tone. He realized belatedly that the news about 'Professor Black entrusted the knowledge to Professor Hep' had spread throughout the school.
"Am I wrong?" Sirius said disdainfully: "The Black family's collection of books from generation to generation has been put into your stomach. Animagus is just an inconspicuous one, oh - no wonder you don't remember it."
Felix shut up obediently.
...
After turning off the lights, Harry sat on the windowsill of his dormitory and looked at the stars outside. He suddenly realized that he had won the Quidditch Cup two days ago. This should have been a cause for celebration, but the Gryffindor team members - except for Katie Bell, who did not need to take the exam, the other six only showed up at the celebration party and then turned around to deal with the "clinging goblins" in Fred's words.
After entering June, the shadow of the exam was getting closer.
More than one student had exam syndrome. They were more or less infected with strange problems. For example, Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff liked to inquire about other people's review time. When he learned that others had less review time than him, he would be relieved, otherwise he would be very nervous.
Hermione was no less than her. She performed particularly well in two aspects. She single-handedly thwarted the thriving black market trade of young wizards. Whether it was the poorly packaged inferior Bafey brain-awakening potion, the foxy dried feces disguised as dragon claw powder, or all kinds of substandard joy potions and dream potions made by students... they were all confiscated and poured into the toilet;
another thing is that she developed the habit of looking at people with empty eyes, which usually happened when she, Harry and Ron were on the way to class, or when they were eating. At the same time, she was accompanied by symptoms such as mumbling in her mouth and constantly poking the air with her fingers.
"Are you Luna in disguise?" Harry looked at Hermione suspiciously.
"What? Of course not!" Hermione said impatiently: "I was just reading in my mind."
In the last class before the exam, Felix explained the precautions to the students.
"The Ancient Runes exam is scheduled for Friday, with a written exam in the morning and a practical exam in the afternoon." Felix said, "I personally participated in the preparation of the practical exam questions, and all the questions are within the scope of the review, so you can rest assured." "
In addition, I believe you should know that cheating is prohibited in the exam."
The students under the podium had tense faces, and Felix was not sure what they really thought unless he used Legilimency.
"The examiners are experienced and can easily see through all cheating methods. This may be a bit abstract. For example, the chief examiner, Professor Griselda Marchbank, presided over the NEWTs exam of Headmaster Dumbledore when she was young. This means that she has supervised the exams that are of great significance to you for almost a hundred times."
Harry took a deep breath. He had never thought about this problem from this perspective. He looked around, and the others had almost the same expression. Professor Happ used an example that could not be more real to tell them how difficult it is to cheat.
"...like automatic answering quills, memory balls, detachable cuffs and automatic error correction ink, various potions...all of these are prohibited. I have been in the Wizarding Examination Authority for two days. Believe me, figuring out anti-cheating magic is their most common daily routine. During those two days, I saw all kinds of strange gadgets, which were amazing..." "
My personal suggestion is to ask Madam Pomfrey for some dream potion, get enough sleep, and chew two mint leaves before entering the examination room to refresh yourself. Yes, mint leaves are allowed."
...
At breakfast on Sunday, Seamus stumbled into the hall and shouted, "The examiner is here!" The originally lively atmosphere dropped to a low point in an instant. A seventh-year girl suddenly burst into tears, and a circle of people around her came forward to comfort her.
Harry looked at the suddenly hysterical girl with one eye and stared at the door of the hall with the other eye, trying to catch the figures of the examiners, but he almost sent food into his nose. Just as he lowered his head to cough, he heard the sound of breathing in and out from both sides. He looked up suddenly and saw Dumbledore passing by the door with an old woman.
"It's Professor Marchbank!" Hermione's tone was very abnormal.
"I heard that she is a good friend of Neville's grandmother. Do you think we can--" Ron said hopefully, and then he saw the stiff expression on Neville's face and sighed, "Alas, it seems impossible."
On the other side--
"Dumbledore?" Professor Marchbank said loudly to the person beside her. Behind her and Dumbledore followed Professor McGonagall and Snape who were silent. "Dorothea told me that you haven't been to the hospital for a check-up--"
"There is an excellent school doctor in the school," Dumbledore said calmly, "She can easily solve my headaches and fever problems."
On the last night before the exam, Harry lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep.
He felt that his mind was particularly active tonight. He thought of Sirius' encouragement during the day, the taste of holding the Quidditch trophy that he had never tasted carefully, and even thought of Voldemort. Voldemort had not appeared in his dreams for a long time. It seemed that Professor Happ and Headmaster Dumbledore's guess was right - Voldemort used brain occlusion on him.
That's why his scar never hurt.
Harry got up from the bed, fumbled in the dark for a while, and finally successfully found a small bottle of dream potion in the Christmas stocking that Dobby gave him. He unscrewed the cap and took a sip.
"Give me some too, Harry." Ron said suddenly.
Harry handed the open glass bottle to Ron, and their hands bumped in the air, and the bottle was transferred smoothly. Then there was a swallowing sound, and Ron smacked his lips in satisfaction. At this time, another voice came from next to him -
"Anything else?" Neville asked in a low voice. He didn't fall asleep either.
"Quite a few," Ron said. Just as he finished speaking, Seamus and Dean's voices came from different parts of the dormitory, "Great! Please give me some--" "Um...thank you?"
The bottle turned around and returned to Harry's hand. It was empty.
Sleepiness came over Harry. He put the bottle on the bedside table, took off his glasses and lay on the pillow. "Should we set an alarm?" he asked vaguely.
"What?"
"I said--ha--ah--" Harry yawned loudly and fell asleep.
...
At the same time, Bellatrix woke up from the coffin. She sat up dazedly, still holding the golden cup tightly with both hands.
Voldemort was very satisfied with her attitude.
Bellatrix bowed her head respectfully, and the inexplicable fanaticism appeared on her face again.
"Crack, crack."
Bellatrix shook her stiff neck. She seemed to have been sleeping for a long time. When she climbed out of the coffin, her hands and feet were out of control. Just when she was about to fall to the ground, Voldemort flicked his fingers lazily, and she was immediately pulled straight by an invisible force.
"Thank you, Master. I, I--" Bellatrix stared at her hands. Those hands seemed to have lost the appearance of normal skin, becoming wrinkled and pale, as if covered with some kind of fine scales. She widened her eyes and touched her face in panic.
Then there was another creepy scream.
"Don't worry, my dear Bella, this is only temporary." Voldemort looked at his "work" with satisfaction. "Your body has undergone some minor changes in your sleep, and it takes time to recover." He held Bellatrix's hand.
With Voldemort's help, Bellatrix staggered out of the coffin. Surrounded by the gloomy cemetery, it was dilapidated, the weeds made a bleak sound, and the wind seemed to blow into her skin. She shuddered.
A few minutes later, Bellatrix, who had moved her arms and legs a little, followed Voldemort.
"During the time you were asleep, great changes have taken place outside."
"The Aurors of the Ministry of Magic, identified by two traitors, have scattered my loyal believers... Bella, you are one of the few people who still remain loyal to me."
"Master, Master!" Bellatrix said gratefully, "Thank you for your magnanimity and for not caring about my sister and brother-in-law--" Voldemort's eyes cast two dangerous red lights, and she suddenly shut her mouth, and the air fell into dead silence.
After a long while--
"Not caring?" Voldemort asked softly, Bellatrix lowered her head, and Voldemort walked back and forth in front of her, "What makes you think that I will forgive others' betrayal? Lucius... Selwyn... maybe there are others. The Ministry of Magic's intelligence is closed to me. I am like a blind person now, and can only learn about the trial from the newspapers."
"I don't know since when, my name seems to be less useful than before. Do you know what the newspapers are discussing now?" Voldemort asked. Without waiting for Bellatrix to answer, he muttered to himself: "Dumbledore, Hep, Potter, and even that woman... Amelia Bones."
The cold wind was bleak.
"They are discussing the nemesis of the Dark Lord, more than one!" Voldemort raised his voice. Bellatrix's body trembled, as if she was whipped in the face. She knelt on the ground. Voldemort ignored it and twisted his mouth into an evil expression. "In the eyes of these people, I seem to be just a clown."
"Master, you are the supreme Dark Lord." Bellatrix sobbed, as if she was sad about the reduction of this honor. "Things are not that bad-"
Voldemort sneered twice.
"Of course it's not that bad." He said indifferently: "But it's also a critical moment. The duel between me and old man Dumbledore is coming. What I am most worried about is that Felix Hep will disrupt the situation-" "
Is this a trap?" Bellatrix asked, holding her breath.
"No, Dumbledore dare not lie to me. He cannot afford the price." Voldemort said in a cold tone. Bellatrix fully understood the bloodiness and cruelty in these words.
"The location of our duel is a secret. I will also set up warning magic around it..."
"I am worried about another thing - he will find you."
"Me?" Bellatrix said in surprise and excitement.
Voldemort stared at her pale face, which made Bellatrix nervous. She became more cautious and respectful.
"Bella," Voldemort said softly, "you have always been loyal to me. Now it's time for me to give back to you." He lifted Bellatrix's hand, and with a light hook of his slender pale fingers, he picked up the golden cup in her hand and looked at it carefully for a moment.
"I will share with you the secret of my immortality."