Chapter 333: Year examination
Chapter 333: Year examination
Unlike Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, Cho was a sentimental girl.
Besides magic and Quidditch, she also cared about many things, like an ordinary Muggle girl, not a wizard.
She said a lot to Evan, words Hermione would never say.
This feeling was very special. It impressed Evan deeply, making him somewhat fond of the beautiful girl.
But Cho only visited him once. Hagrid often came. Because of the matter of Acromantulas, he had been in a bad state recently. He looked haggard and always cried out without alert. He returned to the way he looked before Buckbeak was sentenced.
So far, he was the only person who insisted that Aragog was harmless.
In Hagrid’s words, Aragog was different from other Acromantulas. The attack was not its intention, but its children acted on their own.
Evan didn’t know how to comfort Hagrid, but just kept his promise to hand over Aragog to him. Without the help of dark energy, this old spider couldn’t live long either way.
After seeing Aragog in the bottle, Hagrid cried again with Evan in his arms, thanking him infinitely for saving his “friend”.
Dumbledore had told Hagrid that Aragog’s Lair had completely collapsed.
He thought that Aragog died inside, and did not expect Evan to bring it out.
To thank Evan, Hagrid came to the school hospital many times after that, and brought him the latest news of Aragog, as well as homemade rock cakes and fruitcakes.
What these cakes had in common was that they were all as hard as stones.
Evan would never touch them at all, for he wasn’t trying to get rid of his teeth.
In fact, he no longer cared about Aragog and the Acromantulas. After this incident, the Acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest were also badly damaged.
The number of surviving spiders was very small, and Evan estimated that they could not recover their losses in the following ten years.
Because of the surge in his magic, Evan stayed in the school for a long time.
With the help of the strange capacity contained in Slytherin’s Locket, his current magic level was very close to that of Sirius and Snape.
Considering his magic and practical abilities alone, he could easily graduate from Hogwarts.
In Dumbledore’s words, besides Tom Riddle, Evan was already the best student at Hogwarts in recent centuries. Dumbledore allowed Evan to leave the hospital after checking that there was no problem and repeatedly warned him to use his power carefully.
By this time, it was already June.
Now, the days became cloudless and sultry, and what everyone felt like doing was strolling onto the grounds and flopping down on the grass with several pints of iced pumpkin juice, perhaps playing a casual game of Gobstones or watching the giant squid propel itself dreamily across the surface of the lake.
But they couldn’t. Exams were nearly upon them, and instead of lazing around outside, the students were forced to remain inside the castle, trying to bully their brains into concentrating while enticing wafts of summer air drifted in through the windows.
The party that welcomed Evan out of hospital was also much smaller than expected. Everyone just drunk a few glasses of juice in the Common Room and were driven away by Percy.
Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s, the highest qualification Hogwarts offered.
Everyone knew that he wanted to enter the Ministry of Magic.
Therefore, he needed top grades. He was becoming increasingly edgy, and gave very severe punishments to anybody who disturbed the quiet of the Common Room in the evenings.
Because of the upcoming school year exam, everyone was nervous and busy. Even Fred and George did not have the time to pull off their pranks; the new product research was suspended. They could only be spotted studying; they were about to take their O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels).
Driven by Hermione, Evan, who had just been discharged from the hospital, quickly entered a state of intense studying.
He was surrounded by Harry, Ron, Colin and others with the same sad faces.
Exam week began and an unnatural hush fell over the castle.
The first exam in the second and third years was Transfiguration. The third years started first. Their task was to turn a teapot into a tortoise.
Just arrived in Transfiguration classroom, Evan saw that the third years emerged from Transfiguration, limp and ashen-faced.
They were comparing results and bemoaning the difficulty of the tasks they had been set.
“Well, Hermione?” Evan saw Hermione coming out from inside.
“Not so good, my tortoise looked more like a turtle!” she said with a big fuss, “Professor McGonagall will deduct points for me…”
“You are already very good, Hermione!” Harry said weakly, “At least, you’ve got the tortoise. If I could have the same, I’d be satisfied. Mine still had a spout for a tail, what a nightmare…”
“Were the tortoises supposed to breathe steam?” Ron said hopefully.
“Unless Professor McGonagall is under the confusing spell, she certainly will not think so.” Hermione waved to Evan. “See you in the Great Hall later. We’re going to take Charms exam.”
After saying goodbye to Hermione, Evan went into the classroom with the other sophomores.
Professor McGonagall stood solemnly beside the podium, and exuded invisible pressure. She pouted and asked everyone to turn the beetles on the table into buttons.
It was also the content of the primary Transfiguration, which was much easier than turning a teapot into a tortoise.
Just concentrate, wave your wand up gently, and think about what you want to make in your mind. Evan finished just as the voice of Professor McGonagall fell.
He turned the black beetle in front of him into a delicate bronze button with exquisite and intricate decorative patterns.
“Well done, Mr. Mason!” Professor McGonagall’s face showed a seldom smile, very proud of her student. “Full marks, no problem.”
The other young wizards all looked enviously at Evan and the button in front of him before they waved their wands. No one could do as well as Evan did. Transfiguration was the most difficult of all the courses in the lower years. Colin spent a long time there, just getting the beetle exercise.
The beetle ran around the table, hiding from the wand and he couldn’t point at it.
A Hufflepuff student was even more unlucky. When he grabbed the escaped beetle, he accidentally squashed it.
Professor McGonagall was unhappy that he had to ask for another one.
At this point, many people really began to admire Evan’s superb strength.
During the remaining time, Evan, who had nothing to do, took out the history of magic textbook and reviewed it for a while. Their second exam was History of Magic.
Professor Binns’s questions were always very difficult. Even Hermione, who had memorized all the contents of the book, was not sure she would get full marks.