Time passed.
By the second week of the new term, all fourth-year students noticed that the amount of homework they had to do this term had clearly increased.
One day, when students were complaining particularly loudly that Professor McGonagall had assigned too much Transfiguration homework, Professor McGonagall explained the reason.
"Because you are entering an important period of your magical education! Your O.W.L. exams are approaching—"
"We won't take O.W.L.s until fifth year. That's nearly two whole years away!" Dean Thomas said indignantly.
At this moment, dissatisfaction with the large amount of homework made him forget even Professor McGonagall's authority, and he couldn't help but blurt this out.
"Perhaps that is so, Mr. Thomas. But please believe me, you need to be thoroughly prepared!" Professor McGonagall's gaze swept around all the students in the class. Her two eyes flashed with authority behind her square spectacles. "In this class, there have consistently been only two people who can transform a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion."
Her gaze inadvertently passed over Sherlock and Hermione, then returned to Dean. "And you, Mr. Thomas... I should remind you that your pincushion still curls up in fear when someone approaches it with a pin!"
Dean's face flushed red. Being called out like this by Professor McGonagall in front of everyone, he naturally found it hard to accept.
But what could he do?
Professor McGonagall was stating facts.
At this moment, the whole class's gaze turned toward Sherlock and Hermione. Everyone knew Professor McGonagall was talking about them.
Sherlock was perfectly composed, as if this was simply an insignificant trifle.
As for Hermione, she was trying hard to restrain herself, doing her utmost not to appear too smug.
However, when she saw Sherlock's expression, she couldn't help feeling somewhat regretful.
Because Sherlock ultimately still hadn't agreed to serve as president of the House-Elf Rights Promotion Society.
As for his reason?
Sorry, when Sherlock wanted to refuse something, he never needed a reason.
So, during this time, she had seemed rather sullen.
Mainly because Sherlock not only refused to serve as president, but didn't even buy an S.P.E.W. badge.
This time Sherlock actually gave a reason, but Hermione felt Sherlock might as well not have spoken.
"I already told you last time, dear Hermione."
Hermione still remembered Sherlock's gray eyes when he refused her, and that polite yet crisp tone. "I can understand what you're doing, but understanding doesn't mean agreement. House-elves are not human. As an intelligent species, I can give them appropriate respect, but I won't help you fight for so-called rights for them."
In fact, given Hermione's understanding of Sherlock, even before opening her mouth to ask him, she had already guessed he would refuse.
Despite her earlier words to Ron about "you don't understand Sherlock," she was actually just deceiving herself.
But even so, she still asked with a try-it-and-see attitude.
The result was naturally without surprise.
Sherlock's refusal was truly too crisp.
He wouldn't even give her a shred of hope.
For Hermione, sadness truly flowed like a river in reverse.
You should know that even Harry and Ron had paid two Sickles to purchase S.P.E.W. badges.
However, the two had only done so to make her shut up and stop talking to them about this matter all the time. They had been quite tired lately.
Just as Professor McGonagall had said, although the O.W.L. exams were in fifth year, the teachers of other courses almost all shared Professor McGonagall's thinking, believing the young wizards needed to be thoroughly prepared.
In plain terms, they were accelerating the pace.
"Actually, this is quite normal," Cho Chang said seriously when they chatted about this, seeing the surprised expressions of a group of friends.
"In Korea, for the school entrance exam similar to the O.W.L.s, it's like this too. At most by the first semester of the third year of middle school, all the coursework for third year is already completely finished. At some schools, they even use supplementary time during the summer before third year starts to finish the third-year curriculum in advance."
"What about the time in third year then?" Ron asked in confusion. "That's a whole year!"
"Of course it's used for review," Cho Chang said in the most natural tone possible. "The third year was never meant for learning new knowledge. Review, consolidation, and improvement are the main tasks of that year. The middle school entrance exam plays an even more important role in Muggle education than the O.W.L. exams. Compared to the pace there, Hogwarts is already very relaxed. After all, it takes a full five years to accomplish all this."
Hearing this, all the young wizards fell silent, with nothing to say.
The Divination class where they had to turn in homework once again conflicted with Ancient Runes class time.
But this time, Sherlock didn't choose to attend Divination class with Harry and Ron.
Then, Professor Trelawney actually gave their homework very high marks.
This made Harry and Ron feel both incredulous and particularly ridiculous.
In this class, Professor Trelawney read aloud many parts of their predictions in a loud voice and highly affirmed their courage in accepting the terrible things that were about to happen.
However, when she asked them to make another prediction about their fate for the month after next, they didn't find it quite so funny anymore.
Because the two of them couldn't think of any new catastrophic events.
"Listen, mate, it looks like we'll have to ask them for help again," Ron said, gesturing for Harry to look at the other side.
When Professor Trelawney was reading their predictions aloud, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, these two girls, had frequently shown smiles.
In their view, Harry and Ron's homework receiving the teacher's praise was also partly their achievement.
At this moment, hearing Professor Trelawney had actually assigned new homework, the two girls also actively looked over.
Harry hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
"No way, mate!" Ron was shocked. "Don't tell me you actually want to complete the homework yourself. You know that's impossible!"
"Well... when I was chatting with Cho Chang the other day, I mentioned this. She told me that if I encounter difficulties in Divination class again, she'll help me," Harry said somewhat embarrassedly. "She said there's no need to trouble Parvati again."
"You beast!" Ron never expected his good friend's charm had already reached such heights.
A girl from another house actually volunteered to help him with his homework.
This was how... enviable!
Looking at Harry's embarrassed appearance, Ron's feelings were complex.
On one hand, he naturally didn't want his good friend to be punished, have points deducted, or get detention for not completing homework.
On the other hand, seeing a beautiful, gentle, and understanding older girl voluntarily helping his friend with homework also made him uncomfortable.
Ron let out a long sigh.
Of the other two reliable friends, Sherlock never wrote homework, and Professor Trelawney wouldn't bother with him either.
As for Hermione, she had dropped this course last term.
As things stood now, he could only rely on Lavender.
"In that case, I can only depend on Lavender."
Harry hesitated for a moment, then spoke. "I also think finding Lavender to help is a good approach."
Ron: "Ha ha."
Harry: "It's true. If it were other girls, after hearing you say that last time, they would have already fallen out with you."
Ron: "That's because they can't take a joke."
Harry: "Ha ha."
Of course, the courses that made young wizards feel headaches weren't only Transfiguration and Divination.
Professor Binns the ghost didn't know what he was thinking, but this week he actually started assigning them to write an essay about goblin rebellions in the eighteenth century.
As everyone knew, this topic was truly too broad.
And the vast majority of young wizards had absolutely no interest in this topic whatsoever.
Come on, it was almost the twenty-first century. Why were they still concerned about eighteenth-century goblins?
When someone dissatisfiedly raised this point in class, Professor Binns uncharacteristically offered sharp criticism. "Miss Goldbeech, your way of thinking is a very serious mistake! If a people forgets its history, it means betrayal. The goblin rebellions in history were bloody and shocking! You should know that although the goblins' rebellions were quelled, even today, goblin subversive groups still exist, attempting to oppose the rule of the Ministry of Magic."
Everyone had long been accustomed to Professor Binns mixing up students' names.
But for Professor Binns to treat a student's comment so seriously, they had only experienced this once before.
That was in second year when Hermione asked him about rumors of the Chamber of Secrets.
At that time, although Professor Binns told them about the Chamber's legend, he loudly rebuked that these were not reliable historical records and were all nonsense.
Of course, later facts proved that unofficial history was sometimes more reliable than official history.
In any case, writing this essay was already a foregone conclusion. No matter how dissatisfied everyone was, it was useless.
The teachers oppressing students naturally included Potions Professor Snape.
Merely forcing them to research antidotes was acceptable, as this was normal teaching content.
The problem was that Professor Snape also hinted in a sinister tone that he would poison one of them before Halloween to see if their antidotes worked.
This being the case, how could the young wizards dare to be careless?
Professor Flitwick also added content to their normal coursework.
They had to read three additional books to prepare for learning the Summoning Charm.
Even the second most popular teacher, Hagrid the Care of Magical Creatures professor, had also added an extra burden.
Because lately the Blast-Ended Skrewts had been growing very quickly.
Strangely, no one had figured out what exactly they liked to eat.
This made Hagrid very happy.
As part of that "grow bigger and stronger, achieve new glory" project, he even suggested the young wizards come to his hut every other day to observe the Skrewts and record their unusual behaviors.
When Hagrid made this suggestion with Puffskeins as a reward, quite a few young wizards were tempted.
Although the Blast-Ended Skrewts were disgusting, Puffskeins were really appealing!
After Care of Magical Creatures class ended, they had to return to the castle, but when the group reached the entrance hall, they found they could no longer proceed.
Because a large crowd of students was gathered around a notice posted at the foot of the marble staircase.
Ron was originally the tallest of the four. Both Sherlock and Harry were a bit shorter than him.
Add to that his naturally show-off personality, so without a second thought, he stood on tiptoe, looked over the heads of those in front, and read the words on the notice aloud for the nearby young lions.
THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
Just the title alone had already attracted the attention of other students around them.
Young Ravens, Badgers, and even Snakes who couldn't squeeze to the front all gathered over.
Ron saw the Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle trio also mixed in among them and couldn't help curling his lip.
However, seeing everyone giving him such face, he continued reading down:
"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive at six o'clock on Friday, the thirtieth of October. Afternoon lessons will end half an hour early..."
"Brilliant!" Before Ron finished speaking, Harry immediately cheered. "The last lesson on Friday is Potions! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
The watching young wizards also felt the same way.
This time, even Sherlock didn't stop Harry.
If it were before, he would definitely have told Harry, "You're too prejudiced against Professor Snape."
But this time, even he believed Professor Snape was capable of doing such a thing.
Anyway, with his abilities, no matter how severe the poison, he could save them.
Not to mention the poison would be administered by him in the first place.
Being interrupted by his good friend, Ron naturally didn't mind and continued reading.
"...Students will please return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast."
"That means only one week!" At this point, Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff squeezed out of the crowd.
His eyes were shining. "I wonder if Cedric knows yet. I'll go tell him..."
"Cedric?" After Ernie hurried away, Ron was somewhat confused. He couldn't immediately recall who this person was.
"That's Diggory," Harry explained. "Cedric is his first name. I think he'll definitely enter the Tournament."
"That idiot wants to be Hogwarts champion?"
Ron said with some dissatisfaction.
Since they already knew what was written on the notice, the four of them squeezed through the chattering crowd and headed for the stairs.
"He's not an idiot."
Hearing this, Hermione couldn't help frowning. "I heard he's an excellent student—not only Quidditch team captain but also a prefect. Ronald, I think you only dislike him because he beat Gryffindor in Quidditch."
"From your tone, it sounds like being a prefect and Quidditch captain proves something," Ron said sharply. "I think you like him because he's handsome."
"I'm sorry, but I don't like people just because they're good-looking!" Hermione said indignantly.
Ron gave a loud cough, his voice sounding strange, very much like "Lockhart."
Sherlock and Harry couldn't help exchanging smiles.
This Ron certainly had a knack for passive-aggressive remarks.
The notice that appeared in the entrance hall had an obvious effect on the people living in the castle.
Over the next week, wherever you went, people seemed to talk about only one topic.
The Triwizard Tournament.
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