Soon, the last day of the semester arrived.
In the Gryffindor common room, the young wizards stared at the window of Gryffindor Tower that was specially used for owls to enter and exit, anxiously waiting for the announcement of the final exam results.
At Hogwarts, final exam results for each year are announced on the last day of term.
The day after the results were announced, the young wizards took the Hogwarts Express back home.
It is obvious that after receiving their report cards, some little wizards will spend a very happy summer vacation, while others will cry bitterly and be beaten by their parents.
Each college has a different way of issuing transcripts.
In order to let the young wizards experience the tension of the Ordinary Wizarding Level Examination in advance, Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, usually sends the transcript to each young wizard by owl after sorting out the young wizards' scores.
Although Harry was a little worried about his grades, among the young wizards, he was actually one of the most open-minded ones.
After all, he had hardly paid attention to the required courses throughout the entire semester, and had mostly done his homework perfunctorily, so he would not be surprised at all even if he failed several subjects.
In addition, the Dursleys, as the so-called parents, obviously don't care about Harry's performance in the magic school, so unlike other little wizards who have to worry about their parents' punishment for failing the exams, he has no other worries at all.
Compared to Harry, Ron was obviously much more nervous.
Not only because he would have to face Mrs. Weasley's stern gaze when he got home, but he was also worried that his sister Ginny, who had just come to Hogwarts, would laugh at him because of his grades.
In order to relieve Ron's stress, Harry decided to chat with him for a while to distract him.
"Ron, how do you think you did on the test?" he asked in a low voice.
"Don't mention it. I think I will definitely fail my History of Magic exam." Ron covered his face with his hands and said in pain, "Except for perverts like Hermione, who would remember what the specific contents of the International Wizarding Convention of 1289 are..."
At this point, Harry nodded in sympathy.
He had no idea about the content of this part, so he left this question blank on the test paper.
Now seeing that Ron hadn't been able to answer the question either, Harry felt sorry for him, but at the same time, he also felt relieved.
"Don't be too nervous, Ron. At least you must have done well in other subjects, right?" Harry felt that his gloating mood was a little inappropriate, and hurriedly continued to comfort him, "I remember you went to the library with Hermione to review the whole day before the exam!"
"They're just so-so." Ron looked hopeless, "You don't know what happened to me when I cast the Expansion and Contraction spells in the Charms exam..."
"My magic wand is too bad. When I get home, I must ask my mother to buy me another one... Of course, the premise is that my final exam results are not too bad, otherwise a beating is good."
Harry glanced at the wand in Ron's hand, which was taped together and almost broken in two, and a look of sympathy appeared in his eyes.
"Aren't you used to this wand?" Harry asked. "When we were training in the Duelling Club, I remember you were already proficient in using this broken wand?"
"Let me think about what you told me... Oh, by the way, you told me that as long as I can control the amount of magic power, I can successfully duel with this tattered wand!"
At this point, Harry couldn't help but admire Ron's perseverance.
It was not known whether the groups were randomly grouped or assigned for fun, but Harry thought it was the latter. Professor Dracula often put Ron and Seamus Finnigan, two problematic people, in the same team.
Seamus is a genius in blasting. In his hands, any spell can become a powerful blasting spell. Ron, on the other hand, is an expert in self-destruction. When using this broken wand, if he is not careful, he will cast the spell on himself.
However, under the high pressure exerted by Professor Dracula in the duel club, these two people actually developed a duel method that suits them.
Seamus took advantage of his characteristic that any spell he cast could explode. In duels where opponents were randomly assigned, people who were not familiar with him often underestimated his spells that had no lethal power, but ended up being put in a very awkward position by a wand that was suddenly thrown in front of them, as if carrying a powerful blasting spell.
Ron learned the method of controlling the amount of magic power that Professor Dracula had taught him. He would deliberately limit his magic output when using spells normally. However, during a duel, he would often unexpectedly increase his magic power, then turn his wand upside down so that a large amount of gathered magic power would suddenly burst out from the tail of the wand, instantly defeating the opponent!
These two people have developed a dueling style that is difficult for anyone to replicate, and they can be said to be two rare flowers in the duel club.
However, this rare flower in the duel club failed in the final exam of the spells class.
"I was so nervous during the exam," Ron said sadly, "that I accidentally lost control of my magic power and a contraction spell hit me from the end of my wand..."
"Harry, you have no idea how embarrassed I was at that time. The wizard robe on my body shrunk to a level smaller than the clothes a child wore, and it almost suffocated me!"
"Fortunately, Professor Flitwick saw that the situation was not right and helped me dissolve the spell in time. Otherwise, I would probably become the first wizard to be strangled to death by his own spell during the exam..."
"Then you really are... unlucky." Harry covered his mouth, trying hard not to laugh out loud, while pretending to have a sympathetic expression.
"By the way, Harry, do you think you can still get first place in Defense Against the Dark Arts this time?"
Ron didn't care whether Harry was trying to hold back his laughter or not. He suddenly thought of something and asked excitedly, "I don't know where you went by yourself before. You may not know that Hermione's most diligent subject during that time was Defense Against the Dark Arts!"
"Look at Hermione's unwilling expression. She's afraid that you'll take first place in Defense Against the Dark Arts again and break her monopoly on all the subjects!"
"There's no way I'll get first place this time." Harry smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I haven't really paid attention in class this semester."
"Have you forgotten the punishment Professor Dracula gave me this semester? I have to fight four duels every time in the duel club before I can leave... This is the result of my distraction in class."
"That's true. You really weren't in the right spirit this semester, whether it was during class or during Quidditch matches." Ron pinched his chin and said, "But didn't you adjust completely in the end?"
"I still remember the game before the exam. You caught the Golden Snitch in just five minutes! You didn't see Malfoy's expression at that time. He looked like he had eaten a fly!"
Ron held his belly and laughed.
Thinking of Malfoy's funny expression at that time, Ron was no longer nervous, but Harry became a little lonely.
"But I figured it out too late..." Harry sighed, "Gryffindor had a great chance to win its second championship this year, but because of my performance, it didn't even make it to the final."
"Don't blame yourself, Harry. Everyone has bad days sometimes." Ron began to comfort Harry. "Besides, Hufflepuff won the Quidditch Cup in the end, so that's not unacceptable to us. As long as it's not Slytherin!"
"I really didn't expect that even Hufflepuffs who are usually only interested in eating would work so hard to compete for the house cup."
"After winning the Quidditch Cup, Hufflepuff's score surpassed Slytherin's for a short period of time, and then those badgers went crazy, trying their best to earn points despite Snape's targeted deductions..."
"Really? It seemed like Snape didn't deduct points from Gryffindor for a few days, but just picked Hufflepuff to deduct points. But in the end, they still didn't earn as much as he did... Haha, Professor Sprout got the house cup that she hadn't touched for a long time!"
"Indeed." Harry nodded in approval. "I never realized that Hufflepuffs were so capable."
In fact, Hufflepuff is a seriously underestimated house.
Normally, it seems that the young wizards of Hufflepuff are rather indifferent. They do not take honors like the House Cup seriously and do not compete for them.
In addition, the Hufflepuff common room is very close to the Hogwarts kitchen, and the badgers would go to the kitchen for snacks from time to time, so the arrogant pure-bloods in Slytherin often looked down on the people in this house, thinking that they were all good-for-nothings.
But when the day really came, the young wizards of Hufflepuff saw their chance to win the house cup, and this house with the largest number of students among the four houses finally showed their fangs.
A large number of young Hufflepuff wizards worked hard to gain extra points for the academy in all aspects. Even though the courses for this semester had ended, they still did not miss any opportunity to gain extra points, and even knocked on the office doors of various professors to volunteer for them.
Of course, our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor also deserves credit for this.
Dracula was happy to see Snape being humiliated, so he called together a large group of Hufflepuff wizards who came to volunteer, and asked them to sort out the test papers marked by Riddle for him, then fill them out on a piece of parchment and send it to Professor McGonagall, who would make the final version of the transcript.
After finishing this not-so-complicated task, Dracula generously gave ten points to each young wizard who came to work, immediately making up for the points that Snape had deducted for finding faults all day long.
Finally, with Dracula's welcoming attitude and the tacit understanding of several other deans, Sprout led Hufflepuff to win the rare house cup after many years!
"Harry, do you remember when Snape and Professor Sprout shook hands to celebrate, that embarrassed expression almost made me laugh to death!" Ron laughed excitedly.
Harry thought back to Snape's expression at the end-of-term dinner and laughed cheerfully as well.
Just then, the sound of flapping wings came from a window high up in Gryffindor Tower.
Harry and Ron's playful expressions instantly calmed down as if a bucket of cold water was poured on them, and they raised their heads abruptly to look over there.
Several of Hogwarts Castle's public owls carried a thick stack of parchment and flew into the Gryffindor common room from a high window. They threw the report cards, which the young wizards both expected and hated, by the fireplace in the lounge.
"Why can't we light the fireplace in the summer? Then we might have a chance to burn these damn report cards." Ron complained secretly.
However, no one cared about what Ron said at this time. All the little wizards focused their attention on the piles of parchment, with their eyes showing various emotions such as expectation, desire, hatred, fear, and escape.
As the head of Gryffindor, Percy volunteered to step forward and untie the strings that tied the parchment for the young wizards, and then distributed the report cards to each corresponding young wizard.
Hermione rushed over early and snatched her report card quickly.
She unfolded the exquisite parchment and glanced nervously at her grades. Seeing the whole row of "O (Outstanding)", she showed a satisfied look.
But when she proudly moved her eyes to the notes behind the results of a subject, the satisfied expression on her face immediately fell.
"What's wrong with you, Hermione?" Ron approached Hermione at some point and asked curiously, "I see you're about to cry, what's going on?"
He glanced at the long row of "O"s on Hermione's report card and raised his eyebrows. "Isn't this great? All excellent!"
However, Hermione did not appreciate it at all. She glared at him fiercely, put away her report card, and returned to the dormitory angrily.
"What's wrong with Hermione?" Harry came over and asked Ron in confusion, "Did she not do well in the exam? This is not like her."
"But I see she did quite well in the exams, with an 'O' after each subject." Ron scratched his head, "It can't be that she did too well and it's no longer fresh..."
Having said this, he was suddenly stunned for a moment, and then took a breath.
"Wait, I may know why Hermione is unhappy!" Ron said loudly, and patted Harry's shoulder heavily, "Hurry, Harry, bring me your report card!"
Harry was stunned for a moment, then he understood what Ron was thinking of.
"Is this impossible?" He opened his mouth in disbelief.
As it happened, just as the two were thinking of this overly fantastical possibility, Percy came over with two pieces of parchment.
"Harry, Ron, your report cards." He handed over two pieces of parchment.
Without even bothering to look at his own grades, Ron snatched Harry's report card and pointed his finger down along the row of grades until he stopped at the Defense Against the Dark Arts subject.
Defense Against the Dark Arts: O (Note: First in grade)
Although there is no grading system, the top scores at Hogwarts are often specially marked out, which gives young wizards the motivation to compete for the top spots.
"Harry, you really got first place again!" Ron jumped up suddenly, "I knew you could do it!"
Even though Harry had guessed part of the result from Hermione's performance, his eyes still widened when he actually learned his own results.
"I... I'm not dreaming, am I, Ron?" he asked incredulously.
Ron immediately slapped Harry hard on the shoulder. "Do you still think you're dreaming?"
"Hiss... It's true that I'm not dreaming, but you hit me too hard." Harry rubbed his sore shoulder with a gritted teeth and complained.
In addition to the unexpected surprise in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry and Ron also passed all other exams, but most of them were just "A (acceptable pass)" which just barely reached the passing line.
The two little wizards who thought they would fail the exam were quite satisfied with this.
Harry finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the last few days of asking Assistant Coach Riddle for a last-minute help were still very useful.
What Harry didn't expect most was that he actually passed Snape's Potions exam.
A course like Potions that requires long-term experience accumulation cannot be successfully learned by cramming for a day or two. If Harry did not pay attention in class like in other subjects, coupled with Snape's hatred, it would be unreasonable for him not to fail.
Fortunately, because Snape would criticize Harry in every class, he couldn't be distracted in Potions class like he did in other classes.
Even so, Harry doubted that Dumbledore had intervened to prevent Snape from going out of his way to pick on him.
Snape's attitude towards Harry this term has been quite frightening -
Every time Snape looked at Harry, a muscle next to his thin lips twisted unpleasantly, and he kept flexing his fingers, as if he wanted to strangle Harry's throat.
Little did he know that Snape was well aware of Harry's poor performance this semester.
More than a decade ago, Harry's father, James Potter, looked at Lily Invance with the same expression Harry had recently. Harry's behavior reminded Snape of his lost youth and beloved...
So he was even more disgusted with Harry, who looked exactly like James Potter except for his eyes.
…
In the blink of an eye, it was time to take the Hogwarts Express back home.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny had a compartment to themselves, and they made full use of the last few hours allowed for magical use before the holiday, playing "Crackling" wizard cards, setting off Fred and George's last few Filibuster fireworks, and practicing on each other's disarming magic.
By now, no young wizard present was more skilled in using the Disarming Charm than Harry.
"Sometimes I really don't understand how you practice the Disarming Charm." George took his wand from Harry depressedly, feeling that he had lived two years older than him in vain.
"George, Harry was already giving in to you just now!" Ginny watched Harry's every move and expression, and said with a smile, "You don't know that the attack power of Harry's Disarming Charm is comparable to that of dark magic!"
"This... is a lie, right?" George turned his head and looked at Ginny, "Ginny, I know you have admired Harry since you were a child, but you can't worship him blindly."
Ginny didn't say anything else, just looked at Harry and smiled knowingly.
The two young wizards subconsciously recalled the situation when they faced the huge fire dragon in the ruins left by Slytherin.
At that time, Harry stood in front of Ginny without hesitation, and repelled the dragon's attack with a Disarming Spell that was as powerful as dark magic... The power of that Disarming Spell was much greater than the spell he used on George when practicing in the carriage this time!
Amidst laughter and cheers, the Hogwarts Express gradually slowed down and finally stopped at King's Cross Station.
Before getting off the car, Harry seemed to suddenly remember something and pulled out his quill and a piece of parchment from the suitcase.
"Here's the phone number," he said to everyone present, scribbling the number twice, then tearing the parchment in half and handing each to Hermione and Ginny.
"Ginny, last summer I told your dad how to use the phone. He'll understand. Call me at the Dursleys, okay? I can't stand talking to only Dudley for two whole months..."
"Your aunt and uncle would be very proud of you if they heard about your brave act at the end of term," said Ginny, as they stepped off the train and joined the throng of people moving slowly towards the enchanted wall. "Wouldn't they?"
"Proud?" Harry curled his lips. "Are you confused? If they heard that I almost died in the dragon's mouth, but survived, they would definitely be furious..."
"What are they talking about?" Ron looked at Hermione beside him in confusion, "I don't seem to understand what they are talking about. What's bravery, what's a dragon, what's escaping death..."
"I don't understand either." Hermione frowned, then turned to look at Ginny, "Ginny, what were you two discussing just now?"
"It's nothing!" Ginny made a face at Hermione, "Just think of us as talking about some fairy tale plot!"
Then, together, they passed through the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters and returned to the Muggle world.
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