The Admiral of Hogwarts

As the end of May approached, Harry seemed to be in much better spirits, perhaps because his brain was no longer being so thoroughly tortured. However, due to the busy state of all the fifth-year students, he naturally didn't have much time to practice Occlumency.

As a result of this hectic studying, Harry often found that when he went to bed, his mind felt crammed full of everything he'd learned, making it impossible to fall asleep. And when he did manage to drift off, his overstimulated brain conjured up silly dreams about the exams most nights.

Apart from that, he sometimes dreamed of the dark corridor and the dusty shelves laden with crystal balls.

However, he found it somewhat comforting that a part of his brain felt guilty as it wandered down the corridor towards the black door at the end, and it would try to wake him before he reached the end of his journey.

Although the company was doing its best to help him learn Occlumency, the fragment of Voldemort's soul within Harry's mind was like a hole in his soul, making it incredibly difficult to block.

Especially since Harry's skill was so weak compared to Voldemort's, he was at a disadvantage in this soul duel, and even the company's help couldn't do much.

Amidst this chaos, the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch match was about to begin. Due to Ron's terrible goalkeeping record, most Ravenclaw students were confident of winning this time.

Only a few remained cautious, because Ron was notoriously unpredictable; if he really played well, he could be considered a top-tier Quidditch goalkeeper in the school.

The day before the final, the Slytherins on the Inquisitorial Squad had been acting so recklessly that everyone, unable to bear it any longer, launched several attacks. Several Slytherin Quidditch team members, who were also part of the Squad, ended up in the hospital after the clashes.

Because Hufflepuff had successfully defeated Slytherin in a previous match, Gryffindor had the opportunity to face Ravenclaw in the final, instead of Ravenclaw winning directly.

The students who attacked the Slytherin Quidditch team included members from the other three houses, including Ravenclaw students like Hugo, who attacked Montague, the Slytherin Quidditch team captain, as he emerged from the hospital.

During this attack, Hugo specifically used a new product developed by the Weasley twins. If this alchemical powder wasn't washed off with the antidote, it would cause itching for at least three days.

Although the Ravenclaws knew that if Slytherin defeated Hufflepuff, they could win the House Cup this year, Umbridge's previous misdeeds made the Ravenclaws feel that it would be a shame to miss this opportunity to cause some trouble.

However, in the end, Umbridge only managed to catch some Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students, because Ravenclaw students always considered what to do after the event before taking action.

Because today was the final, Venetto was playing, and she alone successfully suppressed the Weasley twins and severely interfered with Ginny's search.

In this situation, Cho Chang finally caught the Golden Snitch and won the victory for Ravenclaw, causing cheers to erupt from the Ravenclaw stands.

Although Gryffindor lost, it wasn't a bad thing for Ron, because he had played exceptionally well throughout the match, blocking almost all the Quaffles shot at the goal.

If it hadn't been for Venetto's suppression of the entire Gryffindor team and interference with Ginny, plus a bit of good luck, Gryffindor's chances of winning wouldn't have been small.

This Quidditch final was perhaps the last moment of joy for everyone before the exams. After this, all the students threw themselves completely into the important task of revision.

June arrived, and the weather began to slowly become hot, and the days grew longer. The sunlight shone on the earth, making the lake, the lawn, and even Hogwarts Castle sparkle.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a good time for everyone to go out and relax, but for fifth-year students, it only meant one thing: their O.W.L.s were finally upon them.

In the day or two after the Quidditch match, the students were slightly excited, but soon the pressure of the exams silenced these fifth and seventh-year students once again.

All the professors stopped assigning homework; except for Professor Binns, all the class time was used to review the topics the professors thought were most likely to appear on the exam.

As for Professor Binns, since death couldn't stop him from teaching, a small O.W.L. exam naturally wouldn't. But everyone had learned to memorize things or rest a little during his class.

The Ravenclaw study groups were held more and more frequently, and as soon as you returned to the dormitory, you could see students actively gathering in twos and threes to study various knowledge points.

Many students exhibited strange behavior. For example, Ernie Macmillan became increasingly fond of inquiring about other people's study schedules, while Malfoy boasted about his family's connections in public.

However, the Ravenclaw students didn't think the Malfoy family's connections were of any use. Because there were many old pure-blood families in Ravenclaw, they naturally knew that Madam Marchbanks, who was in charge of the exams, was not someone you could influence with connections.

Many people's biological clocks were disrupted. Hugo found his roommate Michael Corner jumping out of bed at one or two in the morning, looking at the clock nervously, and then going back to sleep.

Of course, as this was a magical world, many wizards tried to solve problems with magical means, such as certain magical potions that claimed to be effective for the brain.

Hugo saw Eddie Carmichael, a sixth-year student from his house, trying to sell Harry and Ron a bottle of Baruffio's Brain Elixir, and they seemed very interested; Harry had even started reaching for his wallet.

"Alright, don't you feel a pang of conscience scamming the Weasleys out of their money?" Unable to stand it any longer, Hugo stepped forward, confiscated the potion from the older student, and drove him away.

This was one of the rules in Ravenclaw: prefects wouldn't actively hunt down those selling potions, but if they accidentally encountered them, they could confiscate these illegal potions.

After all, these kinds of potions weren't easy to brew. Even making fake potions required a Potions skill level of at least an E in the O.W.L.s, so Ravenclaws were mostly the ones doing this kind of thing.

Therefore, selling all kinds of fake potions before exams had become a rather traditional industry in Ravenclaw, and even prefects or the head student habitually turned a blind eye.

The only exceptions were two situations: one was when it was confirmed that the potion being sold might have some strong or even irreversible side effects, and the other was when it was sold to third-year students or younger who were also from Ravenclaw.

Once this situation was discovered, the prefects and the head student could confiscate the drugs and punish the seller at any time.

So, when Eddie Carmichael saw Hugo, he could only shrug helplessly, hand over the potion, and slink away from the place.