The days of hanging out at Hogwarts

Loren is still very confident about the Animagus teaching class exam.

Hermione dragged him to review throughout the holiday, checking his back and filling in the gaps. He basically reviewed everything he could review several times.

So two days before the exam started, he was a little surprised to hear that Hermione was going to ask Professor McGonagall for advice.

There had been precedents for the Transformation Club before, but never before for the Animagus Teaching Class. The little wizards referred to are all members of the Transformation Club and have a solid foundation.

Loren guessed that this time the exam might be more difficult.

After the History of Magic get out of class, Seamus, Dean and others did not have to take the exam and went out to play happily. Loren and others asked someone to take the textbooks back to the Gryffindor common room, and they hurried to the examination room.

"Summon, disappear, transform..."

"Dew...saliva...grimace moth..."

"Amador, Animo, Animado, Animagus."

As always, Hermione recited various nouns and terms quickly, feeling excited and nervous at the same time. She had reviewed everything that needed to be reviewed, but she was afraid of missing something.

There was Neville next to him. He was holding a red memory ball in his hand. He couldn't remember what knowledge he had forgotten, so he could only recite it from beginning to end.

The two of them were chanting like a curse, which made Harry and Ron, who hadn't reviewed much, have headaches.

Loren was so hypnotized in the last class that he leaned against the corridor wall and yawned lazily.

Waiting outside like them were Draco, the twins, Percy and Penelope, Cedric, Marcus and others. The seniors in the senior class were more calm, hugging each other in twos and threes, talking to each other about things that had nothing to do with the exam.

The bell rang, and everyone entered the examination room and sat in their seats quietly waiting for the papers to be handed out.

Blank parchment paper and silver-lined anti-cheating quills were handed out to the little wizards, which was somewhat similar to the process of final exams.

The content of the test questions is mainly related to Animagus knowledge, interspersed with some basic principles of human body deformation. The difficulty level is moderate, and the theoretical application of deformation and some subtle knowledge points are carefully examined.

It was not difficult for Loren. It took less than an hour to complete the basic part of the three-hour exam.

The last few questions tested their understanding of the Animagus and analyzed them based on real cases. It took a while to display them one by one.

While doing it, here comes the fun part——

The reading material for the last big question takes up more than half of the page, and the question requirements are also relatively vague, making it somewhat subjective.

["Babidi Rabbit and Her Croaking Stump" is a classic chapter in magic stories. Please read the original text of the story carefully, analyze the witch's use of Animagus, and cite the rules in the story that do not conform to Animagus. .

See reading materials at the end of the article]

It doesn't feel like a question from the rigorous Professor McGonagall, but more like Dumbledore's style.

Why is it interesting? Like Dumbledore's Christmas gift "The Wizard and His Hairy Heart: Collector's Edition", this story is also from "The Tales of Beedle the Bard". Bewitched by the Fountain of Good Luck and influenced by Mao Xin, Loren specially read all the stories in the book, and also read many book reviews and interpretations.

Most scholarly interpretations of the book always focus on the symbolic meaning of the wizard teasing the Muggle king, trying to prove the stupidity of the Muggles, the social environment of the poet Beedle at the time, and the pure-blood tendency of the poet Beedle.

Occasionally there are reviews about magic, and the focus is always on bringing the dead back to life. Except for the naive little wizards in their school days, most adult wizards are not optimistic about the magic of Animagus. To skillfully and naturally transform from a human to an animal requires long-term study and practice. They think that their time should be spent on other things. aspects are more valuable.

This question is not difficult. The witch Babidi's application of Animagus is to turn into a rabbit and hide in a tree stump when being hunted.

There are two things that are not consistent with Animagus. One is that the transformed animals cannot speak, and the other is that the transformed animals do not have the ability to cast magic.

After writing the last word, he threw the quill into the ink bottle coolly. Loren immediately wanted to hand in the paper in advance, but when he looked up and saw Professor McGonagall's oppressive gaze, he was forced to give up the idea and stayed in his seat doing nothing, looking left and right.

Hermione in the front right is still immersed in answering the questions. According to the little witch's character, she wants to write down all the knowledge points. In addition, she always pays attention to her handwriting neatly, so it is normal for the speed to be a little slower.

Cedric, Percy and others were in a similar situation, except that they had more experience in taking exams and their progress was slightly faster than Hermione's. Although Neville had only reached the middle of the test paper and was making the slowest progress, he did not stop at any place to think hard, so it seemed that he should be doing pretty well.

The most unexpected thing was Harry and Ron. They had already finished, and like Loren, were looking around idly.

After the exam, several people walked out of the classroom together.

Loren put his hand on Harry and Ron's shoulders: "I can't tell, you two can actually do it faster than Hermione."

Harry scratched his head and said with some embarrassment: "No, I left most of it blank and didn't write anything. I couldn't think of anything at all. I could only sit there in a daze."

Turning to look at Ron, he puffed out his chest proudly: "I put down the pen before Harry!"

…

Friday, this afternoon is the second herbal medicine class for the second grade students since school started. This is the only herbal medicine class in the whole afternoon.

The last herbal medicine class was a theoretical class, and they collected their holiday homework by the way, so this was their first time in the greenhouse this semester.

The little wizards of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had been waiting in front of the third greenhouse door early. They hoped that Professor Sprout would get out of class early for their good behavior, so that they could have enough time. Spend the afternoon at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Harry and Ron paced around the door a little uneasily. Judging by the time, Professor Sprout had already reviewed their papers. Whether they would be scolded or not would depend on today.

"Today we have two tasks. Pruning the dead branches of the Abyssian shriveled fig seedlings. Some of them have not survived the winter. We need to cut off the yellow branches to prevent them from hindering the growth of healthy branches. Secondly , we need to collect enough fodder for the compost in the greenhouse..."

Professor Sprout took a key that was thicker than his arm from his waist and opened the door to the greenhouse.

The fermentation smell of compost mixed with the smell of moist earth hit your face. The greenhouse that had been closed for a holiday had accumulated too much gas. A pressure difference was created between the inside and outside of the greenhouse, causing small gusts of wind to blow out from the inside. The smell was straight. Get into your nose.

"Oh~" the little wizards wailed.

Two strangers emerged from the wailing. Harry and Ron were covering their mouths and snickering, shoulders hunched.

"You like this smell very much?" Loren asked with a strange expression.

"No, it's not." Harry chuckled again, "Professor Sprout didn't say anything, which means our paper passed."

Ron snickered again.

Entering the greenhouse, various strange and strange plants slowly swayed their branches and vines. Compared to the beginning of last semester, their movements were much slower. Many herbaceous plants are even hibernating, with their roots buried in the soil and motionless.

Loren could detect waves of sleepiness in these plants, and only became more energetic when Professor Sprout came in.

The work of pruning the Abyssian fig seedlings is done in the greenhouse, and the work of collecting forage needs to be done outside in the meadow. The stench in the greenhouse drove the little wizards to move faster. They all wanted to finish pruning the branches as soon as possible and go outside to cut the grass... and breathe fresh air at the same time.

Neville glanced at Seamus next to him, and saw the scissors flying in his hands, almost cutting out afterimages. Regardless of whether they were yellow or green, the branches and leaves of the entire fig seedling were falling down. Dean didn't even have time to pick up the fallen branches and leaves before the next fig seedling began to be destroyed.

Neville opened his mouth, but didn't have time to say anything.

Turning their heads again, Harry and Ron next to them also made almost the same movements, waving the scissors in their hands, and the branches and leaves of the fig seedlings fell down, regardless of yellow or green.

Harry noticed his gaze, turned his head slightly and looked towards him, with a puzzled tone: "Is there any problem?"

Neville shrank his neck and said weakly: "Teach, the professor said, only prune dead branches."

"I know." Harry replied simply, and the scissors struck even more crisply.

"..."

Neville walked around. Hufflepuff House was better, and most of the Gryffindor House team had shaved their heads.

Only Loren and Hermione were different. Although they moved very quickly, they strictly followed the professor's requirements.

With a long sigh, Neville could only comfort himself in his heart, maybe the fig seedlings without side branches would develop better...

He silently made plans to come often to water and fertilize these fig seedlings.

Next to another bench, Hufflepuff Hannah looked at this from a distance. Compared with the fast-moving crowd around her, Neville's cautious and slow figure was a bit out of place.

In short, with the joint efforts of the little wizards, in less than thirty minutes, more than half of the dozens of Asiabia shriveled fig seedlings in the two square beds were destroyed. All of them had their heads shaved, leaving only a bare trunk branch standing there.

The first job was completed too quickly, and the second job became leisurely. The little wizards from the two colleges threw grass blades into the compost pit one after another.

On the grass next to the greenhouse, Loren, Hermione, Harry and Ron were sitting together in a circle, with Rolf next to them. They were gathering together to look after the tree Bowtruckle Barton.

The little green man, whose body is made up of leaves and twigs, hides shyly behind a blade of grass. The color of its body almost blends with the grass. Loren teases it with fresh grass blades without leaving it.

Rolf was helpless: "I remember telling you from the beginning that Bowtruckles eat small insects."

"I know, you also said that it is omnivorous." Loren still refused to give up, "I have tasted it. This grass is sweet and tastes good."

The amount of information contained in the words was so great that all the people watching fell silent.

Hermione looked at him with a complicated expression: "Did you discover this sweet grass all at once, or have you tasted many grasses?"

"Um……"

While they were laughing and joking, a fat man with blond hair and a straight nose approached.

Little Barty, the Bowtruckle, was the first to hear the footsteps. He quickly hid in Loren's sleeves, lifted the sleeves, and stuck out his little head to look out.

Ernie MacMillan squatted next to Harry, looked directly at him, and took a deep breath, as if he had been preparing for this scene for a long time.

He said very formally: "I just want to say, Harry, I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I apologize for all the bastard things I've said before, and I sincerely hope you can forgive me."

Ernie stretched out a stubby hand, and Harry shook it: "You know what? You chose a good time. I happen to be in a good mood now because Professor Sprout didn't scold me for my paper. .”

After hearing such witty words, Ernie understood that the matter was over, and a relaxed smile appeared on his face.

On the contrary, Ron didn't seem to forgive Ernie as quickly as Harry did, and said, "You're quite clever."

Ernie shamelessly ignored this and joined his friend Hannah in the circle. The Bowtruckle had no choice but to continue to stay in Loren's sleeve and let this vile man go on. Poke it in the face with grass.

Although Rolf is a Hufflepuff, he is more mature and has little interaction with the gossipy Ernie. On the contrary, he is more familiar with Justin, but Justin is still lying in the hospital.

The scene was a little awkward for a while.

"What were you talking about just now?" Hannah and Loren were not strangers. They had socialized because of frozen pears.

"The roots of this grass are sweet and taste good." Loren broke off a brand new grass root, peeled off the outer layers of grass and handed it to her.

Hannah was a free and easy girl, and she believed it blankly. She took the grass root and stuffed it into her mouth and sipped it. She exclaimed in surprise: "It's really sweet!"

"You want to try it too." Loren took a big handful and handed it directly to Ernie, with dirty dirt still on it.

Ernie's face suddenly darkened, and instead of picking up the grass, he squeezed out a dry sentence from his throat: "I, I still need to help with composting, so I'm leaving first."

Looking at his embarrassed figure, Ron burst out into laughter a few times from his tightly closed mouth. Then he realized that Hannah was beside him and suppressed it again.

Hannah smiled softly and didn't pay too much attention to this matter: "I want to find Neville. Do you know where he is?"

"Over there, he's mowing the grass over there."

Watching the little girl walk away, Hermione turned around and patted Loren on the shoulder, scolding: "Naughty devil, you deliberately teased him."

"It's time to leave after apologizing, and Harry has forgiven him. There's no point in being crowded here." Loren slowly took little Button out of his sleeves and played with his little head.

"That's right!" Ron kept nodding his head.

Rolf rescued little Barton from Loren and asked about the basilisk.

——

The following content is free of charge

——

The Tales of Beedle the Bard: Babbitty the Rabbit and Her Croaking Stump

A long time ago, in a place far, far away, there lived a foolish king who believed that he alone should have the power of magic.

Therefore, the king ordered the leader of his army to form a witch-hunting party and assigned them a group of ferocious black hunting dogs. At the same time, he also issued announcements in towns and villages across the country: "The King is recruiting a magic teacher."

No one among the real wizards dared to apply for the job. They all avoided the witch-hunting team. However, a cunning charlatan with no magic skills saw an opportunity to make a fortune. He came to the palace and claimed to be a skilled wizard. The charlatan performed a few simple tricks, and the foolish king was convinced that he did indeed know magic, and he immediately appointed him chief magician and the king's personal master of magic.

The charlatan asked the king to give him a large bag of gold, which he used to buy wands and other magical necessities. He also asked for several large rubies, which he said he would use to complete the healing spell; and one or two silver goblets, which he said he would use to preserve and brew the potion. All these things the foolish king provided him.

The charlatan deposited the treasures in his own home and returned to the palace grounds.

He didn't know that an old woman who lived in a small hut on the edge of the garden was watching him. The old woman's name was Babidi, a washerwoman who was responsible for washing the sheets and quilts in the palace until they were soft, white, and fragrant. Babidi peeked from behind the drying sheets and saw that the Charlatan had broken off two branches from one of the King's trees and entered the palace.

The charlatan handed the king a branch, promising that it was a wand of great power.

“But,” said the charlatan, “it won’t work until you’re qualified.”

Every morning the charlatans and the foolish kings came out of the palace into the gardens, waved their wands, and shouted nonsense into the sky. The charlatan carefully performed a few more tricks to convince the king that his great magician was indeed extremely skilled and that the wand he had spent so much gold on was indeed extremely powerful.

One morning, while the charlatan and the king were waving their branches, jumping around in circles, and chanting meaningless verses, a burst of laughter reached the king's ears. Babidi, the washerwoman, was watching the king and the charlatan from the window of her little hut. She laughed so hard that she could not stand, and soon she disappeared from the window.

"I must be looking particularly ungraceful to make the old laundry woman smile like that!" said the king. Instead of jumping around and waving branches, he frowned. "I'm tired of practicing! Magician, when can I perform a real spell in front of my subjects?"

The charlatan tried to comfort his student, assuring him that he would soon be able to perform amazing magical feats, but unknown to the charlatan, Babbitty's croaking laughter had deeply hurt the stupid king.

"Tomorrow," said the king, "we invite all the courtiers to watch the king perform his magic!"

The charlatan knew that the time had come when he must flee with his fortune.

"Oh, this is impossible! I forgot to tell Your Majesty that I have to go on a long journey tomorrow -"

"If you leave the palace without my permission, magician, my witch-hunting team will find you with their hunting dogs! Tomorrow morning you must assist me and perform magic for my princes and nobles; if anyone If you laugh at me, I'll chop off your head!"

The king stormed back to the palace, leaving the charlatan alone and frightened. All his cunning and cunning could not save him now. He could not escape, nor could he help the king with the magic that neither of them knew how to do.

To vent his fear and anger, the Charlatan goes to the window of Babidi, the washerwoman. He peered inside and saw the little old woman sitting at the table wiping a wand. In the corner behind her, the king's sheets were being automatically cleaned in a wooden bucket.

The charlatan understood at once that Babbitty was a real witch, who could bring him terrible trouble and save him from danger at the same time.

"Wrapped old woman!" growled the charlatan, "your croaking laughter is killing me! If you can't help me, I'll expose you as a witch, and you'll be the one to be torn to pieces by the king's hounds. Got it!"

Old Babbitty looked at the Charlatan with a smile, and assured him that she would do all in her power to help him.

The charlatan told her to hide in the bushes and perform all the spells for the king while he performed his magic, but without letting the king know about it. Babidi agreed to the plan, but asked a question.

"Sir, what if the king wants to cast a magic that Babbitty can't do?"

The charlatan scoffed.

"Your magic is no match for that fool's imagination," he assured her, and returned to the castle, congratulating himself on his cleverness.

The next morning, all the princes and nobles in the kingdom gathered in the palace garden. The king ascended a stage before them, and the charlatan stood beside him.

"First, I will make this lady's hat disappear!" cried the king, pointing his branch at a lady.

In the nearby bushes, Babbitty pointed at the hat with her wand, and it disappeared. The audience was astonished and full of praise. Their cheers were deafening, and the king was delighted.

"Next, I'm going to make that horse fly!" the king shouted, pointing at his horse with his branch.

Babidi hid in the bushes, pointed her wand at the horse, and the horse flew high into the sky. The audience became more excited and surprised, loudly expressing their appreciation for the king's superb magical memory. .

"Now-" The king looked around for his target, when the leader of the witch-hunting team ran forward.

"Your Majesty," the squad leader said, "just this morning, Shabo ate a poisonous mushroom and died! Your Majesty, use your magic wand to bring it back to life!"

As he spoke, the captain moved the body of the largest hunting dog of the witch-hunting team to the stage.

The foolish king waved his branch and pointed it at the dead dog. In the bushes, Babidi smiled slightly and did not raise the wand, because no magic could bring the dead back to life.

Seeing the dead dog motionless, people began to whisper at first and then burst into laughter. They suspected that the king's first two magic spells were just conjuring tricks.

"Why doesn't it work?" the king shouted to the Charlatan, who remembered his only remaining trick.

"That's it, Your Majesty, that's it!" he shouted, pointing to the bush where Babidi was hiding, "I can see clearly, an evil witch, blocking your magic with her evil spell! Seize it! She, come on, catch her!"

Babidi escapes from the bushes, and the witch-hunting team gives chase. They let go of the hounds, which barked in pursuit of Babbitty's scent. But the little witch ran to a low fence and disappeared instantly. When the king, the charlatan, and all the courtiers came around to the other side of the fence, they found the witch-hunting dogs circling a small tree. The old tree barked and scratched.

"He turned himself into a tree!" shouted the charlatan. He was afraid that Babidi would reveal his true identity when she turned into a woman again, so he added, "Cut her down, Your Majesty. This is how you should deal with evil." Witch!"

The ax was immediately brought and the old tree felled, to the loud cheers of the charlatans and courtiers.

However, just as they were about to return to the palace, they suddenly heard loud croaking laughter and stopped in their tracks.

"Fool!" Babidi shouted from the stump of the tree that had just been chopped down.

"Chopping the wizard in half won't kill them! If you don't believe it, just pick up an ax and chop the great magician in half!"

The leader of the witch-hunting party was eager to perform the experiment, but no sooner had he raised the ax than the charlatan fell to his knees, screamed for his life, and confessed his evil deeds. As he was dragged toward the dungeon, the stump laughed again, louder than before.

"Cut a witch in half, and you will put a terrible curse on your kingdom!" The tree stump said to the stunned king. "From now on, every harm you inflict on our wizards will be like an axe." The same thing will happen to you, and in the end it will make you feel worse than death!"

After hearing this, the king also knelt down and told the stump that he would immediately issue a notice to protect all the wizards and witches in the kingdom and allow them to practice magic in peace.

"Very well," said the stump, "but you haven't made amends with Babbitty yet!"

"Anything goes, anything goes!" cried the foolish king, wringing his hands before the stump.

"Thou shalt erect a statue of Babbitt above me, in memory of thy poor washerwoman, that thy folly may never be forgotten!" said the stump.

The king immediately agreed and promised to invite famous sculptors from all over the country to make the statue of pure gold. Then, when the ashamed king and all the princes and nobles returned to the palace, the dresser was still croaking and laughing behind them.

When the garden was empty, a fat, bearded old rabbit emerged from a hole at the base of the tree stump, holding a magic wand between its teeth. Babidi jumped away from the garden and went away. Since then, a golden statue of a washerwoman has stood on the stump, and no wizards have been persecuted in the kingdom.