Hermione was upset.
There were so many people coming to her looking for answers that Hermione couldn't take the pressure. If one or two people wanted the answers, Hermione could use them as traps, but what if there were 10 or 20 people who wanted to know what the test was about? What if a lot of older students wanted the answers?
Worse, she hadn't seen Tom yet.
At that moment, she felt a tingle in her palm and a small beetle had burrowed into her hand, taking the shape of a note. Hermione glanced at the note and saw that it had been sent by Professor Lockhart.
It said: Tell them the answer directly, without the title.
Hermione was relieved: since Professor Lockhart had sent the note, that meant she already had a solution... but Professor Lockhart's handwriting was really stiff and seemed clumsy.
Hermione began to remember her choices and wrote the answers on a piece of parchment. The parchment spread instantly, and a large number of students spent their lunch hour memorizing the letters on it.
"Well, Professor Lockhart, will you rearrange the order of the questions?" Professor McGonagall immediately realized what Lockhart meant and, with a laugh, looked over the edge of the long table, "Looks like some students are going to be unlucky, I wonder which House will have the most unlucky students. "
"I'm afraid only hopelessly stupid people can be fooled by such tricks, can't they, Minerva?" Snape, on the sidelines, caught Professor McGonagall's hint at once.
"Yes, Severus, I wonder which House has the most idiots"
"The one known for its thoughtless and reckless style, of course."
The smell of gunpowder on the staff bench was getting stronger and stronger, and it was Professor Sprout who finally came to the rescue, "Well, it's probably the boys in my House who are the most vulnerable, they're too honest and we have more people in our House..."
Professor Flitwick, who was watching from the side, suddenly spoke up and asked, "Professor Lockhart, how many classes do you have in the afternoon?"
"Two, for all four Houses."
"Very well." Snape said ruefully, "The answer will be revealed soon, remember to send me a copy of the results."
The other three deans had also asked for their own results for their own Houses. And as Tom ate, a note jumped into his pocket and the garnishes morphed into the shape of a sentence, and Snape happened to meet Tom outside as he finished eating and was leaving.
The three of them had gone three ways for one thing: when the results were delivered, they had better include those of the other three Houses.
Lunch was complete for both teacher and student, and the first class of the afternoon arrived in the blink of an eye.
Tom handed out the papers and exam requirements as he had done in the morning. When the papers were handed out, he saw that some of the young wizards started writing without even writing their names, and they finished the papers in less than a minute. When they were done, they kept pretending to write and draw, trying to hide that they had finished the work.
The students thought they were doing a good job, but the teacher had used all those tricks and had the advantage of sight.
Tom grimaced, these were the ones to watch out for in the future.
He pulled his morning papers out of his bag, took out his automatic marking pen and began marking them, while reading from a borrowed book.
The class was taught to both Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Malfoy stared at his exam paper.
1. The following statement about Grindylow is wrong: (__________)
A. Grindylow was a famous dark wizard of the first half of the 20th century, who was eventually defeated by Dumbledore.
B. Grindylow is very aggressive and attacks both wizards and Muggles.
C. Grindylow loved to eat fish and would attack anyone who fell into the water.
D. Grindylows live in lakes all over Britain and Ireland.
2. This July, Damocles ... The following statements about werewolves are correct: (__________)
R. Werewolves are no different from wolves.
B. The Ministry of Magic has rated werewolves with five stars.
C. Werewolves cannot choose whether or not to transform, and will forget who they are when they do.
D. Werewolves can remember everything they have experienced throughout the transformation process when they return to their human form.
Naturally, Malfoy had received a standard response from Ravenclaw's dirty-blood bookworm, Hermione Granger, who, despite Malfoy's disdain for Hermione's heritage, had admitted that Hermione did have good grades and had read a lot of books. His father, Lucius Malfoy, had chastised him for it, saying that he wasn't even better than a dirty-blood; the fact that he had been first in Slytherin house was simply ignored by his father.
He had filled in the answers he remembered, but skimmed through the questions out of an excess of caution. At first glance, it didn't seem far off from the rumors: the first question was a harmonic joke, the second mentioned werewolf potions, but the question had nothing to do with them.
But Malfoy looked at option C of the first question and thought, "That seems about right! In the wizarding stories he had heard as a child, there were often scenes where a wizard was attacked by a grindylow while swimming and then managed to escape.
He looked closer at the question and saw that it was the wrong choice, and pondered, could it be that smarty-pants Granger had been mistaken? Then, looking down, he saw the werewolf question and broke out in a cold sweat: he clearly remembered that during the discussion of the question, someone had said that it was about the werewolf's star rating at the Ministry of Magic, but in the morning exam, the question had a four-star rating! But in the afternoon it was five stars.
This Professor Lockhart had changed some details!
Malfoy was immediately serious about his work: all the previous answers were no longer valid, he had to do them all over again.
Tom was on stage, very proud of himself: changing details? It wasn't that simple.
He didn't just play with the words in the options, changing "no" to "yes" and "four stars" to "five stars", He has also changed the order of the options and, in some cases, the root of the question. More interestingly, the first questions and those with special features were only slightly modified to make them extremely confusing.
In the meantime, there were some young wizards who spotted the problem. As they progressed through the questions, Hermione's reputation changed subtly.
When her name was transcribed on the paper, Hermione was "the wisdom of Ravenclaw ladies on earth," and after the first question, she became "an intelligent, cultured, and kind little angel." By the third question, Hermione was a "careless nerd who had read a few books," and after five questions in a row, Hermione was "an inexperienced witch" in his eyes.
Of course, after completing all the questions, even the dullest of the young wizards realized that something was wrong: Miss Granger's answers were probably right, what kind of person gets twenty-five multiple choice questions wrong?
They looked at Professor "Lockhart" at the podium, who was reading a book, with sadness and anger in his eyes: the bastard changed the questions! This professor, he's so cunning! Was this man really a Ravenclaw graduate? Why was he behaving like a Slytherin?
Time was up, and to complicated looks from the young wizards, Tom put away the papers.
"Class is over!" said Tom, grabbing his homework and then slipping away, this time leaving almost ten minutes early.
Malfoy immediately got up and walked over to his familiar housemate Theodore Nott, as for Crabbe and Goyle, Malfoy didn't bother interacting with them, as he figured the two big idiots were destined to fall into Professor Lockhart's trap.
"There's a problem with the title!" they said in unison, then looked at each other and smiled helplessly. Tom, as a teacher, was extremely cunning this time, coming up with such a thing in such a short time.
What can they do? They can only study hard.
The young Slytherin and Hufflepuff wizards left the classroom and headed for their next class, but as they approached the incantation room, they heard a noise in the distance. Curious, they also headed to the source of the noise.
The source of the noise was the Astronomy Tower. By now it was so crowded with students that Malfoy couldn't see inside even when he strained to stand on his tiptoes.
"What's going on?" he asked the older one he knew in front of him, but before he could answer, Filch reached the sound, forcing the crowd to part, and then, he pushed his way through.
Malfoy followed the corridor Filch had opened and looked inside, where he saw a familiar figure: Tom Yodel. Tom, at that moment, was sitting motionless in front of the brass stargazer in the astronomy classroom, his body stiff as a board. The huge stargazer was like a mirror showing Tom's face: his eyes were wide open, as if he had seen something terrifying.
On the classroom blackboard, written with an unidentified red liquid, was the message: All enemies of the Heir to the Chamber of Secrets, be warned!
There was a large space inside the classroom, where only three people stood, frozen in fear: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom.
Seeing Filch approaching, Ron stammered, "We came in here and, uh, as soon as we walked in the door, we saw Tom..."
"Enemies of the Heir, take note: thank your bloodline, Weasley! " Malfoy, deep down, couldn't resist speaking up and taunting Ron.
The professors arrived as quickly as they could. First Professor Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick, whose office was on the seventh floor, and then Professor Lockhart, who had just left class, dispersed the small group of wizards that had gathered around them, when a figure burst into the classroom.
"Tom!" said Hermione as tears rolled down her face, and she ran to Tom, who was sitting in front of the planetarium, almost falling on him if Dumbledore and Professor Lockhart hadn't stopped her.
She sat on the floor, her tears planetarium silent, and it was Professor Lockhart who knelt down in front of her, pulled a white silk handkerchief from his chest and wiped her tears away.