Three minutes, four minutes, two and a half minutes...
Groups of students entered the examination room, but none of them could come out awake! The only difference between each group was the duration they lasted.
The faces of the students grew increasingly worried, especially as they saw the candidates who had entered before them leaving the examination room pale and exhausted. The tension was becoming unbearable. Furthermore, the students who had taken the exam earlier were expelled from the room by Professor Lupin, leaving everyone in the dark about the specific conditions of the exam.
Of course, there were two people who were very awake: Harry and Hermione. Both could guess the reason for the low pass rate of this exam.
It was Tom, Tom had been included in this exam by Professor Lupin.
After witnessing Tom's power that night, Harry felt that it would be difficult for him and his classmates to survive against Tom for even ten seconds.
However, something strange was happening. Instead of dispersing, the candidates stayed close to the examination room with distressed expressions on their faces.
Professor Lupin was also surprised. He didn't expect Tom to take this so seriously and treat all the students equally. Considering the physical and mental exhaustion caused by continuous fighting, Professor Lupin could only say that he had underestimated student Yodel.
Now, Professor Lupin's only regret was not saving Tom for the last test, which resulted in some preparations not being used.
Looking at the progress, Professor Lupin began to worry: more than half of the students had participated in the exam, but none of them had passed the final test!
According to the rules, none of them could get an "Outstanding" grade, but if they all failed, how could Professor Lupin face Dumbledore? Even he himself... shouldn't give up so easily.
'If things continued like this, I'd have to lower the grading standards.' Professor Lupin sighed to himself.
"The next group, Padma Patil and... Hermione Granger," Professor Lupin's eyes lit up. He considered Hermione's skill level comparable to Tom's. If Hermione could exhaust a bit of Tom's energy, the pass rate of the remaining candidates might increase slightly.
However, wouldn't this be unfair to those who took the exam earlier? This idea crossed Professor Lupin's mind, but he decided to go ahead with it. Where is absolute fairness in this world? Even other professors' exams didn't guarantee equal opportunities. For example, when Snape took exams, if he stood behind someone, that person's performance would be affected. Where could these candidates go for justice?
Padma, called to step forward, was very nervous. She grabbed Hermione's hand and tremblingly said, "Hermione, I'm relying on you. I'm not aiming for an 'Outstanding,' I just want to pass..."
Hermione had no choice but to constantly console her partner, saying things like "it's okay," "stay calm," "breathe deeply"... But obviously, these comforting words couldn't inspire much confidence in Padma.
"Don't worry, I'm very familiar with all of Tom's spells." In the end, Hermione could only say that to reassure Padma.
However, in reality, Hermione wasn't sure of herself. She couldn't guarantee that she could beat Tom in a spell battle.
But Hermione had no other choice.
After putting on the bracelet, she and her partner Padma started together.
When they entered the examination room, the environment changed dramatically. What appeared before Hermione and Padma was a deep pond.
"Be careful, I suspect there might be grindylows in the pond," Hermione warned as she picked up a stone from the edge and threw it in. The stone disappeared instantly, indicating that the water was deeper than they had imagined.
At the mention of grindylows, Padma immediately recalled the key points taught in class for dealing with them: the fingers.
"Let's hope there are no Water Folk." Hermione silently prayed. Fighting Water Folk in the water was not a good option, and Water Folk domesticated grindylows, so they might attack in coordination.
Fortunately, Professor Lupin was quite "lenient" with third-year young wizards and hadn't placed any Water Folk in the pond.
Hermione and Padma were only attacked by a few grindylows along the way. They could easily get rid of them with an Expulso Charm.
After swimming through the pond, they reached a hole in the ground.
"Lumos!" Both of their wands emitted a faint light, illuminating the path ahead.
"Be careful!" Hermione acted quickly and pulled Padma back.
"It's a swamp." Hermione pointed her wand at the spot where Padma had nearly stepped a moment ago. The light dispersed the darkness, revealing the true nature of the place: it wasn't solid ground but a mud puddle.
"Look!" Hermione waved her wand, illuminating the ground in front of them. What appeared before them was a swamp, complete with holes in the ground. Hermione suddenly felt that not everyone who had come before had been defeated by Tom...
"There's light over there, should we go check it out?" Padma saw a light on the front left and suggested that Hermione investigate.
Hermione immediately thought of a magical creature: the Hinkypunk, which lives in swamps and has no physical form, appearing as just a flash of light. It lights up at night to lure passersby into the swamp.
So, should they go in the opposite direction? Hermione began to feel indecisive inside. Because the Hinkypunk could also be a clue left by Professor Lupin here, and they might need to approach it and solve some task to move on to the next challenge.
Finally, Hermione made a decision: go in the opposite direction!
Because the light was there, if the route in the opposite direction was wrong, they could simply head towards the light.
After sharing this speculation with Padma, she decided to listen to Hermione and follow her footsteps.
Both of them walked with difficulty, taking uncertain steps in the opposite direction. The farther they got from the point of light, the more hesitant Hermione became. At that moment, the bell on Hermione's foot suddenly rang.
"Protego!" She quickly cast a Shield Charm on herself, followed by a strong wind slicing through the air and a "bang," Hermione felt her Protego Charm break, but the attacker was also thrown back by the reaction force.
"What happened?" Padma was confused.
Hermione raised her wand and saw a creature resembling a gnome appear in Padma's view, with a broken stick in its hand.
Hermione clicked her tongue. "It's a Red Cap. It seems we overestimated Tom's power."
She quickly cast a spell and knocked out this creature that liked to attack people with a stick.
"I bet there's a group of Red Caps around the Hinkypunk. This creature will attract other magical beings, and if we go there, we're very likely to be attacked."
Yes, yes! Padma nodded repeatedly, feeling incredibly lucky to be teamed up with Hermione!
Both continued their journey after dealing with the Red Caps.