After the final exams, the young wizards finally welcomed the happiest time of the semester.
The period between the end of final exams and the announcement of grades is the most relaxing and carefree time of the year.
During this time, students don't need to worry about their studies, and there's no homework. They can freely play around the castle with their friends.
Even better, the professors take a lenient approach during this period, allowing the students to blow off steam.
Even someone like Snape would restrain his temper and avoid picking on the students—probably because Slytherin had already lost the chance to win the House Cup, and he had a mountain of papers to grade.
The more free time the students had, the busier the professors became. They had to grade exams, calculate scores, and determine overall grades—a tedious and time-consuming process, even with the help of magic.
If they were unlucky enough to be a Head of House, they also had to prepare report cards and worry about students' O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T. exam results.
For these professors, work was relentless and McGonagall had it the worst since she also had to take over the assessment of students' Defense Against the Dark Arts skills after Quirrell was gone, effectively doubling her workload.
On top of that, she was the Deputy Headmistress and the Head of Gryffindor House!
In terms of training an assistant and then working them to the bone, Dumbledore was far ahead of Rhys, at least by three Diagon Alleys plus a Hogsmeade Street.
After getting a brief understanding of the professors' workload, Rhys felt immensely grateful that his current role was "student." If he had made the mistake of joining as a professor, he would probably have already resigned by now.
Other Defense Against the Dark Arts professors left after one year because they were cursed. If Rhys had left after one year, it would have been because of the overwhelming workload. As for why he wouldn't have quit mid-year—well, it's because he was a responsible person who would see out the entire year before leaving.
The professors were busy, and the headmaster wasn't idle either. After explaining everything to Professor McGonagall that day, he set off with Fawkes, the phoenix, and Gryffindor's sword.
He brought Fawkes for faster travel and search capabilities, and taking Gryffindor's sword was a spur-of-the-moment decision—he thought that since the seal was left by the four founders, carrying a relic of one of the founders might be effective.
Then something miraculous happened: when he found the creature, it merely glanced at him and fled in panic, a stark contrast to its previous frenzied behavior when it saw him.
Ultimately, Dumbledore used Fawkes' speed to catch up with the creature and completely annihilate it.
He even brought its remains back to Hogwarts.
…
The period of freedom was short-lived. After a few days of leisure, the students received their report cards from the professors.
In theory, each person should only know their own grades, but Slytherin House operated differently. Professor Snape obtained the grades of all the students in the school, sorted them, and posted the list on the notice board to motivate and encourage the students of his house to work harder.
In other houses, this might have caused some complaints, but Slytherins thrived on this kind of competition. Even Daphne hurried over to check out the first-year students' grades once the list was posted.
She pushed her way through the older students in front of her and finally reached the notice board. Then, she anxiously searched for her and Rhys' names on the list.
Unlike Rhys, Daphne actually cared a lot about the school exams.
The first-year report cards were posted on the far left side of the notice board. As soon as she saw the names, her face froze.
[First Place: Hermione Granger—Total Score: 700 (1) Potions: 50/50 (1) …
Second Place: Rhys Chassala Lint—Total Score: 692 (2)
Third Place: Daphne Greengrass—Total Score: 690 (3)]
Daphne's face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"W-What's going on?! How did I end up only in third place?!" She stared at the name at the top of the list, her eyes almost blazing with fury.
Rhys being in second place was one thing—his score was essentially her score—but what was going on with this Granger girl?!
Seeing the results, Rhys was equally surprised: Was Granger really that formidable? She scored perfect marks in every subject?
Several Slytherin students also noticed the situation and were shocked when they looked at the list: Perfect scores? Is she even human?
It's one thing to get a perfect score in a single subject, but achieving perfect scores across all subjects was extraordinary. This meant that not only was she proficient in practical subjects like Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration, but she also excelled in more theoretical and dry subjects like Astronomy and the History of Magic.
And, as a Ravenclaw, she managed to get a perfect score in Potions, which meant her practical work must have been flawless. Daphne and Rhys also got full marks in Potions, but given that they were from Slytherin House, it is hard to boast about these full marks.
Daphne's face flushed bright red as she stomped her foot in frustration, declaring that if she hadn't missed so many History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, she would have also scored perfect marks.
Rhys suddenly had a thought: If they both had perfect scores, what determines the ranking? Is it alphabetical order? In that case, Daphne would still be ranked below Hermione!
Pulling the exasperated Daphne out of the crowd, Rhys walked with her back to the table by the window. There, he noticed two letters on the table:
[First-Year Summer Homework List]
Rhys felt his blood pressure rise.
"Why do we have homework over the holiday?!" Rhys slammed the table in frustration as he read through the list of assignments from the professors.
Back in his day, they never gave out so much homework during the holidays! And really, who would want to spend their summer doing all these assignments?
Seeing Rhys so indignant, Daphne, who had been furious about only getting second place, started to laugh. But her laughter quickly faded when she realized that all this homework would likely fall on her shoulders.
The girl was momentarily on the verge of breaking down.
However, it was just a momentary lapse, as she quickly remembered that she could "outsource" the most boring and tedious History of Magic assignments. After all, there were plenty of students at Hogwarts who could use some extra money.
If you want the latest cosmetics, beautiful new clothes, or fun new toys but don't have enough money, what can you do?
Wealthy first-year Daphne is more than willing to solve her older classmates' problems—all they need to do is help her complete a few insignificant History of Magic essays.
At this point, she seemed to have forgotten the pain of losing to Hermione Granger in the final exams and decisively chose to hire others to do her homework.
However, to her surprise, Rhys didn't simply toss his own homework list at her as she expected. Instead, he kept it for himself, leaving Daphne confused and uncertain.
Could it be that because I didn't score higher than Granger, he doesn't trust me with his homework anymore?
For the first time, Daphne felt a sense of crisis.
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