The topic of "Professor Lupin is a woman" diluted the tense atmosphere of the approaching exam week, but the exams wouldn't be delayed because of it.
When exam week arrived as scheduled, Hogwarts Castle entered the quietest period of the year.
However, most people thought this was the quietest the castle had been in years.
The reason was that the Weasley twins would be taking their Ordinary Wizarding Level exams this year.
Compared to previous years' exams, the O.W.L.s clearly exerted much stronger pressure on them.
Monday.
By lunchtime, the third-year students all looked listless and pale.
What Professor McGonagall had said in first year hadn't been an exaggeration at all.
Transfiguration was indeed the most difficult and dangerous magic course young wizards could encounter at school.
Coming out of the Transfiguration exam room, the young wizards compared their results while complaining about how difficult the questions were.
One question actually required them to turn a teapot into a tortoise.
That difficulty was clearly beyond the syllabus, wasn't it?
However, amid all these wails, Hermione severely drew hatred.
Because she cried out. "Oh no, the tortoise I transfigured looked like a sea turtle!"
This naturally infuriated everyone. Even Harry and Ron, her friends, found it a bit much.
This kind of thing wasn't even worth worrying about!
Hermione didn't realize this and continued chattering to Sherlock, since at times like these, only Sherlock would listen to her.
"As far as I know, a tortoise's head can rotate flexibly and completely retract into its shell, while a sea turtle's head is larger and can't retract into its shell.
And furthermore, a tortoise's limbs are elliptical and cylindrical with claws, but what I transfigured looked more like flippers..."
Others hearing her talk like this would just want to stay far away.
However, the conversations among them were actually quite absurd too.
"My tortoise's tail still looked like a spout. How terrible..."
"My tortoise's shell still had willow patterns on it. Do you think they'll deduct points?"
"What do you think—should tortoises blow steam or not?"
"..."
Damned if they did well and damned if they did poorly, the most difficult of all courses, the Transfiguration exam was finally over.
The remaining exams would be relatively easier.
After lunch, the Charms exam was in the afternoon.
It must be said, Hermione really had skills.
Professor Flitwick really did test the Cheering Charm.
Out of trust in Hermione, Harry and Ron had both practiced well, so they performed perfectly.
Sherlock and Hermione didn't need to be mentioned—they were at a level where they could pass with full marks without even revising.
Neville and Dean, who shared a dormitory with Harry, were more unlucky.
Although both trusted Hermione very much and had worried about revising the Cheering Charm, Neville was too nervous and his movements were a bit excessive.
The result was that his partner Dean burst into hysterical laughter and couldn't stop at all.
In the end, Dean had to be taken to a quiet room and stayed there for an hour before he could complete his own spell.
Afterward, Neville apologized to Dean repeatedly, and Dean naturally didn't mind.
After dinner ended, the students rushed back to the common room.
Tuesday would have three courses: Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, and Astronomy.
This was naturally to be expected—Astronomy naturally had to wait until evening to be tested.
The next morning, the young wizards first came outside the castle to take Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures exam.
After the exam, Hagrid's popularity soared again, once more rivaling Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Lupin as a strong contender for "Hogwarts Most Popular Professor of the Year."
Because he had prepared a large barrel of fresh Flobberworms for the students, saying that to pass the exam, they must ensure their Flobberworms were still alive an hour later.
This was practically a free points question!
Because Flobberworms lived best when left completely alone, this could be said to be the easiest exam they'd taken since first year.
No one would refuse such exam content.
Even the Slytherin students cheered, looking at Hagrid with particularly friendly gazes.
"Hey, have you heard?"
Hagrid deliberately walked over to Sherlock and the others, bending down low, pretending to check whether Harry's Flobberworm was still alive.
"Professor Lupin is actually a woman."
Hermione glared fiercely at Harry and Ron because these two looked like they were about to laugh.
Sherlock said calmly. "I've heard, Professor Hagrid. What do you think?"
"Oh my, I can't really say about such things."
Hagrid said mysteriously. "But I do know that Professor Lupin has a secret, and Dumbledore and the other staff seem to know about it too.
The strange thing is, they didn't tell me about it. Why is that?"
'Why didn't they tell you? Don't you have any idea?'
The three friends besides Sherlock all looked at Hagrid speechlessly.
Only Sherlock said seriously. "Because you're too upright, Hagrid.
Once you knew about this, you'd definitely go question Professor Lupin.
But if he's concealing the truth, he must have some unspeakable difficulty.
So for both your sake and Professor Lupin's, Headmaster Dumbledore didn't tell you."
"Well said, Sherlock!"
Hagrid was overjoyed. He slapped Ron on the shoulder, nearly knocking him into the barrel full of Flobberworms.
Fortunately, Sherlock and Harry were prepared and stopped him in time.
Ron, who had nearly had an intimate encounter with fresh Flobberworms, looked at Hagrid resentfully.
'Hey, you were praising Sherlock, so why hit me!'
When they took the Potions exam in the afternoon, all the good mood from Care of Magical Creatures was gone.
For Harry, this seemed like an utter disaster.
No matter what he did, he couldn't get his Confusing Concoction to thicken.
Snape watched from the side with obvious satisfaction, and before walking away, he wrote something in his notebook that Sherlock thought looked very much like a zero.
"Of course it's not a zero."
Hearing Harry's worry, Sherlock shook his head. "Compared to others, you've already done very well.
Some people's Confusing Concoctions were the wrong color, which clearly means they don't have normal potion properties.
Some people couldn't even brew the potion at all. Compared to them, at least your potion has normal effects, just slightly weaker."
"Thank you, Sherlock. You're really good at comforting people."
"Sherlock, you still had time to observe other people's exam situations?"
Hermione said in surprise. "I was so afraid of running out of time, I was too nervous to look at others. Even after brewing it, I checked it over and over again."
"The fact is we had plenty of time left. After all, this is just an ordinary final exam, not O.W.L.s."
The midnight Astronomy exam's difficulty was somewhere between Care of Magical Creatures and Potions, and the location was on top of the highest tower.
Although Sherlock had only attended a few classes this semester, relying on the model he and Hermione had bought in Diagon Alley before school started, he still easily got a high score.
Hermione didn't need to be mentioned—having the Time-Turner was like having wings added to a tiger for her.
Other young wizards' performances were mixed.
Wednesday morning tested History of Magic, which didn't require practical work.
There wasn't much to say about this. As long as you listened carefully in class, everyone could get full marks.
Unfortunately, there were really few people who could do this in Professor Binns's class.
Even someone as strong as Hermione sometimes couldn't help but feel drowsy under Professor Binns's uniquely hypnotic droning attack.
However, this wouldn't affect her performance in the exam room.
For Sherlock, it was even less of a problem.
He had always been interested in how the wizarding world had developed to its current state, so he easily solved the exam paper.
As for others, they did their best to fill the paper.
Some people, when they really didn't know how to answer questions, simply copied the questions themselves.
As long as they filled the paper, they'd at least get points for effort, right?
Finally, it was the last day of exam week.
The penultimate exam in the morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts.
The wildly popular Professor Lupin did something creative and came up with an outdoor exam similar to an obstacle course.
This could be called the most unusual exam yet.
They first had to wade through a deep-water tank with Grindylows.
Grindylows were pale-green water demons distributed in Britain and Ireland, with horns on their heads, green teeth, and very long fingers.
They looked fierce, but in the British Ministry of Magic's classification system they were only "XX." Those long fingers, although quite powerful when grabbing things, broke easily.
When Sherlock faced them, he didn't even use magic, relying solely on his boxing skills to let them experience the power of the great fighter Holmes.
After the deep-water tank came a series of pits full of Red Caps.
These gnome-like magical creatures were commonly distributed in Northern Europe and looked rather like goblins.
They often lived in the trenches of old battlefields, castle dungeons, or places stained with human blood.
Simply put, wherever there was bloodshed, there would be traces of them.
Red Caps were classified as "XXX" by the British Ministry of Magic, slightly higher than Grindylows.
They were very dangerous to solitary Muggles, ambushing lost people, and in the dark of night, there were even precedents of them clubbing people to death.
Now that their numbers were up, they were also quite troublesome for wizards.
Then Sherlock, with a sword in one hand and a shield made of rock cakes in the other, seemed to cut through them like vegetables as he crossed the pits.
These short creatures only managed to slightly slow Sherlock's forward progress.
After the pits came a marsh, where Professor Lupin had placed a Hinkypunk.
This monster had only one leg and would lurk in remote areas at night, emitting misleading light to lure travelers astray.
Once misled by it, one would fall into the marsh.
The correct way to pass was to ignore the Hinkypunk's misleading light and cross quickly.
However, Professor Lupin was shocked to discover that when the Hinkypunk emitted its misleading light, Sherlock actually charged straight at it.
'No way?'
Lupin was greatly surprised. Sherlock shouldn't be unable to see through even this!
Besides, his previous performance against the Grindylows and Red Caps had been perfect—though he hadn't used magic.
But he was an open-minded professor. After all, Gryffindor back in the day also used a sword.
But now...
Then he discovered that Sherlock directly grabbed the Hinkypunk's one and only leg and lifted it from the marsh onto solid ground.
Then he raised his sword again.
Lupin's expression changed, and he quickly rushed over to stop Sherlock.
"Stop, stop!"
Sherlock raised an eyebrow. "Professor, I don't recall you saying we couldn't eliminate this thing during the exam."
"That's true, but..."
Professor Lupin suddenly felt he was still too young. How could someone like Sherlock possibly be misled by a Hinkypunk!
Looking at the Hinkypunk trembling, small and helpless in Sherlock's hands, Professor Lupin even got the feeling that Sherlock was the boss.
"If you eliminate it, how will the remaining students take the exam?"
"Didn't you prepare several? I saw quite a few Grindylows and Red Caps!"
"There are more, but this exam is meant to train your stealth ability, to cross the marsh quickly without being discovered and misled!"
"If I eliminate it directly, then no one will discover me. Doesn't that count as stealth?"
"..."
Lupin was rendered speechless. After a moment, he said. "Fine, I'll give you full marks for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Come out!
Let's leave this Hinkypunk for the other students!"
"No fighting the Boggart?"
Sherlock asked this because the final obstacle after crossing the marsh was to climb into an old trunk and fight a Boggart.
"No need."
Professor Lupin said with a wry smile. "I've seen your Boggart more than once and know you have the ability to deal with it. There's no need for you to face it again."
"What a pity. I was hoping to catch up with my other self."
Though he said this, Sherlock still cooperatively left with Professor Lupin, staying to watch the others take their exams.
During this process, Professor Lupin hesitated for a moment, then spoke. "Thank you, Sherlock."
"No need to thank me. Your excellence won you this opportunity.
Not everyone will believe you're a woman. The reason people who know the truth are helping spread this is because you're our best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and everyone doesn't want to lose you."
"Thank you for the compliment, Sherlock." Professor Lupin smiled.
"What I did only bought some time. It's far from enough to truly solve your problem."
"I know. Once my identity is exposed, owls will arrive like snowflakes. No parent wants a werewolf teaching their children."
"So, this matter must be completely resolved."
"Don't bother, Sherlock. It's impossible."
"Who says so?"
Sherlock smiled slightly. "I've already discussed it with Dumbledore—next year, we may be able to truly solve this problem."
Lupin's eyes widened again, even more surprised than when he'd just seen Sherlock bullying the small Hinkypunk.
"Please forgive me, I can't tell you the specific details yet."
Lupin was about to ask more when an excited Harry had already climbed out of the trunk.
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