The content of the students' exam papers was actually fairly basic. Even the more advanced material mostly stayed at the level of concepts.
And that, coincidentally, was exactly what suited Draco best.
Although much of it clearly went beyond his current knowledge, it was important to remember that for truly outstanding students, textbook material alone was never enough.
What's more, Draco hadn't even fully mastered what was already in the textbooks.
That was why Tver deliberately used this method, helping him quickly build a solid theoretical foundation.
Only with that foundation would Draco have the chance to learn more advanced and deeper magic.
Draco's talent, however, was closer to a blend of Harry and Hermione's. He had respectable spellcasting ability and a decent grasp of theory, but in any single area, he still fell short of either of them.
So he spent the entire evening scratching his head in frustration. By the time curfew was approaching, he had managed to grade less than a third of the papers.
Most of those were from third-year students or below.
"You should head back now. Looks like you'll need to put in a bit more… effort," Tver said.
"As for whether this carries over into next week or turns into an all-nighter, that depends on the quality of your work." He patted the stack of graded papers.
Draco's shoulders sagged as he wearily set down the quill in his right hand and the fourth-year textbook in his left.
For the first time, he truly understood just how exhausting it was to study under a professor like this.
The textbook material alone was difficult enough, but the professor kept extending beyond it, leaving him even more confused and overwhelmed.
If Percy were here, he would, for once, wholeheartedly agree with him.
"Good night, Professor," Draco muttered as he staggered out of the office, nearly bumping into the doorframe.
Tver chuckled, tidied up his desk, and picked up the papers Draco had graded to review them.
As expected, this was far easier than grading everything himself.
Next school year, whether the new colleague turned out to be Moody or Little Barty, neither of them would be easy to deal with.
At the very least, they wouldn't be like Lupin, helping him grade papers.
Multiple-choice questions could be handed over to the training dummy, but the large number of subjective, essay-style questions would still eat up a great deal of his time.
Now, with Draco around, the workload dropped sharply. He could reduce his own burden while also laying a foundation for Draco's future.
Perfect.
Tver, in high spirits, sipped pumpkin juice and ate Cauldron Cakes. He had deliberately "borrowed" a large batch from Dumbledore earlier.
As for the exam papers, they floated up one by one in front of him, unfolding upright.
Once he finished reviewing a paper, any mistakes or omissions were automatically circled in ink and sorted to the side.
This was probably the easiest late night he'd ever had. Though, for him, it hardly even counted as staying up late.
Especially since, after finishing all the reviews, it was still earlier than his usual bedtime.
That left Tver not quite sure what to do next.
He wasn't sleepy, but there wasn't really enough time to get into a book either. Too much time to waste, too little to use properly.
The unexpected sense of ease left him feeling oddly at a loss.
"Tap, tap, tap…"
Suddenly, a set of hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. They stopped abruptly.
Then came a knock on his office door.
"Knock, knock, knock."
The knocking was urgent, yet restrained.
"What is it, Percy?" Tver opened the door at once and found Percy standing there, panting heavily.
"P-Professor, Black broke into the Gryffindor common room!"
Tver stared at him in surprise.
"How did Black get in? Where is he now? Was he caught?"
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Percy finally managed to respond.
"Black has the passwords. He got hold of the note Neville Longbottom wrote them on. As for how he got it, we don't know."
"And we still don't know where Black is now, so Professor McGonagall sent me to ask you to come over."
"Then let's go."
Tver followed Percy, listening as he explained what had happened that night.
No one knew how Sirius Black managed it, but he had broken into the castle and obtained Neville's lost note, which contained an entire week's worth of passwords.
When he appeared in Harry's dormitory holding a dagger, Ron noticed him and scared him off.
"Scared him off?" Tver asked, his tone odd.
Most likely because he couldn't find Peter Pettigrew and had no choice but to leave.
But Percy misunderstood his expression.
"Yeah, and that's what makes it strange. If Black really wanted to hurt Harry, given the strength it took to escape from Azkaban, wouldn't it have been easier to just attack directly?"
"Honestly, a few third-year students couldn't have stopped him."
"So why run away? If he was worried about his own safety, wouldn't it have been better not to come to Hogwarts at all?"
Percy lowered his head, deep in thought, but it was clearly a question he couldn't answer for now.
When Tver entered the Gryffindor common room, several professors were already there.
Even more noticeable, however, were the exhausted young witches and wizards.
Hermione in the corner was especially striking, her head bobbing up and down as if she were nodding off while fishing.
"Tver, I need your help." Professor McGonagall spotted him immediately.
"At your service."
"Dumbledore has taken Snape and the others to search the castle. We need to search Gryffindor Tower as quickly as possible," Professor McGonagall said, addressing the other professors as well.
"I'll take the boys' dormitories with Tver," Lupin stepped forward at once.
Professor McGonagall glanced back and forth between the two of them with mild confusion, but she didn't dwell on it. She nodded and led Professor Burbage and Professor Sprout toward the girls' dormitories.
"Let's go," Lupin said seriously, striding off in the opposite direction.
He searched each dormitory with unusual urgency, his focus sharp as he checked room after room.
Tver, on the other hand, did the exact opposite. He grabbed a blanket, lifted it, put it back, lifted it again, put it back.
Then lifted it one last time…
Good. Black definitely hadn't been sleeping here.
"Tver!" Lupin snapped, clearly displeased with his lackadaisical attitude.
"What are you doing? Black could be hiding here!"
"And what are you doing?" Tver leaned lazily against a bedpost.
"You should know better than I do. The passage by the Whomping Willow is the place where Black is most likely to appear."
"Then what exactly are you searching for?"
"Black?"
"Or your own heart…"
Lupin fell silent. He lowered his wand, then sat down heavily in a chair, staring out the window at the clear night sky.
"I'm not trying to excuse Black," he said quietly. "I just want to know what he's really after."
"This is the second time he's broken into the castle, but I think you've realized it too. He never intended to hurt Harry."
"He even prepared a Christmas gift for him."
"That's why I need the truth," Lupin said firmly. "I want to know what really happened back then."
...
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