Albert had never seen Gryffindor students so united; perhaps they had been suppressed by Slytherin Housefor too long!
Now, everyone was working hard to earn points for the House, and even if they couldn't earn points, they tried their best not to become a reason for deduction.
Most Gryffindor students would stop and look a few times when passing the giant hourglass that recorded House Cup scores, and even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffstudents hoped to see Slytherin lose the House Cup.
The atmosphere in the Castle had changed; it felt like a storm was brewing.
Slytherin House's tradition was to win at all costs, which was why Slytherin had long dominated the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup.
They would not give up easily.
The most direct change was Potions Professor's class, which became more serious and oppressive. The Professor would always walk back and forth during class, using his stern gaze to force students with poor psychological resilience to make mistakes. Everyone knew Snape was looking for reasons to deduct points.
The way to deal with Potions Professor's nitpicking was to admit mistakes seriously, not talk back, and not say too much. Then he couldn't deduct many points from you.
Since Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup last time, the tension with Slytherin House had grown stronger. Albert wouldn't be surprised if the two sides suddenly started fighting any day.
However, for the sake of the House Cup, everyone still held back from clashing with each other, not giving Potions Professor any opportunity to deduct points.
Because once they fought, Gryffindor's slight advantage would be completely wiped out.
"They did this to Ravenclaw House before," the student president warned everyone in the Gryffindor common room. "If you really have any grievances, you can save them until after we win the House Cup."
The conflict between the two sides was suppressed to a minimum. Everyone was secretly preparing for a fight, but they held back for the House Cup. Anyone who wasn't a fool could smell the tension between them.
However, as the final exams approached, it diverted everyone's attention, and the original tension faded.
As time passed day by day, many people had no choice but to bury themselves in studying in the muggy weather, and even had to rush to the Library when there were no classes, to avoid not finding a seat if they arrived late.
However, since late May, Albert had rarely gone to the Library. He hated squeezing into the Library with everyone else in the hot and stuffy weather.
In the muggy weather, Albert missed popsicles, cold drinks, and air conditioning.
"Don't you need to review?" Hagrid greeted him.
"I have exam cheats here." Albert shook his notebook, which contained the key points Professor had mentioned in class. He would look at it and then recall the relevant content. He really owed it to his extraordinary memory.
Anyway, Albert was not worried about the exams at all.
"Exam cheats?"
"Hagrid, do you know any magic that can make ice or cool things down?" Albert asked Hagrid about cooling magic after stuffing his notebook back into his pocket.
"I don't know, what are you planning to do?" Hagridshook his head. After the last incident, their relationship had returned to normal, and both implicitly agreed not to bring up those matters again.
"Of course, to get myself some cold drinks. This damn weather is too hot," Albert said as a matter of course.
"Cold drinks? Come on, come to my place. I'll treat you to some iced butterbeer. Consider it an early celebration for Gryffindor winning the House Cup." Hagrid slapped his head and invited Albert to his place for butterbeer.
Hagrid's so-called iced butterbeer was pretty much as Albert had guessed.
Hagrid threw an oak barrel containing butterbeer into the well. When he took it out to drink, it actually tasted quite good. Although it wasn't very cold, it was undoubtedly a treat in the hot summer.
Seeing the garlic in his vegetable garden, Hagridsuddenly asked, "I remember you guys were growing garlic."
"It's growing well, almost ready for harvest."
Albert found it a bit funny when he thought about it. They had talked about making a garlic crucifix, but what happened?
After a while, the people in the dormitory forgot about it.
Albert was not surprised. Children's patience was always very limited. It was already good that they remembered to water the garlic.
"Oh, by the way, Hagrid, can you help me get some alcohol?"
"What do you need alcohol for?" Hagrid asked, puzzled.
"To purify allicin."
"What's that?" Hagrid was even more confused after hearing that.
"Nothing, it's just for extracting... allicin from garlic. You know, we're going to make a garlic-flavored amulet, so..." Albert briefly described to Hagrid the reason for growing garlic in the first place. "Well, that's the situation, and we also need some beeswax."
"You know, Vampires hate garlic, and many Dark Artscreatures also hate the smell of garlic, so we plan to use a guardian tree plus garlic to make a garlic-flavored amulet to see if it can have a significant repellent effect on dark creatures."
Hagrid was dumbfounded after hearing that. A garlic-flavored amulet? You guys really came up with that.
"Well... if you want alcohol, I can help you ask around. If Diagon Alley doesn't have it, you can try your luck in Knockturn Alley."
"Knockturn Alley?" Albert asked tentatively.
"Knockturn Alley is next to Diagon Alley. It's a mixed bag of people, and there are many Dark Arts shops there..." Hagrid suddenly realized something and looked at Albert seriously, warning him, "You are not allowed to go to Knockturn Alley!"
"Alright, Hagrid, actually, I knew about Knockturn Alleybefore I even came to Hogwarts," Albert said. "I'll leave the alcohol problem to you."
Saying that, Albert prepared to give Hagrid a few Galleons, but the latter didn't take them.
Seeing that Hagrid didn't want them, Albert didn't force it. Hagrid probably wasn't short on money either. Although his house looked a bit dilapidated, there were indeed many valuable things in the Forbidden Forest.
One could only say that Hagrid had gotten used to his current life.
...
After leaving Hagrid, Albert didn't plan to return to the Castle. Instead, he slowly walked down the slope to the lake and sat under a tree, enjoying the breeze.
Not far away, a giant squid lay in the warm shallow water, basking in the sun.
"This is how a summer should be lived," Albert said with emotion, feeling the cool breeze blowing from the lake. "Too bad there's no comfortable hammock."
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After an unknown amount of time, footsteps came from not far away, and a figure was reflected on his face.
Albert opened his sleepy eyes, blinked, and looked at the girl leaning forward and staring at him.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"You're quite leisurely," Katrina said, looking at Albertsleeping under the tree's shade, and scoffed, "Should I say, as expected of a genius?"
"Not bad!" Albert replied casually, "Anyway, I've already reviewed everything I need to. There's no point in worrying too much about the exam. It's better to relax and adjust my mindset to face the upcoming exams."
"Everyone else is working hard to review, and you have the nerve to sit here making sarcastic remarks?" Katrinastared at Albert's face and suddenly said very seriously, "I think if those people in the Library heard what you said, they'd probably want to beat you up."
"I've practiced karate; they can't beat me."
"I heard you have exam cheats?" Katrina sat down beside him, feeling the cool breeze from the lake, and suddenly asked.
"Exam cheats?" Albert couldn't help but chuckle when he heard that. He guessed she had overheard what he had just said to Hagrid.
"What are you laughing at?" Katrina frowned in displeasure.
"You don't want to see it, do you?" Albert pulled out a notebook from his pocket and waved it in front of Katrina.
"No?" Katrina was indeed a little curious. She snatched the notebook and flipped through its contents, but couldn't help but frown. The notebook only contained the mandatory exam topics mentioned by the Professorduring class, and only the questions.
"How is it?" Albert asked back.
"Is this all it is?" Katrina suddenly felt like she had been tricked by him.
"What else did you think it was? As long as you understand the mandatory exam questions given by the Professor, you'll definitely get a high score," Albert said as a matter of course.
"I thought you wanted to get a perfect score." Katrinahad lost interest in the so-called exam cheats.
"What's the point of getting a perfect score? I've never specifically pursued that. Getting an 'Outstanding' is enough." Albert wasn't very concerned about perfect scores. Anyway, the school graded based on 'Outstanding,' 'Exceeds Expectations,' and so on. A perfect score was still an 'Outstanding.' Since they were both 'Outstanding,' why bother so much?
Katrina suddenly felt a bit angry. The guy in front of her didn't seem to consider her a competitor at all.
"What's wrong with you?" Albert felt that the girl's aura in front of him was a bit off.
"Do you want to compete with me to see whose final grades are better?" Katrina suggested.
"No." Albert flatly refused.
Although he had a task to completely crush her, he still didn't want to get entangled with her in this aspect.
"Why?" Katrina demanded, "Are you scared?"
"No reason." Albert completely ignored her provocation. "I just feel that competing in such things is very tiring."
"Very tiring?" Katrina felt she couldn't understand Albert's thinking at all. He actually refused her for such a reason.
"If you want to gamble..." Albert thought for a moment, then, after a subtle change of concept, prepared to dig a pit for her. "How about we gamble in a different way?"
"What kind of gamble?" Katrina immediately pressed.
"You need to answer a riddle to enter the Ravenclawcommon room, right?" Albert said with a smile, "If you can answer a hundred riddles, you win, and I admit you're better than me..."
"Answer a hundred riddles?" Katrina's voice rose a pitch. She looked Albert up and down, as if trying to figure out if he was deliberately teasing her.
"Why isn't it you answering a hundred riddles?"
"Of course," Albert enticed, "if you win, I'll give you a gift worth about 10 Galleons as a prize."
"Do you have money?" Katrina looked at Albertsuspiciously and asked back.
"Yes, I won a hundred Galleons last time betting on who would be Minister of Magic." Albert almost thumped his chest to assure her. Actually, Albert didn't mind spending some money to buy the eagle ring riddles. Problems that could be solved with Galleons were no problem at all.
Katrina immediately fell silent. She found that the guy in front of her seemed surprisingly rich. 10 Galleons just like that?
"So, do you want to bet?" Albert asked back with a smile.
"Your smile is very fake," Katrina said. "What if I lose?"
"If you fail, you can continue to challenge," Albertcontinued. "Anyway, I'm not asking you to do anything. Of course, the premise is that you don't come to compete with me on other things during this period."
"Will you really give a prize?" Katrina asked again.
"You can find a notary, your House ghost, or I can find Nearly Headless Nick, that works too," Albert added. "Of course, when you challenge the eagle ring, I need to be present. You only win if you answer a hundred riddles correctly."
"It wouldn't be dungbombs, would it?" Katrina looked at Albert suspiciously.
"Then I'll just give you 10 Galleons and admit that you're better than me."
"Of course I'm better than you. I don't think you can answer 100 riddles," Katrina suddenly said. "If you can answer 10 riddles, you win, and I'll give you a gift. Of course, I'm not as rich as you. But you can only try once, and it must be before me."
"Okay, I agree." Albert had just agreed to it, but then the next sentence changed to, "I give up. I probably can't answer a single one."
"No," Katrina said seriously. "You must try. I don't believe you can't answer a single one."
"Alright, alright," Albert said perfunctorily.
"Let's go find The Grey Lady now." Katrina took Albertto the west side of Hogwarts Castle and found The Grey Lady at the end of a Hallway.
Katrina briefly explained the situation to The Grey Ladyand asked her to be the notary for this bet.
The Grey Lady agreed. In her opinion, this was undoubtedly an interesting matter.
Even Ravenclaw students rarely managed to answer 100 riddles consecutively. As for non-Ravenclawstudents, it was even harder to answer 10 riddles consecutively.
"Are you planning to start now?" The Grey Lady asked.
"No, I think Miss MacDougall should be given more time to prepare. We can wait until after the exams, or next semester." Albert was not in a hurry. He needed Katrinato provide him with questions and answers. He had to let her prepare thoroughly. Otherwise, if Miss MacDougall couldn't answer many questions, it would be meaningless.
As for winning or losing?
Albert didn't care at all.
At this moment, he suddenly wanted to give himself a thumbs up for his quick wit.
Nice, this method is really good.
Simple, easy, and convenient for solving the eagle ringproblem.
Katrina, completely unaware of Albert's calculations, walked away happily. She was determined to defeat Albert in this bet and win 10 Galleons.
However, before that, she needed to practice well. Katrina would never allow herself to fail.