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The mornings at Hogwarts remained as peaceful and empty as ever. Across the entire lawn, the only ones there were Dudley and his group.
He ran in front, setting the pace, while the others followed right behind him. After nearly a full year, everyone had gradually adapted to the absurd intensity of his training.
Each of them had improved physically to some degree.
When the morning training ended, they all sat on the ground, rubbing their sore thighs, while Dudley remained standing, straight as a spear.
"There's only one week left until exams. For all of you here, that shouldn't be a big deal, right?"
He spoke calmly.
In the blink of an eye, the first school year was already nearing its end.
The young witches and wizards of Hogwarts had finally reached the point of fully completing first year. As long as they passed the final exam at the end of the term, they could officially break through into second year.
"No problem."
After spending so much time receiving private lessons from the professors, his friends were overflowing with confidence. Even though they were still only at the peak of first year, they all felt that, at the very least, they could already challenge someone near the end of second year. Or at least, that was the joke they liked making.
In truth, the final exams were not the most important thing.
What really mattered was the test that would come after them.
"Can we really do it?"
Ron asked, a little hesitantly.
"I mean, Big D, you obviously won't have any trouble. But can we really pass the test Professor Dumbledore prepared?"
"After all, it was the greatest wizard alive who came up with it..."
To avoid putting too much pressure on them, Dudley had only told them part of the truth.
Well, what he had said was that he wanted to start a club.
That sort of thing was pretty common at Hogwarts, like the famous Slug Club.
Before the end of Harry and the others' third year, Dudley had no intention of making them official members.
"We can. There definitely won't be a problem."
It was Neville who answered, with that thick, muffled voice of his.
At that moment, his once-round, chubby face had almost disappeared, replaced by a body that looked visibly firmer. Of course, it was nothing on Dudley's absurd level, only enough to make him look stronger than average. The difference between people was still enormous.
But following Dudley for so long had brought huge changes to Neville. As he kept breaking through his own physical limits, his willpower had grown firmer as well. Most importantly of all, his confidence had risen a great deal.
Training was also a way of tempering the spirit.
What Neville had always lacked most was confidence.
Now he knew only one thing.
If he followed Big D, he wouldn't go wrong.
If D said they could do it, then they could do it.
"Ron, you need to believe in yourself more."
Dudley looked at Ron and spoke seriously.
"With the ability you have now, there isn't a single person in your year in Gryffindor who's better than you."
Of course, he added silently in his head: excluding the people standing here.
"Me?"
Ron flushed red with embarrassment at being praised like that. The freckles on his face became even more obvious.
"That's impossible. I know exactly what I'm capable of. At home, I'm always the one who gets overlooked."
In truth, Ron had the same problem Neville did.
A lack of confidence.
Or, more specifically, an inferiority complex.
Only, in Neville's case, his low self-esteem came from childhood experiences. As he grew older, that would naturally tend to improve.
Ron's inferiority complex, on the other hand, came from his family environment.
Poverty, and too many siblings.
Ron had understood his family's situation very early on. Because of that, he had always been the most obedient and the most "mature" among the brothers.
And it was precisely that early maturity that had become the root of his inferiority.
Little Ronnie, just like Neville, Harry, and Malfoy, was a very talented and promising wizard.
Dudley said nothing more.
He simply patted Ron lightly on the shoulder.
The facts would prove everything.
Off to the side, Harry and Malfoy had already made a bet. Whoever did worse on the final exams would lose the right to call Dudley "Big D" for a month.
If they failed the test afterward too, then they would lose that right for three months.
Two children.
Dudley shook his head, then turned his gaze toward Hermione.
Compared to Ron's lack of confidence and Neville's almost blind confidence, Hermione looked completely at ease.
"Don't worry. I've already memorized all the material from first and second year, including the notes from the professors' extra weekend lessons."
Dudley: "..."
As expected of you.
During breakfast, an owl descended from the sky and dropped a letter right in front of Dudley.
After feeding it a little creature feed, Dudley opened the letter.
It was about the book Dragonlance Chronicles.
Thanks to the absurd quality of the work, it had become a massive success, exactly as expected. That fantasy world from another realm had completely conquered the hearts of men, women, old and young throughout the wizarding world. The book had advanced like an unstoppable force, winning one award after another, big and small, until it directly won the title of the year's most popular novel, leaving second place far behind.
There were even rumors that the Order of Merlin was considering awarding Dudley a Third Class medal.
In practice, a medal like that did not have all that much value. It belonged more to the category of cultural and entertainment contribution.
The letter invited him to the award ceremony.
But Dudley did not have time at the moment, so all he could do was ask Carrow to represent him and accept the award on his behalf.
Before he could even eat properly, another owl landed on the table.
This time, it was an unsigned letter.
The contents of the test had arrived.
...
One week later, Dudley finally faced the first exam period at Hogwarts.
The exams were divided into two parts, the written test and the practical test.
For Dudley, the written portion was absurdly easy. He was always the first to hand in his paper.
"The questions were way too hard..."
A lot of students came out of the classroom looking miserable.
"I definitely did terribly. I just couldn't remember the answer to that question."
"Did the professor really say that in class? I don't remember any of it."
Even the Ravenclaw students were saying things like that.
Ron and Neville happened to walk right past them.
The two turned at the same time, exchanged a look, and simply stared at each other, both clearly seeing the shock on the other's face.
Because in their opinion, the questions had actually been pretty simple.
In fact, they were not even close to the difficulty of their usual tests.
As for the practical portion...
In Potions, the task was to brew a Forgetfulness Potion.
Without the slightest surprise, Dudley passed with full marks.
In Charms, the challenge was to make a pear dance.
Dudley brought his hands together, wearing gloves with a transmutation circle drawn onto them.
The pear did not just dance.
It split into two halves and started performing a couple's dance.
As for Transfiguration, the goal was to turn a rat into a snuffbox.
Dudley brought his hands together again.
A snuffbox so refined and beautiful it looked like a work of art appeared before everyone's eyes.
Hands together.
Dudley no longer had to rack his brain trying to reproduce magical effects through "scientific" means.
As long as he understood the essence of matter, using alchemy was even simpler than using pure spells.
Alchemy really was extremely useful to him.
After an entire day of exams in multiple subjects at once, the exam period finally came to an end.
Freed at last, the students poured out of the classrooms shouting with joy.
They ran wild through the castle, sprawled out across the lawn, and even flew freely through the sky on their brooms...
Or rather, they tried to.
After all, flying freely over Hogwarts Castle was not allowed.
So they were caught by the professors and lost a good number of points.
In any case, the end of exams meant only one thing.
They were free.
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