Chapter 340: Not Here

Anthony arrived at the classroom earlier than usual and was satisfied to find that Umbridge was not waiting outside the door. Students walked into the classroom one after another, with heavy hearts and wandering eyes, and only managed to smile when greeting Anthony.

As the exams approached, more and more students became anxious. People kept visiting Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick, just to hear them say "I think you'll be fine", and a few particularly frustrated students even knocked on Professor McGonagall's door. Lockhart was very happy to give these confused students some life advice, but fewer and fewer people were willing to listen to him talk for hours. The cabinets in the school hospital were filled with various anxiety-relieving potions, placebos that had no effect, or "Buffy Brain Refreshers" waiting to be tested for their ingredients. Snape was furious in the potions class because a large number of rabbit feet in the public potion material storage cabinet suddenly disappeared, and then magically appeared in students' backpacks, pockets, and pencil cases.

Professors no longer assign more homework or papers, but Anthony still sees many students in class secretly flipping through textbooks on Herbology or History of Magic, or padding a piece of parchment under their Muggle Studies notes, hastily writing down the conditions for growing jumping toadstools and the location of a certain year's International Wizarding Conference. While completing the review questions, several students sitting in the corner whispered to each other about questions related to spell theory, and some of the answers were so bad that Anthony couldn't help but want to correct them.

"Can you please shut up?" Claire Tilly turned around and said loudly.

She is a fifth-year Hufflepuff this year. Anthony heard that Professor Trelawney advised her to "be wary of yellow-brown quills", and since then he has been troubled by the color of his and his classmates' stationery, and has been upset all day.

Ian Williams shrugged, muttered "sorry", and stuffed a thick Charms notebook back into his schoolbag.

Midgen patted Claire's arm soothingly. Claire took a deep breath and glanced at Ian irritably: "There are still people here who want to learn Muggle Studies in the Muggle Studies class."

"Thank you, Miss Tilly." Anthony said, "Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Williams. I will explain the test questions in five minutes."

Five minutes later, Anthony began to tell the students which chapters these questions were related to, and which aspects of knowledge the question-setting group seemed to be more inclined to test. At this moment, Claire suddenly sobbed.

Midgen, who was sitting next to her, immediately realized it and reached out to hold Claire in his arms. Anthony was startled and hurried over and asked softly what happened. Students who were reviewing other subjects also raised their heads and stretched their necks to look here. Several students even stood up, and the sound of tables and chairs moving was heard in the classroom.

"Too much pressure, professor." Midgen patted Claire and whispered to Anthony, "We had a review class for the spells class this morning, and Professor Flitwick was not very happy with us."

On Claire's desk was the test paper they had just completed, and she had drawn a big "T" on it with green ink. She used so much force that even part of the paper was scratched, revealing the smooth, dark brown wooden tabletop underneath.

"I'll never pass the exam!" Claire sobbed. "I'm so, so sorry, Professor Anthony, I'm so sorry. I screwed up! I just can't learn this stuff... I love Muggle Studies... but I'll never pass!"

"I wouldn't be so sure, Miss Tilly." Anthony reached out from under her arm and pulled out the answer sheet - Claire sobbed sadly - and identified the answers she had repeatedly crossed out. "Forgot the denomination of the coin, no big deal... The conversion is correct, even the goblins in Gringotts won't have a problem with it... The train and the subway are not the same thing, but your answers are not too different... The bus part is very good..." He put down the test paper, "I don't see why you can't pass."

"Really?"

"I have no reason to lie." Anthony said.

He looked around and saw Ian nervously fiddling with a corner of the answer sheet, rolling it up and smoothing it out again and again; his deskmate continued to read "Spell Achievement" under the table, and seemed indifferent to anything except the principles of the Silencing Charm. Several students looked at Claire with sympathetic and sad expressions, while a few others looked a little impatient.

"Don't be so depressed, everyone." Anthony looked out the window and smiled, "Well, I think it's okay to change the teaching plan temporarily. Everyone, pack up your things - including you, Mr. Snowpierce."

The student sitting in the corner suddenly raised his head from a three-inch, beautifully illustrated Herbology notebook, looked at Anthony, looked at the students around him who were packing their textbooks, and then looked at the clock.

Anthony shook his head in amusement, telling him not to panic, and then gestured for him to sweep the things piled on the table into his bag like the students around him.

When everything was stuffed into the schoolbag - ink bottle, quill, parchment, potion notebook, Herbology specimen, suspicious brown powder, Roger the old snake, the hedgehog that was stolen somehow to practice Transfiguration, half a piece of toast to feed the hedgehog, the amulet wrapped in hair, Lockhart's handwritten letter of encouragement, and so on, so on - Anthony also put away his lesson plan.

"Now," he turned to the students who were staring at him and opened the classroom door, "let's sneak out."

"What?" Anne Scott, a fifth-year Ravenclaw, questioned.

"Let's sneak out." Anthony repeated, looking into the corridor. There was no Filch, no Umbridge. "It looks good, let's go."

…

The student still looked dazed when he sat down on the grass. The bright sunshine passed through the gaps between the leaves, shining on their heads, faces and confused expressions. A few tits jumped up and down among the branches above them, and suddenly flew away deftly. The warm Scottish May wind blew through the green mountains and across the sparkling black lake, causing the wizard's robe to sway slightly.

"What are we going to do, Professor Anthony?" Claire asked. Her eyes were a little red and swollen, but she seemed more energetic. "We're going to solve a very important problem in Muggle Studies exams," Anthony said. "That's how to alleviate anxiety."

"Moderator." A student next to him immediately said nervously, "The order, proportion, mixing, and temperature must also be carefully observed. The moonstone must be ground into pieces, otherwise the crucible will be ruined. White steam will rise upward..."

"Silver white steam," another student corrected.

"Also pay attention to the difference between clockwise and counterclockwise." Anne said, looking very interested, "Who made up this formula?"

"I don't know, I saw it on the wall in the common room."

"That's really nice."

Anthony agreed: "That's great, but I'm not referring to these complicated and exquisite Potions knowledge. What I want to tell you is that the O.W.Ls exam, at least the Muggle Studies O.W.L exam, may not be as difficult as many of you think. important."

Ian asked painfully: "Are you trying to comfort us not to be discouraged because of failure, Professor Anthony? So far in advance?"

"No, I'm quite confident that you will all pass." Anthony opened the bag, took out a pack of Bibi's multi-flavor beans, and opened it, "Of course, the condition is that no one suddenly decides to give up on the exam, or does something stupid - "Such as cheating, but I have the same confidence that you won't do that." He popped a multi-flavored bean into his mouth and handed the rest to the student next to him.

"But, Professor Anthony, the O.W.Ls exam is so important." Claire said, her voice trembling again, "If I can't get the certificate, it's impossible for me to find a job..."

The bushes around them shook. A squirrel jumped out as the students watched, picked up a fallen braised bean, jumped up the trunk, and disappeared into the shadows of the leaves and branches.

"I'd say it depends on what you want to do, Miss Tilley. Of course, having more O.W.Ls does mean more options are likely to be available, but they absolutely don't determine what your future will be like. "Anthony saw someone opening his mouth to say something, "For example, I heard that Muggle Liaison's employment promotion materials require Muggle Studies O.W.Ls certificates, but in fact they recruit many who do not take this elective at all. A Muggle-born wizard, not to mention myself—"

The student's mouth closed, and his eyes suddenly lit up with curiosity and anticipation.

"I think many of you know that I did not receive a magical education at Hogwarts," Anthony said. "So, yes, I don't have any certificates. I'm not proud of it, but it's okay. No shame. What I'm trying to say is - well, Professor Trelawney may have other ideas - is that the future is unpredictable.

"Ten years ago, if someone had told me that I would be a professor in a wizarding school teaching wizards how people live without magic, I would have said that person had a pretty imaginative mind. But here I am sitting here. , eating braised beans on the lawn,” he ate one that tasted like mud, and had to swallow it without chewing, “next to a group of smart and friendly students.”

Several people smiled at his words.

Anthony considered his words: "I won't say that exams like O.W.Ls have no impact on your future. That would be a complete lie, but it is not the only thing that affects the future.

"At least, in my Muggle Studies class, test scores are one of the least important things, right up there with owl chow and colored bubble ink. Rather than making you feel anxious and bored when you see the questions, I I hope you can remain friendly and curious about the Muggle world. Whether it is a zoo or a pet rescue center, whether it is a botanical garden or a chocolate factory, I hope you have fun here at Muggle Studies.”

"We did have a lot of fun." Midgen said, "By the way, Professor Anthony, I took Catherine III to visit the pet rescue center during Christmas, and it happened that the rescue center was open. Ms. Howard said my cat was very healthy and had gained a little over three pounds."

"Great," said Anthony. He sometimes saw Midgen's tortoiseshell cat at school. From what he could tell, the cat had eaten at least a dozen mice, several plates of sausages, and countless amounts of cat food, and had gained at least four pounds.

He looked around at the students again: "Finally, although I haven't taken the O.W.Ls, I've been through many other exams. I've always had good luck guessing questions, so relax. You're all going to be fine. I hope ...coconut sorbet in name only.”

Now everyone laughed.

Anthony also laughed: "Okay, get out of class is over. Here is a bag of bubble gum for you to take back. Try to be happy. Get more sun."