Chapter 342 Defense Against the Dark Arts Exam

Anthony thought it was really admirable that other professors could teach other grades as usual while O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts were going on.

He especially admired Professor McGonagall because she had just finished a Transfiguration class for the third grade and had to deal with Fred and George who were caught by Filch, and then she got the news that Umbridge had put Colin Creevey in detention; after that, she also severely reprimanded and comforted two or three students who were almost collapsed because of the exam, and then rushed to the school hospital without stopping, and learned that Harry, Ron and Hermione had fought again because Draco Malfoy made a vicious joke about house elves, Muggle-borns and having no parents. Madam Pomfrey angrily told Professor McGonagall that everything went as smoothly as it could thanks to the famous Professor Gilderoy Lockhart who was the first professor to arrive at the scene.

When Anthony went to supervise the written O.W.Ls of Defense Against the Dark Arts, he could hardly believe that the exam week was finally coming to an end.

The examiner was Professor Tofty, who had been introduced by Professor Flitwick. The old wizard appeared in the hall almost silently, threw the box of test papers on the table in the front row, and then looked around the empty hall. He nodded to Anthony standing in front of the staff seat, indicating that he should distribute the test papers to each single table.

Anthony walked through the aisles, feeling Professor Tofty's eyes lingering on his back. When he had distributed all the test papers, Professor Tofty waved his wand, and the parchment flew out of the box, landed on the side of the test papers, and then slowly rolled itself up.

"Let them in," Professor Tofty said, sitting on the staff seat. His voice was hoarse and vaguer than Anthony had imagined, and there was a tremor at the end of each word that belonged to the elderly.

"Okay, Professor Tofty," Anthony said, opening the door to the Great Hall.

The fifth-year Hufflepuffs were called into the Great Hall first, followed by Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin.

"Please make sure you don't bring anything that may violate the Wizarding Examinations Authority into the examination room," Anthony said as they sat down rustling, "The written exam will be from 9:30 to 11:30, and the practical exam will be at 2:30 in the afternoon. Please write your answers on parchment, not on the test paper..."

After a while, everyone was quiet. Professor Tofty turned over a large hourglass on the staff seat - several students were startled, and it seemed that they only noticed him at this time - and the exam began.

Anthony stood beside the staff seat for a while, unsure whether he should sit next to Professor Tofty and look down at the students answering questions below like him, or patrol the examination room like an invigilator. Finally, he still lightened his footsteps and quietly walked from one end of the hall to the other, passing over the students' hairy heads, curiously peeking at this year's O.W.L test questions.

The first question was: 1) List three environments where Boggarts are likely to exist; 2) Describe the five characteristics of Boggarts; 3) Write a spell to expel Boggarts.

Anthony stopped behind a student who took Muggle Studies and watched him write on parchment: "Boggarts tend to live in particularly dark places." Then the student pondered for a while and added, "For example, cabinets, including cabinets, wardrobes and bookcases."

He paused and added the serial numbers "one, two, three" in front of "cabinets, wardrobes and bookcases" quite rigorously.

Anthony walked away.

Ian Williams answered "places where moss grows, places where foxes grow, and places where those black and white striped elves grow." He drew a very sloppy annotation picture for "black and white striped elves." Anthony identified it for a while, but still couldn't be sure whether this elf really had five heads.

While Ian was drawing, a student next to him who Anthony didn't know had already finished answering the question and was answering "How to fight against the soft-foot curse." Anthony stayed next to this student for a short while, admiring how the small and neat words flowed quickly from the tip of the quill.

When he walked to the middle of the hall, he found that Anne Scott answered even faster than that. While her classmates were still racking their brains to make up a recipe for Hinckley Punk, she had already started to "list nine dark creatures living in the UK and how to resist them." Anthony stood behind her and watched for a while - he deliberately studied her spelling of "funny funny" to confirm that it was the same as he remembered. The answers of others almost made him suspect that he had made a mistake. It was not until Anne turned around and glanced at him in dissatisfaction that he continued to walk forward.

The hall was filled with the rustling sound of quills scratching on parchment. Light shone in from the tall windows, dividing the tables in the staff seats into warm light brown and dark brown in the shadows. A student sitting in the sun scratched his sunburned neck irritably and pulled his wizard robe up to block the bright light.

"There is still an hour before the end of the exam." Professor Tofty said.

There was a sound of flipping papers. Everyone was checking how many questions they still had to complete. After that, the rustling of quills became noticeably more rapid.

Anthony returned to the staff seats, found a chair by the side, and sat down. Professor Tofty looked at him scrutinizingly over the top of his pince-nez and turned his head away. Anthony had a strange feeling: the old wizard was still looking at him.

But this was impossible, because now it was Professor Tofty's turn to step down from the staff chair and walk up and down among the seats. Anthony could see the other person holding his hands behind his back and looking down at a student's inkwell. The student was so nervous that he was stiff, but he still found a clever gap between Professor TOEFL's nose and the mouth of the ink bottle, put his quill in, and quickly dipped it in.

Professor Tofty nodded encouragingly, turned around, and left.

The two-hour exam ended quickly. Professor Tofty used a very precise flying spell to take away all the parchment, and left the school without saying more to Anthony.

Although he didn't like to admit it, Anthony had to say he was relieved.

Several students who were already familiar with him stayed in the auditorium and wanted to ask how they were doing. They all saw Anthony wandering around, studying their answers. Anthony had some difficulty in driving them away.

The auditorium finally became empty again.

"It's almost lunch time." Anthony said to the tables as Professor Sprout instructed.

With a snap, a dozen house elves suddenly appeared in the hallway. They bowed to him jubilantly and immediately got to work happily.

The tables and chairs rose precariously into the air and suddenly turned into hundreds of candles. The ink spots and footprints on the ground were swept away as if blown by the strong wind. The magic that showed the weather outside reappeared on the ceiling, and the long tables corresponding to the four colleges suddenly appeared in their usual positions. Immediately afterwards, the benches fell from the sky and smashed next to the long tables. Under the command of magic, Quickly corrected. As the elf raised his arms, countless dinner plates appeared on the long table.

"Careful, Professor Anthony!" warned a house elf.

Anthony stood still, watching the rows of silver knives and silver forks swimming around him like fish, clattering to the side of the dinner plate, glittering in the sun.

"It's amazing." He exclaimed.

But the elves are not done yet. They adjusted the magic on the ceiling so that the simulated sunlight would only shine warmly on the tables and chairs, without making people uncomfortable. Meanwhile, they placed tubs of cheese salad at every table a few seats away as a summer appetizer and quickly wiped down all the benches with water to give them a beautiful shine in the sun.

Just then, someone knocked on the auditorium door.

"Not ready yet!" Anthony shouted toward the door. The house elves quickened their movements. The napkins were flying around in the air in a dizzying manner.

The knocking on the door became more urgent, louder, and more unwelcome. Anthony walked to the door worriedly and unlocked the door. The house-elf completed their arrangements with impressive speed, bowed to him again, and hurriedly disappeared.

Bang! The door was knocked open.

Anthony was startled and took half a step back. A wand was pointed straight at his nose.

"How-" He was halfway through his words when he saw three people standing outside the door. The owner of the wand was a terrifying wizard with gray hair, scars on his face, a crooked mouth, and his nose seemed to have been gouged out. But the most terrifying thing is his eyes: one of his eyes is very small, staring at Anthony sternly, while the bright blue eye on the other side is very large, turning around crazily in its sockets, scanning the surroundings. environment.

"Good afternoon, Professor Henry Anthony," the wizard said gruffly, "It looks like you won't be able to have lunch for the time being."

Anthony looked behind him and realized that behind him was Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour met his gaze with a straight face and coughed twice in embarrassment. Anthony turned his eyes and found that the other person looked familiar, but he couldn't remember who he was for the time being.

"What happened?" Anthony asked, looking at Scrimgeour.

At the same time, the man whose name Anthony could not recall said: "Well, Alastor, put your wand down for a moment. We both know it will do no good."

The wizard who pointed his wand at Anthony turned his head in annoyance and looked at his companion. His blue eye was still fixed on Anthony.

"Come with me, Professor Anthony," Scrimgeour said firmly. "We'll find an empty classroom. You've been charged with possession of an unregistered item of the Dark Arts - and theft."