Key Points

As if to celebrate the approaching Christmas, the weather around Hogwarts suddenly cleared, and the sky even took on a dazzling eggshell white.

When they woke in the morning, the trees and flower beds in the courtyard were coated in a gleaming layer of frost. The professors began decorating their classrooms with the magic they excelled at, and the castle was filled with the atmosphere of Christmas, giving people the illusion that they had wandered into a fairy-tale world.

The shadow Sirius Black and the Dementors had once cast over Hogwarts School had become a thing of the past.

The students happily discussed their holiday plans, while notices about trips to Hogsmeade Village quietly appeared on the noticeboards in the Common Room.

However, not everything went as one wished.

At a Transfiguration Club gathering, Albert learned from chatting with Cedric that, for some reason, he had failed to ask Cho Chang out and had been depressed over it for quite some time.

"Since she wasn't free this time, try next time, or the time after that, unless..." Albert thought that since Cho Chang had arranged to go to Hogsmeade with her friends, Cedric could simply ask her another time.

Still, judging by the defeated look on Cedric's face, he had probably been politely turned down.

"You really can't rush these things," Cedric muttered, then changed the subject and invited Albert to the library to study the previous year's exam papers they had borrowed. He seemed intent on throwing himself completely into the upcoming O.W.L.s.

"Another day. I've been rather busy lately," Albert declined tactfully.

Albert had long had a good grasp of the O.W.L.s. By comparing the key points Isabelle had obtained for him with the points he had noted down in class, he had formed a clear estimate of