"There were Muggles present!" Michael shrank back a little. "Now that you've analyzed it like that, why do I feel like today's 'integrated practical exam' is going to be incredibly difficult too?"
"It was like yesterday's exam—they conjured up a battlefield out of nowhere, and it was even a battlefield from a Muggle World war. The shells and things were fake and couldn't hurt us, but the commotion was really terrifying!"
Chris nodded in agreement. "It felt like those Muggles were torturing us and trying to scare us..."
"I don't think... it'll be that bad," Hermione said. "Maybe those Muggles were simply using their own methods to observe what magic really is."
"It's difficult for them to understand what magic is, so they can only observe it through visible things like Transfiguration."
"That does seem to make some sense." Chris nodded reluctantly, but another question arose. "But what can they observe by having us use Transfiguration to create a gear?"
"Maybe they're using it to..." Hermione looked troubled, furrowing her brow as she thought hard. "See how precise our Transfiguration is... whether it can match their lathes?"
"Lathes?" Chris raised his eyebrows, his tone turning peculiar. "Are they just thinking... that we could become workers who manufacture parts? Is that what you mean?"
"That's not what I mean at all!" Hermione hurriedly shook her head and tried to explain. "It's just that Muggles don't understand magic, so that's the only sort of question they can come up with."
"Could those Muggles simply be ignorant?" Terry cut in. "Like during Easter a while ago—the Muggles gave off that same feeling. Ignorant and stubborn."
"Probably not..." Hermione's voice had lost much of its earlier confidence and grown noticeably weaker. "I feel like these Muggles... are different from those Muggles who are politicians."