Suddenly Becoming Fourth-Year Students

A positive direction? Hearing Dumbledore say this, Sean felt slightly relieved, and he also had some personal guesses.

"Everyone has felt the passage of this year, and I regret to inform you that this matter is settled, and time cannot Rewind— " After saying this, Dumbledore let the students make a fuss for a while before continuing, "I just mentioned a positive direction, please give me a moment to explain it to you."

"The principles and reasons for the disappearance of time cannot be explored, but what we do know is that everyone's memory remains unchanged, but everyone's physical age has increased by one year. And you have also discovered that both the physical changes and the changes in magic are in line with the normal situation of each of you—this is what I mean by a positive direction."

Dumbledore's narration gradually calmed the Great Hall.

"Before that, I need to clarify something about time-related accidents. As far as I know, Time Incident are often accompanied by irreversible disasters."

Dumbledore's tone gradually became serious.

"I once learned of a serious Time Incident, the details of which I cannot disclose. But that incident directly resulted in the disappearance of dozens of people who should have existed in this world. Yes, when everything seemed to return to normal, those people vanished completely from this world, as if they had never been here."

"Time is a mysterious and terrifying concept. Even Merlin cannot control time. This Time Incident caused everyone's time to disappear by a year. I am very sorry, but thankfully, only time disappeared."

Dumbledore held one hand out in mid-air for a moment, then pointed to someone.

That was Harry with much longer hair, looking like he had a messy bird's nest on his head.

"Harry, can I ask you a question?"

"Me?" Harry pointed to himself, looking both confused and worried.

Dumbledore smiled gently and reassured her, "Please don't worry, it's a very simple problem— Harry, do you feel your vision is blurry right now?"

"Blurry?" Harry blinked, trying to take off his round-framed glasses.

"No, no, no, wearing glasses is fine."

Harry and his companion exchanged glances, looked around, and then shook his head. "It's not blurry, Professor. Although I'm nearsighted, things don't look blurry when I wear my glasses."

Everyone looked puzzled, wondering why Dumbledore would ask such a question.

Sean immediately realized what was happening.

If the vision isn't blurry, it means Harry's eyesight hasn't deteriorated. In normal life, given Harry's lifestyle, his vision would inevitably decline—he got new glasses when he graduated from his first year of school.

Sure enough, Dumbledore smiled and said, "The other students, if you have any of these conditions such as nearsightedness, weakness, or chronic illness, you can check them yourselves."

Upon hearing this, many students began to examine themselves, and soon some expressed their surprise.

"Oh, speaking of which, I got burned because I made a mistake while brewing Potions, but it's completely healed now."

"Like Harry, my eyesight hasn't gotten worse."

"That's true. I exercised before going to sleep, and even though I was very tired, I didn't have any muscle soreness when I woke up..."

Some girls even exclaimed in surprise, "My pimples are gone!"

Dumbledore gestured for everyone to be quiet, then continued, "This is what I mean by a positive trend. Although your bodily functions are growing according to the lost year, your hidden ailment will not worsen over time, and may even show signs of healing."

Sean raised his hand.

"Sean, please speak."

Sean withdrew his hand, frowning as he asked, "Professor, I understand what you mean, but what about more serious illnesses? Whether it's a wizard or Muggle, some illnesses cannot be repaired by the human body and can only be sustained by medical equipment or spells Potions. In such cases, wouldn't the lost year worsen the illness, or even directly lead to... death?"

Dumbledore's expression was somewhat somber. He shook his head and said, "I cannot give you the exact answer, but the general direction is definitely conscience. If someone loses their life at the moment the world returns to normal, in my personal understanding, it is because the world and time together made a prediction about them."

The word "prediction" leaves many people scratching their heads.

"Yes, predictions. For example, you, Sean, the world predicted your reasonable growth over the course of a year, and you should have noticed it yourself. As for those lives suffering from serious illnesses or in worse conditions, the world and time have also made predictions. If they believe that even with treatment, your life wouldn't last a year, then I think..."

Dumbledore didn't speak, but everyone understood what he meant.

The atmosphere became slightly oppressive. After all, the students were young people, and positive growth was within their acceptable range, even though everyone had lost a year.

But for a certain group of people, they suddenly lost the last moments of their lives.

For the first time, the Great Hall fell completely silent.

A moment later, someone broke the silence.

It was Cedric, Hufflepuff's bright student, who looked even taller and more handsome, with an undeniable personal charm in his eyes and brows.

"Professor, I'd like to know, is it possible for a similar accident to happen again?"

Dumbledore adjusted his glasses. "I'm sorry, Mr. Diggory, I can't give you or anyone else a definitive answer. But in my personal speculation, a similar situation is likely to occur again, but this time it won't be a terrifying time span like a year. Instead, it will be similar to what has happened before, perhaps disappearing for ten or twenty hours, and the frequency shouldn't be too high."

After Cedric, Hermione, who was next to Sean, also raised her hand.

"Excuse me, Miss Granger."

Hermione asked with a hint of worry, "Professor, will we continue with our current grade level, or will everyone skip a grade?"

"Good question, Miss Granger." Dumbledore clapped his hands, and a stack of parchment flew over. "This news may not be pleasant for everyone, but I must make it clear to you."

Under his spell, the parchments flew toward the Prefect of each college and the Head Girl/Boy.

"Before coming here, I discussed it with all the professors, and we all agreed that in order to mitigate the impact of this lost year—and let's not forget, this impact will affect the whole world."

"Going forward, first-year students will continue with their first-year curriculum, but you are now officially second-year students. At the same time, your curriculum will include content that is only taught in the second year."

"Second-year students will directly enter the third year. You will be studying the second and third-year courses simultaneously. And, I regret to inform you, the next six months will be very demanding, and the final exam will be a combination of second and third-year content."

"The same applies to third-year students, and for those who were originally fourth-year students, now fifth-year students, the OWL exams that you originally thought would arrive in a year and a half will arrive in just six months—"

The fourth-grade students—no, they're fifth graders now—all let out a collective wail.

Dumbledore continued, "Of course, we will devise a special OWL exam based on your learning progress over the past six months, but as before, your learning tasks will be doubled."

"As for the fifth-grade students who were originally scheduled to take the exam, you are now sixth-grade students, and your OWL exam will be conducted together with the fifth-grade students—"

Before Dumbledore could finish speaking, the students breathed a sigh of relief and looked at their juniors with schadenfreude.

However, Dumbledore's next words froze their expressions.

"But your exams will be more difficult than those of previous years, and also more difficult than those of the newly promoted fifth graders. In addition, you will be directly promoted to seventh grade next year and will be studying the curriculum of sixth and seventh grade at the same time. It will be very challenging, and I hope you will study hard."

"As for the sixth-grade students, we believe that you still need a long time to study to become an excellent wizard, so you will continue with the sixth-grade curriculum, but I will consider increasing your coursework and exam content."

"Seventh graders will continue as usual, but the NEWT exam at the end of the term may be more difficult, so please don't let your guard down."

When the notice came out, apart from the seventh-grade students who breathed a sigh of relief, most of the other students looked bitter. This meant that they would have to undergo high-intensity study for at least the next year and a half.

Sean, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind. He had already self-studied Transfiguration up to the fifth year level, and his practical skills were even stronger than those of graduates. In other subjects, besides Potions and Ancient Runes, he had also learned a lot of the later material ahead of time.

Hermione, standing beside him, looked annoyed and muttered under her breath, "I've lost a whole year of reading time... I've lost a year of school time..."

Once the wails and sighs had subsided somewhat, Dumbledore continued.

"Of course, the positions of Prefect and male president of the student council will remain unchanged. We will consider selecting a group of trainee Prefect from the new fifth-year students, who will directly assume the position of Prefect when the next school year begins."

"In addition, this accident is both regrettable and lamentable, but I hope everyone can focus on their studies. There are also reasons why the professors and I designed this course."

Dumbledore stepped forward. "I believe many of you have already felt it; your magic has increased. If anyone has tried it, you will find that your Spell Proficiency is also higher. In this case, if you continue with the original course, I think it would be too easy. I hope to see more of your growth."

At this point, Dumbledore waved his hand. "The detailed form has been given to all the Prefect. Please be responsible for passing it on."

Then, Dumbledore hurriedly left the Great Hall.

"Professor Dumbledore looks very anxious?" Ron whispered to Sean.

"Don't be silly, buddy. We're just a school and it's already in such a mess. I can't even imagine what's going on outside. A great wizard like Professor Dumbledore must have a lot of things that need his help to handle." Harry nudged his best friend.

Sean agreed with Harry's point that there must be more troublesome things that Dumbledore needed to deal with after such an accident.

Remembering Dumbledore's mention of the increase in proficiency, Sean opened his system panel, which was a "reopening" after "a year".

Name: Sean Wallerup (Muggle Family background, pedigree unknown)

Magical Items: Hand of Glory (Purple), No-Wash Wool Socks (Special), Self-Securing Collar Pin (Special), High-Precision Sneakoscope (Purple), Ancient One's Sigh (Gold) (Cooldown Complete), Hermione Granger's Echo (Gold) (Cooldown Complete), Black Sleeper (Gold) (Cooldown Complete), Sybill Trelawney's Card (Gold)...

Upon seeing this, Sean took a deep breath, feeling a pang of sympathy.

If I had known that it would disappear in a year, and used the Ancient One's Sigh, wouldn't it have cooled down by now?

It's important to know that Sean's current progress in Ancient Runes is entirely supported by the Ancient One's Sigh, which has a one-month cooldown.

Charms Talent: 8 (You have already found the right path to becoming a powerful wizard)

Transfiguration Talent: 10 (Everything in the world can be transformed; you will become an unprecedented master of Transfiguration!)

Potions Talent: 2 (When Brewing Potions, your primary goal is singular: to survive)

Magical Creature Affinity: 10+1 (A born druid—don't you really want to consider opening a zoo?)

Ancient Runes Talent: 2 (Fortunately, your IQ is high enough to be interviewed by a reporter who's here to see why you're so stupid.)

Dark Arts Talent: 10 (Ha! If you weren't surrounded by a hundred Dementor in Azkaban, the entire Ministry of Magic should resign!)

The talents and inventory remained unchanged, but the Spell Proficiency below surprised Sean, who widened his eyes in delight.

Not long after the start of the semester, he had already reached level two proficiency in most spells, which meant he Silent Casting. In the past six months, Sean had not stopped practicing and had also gained a lot of practical experience. Just over a year and two days ago, he even fought the Selma Lake Monster.

In such a high-intensity environment, Sean's Spell Proficiency increased rapidly.

What he didn't expect was that the year he disappeared seemed to have continued the growth rate of his Spell Proficiency in the high-intensity environment. The progress bar of the second level proficiency, which had only increased a little bit, suddenly increased to more than half, and was about 60% or 70%.

This made Sean very happy.

But that's not all.

There was an error with the timing information earlier, I apologize, it was due to my oversight. Thank you to the readers for pointing it out, it has now been corrected. Please continue to point out any errors in the future, thank you.