Another practical class was held. Since the weather had turned extremely cold, Murphy moved the lesson into a classroom.
This was the largest classroom aside from the Great Hall. It seemed to have been cast with an Undetectable Extension Charm, easily accommodating several hundred students.
Recently, each research group had made some progress.
For instance, Dean Thomas's group, who were obsessed with flight, had begun preparing to make a suit of armor. They planned to place a Flight Spell similar to those on flying brooms onto the armor, allowing it to fly according to a wizard's will. Their ultimate goal was to design a set of wizarding clothes that could replace a broomstick.
Draco Malfoy's group had also made some progress, though the results left them dissatisfied.
After conducting a simple survey around the school, they discovered that the proportion of pure-blood wizards was pitifully low. Forget tracing back five generations; even those without Muggle blood for three generations were few and far between.
That was not what upset them. After all, others might not know it, but Draco Malfoy truly had no Muggle blood going back three generations. The rarity of pure-bloods only proved his own nobility.
However, after comparing the proportion of pure-blood ancestry with academic performance, they sorrowfully discovered a fact: pure-blood ancestry not only failed to make young wizards perform better, but to a certain extent, they seemed worse than wizards with Muggle blood.
They used several different statistical methods—even chewing through a textbook on basic statistical theory for the sake of it—but the results did not change.
Though they did not know why, pure-blood-born wizards seemed to be somewhat dumber than wizards with Muggle blood.
Heavens!
Draco felt as though his faith had collapsed.
For a time, they had not wanted to submit the results.