Life-or-Death Speed Copying Homework Battle

"What right do you have to criticize me? You didn't finish either."

Faced with Ron's accusation, Seamus curled his lip, clearly unconvinced.

"These assignments are too hard—apart from the Herbology essay, I can barely understand any of the others."

Neville answered uneasily, his face flushing red.

Ron's mind raced, and he suddenly cried out again:

"It's fine, Damon must have finished! We can borrow Damon's!"

"I have to remind you, Ron, Damon has gone missing. Did you forget?"

"Oh, my God! At a time this crucial! Where on earth did he go?"

Ron let out a despairing cry.

Although they all knew Damon's homework was sitting on his desk, there was no way they could borrow it without his permission.

The four boys in the dormitory had never missed Damon this much.

After Saturday afternoon, they worked through another night and morning, only to discover there was absolutely no way they could hand in all their assignments by Sunday evening through their own efforts.

Still unwilling to give up, Ron and Harry went to Hermione, only to receive another round of humiliation. "If you'd listened to me earlier, things wouldn't have gotten this bad."

Hermione refused their request to look over her homework and left with her books in her arms.

The group of four decided to find another way and change their approach.

"Neville, where exactly did Damon go?"

As they copied Neville's Herbology assignment, they prepared to sort out and divide up the remaining work. Each person only needed to complete one subject's assignment—they used rock-paper-scissors to decide who would tackle the terrifying two-foot Transfiguration essay, and Harry lost in the end.

"I don't know. He didn't tell me."

Neville stared at the reference books for his Potions essay until his eyes went blurry.

"Fine, forget Damon. If we keep counting on him, we can forget about finishing our homework before dinner!"

Harry cried out in despair.

The four of them went all out, working through another entire afternoon without even having time for lunch—they were genuinely starting to panic.

By the time the sunlight falling across the desk had turned orange-yellow, their expressions had gradually become hopeless. The other essays were one thing, but there was absolutely no way they could finish the two-foot Transfiguration essay in time.

Was their only choice to slap something together and get criticized by Professor McGonagall? At the thought of Professor McGonagall's stern, serious face, Harry felt awful.

Because of Quidditch, he had gotten to know Professor McGonagall a little better. He truly did not want to see disappointment on her face.

Just as the group of four was falling into despair, a light voice sounded, carrying a hint of weariness. "You all look busy."

"Merlin's beard! Damon, where have you been? Save us!"

Ron shouted, looking somewhat more relieved. The reason he could not fully relax was that he was not sure whether Damon would lend them his homework.

With Ron taking the lead, the others instead became more restrained, though they all stood up and followed behind him.

"Oh, you haven't finished your homework yet?" Damon walked into the dormitory and quickly came back out. Under the four boys' gazes as though they were looking at God, he lightly tossed his essays onto the desk. "Copy selectively. Don't duplicate it word for word. I don't want the professors coming after me."

Seeing Damon lend them his homework without a second word, the four of them cheered. Without time to think any further, they began copying like mad!

Watching them scribble away furiously, Damon smiled. He suddenly remembered racing against the clock during breaks back in middle school.

Harry had never imagined that the most thrilling thing during their first week of school would happen in the hour before homework was collected. After their Life-or-Death Speed Copying Homework Battle, they finished every essay at the very last moment, and Damon even had time to help them check for omissions and mistakes.

At the dinner table, Seamus and Ron excitedly shared just how nervous they had been earlier. Neville, who had narrowly survived the ordeal, was now flushed red and gesturing wildly.

Harry was excited as well, but he was even more curious—where exactly had Damon gone these past two days?

"Mate, where exactly have you been these past two days? We really missed you."

Ron slung an arm around Damon's shoulders and directly asked the question Harry had been wondering about.

"I went somewhere quiet to practice Charms."

"Practice Charms? For two whole days? That's hilarious, mate. I never thought you'd make that kind of joke."

Ron laughed, but when he saw Damon merely eating with a calm expression, his own expression turned strange.

"Don't tell me it's true, Damon. You mean—after the holiday started, you used all your free time to practice Charms? That's too ridiculous!"

Ron's loud outburst drew everyone else's attention. In fact, he was not the only one thinking that way.

Seamus's expression was especially vivid. His mouth hung slightly open, and the muscle in his right cheek twitched and bulged faintly, as though he had seen something he could not understand.

Neville, on the other hand, looked a little envious. If only he could be as hardworking and outstanding as Damon. Perhaps then his grandmother would not constantly lecture him over his incompetence.

September passed amid Damon's day-after-day practice, monotonous yet interesting.

For the other young wizards, however, the month was a little... too exciting.

Damon White could always be the first to complete what the professors taught in Transfiguration and Charms Class. Potions Class was even more frightening: Professor Snape always focused most of his attention on Damon, and if Damon's movements were even slightly improper, he would receive a barrage of snide mockery.

Thanks to Damon, both Harry and Neville found Potions Class much easier. Damon was not a pushover, and Snape's criticisms were not always entirely correct. They often clashed, which drew even more of Snape's fire away from them.

Once, the two of them even argued over a procedural issue for half a lesson. Damon's voice remained steady and calm throughout, while Snape seemed to grow increasingly "anxious" under his questioning, the gleam in his eyes becoming brighter and brighter.

During that lesson, Snape did not even have time to mock Harry once.

In just one month, Damon's progress in Potions had been nothing short of astonishing. What Snape taught in class could no longer keep up with Damon's improvement. Whenever Snape assigned a task, Damon could immediately complete it at the fastest speed, without leaving Snape a single flaw to pick at.

"Damon, look at the salve you brewed. What are these ugly diamond-shaped patterns on it? Your terrible taste?"

Snape held Damon's newest batch of healing salve in a pair of tweezers, his expression mocking.

"Professor, do I need to remind you? These patterns make the finished salve easier to tear off. Or is your poor brain filled with nothing but rigid formulas, leaving you incapable of even the slightest innovation?"

Damon smiled as he tidied everything away, watching Snape's face turn completely black.

"For talking back to a professor, I'm taking one point from Gryffindor. Now that you've completed today's work, leave my classroom immediately!"

"As you wish, sir."

Conversations like this played out again and again before the young wizards' eyes, while the points Snape deducted would always be added back to Damon in the next lesson for one reason or another.

As the days passed, Damon White's prestige among the first-year wizards rose day by day like the swelling water of a lake at high tide.