"Don't forget, Ron. We failed the mission."
"We only failed because our strategy was wrong. We did find the bird, though. We knew from the start that it lived in that meadow, and we know it'll still be there if we go back next lesson, don't we?"
"..."
"I think Hermione feels the same way. She used to take things seriously when she worked with us, but now she's just going through the motions. She picks a familiar mission, finishes it as fast as possible, ends the lesson, then spends the rest of the time reading other books."
"What are you trying to say?" Harry turned to his friend.
In the bright but artificial sunlight, he saw the shadow of worry beneath Ron's knitted brows. "I'm worried the Practical Class is going to fall apart, Harry."
While Ron was voicing his concerns to Harry-
Up in the artificial sky of the Trial Ground Small World, Vaughn and Isabella were looking down and discussing the same subject.
"-The novelty of the Practical Class is wearing off."
They stood on a terrace at the top of the small world. The sky resembled translucent blue glass, stretching out beneath the terrace and curving visibly at the edge of their vision, like a lid covering the land below, crisscrossed with lines like a chessboard. Looking at that false sky and the false clouds drifting through it, Isabella seemed exhausted. "We got all the students excited about participating by promising practical experience and actual combat," she sighed. "Unfortunately, something fake will always be fake."
"The mountains and trees here, the so-called trials, missions, monsters, battles-none of it is real. For safety, to keep anything from going wrong, every detail has to be monitored and tailored. The longer the Practical Class runs, the more it costs