The Difference in Academic Ability

Once the new students had gradually grown accustomed to the castle's ever-changing staircases, Wade's life at Hogwarts also settled into a certain routine.

The first-years' timetable was remarkably light. On some days, they had only one class, and never more than three. The rest of their time was theirs to arrange as they pleased. When Wade saw that schedule, he had once been deeply puzzled—why were those students who complained all day about professors assigning too much homework unable to finish a mere few inches of parchment on time?

In his previous life, Wade had been required to write at least three hundred Chinese characters for compositions before he was even ten. And that had been Chinese, known as a "compressed language pack." If converted into English, he could easily stretch that into a thousand words. After the systematic training of high school, university, and graduate school, even producing ten thousand words in two days was not beyond him.

It was only after studying with Michael, Hermione, and the others for a while that Wade understood the reason.

Among the first-years, aside from Wade, Hermione found writing essays the easiest. At the very least, she did not make basic grammatical mistakes, rarely encountered words she could not spell, and could quickly grasp the key points in the text before restating them in a clear and organized manner.

The other three found all of that difficult, even Michael from Ravenclaw.

Because they had all come from wizarding families.

Wizards lived almost completely isolated from ordinary people—even when one spouse was Muggle-born. Most wizarding families lived apart from society. Not only did they never take the initiative to interact with Muggles, but they also placed Muggle-Repelling Charms around their homes to prevent Muggles from accidentally intruding on their lives. As a result, wizards did not understand Muggle clothing or Muggle Technological Development, much less send their underage children to Muggle schools. In their eyes, that was no different from humans sending their children to be taught by Monkeys living in trees.

Britain had only one Magic School, Hogwarts. There were no "magic primary schools" or "magic universities." In the Wizarding World, children under eleven were generally educated at home. If their parents had time, they would teach them to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. But with irresponsible parents, a child might not even know how to spell "quill."

Michael and the others had generally begun learning from their parents at the age of five or six, so they had no major problems with reading and writing. But literacy and Academic Ability were two different things. Compared with the systematic education of Muggle schools, wizarding home education lacked many things. For example, when wizarding parents taught their children to read, they did not deliberately cultivate logical reasoning or the ability to summarize and generalize. Wade suspected that many wizards might not even have such concepts, considering how disdainful they had always been of Muggle theories.

Moreover, Young Wizards, including Hermione, generally lacked the ability to quickly extract and understand the key points of a passage. For instance, the most a Young Wizard could understand was, "Object A and B have the same temperature, and B and C have the same temperature, so A and C also have the same temperature." But their reference book said, "If each of two thermodynamic systems is in thermal equilibrium with a third thermodynamic system, then they must also be in thermal equilibrium with each other. That is: if it can be established that the physical properties of two systems will not change when they are able to exchange heat, then even if the two systems are not permitted to exchange heat, they can still be considered mutually in equilibrium."

Young Wizards: ...?

A string of letters slid smoothly through their minds without leaving the slightest trace.

Hermione could rely on her powerful memory to memorize everything by rote, then slowly understand it by comparing different materials. But most Young Wizards could only copy down a pile of notes they did not understand, scratch their heads as they cobbled together an assignment, and hope the professors would be lenient enough to give them an A—Acceptable.

On top of that, eleven-year-old children had to leave their parents behind to attend boarding school, while the professors' supervision was hardly strict. Even Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, both known for their severity, would not care whether Young Wizards with no classes were sleeping in at the Dormitory or playing games in the Common Room. Such a relaxed environment was naturally a tremendous test of a minor's self-discipline. Laziness and play were human nature, but studying was not. Only a very small number of people found learning enjoyable.

Like Hermione.

Like Wade.

In just half a month, the two had already stood out among the first-years. The difference was that Hermione held herself to strict standards and held others to them as well, firmly refusing to tolerate copying homework or breaking school rules. Wade, on the other hand, never minded others copying his work. When he buried himself in study in the Practice Room or practiced spells over and over, he never forced anyone else to work as hard as he did.

Wade understood very well the laziness teenagers showed toward studying. He had been like that in his previous life too. He worked harder than anyone else in this life not because he loved studying, but because he loved magic. To him, magic was not an innate ability to be taken for granted, so he cherished this opportunity more than anyone else in the school.

After practicing until nearly curfew once again, Wade hurried back to Ravenclaw Tower. At that hour, the corridors outside were completely silent, as if everyone had already fallen asleep. But the moment he entered the Common Room, he felt it was still far too early.

Hogwarts had a curfew, but no lights-out time. If students wished, they could stay in the brightly lit Common Room all night. At that moment, Ravenclaw's Common Room held many students from every year—couples in the throes of romance sat on sofas in the corners whispering sweet nothings, bored Young Wizards played Wizard's Chess at round tea tables, and older students hurried through their homework with flying quills.

Though there were many people, it did not seem noisy. Ravenclaws consciously lowered their voices when they spoke.

Seven or eight people had gathered around the sofa by the fireplace, and the girls' soft giggles drifted over from time to time. Wade glanced that way, then found a secluded corner without much interest and sat down, reading while taking notes.

When Michael saw this, he said a few smiling words to the girl beside him, then walked over and sat down next to Wade.

"Studying this late again?" Michael leaned against the table and said, "Wade, we haven't even been enrolled for a month, and you've nearly finished all the first-year material. What are you going to do with the rest of your time? Not that I'm trying to lecture you, but you're working a little too hard. Sometimes, you should relax. Wade, brother, do you know how many girls want to get to know you?"

He raised his eyebrows toward the fireplace, drawing another burst of light laughter from the girls.

Wade paused his quill. Grey Eyes looked steadily at Michael as he asked, "I don't know. But Michael—do you know how long we can stay at Hogwarts?"