Elective Courses
Easter that year fell on April 9th, exactly three Sundays away from Mothering Sunday in England.
Hogwarts began its two-week holiday on April 2nd and will not resume classes until April 16th.
Unlike Christmas, Easter is just over a month away from the final exams in June, so most young wizards won't go home for Easter. Instead, they'll stay at Hogwarts to prepare for their exams, although this "preparation" usually just involves dozing off with a book in front of them...
Typically, on the eve of Easter, the young wizards' families would send them Easter eggs from home. Hogwarts students would then exchange these eggs, adding to the festive atmosphere of the castle.
Besides exchanging Easter eggs, the second-year wizards, including Xiwen, had another task: choosing their elective courses to prepare for their upcoming third year.
Third-year students are required to take seven compulsory courses: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, and Herbology. They must also choose at least two courses from Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies.
Therefore, the workload in the third grade is heavier than that in the second grade. Not only are the courses more difficult, but at least two new subjects are added to the curriculum.
In the Great Hall, Xiwen, Abraxas, Mobley, and Gomez were sitting together studying their elective course forms.
"Which course does Xiwen want to choose?" Abu leaned closer and asked, looking at Xiwen's form.
"Yeah, yeah, which one Xiwen? I want to choose that one too!" Mobley chimed in. "That way we'll have something to do with our elective assignments."
Xiwen glanced at his two roommates who wanted to copy his homework with a dark expression, then silently turned his gaze to Gomez.
"What about Gomez? What courses do you want to take?" Xiwen asked.
"First of all, I definitely won't choose Care of Magical Creatures. I heard Professor Kettleburn almost burned down the Great Hall at Christmas," Gomez said, crossing out an X on the form.
"Actually, Professor Kettleburn is a really nice guy..." Xiwen put his hand to his forehead, thinking that although the professor was a bit carefree, he was generally enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and his Care of Magical Creatures must be very interesting.
Unfortunately, Professor Kettleburn took the blame for Riddle again, so there probably won't be many students choosing the Care of Magical Creatures this time.
Sure enough, Abu and Mobley followed suit and also ruled out the Care of Magical Creatures.
Gomez for a moment, then ruled out the Divination.
"I've heard that Divination heavily rely on talent; those without talent may not learn much from the lessons," he said.
Xiwen nodded and added, "However, this is also a course where it's easy to get credits. Professor Vablatsky, who teaches Divination, probably takes into account the course's emphasis on talent, so even wizards without talent will get at least a passing grade on exams as long as they attend class on time and submit assignments."
Upon hearing the last sentence, Abu and Mobley quickly circled the Divination on their elective course forms.
"Why make such a hasty choice? Don't you want to learn something new...?" Xiwen said, his lips twitching.
"I was thinking, what if I'm one of those one-in-a-million Divination geniuses?" Mobley said with great interest.
Abu seemed to share the same thought; his eyes were practically overflowing with confidence!
Seeing the two who refused to believe it, Xiwen shook his head helplessly and added to Gomez, "Muggle Studies can actually be ruled out. I looked at the textbook for that course, and I feel that if you want to understand Muggle society, you might as well read a few realistic novels written by Muggle."
To be fair, Xiwen's comments about the Muggle Studies were somewhat restrained. In his view, the Muggle Studies was less about studying Muggle and more about belittling Muggle, with various phrases emphasizing the huge differences between Muggle and wizards, and even touching on the Muggle threat theory.
It's no wonder Grindelwald has so many followers; many of them are likely wizards who have taken Muggle Studies...
Gomez followed Xiwen's advice and ultimately chose two elective courses Arithmancy and Ancient Runes.
Meanwhile, Abu and Mobley were still debating which of the two courses, besides Divination, would be easier to pass.
Seeing this, Xiwen rolled his eyes at the two of them and said, "Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are both subjects that require a lot of brainpower, so don't even think about slacking off."
"So tell me, is it easy to pass this Muggle Studies course?" Mobley peeked up to Xiwen and asked.
However, Abu overheard his words.
Abu shouted in disbelief, "What?! You, a Pure-blood, actually want to study Muggle?! How can you face our Pure-blood families?!"
His indignant tone drew the attention of his fellow Slytherin, and the Pure-blood wizard at the long table all looked at Mobley with ill intent.
"Okay, okay, I won't choose it anymore!" Mobley shuddered and immediately backed down.
"Why don't you choose Arithmancy instead? This course will at least improve your math skills a bit, and it'll be a good comparison with the Divination," Xiwen chuckled, waving to the onlookers and dismissing their attention.
He then said to Abu and Mobley, "As for advanced topics Ancient Runes, five years of study might not even be enough for you to build a solid foundation. So, if you don't want to put in the effort outside of class, don't choose this course."
Abu and Mobley naturally agreed, and drew a circle after the Arithmancy.
"Xiwen, how do you know so much about these draft classes?" Abu seemed a little discouraged.
He had always had a good network of connections, so he thought he was the best at gathering information among his roommates, and even among the entire grade. However, this time Xiwen was unusually well-informed about all the elective courses, which made him quite unhappy.
Xiwen smiled and said to him, "Oh, I was discussing some academic issues with Miranda a few days ago, so I just asked her about elective courses."
"Oh, I see." Abu's expression softened a bit, and he nodded. "I also want a Ravenclaw academic superstar as a friend!"
"I think the prerequisite for this is that you have to become a top student yourself first," Mobley bluntly exposed his wish.
Then, Abu and Mobley started playfully fighting.
Xiwen glanced at the two of them as if it were nothing out of the ordinary, and then circled the courses he wanted to take on the elective course form.
At this moment, Gomez seemed to suddenly think of a problem as well, and looked at Hope and asked, "Wait, how does Ravenclaw's Prefect Goshawk know the details of every elective course?"
Upon hearing Gomez's question, Abu and Mobley stopped their playful fighting and looked at Xiwen with curiosity.
"Because Miranda obtained 12 certificates from the Ordinary Wizarding Levels Examination last year!"
Xiwen looked at his elective course form and chuckled.
The table lists five elective courses, each followed by a neatly arranged circle!