It wasn't just the first-years whose essays had been sent back by their professors. Large numbers of essays from the second-years and above had been returned too.
The reason was actually simple: the professors had seen Tris's essay.
In terms of originality, Tris's essay certainly had none. In terms of insight, it had none either. But its structure and formatting alone were fifty years ahead of the entire wizarding world.
Essays in the wizarding world had always prioritized substance over presentation-mainly because there weren't many wizards capable of writing academic papers worldwide, so no one had much need or motivation to develop their writing techniques.
That lack of need and motivation was a fact, but once someone actually came up with something better, its merits were obvious at a glance.
Of Hogwarts's current professors, apart from the two unusual cases of Quirrell and Binns, every last one was a leading expert in their field.
Their minds and judgment were second to none.
When Tris handed in his essay, they saw it immediately. Academic value? None! Absolutely none! Reading it a second time would have been a waste of time. But in terms of advances in formatting and writing technique, it was groundbreaking.
That was only natural. Academic papers in the nonmagical world had evolved to the point where even among graduate students, only one-in-a-hundred talents could produce anything original with genuine research value. More than eighty percent of papers were pure filler.
So how could you make your filler paper look like the real thing? All you could do was work on its formatting and prose.
They were the very definition of carving flowers into a turd.
Tris had carefully studied that art of turd-carving in his previous life. Though he couldn't compare with the slick operators who padded out review articles for SCI-indexed journals, he still utterly outclassed the wizarding world.
Truly outstanding people were always very good at learning and improving themselves. The Hogwarts professors, led by McGonagall, were all top experts, and naturally excelled in that respect too.
And once they had improved themselves, they found their students' dismal standards rather hard to stomach.
So they sent the essays back en masse.
Hundreds of students across seven years groaned in misery. Little did they know that the whole thing had started with a first-year newcomer.
And over the following months, the wizarding world would experience quite a shock as well.
The papers published by the Hogwarts faculty in those months left the prose and formatting of wizards at other prestigious schools and research institutions in the dust, sparking widespread discussion. But that was a story for later.
For now, on the second weekend of the Hogwarts term, almost every student was buried in a desperate battle with homework.
After suffering through the first week, the first-years had already learned that homework needed to be done ahead of time. They shouldn't have still been having such a miserable time.
But then last week's homework had been sent back.
Their workload had practically doubled. All they could do was sit miserably in their dormitories, common rooms, classrooms, and the library, frantically doing homework, homework, and still more homework.
Only the very few who regularly worked on improving themselves, maintained consistently good grades, or actually had a little substance in their essays were spared.
Fewer than one in ten students fit that description.
Harry, Ron, and the others were relatively fortunate. They had listened to Tris's essay-writing tips at the time, and afterward, Hermione had organized them to corner him for a little more advice.
Tris hadn't held anything back, teaching them some of the basic essay-writing techniques his university professors had taught him in his previous life.
Those should have been more than enough to handle their homework.
Tris didn't have that much homework himself. He had completed most of this week's assignments ahead of time and finished nearly all the rest on Friday afternoon.
He had originally planned to study the Star Meditation Method on Saturday. He had only given it a brief try before, and it had felt as though just a few minutes had passed, yet when he opened his eyes, several hours had gone by.
That discrepancy made Tris reluctant to try again rashly.
He remembered how things worked in cultivation stories, where cultivators routinely trained for hundreds or thousands of years, as though time had silently slipped away between closing their eyes and opening them again.
That was very similar to how meditation had felt to him.
Time flowed differently inside and outside.
If he accidentally entered the deep meditation described in the method, might he think only a few minutes had passed when it had actually been a day, or even several days? It would be rather embarrassing if he ended up being sent to St. Mungo's.
So he had spent the past week studying it carefully and conducting a few small trials.
Only after making sure he wouldn't remain trapped in meditation for too long had he planned to set aside an uninterrupted stretch on Saturday to try again. Of course, he would have to finish his daily tasks first.
Unfortunately, once his morning training ended, Harry and Ron caught him and insisted that he help them with their essays. With no choice, he followed them to the library.
Ron even said it was all his fault and he had to make amends, and so on.
Studying the meditation method was important, but there was no immediate hurry. Besides, he really did have one daily competition left to complete, so he went along with the two of them after a token protest.
This afternoon. This afternoon would work too.
While scorning himself for putting things off yet again, Tris followed them to the library.
Things didn't go quite as expected. The three of them had barely sat down when Professor McGonagall appeared in the library. "Mr. Potter, come with me. Someone would like to see you."
"Ah..." Harry looked a little panicked.
He had just been saying that he wanted Tris to let him copy this week's essay outright-even though Tris had already explained how to write essays to everyone, finding the data yourself was still rather different from copying something ready-made.
Professor McGonagall had appeared right in the middle of their bargaining, and Harry was terrified that she had heard what he'd just said.
Fortunately, Professor McGonagall's expression was calm. She didn't seem to have heard their earlier conversation.
"Am... am I going alone?" Harry asked tentatively, looking into Professor McGonagall's calm eyes.
"Our guest only said he wanted to see you, but..." She glanced at Ron, who looked eager to go. "If your friends come along, I don't think he'll mind."
He?
Harry noticed Professor McGonagall's choice of words, but couldn't think who might have come to see him.
Hearing that, Ron immediately stood up and tugged at Tris. "Come on, Tris. Let's all go together."
"I think I'll sit this one out." Tris already had an inkling of who the visitor was.
It was most likely Sirius.
Although Sirius was one of his favorite characters in the story, he didn't feel any particular need to meet him right now. There would be plenty of chances later.
Right now, he still wanted to shake off Harry and Ron, find some idiot to complete today's competition, and then go practice his meditation method.
But Ron saw straight through him.
Though he was usually reluctant to use his brain, whenever he really needed it, Ron's mind worked remarkably well.
"Hmph, Tris, don't think you're getting away on your own. Harry, grab him!" As he spoke, he hooked one of Tris's arms.
Harry understood at once and immediately hooked Tris's other arm.
Even if Tris wouldn't show them his essay outright, a few suggestions about where to look for information would still greatly reduce their workload.
There was no way they were letting him escape!
"Uh... Professor..." Tris looked at Professor McGonagall, rather speechless.
"Come along. It's quite all right." Professor McGonagall's tone remained calm, with no particular change simply because she was speaking to Tris. Nor did she seem to think there was anything wrong with two Gryffindors and a Slytherin being such good friends.
Watching her, Tris couldn't help feeling impressed. As deputy headmistress, Professor McGonagall really did take a broader view of things than Snape.
With no hope of escape, Tris could only follow Harry and Ron out of the library.
Tris had originally assumed they would be going to Professor McGonagall's office or the Headmaster's Office. Instead, Professor McGonagall led them out of the castle.
"Professor, where are we going?" Curiosity was natural to every child, and Gryffindors were particularly well endowed with it. As soon as Ron realized they were heading out of the castle, he couldn't resist asking.
"Hogsmeade," Professor McGonagall said calmly.
"Hogsmeade!" Ron's and Harry's eyes lit up at the same time.
They had heard the name Hogsmeade long ago. Harry had only picked up secondhand information from Ron over the past month, but Ron had long since had his ears filled with stories from Bill, Charlie, and the Twins.
As for the fact that visits to Hogsmeade were only permitted from the third year onward, and the Twins had only just started their third year, that wasn't important.
Honeydukes, The Three Broomsticks, Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, Madam Snellin's Tress Shop-all sorts of places young wizards dreamed of visiting, along with Britain's only Zonko's Joke Shop!
Ron had been longing to go for ages, and his stories had made Harry yearn for it too.
But the rules meant they couldn't go until their third year, and there was nothing to be done about that. They had never expected to get a chance to visit now.
Tris, however, thought of something else.
Come to think of it, the Twins should already have the Marauder's Map by now, shouldn't they? As a good little brother who helped improve the family's finances, surely it was perfectly reasonable to ask his older brothers for a small reward?
In any case, he was sure the Twins had already memorized the locations of all the Hogwarts passageways.
It was a fair walk from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade. But Harry and Ron were so excited that neither felt tired. As for Tris, with his physique, that went without saying.
Once they reached Hogsmeade, Harry and Ron hardly knew where to look.
Unlike Diagon Alley's gloomy, antiquated appearance, Hogsmeade's shopfronts were much more ornate and attractive. Naturally, they held far greater appeal for children.
However, since it wasn't yet a Hogwarts visiting day, the village seemed a little quiet.
"Oh, Professor McGonagall? What brings you here?" A woman's slightly surprised voice came from the entrance of a shop with a multicolored door.
Tris glanced over. It was The Three Broomsticks. The pub was quite famous at Hogwarts, with its Butterbeer and mead enjoying an excellent reputation. There was also the fact that its landlady was very pretty.
Tris glanced at the witch greeting Professor McGonagall in the doorway. Judging by her face alone, people would have believed she was in her twenties. Her eyes, however, held more depth than those of an ordinary young woman, and her figure was shapely, her charm alluring.
She must have been the famously beautiful landlady, Madam Rosmerta.
Mm. She certainly had the goods.
Just as Tris was reflecting that the young wizards had good taste, he heard a faint gulp beside him. Glancing over, he saw Ron staring at Madam Rosmerta with shining eyes, and... was he blushing?