No matter how lively Halloween had been.
No matter how much the entire wizarding world had buzzed.
Hogwarts never stopped moving forward.
A new month, a new day.
The monthly exams delayed by Halloween.
Had arrived all the same.
When the students rubbed their eyes and entered the Great Hall for breakfast, something had appeared on all four walls.
Enormous sheets of parchment.
Each was half a door high, nailed to the stone walls with iron nails.
Numbers were written on them.
Red numbers.
The ink was dark, with a wet sheen, as though it had just flowed out of something alive.
"7."
Holding a cup of soy milk, Ron tilted his head back to look at the parchment.
"Seven days."
"The monthly exams."
Hermione sat across from him, with three booklets, two rolls of notes, and a quill spread out before her.
She did not even look up.
"Six days and seventeen hours, if you count from now."
Harry looked at the parchment on the left wall, then at the one on the right.
"Who put those up?"
"Who else? The Academic Affairs Office Deputy Director, naturally."
Ron jabbed his fried egg with his fork.
The yolk broke, spilling across his plate.
He stared at that puddle of yellow liquid, feeling that its texture bore an indescribable resemblance to the red number on the wall.
Both were running.
"I honestly don't understand. She's a traditional senior Ministry official. Why does she agree so completely with the professor's approach to teaching?"
"And she's taken it even further. The professor never used to plaster these slogans all over the castle. They're making me feel like I have to take my O.W.L.s too."
Ginny ate a soup dumpling and joined in the complaints.
Because the Great Hall's monthly exam countdown was not