Umbridge stepped down from the chief examiner's platform, her pink low-heeled shoes clicking against the stone floor. Click. Click. Click.
She walked slowly down the aisle.
Her gaze did not fall on the exam papers.
She was looking at other things.
Harry Potter's posture.
His back was not straight enough.
She made a note in her notebook.
Ron Weasley's robes.
The button at his collar was undone.
She made another note.
Neville Longbottom's desktop.
His ink bottle was on the left rather than the right.
She hesitated, then noted it down anyway.
These were the rules that mattered.
Whether their posture was proper, their clothes were tidy, and their belongings were arranged according to regulations.
These were the things an educator should concern herself with.
As for what was written on the exam papers-
That was the professors' business.
She did not need to worry about it.
But if she had lowered her head and glanced at an exam paper, what would she have seen?
Fifth-year examination paper.
Part one. Multiple-choice questions.
Question three.
"When facing a Dark Wizard's purple flame curse, given that the curse's magic penetration coefficient is 7.3 and the magic attenuation constant of standard stone cover is 0.85/inch.
Question: what is the minimum thickness of cover required to ensure that the curse's residual energy falls below the safety threshold?"
A. Six inches
B. Eight inches
C. Eleven inches
D. Fourteen inches
Hermione's quill did not pause.
She circled C.
Then she wrote a line in tiny script in the blank space beside it-"ln(7.3/0.5)/0.85 ≈ 3.16/0.085 ≈ ... round up, eleven inches."
She did not even think there was anything unusual about the question.
It was just mathematics.
Ron sat three rows behind her.
He stared at the same question, his lips moving silently.
"Penetration coefficient... attenuation