They seemed to have underestimated the Snow Monster's abilities.
They had thought the Snow Monster could only dodge.
After three students were hit by the snow gun in the knight's hands and froze on the spot for a full minute.
And after the boar rampaged through the crowd.
The students began scrambling to dodge the Snow Monster's attacks.
If they had not been so slick at Serpentine Speed Skating, they would very likely have been sent flying or rooted to the spot.
Soon, some students discovered that the Snow Monster slowed down wherever there was no snow, and even its attacks became weaker.
"Clear the snow! Clear the snow first!"
Amid the repeated shouts, all sorts of clearing spells were cast, leaving a large stretch of open ground in front of the Castle.
Douglas stood on the Great Hall steps and stopped Mr. Filch, who was about to go over and scold them.
"Heh, letting them clear away all that snow while having fun saves you a lot of work, doesn't it?"
Mr. Filch looked at the cleared ground and thought about how long it would normally have taken him to sweep it clean. They had cleared it so quickly that he could not help feeling envious.
He thought about how long he had been taking the Quick-Spell Correspondence Course without showing the slightest sign of being able to use magic, and felt deeply upset.
If he had not seen Squibs actually learn magic through the course, he would have abandoned this unrealistic idea long ago.
(The Quick-Spell Correspondence Course was an introductory correspondence course in magic produced by the Quick-Spell Company. In fact, however, this course did not work for true Squibs, because true Squibs had no magical ability whatsoever. Those whose abilities could be awakened by the course