Apart from Hermione, all the other students looked dejected.
Douglas had barely dismissed the class.
Harry saw several students closing in on him and Ron.
He hurriedly put on an apologetic smile, then quickly grabbed Ron and broke into a run.
When they left the classroom, they happened to run into some third-year Hufflepuffs who had already arrived at the door for the next lesson.
The third-year badgers saw the Chosen One running flat out with panic on his face.
Then they saw the dispirited Gryffindors behind him and panicked like hell.
Just how terrifying was this new professor, to leave the normally lively Gryffindors looking like that?
Still, since he was a legendary alumnus of their own house, surely he would give them some preferential treatment.
But no matter how they asked, the Gryffindor students only sighed and shook their heads.
They refused to say anything about the lesson.
This left the Hufflepuffs waiting for class feeling thoroughly uncertain.
During the break, Douglas checked the system again.
[Top Student Development System] [Student satisfaction rating for this lesson: 5 points. Student assignment completion score: 0 points. Average student progress score: 9 points. Class participation score: 9 points. ...
Seeing the class participation score, Douglas smiled knowingly. Sure enough, the system had a bug.
If he spent the whole lesson lecturing while the students sat below listening drowsily,
the class participation score would obviously be much lower.
But if he had them all take part in the lesson content and recite it aloud,
the system considered their participation in the lesson content high, and very enthusiastic.
As for why the average progress was so high, Douglas guessed that Hermione deserved the credit. She had raised the overall average.
As for the satisfaction rating, it was clearly determined by the students' emotions.
With this experience, Douglas knew how to conduct his subsequent lessons.
After the third-year Hufflepuffs had obediently settled into their seats, Douglas arrived in the classroom right on time.
The smile on Douglas's face dispelled the gloom the Gryffindor students had brought them.
He wasn't scary at all!
But when they heard that Douglas wanted them to memorize the textbook first, they were all deeply troubled.
They felt that getting Hufflepuffs to memorize an entire book was simply a pipe dream, unless it was a cookbook.
For this reason, as a Hufflepuff himself, Douglas would of course give his younger housemates some preferential treatment.
Then he casually reeled off heaps of motivational talk that cost him nothing, leaving the little badgers thoroughly taken in and dumbfounded.
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration!"
"Learning is work, work filled with thought, and work brings rewards!"
"The deciding factor in creating genius should be diligence."
Douglas's hard work did not go to waste.
After getting their fill of motivational talk, the little badgers below all felt certain that their learning would someday rival Ravenclaw's.
Compared with relying on talent and a broad range of knowledge, what Hufflepuffs feared least and liked most was this sort of learning where hard work alone brought rewards.
Douglas was very satisfied with his approach of tailoring his teaching to his students.
Of course, more importantly, he was also very satisfied with the score the system gave him at the end.
At lunchtime,
a tense, oppressive atmosphere hung over the entire Hogwarts dining hall.
According to the news coming from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor,
the new Defense Against Dark Magic teacher was simply inhuman.
In the very first lesson, he had made everyone take tests and memorize their textbooks...
Most importantly of all, they had to memorize not only during class, but after class as well.
The new professor was even deranged enough to appoint a class representative for every year in every house to supervise their classmates' after-class studies.
And he assigned even more homework than Professor McGonagall.
The second-year Gryffindors had even received an extra ten inches of homework because of Ron and Harry.
This frightened Ron so much that he no longer dared tell anyone about his and Harry's heroic feat of flying a car across the whole of England.
Meanwhile, the Hufflepuffs exchanged the inspirational sayings Douglas had shared.
Some students were even thinking of carving those inspirational maxims into their bedposts.
That way, they could see them every morning when they woke up.
Douglas had already anticipated this, so he wisely stayed away from the dining hall.
Instead, he had a house-elf deliver his lunch to his office.
The first lesson that afternoon was with the fourth-year Gryffindors.
From fourth year onward, the curriculum focused primarily on spells.
Dark Magic fell into three broad categories: jinxes, hexes, and curses.
Each category of spells had corresponding counter-jinxes and counter-curses.
If Dark Magic was the "spear," then Defense Against Dark Magic was the "shield." But to master the shield, one had to come into contact with the spear.
So the upcoming lessons would primarily teach the students to recognize what genuine Dark Magic was.
Of course, the Dark Magic mentioned here did not include illegal Dark Magic. That was not something students below sixth year should learn about.
Of course, for the first lesson, Douglas still decided to begin with a diagnostic test.
He removed the material concerning counter-jinxes and counter-curses for Dark Magic from the fifth-year test paper, making it a fourth-year test.
Since the Defense Against Dark Magic teacher changed every year,
these students had uneven foundations, and the fifth-years had too little time left.
Fourth year was just right, however. He still had time to shore up their foundations and prepare them early for their OWLs.
So, when Douglas entered the classroom carrying a pile of parchment,
the Weasley Twins let out irritating, strange cries.
The other fourth-year Gryffindors joined in with a chorus of wails.
Douglas simply stood at the lectern and watched them coldly.
"I'm glad you already know what I'm about to do.
Since class time is limited, I won't waste words.
From now on, the two Mr. Weasleys will be your class representatives. If they fail to finish their homework,
I'll be taking it up with you.
Now, start answering the questions!"
Douglas tapped his wand, and all the sheets of parchment flew in front of the students.
He paid no attention whatsoever to the twins' reaction, as they seemed to scream soundlessly with their throats caught in a grip.
Under Douglas's oddly smiling gaze, the twins
gave sheepish smiles and began answering the questions.
Back then, they had been very, very badly duped by Douglas wearing that very smile.
For the rest of the lesson, he wandered around the classroom.
Every now and then, he stood behind the Weasley Twins and watched them answer the questions.
Time passed quickly. Douglas had four lessons in total that afternoon.
Besides the fourth-year Gryffindors, there were the third-year Ravenclaws and first-year Hufflepuffs.
Douglas used the same method for both these lessons, having the students memorize the textbook's contents first.
Last came the sixth-year lesson.
Unlike the other years, sixth and seventh years had classes combining the houses.
What they studied was also completely different from the lower and middle years.
Students below sixth year would not be shown what illegal Dark Magic looked like.
But from sixth year onward, students needed to begin learning how to defend themselves against illegal Dark Magic.
Under a teacher's supervision, sixth- and seventh-year students could even learn some Dark Magic themselves, to an appropriate extent and within certain limits.
In this lesson, Douglas did not make them answer questions or memorize books as he had with the Lower Years, nor did he directly appoint class representatives.
Instead, he quite conventionally took out the textbook, Encountering the Faceless, and had the students turn to the chapter on Inferi.
Then he taught the lesson earnestly.
The more normally he taught, the more uncertain the students below felt.
Other years might not know, but how could the sixth-years not know?
There were even several Hufflepuffs among them. When they had first entered Hufflepuff, Douglas had been their prefect.
The man before them was not someone who followed the rules and taught straight from the textbook.
According to the news from the Lower Years, he had made every student nervous in their very first lesson.
How could he possibly be so well-behaved with them?
A lesson was not very long. Douglas finished explaining the origins of Inferi and some commonly used spells for defending against them.
He also interspersed his explanations with two occasions when he had encountered Inferi himself.
In short, the teacher lectured earnestly, and the students took notes earnestly.
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