At this, Douglas looked at the two of them with deep disappointment and said regretfully:
"Sadly, I never imagined its next inheritors would be caught so pathetically..."
George and Fred turned bright red.
They would not have cared if he had said their grades were poor or that they loved causing trouble.
But Douglas had actually said they were bad at causing trouble, and they could not even argue.
That left them feeling miserable and powerless.
Douglas chuckled and crossed his legs, without any of the formality of a proper teacher.
"All right, let's get back to business.
From now on, you'll come here for detention every evening.
Your detention will be simple: memorize all your fourth-year Defense Against Dark Magic textbooks..."
At this, the twins looked despairing. This was no detention; he was trying to kill them.
Douglas tapped the desk and said disapprovingly:
"Don't despair just yet. You have two and a half months. How could the task possibly be that simple?
Actually, I'm not asking you to recite them. You only need to write out everything in the textbooks from memory...
Your detention will end whenever you finish writing them out..."
After hearing that, the twins wanted nothing more than to fall to their knees and ask the heavens whether there was any justice left.
They deeply regretted it now. Why had they not fought to have Filch take them away earlier?
They would rather scrub bathroom toilets for a month than memorize textbooks, let alone write them out from memory.
George said in an aggrieved, tearful voice:
"Professor, we still have Quidditch practice..."
Considering how much Professor McGonagall valued Quidditch, Douglas relaxed his requirements.
"No problem. When you have Quidditch practice, you don't have to come here to memorize your books."
George and Fred both breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, he had not deprived them of their last remaining pleasure.
Douglas waved the two off to return to Gryffindor Tower on their own.
Only when they reached the door did Douglas instruct them:
"I'll notify Professor McGonagall first thing tomorrow morning.
You'll start coming here for detention tomorrow.
Oh, and the Marauder's Map will stay with me for a while. You'll get it back when you behave well.
Of course, if you get caught a second time even with the Marauder's Map, you won't deserve to carry it anymore!"
The twins left Douglas's office looking thoroughly gloomy.
The instant the Weasley Twins stepped out of Douglas's office, they seemed like different people.
"Fred, I think we're not getting nearly enough Quidditch practice. At this rate, Slytherin could easily beat us."
"Oh, my dear George, I think you're absolutely right.
I think we should have a good talk with Wood. We need extra practice!"
In the Defense Against Dark Magic office.
After Douglas opened the Marauder's Map.
He first found Harry Potter's name in the Gryffindor dormitory.
Then, beside his name, he found two names overlapping each other.
"Ron Weasley."
"Peter Pettigrew."
Looking at that familiar name, the corner of Douglas's mouth lifted.
"Heh, Wormtail. Long time no see!"
Friday's first lesson was for the seventh years.
Douglas took all the seventh years who had enrolled in Defense Against Dark Magic.
They went to the fourth-floor classroom that had been set up as a practical training area.
This year's Head Boy was Mario Nott from Slytherin.
Looking very pleased with himself, he introduced the results of their week's work to Douglas.
"Professor Holmes, this is the assessment classroom currently intended for the third and fourth years. Aside from some spell traps inside.
The rest consists of dark magical creatures commonly covered in the lower years. Ruth Bunier and Ezekiel Clark from Ravenclaw are currently responsible for its daily upkeep."
Ruth Bunier stepped forward and introduced the spell traps she had set up to Douglas, one by one.
There were also some magical creatures.
These included a boggart, red caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, kappas...
Douglas had provided all of them. To obtain these little creatures.
Douglas had specifically sought help from his Care of Magical Creatures professor, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn, as well as the well-connected Mr. Slane.
Of course, there were also some more advanced, intelligent creatures that could not enter Hogwarts.
For example, werewolves and vampires...
Throughout the classroom, magical partitions gave each creature an environment suited to its needs.
Douglas nodded in satisfaction.
"Bunier and Mr. Clark, write me an experimental report on this practical training area afterward."
Next, they went to the fifth-year practical classroom.
This was purely a gathering place for dark magic, though naturally not the lethal kind.
It was all dark magic taught and covered in the fourth and fifth years, testing the fifth-year students' understanding of dark magic.
It included various curses, hexes, and some jinxes.
The fifth-year students' assessment was simple: break and evade this dark magic.
Of course, the spells here were not simply whatever those few Slytherin students felt like adding.
Instead, they had been specifically arranged according to the content of previous Defense Against Dark Magic assessments.
Next came the sixth-year practical classroom.
The moment they stepped into this classroom, magic transformed it into something resembling a cavern with a lake.
The entire classroom was eerie and terrifying.
Through the clear lake water, they could vaguely make out more than a dozen corpses hidden within.
Across the lake, another third of the space was dry land, surrounded by a cold, gloomy mist.
In short, Douglas was very satisfied with all the arrangements.
Of course, after class, the system was also very satisfied with this lesson.
In particular, it awarded a nine in the assignment completion category.
Douglas had arranged for the seventh-year students to do this only because he wanted to see.
How well these students had mastered what they had learned during these years of such weak Defense Against Dark Magic instruction.
So far, they had done quite well.
Some people might have thought Douglas was making a fuss over nothing.
Why spend time examining material they had already studied and been tested on?
But in reality, because of the particular nature of Defense Against Dark Magic.
Students did not necessarily master the material that ought to have been covered in the curriculum.
He remembered that during his year's OWLs, one student had been unable to cast even the first-year Levitation Charm.
There had even been a student whose Lumos really did flicker on and off.
During the seventh-year exams, quite a few students had still been unable to cast a Shield Charm, even though the Shield Charm was fifth-year material.
Since Douglas wanted to remain in this position, he could not simply muddle through.
The seventh-year lesson was immediately followed by the Gryffindor fourth-year lesson.
George and Fred, the two class representatives, had already received Douglas's note.
They led their classmates toward the fourth-floor practical classroom.
The two were visibly unenthusiastic, and their classmates looked at them sympathetically.
After all, last night they had grandly declared to their classmates that they wanted to scout out the contents of this practical assessment in advance.
But who could have imagined that their expedition would fail before it even began?
Not only had they discovered nothing, but the Marauder's Map had also been confiscated.
After returning to the dormitory, they had told everyone the truth about everything except getting sprayed with dung through their own actions.
Especially about Douglas punishing them with detention and making them write out their textbooks from memory.
They used this to win their classmates' sympathy so they would offer some help!
When Percy found out, he merely gave a cold snort.
Full of sympathy, Ginny expressed her willingness to share the sweets she had saved with her two poor brothers.
Ron went further, gloating that he had known long ago that his twin brothers would surely come unstuck at Professor Holmes's hands.
That prompted the Weasley Twins to chase him all around the common room.
After hearing about the twins' plight, Wood loyally declared.
He would certainly ask Professor McGonagall for plenty of extra Quidditch practice.
Before you continue