When everyone outside the classroom saw George come out after only three minutes inside, they began talking.
Comments flew back and forth:
"George isn't up to it!"
"Yeah, that was way too fast! Only three minutes!"
"Could the exam questions have been too easy?"
"Does that look like the face of someone who passed? He obviously didn't even clear the first stage. He got kicked out!"
Douglas clapped his hands to quiet everyone down.
Then he said to George:
"Mr. Weasley, why don't you share your experience and impressions with your classmates?"
George gave Douglas a surprised look and asked in confusion:
"Professor, didn't you say this was an exam?"
Douglas composed himself and sighed.
"This is an exam, but it isn't an exam you're meant to die taking.
I allow you to share the lessons from your failures or successes with your classmates.
After all, I only want to test your abilities, not make you spend all your energy on this."
In fact, Douglas had never intended to stop those who took the exam first from revealing the questions to those who came later.
For one thing, there was no way to prevent that.
For another, he wanted to use this test to encourage those students whose grasp of spells from their first three years of Defense Against Dark Magic was weak.
He wanted them to take the initiative to relearn those spells.
Reviewing wasn't difficult. The difficult part was reviewing with a specific focus.
Besides, he also wanted everyone to clear the stages quickly, so his class rating could be a little higher.
George told everyone what he had encountered.
The students launched into a discussion.
"That's way too hard! A Portable Swamp and Grindylows at the same time!"
"I have an idea. What about the Vanishing Spell?"
"I think the Vanishing Spell could work too. Just make the lake water disappear. But how would we climb across that huge pit?"
"Aren't there rocks and water plants and things in the pit? We could use a Transfiguration Spell to make a ladder!"
Standing nearby, George listened to his classmates' suggestions.
He stamped his feet repeatedly in frustration, exclaiming that he should have thought of that.
Douglas listened as their suggestions grew increasingly outlandish. Some even began expanding on the ideas with the Freezing Charm, Petrificus Totalus...
Although he thought these methods were quite viable too, these students had never considered one thing.
With their reserves of magic, could they sustain even a single use of those spells?
Their Vanishing Spells would probably only lower the water level by a centimeter.
Their Freezing Charms would probably only produce a thin layer of ice.
Douglas didn't intend to remind them, either. Only after they ran into a wall would they understand.
They would realize the gap between ideals and reality.
A girl named Angelina Johnson seemed to notice Douglas's faint smile and raised her hand to ask:
"Professor, I imagine there must be a point to the stages you've set up. They aren't simply testing our knowledge of Grindylows, are they?"
Douglas looked at the tall girl before him, her long black hair tied into a long braided ponytail.
From his scant memories of the original story, this girl called Angelina seemed to be one of the twins' girlfriend.
Douglas had read her records. She was a Chaser for Gryffindor.
Douglas was very pleased with Angelina's question.
As expected of a Quidditch player, she had more respect for the rules of a game than the average student.
After all, only a victory within the rules was a true victory.
"Miss Johnson has asked a very meaningful question.
When a wizard enters an unfamiliar environment, the first thing they must do is remain calm.
Only with a calm mind can you respond better to an unknown danger when you face it.
Clearly, after listening to George's account, none of you thought of that..."
Only then did many of them realize that, according to George's account,
the first stage wasn't actually difficult. They could even pass it without using any spells.
As long as they kept a calm head and didn't rush or panic, the Portable Swamp in the water wouldn't be triggered.
Hearing that the trick to the first stage was actually so simple, everyone eagerly rubbed their hands.
They wanted to go inside and take on the challenge.
Some even mocked George for being defeated in three minutes by such a simple problem.
The ideal was rosy, but reality was harsh.
By the end of the lesson, only the twins had actually reached the third stage.
Unfortunately, the Hinkypunk in the third stage tricked them into going to the Red Cap, which then ambushed them.
Angelina and Lee Jordan were defeated by the underdeveloped Troll in the second stage.
In theory, they should have benefited from Ron's constant accounts, ever since Halloween the previous school year, of how he and Harry had finally defeated the Troll.
Unfortunately, Lee Jordan failed to cast his Levitation Charm at the crucial moment, resulting in his defeat in the second stage.
Angelina, meanwhile, actually threw up because of the Troll's nauseating smell.
That left her completely unable to concentrate on dealing with the Troll.
Everyone else was defeated in the first stage.
As it turned out, when a Grindylow grabbed their ankles in the water, they couldn't do what they had imagined.
They couldn't calmly refrain from making unnecessary movements.
It was nearly time for class to end.
But they were still tremendously excited.
Douglas gathered all the excited students together.
"Everyone, this sort of practical lesson has worked very well.
Unfortunately, everything in here is material intended for students in the lower years, after all.
We can't keep taking up class time to come here for assessments.
So, from now on, every weekend I'll arrange for two seventh-year students to be here from seven in the morning until eleven before noon.
They will open the classroom door, and you can come for assessments on your own under their supervision."
Douglas's arrangement drew a chorus of exclamations from the students.
While they were celebrating, Douglas mentioned something that made them rather less happy.
"Regarding the practical exam, I'll give you a week. Each of you must hand in an assignment at least two feet long.
No problems with that, right?"
Everyone instantly turned to stone.
But then they remembered how much content the practical assessment covered.
Surely they could scrape together two feet from the textbooks, whatever they used.
The only unhappy ones among them were probably the Weasley Twins.
They simply felt that their homework was about to become a mountain.
If they had known that there was a song in the distant East,
they would surely have sung it at the top of their voices:
"The mountain of homework can't hold you down,
out spring a pair of twins.
George, Fred,
you're such a rare pair,
no matter how many detentions,
they never changed the twins' true nature..."
But they soon put their homework out of their minds.
The other students had crowded around them, asking them to talk about the later stages.
Just as they were halfway through their account, they suddenly stopped talking.
The fourth-year Slytherins, fresh from Charms, were also walking toward them.
Because of what had happened that morning, the students of the two Houses grew even more hostile at the sight of one another.
Although Douglas knew nothing about what had happened in the dining hall that morning,
he was already used to the two Houses bristling at the sight of each other.
He had encountered it plenty of times while hanging around with Bill.
So, as Douglas stood on Gryffindor's side,
the sight of a group of students in Slytherin House uniforms opposite him made him instinctively draw his wand, ready to fight at any moment.
His action immediately startled the students on both sides.
The tense, confrontational atmosphere eased at once.
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