After leaving the basement, he saw the crowds coming and going through the hall.
When they saw him, some students even happily took the initiative to greet him.
Douglas's mood immediately brightened.
"Ah, what innocent children.
I really can't bear to tell them that they'll have one more thing to memorize in Potions Class from now on!"
He felt that if the students knew he had brought this about, they would certainly be grateful to him.
As long as they memorized those rules and made no mistakes, they could escape Professor Snape's scathing tongue.
Nor was this some sudden whim to make others suffer what he had suffered.
Rather, the system also had a year-end selection for the outstanding teacher most beloved by students.
The score for this category did not depend on the students' attitudes, but on his fellow teachers' approval of his work in education.
After returning to his office.
Douglas opened the system panel and briefly checked the points he had earned through a week of hard work.
There had been thirty-five lessons in total that week.
[Top Student Development System] [This Week's Schedule: Completed...] [Total Points] Student Satisfaction 20 lessons rated 9 or above, earning 40 points; 11 lessons rated 6-9, earning 10 points; 4 lessons rated below 6, earning 4 points. Homework Completion 8 lessons rated 9 or above, earning 0 points; 22 lessons rated 6-9, earning 20 points; 5 lessons rated below 6, earning 4 points. Student Progress 12 lessons rated 9 or above, earning 20 points; 15 lessons rated 6-9, earning 10 points; 8 lessons rated below 6, earning 6 points. Classroom Engagement ...
Douglas really could not bear to look any further.
"The road ahead is long and far... uh, what was the next line again...?"
Douglas felt that thirty-five lessons a week were still a little too few.
He had to pick up the pace so that Hogwarts' students could become top students sooner.
He absolutely had to put morning reading sessions, morning exercises, evening study sessions, and the like on the schedule.
Everything for the children!
Just as Douglas was sighing away.
There was a sudden knock at the office door.
Only after Douglas told whoever was outside to come in did he discover it was the Weasley Twins.
"Professor, we can write the textbook out from memory now!"
"Yes, Professor, we stayed up all last night memorizing it!"
Douglas looked the seemingly confident pair up and down.
Then he took out two thick notebooks.
Raising an eyebrow, he said:
"Who would have thought? Hogwarts has a crouching dragon and a fledgling phoenix hiding in its midst!
Now write it out from memory for me!"
George and Fred exchanged puzzled looks.
"You're a dragon?"
"You're a phoenix?"
Then both shook their heads.
Smack!
Seeing the pair exchanging meaningful looks, Douglas slammed his hand hard on the desk.
A professor ought to have a professor's bearing.
"What are you looking at? Are there words on your faces? Get on with writing!"
George and Fred exchanged another look and blinked. Why didn't we think of that-putting the words on our faces?
But they still moved quickly over to Douglas's desk, each taking a quill from the pen holder on it.
Fred furtively glanced back at Douglas, who was making tea at the tea table.
Then he signaled to George and quickly swapped the ordinary quill in his hand for an Auto-Answer Quill.
They had borrowed these from two classmates, then asked an older student for help.
They had loaded the contents of the fourth-year textbook into them.
Once they had made the switch, the two exchanged a smile.
Then, holding their Auto-Answer Quills, they began making a show of writing as the quills wrote automatically.
To make their performance more convincing, they even pretended to recall the textbook's contents from time to time.
Then they pretended their hands were sore and shook out their arms.
At any rate, they looked as though they were very earnestly writing from memory.
But the quills in their hands never stopped.
As though he had noticed nothing, Douglas sat there leisurely drinking tea while marking the sixth-years' homework.
Time ticked by.
Douglas checked the time and put down what he was holding.
Then he said to the two of them:
"Bring me what you've written so far!"
The Weasley Twins, who were putting great enthusiasm into their performance, heard the voice ring out suddenly.
Startled, they hurriedly answered:
"Yes, Professor!"
"No problem, Professor!"
Then they exchanged a glance and grinned.
They swaggered over to Douglas's tea table and handed him what they had written.
Douglas glanced at the contents of the notebooks, a disdainful smile appearing on his face. He had known these two were up to something. Then he closed both notebooks.
Then he picked up his teacup and took a sip.
He looked at the Weasley Twins, who were still grinning.
"What are you standing there for? Start reciting!
George, you first!"
"Huh?"
Pained expressions appeared on the Weasley Twins' faces. You never said there would be a recitation part!
Seeing the pair fidgeting, Douglas sneered:
"The Auto-Answer Quills from Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop in Hogsmeade all produce the same handwriting...
Well? Do I need to go on?"
Having used automatic quills for so many years, Douglas knew the strengths and weaknesses of every brand of automatic quill in the Wizarding World very well.
The moment he saw the writing, he knew which shop their quills had come from.
Besides, he did not believe the twin brothers were memory geniuses who could memorize an entire textbook in a single night.
Where would that leave Hogwarts' own Miss Know-It-All?
But the Weasley Twins did not know that.
Their faces fell, and they felt as though the whole world had gone dark.
Did you think they were worried about their homework? No! They were worried that if the automatic quills were confiscated.
They would have to pay out a sum of Galleons in compensation.
After all, those things were not cheap. Otherwise, they would not have needed to borrow them from classmates.
Douglas seemed to see right through their thoughts.
He handed the notebooks back to them.
Then he said:
"Today, no matter how late it gets, if you can memorize what you've written.
I won't confiscate the quills you're holding!
But if you feel you still can't memorize it, then it's very simple.
The quills will be confiscated.
And I'll have Percy write to your mother..."
George and Fred paled in horror.
They hurriedly nodded and said:
"We'll memorize it, we will! Please don't tell our mum!"
"Yes, yes! Professor, could you tell Percy to stop writing to Mum all the time?"
The Defense Against Dark Magic office.
Two in the morning.
Douglas yawned as he read.
When he saw the Weasley Twins gesturing at him, their faces exhausted.
Douglas lifted the See No Evil, Hear No Evil Charm from his ears.
"You've memorized it?"
George and Fred nodded vigorously.
Douglas took the Auto-Answer Quills the two had brought.
Then he added a spell to them.
"Start reciting. I've cast a spell on these two quills.
They'll record every word you recite and automatically underline anything you get wrong!"
"..."
The Weasley Twins were speechless. You could do that?
In fact, automatic dictation was a basic function of Auto-Answer Quills, and these two quills happened to have the textbook's contents recorded in them.
Douglas had merely added a temporary annotation function to them.
Heh, who hadn't been a student once?
Back in the day, he and Bill had found all sorts of inventive uses for Auto-Answer Quills.
By comparison, the Weasley Twins at this stage were still far too green.
Before you continue