"Merlin's beard..."
Ron Weasley grunted and plopped into his assigned seat, feeling as though he had been stuffed into an ill-fitting wooden box. It was very uncomfortable.
"This is even more oppressive than my Great-Aunt Muriel's sitting room. At least she hangs a few mean-looking portraits of our ancestors on the walls."
"Shh, Ron."
Hermione Granger poked half her head out of the neighboring cubicle, her brow tightly furrowed and her eyes full of unease and confusion.
"This doesn't make sense. The Ministry of Magic has strict regulations for O.W.L.s examination rooms, and this definitely isn't how they're supposed to look.
This is more like... an interrogation room the Auror Office uses for high-pressure psychological screening."
Her gaze swept quickly over the partitions, her voice very low.
"This is a classic spatial isolation design, meant to sever the individual's connection to the group and maximize personal anxiety under pressure.
I've only ever read about anything like this in An Introduction to Modern Military Psychological Tactics."
"Who cares what kind of tactics they are,"
Ron muttered.
"All I know is that I stayed up last night memorizing a hundred ways to counter spells, and I probably won't get to use a single one here. Why are you reading about Muggle military stuff, anyway?"
Hermione really wanted to tell him, Why don't you take a look at what your own professor's been doing?
Harry did not join their discussion.
He sat quietly in his seat, feeling perfectly calm.
He had experienced this scene all summer.
Studying and exams every day.
Exams and studying.
By the time the summer holiday finally ended,
Dudley had actually cried and begged to go to school for the first time.
It had actually moved the Dursleys to tears.
They said they would follow the same routine next