After the party ended.
Everything returned to normal.
Chinese plum wine bubbled on the red clay brazier.
Douglas sat by the window in the office of the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Morning light streamed in from behind him, cutting a line between light and shadow across the desktop.
A peregrine falcon swooped through the window and released its claws with precision. A black-and-gold metal cylinder landed on the desk with a dull thud.
The MPC's griffin emblem was engraved on the cylinder's outer wall.
Old Crouch's exclusive channel.
Douglas unscrewed the cylinder's cap and drew out a thick stack of parchment scrolls.
Four papers.
He first glanced at the cover of the one on top.
"On the Common Origin of 'Spell Models' and Will-Guiding Runes in Ancient Runes-with a Discussion of Fine Adjustments to Wand Core Structure for Multiple Casting (Third Edition)."
Author: Barty Crouch Jr.
A large O had been written in the grading field in Old Crouch's meticulous handwriting.
Douglas opened the first page, his gaze sweeping quickly over the abstract.
He picked up a pencil and wrote a line in the margin beside the third paragraph: suitable for incorporation into chapter two of the fourth-year booklet.
Turning to page seven, he wrote again: with the casting pathways removed, this passage could serve as a negative example for fifth-year mental defense.
He turned to page twelve, and his pencil hovered for two seconds.
Then it came down: this hypothesis is too far ahead of its time. Hold for the seventh-year appendix.
His expression did not change at all.
The second paper was Dolohov's.
"Residual Effects and Natural Decay Curves of Advanced Curses in the Human Body-a Thirty-Thousand-Word Empirical Analysis Using Purple Flame Curses as a Sample."
Grade: E.
The reason for the deduction was marked