This time, the face on the card has been changed to McGonagall.
She stood in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor Common Room, dressed in a dark green robe, her arms crossed, her expression as serious as if she were grading a particularly bad paper.
Dumbledore then pulled out a third card.
[ Slytherin Head of House of Snape ].
In the scene, Snape stands behind the podium in the Potions Classroom, his long black robes covering him completely, his black eyes staring blankly ahead.
Silvery-white steam was rising from the crucible in front of him, and the steam slowly rose and dissipated on the canvas, making the whole scene look like a moving oil painting.
A low, barely suppressed commotion arose from the Slytherin table table in the Great Hall.
The fourth picture is of [ Ravenclaw Dean Flitwick ]. Flitwick is standing in front of the bookshelf, his short body almost completely hidden by the tall stack of books next to him.
The magic wand in his hand was producing one glowing symbol after another on the screen, which slowly spun in the air like a string of dancing stars.
The fifth image is [ Hufflepuff Headmaster Sprout ].
She stood in the greenhouse, in front of a plant in full bloom. The petals slowly opened in the picture, and pale yellow pollen drifted out from the stamen and landed on the back of a small ladybug clinging to a leaf.
Dumbledore laid the five cards out on the table in order.
The students below were completely in an uproar.
"I want Professor Flitwick's!"
"I want Professor McGonagall's! Gryffindor's is the coolest!"
" Professor Snape's picture is so cool! The steam in the crucible is constantly moving!"
"That picture of Hufflepuff is so beautiful! The flower in it really looks like it's blooming!"
Dumbledore didn't stop; he pulled out a few more cards from his pocket, this time Domain cards.
First is [ Hogwarts Castle ].
The entire card depicts a panoramic view of a castle, but unlike ordinary cards, candlelight can be faintly seen flickering in the castle's windows.
The weathervane atop the Astronomy Tower was slowly turning, and the surface of Black Lake shimmered with light along the edges of the sign.
Then there's the [ Quidditch Pitch ].
The image shows the Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts, with the stands empty, but the rings on the three goalposts sway gently in the wind, and the flags on the top of the stands flutter at the edge of the image. Occasionally, a bird flies across the sky above the pitch.
"That's so cool," Ron muttered, his eyes fixed on the deck of cards in Dumbledore's hand, as if he were under Imperius Curse.
"Did you hear that, Ron?" Harry nudged him from the side. "Top ten is enough. You just need to be in the top ten."
Ron snapped out of his daze, his expression shifting from longing to bitterness. "Top ten? I don't even know the History of Magic..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but Harry noticed a change in his eyes.
The lazy, nonchalant expression that usually appeared when final exams were mentioned disappeared, replaced by something Harry rarely saw on Ron's face.
Hmm... Ron looks incredibly motivated right now.
"It's just the top ten," Ron muttered to himself, taking a large gulp of Pumpkin Juice. "There are still two months left."
Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance.
Hermione's lips curved slightly as she lowered her head to continue eating her breakfast, but Harry noticed that she was flipping through the book much faster than usual.
At the faculty table, Professor McGonagall sat in her seat, looking at the excited faces of the students below, then at Dumbledore, who was still smiling on the stage, and remained silent for a long while.
Professor Flitwick, standing next to her, was grinning from ear to ear. He was holding Professor Sprout's hand and whispering:
"The character above actually looks a bit like me. I have to say, Muggle always manage to come up with something that surprises me."
Professor Sprout smiled and nodded, but her gaze remained fixed on her own card, where the flower was still slowly blooming, and her eyes crinkled slightly.
Snape sat at the far end of the long table, his gaze sweeping over the excited faces of the students in the distance, finally settling on the [ Slytherin Head of House Snape ] sign peeking out from the edge of Dumbledore's pocket.
He calmly picked up his teacup, took a sip, and the smile on his lips was barely perceptible.
Starting the next day, the Hogwarts library was different.
Previously, the library would only be half full in the afternoon, but now Madam Pince had to bring out twenty more chairs from the storeroom just to make sure everyone had a place to sit.
Hermione sat in her usual spot, with " Standard Book of Spells) " open in front of her and a stack of reference books that were already mostly read next to her right.
She had originally intended to put those reference books away, since she had already finished reading them all last semester.
But seeing Ron next to her intently reading Professor Binns's brick-thick " History of Magic," she swallowed her words.
The book in front of Ron was open in the middle, covered with dense lines and annotations.
The annotations were written in such illegible handwriting that Ron was clearly engrossed in reading them.
Harry sat opposite Ron, flipping through his spellbook over and over.
His Charms were already quite good, but to consistently rank in the top ten of his grade, magic alone wouldn't be enough.
His Transfiguration and Potions also need improvement, especially Potions, which Snape has always been stingy with.
But what troubled him most was the History of Magic.
Those names, dates, and events were like a flock of startled owls buzzing around his mind, refusing to settle in any one place.
" Ron," Harry looked up, his voice low, "Where are you in that book, Binns?"
" The Europe Wizarding Council of 1294," Ron said without looking up. "I've read that passage three times already; I've memorized it."
Harry paused for a moment, then turned to the same page in the History of Magic in front of him.
There were still many people in the library.
In the Ravenclaw Tower common room, the bulletin board that once displayed the card battle scoreboard now displays a countdown to final exams and a list of prizes for the top ten finishers.
The former was written in red ink and was updated daily by a fifth-grade student.
The latter was copied by a Ravenclaw himself on parchment, listing in detail the animated cards Dumbledore showed yesterday, with each card's rarity in the deck noted next to it.
There was a smaller line of text added later, " Hermione Granger will most likely take one, and the remaining nine are ours."
In Hufflepuff's common room, a third-year girl is telling her friends about her Potions notes.
Her grades were usually average, but Potions were her best subject, and this time she was determined to break into the top ten.
"I've revised this chapter several times," she said, spreading a neat stack of parchment on the table. "Anyone who wants it can take it and copy it; it's free."
"Really?" A boy looked up, his face showing disbelief.
"Really." She nodded, "But after we finish copying, we need to review together. I'll explain it once to reinforce our understanding."
Over in Gryffindor, even some of the students who usually dislike studying have started to get moving.
Seamus and Dean increased the practical exercises in their Charms class from once a week to once a day, and even dragged Neville along. The three of them took turns practicing Levitation Charm and Transfiguration in a corner of the common room.
Neville was initially hesitant, feeling that no matter how hard he tried, he wouldn't make it into the top ten.
But Seamus patted him on the shoulder and said, "You played so well with the cards last time, which means you're not stupid. You were just too nervous during the exam. You just need to practice more."
Neville nodded firmly, clearly believing Seamus's words.
Fred and George, of course, did not join the ranks of those studying for the exam.
Their grades were already hovering around the middle of the grade; hoping they would break into the top ten was less likely than hoping Snape would give Gryffindor ten extra points in class.
But one evening, as Fred was walking past the bulletin board in the common room, he suddenly stopped.
He stared at the list of top ten prizes for a while, then turned to George and said, "What do you think if we made our own dynamic cards?"
George raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"If Headmaster Dumbledore can do it, why can't we?" Fred said in a low voice.
"It doesn't have to be these characters. We can make something else and sell it to students who can't get the animated version."
George's lips slowly curved into a smile, "You're a genius."
"Of course, but I'm worried..."