Draco hesitated for a moment, and then the paper bird popped out again, flapping its wings at the two of them as if waving.
Draco smiled and made up his mind:
"Since we're already here, let's go in and take a look."
Hearing this, Hermione grabbed her broom and rushed inside with the paper bird.
The next moment, the scene before my eyes lit up.
The darkness of the night in the mountains and forests vanished instantly, and sunlight rushed in. The trees and bushes disappeared, and the paper birds were nowhere to be found.
The two were on a vast, open lawn.
A magnificent red brick building stands in the distance.
Hermione looked around in surprise:
"It's daytime here?!"
Draco looked around as well. "It's different from the real world. Hogwarts ' time is the same as the Muggle world, but this is clearly different from ordinary magic schools in the real world."
"Could this be an independent alternate dimension...?"
"Possibly!" Draco nodded.
Hermione suddenly realized:
"No wonder there's no place listed in the books in the Ilvermorny Restricted Section, and the method for voluntary enrollment isn't even mentioned."
As Hermione spoke, she slowly lowered the broom, and the two stood on the ground. Draco then put the magical broom away.
"You're right."
A voice rang out from behind the two of them.
The two were so startled that they turned around at the same time.
A black man in a suit and collar stood two meters behind the two men, looking at them with a calm expression.
Draco asked him first:
Did you guide us here?
The man countered:
"Didn't you contact me first?"
"Nice to meet you. May I ask who you are?" Draco asked again.
As the two sized each other up, the man was also scrutinizing them.
After giving him a quick look, the man introduced himself, " Henry Fogg, Dean of the Academy. Welcome to Brakebills."
"You're the headmaster of Brakebills!" Hermione's heart skipped a beat, then she asked, "So, we've been accepted?"
Henry shook his head. "It's not that simple."
Even if you manage to contact the school and demonstrate special abilities, you cannot break the school's rules.
Hermione reacted quickly and said, "I need to participate in the test!"
Henry nodded. "Let's go."
Director Henry said he would go ahead first, and the two thought he was going to the red brick building in front, but Henry gestured and said, "This way." The two then said "Oh," and turned right to follow.
Henry said as they walked, "We don't usually accept underage wizards, but since you two contacted the school on your own initiative, we're going to make an exception and let you take the exam."
"Thank you, Dean." Hermione quickly expressed her gratitude.
But Henry warned them beforehand, "Don't get too excited. You might have just stumbled upon the school by accident. If you fail the test, your memories will still be erased, and you'll be sent back to your original reality."
"We will do our best to meet the assessment requirements," Hermione said.
The two followed them to a building, went inside, and found that the interior of the university building was decorated in a completely modern style.
The interior features light-colored walls, metal decorations, and bright floor-to-ceiling windows, providing ample natural light. Unlike the dim stone corridors of an ancient castle, there are no vintage tapestries or antique candlesticks scattered throughout.
This actually matched the dean's suit and tie perfectly, as he didn't have any fixed attire of a magic robe.
This must be a modernly built school; unlike the modern Wizarding World, it doesn't retain any retro style.
The two followed Director Henry to a classroom.
Director Henry opened the door and let the two of them in first.
It was quiet inside. The three rows of seats were almost full, but everyone looked to be an adult, some in their twenties and others in their early thirties. Draco and Hermione stood at the door, looking completely out of place in the crowd.
The moment the two entered, all eyes fell on them. Draco was unfazed by the attention and led Hermione to sit down in the first row.
Of course, this is the only empty spot.
A black woman with an afro sat to their right, nodding to the two men, who politely returned the greeting.
There was a blue book on the table, the cover of which looked like the school emblem, and a pencil next to it, presumably for answering questions.
Director Henry closed the door and went to the podium. He put his hands in his pockets, a casual gesture that actually made the students, who had just arrived in this strange world, feel more at ease.
Henry gave a brief welcome.
Then he indicated that he could be addressed as the Dean.
Then he began to speak:
"I know you have questions, and we'll answer them later. The prerequisite is that you pass the test in front of you."
After a brief opening statement, Henry announced:
"The exam is now beginning."
As he spoke, he inverted an hourglass on the lectern, and fine yellow sand began to flow down from above, silently keeping time.
The students obediently picked up their pens, opened their blue sheets of paper, and Hermione followed suit, opening her own test paper and reading it carefully.
Draco picked up his pencil and twirled it, glancing at Director Henry. Just as he was about to answer the question, he saw Henry sit cross-legged on the podium. Draco couldn't help but smile. Hands in pockets was one thing, but sitting cross-legged like that—was he trying to be so down-to-earth?
However, he didn't have time to think too much and immediately flipped through the exam paper to start answering the questions, while the sand in the hourglass kept flowing away.
But when Draco looked at the exam paper again, he got a headache.
Why does it keep changing?
The text and titles above flickered and changed, writhing like living things. He glanced at Hermione, and Hermione looked back at him; both of them saw the confusion in each other's eyes.
The two switched back to the exam paper.
Hermione frowned; she hated the constant changes in language.
It's dazzling to look at.
Draco was also annoyed by these dizzying exam papers and wondered what the school meant by setting them up.
Is this test to see who has the best eyesight? If not, does this method actually determine whether someone has magical talent?
However, after Draco carefully examined the exam questions, he found them quite impressive. The exam could actually penetrate a person's inner thoughts and project their truest self onto the paper.
His test paper had three questions in total, and others probably had the same.
1. Let him imagine creating a space that belongs to you, a space that cannot be defined by family reputation or other people's evaluation of you.
2. It is to continuously imagine an animal that will not obey you, but will judge and criticize you; you must maintain this imagination and not destroy it out of fear.
Question 3 is an abstract construction question: Design a moral system that departs from the sense of right and wrong instilled in you since childhood, and cannot simply follow the Pure-blood ideology.
This directly hit Draco's heart in the original work, but now, times have changed. I am Draco, but not Draco, so I am not interested in this kind of topic at all.
Furthermore, it also demonstrates that this exam paper is not truly omnipotent; there must be some system filtering involved.