Time passed, and Scott’s fifth year was coming to an end.
He would face the most important exam after entering Hogwarts – the Ordinary Wizarding Level Exam.
For Hogwarts students, the first week of June every year is a fixed exam week, and they will face the ordinary end-of-school exams.
But for the fifth year students who will take the Ordinary Wizarding Level Exams (O.W.Ls) and the seventh year students who will take the Advanced Wizarding Level Exams (N.E.W.T), their days are obviously more difficult.
Because these two level exams will last for two weeks.
After entering June, the Ministry of Magic staff began to move into Hogwarts. They came from the Wizarding Examination Administration of the Education Department and were responsible for supervising these two level exams and serving as examiners.
Before the exam began, Professor Flitwick gathered Scott’s fifth-year Ravenclaw students together and personally explained some precautions to them.
“Needless to say, everyone should know that the Ordinary Wizarding Level Exam has an important impact on your future work.”
Professor Flitwick first emphasized the importance of the exam, and then began to get to the point.
“Your exams will last for two weeks. In the morning, there will be a written test on theory, and in the afternoon, there will be a practical test. Of course, the practical test for astronomy will be held late at night.”
“If nothing unexpected happens, the written test will be held in the auditorium, and your exams will be staggered with those for the seventh grade.”
“The practical test venues for each subject will be posted on the bulletin board at the entrance of the auditorium, please check for yourself.”
“I want to remind you that the examiners are sent by the Wizard Examination Administration of the Ministry of Education, and they are all experienced wizards.”
At this point, Professor Flitwick also mentioned a name in particular, Gelsda Marchbank.
“Ms. Marchbank may be the oldest employee at the Ministry of Magic.”
“She was Dumbledore’s examiner in the 1899 N.E.W.T. exams, and she continued to be the director of the Wizarding Examinations Authority after the Second Wizarding War.”
“That means Ms. Marchbank has been working for more than 100 years.”
“No matter what tricks the examinees prepare, they will definitely not be hidden from her eyes.”
Professor Flitwick’s “revelation” caused an uproar.
“It’s incredible that Dumbledore’s examiner is still an examiner.” Roger muttered to Scott.
“She must be much older than Dumbledore, and she can still work!”
“Didn’t you hear Professor Flitwick say that no matter what tricks she has, she will not be able to escape her eyes. She must be in good spirits and have sharp eyes.”
The classmates began to talk about it, and everyone was very interested in this examiner who had been in charge of invigilating for more than 100 years.
Professor Flitwick waited for everyone to discuss for a while before continuing to speak.
“In addition, the most stringent anti-cheating spells are applied to the written test papers.”
“It is strictly forbidden to bring automatic answering quills into the examination hall. In addition, memory balls, detachable clip cuffs and automatic error correction ink are also prohibited.”
After the students digested what he said, Professor Flitwick smiled kindly.
“Of course, I believe that the children of Ravenclaw College will not cheat in this important exam.”
“I just want to remind everyone to pay attention to the exam discipline and not cause any losses because of unclear regulations.”
“Finally.” He clapped his hands, “The exam results will be announced in mid-July and delivered by owls. I hope everyone can get satisfactory results by then.”
Scott and the others also applauded and encouraged each other.
Monday morning, June 4.
After breakfast, all students were asked to leave the hall, and several staff members from the Wizarding Examination Administration walked in accompanied by Vice Principal Professor McGonagall.
Scott and the others who were waiting outside the hall finally met the legendary centennial examiner Gelsda Marchbank.
She did look very old, with white hair and a shaky walk, but she was very energetic.
Everyone respected her, including Professor McGonagall.
Not long after the group entered the hall, Professor McGonagall walked out of the hall again.
“The written test for Charms is about to begin.” She said to the fifth-year students waiting outside the door, “Everyone line up for the test and enter in an orderly manner!”
Scott and his classmates lined up obediently.
When it was his turn to enter the door, he saw a staff member from the Wizard Examination Authority standing inside the door.
He waved his wand at Scott and said, “Go in.”
The hall had changed a lot at this time.
They cleared all the decorations in the hall, moved the four long tables of the college, and replaced them with many small single tables.
All these tables faced the staff table at the end of the hall.
In addition to spare quills, ink bottles and rolls of parchment on the examiner’s table, there was also a huge hourglass, which seemed to be used to calculate the exam time.
The white-haired Ms. Marchbank, the chief examiner, had already sat in the middle of the staff table.
A young invigilator was shouting to everyone: “All students, please find your seats first! We have your names on the desks!”
Scott walked around the auditorium, found a seat with his name on it, sat down, and put away the quill pen and ink he brought with him.
He found that the students’ seats were all messed up, and there were no Ravenclaw students in front, behind, or around him.
But there were acquaintances.
Cedric sat in front of him.
“This is a little different from what my father told me.” Cedric turned around and whispered, “They didn’t have fixed seats when they took the exams before. Everyone could sit anywhere, and there weren’t so many invigilators.”
Scott said, “Maybe the Wizarding Examinations Authority has reformed all the exams. A duel was added to the end-of-year exam last year.”
Cedric wanted to say something, but when the invigilator looked at him, he turned his head and sat down obediently.
Scott also sat up straighter.
But he didn’t feel guilty, but smiled at the invigilator who was looking at him.
The other party returned a polite smile and retracted his gaze.
Soon, all the fifth-year students taking the exam in the auditorium found their seats.
“I hope you can all abide by the rules and get good grades!”
Professor McGonagall stood at the door and said something, then turned and left the auditorium.
“Is everyone here?” Ms. Marchbank asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” said the young invigilator, “you can start the exam.”
“Then let’s start.”
Ms. Marchbank waved her wand.
The tall pile of parchment on the staff desk suddenly flew up.
The parchment seemed to be flying all over the sky, but in fact it fell accurately on each student’s desk.
When everyone got the test paper, Ms. Marchbank tapped the huge hourglass on the table with her wand.
“The exam officially begins.”
The hourglass turned upside down, the quicksand poured out, and the countdown began.
Scott retracted his gaze and did not rush to write, but first looked at the test paper in his hand.
After going through the questions on the test paper, he had a clear idea in his mind.
The written test was not difficult.
Although it included all the knowledge learned in the five years from the first grade to the fifth grade, these questions were not in-depth and did not expand much.
Scott picked up the feather pen, dipped it in ink, and began to answer formally.
When he finished writing the entire test paper in one go, he looked up at the hourglass on the staff desk again and found that there was still a small half of quicksand in the upper half of the hourglass.
He put down his quill, checked the test paper, and then began to daydream.
Scott spent an unusually long time in a daze, but when Ms. Marchbank announced the end of the exam, many students in the hall still wailed.
“The test paper is flying!”
Ms. Marchbank ignored the students’ wailing and waved her wand directly.
The test papers on everyone’s desk flew to the table in front of her again, and turned into a tall pile again.
“The spells written test is over.”
Ms. Marchbank said, and the hall immediately became noisy.
“How did you do on the test?” Cedric turned around and asked Scott.
“It should be fine.” Scott said with a smile.
Cedric wanted to discuss the answer with Scott, but the invigilator had already begun to ask them to leave as soon as possible to vacate the exam room for the seventh grade students.
Scott and Roger met first, and neither of them talked about the exam just now, but talked about lunch today.
Until Milton came over with a nervous look on his face.
“How did you do on the test?” He asked uneasily.
Neither Scott nor Roger answered his question.
“Okay, don’t think about the exam that’s already passed.” Scott patted Milton on the shoulder, “Come and guess what’s for lunch today.”
With Milton’s personality, too much discussion would affect his practical exam in the afternoon.
Next, he refuted Milton’s suggestion of “reading more books” and suggested that the three of them go for a walk by the Black Lake together.
“The most important thing now is to relax.” Roger also advised him.
Seeing that both of them said this, Milton agreed with some uneasiness.
When they walked out of the castle, the Weasley twins caught up from behind.
Fred smiled at Scott with a gloating smile, “Oh, my dear friend, I heard that you angered our Little Mister.”
“You should be thankful.” George blinked, “Fortunately, it’s exam time recently, otherwise you would have seen the horror of Little Mister.”
Fred added: “This can be seen from the face of our little brother Ron, who looks more and more unlucky.”
“Your news is a bit delayed.” Scott didn’t want to discuss this topic, “Have you completed your promotional video?”
He had taken time to do the editing and post-production for them before, and then handed over some simple processing work to them.
“It’s completely completed!”
“Wait and see us stun the entire Hogwarts!”
The two looked very confident.
If Scott hadn’t participated in the production, he would have almost believed it.
“I’m looking forward to it.” He said seriously.
He was looking forward to the foreseeable shame and embarrassment of other Gryffindors after seeing this promotional video.
The few people talked and laughed, and walked around the Black Lake.
Later, because of the two funny people, Fred and George, who kept making jokes, Milton began to smile easily.
After a hearty lunch, they walked into the examination room again.
The afternoon Charms practical exam was still arranged in the auditorium.
This time, the practical exam was arranged in a level mode, and each level required students to use specific spells to solve the corresponding level.
Each level had an invigilator responsible for scoring.
The easiest first level was a locked door, and Scott successfully passed it with the unlocking spell.
The second level was blocked by a high wooden fence. Scott destroyed several wooden boards with the cutting spell and then passed it.
The third level was a number of golden snitches flying around in a small space. Scott used the freezing spell to stop them from running around.
In the fourth level, Scott used the repair spell to repair a tattered boat and rowed the boat through a waterway.
In the fifth level, Scott used the armor spell to block the attacks of several bludgers, and then decisively used the blasting spell to blow them up at once.
At this point, under the surprised gaze of the invigilator, his practical exam ended and he walked out of the exam room again.
“Scott.”
The twins who took the exam before him immediately ran over.
“How did you deal with those bludgers?” Fred asked. “George almost had his head broken by them. He smashed them with the Crushing Curse.”
“You almost had your nose broken by the bludgers!” George said unconvinced.
In this way, the two of them started quarreling with each other, leaving Scott aside.
Scott watched the two bickering without being surprised.
At this time, Cedric came over.
“Scott, you’re right.” He said to Scott, “They really made some reforms to the exams.”
“Wasn’t the practical exam like this before?” Scott asked.
“The Charms practical exam that my dad took was boring.” Cedric said, “They just had to cast a designated spell at the target.”
“Oh, that’s really boring.”
“No creativity!”
Fred and George stopped quarreling with each other, and responded to Cedric’s words with their arms around each other.
Then, the two began to complain again.
“Why didn’t our dad ever tell us this?”
“Of course, mom didn’t either.”
They soon found the answer themselves.
“I think it’s because they are too busy.”
“No, I think it’s because we have too many children. They don’t remember who they talked to and who they didn’t talk to.”
“Compared to that, I like the current way of taking the exam.” Scott said to Cedric.
“I also think the current exam is better. It not only tests the mastery of spells, but also tests our adaptability.” Cedric said.
But the twins were a little dissatisfied.
“I don’t think it’s good enough. It would be better if it was more exciting.”
“If we were to set up the levels, this game would definitely become much more interesting.”
The two began to mutter again, expressing their own opinions on the transformation of those levels.
The students around who heard their conversation couldn’t help but walk away a little.
If the exam room was arranged according to the twins’ tricks, many people would suffer.
“Fred, George, that’s not a game.”
Only the honest Cedric kindly reminded them.
