Chapter 243 Is the Exam a Universal Shield?

The day when the rain finally stopped was already December. The leaves had fallen, and from a distance, the woods looked cold and iron-black. A layer of ice had frozen over the Black Lake, but it hadn't snowed yet. Giant squids sometimes broke the ice from below and floated around in a small area of ​​water with ice cubes.

All the fireplaces were burning brightly, and people wore scarves and hats. The ice cream on the table was replaced with warm pumpkin juice and hot cocoa, and the sales of butter beer also increased sharply.

Before the snow fell, Professor Sprout needed someone to help her bury the herbs in the entire first greenhouse in dragon dung as soon as possible. Therefore, Anthony and her happily missed all the activities of the "Lock Your Heart" club under the bubble head curse and the screams of the biting vines.

Professor Bubbaji was preparing for the retrial of Peter Pettigrew, and recently he needed to visit the former memory cancellation officer in person, so he had to hand over several sixth-grade classes to Anthony.

The test she had prepared finally came in handy. All Anthony had to do was sit at the podium, make sure there was a professor in the room, and look over the test she had given him, silently estimating how many of his students would get right.

He hesitated and thought they could probably get by on the parts about Muggle daily life, but he was not so sure about the parts about history and culture. If students had to master this knowledge to pass their O.W.Ls, Anthony would say that the Hogwarts timetable allocated far too few hours for Muggle Studies.

He leaned over to take a look.

The sixth-year student closest to him, Percy Weasley's deskmate, was writing furiously under the question "What do Muggles generally believe was the main cause of the Irish potato famine in the 19th century?" Anthony could barely make out words like "famous evil dark wizards... cruel..."

Then he watched the student suck on his quill thoughtfully for a while, and glanced cautiously at Percy. Percy looked at his deskmate with great dissatisfaction, then raised his head and glanced at Anthony in defense, and used his arms and the sleeves of his wide wizard robe to protect his answers, lying on the test paper in an awkward position, so that Anthony could not even see what he answered.

Percy's deskmate hesitated for a while, and made up his mind to cross out all the answers, and wrote: "Muggles generally believe that it has nothing to do with wizards." He straightened up, looked at the answer seriously for a while, and drew the dots on the "i" more clearly, and moved to the next question with satisfaction.

Anthony breathed a sigh of relief. He felt that his students could probably do the same.

The bell for the end of get out of class just rang, and the rustling sound of quills in the classroom suddenly stopped. These advanced Muggle Studies students pushed the test papers away very consciously, allowing Anthony to wave his wand to collect them on the podium.

Several people lay back on their chairs, and began to discuss the arrangements for the evening with a sigh of relief. The students in the corner were watching the papers drifting away with melancholy, and there were still large blank spaces on the parchment. Anthony noticed that Percy turned his head almost immediately, wanting to discuss the topic with his deskmate, but his deskmate had already started talking to the people on the other side about the recent Quidditch match and Slytherin's house elves.

"Professor Anthony?" a student said cautiously.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Anthony sorted out the test papers and looked up at the student who took the initiative to walk to the side of the podium.

The other party hesitated and asked with some concern: "Excuse me, do you know what happened to Professor Bubbage? Is she sick?"

"Oh, no. She's just preparing for a very, very important meeting." Anthony said, "If everything goes well, I think she will be back next Wednesday."

"What meeting?"

Anthony smiled and said, "It's confidential. I think you will read about it in the newspaper soon - the front page, I guess."

"Wow." The student's eyes lit up visibly. Percy, who was sitting in the front row, also turned to them very attentively, leaning forward with interest.

Anthony glanced at him, not sure whether Mrs. Weasley had revealed the mystery of the missing pet mouse to him. He finally just smiled at Percy.

…

From what Anthony had heard, Sirius Black, one of the people who caused Ron's pet to disappear, was lying in boredom in the hospital wing. Professor Sprout assured Sirius that he would not get moldy or have moss crawling on him, and Professor McGonagall told him that wizards had not yet learned how to rust.

The students were very curious about the bed with white curtains in the corner, but no one could escape Madam Pomfrey's sharp eyes. Only occasionally did someone see Sirius's skinny ankles and feet sticking out from the curtains. Ron told everyone that it was a ghoul, so much so that some people really believed it.

Sirius always insisted that there was nothing wrong with his body and that he didn't need to eat any health food or nutritional potions at all. He just needed fresh air. Madam Pomfrey thought he was referring to a cold caused by the cold, and warned Sirius unhappily that if he continued to be uncooperative, he would be sent to St. Mungo's to recuperate.

Harry seemed to sneak into the hospital wing whenever he had the chance, and Ron and Hermione were always by his side. Hagrid was pleased to think that this was why Harry, Ron, and Hermione hadn't noticed the little new resident in his cabin, and so they gratefully went to visit Sirius with rock biscuits, not noticing at all that a large black dog had nearly followed them out of the hospital wing.

"That black dog is very big, maybe almost as big as Fang." Hagrid smiled as he said it, adding more firewood to the fireplace. "As soon as my hand touched the doorknob, Madam Pomfrey shouted, ' Stop', which startled me. Sirius was pushing my legs from behind, trying to escape through the crack in the door..."

At this moment, one Chimera knocked the other down and rolled to Hagrid's feet, almost rolling into the fireplace. Hagrid was startled, reached out and picked them all up, and was bitten mercilessly by one of them.

"How did you get out of the box?" He muttered, carrying them and throwing them into two crates respectively, closing the lids.

The next moment, Anthony saw another Chimera poking its head out beside Hagrid's bed. The fur on its head was still covered with dust and paper scraps, and its sharp tail belonging to the fire dragon was swinging proudly. It stared at Hagrid's calf, as if wondering how to attack him.

"There's another one next to the bed, Hagrid," Anthony reminded.

"Next to the bed?" Hagrid turned around in confusion, "But there's--"

Chimeramon rushed towards him quickly and gave him a hard bite. Anthony vaguely felt that this scene seemed familiar.

"——The Monster Book of Monsters." Hagrid said, looking at the confetti on the Chimera. He strode towards his bed (the Chimera was dragged over, hanging on his calf), and picked up a tattered hard-shell cover with gold dust scattered from the side.

Hagrid looked at the cover with great annoyance, then looked down at the Chimeramon, and said in a very loud voice: "Oh, you really shouldn't-"

The next moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Hagrid?" Harry's voice came in, "Hagrid, are you there?"

Ron said: "I heard his voice just now. Hagrid?"

"Running Gorgon, they should be at Sirius's place!" Hagrid said hurriedly.

He quickly stuffed the Chimera into the crate, stacked it on top of the other crates, and covered them with a large curtain-like cloth. Anthony quickly searched around the room, trying to make sure there were no other Chimaira beasts running out.

At this time, the people outside the door were already worried.

"Hagrid, are you okay?" Hermione asked, "It's us, Harry, Ron and Hermione!"

"I'm fine!" Hagrid replied loudly, strode over to open the door, and stuck his face through the crack of the door, "What's wrong?"

"Listen, Hagrid, no one is blaming you," Hermione said. "Mrs. Pomfrey is just a little angry. There is no need for you to feel guilty for almost letting Sirius leave the school hospital."

"Well... good, that's good." Hagrid said. Looking from behind, Anthony could clearly see his hand rubbing restlessly on the door handle, while his other hand was unconsciously holding the cover that had been bitten by the Chimera beast.

"What's that?" Hermione asked. "A book? Are you reading?"

Hagrid suddenly hid the cover behind his back and said stiffly: "It's nothing. Okay, let's go. You shouldn't ask questions here."

"I remember, it was The Monster Book of Monsters." Hermione said, a hint of doubt suddenly appearing in her tone. "What on earth are you doing, Hagrid?"

"Oh...I..." Hagrid said.

Anthony sighed, stood behind Hagrid, and said, "He's showing me how fun this book is."

"Henry!" Hagrid said gratefully, stepping aside a little. Outside the door, the three Gryffindor second years looked up at them. Harry was still frowning slightly, looking at Hagrid's cabin, while Ron was so frightened that he took half a step back.

"Professor Anthony!" Hermione looked suddenly relieved.

"Good afternoon." Anthony smiled, "Hagrid was showing me how hard the Monster Book can bite and how much damage the skin can withstand, so we put the two books together. There was a little accident, but We can solve it.”

"Yes, we can," Hagrid agreed, his tone oddly eager. Harry looked at him searchingly.

"By the way, Mr. Weasley, thank Arthur and Molly for the invitation. Unfortunately, I may not have time during the holidays. Also, I'm really sorry about Scabbers." Anthony said, "But, I think I have I must tell you that Minerva is not very satisfied with the students' understanding of the Animagus. You may be tested on the theory of transfiguration before and after the newspaper publishes this news."

…

"Test in class!" Hermione said on the way out. "She will definitely ask us about the definition of transformation spell, but do you think she will test the role of common points and similarities in the second type of transformation?"

"Hagrid has something hidden in his cabin," Harry said firmly.

Ron muttered, "Of course, hiding a professor. That sucks."

As I was writing, I suddenly realized that the Animagus was only demonstrated in the third grade in the book, but the movie changed it to the first grade. But considering that Ron has so many brothers, whether he is in first grade or third grade, he will most likely know that Professor McGonagall can turn into a cat...

Overall, yes, I used movie settings when writing this plot. It’s so fun to scare first graders by turning into a cat! It took root in my mind!