Chapter 805: Unreasonable
Chapter 805: Unreasonable
That afternoon in the common room, Albert and his fellow fifth-year students were toasting to the fact that they were one day closer to the end of their exams.
"Where did you get all this Butterbeer?" Angelina asked, knowing that this group of guys had been drinking quite a bit of chilled Butterbeer lately.
"That's a question for Albert," Fred replied, indicating that the Butterbeer was all obtained by Albert and had nothing to do with them.
"I asked the house-elves in the kitchen to buy it for me," Albert explained with a smile as he felt the girls' gaze on him. "As long as you have a good relationship with the house-elves, they don't mind running errands for you occasionally."
"That's so like you!" Lee Jordan exclaimed in admiration. He, of course, had seen the enthusiastic house-elves in the kitchen pushing cookies and pies into their hands, but that was the extent of it.
Most students had never even seen a house-elf, let alone imagined that Albert could get the school's house-elves to help him purchase Butterbeer.
In fact, everyone was misled by Albert's words, as the house-elf he was referring to was actually his own, Bit, and not the school's house-elves.
With exams still ongoing, the students naturally didn't dare to drink too much. After resting and chatting for a while, they all consciously reviewed the content for the next day's exam.
Anyone who had seen the Astronomy theory exam papers from previous years would know that tomorrow's written exam was not difficult. It mostly involved filling in the names, positions, and movement patterns of stars, constellations, planets, and satellites. More often than not, it required spending time and energy memorizing the knowledge points from class, and achieving a high score was not challenging if one had done so.
The more challenging exam was the practical Astronomy exam the following night, for which they needed to be at the top of the Astronomy Tower by 11 p.m.
The exam entailed observing the stars and filling in a blank star chart based on the actual night sky. It was something they had done before, and as long as one paid attention in class, it shouldn't pose much of a problem.
As for Divination class tomorrow afternoon, no one really cared about it, nor did anyone plan to waste their precious revision time on it.
"I think the arrangement by the Wizarding Examinations Authority is very unreasonable," Shana said, lightly tapping the exam schedule on the table with her fingers as she voiced her confusion. "They actually squeezed the exams for three subjects into one day. It's crazy. I really don't understand why they didn't move Divination and Arithmancy to Friday?"
In fact, not only Shana but also the other fifth-year students felt that this arrangement was strange. Especially for students like Albert, who had to take twelve subjects, tomorrow would mean taking four exams, and the exam times for Divination and Arithmancy overlapped.
To the uninformed students, it seemed like the people at the Wizarding Examinations Authority must have had their brains jammed in a door.
Of course, no one worried that taking four consecutive exams would affect Albert's performance. This guy clearly still had everything under control, as evidenced by the fact that while everyone else was flustered by the Fire Crabs in the Care of Magical Creatures exam, he remained unfazed.
Ariadne looked at Albert and blinked, asking, "I'm actually more curious about how you're going to attend both Divination and Arithmancy at the same time?"
This was indeed the question on everyone's mind, as Albert had never missed a single elective class to date.
How he managed to be in two places at once remained an unsolved mystery.
"Don't ask, it's the Multiple Self Spell," George teased, pretending to be serious. "I once asked Albert to teach me the spell, but he told me it was too dangerous."
Everyone asked in unison, "What spell is it?"
"Isn't it better to be alive?" Albert retorted.
"The spell is dangerous?"
They all looked at him with suspicious eyes, trying to coerce him into revealing the secret with their gazes.
"It's extremely dangerous, and the spell is also very unstable," Albert explained, not lying to them. "If you use it carelessly, you're more likely to end up dead or invited to Azkaban by the Ministry of Magic." The Hour Reversal Spell was indeed treacherous, and most who dared to use it on themselves were likely pushing daisies now.
Of course, if one used the panel to first fill up the Hour Reversal Spell with experience and skill points, it might be safe to use. But the cost was enormous, and using a Time-Turner was clearly a safer and more stable option, so Albert wouldn't waste his precious experience and skill points on it.
That was why he had used the opportunity to complete the task for Merlin's Honor Roll, not just to complete the task but also to give Fudge an irresistible reason to get him the Time-Turner he wanted from the Ministry of Magic.
"What is the spell? Don't keep us in suspense," Angelina said through gritted teeth, hating how this guy loved to keep people hanging.
"I promised Professor McGonagall that I would keep it a secret," Albert shrugged, "and I'm not telling you for your own safety. Your curiosity is too strong. If you try the spell one day and end up dead, wouldn't it be my fault?"
If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't horse around in the common room, a few of them would have started chasing Albert to beat him up.
The next morning's Astronomy theory exam was very simple, and Albert easily answered all the questions. Similar to previous years' exam papers, some of the questions were even repeated.
After the written exam, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan suddenly had a brainwave and discussed selling these exam papers to the next year's O.W.L.s candidates.
The price could be cheap, one Sickle per exam paper, and with so many papers, they could definitely make quite a few Galleons while also helping everyone pass their O.W.L.s with ease.
Yes, this seemed more reliable than cheating.
Albert was very suspicious of what these three guys were planning to do. Would they mess up the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s exams?
The Divination exam that afternoon was not held in the Great Hall because the Great Hall was needed for the Arithmancy exam. Albert planned to take the Arithmancy exam first so that when he used the Time-Turner to go back in time to attend the Divination exam, he wouldn't have to worry about finding a place to wait after the Divination exam ended.
Arithmancy was somewhat similar to probability statistics, and the core of this subject was to use numbers to predict the future.
In essence, it was a matter of probability.
The exam itself consisted of arithmetic fill-in-the-blank questions.
There weren't any strange mathematical formulas on the wizarding side, just pure arithmetic, and as long as one's calculation skills were decent, they could pass without much trouble.
Of course, this subject was not very friendly to students who were poor at arithmetic, and Muggle-born wizards had an advantage in this regard.
In Albert's opinion, the difficulty of the Arithmancy exam paper was related to the O.W.L.s exam. If the difficulty was too high, most wizards would probably be eliminated.
"Have you taken your Divination exam yet?"
As soon as they exited the hall, Katrina caught up with Albert.
"Not yet. Care to join me?" Albert invited, "How did your Arithmancy exam go?"
"I think it went well. It wasn't too difficult," Katrina said, stealing a glance at Albert before asking curiously, "How did you finish so quickly?"
While the others were still busy calculating, Albert had already completed his paper and was taking a nap.
"My math skills from primary school came in handy. I didn't find the calculations challenging at all." Albert noticed the puzzled look on Katrina's face and smiled as he explained, "Muggles start school at a very young age, whereas wizards don't, which is a waste of time, in my opinion."
"That sounds tough," Katrina replied, unable to fathom what it would be like to start school so early.
"Learning more can't hurt," Albert said with a shrug.
The two of them took some time to make their way to the Room of Requirement on the eighth floor of the castle. They could have used a secret passage, but as this might be their last time using the Time-Turner, Katrina thought it best to be cautious.
Upon entering the Room of Requirement, Katrina took out the Time-Turner from her pocket and hung it around Albert's neck with the golden chain. Together, they traveled back in time by two hours.
As they left the Room of Requirement, Katrina suddenly asked, "Is it true that Isabelle said we're going to the Quidditch World Cup during the summer holidays?"
"Yes, someone mentioned they'd give me a few tickets," Albert replied casually.
Indeed, he wasn't lying; Black had indeed offered to give him some tickets.
"Just the three of us?" Katrina inquired further.
"I actually asked Isabelle to invite your family as well, but it seems Mrs. McDougall is busy, so Isabelle will take us there together," Albert explained.
As they descended the stairs to the third floor, they were headed for an empty classroom to take their Divination practical exam.
As for the content of the Divination exam, everyone already knew it would involve palmistry, tea leaf reading, and crystal ball gazing.
Of course, knowing the content was one thing, but passing the practical test was another matter.
The examinees had to enter the exam room in a specific order, with Professor McGonagall maintaining order outside. By now, they had memorized the order from their previous exams.
Albert was among the first group to enter.
"I've been looking forward to this day," he said.
Professor Trelawney eagerly welcomed Albert, and ever since she found out he was a seer, she had been curious to see if he could truly predict the future.
"Tell me what you see in my palm," Professor Trelawney requested, her wrinkled hand outstretched on a soft cushion.
Albert gave some simple predictions based on his knowledge of palmistry from Divination class.
"Overall, barring any unforeseen circumstances, you won't die in the next two or three years," Albert said, pointing at her long and deep life line. "However, your lifespan won't be too long from now on—perhaps another seven or eight years, maybe a bit more if no accidents occur."
Albert refrained from giving a specific timeframe, as he believed that predicting someone's lifespan based solely on palm reading was nonsense.
Indeed, Professor Trelawney was quite old, even older than Dumbledore.
It must be said that many wizards lived to a ripe old age.
Professor Trelawney withdrew her hand and pointed to a teapot on the table. "Now, use the tea leaves to divine for me."
After pouring herself a cup of tea and drinking it down to the dregs, she handed the cup to Albert.
He shook the tea leaves thrice in his left hand and then turned the cup upside down on the saucer. He waited until the last drop of tea had drained out before examining the leaves.
"A cross," he said, clearing his throat. "You may encounter some trouble, but I can't pinpoint the timing. It's probably not imminent, maybe in a few years. If you wish to know more about this trouble, I can use my crystal ball to divine for you. To be honest, tea leaf reading isn't my forte."
"Well, if you can truly predict the future, I'll give you full marks," Professor Trelawney said, raising an eyebrow as her gaze shifted between the leaves in the cup and Albert.
In fact, if Albert could genuinely predict the future, he would have already earned a perfect score for the Divination exam.
The actual exam content was secondary; even those who achieved outstanding grades couldn't truly predict the future.
Most of the time, they simply regurgitated knowledge from their textbooks, which wasn't very interesting, and high scores in this subject didn't carry much weight.
Albert focused his attention on the crystal ball in front of him, extending his palm to touch it lightly. Within Professor Trelawney's line of sight, the mist inside the crystal ball began to swirl rapidly, eventually clearing to reveal a mirror-like surface.
Professor Trelawney's eyes widened in surprise as she truly saw visions within the crystal ball—a portion of a newspaper and an article about herself.
The content accused Professor Trelawney of colluding with goblins to subvert the establishment.
"Colluding with goblins to subvert the establishment?" Professor Trelawney found the report absurd. She was certain something had happened for the Prophet to dare to publish such an accusation against a senior member of the Wizengamot.
This seemed to validate the previous tea leaf reading.
"Can you see any more details?" Professor Trelawney asked curiously.
"The further away the event, the less I can predict," Albert said, his gaze fixed on the crystal ball as he lifted his hand and gently tapped it. The mist inside swirled once more, and this time, a person appeared.
"Your troubles are connected to this person," Albert said, pointing at the figure.
The crystal ball now displayed a photo from a newspaper, and on it was none other than the unmistakable figure of Dolores Umbridge.
Professor Trelawney stared at the figure in the crystal ball and murmured, "Dolores Umbridge?"
"Is that Dolores Umbridge?" Albert asked, studying the woman in the crystal ball.
"You know her?"
"I've heard some things about her. Someone told me to stay away from her," Albert replied.
"You've certainly brought me an unexpected surprise. You are the second student I've examined who has shown such ability during my tenure," Professor Trelawney said, bringing the topic back on track. "The first was Inigo Imago, the author of Dream Interpretation."
"Who was the first?" Albert asked, intrigued.
"Inigo Imago, the author of Dream Interpretation," Professor Trelawney replied, indicating that Albert could leave.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
