Hogwarts Raven's Claw

Chapter 396 Owls Exam Begins

As the chair flew into the sky, the originally cheerful atmosphere in the store suddenly came to a halt.

George and Fred's eyes were full of regret, as if they were regretting not being able to see Mike also embedded in the ceiling.

Mr. Weasley jumped up from the sofa with a look of horror.

As for Mrs. Weasley, her face, which had once been filled with smiles, became gloomy again.

"George! Fred!"

An extremely suppressed roar came from his throat, and both the Weasley brothers shuddered upon hearing it.

"Mom, listen to my explanation! It was just an accident!"

"Yes, that chair was left to us by the original owner. We didn't know this would happen!"

"And, Dad. There's no need for you to be so nervous. The sofa chair you're sitting on is fine. We checked it ourselves before!"

"Do you think I will believe your lies?" Mrs. Weasley stood up from the high chair with a bang, "Apologize to Mike now!"

……

After a commotion, Mike reluctantly accepted the insincere apologies from the Weasley brothers.

Although he couldn't stand the pranks of the two brothers, he was far from angry. After all, the Weasley brothers had been his friends for many years and they had a deep relationship.

After staying in the Weasley brothers' new shop until dark, Mike asked to leave, and the Weasley brothers agreed with him.

As for the Weasleys, they had been completely convinced by George and Fred.

They will stay in Paris for a few days to get a good feel for French life.

Oh, right.

The Weasley brothers also announced that they would take them to watch a circus of magical creatures with a strong French style, and both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were quite interested in it.

But Mike didn't feel anything because he had seen the introduction of the Circus of Magical Creatures in related books.

This type of circus that uses various magical creatures for performances was very popular decades ago, but with more and more accidents and society's growing sympathy for magical creatures, this type of performance has become extremely boring today.

So Mike returned to Hogwarts alone.

As soon as he returned to Hogwarts, he saw Harry and the other two who were waiting for him.

"Mike, why are you back alone? Where are my parents?"

Ron asked anxiously, while Harry and Hermione looked at Mike with confusion.

"They were left behind by George and Fred." Mike shook his head. "Your brothers said they wanted to honor them."

"Damn it! If I had known I would go there, they would have bought a lot of things for their parents to please them! If I had gone there, I would have had a share too!"

Harry, Hermione and Mike all had black lines on their faces when they heard this. They were all speechless towards Ron.

"It's okay," Mike said with a smile, "I brought you gifts."

"Really?"*2
As soon as these words were spoken, Harry and Ron's eyes lit up, while Hermione on the side pretended to be indifferent and deliberately looked away, but when Mike observed him, he found that she would still secretly glance at him from time to time, which looked very cute.

"Ron and Harry's first, of course."

As Mike said this, he took out two sets of Quidditch gear from his traceless stretch pocket and handed them to the two men.

He bought these two sets of protective gear from the French national team souvenir shop that Mr. Weasley complained about. It was said to be a co-branded product. Although the quality was excellent, the price was several times more expensive.

"This is..." Harry looked at the set of Quidditch protective gear in his hand with surprise, but when he saw the French Quidditch national team logo on the gear, his expression suddenly changed. "Is this the French team's protective gear? My God, how dare they sell peripheral Quidditch protective gear when they are so bad?"

"Yeah," Ron agreed, "I guess they must be crazy about money!"

Mike on the side had an embarrassed look on his face. To be honest, he didn't know much about the relationships between the Quidditch teams. He just picked these two sets of protective gear at random without putting any thought into them.

But now it seems that the flattery has hit the horse's leg.

Harry and Ron on the side also noticed Mike's expression. Harry was the first to react and changed the topic:

"But the quality of this set of protective gear is still good. As long as we remove the team logo, it will be a good set of protective gear again!"

Ron seemed surprised that Harry would say such a thing, but under the hint of Harry's eyes, he finally realized that Mike's expression was not very good, and finally nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

"Okay, as long as you like it." Mike smiled and shook his head, then looked at Hermione on the side, "Then the next step is the gift for Hermione. Hermione, why are you still standing there? Come and get your gift."

Hermione, who was standing by, finally came over shyly after hearing this.

Then, under the gaze of everyone, Mike took out one beautifully wrapped gift box after another from his space pocket.

"This is the magic perfume from Madame Romain Rolland's store, it smells like starflower. This is the comprehensive care water from the Mancas Beauty Store, it is said to keep the skin moisturized. This is also from the Mancas Beauty Store, but it is a bottle of hair softener. I have tried it and it is very effective. It does not have the pungent smell of ordinary hair softeners and the effect lasts for a very long time..."

In a short while, Hermione's hands were filled with all kinds of exquisite gift boxes.

Harry and Ron's eyes almost popped out of their heads. They looked at the gift box in Hermione's arms, then at the Quidditch gear in their own arms, and were speechless for a moment.

Hermione's eyes lit up.

What girl doesn't love beauty? The reason why Hermione is usually a little unkempt is just because putting on makeup and other things takes up too much time, and she just doesn't have that much time.

But after thinking for a moment, Hermione's eyes regained their firmness, and she decisively handed the pile of gifts in her arms back to Mike.

"I'm sorry! This is too expensive! I can't accept it!" Listening to Hermione's slightly trembling voice, Mike smiled and shook his head, saying:
"This is my sincere gift. I will be sad if you don't accept it."

"Yeah! Mike is a wealthy man, this is nothing to him!" Ron said so, and Harry beside him hesitated for a while and said, "Hermione, just accept it."

"But Penelope hasn't even arrived yet."

Hermione spoke with a conflicted look on her face, and everyone could see that she really still liked these things.

"Hahaha," Mike laughed out loud when he heard that, "Don't worry, I've already prepared Penelope's portion."

"really?"

"Of course!"

Mike did not lie. In fact, the gifts for Harry and Ron were the least valuable among the gifts he purchased this time. The gift he bought for Penelope not only included the same cosmetics as Hermione, but also a sapphire necklace worth five thousand gold galleons. If he told Hermione this, I'm afraid Hermione would not be as happy as she is now.

Finally, after everyone's persuasion, Hermione finally accepted the gift reluctantly, and after everyone continued to chat about the Weasley brothers' shop for a while, they all returned to their respective dormitories.

……

A week later, the exam that made everyone nervous finally arrived.

That day Mike got up early as usual and went to the restaurant to have breakfast while reading the latest issue of the Daily Prophet.

Although a long time has passed, the Daily Prophet is still publishing negative news about Dumbledore.

Mike shook his head and put the newspaper down.

He felt that the Daily Prophet had gradually lost its qualifications as a free media, and now it had almost become a mouthpiece for the Ministry of Magic.

What made him even more incredible was that Harry and Ron also appeared in the hall.

However, their main purpose of coming to the hall was not to have breakfast, but to look at Hermione's review notes together.

Mike made no comment on their last-minute cramming.

In fact, there are still many people in the hall who are making their final efforts like them. On the contrary, the most hardworking students, like Hermione, are extremely calm at this time.

They calmly drank tea and ate bread, and at the same time looked at their classmates who were quibbling over words and didn't even have time to eat breakfast with a condescending and sympathetic look.

Seeing this, Mike finally understood why people like Hermione couldn't make friends. This kind of behavior was indeed hateful.

"Jingle Bell!"

An exquisite mechanical bird flew out of the wall clock on the restaurant wall, making crisp sounds as it flew.

Most people in the auditorium stood up upon hearing the sound - the sound was reminding them that the first exam was about to begin.

On the other side, Harry and Ron were still holding on to their books, but time waited for no one. After Hermione's repeated urging, they finally stood up.

At this time, Professor Flitwick, who looked very nervous, also came into the classroom. He looked at the noisy students and said helplessly:

"Students, please be quiet."

Everyone quieted down a little after hearing this, and he continued:
"Although many students already know the specific process of the OWLS exam, I will still explain it again here. The entire OWLS exam will last for two weeks, and you will face the exams of twelve OWLS courses during these two weeks. Of course, I know that this density is a bit scary, but in fact you only need to register for the courses you have selected, which means that the fewer courses you choose, the more time you will have to rest.

In addition, today is the first day, and the first exam we have to face is my Charms class. The exam for the Charms class will be divided into two parts: a written test and a practical test. The written test will be held in the auditorium later, and the practical test will be held in the Charms training room in the afternoon. At that time, there will be professionals from the Ministry of Magic Wizard Examination Bureau and the International United Wizards to give you questions, supervise, review and mark the papers. Please note that I would like to warn you again here! The most stringent anti-cheating spells have been imposed on the written test papers. It is strictly forbidden to bring automatic answering feather pens into the examination hall. In addition, memory balls, detachable clip cuffs and automatic error correction ink are also prohibited. At the end of the exam, the examiner will use the flying spell to take away the test paper, so remember! Don't try to cheat, understand? Because this will not only prevent you from passing the exam, but may also make your scores in other subjects all invalid!
Okay! It's getting late, now! Everyone, please leave the auditorium. We will notify you to enter after the staff has finished setting up the examination room."

After that, the students started moving and slowly walked out of the main entrance of the auditorium.

A tense atmosphere permeated this huge team. Under this atmosphere, even the most mischievous students did not dare to make a sound.

But Mike was different. Although he behaved as silently as the people around him, he was excited inside!

He had only taken a few exams in his two lifetimes combined!

Not to mention such a large-scale exam!
To be honest, this time OWLS gave him the illusion that he was taking the college entrance examination. You know, going to college was once his childhood dream, but unfortunately the situation at that time did not allow him to study, let alone take the college entrance examination.

He didn't even go to adult college!

But Mike once imagined the scene of the college entrance examination, and that imagined scene was surprisingly close to the scene of the OWLS examination!

This made Mike extremely excited!
Just as Mike was daydreaming, Professor Flitwick appeared in front of everyone again.

Professor Flitwick looked even more nervous than the other candidates taking the exam. His head and face were covered in sweat, and the front of the dress that he usually only wore at grand banquets was soaked with sweat.

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Professor Flitwick said:
"Okay, students, hurry in, the exam is about to start."

After saying that, Professor Flitwick moved aside to let the students enter the hall, and gave encouraging looks to every student who passed by him.

And when Mike entered the room, Professor Flitwick patted him on the shoulder heavily.

Mike clearly felt Professor Flitwick's concern, but he did not respond. He just nodded heavily and entered the auditorium.

At this moment in the auditorium, the four long tables that originally belonged to the four major colleges had disappeared, and were replaced by small single tables separated by a long distance.

On the surface of each small table, there was a test paper and a set of quill pens neatly placed. In the spacious auditorium, there were even dozens of staff members from the Wizarding Examination Bureau scattered around. They all held their heads high and chests puffed out. Although they were all old men and women, they looked very dignified.

This is not surprising at all. If nothing unexpected happens, these two short weeks should be the most glorious time of the year for these people, so it is understandable that they are a little proud.

"Now, take your seats according to the number plates you were assigned!"

Following the order from the white-bearded old man at the front of the auditorium, Mike and others took action, and this also meant that the OWLS exam officially began!

(End of this chapter)