Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 501 They are not human

Time always slips away unnoticed.

By the second week of the new semester, all the fourth-grade students noticed that they had significantly more homework to do this semester.

One day, when the students complained loudly about the excessive amount of homework Professor McGonagall assigned for her Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall explained why.

"Because you are entering an important period of your magical education!"
Your OWL exam is just around the corner—

"We won't take the OWL exam until fifth grade, which is almost two whole years!"

Dean Thomas said angrily.

At that moment, his dissatisfaction with the large amount of homework made him forget even Professor McGonagall's authority, and he couldn't help but blurt it out.

"Perhaps so, Mr. Thomas."

But please believe me, you need to be fully prepared!

Professor McGonagall's gaze swept over the entire class, her eyes gleaming authoritatively behind her square glasses:

"In this class, only two people can ever turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion."

Her gaze inadvertently swept over Sherlock and Hermione before returning to Dean:

"And you, Mr. Thomas..."

I should remind you, your pincushion still curls up in fear when someone brings a needle near it!

Dean's face turned bright red. He was understandably upset that Professor McGonagall had said that to him in public.

But what could he do?

Professor McGonagall is telling the truth.

At this moment, all the students' eyes turned to Sherlock and Hermione—everyone knew that Professor McGonagall was referring to them.

Sherlock remained nonchalant, as if it were a trivial matter.

Hermione, on the other hand, was desperately trying to hold back, doing her best not to show any smugness.

However, when she saw Sherlock's expression, she couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

Sherlock ultimately did not agree to become the president of the House-Elf Rights Promotion Association.

As for the reason?

Sorry, Sherlock never needs a reason to refuse something.

So during this time, she seemed a little depressed.

The main reason is that Sherlock not only refused to become president, but he also didn't even buy the SPEW badge.

This time Sherlock did explain his reasons, but Hermione felt it would have been better if Sherlock hadn't explained them at all.

“I already told you this last time, dear Hermione.”

Hermione vividly remembered Sherlock's grey eyes when he rejected her, and his polite yet decisive tone:

"I can understand your actions, but understanding does not mean agreeing with them."

House-elves are not human. As intelligent beings, I can give them appropriate respect, but I won't help you fight for their so-called rights.

In fact, based on Hermione's understanding of Sherlock, she had already guessed that he would refuse her before she even asked him.

Don't be fooled by her earlier statement to Ron that "you don't understand Sherlock"; she was simply deceiving herself.

Even so, she still asked, just to give it a try.

The result was, as expected.

Sherlock's refusal was far too decisive.

They weren't even willing to give her the slightest hope.

For Hermione, it was truly a river of sorrow flowing backwards.

It's worth noting that even Harry and Ron paid two silver shicoats to buy SPEW badges.

However, the two of them did this simply to shut her up and stop her from talking about it to them all the time—they were already exhausted from this.

As Professor McGonagall said, although the OWL exams are in the fifth year, almost all the other teachers share the same idea as Professor McGonagall: that young wizards need to be well prepared.

In layman's terms, it means rushing to meet deadlines.

“It’s actually quite normal.”

When this was mentioned to Qiu Zhang, seeing the surprised looks on her friends' faces, she immediately explained earnestly:
"In our country, the middle school entrance exam is similar to the OWL exam."

At most, by the first semester of the third year of junior high school, the entire curriculum for the third year of junior high school will have been completed.

In some schools, students even complete the entire ninth-grade curriculum during the summer vacation before the start of the ninth grade.

"And what about the third year of junior high?" Ron asked, puzzled. "A whole year!"

"Of course it's for reviewing."

Qiu Zhang said in a completely matter-of-fact tone:
"The third year of junior high school is never a year for you to learn new knowledge."

Reviewing, consolidating, and improving are the main tasks for this year.

The middle school entrance exam plays an even more important role in Muggle education than the OWL exam.

Compared to the pace over there, Hogwarts is already quite relaxed.

After all, it took a full five years to accomplish all of this.

Upon hearing the speech from the girl from the great Eastern country, all the young wizards fell silent, speechless.

Even Sherlock couldn't help but sigh.

In terms of universal education, no country in the world can compare with the country where Qiu Zhang lives.

Chinese tycoons are terrifying!
The divination class, which required homework, overlapped with the ancient runic lessons this time.

But this time, Sherlock did not choose to go to the Divination class with Harry and Ron.

Then, Professor Trelawney surprisingly gave them very high marks on their homework.

This made Harry and Ron feel both incredulous and utterly ridiculous.

During this session, Professor Trelawney read aloud many parts of their prophecies and highly praised their courage in accepting the terrible things that were about to happen.

However, when she asked them to make a prediction about their fate the month after next, they didn't find it so funny.

Because neither of them could think of any new disasters.

"Looks like we'll have to ask them for help again, man."

Ron gestured for Harry to look in the other direction.

As Professor Trelawney read aloud their prophecies, the two young girls, Parvati Petil and Lavender Brown, frequently smiled.

In their view, Harry and Ron's homework being praised by the teacher was partly due to their efforts.

Upon hearing that Professor Trelawney had assigned new homework, the two girls turned to look at him.

Harry hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.

"Not buddy!"

Ron was shocked. "You mean you actually want to do your homework by yourself? You know that's impossible!"

"Um... I was chatting with Qiu Zhang about this a couple of days ago."

She told me that if I encountered any difficulties in the divination class, she would help me.

Harry said somewhat embarrassedly, "She said there was no need to bother Parvati anymore."

"Beast!"

Ron never imagined that his good brother's charm had reached such a level.

A senior from the neighboring college actually offered to help him with his homework.

What a...

How enviable!
Seeing Harry's embarrassed expression, Ron felt conflicted.

On the one hand, he certainly didn't want his good friend to be punished, have points deducted, or be put in solitary confinement by the teacher for not completing his homework.

On the other hand, he also felt uncomfortable seeing his beautiful, gentle, and understanding older sister taking the initiative to help his best friend with his homework.

Ron sighed deeply. Harry had betrayed the organization.

The other two reliable friends, Sherlock, never did his homework, and Professor Trelawney didn't care about him either.

As for Hermione, she dropped the course last semester.

Now, all he can rely on is Lavender.

"In that case, I have no choice but to rely on Lavender."

Harry hesitated for a moment, then said, "I also think it's a good idea for you to ask Lavender for help."

Ron: "Heh."

Harry: "It's true. If it were any other girl, she would have turned on you long ago if she had heard you say that last time."

Ron: "That's because they can't afford to play that game."

Harry: "Heh."

Of course, transfiguration and divination are not the only courses that give young wizards a headache.

For some reason, Professor Binns, the Ghost Professor, has started assigning them a paper this week on the 18th-century fairy rebellion.

As we all know, this topic is far too broad.

And the vast majority of young wizards really had absolutely no interest in this topic.

Please, it's almost the 21st century, why are you still concerned about 18th-century fairies?
When someone raised this point in class with dissatisfaction, Professor Binns, unusually, offered sharp criticism:

"Miss Goldberger, you are making a very serious mistake in thinking this way!"
A nation that forgets its history is committing betrayal.

The demon rebellions in history were bloody and terrifying!

You should know that although the fairies' rebellion was quelled, but...

Even today, there are still fairies who attempt to overthrow the government and oppose the rule of the Ministry of Magic.

Everyone was already used to Professor Binns mixing up students' names.

However, they had only experienced Professor Binns taking students so seriously once.

That was when Hermione asked him about the Chamber of Secrets rumors during their second year.

At the time, although Professor Binns mentioned the rumors about the secret room, he loudly denounced them as unreliable historical records and all nonsense.

Of course, later events proved that unofficial histories are sometimes more reliable than official histories.

In any case, writing this paper is a done deal, and no matter how dissatisfied everyone is, it won't change anything.

Among the teachers who oppress students is Professor Snape, the Potions teacher.

Forcing them to research antidotes would be one thing, since that's part of the regular curriculum.

The problem is that Professor Snape also hinted in a sinister tone that he would poison one of them before Halloween to see if their antidote would work.

With that, how could the young wizards dare to let their guard down?

Professor Flitwick also added content to their regular coursework.

They had to read three more books to prepare for learning summoning spells.

Even Hagrid, the second most popular teacher and professor of the Magical Creatures class, added extra burdens to them.

Because the tadpoles grow very quickly during this period.

Strangely, no one has figured out exactly what they like to eat.

This made Hagrid very happy.

As part of the "Make it bigger and stronger, and create new glories" project, he even suggested that the young wizards come to his hut every other day to observe the blast-tailed snails and record their unusual behavior.

When Hagrid offered this suggestion as a reward of fluffy feathers, many young wizards were tempted.

Although fried snails are disgusting, the fluffy ones smell really good!
After finishing their magical creatures protection class, they were supposed to return to the castle, but when the group arrived at the entrance hall, they found they could not go any further.

Because a large group of students were crowded around a large notice erected at the foot of the marble staircase.

Ron was originally the tallest of the four; Sherlock and Harry were both a little shorter than him.

In addition, he was naturally a show-off, so without saying a word, he tiptoed over the heads of the people in front of him and loudly read the words of the notice to the little lions nearby.

【Three-way Battle for Supremacy】

The title alone was enough to attract the attention of the other students around.

Even the little eagles, badgers, and snakes that couldn't squeeze to the front gathered around.

Ron couldn't help but scoff when he saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle mixed in with the group.

However, seeing how accommodating everyone was, I continued reading:

"Representatives from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive at 6 p.m. on Friday, October 30, at which time the afternoon classes will end half an hour earlier..."

"awesome!"

Before Ron could finish speaking, Harry immediately cheered:
"Friday's last class is Potions! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"

The young wizards watching also felt a pang of sympathy.

This time, even Sherlock couldn't stop Harry.

In the past, he would have definitely told Harry, "You have too much prejudice against Professor Snape."

But even he believed that Professor Snape was capable of doing this.

Anyway, with his skills, he can save people no matter how severe the poison is.

Not to mention that he poisoned himself.

Ron didn't mind being interrupted by his good friend and continued reading.

"...At that time, please return your schoolbags and textbooks to your dormitories, gather in front of the castle to welcome our guests, and then attend the welcome banquet."

"That means there's only one week left!"

At that moment, Ernie McMillan of Hufflepuff College pushed her way out of the crowd.

His eyes sparkled. "I wonder if Cedric already knows. I'll go tell him..."

"Cedric?"

After Ernie hurriedly walked away, Ron was somewhat bewildered, unable to recall who the man was for a moment.

“It’s Diggory,” Harry explained. “Cedric is his name, and I think he’s definitely going to compete in the Championship.”

"That idiot wants to be a Hogwarts champion?"

Ron said with some dissatisfaction.

Now that they knew what the revelation said, the four of them squeezed through the chattering crowd and headed for the stairs.

"He's not an idiot."

Hermione frowned upon hearing this. "I heard he's an outstanding student—not only the Quidditch captain, but also a prefect."

"Ronald, I think you must dislike him because he beat Gryffindor in Quidditch."

"You're making it sound like the prefects and the Quidditch captain can explain anything."

Ron said sarcastically, "I bet you only like him because he's handsome."

"I'm sorry, I won't like someone just because they're handsome!"

Hermione said angrily.

Ron coughed loudly, his voice sounding strange, much like Lockhart.

Sherlock and Harry couldn't help but smile at each other.

Ron is quite adept at being sarcastic and sarcastic.

The notice that appeared in the foyer had a significant impact on the people living in the castle.

For the next week, wherever you went, people seemed to be talking about only one topic.

The Three-Way Battle.

(End of this chapter)