My Hogwarts has a serious problem.

Chapter 246, Section 243: The Great Mathematicians (Just kidding)

"Is it possible to gather all the Ravenclaw students together and have them list out all the numbers that meet the requirements?"

"That's so stupid. It's the stupidest way to do it. Besides, there are less than 300 students in all of our Ravenclaw grades 1 through 7, and most of them have to attend classes. Unless we stay up all night to study, we might not even have enough time in a day."

"Any progress from the strategy team?"

"Most of the strategy group just heard their cousins' children learn some math during the summer vacation. The highest level of math they learned seemed to be the geometry of verifying the same. However, some of them seemed to vaguely remember that their tutors had learned similar knowledge in college, something like permutations and combinations."

"University? What kind of university is that?"

"The ultimate school for Muggles; it's said that only the smartest people can get in."

"Can anyone be smarter than our Ravenclaw students? Can Muggle knowledge be as complex as magical knowledge?"

"Um, prefect, what's blocking dozens of us from getting into the dorm right now is a math problem that Muggles have to solve."

Penelope Crivart, the sixth-year prefect of Ravenclaw, glared at the lackey beside her, who had absolutely no sense of propriety and was even less tactful than her boyfriend, Percy Weasley.

It was nearly noon, and more and more Ravenclaw wizards were gathering in front of the lounge, but none of them could answer the door knocker's question, which was rare in the history of Ravenclaw.

There are six prefects in Ravenclaw, two of whom are from Muggle families. After hearing the question, they determined that the Door Knock problem was a mathematical problem in Muggle science. So they gathered students from Muggle families above the fifth grade and formed a strategy team to derive a mathematical formula to quickly find the answer, so that the little eagle door knocker who was locked out wouldn't have to sleep in the hallway tonight.

"How embarrassing! How embarrassing!" A seventh-year prefect paced back and forth in front of the door. "It's not like we haven't encountered extremely difficult problems that we haven't been able to solve, but today we've been stumped by a Muggle's question. What a disgrace to wizards!"

The strategy team members, who were sitting on chairs and benches conjured by shapeshifting magic and enthusiastically writing and drawing formulas on parchment with quill pens, all stared at him with unfriendly expressions.

"Brad, what do you mean by that? Are wizards superior to Muggles?"

The prefect named Brad chuckled sheepishly, "No, no, that's not what I meant. I just misspoke in my haste."

While the theory of bloodline still has its supporters in Ravenclaw, it's not openly expressed like in Slytherin. The academic atmosphere here is quite strong, and you have to let your knowledge speak for itself if you want to be respected.

On a side note, precisely because of this, Lynn is quite popular among Ravenclaw girls. The most frequent topic of conversation among the girls from Ravenclaw in their dormitories is why the Sorting Hat sorted Lynn into Slytherin instead of Ravenclaw (so they could get close enough to touch her).

The strategy team didn't pursue the matter further after Brad backed down; instead, they continued their heated discussion.

This feeling of deriving formulas from the root to solve problems gave them the sensation of transforming themselves into Archimedes, Euclid, and Descartes, deducing a problem that had puzzled humanity for millennia.

But if you listen carefully to what these great "mathematicians" are discussing...

"My brother told me that the main math concept he learned in school was functions, so this problem will most likely require the most advanced quadratic function to solve!"

"You've even gotten the most basic math concepts for Muggles wrong, and you're still spouting nonsense about functions? You should be approaching this problem using a geometric mindset!"

"Ignorant! You're as ignorant as a pot of slugs! I've seen my brother's math lessons from high school; so many numbers could only appear in the realm of sets! Do you people, whose level is only at the average junior high school level, even know what sets are?"

Suddenly, this sixth-grade Ravenclaw student uttered an advanced mathematical term, which startled everyone in the strategy team!

High school knowledge?

That's amazing!

The strategy is likely to succeed!

Only Ian, a third-year student who was pulled into the strategy group because of his extensive knowledge, stared at this group of delusional teenagers who had already imagined themselves as math gods with dead fish eyes, and said emotionlessly.

"I remember I just told you that this question involves permutations and combinations. My tutor covered this topic in middle school and studied it even more in college."

Suddenly, the group of teenagers who thought they had seen hope all fell silent.

So Archimedes, Euclid, and Descartes were just spouting nonsense all along.

After being given a cold shower, the entire strategy team pinned their hopes on Ian again. They wouldn't discriminate against him because of his young age; in Ravenclaw, seniority doesn't matter, and everything is based on knowledge.

Despite the intense gazes around him, Ian showed no sign of getting agitated.

He wasn't some chuunibyou (delusional teenager). He didn't even know which Ravenclaw idiot had come up with the name "Strategy Team" while reading Japanese manga at home. He was speechless at the thought.

"You see, I don't have any. I've only heard my tutor mention it, but I don't know the specific math concepts."

The atmosphere in the strategy group instantly changed from Boruto to Akame ga Kill!, and everyone went from being enthusiastic to feeling depressed.

There's no hope for the strategy team, but the good news is that a fifth-year wizard is sick and is staying in his dorm instead of going to class. When he gets hungry at noon and realizes his roommate didn't bring him any food, he'll go out to find something to eat and open the door from the common room to let people in.

This prevented the Ravenclaw students from freezing in the corridors today.

However, such an approach would undoubtedly be a disgrace to the Ravenclaws, who pride themselves on their wisdom. They have already memorized the problem and will solve it sooner or later.

The strategy team didn't disband; because of their shared interest in mathematics, they decided to form a math club, which wasn't limited to Muggle-born students—any young wizard who was interested in math could join.

They had their Muggle family members buy math textbooks from elementary to high school, intending to start from the basics in case similar math problems appeared in the door knocker in the future.

Neither Lynn in this time nor Lynn from the future knew about these things.

One of them was busy preparing for their first exploration of the Chamber of Secrets, while the other was enjoying some alone time with Hermione in the Room of Requirement. During dinner, Ian mentioned this to Umaru, who was disguised as Lynn, but Umaru just laughed it off and didn't take it to heart at all.

(End of this chapter)