translating_wizard
patreon
Chapter 1171: The End of the Exam and a New Journey
🕑 Added 2024-07-17 11:51:11 +0000 UTCAfter the messy Divination exam and the Astronomy practical exam, there was only the final exam, History of Magic, left.
This was also the most difficult and boring exam so far. There was no practical part, only a theoretical written exam.
It was really difficult to remember those complicated names, dates, and historical events. As early as a month ago, Hermione had lent Harry and Ron her class notes, stacked three-and-a-half feet high. They hadn't finished reading them until the exam was about to start.
Evan wasn't much better off either. Whenever he saw those complex and profound History of Magic contents, he just wanted to fall asleep.
The atmosphere in the common room was similar. The warm summer breeze blew in from the windows. The students stretched and yawned in front of the open windows, looking listless. Probably only Hermione could hold on without slackening.
Around her, everyone was discussing how to relax after the exams.
Some were going back to their dormitories to have a good sleep, some were going on a shopping spree in Hogsmeade, some were studying the latest list of prank products from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and some were going to have a good meal to relax. Harry and Ron were going to go down to the Quidditch pitch, have a fly on their broomsticks, and savor their freedom from studying.
As for Evan, he had made plans too!
After the exams, he would go to Egypt to attend the upcoming International Alchemical Conference before the end of the term.
With the help of Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel, he got an invitation to the conference.
This was a large-scale international exchange event for all alchemists in the world, held every five years in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, and lasting for a month.
At that time, famous alchemists from all over the world would go to exchange experiences and share their research results.
The organizer of the conference, the International Federation of Alchemists, had even set up an award specifically for the conference, the Golpalott Alchemy Award.
The Golpalott Alchemy Award Committee selected wizards who had made ground-breaking contribution to the field of Potions or Alchemy in the past three years. The awards for the winners were different every year, generally with a large number of Gold Galleons, award certificates, and travel exchange awards.
In recent years, due to the lack of funds for the committee, the subsidies given by the Egyptian Ministry of Magic and the International Confederation of Wizards had become less and less. For several consecutive sessions, even the award certificates had not been issued, which had caused great dissatisfaction among Alchemists. But in general, as the only award related to Alchemy in the world, the Golpalott Alchemy Award was very valuable.
Even if there was no prize money and certificate, the Ministry of Magic of the winner’s country would also provide some subsidies accordingly.
In addition, as early as three hundred years ago, Nicolas Flamel won the Lifetime Achievement Award issued by the committee.
Albus Dumbledore, while still in the course of his student years, had also received the Gold Medal for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference and a large sum of money from the Golpalott Alchemy Award Committee.
However, his greatest achievement in Alchemy, the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, did not win an award.
It had to be said that this was a pity.
Evan's main purpose of going there this time was to learn, exchange, and gain knowledge, as well as to prepare for entering the Ruins of Amun Ra to investigate the time distortion phenomenon there. He did not have any research results to present. In the past few years, he had focused his main energy on learning the most basic ancient magic runes and the construction of spell runes in Alchemy, and only made some small gadgets such as prank products.
So, he was just going to observe!
Since he only received one invitation, Hermione and Elaine couldn't go with him, so Evan would be going alone...
He just hoped that this trip to Egypt would go smoothly and there would be no unexpected troubles.
In short, there was still one exam left, but the students' minds were no longer on the upcoming History of Magic written exam.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, the students dragged their tired bodies into the Great Hall and took their places in front of their overturned examination papers.
Professor Binns, the ghost, didn't show up to invigilate either. Everyone felt exhausted and just wanted to finish this long exam as quickly as possible.
“Turn over your papers,” said Professor Marchbanks from the front of the Hall, flicking over the giant hourglass. “You may begin... "
Evan looked at the questions, which were quite difficult. For example, the fourth question: In your opinion, did wand legislation contribute to, or lead to better control of, goblin riots of the eighteenth century? In question five, how was the Statute of Secrecy breached in 1749 and what measures were introduced to prevent a recurrence? In question ten, describe the circumstances that led to the Formation of the International Confederation of Wizards and explain why the warlocks of Liechtenstein refused to join...
All the questions were open-ended essay questions. If it were purely about magic, Evan could have performed better, but History of Magic...
These questions required detailed analysis, and the examiners would score based on the completeness of the key points.
Behind every seemingly simple historical event, there were quite responsible background factors, and it was difficult to analyze them thoroughly.
After answering only five questions, Evan felt that his brain had become torpid and slack.
He tried to recall related content and Hermione's notes, which meticulously organized every key point, looking up now and again to check the large hourglass on the desk beside Professor Marchbanks. Evan remembered that in the original plot, Harry saw Voldemort capturing Sirius Black during this exam.
So, would Harry see any visions this time, whether real or fake...
But nothing happened. After Evan finished answering the last question about the expulsion of vampires, until Professor Marchbanks asked all students to put down their quills and began collecting the papers, nothing happened. Harry did not enter Voldemort's thoughts again.
The O.W.Ls exams were over. What the students had to do now was to enjoy themselves and then wait for the exam results.
Based on their exam results, they would decide next term's courses and professors.
For example, Snape decided he wouldn't accept students with less than an "Outstanding" grade in their Potions exam.
This meant that most people would have to say goodbye to him, and if they wanted to continue studying Potions, they would have to sign up for another professor's class.
There were actually many faculty members in Hogwarts, but most of them were not very well-known...
"Thank heavens it's finally over!"
"I think I might have gotten one question wrong..."
"Please, Hermione, don't talk about exams until the next term starts," Ron quickly said.
"What we need to do now is to relax. I just saw Seamus and Dean. They are pooling their money to buy butterbeer from Hogsmeade for tonight's dusk-till-dawn end-of-exams celebration, and they invited us to join them."
"Harry, you can't leave the school now!"
"That's right, but I think it would be nice to take the Firebolt out and fly a few laps. Voldemort won't be waiting for me over the castle."
Harry and Ron ran back to their dormitory to get their broomsticks, leaving Evan and Hermione to sort through the piles of exam materials.
In the Gryffindor common room, everyone was excited, as if the festival was about to come.
According to the usual practice in previous years, a dusk-till-dawn end-of-exams celebration would be held tonight...
Although this year's situation was a bit different, the missing Voldemort wouldn't dampen everyone's spirits.
