In the cold and damp month of January, classes resumed at Hogwarts. Students carried their books through the corridors, hurrying from one classroom to another.
With the second half of the term just beginning, the fifth-year students truly felt that the exams were approaching this time.
The pressure of the O.W.L. examinations weighed on them so heavily that they could hardly breathe. In the library, the common room, and even in the corridors, you could see students holding books and constantly reciting.
It wasn't just the students—Madam Pomfrey also became busier. The cold winter of the Scottish Highlands caused many people to catch colds. Madam Pomfrey not only had to prepare Energizing Draughts and Calming Draughts for the upper-year students, but also brew Pepperup Potion to cure those who had fallen ill.
The two-week holiday hadn't changed much. It hadn't relieved everyone's stress, and everyone remained highly tense. There were more people like Stinson who fainted from time to time.
Kenneth Toller, who had always been at odds with Eda and the twins, also seemed to have been crushed by the pressure of the wizarding examinations. One morning in mid-January, Kenneth Toller was carried out of the dormitory by his roommates, wrapped in a bedsheet, and taken out of the common room.
The Gryffindor students who witnessed the scene thought they were about to attend a funeral feast, but the Toller wrapped in the sheet let out a painful groan, letting everyone know that the professionals wouldn't be needed after all.
For some reason, Toller's body was covered in boils, and they caused him great pain.
The Gryffindor students had truly broadened their horizons. They had seen people cry because of too much pressure, seen people lose their temper and doubt themselves, and seen people faint at the slightest thing—but someone covered in boils was a first.
In fact, the boils on Toller's body had nothing to do with the pressure of the exams at all. He had them entirely because Fred had put a whole packet of Bubotuber powder into his pajamas.
The story of that packet of Bubotuber powder went back quite a long way, all the way to Fred and George's second year. At that time, because of a conflict between Eda, the twins, and Toller, the twins bought a packet of Bubotuber powder from Hogsmeade to deal with him.
In order to keep Eda out of it, the twins had always kept it a secret from her. They even made Eda think that the two of them had started reading inappropriate books at such a young age.
Being misunderstood would have been one thing, but the key point was that this packet of Bubotuber powder had never been used. After Eda's persuasion and the temptation of Quidditch, the two brothers forgave Toller once, and the packet of Bubotuber powder was tossed into the corner of a cabinet.
It wasn't until after returning from the Christmas holiday, when Fred and George were tidying their cabinet, that it saw the light of day again. The moment they saw the Bubotuber powder, memories of the past came flooding back. The time for revenge had arrived—and so Toller ended up covered in boils.
The deed had been done very discreetly. Even if someone suspected the two of them, there was no evidence proving that the twins were the culprits.
Lying in the hospital wing now, Toller might have realized what had happened, but there was nothing he could do about it.
No one would believe wild accusations, and Fred and George had been behaving very well lately—either reading in the library or attending Quidditch training. Even though Filch had been keeping a close eye on them, he hadn't caught the twins doing anything wrong.
That evening, the twins were once again dragged off by Wood for training, and they had taken Eda's Cleansweep Seven with them. Ever since Harry's Nimbus 2000 had been destroyed by the Whomping Willow, Eda had lent him her broom so he could continue attending training.
The old Shooting Star brooms at school were truly not meant to be ridden. The crooked twigs sticking out from them made people uneasy just looking at them. Once the cold wind blew, the Shooting Star broom would sway back and forth, making it completely unappealing to ride.
Eda came to the library alone. She planned to find a few books to read and broaden her knowledge. As a regular fixture in the library, Eda naturally spotted Hermione Granger there as well.
Spread across the desk in front of the beaver-like girl were textbooks, Arithmancy charts, a runic dictionary, illustrated guides showing how Muggles move heavy objects, and page after page of densely written notes.
Recently, Hermione seemed to have reverted to the way she had been in '91—keeping to herself, barely speaking to anyone, and snapping harshly whenever someone disturbed her.
In the Gryffindor common room, a three-way war between cat, dog, and rat often broke out—Eda's Garlon, Hermione's Crookshanks, and Ron's Scabbers. However, Ron's Scabbers was the one who got beaten up every time.
Garlon actually had many "owners"—Eda was only one in name. Even if Eda didn't take care of him, Ginny would still take the cream-colored Labrador out for walks, so most of the time he didn't have the chance to chase Scabbers.
But Hermione always let Crookshanks roam freely, allowing the cat to wander around the castle as it pleased. Even if Hermione locked Crookshanks up, the clever cat could quickly escape from its cage.
Because of this, Ron became dissatisfied, and the two of them broke out into arguments many times. What upset Ron the most was that Hermione seemed completely indifferent to Crookshanks's behavior and showed little apology toward the victim, Scabbers.
After Christmas, their friendship seemed to have reached its end. The scope of their arguments was no longer limited to their pets—it now included the flying broom and the Marauder's Map. Sometimes they would even quarrel over the most trivial matters.
Now things had become even worse. Hermione and Ron had begun a cold war, completely ignoring each other.
Hermione's hair had been rubbed into a messy tangle by her own hands, clearly showing that the heavy coursework had thrown her into anxiety. Compared to Eda, who still had the mind to care about her appearance, Hermione looked far more like a fifth-year student preparing for exams.
Passing by a row of desks, Eda walked straight toward the bookshelves without disturbing Hermione. The girl who had chosen every elective course was now like a restless tiger—disturbing her rashly wouldn't end well.
Her fingers slid across rows of bookshelves before Eda finally selected a book. The title and its contents were both related to werewolves.
Her conversation with her grandmother during the holidays had made Eda realize that relying solely on the abilities of underage wizards to deal with a werewolf was practically a fantasy—unless they possessed top-tier strength or knew something Eda herself didn't.
Eda flipped through the book from beginning to end. The content was entirely devoted to criticizing werewolves, claiming they were inferior and unworthy of living in this world. The entire book degraded werewolves to the point of worthlessness and argued that the Ministry of Magic should completely eradicate them.
Although the whole book was full of empty nonsense, the extreme author did still have some understanding of werewolves. It mentioned that werewolves were not afraid of silver objects, but an ointment made by mixing silver powder with dittany had remarkable effects on wounds inflicted on werewolves.
Werewolves also didn't have any particularly obvious weaknesses—especially none that young wizards could make use of. One of Eda's ideas had been ruled out. Moreover, when Professor Lupin was at school, there had been no Wolfsbane Potion yet. That meant if the three—James and the others—wanted to help Lupin, they would have had to face him while he was in his feral state.
Closing the book, Eda gently rubbed her earlobe. Had things back then really happened the way she imagined? Did the three of them rely on their own outstanding strength to suppress the werewolf during his transformation, or did they restrain him through Animagus transformation?
No matter which of these two methods it was, both were extremely difficult for students. The first method required exceptional talent and continuous, unrelenting effort. Even if they couldn't reach Eda's level, the three of them working together might still be able to control a werewolf during its transformation.
This was also the method Eda found more believable, because becoming an Animagus was far more difficult than the former. Talent and effort alone were not enough to become an Animagus. This extremely complex form of magic had very high requirements and even required a bit of luck.
Animagus transformations were usually limited to ordinary animals, and each Animagus could only transform into one animal. What animal one became was not something the person could control—it was related to a person's body type and personality.
In the twentieth century, there were only seven registered Animagi in the records of the Ministry of Magic. That alone was enough to show how difficult this magic was. Even if James and the others had become Animagi, what if the animals they transformed into had been rats or British Shorthair cats?
Letting Tom and Jerry suppress a werewolf—that would be completely absurd!
(～￣▽￣)～Read 12 Chapters ahead:
Patreon: Dragonel