Overall, the class had gone very smoothly.
Not only were the students thoroughly satisfied by the end, they even seemed a little reluctant for it to end. Tver himself was quite pleased as well.
Pleased with the dummy's performance.
Inspired by the test where Marvolio had used imp magic to merge with a teddy bear, whether that story was true or not, Tver really was using the method of fusing an imp into a dummy to test the imp's autonomy and the compatibility of merging a half-real, half-unreal pair of objects.
And the result had, of course, been unexpectedly good.
After the fusion, the dummy basically possessed a way of thinking equivalent to Tver's. So even without him giving any direct orders, the dummy would still strike at Umbridge with perfect accuracy.
Of course, that was also because Umbridge was just that universally loathed. No matter whose soul it came from, it would still dislike her...
But the dummy had not only attacked Umbridge. It had also consistently remembered its teaching duty, and Harry getting hit by the Stinging Jinx proved that nicely.
In other words, once the imp had been added to the dummy, it had become a genuine workhorse. It not only had a fair degree of autonomy, but could also flexibly carry out the goals Tver assigned to it.
Of course, it was not without problems.
The dummy was still made from magical materials, after all. Although Tver had commissioned the goblins of Gringotts to help refine it, aside from its extremely high magical and physical resistance, it was inferior to a living body in every other respect.
The most obvious gap was in strength.
Even though Tver had put a great deal of effort into maintaining the dummy's combat power, and even with the imp personally possessing it, once a layer of magical material came between them, the dummy was effectively limited to wandless, nonverbal casting.
The imp was not particularly strong to begin with, and after being weakened like that, the dummy's combat ability was basically only good for bullying students who had not yet graduated, and only with Tver present in person.
Still, it was not impossible to make up for that. He simply needed to replace the dummy's body with a material that had the strongest possible magical affinity. Something like the material used in the sword Godric had left behind would have been excellent.
There was just one tiny little problem. That sort of material was already almost extinct. Even after Tver had Ingus contact goblins around the world through Gringotts, they still had not managed to gather enough...
"Professor..."
An unexpected figure shuffled hesitantly up in front of Tver and spoke in a timid, stumbling voice.
That pulled Tver back to reality.
He shook his head, clearing away his tangled thoughts, and focused. Only then did he realize he had already returned to the door of his office, and standing there was Ron.
"Ron?"
Tver glanced out through the corridor window. The group of fifth-years from the previous class were still walking off in high spirits toward the arena, which had now been turned into grassland.
"Don't you have another class soon? You really just ditched Harry and Hermione?"
"I... I used not feeling well as an excuse and already asked Professor Firenze for leave." Ron flushed bright red, clearly still unaccustomed to lying to his best friends.
But considering Ron's sensitive nature, and the fact that whatever had brought him here in secret had to be important, Tver did not dwell on it.
"Then come in. Since it's only you, I don't have to worry about a crowd of people trying to steal my pumpkin juice."
He casually pushed open the door and, at the same time, tossed his coat neatly into the wardrobe to make himself look a little more at home.
Meanwhile, he directed the bottle of pumpkin juice that had been waiting on the desk for ages, deftly pouring them each a glass.
Ron looked a little overwhelmed by the attention, but the professor's friendly manner really did calm his heart, which had been pounding so hard it felt ready to leap out of his chest.
Come to think of it, this was the first time he had ever met with the professor alone in private.
The moment he thought of that, the nerves he had only just managed to calm immediately tightened up all over again.
"Sit down. If it's made you this nervous, then it must be something important, right?"
Tver did his best to keep his tone light.
Different students naturally called for different approaches, and Ron's inferiority complex might well be something even he himself had never fully noticed.
The fact that he had come here privately today was probably already the result of a great deal of courage, and as a considerate professor, Tver naturally was not going to ruin that.
"I..."
The moment he opened his mouth, Ron realized his throat had gone dry and painful from being too tense.
So Tver gestured toward the cup bouncing lightly in front of him and demonstratively took a sip of his own pumpkin juice.
"This is a recipe Dobby worked on for ages," he said with an easy laugh. "Though I can't really taste the difference myself..."
Ron had been holding the cup and sipping the pumpkin juice in small mouthfuls. The sudden turn in the professor's words nearly made him choke, and he coughed awkwardly twice.
"You're not going to tell Dobby that conclusion, are you?" Tver threatened jokingly.
Ron hurriedly put the cup back on the desk and answered loudly, "Of course not."
He even licked his lips with some interest, as if he really could not tell the difference.
"Actually, I think it tastes pretty much the same as ordinary pumpkin juice."
But the effect was better.
This time, not only did his throat no longer feel tight, there was even a relaxed smile on his face.
"So, are you willing to have a relaxed chat with me now?" Tver asked at exactly the right moment.
Ron pressed his lips together, swallowed, and then let out a deep breath.
"It's about your career guidance..."
Tver raised an eyebrow in some surprise.
"Now that you mention it, ever since I came back to school, I really haven't seen you come ask me anything. I thought you'd gone to Professor McGonagall."
There really had been plenty of students coming to him for advice. Even Draco had joined the crowd and asked for a consultation once. But that did not mean every student in the school needed his guidance.
If every student in the school came to him for career advice, then forget afternoon tea, he would be lucky to have time to eat at all.
"I did go to Professor McGonagall, actually, but..." Ron hesitated. "I just can't seem to figure out what I want to do in the future..."
"If that's what's troubling you, then you really don't need to worry too much." Seeing how downcast he looked, Tver offered a word of comfort.
"You haven't seen how wizarding society really works yet, so naturally you don't understand the different kinds of jobs in the wizarding world. Feeling lost about that is perfectly normal."
It was just like university students about to step into society. Some people had clear goals, and naturally some others felt completely at a loss about the future.
"But Harry and Hermione, even Neville, they all have their own goals..."
"Comparing yourself to others isn't a good habit, Ron," Tver said with a smile.
"Of course, I can tell that you really are feeling lost inside. But the more times like this, the more you need to stay calm."
"Study, live your life, experience every side of this little society that is the school. Read newspapers and magazines. The more things you see, the less lost you'll feel inside."
"But is reading newspapers really going to make me more accomplished than Bill and the others?!" Ron suddenly shouted.
His whole body was tense, and his eyes flickered with a jumble of confusion, inferiority, embarrassment, and other tangled emotions.
He looked just like a wronged child.