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Chapter 21: Students Who Know How to Use Their Heads
Seamus Finnigan gave a sharp little snort.
"Hmph. We're Gryffindors, not Ravenclaws."
He folded his arms and looked at Hermione strangely.
"If Gryffindors were supposed to be better at memorizing than Ravenclaws, why didn't the Sorting Hat put us there instead?"
Hermione glared at him.
"Don't forget what Professor Holmes said."
She lifted her chin, eyes bright with determination.
"Once we've memorized the material, he'll start teaching real Defense Against the Dark Arts combat techniques."
She looked around at the others.
"I checked—Slytherin hasn't had their class yet, which means we have a one-day advantage over them."
Her voice rose with excitement.
"If we can memorize the material before they do, we'll learn the practical fighting techniques before they do."
Then she finished with absolute conviction:
"And then we'll definitely be able to beat them."
The moment she said it, the mood in the common room changed.
The other Gryffindors' eyes lit up.
Their frustration vanished almost instantly, replaced by fierce competitive energy.
One by one, they grabbed their textbooks and began reading aloud.
The older students nearby frowned at the sudden racket, but there was little they could say.
After all, apart from the fourth-years and above, even the first- and third-years had already heard the rumors about Professor Holmes.
Several of them had taken out their own Defense Against the Dark Arts books and started quietly memorizing in advance.
After all, they had heard about the privileges given to class representatives.
The matter of fruit distribution alone was enough to stir ambition in half the house.
Hermione let out a quiet breath of relief.
So Percy's method really had worked.
She knew perfectly well what her weakness was.
She was not especially popular.
So after Douglas had appointed her class representative, she had gone privately to Percy for advice.
There were two reasons for that.
First, among all the people she knew, Percy clearly had the best relationship with Douglas.
Second, during the gathering at Douglas's house, Percy had mentioned that a large part of his success in becoming a prefect came from certain management methods Douglas had taught him.
When Percy heard that Hermione had also become one of Douglas's chosen class representatives, he had been delighted to share what he knew.
Just then, Fred and George pounced on Ron from either side while he was trying desperately to force the textbook's contents into his head.
"Oh, our youngest brother has finally begun…"
"…his transformation into the next great Percy!"
"Would you call this corruption, George?"
"I would indeed, Fred!"
Ron's face turned scarlet as he struggled to throw off their arms.
Hermione planted her hands on her hips.
"George, Fred! If you're not going to study, then stop distracting Ron!"
Then she narrowed her eyes.
"And don't forget—you two are class representatives as well."
The twins immediately exchanged a look.
George patted Fred on the shoulder solemnly.
"Congratulations, brother. You've become an officer."
He paused dramatically.
"Even if you are only my adjutant."
Fred leapt back as though stung.
"Merlin's socks, I'm the primary one and you're the secondary!"
George raised his eyebrows.
Fred understood at once.
"One day me, one day you?"
George grinned.
"One day me, one day you."
By the time the sentence ended, the two of them were already wrestling and stumbling toward the far corner of the common room.
Harry nudged Ron with his shoulder.
"Why on earth would Professor Holmes make those two class representatives?"
He lowered his voice.
"And he didn't even assign them extra homework."
Ron shrugged helplessly.
"I suppose it has something to do with something that happened years ago, but I was too young then."
He frowned.
"I don't know the details. Percy definitely knows, but I bet the two of them bribed him not to tell me."
Smack.
Hermione brought the book in her hand down sharply on both their heads.
"Professor Holmes obviously has his reasons," she said crossly.
"Now hurry up and memorize it."
In the Defense Against the Dark Arts office, by the time Miss Irene finished reciting the first lesson's material and left, it was already five-forty.
Douglas picked up the proposal he had prepared earlier and headed for Professor McGonagall's office.
As Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, McGonagall handled the bulk of the school's internal affairs.
Before Dumbledore had become Headmaster, she had simply been one of his fellow professors.
Now, because Dumbledore held so many positions and responsibilities across the wider wizarding world, he was frequently away in meetings.
That left most day-to-day management of Hogwarts in McGonagall's hands.
A perfectly traditional arrangement, really.
The man was out in the world; the woman kept the house standing.
Her office was not far away—only a staircase turn between the second and third floors.
When Douglas arrived, Professor McGonagall was bent over a document, reading with full concentration.
The moment she saw who had entered, a rare smile appeared on her face.
"Douglas, I must say, you are exceptionally well suited to teaching."
She leaned back slightly.
"I've already heard about today. Percy came to report what has been happening since your classes ended."
Her smile deepened just a little.
"The younger students were memorizing their textbooks in the common room, and the older students—aside from those in the library finishing homework—were revising with them."
She gave a dry little sigh.
"It was the first time Percy had ever seen such a disturbance, and he had no idea how to deal with it."
Douglas smiled, sat down in the chair opposite her, and answered calmly.
"I've always believed that books are the condensed experience of those who came before us."
He rested one arm on the chair.
"If you keep their experience firmly in mind, it becomes much easier to understand it."
"And only when you combine that with your own practice can you find the correct path at the lowest possible cost in time and effort."
His expression sharpened.
"I do not want my students to one day discover how to deal with Dark magic only by bleeding their way toward the answer."
He paused.
"The problem is that much of this material is already in the lower-year textbooks."
He shook his head.
"Unfortunately, not every child is capable of recognizing its importance on their own."
"So as a teacher, what I need to do now is force them to remember it."
His voice remained steady.
"Then one day, through practice, they'll naturally digest and understand it."
Professor McGonagall listened in silence.
At last she set her quill down, folded her hands on the desk, and considered his words carefully.
"I have certainly encountered the kind of situation you describe."
She nodded slightly.
"There have been many times when students were unfamiliar with material that was already in the textbook, and that slowed the entire lesson."
"Or I would reach some point in upper-year Transfiguration and realize they were only then understanding content they had technically already covered in earlier years."
Then she frowned faintly.
"However, I do not think your method is entirely suitable for magical learning."
Her gaze sharpened behind her spectacles.
"You know as well as I do that magic is, in many ways, an extension of thought."
"If students begin to treat magic as rigid knowledge alone, that may greatly hinder their ability to develop new spells and original approaches."
Douglas understood exactly what she meant.
Hogwarts placed enormous value on practical instruction and hands-on learning.
Most professors filled their classrooms with live demonstrations, enchanted objects, and various teaching aids.
In nearly every subject, practical work formed the heart of the lesson, while textbook knowledge was treated more as support.
Even many auxiliary subjects were taught in a similarly demonstration-based style.
There was, however, a problem with that approach.
Students developed unevenly.
Many became heavily biased toward certain subjects while leaving theoretical foundations in others half-learned.
A great number ended up understanding their magic only superficially.
That habit had spread so widely that in the modern wizarding world, most people were careless and imprecise in how they used magic.
Often they only discovered the weakness after leaving school and beginning work.
Only then, out of necessity, did they go back and learn the theory they had neglected.
Douglas did not deny that Hogwarts' educational method had strengths.
Practical teaching was important.
But it relied too heavily on students' own discipline to master the textbook outside class.
And these were still teenagers.
How much self-control could reasonably be expected from most of them?
At the same time, those same textbooks were precisely what the O.W.L.s examined.
So Douglas had set his sights on the students' spare time.
Excluding Astronomy at night, Hogwarts classes ran from 8:30 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon.
Because there were too few teachers, students did not actually have lessons for the entire day.
It had not always been that way. Hogwarts had more than enough empty classrooms.
But as staff numbers had dwindled over the years, the students' class time had shrunk with them.
Douglas had thought about this long ago.
That was why he had selected class representatives from every house and every year in his own subject.
It was not merely to make his lessons run more smoothly.
It was also a response to the shortage of teachers.
Better to organize focused periods of guided self-study than leave students to drift through the common rooms, learning only if they happened to feel like it.
And once students became used to reciting and reviewing textbook material regularly, it would not be difficult to introduce structured morning study as well.
In Douglas's view, 8:30 was still rather too late for the first lesson of the day.
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