"Excellent," said Professor Umbridge "Now would you all please total up the scores of the papers you are marking and then hand them back?"
Harry totalled up Hermione's marks and scribbled down on the first page the number 21.5. Except for one instance when she only got half a mark, all of her other answers had been completely correct. The remaining eight points lost related to eight questions that she had been unable to answer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, two of the questions that had been unanswered were the ones relating to Quidditch.
He handed the test back to her, and Hermione returned his to him. He looked at his score and saw that he had gotten a measly 15.5. He had thought that he had done better than that, but looking over his parchment there were at least three examples of him only getting half the answer.
Well, at least his guesses about the Knight Bus and the Squib Rights Marches had been correct.
"Now then," said Professor Umbridge, who was now sitting down at her desk with a large piece of parchment in front of her "when I call your name, please call out your score so that I can make a note of it. Abbott, Hannah?"
Hannah's cheeks were slightly pink with embarrassment when she called out "Eighteen."
"Well she did better than me!" thought Harry.
"Bones, Susan?"
"Nineteen." Susan called.
"Brown, Lavender?"
"Ten." the Gryffindor girl called out meekly.
It turned out that Lavender had very little to be ashamed of. At least she had gotten up to double figures. Many who came after her could not say the same. Hermione was the only person to score in the twenties, and Harry's score actually placed him in the top five, with Neville, somewhat surprisingly, beating him by half a mark with a well-rounded sixteen.
Ron's ears were bright red when he was called upon last. His mumbled "six" was barely audible. That placed him at the bottom of the class, and even then it was debatable how many of those answers were his own and how many were copied from Neville before he was caught.
"Very well," said Professor Umbridge as she rolled up the sheet of parchment containing their scores "please pass your question papers to the front, and I will use them to plan out what areas we need to focus on as the year goes by. I should warn you that we will be having a test again somewhere in the near future so that we can see how much progress you are making."
Most of the class groaned at this news, but Harry noticed Hermione sit up a little straighter after hearing that she was going to get the opportunity to beat her score.
Harry actually thought that this was a good way to learn. Back in primary school, the maths teacher had used this method every Friday afternoon to make sure that they were all learning. Harry had found that to be a much better way to learn his times tables than when they all sat there droning out "One two is two, two twos are four, three twos are six…" and so on.
Also that there might be a test at any time (Umbridge had not stated exactly when it would happen) could only mean that they would spend more time studying the course material.
Shortly thereafter, the lesson ended.
"Class dismissed," said Professor Umbridge brightly "Mr Potter, could you stay behind please?"
Wondering what she could possible want now, Harry swung his the strap of his book bag onto his shoulder and made his way to the front of the classroom as everyone else headed towards the door at the back of the room.
"It seems you were wise to bring this to the attention of the Ministry," said Professor Umbridge after the last student had left. She shook her head ruefully "No one of your classmates got question twenty three correct."
"Which one was that again?" asked Harry.
"The one about how the Great Fire of London started," replied Umbridge "The muggles all thought that it began in a bakery, but some fool of a wizard living in the next house over was keeping a young common Welsh green dragon in his basement illegally. He managed to apparate out of course and the dragon was able to fly away, but it was seen by most of the population of the city. Had the International Statute of Secrecy been in effect then, it would have been one of the biggest breaches of it ever."
"You're going to have to report this, aren't you?" asked Harry.
"I must, yes," replied Umbridge "Be sure to have your report about the incident on the train completed by tomorrow evening. I can send it to the Ministry with mine."
"Of course," replied Harry before asking "Was there anything else?"
"Be sure to keep an eye on that Gryffindor Prefect. The Weasley boy. Something tells me he will be the first to lose his prefects badge."
"I've been thinking the same thing," said Harry, honestly.
.....
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