After returning to school, O.W.L. exams were immediately put on the agenda.
But in the few days remaining before the exams, the behaviour of the fifth-year students could only be described as utterly bizarre.
In shared classes, certain irritating students began slyly putting pressure on their fellow students.
"How many hours a day do you all revise? I'm terribly worried I'm falling behind you."
Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff announced loudly before a Herbology class, making sure everyone could hear clearly:
"I'm putting every ounce of energy into revision—at least eight hours daily. My schedule is absolutely packed. Every night I recite the entire History of Magic, plus all sorts of herbological knowledge—I've memorised all the books. During breaks I pull out my notes to recite them. Honestly, I've copied out every mistake from those weekly and monthly test papers five times... I imagine you're all working even harder than I am..."
Daphne's face immediately turned ghastly. She grabbed Jane's arm in panic:
"What am I going to do? I'm revising two whole hours less than him each day, and I haven't managed to memorise History of Magic! If every Hufflepuff is studying this intensively, my final grades will definitely be failing!"
Jane kindly provided her with two bottles of enhanced Baruffio's Brain Elixir, enabling Daphne to double her revision time through sheer force.
Unfortunately, this left her beautiful eyes ringed with thick, dark circles—she looked like a panda.
But Ernie wasn't the only insufferable student. Anthony Goldstein from Ravenclaw was worthy of an Oscar.
"What's the point of revising?" he'd say, constantly wandering about, drifting between various student clubs. "Come play on the game console! Revision's useless—what you don't know in the exam, you still won't know. I haven't revised at all—"
Though most people responded with sarcastic laughter, a few students half-believed him and had their revision plans thrown into chaos.
"Don't believe a word he says," Blaise warned in the common room. "That boy's cunning and devious. His roommate says he secretly revises until three or four in the morning, then spends the day misleading everyone else!"
Some students were even more detestable, playing "borrow and never return" games.
Study guides, quills, notebooks... once borrowed, they vanished forever unless you actively hunted down the borrower.
Under such pressure, Slytherin was shrouded in dark clouds with a heavy atmosphere—everyone's mood had hit rock bottom.
The only sounds in the common room were students quietly turning pages, quills scratching on parchment, and muffled spellcasting.
Perhaps the only one completely unfazed was Draco.
He prevented Jane from exercising her prefect duties to discipline the students spreading panic everywhere.
This "spoiled heir" who had already decided to achieve scraping-by grades took the burden from her and launched solo challenges against them.
"Yes, revision is completely useless," he agreed with the fake-non-reviser Goldstein, shaking his hand. "Join the game console army—we'll play from after class until four in the morning!"
He meant every word. Ignoring Goldstein's protests about needing sleep whilst actually revising, Draco forcibly dragged him into ten solid hours of gaming.
The Ravenclaw actor's face turned green, and from then on he kept his mouth firmly shut.
Facing the show-off Ernie Macmillan, Draco went even further, loudly spreading panic right in front of him.
"Working hard? All ineffective effort," he said arrogantly, looking down his nose. "Don't you understand that exams are about your connections? With my father's relationship with the Examinations Authority, I need only say one word to my father and your grades could become mine."
Macmillan completely crumpled and never dared appear within Draco's line of sight again.
But Draco wasn't satisfied with just that—
He decided to drag his 24-hour surveillance monitors Goyle and Crabbe down with him.
Since he wasn't revising, those who'd caused his misfortune shouldn't get to revise either!
Everyone fails together! If we're going down, we're all going down!
The three of them could appear at any time, anywhere, in any corner of the school, taunting any student they encountered.
The Gryffindor representatives suffered greatly—they felt they were being harassed 24/7 by the Malfoy trio.
"Don't they revise at all?" Ron radiated despair and resentment. "Malfoy's targeting us specifically, isn't he? He keeps saying he knows people at the Examinations Authority and can find out the questions. Do you think he's telling the truth?"
Harry's face was tense—the psychological pressure of facing exams seemed even greater than facing Voldemort.
"He also says everything we're revising is wrong and won't appear on the exams," Hermione's nerves were equally taut. She wished she could sleep with her textbooks to let the knowledge seep into her brain. "This is dreadful—I suddenly remembered there's a theory in Achievements in Charming I've forgotten. Does he know that's going to be tested? I must revise it again!"
It must be said, Draco's tactics achieved great success.
Not only did he send away all the students creating pressure for the little snakes, but he also caused enormous psychological stress to his archenemies Weasley and Potter.
As for his 24-hour bodyguards Goyle and Crabbe, Jane more than once saw the two of them secretly hugging each other, staring blankly at brand-new textbooks whilst weeping over their lost revision, meal, and sleep time.
This left Draco in high spirits with a sense of vindication.
...
O.W.L. exam day finally arrived.
Everything presented no difficulty for Jane. The theory exams proceeded methodically—simply memorising all the books from first through fifth year would earn perfect marks. The practical exams were even easier. Professor Marchbanks from the Wizarding Examinations Authority—the supervising witch who seemed to be Dumbledore's old friend—smiled throughout Jane's spellcasting and kindly gave her a bonus question on the Shield Charm.
If time hadn't been pressing, she probably would have asked Jane to demonstrate several advanced spells.
In short, everything went smoothly until the final History of Magic exam.
But just as she finished the last question and put down her quill, she noticed Harry at her right front suddenly slump over!
Is he really that tired? she wondered with some confusion.
But within minutes—
Harry let out a loud, agonised groan, clutching his forehead as he collapsed—
And struck the floor with a heavy, dull thud!
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