The Wizengamot Academic Committee's receipt of suggestions from Wizengamot member Gavin Bulstrode to strengthen inspection and management of academic independence and objectivity, as well as behaviors that interfere with academia, was not really a secret within the Wizengamot and Ministry of Magic. Or rather, because the parties involved had no intention of concealing it, the news quickly spread throughout the Ministry.
The main decision-makers of the Slytherin Brotherhood met at this time to discuss the situation. They expelled the member who had taken it upon himself to interfere with academic matters from the Slytherin Brotherhood and transferred him to Denmark. At the same time, they commissioned an intermediary to convey an apology to the Bulstrode family for someone in the brotherhood rashly interfering with Sean Bulstrode's academic affairs.
When Gavin heard the apology from the intermediary, he showed no particular reaction. He simply nodded, reiterated his dislike of academic interference, and said nothing more.
The intermediary reported back to the Slytherin Brotherhood.
From Gavin's attitude, several decision-makers of the Slytherin Brotherhood confirmed some of Gavin's thoughts.
First, regarding Sean Bulstrode, he had not been abandoned and ignored by Gavin as rumored by the outside world. On the contrary, Gavin was quite protective of Sean Bulstrode.
Second, on academic issues, Gavin disliked any interference from anyone.
Beyond that, in normal power struggles, Gavin would not intervene. If they could defeat and suppress Sean head-on, Gavin would not step in to help.
Having clarified these two points, the decision-makers of the Slytherin Brotherhood were very satisfied. The foundation of their brotherhood's existence was their sense of belonging to Slytherin House and their recognition of Salazar Slytherin's own ideology. Only on this basis could they have various forms of cooperation.
If someone from another house had killed the Basilisk, the Slytherin Brotherhood wouldn't have reacted much. But the one who killed the Basilisk was a Slytherin, and moreover, a member of their Slytherin Brotherhood reserve organization. If they had no reaction to this, the foundation of the brotherhood's existence would be shaken.
This time, announcing Sean's expulsion from the Slytherin Brotherhood reserve organization at Hogwarts, even declaring his expulsion from Slytherin, as well as the recent interference with The Golden Cauldron's paper publication, were all attempts to probe Gavin's bottom line while also expressing an attitude to the brotherhood's members.
What was lost was only that guy who was already rather marginal and fanatical, causing them considerable trouble anyway. It could be considered killing three birds with one stone.
Naturally, Sean at Hogwarts was unaware of these minor disturbances in the Ministry and Wizengamot.
But even if Sean had known, he probably wouldn't have reacted much, as long as his paper could be published normally.
The following days proceeded normally.
Normal classes, normal review, normal exam preparation, normal exams.
Compared to last year, this year Sean was increasingly at ease.
Especially in Potions and Transfiguration, Sean basically took the exams without preparation, but even without preparation, Sean was confident he could pass with full marks, so he had more time to review other subjects.
In contrast, Hermione, having been petrified for quite a long time, became increasingly anxious during the review. She was in a state of extreme low pressure, and Harry and Ron, enveloped by Hermione's low pressure, originally thought passing would be enough. But under Hermione's influence and supervision, they also began working hard, following behind Hermione with long faces every day, studying hard, and improving daily.
Just as exams were about to begin, a small incident suddenly occurred.
Aurors from the Ministry of Magic came to Hogwarts and took away Lockhart, who was preparing to base exam questions on his own books. The reason the Aurors took Lockhart away that day quickly spread throughout Hogwarts.
It was said that someone had written a report letter, reporting everything Lockhart had done so far to the Ministry of Magic, with quite compelling evidence—compelling enough for the Ministry's Aurors to apply for the use of Veritaserum. With Veritaserum's assistance, Lockhart naturally had no room to escape punishment.
On exam day, Lockhart was sentenced to have his wand broken and serve time in Azkaban.
As for his property, half went to the Ministry of Magic, and half was divided among the wizards whose adventures and lives had been stolen by Lockhart, compensating them for everything Lockhart had taken.
While Lockhart was wailing and crying as he served his sentence in Azkaban, Sean, as the informant, was sitting in a classroom taking an exam. This one was Charms, also the most intense battlefield between Sean and Hermione's competition. However, the two were somewhat different—Sean was the first to hand in his paper, while Hermione was the last to hand in hers. What they had in common was that both were very confident in themselves.
Over the course of a week, both the written and practical portions of the final exams were completed.
Results would come out a week later, and after the results, there would be the end-of-term feast, and then they could go home.
At Hogwarts, the first week of June each school year was exam week, the second week was for results, the end-of-term feast was held on Saturday of the second week, and on Sunday all students left Hogwarts to go home for a two-and-a-half-month holiday.
During this period, Sean had been writing his Transfiguration thesis, exploring the connection between Transfiguration and Alchemy.
Because of this thesis, Sean had recently begun focusing on continuing his study of alchemy. He hadn't read much of the alchemy-related books he'd obtained from Beauxbatons this semester, since human energy was limited. Sean generally used these alchemy books as brain-changing reading material. Now he picked them up again to continue his research, setting aside Potions somewhat.
Snape didn't say much about this. He had some connections at The Golden Cauldron editorial department and knew about the previous disturbance. Because of this disturbance, he also learned that Sean's paper had been selected for The Golden Cauldron and was even the front-page headline. So recently, Snape's tolerance for Sean had been quite high.
"Sean, the results are out."
"Quiet! Quiet! The library must remain quiet!"
Madam Pince's feather duster flew up, chasing after the loudly speaking Blaise.
Seeing this scene, Blaise immediately turned and ran, but was still hit twice by the feather duster, causing him to cry out in pain.
Seeing this scene, Sean smiled helplessly, packed up his things, left the library, found Blaise hiding outside the library, and said to him with a smile: "Remember in the future, don't make loud noises in the library. When it comes to disliking students, Madam Pince and Filch are about equal—she definitely won't go easy on you."