"Because the Muggle world is still in the midst of the Third Scientific and Technological Revolution," Professor Babbage said with emotion when Padma Patil asked why the Third Scientific and Technological Revolution had no end date.
"The wisdom of Muggles is remarkable. Perhaps when the new century arrives and the Fourth Scientific and Technological Revolution begins, the Third Scientific and Technological Revolution will truly come to an end.
Very well, today let's start with Muggle history. Does anyone know what the four great ancient civilizations are?"
For wizards from pure-blood families, Muggle Studies was more interesting than they had imagined.
But for Muggle-born and half-blood wizards, the situation was somewhat delicate.
Just as Hermione had said before selecting courses, studying Muggles from a wizard's perspective was indeed an interesting thing.
The interest lay in the need to change their way of thinking.
To put it simply, before they thought guns were guns, mobile phones were mobile phones, and high-speed trains were high-speed trains.
But after taking this class, guns became wands, mobile phones became two-way mirrors, and high-speed trains became immature Apparition magic.
When class ended, Harry looked at Hermione, who still seemed rather glum, and couldn't help but console her.
"It's just a term, no need to take it so seriously, Hermione. You alone scored more points than the entire house... Hermione?"
Harry suddenly discovered with surprise that Hermione, who had just walked out of the classroom with Sherlock and him, had vanished.
"Sherlock, Hermione—"
"Over there."
Following the direction Sherlock pointed, Harry was amazed to see Hermione walking out of the classroom, breathing heavily.
She held her bag in one hand and was stuffing something under her robes with the other.
"What are you looking at!" Hermione said irritably, noticing Sherlock and Harry's gazes.
"No, it's just, Hermione, you—"
"What about me?"
"How did you manage that? You were right next to us a moment ago, and in the blink of an eye you were walking out from behind us. I didn't even know when you left."
Harry looked at Hermione, then at Sherlock. "I used to think only Sherlock would appear and disappear like a ghost."
"What appearing and disappearing? I just went back to get something."
As she spoke, her bag suddenly split open at the seam.
This time Harry wasn't surprised, because he could clearly see that Hermione's bag contained over a dozen thick books.
"Do you need to carry all of them? Even counting the Muggle Studies class, we just finished, we only have Herbology, History of Magic, and Astronomy left today."
"Yes, yes, speaking of which, I'm still angry about this."
Hermione seemed to suddenly remember, complaining with obvious displeasure.
"Professor Babbage is really frustrating. My answer could have gotten full marks!
As far as I know, there have been three industrial revolutions in Muggle history, not some 'scientific and technological revolutions.'"
Harry didn't respond. He felt there was something disconnected about Hermione's words and actions.
She had been glum when class ended, and he had even tried to console her.
Then in the blink of an eye she ran back to get something, as if she had forgotten about it, only to remember again moments later.
"Human understanding of things is never static. Perhaps one day in the future, the concept of knowledge will truly change—and by that time, even if you say there were three industrial revolutions, it wouldn't be wrong."
Sherlock's gaze slowly swept over Hermione.
"Ahem."
For some reason, Hermione felt flustered under Sherlock's gaze. She felt like those gray eyes could see right through her.
She tried hard not to blush, but could still feel her face burning.
"Well, let's hurry to Herbology. I hope Professor Sprout will speak quickly—I'm suddenly feeling hungry.
Oh, Sherlock, why didn't Professor Babbage give you points?"
"Because I left half the questions blank."
Compared to the annually fluctuating Defense Against the Dark Arts course and the several new courses added this term, other courses proceeded step by step, basically following the curriculum.
Herbology was no exception.
Apart from Hermione, who excelled in everything, Neville continued to perform exceptionally well.
Professor Sprout had them begin studying bubotuber pus pods.
These were very interesting magical plants that could grow fat, pink pods containing shiny beans inside.
Their characteristic was that once they touched solid objects, they would immediately bloom.
Although the flowers that bloomed were very beautiful, this made studying these magical plants somewhat inconvenient, so they had to be extremely careful during operations.
Fortunately, Professor Sprout had warned them in advance, so the students were extra cautious during operations and didn't cause any mishaps.
"How was Muggle Studies?" Ron asked Harry during a break.
"Pretty interesting. I think you should go study it properly."
"Study? Study my arse!" Ron laughed, keeping his voice as low as possible. "I've already selected two courses—I'm not adding to my burden!
Speaking of which, I learned a saying from the Muggle world from Dean, and I think it applies to the wizarding world too."
"What saying?"
"Fifty and you're free! Fifty-one, wasted energy! Forty-nine, pure tragedy!"
[AN: Fifty is pass marks here.]
Harry looked at Ron's smug expression and didn't know what to say for a moment.
"Don't look at me like that. Don't forget that Sherlock only got A's in several subjects during first term exams. He must think the same way, right, Sherlock?"
Sherlock, who was fiddling with pods, turned to look at Ron with a deadpan expression: (一_一)
"Hey, what's that look supposed to mean?"
Although Sherlock didn't speak, Ron understood his expression.
Harry and Hermione couldn't help but laugh out loud.
The afternoon History of Magic class was arguably the most uneventful course in three years.
Except for when Hermione had questioned Professor Binns about the Chamber of Secrets last year, this was simply a course designed for hypnosis.
As always. a ghost teaching, talking nonsense.
The entire class listened drowsily.
"Look at this!"
Ron, who had also been about to fall asleep, inadvertently glanced at Hermione and, as if discovering a new world, whispered to Sherlock and Harry.
They could see that although Hermione still held her quill, her head was nodding, obviously about to fall asleep.
"It's truly surprising—she actually has days when she dozes off?"
"History of Magic has always been like this. You were about to fall asleep just now too."
"You're right, but the problem is, she's Hermione! When have you ever seen Hermione sleep during a teacher's class?"
"Now."
"...Harry, I'm discovering that both you and Hermione are talking more and more like Sherlock."
"I'm just stating facts."
"Even more so."
Sherlock glanced at the whispering Harry and Ron, then at Hermione beside them, and a smile slowly appeared at the corner of his mouth.
'Interesting.'
Despite already having the orrery, Sherlock and Hermione decided to attend two Astronomy classes first.
[AN: Orrery is a mechanical model of solar system. It's an interesting thing you can search for the images on google]
After Astronomy class ended, it was quite late, and the young wizards yawned their way back to the dormitories to wash and sleep.
Wednesday's courses were Charms, Transfiguration, and the still time-conflicting Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.
Since the elective courses were scheduled for the afternoon this time, Ron didn't go to sleep but ran off to play wizard's chess with Seamus.
Charms class was famously noisy and chaotic because the course required lots of practice and hands-on work.
Third year was no exception.
For the first class of the new school year, Professor Flitwick didn't teach them new charms but had the students review the Repairing Charm and Levitation Charm they had learned before.
The results were unsatisfactory.
The Repairing Charm was better—perhaps due to Gryffindor students' characteristics, they used this charm more frequently than students from other houses.
So, the entire class performed adequately with this charm.
But the Levitation Charm was more troublesome.
It was already a relatively complex charm, and they didn't practice it much normally. The result was that a third of the students couldn't succeed on the first try.
Of course, as third-years, they wouldn't fail completely, but they often had to try several times, which clearly didn't satisfy Professor Flitwick.
So, the entire classroom echoed with: "Wingardium Leviosa."
Seamus, who was partnered with Sherlock, performed consistently, causing another explosion.
However, with Sherlock covering for him, he didn't end up covered in soot.
Transfiguration class was still about understanding Animagi. This time Professor McGonagall's transformation demonstration earned applause from the entire class, which pleased her greatly.
For the afternoon courses, both Harry and Hermione abandoned Ancient Runes and followed Sherlock to Arithmancy.
"We need to attend Ancient Runes next time. Including this class, we've already missed twice."
On the way to class, Harry suggested to Sherlock, "I heard that course is very difficult. If we miss too many classes, we probably won't be able to keep up."
"Alright. If there are conflicting courses next time, we'll go to Ancient Runes."
"It's not too difficult, just requires memorizing a lot," Hermione interjected.
"That's exactly what makes it difficult!"
"If that's how you see it, then Arithmancy is the same: it also requires memorizing many complex charts."
"How unlucky, but Hermione, why do you know so clearly? It feels like you've already attended the classes."
"Because I studied ahead."
As Hermione had said, when Harry actually encountered this course, he discovered it was indeed no simpler than Ancient Runes.
This was a subject studying the magical properties of numbers, taught by Professor Septima Vector.
Professor Vector walked around the classroom with a faint smile on her face.
Since Sherlock and Harry had chosen Divination during the last scheduling conflict, this was the second class of the week.
By third year, professors didn't really care about attendance for elective courses.
There was even a saying among upper years.
"Electives must be skipped, compulsory courses are selectively skipped."
However, Professor Vector was quite happy to discover two additional people in her classroom and actually began telling them a story.
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