After the morning run, the crowd gradually dispersed.
Couples leaned against the lakeside rocks, whispering, sharing the longing of a summer apart.
Students practicing spells gathered in twos and threes, quietly debating what kind of memory made the Patronus Charm come out strongest.
And the group of first-years who'd been tricked into showing up, after catching their breath, drifted curiously toward the Gale Sword Club.
They watched as the older students drew their longswords.
Basic drills. Slashes and parries. Blades cutting through the morning air with a soft, rhythmic swish.
Neville stood at the center, sweat sliding down his jaw and dripping into the grass.
"Fall in!"
Not loud. But it landed like a command.
The club members snapped into formation , crisp, no shuffling, no delay.
CLANG!
Dozens of swords cleared their scabbards at once. The sound rang clear and sharp across the still lake.
The first-years felt it in their chests.
"Professor Holmes said the sword is an extension of the arm," Neville said, already moving into his demonstration, voice steady and unhurried. "The wand is an extension of the will."
"What you need to feel isn't the weight of the blade. It's the power — moving from your shoulder, through your wrist, pouring into the tip."
"Ha!"
He stepped forward and brought the sword down in a single clean arc. The air screamed around the blade.
It wasn't a wild swing. It stopped — precisely, deliberately — at a fixed point in the air. The tip hung less than an inch from a falling leaf. The wind off the blade was enough to send it tumbling.
"The basics. Chop, thrust, flick, sweep."
"Repeat each one a thousand times. Ten thousand. Until your body stops thinking and just does it. Natural as breathing."
The members followed. The sound of blades cutting air built into something continuous, an invisible web woven through the thin morning mist.
No spells. No magic. Just focus and force , and it was enough to leave the watching first-years speechless.
"That's... that's incredible."
A Ravenclaw first-year murmured it half to himself. Two minutes ago he'd been calculating optimal running form. Now he just stared.
They looked at Neville Longbottom.
Some of the wizard-raised kids had heard the name. It came attached to words like clumsy and forgetful.
The person standing in front of them was none of those things. He was steady, focused, and radiating a quiet authority that had nothing to do with age.
He didn't look like a student. He looked like a knight who'd survived things.
"Is that really... Longbottom?"
A Hufflepuff first-year asked the older student beside him, barely above a whisper.
The Gryffindor upperclassman drew himself up like he was personally responsible.
"Of course it is. Pride of Gryffindor. President of the Gale Sword Club. Professor Holmes's personal disciple."
"Could we..." the first-year hesitated. "Could we join?"
Neville heard it. He stopped, turned, and looked at the kid. The severity in his face softened into something warmer.
"Put in the work, and the Gale Sword Club will always have room for you."
---
Hogwarts Great Hall.
The noise of breakfast cut out the moment the last owl cleared the doors.
The smell of toast and pumpkin juice still hung in the air. The atmosphere had already changed completely.
All four long house tables vanished with a WHOOSH, as if swept away by an invisible hand.
In their place: hundreds of individual desks, arranged in perfect rows.
Tall wooden dividers rose from the floor , a full four feet high. They sliced the room into narrow, isolated compartments, cutting off every student's sightline, trapping each person in their own small cell.
This was not the warm, familiar Great Hall.
This was an examination room.
Exam Paper B had officially begun.
The four student assistants from the Academic Affairs Office stood at their assigned positions, armbands on, faces set. Their expressions varied, but every one of them wore the same look: the kind of seriousness that meant business.
New rules. Written theory exams: no spell-casting tools of any kind.
What each assistant carried instead was a Revealing Mirror , custom-made by Hogwarts for exam conditions. Any invisible ink within its range had nowhere to hide.
CLICK. CLICK. Heavy footsteps. Deliberate. Uneven.
They came from the main doors, each one landing like a weight dropped onto a nerve.
Alastor Moody limped to the front of the hall and stepped up onto the platform.
He didn't sit.
He stood at the highest point like a statue of cracked granite, immovable, his heavy cloak wrapped around his ruined body. The smell drifting off him was rust and old potions.
He looked out over the hall like a vulture circling above a battlefield.
His normal eye , black as a beetle, equally warm , swept slowly across the rows of pale, upturned faces.
His magical eye started its own patrol. Independent. Relentless. The electric blue iris spun at a speed that should not have been possible, swinging to the corner of the ceiling, then straight through the stone walls, as though checking whether something was hiding in the dark behind them.
Then it dropped to the examinees.
Slow. Merciless. A lighthouse that never needed sleep.
It moved across every desk. Every trembling quill. Every inch of parchment.
Three hundred and sixty degrees. No blind spots. None.
Being caught in that blue beam was a specific kind of awful. It didn't bring light. It brought the feeling of being opened up , cold, invasive, faintly hostile.
Like dozens of damp insects crawling slowly up the gaps between your vertebrae.
The exam began.
The only sound was quills on parchment. A dry, papery rustle filling the silence.
It was the kind of sound that should have been soothing. Instead, it made the tension worse.
Standard quills only. Self-correcting, auto-spelling, and auto-writing quills were all contraband. The parchment itself carried the Hogwarts watermark along its edge and required a handwritten signature.
Every detail had been thought through. Every loophole sealed.
Emily Winston, Ravenclaw, serving as a proctoring assistant, made her way down the eastern aisle. Eyes forward. Steps quiet and even. She lifted the Revealing Mirror at intervals, angling it to check the surface of the papers she passed.
Precise. Focused. A well-calibrated instrument doing exactly its job.
Augustine Jones, Hufflepuff, covered the western aisle. His steps were more hesitant. He kept his gaze slightly averted, as if he didn't want to add to anyone's anxiety just by looking at them.
Welby , a Gryffindor upperclassman , stared at his paper with the focus of a man trying to set it on fire with his mind.
Seven drops of belladonna juice in the Draught of Living Death, or eight? He had no idea. Cold sweat was forming at his hairline. He was almost certain that blue eye had just passed over his head.
He couldn't stop himself.
His neck moved. Barely. Toward his neighbor. One millimeter. Slow as anything. Stiff as a rusted hinge.
Just a glimpse. Just the corner of his eye. One look. One millimeter.
Instantly.
The blue beam locked onto his face like iron filings snapping to a magnet.
"Mr. Welby!"
Moody's voice hit the hall like a boulder dropped into still water. The sound rolled across every row, and the wave that came back was pure, spiking fear.
Everyone flinched. Dozens of quills dragged long ugly ink lines across parchment , dark streaks, like wounds.
Welby went rigid. His blood stopped moving.
"Your eyes."
Every syllable bitten off. Gritty. Deliberate.
"Had. Better. Stay. On. Your. Own. Paper."
A pause.
Moody's lips pulled into something that wasn't a smile. It had the shape of one, but none of the warmth.
"Otherwise, I'll dig them out and put them there myself."
---
P.S.
The following does not count toward the chapter's word count. Feel free to attempt the questions , answers in the next chapter.
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Defense Against the Dark Arts , Final Exam (Paper B)
Section I: Multiple Choice (10 Questions)
1. Which of the following statements about the Patronus Charm is incorrect?
A. "Expecto Patronum" and the "Patronus Charm" are essentially the same spell; the incantation is simply the common form.
B. A corporeal Patronus provides stronger defense than a non-corporeal one.
C. Casting it requires recalling a "purely happy memory" , not just any general positive emotion.
D. Its effectiveness against Dementors depends on the spell's "emotional concentration," not raw magical power.
2. When confronting a werewolf, which of the following methods carries the lowest priority?
A. Using Impedimenta to create a physical barrier and buy time.
B. Using Wolfsbane Potion to reduce its aggression (if prepared in advance).
C. Retaliating directly with Avada Kedavra.
D. Using the Disillusionment Charm to conceal yourself and wait for the full moon to end.
3. Which of the following is not a characteristic of Dark Magic?
A. Its direct purpose is to harm or control another person's will.
B. Casting it corrodes the caster's own soul.
C. It must use the blood of a Dark creature as a medium.
D. Its effects are typically irreversible (e.g., the pain inflicted by the Cruciatus Curse).
4. When facing a Boggart, the core function of Riddikulus is:
A. To directly destroy the Boggart's physical form.
B. To disintegrate the fear energy the Boggart feeds on through laughter.
C. To banish the Boggart to another dimensional space.
D. To temporarily suppress its shape-shifting ability.
5. Among the following defensive measures, which is most effective against the Imperius Curse?
A. Wearing an Anti-Curse Necklace (a standard magical accessory).
B. Taking a Resistance Potion in advance to strengthen willpower.
C. Continuously muttering a counter-incantation to disrupt the curse's effect.
D. Actively relaxing the mind to reduce resistance, thereby weakening the curse's hold.
6. The key indicator for identifying a Dark magical artifact disguised as an ordinary object is:
A. Whether the object's surface shows a faint greenish glow.
B. Whether touching it produces a bone-deep chill.
C. Whether Revelio can expose its true form.
D. Whether the Fidelius Charm detects abnormal energy within it.
7. In which of the following situations is it least appropriate to rely on Expelliarmus as the primary defense?
A. Dueling a Death Eater who is armed with a wand.
B. Dealing with an unarmed werewolf in its transformed state.
C. Stopping a classmate from casting a dangerous spell.
D. Disarming someone who is under the Imperius Curse.
8. The secrecy effect of the Fidelius Charm depends on:
A. The strength of the Secret-Keeper's willpower.
B. The size of the spatial area the charm covers.
C. The number of wizards involved in casting it.
D. The magical heritage of the protected location.
9. Which of the following statements about the Dementor's Kiss is correct?
A. It causes immediate physical death.
B. It functions by consuming the victim's "soul core."
C. Its effects can be fully neutralized by the Patronus Charm.
D. The victim continues to breathe after the Kiss but exists as a living shell.
10. In a defensive system, the purpose of an Alert Charm is:
A. To automatically identify incoming Dark Magic spells and trigger an alarm.
B. To generate an energy shield that absorbs the first wave of attack.
C. To forcibly sever the attacker's connection to their wand.
D. To send a distress signal to nearby Aurors.
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Section II: True or False (5 Questions)
1. All Dark creatures can only be effectively defended against using offensive spells. ( )
2. The core principle of Defense Against the Dark Arts is "countering Dark Magic with stronger magic." ( )
3. Nonverbal spells are just as effective as verbal ones against Dark Magic , they are simply more discreet. ( )
4. Minors cannot resist the three Unforgivable Curses because the Ministry of Magic limits their magical output. ( )
5. A spell's defensive effectiveness depends not only on the spell itself, but also on the strength of the caster's belief. ( )
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Section III: Essay Questions (2 Questions)
1. A student has repeatedly failed to produce more than a faint silver mist when casting the Patronus Charm against a Dementor. Identify three possible causes — drawing from the areas of memory selection, magical control, and emotional mobilization — and propose a specific improvement strategy for each. Your analysis must engage with core concepts such as "the purity of the happy memory" and "the stability of magical output."
2. You are the Defense Against the Dark Arts class representative at Hogwarts. Design a step-by-step response plan for first-year students encountering a Boggart. Your plan must:
(1) Address three distinct phases , "Detecting the Boggart," "Initial Response," and "Full Resolution" , and specify the key actions required at each stage.
(2) Explain why the plan prioritizes group coordination over individual confrontation.
(3) Identify the two most likely errors students might make during the plan (e.g., mistiming the spell) and describe appropriate remedial measures for each.
➤ Next: The Four Invigilators: Some Are Gentle, Some Are Devils!
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