For an entire afternoon, Adelaide patiently recounted her life story to several senior sisters, detailing every nuance and experience. It was with great effort that she finally convinced them she was not a direct descendant of Gellert Grindelwald.
Maintaining the same posture for so long had left Adelaide's body somewhat stiff. She extended her arms and gently twisted her waist, attempting to relieve the muscular tension.
Simultaneously, her mind was racing, calculating how to handle the entry test Senior Penelope had assigned her.
Just as the interview was drawing to a close, in order to establish a good relationship with these three intelligence experts, Adelaide proposed the idea of joining the Ravenclaw Human Observation Group.
The three senior sisters did not agree immediately. Instead, they set a condition: Adelaide was required to submit a detailed report on her observations of Ravenclaw House students within a week.
If the report met with their approval, Adelaide would become a member of the group, enjoying the right to unconditionally consult all internal documents.
When she first heard the task requirements, Adelaide privately felt it was no big deal—but as she began her observation work, she discovered things were far from as simple as she had imagined.
Setting aside the stereotype that "all Ravenclaws are brilliant overachievers," Adelaide felt that Ravenclaw House should more aptly be renamed the "Asylum for Abnormal Humans."
When you step into the Ravenclaw common room, the first to burst into your field of vision are those Azkaban-style Ravenclaw students.
These students huddle like ghosts in dark corners, their faces as pale as parchment, with deep-set eyes framed by heavy dark circles. Their gazes are vacant and lifeless, as if they have already been kissed by a Dementor and lost their souls.
Their brilliant minds seem never to stop, spinning at high speeds twenty-four hours a day, pondering profound and bizarre philosophical puzzles such as "Why must Quidditch matches use three types of balls?" or "Why must Wizards use toilet paper when going to the bathroom? Wouldn't it be cleaner to just use magic to clean one's backside?"
Such high-intensity mental activity causes them to suffer from chronic sleep deprivation, forcing them to rely on various Potions to stay alive.
In the corners of the common room, large iron cauldrons bubble and steam; these belong to the Mad Scientist-style Ravenclaw students.
Immersed in environments of billowing thick smoke and accompanied by occasional deafening explosions, they research various crazy and death-defying subjects. From time to time, one can hear their thunderous rages or manic shouts like "Aha! I've succeeded!"
Although they often leave the entire common room in a state of chaos, they are the most vibrant and energetic—and also the hardest to kill—group within Ravenclaw House.
Looking further ahead, one can see students buried in their writing at the study tables by the windows—those are the infamous Overachiever-style Ravenclaws.
These students are practically study machines, never leaving their books all day, as if the parchment has merged with them.
They study desperately at every single moment; it can truly be said they "grind until they die."
Even more headache-inducing is their habit of spreading anxiety-inducing remarks in the common room.
For instance, comments like "Oh my god, I only earned 20 points for the House today!" or "This is terrible, I actually missed a multiple-choice question on today's Transfiguration Class quiz!" put immense psychological pressure on other students (mainly Adelaide herself)!
Among them, a sub-type has emerged: the "Fake-Slacker" Ravenclaws. These are the people Adelaide dislikes most.
On the surface, they seem completely indifferent to studying, often feeding others "chicken soup for the soul" about how grades aren't important and enjoying campus life is what matters—but in reality, every single one of them is a master of the night-grind.
Whenever the night is deep and quiet, they hide under their quilts, light their lamps, and silently activate their night-grind mode, studying hard until dawn.
It's worth mentioning that Cho Chang has recently shown signs of joining the Overachiever Association. This has begun to worry Adelaide, who has always been on good terms with her. She is even considering whether to maintain a safe distance from Cho Chang to avoid being influenced by the other's excessive efforts, which might disrupt her own carefully planned study (slacking) schedule.
Aside from these common types, the most eye-catching are the Hagrid-style Ravenclaws—these students possess a profound interest in the mysterious and dangerous flora and fauna of the Forbidden Forest. Even if they frequently end up covered in blood and have to be carried to the hospital wing, they remain incorrigible, sneaking out of the infirmary at midnight to continue their research on magical creatures.
Adelaide, who founded the Magic Bean Hobby Group with Cho Chang, is seen by outsiders as this type of Ravenclaw.
The remaining students, if one were to make a general classification, can basically be categorized as Luna-style Ravenclaws.
Similar to the Human Observation Group, they are all geniuses in a specific field. It is difficult for outsiders to understand why they are so obsessed with these hobbies, let alone know what they are busy with every day. They never consider external opinions.
No matter how the outside world views them, they always live freely and happily. That sense of detachment and confidence radiating from their very core is truly enviable.
After Adelaide gained a deeper understanding of the specific situation in Ravenclaw, she couldn't help but fall into deep thought—she was clearly just an ordinary person, so how did she end up being mysteriously sorted into Ravenclaw?
From any angle, someone like her, who has neither ambition nor courage, seems most suited for Hufflepuff, a house famous for "eating, eating, and eating."
Whenever this thought flashed through her mind, the corners of Adelaide's mouth would involuntarily shed tears of sorrow.
Ah! Farewell, my beloved kitchen!
One must realize that the Ravenclaw common room is quite a long distance from the kitchen—so far that she couldn't even summon the will to sneak out for a midnight snack. The physical energy spent on the round trip would far exceed the energy replenished by the stolen food.
When Adelaide dragged her exhausted body to hand the carefully organized pages of parchment to Senior Penelope, she felt as if all her energy had been drained; she was completely burnt out.
Just to organize these reports and write them into a detailed six-foot-long document, Adelaide had nearly exhausted all her physical and mental strength. She was so tired she didn't want to move a single finger.
Penelope, along with Jessica and Natasha beside her, passed the report around, reading every line carefully, occasionally exchanging glances or whispering a few words.
"Well, although this report is still a bit rough in some details, overall, we can clearly feel that you have a certain talent for observation. After our joint discussion, we have unanimously decided to formally accept you as a member of our Human Observation Group!"
Hearing this news, the tension in Adelaide's heart instantly relaxed. Her hard work had not been in vain!
With a stable source of intelligence, she had finally made a start toward escaping the predicament of only getting information from Dumbledore and Gellert, marking a good beginning for the day she might stand as an equal to those big shots.
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