From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Richie had finally completed all the grading for his personal exams. By now, he was entirely famished.
Since it was just in time for dinner, Richie rolled up his exam scroll, tucked it into his robes, and headed straight to the Great Hall to eat. He planned to find Professor Flitwick afterward.
Meanwhile, Harry and Ron were already in the Great Hall, eating their dinner in an incredibly foul mood.
"Hagrid has been practically missing for two months!" Ron complained around a mouthful of chicken leg. "He is absolutely avoiding us!"
Harry shook his head.
"Actually, I did run into Hagrid recently, but I couldn't get him to stop and talk. He told me he's been living in the Forbidden Forest for the past few weeks. Apparently, someone's been going into the forest, hurting the Acromantulas, and maliciously harvesting their silk..."
"Ugh..." Ron gagged, looking physically sick. "What would anyone even use that for?!"
Harry shrugged. "I have no idea. But then he said something major had happened in the forest. The magical creatures are terrified, so he needs to spend all his time investigating. That's why he hasn't been back to his hut."
Ron let out a heavy sigh. "Then what are we supposed to do about the Sorcerer's Stone?"
"Where's Hermione anyway?" Whenever Ron hit a wall, his first instinct was always to look for Hermione.
"She's been in the library studying all day." Harry took a sip of pumpkin juice. "She said she originally planned to start reviewing for final exams a month ago, but kept getting sidetracked by everything else. With the Easter holidays coming up, the professors are going to assign even more homework, so she has to maximize her time now. She also muttered something about Richie already starting his second-year curriculum..."
"Oh, that is so classic Granger." Ron rolled his eyes. "She always has to compare herself to Richie. Easter is still two weeks away, and finals are twelve weeks out! Hey, speak of the devil..."
Following Ron's gaze, Harry looked toward the entrance of the Great Hall. Richie had just rushed in, dropped into a seat at the Ravenclaw table, and immediately started inhaling food like a starving animal.
"Unbelievable. Can these study freaks ever just take a break?" Ron muttered.
Harry nodded slowly, though his mind was still heavily preoccupied with the Sorcerer's Stone.
Over at the Ravenclaw table, the moment Richie had walked into the Great Hall, the overwhelming, delicious smell of food had completely shattered his composure.
It smelled so good.
And he was so incredibly hungry!
He practically sprinted over to Terry and the others, threw himself into a seat, and instantly shoved an entire sandwich into his mouth.
Naturally, one sandwich wasn't nearly enough.
Finally getting some actual food in his system, Richie completely abandoned his usual manners and started aggressively stuffing his face to appease his violently empty stomach.
Sitting next to him, Terry, Anthony, and Stephen stared in shock.
"Merlin, Richie, it looks like you haven't eaten in three days," Terry said, sliding his own plate of steak closer to Richie.
"Pretty much," Richie mumbled around a mouthful of food.
Not only had he completely skipped lunch, but the sheer magical and mental exhaustion from taking seven advanced exams back-to-back had severely drained him. He was still only an eleven-year-old wizard; his body wasn't built to handle that kind of intense physical and magical stress. He hadn't fully realized how drained he was until he hit the Great Hall and smelled the food. The second he did, he realized he was essentially running on fumes.
It was a huge wake-up call. He couldn't keep pushing himself like this; maintaining his health had to be his top priority.
He was still a growing kid, after all!
"Oh, Richie, since you're here, I wanted to ask you something." Anthony looked up from his noodles. "The weather is perfectly clear tonight. Phoebe—a third-year Slytherin—wanted to invite you to the Astronomy Tower to go stargazing. Do you have time?"
Terry raised an eyebrow. "A third-year Slytherin? Is she from that weird sketching club of yours?"
Anthony nodded. "Actually, she's the only Slytherin in the group, and she's incredibly pretty. She gets along great with everyone. Once she found out I was your roommate, she started begging me to pass along an invitation."
Anthony gave Richie a highly suggestive wink. "So, Richie? What do you think?"
Richie shook his head. "I have to go see Professor Flitwick right after I finish eating. I definitely won't have time."
Stephen pushed his glasses up his nose. "Well, if Richie's busy, I actually have some free time. I've been in the library all day; I could use a break."
Anthony chuckled. "Sure, but it'll probably just be the two of us. Phoebe only wanted to invite Richie."
Terry cut a piece of his steak and popped it into his mouth. "What is the point of looking at the moon anyway? Aren't you guys sick of memorizing constellation paths for Astronomy? If you have free time, you should just come back to the common room and help me calculate Bludger trajectory probabilities."
Anthony smirked, putting on an incredibly smug, mysterious air. "Hmph. You're just a kid. You don't understand anything. I've made friends with a ton of older girls now. Someday, when you actually need something, you'll come begging for my help."
"What are you even talking about?" Terry scratched his head, completely confused. "If I have a problem, I just ask Richie. Why would I ask you?"
Anthony just smiled and didn't say anything else.
Watching the two of them bicker, Richie downed an entire bowl of hot soup.
"Ah! That hits the spot!"
After finally satisfying his hunger, Richie grabbed his exam scroll and headed straight back to Professor Flitwick's office.
"Professor, here is my exam," Richie said, handing the scroll over as he sat in the chair across from Flitwick's desk.
Flitwick unrolled the parchment and immediately saw the seven bright "O"s marked across the different sections.
"Excellent. Truly, outstanding work!" Flitwick beamed. "Given your phenomenal performance, I have no choice but to award Ravenclaw twenty points."
With a flick of his wand, a stack of textbooks flew off the shelf and landed neatly on the desk.
"These are the required texts for your second-year studies. And..." Flitwick reached into his robes and pulled out a small, intricate magical device. "This is the special reward I promised you."
It was a small hourglass. The sand inside glowed with a brilliant, pulsing golden light.
"This is a Hyper-Cognitive Hourglass, a prototype modeled after the Time-Turners created by the Master Alchemist Nicolas Flamel. When flipped, it creates a 'half-hour cognitive overclocking field' that condenses into a single minute of real time. Simply put, for exactly one minute, your brain will process information thirty times faster than normal."
Hearing Flitwick's explanation, Richie's eyes went wide in pure shock.