O.W.L. Exams

As the day of the exam drew closer, the atmosphere in the castle became more and more tense. Even the most mischievous young wizard had to temporarily calm down and focus on the important exam that would determine the future of his life.

Seamus and Neville, who shared a room with her, suffered from exam anxiety and even had to recite the Standard Book of Spells in their dreams.

However, to Ivan's surprise, Harry and Snape's relationship did not improve as much as he had expected, with only minor changes.

That Snape had finally given up trying to bully them and had gone from being hostile to ignoring Harry, as if Harry Potter did not exist.

Harry, in turn, was at a loss as to how to deal with the man who had once spoken such harsh words to him, but was willing to risk his life to protect him when it mattered…

Every time they met in the corridor, the atmosphere was particularly awkward.

Ivan was amused by Harry and Snape's lack of honesty, but there was nothing he could do to change it. After all, the misunderstanding between them had been cleared up, and he had done everything he could.

The first O.W.L. exam soon arrived in this tense atmosphere.

On Monday morning, after a quick breakfast, Yvonne and the others gathered outside the Entrance Hall, where the O.W.L. exams were divided into two sections, one for theory and one for practice, usually held in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Students were called into the Great Hall, class by class, under the watchful eye of the Professor and the Ministry of Magic.

Ivan was probably the most composed of all the students. After finding his seat, he slowly flipped open his exam paper and started reading.

[Write the incantation that will make the object fly and describe the standard movement of the wand…]

[What is the common counter-curse of the Imprisonment Charm?]

[If your companion were to be afflicted with a Petrifaction Charm, how would they react…]

… .

"It seems pretty easy…" Ivan flipped through the papers and found that the O.W.L. exam was much easier than he had expected. It consisted mostly of basic theoretical questions that were not very advanced, and could be found in the last five years of Charms textbooks.

This rote memorization was a freebie for Ivan, who had the Ravenclaw Crown.

Yvonne wrote furiously, filling the exam paper in less than half an hour.

Ivan spent the rest of the day thinking about how the Hogwarts exam system could be improved.

The first was that the exam content was too boring, or not in-depth enough.

This was presumably related to the usual lessons.

In order to graduate early, Ivan had read through all of the textbooks in his seventh year, but he had not seen any research or exploration into magic or magic itself.

The teaching at Hogwarts was simply to teach the students about the various charms that were used to teach them how to use magic.

This might be enough for the average wizard, but for Ivan, a true magical civilization required a large number of inquisitive academic wizards!

Just as Muggles are assiduous in their quest for scientific knowledge, wizards can transform the world by learning more about the nature and nature of magic.

Ivan was confident of this, as the more he studied the subject, the more he understood the potential of magic.

Many of the existing magical systems involved the application of space and time, and the Philosopher's Stone created by Nicolas Flamel could completely change the nature of matter.

This is something that science has struggled to accomplish for centuries, and is an advantage of magic!

Ivan found it a great pity that many of the more advanced charms had been lost, as most wizards cherished their magic and focused only on academic wizarding.

This was especially true in the case of alchemy, as goblins today simply could not produce a second Sword of Gryffindor, and wizards were at their wits' end with the Time-Turner.

If the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries were ever burned to the ground, time travel would be impossible.

Such a situation was naturally not what Ivan wanted to see. It had to change!

Schools are the best breeding ground for the spirit of inquiry!

In his fifth year, Snape was able to single-handedly develop practical charms such as "The Shadowless Blade" and "The Bell Upside Down", as well as improve the potion-making.

Ivan found it hard to believe that such a top-notch researcher would have been neglected and neglected at Hogwarts at the time. If it had been a Muggle High School, they would have received all kinds of awards!

This was partly due to the chaos in the wizarding community and Snape's dislike of publicity, but also because Hogwarts's education system was not perfect enough to bring these research geniuses to light.

There are also George and Fred, who are extremely gifted in the creation of magical objects, and who would shine in a classroom if there were an alchemical one at Hogwarts…

Yvonne twiddled her quill, racking her brains to think of extra classes for Hogwarts next year.

Flitwick, the invigilator, stared at him for a long time, thinking that Ivan was stumped by some question. Out of curiosity, he took a few steps forward, only to find that the guy had already finished writing and was just in a daze.

Ten minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the end of the exam. Yvonne handed in her papers and left the examination room with Harry and the others, all of them nervous.

Almost as soon as she stepped out into the hall, Hermione eagerly confronted Ivan with her answers, and was worried that she had not given a comprehensive answer to the Petrifaction Charm.

"There are three other potions that, in addition to the Stop-Curse and the Restorative Charm, can quickly undo petrification. Why didn't I think of that at the time…" Hermione said ruefully, thinking Flitwick would have deducted points if he had noticed.

"You didn't answer any questions, Hermione. This isn't a Potions test. I only wrote those three as insurance." Ivan looked at the witch, who was still struggling with her answer. "You have to have a little faith in yourself. No one will do better in theory than you."

As they chatted, Harry and Ron looked at each other, not daring to interrupt. They had only filled in one incantation for the question, and were secretly delighted that they would at least get full marks for it…