Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ The recruitment results were posted on the Great Hall notice board before dinner.
Once the students heard the news, they gathered in the Great Hall early, waiting for the announcement.
When they learned that two students had been selected, the young witches and wizards were very surprised.
The upper-years were fully convinced by Ravenclaw prefect Penelope Clearwater’s selection.
She had long been known as an outstanding student.
Second-year Hermione Granger, however, caused a wave of discussion.
The upper-years could not believe that a second-year witch had beaten them, so they gathered before the notice and began talking among themselves.
The Ravenclaws had already started cheering together.
They were sincerely happy that their prefect had been chosen.
Students sitting near Penelope raised their glasses to congratulate her.
Penelope’s face was flushed with excitement as she sat there, responding again and again to her classmates’ enthusiastic praise.
Harry and Ron stared at Hermione in shock.
They had never imagined that Hermione would actually be selected as Professor Vale’s assistant for Witcher Sign Studies.
The Gryffindors looked at Hermione as though they were seeing some rare creature.
The upper-year Gryffindors who had also written essays were especially stunned.
They understood very well how fierce the competition had been.
Everyone knew Gryffindor’s resident know-it-all loved studying, but no one had expected Hermione’s academic level to have reached this point.
That did nothing to stop the Gryffindors from celebrating.
They slapped the table and cheered loudly.
Because of Harry and Ron’s accident at the beginning of term, Gryffindor had lost a terrifying five hundred points.
They had already given up any hope of winning the House Cup this year.
For Gryffindor, the goal had changed to simply not finishing last.
With the points they had worked hard to earn since the start of term, plus the thirty House points Hermione had just secured, Gryffindor could now see hope of overtaking second-from-last Hufflepuff before the end of term.
Percy, the Gryffindor prefect, had already laid out the plan for the House’s pursuit of second-from-last place.
“As long as Gryffindor wins Quidditch, everything will be all right.” Compared with the celebrations in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, the Slytherins were not very happy.
They were extremely dissatisfied that Hermione had been chosen.
In their view, there was no way a second-year Muggle-born witch could surpass so many students from their own House unless she had cheated.
The Hufflepuffs, by contrast, were calm.
They were already used to this sort of thing.
Hufflepuff was tolerant and kind.
Although it did not shine as brightly as Gryffindor, it had the strongest moral foundation among the four Houses.
Remaining unwilling to do evil in this world, staying unstained by the mud around them, was very difficult.
Hufflepuffs did not like taking shortcuts.
They chose honesty and diligence.
That was not their flaw, but their most precious quality, something Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor often failed to match.
The joyful atmosphere in the Great Hall reached its peak when the Weasley twins fired off two Filibuster Fireworks.
Percy tried with all his might to wrest the remaining fireworks from his two younger brothers.
He was terrified that a professor would walk into the Great Hall at that exact moment.
While Fred held Percy back, George excitedly launched two more fireworks.
Unfortunately, one of them exploded right in front of Professor McGonagall.
The firework cleverly captured and printed the shocked expression on her face.
The Great Hall instantly fell silent.
The Weasley twins and the Gryffindors looked at Professor McGonagall in alarm.
The Slytherins, on the other hand, were watching with obvious glee.
They would have loved nothing more than to see Gryffindor lose points.
Professor McGonagall pressed her lips tightly together and stared sternly at the uneasy twins.
The result, of course, was that Gryffindor lost ten points, and each of the Weasley twins received half a month of detention.
Percy returned to his seat in despair.
He truly did not dare imagine Gryffindor finishing last while he was prefect.
The Slytherins would certainly laugh at them for a very long time.
When Elias and Professor Flitwick arrived in the Great Hall, they drew the attention of every student.
Elias was holding a thick stack of papers.
They were the essays the students had submitted over the past two days.
Professor Flitwick waved Penelope and Hermione forward, apparently intending to say something.
Elias stood at the staff table and set the thick stack of essays in front of him.
He cleared his throat as though preparing to speak, drawing every student’s gaze to the high table.
“I think this has been a hard but fulfilling period for all of you,” Elias said.
“First, we should congratulate Miss Penelope Clearwater and Miss Hermione Granger for succeeding in such fierce competition.” Elias led the applause.
Warm applause soon rang out from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff.
The kind Hufflepuffs sincerely congratulated Penelope and Hermione as well.
Only scattered clapping came from Slytherin.
The Slytherins still refused to accept Hermione’s selection.
Hermione and Penelope instantly became the focus of everyone’s attention.
Red-faced, they stood and bowed awkwardly in every direction.
Once the applause gradually faded, Elias spoke again.
“Second, your essays have allowed me to gain a fuller understanding of your academic level.” As he spoke, Elias tapped the thick stack of essays with his wand.
The papers rose into the air and flew toward the young witches and wizards who had written them.
The Great Hall immediately grew lively.
The upper-year students were surprised to find that their essays were covered with annotations, corrections, and comments from the two professors.
Each paper had also been graded like homework.
Hogwarts grades were Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, Acceptable, Poor, Dreadful, and Troll.
Many students who had worked hard were delighted to discover that their grades were O or E.
Those who had copied directly from books while hoping to get lucky had generally received A.
A small number of students quickly hid their essays with flushed faces.
They had been reckless enough to write nonsense, earning P, D, or, in a few extreme cases, an unprecedented T from students who had treated the essay like a diary.
By now, they were already lying across their tables in shame, because quite a few classmates had seen their papers when the essays flew back to them.
Elias coughed twice, bringing quiet back to the young witches and wizards who were sharing their grades and prying into everyone else’s.
Then he announced news that made many students cheer.
Any student whose essay had received an E or O would receive bonus marks on the final exams for Charms and Magical Close-Quarters Defense.
In an instant, the Great Hall became a sea of joy again.
The students who had truly worked hard on their essays cheered because their effort had been rewarded.
Elias then announced that he intended to create a journal collecting outstanding essays by Hogwarts students.
It would be sold inside Hogwarts twice per term.
Hermione’s and Penelope’s essays would be the first papers published in the journal.
In the future, any student whose essay was accepted for publication would receive bonus marks in the corresponding subject’s final exam.
Their House would also receive twenty points, and they would be paid ten Galleons per paper.
Elias had naturally already proposed this idea to the professors and Dumbledore, and he had received unanimous approval.
Even Snape privately felt that it was a good way to improve the students’ grades and motivation.
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.