"So even Slytherin and the others couldn't fully understand Lady Hufflepuff's spell?"After listening to Rhys's story, Daphne blinked.
"Of course not!" Rhys glared at her. "Otherwise, where do you think my fake body came from?"
He calmed himself and explained to Daphne that although Hufflepuff herself couldn't clearly explain the principle, she had still done her best to cooperate with her friends in studying the spell. Eventually, Slytherin and Ravenclaw succeeded in recreating it and even made some improvements.
However, the clay figures recreated by Slytherin and Ravenclaw were still far inferior to the ones Hufflepuff made herself—they could only exert a small portion of the original's strength, while Hufflepuff's dolls could unleash over eighty percent of the original body's power, and the duration was much longer too.
"Still, Slytherin and Ravenclaw didn't earn their reputations for nothing. They made significant improvements to the dolls' external appearance, making them nearly indistinguishable from real people. Back then, wizards could sense magic directly, so achieving that level of realism was quite an impressive feat!" Rhys said, unable to hide a trace of pride in his tone.
After all, they had truly poured a lot of effort into it back then.
Daphne and Astoria listened with stunned expressions.
After a little while, Daphne timidly asked, "Was that recorded in the letters of the ancient wizards too?"
Rhys narrowed his eyes: This little girl is getting harder and harder to fool!
"No, it was from Slytherin's personal notes—alright, let's get back to the main topic. Astoria, are you willing to take the second-year final exams for me? In exchange, I can help you take your finals, but you'd better not set your hopes too high for the results," Rhys said, as his goal had now shifted.
If before it was simply to save himself trouble, now he genuinely wanted to see Astoria's level—to see how she would perform facing exams meant for a higher year.
After giving it serious thought, Astoria accepted Rhys's proposal, and thus began a month-long, grueling period of studying. She truly got up earlier than the chickens and went to bed later than the pigs, practically living in the library from morning till night.
When the day of the final exams arrived.. she overslept! Combined with the time lost taking Polyjuice Potion and changing clothes, she almost missed the first exam.
But in the end, she managed to finish all the exams without a hitch under Daphne's complicated gaze, and no one noticed anything strange.
"Now all that's left is to wait for the results!" The Great Hall was lively after the exams. Astoria happily picked up a bowl of pudding, smiling brightly as she said, "How did you do, big sister? Don't tell me you ended up scoring lower than me."
Daphne's face darkened, and she suddenly felt a twinge of regret: she should have reviewed her History of Magic notes more carefully earlier.
Damn it! Under Rhys's influence, she hadn't taken subjects like History of Magic seriously either!
Could it be that I really got a lower score than this little girl Astoria?
She shivered at the thought, and the dessert in her hand no longer tasted so sweet.
After lunch, the group followed the crowd out of the Great Hall. On the way, they ran into Hermione, who had just finished eating.
Judging by her expression, she probably did quite well on the exams—though, of course, she would never admit it. If you asked her, she would endlessly complain about some question she changed from the correct answer to the wrong one. Yet once the results came out, you'd find she only got that single question wrong.
Since their shared adventure in the Forbidden Forest, the relationship between the Greengrass sisters and Hermione had improved quite a bit. Plus, Rhys and Hermione were old acquaintances, so the four of them naturally fell into conversation.
The main topic was, of course, their summer holiday plans. Halfway through their chat, a sudden cheer rang out behind them.
The voice wasn't unfamiliar—Rhys immediately recognized it as Ron from the Weasley family.
He turned around and just happened to meet Ron's gaze.
Ron gave him a big, cheerful smile and waved a letter in his hand, then squeezed through the other students' curious glances to Rhys's side.
"My dad won the Daily Prophet's Grand Prize Draw! The prize money is several hundred Galleons! Now I can finally buy a new wand!" he said excitedly, unable to wait to share the good news with Rhys.
What else could Rhys say? He could only offer his congratulations out of politeness.
"Not just a new wand! We're also planning to go on holiday to Egypt during the summer. My brother Bill works there as a Curse-Breaker for Gringotts... Oh right, Rhys, where are you planning to go for the holidays?" Ron was visibly excited, practically wanting to share his joy with the entire school.
"Oh?" Hearing the word "Egypt," Rhys couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. "What a coincidence. I'm planning to head to Egypt during the summer as well."
Daphne and Astoria immediately pricked up their ears, but unfortunately, Rhys didn't say more, leaving them rather disappointed.
Perhaps because even the professors were eager for the holiday, the final exam results came out very quickly. Within three days of finishing the exams, the report cards were delivered to the students.
Professor Snape, as usual, managed to obtain the grades for all students across the school and posted a sorted list on the house bulletin boards.
When Daphne spotted those charts from afar, she felt both excited and nervous.
As she drew closer, a few snippets of conversation floated to her from the crowd.
"That Astoria is Daphne's younger sister, right? Amazing, full marks in every subject?!"
"No wonder they're descendants of the Greengrass family. The sisters are ranked second and first—really incredible."
"Rhys Lint is amazing too. He was second last year, wasn't he? And now he's first!"
"If he were willing to get up there and duel, who knows how many matches he could win—"
"..."
Daphne's mind buzzed, and she nearly fainted as stars danced before her eyes: How could this be?!
Astoria actually scored better than me?
And Rhys, even while substituting, managed to come out first—what was going on?
Gritting her teeth, she squeezed into the crowd and then clearly saw the rankings written in black and white. Her whole world felt like it was falling apart.
She turned her head and found Rhys and Astoria had also squeezed in behind her, strange glints flashing in their eyes.
Astoria said, "Big sister, I didn't expect you to... to.. pfft! Bahahaha.."
She couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing.
Rhys said, "I really didn't study much, really! It just happened that the questions were on things I knew..."
His face was full of "sincerity."
But honestly, as a teacher stepping in to take an exam for his student, how could he allow himself to fail any subjects? Those who know, know.
And so, amid Rhys and Astoria's laughter and Daphne's deep gloom, the summer holidays began.
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