BXBX NOVEL Chapter 292
The next morning, Felix is eating breakfast in the great hall.
“Flutter!”
An owl delivering a newspaper landed on his table. He gave the owl a nut and opened the paper in his hand, and before he could read its contents, a second and third owl landed next to him, squeezing, scraping, and stepping on the dishes.
“Congratulations, Professor Hap.” Lupin, who is seated next to him, remarked, gesturing to the headline of the spread-out newspaper – “Youngest recipient of the St. Mungo’s medical badge!”
Felix said politely, “Thank you-oh!” He dodged the beak of a cranky owl and pulled out the letter tied to its leg, but soon seven or eight more came, flapping their wings and eyeing Felix intently, urging him to hurry up with the letter.
He drew his wand and tapped the edge of the cup, and all the letters on a dozen owls flew over, he nimbly took them in his hands and then told Lupin, “Actually, the badge was delivered to me quite earlier, only it was not published until now.”
These owls drank some orange juice, then took two cookies with them, and flew away with their wings, leaving the cups and plates on the table in disarray, and Felix no longer wanted to eat, so he gathered the letters together.
He first glanced at the Daily Prophet, which showed a picture of himself receiving the St. Mungo’s Medical Badge, standing with a group of older-looking healers, with the logo of the St. Mungo’s Magical Medical Association in the background.
He was standing in the middle of the group, smiling gently, holding a blue-green shield-shaped badge with a snake wand in the center with the light green letter ‘M’ in the background. Next to him, Lady Dorothea Bonham, standing.
Felix then began to open the letters one by one, most of them from the healer community, with greetings from new healers and invitations for exchange from healers with a certain level of reputation, which he put away, intending to take the time to reply to them one by one.
A gray-covered letter caught his attention. It is an official letter from the Ministry of Magic. Upon opening it, the letter stated that they recognized his outstanding contribution to the field of memory damage treatment and awarded him with the Second Class, Order of Merlin award.
At the foot of the official letter, there is a long list of signatures of the current members of the Wizengamot, and he saw quite a few familiar names – Amelia Bones, Barty Crouch, Tiberius Ogden, Griselda Marchbanks, Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge…
“A second class order merlin award,” Felix remarked, assuming that Fudge had stalled it, dragging the matter rather long.
The award ceremony is scheduled to be held in two weeks, giving him plenty of time to make arrangements.
Coming out of the great hall, Felix saw a short, fat witch in a pink dress, and he frowned, saying nothing. Umbridge didn’t come around often, but it’s just hard to ignore her, and her presence is even higher than that of Tonks and the other male Auror who is stationed here.
Many young wizards were aware of the presence of a high-ranking Ministry of Magic official who loved to wear pink at the school, sometimes followed by two Aurors, sometimes by herself, smiling like a little girl.
Umbridge acted low-key, she stood with Filch, and when Felix looked over, Mrs. Norris ran over to him as she rubbed and nuzzled his feet.
“Norris, you seem to be in a good state,” Felix said as the cat’s originally rough fur became smooth, and she gained some more flesh on her body, at least it didn’t seem like her eyes were so bulging and weird anymore.
“Meow~”
Mrs. Norris purred lazily, her voice seeping as usual.
Umbridge looked back and saw Felix, she immediately looked away and whispered a question to Filch, who loudly said in a thick voice: “Professor Hap, ah … you are asking the right person, he is really a good man … ”
“Keep your voice down!” Umbridge choked and squealed, she turned back sheepishly and saw Felix smiling at her, she hurriedly handed Filch a bag and instructed two sentences before leaving.
“What did she tell you to do?” Felix inquired as he walked over.
Filch grunted, “Asking about the professors in the school, and also about you, sneakily asked me to spread some detectors around the school, I asked her whose order it is, and she refused to answer me.”
“Mr. Filch, give it to me,” said Felix, “I’ll consult Minerva, and by the way, is there enough Tonic left for Mrs. Norris?”
“Enough, plenty enough, there’s still leftover from before,” said Filch with a red-face, “and I asked Madam Pomfrey to make a new batch, fearing that I would make a mistake … you see how beautiful Mrs. Norris is now, and those little wizards who make mistakes can’t get away from us!”
“Ahem, ahem!” Felix coughed dryly twice, “If you have any problems, just look for me, I’ll go first, I still have class …”
…
Seventh-grade ancient runes’ classroom.
Felix scanned the students off the stage, “Try to concentrate class, we are doing an N.E.W.T. mock exam, even though you have studied well over the past few months, … you still need to be in awe.”
The wizards offstage giggled and laughed until he reminded, “Ten minutes to go.” Only then did the students get busy with their final checks.
The sun shone through the tall windows, creating patches of light that shone on their papers, and the tall Marcus shrank down to the small, narrow, single table – modelled from the NEWTs’ exam format. His head is bent low, his eyes quickly scanning the entire paper, occasionally correcting his answers with a quill, his other hand battling with a pimple on his face.
Geoffrey, Penelope, and Percy finished their papers early, though Percy remained frowning and checking till the last moment, only then did his whole body relax with a satisfied smile.
“Time’s up. Everyone – stop writing, Accio test papers.”
Dozens of test papers flew towards Felix with a clatter, he placed them on the podium, and a palm-sized golem immediately jumped on top of the papers, holding a golden feather quill in its hand, and began to correct the papers.
Penelope sighed as she said, “Every once in a while, you can see a clear improvement, the professor’s golem can already correct the test papers instead of him.”
Percy nodded, “You know how capable my advanced golem is, but it is only stored with a hundred books for now, yet it can instantly provide me with feedback on anything I ask it to look up.”
Penelope said regretfully, “Unfortunately, I didn’t sign up for the dueling tournament, so I missed it, I probably won’t have a chance to get it as we would graduate next year.”
“Alright class, we need to wait a few minutes,” Felix looked at the crowd, “I’m glad to see you all finished answering your papers, normally this exam would last all morning, while we only took two hours for this mock test… … still you finished the test.”
“Because of your thinking classroom!” Wood said aloud, he had enough reason to be excited, from the original ancient runes academic scum to now being able to answer the paper in advance, this much of improvement only in just a few months.
Moreover, he could get an E at the lowest minimum, and if he got lucky, he would get an O to boot.
Wood’s statement drew a round of applause, and two boys whistled and let out a jubilant cheer.
Felix waited for the classroom to quiet down, as he smiled and stated, “The knowledge is out there, but not everyone is going to learn it. With the remaining bit of time, we can talk about … what you all intend to do after graduation, have you thought about it?”
“I’m going to help out at home,” Geoffrey said.
“The Ministry of Magic.” Percy murmured with anticipation.
“Uh, I haven’t thought about it yet … but Puddlemere United did send me an offer to be a reserve Quidditch player, and I’ve been hesitant about that.” Wood scratched his chin.
There are still quite a few people who are undecided, and those who are talking about their aspirations –
“I want to work for wizengamot!”
“I think it would be good to travel around and see the magic of different countries …”
A few minutes passed hurriedly, “Okay, let’s have a look at your results.” Felix picked up the test papers and flipped through them one by one. “Well …”
The students stared at Professor Hap, the classroom went very quiet, not even the “rustle” of turning books was heard, they listened carefully to every word he said.
Felix announced the results, “All students have met the standard! No one below E. As for O’s, there are twenty-three.”
A Hufflepuff wizard exclaimed, “It’s not impossible for all of us to get an O by the time the exams start, Professor, there’s going to be a new legend in Hogwarts!”
Felix chuckled, “A Legend … is it you guys, or is it me?”
“Of course, it’s … us!” The boy winked and said flatteringly, and the classroom instantly filled with a happy atmosphere.
———-
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