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Chapter 122: The Seventh Grade Class

He had to take the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. The most stressful exam is the fifth grade because everyone has to take the OWL exam, and every student feels pressured. After entering the sixth grade, although they will face the NEWT exam, it is more difficult and more stressful than the OWL exam.

But this test is optional. The sixth and seventh-grade classes are big classes, filled with students from all four houses. Coupled with the two classes per week in the fifth grade, Sherlock’s tasks this semester only require taking four classes a week, which is much easier than last semester.

On the first day of school, Sherlock had a big seventh-grade class.

Because all the graduates who took the Defense Against the Dark Arts course last semester successfully passed the NEWT Exam with a high passing grade, most of the students in the sixth and seventh grades have chosen his class.

When Sherlock came to the classroom, it was already crowded with students. Sherlock glanced at the scene where two or three students in the back row huddled together at a table to listen to the class and couldn’t help shaking his head.

“It looks like I’m going to apply to Professor Dumbledore for a bigger classroom next class.”

Everyone sitting here has been taking a class with Sherlock for a year, and many students are close to him.

“I think you can apply to Professor Dumbledore to teach in the Hall, Professor.” A student answered.

The students below laughed, and Sherlock followed suit. He tapped the blackboard with his wand, “Okay since this class has already started, let’s focus.”

“Students who have already taken their subjects, after the class, I will hand over the twelve sets of test papers I gave you during the summer vacation to Percy, and he will collect them from me to see the results of your vacation studies.”

“As for the students who are taking this class this year, come to me after class. You also have to have these twelve sets of test papers. I will give you enough time to hand them in before Halloween.”

“I hope you don’t use a foolish way to finish it. These are new questions I made up based on the example questions on the exam in previous years.”

“The owner of a bookstore where I got it asked me to pay 1,000 Galleons to buy the papers. So remember, don’t copy this. After Halloween, I will do a special test based on the available topics.”

“If you can figure out all the questions in these twelve sets of test papers, then there will be basically no questions that will confuse you in the exam later.”

The students below listened carefully. Since they chose this class, the students who have already entered the seventh grade need to pay attention clearly and pass the exam.

The exam for Defense Against the Dark Arts is important in the wizarding world. Many professions pay special attention to this particular score. An Auror who wants to apply for the Ministry of Magic requires at least an O rating.

Sherlock tapped the podium lightly with his wand, turned the podium into a chair, and moved it to the side to make more room for himself.

“Let’s focus on the theoretical knowledge later. For the first course of the school, let’s talk about the practical exam first.”

“It’s different from the OWL exam, where the examiner randomly selects a dangerous dark magic creature and allows you to deal with it with magic. The combat assessment of the exam focuses on the duel between wizards, not wizards against magical creatures.”

“More advanced and dangerous magical creatures are not suitable for the examination room. A little carelessness can easily lead to accidents. I think most of you will later know who your opponents are.”

“Every year, the Ministry of Magic sends two or three Aurors as examiners for the exam, and the content of the exam is for you to have a duel with them.”

“It’s a wizard duel, not a normal duel. The battle fight generally does not appear in a normal fight. So your test will be really big.”

“In this duel, there is no civilized duel etiquette. As long as the examiner announces the start of the test, it will be considered a fight. You can use whatever means you have learned to try to defeat your examiner.”

“Of course, no one can defeat a well-trained Auror in the actual combat. Therefore, these Auror examiners will not fight with you seriously. It’s more of a way for them to fully assess your whole combat ability.”

Since it is an actual combat test, it’s really different from the theoretical test. Because there were too many students in this class and the classroom was too small, Sherlock could only choose one student to come up and have a small duel with him.

“It’s a pity that there are no records of the actual combat exam every year, so let’s make some examples.”

Sherlock called up Hufflepuff student Wilson and asked him to stand opposite him. He then continued to speak to the students in the classroom.

“During last year’s exam, I especially went to watch a few of them. During the summer vacation this year, I asked my Auror friends who had been examiners several times about the specific details, so I still have some information that you can use later.”

He looked at his opponent, the Hufflepuff student named Wilson.

“First of all, if you want to get a high score in the practical exam, you must learn a spell: the Protego Charm. Given that you took my class last semester, you should be able to use this spell, right?”

Wilson looked nervous, but after hearing Sherlock’s question, he nodded, pointed the wand in his hand at his body, and chanted a spell.

“Protego.” A colorless shield rippled around his body.

Sherlock said with admiration, “Very good. Being able to use this level of Protego Charm is enough to prove the efforts you usually spend on defensive spells.”

“Just like Wilson, if you successfully used the Protego Charm to protect your body at the beginning of the exam, you have completed the first step to getting a high score.”

“The Protego Charm is not a common spell used by wizards. Even most Ministry of Magic employees can not use it, but it is a spell that every Auror must know.”

“Remember this now. In the combat assessment, the first spell used must be a Protego Charm. If there are still people who can’t understand this spell, then come to me after class, and I will guide you in learning it. Because I already taught it in my sixth-grade class last year, I won’t take up class time to learn the spell.”

Sherlock also raised his wand and looked at Wilson on the opposite side, “If you do not use the Protego Charm for protection, the examiner will generally use a Disarming Spell to conduct their first attack. If you don’t use the Protego Charm, you will fail the first attack.”

Sherlock tapped his wand, but he didn’t chant anything. Wilson’s attention was always on him, and he didn’t pay any attention to his feet. There have been countless chairs turned into vines, spreading to him from front, back, left, and right.

Because it was not a spell, the entanglement did not provoke the defense mechanism of the Protego Charm spell and spread directly to Wilson’s waist. In the end, he suddenly tightened, and the vines trapped him tightly. The students below exclaimed.

Sherlock released Wilson and continued to explain, “This is the second key to getting a high score: never ignore a Transfiguration.”

“I know that the vast majority of you place more emphasis on spells than Transfiguration. I would say that is true, but don’t forget Transfiguration at any time.”

“Whether it’s used in the duel process or to discover the examiner’s Transfiguration in time, any point will give you extra points in the test.”

The class passed quickly. In the first class of the seventh grade, Sherlock talked about the two main points of Protego Charm and Transfiguration, but every student who came to the class felt that they had learned a lot.

These students don’t know what a normal seventh-grade Defense Against the Dark Arts class is like. But the professors usually discuss a lot of things. In the end, only a small part of the class passed the test.

Most students are miserable in class. They are often full of doubts when they are studying, and they have always doubted whether what they are learning now will pass the test. Therefore, those who can finally get an O rating are the top students.

These people keep all the knowledge they can learn in their minds, and it is easy for them to ask any questions. But these students are in the minority after all, and most students still do not have enough energy and brainpower to remember so much knowledge and can only try their luck in exams.

After a few days, most of the knowledge is completely forgotten, and only a small part of it can be really used in future work and life. Sherlock’s purely test-oriented teaching method is a gospel of those students with mediocre talents.

At the end of the class, Sherlock packed up his things and told Percy to send the homework directly to his office. Back at the office, putting away the things in his hands, Sherlock came to the Hall for lunch.

There were quite a few students in the Hall. Sherlock was chatting with Hagrid at the teacher’s table. Hagrid was excitedly talking to Sherlock about his preparations for the first class this afternoon.

At this moment, most of the students who had lunch suddenly became quiet, and their eyes were all looking at one place. It was a witch who walked in from the front of the Hall. She was wearing a black robe different from normal students, with a hood on her head, revealing only the lower half of her face and long gray hair.

The students had never seen her in the castle, and the aura she exuded was obviously not a student. But a person like this never appeared among the professors at Hogwarts.

Under the eyes of most of the students, Silk walked up to Sherlock and said, “I saw something, and I’m going to Hogsmeade now.”

Hearing her words, Sherlock was stunned for a moment. He stuffed the rest of the sausage into his mouth and stood up from the table, “Let’s go then.”

Sherlock and Silk left the Hall together. After a brief silence, a much more heated discussion broke out in the Great Hall. The most talked-about topic was the witch with the hood.

“Who is she?” Ron asked Harry.

Although Harry spent almost a month with Sherlock during the summer, he had never seen her, “I don’t know, I’ve never heard Professor Forrest talk about that person.”

Hermione’s attention had just been diverted from this morning’s terrible divination class. She thought, “Professor Dumbledore said that Professor Forrest had something else to do this year; it’s possibly related to her.”

While they were making all kinds of guesses, Harry suddenly remembered something important and said to Hermione and Ron in a low voice, “Oh yeah! During the summer vacation, Professor Forrest’s jinx suddenly didn’t work when I was with him!”