Hogwarts: Even Voldemort Can't Stop Me From Studying

Percy had just returned to Hogwarts, and for the first two days, he was practically a magnet exuding the brilliance of the Ministry of Magic.

Whether he was having breakfast in the Great Hall or walking through the corridors, there were always students who recognized him and approached with familiarity, soon surrounded by several fuzzy little heads from the lower years.

“Mr. Weasley! Mr. Weasley!”

A second-year Gryffindor girl finally caught him at noon on the third day, her eyes shining brightly as she said:

“Aren’t Aurors especially smart and powerful? How can we become Aurors? Mr. Weasley, what do you do at the Ministry of Magic?”

Percy stopped in his tracks, straightened his back, cleared his throat, and shifted the notebook and duplicated materials in his hand to make the badge on his chest shine even brighter.

“That’s a very good question,” he said. “The work at the Ministry of Magic is far more complicated, serious, and—if I may use this word—dignified than you can imagine.”

The students gathered around him looked at him thirstily for knowledge, their eyes wide open.

“As the administrative head of the Auror Command Department, my work… how to put it… you can understand it as an essential link in ensuring Aurors can perform their tasks with undivided attention.”

Percy said in a deep voice, “From personnel scheduling to resource assurance, from task recording to risk assessment reports, each link requires an extremely rigorous level of professional competence that most people simply can’t do.”

“Speaking of which, I recall Minister Sinclaire once said…”

He launched into an unending narrative about his experiences with the Minister, occasionally mentioning the former Minister Fudge to show how he was entrusted with heavy responsibilities by both Ministers.

After ten minutes, the crowd began to quietly inch backward.

After fifteen minutes, the low-year students surrounding Percy had switched to the third wave, with only the original girl who had stopped him remaining as his focused conversation partner, unable to leave.

Her eyes were already glazed over, her smile almost unsustainable, and all her attention was on the two feet taking turns to support her weight.

After twenty minutes, having managed to describe the dry encounters as if they were the handover of a crown, Percy felt his recently shaken confidence returning.

He paid no attention to whether the surrounding students had changed, merely licking his lips and returning to the original topic with gusto.

“Aurors are, of course, the elite of the Ministry of Magic, specializing in tracking and capturing Dark Wizards. My being able to become the administrative head of the Auror Office is largely thanks to the Minister’s favor…”

“But to become an Auror, you need to meet extremely strict conditions. You need at least five N.E.W.T. certificates, including Spellcasting, Magic Potion, Transfiguration Technique, Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

“If you don’t achieve at least an ‘E’ (Exceeds Expectations) in even one of these four subjects, you don’t even qualify to submit your application!”

First-time hearers of this information perked up, and someone hastily said:

“But my best grade in Magic Potion is only an A (Acceptable), is there a way to improve it?”

Percy seemed not to hear him, continuing, “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, it’s your ticket to ‘admission eligibility’!”

“You have no idea how narrow that door is! The Auror Office will conduct a full background check, and if you have, well, a family member with a record, I suggest you consider other paths early on!”

“The Ministry of Magic needs people who have no flaws that Dark Wizards can exploit, a perfectly flawless individual!”

“And to become the supervisor of such a group of elites, while there’s no doubt my luck and the recognition from my superiors played a part, the key is still being able to obtain that ‘qualification.’

“If you want to be like me, then you have a lot to learn from now on.”

“For example, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, besides the content in textbooks, trace tracking and stealth camouflage are must-learns as well.”

“I started researching the amendments to the International Wizarding Union’s Confidentiality Law in the third year, as well as reading the three hundred classic cases from ‘Wizengamot Case Law’… of course, it’s best to memorize them.”

“Let me recommend some books for you…”

Percy not only rattled off a long list of book titles but also sternly required them to take notes.

When he hinted at checking their “self-study progress,” the students suddenly remembered they had plenty of urgent matters to attend to—

“Sorry, Mr. Weasley, I… I’m going to be late for class.”

The second-year Gryffindor girl timidly said, “I’m really interested in what you said, but there’s really no time!”

She didn’t even wait for Percy to answer before pulling her friends along and running off like a rabbit.

Following suit, those other students watched by Percy also quickly found their excuses:

“Merlin, I haven’t finished my Transfiguration homework yet!”

“My rat will starve to death if I don’t feed it soon!”

“Mr. Filch asked me to clean!”

In the blink of an eye, only Percy was left in the corridor.

He furrowed his brows, lowered the arms he had excitedly waved around earlier, and shook his head saying:

“Poor fellows…they have no idea what they’ve missed.”

Percy sighed sympathetically, shifting the items in his arms to another hand, murmuring to himself:

“If someone at the age of twelve had been willing to sit me down and tell me ‘which courses you need to choose,’ ‘what grades you need for O.W.L.,’ ‘what types of questions interviewers like to ask’—I would have traded all my Christmas presents for that one invaluable afternoon.”