Less than a month remained until the exams.

The new courses in class had almost all concluded, and the professors, as if they had conspired, were assigning a mountain of homework to the young wizards every day. Hogwarts' library finally welcomed its annual peak season, filled from morning till night with sighing, yawning students desperately trying to complete their heavy workload.

Under such a fervent and tense atmosphere, even Hermione Granger showed a little bit of insecure wavering. She always carried four or five thick books with her, spreading them out on the table and quietly memorizing whenever she had time.

As for Seamus Finnigan, also in the first year, he had caused countless accidental explosions at the dining table.

As the exam days approached, such minor accidents were not uncommon at Hogwarts, especially among the fifth-year students like Percy Weasley, who were about to take their O.W.L.s, they were like unstable potions, ready to explode with the slightest nudge.

However, for Erina, the saddest news was that her long stint in the small dark room had finally come to an end.

Besides spending half a day each weekend dealing with the backlog of letters, she had to behave like an unremarkable little witch for the rest of the time, diligently completing the assignments given by the professors, or quizzing Hermione on the twelve uses of dragon blood, the names of the former leaders of goblin rebellions, and the like.

In addition, because she had signed up for all the subjects from the first to fourth years, she had to make extra time to read and memorize the content that was most likely to appear on this year's exam papers—even though she had advance access to the papers, she still had to find the answers.

You see, ninety-nine percent of the old exam papers found in the Room of Requirement were black history from failed exams. In other words, if she wanted to get a high score on the written test, she first had to find a way to come up with a perfect standard answer in an "open book" state, and then memorize and practice it repeatedly in order.

Another result of such high-frequency reading of upper-grade textbooks was that Hermione, who had originally been convinced that Erina might be cheating, began to waver. After all, Luna's "inspiration appraisal" had not yielded any useful information, and judging from her usual behavior, Erina did seem to be seriously preparing for the final exams...

Apart from Hermione, the other two little wings gave up looking for "White-Haired Dumpling's cheating evidence" after persevering for two or three days, leaving only Hermione to stick to her close surveillance every day.

Because she had personally seen Erina only look at certain chapters when reviewing "Ancient Runes Studies." Besides the definitions and analyses of those four or five runes, Erina had not memorized anything else—but this alone could not prove that the White-Haired Dumpling might be cheating, at most it only meant that her revision plan was not thorough enough.

Obviously, it was still quite difficult for the little beaver to defeat Erina alone.

What was even more terrifying was that after Erina returned to campus, those unheard-of delicious snacks reappeared before Nana Min's eyes. Staying up late to study, combined with irresistible desserts, Hermione felt that her weight might be the first to collapse.

As for Luna and Hannah, they had long given up resisting, eating whatever Erina did.

However, on the other hand, Erina's exam application had only just reached a unified opinion among the Hogwarts professors.

…………

This Wednesday morning.

As usual, the professors sat down early in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, quietly discussing the things that had happened at the school in recent days, while picking up the menus in front of them with great interest and choosing their breakfast for the day.

Since Albus Dumbledore had voluntarily arranged a "detention room" for Erina, the original restrictions on the old wizard's healthy meals for the elderly had gradually been relaxed to only limiting high-sugar and high-cholesterol foods. Dumbledore was finally able to happily taste "A Bite of Hogwarts," which the entire wizarding world coveted.

For most professors, the three meals at Hogwarts had long become an important school benefit.

"Professor Dumbledore, what do you think about that child's exam application?"

Minerva McGonagall looked at the menu in her hand, casually glancing towards the Hufflepuff table not far away, and softly asked the old wizard with the half-moon spectacles beside her.

"I don't deny Miss Kaslana's talent, but I still think she is being too...presumptuous this time. There has never been such a precedent in Hogwarts. I really don't understand why you agreed to such an unreasonable application."

"Why should we refuse a student who wants to take extra exams?" Dumbledore replied casually.

"Anyway, let her try it out. This way, at least we can have a clearer grasp of Miss Kaslana's actual knowledge reserve, and what kind of progress she has made. Even if there are some subjects she cannot pass—which is bound to happen—that will also be a good opportunity for this proud little girl to taste the taste of setbacks."

Severus Snape's eyes remained on the menu in his hand, speaking in his usual slow and methodical tone. As the potions professor, although he didn't say it usually, he was quite satisfied with this "teaching assistant."

"Severus is right. Miss Kaslana is only applying for the written exams for the upper grades, not including the practical assessments. In other words, even if she passes all of them smoothly, she cannot directly apply to skip grades or be exempted from courses—since she wants to memorize more things, I think we should encourage this behavior, and also motivate other students in the school."

Dumbledore smiled mysteriously, and then put more attention into the menu in front of him, frowning slightly, and looking at the gold-lettered words on the menu with some confusion and distress, and read them out in a low voice.

"Squid Oatmeal Soup, Black Pepper Pork Pie, Pan-fried Omelette, Raw Fish Congee, Oyster Omelette (O Ah Jian), Boiled Beef Noodles, Duck Breast Stew with Macaroni, Sweet Potato Balls, Taro Pastry... Today, most of them are菜名 (cài míng - dish names) I've never heard of. Which one should I choose..."

"If you are a little hesitant, you can choose Boiled Beef Noodles. This is a cooking method from the distant East—although the taste may be a bit stimulating, both the appearance and the taste are particularly interesting."

Severus Snape glanced at the menu in Dumbledore's hand and said without expression.

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Chapter 1! OMG!!