On the night before the year-end feast, Dumbledore stayed up until the bell rang at twelve o'clock before he fell asleep.

Hogwarts was as quiet as ever, and the large-scale house confrontation that the old man feared did not happen.

Elena Kaslana fulfilled her promise, and the invitation to a private duel that had been surging among the students did not happen as scheduled, and both Gryffindor and Slytherin students obediently stayed in their dormitories and did not go out.

In the Great Hall that morning, looking at the peaceful campus, Dumbledore was in a pretty good mood.

"Alright," Dumbledore looked at everyone with a smile, "I think you've had a lot of fun in the past half month in the new final practice level at Hogwarts, and some of the students who did well have won more rewards for themselves and the house, and as of last evening, a total of two hundred and seventy-five students have successfully passed all the levels." ”

"I'm so happy to announce that this is the end of this level event—"

"Oh, no—"

"I'm sure I'll be able to clear the ...... today"

"Just once, one last time—"

There was a slight commotion in the Hogwarts Great Hall, and the young wizards who had not yet had time to clear the level couldn't help but let out a wail, and a look of regret and frustration appeared on their faces.

Dumbledore smiled and continued.

"The breakdown of all the level bonuses for this semester will be posted on the bulletin board outside the auditorium by Mr. Filch later, and the corresponding bonus points will be adjusted before the year-end banquet tonight. However, I would like to remind you that this does not mean that the final house score for this academic year is ......"

"At the beginning of this academic year, I said that the final results of each grade of the four houses this year will also be one of the important factors in determining the ownership of the House Cup. ”

"So for the rest of the day, I recommend getting out of the castle, grabbing a broomstick and flying around the Quidditch pitch twice, or basking in the sun by the Black Lagoon, or getting some cold drinks and snacks from the kitchen, and relaxing on the school lawn with friends......

"Of course, remember not to overeat. If you miss out on the food at the year-end party, you may regret a summer vacation. ”

With that, Dumbledore clapped his hands happily and announced the start of breakfast as usual.

After breakfast, the students barely left the auditorium.

Everyone gathered on the bulletin board outside, waiting for Argus Filch to nail several large rolls of parchment to the wall, each looking for his name in the column of his house, and silently counting the scores for errors and omissions.

With the increase in the number of people who have cleared the level every day, the old wizard naturally can't praise them in turn as he did a few days ago.

At Elena's suggestion, it was replaced by a more standardized and transparent list of bonus points.

In fact, Hogwarts' house division model has been very vague before, and there have always been doubts about shady scores.

In view of this situation, as a fair and impartial Hufflepuff, Elena is naturally on the side of justice, and her proposal is undoubtedly approved by the vast majority of young wizards, and Dumbledore will naturally not object.

In addition, starting next year, Hogwarts will publish the "House Breakdown" of each house for the past year on the school bulletin board at the end of each semester, which includes a series of key information such as the time of the score change, the value, the people involved, and the reason.

This week's breakdown is a small pilot to gauge future workload and student feedback.

Given the students' poor math base, even a few hundred or so records would have been enough to consume them for a long time – and of course, Ravenclaw College would be quite ahead of the curve due to the increased difficulty of Eagle Ring this year.

............

At the same time, the other side.

Hogwarts Staff Lounge.

The room seemed to have undergone a slight alteration, and it looked at least twice as spacious as it normally was, with Hogwarts professors gathered together to keep a count of the students' grades in their respective subjects.

And next to each of them, there are one or two elves holding pen and paper, assisting in numerical calculations.

Due to Hogwarts' generous loan of the Golden Galleon to the Gringotts Wizarding Bank to tide over the difficult situation, and the subsequent update and iteration of the wizarding currency of [Hogwarts-Golden Gallon], the new Gringotts Fairy Queen signed a long-term cooperation with the school, willing to provide the necessary human and financial support to Hogwarts at any time.

However, as the statistics progressed, the professors gradually discovered a strange thing......

"Professor Snape, don't you think there's something wrong?"

"Sorry, I don't understand what you mean, it seems to me that everything is normal. ”

"Severus, don't get excited, Minerva isn't blaming anyone. ”

When Albus Dumbledore pushed open the door to the common room, he was met by Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape, who were facing each other, and around them, a group of professors were arguing.

Tuk, tuk.

Dumbledore tapped politely on the door with his knuckles, and looked at the professors in the common room, somewhat confused.

"Ahem, can anyone explain to me a little bit what's going on?"

"Actually, it's nothing, it's just a little misunderstanding, and it will be ...... soon"

Professor Sprout coughed lightly and smiled as he rounded.

However, before the chubby witch could finish speaking, Professor McGonagall's serious voice rang out in the room.

"I now have every reason to suspect that Slytherin House is involved in collective cheating in final exams, multiple grades, multiple subjects, and this is not a conclusion that I have reached alone, and many of the professors present must have thought the same way, right?"

"Shameful and ugly slander, nonsense! Professor McGonagall, I don't understand. ”

Severus Snape snorted coldly, with a hint of indifferent mockery in his tone.

"Is it so difficult for you to admit that our students are better at our house, and to admit that Slytherin is better?, perhaps you've noticed how bad potions Gryffindor students have made in past practice tests. ”

"But why do I hear a lot of students complain that it's because you always make things difficult for the children of our house in class?"

Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes and replied in a-for-tat.

"It's no surprise that people tend to attribute their lack of effort and lack of skill to other people's problems. ”

Snape shrugged disapprovingly, said in a flat tone, and pointed to the papers around him.

"Because they were the worst performers, and the answers in this room illustrate that again. As for your confusion, don't forget, Slytherin House has won the House Cup for six years in a row, which means that from Year 2 to Year 6, they are indeed better than the rest of the school—"

"Do you really think that everyone is unaware of your partiality in class?"

"Oh, but if I'm not mistaken, it's mostly because we're pretty good at Quidditch...... As for the points deduction, I have to be thankful that students in our college rarely get locked up, be late, or do other bad things. ”

"Unfortunately, collective fraud is the worst thing. ”

Speaking of Quidditch, Professor McGonagall seemed to have been pricked with a needle, and suddenly pursed her lips tightly, as if she had just drunk a very strong cup of black coffee, and repeated it again with a very serious expression.

"It's undoubtedly the worst thing that can happen to a student, cheating—"

"So, we're back to the original question, right?"

Snape let out a sneer, but there was no hint of a smile in his voice, and he asked coldly.

"So...... Excuse me, Dear Professor McGonagall, where is your evidence?"

"A student at the academy was involved in collective cheating, Minerva, and that accusation is quite serious. ”

After listening for a moment, Dumbledore frowned, his face a little more confused.

It shouldn't be!

What the hell is going on?!

Besides, with Dumbledore's knowledge of Professor McGonagall, and his trust in the students of Hogwarts, if there really was a large-scale collective fraud, there was no reason why none of so many professors would find out in the examination room!

You know, even in previous years, Slytherin House won the first place in a row, there has never been such a dispute, and judging from the atmosphere in the staff lounge, there seems to be a lot of strange things about this matter now - those professors who did not join the debate, the silence itself represents an ambiguous statement.

"The evidence, the evidence is in these papers. All Slytherin papers!"

Professor McGonagall tapped her fingers on the large stack of parchment in front of her, "Good thing there are elves from Gringotts, otherwise I would have almost noticed the oddities in the answers......!

After a slight pause, Professor McGonagall took on a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"Isn't it obvious that these children answered all the important and difficult content quite accurately, as if they had been copied from a book in advance, but there were mistakes in some basic and simple knowledge - not only Transfiguration, but almost all subjects were exactly the same, isn't that obvious enough?!"

"That only shows that the children in our house are a little ambitious, and I'll remind them of that later. ”

Snape replied with a blank face, "It's normal, the little ones who think they're smart will always ignore some basic knowledge, intentionally or unintentionally, and even then, you can't erase the fact that Slytherin is leading all grades." ”

"Comprehensive ...... Leading? hmm...... So what was the result?"

Dumbledore was slightly stunned, turned his head to look at Professor Flitwick beside him, and asked in a low voice.

Compared to the two professors who were facing each other, he wanted to listen to the views of the bystanders first.

"From Year 1 to Year 6, Slytherin House was the first overall score, and even this year's Hufflepuff Year 1 and Gryffindor Year 1 were still a little bit worse than Slytherin in terms of average scores. ”

"That's fine...... And so on, that is, if according to the rules of this year......"

Dumbledore's face was stunned for a moment, and then he immediately realized what the problem was.

Professor Flitwick, whose feet were dangling in the air, spread his hands helplessly, and replied reluctantly

"That's right, if Slytherin were to follow this year's overall assessment rules, they would have received a five-hundred-point bonus point, directly surpassing all the houses, and locked up this year's House Cup - seven consecutive championships in advance, which is outrageous. ”

"So Minerva, do you have any other evidence besides suspicion because of abnormal grades?"

Dumbledore pondered for a moment, then turned to look at Professor McGonagall not far away.

Professor McGonagall shook her head and replied with a solemn expression.

"This time is limited, and we have just discovered this problem, but ......"

“...... Okay, I see, let's stop the argument here. ”

Dumbledore's eyes flickered, and he suddenly remembered something, and interrupted McGonagall with a tired wave of his hand.

"In the absence of conclusive evidence of fraud, I tend to agree with Severus that these children's results should be treated as valid – if the cause is later identified, then it will be dealt with. ”

"First in the average score of the whole five grades, hey, that's an amazing achievement......"

If Dumbledore remembers correctly, since the end of this year's Quidditch tournament, in order to avoid being ostracized and bullied by Malfoy Jr. and others in the academy, Elena has temporarily moved to live in a Slytherin dormitory.

Since then, a certain white-haired ballboy seems to have been living in Slytherin House to revise his schoolwork.

Of course, in addition to the first-year courses, most of the senior classes she applied to participate in were also turned to the children in Slytherin, and I heard that she was about to be spoiled as a real little demon in Slytherin.

And Elena's final results happen to be all ...... Out!

Dumbledore shook his head in dismay, he had almost guessed part of the truth.

"Hey, this kid, I almost lifted a rock and shot myself in the foot......"

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