Unable to tell if Cohen's last sentence was a reminder or a threat, but under the pressure of "Voldemort will kill your whole family if the mission fails," Hopkins still chose to continue staying in Cohen's box. This also saved him a batch of Polyjuice Potion – because he didn't have to keep drinking the potion to maintain his student appearance while inside the box.
Over the next two weeks, the difficulty of various courses at Hogwarts suddenly escalated from the "plain and simple" level at the beginning of the term to "tense and exciting."
First up was Professor McGonagall, who started increasing the amount and difficulty of homework.
"You are entering an important stage of your academic careers," Professor McGonagall said very sternly when students complained about having too much homework for Transfiguration. "Your O.W.L. examinations are approaching—"
"We don't take our O.W.L.s until fifth year!" Dean said indignantly.
"Perhaps so, Thomas," Professor McGonagall's spectacles glinted in the torchlight on the wall. "However, please trust me, you need to be thoroughly prepared! In this class, only Miss Granger can transfigure a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion – and you, stop snickering over there, Mr. Norton, I must remind you, your pincushion always starts running along the desk when you get close to it, you won't pass your O.W.L.s like that."
"I promise this won't happen after this term," Cohen swore.
Transfiguring living creatures was indeed difficult for Cohen. Goodness knows why, after Cohen used a Transfiguration spell to turn a hedgehog into a pincushion, it wasn't afraid of pins, yet it would drag its "pincushion body" away at great speed when Cohen got close.
However, this problem would be solved once Cohen obtained his next Animagus form.
Unless these timid little animals weren't afraid of Cohen's physical body, but of Cohen's soul...
Besides Transfiguration, the homework for History of Magic and Potions also became burdensome.
"Why would a ghost grade homework?" Ron said sadly. "Five pages – can the eighteenth-century Goblin Rebellions really have that much content?"
"You just need to calm down and write, there's plenty of content," Hermione said earnestly. "For example, the motives behind Goblin Ragnuk's rebellion, the role Viktor Rookwood played in it..."
"Wasn't that Rookwood a bit of a clown?" Cohen asked with some interest. "He got killed by a fifth-year student, didn't he?"
"But if you submit another essay making fun of Rookwood, Professor Binns might actually fail you," Hermione said, pursing her lips.
"It's fine, he'll forget about it the next day," Cohen said, waving his hand dismissively.
Professor Binns was famously forgetful. As long as you didn't keep reminding him about it afterwards, he would quickly forget that a student had made a mistake altogether.
Professor Moody also began a week-long "Imperius Curse Special Training." After various applications and promises, he was allowed to use the Imperius Curse on students to train their resistance. ("Though I think maybe only Dumbledore agreed to this," Hermione said uncertainly.)
Apart from Cohen, who was completely unaffected, the first person to successfully resist the Imperius Curse was Harry.
On one hand, it was Harry's natural resistance to Dark magic, and on the other, Lily's spell also provided some baseline protection.
Of course, Moody was still holding back on the students, otherwise this training would be meaningless – a young wizard that small couldn't possibly resist an Imperius Curse cast by a high-level Auror.
Aside from these classes, even Hagrid piled on quite a burden.
Hagrid finally figured out what the Blast-Ended Skrewts liked to eat, and just as Hermione had predicted, the Skrewts grew to roughly the size of hounds within a few days.
They rampaged through Hagrid's vegetable patch, sparking and flashing all the way – Hagrid was extremely pleased with their thriving state and began advanced lessons.
He wanted the students to come to his cabin every other day to observe the habits of the Blast-Ended Skrewts and record any unusual behaviour.
But the results were unsatisfactory, as the Skrewts started killing each other, and if they even got a little close, the sparks shooting out of the Skrewts' tails would burn through the parchment they used for recording.
A busy atmosphere filled the entire months of September and October.
However, all of this came to an end in late October, as the Triwizard Tournament was about to begin.
"The representatives from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive at six o'clock on the evening of Friday, the thirtieth of October. Afternoon lessons will finish half an hour early..." Ron read the notice on the bulletin board, word for word.
"Friday afternoon is Potions!" Harry said happily. "Snape won't be able to poison us!"
"But maybe he'll poison you earlier," Cohen warned. "Having an antidote ready is essential."
Snape had told them a week ago that he would randomly poison one student to test if their antidote had been brewed successfully.
"Students are asked to take their bags and books back to the dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests, then attend the welcome feast," Ron finished reading the last few sentences.
This notice had a very clear impact on all the teachers and students in the school.
Students were discussing the Triwizard Tournament and the students from the other two schools with great enthusiasm at all times. The portraits and suits of armour in the castle were cleaned and looked brand new.
The two suits of armour that Cohen used to see wrestling in the first-floor corridor had been quiet recently, and the one that liked to hum annoying tunes was as if muted – Cohen later found out its helmet had been stuffed with earplugs.
Caretaker Filch became even more hysterical. As soon as he found a speck of dirt on the floor or on a student, he would immediately fly into a rage, threatening to lock students in the dungeons and gut them.
And the other staff members' pressure was no less than his – no teacher wanted to look foolish in front of people from other schools because their students weren't performing academically.
"Longbottom, for goodness' sake, don't give us away in front of the Durmstrang people, don't let them see you haven't even mastered a simple Switching Spell!" Professor McGonagall said sharply.
This was because Neville hadn't even managed a preliminary attempt at a Switching Spell in one class, and had also grafted his ear onto a cactus.
"Where on earth did this baseless competitiveness between schools come from?" Cohen shook his head on the way back to the dorms.
"Everyone wants to appear more skilled in the eyes of people from other schools, I guess," Hermione said. "At least we can't lose to them in appearances – especially since Durmstrang often compares itself to Hogwarts internationally..."
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