Rock had barely stepped out of the classroom when Theo and the others swarmed him.
"What happened? Did you tank it?" Theo craned his neck toward the closed door.
"You're the best at Transfiguration out of all of us," Adam said, patting Rock's shoulder. "You'll crush it next time."
"I didn't mess up. The professor just gave me a longer test, that's all."
Rock waved them off, explaining what happened. The group exchanged looks. Genius treatment, huh?
"Thank God we didn't get that," Michael said, clutching his chest in relief. "I'd have bombed for sure."
Terry and Padma nodded vigorously.
"Go on, you're up," Rock told Theo.
Theo took a deep breath and pushed open the classroom door.
"I wasn't even nervous until you took forever," Michael grumbled. "We were out here imagining all kinds of disasters."
Rock just chuckled. The people waiting outside were always the most stressed.
The final day of exams was History of Magic. The proctor was, of course, their ghost professor, Binns. The second Adam heard that, his face went pale.
Even after the test, Adam looked completely shell-shocked, muttering nonstop. "I'm screwed. Am I gonna get held back?"
Theo gave him a helpless smile. "Aren't you being a little dramatic? Even if you did badly, there's no way you got a P, right?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Adam's face turned green.
The rest of the group stared at each other. Padma looked incredulous. "Adam… you're joking, right?"
"I wish the whole History of Magic exam had been a dream," Adam said miserably. "Everything was going fine until Professor Binns suddenly stopped right next to me. After that I don't even remember what I wrote."
Rock paused. Now that Adam mentioned it, he did remember seeing Binns hovering near him during the test.
He shook his head and patted Adam's shoulder. "You forgot? Binns does that in class all the time—he just zones out."
"Yeah, it was probably just bad timing," Theo added, scratching his cheek. Only Adam would have the luck of a ghost stopping right beside the one kid who was terrified of them.
"I've decided!" Adam suddenly shouted, his face cycling through shades of green and white.
Even Filch, who was walking past, jumped at the outburst. "No shouting in the corridors!"
The group quickly dragged Adam outside the castle before stopping.
Michael caught his breath and asked, "What did you decide?"
"I've decided I'm going to start researching ghosts next school year!" Adam declared with absolute conviction.
Everyone stared at him. The kid who was scared of ghosts… wanted to research them?
Theo reached out and pressed his palm to Adam's forehead. "No fever. Kid, you sure you're okay?"
Slap—
Adam smacked Theo's hand away. "I'm not sick. I'm serious."
"Spill it then," Michael and Terry said, slinging their arms around his shoulders. "How exactly do you plan on doing this?"
"I'm going to study the true nature of ghosts! I'll start with Professor Binns in History of Magic. I can't keep going like this!" Adam took a deep breath. "If I don't do something, I'm seriously worried I'll be the first Ravenclaw in history to get held back because of History of Magic. That would be mortifying."
Rock shook his head with a smile. Adam had already learned the Banishing Charm, but his psychological fear of ghosts was still going strong.
He was about to say something when he spotted Harry and Ron sprinting back into the castle looking urgent, with Hermione right behind them.
They didn't notice Rock's group near the entrance. Padma frowned. "What's up with them?"
Rock sensed something was off and was about to follow when Neville came running up, out of breath.
"Rock, Professor Snape wants to see you."
Neville's face was noticeably pale—he was still terrified of Snape.
Rock stopped. He figured he should head to Snape first. If Snape had sent Neville with the message, it probably meant he had new thoughts on the potion.
"I'll head over now. Neville, you go rest," Rock said, then turned toward the dungeons.
Once Rock disappeared, Theo clicked his tongue. "End of the school year and Rock still has detentions."
"Come on, I'm actually a little jealous," Michael said. "Haven't you noticed? Rock basically runs the Potions class now. He handles half of Snape's questions perfectly. He's practically the assistant."
Theo slung an arm around Michael's shoulders. "Yeah? You think you could handle it like Rock does?"
The group went quiet. Snape's sharp tongue wasn't something just anyone could take.
Even upperclassmen were scared of him. No way the rest of them could pull it off.
"Professor, you wanted to see me?"
Rock knocked on the door of Snape's office. It swung open on its own. He stepped inside quietly.
"Enter," Snape said coldly, head still lowered over his work.
Rock approached the workbench. The potion was bubbling away—it was definitely using the ingredients he'd brought earlier.
Snape flicked his wand. A toad flew over. "This one just received the iris stimulant. Examine it carefully and tell me what's different."
Rock nodded and picked up the clearly dazed toad.
The eyes looked brighter than a normal toad's, but the creature seemed fine overall. This was the same toad Snape always used for testing, so it usually looked half-dead anyway.
On the surface everything appeared normal. Rock thought for a moment, then extended his magical perception.
He hadn't tried perceiving a living creature like this since the unicorn.
Snape waited in silence, occasionally adding ingredients to the cauldron.
"Professor, the magical lines around the eyes are very stable. No abnormalities," Rock said after a while, opening his eyes and setting the toad back down.
"That means the stimulant was successful."
Snape gave no visible reaction. He levitated the last few ingredients on the table.
"Prepare yourself. From this point on, if anything feels wrong, tell me to stop immediately."