Perhaps it is because time seems to fly when one is busy; for those students in the fifth year and above, burdened by heavy coursework and the pressure of exams, a month felt as though it passed in the blink of an eye.
Soon, Halloween arrived.
The Great Hall was bustling during the feast that day. A thousand live bats fluttered their wings around the walls and ceiling like a black curtain, while low black clouds swirled above the dining tables, occasionally flashing with harmless lightning.
Of course, the most eye-catching features were the lanterns carved from the giant pumpkins Hagrid had grown; the candle flames inside flickered, exuding a cheerful festive atmosphere.
At the High Table, toasts were exchanged and conversation flowed freely. Professor McGonagall seemed to have had a bit too much wine; her tall pointed hat was askew, and she was giggling as she chatted with Professor Sprout about what appeared to be an amusing topic.
William, meanwhile, chatted with Professor Flitwick about amusing anecdotes regarding the Duelling Tournament, while observing the young wizards below with great interest.
At the long tables of the four Houses, the vast majority of students were happily immersed in the atmosphere of the feast, stuffing festive food into their mouths while chattering about various interesting topics.
By contrast, only a portion of the fifth-year students appeared somewhat absent-minded. They mechanically cut the food on their plates, eyes glazed over, occasionally muttering the principles of charms under their breath.
Clearly, they were anxious about the concentrated mock tests coming up after the holiday.
This was not surprising; students younger than them still had a month before their tests, so there was nothing wrong with them enjoying the festive atmosphere in a carefree manner for now.
As for the sixth and seventh-year students who were older than them, they were either "old hands" who had already been baptized by the O.W.L.s and knew that worry and nervousness changed nothing, or they were like William's academic assistants, fully confident in their own abilities.
Therefore, ordinary internal school tests could not cause much psychological fluctuation in them.
However, soon enough, the attention of these anxious fifth-years was also drawn to the climax of the banquet.
After enjoying the sumptuous feast, just when everyone thought the banquet was about to end, with a snap of Dumbledore's fingers, the surprise prepared by the school ghosts made its entrance.
Led by Nearly Headless Nick and the Fat Friar, a host of Hogwarts ghosts suddenly burst out from the walls and ceiling.
They formed various complex formations, performing a spectacular gliding dance and wall-phasing stunts above the Great Hall.
This had evidently been carefully rehearsed beforehand; their movements were uniform, immediately drawing bursts of cheers and applause from the students, pushing the atmosphere of the banquet to a crescendo.
It was said that for this performance, the ghosts had gathered beforehand for a serious meeting.
In their discussion, they decided to have the Bloody Baron of Slytherin lock up Peeves—who feared nothing but chaos—before the banquet began and keep a strict watch over him, to prevent him from running out halfway to cause trouble and ruin their carefully prepared performance.
And judging by the fact that Peeves did not appear throughout the entire banquet, this rumor was likely true.
After the Halloween revelry ended, the upper-year students finally faced their judgment day—the concentrated mock tests.
Unlike the monthly exams for lower-year students, which only tested compulsory subjects and had appropriately lowered difficulty, this mock exam was the real deal. Professors of all subjects participated, and the difficulty of the questions was fully benchmarked against O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s.
Even the sixth-year students, who had only been studying Alchemy for two months, were not spared by William.
In addition to the textbook theory they had already learned, he included some traditional enchanting methods and several basic runic circuits in the practical exam, solely to get them accustomed early on to the intensity of the wizarding exams they would face in a year's time.
After the two-day-long examination ended, the upper-year students breathed a long sigh of relief, feeling as if they had shed a layer of skin.
The pressure then shifted to the professors.
The professors had to work overtime to grade papers without delaying the normal teaching schedule. This was especially true for William, who had to grade papers for two subjects: Defense Against the Dark Arts and Alchemy.
Moreover, because it was a formal mock exam involving confidentiality and fairness, he couldn't just toss the papers to those few academic assistants to grade as he usually did with homework; he had to burn the midnight oil in his office to do it himself.
Fortunately, the results did not disappoint William.
The overall pass rate for Defense Against the Dark Arts was very respectable. Those who failed were mostly concentrated in the fifth year; after all, without the strict screening of the O.W.L.s, many students' foundations were indeed too poor to be patched up in a short time.
As for the sixth and seventh years, relying on their decent foundations and William's targeted teaching, most of them submitted satisfactory answer sheets.
What gratified William the most was Alchemy.
This subject achieved an astonishing 100% pass rate. In a class of only a dozen or so people, William even unhesitatingly awarded an "O" to four students.
This was due both to the high threshold for selecting this course, which ensured only the elite were chosen, and to William's recent efforts in highlighting key points according to the syllabus from the Wizarding Examinations Authority, as well as his earnest exhortations for them to challenge themselves with runic circuits.
As the concentrated mock tests for the upper years concluded, time officially entered the cold and damp month of November.
The baton of pressure was now firmly passed into the hands of the first to fourth-year students.
Because less than a month remained before the first "monthly test" of their lives.
The number of students in the Hogwarts library increased noticeably. The long tables, originally empty, were now almost fully occupied, with young wizards everywhere burying their heads in study or frantically catching up on homework.
This greatly increased Madam Pince's workload; she had to patrol the bookshelves all day like a mother eagle guarding her chicks, stopping those students who, out of anxiety, attempted to scribble in the books.
Ordinarily, she would only see such a grand scene before the final exams in June each year; she hadn't expected it to arrive half a year early this time.
In contrast, the common rooms of the various Houses became somewhat deserted, and even the sounds of Gobstones and Wizard's Chess diminished significantly.
Fortunately, there is always something to look forward to in life.
The young wizards were not facing only depressing things like the upcoming monthly test.
At the same time, another highly anticipated event—one capable of sending the whole school into a frenzy—was drawing closer with the passing of time, causing the long-repressed young wizards to fill with expectation.
On the bulletin board, the originally piercing notice about the concentrated exams was finally covered by a brightly colored poster.
That was the first Quidditch match of the school year, scheduled to take place just before the monthly test at the end of the month.
Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
A battle of arch-rivals.