"This is amazing! Herbology was perfect today!"
Theo practically danced the moment they stepped out of the greenhouse. He finally got to experience the joy of being praised and given extra points by a professor.
Adam wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Mandrakes are straight-up demons."
"Ugly and bitey."
Just thinking about handling them again made his skin crawl.
"Dude, that's because you didn't get it into the new pot fast enough." Theo slung an arm around Adam's shoulder, laughing as he remembered how wildly Adam flailed around earlier.
Adam rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. That thing was screaming like a toddler having a meltdown. The fact that I didn't drop-kick it across the greenhouse already shows I've got excellent self-control."
Rock nearly burst out laughing.
"If you'd done that, I'm pretty sure Ravenclaw would've lost points on the spot," Rock said.
"Exactly. But hey, good thing I earned extra points—I could cancel out your disaster if you'd done it." Theo wiggled his eyebrows.
"Yeah right. If I actually did that, Professor Sprout would think I'm worse than the Mandrakes."
Adam looked helpless between his two chaos-loving friends.
They talked and joked as they walked back toward the castle.
Rock was just about to head back to Ravenclaw with Theo when Theo suddenly stuck his arm out, blocking Rock's path.
"What?" Rock blinked, confused.
"You forgot already?" Theo stared at him, suspicious.
"Forgot?" Rock paused—then stiffened. The library. Hermione. Oh no.
"I'll go first! When you guys get back to the dorm, check if there's a letter from the owls for me!"
With that, Rock sprinted toward the library.
He'd been waiting for a reply from Theseus since yesterday, obsessively thinking about it. In all that excitement, he'd actually forgotten about his meeting with Hermione.
"Hey, what do you think is going on with Rock?" Adam asked, watching him vanish down the corridor.
"I don't know," Theo said with an exaggerated sigh, "but I do know one thing."
"What thing?" Adam asked.
"That I won't be getting any good gossip out of him today."
With that, Theo wrapped an arm around Adam's shoulders. "Come on. Back to the dorm—chess time."
Rock arrived at the library doors, stopped, took a deep breath, and only then stepped inside under Madam Pince's sharp gaze.
Scanning the room, he instantly spotted Hermione's unmistakable hair. He weaved quietly around a few upper-year students until he reached her table.
"Sorry—I'm late."
Rock winced. No way he was admitting he'd simply forgotten.
"It's fine. Sit," Hermione said, nodding. "I'm still organizing my notes. We'll start in a minute."
She lowered her head again, flipping through her notes and jotting things down with her quill.
Rock took out his notebook too, going over his plans and rehearsing what he wanted to ask her.
The notebook was filled with clearly listed goals—one after another.
Looking at the schedule, Rock felt torn. Every task felt important… and nearly impossible to remove.
"What are you doing?"
A voice suddenly came from beside him—curious, almost amused.
"I wasn't trying to peek, but when I called you, you didn't respond."
Rock quickly turned—and found Hermione standing right behind him.
Sure, she said she wasn't trying to peek… but her eyes hadn't moved away from his notebook even once.
"Sorry, Hermione. I zoned out," Rock said, closing the notebook halfway and turning slightly.
"It's okay. But what's this?" Hermione asked as she sat down, pointing at his notebook.
"This is my study plan."
Rock pushed it toward her. "Actually… maybe you can help me refine it."
Hermione looked interested and picked it up, reading carefully.
"Good grief," she whispered as she read. "Up at 5:30 a.m.? Tasks scheduled even at eight at night? And your end times all say 'TBD'? This is—this is insane."
"Insane?" Rock frowned. He had arranged everything except class time, even freeing up some meals and breaks. Why would Hermione find it insane?
"This is the most efficient setup I could design. I even tested parts of it before school started."
"You tested this already?" Hermione stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "You actually followed this schedule before coming to Hogwarts?"
"Pretty much. Except morning running and the 8 p.m. block—Tina wouldn't let me do those," Rock admitted.
"But studying—"
Hermione stopped herself mid-sentence. She remembered Rock might not know Muggle-world education concepts, so she rephrased:
"Studying isn't like brewing potions. You can't just rely on timing and repetition."
"If you follow this nonstop," she continued, "you'll definitely improve at first."
"But over time, it won't work. You're missing something important. Basic, but essential."
"Basic but essential?" Rock frowned, really thinking about it.
After a long pause, he looked up at her. "Hermione… could you explain? I actually planned to ask for your advice."
"Let me ask you this first—did you feel exhausted before school started?" Hermione asked.
Rock nodded. The XP bar on his interface kept pushing him to grind skills, but the efficiency wasn't the same anymore. Not like at the beginning.
He guessed that counted as burnout.
"That makes sense," Hermione said. "You scheduled tons of practice, but you didn't schedule any thinking, reflecting, or discussing."
"If you repeat something long enough, it becomes mechanical."
Hermione leaned forward a little.
"Learning requires digestion and output. But from what I see… your entire schedule is input only."
She pointed at his evening plan—specifically the block starting at eight.
"Let's say you plan to practice until ten. What exactly do you do in those two hours?"
"Understand spell theory, practice wand movements and incantations, then just… keep practicing," Rock answered honestly.