19 Struggling is useless OR it’s the taking part that counts!

While the sheet is disappearing, I enter the room and sit down on my desk, on the opposite side of the closet they are aside of.

-Master? What are you doing here?

-I'm here because there is a change of subject!

The two are answering in chorus:

-Eh?

-I'm now going to test your evasion capacity!

-But master you already said it.

Say innocently my disciple.

-Yes, but I never said what was the test about!

-Oh…

She answers with a little voice barely perceptible, seemingly afraid, or excited, I don't know, by what's happening.

-You have a total of 1000 points! The test is graded on 100! As long as you succeed in keeping 100 points of the 1000 you have the maximal grade, if you have less than 100, you'll have the grade corresponding to your points!

-Master, and the…

-Start in 3… 2…

-Master, and my questio…

-1… TOP!

-Master, and the point deduction, how is it working?

At the same time, the imperial mage melted the glue under his feet and start moving!

-That's perfect timing, we have here an example of what you have to NEVER do! Minus 100 points for Gryffindor… Hum Hum, I mean, you two!

-Master!

Tears are rolling on the cheeks of my disciple.

-You…

-Honey, why? On my birthday, on the top of that!

-You begged the game master! Corruption attempt! Minus 100 points for you two, and minus 100 others points for interrupting the examiner!

-Fuck!

-Minus 100 points for lack of respect to the referee!

She doesn't dare to say anything, and go to speak to the imperial mage.

They both decide to break the floor, and to throw stones!

Each one of them are throwing stones, and are only moving when the stone already touched the place they are going to!

They are taking a few steps… No… At the first step, the imperial mage is walking and hear a jingling. And he loses his leg!

-Minus 100 points for you two, for using a method that's only working in movies and stories! Since when a trap made for men activate with a stone of a few grams, or a few kilos at maximum?

-…

-Aaaaahhhhh!

-Minus 100 points for you two for screaming when you are hurt, activating a trap! You have 500 points left!

The imperial mage shut up. After a few minutes, he grows back his leg. He reacts at this moment:

-What do you mean by a trap?

He gets up, and, at that moment, hears a shout:

-Senior brother, be careful!

Her head hit an axe, hang up to the ceiling, that he avoided by luck because he was on the floor, and half of his head fall on the floor!

-I won't remove points as this trap was already triggered! But still minus 50 points for hitting an already activated trap! Minus 50 points because I made grew back the head of one of you! You have 400 points left!

As the author doesn't want to add warning for gore, I grew it back before the blood had the time to be specified!

And while I'm at it by following the same thinking line, ellipsis!

[…]

-Minus 100 points! You have -700 points! At the end of the test, the grade can't be negative, so you'll have 0!

-…

They both only know one thing: this man is much too dangerous for his relatives! They came back from the death multiple times since back then! And they are sure that if the points were stopping at 0, I wouldn't have revived them, which is false from my point of view, I would have just waited the end of the test!

Aaaannndddd… Ellipsis!

[…]

-Top! End of the time! You have 1 point!

-1 point? But master, wasn't there any point left?

-Yes, but you two have 1 participation point!

They both don't know what's more humiliating: having a zero or tugging at one's heartstrings to the point to have participation point…

Old thoughts:

If this novel was only in English, I would have written "they don't know whether to laugh or cry" instead of "they don't know what's more humiliating", but it wasn't sounding well in French, it was even sounding horrible, really horrible to hear.