There are five regular optional courses at Hogwarts, namely divination class, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies course, Care of Magical Creatures, and Ancient Runes.
These courses are only available for students starting from their third - year to apply for.
In addition, there is an Apparition training course specially designed for sixth - and seventh - year students, which is held irregularly.
Among these courses, both divination class and Arithmancy are the occult disciplines for predicting the future. In Chinese terms, they are forms of fortune - telling.
However, one is fortune - telling based on metaphysics, and the other is fortune - telling based on science.
Dudley clearly knows that fortune - telling and prophecy in this world are abilities that purely depend on inborn endowment.
Currently, he doesn't have a magic item that can achieve fusion of similar abilities, so naturally, he doesn't possess the corresponding inborn endowment and ability.
Going to Professor Trelawney's divination class would just mean sitting with a crazy old drunk lady, looking at crystal balls, playing with tea leaves, and pulling some bullshit out of thin air.
He's really swamped right now and doesn't have the time for that crap.
As for Professor Septima Vector's Arithmancy class, it doesn't particularly require the metaphysical inborn endowment for prophecy.
This course is a bit like the knowledge and skills of the I Ching, the Eight Trigrams and the Plum Blossom Divination in China. Students need a quick - witted mind. They have to work with numbers and charts, performing a large amount of calculations and drawing tables.
Dudley could learn it with some effort.
But he thinks it's not very useful.
All the famous prophecies in the wizarding world come from prophets with inborn endowment like Professor Trelawney and Grindelwald.
By scribbling, calculating, and delving into the Arithmancy course, one might spend more than a decade and only be able to predict unimportant things like what will be served in the kitchen tomorrow or how many students at Hogwarts will skip class tomorrow.
So, Dudley has no intention of taking this course because the effort far outweighs the gain.
And as for the Muggle Studies course...
He's been a Muggle for so many years in both his past and present lives. Does he really need a half - baked wizard who only has a superficial understanding of the Muggle world to tell him how to get along in the Muggle world and how to interact with Muggles?
Naturally, he passes on this course!
The Care of Magical Creatures course is a bit interesting, but there's no need to take it from the one - armed and one - legged Professor Kettleburn.
Dudley has already read Newt Scamander's book *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* and has a certain understanding of various magical creatures.
When he has free time, he can go for a stroll in The Forbidden Forest with Hagrid, experience various magical creatures on the spot, and collect some magical materials by the way. Isn't that a win - win situation and just great?
As for the Apparition training course, since Dudley can already Apparate, there's no need for him to participate.
So, after careful consideration, he only wants to take Professor Bathilda Babbling's Ancient Runes course for now.
This is the only course at Hogwarts that is related to alchemy. Moreover, this course will cover some knowledge of ancient magic spells, which will also be helpful for learning ancient magic.
In terms of what Dudley needs to do at present, the role of this course is even more important than the upper - year spell - casting classes and Transfiguration classes.
Therefore, at the start of the new week, Dudley moved into the Ancient Runes classroom with a stack of books on alchemy and ancient magic borrowed from the library.
He attended all of Professor Bathilda Babbling's classes, regardless of which grade she was teaching.
When there were no classes, he used the classroom as a study room to continue his self - study of alchemy and ancient magic.
Except for eating, sleeping, and handling trivial matters, he only left the classroom temporarily when he went to take the spell - casting classes and Transfiguration classes for upper - year students.
During his free time, Dudley didn't forget to pester Professor Babbling to give him makeup lessons for the ones he had missed.
Dudley had a lot of strange ideas and often asked some really odd questions, which gave Professor Babbling a real headache. She was left speechless several times.
She was forced to look up information and write letters to some more learned old wizards to answer Dudley's strange questions.
Four more days went by in this way.
Dudley was immersed in theoretical learning during the day and trained hard at night. He didn't notice several things that had happened in the wizarding world outside of Hogwarts.
On Monday's front page of the *the newspapers*, there was a false news article in which Rita Skeeter slandered Master Garrick Ollivander, accusing him of seeking fame and fortune through dishonest means, appearing humble on the surface but retaliating secretly.
The accompanying picture was a magical photograph of Diggory fleeing from Ollivanders Wand Shop in a hurry.
This news misled about half of the British wizards, and the good reputation of the Ollivander family, which had been built since 382 BC, was somewhat affected.
Of course, the other half of the wizards, who remembered the kindness of the Ollivander family, simply didn't believe that Master Garrick Ollivander, the current owner of Ollivanders Wand Shop, would do such a despicable thing.
For a time, the wizarding world was plunged into an uproar.
Master Ollivander, who was busy writing a book, didn't take this matter to heart.
The Ollivander family had been living in Diagon Alley, Britain, for nearly 2,400 years. In such a long time, they had seen all sorts of difficulties.
A baseless fake news article couldn't shake the family's standing.
However, while Master Ollivander remained calm, his son, Gavin Ollivander, who disliked making wands but deeply respected his father, couldn't sit still.
Gavin was a doer. He scouted the *the newspapers* office on Tuesday and, early on Wednesday morning, wearing a black robe and covering his face, he cornered Rita Skeeter in an alley.
With a Expelliarmus, a Petrificus Totalus, and two Cruciatus Curse cast as swiftly as lightning, he caught Rita Skeeter off - guard and rendered her unconscious.
After succeeding, Gavin slipped away immediately, leaving no trace of his deed.
Rita Skeeter lay unconscious on the ground and was only discovered by other wizards several hours later and sent to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
On the same morning, an angry Diggory stormed into the *the newspapers* office. He sternly rebuked the newspaper for publishing his photo without his consent, fabricating facts, and using his image to slander Master Ollivander.
At the same time, Diggory brought an official warning letter he had obtained from the Ministry of Magic.
A letter from the Ministry of Magic strictly ordered the [Seer] newspapers to issue an apology to the wizarding world as soon as possible and rectify its internal staff to prevent similar false news incidents from happening in the future.
The editor-in-chief of the [Seer] newspapers was spat on by the angry Mr. Diggory, but he could only bend down and didn't dare to show the slightest dissatisfaction.
He cursed Rita Skeeter, who didn't come to work today, to the bottom of his heart.
He completely forgot that it was he who agreed to publish that unverified news for the sake of a trendy topic.
He also forgot that the Ollivander family had a long - standing influence, and Mr. Diggory was a member of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's right - hand man, and on the same side as the current Ministry of Magic.
After that, the [Seer] newspapers used the front - page headline again to clarify the truth, apologize to Master Garrick Ollivander and Mr. Diggory, and shifted all the blame for the incident to Rita Skeeter, who was still being treated at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
The unlucky Rita Skeeter, still suffering from her injuries, was sacrificed by the [Seer] newspapers to protect the core interests of the organization and was fired.
But after learning the news, Rita Skeeter didn't think she had done anything wrong. Instead, she hated Mr. Diggory, Ollivander and... Dudley.
Among them, the mysterious Dudley was the one Rita loathed the most.
Because at least Ollivander and Mr. Diggory had been slandered and played with by her, but Dudley's reputation had not been affected at all from beginning to end.
She even, with her peculiar way of thinking, suspected that the masked man in black who attacked her might have been sent by Dudley or was Dudley himself.
It was to make her shut up so as not to affect Dudley's own reputation.