From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

'It's been so many days since we've seen the sun. Isn't Britain a temperate country?'

William tried his best to calm himself down by complaining, but he couldn't do it at all. Scenes of the Dementors in Azkaban enjoying pleasure kept popping up to show their presence, impossible to erase or hide from.

'I don't even have anyone to ask. This school has always only sent people to Azkaban, and I'm probably the only one who's come back from there so far.'

'I'd be happy if a fire dragon attacked me, at least my wand would still be somewhat useful. But what's going on now? Are Dementors scarier than dragons?'

William took out his wand and raised it towards the open space beside him.

"Take the God's Protection!"

There was no response—even though the incantation, posture, technique, and pronunciation were all correct, it just wouldn't work.

The Patronus Charm is not black magic. Although it is clearly emotional magic, it is a rare exception among emotional spells. William's original learning rate was completely ineffective against this powerful spell.

'I'm such an idiot. I should have spent more time practicing this spell when the weather was nice in September, instead of being unable to even meet the most basic casting conditions in this weather.'

Although he knew that even if he moved it to September, it wouldn't make a difference and would disrupt his other study plans, William still couldn't help but complain about himself.

Fortunately, we have enough practice tests. Even if we can't create any this week, it won't have a huge impact. It's always good to be prepared.

When William's hand touched the thick stack of prepared test papers in the drawer, his mood finally improved—although his condition was affected, the basic theory was not wrong, and the students were indeed improving.

"Let's give the students a break now. We can test their fighting skills in extreme environments. Duels in the rain and muddy ground will definitely be a great experience. And it should also greatly help improve their abilities."

Looking at the rain outside the window, William made a decision while he felt better after eating the chocolate.

-

Congratulations, Nancy!

"Nancy, congratulations!"

Although the other students seemed a bit odd, the fifth-year students collectively held a celebration for Nancy in the empty classroom—even some Slytherin students came.

The fifth-grade students gathered together and raised their glasses to celebrate their victory today.

Due to time constraints and homework, the celebration was quite simple, consisting only of drinks and small pull-out ribbons of unknown origin. The classroom wasn't even decorated, but every student had a genuine smile on their face.

Let's raise a glass to Nancy!

"Bless Nancy!"

Each student offered their blessings with boundless enthusiasm—just today, the professor reviewed the papers back and forth, spending five minutes longer than usual grading them, but in the end, he still had no choice but to announce the students' victory.

Those obscure and frighteningly obscure pieces of knowledge, those that could only be understood by reading textbooks, were finally conquered by the students.

For this, the professor of self-defense magic paid a price of twenty points and a reward of thirty Galleons.

"Cheers, to twenty points!"

Although the points weren't added to their own college's score, these kids were even happier than if they had received the points themselves.

"cheers!"

"Cheers to the prize of thirty Galleons!"

"cheers!"

The place was simple, with not even a decent dish, and the drinks were a mess, some even lacking alcohol, but no one complained—everyone was more enthusiastic than at the opening ceremony.

"Nancy, shall we trade for Galon? Three for one, and I'll take one of your prizes as a lucky charm!"

It's unclear which child made the suggestion, but then the students started scrambling for them—as if to vent their anger. The Galleons were quickly sold for three or even four times the price and carefully kept by the children, hidden deep in their pockets.

What are you doing?!

Just as the students were getting into the swing of things, the classroom door opened, and Filch's head popped out.

“We’re celebrating,” a prefect emerged from the crowd—more than one.

"celebrate?"

"Yes, Nancy got an O."

"Okay, celebrate, but be careful if there are any items left in the classroom that shouldn't have been left behind."

Filch looked around and finally stormed off – with the prefect present, it was virtually impossible to catch the violation.

"He's gone, Filch is gone!"

The children near the door shouted – and the whole classroom erupted in joy again.

Chapter 169 The professor wasn't speaking like a human being today...

"Given your current state, are you really sure you can brew the potion using the ingredients for the 'Enjoyment Potion'?"

Adams placed a large bag of herbal ingredients on the table, pulled up a chair, sat down, and looked at William with concern.

"There shouldn't be any major problems—" William lazily slumped on the table, feeling listless and unable to muster any energy for anything. "Perhaps brewing the medicine will help me recover."

"But today the sun is finally out, shouldn't we go out for a walk?"

Adams pointed to the sun peeking out the window and said, "Are you planning to sit in the sun on your desk the whole time?"

“If it weren’t for this sun, I wouldn’t even think about stimulants. Going out for a walk would be nice, but I don’t want to move at all right now.” William shifted his chair to make sure he was in as much sunlight as possible—he had never found sunlight so lovely.

“Alright, it’s nice to soak up some sun,” Adams said speechlessly, moving his stool into the sun, leaning back in his chair, and crossing his legs. “But really, this year’s rain was a bit heavy, but it’s still within the normal range, right? You’ve suddenly become so dejected, it’s not like you’re an Englishman at all.”

"So what if it doesn't look like it? I've never been a teacher before, and I'm doing just fine, aren't I?"

As William spoke, he lazily rummaged through his snacks and tossed a bag to Adams.

"No—what does being a teacher have to do with being British?"

“Yes, but what does disliking rain have to do with the British?” William asked the probing question. “I’ve hardly ever experienced rainy days before—when the weather was bad in England, my teacher would take me to Australia.”

"But we have to study at Hogwarts in October. Which student doesn't go through that?"

“That’s you, Adams,” William said, slumping onto the table. The rare October sunshine warmed the table, making him feel cozy from head to toe after being tormented for half a month. “Teaching and learning is easy for two people to do together.”

"To be precise, we don't have a fixed classroom at all. The books are easy to move, and the laboratory can be found anywhere quiet. It's just a matter of reinforcing the room and adding a few spells, which isn't difficult."

...

You deserve to suffer!

William completely killed the conversation – but this experience was impossible to fabricate a story about, as falsifying a resume is a very serious problem.

-

The brief sunny day finally brought William back to normal, and he finally remembered some measures that he hadn't thought of before to improve his condition.

William would cast spells to keep the room dry, increase the fire in the fireplace to raise the indoor temperature, and light magical flames in the office to warm it up—if it weren't for the fear of oxygen deprivation or carbon monoxide poisoning, he would even consider canceling ventilation altogether.

"Let's get more done today while the sun is shining; we can't keep letting the damp air affect us."

This idea sounds good, but it's really too difficult to put into practice—William can't ignore his body's craving for sunlight at all; he doesn't want to leave the sun for even a minute.

The rain for more than half a month had made the entire castle damp, and this dampness was deadly to him. If he moved away from the sun even slightly, the dampness would remind him of the greys in Azkaban.

"This is absolutely infuriating!"

Fortunately, the office windows were large enough, and the professor's room was also quite nice, ensuring ample sunlight.

'Thank goodness it's not like the old days when taxes were based on window area, otherwise I really wouldn't be able to do anything. Come to think of it, that wasn't England, was it?'

William maintains this state by forcing himself to work hard while simultaneously using rants to cheer himself up and doing what he can in the sunshine.

The investigation is practically stalled. Is this damn rain really not the Dark Lord's curse?

Even that damned curse wasn't this bad. The continuous rain made William completely out of sorts at work—if it weren't for the house-elves helping to warm his blankets, William would have felt like he was being stuffed into a Dementor's mouth at night.

-

"Ah!"

As William crawled out of bed, a gust of cold wind mixed with dampness swept over him.

"Damn it," he thought, quickly getting dressed and pulling a vial from his bedside table—a euphoric drug he'd just made yesterday.

After gulping down the potion, he looked out the window with a hint of normalcy—and sure enough, it was raining again.

'Damn rain, when will it finally stop?'

The euphoric drug did have some effect; although William didn't achieve the expected 0/21/1 Yasuo-like happiness, at least he was able to do things normally again.

'Look on the bright side, at least the stimulant is working; otherwise, if things continued to slump, it would affect my teaching performance.'

"We had class today, seventh grade... Are we really going to make them fight in the mud?"

William was a bit conflicted—fighting in the mud and water wasn't a problem, and his safety should be guaranteed, but controlling his emotions was a real issue. He was already like this even without getting wet in the rain at the castle, and the thought of getting wet outside was unbearable.

'They'll have a great time. I'll make sure they're prepared for the rain.'

In the end, William made up his mind to take the student out to fight, and he figured he could overcome it on his own and there shouldn't be any major problems.

"Bart, are you there?"

William summoned the house-elves.

-

"Class is about to start!"

The seventh graders were overjoyed—unlike the fifth graders, they were having a blast in their self-defense magic class and even wished there were more classes.

"Have you heard? One of the fifth-year students got an O, which not only earned him 20 college points, but also a sum of 30 Galleons from the professor!"

"How come I've never heard of that? Thirty Galleons! My internship weekly salary is only five Galleons!"

"You've taken the job?"

“Of course,” the speaker said rather proudly, “it’s Gringotts, but it’s still in the training phase, and the weekly wage is pitifully low.”

That's quite a Versailles statement—but none of those present were particularly envious; those who could learn self-defense magic on their own and get into the advanced class at Hogwarts were among the best in their grade.

"I don't know what the classes are this week. The professor hasn't been doing well lately—he looks sickly, like he has a cold."

"You noticed too?"

"Yes, that's right. I suspect Snape poisoned her. He would do that; there's no one in Hogwarts Castle who knows more about poisons than him!"

"It's hard to say, but I'm more inclined to believe he's creating exam papers for sixth graders, which is causing him to not get enough rest every day—"

"Huh? A sixth-grade test? We're doomed!"