From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

There was silence below, but ultimately no one raised any objections.

William now understood why there were so many professors here.

Even in the chaotic world of magic where memory magic is managed in a chaotic manner, personal memories are the highest form of privacy and cannot be spied on by others—more than half of the reference books that William obtained mentioned Occlumency, a memory management magic.

Although practicing on his own is quite slow, William's magic, like Transfiguration, has never stopped, which is one of the reasons why he dared to take on Dumbledore's task just now.

'If we hadn't pulled this stunt, some of the professors probably would have hesitated—after all, this is different from an experiment; our lives will be exposed little by little for the next month…'

"Alright, professors who didn't participate in the experiment, please disperse. The remaining professors can prepare to extract their memories. I'm sorry, but we don't have a better way."

The professors gradually withdrew, leaving only a group of professors William had met who had participated in the experiment.

-

"Excuse me, Dumbledore, could you or Professor Severus be allowed to examine this?"

Among the remaining professors, one asked hesitantly.

Before Dumbledore could respond, William quickly replied, "Of course, Professor. To be honest, I'm not very confident. If there really is a problem, I don't think I'll find anything strange, since this isn't my area of ​​research."

He was quite aware of the situation—it was one thing for a veteran professor and dean like Snape to have seen it, but at least those professors could accept it. How could a new professor like him survive in the university after seeing someone else's memories?

As a professor who planned to stay at Hogwarts until he killed the Dark Lord, William valued his relationships with colleagues quite a bit.

He wouldn't be happy either—the new guy wants to see my memories? You're dreaming!

“Alright then,” Dumbledore agreed after a moment’s thought, then looked at William, “Professor William, would you like to come for a walk with me?”

"Of course, Professor."

The two quickly left Professor McGonagall's office and started walking down the corridor.

“Professor William,” Dumbledore said casually as he walked by, “what do you think of what happened today?”

"It must be the aftereffects of the crown acting up. We didn't realize it until then, but it planted some kind of seed of influence back then—"

William thought of hypnosis—controlling someone by saying a keyword or encountering a certain situation.

After all, the Imperius Curse in dark magic can easily achieve this, and it is theoretically not impossible for a skilled person to develop a variant that allows the control effect to lie dormant.

"Just like you guessed at the beginning?"

Dumbledore laughed and said, "To be honest, it's really difficult to find out the positions of so many professors. You know, this is a rare sunny weekend, and there aren't many professors even in the faculty lounge."

"Yes, this opportunity is too perfect. The upperclassmen went to Hogwarts and the professors were on weekends off. Otherwise, with the Weasley brothers' level, they would have been caught very quickly after defeating Filch. It wouldn't have taken so long."

"So, just like you guessed at the beginning, it's alive?"

Dumbledore paced slowly.

"Yes, it patiently waits until it unleashes its power, then suddenly rises up – it's almost like something out of the ordinary. Is the Sorting Hat as clever as it is?"

William marveled at how precisely the control over the burst of energy was achieved; it truly lived up to the legacy of Ravenclaw.

"That Sorting Hat won't be happy; it always thinks it's the smartest hat in the world—maybe I should leave it with the crown for a while?"

Dumbledore joked, but quickly dismissed it, "This is not a good idea, Professor William. You should have advised me against it. Next year, the students will still be sorted into houses, and if the freshmen lose their memories again, it will be my responsibility."

This lame joke made William think for a moment.

The Crown vs. the Sorting Hat—what a magical scene!

“I think you’ve already figured it out, Professor William, I used you to pressure the other professors.”

"Yes, but if you really want me to say, I think I don't need to go to the lounge anymore."

William responded with a laugh, "We'll have to find out eventually. The Weasley brothers alone were enough to take down Filch. I can't even imagine what would have happened if someone else had attacked him."

Putting aside others, just consider Percy Weasley, whom William recommended. He's first in sixth grade and has magic power close to that of an adult wizard. If he were to lose control and act recklessly towards those around him, it's unimaginable what would happen—after all, Percy is a prefect. If he were to take down all the prefects in a row, the school would descend into chaos... When students get out of control, professors alone can't manage them.

"Well, I'm glad you understand. Professor William, would you like some candy?"

"of course."

William now wanted some mints to calm his nerves—although the matter was over, the fact that Filch was hanging on the castle had terrified him, not to mention anyone else.

“Alright, I’ll take the honey,” Dumbledore said, extending his hand and smiling at William.

William glanced at Dumbledore, then at himself, before realizing that Dumbledore was pointing to his bag. "Then, I'll leave the Weasley brothers and Miss Granger in your care, Professor William."

Dumbledore, having received the candy, smiled and waved. "I need to talk to Minerva about how to handle today's events. You know, the Daily Prophet always loves to find big news—"

-

"professor?"

The Weasley brothers floated in mid-air, only their mouths able to move. Opposite them, Hermione Granger was also wrapped in bandages and floating in mid-air.

"Yes, I'm here. Is there anything you want to say?"

William, with a mint in his mouth, spoke in a relaxed tone.

"We've already investigated, it really wasn't us. We even arrested Ginny—"

“Yes, that’s right, so your detention has been lifted, hasn’t it—” William said, balancing the three of them with his wand as he climbed the stairs. “You see, even though you’ve lost your memories, the detention period is still over, isn’t it?”

“That makes some sense, Professor. But why are we still tied up?”

“Hospital observation, kids,” William replied. “After you’re discharged, there will be confinement waiting for you. It looks like it will be at least two months. One month will be spent cleaning toilets, but I’m not sure if it will be extended or by how much—after all, you even attacked Mr. Filch, which is a serious violation of discipline.”

"Wow, that's awesome!"

The two brothers exchanged a smile, which infuriated William, who was struggling to walk—these two rascals really don't take things seriously?

"And Hermione, what did she do wrong?"

The two men asked with smiles, completely disregarding their being tied up; clearly, they considered this the price for attacking Filch.

"she?"

William glanced at the quiet girl in the air. Although he had already heard about it, hearing it now still made him gasp. "She's hung half the girls in her year on the toilet, and those kids still haven't been calmed down..."

Chapter 175 Persuasion

"Half a grade?"

The twins sounded surprised.

"Probably," William said uncertainly, "Perhaps there are also higher or lower levels?"

He knew this girl was strong in combat before he joined the company, but he never expected her to be this strong—not only was she first in her class, but she could also perform like this in actual combat, which was simply too strong.

'Learning is terrifying,' William couldn't help but think—this child will probably continue to crush his peers until he hits a learning bottleneck.

"She's too strong."

The twins praised her sincerely, and they even stopped struggling, just floating in mid-air chatting. "By the way, Professor, what was Hermione's punishment?"

William was a little embarrassed by the question—as far as he knew, Professor Lockhart had gone there and had taken great care to comfort the victims. By the time the professors from the lounge arrived, the attacked children had calmed down considerably.

In other words, Professor Lockhart resolved the matter without using his usual methods, and Hermione hasn't received a single punishment yet...

"Professor, stop keeping us in suspense. Anyway, the three of us have all been disciplined, so you have nothing to hide. Tell us when no one else is around."

"Of course, Professor, tell me about it."

The twins took turns telling jokes.

"What's there to compare! Is there even a comparison about being disciplined?"

Seeing the two men relentlessly pursuing him, William had no choice but to imitate his former teacher, "You want to compare grades, honors, and even punishments? Your thinking is wrong. You'd better reflect on your actions in the hospital! If you still haven't reflected on your actions before you're discharged, you'll each have to write a two-thousand-word self-criticism!"

This sudden change of attitude successfully intimidated the twins.

"Professor, you can't do this—the only thing we can remember now is to help you find the crown!"

The two men cried out in unison that they were innocent.

"It's not decided yet. It depends on your performance. You'd better shut your mouths and not say anything out of line," William warned the two. "Otherwise, I can't guarantee that your confinement won't be extended!"

The two looked at each other and realized that something seemed wrong, so their previous liveliness finally subsided.

-

"Thank you, Mrs. Pomfrey, to get these two children as far away from Mr. Filch as possible, and to get Miss Granger a separate room, and to forbid anything from being sent over unless her friends come."

William floated the three of them in mid-air and whispered instructions to Mrs. Pomfrey.

"Three children were admitted to the hospital at once, what happened?"

"Just like Miss Ginny before, the problem with the crown is that the memory disappeared from the moment it was put on. Now all three of them have to be hospitalized for observation."

William lowered his voice and responded to the head nurse, briefly recounting what had happened that day.

“Yes, I understand, Professor William.” Madam Pomfrey nodded gently. “You know Hogwarts better than I thought.”

This is not flattery, but the truth.

The reason Hermione Granger was given a separate room was to prevent potential bullying at school.

William's time in Azkaban was far from in vain; in particular, the confession game he invented gave him a real understanding of just how treacherous part of the school's environment truly was—a place where open and covert attacks were impossible to guard against.

Private gossip within small circles is the least of it.

If it's a bit more serious, hide your important things, potion-making tools, textbooks you need to use right away, clothes, socks, shoes, and other random things.

In more serious cases, all sorts of offensive and offensive words are added, along with group insults and personal attacks—as long as the professor doesn't hear it, you basically won't even get a detention.

Even worse, some would find a secluded corner without professors and pull out their wands to attack, using spells like petrification, sleeping, and upside-down bells—a jumble of random spells that were far more effective when bullying students than in everyday life. They might get locked up in solitary confinement, but they still couldn't control themselves.

Azkaban, the place where the worst aspects of Hogwarts flowed, made no attempt to hide its chaotic side from William.

William would bet that if Miss Granger hadn't been given a separate room, countless people would have come under the guise of visiting Weasley to slip her something, or 'accidentally' said something nasty during their visits.

William, on the other hand, didn't need to worry about the twins—though that wouldn't be fair to the caretaker, as far as William knew, the mere fact that Filch was hung on the castle wall was enough to ensure the twins had plenty of sweets during their hospital stay…

"You two stay here in the hospital. If you play any more pranks here, I think you'll be copying documents for me from your hospital beds from now on!"

After settling the twins in, William put on a stern face and warned them.

“Yes, Professor, we wouldn’t be unwise—by the way, those assignments we did during our hospital stay…”

William amused the two of them. "Don't even think about it. Study on your own and then hand it in!"

"But Professor, we don't remember learning anything at all."