From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Is he really a guest performer?

William was a little embarrassed—all the stories about the Headless Horseman were in the horror genre, and he had even seen movies and TV shows about him, so he was always quite afraid of such creatures. With so many people rushing out, even the Barrier Charm didn't work; he had no choice but to resort to dark magic.

“I’m sorry, I made a mistake. I thought it was an attacker,” William said apologetically. “Some unpleasant things have happened recently, and I was just too nervous.”

"It's ok."

The head of the one who had fallen to the ground flew up again, looking at William's wand, which he hadn't relaxed, and spoke in a very kind tone.

"Could you release Patrick first, Professor?"

“No problem,” William readily replied—although the solution was difficult, since they had targeted the wrong person, they still had to solve it.

Fortunately, the other party was a ghost, and the almost irreversible aftereffects had no effect on these dead beings. As long as the magic was dispelled, the other party could still jump around like a ghost...

“Great, Professor,” the headless horseman pressed his head to his neck and dismounted. “Where are Nick and the others? Isn’t today Nick’s 500th death anniversary?”

“He probably went to see Barrow, I’m not entirely sure—” William’s tone was also very amiable, after all, he was too nervous, “Bart rushed upstairs all of a sudden, I thought he might go down, like Ms. Grey, but he didn’t turn into light in the basement…”

"Go on?"

William's speculation was interrupted before he could finish. The remaining members of the self-proclaimed hunter team spurred their horses and charged upwards. The one who dismounted didn't even have time to remount; he pulled his horse along as it surged upwards...

'Are you just going to ignore the one underground?'

William didn't even finish his rant before those people disappeared. He could only slowly thaw the frozen ghosts in front of him with his wand—this was no easy task.

Magic is inherently destructive, and black magic takes this destructive attribute to the extreme. Consequently, breaking the spell is much more difficult. Fortunately, it was his own spell. After a little over half a minute, William finally managed to break the freeze using the fastest magic with the greatest side effects—anyway, ghosts ignore side effects.

"Wait a moment, there are still some horses that haven't been untied."

William gave the big guy some instructions, but the impatient ghost didn't even wait for him to cast a spell before carrying the frozen horse and charging toward the ceiling, without saying a word.

"Wait a minute, if we don't unfreeze it, it will take at least six months or even longer to thaw!"

William shouted towards the sky, but to no avail—before he could finish the sentence, the other person had already rushed to the ceiling.

"Absolutely incredible."

William muttered something under his breath, too lazy to bother locking him up—after all, ghosts don't die, and the spell would break on its own.

He looked down at the four students. "Alright, the guests and hosts have all left. We obviously don't need to stay any longer. Let's go back and get something to eat. The banquet should still be going on."

The four of them naturally wouldn't object. Even Harry, who still had the task of saying nice things, didn't have anything else to do. The banquet wasn't even going to start, so what was the point of saying nice things?

-

"Professor, are you using dark magic?"

On the way back, the shocked children finally recovered, their curiosity returning with their rising temperature. Hermione, the most knowledgeable of them all, couldn't help but ask.

“Of course, dark magic, after all, ordinary magic is ridiculed,” William nodded. “I must admit, I’m a little nervous.”

"But, but you are..."

Harry was speechless. The current Self-Defense Magic class was formerly the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and the teacher of this class actually used dark magic?

"How can someone who doesn't understand it fight it?" William replied with a smile. As he moved further away from the haunted house, his mood improved, and he was more than willing to answer questions.

"Think about it, if a wizard hasn't even read a book and then claims to be able to use hundreds of spells, isn't that pure nonsense?"

"Of course, this example isn't quite right, but that's roughly the idea—the professor of this course doesn't even know how to use dark magic, so how can he teach people how to defend themselves?"

At this point, William realized he was in the tendency to promote black magic and corrupt students, so he quickly added.

"Of course, I'm not saying that you have to master black magic to deal with it, nor am I saying that using black magic is a good thing. If possible, I hope you can never touch black magic in your lives. After all, as a spell, the spells classified as black magic are far too evil."

"Professor, what's going on with Nick and the others?"

Seeing that William didn't want to talk about dark magic anymore, Harry asked another question.

“They might be ghosts who decided to keep going while they were watching. You know, ghosts are beings who don’t want to face death,” William shook his head. “In fact, they don’t like themselves either, but they just can’t muster the courage to accept death, so they can only stay in the state of ghosts.”

"But isn't that better than death?"

William shook his head. "I remember that you lower-grade students weren't allowed to cast spells during holidays. How did it feel to pick up your wands again when school started?"

"It couldn't be better, Professor!"

“But once you become a ghost, you can no longer lift a wand, let alone enjoy delicious food or go to new places. You can only wander in memories—” William sighed. “Losing power, losing perception, losing exploration—such immortality is not as good as death.”

……

"Alright, we've arrived at the banquet hall. I have some urgent business to attend to and need to go to my office first. You guys sneak in, and if you're stopped, just say I brought you to the banquet—but this is a one-time thing."

William pointed to a spot not far away, preparing to part ways with the students.

He heard many secrets from the Blood Man Barrow at today's banquet. To prevent his memory from getting confused, he had to quickly transcribe these things and then put them to use.

Although Barrow did not turn into light in front of him, judging from the reactions of the ghosts, it is estimated that they will never see Barrow again, and there will be no way to inquire about this information.

'The Ravenclaw files should be unrelated to the curse, but just to be safe, let's keep a copy—send one to Professor Flitwick once things settle down; he should like it. Professor Binns should also like the files, but we'll have to wait a bit longer to give them to him; Professor Binns can afford to wait…'

As he copied down the information, William pondered its future uses.

'Okay, there shouldn't be any deviation now.'

Two large sheets of parchment were filled with questions for the evening, which pleased William greatly.

'I wonder how things are going at the banquet; I'm getting hungry just writing about it.'

"Bart, could you bring me some food?"

William called out towards the empty space.

Bart arrived after a long while with the food, saying, "I'm sorry, Professor, I'm so sorry!"

The little elf quickly apologized, "The kitchen is a complete mess. We were rushing to prepare some food for the students. The banquet was ruined by those ghosts, and Peeves even took the opportunity to cause trouble!"

Chapter 179 A Chaotic Halloween Feast

Halloween is a very important holiday, and Hogwarts is no exception.

Just as William and his friends were heading to the underground classroom for the banquet, Halloween was being celebrated in the Great Hall above. Hogwarts' long-standing tradition of serving golden platters was being used today, and candles and ribbons were naturally scattered throughout the dining hall. Even the decorations inside the castle were changed to live bats, and a joyful atmosphere filled the entire castle.

The twins whispered to each other beside the enormous pumpkin lantern that Hagrid had provided, which allowed people to play wizard chess inside.

"George, you mean the professor?"

Which professor?

"Who else?"

“Okay, I know it’s Professor William, but I’m more concerned about our big plan right now—”

George sighed helplessly; the live bat decorations that he used to love so much now seemed utterly boring.

“But we can’t keep focusing on that. Anyway, you and I both know that our big plan is definitely not the attack on Filch that they’re talking about.”

“That’s the real headache, Fred,” George said, looking around. “We lost a month’s worth of memories, had two months of confinement, and then forgot all about wearing the crown. Damn it!”

After a brief period of hospitalization and observation, the three attacked students were advised to return to their dormitories to recover their memories. The twins naturally attracted the attention of the entire college. Their friends described their great achievements over the past month in a very cheerful tone, of course, they couldn't leave out the big plan that the two of them kept talking about.

"This is truly a grand plan!"

Everyone unanimously agreed, attributing it to the crown—how could the Weasley brothers have succeeded in attacking the warden and hanging him outside the castle if it weren't for that magical crown?

But the twins knew things were not that simple. Although they couldn't remember the big plan, it was definitely not just a simple attack on the administrator.

'How can something as simple as attacking an administrator be considered a grand plan? And making a big fuss about it before the attack is definitely not our style.'

Amidst the praise of the crowd, the two exchanged a glance, neither of them tacitly denying the allegations.

But here's the problem—although the two are eager to search, they have no memory of what to do and are currently stuck in the investigation phase.

“Enjoy the show, Fred. The Skull Dance Troupe isn’t something you see every day,” George said softly. “It’s a bit annoying to have to ask the professor for help, but at least he’s a man of his word. We really are wearing crowns, aren’t we—what are they?”

To the twins' astonishment, a ghost quickly emerged from the ground—a ghost the twins knew very well, the aloof Slytherin ghost, Bloody Barrow.

The cold-faced ghost twins, who were capable of outshining Peeves, had their eyes on him since the beginning of the school year. There was no way around it; Peeves was already a notorious troublemaker at Hogwarts, and the twins had even heard their mother tell stories about Peeves when they were toddlers. So, how could Barrow, who was capable of outshining Peeves, not be allowed to do anything?

Although the investigation after enrollment shattered the twins' dreams, the aloof and taciturn Barrow still left a deep impression on them—ruthless, cold-hearted, and seemingly capable of taking lives at the slightest provocation.

"She remembers me, she remembers me!"

The unbelievable voice came from Barrow's mouth, while the aloof ghost comically swung his chain, rushing towards each student at an incredible speed.

"Yes, that's right, she remembers me!"

"She remembered me, even at the very end!"

...

Barrow frantically repeated similar phrases, leaving the twins dumbfounded.

"Is he under some kind of spell?"

"Could that crown even control ghosts?"

The two looked at each other and gleaned completely unrelated guesses from each other's eyes.

But what happened next was completely baffling. With a chill, the twins discovered that two ghosts passed through their bodies.

"Excuse me, may I pass?"

A cold apology followed, and then the two saw a ghost float out of each other's bodies and fly into the air.

But they weren't the only ones attacked—hundreds of ghosts poured out almost continuously from beneath the floor and around the walls, relentlessly passing through the students and surrounding the blood-soaked Barrow in the center.

"what!"

"My God! What is this?!"

……

Screams echoed throughout the auditorium—not everyone is like the twins, who have had the experience of passing through a ghost because of their wandering habits. That jolt of passing through a ghost is more thrilling than being splashed with ice water.

As a large number of ghosts arrived, the temperature in the auditorium began to drop sharply. The wind they created extinguished the candles in the auditorium, and the light emitted by the few candles that were not blown out was suppressed, with tiny flames barely maintaining a sliver of light.

But the students, instead of being afraid, became excited.

"A new show?"

"cool!"

"It's just a bit cold..."