From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

'The list of those punished at Hogwarts the year Professor Snape joined the faculty—found it here.'

He quickly searched through the list of professors who had dealt with students who had violated the rules, and soon found Professor Snape's name—it appeared quite frequently, and most of the students being dealt with were from Gryffindor.

'Understandable, the two academies are indeed sworn enemies…'

He shook his head and started drawing lines on it with a straw.

'There are way too many Slytherin students being put in detention for violations, and the list seems to show far more conflicts than usual... Were the conflicts on campus this serious back then?'

For comparison, William pulled out a list from last year and compared the data slightly. The number of all sorts of misconducts in the 1981-1982 academic year, the year Professor Snape joined the faculty, was more than double that of the entire year—and that was after William had thought for a long time without excluding the twins.

In fact, if records of twins are removed, the ratio could be as high as 2.5 times.

'That guy's got some tricks up his sleeve...'

William shook his head and then began calculating the percentage of students who violated the rules.

In the 1981 school year, Slytherin students who violated the rules accounted for slightly more than a quarter of all violations.

This is a terrifying ratio. You should know that Slytherin students are the fewest at Hogwarts, fluctuating around one-sixth.

'I didn't get the employment form, but this data is still valuable. I'll visit Filch at the hospital later and ask him for the key to retrieve the documents. No need to infiltrate.'

Although he didn't receive the forms, William estimated that Slytherin's employment rate at the time was probably not very high.

Judging from Professor Snape's first sentence, it's clear that a significant number of Slytherin graduates joined the Death Eaters at that time, forcing the school to assign professors to control the numbers.

'What's even more alarming is that there are too few professors. There's only Professor Snape who came from Slytherin—I think I need to check the school's professor appointment and dismissal records from those years; hopefully, it was an issue of the admission ratio, and not something else.'

William grinned, deliberately refusing to reveal the other reason—most likely that he had left the university to become a Death Eater instead of a professor.

'The only professor at that university to choose to resign and become a Death Eater—I've never even heard of that!'

'No, I can't watch this anymore.'

William focused his mind and brought his scattered thoughts back—he now needed to work with the information to investigate the stolen items, otherwise he was afraid he would develop a Death Eater phobia…

Professor Snape looked down on the only professor who diligently guarded the house… he…

No, I can't think about it anymore, or I'll look like a Death Eater!

Note: In 1981, Severus Snape began teaching at Hogwarts. He initially applied for the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Dumbledore insisted on giving him the positions of Potions Teacher and Head of Slytherin House, since Snape was the only teacher from Slytherin House. Perhaps this was intended to have him keep the young Slytherin students in check, as many of them would (and this is not unfounded) join the Death Eaters.

Chapter 192 Even if you're just picking wool anywhere, it's still wool.

'My head hurts…'

At lunchtime, William sat at the faculty dining table, pressing his temples with his hand—he felt a pain in his gums.

He stole a collection of scattered records from Professor Snape, spanning over forty years. He was so excited when he got his hands on them that he didn't realize how terrifying the pile of things was until he took a nap and started organizing them.

More than forty years!

Even if it's Slytherin's private account, it won't record too much useless stuff, but if you add it all up, it could kill someone.

He is now filled with regret, deep regret—even though he knew there were things he needed inside, and he stole them with virtually no repercussions, seeing that pile of stuff makes him want to strangle the person who devised the plan.

'Can you finish watching it in a year?'

William raised his suspicions, only to find that he couldn't find the answer at all, which made the food in his mouth tasteless.

"Professor, would you like to join us for a meal?"

Just as William was losing his appetite, a rather pleasant voice came from inside – it was Robert, a sixth-grade student from Hufflepuff.

After a moment's hesitation, William made no choice but to go to Hufflepuff's table for a free meal.

'The difficulties are already great enough; at least we can't skimp on ourselves financially. Besides, one person's plan may be limited, but many people's plans are more comprehensive. Who knows, we might be able to glean some information from the students.'

With this in mind, William walked happily to Hufflepuff's table.

“Professor Adams always tells me that Hufflepuff’s cooking skills are superb, and I thought it was just an isolated case,” William said with a smile, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to the dishes that looked familiar. “Turns out they can’t show off their skills until the holidays.”

"Thank you for the compliment, Professor. We've come up with quite a few new dishes today."

The surrounding students laughed and echoed their agreement.

“It looks great,” William exclaimed sincerely. “But it’s not good for me to just come here and freeload all the time. How about this, let’s play a little game. Whoever can answer correctly will receive a mysterious little gift. It’s not very valuable, but I think it will be quite useful to you.”

No one dislikes something that comes with a prize and is free. The students who were chatting suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to William.

Even the people at the surrounding tables couldn't help but lift their heads from their tables and pay attention to what was happening here.

“Very good,” William clapped his hands, “the problem is here.”

"Well, poor Professor William had a terrible joke played on him by a friend. He asked his friend to buy a batch of herbs mixed with weeds at a low price, intending to sift out the useful herbs to make potions. But after the owl delivered two huge packages, he discovered that although the total number of herbs was the same, because there were so many weeds, the herbs had become herbs mixed in with the weeds."

“The herbs are still very fresh; they won’t keep long without processing. May I ask,” William said with a smile, tapping the table, “how did the fooled Professor William manage to pick out the herbs?”

William happily changed the subject, throwing the question back to the students, "Students from other colleges can also try, but if you answer correctly, the reward will be one level lower."

He turned his gaze back to the table. "Of course, the reward for the first person in Hufflepuff to come up with the answer remains the same, but the answer cannot be the same as anyone else's."

The students, whose holiday excitement had worn off, suddenly became incredibly energetic, even skipping meals and racking their brains. William, on the other hand, felt relaxed and began to examine the dishes on the table.

'I hope the shredded pork with garlic sauce and Kung Pao chicken won't be sweet this time?'

'It's a real shame there's no rice... Of course, steamed buns are good too, but they don't go as well with rice...'

He even became a bit picky, experimenting with the students' creations while eating bread—actually, not many of them were up to Little Elf's level, but they had the advantage of being fresh in taste. Even if Little Elf's creations were delicious, he had been eating them for a whole semester...

"Professor, professor, I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!"

'So fast?'

William looked up and saw a usually shy child. "Tell me about it?"

"Get someone here! We Hufflepuff Herbology class never has low scores. With just these people in the school, they can sort out the herbs right away!"

“The idea is good, and the intention is good,” William nodded approvingly, “but unfortunately, Professor William did not buy such a large quantity of herbs, and it is a shameful waste to use so many people to pick weeds. So—you can’t be considered right.”

"what?"

“Think again, there will be a better answer,” William put down his bread and encouraged the students. While the students continued to think seriously, he put a lamb chop on his plate.

……

William then rejected several answers, but the students remained very enthusiastic.

“Professor, I’ve got it! There’s a kind of magic that can do this,” a Ravenclaw girl stood up from the table next to her. “It’s a method for marking thorns. Once you mark one, all the other thorns nearby will also be marked, making it easy for people to find them. The only drawback is that you need to identify the first one. If you improve it, you can also use it on herbs.”

“Interesting,” William nodded. “If you don’t have a better answer, you will receive a prize.”

'What a pity. It's fine for living things, but it's not helpful for researching at all. I guess that's about it. After all, you can't actually say you need to research something, can you?'

Although he hadn't obtained any useful information, William gave up hope—he'd just give out the reward.

But just as he was about to announce that the minor problem was over, a surprise occurred.

"I've thought of one too, Professor!"

At the Hufflepuff table, a small girl also stood up. "Use curses. Curse the herbs you choose within a limited area. As long as the curse is mild enough and the area is well-defined, all the herbs will be cursed—for example, can we curse it to change color?"

Although the word "curse" gave William a headache, after thinking about it for a moment, he realized that it seemed feasible—to limit it to the office, curse Tom Riddle's name, and make the font change color and bold, wouldn't that be just like an index?

It's easy to browse through, although you'll definitely miss a lot of details and useful information, but at least you can get all the most important information at once. As for the details, you can slowly look around the highlighted text—even if there are some discrepancies, you can still find more than 70% of the useful information in a very short time.

'The only problem is that the curse on the name specified in this data doesn't exist yet—but that's not a big problem; I can create one, and I estimate it won't take too long.'

Magic isn't so rigid. Creating magic out of thin air is quite difficult, but piecing together magic that meets your needs isn't so difficult, especially with curses. With enough research into black magic, creating a low-powered curse is incredibly easy.

Although reducing the power to the point where it wouldn't even damage paper was no easier than developing a powerful spell, William felt he could do it.

'At most a month, I can develop this magic, and'

"Great idea! Although it deviates from the answer, it's a completely new solution!" William clapped in admiration, even though he didn't have the answer himself. "Of course, that Ravenclaw student was also great. You won a prize from a non-Hufflepuff house, which is also a mystery gift."

"Um, Professor, I don't want a gift, I'd like to borrow a book from the restricted section."

The Ravenclaw girl looked at William and made her request.

"Borrowing books?" William spread his hands. "Well, as expected of a Ravenclaw student, you came to my office with a note on the first day of school—if I approve it for you today, I'm afraid Mrs. Pince will complain that the note is expired."

“And what about you?” William turned to look at Hufflepuff’s student—he had never expected a first-year student to come up with such an idea; the child had solved the problem he was facing perfectly.

“It’s not easy for a first-year student to do what you did,” William remarked, completely oblivious to the strange looks from the students around him as he was basking in the joy of solving the problem. “In addition to the reward I promised, I’ll give you an extra bonus—not much, just eleven Galleons, exactly the same age as you. You’ve made perfect use of it—”

“Um, Professor,” the short student looked up, “there are fourteen. I’m in fourth grade, and I’m fourteen years old…”

William lowered his head and stared at the person who spoke. This height and appearance—he had indeed seen him before, at Black Lake.

The name 'Selma of Hufflepuff' popped into his mind—the kid who slipped away too fast and escaped solitary confinement. Hmm—steamed fish is pretty good.

'It's just three Galleons, is it really that big of a deal?'

William was speechless for a moment. This kid was so stubborn that it was really frustrating. He had completely forgotten that some students couldn't even get a single Galleon out of them.

Three Galleons is not a small sum for any student, but the currency was severely devalued in Azkaban, and the professors' salaries were quite generous after he came to Hogwarts, which prevented him from having a very accurate understanding of the value of money.

“Alright,” William said, in a good mood and not caring about such things at all. “Then fourteen, Selma from Hufflepuff.”

"Professor, could we change the mystery gift? I'd also like to borrow two of the library's banned books."

"Are you sure?" William's eyes widened suddenly—why was everyone else thinking about borrowing forbidden books, while his mysterious gift was so unpopular?

“I’m quite sure, Professor.”

You'll regret it...

“Okay, then you’ll have to come to me to get the approval slips when school starts.” William gestured helplessly. “You guys have almost taken all the extra approval slips I had in the first month of school.”

Although the school library is open to professors throughout the entire area, students need a permit to borrow books, and each professor has a limited number of books they can approve each month. After reserving enough for the sixth and seventh graders, there are naturally not many left for ordinary students.

There's no way around it; most banned books are uncopyable, and their content isn't really suitable for copying either. Basically, once someone borrows a book, the next person has to wait in line. If every professor could approve a whole bunch, there simply wouldn't be enough books to go around. One or two books would be fine, but if you could borrow them freely, there would be daily book-grabbing duels at the library entrance.

Moreover, it is not a good thing for lower-grade students to come into contact with those banned books. Even for higher-grade students, it is just asking for trouble if they are not top students with extra learning capacity to put their energy into them. This is the main reason why professors must approve them before they can be borrowed.

The two students who benefited chuckled to themselves, clearly feeling they had made a huge profit.

'Since there are so many people and the atmosphere is good, let's reveal the plan in advance, and also give these two students a lesson.'

After a moment's thought, William decided to quit.

"Since both winners have chosen to forgo their prizes, as a professor, I feel awkward taking them back without a clear conscience—how about this, Christmas, everyone's here on Christmas, right?"

William smiled and raised his voice.