From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

They engage in prohibited activities, have their own internal discipline, and even punish a group of traitors or collectively discriminate against or bully others. This is what most clandestine groups do.

'Slytherin's common room is too small; it's definitely not a place for Death Eaters to gather regularly. At most, it's for conversation; there's simply not enough space for anything forbidden, and it's not private enough.'

William made this judgment quickly.

'I originally thought that Slytherin, as the self-proclaimed most prestigious house in the entire school, would have plenty of private spaces, and its common room would be the largest, but it turns out to be like this.'

'However, it wasn't a complete failure. At least we figured out how many people were involved at the core and identified the direction for the subsequent investigation.'

'I suspect that when the Death Eaters return to the common room later, they'll definitely occupy the fireplace, but they certainly won't be here discussing their rule-breaking plans…' William glanced one last time at the common room he'd painstakingly infiltrated. 'I need to find another place; that's definitely where the Death Eaters hold their illegal gatherings at school.'

Although he had bought himself plenty of time, William no longer needed it to do whatever he wanted—he couldn't exactly search the student dormitories, could he?

He left the lounge without looking back, stepped out of the stone door, and smiled as he watched it disappear into the wall.

'Next, I'll sneak off to check on how the students did on their exams, and while I'm at it, I'll go back and see the Christmas presents I received—' William smiled as he cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself.

His holiday adventure was over—though he had new ideas about where the Death Eaters had gathered back then, but that wasn't urgent.

'The Dark Lord stayed at this school until his seventh year; it's been used for seven years straight, only closing down right before graduation. Who knows what traps and mechanisms are inside? I can't do this myself; I have to get Dumbledore involved!'

William thought so.

-

After cleaning up all traces, William went through the secret passage and returned to his office. He then pretended to have been busy all day before heading to the auditorium.

'Thankfully, there are no more gifts,' William said excitedly as he walked along, his mind drifting back to the Death Eaters of yesteryear.

'The Death Eaters on campus, the ones that can attract a bunch of students, are probably dark magic, maybe with some kind of brutality—I need to check the information…' William pondered what he needed to research next, and before he knew it, he had arrived at the Great Hall.

"One point deducted from that area!"

Professor Lockhart's voice could be heard clearly even through the door.

Just from that sound, you could tell how happy Professor Lockhart was—even before opening the door, William could picture Professor Lockhart grinning.

He knocked, pushed open the door, and William entered the hall with a smile.

He had basically completed all his plans for the holiday, and all his students were here. Since it was Christmas, he might as well stay and enjoy the festive atmosphere.

"Taking exams during the Lunar New Year is really going too far... I was also in the exam hall; maybe the students could have been more relaxed..."

"Over there, you, you, you, and you—one point deducted from each of you!"

Professor Lockhart shouted loudly, his expression even brighter than William had imagined—William had never laughed so happily during the New Year, not even when he was a child receiving lucky money.

"Professor William, you've arrived."

Lockhart gave William a happy smile. "I've caught quite a few students trying to cheat."

“Look,” Lockhart pointed to the quill pen and paper on the table. The diligent pen was meticulously recording the names of the students who had broken the rules, making William momentarily wonder where this pen, capable of identifying a name from a person, had come from…

He glanced at the list and found that there were already more than 140 names recorded on it—even doubling the number of people staying on campus wouldn't be enough to reach that number. There was no doubt that some people had been arrested more than once or twice.

However, the students' emotions were clearly not affected—who would care about losing such a small number of points?

Even after William came in, everyone was still as happy as if it were New Year's Day. Some were flipping through books, some were doing their tests, and those who were cheating continued cheating...

"How are you feeling, Professor Lockhart?"

William brought in a proctor to check on the exam, intending to ask Professor Lockhart if he was tired, but Lockhart clearly misunderstood.

"How could I be tired?" His smile was absolutely perfect. "Now I understand why there are exams in fifth grade, Professor William. I heard you've compiled quite a few sets of test papers; I think we should consider promoting them next semester..."

"No, Professor Lockhart, it's Christmas, it's practically New Year's Day. Is it really appropriate for us to discuss this topic? Especially with so many students watching below. Don't you think it's good for them to celebrate?"

Out of basic human decency, William politely declined his offer.

"We can talk about this later, Professor Lockhart. It's the holidays now, so it's not appropriate to discuss this."

“Okay, then we’ll talk again after school starts,” Lohat nodded. “Hey you over there, put down your cheat sheet! One point deducted!”

The surrounding students laughed, but the child who cheated didn't show any expression. After putting down the cheat sheet, Lockhart casually waved his wand to collect it.

'No, cheating on an open-book exam? What were you thinking?'

William was stunned—why not use that strength to carry a book?

He casually took the cheat sheet, glanced at it briefly, and realized something was wrong. Although the handwriting was the same, a closer look revealed that it was written by two different people.

'Never mind, it's New Year's, it's New Year's...' William forced himself not to drag the person out, after all, he had entrusted the matter to Lockhart.

"Good luck on the exam, Professor Lockhart. I'll head back to my office now."

He watched for a while, then, considering it was still Christmas, he suppressed the urge to arrest someone and said goodbye to Lockhart—no, the exam was bad enough, arresting someone would ruin his reputation, and he'd have nothing left to look at for the reputation assessment.

-

Achoo!

William rubbed his nose and continued checking the exam papers.

He knew the debts from June would be paid off quickly, but he didn't expect the annual debts to be paid off even faster...

Taking exams during the Lunar New Year sounds inhumane—but there's still grading after the exams!

'What a terrible idea I came up with!'

William wished he could go back a few days and slap himself—Lockhart had fun, and he had to grade papers, what a mess!

Fortunately, there weren't many students, and there weren't many exam papers either.

'They went easy on them, huh? This time, to prevent them from handing in their papers early, they only included one question that was easy to find the answer to—' William quickly looked at the paper, 'What kind of open-book exam is it if you can find the answer to something?'

'Never mind, let's just treat it like Chinese New Year.'

William shook his head and gave the paper in his hand a score.

'They're so lenient, everyone passed...' He put the papers down, pointed his wand at the quill pen, and told it to start recording the scores.

"It's not really appropriate to announce the results during the Lunar New Year, so how about we do something a little different?"

He thought for a moment and then started calling out to the all-powerful house-elves.

"Bart, could you bring me some red paper?"

It's Chinese New Year, so there are still red envelopes. Good grades get a Galon, bad grades get a Cesc, and those at the bottom get a Senat—and then the report card is slipped in along with it.

Full of festive spirit!

William chuckled and stuffed a piece of chocolate into his hand—a brilliant idea!

They said it was a special Christmas custom observed in the East!

This year was perfect!!

Chapter 197 Oh no! Something terrible has happened at school!

While Bart went to get the red paper, William began to compile the list of cheaters that Lockhart had sent him.

Thirty-one students remained on campus – the list of cheaters totaled one hundred and ninety-two instances.

This list is outrageous in every sense of the word.

He checked the list again and found that there were only two students who had stayed on campus without cheating—Percy Weasley and Hermione Granger.

'In every sense, this list is quite outrageous…'

William grinned and began deducting points one by one.

"Speaking of which, those twins aren't at the front—" William had to double-check the list to make sure Professor Lockhart wasn't on the back. "They're like completely different people; they didn't even meet the average number of cheating attempts!"

'But Harry and Ron are actually high on the cheating list…' William rubbed his forehead. 'Is Professor Lockhart really going all out to catch them?'

But to say Lockhart didn't put in the effort—he caught cheating nearly two hundred times during a single exam—wouldn't complain about the proctor's incompetence anywhere…

'Forget it, can't I just make up a list?'

William began deducting points based on the number of times he cheated, and tallied the scores.

'First place, Percy.'

Naturally, no matter how comprehensive the test questions are for William, it would be difficult for a second-grade student to outperform a sixth-grade student.

Second place, Hermione.

'Those sixth-graders who stayed after school, do you really believe their promises of yelling in exchange for bribes? Not a single one of them will get away with it!'

William rolled his eyes—even if it's an open-book exam, a sixth-grader who stayed after school and didn't pass the second-grader's exam should be sent to reflect on their behavior with a letter of complaint!

He was so angry that he bit off the straw in his mouth. How embarrassing! The fifth graders are not staying at school, and their situation is unclear. The sixth graders can't even beat the second graders. These kinds of students should be sent for extra tutoring!

'I'd like to see which guys are so shameful!'

William began to peruse the list, marking the names of those people with red ink.

'I can barely forgive those who made it into the top ten, but not a single student who didn't make it received any Nate!'

And those fourth graders who can't beat second graders and can't get into the top 20, you need to reflect on this!

The results came out quickly. Although it was an open-book exam, the years of study in sixth grade still paid off, and they occupied the top spots on the list. Only two disappointing students failed to make it into the top ten.

Of the fourth-grade students who stayed at school, three didn't make it into the top twenty; instead, they dragged the class down significantly.

Count down one, two, three, and we've got it all.

'Selma?'

William looked at the name and immediately connected it to the person in his mind—a petite child who looked like a first-grader.

'Judging from the books she brought, they're probably similar to those brought by first graders…'

'And you've cheated fifteen times, so who else is going to sit in the chair if not you?'

That's understandable. William then looked at the second to third from the bottom.

'Weasley brothers, you cheated but didn't lose many points, how come your scores are so low?'

If Selma hadn't cheated so blatantly, these two would have tied for last place. How could they be so bad at an open-book exam?

-

"Whoo~~~"

The loud snoring continued incessantly, leaving the Weasley brothers, who shared a dorm room, speechless as they looked at each other.