From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

But if a permanent spot were placed on the basilisk's eye, then even if Professor Lockhart didn't create any coincidences nearby, the attacked student wouldn't die.

At fixed times, the basilisk hidden in the secret passage would come out to attack the students. As long as there were no portraits around to report to Dumbledore, and all the eyewitnesses were petrified, no one would quickly discover that the basilisk was responsible.

His office was closest to the crime scene, so he could deal with any leftovers immediately...

A perfect plan.

A word was secretly revealed in the closed diary, and then quietly disappeared.

-

If it weren't for the strong aura of dark magic emanating from the corridor, William would have definitely thought this was some kind of terrifying place, like a wax museum.

More than a dozen students were leaning against the wall or lying on the ground in various poses, their faces all showing panic.

'Are you kidding me!'

William's initial good mood at finding a breakthrough was completely wiped away—he had seriously underestimated the power hidden in that secret room.

Too easy. Such powerful spells, such terrifying incantations, the opponent wielded them with such ease—'I could never do that. Such effortless spellcasting, as if it were eating and drinking… surely it wasn't the Dark Lord himself appearing?'

"Professor William!"

Lockhart ran over in a panic, "Oh my god, what happened!"

“As you can see, Professor Lockhart, a massive attack.” William took a deep breath and exhaled. “The killer has started to provoke us; it seems he intends to destroy Hufflepuff.”

William could easily discern the schools the victims belonged to from the decorations on their robes—without a doubt, they were all Hufflepuffs.

Just as Professor Binns explained, the secret chamber was opened for the purpose of cleansing. The so-called successor might be even more radical than the Dark Lord, even though the Dark Lord never clamored to destroy an academy.

“Inform the principal, Professor Lockhart. This is probably not something we can handle.”

“Go ahead and inform them, Professor William,” Lockhart said through gritted teeth. “Just fifteen minutes ago I was helping my students with their problems! I want to see them, I want to see the children who are willing to confide in me…”

“Sigh,” William sighed, “Well, don’t move them, Professor…it’s important.”

William, who had been confided in by hundreds of ghosts, could understand this feeling, and he now desperately wanted to see Dumbledore.

The current situation has completely exceeded his control. Even with the cards at his disposal, William is somewhat unsure of himself—can he really launch a sneak attack and destroy the secrets left behind by Slytherin?

Fortunately, William hadn't lost his basic judgment. After a moment of panic, he immediately remembered the convenient portraits. He asked them to inform the principal and vice-principal, and also asked them to tell the oil paintings on the road to call the prefects to gather everyone together and return to the common room to prevent any problems from arising.

After finishing all this, he immediately returned to the crime scene—although he had considerable confidence in Professor Lockhart, he did not believe that Lockhart could face the attacks alone.

"Professor Lockhart, are you alright?"

William greeted him from a distance—he was afraid Lockhart had been ambushed and that he would be killed by the attacker if he ran over.

"Not good, Professor William."

Lockhart's sorrowful voice came from afar, which reassured William somewhat.

-

"sky!"

The professors arrived one after another—but every professor who saw the scene couldn't help but make this sound.

The attacker seemed to freeze the entire corridor, fixing everyone in place, their fear and dread clearly visible on everyone's faces.

Naturally, William saw Professor McGonagall's angry face.

"Is it the same curse?"

“Yes, Professor McGonagall.” William nodded. “But that spellcaster was much stronger than I thought. I thought that last time was the limit, but I never expected that it seemed to be the beginning of his mastery of power.”

William was no longer convinced that it was a monster—last time he hadn't mastered it properly, but this time its power had suddenly increased dramatically. No matter how you looked at it, it was a powerful magical weapon, the kind that was limited to Hogwarts.

'Slytherin remained because of their strength, but the power they possessed was likely provided by Hogwarts Castle, so they couldn't take it out…'

Could this be the weapon hidden in the secret room?

What kind of monster can live for a thousand years and still be usable?

Even a dragon wouldn't do...

William took a deep breath. He knew he had weapons—but it was people who wielded them.

With that card in his hand, there's almost no way to counter a sneak attack. As long as that guy who claims to be a Slytherin successor, who somehow has connections to the Dark Lord, appears and he doesn't have time to kill him, he can kill him.

'This time I'm not holding back, I'll go straight for dark magic…'

“Take them to the hospital…” Professor McGonagall’s voice was completely devoid of emotion, but its coldness was no less than the fear that the corridor before him instilled in William.

He then realized that he had been so engrossed in his speculation that he hadn't even listened to the professors' conversation.

-

"Professor, Professor!"

William paused for a moment before realizing he was in class.

Yesterday's attack has passed, and after investigation, nothing was found.

However, the school's security has been upgraded again.

The students stayed quietly in the lounge, and the professors who were teaching the class came out to pick them up and take them to the nearest classroom.

After class, the students were led back to the lounge by the professors. Most of the classrooms and corridors in the castle were sealed off. The professors who were not teaching formed teams to explore the sealed areas and then picked up the students when they had class.

As the professor of self-defense at the university, William naturally could no longer continue teaching in such a relaxed manner. He was not only responsible for picking up and dropping off his students, but also had to accompany some professors when they had to take their students to classes in the greenhouse, in order to protect the students' safety.

This further compressed his investigation time—although he tried to communicate his guesses with Dumbledore, he really didn't know what to say or what would be of any use.

Ultimately, those speculations were just the beginning.

Fortunately, with such security measures in place, no further attacks occurred, which allowed William to barely accept the fact that the investigation had reached a stalemate.

"Sorry, I got a little distracted. I slept too late last night," William readily admitted his mistake. "So you all need to work hard on the test. I stayed up all night to finish it."

The students taking notes below caused a slight disturbance, but it quickly subsided under William's watchful eye.

……

William's students wished they could seal their mouths with magic.

Why would you remind the professor of something out of the blue?

It's bad enough that there were attackers on campus, but the professor actually had to work through the night to prepare exam papers?

Chapter 201 Breakthrough—Myrtle

Professor Binns once said that throughout its thousand-year history, countless outstanding wizards have tried to explore the secrets of Hogwarts, but the Chamber of Secrets has always remained a legend.

This statement is correct.

Although William spent his spare time escorting students and searching for the so-called secret room with his colleagues, they still found nothing.

'Could it be that their power has been exhausted?'

He would occasionally have such thoughts, and sometimes he would find them quite reasonable—the last time, the accumulated power was probably used up, which prevented the Dark Lord from continuing to use the power of the secret chamber after opening it. And after so many years, the power of that weapon was fully utilized, which caused such great damage.

But William quickly rejected this wishful thinking.

He couldn't accept that the murderer had simply disappeared—even if he stopped committing crimes.

"William, what are you thinking about?"

Adams' voice came from the side, making William realize that the lesson was about herbs.

“That murderer,” William lowered his voice so the students around him wouldn’t hear, “what kind of person would be so heartless as to want to wipe out the entire Hufflepuff House?”

"God knows, but I don't think he's a Slytherin student."

?

It was rare for Adams, a Hufflepuff, to speak well of Slytherin, which piqued William's interest in listening to him.

Tell me about it.

William lowered his voice and asked after confirming that the students hadn't left the group.

“Normal Slytherin students wouldn’t think all Hufflepuff students should leave school, especially after the indiscriminate attack last time.” Adams also said in a very low voice, “Although it’s not said outright, Slytherin discriminates against Muggle-born students. Hufflepuff has many Muggle-born students, but not all of them.”

"If it really was Slytherin who did it, given the resentment over the past few years, it's most likely that Gryffindors were also attacked. People with bloodline prejudice wouldn't want to drive Hufflepuff out, and there were purebloods among those attacked this time."

“Ordinary students might not understand, but people with bloodline discrimination would never target Hannah Abbott. They knew she was pureblood from the day she enrolled.”

Adams spoke softly, and although it was somewhat roundabout, William still understood what he was trying to say.

The other party was not there to purge wizards who, according to their theory, should not be enrolled, as they claimed; rather, they were posing as conducting a purge.

'Unprovoked attacks are almost nonexistent; the other side is even deliberately disguising them.'

Why is it?

unknown…

-

After a busy day of teaching and escorting, William returned to his room but did not lie down. Instead, he continued to review the materials.

If this was a disguise, what about last time?

Myrtle Elizabeth Warren.

This is the name William found after scouring countless related materials—out of respect for the victims, most of the materials concealed this name. The headmaster at the time was not Dumbledore. William clearly found from the materials that the headmaster at the time, Armando Dippet, ordered the administrator at the time to leave only one copy for record-keeping.

"The enemy is on campus," William muttered helplessly after seeing the record. He wondered why he hadn't seen that name in any of the other records.

'I should have thought of that sooner,' William said, looking at the child's school and death records—he had heard the name when he listened to the ghost's tale.

The weeping myrtle.

Although she never came to him to confide in him, William still knew about her.

'From Ravenclaw, not Hufflepuff, but her family of origin were Muggles…'

'Clearly, the plan to purge Muggles has turned into purging Hufflepuff students. The perpetrators are definitely not Slytherins; those guys would never make such a basic mistake.'

'However, an even bigger breakthrough has emerged: Myrtle's ghost is also in the castle. I believe she will give me some useful information.'

Speaking of this, William wanted to say something disrespectful to the former principal—was this how he investigated cases?

-