From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

William stood behind the drawn line, trying to clear his mind and setting his sights on the other side.

He spun around, moved—and then William did a magnificent 360-degree spin in place.

He glanced furtively at Old Tom, and finding that the other man wasn't looking, he took a step back and pretended nothing had happened.

Set your goal, clear your mind, focus your attention, and try again.

William spun too hard, and after spinning twice, he completely lost his balance and fell to the ground with a thud.

"Haha, William, are you planning to make the clothes into separate pieces?"

Old Tom laughed so hard that the rocking chair shook violently, even veering slightly off its original position.

"cut."

William stood up, returned to the marked area, and then repeated the action according to the instructions.

To his surprise, he felt as if he had been crammed into an extremely small space, and then as if he had been pushed out of a pipe. Then, he found that the wall seemed to have been moved and suddenly appeared in front of him.

He seemed to have dropped in frame rate, teleporting from one place to another in an instant—but this wasn't a frame drop, it was real phantom teleportation.

"They succeeded so quickly?"

Old Tom exclaimed in surprise.

Although Apparition is a difficult skill for some but not for others, it is still surprising that he was able to master it in such a short time. Back at Hogwarts, even the best students would need two long class periods to master this shortest-distance teleportation.

But since he's going to be a professor at Hogwarts, it's not a big deal if he learns a little faster.

"Alright, now it's not about constantly practicing to get used to the feeling of success anymore. Once you're pretty familiar with these short-distance movements, then you can try long-distance movements—that will save you a lot of money on Knight Bus tickets."

Old Tom chatted incessantly with William as he walked toward the bar.

"I'll go get the white safflower. You can practice later—I thought you wouldn't have mastered it until at least the next day."

William was stunned, standing there dumbfounded. The joy of having mastered Apparition ahead of schedule had vanished.

Careless!

Where did he get the courage to experiment with such a dangerous new magic? He's still burdened with the curse of disability.

Just as he was about to accidentally split into two, Old Tom went back to get the white sage and discovered that the shop's inventory had expired. He would probably become the professor whose curse would take effect the fastest.

It's better to be able to separate an arm or a leg, but if the neck is separated, or worse, if everything below the eyebrows is amputated, then that would be a real disaster.

Even the most resilient mage cannot be manipulated like this, especially given the existence of that curse, which can turn a low-probability event into a high-probability one, so we must be cautious.

So when old Tom returned, he found William coming to greet him in just a few steps.

"Old Tom, did you get the white licorice?"

"Of course, although there aren't many fights around here, how could a bar not keep some white peony on hand? Besides, the herbal medicine shop is so close by, even if I don't buy any, they'll still bring some with them when they come over."

Indeed, once alcohol gets involved, there will be many more bloodshed incidents, so there will naturally be no shortage of hemostatic and healing potions like white cinnamon.

"It's not expired, is it?"

William asked cautiously.

"How could that be? I just used it last month, and it worked really well."

"Is the quantity enough?"

"That's enough for you to split into seven or eight parts—are the regulations in Azkaban that strict?"

"No, no, I'll start right away, but just to be on the safe side, I'd like to ask—"

"You don't want to!"

Old Tom pulled out his wand and made a gesture as if to duel.

William obediently shut up, walked to the marked line, and focused all his attention, fearing that the splitting would happen.

Perhaps because he was focused on improving, the splitting of his body didn't happen during the hour-long practice session, and his proficiency with Apparition continued to increase.

In the end, old Tom even thought William could try Apparition a little further away—but William resolutely refused.

He planned to get some of Bai Xian, Sheng Gu Ling, and other healing products to carry with him later.

As a former potion maker, he even considered concocting several highly effective but prohibited potions—some of the ingredients were contraband, but William knew where to get these rare items.

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Joke of Getting Out of Prison

"Old Tom? Are you in the back?"

A deep, almost oppressive voice rang out from the bar ahead, and then William saw a man nearly four meters tall walk through the back door of the bar toward them.

In front of this visitor, old Tom, who was not very tall to begin with, looked like a primary school student, and William was not much better off—compared to the person in front of him, his height was not much better than that of a primary school student.

Giant—the word flashed through William's mind instantly.

But in the blink of an eye, he denied his own idea.

Giants are not protected by wizards and cannot appear in normal wizarding society—some people in the wizarding world take pleasure in hunting dragons or giants, and Azkaban keeps a few of them imprisoned.

Compared to giants, it's more likely that the opponent has been afflicted by some dangerous black magic or curse.

Thinking this through, William felt more at ease—since the other party knew Old Tom, there was obviously no conflict between them, so his massive size shouldn't be a sign of danger.

"Hagrid, why are you here so early today?"

Old Tom greeted the other person very warmly, and this address immediately reminded William of the other person's identity.

The previous visitor was so tall that William had difficulty noticing the man's face, but now that Old Tom had pointed it out, he could finally make out familiar features from the man's hairy face.

Okay, all the previous speculations are off. The other side is indeed a Titan, but a half-Titan, a hybrid of a human and a Titan.

Although William seemed to have heard of similar topics somewhere before—now was clearly not the time to study them.

Before he could figure out how to greet him, he was startled by Hagrid's greeting gesture.

The half-giant bent down and gently patted old Tom's shoulder with his hand, which was four times the size of a normal person's—William swore he saw old Tom's legs tremble and move.

"I'm going to Diagon Alley to check out hair conditioners. The centaurs asked me to go; they're having a banquet soon, and some of the young men feel their tails aren't flowing enough."

No wonder he's a master at raising blasting snails; his relationship with the centaur is so good—that fellow inmate would probably be green with envy if he knew.

"Shall we have some first?"

Old Tom straightened his back again.

"No, I'll go buy something first. I'll talk about it after I find the fabric softener—last time I forgot, those guys complained about it for three days straight."

"That's good. By the way, let me introduce you to someone. This person might be your future colleague. He will also be working for Hogwarts for the next year."

"Oh? The new professor?" He looked at William and extended his hand.

“I am Hagrid, Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts.”

William looked at the large hand in front of him, hardened his heart, and extended his own hand.

“Lee William, not yet in office, is the professor of Wizard Self-Defense Magic.”

Hagrid gently shook William's hand—which made William feel like a schoolboy—while scratching his head with his other hand.

“Oh, wizarding self-defense—I remember, Dumbledore said, I remember you, Dumbledore said you might be the best professor of this course in the last five years.”

Such high praise?

William felt that if he could get through the first year, the risk of being fired was almost nonexistent.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the school is unlikely to be able to find new teachers.

Before William could utter any words of modesty, Hagrid had already launched into his own conversation:

"Dumbledore said you are the best professor, so without a doubt you are the best professor. I have to go buy some potions, and we can have a good drink when I get back."

Before William could say yes or no, Hagrid had already taken a few steps to the entrance of Diagon Alley, turned back to wave at them, and walked into Diagon Alley.

"He's always like this, all energetic and impulsive, but he's not a bad person. You'll know once you get to know him."

“I agree with the first part of your statement, but let me think about the second part—after all, Hogwarts’ wizarding self-defense professors are expendable.”

William stammered before getting the course's current name right, but he would never bring up the original name.

“Alright, but I really hope you can stay long. Being a professor at Hogwarts is a good job, and there aren’t many professions that accept wizards from Azkaban—I don’t want you to continue smuggling.”

"Don't worry, at worst I can still make a living by selling potions," William waved and prepared to go back to his room.

His time to relax is almost up; he should go back to studying those books.

But Old Tom grabbed him immediately.

"You've spent enough time reading. You finally learned Apparition today, so you should give yourself a break. Go for a stroll in Diagon Alley. If you really want to relax, the alley next to Knockturn Alley is a good place to go."

Old Tom had a sly look on his face, but his desire to stop him was unwavering.

This made William give up on going back to his room to continue studying—a balance between work and rest is not a bad thing; if things continued like this, he might eventually become paralyzed from exhaustion.

Taking advantage of this time to have a custom-made dress is also a good option.

Although formal attire was only a suggestion, William felt that he would be spending several holidays at Hogwarts, and it was necessary to follow local customs.

In addition, it is also very necessary to wear a more formal robe—his face is young, which is fine for dealing with lower-grade students, but it is indeed a bit inappropriate for older students.

Having never been to Hogwarts, he could only use ordinary high school students of similar age as a reference.

The age range from eleven to seventeen or eighteen is quite large, and students in this age range—mischievous, rebellious, immature, or pretending to be mature—are the most troublesome.

William opened the entrance to Diagon Alley with his wand, and a headache began to run into him.

I hadn't thought about it before because I was busy reviewing, but now that I think about it carefully, dealing with these students is not much easier than dealing with that curse—both are life-threatening situations.

"Why would I be so eager to get out of prison? I could stay here with the Dementors—but I'd rather deal with this big trouble than the Dementors."

William shuddered at the thought of Dementors.

Compared to those Dementors, the current difficulties are nothing—at least here he can still see hope, whereas being with Dementors, even for just a few minutes while they are feeding, would cause a normal wizard to lose all joy and hope.

"I hope teaching won't be too difficult, otherwise when I'm scheduled to serve my sentence, I'll definitely tell that joke in front of all my students."

William shook his head, trying to dispel the memories from his mind. Thinking about the joke about his release from prison, he couldn't help but laugh.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Every Encounter is a Reunion After a Long Separation—Even If You Don't Want to See Me