From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Inside the Requirement room, Hermione carefully adjusted the potion's state, striving to bring it to its optimal condition—the biggest drawback of privately modified potions compared to the standard version is the lack of sufficient examples to ensure they can be stably maintained in one state.

"You're back?"

The door opened, and she turned around to ask, "What's wrong? Did you find anything unusual?"

The person who opened the door was correct, but the expression on their face was off.

That's definitely not the end—

Before Hermione could even process what was happening, a spell had already struck her.

“Caught on the spot,” William said coldly as he entered. Looking at Hermione, who was immobilized by the petrification charm, he waved his wand again, and the potion rolling in the cauldron immediately flew out and came to him.

“Without a doubt, it’s the love potion. Although there are some alterations, it’s definitely it.” William waved his wand to stop the fire, sealed the cauldron with magic, and controlled the petrified Hermione and the cauldron to float in the air.

"You two come too."

Having successfully dismantled the potion-making operation, William felt a bit better and his tone softened. "Let's go to Professor McGonagall's office—consider your report a success, I won't pursue the matter of your attempt to use love potions."

"Yes, Professor!"

The twins quickly responded—Harry and Ron weren't around, and the punishment for using love potion on girls and boys was vastly different. It was already a miracle that they managed to save those two. Hermione, as the initiator, should have been prepared for this.

Just like their struggle against Filch, they didn't rely entirely on themselves. There were always students from their own college or even other colleges secretly passing on information. But when they were caught, the twins always honestly took all the blame.

Fearing that Hermione might not understand the rules, the two tried their best to wink and make suggestive gestures to the petrified Hermione, letting her know that she should take responsibility for this matter and not involve the others who hadn't been caught yet.

-

"sky!"

When William led the three of them to Professor McGonagall's office, the usually serious professor exclaimed in surprise, completely losing her usual composure.

"Wasn't the basilisk controlled?"

Professor McGonagall stood up. "Why are students still being petrified!"

“It wasn’t black magic,” William quickly explained. “She was brewing a love potion, and I don’t know what the Weasley brothers were planning. I found out something was wrong in the library, and then the Weasley brothers redeemed themselves by reporting Miss Granger, who was brewing the potion.”

"Aphrodisiac?" Professor McGonagall was taken aback. "Granger is only a second-year student..."

“The pot is still there,” William shook his head. “Honestly, her potion-making talent is truly enviable. Many Hogwarts graduates might not be able to master potions to that extent.”

“Well, that’s a problem,” Professor McGonagall said, looking at Hermione floating in mid-air. “Leave her to me. I’ll have a good talk with her and give her a proper punishment.”

“But you two!” Professor McGonagall turned to the twins. “You’re fourth graders! You’ve been in school all this time, and you dared to buy love potions!!!”

"Professor!" the twins exclaimed, looking completely wronged. "We don't know her! She just said it was a new perfume!"

Professor McGonagall didn't believe this lie. She looked at the two of them. "Perfume?"

"Yes, look, even the container is sprayed! And we don't do well in Potions class, so how would we recognize this as a love potion if the professor hadn't pointed it out!"

The two looked completely innocent, but this time they managed to convince Professor McGonagall.

Aphrodisiacs are something that lower-year students shouldn't have access to, and Professor McGonagall knew quite well about the academic performance of the twins from her own college—she estimated that the two of them wouldn't even be able to get eight certificates in the OWL exams combined.

Even with the standard version of the aphrodisiac, the two of them might not be able to tell the difference, let alone this variant…

"Alright, Professor William, you handle these two," Professor McGonagall said, pushing the two men to William—judging from William's expression, he probably wouldn't deal with them seriously anyway, so she might as well let him handle it.

-

Is it safe here?

"What could be unsafe in a public rest area!"

Fred spoke in a low voice to Hermione across from him.

"If you think you're safe and are brewing a potion, and the professor suddenly walks in and casts a petrification spell on you, you won't feel that way anymore."

Hermione's tone was full of resentment. She simply couldn't accept that she had been carrying out her plan perfectly well when her teammates and their men captured her.

"You have no idea how terrifying the professor was back then!" The two glared at Hermione. "If we hadn't brought him to you, that might have been the last time we saw him!"

"Do you know what the professor made us do?" George's eyes still held a hint of confusion. "A list of expelled students, from which we selected cases of expulsion for using aphrodisiacs, and then copied them down by hand."

"Each person, each person has twenty copies, and they must be written in the most beautiful handwriting!"

"Those copied down will be preserved for future students to read. The professor said he will prepare the best magical materials to preserve them!"

"If we copy someone's words, the professor will smile and remind us that we're just a hair's breadth away from being expelled!"

George gestured with his hand, his thumb and forefinger touching very, very close together. "That's how he showed us!"

Harry and Ron, standing nearby, felt a chill run down their spines—if they were to get involved, they would likely be punished as well.

The two described the scene so tragically that Hermione, who had been given a half-day of psychological education by Professor McGonagall, suddenly lost her temper.

Compared to Professor McGonagall's patient and earnest teachings, that place was simply hell!

"How did you two do? What did you learn?"

She gave up on arguing with the twins and asked Harry and the others.

"There were some suspected candidates, but when we went back to get the medicine, we found that no one was there anymore."

“Then let’s continue tomorrow. We need to keep investigating,” Hermione said seriously. “I still have some medicine. It’s up to you guys now. If we get caught…”

Hermione sighed. "Just say it was a gift from me..."

-

Lockhart, be careful!

In his office, Lockhart tried to convince himself of this.

The current situation is extremely unusual, even more difficult than the most challenging situations he has encountered before, making him feel like he is walking on thin ice while also feeling slightly excited.

'William is meeting with Professor McGonagall again, but this time it doesn't seem like he's there for me.'

'But are second-grade witches this proactive these days? Starting to brew love potions? When I was in school, witches didn't even remember that potion until fourth grade or older.'

'I need to be careful. If I accidentally get drugged by a student, embarrassing myself would be a minor issue; if my plan is exposed, then I'll be doomed.'

He picked up his pretty quill pen, which he used for signing his name, and began to write quickly on the parchment.

First of all, drinking water on campus is no longer allowed. If other students get reminded, it would be really bad.

Secondly, Valentine's Day is approaching.

As Lockhart wrote this, he immediately understood why—"I knew it!"

"So Valentine's Day is coming soon. No wonder even the second-grade witch has started researching love potions!"

"No, I completely forgot."

"This is not something I would normally do!"

"I was too eager to perfect the plan. I've practically become a different person lately, and people will immediately notice that I've changed!"

“Lockhart, don’t rush. Just like before, to ensure the book is free of plot holes, even if it only takes a few days to finish the story, we still need to stay well hidden overseas!”

"I need to prepare Valentine's Day surprises for those students, just like I always do, so no one will suspect that I've been prepared to be attacked all along!"

"Add the warmth of Valentine's Day, wow, that's another big selling point."

"Professor Lockhart was still arranging Valentine's Day activities before he was ambushed by the students, and even left behind signed books as gifts. He even managed to sell quite a few old books!"

Lockhart laughed.

It was incredibly rewarding to see such a plan gradually take shape in his hands; a series of exquisite plans made for a truly perfect story.

'It's a pity you won't see it.'

He tapped his desk—the book from Dumbledore lay there.

-

'Even the students are struggling to recall their memories, William, you might not be able to relax too much.'

To mitigate their own guilt, the twins were particularly eager to sell—it was their group's habit to have the troublemakers take the blame, not to mention that if they took the blame for this, they would definitely be expelled.

'Because the amnesiac thing is forming an alliance, something that Miss Granger would actually do.'

'The memories are gone, but the murderer can be found.' William glanced at the things the twins had copied, then put them aside to make room for himself.

"A master of memory magic, an interesting idea. If I hadn't searched Professor Snape's office, I would definitely have suspected him..."

'But this is a good starting point. Let me think, what can we use to make use of it? I feel like I've heard some kind of trick about this in Azkaban…'

Chapter 209 The Final Rehearsal Before the Big Show

"Generally speaking, people who undergo Occupational surgery are not respectable individuals."

"Even among Hogwarts graduates, very few get to access this kind of magic; it's not on the exams."

"why?"

"You don't understand, do you? If someone can withstand Veritaserum and knows Occlumency, they're a born criminal. Even the Ministry of Magic can't find anything out of them."

'Not this memory.'

William carefully recalled his memories of Azkaban—the slightest carelessness would bring to mind the Dementors, which were not things worth remembering.

"Anyway, we don't have any Occlumency masters here. Dementors hate people who are skilled in Occlumency the most. Although they will still be affected, the Dementors won't be able to eat anything..."

'It's not this one either.'

Every person skilled in Occlumency has a secret they can't tell anyone, so they are always calmer than others, whether they are happy, sad or any other emotion... Most importantly, they will immediately focus their attention once they sense that someone is trying to mess with their memories.

But that's too complicated. I'm telling you, just stare at them. Most memory-absorbing spells require eye contact, so if someone suddenly averts their gaze when you make eye contact, they're most likely a master of Occlumency!

This is it!

But what's the use?

He couldn't very well jump over to another professor's side like a madman and watch them—if anyone tried to play that game with William, he would definitely teach them what it meant to quickly draw their staff and cast spells.

'So it's just Azkaban bragging; it's not feasible at all…'

'etc!'

William suddenly came up with a good idea, but it was a bit too wicked.

"No, I need to repackage it, otherwise my reputation will be severely damaged."