From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"It's the middle of the night, the library's closed..." William thought to himself, "It'd be easy to get caught if I went to borrow it tomorrow..."

I flipped through my collection of books—magic books, magic books…Diagon Alley special issue…magic books.

'I've come to school, and I haven't even read many of those biographies…' He was surprised to find that his library was almost empty—copying special issues could easily lead to a duel…

William, shaking his head, finally caught a glimpse of something useful out of the corner of his eye—a decorative hardcover book, a gift from Professor Lockhart, which would look like a good addition to his inventory.

'A bestseller? That's not impossible...'

"Professor Lockhart is a popular author, after all. Although I only skimmed through it and didn't read the rest because I was busy with research, travelogues, like the 007 movies, should all contain some romantic elements."

"So what if the person who anonymously confessed is a die-hard fan of Professor Lockhart, a ten-year-old fan who showed up uninvited... Anyway, everyone knows Professor Lockhart has a lot of fans!"

-

"Damn it, I was so focused on that plan that I forgot to prepare the greeting cards properly..."

"Just mix in some of my early writing attempts from back then, since they're student greeting cards to student... just say some of them were secretly sent from fan mail!"

Lockhart also wrote furiously.

"We can start the activities tomorrow!"

Chapter Twenty-One: The Grand Show Begins

“The school doesn’t even give us a separate holiday for Valentine’s Day,” Percy muttered to his girlfriend. “I’m going to change that law someday, Penelope!”

Although the school didn't give them a holiday, the two of them still got up early on Friday when they didn't have classes, just to have some time alone together.

"Yes, you're right, Percy."

She smiled at the boy beside her, offering no further response.

One spoke earnestly, the other listened attentively, but as they talked, their voices grew softer and softer, and they drew closer and closer...

"Percy?"

The door was pushed open, and a little girl with bright red hair appeared in the doorway.

"Ginny, were you following me?"

"Are you threatening me?" Ginny glanced at her brother, looking surprised. She never imagined that her brother would dare to speak to her like that in this situation.

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell Fred and the others?"

"That's the same thing you threatened me with last time!" Percy snapped. "But that's not evidence that you're spying on other people's privacy!"

"Last time?" Ginny sensed something was wrong. "What do you mean, 'last time'! You kept this a secret when you talked about the castle!"

This time it was Percy's turn to panic. He deliberately kept this a secret, but if Ginny tattled on him, he was doomed—he didn't even care about his sister regaining her memories!

“You promised yourself you wouldn’t tell anyone, Ginny!”

Percy tried to brush it off, saying, "I told you to keep your promise."

“Tsk tsk, keeping your promise,” a voice suddenly came from the rooftop. “Professor! I’m reporting Percy! He’s having an affair with a Ravenclaw prefect!”

Peeves appeared, shouting in Ginny's voice.

"Mischievous Ghost, when did you get here!"

Percy shouted angrily at Peeves floating on the ceiling.

"Well, if we're talking about something far back, it's Professor! I'm reporting Percy! He's having an affair with a Ravenclaw prefect!" it yelled again. "And if we're talking about something more recent, yes, I dreamt about you yesterday?"

Peeves switched to Percy's tone and imitated him.

Percy angrily tried to banish it with his wand, but unfortunately, Peeves was unusually agile today—even the headmaster would have a headache dealing with this Hogwarts companion elf when it was in good form.

"Oh, I'm reporting Percy! He's dating a Ravenclaw prefect!"

The mischievous ghost danced and sang in mid-air, laughing as it floated.

“What the hell…” Percy said with a sullen face—now half of Hogwarts knows.

If we also consider his beloved younger brother, whom he desperately wanted to send to solitary confinement, then the rest of Hogwarts would also know.

"Wait!" Percy abandoned the fleeing Peeves and turned to his sister, "Ginny, you stop right there!"

But it was no use—Ginny ran incredibly fast.

"She actually told the professor!" Percy suddenly felt the sky darken a few degrees.

"Alright, it's nothing, Percy. The professors already know, don't they?"

Percy paused for a moment—judging from Peeves' words, it seemed the professors did indeed know.

But it seems like nothing happened?

-

"Little devil knows, Little devil knows!"

Ginny ran quickly to the lounge and found her accomplices—although her brothers were reluctant to let her join, she managed to sneak in by claiming to be a victim herself.

Of course, she still had some suspicions that her three brothers were playing hard to get—otherwise, it was really hard to explain why they wanted to talk about such a private matter in the lounge…

"What does Pipi know..."

The five people who were woken up heard the news of Percy's relationship in the lounge, and their sleepiness vanished instantly.

“Peeves definitely knows something! He likes to sneak up on people when he senses something is wrong, and then decide how to deal with them based on what they do.” The twins affirmed Ginny’s judgment; at Hogwarts, almost no one knew Peeves better than the two of them.

If it's something secretive, Peeves will shout it out; if it's something bad, Peeves will keep it a secret; if it's something trivial and boring, Peeves will give up on it—this is Peeves's code of conduct in most cases, but the possibility of it suddenly going crazy and playing a prank cannot be ruled out.

“Let’s go find him,” the twins cheerfully accepted the task. “We can’t have too many people, or we’ll provoke him. We’ll get the information we need, and you two should hurry up and process that information too; we can’t let the aphrodisiac go to waste.”

-

'Oh My God…'

As William prepared to have breakfast and begin making plans, he was startled as soon as he entered the restaurant.

'This is too macho,' he thought, looking around at the decorations and wondering if he had entered Hogwarts School of Design for boys.

The four walls were covered with large, dazzling pink flowers, not to mention pink ribbons and balloons, giving the impression that Hogwarts was about to be renamed Zaun—as everyone knows, the pinker the keyboard, the harsher the insults, and with this kind of decoration, Azkaban's vulgarities are not worthy of it.

'A light blue ceiling, heart-shaped confetti...'

What a pity, it's too dazzling, it overshadows everything else, who can suppress it—William rejected the thought halfway through it.

He lost. Professor Lockhart, dressed in a delicate pink wizard's robe, played up his aura to perfection, making William sigh that he truly deserved to be a magazine model.

"Good morning, Professor William!" Lockhart greeted William with a smile even brighter than usual. "Happy Valentine's Day! I'll let you in on a little secret: you'll have a surprise for you today!"

Adams, who was next to William, was about to say something, but Lockhart interrupted him.

“I’m kind of looking forward to it,” William replied with a smile, before asking Adams in a low voice what had happened.

“It’s too late, William…” Adams whispered, “Professor McGonagall doesn’t like the decorations today…”

'You jerk, why didn't you say so sooner!'

William rolled his eyes discreetly. Professor Snape, who was diagonally opposite him, looked peculiar, as if someone had just forced him to drink a large glass of strong liquor. Professor McGonagall, who was further away, was even more terrifying—a muscle on her cheek bulged out.

'I almost forgot, the guy with the pink aesthetic said there's more to come...'

William had originally intended to crack a joke to make things easier later, but now he simply shut up—Lockhart should take the blame, and he wasn't about to court disaster.

But Professor Lockhart, as is widely acknowledged as someone who is slow to get started with anything except adventure, got up after a short while while he was trying to liven up the atmosphere.

"Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!" Lockhart exclaimed. "So far, forty-six people have sent me cards, and I want to thank them all! Yes, I took the liberty of arranging this little surprise for everyone, and that's not all!"

'Damn it, we've fallen for their trick. He's investigating too?'

William gasped – was this the power of a great adventurer?

Chapters 212: The Grand Show is Underway

"Where did Professor Lockhart find these little dwarfs...?"

At the faculty dinner table, William began to question his existence—he had even managed to invite the Ghost Singers, but why did it feel like the ones Professor Lockhart had invited were even less like creatures that should exist in the mortal world?

This wasn't just his personal prejudice, but a consensus among everyone—twelve dwarfs with golden wings and harps on their backs, their faces grim; if Professor Lockhart hadn't said they were there to offer blessings, William would have been more inclined to believe they were there for assassination…

“My friendly little Cupids with greeting cards!” Lockhart introduced his messengers with a beaming smile. “They’re going to be wandering around the school today, delivering Valentine’s Day cards to you!”

"If it weren't for the unusual date, I'd believe you even if you said you were sending a death warrant!"

William looked at the dwarves who seemed to have been owed wages, and his guilt vanished instantly—sending greeting cards in someone else's name was really dishonest, but compared to Professor Lockhart, his bottom line immediately improved.

-

"Fred, can we persuade Peeves?"

"It depends. Besides, Pipi Ghost likes to lie, so the information he gives may not be true."

George exchanged glances with his brother as they walked, "But we have to try. A new breakthrough is a good thing. I'm also very curious about what Ginny did that day."

"Let's hurry up, we have class this morning, we need to deal with Mischief before class, and then we can eat something."

-

"These are the names we've collected over the past few days. I'm afraid we won't be able to continue this investigation method anymore. Today is Valentine's Day, and in fact, people in the castle have been secretly using love potions since yesterday."

During recess, the three of them took advantage of the chaos in the classroom to discuss intelligence matters in a corner.

“So next we need to screen the people we’ve identified—” Hermione gestured across the list, “There are definitely many who were excluded due to misunderstandings, so next…”

"Hermione," the classroom door was pushed open again, and a smiling girl ran in, interrupting the conversation.

"Oh no, I have a bad feeling..."

Hermione whispered, and her guess was quickly confirmed—"Professor McGonagall asked me to inform you that you will be in solitary confinement tonight."

The girl who came specifically to remind them was even happier than when she arrived, as if she had received some kind of letter.

Hermione whispered something in the direction the girl had left before turning to her two friends. "I was originally planning to follow the investigation, but it seems that won't work. While things are chaotic today, you two should secretly investigate the suspects' schedules and narrow down the list."

What does it matter?

“Yes,” Hermione nodded. “Anyone who has had close contact with Hufflepuff students this year can be removed from the list.”

"Won't we get beaten up?"