From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Diagon Alley is a great place. Although the street looks old, it is definitely the most prestigious street in the wizarding world.

Every day, this place welcomes countless guests: village witches, reclusive wizards who never leave their homes, expelled Hogwarts students, and visiting wizards from other countries—all sorts of people bring endless wealth to this street, but also countless troubles.

For example, right now.

"There's a fight!"

The crowd began to converge in the direction from which the shouts came, and William was no exception—fights were common in Azkaban, but this was the first time he had ever seen people fighting in the street since arriving in the magical world.

Following the footsteps of a tall, thin wizard in blue robes, William rounded a corner and saw a crowd gradually gathering.

It was just before three in the afternoon, the hottest time of day on the street. Shopkeepers, who usually had few customers, abandoned their business to come out and watch the commotion. Perhaps because neither side was using magic wands, there was no one trying to break up the fight. People were just staring wide-eyed at the two sides who were about to start fighting.

William, being slightly taller, managed to get a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Both men, who were grabbing each other by the collar and exchanging threats, were dressed in wizard robes. The white-haired wizard being grabbed was spreading his hands, trying to explain something, while the shorter one had a fierce look on his face, and his long beard drew circles in the air as he continued to hurl insults, making him look incredibly comical.

Beside the two men, a magazine-like book lay open on the ground. The bearded man cursed as he occasionally pointed at the book, as if something in the magazine had offended him.

Because William arrived a little late, and the crowd around him kept interrupting him, William could only catch a glimpse of what the bearded man was saying.

It took him a while to roughly figure out what had happened—it seemed that the bearded man's affair had been exposed by that magazine, and today he happened to see the magazine's editor-in-chief in the crowd. In a fit of anger, he simply grabbed the man and questioned him.

Then there's nothing more to say—it's quite common for the editor-in-chief of a magazine that relies on hearsay to get beaten up.

After figuring out why the fight broke out, William decided to leave—he had important business to attend to, and a slight delay was understandable, but wasting too much time watching a fight would be completely unfair to himself.

Thinking of this, William glanced at the two opposing sides once more, then stopped at the bearded man's face.

That beard looks crooked?

William stared at the man, and after confirming that his beard was indeed crooked, he quickly imagined what the man would look like without his beard—this kind of disguised person was most likely a wanted criminal. One hundred gallons per head, money delivered to him, why not take it!

"This face looks familiar."

William quickly identified the other person's voice, and in less than half a minute, the voice matched the one in his mind.

It's that liar kid!

When Galon was released from prison, he wiped out everyone in the cell, and even William suffered heavy losses!

Thinking of this, William quickly pulled out his wand and, before the onlookers could react, cast the spell at them.

"Petrify them all!"

The spell cut through the crowd and struck the arrogant conman directly.

He stiffened and reached for his wand almost instantly, but before his hand could touch it, the full-body binding charm, far more powerful than he had imagined, took full effect.

After swaying a few times, the bearded man collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The wizards watching nearby drew their wands almost immediately and pointed them in the direction from which the spell was cast.

"Relax, everyone, I ran into an old acquaintance."

William smiled and spread his hands, indicating that he had no intention of continuing the attack, then took a few steps into the path that had been revealed in the crowd.

After quickly drawing the other person's wand, William smiled and stared at the conman's face.

The other person's eyes darted around rapidly, then a look of despair appeared on their face—clearly, they recognized William.

"Haha, you recognize me, old friend."

William greeted him jokingly, then reached out and began to pluck the other man's beard.

To avoid being exposed, the beard that wasn't magically glued on was quickly ripped off by William, and the onlookers also put away their wands—if they could recognize him even with a beard, this was probably a serious grudge.

"The curse is instantly lifted."

William easily removed the wand from the neck area and, while letting the other person talk, began searching the conman's clothes.

Before long, he found his spoils—a large bag of Galleons.

I tossed them up, held them in my hand, and weighed them; there were probably seventy or eighty of them.

This guy didn't spend it all at once?

"Hey, long time no see, old friend. I can forgive you for leaving without saying goodbye last time, but you've grown a beard so quickly?"

"Hey, William, long time no see. You look more mature with this beard, that's why more people trust you when you do things."

The conman forced a smile—neither of them wanted to expose Azkaban's activities in public.

Money can be earned back, but with the Azkaban scandal exposed, who knows how long it will be before we can make money again?

"Looks like you've made quite a bit of money lately, bro."

"Of course, I don't have enough money on me today, so consider this my treat for drinks. I have things to do, so let's not joke around like this. I'll treat you to a proper drink next time I have more time."

The swindler inwardly cursed his bad luck—William was the person he feared least among all the prisoners, but today the other party had come to ambush him without any manners, so he could only obediently accept it.

Although he is currently mainly engaged in shady business, if the fact that he stole money from a fellow inmate is exposed, those who worked with him will collectively boycott him.

"Thanks a lot, brother."

William chuckled as he put away the money pouch, then stuck his wand in the most difficult spot for the other person to reach before lifting the spell with the wand.

He's settled his accounts; whether or not to settle accounts with the other prisoners is none of his business.

The scammer didn't dare to make a move. He quickly packed his things and scurried away down the street.

As the excitement died down, the crowd gradually dispersed, and William seized the opportunity to blend into the crowd, preparing to head towards his target.

He hadn't walked far when he realized he was being watched—by the man who had just been grabbed.

"I'm sorry, I've made a fool of myself. I'm Xenophilius Lovegood, the editor-in-chief of The Dissenting Voices. Thank you for helping me out of that situation."

"Hey, it's no big deal. That guy just owes me some money and has been hiding from me. I just happened to run into him this time, so I'll settle the score."

William waved his hand politely—he didn't really want to deal with entertainment magazine editors, but he certainly couldn't afford to offend them. In his situation, if they tried to dig into his background, who knew what kind of trouble it would cause.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: What a coincidence!

Although William could openly tell old Tom about his trip to Azkaban, it didn't mean that everyone was indifferent to it.

William was starting to regret using Azkaban to scare the knight bus driver—but he had indeed been a bit too excited after his release from prison.

Therefore, William really didn't want to touch this magazine editor.

However, that's not what they thought.

The system sent two notifications at once.

[You have gained the approval of a magical creature and received a treasure chest x1]

[You have gained a deeper recognition from a magical creature, and have received a treasure chest x1]

If William is not mistaken, it is highly likely that this person gave him two favor boxes in one go.

Fortunately, although the other party was very grateful, they understood and took their leave after William said that they had urgent business to attend to.

On his way to Madam Malkin's robe shop, William casually opened the trunk.

[Xenophilius the Decipherer (SR); Ancient secrets are buried in fairy tales, and only the most detached from the mundane can see the truth within the story.]

Skill: Destroy this card. Over the next 24 hours, you have a high probability of uncovering buried historical truths from the myths and stories you read. The activation probability is related to your knowledge level.

[Xenofilius (SR), the truthful reporter; When the world is indulging in lies, there will always be someone who stands up to expose it all, and that is a noble act.]

Skill is real; tear up this card to destroy all concealment magic and traps in front of you. The area of ​​effect is related to your magic power.

Xenophilius the Betrayer (R): It is understandable that a father would lose his composure after his daughter's accident, but it is still something that cannot be easily forgiven.

Skill: Persuasion: Tear up this card. For the next hour, your attempts to persuade will likely fail, immediately triggering a disturbance. The probability of triggering this disturbance is related to your willingness to persuade.

After much deliberation, William reluctantly gave up the first card, which offered the highest theoretical benefit, and chose the absolutely successful True Reporter.

Finding treasure seems tempting, and the more books you read, the more you might benefit, but given his current situation, he simply can't wait until that knowledge can be monetized.

The second treasure chest was a bit less impressive – the order in which the chests were opened was roughly the reverse of the order in which the treasures were obtained.

They repeated the "traitor" card and issued the same meal voucher as before.

[Meal voucher; you can use it to offset the cost of using a card once]

The third card is also an editorial card related to Xenophilius's profession.

Editor-in-Chief Xenophilius (R): A famous editor-in-chief who always wants to create a big news story.

Skill News: Tearing up this card will give you enough inspiration to refine the details of a story you create. The more realistic the story, the more detailed the story will be.

After decisively choosing the meal voucher, William had a general understanding of this Mr. Xenophilius.

Although this journalist may later come forward to report a major news story, it doesn't affect his current job of fabricating fake news for his magazine.

William was pretty sure that thing was probably no better than those tabloid novels that you could buy at a street stall that claimed to be revealing secrets—it was probably made up for everything except the names and locations.

However, the cards were quite helpful – both the restaurant voucher and the True Reporter card were a significant aid to William.

Although he didn't know why the other party was suddenly so grateful to him, William was too lazy to think about it anymore.

At least it's out of gratitude. If he resented it, he would be careful to retaliate. How could gratitude possibly cause him any big trouble?

But when he arrived at Mrs. Malkin's shop, he discovered he was completely wrong.

When he stepped into the shop, he spotted a rather familiar face inside—the two had said goodbye less than fifteen minutes earlier.

A forced smile appeared on William's face.

He even wanted to turn around and leave immediately.

But the shopkeeper in the purple robe clearly had no intention of letting him go. As William entered, the lady showed a kind and friendly smile.

"Is this customer here to order clothes? We have plenty of ready-made robes, or you can certainly wait and order a new one if you'd like."

This statement destroyed the excuse William had just come up with in an instant.

He had just come up with an excuse that I had already ordered the clothes and was in a hurry.

If he spoke faster, the boss would most likely cover for him—there are no unsympathetic bosses on this street.

But now, it's all too late.

The two customers who were originally standing inside the shop turned around as Mrs. Malkin spoke.

The tall, thin wizard with white hair was none other than Mr. Xenophilius, who had just bid farewell to William.