From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

'Felix Felicis… If I work hard this holiday, I might actually be able to get it sorted out.'

William set his sights on the highest level—further advancement would involve attempting to improve complex potion formulas and develop new potions, which would truly rely solely on experience and luck. As for talent, well, a potion master without talent could never even dream of touching the threshold of Felix Felicis, let alone anything beyond that.

"Forget it, I'll ignore Adams," William thought, though he had raised his goals in his mind. He didn't want to talk to Adams right now. "Spring break is coming soon anyway, I'll go visit Hagrid. Hopefully, he's recovered..."

-

Hagrid?

William knocked on the door, took two steps back, and a moment later Hagrid opened it. "Oh, William, you're here! That's wonderful..."

'Still not better, he's like a child...'

Faced with Hagrid's reaction, William was utterly speechless. A whole month had passed, and Hagrid was still grieving over the basilisk—though the giant tried to hide it, his attempts at concealment were utterly disastrous…

'Hagrid and Adams, one thinks potions are only different in terms of whether you can brew Felix Felicis, and the other falls in love with huge and ferocious magical creatures... My friends are a bit too strange.'

"Percy, what are you doing here?"

William was very surprised to see Percy.

“I’m here to help, Professor.” Percy stood up. “Professor Kettleburn asked me to help. Professor Hagrid is taking over as professor of Conservation of Magical Creatures next year.”

“That’s great, Hagrid.”

William sincerely congratulated him, saying, "Although the job of a hunting ground guard can't be done without absolute trust, in terms of the school's staffing, professors are definitely more important, and hunting ground guards don't even have the right to deduct points."

“It’s not confirmed yet, William,” Hagrid replied sheepishly. “But Professor Kettleburn said he would recommend me. Percy is here to help me reconstruct the skeletal model of that basilisk.”

At this point, Hagrid's expression fell even more—it was clear he was still in great pain.

“Aragok said it wanted a toy. It’s such a fluffy little cutie, I couldn’t refuse it—” Hagrid sobbed, then carefully assembled the snake bones.

'Who is Aragog? And what about it? Could it be another monster?'

William really couldn't be sure, after all, Hagrid's side really did raise everything...

“I got the bone from Professor Kettleburn. I was going to ask you for the skull, but Professor Singed said he had it and sent it to me…” Hagrid sobbed, then pieced together another piece.

This was so strange that William didn't know what to say for a moment.

Fortunately, Percy successfully picked up on the topic, "Um, Professor Hagrid, how about I put it together?"

“Thank you, Percy,” Hagrid sniffed hard. “I’ll go get something to eat.”

William almost couldn't resist saying goodbye—what a joke, judging from Hagrid's appearance, he seemed capable of taking care of himself, so he'd better leave.

But just then, Hagrid's house was knocked on again.

"Hagrid, Hagrid."

Harry's voice came through the phone, "We've come to find you."

"Oh, Harry!"

Hagrid trotted to open the door, Harry greeted him with a smile, and then came in—and then, he started trembling.

The attack from the basilisk was so light that it was almost imperceptible, but when William raised his wand and fell, he was missing a leg when he woke up again—the excruciating pain that lasted until he was in the hospital, the sense of imbalance, and even the memory of his leg growing back completely made him remember the professor in front of him.

"Hello, Professor."

"Hello, Harry, you're recovering well," William replied with a smile.

That smile made Harry start to feel scared again, but William had already turned his attention to the other two.

"How are your memories—I've never really studied memories, is there still no way to figure it out?"

“Yes,” Ron nodded, “I estimate this year’s exams…”

He sighed, clearly having given up hope for his exam results—Lohart had erased a significant portion of his memory in order to complete his plan, and now Ron had essentially missed half a semester.

Chapter 222 Daily Life and Everyday Life

If Ron were her student, she could start a holiday tutoring program right now—unfortunately, Professor McGonagall wouldn't give him that authority.

William thought to himself as he listened to Ron's complaints.

He had an exceptionally comfortable time during this period. There were no roosters, no locked rooms, and he designed courses based on his own ideas, then applied them in the classroom, received student feedback, and revised his teaching accordingly.

Enriching students with knowledge is far more interesting than dealing with a serpent monster hiding underground.

“Memory magic is indeed difficult to break,” William responded kindly, “but there are ways to make up for it in the course, it’s just a bit tough…it requires a lot of practice to compensate.”

“That’s why I hate Lockhart,” Ron said, making no attempt to hide his disgust for Lockhart. “He even said such hurtful things to Hermione!”

Although he was curious to know what the so-called "excessive words" were, William chose to avoid the topic—it probably wasn't anything nice.

'But it's unbelievable that these three unlucky kids would actually go see Lockhart…'

"The rock-skin cake is here!"

Hagrid appeared carrying a large plate of rock cakes, instantly making William lose all interest in continuing the conversation.

Using an excuse, William packed up a few rock-skin cakes and took them away, leaving the four men and Hagrid with long faces.

-

After Professor William left, the trio immediately became lively, and Hagrid's room became as bustling as a study session after the homeroom teacher had left.

"Hagrid, what does Professor William want with you?"

“A normal visit between friends, or maybe just drinking and chatting,” Hagrid said with a smile, scratching his head. He was in a much better mood now and no longer bothered by the basilisk bones that Percy had pieced together.

"drink wine?"

Harry was slightly surprised. "Professor William, he drinks alcohol too?"

He simply couldn't reconcile the professor he was chatting with with Hagrid with the professor who had recently casually given him a special magical treatment—it was as unbelievable as Snape telling a joke in Potions class.

The lounge was filled with complaints about that professor, and every now and then you could hear students collapsing under their exam papers shouting discouraging words.

There have been several versions of jokes about the professor's use of parchment in his office...

This stern professor, drinking and chatting with Hagrid?

"Of course, how could he not drink? When we first met, Professor William rented a small room at the Leaky Cauldron. He came down for drinks often, and his jokes were always original. He even bragged much more freely than others..."

Hagrid laughed and revealed part of William's secret, but he quickly stopped himself, "Harry, why are you asking this? William isn't your professor, is he?"

"I'm just curious about what kind of person Professor William was back then."

“It’s not a good habit to pry into a professor’s past, Harry,” Hagrid said seriously. “But you must be asking because you’re grateful for what happened in the Chamber of Secrets, right?”

“Speaking of which, I haven’t properly thanked William for this yet…” Hagrid muttered as he rummaged through his things, only to notice Percy intently piecing together the basilisk skeleton.

Percy was still diligently piecing together the bones, completely unaware of the three newcomers.

"Percy, you did a fantastic job!"

Hagrid praised Percy loudly, "The old professor was right, you are the best student in the entire school's Magical Creatures Conservation class."

Such praise brought Percy back to his senses, his ears turning red. He stared humbly at his snake bone model, which was mostly finished.

"Professor, you flatter me... This basilisk is enormous..."

"Harry, this is the one you encountered in the Chamber of Secrets!!!"

Ron exclaimed in surprise from the side—he had only just seen Percy himself.

“Yes,” Harry felt the pain in his leg again. He stared at the snake head that hadn’t been attached yet, looking at the sharp fangs—it was those fangs that had lightly grazed him and caused him to temporarily lose his leg.

'The same magic,' Harry thought, looking at the severed head of the snake, which resembled his own severed leg, and felt a chill run down his spine.

"Hermione, do you know that spell that cuts off a snake's head?"

"This is…"

Hermione paused, realizing she seemed to have seen it before, yet also felt she hadn't—the loss of memory was far greater for her than for others, forcing her to scrap the carefully prepared reading list and start all over again…

"This is a commonly used cutting spell, used to process some of the harder potion ingredients."

Percy added that this made Hermione, who was already angry, even angrier.

Although she knew it was wrong to take her anger out on Percy, she was still angry.

'I shouldn't have trusted those people this morning; they said Lockhart's knowledge is amazing!'

She sulked.

"Harry, how did Professor William kill this basilisk?" Ron was seeing the real thing for the first time. Harry's description of it sounded like a story, but today he wanted to hear it again.

“Two spells,” Percy’s eyes lit up, and he took over the explanation—he had been forbidden from telling anyone about it during this time, but today he finally met a group of people who knew about it, and he couldn’t hold back any longer.

"Just two spells!"

Percy raised his voice, "An eye-cursing spell ruined the basilisk's eyes, a sound magic of Professor William's own mutated form terrified the basilisk so much that it went limp, and then it was easy to cut off its head!"

“Just like that, this one—” Percy pointed to the specimen he had pieced together, “just this big, this long, look, a thing that’s over twenty feet long, just collapsed into a puddle of mud!”

"You don't know!" Percy exclaimed excitedly. "You don't know Ron? He's so handsome, so incredibly handsome! I think Dumbledore looked just like him when he was young!"

He imitated William's voice, "What's so scary about a basilisk whose secrets have been thoroughly investigated? I spent half the day researching just to find the vital point and kill it in one blow, Percy!"

"Percy, remember, the most terrifying thing is a wizard. Always be prepared, don't let the other side figure you out, otherwise a sneak attack can take down most wizards!"

……

“Yes, that’s it, that’s it!” Percy’s face turned a little red.

-

"Is that really true, Harry?"

After the conversation ended and they left Hagrid's hut, Ron asked Harry, the other party involved, a question out of curiosity.

"It seems so, but it also seems so..."

Percy's statement was so certain that Harry wasn't sure—but that's probably what he meant.

But Harry always felt that Percy had changed some unimportant parts or said something that wasn't originally there.

"She's just like Hermione..."

Ron grumbled incoherently, "But at least we know it really happened..."

He was met with angry stares—neither of his friends gave him a friendly look…