From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

William stared at the two identical men, not particularly angry—it would be strange if the two inexplicably sold the secret passage they possessed, and it would be normal to add some magic to it.

"You could say that, Professor. It seems to have its own thoughts, which is why we sold it to you..."

'Luckily, I have a habit of wearing dragon-skin gloves when picking up anything unfamiliar... otherwise, I would have been tricked by these two little rascals sooner or later...'

William looked at the two arrogant fools with a hint of lingering fear. "How did you find out?!"

“Filch’s office…it doesn’t belong to Filch; it was confiscated a long time ago!”

Seeing William's sudden change in expression, the twins hesitated for a moment before revealing where the thing came from—they had already had their memories stolen once by something with consciousness, otherwise they wouldn't have given the blueprints to William so easily.

'hiss…'

William gasped and quickly stepped back—a sentient parchment, I think they mentioned that during the investigation!

When did you take it?

“We got it a long time ago, and we went to the school according to the instructions on the parchment…” The two of them could tell something was wrong from William’s behavior, and they spoke haltingly, “…we went on an adventure in some messy place at the school, and finally gained…its approval, and then its secret was revealed.”

'...'

William stared at the two of them, thinking it was quite remarkable that they had grown up so much—wandering around the castle under the instructions of an unknown parchment, and then even exploring its secrets.

If he were the maker of this thing, he could have sold those two kids at least seven times!

Perhaps William's judgment of idiocy was too clear, because the two quickly began to protest their innocence.

“We took precautions and secretly left information about where we were going. And it’s really amazing, Professor, you’ll see.” At this point, they didn’t care about testing or not.

Fred almost ran up to him, took out his wand, and, without William noticing, tapped the parchment with his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I did not do anything good!"

The words were shouted quickly and urgently, causing William's free hand to immediately reach for the potion—as long as the person didn't die on the spot, he could save them.

But this time he miscalculated—the moment Fred's wand struck, fine, spiderweb-like lines of ink appeared from where the wand had just touched the parchment. These lines merged and intersected, extending to every corner of the parchment.

"Professor, look!"

Fred seemed to try to grab the parchment with his hands, but William used magic to bind him to a chair.

But this did not affect the changes in the parchment at all—writing began to appear at the top of the parchment, in large, curved green characters.

'The suppliers of magical prankster aids—Mr. Moonface, Mr. Wormtail, Mr. Bigfoot, and Mr. Fork—proudly present the Marauder's Map.'

William studied the words as Fred cast the Bubble Head Charm the moment he raised his wand.

'Slightly deformed—and, a prank accessory?'

Is it a scam or does it actually exist?

It's hard to say for sure. There are quite a few students at Hogwarts who like to do all sorts of random research, and some of them are bound to become outstanding.

But William soon stopped caring about that.

This guy, who called himself the Marauder's Map, quickly showed all the details of Hogwarts Castle and its various locations.

But what happened next was terrifying—everywhere in the castle were ink dots of all kinds, with all kinds of names written next to them.

William quickly found his office, which was easily displayed with everyone in it listed.

'...'

Magic never seen before, magic even more incomprehensible than the Room of Requirement—if there's something wrong with this parchment, who knows how big of a problem it would be.

"You two, say it again, where did you find it?"

"Inside Filch's office."

Oh no—this thing, it wasn't made by the Dark Lord, was it?

The Dark Lord used this to pinpoint the location of his target within the castle, and then launch a full-scale attack.

The administrator at the time confiscated it, and then it was left behind?

'That doesn't make sense. Given the Dark Lord's petty nature, wouldn't he have cast a curse?'

With this in mind, William examined the parchment from a distance—Dumbledore's office was drawn, and Dumbledore was actually in his office!

'Even the headmaster was monitoring...they must have used the castle's own power...'

It looks more like something left behind by the Dark Lord—could this be something from a secret chamber?

'Those two Weasleys... they really are...' William gritted his teeth and began searching the secret passages within the castle.

'This matches up perfectly; even the activation incantation is there!'

'This matches up too!'

'The secret room doesn't exist...that's understandable...'

'Why isn't the Room of Requirement there?'

'No, it's not the Dark Lord's...'

William quickly deduced the clues and then noted down each secret passage on the map.

'Don't give it to Dumbledore!'

He finally made this decision—there were already enough paintings in the castle, and although they were dangerous items and he couldn't tell what kind of magic they were imbued with, this thing absolutely could not be allowed to be examined by Dumbledore.

'call…'

William took a deep breath and looked at the two quails who looked terrified. He finally made up his mind.

"I will lock this dangerous map with magic and investigate it. The magic on it is good, but it's not suitable, not suitable at all." As he spoke, he took out a box and added various protective spells to it.

"A map that can monitor everyone's movements... its temptation is too great, I must put it away..."

"Unless something happens inside the castle that absolutely requires its use... No, absolutely not!"

He threw the box heavily to the bottom of his cabinet and then locked it with his most powerful magic.

“Phew, I’ll send your Galon over as soon as possible,” William said, leaning back in his chair as if he had just gone through a battle. He waved to the twins and said, “I’m tired. That’s enough for today.”

Chapter 227 Every gain has its loss

After seeing the Ravenclaw crown, William had a better understanding of high-end magical items.

But compared to the map we just saw, Ravenclaw's crown paled in comparison.

'Perhaps it's because I never actually wore that crown?'

William leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh, but such an excuse couldn't fool him—the map was far more tempting to him than the crown.

To use an imperfect analogy, some people like white stockings, some like cat ears, some like shrine maiden outfits... and some even like giant mushrooms.

There's nothing to criticize about this; everyone has their own ambitions, which is perfectly normal.

Compared to the crown, the map suited his taste better—between unexperienced intelligence and visible surveillance, William would definitely choose the latter.

There's no way around it; it's a legacy of Azkaban. If it were any Dementors that could come in through the window to feed, they would choose a map that allows them to monitor the outside world.

But that's not right.

The twins, being minors, didn't understand. They didn't even realize how terrifying this map, which they saw as merely a map marking secret passages, truly was. Marking secret passages was nothing compared to the real-time location information of everyone inside the castle—that was the most terrifying aspect of this so-called Marauder's Map.

'Even Dumbledore couldn't escape the surveillance...'

William gasped – only a child would think of this thing as just something fun.

'Even if it falls into the hands of a wizard like me, I can easily infiltrate Hogwarts and come and go as if it were my own backyard.'

This map can even pinpoint the times when Hogwarts' security is weakest, indirectly revealing Dumbledore's whereabouts...

'My God… what kind of monster have those two kids created?!'

William killed the Basilisk with his own hands not long ago—but if the Basilisk and the map had been in the hands of the bewitched Lockhart at the time, Lockhart could have killed at least a third of the students right under Dumbledore's nose!

'This is outrageous…'

This speculation almost made William take out the map and hand it over to Dumbledore, but he ultimately held back.

The surveillance on that map was outrageous; everyone living in the castle was being watched by it every moment. When William looked at it, he felt like he was staring at the walls of Azkaban.

Only in prison are people watched so closely—those tiny dots that represent people are cold and devoid of any emotion, revealing without any concealment where a person is and who they are with.

Dumbledore may be trustworthy, but not every headmaster is. During this time, while William was sending materials to Professor Binns for compiling the school's history, he also brushed up on his knowledge of the past headmasters of Hogwarts and was very clear about how unreliable some of the school's headmasters were.

If this system of monitoring all students is passed down from generation to generation, then Hogwarts might as well just partner with Azkaban to run a joint school.

William, do not do to others what you would not have them do to you!

He reiterated to himself that since he didn't want to be filmed 24/7, there was no reason to use that power to monitor others.

'If you use that power to freely spy on others, you're not far from becoming a dark wizard!'

Using this conclusion to dissuade himself, William added several more protective spells to the drawer, spells that even he himself found extremely difficult to break.

'I wish I were still a student, so innocent—'

But that's obviously impossible. Simple twins wouldn't know how to use this thing to satisfy their needs other than finding secret passages. A wizard who can imagine other uses for it is definitely not simple.

'It was Azkaban after all!'

Having shifted the blame to the prison, William decided to go out for a walk—having entered a treasure trove only to return empty-handed, he wasn't in the mood for anything else today.

Let it remain a collectible that will never be used!

-

"Fred, did you rob Gringotts?"

In the Gryffindor common room, Ron looked at his older brother with envy—the things on Fred and George's desks together were worth at least thirty Galleons.

Those were items from Zonko's Joke Shop, a favorite among Hogwarts students. They were all best-selling items. Although Ron hadn't been allowed to go there yet, he had seen others showing them off, and there was one item he had long admired.

“We do not acknowledge having such a shameful younger brother.”

George fiddled with a box of burp gum while giving Ron a disgusted look.

"Huh?" Fred looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Don't we only have one sister, Ginny?"

“Oh, right, I forgot, bro.” George nodded in agreement, then tossed Harry a bag of candy. “Try this, Harry.”

"What about mine?" Ron waited expectantly for a long time, but nothing came of it.