From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Adams swallowed hard. "A letter from Professor Marchban to you?"

“Yes,” William said, sitting in his chair. “She mentioned to me last time that something bad was going to happen, but I didn’t expect it to be today.”

He shook his head. "Although Professor Machiban's access to information is beyond what most people can imagine, the fact that she knows about it probably means that the news of my time in Azkaban has likely spread among the public."

“You should be able to imagine, Adams, no matter what happens,” William spread his hands, “that no parent would be happy to have their child educated by someone from Azkaban. No parent would accept that.”

"Can…"

"Calm down, Adams. Even though I've only worked here for a year, I still love this castle."

“But even if I ask the principal and the others to let me stay, in the eyes of those who don’t know the situation, this place will still be equated with Azkaban, which won’t do. I don’t like that,” William advised him. “Besides, it’s not like we can’t continue to cooperate.”

"What's possible?"

Adams pressed for details, but just then there was a knock on William's office door.

"Please come in."

William called out towards the door, which was pushed open, and a head of red hair came into view. It was Percy, who was holding a pale, blond boy tightly in his hand. He didn't seem to trust Percy, the prefect, and even after being brought to the professor's office, he still tried to struggle.

But it was all for naught. Physically, Percy could take on ten of him; magically, Percy could add another ten...

"What's wrong, Percy?" William asked curiously. "Is this child doing magic in the hallway and not listening to be disciplined?"

“No,” Percy’s nose was a little red, “he’s slandering you! He’s saying you were imprisoned in Azkaban!”

"I didn't! He's a scumbag who graduated from Azkaban!"

The blond boy struggled, his tone quite rude, just like a spoiled brat—the kind that would take at least two sets of "53" practice books to correct.

“Come in and put me in solitary confinement tonight until the end of the semester, son,” William said gently. “If you say anything more inappropriate, you’ll have to clean the toilet.”

"My dad is a school board member!"

The child's arrogance was immediately dampened by half.

“I could expel you before I get expelled from school, son,” William said, his tone softening. “That would bring shame on the family. You look like you’re only in your second year. You wouldn’t try to have an honor duel with the Magical Self-Defense Professor, would you?”

He fell silent.

William nodded in satisfaction. "Alright, go back now. Don't send anyone to my office again. Remember to come in for solitary confinement tonight. If you're late, I really will make you clean the toilets."

The captured children disappeared without a trace.

"You're just going to let him go like this, Professor?"

Percy was still a little angry. "He slandered you!"

“I punished him for that ‘scumbag’ comment, but,” William shook his head, “Azkaban was right. I spent some time there because of smuggling.”

"you…"

Percy looked utterly astonished, his pupils dilating to their maximum. "Azkaban?"

“Don’t be so surprised, Percy,” William didn’t know how to explain for a moment, so he could only make a long story short. “People always try to challenge themselves beyond their capabilities. I took on an order for a batch of potions and messed it up. The raw materials were in the Far East, and there wasn’t even a black market for them at that time. In order to repay the potions, I had to go to the Far East myself to get those prohibited raw materials.”

……

Whether this explanation was effective or not, only God knows. In any case, Percy left looking like he was questioning the meaning of life.

“You see, even my students can’t accept it,” William shrugged. “Not to mention the parents.”

"Ugh…"

Adams sighed, but not knowing what to say, he could only stuff the whole chocolate frog into his mouth.

"Boom boom boom!"

The door was knocked on rhythmically again.

"Please come in."

"Professor William!" Two identical red hairs appeared at the office door, and then the twins came in. "Have you heard? Malfoy tried to spread rumors!"

But before William could react, there was another knock on the door, this time from a group of fifth-grade students.

"Professor, those Slytherin brats are spreading rumors and attacking you!"

The students were furious. "We've already sent someone to arrest that guy who spread the rumor, and he'll be brought to your office right away!"

The fifth-grade students had just finished their big exams. Like a tightly compressed spring suddenly released, they had a lot of energy to release. When they heard that someone was causing trouble, they happily came to join in the fun—after all, they didn't have any more exams, so they had plenty of time!

Just as they said, the kid who spread the rumors was quickly brought over by the older fifth-year students—Slytherin's own people came to arrest him.

And so, the blond boy was brought to William's office once again.

Harry and his friends also came along to watch Malfoy's antics—they were tired from studying and, seeing Malfoy being overwhelmed by a group of fifth-year students, decided to come and see for themselves.

William was momentarily speechless; these students were just too adorable.

He originally wanted to find a special opportunity to explain, but with so many people here, he decided to just say it now—no matter what arrangements the school made, they couldn't possibly hide the most basic facts from the students.

“Well, this student told part of the truth,” William gestured for the student to calm down. “I did stay in Azkaban, but I didn’t do anything immoral. I destroyed a batch of medicines and was caught smuggling them to get those embargoed ingredients.”

“There are quite a few people who know about this,” William said, looking at his students. “And I will also be resigning after the end of the semester, and you will have a new professor next year.”

"Ah—Professor…" Many students hesitated in surprise, but a few calmed down a bit and asked, "Professor, what are you going to do?"

“I will go to work for the Wizarding Examinations Authority,” William said frankly—Professor Marchban made it clear in his letter that the Authority didn’t care about Azkaban’s affairs at all, and would even vouch for his character.

To be precise, the old lady greatly admired this behavior of fulfilling the promise of the medicine even if it meant smuggling it…

"Huh? The Examination Authority? Isn't that where the OWLs exam questions are created?"

"More or less..." William couldn't quite explain for a moment, "But there's also some other business. I'll be in charge of things related to the monthly exams... but I'm not entirely sure yet, I only mentioned it briefly during our last conversation..."

The official endorsement is quite convincing—a large portion of the students have returned to normal and are no longer dwelling on Azkaban.

"Monthly exam?"

The twins suddenly asked, "Professor, what is a monthly exam?"

Chapter 237 William is Waiting

"A monthly exam obviously means taking a test once a month. It sounds simple and easy to understand, right?"

Even as the twins stumbled out of William's office, the words Professor William had uttered with a smile still lingered in their minds.

Not only them, but the other fifth-grade students who ran over also looked as if they had been attacked by a curse.

The busy year of OWLs is over, and now it's time to enjoy the best time at Hogwarts before summer vacation, but why has things turned out like this?

What happened to the promise of rigorous training in fifth grade and relaxed, fun practical classes in sixth grade?

How did a guy named Monthly Exam suddenly appear?

This was far more terrifying than the professor coming from Azkaban—as students who had spent an entire OWls year, they knew all too well how daunting Professor William was when setting exams; the first real exam, which failed everyone, was still fresh in everyone's memory.

"Hey, do you guys think the professor might tell jokes...?"

This problem suddenly emerged among students who were still questioning the meaning of life.

“What a joke…how could that be?” came a groan from the Ravenclaw children. “Let’s do a simple calculation. Professor William used to give one classwork test and two or three homework tests a week, and he also had to prepare lessons for three grades. Even so, our tests were still quite…”

The child paused, then finally found the right word: "Quite high quality..."

"But now, there are only seven monthly exam papers for seven grades. The workload has been reduced by a lot. Do you think this is a joke?"

The special algorithm from Ravenclaw made all the students sigh in unison.

“No, you’re wrong,” another student retorted with a helpless and sorrowful tone, as if they’d gone to the cafeteria late and there was no food left. “Have you forgotten that open-book Christmas exam that was all over the place? Not just one course, but all of them…”

"Merlin's socks..."

The entire sky seemed to have lost its light, but then the voice of another Ravenclaw student rang out.

"It's not just about the test papers... more importantly, the monthly exam should be considered a formal exam, and the report card will most likely be sent home..."

"more than!"

When another person tried to refute this again, the surrounding students were already furious and shouted angrily.

"you shut up!"

"Oh...but Professor William's monthly exam might be difficult..."

Everyone fell silent...

I just finished my OWL exams, and it's the perfect season for dating at Hogwarts, so why did things turn out this way?

"Taking the exam once a month is going to kill people."

The twins suddenly stopped and blocked the fifth-grade students with serious expressions. "I don't plan to receive more than ten shouting letters a year, and you probably don't want that either."

“We’ve seen the application form. Everyone knows that Professor William has kept his word all year. Do you think we can stop him from going to the Examination Authority?”

The Gryffindors were the first to respond. Although they were a year older, the twins' pranks were so sophisticated that even the Gryffindors, who were a year ahead, had to respect them.

“We can stop him. As long as Professor William is still at Hogwarts, he can’t go to the Examinations Authority.”

"how is this possible?"

"Why not?" The twins had slowly recovered from the shock of the monthly exam, and Fred started his lively mode again. "You two go to the professor's office a few times and say you can't bear to part with him. We'll find some more people to help us save him. Surely we can keep Professor William here?"

"This is a time to fight for the benefit of all Hogwarts students. It requires every student to unite. If we fail, we will face not only the monthly exams—but also two more major exams with increased difficulty. Just imagine what it would be like if Professor William were involved in the questions for those exams!"

Fred's voice suddenly became more impassioned during his speech.

"Isn't it precisely because of the Azkaban issue that parents and students might object?"

He waved his hand decisively, "Then let's completely suppress the impact of this matter, so that the school doesn't feel any opposition at all!"

"How is this possible?"

The fifth-grade students raised objections.

"Why not?"

George stepped forward and said, "It would be good if the parents realized how terrible it would be for Hogwarts to lose Professor William!"

"I guess you guys did pretty well on the OWLs exam regarding magical self-defense, which is a good reason to say that."

"But what excuse is there for not having the results yet?"

“The results that haven’t come out don’t count, but we have plenty of results that have.” George laughed. “Remember Professor William’s first exam? Everyone failed—I think some parents know about that.”