From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Just like before, the younger students immediately began to believe the prefect after seeing Peeves punished—now it should be the professor.

But it doesn't matter.

The target location was the faculty lounge, which he had never dared to dream of using as a classroom before, but now he estimated that it could be realized very well.

"Please come in," he said steadily, leading everyone to the place they had been curious about since their school days, and then they went straight inside.

"Ah, Professor Lupin, good afternoon."

At the far end of the lounge, Professor William, who was controlling a quill to write on parchment, spotted him and greeted him with a smile.

Near the door, Professor Snape lay in a low rocking chair, looking around. His eyes gleamed, and a mocking smile played on his lips.

'No wonder there were only two professors and they didn't seem to be interacting... It would be strange if they could even be interacting!'

This thought immediately came to Lupin's mind. On his first night at the school, he figured out just how much Snape had longed for his position all these years, but all those years had passed and he still hadn't succeeded.

'What's worse, Professor William did an excellent job...'

'If I hadn't done a good job, all those sarcastic remarks would have come out long ago, but now…'

Lupin would bet that Snape hates Professor William even more than he did last year.

With this pleasant thought in mind, he closed the lounge door after confirming that all the students had entered.

Snape opened his mouth as if to say something, and Lupin even thought he would stand up and deliver his usual sarcastic remark, but to his surprise, Snape remained seated.

Lupin glanced at Snape, then at Professor William beside him. Perhaps because his gaze was too obvious, Snape seemed to casually provoke a fight.

“Lupin, perhaps no one has warned you, but Neville Longbottom is in this class. I advise you not to ask him to do anything difficult unless Miss Granger whispers instructions in his ear.”

Such extremely unfriendly words were like pouring hot oil on the students, and everyone reacted to this declaration of war.

Neville blushed instantly, his ears practically bleeding, and the rest of the Gryffindor students also became unfriendly. Several students glared at Snape with extreme hostility.

But this had no effect; Snape was even more comfortable lying in the rocking chair.

But his face quickly turned ashen—when he wasn't looking, a student secretly took a hat out of his bag and put it on.

Then, as if they had suddenly remembered, several children who had hats in their schoolbags put them on.

Realizing what had happened, the students, after searching for the hat without success, immediately started using the parchment in their backpacks. They were already in third grade, and Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class had taught them many interesting things, such as—transforming parchment into hats.

In just a few minutes, all the Gryffindors were wearing hats.

At this moment, Lupin was still frowning and exchanging words with Snape in the rocking chair—or rather, seemingly exchanging sharp words of confrontation.

“I originally hoped Neville would be my assistant for the first phase of the operation,” he said. “I was sure he would do a good job.”

Lupin hadn't expected Snape to react to this almost direct remark—he might have been irritable when they were students, but now he'd been a professor for over a decade.

But he was wrong. Snape's face turned bright red, and he looked as if he wanted to draw his wand and duel him.

That serious, angry face made him doubt that Snape was exactly the same pure-blooded person he knew from his school days.

"Okay, let's take a good look at how wonderful this lesson is. Perhaps because of the timely rescue, fewer students will be hospitalized."

Chapter 284 The Cold and Damp...Azkaban?

William had not seen any of the other professors' lectures.

Hogwarts doesn't have the concept of open classes; each professor has ample freedom in their own classroom.

Although he had always been curious about what other professors taught, he had never actually attended a single class at Hogwarts.

Therefore, William, who had originally planned to leave the common room empty, decided to stay in the room after discovering that Professor Snape had no intention of leaving. Although he had been working there for a year, there were still some things he was not very clear about. Perhaps Hogwarts' rules did not prohibit this?

Thinking of this, William even temporarily stopped what he was doing—creating exam papers was a beneficial act for teaching, but referring to other professors' courses wasn't bad either.

Although he was a little worried that this might cause trouble for Lupin's first lesson, with Professor Snape there, the trouble definitely wouldn't be with him...

But now it seems he was overthinking things.

Lupin seemed completely unaffected; in fact, judging from the way he walked in the lounge, William felt that Lupin knew the way better than he did.

'The prefect...'

“Now, like this,” Lupin said, paying little attention to his colleagues who were watching, and pulled them directly to the old cabinet at the end of the break room.

The cabinet that was usually used to store robes or other odds and ends suddenly started shaking. It kept banging against the wall, making a series of loud thuds.

"Did he put the teaching aids in the cabinet?"

William was stunned for a moment, not understanding what Lupin was doing.

He didn't come to the lounge yesterday, and he had class this morning, so he hasn't been here for two days.

'I was careless... I thought there was a professor in the lounge, so I didn't check for traps or anything...'

He couldn't help but blame himself, and before he knew it, the wand was in his hand.

"Don't worry, there's a Boggart inside."

Lupin explained to all the students, and William thought for a moment and realized what it was—a useless fantasy creature, a natural master of shapeshifting.

Boggart's greatest skill is reading other people's fears and then becoming those fears himself.

These are magical creatures that live on fear. Although they don't have any real offensive power, they have a whole host of disgusting methods.

'Professor Lupin is really something!'

William couldn't help but praise him immediately, saying that as expected of a professor who insists on practical application, he has such a powerful tool hidden away.

He had been teaching at the school for a year and never thought he could use this to train students and improve their courage—to face their fears and overcome them. There was simply no better teaching tool than this!

'Is this the experience gained from traditional wizard training?'

William nodded, making sure to remember this trick—the ancients were right after all, "Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me."

'Why isn't that manual there... Oh right, their training is for advanced levels... They don't usually cover the basics like that...'

'Perhaps we can revise the subsequent lessons; I've thought of a variation that students would definitely like.'

William simply copied it down on another piece of parchment with a quill pen, then put it away before turning his attention back to Lupin—just that one piece of knowledge alone made the lesson worthwhile.

“Boggart likes dark, enclosed spaces,” Professor Lupin said, glancing at the somewhat frightened students. “Wardrobes, gaps under beds, cupboards under sinks—I once came across one hidden inside an old grandfather clock. This one was moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the principal if the teachers could leave it undisturbed so my third-year students could have some hands-on experience.”

Did they move in yesterday? No wonder I didn't notice.

The idea popped into William's head, and he began to plot how to capture enough Boggarts.

'How about we ask Hagrid to raise a batch? I think he can handle it… He's the most reliable person to ask about these magical creatures.'

While he was meticulously calculating the list of Boggart's books he would use in the future and their approximate usage, Lupin had already skillfully completed the standard exchange course of popular science, asking questions and then popularizing science again.

'She's definitely a top student from academia... Professor McGonagall wasn't exaggerating at all...'

Watching Lupin perfectly complete his interaction with the student, William couldn't help but glance at Professor Snape out of the corner of his eye while admiring him.

After reviewing the archives from that time, William was quite clear about how irreconcilable the two were.

If Lupin had performed poorly, been clumsy, or even messed everything up, Professor Snape might have just laughed it off after his initial mockery. But now, it's hard to say.

The scariest thing in life is when your enemy is doing better than you.

But when William glanced at Professor Snape out of the corner of his eye, he found that Professor Snape wasn't staring at Lupin menacingly, but rather staring at him with a fierce expression, almost without any attempt to hide it.

'No... what does this have to do with me?'

While he looked puzzled, Lupin had already finished asking the student questions and then answering them.

"The spell to repel the Boggart is simple, but it requires willpower. You know, what truly frightens the Boggart is laughter. All you have to do is force it into what you find laughable."

"Let's say this spell without using wands first. Say it after me... hilarious!"

"Hilarious! Hilarious!"

The students shouted in unison, their unified voices interrupting William's thoughts and Professor Snape's glare.

“Good, very good,” Professor Lupin exclaimed. “But I’m afraid that’s only the easy part. As you should know, just saying the incantation isn’t enough—that’s up to you, Neville.”

He called Neville's name, but his gaze went over the students' heads and looked directly at Snape at the very back.

'I knew it...'

William sighed and remained silent. He had only known the two of them for less than two years combined, so what right did he have to interfere in their decade-long feud?

Besides… although it might seem a bit petty, William felt that having Professor Lupin around was indeed a good thing in the face of Professor Snape's provocation…

“Alright, Neville,” Professor Lupin said, “first thing: tell me, what are you most afraid of in the world?”

William couldn't help but laugh inwardly—the answer was almost obvious.

No matter who you are, if you have a teacher who specifically targets you when you're in school, you can hate him to death.

But if this professor is so powerful that he can't be dealt with in a short time, hatred turns into fear.

If Professor Snape weren't there, perhaps the boy would have had the courage to speak up, but with Professor Snape watching from behind, he wouldn't have the courage to say it even if you killed him.

Under everyone's gaze, the boy named Neville blushed deeply, and it took him a long time to manage to utter a single word.

“Darkness, I’m afraid of places without light, Professor.”

"A place without light?"

"Yes, Professor!"

Neville, in a fit of desperation, exclaimed, "It's dark, damp, cold, and has a strange smell!"

'This place looks so familiar? You've been to Azkaban too?'

William couldn't help but think of that place—even though he had been away from that damned prison for over a year, it was still a lingering nightmare.

But before William could figure out why a schoolchild would think of Azkaban, Lupin continued to ask.

"Damp, cold, and dark? Okay, if such a place existed, what do you think would make it joyful?"

Neville thought about it seriously and realized that there was a lot of laughter and joy in that place, but it all belonged to other people.

'I'm sorry, Professor, I can't think of that…'

After thinking for a long time, he apologized to Lupin in despair.

"Think again? Perhaps there's a scenario you're familiar with that could make things better?"

Lupin guided Neville again, his tone completely unhurried.