From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Alright, alright, you should get some rest too. The full moon just ended yesterday."

Sirius looked at Lupin, smiled and nodded, "Go and rest, don't overthink it."

Lupin was both amused and exasperated by his friend's concern, but he was indeed very tired. After a quick check-up, he left the ward and returned to his office—the students' papers were still piled up there. Although he wasn't keen on using them, he couldn't very well trouble Professor William with grading them all, could he?

But shortly after he left, Sirius, looking quite energetic, got out of bed, tiptoed out of his room, and headed toward Harry's bed.

The fact that they were both hospitalized reminded him of funny things that had happened in the past, and he couldn't wait to share them with Harry.

-

"If only the Time-Turner could be used by adult wizards..."

William yawned, a rare occurrence for him, and began to perfect the painting he was working on.

Even though he was no longer afraid of Dementors, the rainy weather still dampened his spirits—why was there so much autumn rain in the Hogwarts area?

'Potions need improvement... physical training needs to be maintained... exams need to be prepared... dark magic needs to be researched... and there's also medical research and the improvement of teaching aids...'

He was somewhat grateful for Lupin's appearance at this moment—it was practically impossible for one person to teach seven grades well, and even with Lupin's help, he still felt overwhelmed.

'Why can't magic create a substitute? My club simply doesn't have the time to perfect it!'

After completing the last spell and confirming that the painting could move on its own, William sighed.

As his understanding of self-defense techniques deepened, the time required for curriculum design also increased.

While it's possible to teach in the same way as before, that would be too perfunctory.

Two professors are still too few; the university needs more excellent professors… but this course is cursed…

He scratched his head and decided to put in extra effort during the full moon to ensure that Lupin wouldn't be expelled from Hogwarts because of his werewolf transformation.

"Dong dong..."

There was a short knock on the door.

"Please come in!"

William shouted, then habitually hid in a blind spot where he couldn't be seen immediately.

He was a lower-year student in Gryffindor—Professor McGonagall called him to her office.

'Strange, what is it now?'

He walked toward Professor McGonagall's office with a puzzled look on his face.

-

"Alright, Harry, pull yourself together!"

Ron whispered to Harry—although the house team had used the money left over from last time to buy him a Nimbus 2000, Harry's mood was clearly not very high.

Although Harry tried his best to appear happy when his teammates came to comfort him, Ron could tell from his expression that he was unhappy.

“No, Ron, I’m fine.”

"Stop pretending, Harry...it's different, I know."

Ron looked at Harry. "My teddy bear, after being turned into a spider, it was turned back—it looks the same, but I know it's not the same, not at all."

“I understand you, man,” Ron said, looking Harry intently into his eyes. “I know that feeling; it’s extremely uncomfortable…”

"Um…"

Harry answered in a low voice—comfort from Sirius, comfort from Ron and Hermione, comfort from his teammates, and even a brand new Nimbus 2000.

But he was still very upset. Although the new broom was just as good as the old one, it just wasn't the same.

'Perhaps I should talk to the professor… maybe intense training will…'

This idea came to mind, but Harry quickly dismissed it; he had no interest in training at the moment.

-

"Hmm... this pronunciation is..."

In his office, William stared at his book with a speechless expression—life always likes to play tricks on people, just like when Professor McGonagall added another burden to his workload during his busiest time.

'It's a ghost...'

He couldn't help but recall that conversation, which took place in Professor McGonagall's office, when the professor made a mysterious announcement to him.

"Professor William, although it's not ideal to take up your vacation time, the school still needs you to go on a business trip."

That's right, business trips—even in a magical world, business trips still happen.

Yes, that's what he thought, and that's what he asked at the time.

"The university will organize a small delegation to visit Germany during the Christmas holidays to discuss a series of preparations for the Triwizard Tournament."

"A three-way battle for supremacy?"

“That’s right…” Professor McGonagall nodded, “The Triwizard Tournament, which has been suspended for many years, is expected to be held again.”

"The Ministry of Magic planned this scheme a long time ago and reached a series of agreements with the school."

Professor McGonagall looked at William and explained in the most ingenious way.

Chapter 322 The College Relies on External Schools for Unity

While Harry and his friends were frantically fighting over a fire bolt, William was in the procession heading to Durmstrang.

There's no other way. The school's teaching load is quite heavy outside of holidays, and large-scale projects like the Three Kingdoms Tournament require a lot of communication. Without taking advantage of the long holiday, there's simply no way to resolve this.

Although it sounds like Dumbledore and the headmaster on the other side could solve the problem by meeting, things don't really work that way.

Although he had learned about the Three Kingdoms Tournament beforehand, William was mainly looking for potential loopholes at the time. When it came time to actually take charge of the negotiations, there was a lot of information for him to review.

First, there's the issue of the venue—just like the Olympics, when it's a big event, who wouldn't want to get some exposure?

Moreover, as an international event, funding can be obtained directly from the relevant departments of the Ministry of Magic, and the relevant officials will absolutely cooperate fully without any assistance.

But the shady dealings involved... well...

The venue is set, but the timing also needs to be right.

There are also the participants—the organizers are alright, but the other two schools can't possibly bring all the eligible children, so they can only select the best ones in advance and send them over hoping to win the championship.

Okay, the candidate has arrived. It's impossible to skip classes for half a year, right?

Even if the organizers allow contestants to audit the classes, there are still a series of headaches, such as language issues, textbook issues, and course progress issues.

This issue needs to be negotiated again.

Also, what about the participants' living expenses—food can be provided by the organizers, but what about the rest?

Another problem...

In short, there were too many things to coordinate in this large-scale competition, and even with Professor McGonagall providing reference tables, William was still overwhelmed.

'And look at those languages ​​again…'

When it was time to rest in the evening, William stayed in the room provided by the Ministry of Magic and took out his textbooks again.

'Going through the border legally is more troublesome than smuggling...'

As he set up some simple protective spells, he complained – if it were smuggling, the goods would have already reached Germany, but their official mission didn't even leave Britain the next day!

"William, let's play cards!"

Adams knocked on the door and called out from the doorway.

The negotiation team consisted of six professors besides Professor McGonagall, and Adams also signed up.

"Okay, right away."

William threw down his textbook, habitually dodged to confirm who it was, and then left the room.

This was his first time going on official business as a professor. Although he had heard a lot about it, it wouldn't hurt to chat with the other professors and learn more about the matter—he couldn't very well embarrass himself in front of Durmstrang's professors.

-

"The Triwizard Tournament hasn't been held for over a hundred years... The Ministry of Magic really knows how to spend money."

At the poker table, William barely spoke, listening to the other professors talk the whole time.

"It even clashes with Quidditch, and we can't even mobilize enough people." Another professor shook his head. "If it weren't for the protective spells on every inch of Hogwarts, just preparing the venue would be exhausting enough."

"Isn't it?"

Adams continued, "Besides, communicating with Durmstrang isn't a good thing... They're so secretive that they even deceive their own students, and they still haven't released their address."

"Not announced?"

"Yes, the official statement is that the address is kept confidential."

Adams replied to William, "That's what the documents say too, but after going there a few times, you'll know that they use some kind of ritual to create an effect similar to a forgetting spell, so that you forget the location of the castle after leaving there—as if doing this can deceive everyone."

"Isn't it?"

Another professor chimed in, "Dumbledore may be unwilling, but could their magic possibly deceive him?"

"Exactly... they openly teach dark magic. When Grindelwald was arrested, Durmstrang should have been tried along with him. If you ask me, with their education system, they're bound to produce another dark wizard sooner or later."

"What's the point of teaching dark magic? The headmaster still has to send Hogwarts graduates, right? Although Karkaroff isn't exactly a saint either."

Upon hearing this, all the professors present burst into laughter.

Everyone here is a graduate of Hogwarts, from various years—Karkaroff's personal abilities are actually quite good, otherwise he wouldn't have become the headmaster of Durmstrang, but once his name appears on the records, there's no way to cover up his embarrassing past.

Some people have been watching you since you were in first grade, and some came in just before you graduated and saw you. What kind of gossip can fool you?

As two of the three major magic schools in Europe, how could there be no conflict after nearly a thousand years?

Speaking of Karkarov naturally brought laughter from the entire audience.

'My goodness... is the discrimination between schools this intense?'

William didn't graduate from Hogwarts, so he naturally never encountered a situation where a pure-blood used Durmstrang to show off during his school years—especially given that Hogwarts' self-defense courses haven't been very good in recent years, with many pure-bloods boasting that they originally wanted to go to Durmstrang to study dark magic…

Chapter 323 Another Prisoner

Europe has three major magic schools: Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons.