From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

The professors exchanged glances, and after most of them lowered their heads, Professor Corey decisively agreed on behalf of the Hogwarts professors.

“That’s great. I think the kids who stay at school will be very happy—to experience a completely different teaching style at Christmas. I think they will definitely benefit a lot.”

...

Looking at Professor Baker's serious face, William even wondered if he was still too sleepy to wake up properly.

"I think my Christmas exam was a bit much... You dragged a bunch of kids who stayed on campus during the Christmas season out to face a bunch of professors, and you think they learned a lot... I should say, no wonder it's a school that teaches 'dark magic'!"

"Please wait a moment in this classroom, professors. I'll go and call the rest of the professors and the children over. I think this will be quite an interesting exchange."

Professor Baker was beaming with joy. He led William and the others to a classroom with a huge fireplace and then jogged away.

"Everyone, prepare your questions. Make them a little difficult, so our friends can prepare well."

After Professor Baker left, Professor Corey promptly spoke up and stirred up trouble.

"From what I understand, Durmstrang isn't exactly a friendly place—I bet you guys, if it were too much to ask a professor to drink Polyjuice Potion in exchange for a student coming over for an exchange, they definitely wouldn't be stingy with the potion."

“In other words,” William looked at Professor Corey, “you think they’ll send their best students here to pretend to be ordinary students?”

"Who knows? We were notified of our arrival before Christmas. It wouldn't be too late to arrange boarding for top students then."

Another professor added with a smile.

"After all, this three-way competition is likely to have an age limit, and those top students from the lower grades won't be brought along anyway, so they might as well show us their teaching quality this time."

As long-time adversaries who have clashed for centuries, the professors began to peel back Durmstrang's layers of disguise, one after another.

We're both foxes that's hundreds of years old, why are you trying to play these ghost stories with me?

'What's the difference between this and those who sell counterfeit goods... They put the good ones on top and then use all sorts of methods to evade subsequent inspections...'

However, it's not entirely wrong—if a professor from another school came to investigate, he would definitely pull out those top students, Percy, Hermione, Nancy… Students like the Weasley brothers and Selma would definitely not be selected for the exchange team.

"The question should be a little off-topic, but don't make it too difficult—test it a bit first, don't embarrass them too much..." Professor Corey shared his experience, "But as far as I know, that's unlikely."

"By the way, be careful of traps when answering the children's questions."

He suddenly seemed to remember something and added, "God knows whose problem that is."

"Alright, everyone, get ready. We can't let Durmstrang get the upper hand here."

'How could that be…'

William couldn't help but touch his pocket—he didn't know how good the children's English was, so he decided to test them first. If their English was good, he wouldn't even need to translate these questions himself.

Let's have a more challenging test in Chapter 325!

Christmas is the most important holiday in wizarding society; if a comparison must be made, it is similar to the Lunar New Year.

But this is something William has never quite understood—however, looking at the history of magic, the church's attempts to persecute wizards have always existed, yet wizards still enjoy Christmas very much…

He hasn't been able to find anyone to consult about this matter, and can only keep it as an unsolved mystery in his heart.

But today, he seems to know a rather far-fetched answer—the celebration of Christmas is entirely due to the influence of generations of Muggle-born wizards who have entered wizarding society.

Otherwise, he really couldn't explain why the professors here would behave in a way even worse than he did during the Christmas exam. At least he wasn't very familiar with Christmas, which led to this blunder, but the professors at Durmstrang were treating Christmas like any other holiday...

'The fact that they don't accept Muggle-born wizards here makes the concept of Christmas weaker, so professors and students care less about it…'

Just as William was making his calculations, Professor Baker arrived with children of all ages.

"Sorry to keep you waiting—" He said with a slight apology on his face, "After all, it's the holidays, and the students are having a more relaxed time, so it's a bit difficult to wake them up."

“That’s how students are, it’s a holiday,” Professor Corey replied cheerfully, his face showing no trace of the plans he had just made to give the children a memorable experience.

“But we can’t be too lenient,” Professor Baker replied in a somewhat unserious tone, then turned to the students. “You should line up by year so that the Hogwarts professors can easily distinguish between them—this is the professors’ vacation time, so don’t waste this valuable opportunity. Exchange student matters aren’t something we discuss every year.”

'It sounds like everyone should be on their guard, or else they'll be in trouble...'

It's no wonder William had such a strange connection. Before coming here, he had seen some information provided by the school—after Karkaroff became the principal, many parents took their children away from Durmstrang because there were more rules to follow at the school.

Of course, this is still a somewhat conservative view. In fact, according to the descriptions in those materials, during Karkaroff's tenure, the school rules were so strict that William had a sense of déjà vu with Azkaban.

Now, judging from the fact that those students meticulously carried out the requirements, it is clear that those claims are true.

“Very good, excellent,” Professor Baker smiled at the students, then turned to Professor Corey. “Just do a quick check on their knowledge. To be honest, I’m actually quite worried about these kids; they’re sometimes far too arrogant…”

'Only two or three people per grade... Are you sure you're not just sending the top three students over for inspection?'

William was highly suspicious, and then tried to communicate with his colleagues by making eye contact, but to no avail.

In the end, Professor Corey took the lead. He pulled over two seventh-grade students who were about to graduate and they began to discuss the contents of the spell.

The other professors followed suit, sitting at the table and chatting with the students about their subjects—the professors had learned some German, and the students seemed to know some English as well, though not very well, but enough to communicate.

'They say they weren't carefully selected students... While English is a common language, this is just too much...'

William muttered to himself as he sat down in front of the two fifth-graders.

How is your English level?

-

Doris was a little nervous—the competition at Durmstrang was too fierce. Although she was barely maintaining her second-place level, she knew the gap between herself and the freakish first-place student, and she was also aware of how closely the students behind her were catching up.

After she enrolled, the principal became Karkarov. And the various horrific school rules he enacted suffocated everyone in the school.

Entertainment was largely canceled, and all school clubs had to submit written reports on the previous week’s activities on the first day of each week. Dark magic, war magic, and dueling—the three strongest courses at Durmstrang—were compulsory, with two long class periods each week, taking up almost half of the class time (Note).

In addition to their heavy academic workload, they also have to deal with the favoritism that every professor has—a problem that started with the principal. Favored students can get more censored book approvals, experimental materials, private tutoring from professors, and help from club connections.

Compared to other forms of magic, black magic, being an extremely dangerous spell, requires even more guidance. A mistake in an experiment can be fatal. For someone like her, whose bloodline is barely recognized and has no ancient or noble origins, having just reached the entrance threshold, losing her status as a top student would mean she could forget about making any further progress in black magic. Durmstrang's tuition is not cheap, and her family could not provide any more help.

'If successful, each person will receive seven hours of private tutoring—students who perform exceptionally well in the questions will receive even more, including but not limited to experimental materials, new magic, cash rewards…'

This was what Professor Baker solemnly said when they arrived—although he didn't mention what would happen if the arrangements were exposed, none of the students present intended to try it.

Even for seventh-year students, with most of the magical world hostile to dark magic, schools are undoubtedly the best place to acquire knowledge of dark magic.

'Keep trying, this professor is quite young... After answering my questions briefly, I might try asking about some less common areas... If it's within his area of ​​expertise, maybe I can...'

Although such an idea was a bit too extravagant, she still wanted to give it a try—compared to those older professors who already had a wealth of experience, young professors were never as knowledgeable.

They're probably all envious of me.

She didn't even need to look up to know what the students around her were thinking—of all the professors who came, this young-looking one was undoubtedly the one most likely to receive an excellent evaluation from Professor Baker, and until just now she was thanking Lady Luck for her favor.

How is your English level?

She heard the young professor say that.

Of course, she's exceptionally good—her mother is a British wizard, not to mention the intensive English training the school gave her recently.

I should actually pretend, but if my English isn't good, how can I test this professor with questions? If I don't use English, the professor can claim he didn't quite understand the question, and then I have to translate it, which would take too much time to think about.

"Well, due to family reasons, I can basically consider English my second mother tongue."

At the same time, she heard the student next to her, who had consistently ranked first since entering school, answer in fluent English, "I am fluent in seven languages."

"That's great. It seems there won't be any problems with today's exchange."

She saw the professor across from her breathe a sigh of relief.

Is your German language proficiency average?

'Thankfully... I had prepared myself mentally beforehand.'

She felt relieved and then began to plan what questions to ask later—but that would require relatively fluent answers.

But that…

???

Before Doris could even think of a question, the overly young professor opposite her had already happily pulled two exam papers and a matching quill pen from his pocket.

"This one is relatively simple. Let's take twenty minutes to answer it briefly."

The professor spoke in German, and although his pronunciation was a bit off, the meaning was still understandable.

Before she could even complain, the test paper and the quill pen landed in front of her.

'Am I too focused on experiments lately, or...?'

She looked around curiously and finally realized it wasn't her problem—everyone at the other tables was having a good chat, but their table had exam papers.

Before she could even question it, Doris saw the perennial number one next to her pick up her paper and hurriedly started working on it. She didn't want to take too long to finish.

'It's alright, not too difficult.'

She examined the questions and even felt they were too easy—almost all of them were true or false questions, which could be completed quickly with a little effort.

The professor introduced himself as a professor of self-defense, but judging from the topic, it leaned towards a mix of dueling, war magic, and dark magic. Hogwarts has combined three courses into one?

'Why would such a simple question take twenty minutes?'

Doris thought for a moment, then quickly wrote down her answers with a quill pen. In less than fifteen minutes, she had finished the entire paper. Just as she proudly raised her head, she discovered that the person next to her had already finished, and the young professor was reviewing the answers.

'really…'

She wasn't surprised at all, and then handed over her own test paper.

"The timing is perfect. That answer sheet with all the correct answers can truly be considered a perfect one."

The young professor responded, then took her paper and continued reviewing it.

'All correct... I knew it! But I'm confident!'

That set of questions was simply too numerous and lacked depth. How difficult could it be if three courses were combined into one?

Less than two minutes later, the professor opposite her put down his paper with a happy smile on his face—"Another perfect answer! It seems you've learned this very well."

"Of course, we're a jack-of-all-trades... a jack-of-all-trades, master of none, and that's just how it is."

However, this also has its advantages; the questions can be more challenging—although getting a perfect score was great, it was also…

"Hmm, I've made a preliminary assessment, so let's move on to something even more challenging!"

The young professor didn't even give them a chance to object, simply pulling a new exam paper out of his pocket.

Doris wanted to say something, but the person next to her had already started answering, so she had no choice but to reply as well.

'That's alright—I can use this time to make the questions even more difficult, and I'm sure this Hogwarts professor will definitely…'

'Wait, why is it possible to ask a question like that? What's the definition here again?'