From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Percy is the only one missing—but that big-headed guy has never known the fun of Quidditch."

George declared confidently, then secretly pointed at Hermione, who was reading in the corner—"Of course, although Hermione is excellent in every way, she..."

Harry and Ron nodded quietly as well. Perhaps because her flying lessons hadn't gone very well, Hermione had almost no liking for Quidditch...

"Ginny, don't be shy!" Fred landed after flying around in the air on the Firebolt. "Try the Firebolt. Although the Nimbus 2000 is great, it's still a bit inferior to the Firebolt."

Harry called them over to share the joy; otherwise, Fred wouldn't have been shouting with Harry's broom. Ginny was just too shy around Harry, Fred was sure. If he hadn't called, Ginny would probably have stayed hidden in the corner.

In the end, the allure of the fire bolt overcame her shyness, and Ginny came over after some hesitation, skillfully mounted the broom, and began to try to control it.

Seeing this, Harry unconsciously took a step back—as someone who had already test-flown the Firebolt several times, he knew all too well its performance, and he was afraid that Ginny would become even more nervous.

"Thanks for sharing, Harry."

George patted Harry on the shoulder without any hesitation—having trained and played together on the school team for over two years, they were close enough to share most of Harry's pranks.

“Of course, we also need to thank the generous Sirius—” Fred said, coming over from the other side with a pleased expression.

“Now we’re even more certain of one thing—” George interrupted Harry before he could answer, “that Firebolt really is the best broom.”

“But now we have a little question,” Fred said, pulling a small piece of parchment from his pocket. “Harry, do you know Moonface, Wormtail, Bigfoot, and Prongs?”

'Of course I know…'

Harry almost nodded immediately, but he quickly realized something—the nickname "Moonface" was related to a secret Lupin had been keeping. Although the twins were trustworthy and reliable teammates, this was a matter of great importance, and he would never reveal this information.

But lying was quite difficult for him. After a long while, he swallowed hard and finally gave the two of them an answer against his will: "Sorry, we really haven't heard of it."

But even Harry himself wasn't convinced by this statement. Perhaps because he had swallowed that mouthful of saliva, the whole sentence sounded dry and unconvincing, and anyone who paid a little attention could tell that it was a lie.

However, the name Moonface was too much of a clue, so Harry had to make up a lame excuse and leave without even taking the Firebolt.

"Sorry, I forgot my appointment with Professor Lupin. After you finish training, please have Ron take the broom back. I need to go to the hospital!"

Harry hurriedly left, fleeing in disarray.

“Very suspicious, my dear brother.”

Watching Harry leave, Fred unfolded the parchment, on which was the information they had managed to trick Professor Binns into giving them—in order to copy this information, they had actually pretended to be in solitary confinement and copied data for a whole day.

"Of course, it's highly suspicious. If we hadn't occasionally heard the name 'wormtail,' we probably wouldn't have been able to connect the two at all."

George replied coolly, then helplessly reached up and ran a hand through his hair, "So what are we going to do now?!"

“That Marauder’s Map taught us so much—” he murmured, “We always thought they were the best teachers in the world—”

“That’s true,” Fred said, his enthusiasm also waning. “They used to be so noble, surveying the entire school, making maps, all for us younger generations who defied the school rules… But now…”

"Yes, they're all professors now..."

George looked disappointed—he felt incredibly wronged for being tricked by Sirius, and afterwards they even got pranked by Peeves because of it.

However, they weren't so angry after the investigation was completed—they were more troubled by Lupin's betrayal, which made them anything but happy.

“He betrayed his own oath!” Fred repeated under his breath. “I solemnly swore I hadn’t done anything wrong—and now he’s one of the most popular professors in the entire university…”

"Unless Snape was also one of the creators, I can't think of anything worse—"

"Look on the bright side, Snape was once..."

"Keep your voice down!" George warned. "Ron's still here! He's the most impulsive one. If he gets into a fight with Snape, nobody will be able to verify what he says!"

-

Records involving professors should theoretically be impossible for students to see. Filch knew this, and so did Professor Binns, but due to the special circumstances of revising the school history, the twins eventually managed to get their hands on them.

Similarly, the core curriculum of war magic, which was originally not open to Hogwarts, was now available to William due to the drastically increased difficulty of the exams and the students' solid foundation.

Amidst the rustling of quills around him, William began his formal study of war magic.

Compared to duels, which have most of the same areas as self-defense techniques, the War Magic course, established shortly after the school's founding, is Durmstrang's signature course.

Based on the answers on the exam paper, Durmstrang's war magic is most crucial in terms of regional rather than individual aspects.

Simply put, it's single-target magic and area-of-effect attacks.

When magic is used in war, even the most powerful individual spells have their limits. To create a sense of intimidation and panic, we can sacrifice the power of most spells to make them appear more powerful...

The answer on the exam paper was as follows: Based on this description, William was almost certain of one thing: in the original version, the so-called war magic was definitely not aimed at wizards.

'Another aspect is rituals. Common magic, in pursuit of faster casting speed, often forgoes rituals altogether.'

'However, these should also be found in those copied books—'

He looked at the quill pen that was constantly copying and began to look for more suitable books on the bookshelf.

Although he brought quite a few, even if he wore out all those quill pens, it was still uncertain how many books he could copy—the school library's collection was no joke.

'By the way, the so-called burning of Paris probably involved a combination of knowledge from multiple fields—one person trying to burn down a city, that's terrifying…'

Although it wasn't a perfect analogy, William still thought of nuclear bombs, which could burn cities and destroy land; perhaps only nuclear weapons could be compared to that.

'If I'm not mistaken, the infamous incarnations of the dark arts should also be classified as war magic here,' William thought, comparing the contents of the scroll with what he saw and starting to search through the books he could copy, but to no avail.

'Impossible...there's no reason why...'

'Was it considered too evil, so it was placed in the prohibited book section?'

He shook his head helplessly, then speculated on the next spell and began searching the possible areas.

-

"Ask Professor William from Hogwarts to answer the questions?"

"Don't be silly, kid. Last time, our Viktor and Doris cracked his problems one after another, making him look utterly humiliated. How could we possibly let you do it again?"

"After all, they are guests who have come from afar, and a moderate level of competition is necessary, but it would be wrong of us to go and provoke them again."

"Of course not. He's a young professor after all. It's really not fair for us to target him like this. Going to him privately won't work either—Professor McGonagall from Hogwarts is here. If she gets angry, things will get complicated."

……

"So, in the end you still couldn't convince Professor Baker?"

Doris finally calmed down and was able to have a proper chat with her best friend.

“Yeah, he was so adamant, like I was going to curse Professor William with a magic wand—” she said helplessly, “I can’t exactly say I found the questions there challenging…”

After spending so much time at this school, even the most eccentric professors would have their personalities figured out by the students. Just like Gryffindor students knew they were going to get points deducted as soon as they heard Snape's voice and couldn't argue with him, Durmstrang's students also knew what the consequences would be if they said other schools were better in front of Professor Baker.

"Speaking of which, what kind of questions did that so-called self-defense professor give you? You were so distraught back then."

"It was actually quite simple at first—" Doris said, though she was reluctant to recall it, "but the later papers were... very special..."

……

"You can ask a question like that?"

Although Doris couldn't recall all the exam papers, even the ones she did remember left her best friend speechless. "How could anyone possibly answer these questions?!"

-

"That's strange—there are boxes again, and I don't recognize this person..."

Inside the library, William looked at the new boxes that had appeared, but didn't even open them—he had been hoarding them for quite some time, just waiting for the Felix Felicis to be brewed so he could try his luck.

'Just a few more meal vouchers will do, I'm not expecting anything else…'

He shook his head. One-time cards were definitely not as appealing as a systematic set of magic. Durmstrang had been working on developing war magic into a complete system over the years, and it was no exaggeration. In terms of quality, it was definitely no less impressive than the magical creature system at Hogwarts.

Although Hagrid's teaching abilities still need improvement, he is definitely a competent professor when it comes to raising magical creatures. Heaven knows how many magical creatures live in the vast Forbidden Forest of Hogwarts.

'After all, Newt Scamander came from there... If I had more energy to dedicate to it, I would definitely study magical creatures more thoroughly.'

Putting those thoughts aside, William began analyzing war magic again—although time was short, this magic system, which could be linked with most other magic systems, became particularly interesting after the initial introduction.

Perhaps because it was given the name of war, almost all the obsolete auxiliary methods such as cooperative spellcasting and continuous spellcasting have appeared. Although the analysis shows some of the situation, it is already an improvement on the existing magic system.

While the magical world may have a certain reverence for antiquity, it is by no means rigid in its practical application of magic—in fact, it cannot be rigid.

The existing spell system is short and fast. If you can't set up your Ironclad Spell in a near-instantaneous manner, then no matter how good or comprehensive your defense is, it's all nonsense—you'll die before you can even use it.

'Hogwarts may have a similar collection of books, but in terms of systematic organization, it falls far short of Durmstrang's compilation and development of his theories… We've struck gold!'

Although it wasn't quite appropriate to use students' exam papers to learn theory, William didn't care about that anymore.

Without a systematic theory to connect the knowledge, how could he find books so easily?

"Hello, Professor Baker, thank you so much for your generosity. Durmstrang's extensive library has left a deep impression on me..."

Adams' voice rang out from ahead, and William quickly waved to the hardworking quills—they stopped working almost without hesitation, then rolled up in parchment and flew into William's pocket.

Although Durmstrang had given permission to copy the text, William decided it was best not to let them see it, considering the other party's feelings.

"William, Professor Baker is looking for you!"

Adams sighed and called out. William pretended to pick up a book and walked over without changing his expression. "Ah, Professor Baker, hello."

'Could they have discovered it? — That can't be, the two kids themselves didn't even notice, did they?'

"Hello, Professor William, have you found any books you like?"

…Actually, we could add “men”.

"Yes, the selection is dazzling. Your school's collection of books is indeed very rewarding."

“That’s wonderful.” Professor Baker’s face was full of sincerity. “However, Professor William, the test papers you assigned during the day made a deep impression on me—though it may be presumptuous, I would still like to borrow your school’s papers.”

"Of course, I know that such a request is too presumptuous, so I discussed it with Professor McGonagall of your school. We are willing to pay fifty gallons for each set of papers, and Professor McGonagall has agreed to sell eight sets of high-quality papers—of course, all the proceeds will go to you personally."

Chapter 328 The End of the Christmas Holiday

"We talked back and forth for nothing... yawn,"

The journey back home is still long—the more procedures you go through, the more complicated they become.

The negotiations were successful as expected, since there was no point of conflict between the two schools.

The Ministry of Magic is the one paying for it, and the competition is a traditional event, so the level of attention it receives is there. The schools' exchange requests can also be met, and at most, they can discuss the location and format of the next competition.

Even so, William and his group had already used up most of their short Christmas holiday, and judging from the current situation, they would probably have to spend the rest on their way back.

While waiting for the Ministry of Magic personnel to hand over the documents, William couldn't help but yawn and complain about the negotiations—he couldn't help being sleepy because time was tight, and he had been organizing documents at night during the negotiations to determine the content of the books to be copied the next day.

They already had limited time to look through materials in the library, and after deducting the time spent as mascots in formal occasions, he barely managed to finish reading the basic materials he needed.