From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

William handed Lupin the money bag, which Lupin took, while giving Harry some instructions. He then handed the money bag to Harry.

After Harry left and sat down with the other students who had finished their assessments, Lupin returned, a clear smile on his face. "He must have found a loophole, otherwise he couldn't have done it so quickly. Thank you, William."

"Identifying and utilizing favorable conditions is the core of wizarding self-defense. This year's cooperation has been very pleasant, Lupin."

The two laughed, and the topic was dropped; neither of them brought it up again.

Students in fourth grade and above are not allowed to destroy the maze, which means that students in fourth grade and below can exploit this loophole—making it easier for students in second, third, and fourth grade to get full marks. Of course, this requires a certain amount of gambling and a considerable amount of combat skill.

Compared to William, who has already proven himself, Lupin needs more results, and this kind of practical joint exam is the best way to demonstrate a student's performance, and most parents would agree with this kind of assessment.

This isn't about giving students an easy pass; it's about giving them other options. If students who aren't good enough try to play this game, they'll only get a zero.

-

"Huhuhu..."

While Harry was showing off his loot again on his flying broomstick, Ron was lying there panting and recovering his strength.

His wizard robes were covered in mud, and if it weren't for the head-bubbling charm protecting his head still working, he would probably be covered in mud by now.

"That was dangerous..."

He was panting heavily as he began to clean the mud off his body. It was a difficult task, and after a lot of effort, he had only managed to clean the visible parts of his skin. As for the inside, he would have to wait until he got back and took a shower.

"Let's keep going. There's still some time. The stone sphere shouldn't be destroyed yet."

He limped along – he had sprained his leg when he sank into the swamp.

"Just one more hurdle to reach the central hall. Hopefully, the professors haven't gone too far astray..."

-

“Miss Granger, you have broken the rules.”

Professor McGonagall suddenly appeared from a corner of the checkpoint and ruthlessly announced this heartbreaking news to Hermione.

"Violation of regulations?"

"Fail, Miss Granger."

Professor McGonagall repeated this horrible fact, causing Hermione to instinctively run away.

She instinctively used her Transfiguration to destroy the wall, then rented out the room again to keep herself away from the terrifying Professor McGonagall.

After running for a long time, she finally calmed down—damn Boggart!

Professor McGonagall is still outside watching over the students; how could she possibly be in the maze!

This was an exam administered by Professor Lupin and Professor William. If anyone should announce a failing grade, it should be them, not Professor McGonagall who should tell her she failed!

Having figured this out, Hermione finally realized the problem.

She was actually fooled by a Boggart!

"Damn it, people will laugh at me if they tell anyone!"

She even considered going back the way she came to confront it, but she was running in such a hurry that she completely forgot the way.

"Okay, this way leads to the end too—I need to hurry!"

She quickened her pace and started jogging towards the finish line, but after only a few steps, the terrible thing happened again.

“Miss Granger, I regret to inform you that you have seriously violated the rules of the competition.”

Hermione froze on the spot, her hand holding the wand unconsciously falling to her side.

"Unfortunately, you failed—absolutely failed."

Professor William announced the terrible truth with a smile, "You got a zero on this exam. We'll send your results to your parents by owl, and we'll also post your failing grade on the bulletin board..."

'That's enough, stop talking...'

"Because of your poor grades this time, the school will be taking back your Time Converter—"

She stood there dumbfounded, clutching the time converter, then collapsed to her knees, her eyes welling up with tears that she couldn't stop…

'That's not it...that's not it, damn Boggart! If it weren't for that damn Boggart...Boggart?'

She looked up, her face streaked with tears, and stared at 'Professor William' with a puzzled expression.

He continued to ramble on about the school's punishment and the terrible things that were about to happen.

"He collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious!"

Hermione took out her wand and cautiously tested it.

With a thud, 'Professor William' fell to the ground.

"Hilarious! Hilarious!"

She took out her wand and cast a spell on 'Professor William'. He immediately lay down in the dentist's chair, firmly held in place by the instruments.

"I ate too much chocolate, I need to have a tooth pulled!"

Hermione laughed when she heard the strange voice.

Then, with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes, he ran towards the final destination.

-

"Why are you not following the normal route again?"

Percy glanced at Hermione rushing in—again, the passage closest to him.

The third grader was supposedly the best student, Hermione's child.

She was indeed quite excellent; she had put in some effort, but the spells she used were mostly beyond the limit—some of them were even spells that one would only encounter in seventh grade.

Under the barrage of chaotic spells, the giant was completely disoriented and didn't even realize when the stone ball had fallen.

Seeing the child use lethal force, Percy couldn't sit still any longer.

He ran out in small steps, trying to stop Miss Granger, who was attacking the unconscious giant.

"Stop, Granger."

He ran and shouted.

"You've already knocked him unconscious. By the way, you broke the rules, but—"

Before he could even finish his sentence, a palpable murderous intent emanated from him.

Before he could react, Miss Granger had already completed the spell.

"He collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious!"

At such close range, with the spell cast so abruptly, Percy had only drawn his wand.

'Damn it, the professor was right, I shouldn't have forgotten! I must always be prepared to defend myself against a sudden attack!'

He only had time to think of that one sentence before he lost consciousness.

Side Story 2: From Hogwarts to Azkaban (2)

"this…"

Herbert stared into thought as he looked at the new beds that had been crammed into the dormitory room—they used to be a standard five-person room, so how did they end up with two new beds?

“Okay, maybe you’re right,” Herbert spread his hands toward his roommate, “but don’t we have plenty of empty rooms in our lounge? Why do we have to add an extra bed here?”

"An empty room?"

His roommate looked at Herbert and said, "Where did this empty room come from? The lounge area has been dug down three hundred meters, and they even found a coal mine!"

Three hundred meters? Are you kidding me?

"What are you joking about? Three hundred meters isn't enough to live in. Are you still half asleep?" Her roommate rubbed his forehead and grabbed Herbert. "Let's go out and take a look. The dean is still getting people to do geological surveys and is considering digging another two hundred meters to expand the dormitory!"

Herbert, who had been dragged out of the dormitory, glanced around as his roommate pointed out—looking down from where their dormitory was, rows of candlelight lamps twinkled like stars in front of the bottomless spiral dormitory entrance.

The entire Slytherin common room dormitory area was carved out into a series of spiraling zones, with each dormitory arranged on the outermost ring. Inside the spirals, thousands of flying brooms moved up and down incessantly, making a racket, even more lively than the Quidditch World Cup Herbert had ever seen.

"Let's go, let's go! We lost the Academy Cup, let's go to the dueling arena!"

Is this the Slytherin common room?

If it weren't for the obvious college attire on most of them, he would have thought he had wandered into a Muggle city—what a joke, shouldn't they be the smallest college in terms of population?

What are they trying to do?

Subconsciously, Herbert asked a foolish question.

"Fight! Duel Club—we lost the College Cup again, so we're going to kill a few Gryffindors."

Don't talk about something so terrible so lightly! Beating someone up is one thing, but killing Gryffindor will land you in Azkaban!

Wait a minute—we have so many people, why did we lose the Academy Cup?

He quickly asked the question and received another incredible answer.

“You mean Gryffindor? They have the largest number of students—Gryffindor’s towers are so tall that you can’t see the top of the Astronomy Tower from the top. To cope with those students, the school used the Inflation Charm and the Unseen Expansion Charm to expand the castle three hundred times. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even have a place to have classes.”

Where did all these students come from?

"Just pay the money. The Azkaban Research Institute invented some special techniques. Times have changed. After paying the full amount, you will not only receive a notification, but also a spellbook of the Avada Kedavra curse!"

"The Azkaban Research Institute? A spellbook?"

There were too many flaws, and Herbert didn't know what to say for a moment.

"It's a place where all kinds of magic are studied and explored in depth. Only the most skilled wizards join it; it's the highest research institute!"

“Then what’s the point of us—” Herbert pointed to himself, then to his roommate, “that we were chosen by the Sorting Hat?”

“No need to pay!” His roommate glanced at him, wondering why he would ask such a stupid question. “Freshmen have to pay to even go to the library to read books. We’re the same as always, we can just borrow books and study whatever we want. They are self-funded students, and we are government-funded students. To be honest, the tuition fees are too high now. Those self-funded students have to rely on luck to read books after they pay.”

"What about the restricted book section?"

"Forbidden books? What are you talking about—you mean spells that are forbidden during duels?"

Chapter 356 After the Exam

"Percy!"