From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"What are you all thinking?!"

"We're just... a little nervous..."

"Luckily, we didn't disturb the examiners inside—if they had found out, you could have been spending the rest of the summer in solitary confinement!"

Percy whispered to the two of them, and then suddenly the noisy crowd fell silent.

The twins' faces, which had been slightly smiling, suddenly turned deathly pale—could it be? Percy, that big mouth, was right? Professor McGonagall really came?

But they were soon relieved, as Professor William's voice rang out from a great distance.

"Heavens—why are you surrounding so many people?"

William nodded to the students who made way for him as he strode over, and then he saw three streaks of red hair.

"What are you doing...?"

Looking at Percy standing there and the two big dumplings lying at the foot of the wall, William looked on with curiosity—what had these two unlucky kids done this time?

"Those two were just dueling, Professor."

Percy quickly resolved William's doubts.

"Alright, there are certainly enough spectators here, making it a good place for a duel—but have you all forgotten that we have an exam today?"

William strode over, knelt down in front of the twins, and poked at the bandages with his finger.

“Percy, your magic is becoming more and more skillful. Your spells are perfect. I believe that this skill alone is enough for you to join St. Mungo’s.”

He pointed at the two unfortunate children again, and the bandages began to break from where he pointed, allowing the two to struggle and crawl out of the bandages.

"Exams are coming up, no fooling around!"

William looked at them, shook his head, and then stood in the corner looking at all the students.

"Last night I felt like there was something I hadn't told you, but after thinking about it for a long time, I realized that in my past teaching, I've already taught you everything that will help you pass the exam, and even things outside of the exam itself—honestly, if anyone says you won't pass the exam, I'll duel them."

"But even after breakfast, I still felt something was off, and just now I realized—I forgot something quite important, which was to remind some forgetful little devils that they might have forgotten to leave behind some notes to help them remember things."

"Honestly, exams are a very serious matter, and we've spent plenty of time preparing for them. It would be foolish to let a little carelessness ruin our chances, so..."

William laughed and exaggeratedly rummaged through his pockets, cuffs, and even the place where he kept his wand.

"Quickly, carefully check if there's anything you might have forgotten that could cause you to fail the exam!"

As he spoke, he conjured a large bag. “I’ll walk through you all, throw the stuff in, and you can pick it up after the exam. Maybe you can get some candied fruit from the poor professor’s stock—of course, I don’t recommend you take too much, because your professor really doesn’t have much left.”

As he spoke, he walked through the students, going back and forth three times, before finally putting away his bag without even looking inside.

"Good luck, everyone! I'm rooting for you!"

William waved to the students, then walked away with a smile.

Chapter 361: Let's make a hypothesis: Professor William might actually be a good fit for Azkaban.

"Thankfully, Professor William stayed at Hogwarts as a professor—if he were a conman, I bet many people would have been swindled out of their fortunes, right?"

In an inn in an unknown village, Sirius Black was having afternoon tea while talking to the air.

Meanwhile, the gold coin, concealed beneath the air by a Disillusionment Charm, surveyed the bustling crowd and spoke in a respectful but not overly surprised tone, "While William is capable, he's not that great. I know a fellow inmate next door who committed a far more heinous fraud..."

Jinbi pondered in recollection, "That guy once said that so-called deception either exploits information asymmetry or greed, and these two are the most effective ways to deceive people."

"A very interesting statement—"

Sirius glanced at the busy crowd around him, took a bite of the cloyingly sweet pastry, and said, "And what he said fits the current situation perfectly."

The village they were in was the one where everyone had suddenly disappeared. After receiving Moonface's reply, Sirius quickly and readily admitted that he was a third-rate writer and explorer.

He paid a high price for his residence and then excitedly told the others that he planned to write a book about the village, documenting the mysterious disappearances of its inhabitants.

"Once the book is published and becomes popular, paranormal enthusiasts from all over the world will come to explore it!"

That was half a month ago—Sirius, pretending to be drunk, was reciting the lines he had previously made up with unusual joy.

He pointed at the landlady and said, "At that time, I'm afraid many guesthouses will open in the village to compete with you for business, because your house simply cannot accommodate so many tourists!"

“And tents, ropes—” He acted very well then, pointing to another person who had come to eat, and said, “You can even sell them to those unlucky guys who came all this way with great enthusiasm but were unprepared, for double the price!”

"And other things too, lighting tools, digging shovels, holy water for warding off evil spirits—burp!"

"Don't say such foolish things, sir. The old pastor has been praying for our village!"

And so, everyone in the village turned their attention to Sirius Black, and they were happy to provide Mr. Norman with the information they knew, instead of turning away the respectable man or even trying to beat him up as before.

"Shall we proceed with the second step of the planned operation?"

"But you didn't do the first step perfectly, Master. According to the reply, you should call yourself Lockhart; that sounds like the name of a famous writer!"

Gold Coin joked as he replied, "Next, we're going to act a little uncharacteristically like writers, then sneakily dig some soil with shovels and other things. We'll probably get caught, and then, after a few drinks—"

How were you after drinking?

"As arranged, you must have gotten into a drunken argument and revealed some concrete information about the treasure of the great pirate 'Blackbeard' that you discovered was buried in the area. On the surface, you came here to do research and work as a writer, but in reality, you came here to find that treasure that would make even the devil's eyes turn red, and that would even be enough to pay for a pardon and become a nobleman!"

"Jealousy and rivalry—was that even mentioned in the letter?"

“Yes, and according to those people next door, that increases the credibility of the rumors,” Gold Coin added innocently. “Usually, you’re looking for the prettiest girls in bars or hotels… well, okay, Master, perhaps we can try another approach…”

Gold Coin glanced at the part-time waiter and promptly offered Sirius a new suggestion.

Sirius was very obedient this time, no longer showing the same dislike he had for the elves' advice when he was still at the Black family's house.

-

"That new writer is acting strange!"

"That's right, he leers at the girls in the village all day long. He's clearly a poor and destitute guy, but he pretends that I've changed the way you live here!"

"Hmph, if they really start hyping this up, will this land still be ours? Everyone, don't forget, this land and these houses were originally..."

"You don't even have an heir, what are you afraid of—we have an entire village!"

"That's right, anyone who dares to set their sights on my land can expect my hunting rifle!"

"But...he didn't seem to be lying about the idea of ​​him making a fortune..."

"Keep a close eye on them, it won't hurt!"

-

"You third-rate bastard from over there, stop staring at the village girls all day long!"

One evening, Sirius Black was threatened when he asked a woman to dance, but he glanced at her dismissively and said, "You—ha, a bunch of fools who've been fooled for so many years..."

Then, as expected, he got beaten up. Although he was agile and could take on three opponents at once, he couldn't withstand the sheer number of people on the other side.

Fortunately, the young men were stopped, and Sirius Black was able to escape.

Because he got beaten up, Sirius had to buy a lot of alcohol and then drown his sorrows in it.

"They know nothing! A bunch of ignorant fools! I'll be a high-ranking nobleman soon—at least I can donate one, hiccup—"

"A pig that lives on wealth but knows nothing—utterly foolish!"

The beaten-up writer, Norman, drank heavily in frustration and then launched into a tirade of insults against the villagers in the restaurant. However, for the sake of the British pound, everyone generously forgave this fat sheep from out of town.

However, what was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener. While the great writer Norman was hurling insults, the village chief and his men broke into his room.

Afterwards, a group of people began to cry out that they had been fooled—the writer was fake, but the robber was real!

That despicable Mr. Norman—no, that conman Norman, whose name was even fake—had nothing but research on the deeds of the pirate nicknamed 'Blackbeard' in his luggage, except for money, and all the evidence pointed to their village!

That guy is a robber, a thief. He's not here to help people get rich; he's here to steal and cheat them out of their precious hidden treasures!

Naturally, that very night, the conman Norman mysteriously disappeared, and no one even reported him missing.

As for the only worthless belongings left behind, the village chief generously bought them to pay his outstanding room and board bills.

In the days that followed, people in the surrounding villages and towns only discovered, when they occasionally needed new farm tools, that the prices of those items had actually increased slightly. Meanwhile, the village next door was reportedly starting to painstakingly prepare to cultivate new farmland…

'Those greenhorns, they didn't cultivate the land themselves, so why are they starting to clear it now?'

The people from the surrounding villages laughed and ignored the lucky idiots.

"They're really working hard..." Sirius Black stood on a distant hill, watching the busy crowd below, and sighed. "I reiterate my point: if Professor William didn't become a professor, many people would be fooled..."

Chapter 362 Examination

William, far away at Hogwarts, had no idea that Sirius was badmouthing him. The school was holding a major OWLS exam, so he had no time to care about the deception between Sirius and the Muggles.

Although he offered some guidance in his reply to Lupin and even revised it later, it was just an ordinary plan and nothing outrageous.

Honestly, if the Ministry of Magic hadn't severely restricted the exchange rate of Muggle currency for Galleons, it would have been incredibly easy for purebloods to acquire a large sum of money from the pureblood world, without even having to break the law.

Divination and ambiguous potions are both powerful tools for raising funds, and the secrecy law doesn't restrict them that strictly.

Back when there were no protection laws, the Malfoys started their fortune by helping William the Conqueror conquer England. When it comes to making money in Muggle society, pure-bloods are professionals. The methods used by Azkaban were either things that the Malfoys had already mastered or things that the Malfoys didn't even consider. They only expanded into certain areas, so there's not much to say about them.

Compared to that unremarkable scam, he was more concerned about his students' mindset for the exams.

As a professor, he should definitely stand at the entrance of the examination hall to wish his students well—but why do most of them have dark circles under their eyes?

"You guys aren't staying up very late, are you? We have a practical exam this afternoon!"

He stood at the entrance of the examination hall, looking at them with concern.

"No—we didn't sleep at all, we studied all night!"

The twins stood at the front of the line, their faces filled with excitement.

"Are you all crazy? We have an exam tomorrow!"

William stood at the door, wishing he could pull out his wand and give them a wake-up call—what kind of reckless students are these! They're already in fifth grade, don't they know that the efficiency of staying up all night to study can't make up for the losses later on?

"We've thought it through, Professor!"

The twins grinned. "Today is Thursday, and the exam is on self-defense. Tomorrow is Friday, and we'll be studying ancient runes—that's an elective, we didn't learn it! The weekend will be more than enough time!"

"Nonsense!"

William shouted, his face darkening – although he was somewhat touched, he knew that if Professor Magician knew he was moved and agreed that required courses were more important than electives, they wouldn't be able to get along as colleagues.

"Focus on your exams. You still have a practical class this afternoon. Let's see how you handle that!"