From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Hey? Dennis? Where are you going?"

"Dorm, get that damn paper ready before lunch!"

Dennis abandoned his two seventh-grade friends without looking back, while the fifth-grade students who had been gathering information also dispersed listlessly, filled with resentment towards the damned O.W.L. exam.

Damn exam! If it weren't for this, our course wouldn't have turned out like this!

-

"William, you seem very happy?"

"A little bit—I've finished my work for this week, I'll prepare some lessons a bit, and then it'll be the weekend."

"You should look at Singed; he doesn't have any classes after Tuesday's..."

Adams gestured with his chin to the alchemy professor beside him, indicating that William was still too inexperienced.

...

"You have to learn to adapt, Adams. People are different. There's no need to be too calculating. Try to think about things from a different perspective, and you'll find that things suddenly become clear."

William answered in a very serious tone.

"What you're saying is a bit roundabout, how about we change our approach?"

“That’s right, Adams. The thought that you have to get up early on Fridays to work in the greenhouse makes me not jealous at all.”

In response to William, Adams made an extremely obscene gesture.

“The students are watching you. I don’t think you want to go to Professor McGonagall to explain.”

The alchemy professor delivered a well-timed blow—his words were quite sharp, even when he wasn't at the bar.

While the three were chatting idly, Professor Snape came into the hall with a livid face.

"Why does Professor Snape look like that again—did the Potions class explode the cauldron again?"

"Isn't it normal for the crucible to explode? How many beginners don't experience this?"

William countered with his basic knowledge of his profession—not to mention freshmen, even people who make a living by experimenting with potions will have mishaps when experimenting with new drugs. Unless you want to live off your past achievements for the rest of your life, it's perfectly normal to blow up a few crucibles while doing a little experiment.

“Even if the crucible exploded, it wouldn’t have caused this. Maybe Professor Lockhart got in the way—sorry, Adams.”

The alchemy professor realized something was wrong halfway through his sentence. Although less than a week had passed, most of the professors in the castle knew just how good Professor Lockhart was at showing off. Normal wizards even felt like they were about to suffocate in his presence.

But Adams admired Lockhart, the herbalist professor who yearned for adventure but could not attain it, and could only immerse himself in it through those books.

"It's alright, no wizard is perfect. If he preferred to remain unknown, I probably would never have seen such exciting adventures in my life. But speaking of which, why is Professor Snape so angry?"

"Anyway, it wasn't me—it's common knowledge that Professor Snape disliked any Defense Against the Dark Arts professors, and I'm no exception."

William used self-deprecation to change the subject—it's best not to argue about idols unless there's a fundamental conflict.

“I think that makes sense. Professor Snape even deliberately sits on the other side of the table during meals, so how could it be you—wait, what’s going on with Gryffindor today?”

"What...what's going on?"

William followed Adams's gaze and saw a small group of students incongruously dressed in formal attire at the Gryffindor dining table, making the scene quite bizarre.

"Why are these kids dressed so formally? It's not the start of school or a holiday."

Adams casually made a sarcastic remark, but William suddenly sensed something was wrong.

Those faces seemed familiar to him.

William suddenly realized something was wrong, especially when Professor Snape swept his gaze over the students with a livid expression, his face turning even uglier.

Chapter 75 If you want to wear the crown, you must first bear its weight.

The definition of formal attire varies completely depending on the social context.

The list for first-year students at Hogwarts clearly states the clothing that new students should prepare: three plain work robes, a pair of protective gloves, a winter cloak, and a plain pointed hat for daytime wear.

Yes, formal attire at Hogwarts includes a wizard's hat, but no one makes a special request about it in daily life.

Especially now that summer has just ended, very few people are willing to wear a wizard's hat that's a bit too hot.

William recognized some of the students in formal attire; they were the seventh-grade students who had just attended class that morning.

As a professor who had just finished teaching, William clearly remembered what he had said that morning.

I told you not to wear a hat... I told you to wear a hat...

He wanted to give himself a piece of his mind right then and there—why did he have to use wearing a hat as an analogy for no reason at all!

With almost no prompting from anyone, William deduced the whole thing:

While he went to the library after class, the Gryffindors, who had returned to the common room during the break, were indignant about the points deducted, but they felt that what William said made a lot of sense. When they went back and checked their schedules, they found that the next class was Professor Snape's Potions class.

He had only been at the school for less than a week and had already heard several stories of Professor Snape favoring his own students. He guessed that the students from the other houses must still remember it. The seventh-year Gryffindors, nearing graduation, had had their grades deducted by Professor Snape for more than six years. Coupled with his lectures, they probably got carried away and organized a collective protest.

Unfortunately, William provided the students with excellent material—raising a flag to protest wasn't appropriate, but protesting with a hat was something no one could argue with, especially since the students in the same grade had all attended the class, and with a little word, everyone would understand what wearing a hat meant.

So, one of these students who was attending two advanced classes went to Potions class wearing a hat, and I bet he was laughing inside the whole class.

After class, the Slytherins who had attended the class must have spoken to their Headmaster—otherwise, Professor Snape wouldn't have looked so grim.

As for the group of Gryffindors wearing formal attire, it's probably because these students felt the class was very effective, so after class they called their friends and all dressed up for dinner—anyway, no one could say anything if they dressed formally.

'You guys really know how to apply what you've learned!'

William looked at the Gryffindors over there and felt a dull ache near his temples.

That's a professor! You're protesting with hats today, are you going to put a Niffler in his office tomorrow, and set off fireworks the day after to celebrate?

William originally used the hat as a starting point to make the students understand that when bullying occurs, it's not because you did anything wrong, but because the other person is looking for an excuse to bully you.

But what's with this bunch of students wearing hats and protesting against the professor?

He knew that Gryffindor students were the most daring and prone to making trouble, and he also knew that the soon-to-be seventh-graders were impulsive, but the combination of the two was a bit too strong, wasn't it?

"Hey? William, what are you thinking about? Dinner's ready. What are you thinking about?"

Adams's voice brought William back to the table.

"It's nothing, I was just wondering what Professor Snape would do."

"What else could happen? Professor Snape looked even worse after he was bitten by a dog last year, but it all passed peacefully."

"Bitened by a dog?"

William was a little surprised—he was a full-fledged professor at the school, and someone like him who had snuck in wouldn't have experienced such an embarrassing situation, let alone Professor Snape.

Thinking of this, William couldn't help but open the system and flip through the card library, which he hadn't opened in a long time—after drawing Dumbledore's card last time, he was too shocked and hadn't paid attention to the specific data of the characters in the card library for a long time.

Severus Snape (Dislike): Magic 2, Potions 2, Study 2, Dark Magic 2…

The "..." refers to untapped talents, because William now has the Dark Magic 2 talent on his stats panel.

Judging by that talent alone, there's no way Professor Snape would have been bitten by a dog.

"Why were you so surprised for so long? A three-headed dog took one bite, and Professor Snape was lame for several days."

Adams, seeing William's surprised expression, added.

"Three heads? A hellhound?"

"I don't know, it seems like Hagrid created it. I'm not very interested in magical creatures, they're too dangerous. If they accidentally wander into the greenhouse, it'll be a disaster."

Adams shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either.

"Professor Snape is coming. Keep your voice down."

Professor Singed quietly warned the two not to discuss the matter, and shortly after he warned them, Professor Snape came over with a grim face.

To William's relief, it was clear that Professor Snape had no intention of holding a grudge against his colleague—offending a senior colleague on the first week of work was hardly a good sign.

But things didn't calm down as William had expected, or rather, he underestimated the Gryffindors' ability to act.

Although the food had just been magically placed on the table, students in Gryffindor began to leave their tables and head towards the common room.

William didn't notice at first, but when the restaurant door was opened by the new students seven or eight minutes later, the Gryffindor students who had left earlier were now dressed in formal attire.

Halfway through the mealtime, William even noticed that some people were wearing casual clothes but incongruously wearing hats—this resulted in half the Gryffindor table being occupied by people wearing hats.

At this point, anyone who wasn't blind would realize that something was wrong.

"What are they doing? Are they celebrating a holiday?"

Singid, unusually, started the conversation—he was still unaware of what had happened.

In reality, the people at this faculty and staff table know less than the students—those who have taught at various colleges are frantically trying to educate the students about the morning's courses.

Finally, Professor McGonagall, realizing something was wrong, stood up.

"Nymph, Conan, you two, come out with me for a moment."

Professor McGonagall left the dining hall with two seventh-year prefects, and the Gryffindors, who had been itching to leave, immediately quieted down.

A short while later, Professor McGonagall returned with two prefects. She glanced at all the students and then gave the order with a helpless tone: "Everyone, take off your hats."

Professor McGonagall's authority was put to the test at that moment, and the students obediently removed their hats.

But obviously things can't just end like this—it's estimated that all students will hear the gist of the story in the next few days.

……

[You have gained a deeper level of recognition (hostility) from a magical creature. You have obtained a treasure chest x1.]

At this moment, William only wanted to sing a tragic love story—he had no intention of stirring up the students' emotions at all, but things turned out this way!

Chapter 76 New Cards and the Scheduled Test

【Snape (SR), creator of dark magic; It is rare for a sixth-year student to create a spell on their own before reaching adulthood, let alone the highly complex dark magic.】

Skill Insight: Tear up this card, and for the next twenty-four hours, your inspiration will flow freely. —Felix Felicis? That stuff relies on luck; I trust everything I've accumulated more.

Occlumency Master Snape (SR): Magic targeting memory is the most terrifying form of witchcraft, while Occlumency is the strongest shield.

Skill Memorization (Automatic): Automatically destroys the card when any memory-related spell takes effect, and provides defense against all memory-related spells for the next twenty-four hours. —The Imperius Curse? Remembering who you are is just someone else's murmur.

Finally, there's a card that's the same as the previous ones: the Death Eater card.

Undoubtedly, the first card was abandoned—if the second card didn't have an automatic activation option, William might have gambled on the effect of the first card. But an automatically activated defensive card, especially one that defends against the most difficult-to-defend memory-type spells in black magic, is simply too good to pass up.