From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"It should be checked..."

As Dumbledore spoke, he glanced at the rope William was using for his sneak attack. "You check it out, Professor William, so you won't worry."

"that…"

"Hmm? Is there any other question?"

"Excuse me—Principal, could I splash some developing potion on you to confirm?"

Although it's incredibly rude to say this, Dumbledore's previous behavior was far too erratic. If both of them were to fall victim to it, they would probably be ridiculed by the wizarding world for a thousand years...

Looking at William, who looked embarrassed but determined, Dumbledore's face showed an almost unseen helplessness. "Alright, fine, Professor William."

William took out the potion, first removing the protective covering on his left hand, then splashing half a bottle on himself before resolutely pouring the potion onto Dumbledore, who nodded helplessly.

He noticed that—from the moment he was interrupted until now—Dumbledore had been forcing himself not to focus his gaze on the things on the table.

'The principal recognizes that thing…'

This was the most likely conclusion William reached after a little thought.

If Dumbledore were under control, he could have easily overwhelmed him in a direct confrontation, but the previous actions clearly did not—therefore, it can only mean that Dumbledore recognized it and was attracted by its charm, almost forgetting the basic rules of exploration.

He became even more cautious, starting to search for materials in his bag from a distance away from the table. He used Transfiguration to create a table for himself, and then began to take out potions one by one.

After setting up half the table with potions, he added another layer of gloves over his protective gloves and also put on an extremely bulky protective helmet.

"Professor William?"

"Please wait a moment, Principal, there's still one protective suit for the experiment that we haven't put on yet."

William turned his head, looking serious, and put on the special protective suit—it was custom-made in Greece. Thanks to the rich and magical creatures there, he had a set of equipment made that offered better protection than the dragon skin suit, and it was very useful.

Dumbledore was clearly extremely anxious, but he managed to keep his eyes from drifting in that direction.

This made William even more cautious. He manipulated the potion from a distance, suspending it over there, and then began to pour it out.

"Extremely dangerous!"

The first potion took effect immediately, its vibrant red color even appearing somewhat eerie—this was almost the strongest reaction William had ever seen.

Dumbledore, who was getting anxious, finally couldn't help but turn his gaze to the table over there.

At this moment, William's second potion had already flown over, and its enchanting purple light shone brightly again.

"It's not venom, it's a curse!"

Then came the third and the fourth types.

When the seventh potion was applied, another eerie yellow color appeared: "Instant death curse, effect strength... beyond the reagent's range."

William was speechless at this point—he considered himself to have seen a lot in Greece, and although he hadn't seen the most precious things, he was really not a problem with ordinary curses.

But this curse before him, to put it bluntly, William felt it could be used to curse even a dragon without any problem.

This was the strongest curse he had ever seen, bar none—even the single-target damage of the curse he carried paled in comparison.

"Let's try these cursed voodoo dolls again..."

William tossed the voodoo dolls up again, and in the blink of an eye, the few things he had practiced with were blown apart by the power of the curse.

"... "

Dumbledore could now look directly at the ring before him. The wooden box that held the ring was now stained with all sorts of potions, and the incomparably precious ring lay there, radiating a bewitching light.

Only now did he realize that he had almost fallen victim to this... This should have been something to be afraid of, but at this moment Dumbledore found that he couldn't be serious no matter what.

There was no other way—the professor of self-defense at his own school was like someone rummaging through a treasure chest, sending all sorts of random testing equipment over by magic from a great distance, and then observing the power of the curse.

"As expected, professional matters should be left to professionals—voodoo dolls, which are mostly used for curses, are actually the most effective."

William muttered to himself, then pulled straw from his pocket, made a voodoo doll on the spot to bear the curse, threw it over, watched it explode, and then quickly copied it onto parchment.

This professional demeanor even made Dumbledore, who was originally full of lecturing, become serious—this is a necessary respect for professionals.

"How much longer until it's done, Professor William?"

"All done?"

William shook his head violently. "How could I possibly manage that? I just calculated the most effective voodoo doll and then calculated the strength of the curse. If I had to use this method of attrition to wear down the curse, it would probably take me about eight hours a day to weave a voodoo doll for half a year."

"So, Professor William, who are you?"

"This is an excellent testing tool for testing voodoo doll making methods. The curse strength is enough to destroy the voodoo dolls I have made in various ways. I have tried seventeen of them so far, and I estimate that I will find the optimal solution soon."

"..."

This conversation made Dumbledore regret asking such a question.

But since things had come to this point, he couldn't very well ask William to stop—fortunately, William stopped after trying nine more methods and began to approach the ring box.

After failing to control the ring with magic, William decisively used Transfiguration to conjure a rope on the spot, pulled it up, and then approached to examine it.

“There’s good news and bad news,” William quickly determined the rest of the curse’s nature using his improved identification skills from the holiday. “The good news is that the deadly curse is a one-time use one. The bad news is that no creature is powerful enough to trigger the curse.”

"This is a Peverell ring, it has a mark on it, I think it should be genuine—although there are fakes of their badges all over the market, the Dark Lord shouldn't be that shabby."

"If I had to give a price, the market price would be around 15,000 to 20,000 Gallons..."

William's summer work habits kicked in, and he casually gave him a price estimate.

Dumbledore looked helplessly at his self-defense professor, feeling that something was amiss with the current situation.

"Do you have any other ideas about that curse?"

"No, I don't have such advanced curses, or rather, no one in the office can deal with them."

After thinking for a moment, William added, "Perhaps Professor Snape has a way, but I think it's unlikely."

"So it's unusable?"

“No, no, no,” William shook his head, laughing happily, “I can’t do anything about the damage and effects of Horcruxes—but as for the curse, all we need to do is find someone with enough strength that it recognizes to wear it.”

Just as Dumbledore was about to warn his self-defense professor against falling into the path of dark wizardry, William revealed the answer without any hesitation.

"It's actually very simple. Just go to Azkaban, catch a Dementor, and have it wear the mask."

"Send the Dementors?"

“That’s right. I thought of this after I heard that the potions in the cave could be ingested by the elves. Anyway, at most one Dementor will die, and the ring itself is absolutely safe.”

"..."

Chapter 508 Temptation and Temptation

"Let's go back to school first..."

After much deliberation, Dumbledore could only come to this conclusion.

Dementors can probably ward off curses, and he could definitely summon one from Fudge in an emergency—but that's a last resort.

Although most wizards don't particularly like Dementors, the Ministry of Magic still values ​​the guards that are readily available and usable. They cost almost nothing in terms of magical budget, and the Ministry can rest assured that Azkaban is well-guarded.

Since Minister Damocles Roll announced the use of those guys as jailers in 1718, the Ministry of Magic has maintained control of this force, and it will not voluntarily give up the Dementors unless absolutely necessary.

There was a good reason to kill the Dementor last time, but if we need to summon another one now…

"Okay, I'll seal it away first?"

As William spoke, he took out a new potion and bottle from his pocket. With Dumbledore's permission, he decisively sealed its power with a mixed potion, hung the ring in the bottle, and then handed it to Dumbledore.

He would absolutely not take it. It's true that something even Dumbledore could be tempted by must be a good thing, but he's not stupid...

"Next, shall we go back to school?"

Watching Dumbledore carefully put the bottle away, William shook his head slightly—Dumbledore was distracted. The solidification magic on the bottle was usually obvious, but now his attention was entirely on the ring.

“Back to school, grab my arm, Professor William.”

Less than half a minute later, Dumbledore's office reappeared in front of William, but the office's owner seemed somewhat distracted.

He hurriedly took the bottle out of his pocket, then carefully placed it on the table, casting several powerful spells to protect it—but that wasn't enough. He quickly went to Fawkes and whispered to it, as if instructing it to keep a close watch on the bottle.

Perhaps because Dumbledore's actions were so astonishing, the row of portraits of the former headmaster on the wall fell silent, quietly watching everything unfold without offering any comment.

Completely oblivious to everything else, Dumbledore carefully completed all of this before letting out a sigh of relief and turning to William. "Thanks to you, Professor William, we have achieved another victory."

As he spoke, he rummaged through his collection, even opening the drawer where he kept his sweets—a move that terrified William.

Despite his fright, while Dumbledore was busy searching for something, William's hand still involuntarily grabbed a handful of things from the drawer.

Dumbledore saw this, but he didn't react at all...

Then, another huge handful...

A miraculous thing happened—Dumbledore opened a new, very hidden drawer…

After he finished doing that, he started rummaging through his collection again.

William unceremoniously emptied more than half of the stock from the new drawer, and then saw Dumbledore pull out an exceptionally beautiful planetarium from his collection.

With just one glance, William roughly estimated the price of this thing—three thousand Galleons and up, and that doesn't even take into account the maker's reputation or Dumbledore's personal influence…

"The principal must be insane..."

William is now even considering giving Dumbledore another potion test.

"It seems there's no more practical gift... Perhaps you should choose one yourself, Professor William..."

"I think I need some phoenix tears..."

William hesitated for a moment, then immediately made his choice.

"The Phoenix's Tears?"

Dumbledore glanced at William, then decisively pulled out a small glass bottle from the drawer, which contained some shimmering, water-like substance.

"That's all."

This was a tone William had never heard before—Dumbledore even apologized for the Phoenix's lack of tears.

There couldn't be anything more insane. If he hadn't been certain that the curse hadn't taken effect and was still properly sealed away, he would have even considered taking action.

"That's enough, thank you, Principal."

William caught the tears, and the fear that had just surfaced seemed to intensify...