From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

After hastily bidding farewell to Dumbledore, he rushed almost nonstop to Professor McGonagall's office, found her, and then returned to Dumbledore's office with her.

Fortunately, when Professor McGonagall arrived, Dumbledore's fervent joy subsided somewhat. After confirming with Professor McGonagall and William that he was alright with a touch of helplessness, Dumbledore's problem was finally resolved.

-

"Severus, you've come."

"Yes, Dumbledore, after your urgent letter summoned me."

Snape arrived at the school looking travel-worn—he didn't know what important event had happened that would make Dumbledore ask him to forgo his vacation and rush to the school.

“Look at this, Severus.”

To Snape's surprise, Dumbledore didn't tell him anything urgent, but simply pointed to a small bottle on the table protected by various spells.

With just one glance, he recognized the magic potion contained in the bottle.

This made him tense up immediately – this potion was the best instruction manual for the ring, and its most common use was to deal with top-level black magic like Fiendfire, to extinguish that kind of black magic that could burn the soul.

"This is…"

Through the murky potion, he quickly discerned that it contained impurities that had not been properly processed.

"A deadly curse?"

"That's right, a deadly curse—do you have a way to deal with it?"

"I can't do it. Give me about six more months, and I can probably slowly figure out how to concoct a potion to remove the curse on the ring. But if I want to use it now, I can't deal with it. The person who cast the spell is too powerful."

"What would happen if a sufficiently powerful being wore it?"

“You will surely die—even you, Dumbledore,” Snape’s tone became extremely serious. “So don’t even think about using it. I don’t know where you got this dangerous item, but I can assure you that even you can’t do it.”

"What if it's a Dementor..."

“Dementors…” Snape hesitated. He had never expected Dumbledore to give him such an answer—an answer so absurd it was like an incredibly difficult knot meeting a sword that could cut it open…

"There's no doubt that the Dementor will die, and this spell can only be used on the first user... but why the Dementor?"

This is blatant cheating, but it's actually possible.

There are many powerful magical creatures, but few are similar to humans in size. Dementors are rare humanoid creatures that are powerful enough but are not classified as intelligent beings.

“It’s feasible, but we’ll need to give the Ministry of Magic a proper reason, if you must, Dumbledore,” Snape sighed—he had a feeling the person who came up with this solution must be one of the guys in the Office of Self-Defense, “The Ministry has a few Dementors that we’re particularly wary of right now…”

"They are the Dementors who worked for Umbridge, that Death Eater, and they are still being held in solitary confinement... because of that rumor... some people in the ministry are worried that Umbridge will use this as an excuse to escape..."

As the head of Slytherin, he had unique access to information, and generally no one would bring up such matters with Dumbledore...

However, at this moment, Dumbledore hesitated...

-

"Adams!"

"Why are you shouting so loudly? These herbs weren't growing well to begin with—did you return to school early?"

Inside the greenhouse, Adams, startled by William's shout, put down his tools. "Weren't you doing just fine in Greece?"

"The principal urged me to come back and work overtime."

"Haha, you've finally met your match!"

Adams smiled broadly, "Want to grab a drink together tonight?"

"Of course, no problem. Go to Hagrid's place. He should have prepared a lot of materials by now—by the way, that book you gave me during the holidays was nice, where did you get it?"

"That black magic book? Hmm, it was a gift—it has a lot of poisons in it, you know. I used herbs to save a few poisoned children, and the parents knew I was good with herbs, so they gave me their collection of poison books."

Adams recalled, "That book was also incomplete; there were many poisons that even I couldn't cure. It was really terrible..."

"After I copied it down, I saw that there were quite a few curses at the end, so I'm giving it to you..."

...

You won.

William was momentarily speechless—he now deeply understood Adams's mindset as a professor back then; Adams's knowledge of things related to black magic was truly…

But it's a good thing—he's mostly at ease now.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, he hurriedly took his leave of Adams.

-

Lock the doors and windows, add all the necessary precautions, and place the newly acquired Phoenix Tears in front of you.

William then carefully retrieved the basilisk venom he had previously collected from his treasures, carefully used Siberian to conjure a needle, and then dipped it in the basilisk venom.

"system?"

He whispered something.

The belated notification arrived with a "ding"—"A wizard has targeted your..."

"Only now... have you come out?"

Are you really not going to communicate with me?

"The principal was so happy just now, and then the box got stuck until now. Is there a system bug?"

"I know you understand—you really don't intend to have a conversation before our final moments?"

William started talking to himself like a madman, but the 'system' didn't make a sound.

"Actually, you were scared in that room, weren't you?"

"Because I actually saw Dumbledore get so flustered by a ring that he almost fell for it—you were probably more scared than I was at that moment."

“Actually, I should have discovered something in my first year of teaching—first Ginny Weasley, then Lockhart…they were all seduced by Horcruxes and then lost their memories.”

"It's as if the Horcruxes gave them power."

"I thought that if I was careful and didn't touch anything dangerous like the diadem, I'd be fine. But—Dumbledore almost got caught too, didn't he?"

"I don't know what that ring means to Dumbledore, but I do know what the existence of the system means to me."

As William spoke, he began to undress, and although no one responded to him, he spoke very carefully.

"Actually, there is no system at all. The one who has been speaking to me has always been an extraordinary being, a Horcrux, a Horcrux that read all my memories and then disguised itself as a system, right?"

"Thinking about it carefully, it's ridiculous that I went to the movies with someone and didn't know anything about the movies she was interested in. Even if I were to catch up afterward and find common ground, I would at least try to understand the general plot, but I knew nothing about it!"

"Professor Lockhart's Oblivion Charm was superb, and you were quite good too, weren't you? My Horcrux, which I don't recognize?"

"You read my memories, made me forget everything related to them, and then used that to make me believe you were a real system... and then, like Ginny and Lockhart, resurrected you?"

"The reason I loathe that book Dumbledore gave me is partly your doing, isn't it? To prevent me from suspecting that the so-called system is actually a Horcrux?"

"The more others rely on it, the greater the power it extracts. It's just like a system, isn't it?"

"If I were obsessed with the power of cards, I would revive you instantly, right?"

"The so-called power of cards is your power, the so-called knowledge is your knowledge, and the so-called insights and evaluations are your evaluations."

"A wizard capable of creating Horcruxes is certainly more skilled than a novice; what he can do is as magical as a system..."

"It's just a pity... I like what I learn, I like the power I hold in my hands, and I also like to store away some precious, one-time-use items..."

"You must regret it now, worried that too much power would be used up by the Horcruxes, so you created one-time use cards, but I can't bear to use them because of that."

William muttered to himself as he took off his last piece of clothing.

As he waved his wand, ice mirrors appeared all around him, reflecting his entire body clearly.

"Hiding on my back... You're something else, Horcrux of a stranger."

William sighed – a small, ancient coin was embedded shallowly in his flesh below his shoulder blade, a feature he would never normally see, looking like a birthmark.

"You win."

A strange and aged voice rang out—very abruptly, but William remained completely unfazed.

"My strength is far from fully restored, while you've grown too fast. You slumbered in that damned place, finally finding someone who could activate your Horcrux, but still..."

"My name is Helbo. Would you be interested in hearing my story? Consider it a final farewell to this old man..."

"No."

William swallowed the phoenix's tears in one gulp, and then the silver needles that the scythe could conjure, infused with the basilisk's venom, pierced directly into the area on his back.

After about ten minutes of pain, the effects of the venom were neutralized, and the corroded flesh on his back began to grow back.

Thud…

A badly corroded coin was squeezed out and fell to the ground, then flew into William's hand as he waved his wand.

"Let's collect them; the hamster party isn't without its benefits..."

He stared at the coins for a long time before making a decision.

Chapter 509 Aftermath

After getting dressed again, William realized that his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

If he hadn't witnessed Dumbledore nearly falling victim to the system, he would never have doubted its authenticity.

Even when he was examined with the basilisk venom and phoenix tears, he wondered if he was being overly suspicious—but the truth was, he easily detected that damned Horcrux.

Thanks to Hogwarts' relatively peaceful period recently, he hasn't used many of the so-called drawn cards, which means he hasn't relied much on the power of that Horcrux, making it less of an influence on him.

Judging from Ginny and Lockhart's experiences, there is no doubt that Horcruxes use their knowledge to tempt their users—and the Horcrux that seduced him was even more sophisticated, having done a perfect job of seduction.

"First, there's the system that appeared suddenly, but it didn't feel out of place to me..."

"Then, the first card, the Escape Card from Mondon—if only I had been a little greedy and chosen to escape..."

Without a doubt, for someone imprisoned, escaping that hellish place as quickly as possible is the top priority—ordinary prisons are terrible enough, but Azkaban is a hell within a hell…

"The very first card was a lie... If I had escaped back then, I would have relied entirely on the system created by that Horcrux."

"But unfortunately, the allure of magic allows me to temporarily endure the environment of Azkaban, while the relative safety within Azkaban diminishes my strong desire to escape."

"No—how can he be sure he escaped?"

"Apparition in Azkaban... The Ministry of Magic had that area completely sealed off. Even Sirius Black escaped using Animagus... If I had used that card back then, how could he have helped me escape?"