From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Hagrid's expression that day spoke volumes, and combined with Harry's rapid progress in Transfiguration, William felt he was pretty much certain of the truth.

"Well done, Hogwarts plus three points."

William nodded. "The rest of you come over here for testing. Harry, you can familiarize yourself with spellcasting again."

Because he interrupted the test, there are still a few students who haven't been tested yet.

"Ron Weasley."

William called out the name and then gestured for him to begin choosing a topic.

Ron took a nervous breath, then closed his eyes and drew out the question.

"Overall evaluation of the Obstacle Charm: Average."

"Overall rating of the curse: Excellent."

"... "

The five spells were quickly tested, and William glanced at the results—very strange, this student was seriously unbalanced in his studies.

"Don't be nervous, your grades are a bit... strange, not as average as others."

William nodded. "Let's draw five more and do a comprehensive evaluation."

Ron's face turned a little pale—he had never expected to be stuck like this, and with a bit of unease, he pulled out a few more slips of paper.

After a series of tests were completed, William nodded, signaling the next student to begin.

'His talent... seems to lean more towards dark magic...'

'If it were Durmstrang, he might even challenge for the Warriors' position…'

As William watched the next student begin his test, he pondered Ron's talent—the previous monthly exams hadn't fully revealed the situation, and Lupin's teaching methods didn't involve much exposure to dark magic, which meant the student's talent hadn't yet been fully displayed.

'In terms of curses, the closest thing to dark magic in self-defense, this guy's talent even rivals Harry's... or rather, in terms of curses alone, Harry is outmatched by him...'

If a malevolent curse can cause this much trouble, what would happen if it were black magic?

But William obviously couldn't teach his students dark magic—this was Hogwarts, not Durmstrang. Not only would he not be able to get past that hurdle, but even if he were willing to teach, Mrs. and Mr. Weasley probably wouldn't want their children to learn that.

"Next, Hermione Granger."

William continued to raise his shield, considering Ron's talent—theoretically, the top student in the grade shouldn't have any problems; he just needed to wait to get an excellent rating.

Can…

"…good."

"…good."

"…excellent."

...

William was somewhat surprised as he looked at his recorded grades—he had to admit that his current grades were not bad, but they were still far from being number one in the grade…

But Hermione dispelled his doubts with her last spell.

A spell that should absolutely not be mastered by a fifth-year student, or more precisely, a spell that most graduates could not perform, was cast. This obscure spell directly overwhelmed the fire shield formed by William, earning Miss Granger an extra point.

'A jack of all trades, master of none…'

He immediately understood Miss Granger's real problem: her magical abilities were among the best in the seventh grade, but her use of spells was far from impressive.

That might be a bit harsh, but it's true—without exceeding the scope of the assessment, her application of self-defense spells could only barely reach the level of an excellent student, and she couldn't possibly crush her peers.

This means that, under conditions like OWLS's limit propositions, she could easily lose her qualification for "o"...

Am I being too harsh?

He didn't offer any further comment, just said, "Next."

Chapter 516 The Taste of Failure

How did you feel about the first class?

When William returned to the main office with the test results, Lupin looked up from the documents on the desk and asked with a smile.

"Yes, the foundation is very good—this year will save a lot of effort..."

“Look, Professor Lupin,” William spread the test results on the table, “this is their spellcasting record. Although it was a spot check, five spells are quite telling.”

As he spoke, he tapped another parchment, arranging the results in a regular pattern. “All the students were able to get a barely passing grade in more than three spell tests—you know, this is based on the average performance of last year’s students at the end of the year.”

"Next class, we'll give them a practical lesson to see how they perform in actual combat. If they all pass, we can consider making appropriate changes to this year's curriculum."

Most OWLS assessments are divided into two parts: theory and practical operation. These students have been taught by Lu Ping for two years, and their practical skills are amazing. William has no intention of wasting the foundation laid by Lu Ping. He will just focus on practical operation training. The theory can be taught by simply filling in the gaps in the exams later. There shouldn't be any major problems.

How did Harry do?

Lupin glanced at the list and, finding that the part he was most concerned about was missing, looked at William with a puzzled expression.

“Does he even need an assessment? He could probably get a perfect score right now if he went straight up for the test. I don’t think many examiners would stump him in the practical part,” William said after looking around to make sure no one else was watching. “Honestly, if he were to duel with an examiner, given his current skill level, I don’t think he would be the one to fall.”

“If word gets out, he’ll definitely be put in a difficult position during his assessment,” Lupin chuckled, shaking his head. Then, as if remembering something, he added, “By the way, isn’t today Professor Snape’s first class…?”

"No way..."

William's mouth dropped open. "The first class? How did we end up here?"

"It's the first day of school, not many professors like that, but you're the only one who's not afraid of it."

Lupin spread his hands – any professor who has high standards for their courses doesn't like to teach on the first day of school. Students' accumulated laziness during the holidays and the fatigue from catching up on homework can easily make them inattentive.

Therefore, scheduling courses at this point is a skill – either the course has no real purpose, or the professor doesn't care at all about students being inattentive.

William belongs to the latter category—he has never seen a student dare to lose focus during an exam that determines the amount of homework for the next period of time. So far, the combination of confinement, tests, and homework has been ineffective.

"Those students are in big trouble..."

Theoretically, the second period should be the history of magic, but in Professor Snape's class—William really couldn't imagine anyone daring to sneak off and sleep.

-

"Why don't you need to go for a divination, Hermione?"

As the students discussed their test scores and glanced at their class schedules, Ron couldn't help but complain.

His overall grades were pretty good, and he was in a very good mood at the moment.

"Because I turned down the divination classes I felt were useless."

Hermione's response was a little irritating—she was not happy with her performance in class at all because she saw a lot of "good" on the record sheet, and the word "good" was unacceptable to her.

She was particularly upset about Harry becoming a teaching assistant.

She didn't like this feeling—she was being completely outclassed academically, and the other person clearly had the professor's approval...

Even though she ultimately achieved the best results, the feeling was still unsettling.

"I have to go to class," Hermione said, a little annoyed with herself. "See you at noon."

What's wrong with her?

Ron glanced at Hermione's retreating figure and shook his head in confusion.

"I think she's a little angry... but..."

Harry spread his hands—he couldn't figure out why Hermione was angry either.

However, they didn't have time to think about this issue in detail. The next class was Snape's class, and based on Harry's many years of survival experience, being late would cause the school to lose a lot of points at once.

"Let's go, we'll figure out what happened at noon... Hopefully Snape won't collect summer homework..."

Harry spoke with a hint of stubbornness, though he was also a little apprehensive—he knew very well what was going on with his homework and couldn't care less about anything else.

-

The divination class was originally held in a high tower, but after the professor was changed, even the classroom was moved.

Snape cleared out an empty classroom next to the Potions classroom and decorated the whole room in his own way before the first class.

"It's just like taking a potions class."

Harry looked around and complained – the lingering scent of potions from the next classroom had somehow seeped into this room, even though Snape had used an incense-like potion to maintain the mystery of his divination; the smell of the potion still lingered around everyone's noses.

The dimly lit underground classroom was filled with candles, and the light was not much better than that of the Potions classroom. At the front of the classroom was a huge model of a galaxy, but even Harry, a student with almost zero divination talent, could tell that it was something to fool newcomers—he didn't know what it was, but Professor William had taught him how to identify some common deception props.

The walls were covered with all sorts of stickers, all related to divination—but most of them foretold death, injury, poisoning, or even being harmed by venomous snakes or other creatures.

At first glance, it looked quite intimidating, but Harry couldn't resist teasing it and whispered to Ron, "Let me tell you, this place reminds me of something strange. Professor William gave a really funny example in my hiding class before."

"Ok?"

Ron was a little uncomfortable—he didn't like the gory images on the wall.

"The professor said that if you want to make makeup a profession, you have to understand their habits and do in-depth research, rather than using my own attitude and perspective to dress up."

“In the past, some wizards who couldn’t make a living would secretly pretend to be Muggle fortune tellers and set up fortune-telling stalls. However, they didn’t know how Muggle fortune tellers operated and were worried about their wizard identities being exposed, so they didn’t dare to say anything exaggerated to scare people. As a result, their business was much worse than that of Muggle fortune tellers. Later, out of necessity, they learned the pretentious ways of Muggle fortune tellers.”

"Professor Trelawney?"

Ron didn't connect it to Snape, but instead thought of Professor Trelawney's death prophecy—he couldn't help but laugh, "You mean Snape is imitating Professor Trelawney's pretentious manner?"

"Okay, it really does look a bit like him... Hopefully he doesn't show up covered in chains later, that would be just too much of a match..."

But both of them underestimated Snape.

When the current Divination professor appeared, everyone was startled by his appearance—Professor Snape's rarely seen clean hair was now completely covered by the hood of his black cloak, and his face was also covered by black gauze on the upper half, with only his chin and nose showing.

His black cloak had very short sleeves, revealing half of his arm, while a floating silver crystal ball hovered beside him, flashing faintly with each step he took.

Harry had to admit that his previous understanding of Snape was too biased. If the height and build hadn't matched, he would have had a hard time being sure that the wizard in front of him was Snape.

Fortunately, as soon as Snape spoke, all the feelings returned.

“You have been studying this course for two years now, and I’ve heard from Professor Trelawney that your grades are appalling.”

"After all, I can only die once in one assignment, which is definitely not enough to satisfy her," Harry thought to himself.

"And this year is the Year of OWLS, so you can't afford to slack off like you've done in the past. I've applied to the principal for a professorship in this course."

“Fortune-telling…” Snape murmured, the crystal ball emitting a soft glow that drew all attention to him. “It reveals the future you are willing and unwilling to accept, and it foreshadows the details that precede those great changes…”

Snape was absolutely right—it made Harry wonder if his real job was potions, or if Professor Trelawney was teaching divination not because she was good at it, but because the other professors had other jobs.