From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

This is still in Britain, which has contact with the Muggle world—the Magical Congress of America never communicates with local Muggles (what an awkward term, William frowned), and their channels are usually kept even more secret…

But now, this is a big problem—the Magical Congress of the United States has no way to increase its supply channels from the local area…

"These idiots..."

William cursed inwardly, but he also knew that those people had to rebuild the headquarters as soon as possible to show that the entire magical world was still under the control of the Magic Congress—if they couldn't even rebuild the headquarters quickly after it was destroyed, how could others believe in the strength of the Magic Congress?

'Without a doubt... it was the Dark Lord who did it...'

He was almost certain—he just didn't know how the other party had managed to ignite the Fiery Flame to that extent within the heavily guarded headquarters.

“Speak with Dumbledore again. We must take further precautions to protect Azkaban to prevent those people from…”

William shook his head, compiled the information he had read into a paper bag, and headed toward Dumbledore's office.

-

"That's it, that's it, Longbottom."

In the dimly lit Potions classroom, Slughorn couldn't stop smiling.

He knew he would encounter a surprise before coming to Hogwarts, but he never imagined that the surprise would be so delightful.

He originally set up the Potions class mainly for Harry. He thought the other students who seemed salvageable had some potential, and the other half were simply to prevent negative comments from giving Harry private lessons.

But he never expected to receive such a surprise—Harry's improvement already made him feel that the time he spent on tutoring had not been wasted at all, but Longbottom was a pleasant surprise.

This student, who was almost the worst in the class, had a mysterious talent for herbs. After a little training, he was able to analyze the properties of the herbs in the potion recipe.

This was no easy achievement—even he himself was somewhat envious of his talent.

“Yours is good too, Harry.”

He turned his head and began to shower Harry with praise without reservation.

Miss Hermione Granger has an unparalleled talent for replicating textbook content; she always manages to perfectly replicate the descriptions in the textbooks.

After being refined, Harry can quickly grasp various tricks and techniques, and even flexibly develop and apply his own.

As for Neville, he can even modify some of the potion ingredients according to his own understanding to achieve better results—although the failure rate is very high at first, as he becomes more skilled, his operation can even amaze Slughorn!

"Of course, Miss Granger's is also perfect."

He added, inwardly praising Snape—if he hadn't been so happy studying divination, these excellent students would have left him.

Neville, in particular, had a very poor foundation. If he hadn't been noticed and given a lot of time to study, he probably wouldn't have even qualified for the advanced class by sixth grade.

'Of course, there are still some minor issues…'

Professor Slughorn felt a little guilty—Professor McGonagall had spoken to him just today because he had assigned Neville too much practice, causing his grades in the other subjects to plummet...

In Professor McGonagall's words, "If he doesn't put his time into other courses, I doubt he'll get a few OWLS certificates."

'It's really no big deal—the OWLS certificate is just for finding a job. I can easily get Longbottom a suitable job; his talent in potions and herbs is absolutely amazing!'

That's what he thought, and that's what he planned to do—how many people in the entire wizarding world wouldn't give Slughorn face? Not to mention Longbottom's talent was undeniable; even excluding his talent in herbalism, among the students he'd taught, there were only a handful who could easily surpass Neville. As for adding herbalism, well…

However, arguing with Minerva over this was completely unnecessary, he looked up at the time and reassured himself with that reason.

"get out of class is almost over, but don't rush. Rushing is the worst thing when it comes to potions. Every step has been determined through hundreds and thousands of experiments. I don't want you to get hurt because of this!"

He gave instructions to the other students, his eyes filled with the joy of success—this comeback was so successful, perhaps he should do it for another year?

-

"Be careful, be cautious."

Stilwell, the Purifier, felt uncomfortable in his Muggle uniform, but he dared not move.

That dark lord had a very comprehensive system of rewards and punishments. If they failed, even they might be hit with a Cruciatus Curse—that was because their mistakes weren't serious enough.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, and the Dark Lord has a grand and meticulous plan to carry out. They have been divided into two teams to carry out the Dark Lord's mission, and his activity tonight is to greet the Muggles.

Yes, say hello.

For example, take them to a Muggle store for a shopping experience where they can shop without using currency.

They even collected a lot of Muggle-specific potions to incite the crowd, but some Purgers who had been hiding in the Muggle world long enough told them that there was absolutely no need for it.

However, considering that it was the Dark Lord's order, everyone carried it out anyway.

"Get ready to lift the banishment curse."

This bustling commercial street doesn't just belong to Muggles, it also belongs to wizards—a slightly secluded section of the road where Muggle-repelling charms are used extensively, and hidden within is the most prosperous shopping street in the entire magical world.

"Our goal is to drive the Muggles into chaos, weaken the Muggle Expulsion Curse, and force the security personnel inside to come and maintain order, preventing a large-scale leak. While we're at it, our people will wreak havoc inside, using methods like scattering valuable supplies to incite greed..."

Before they act, riots and attacks will occur away from the street to draw the Aurors' attention, and by the time chaos ensues, it will be too late.

"confirm."

"confirm."

They nodded silently. Stilwell nodded, mingled among the Muggles strolling in the street, disguised himself as a Muggle, smashed the glass of the shopping street, and then began to shout in a high-pitched voice.

But before he could do anything, the glass of the shop next door was already broken amidst whistles.

As the Muggle's 'wand' made a sound, the Muggle guards that appeared immediately lay on the ground, screams rang out, but at the same time, there were also more crisp sounds of glass clattering.

Multicolored lights shone on the flying glass shards, creating an eerie glow. Then, flames erupted from cars parked on the roadside, and cheers broke out from the crowd amidst panic and screams.

All sorts of Muggles hummed tunes as they began to burrow into the shops, easily engaging in chaotic shopping with their wands or whatever else they could find. A feast that even the enforcers hadn't anticipated instantly began.

"Find a way to guide them over there!"

The Purifiers, who had finally managed to gather, began to change their plans—but before they could even get there, the maintenance personnel of the Magic Street had already spontaneously appeared to maintain the safety of protective spells such as the Muggle Expulsion Charm.

'It all depends on what's inside.'

-

"Splat!"

"Click!"

A jumble of noises rang out on the street, and the shop windows, which had been enchanted with protective magic, were not much stronger than ordinary glass under the attack of dark magic.

However, few wizards were willing to lend a hand—the high crime rate, high unemployment rate, high prices, and chaos of this period had made them more numb than before.

But when items priced in Galleons were tossed about on the streets like trash, some wizards became tempted.

Why?

Everyone has a wand, so you can do it but I can't?

On what grounds? You raised prices seven times in one month!

No, if they can, so can I... Anyway, those strikers and Aurors are useless; they haven't caught the rioters in all this time...

Many people share this view, especially since some time has passed since the riots began and there have been no officers to come and maintain order.

There was no other way; the external impact was too great, especially with the spells being constantly destroyed. They could only do their best to protect the spells and prevent any violations of the secrecy laws.

And so, amidst this chaos, the number of wizards with ulterior motives began to increase.

The looters ransacked the shops whose windows had been smashed, and after some thought, the later arrivals drew their wands and aimed them at the remaining shops…

Chapter 536 Peace and Sudden Change

Christmas is just around the corner.

In the school garden, William, who rarely gets a moment of leisure, stood in the courtyard garden, pulling a ball of flame flying in the air with his fingers like clay, while talking to Adams next to him.

"That's right—the first semester went by so fast, even though I haven't even harvested my biting cabbage yet."

As he spoke, he crunched the snow under his feet, and also cast a spell on the rose bushes to ensure they could bloom in this weather without withering in the cold—the elves did a good job, but it was still a little lacking.

“Oh, by the way,” Adams suddenly asked, as if remembering something, “you knew Hagrid took a long leave of absence, right?”

“I didn’t find out the details either,” William sighed. Hagrid had only asked him for some potions to deal with some special matters. William had asked if there was anything he could help with, but Hagrid refused. In addition, it was a full moon that day, and Lupin’s class needed to be covered, so he could only give Hagrid some potions and tell him to be careful.

However, he hadn't expected Hagrid to be gone for so long—Dumbledore said Hagrid was safe, but William didn't know about the others.

"In this cold weather, it's difficult to enter and exit the Forbidden Forest without Hagrid..."

Adams sighed. "I'm going to Australia for a meeting over Christmas. The weather there is perfect these days, and with Singed, the three of us can do some research on the local magical world. Shall we go?"

“I’m afraid that won’t work. I have plans for Christmas.” William shook his head. Although the Dark Lord was unlikely to make a move there, he still had to be on the safe side. The fact that the Professor hadn’t been replaced yet still made him a little uneasy. More importantly, he had just promised Lupin that he would spend Christmas with them.

"That's such a shame. What kind of gift would you like?"

"Forget about that," William shook his head. "If you manage to get what I need, you'll most likely be detained along with the person at customs..."

"You won..."

Adams spread his hands, looking helpless.

-

"Harry went to write letters again?"

Sirius looked up from his video game and asked Lupin.

"Of course... Hedwig flies twice a day, I think she's gotten a little thin."

“That’s really…too…” Sirius paused, “too normal to be true.”

He looked around. "Where's Professor William?"

“William?” Lupin glanced at Sirius. “Isn’t Professor William upstairs? Isn’t he studying the books you brought from home?”

"I didn't ask that!"

Sirius lowered his voice, "I mean, Professor William—he, you see, he looks like a student who just graduated a few years ago, so..."

Lupin stared wide-eyed at Sirius, completely surprised that in just one semester since he last saw him, Sirius had become so rich in—adventure…

but…

"I've never heard of it. Now that you mention it, I don't think I've paid any attention to this before."

Lupin lowered his voice—we're all Gryffindors, there's nothing wrong with testing each other out in this kind of thing.

"Hey, what are you talking about?"

Harry finished writing his letter and came downstairs, watching Sirius and Lupin whispering to each other, his face full of curiosity.