From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

The Dark Lord narrowed his eyes and looked at Barty.

"Well... if I had to point out a shortcoming, your plan lacks an opponent."

"Opponents?"

"Yes, Master, the opponent."

Little Barty lowered his head and revealed a very warm smile.

"People are dissatisfied with the Magic Congress's measures; they are criticizing their incompetence, but no civilian organization has stood up to resist your actions..."

"If someone were to stand up and rally all sorts of wizards, then spontaneously organize teams to intercept the Purgers, and even succeed a few times, the Magic Congress would be completely finished..."

Little Barty's face was full of a maniacal smile.

"Compare this to the Magical Congress's defeat—they will lose power directly, but by then, we can find a way to eliminate the rebels all at once, or even just expose some evil deeds, and no one in the entire American magical community will be able to unite these forces..."

A look of joy appeared on the Dark Lord's face.

He loved the plan—to unite the resistance fighters through his organization, and then utterly subdue them; it would be truly—simply wonderful…

He looked at Little Barty with increasing admiration.

“Perfect, Barty.”

“It is my honor, master—please allow your humble servant to accomplish this task for you.”

"Go, Barty."

Voldemort nodded. "Go and fetch the necessary supplies from Bertha. I look forward to your triumphant return. You will receive honors beyond your wildest dreams."

Chapter 548 A New Beginning

What do you need?

Bertha asked with feigned composure—although she was still afraid, she was now able to complete the Dark Lord's mission despite her fear.

'simply…'

Barty glanced at the woman named Bertha in front of him, feeling helpless but unable to vent his frustration.

What should he say? What can he say?

What excuse or grounds does he have to accuse a loyal Death Eater who helped the Dark Lord resurrect? What merits does he have to laugh at this woman who is actually trembling with fear? What gives him the right to be jealous of the Dark Lord's rewards for a loyal and capable Death Eater?

But he was just not reconciled—why? He was the one who did it first! Whether it was following the Dark Lord, serving the Dark Lord, or even disappearing after the Dark Lord vanished!

He was overjoyed to have gained his freedom, and he was also overjoyed to have reunited with the Dark Lord who had regained his power, but...

He dared not think any further. What he needed to do now was to do his job well and absolutely not mess it up—the mistake he made in Azkaban must never happen again.

The Dark Lord needs manpower. If he continues to be jealous, he might make the same mistake as Umbridge, which is absolutely unacceptable.

"Mr. Barty, what do you need?"

Bertha, suppressing her fear, mustered her courage and asked again—she remembered, because of the person in front of her, Mr. Crouch had cast a forgetting spell on her.

"A fake identity, the specific kind, with a sufficient amount of compound decoction and enough gallon."

Barty forced himself to calm down and revealed his plan.

An outsider wizard cannot be trusted and cannot withstand investigation.

Therefore, he had to disguise himself as a trustworthy wizard in order to naturally gain the trust of other wizards and thus build a spontaneous resistance organization.

"A fake identity?"

"Yes, older age, less social interaction, and must be living alone—whether widowed or never married."

Anyway, the Dark Lord now has a large and powerful empire, making it extremely convenient for him to gather information. Little Barty naturally wouldn't be polite. He has always trusted the power under the Dark Lord's command, and they even kidnapped the Aurors together back then.

“There’s a serious shortage of Polyjuice Potion lately,” Bertha said, frantically flipping through the ledgers, “but we’re working on it as fast as we can, since we’ve stockpiled a lot of potion ingredients…”

Seeing her clumsy movements, Barty got even angrier—angry at Bertha and angry at himself, but he couldn't lash out, so he made an excuse to leave.

'Go find Bella and the others, see how they're recovering…'

-

"Harry, come up here and demonstrate."

In the empty classroom, Harry walked toward the center of the classroom with a helpless expression.

He admitted that he had become a little arrogant lately, but the professor had indeed gone a little too far.

Ever since the Azkaban breakout on Christmas Day, their fifth-year curriculum has been drastically changed. More basic spells have been added to the Charms class, and Transfiguration has been changed to focus on how to quickly change terrain for camouflage. As for self-defense, not to mention the theoretical knowledge has been altered. They have even abandoned the previous textbooks and focused on teaching escape and hiding.

Dig holes, dive into the water, hide in trees, and use vegetation to conceal yourself...

Various hiding techniques, whether using magic or not, were taught in detail in class—there were almost no practical spells, it was all about escaping, escaping, and escaping.

Harry was actually quite happy at first, thinking that the suffering he had endured was finally going to be experienced by others. But unexpectedly, just as he was laughing happily, the professor called him up.

That happened in the last class—while Professor William was lecturing happily, the students noticed that the most advanced spell being used in class was one they had learned in third grade…

As a result, the students below naturally had some opinions—but the voices were not loud. After all, everyone had been subjected to half a year of exam papers and did not have the courage to express their opinions face to face.

But the professor actually overheard it, and even turned around with a smile to admit it.

"Of course I agree with what you say; fighting is the best form of defense."

Then, the professor called him up, and then came the professor's devilish voice—"Harry, try to attack me, try with all the magic you know."

He did just that, without the slightest hesitation, because the professor really would retaliate.

Then came a long five minutes.

As Harry rose from the ground for the seventeenth time and took his wand, he was delighted to hear the words, "That concludes today's demonstration."

"Now you know why we teach this, right?"

After giving Gryffindor a paltry three points, the professor announced in a somewhat cheerful tone, "Whoever defeats Potter in a duel can come to me and receive instruction in any spell—any spell you've seen me use or that's in the textbook."

Because of that statement, Harry has gone through about seven or eight duels in the past few days, once again successfully proving that his Triwizard Tournament championship title was not something he got by chance.

His agile movements, lightning-fast attacks, powerful spells, and breathtaking breathing rhythm even allowed him to directly defeat several seventh-grade students—fortunately, the latter didn't seem embarrassed, after all, he was the champion…

But that happened a few days ago, and now there are new classes...

'I actually still wanted to do the test paper; being completely outmatched was just too...'

Harry slowly walked to the middle of the classroom and took out his wand—he dared not be careless. If the professor cast a spell first, he would have no chance to resist at all. He wouldn't even be able to complete his defenses before being suppressed by the incredibly fast spells and unable to cast a spell, and would finally be disarmed by a spell.

However, going first didn't guarantee much better results. He first put up a protective barrier for himself and then began to attack, but he lost all his first-mover advantage in just over a minute. After three minutes, his protection was breached, and he was disarmed by a magic attack.

"Very good, that's it, Gryffindor plus three points."

The professor still didn't plan to teach attack methods today, but at least it was related to combat—today's lesson was about how to disengage from the battlefield and find cover to avoid being hit by other spells.

After Harry's defeat, everyone remained very honest – if you can't beat someone, you can't beat them, so what can you do if you don't run away?

But at the end of the course, one student couldn't help but ask, "Professor, don't we learn how to fight?"

“Hmm…the course will cover a bit more later on. The sixth-grade advanced class will have a lot of combat spells, and the seventh-grade class will cover the content of evil spells.” William thought for a moment and let slip a little, “This year, due to the special circumstances, the OWLS exam will also be this type of question, and the score for the theory part has been compressed to a very low level.”

In fact, some of the exam questions were submitted by him and then selected by the exam administration—but there's no need to tell the students that OWLS changes are necessary for current events, and there's no need to publicize this on a large scale.

Although the fifth-year students might be a little unhappy, it's more important to teach them how to survive potential future conflicts, unless the wizarding world is ready to send them to the battlefield.

"Don't be so listless. If you really don't want to, it's not too late to go back to the previous exam system. If we can get more than 50% of the signatures, I can go and discuss it with the Examination Authority."

William spoke with a smile, but none of the students below responded. Even Hermione hesitated for a moment before giving up. The past exams were actually not bad, but Professor William's papers... even if you revise them, they can't be worse than before, right?

-

"Put some water down, Harry?"

"We played on the same team for five whole years!"

"It's fine if you're just a little bit off, or if you accept the challenge from both of us and unfortunately lose to two of us, it won't be shameful if word gets out."

In the empty classroom, Harry, who was getting ready to go on his date, was blocked by the twins who suddenly appeared.

The reason is simple: Professor William announced the rules, and they intended to challenge them.

Although the professor will definitely hold a grudge after you learn the specific spell—at most, you'll just be put in solitary confinement, no big deal!

"No, it's really not possible."

Harry shook his head firmly. "The professor said that if I lose the duel, it must be because I'm too lax, and then I won't get my vacation."

"I can't believe it!!!"

-

"You can actually do that?"

From a distance, Little Barty, wearing an invisibility cloak, observed his target, Susan.

Yes, it's Susan, not any other name—because the person with that name was a robust German witch.

She perfectly fits Little Barty's requirements: quiet, widowed, but respected by the wizards living around her.

This Ms. Susan has a dragoon-like gait, usually wears emerald green and fiery red checkered clothes, her strong waist and fists look very powerful, and her undeniably flat figure that runs from her neck to her heels makes her look incredibly resolute.

Her step forward and her actions were enough to inspire people to follow her—Little Barty couldn't help but marvel at how perfect it was.

'Perhaps that's how she was able to help the Dark Lord resurrect and then defeat Iphamoni in one fell swoop…'

Perhaps others would subconsciously think that men would prefer to transform into men and women would prefer to transform into women, but this Miss Bertha is completely different. She directly chose the best answer for him and gave this Death Eater who came from afar a test in this regard.

This is it—I've given you the best answer, do you dare to choose it?

Yes, a male wizard would usually back down, even if the candidate is so suitable. In this case, she would bring up her backup plan, which would be slightly inferior, in order to show that she was dedicated to her duties.

“Amazing, truly amazing, that Bertha…”

Little Barty exclaimed in admiration—of course he dares!

Once he left that hellish place, Azkaban, there was nothing he wouldn't dare to do!

Isn't it just about transforming into a witch, standing up against the purgers, and using actions to gather supporters? He did it!

He's already been imprisoned by Azkaban for serving the Dark Lord, so what else is impossible for him!

He accepted the challenge, the test!