From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Okay, but we need to be quick—our traps must be set up before get out of class ends. The practical lesson is two consecutive long lectures, you know..."

"no problem!"

No problem at all—anyway, I don't know what the fifth graders have been doing lately, but in less than half an hour, the twins' team had already recruited more than a dozen people, and these were people who were willing to be put in solitary confinement together.

Those who didn't share the confinement burden but were willing to help are truly impossible to count.

"First...we need to stall Filch...someone needs to start an argument, or commit a foul and get taken to the office..."

The twins began explaining their tactics—lessons they had learned during their seven years at Hogwarts, and which proved quite practical.

"Secondly, we need to find a way to keep Filch's cat out of reach of Filch—that's easy enough, our Hufflepuff friends provided us with a huge bag of fresh catnip, the magically enhanced version..."

"Furthermore, we need to keep an eye on Professor McGonagall. She doesn't have any classes today and is very likely to come out, so someone needs to risk being put in solitary confinement to ask her about Transfiguration-related questions. They can't be too simple, nor can they be too difficult."

...

The twins explained their well-thought-out plan in detail, and then distributed the props.

"Be careful not to hurt the younger students; we only have one target!"

"Wake up from your dreams, those fifth graders who think they can do real-world practice! Practice without theory is absolutely terrible! Make the professors understand that fifth grade can't be taught like this!"

Chapter 554 Examination and Decryption

"Train your running ability properly, get running, get running!"

William shouted to the fifth-grade students as he walked toward a tree not far away.

Beside that tree, a ghost would occasionally peek out half its head, looking quite comical, as if it were stuck—but ghosts can't get stuck.

'That's strange. Although not many ghosts come to confide in me anymore, maybe once or twice a month, why did they come here instead of my office?'

He was genuinely curious—and without being immodest, he was one of the top ten wizards in the entire British wizarding world when it came to understanding ghosts, and he knew their personalities very well.

Although ghosts are neither afraid of sunlight nor wizards, they still prefer to stay in dark corners—not for any other reason than for the quiet.

If you were to scale down a ghost's lifespan to the length of a normal wizard's life, you would see just how torturous it would be—every hour or less, a bunch of noisy little people would rush over, doing strange things and interrupting your reverie.

It would be even more terrifying at Hogwarts. It's almost like a bunch of new little devils popping up the moment an ordinary wizard takes a nap, making the same silly mistakes and blunders. Even if you manage to find a secluded spot to hide, there will still be a bunch of little devils waving their wands and making a ruckus while you're sleeping, shouting that they want to go on an adventure.

Therefore, almost no ghosts come to this kind of place—only those who have just become ghosts are so curious as to wander around, but they will soon get tired of this exploration.

Because it's too easy—ghosts don't get hungry, they don't get tired, they're almost never injured, they're not blocked by obstacles, and their range of movement is quite limited... It's too easy to get bored.

'A new ghost arriving at Hogwarts? Hopefully, he can endure Peeves' torment…'

William silently shook his head—in fact, every year several ghosts planned to settle at Hogwarts, but they were either scared away by the students' intense curiosity or by Peeves, who was nothing like a ghost.

That's not a big problem, though. The ghost won't actually get hurt anyway. For William, figuring out how this guy died is a little more important—although the Dark Lord is most likely in America, it's also possible that he secretly killed a wizard here to prepare some wicked plan…

But unfortunately—it's an old ghost.

"Hello, what brings you here all of a sudden?"

Since he was already there, William casually asked—he had forgotten the name of this ghost who looked familiar, but he still wanted to greet him.

"I'm thinking about something, and I'm not sure if I should tell you, Professor."

He spoke slowly.

"Huh? Is there something new?"

There's not much in Hogwarts that can be kept from the ghosts. Apart from a few heavily guarded offices, they even occasionally pass through the professors' common room—but the ghosts never readily tell anyone what they've seen.

"A bunch of students are doing something stupid... just like it's happened countless times in the castle... They're always like that, thinking they're always right..."

The ghost sighed melancholy, still somewhat conflicted…

"Making a foolish mistake?"

William smiled. "It's perfectly normal. At their age, do you expect them to be absolutely right? As long as they don't go astray, it's no big deal if they make some silly mistakes."

He glanced at the students running over there and pointed with his finger. "See those over there? They're in fifth grade now. You can say they're more mature than before, that's for sure. But when it comes to making stupid mistakes, even without criticism, let's not talk about how far ahead, just ten years—ten years from now, who will dare to face every single thing they did back then?"

The oldest student at Hogwarts is only eighteen years old. If this were the online world instead of the magical world, within ten years, every student would have to hide their old social media profiles and online communities, too afraid to look at them or do anything stupid. Isn't that normal?

"That's true, Professor."

The ghost laughed, recalling the legend of the truth about the Philosopher's Stone that had been circulating wildly among the ghosts back then—when Potter first arrived at the school, ghosts would follow him from time to time to see if this so-called savior would shed his low-level stupidity and become different.

As it turns out, no matter who you are, you can't escape being labeled a stupid child at that age.

In any case, the time spent as ghosts was long and boring, with no time to waste. Several incredibly idle ghosts followed this foolish child around, observing him everywhere—being scolded by Snape, performing poorly in class, excelling in flying class, staying out all night, and sneaking out of the castle…

No different—no different from the foolish children at Hogwarts all these years, or rather, none of them are actually very bright…

It wasn't until the Philosopher's Stone was protected that the ghost's opinion of him began to change slightly—but not by much. After all, a first-grader who didn't even know a few spells was planning to face off against someone he considered a professor. If it weren't for luck…

“Let me guess…” William hesitated for a moment, “Is it the older students who feel it’s unfair?”

People are not worried about scarcity, but about inequality. How were students treated in the past, and how are they treated now? If he were a senior student, he'd feel uncomfortable too…

However, for a ghost to label it as foolish repetition goes beyond mere dissatisfaction…

"Professor, you guessed right. No wonder everyone praises you..."

The ghost paused for a moment, then laughed. "Those guys were so smug, thinking they could show off their superiority and make you admit your mistakes..."

"As expected..."

William shook his head helplessly. "But you're wrong—seventh-grade students are actually quite cunning..."

Some people definitely felt they were very clever, while others were venting their dissatisfaction or releasing pressure—Hogwarts' peculiar system caused students to accumulate pressure during their fifth-year OWLS exams, and then accumulate another wave of pressure when they graduated in seventh year.

There's nothing unforgivable about playing pranks—it's understandable, like tearing up books near the college entrance exam. The only problem is getting caught and having to clean up the mess.

"So how do you plan to stop them, Professor?"

Why stop it?

William shook his head, spread his hands, and smiled as he looked at the students in the distance. "Let them take a test on the fifth graders. Whoever loses will be punished..."

He wanted to see what kind of trouble these students, all his own students, could cause.

One person's skills are limited, so it takes collective wisdom and effort to create enough traps to test fifth-grade students—he doesn't know what kind of situations they will encounter in the future, so it's a good thing for the students to experience it in advance.

Anyway, he wasn't worried about anything happening to the students while he was keeping an eye on things—if the fifth graders were stumped by the test, then the seventh graders would get their wish; but if the fifth graders managed to break through most of the traps, that would be a different story, and they would have to settle accounts later.

-

"Huff...huff..."

Ron, panting, ran to Harry's side—he was even starting to feel like doing his worksheets now.

While the older students envied them with envious eyes, these fifth-graders knew best what their current curriculum was like.

That means running away, running away, and running away as fast as you can...

To put it bluntly, since the curriculum was reformed, they haven't even learned the incantation to kill a fly...

At first, the classes were quite novel, and everyone thought things would definitely get better. But now, if it weren't for Professor Jiwei being there, they would all start protesting.

This is ridiculous! The self-defense course is all about defense and running away—and there's a strict assessment line standing there.

The professor said that as long as he could beat Harry in a duel, he could learn whatever he wanted. But what was the point of fighting that freak?

Now everyone in fifth grade knows that Harry is good at fighting, even capable of taking on three people at once—last time, the professor had three classmates gang up on Harry, but in less than five minutes, Harry found an opening and took them all down…

"It's simply indescribable..."

Ron leaned on Harry for a few steps, finally managing to catch his breath—it was outrageous! He was a member of the Quidditch team too, yet he'd been completely worn out by running…

"Okay, don't talk while running, you might get a side stitch..."

Well-trained, Harry whispered to Ron, then continued running—the professor seemed to be talking to someone over there, but he wasn't sure…maybe it was a ghost…

"Alright! Everyone, you can stop now, relax a bit, and listen to me!"

The professor over there shouted loudly.

"Next, everyone return to the castle ahead of time, and then come to the castle—well, the fifth floor—to report to me."

"The first-place team to arrive adds 15 points to the college! The college with the most undeserving students will have 5 points deducted!"

"Don't rush, wait for me to say 'start' before proceeding, otherwise it will be considered a violation!"

William addressed the students while smiling as he gazed at the distant castle, anticipating that the older students would have ample time to set traps.

These students are really giving us a huge gift even though they're about to graduate—helping with exams and sacrificing themselves to establish authority. It's incredibly touching.

'I'll go find the culprit later... They'll be so happy to run into me.'

William chuckled and then shouted to the fifth graders below, who were getting playful, "Everyone, get ready! Go!"

-

"what's the situation?"

The twins observed the outside world from a well-located empty classroom—the fifth-grade students had returned, but it wasn't time for get out of class to end yet.

Although they hoped it was a sudden decision by the professor to end get out of class early, their years of experience in struggle and being locked up told them that something was amiss and they had to run.

However, the two of them forcefully suppressed the sudden urge to escape.

The prank has been done, and the promise to take the blame has been made, so why run away? At worst, I'll be caught and put in solitary confinement again, which will be doing right by myself.

This was the biggest prank they ever pulled, and they even enlisted the help of many friends and classmates.

Moreover, to be fair, their prank this time was more than just a prank—it was meant to test the fifth-grade students. If they couldn't get past those traps, it would prove that the professor's efforts over the past few days had been in vain.

They never blindly followed authority; even with Dumbledore present, the two dared to pull off various antics—singing silly songs, accusing the headmaster of joking, and even making suggestive remarks about the age line. Having done such things, isn't it normal for them to question the professor?

"We're right! We absolutely have to let the professor see this!"

Fred and George exchanged a glance and nodded.

"Yes, I'm watching."

The sudden sound in the air made the two of them freeze like statues—when?

To the astonishment of the two men, William emerged from the shadows.

Having spent so much time at Hogwarts, he knew very well which spot offered the best vantage point. With a simple Disillusionment Charm cast on himself, climbing up the castle using the vines wasn't too difficult.

He just didn't expect to be able to catch it so accurately this time.