From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

-

"here we go again."

Harry tried hard not to notice the whispers around him.

The recent influx of major news stories in the newspapers has caused the students around him to look at him with increasingly strange eyes.

He once overheard Dean and a few others whispering about a rumor that bothered him: Harry Potter's superb magic was gradually revealed over time, and having become a school champion by his fourth year, he was already powerful enough by his fifth year to defeat a team of classmates. This powerful force would erupt when he graduated, making him the savior who defeated the mysterious man.

The origin of this magical legend is unknown, but as Harry performed exceptionally well in class, especially after defeating several seventh-year challengers one-on-one, it gained increasing popularity.

The pressure from the Mysterious Man is immense. Even after Dumbledore has gradually unraveled the secret of the Mysterious Man's resurrection and begun searching for and destroying the Horcruxes, a sufficient number of people are still troubled by the Dark Lord.

Everyone believed that Harry was the savior who could solve all problems after graduation—perhaps through an adventure after graduation, or perhaps through a duel; whatever the case, the Dark Lord would disappear as before, and peace would be restored.

'Seriously...why would such outrageous remarks be made...'

Harry was deeply troubled. His repeated attempts to debunk the rumors had no effect; people would only respond with "Yes, yes, yes, you're absolutely right," followed by expectation or hidden hatred. Even Cho's gaze towards him had softened considerably, always filled with lingering resentment…

'I'm still far from good enough...'

Harry sighed and looked at Professor William walking onto the podium.

He wasn't being modest; he genuinely knew about it—the professor on the podium would always praise his talent and progress without reservation, and then mercilessly beat him to the ground in one-on-one teaching or duels until he was covered in bruises.

This is really discouraging. On one hand, they tell you you're an extremely talented genius, and on the other hand, they use a few spells to knock you to the ground, then happily praise you for learning very quickly and improving a lot compared to before...

He sometimes even suspected that the professor's praise was meant to keep him from giving up, but when he sparred with other students, or even fought against older students, he could clearly feel his progress—yet, during training sessions, he was mercilessly pinned to the ground and beaten up…

“Harry…”

Harry heard a cry of pain from his opponents and realized that he had been a little too rough during the sparring session. Not only were all four opponents now disarmed, but they were also tightly bound with ropes.

"what…"

He apologized softly and released his opponent. They complained slightly, but no one showed any displeasure—because everyone had been hit before, or rather, no one had ever been hit before.

Finally, when get out of class ended, Harry could no longer contain his doubts and walked behind the students to stand in front of the professor.

"Professor, I'm a little confused."

"Confused? Tell me about it?"

William casually waved his left hand to close the classroom door to prevent eavesdroppers, then nodded at Harry—Harry hadn't slacked off in his studies lately, and his progress was almost visible to the naked eye.

"That's right, that's right, they're saying I'm the savior..."

Harry felt his face burning as soon as he finished speaking; he had never heard of a savior who was constantly being beaten to the ground.

"Savior?"

William smiled and put down the paper bag. "That's a nice title. So you're bothered by the title 'savior'?"

"It's just... I always feel like I haven't learned enough, I'm far, far behind, and defeating Voldemort is really..."

"So, you feel that the spells you've learned aren't powerful enough?"

"No, Professor, no."

Harry shook his head vigorously. "You said that some spells might be particularly powerful, but we are wizards. We control the spells, not the other way around. A single trick might work against students, but it's definitely not that simple against powerful wizards."

"Is that... the responsibility of the savior?"

"Yes... I always feel ashamed... yet I can't help but want to do things that waste my time..."

"Wasting time? You mean—Quidditch, dating, or time shared with other people?"

William looked at Harry with a serious expression. "You don't really think your life is all about defeating the Dark Lord, do you?"

"... "

"Oh my god..."

William covered his forehead, looking at Harry who was speechless. "I admit, it's a pretty good ideal, to defeat the Dark Lord and save the world... It sounds cool, and I admit, I did have some of those thoughts when I was teaching you magic."

“But magic is the power you wield, the weapon you use to defend yourself, the knowledge you use to understand this magical world, and the assistant you will have in your future life,” William shook his head. “I’m here to teach students, not to teach any kind of savior.”

"Some of my first batch of students have been working for a while now. Many of them have consulted me about various issues in the classroom or my office, and some have even learned different spells from me..."

"For some students who have extra learning capacity, I will give them a little extra help. Whether it's Percy, Nancy, or Nymph who have already graduated, they have all learned some magical techniques that I personally find quite interesting."

"Even the students who didn't graduate, those who had the energy to do other things in fifth grade, learned a few tricks. This even included the twins... oh yes, and your friend, Ronald Weasley. Of course, I admit, I have a bit of a personal reason for this, because I know that the Weasley students all have some peculiar talents, and I wanted to know what he was good at... Of course, Percy was also partly to blame..."

"Fewer ghosts have been coming to my office these past few years. A few years ago, I would come every week and make sure to spend one evening chatting with the ghosts..."

“Well—this is getting a bit too much into the subject,” William said, looking at Harry. “But you have to understand that each of them has their own life. Perhaps one day, when we all gang up on the Dark Lord, some of them will put aside what they’re doing to fight. But they will fight to protect their own lives or the people or things they love, not to stake their entire lives on fighting the Dark Lord.”

"My teachings are meant to empower you to choose and protect your own lives when facing the future, not to train you specifically for fighting."

"You can study desperately to defeat the Dark Lord, but I hope you can pursue more about life, learn to protect it, and learn to love it."

"Besides, you still have Dumbledore, the Headmaster, the Ministry of Magic, and us professors above you... If you're willing to become one of the fighters against the Dark Lord after you graduate, I might be happy to introduce you then. As for now, after you've prepared for battle, go and work hard to improve yourself..."

"Yes, Professor!"

Although the professor made some grammatical errors, Harry suddenly felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders, and after saying goodbye with his schoolbag in hand, he happily ran out.

"Go and protect..."

William watched Harry's departing figure, nodded slightly, and the chalk dust falling on the blackboard rose up little by little with the nod of his head, then formed a protective barrier similar to the Ironclad Charm.

"boom…"

As William swung his wand, a powerful spell struck the defense with a muffled thud.

"Still a little short..."

William shook his head and waved away the chalk dust.

The magic was a little lacking, and the scheming was a little lacking too…

He had prepared a bunch of hidden clues for the Dark Lord, just waiting for someone to pass on the message. But so many days have passed, and no one has paid attention to where the precious candies went, no one has checked Dumbledore's recipes, and not even a small sign of Dumbledore being injured has been found!

'As expected of the Dark Lord, my plan to use a fake Horcrux to trick him into believing we were spreading false information actually didn't work on him...'

'The principal's faked death failed...'

'If there's still no unusual activity in a few days, we'll have to clear Ms. Susan's name and prepare for a tough battle…'

He picked up the paper bag that was on the table again.

"Then let's begin, Dark Lord. While I may not be well-versed in the wars of the magical world, and my scheming skills are mediocre, your Death Eaters are already half-defeated, and the Purifiers are running out of talent... If you can't outmaneuver them, then prepare for war..."

Chapter 604 Good afternoon, Tom

"Yes, yes, this is it."

When the azure sea reappeared before their eyes, even Tom showed a hint of excitement on his face.

The warm June sun baked the earth, and the distant sea breeze was particularly comfortable. Everything around him was unchanged, and this familiar scene reminded Tom of his childhood.

It was in this place that he proved himself to be different from the other children. He used the power of magic to bring them to the top of the cave, and only after they were convinced did he take the disoriented ones down.

“I’ve never been wrong,” he said, looking at the familiar stone. “I’m a natural leader, different from everyone else. I’ve known that since I was a child and I’ve lived by it.”

"And now, I have become the ruler of a magical kingdom, with immense power under my command."

Tom slowly walked toward his Horcrux hideout. "I'll come back with my Horcruxes sooner or later, after I've conquered the entire magical world."

He strode to the rock near the sea and gently tapped his wand—the wand, which had been dormant for hundreds of years, immediately unleashed its incredible power, parting the seawater where the wand had touched to reveal a damp rocky path.

Tom laughed. He had to admit that the power of the wand he had inherited along with Ilfamoni was beyond his wildest imagination.

The drained passageway became bright again after Tom waved his wand once more, and he twitched his mouth, revealing a rather sinister smile on his noseless face.

"That's it, unparalleled power, that's the power that can conquer the whole world."

He walked quickly through the dark passage. Because of the water on the ground, his footsteps sounded unusually heavy, but Tom enjoyed it.

"This is it..."

The wand was waved, and the tightly sealed door opened again, revealing a dark hall inside.

"That idiot Albus is probably still at Hogwarts racking his brains trying to figure out how to break through these traps—or maybe he's in class. Who would have thought that the infamous Voldemort would sneak into England during the day?"

Tom laughed at Dumbledore—he knew why the old man had to spread the news instead of doing it secretly.

After news of his resurrection spread, both Ilfamoni and the Magical Congress received letters daily from pure-blood families in strange and unusual countries, including England. More than a decade later, the name Voldemort had become a taboo in the entire wizarding world, and this terrifying name, coupled with his record of conquering a wizarding world, led many to join his cause.

If it weren't for that old fellow Dumbledore cracking the secret of his resurrection, perhaps the surrounding countries would have surrendered without a fight.

"But you're too late, Dumbledore. If you hadn't been held back by that damned Horcrux, you wouldn't have even met my second Horcrux."

He raised his wand, and a pale green light shot straight into the sky, illuminating the entire heavens.

"Ok?"

Tom suddenly noticed something was wrong—a dozen stone pillars had appeared on the lake surface out of nowhere. He swore he hadn't created such things at his treasure trove.

Just as he was wondering, a voice he would never forget in his life suddenly rang out.

"Ah, good afternoon, Tom, it's been a long time."

-

"The most important thing when casting a spell is not to panic—while using all the spells you know at once may sometimes produce amazing results, most of the time it will kill you."

"Stay calm, you must stay calm!"

"Except in very rare cases, the unusual situations you encounter are not so difficult under certain magic—it sounds very easy, but it's extremely difficult in practice. Not everyone can remain calm in unexpected situations, which requires a lot of practice. Once you get used to it, encountering unusual situations will become a piece of cake..."

On the podium, William was giving a lecture to third-grade students when he suddenly felt the indicator on his chest, used to notify people of emergencies, start to get extremely hot.

So, the self-defense professor, who had just been telling his students not to panic no matter what happened, thought for a moment about the classroom's location, then rushed to the window, waved his wand and made the glass and window frame disappear, then casually stretched out a rope and pulled him to the classroom diagonally below.

"Professor Lupin!"

He shouted in the air without any regard for decorum, while waving his wand and making the classroom windows below disappear as well, "Assemble downstairs!"

Before Lupin could react, he pulled out his flying broom, barely managed to control it, and flew towards the headmaster's office where Moody was located diagonally above. After casually tearing down the window of Dumbledore's office, he shouted to Moody, who was impersonating Dumbledore, "Assemble downstairs!"

As he shouted, Lupin had already reached the window and, amidst the curious gazes of the students, jumped directly downstairs. Only when he was about to land did he wave his wand, summoning bandages and casting a spell on himself to mitigate the impact.

"I've told you so many times, if anyone dares to jump out of the upstairs window again, don't blame me for making him clean the toilet for a week!"

Filch poked his head out and shouted, then noticed that the person jumping out of the window below was Lupin. His face twisted for a moment, then he looked up, ready to scold the students who were watching the commotion.