From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

William glanced smugly at the broken wand. "First of all, I must tell you that everything I do that seems illegal has the backing of the Ministry of Magic and the signature of Minister Fudge, so it's not illegal at all."

"Secondly, Dumbledore won't make a move. I must solemnly introduce you to my colleague, the terminator of dark wizards, the hunter of Death Eaters, the legendary Auror who filled half of Azkaban, Professor Moody. He even ruined his new robes in his attempt to kill you."

“I think he would be willing to consider killing you the highest honor of his Auror career and work for a few more years because of it—I don’t think you’d mind, Professor Moody?”

William wasn't intentionally humiliating Voldemort—making Moody do it was hardly humiliating. Besides, Dumbledore hadn't killed Grindelwald back then, and he was afraid the old man might have second thoughts today. So he figured it was better to let someone willing to do it do it, and he could use this as an excuse to keep Moody from thinking he had nothing left to live for and preparing to retire.

“With pleasure,” Moody said, his wooden leg, which was hastily constructed and somewhat ill-fitting, creaking loudly. A broken smile appeared on his lips. “Then, I’m ready to get started.”

Moody stood at the front, looking at Dumbledore. When he saw Dumbledore nod, a smug look appeared on his face. "Then—gone forever, Voldemort."

Avada Kedavra!

Green light burst forth from Moody's wand, and Voldemort, having lost an arm, instantly lost all his power, his crimson eyes rolling upwards.

"ended."

Moody was panting heavily, but a bright smile appeared on his face—though it made his face look even more ferocious, he was sure it was the happiest he had ever laughed in years.

"ended."

Lupin sat down on the ground, disregarding his image—not everyone can remain calm under the onslaught of killing curses and dark magic.

"Yes, it's over."

Dumbledore stared at the corpse on the ground, his eyes filled with complex emotions. All these years, everything had finally come to an end.

As for William, he began to examine the random objects—voodoo dolls, potions, miscellaneous magical ingredients, and even some unique alchemical tools.

"No, nothing unusual. It's confirmed that the Dark Lord is really dead."

As he spoke, he splashed strange potions onto Voldemort's corpse.

"You'll be in charge of carrying the Dark Lord's body back later, Professor Lupin... The dead have their uses, and the Death Eaters and Purifiers are still clustered together at the Magical Congress of America."

"We'll burn this place down with Fiery Blaze later, just to prevent any strange soul fragments from appearing."

William said something extremely hurtful, then suddenly seemed to remember something and strode over to Voldemort's corpse.

“Oh, right, I almost forgot, Mr. Dark Lord, I did spend some time in Azkaban, but that’s no big deal—the important thing is that you’re dead, and all this turmoil will soon be over.”

Chapter 606 Learning Has No End

"Minister, as you have instructed, the latest speech has been prepared."

The assistant respectfully handed the speech to Fudge, who took it, looked at it, and smiled with satisfaction.

From this day forward, the British wizarding world officially declares war on the Mystic—though it is somewhat risky, the frequent reports of victories coming from Dumbledore's side have given him enough confidence in declaring war.

Of course, there's a little bit of personal motive involved—once wartime begins, this election will be forced to be postponed, allowing him to continue serving his term during wartime.

But it's no big deal. Everyone knows that the mysterious man struck first, and he, Minister Fudge, is the great hero who exposed the Dark Lord's resurrection plot.

What is Old Barty's reaction now?

He suddenly remembered Bati, who should have been a strong contender for this term's minister—once he missed this election, Bati might never have another chance in his life.

“Mr. Batty has been rather irritable lately, Minister.”

'Finally caught the scent? Too late, Barty, and my dear Auror Chief of Staff Scrimgeour…'

"I understand. I'll tell him to get some rest later. Even though war is approaching, he still needs to be careful..."

Fudge nodded, a victor's smile on his face. "I'll work a little overtime tonight, and at 8 p.m. I'll be giving a speech on the radio declaring war."

"Yes, Minister."

-

"Finally back..."

William looked at the familiar Hogwarts scene and a smile appeared on his face—Dumbledore had summoned him too hastily; he still had half a class to finish.

"Yes, we actually made it back alive."

Moody stretched his body, a rare look of relaxation on his face. "Honestly, I still find it a bit unbelievable."

He was truly relaxed, and even became less concerned about maintaining vigilance around him—after personally killing the Dark Lord, he felt that even if he died instantly, he would have no regrets in his life.

Lupin stood silently in the middle of the group, holding the Dark Lord's corpse with his wand, his expression somewhat complicated. It was only when William stared at Voldemort's body that a sudden thought occurred to him—to Lupin, the Dark Lord was the murderer of his best friend…

'Perhaps it's time to let Professor Lupin take action…'

'But it's not a big problem. We participated in the ambush and cornered the Dark Lord. What more could we want?'

'Well… why hasn't Dumbledore said a word? Is it because he needs to go back to school to work overtime, and that's why he's suddenly overcome with sadness?'

William glanced at Dumbledore out of the corner of his eye and noticed that Dumbledore's eyes were filled with a look of despair.

'The Dark Lord is dead, so why does he suddenly have that look in his eyes?'

"Professor William, what did you say to Minerva?"

Dumbledore's voice trembled slightly.

“It should be, ‘We need to implement the highest level of protection,’” William thought for a moment. “Didn’t we discuss this before? In the event of a dangerous situation, the students should retreat to the common lounge for comprehensive protection.”

"We're doomed..."

Dumbledore's joy turned to despair. "Professor William, do you think it's too late for me to retire now?"

???

What's going on here? Isn't it fine as it is now? Anyway, you're not exercising the administrative power of the headmaster anymore. If outsiders hear that you've retired, they might think that Hogwarts has ruthlessly abandoned the old headmaster after defeating Voldemort... After all, this is a tradition among Muggles.

"There are still many Death Eaters and Purifiers in the American wizarding world, Headmaster. Besides, do you look like someone who needs to retire?"

"I think it's necessary..."

Dumbledore looked at Hogwarts Castle. "Minerva seems to have activated the final defenses—Professor William, do you know how long it will take to rebuild and recharge those stone pillars? Do you know how long it will take to restore the entire defense system?"

"I think Professor McGonagall must have considered everything carefully; perhaps an emergency has occurred..."

William racked his brains to come up with lies to defend himself—the castle was perfectly quiet, not a single stone was broken, so there was no unusual incident.

"But Minerva doesn't know either; she hasn't fully taken over the protection system yet, she only knows how to activate it..."

Dumbledore's expression was so vivid that it made it seem as if they had suffered a crushing defeat rather than having killed Voldemort—this expression finally made William understand a little bit of Dumbledore's pain.

Magic is magic, but the study of this stuff follows a law of conservation—a protective system that even Dumbledore was satisfied with, and that Professor McGonagall was eager to try, a protective spell that has been passed down for generations, the cost of its maintenance and repair is absolutely proportional to its power.

This is not just a matter of money. Due to its complexity and confidentiality, in addition to a large amount of money, the person who does the renovation must be someone who can keep the secret and has a deep understanding of the subject.

"Ah, Headmaster, I'm sorry, I'm not very skilled in alchemy. As you know, apart from the self-defense course, I'm only interested in potions."

William wore a sincere smile.

Seeing him take the lead, the others realized what was happening. "Albus, you know me. I'm only good at dealing with dark magic and capturing people. If I were to get involved, the defense system might collapse."

Lupin finally realized that although the protective system should not be leaked to outsiders, they had already proven themselves by killing Voldemort, which was why their two colleagues had said those things.

“Professor Dumbledore, you know me. I haven’t learned any proper skills all these years, and I didn’t take any alchemy courses when I was in school.”

I'm tired—I haven't said anything yet!

Dumbledore shook his head helplessly. "Let's go back to school..."

-

The mysterious man is dead!

When the body was placed outside the school and kept under close guard, many older students tried their best to get a glimpse of it and then spread the shocking news throughout the entire school.

Owls flew away from the school in batches, and everyone was scrambling to pass the news on to their families. During this time, the shadow of war was weighing heavily on everyone, and even the news of the destruction of the Horcruxes failed to boost morale.

Just when everyone was mentally preparing for war, their headmaster, Dumbledore, actually took matters into his own hands and brought back the mysterious man's body!

Professor McGonagall happily announced that today was a holiday—a piece of news that drove the already somewhat unruly students completely wild. They began to celebrate in all sorts of ways, writing victory in chalk on the blackboards of each classroom and then using clumsy magic to make them more conspicuous.

All sorts of colorful ribbons and banners were decorated in every corner of the castle. Even when Mr. Filch saw these students posting things haphazardly, he would turn his head and pretend not to see them.

The Weasley brothers even brought out all the fireworks they had originally planned to use for mischief and provided them to everyone for free—although a few unlucky guys were called to the office for setting them off inside the castle, this did not diminish the cheerful atmosphere inside the castle at all.

In fact, it wasn't until almost bedtime that the two brothers finally remembered that they had set off all the fireworks they had originally planned to use for their mischief—they were supposed to do it on graduation day!

Fortunately, the advertising campaign went well—everyone was very satisfied.

"Anyway, it's not too bad, my brother..."

"I just need to come up with another prank..."

-

"Ah, Professor William!"

The fat monk knocked on the office door and entered politely. "Today is truly a day worth celebrating."

“Yes,” William sat back in his chair, leaning back with a smile on his face, “I like days like this.”

“Well…” The fat monk hesitated for a moment, but finally made his request.

“I’m sorry, there are too many ghosts who want to know. They asked me to invite you to tell us how that mysterious man was killed—we all saw it, you were the one who called him away from Dumbledore’s office.”

The silver on the fat monk's face became a little heavier.

“Ambush! We’ll help hold them off while Dumbledore makes his move—he fell into the trap and ultimately fought to the death.”

William lies without thinking – he's finally made a name for himself in the potions world, what will happen to his reputation if people find out he also successfully poisoned the Dark Lord?

Although everyone knows that someone skilled in potions can definitely concoct poisons, this can't be said outright.

'Right, I need to coordinate our statements with them. I can't be branded as someone skilled in poisoning; that's not a good reputation…'

William responded while thinking, telling the fat monk about the facts, excluding poisoning and sneak attacks, so that his ghostly friend could happily leave with firsthand information.

After exchanging statements with Dumbledore and the others in the letter, William leaned back in his chair and picked up a chocolate frog to enjoy.

Honestly—since leaving Azkaban and receiving his Hogwarts acceptance letter, this was the first time he had ever relaxed so much and enjoyed a chocolate frog.

"It feels so good to be free of the curse..."

William looked at the cards on the table and a sudden inspiration struck him—today is a good day. Could it be that he'll finally get the last Chocolate Frog card he hasn't yet discovered?

He flipped over the card with great interest, then couldn't help but laugh—Dumbledore's smile was watching him.

"I knew it..."