From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Yes, Afra is a good girl."

-

When it was time to eat, William and his friends were surprised to see a little mud monkey rushing towards them.

"Afra has obediently returned!"

She shouted with great enthusiasm—if it weren't for that shout, William might have even pulled out his wand to defend himself.

In less than half an hour, the once bright red robe was almost unrecognizable—her once fair face was covered in mud and water, and her straight hair was now messy and mixed with grass seeds. If it weren't for the fact that her voice hadn't changed, William would hardly believe that this was the little girl who had just said she wanted to run out to play.

'Where did our adorable child go? Whose is this little mud monkey?'

William fell into a state of deep doubt.

"Gudu."

Professor Singed, standing nearby, made a distinct swallowing sound. "Professor Taylor wants to duel me."

Although it's a bit of an exaggeration, it's understandable. If you take your clean and tidy child out and someone brings back a little muddy monkey, the child will want to fight you.

Let's see if there's any way to salvage the situation.

William patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, and the two of them got up, grabbed their wands, and held Afra down.

Finally, when Adams's dish was ready, the two managed to restore the little girl to her previous state—William finally realized how severely unbalanced his magical abilities were; he simply couldn't handle anything more delicate.

Fortunately, Afra was cooperative enough. Perhaps the wild child had finally remembered that he was going to be punished. But even so, when William and the others ate, they still felt that today's food was more than twice as delicious - purely because they were tired.

"You liar uncles, you're not going to stop playing with me, are you?"

On the way back, the alert little girl, worried about being beaten, asked cautiously.

'Change how you address me!'

"No, don't worry." William patted her head and picked out the leaves that hadn't been cleared away—although he was a bit tired today, it was still quite interesting to have such a young girl in the faculty lounge.

Once they were out of the woods, William and the others quickly helped Afra clean up the mud and water she had gotten on her during the return trip, and then they breathed a sigh of relief.

"I need to leave the rabbit with Hagrid. There's no room for it in the castle. You should send Afra back first."

“Singed, you go and take Afra back. I need to discuss this with Hagrid. The seventh-year students need to see how herbs grow naturally—Hagrid needs to prepare a safe area for me in advance.”

Adams also found an excuse, leaving Singed with a look of utter disillusionment as he took Afra back—although William and the others tried their best, the braids they had tied were not something three men could easily manage, and magic wouldn't work either.

May Merlin bless him.

"agree."

The two nodded in tacit agreement, watching Singed's sorrowful figure walk further and further away from the castle, before heading towards Hagrid's hut.

-

How was lunch today?

"That's amazing! I can't wait to learn it—does everyone in Hufflepuff have such superb cooking skills?"

"Not entirely. I'm quite knowledgeable about herbs, so I like to add my own understanding to them, and the results are pretty good."

"You're too modest—wait, what's that over there?"

William suddenly pointed ahead, and not far from Hagrid's cabin, a fiery red figure was quietly advancing.

'Could people with noticeably colored hair be more discreet when infiltrating?'

Before he could finish his rant, Adams's angry voice rang out: "Theft! That's Hagrid's chicken coop over there! It's one of the few live chickens in Hogwarts! Damn it—if it's Hufflepuff, I'll put that bastard in detention until Christmas!"

Before William could even begin to grasp the meaning of those words, Adams had already stormed over in a rage.

"Stop! Hufflepuff, 30 points deducted!"

The figure over there seemed to want to escape, but was stunned by a spell cast by the enraged Adams. Although Adams rushed over quickly, he then stood there in a daze.

"Ok?"

Filled with curiosity, William also carried the rabbit and trotted over quickly. Then, the door to Hagrid's house opened, and Hagrid walked out with his hound named Tooth, looking bewildered.

“What happened, Professor Adams? Ah, William, it seems you’ve had quite a haul.”

He greeted William, who was carrying the rabbit, before turning his gaze to Adams. "Oh, Professor, what's going on? Hey, isn't this Ginny?"

William, who had been jogging, finally caught up. By then, Adams had released the little girl who had been restrained. She looked at everyone timidly, her face filled with lingering fear.

"Gryffindor?"

Adams looked relieved, but then his expression turned serious. "Then what are you doing near Hagrid's house?"

“I…I want to go into the Forbidden Forest, but I’m afraid Hagrid will find me, so I’m checking if he’s there. Fred and the others said it would be easy to sneak in if Hagrid isn’t there.”

As soon as the name Fred appeared, William immediately remembered where he had seen this girl before—on the train, she and another Gryffindor had asked him for help.

It must be the younger sister of the twins. Thinking of this, William took half a step back.

For the sake of his reputation, he felt it was best to stay away.

"This has nothing to do with me. Students, don't spread any strange rumors. I'm not targeting the Weasley family. I'm not putting them in solitary confinement!"

Chapter 101 A Beautiful Day, Until the Crying Ended

"Fred? The Weasleys? Yes—this hair looks like it belongs to the Weasleys."

Hagrid scratched his face, his tone becoming helpless. "Ever since those two lads came to Hogwarts, I've been busy dragging them out of the Forbidden Forest. What, are they planning to bring their sister in too, to form a team?"

"I'm...sorry, Hagrid, I was just curious about the Forbidden Forest. Fred and the others said it's the most interesting place at Hogwarts..."

One sentence made William's teeth ache a little - those two rascals, it's one thing to break school rules by going to the forbidden forest, but they also corrupted their sister?

We must give those two bastards a boost! Not giving them a boost would be a disservice to their great achievements!

Adams, standing nearby, was also furious. "Instigation! Those two will be punished—and you, Miss Ginny, you'll be working in the greenhouse this weekend. The instigators should certainly be punished, but your violation of school rules is beyond question."

“William, I’ll take her to Mr. Filch’s to register first. She’s only a first-year student and she’s already thinking about going to the Forbidden Forest—the plants there can kill!”

Adams hurriedly said goodbye to Ginny—judging from his angry expression, he was sure to give her a lecture along the way.

With the culprit nowhere to be seen, William breathed a sigh of relief. He almost immediately pulled the Chocolate Frog out of his pocket—ever since the black magic experiment, he had been particularly careful to manage his emotions.

'Thank goodness they didn't send him to my place for solitary confinement, otherwise I could be playing Connect Four there.'

After having this thought in his mind, William finally calmed down from the anger caused by the two absent troublemakers, and he took out a chocolate frog and tossed it upwards to Hagrid.

"Thank you, William. But it seems my troubles this year can't be solved by a chocolate frog—another Gryffindor Weasley!"

"Are there any who aren't Gryffindor?"

"Not yet, so each one is more troublesome than the last."

Hagrid chuckled as he stuffed the entire chocolate frog into his mouth. "Oh, another Dumbledore card."

"I have five, I don't need any more."

“I have eleven cards, but you don’t need this card when you’re working at Hogwarts—Dumbledore only has one.”

This Versailles-esque remark didn't make William envious—after all, he was now also a student at Hogwarts.

-

By the time William returned after entrusting the rabbit to Hagrid's care and finishing his chat, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

'The teaching aids for next week's classes are finalized, the fifth-grade test papers are ready, and the sixth-grade curriculum will be revised a bit more. That completes next week's lesson preparation—'

Thinking of this, even William, who deliberately tried to appear composed and authoritative on campus, felt a little happy—the joy was comparable to that of a pigeon waking up to find he had written 30,000 words of a draft while sleepwalking. He couldn't help but tear open the wrapper of a chocolate frog.

'William, you need to be disciplined—go for a two-hour swimming training session at Black Lake this weekend!'

After finalizing the plan, William took a big bite of the Chocolate Frog and casually pulled out the card—as expected, it was Dumbledore.

"Is it true that Shu has no great generals, but all its talents come from Zhuge Liang?"

Which company makes the Chocolate Frog trading cards? Are they also aiming for success?

Playing with jokes no one understood and eating chocolate frogs, William floated back to the faculty lounge before the students finished class.

However, to his surprise, the faculty lounge was empty.

'Something's not right—where are Adams and Singed? Afra should be here too, right?'

"A conman uncle?"

A figure appeared at the foot of the wall, startling William—who else could it be but Afra?

"Afra, where are they?"

"Is that Uncle Adams? Aunt Sprout called Uncle Adams out, and then everyone rushed out. Afra quietly disappeared, so they couldn't see me."

Invisibility? Wasn't that under a curse?

William remembered that, to prevent her from being lost, all of Afra's clothes had been cursed—'Maybe she forgot today?'

"Then I'll go find them and see what happened—Afra, do you want to come?"

The little girl's face showed curiosity, but she held it in. "Dad told me to listen to Uncle Singed, so Afra is not leaving this room."

"Good boy, here's a piece of chocolate for you. I'm going out to check on things, I'll be right back."

William, whose parents had raised her to be sensible, naturally couldn't encourage her to go out and play around. He could only pat her head and then go off to find out what the other professors were up to.

-

"Professor William, you've come too?"

As Singed greeted him, he made a shushing gesture towards William, who was rushing over.

William, who had been asking around about the oil painting, gasped – at least a third of the professors from the school had come.

This lineup is enough to take on the Ministry of Magic. Are they planning a coup?

"Keep your voice down, William."

Professor Kettleburn, unusually, lowered his voice and made room for William, who squeezed in reluctantly.

……

"Deduct thirty points!"

"A full thirty points!"