From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

“Yes, those two Weasleys,” Mr. Filch said with great enthusiasm. “I had Mrs. Lorris, my cat, keep an eye on them to prevent those two little rascals from doing anything against the rules before Quidditch practice. Turns out, those two started gathering the school’s troublemakers into empty classrooms early in the morning.”

As he spoke, he made exaggerated gestures. “The whole classroom was full of people who were regulars in my office. A bunch of troublemakers gathered together couldn’t be up to anything, so I had Mrs. Lorris scare them a little. As a result, those guys felt guilty and ran out—did they think I couldn’t remember their faces?”

The administrator looked proud – this was the first time in recent years that he had fulfilled all the requests submitted by the professors.

"So what do they want to do?"

"I didn't get that out of the question, but this group of kids definitely isn't up to anything good."

Filch said it with certainty, and then the two of them saw the vice principal at the corner.

"Professor McGonagall, good morning."

"Good morning, Professor William, Mr. Filch."

Professor McGonagall's expression didn't seem as cheerful as her greeting—William even had a feeling the professor was about to get angry.

Sure enough, Professor McGonagall's next sentence was almost an interrogation.

"Mr. Filch, why did you arrest so many Gryffindor students?"

"Mr. Filch was arrested by the academy; your statement is biased, Professor."

William had heard the news that morning and his mind was somewhat biased towards Mr. Filch, but he quickly realized that something was wrong.

'Which college had the most people among those who left the most records with Mr. Filch?'

There is a fairly easy answer to this question.

“Professor McGonagall, I found these guys plotting something when I woke up this morning. Before I could even say anything, they tried to escape—and when I caught them and brought them back to my office, no one even protested. They must be up to something.”

As Mr. Filch spoke, he opened the door to his office—which immediately made William realize that these people had been locked inside Mr. Filch's office.

'Isn't this a bit inappropriate?'

But William was not the one who made the school rules, and besides, personal opinions and rules are two different things.

"My office has been heavily protected, and those kids are dreaming of stuffing things into it, but they just can't do it—"

Mr. Filch's voice stopped abruptly, while William and Professor McGonagall were both stunned.

At this very moment, in Mr. Filch's office, a group of students were working together, some crouching on the walls as if eavesdropping, some rapidly flipping through files, and some beginning to search for confiscated dangerous items. The whole room seemed to be filled with an excellent team—the kind that steals.

'Well, Professor McGonagall, you've come for nothing.'

Chapter 107 Always Think the Brightest Side

Even as he approached Mr. Filch's door, William remained skeptical of Mr. Filch's claim that he had caught many troublemakers.

Student gatherings are not an excuse to punish students—even if these kids saw the administrator running away quickly, or have a history of bad behavior, it's still not acceptable.

Arresting and questioning people is out of the question. Although he had never studied at Hogwarts, William, who had been a student himself, knew very well that children who frequently made mistakes would never confess unless you found conclusive evidence.

It's like the head of the student affairs office catching a bunch of students in the boys' restroom—far more than the number of stalls. If they don't find cigarettes, then sorry—we're here to chat. What, you say the restroom smells bad? Well, some people like the smell of gasoline, but we can't like the smell of a restroom?

Smoking is out of the question. Even if you call the homeroom teacher over today, I'm just an innocent bystander who was caught by you while I was urinating.

The administrator knew this all too well than the students did—Mr. Filch had seen more excuses from the students than the kids had ever lied in their entire lives.

As for Professor McGonagall, she wasn't there to bail everyone out. She mainly wanted to see if any of the unlucky students had been caught in the crossfire since so many students from Gryffindor had been arrested at once. Surely some of them would get caught up in the chaos?

But all of this changed when the door was opened—Mr. Filch’s office, meticulously protected with various gadgets, prevented the guys who were lurking against the wall from completing their mission, and also made Professor McGonagall’s attempt to help them completely forgotten.

There was no way around it; in the eyes of these kids, even the Forbidden Forest, the school's secret passages, and the principal's office combined couldn't match the destructive urge to Filch's office. When Mr. Filch contacted the professors about whether more students needed to be confined due to the large number of criminals he had caught, the students could no longer resist the urge to search the office.

'By the way, Mr. Filch didn't leave the fishing spot on purpose, did he?'

The thought crossed William's mind, but it was quickly dismissed by Professor McGonagall, whose expression turned stern.

The professor's lips pressed tightly together, forming a straight line, and her gaze sharpened. Under her watchful eye, those who were flipping through files stopped what they were doing, closed their drawers, and then let their hands hang limply in front of them as if they didn't know where they belonged, as if they had been interrupted.

As the professor's eyes circled Mr. Filch's office, the once bustling office seemed to wither like a field of wilted eggplants.

"very good."

Professor McGonagall spoke words of praise, but anyone with a modicum of common sense could hear the coldness in her tone.

“Mr. Filch, I’m entrusting these students to you. Mrs. Pomfrey will be very happy.”

"Boom!"

The loud noise shattered the silence of the room and drew everyone's attention—a student had apparently climbed onto Mr. Filch's hammock and been pretending to be dead, afraid the professors would find him. He had fallen off the hammock because he was too nervous.

"Lee Jordan!"

Professor McGonagall's voice was a few decibels louder than usual. The child, who had been lying motionless and pretending to be dead after falling, almost instantly got up and looked at Professor McGonagall like a quail caught in the rain.

William clearly saw Professor McGonagall swallow a few times, as if she wanted to announce some targeted punishment, but in the end the professor held back.

"Then, I'll leave these students in your care."

Professor McGonagall left in a hurry. Judging from her unusually quick pace, William thought she was afraid that if she stayed any longer, she would be unable to resist punishing the students herself.

As Professor McGonagall's footsteps faded into the corridor, William heard distinct heavy breathing coming from Mr. Filch's office.

'Look how frightened these children are.'

As William pondered this, he asked Mr. Filch, "How many Gryffindors are there among these people?"

“Three-fifths or more—” Mr. Filch replied cheerfully, like a bountiful old farmer introducing his own harvest.

As he answered William's questions, he pulled out a parchment from his pocket listing the professors' needs, then crossed out several names on the list with his fingernail.

“Lee Jordan, you will go to the school hospital to clean the chamber pots for a week.”

William clearly saw that this name was originally written as a way to send a letter to Professor Lockhart to reply to fans.

'That kid is really unlucky.'

As William pondered this, he listened to Mr. Filch reading out names one by one—all those originally scheduled to go to the hospital had been replaced by Gryffindors, just as Professor McGonagall had said.

However, even with this arrangement, only a few students were assigned. After all the students needed by each professor were arranged, William still had a little over twenty students left—which was a timely help for compiling the school's history.

"The students above can leave now. Remember to report to the professor on time."

Mr. Filch announced triumphantly.

"I knew it! With so many people arrested this time, they simply can't punish them all!"

"Shut up! If you hadn't failed to guard the door properly, how could Professor McGonagall have seen us ransacking the office?"

"Once everyone's chosen, the others can wait a bit longer, right?"

"Wait a minute? Filch will let us go? He'll just make a note of it and wait a few weeks."

"Even one day later is fine."

……

"No whispering allowed!"

Filch had just finished asking so many students questions that they could all answer when he noticed many students whispering to each other.

"It's alright. Tonight, everyone will go to the Wizard Self-Defense Magic Learning Classroom to begin our first confinement—there are so many people, we definitely can't fit them all in a classroom."

"Professor, may I ask what it's for?"

A student below mustered up the courage to ask a question.

"Take some notes, organize some information. You don't need to bring paper and pen; I'll prepare them for you. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, you can leave now. But remember, come to the classroom at eight o'clock tonight. I don't want to have to talk to your dean again."

William spoke with unusual kindness to the thriving leeks—cough, to the students who had spontaneously come to help.

-

As they left the office, a group of students who had been brought in without a good night's sleep began to chat.

"Hiss~ So many people locked up in the classroom, I dare say Hogwarts hasn't seen such a spectacular sight in thirty years."

"I thought we'd be let go, because no professor's office could fit so many people, why would they use a classroom?"

"Alright, try to look on the bright side."

"Good news? What good news?"

"Didn't the Weasley brothers say that they needed to take exams because they were short-staffed? Now we at least have one less exam to take."

Chapter 108 Love, hate, and grudges are no match for a piece of paper.

The weekend is not a day of rest for any Quidditch team, no matter which one.

Especially this year, after Slytherin fielded a team of Nimbus 2001s, all the house teams went crazy – if you can't compete with their equipment, you can only sweat more.

As for the Slytherins, they were more than happy to show off the speed of their brand-new brooms on the court. Even if it didn't do much damage to the opponents' morale, showing off their flying skills while riding the latest brooms was still a fun thing—it didn't matter if they were bad at the game, as long as their shoes looked cool.

As Slytherin's arch-rivals, the Gryffindor team was probably the most hardworking team. Captain Wood not only dragged everyone out early in the morning, but also didn't let the students go back during breakfast and lunch.

"A sandwich is enough—do you want to lose to those Slytherins?"

He reprimanded his team members in this way.

So when the Gryffindor Quidditch team returned to the common room, they discovered they were the last group to know about Filch's mass arrest of students.

"Wiping toilets, washing chamber pots, polishing trophies, processing potion ingredients, fermenting dragon dung—we Gryffindors do all the chores at Hogwarts. I think we can apply to work in the Hogwarts kitchen after graduation."

When the Weasley brothers returned covered in sweat and dirt, their friend Kevin was complaining to those around him in the common room, and among those listening was their good friend Lee Jordan.

"Hey Kevin, Lee, what are you guys doing?"

Despite the fatigue of a day of training, George greeted his friend.

However, for the first time ever, his enthusiastic greeting was ignored. Kevin glanced at them, but Li Jordan remained motionless, like a statue.

"Hey, Li?"

But Lee Jordan didn't respond to him; instead, Kevin yelled at him and Fred.

"Stay away from us—at least for a week, Weasley, stay away from us!"

"I've become Weasley? What happened, Kevin?"

George asked in surprise, but was met with a cold stare from his friend. As for Lee Jordan, he didn't even look up.

Although the twins tried hard to ask questions, they received no effective response at all.