From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

After taking all the steps, including compiling and integrating the list of people and excluding most of those deemed innocent, there were still eleven suspects left on the list.

"How come there are so many? This shouldn't be the case—no one knows the reaction after being arrested better than us, so how could there be so many left?"

A group of teenagers who thought they had outsmarted the system were dumbfounded after checking the final list—had they done something wrong?

"No, the method is correct—these people must all have something to hide, but not entirely because of the rooster."

Fred suddenly realized something, and he started drawing on the final list with his finger. "You see, these people may have all made mistakes—like staying out all night, secretly keeping illegal pets in their dorm rooms, or hiding prohibited toys and books under their beds. All of these are possible."

He rubbed his hands excitedly. "Our deduction is completely correct. Those guys looked abnormal when they came back after being called away by the professor. They must have done something against school rules. So the murderer must be one of them!"

"But Fred, isn't what you're describing exactly what we've been doing—should we investigate ourselves first?"

The person who asked the question received a lot of eye-rolls from their companions, and then they shut up.

"Alright, everyone, quiet down and listen to me."

George showed the list to everyone. "Look carefully, this is our final list. If we keep an eye on people according to this list, we can quickly eliminate the extra people on the list and hand over the real chicken killer in exchange for our vacation."

"It might seem like a betrayal of Gryffindor, but it isn't. We started investigating after the first rooster was killed. By now, they should have known that someone was trying to investigate them. But they still provocatively killed another rooster. This was a provocation against us, and our investigation was just a response to them."

The list was written in more than a dozen copies and distributed to each person, who decided to keep a one-on-one watch.

"Everyone, hurry up. If possible, I hope we can submit the final guest list as an invitation at tomorrow's banquet—I dare say that would be fantastic."

The lounge became lively again—which made many students peek out to see who dared to gather again in front of the angry Professor McGonagall, especially since everyone had just realized that the professor was very angry today.

'Oh, the Weasley brothers.'

-

"Adams, Adams?"

William knocked on Adams' office door, and a muffled response came from inside. Then, Adams, still half asleep in his pajamas, appeared from behind the open door.

"It's already nine o'clock, William!"

Adams looked resentful—an expression that almost made William think he was being woken up at two in the morning.

Adams probably realized something was wrong, and he mumbled, "I have to take care of the plants tomorrow morning, so I went to bed early. Is there something urgent?"

You're being way too early.

However, it was clearly inappropriate to complain when asking for a favor, so William suppressed the urge. "I'm planning a banquet, and the drinks and food are all arranged, but Professor Lockhart mentioned this afternoon that we also need to prepare some entertainment. I was thinking of making it a bit more formal, and when I was preparing to invite a band, Professor Singed said you had a solution—"

"Invite a band? Getting a band approved to come to Hogwarts is quite difficult. Did you manage to get Professor McGonagall on board?"

All done? The professor was very enthusiastic in introducing and giving me suggestions when he heard that I was going to host a banquet—he even had Professor Lockhart show me the specific procedures. I guess that counts as all done?

William offered his guess uncertainly, which elicited a burst of laughter from Adams.

"Haha—Professor McGonagall wants you to throw more parties!"

"Huh? What's so funny about that?"

William was amused by Lockhart's explanation—he realized he had been a bit too hasty in preparing for the banquet, as the preparation time was too short. However, he couldn't easily break his promise to the students, as it would damage the professor's prestige.

Therefore, he prepared everything with utmost care, and was prepared for any mishaps—if the banquet went smoothly, that would be a victory; losing face during preparation was no big deal.

"No, no, I have the contact information for a few performance groups. I can just send an email via owl and I'll get the results for you tomorrow morning."

Adams answered in a very serious tone.

"By the way, I'm not very skilled at the Seamless Expansion Spell either. Could you help me out tomorrow?"

"No problem—see you tomorrow morning."

Adams pretended to be sleepy to shoo the guests away, which made William realize that something was wrong.

But Adams was trustworthy, so William had no choice but to say goodbye.

After he walked around the corner, completely bewildered, Adams finally burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Tell him to prepare more banquets—just how strict is William? Even Professor McGonagall thinks he needs banquets to ease things up, pfft hahaha."

Adams, who was laughing so hard he was practically rolling on the floor, finally managed to stop, then started cursing himself—he was wide awake now.

Chapter 129 Adams Arrives as Promised

"William! William!"

Who's calling me?

My head hurts so much—that's right, the wand, the wand!

As his hand quickly reached for the wand, the warmth emanating from his palm instantly soothed William, whose head was throbbing as if it were splitting open.

Instinctively, he pulled out his wand and cast a sleeping spell at the source of the sound, then rolled to the side to dodge.

"Thump!" "Thump!"

Two heavy thuds, almost simultaneous, rang out. William, enduring the pain, cast an Ironclad Charm on himself before fully regaining his senses—right, I'm at Hogwarts, Dumbledore is still at Hogwarts, there's no way someone could have attacked me!

'I had a nightmare? But I have absolutely no recollection of it?'

William suspected he was dreaming of being attacked or of still being in Azkaban—but he couldn't recall any similar dream.

'The rooster incident has made me so nervous—I probably won't be able to sleep well until that damn curse is lifted.'

William glanced out the window instinctively and couldn't help but sigh.

Damn cloudy day!

But he soon realized something was wrong: why was the weather so overcast?

Moreover, he could no longer feel the usual irritability of cloudy days; he only felt a headache now, without any of the stuffiness he felt on cloudy days.

'What time is it? Do you want to sleep a little longer?'

William glanced at his watch—after so much time, he was quite familiar with how to read a watch in the magical world.

'It's already four o'clock, we can't waste any more time, you need to work hard—wait! It's only four o'clock?'

William shook his head, then remembered the sleeping spell he had just cast.

-

"Adams, say something?"

"It's only four in the morning—I can't just come out and drag you to my room, can I? If you come out of my room so early in the morning, who knows what kind of jokes those students will make up."

"Of course I shouldn't have attacked you with a sleeping spell, but isn't that just an instinctive reaction when you're woken up?"

"It's not that I don't want to break the curse for you, it's just that I didn't wake up in the middle of the night, at least I didn't go back to sleep, so I came out to break the curse for you, didn't I?"

William, dressed casually, was earnestly persuading the herbalism professor outside his room.

After realizing he might have knocked someone unconscious, he initially planned to go out and check quickly, but fearing that wearing pajamas would cause unnecessary rumors, he was delayed for a while. As a result, including the time he had spent spacing out earlier, Adams lay outside the door for almost ten minutes.

After trying to persuade him for a while, William realized that the herbalism professor was really angry—he didn't say a word.

"No, Adams, be reasonable—it's four in the morning, especially on a weekend, and you're getting up to wake people up? That's going too far. You have to admit you were knocked down, so this counts as you ambushing them first, right?"

"No, that's not it. I mainly wanted to see just how much more persuasive advice you could come up with."

Adams's smug smile made William grit his teeth.

"Petrify them all!"

"William, you can't do this!" Adams was stunned for a moment before shouting, but after he finished speaking, he realized that William's target was not him.

"what happened?"

Adams looked in the direction William's wand was pointing; there was nothing there except walls—theoretically speaking.

However, if there is really nothing there, the spell will explode on the wall with a loud noise, and the defenses of Hogwarts Castle will negate most of the damage caused by the spell.

"Who is it, or what is it?"

Adams pulled out his wand and became alert.

"I don't know. Keep an eye on things behind us and watch for any small noises," William replied without turning his head.

He cast an armor spell on himself, then slowly walked toward the object he had just struck with the spell, stopping just before he reached it and waving his wand toward his office behind him.

A large stack of parchment flew over with a whoosh under the influence of the Summoning Charm, quickly torn into small pieces by the spell, and then, under William's command, drifted in the direction where they were gathered.

The fragments of parchment quickly revealed the object, which was a humanoid figure.

"The invisibility cloak is flying in!"

William waved his wand, but nothing happened.

"An invisibility cloak? Is he even human, William?"

Adams' voice came from behind.

"It's not an invisibility cloak—my Summoning Charm didn't work, and I didn't use a silence spell. Now the invisibility cloak can stack additional protective spells?"

"You're asking me that? You're the professor of self-defense magic!"

Adams's comment made William feel a little embarrassed—the Invisibility Cloak is an expensive, one-time-use item that only lasts a few years before becoming ineffective, and its effects overlap with the Disillusionment Charm. Only the super-rich or the Ministry of Magic could afford it. He looked into the solution briefly but didn't read much further.

Anyway, he can't afford it right now, it's good enough if he can just manage, there's no need to go to any fancy stuff.

With another wave of his wand, William manipulated the parchment into a stick, cast a petrification spell just in case, and then carefully picked up the suspected object.

"It really is an invisibility cloak; it's a student."

William spoke to the back, feigning a sigh of relief, then scattered the stick in his hand into fragments and hurled them in a circle around him.

"Huh? No accomplices?"

William raised an eyebrow, finally relaxing—a gesture that made Adams abandon any thoughts of revenge.

'You people who practice dark magic, your hearts are all tainted!'

"Adams, come here and see. Running around in the hallway in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, violating school rules, how can there be such a naughty student?"

Adams rolled his eyes—who are you targeting?

"Harry Potter?"

Adams exclaimed in annoyance, causing William, who was cleaning up the scraps of paper scattered on the floor, to turn his head.

He had been busy mocking Adams and cleaning up the scraps of paper. After confirming that the student was a student, he went about his own business. He had been at the school for almost a month and he could hardly remember the names of the students he had put in solitary confinement. What was so surprising about a newly caught student who had broken the rules?