From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

Memories of failed experiments?

William paused for a moment, then let those memories churn in his mind—could it be that the original owner of this body tampered with the materials before the experiment, and was waiting to reap his teacher's inheritance?

Those memories were too long, and he only glanced at them. He was more concerned with how he got in and the issues related to learning magic. As for anything else, William didn't care much.

What's the use of knowing the past now that we're in Azkaban? The internal dangers don't exist, but the external dangers—there are so many Dementors guarding the outside.

After quickly confirming that the original owner of this body, who had been scared to death once, didn't have the guts to cause any trouble, William secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then I need a magic wand."

"It's over there, please feel free to use it."

Dumbledore's expression remained as relaxed as ever, showing no concern whatsoever that William might have some strange ideas about the wand.

When the wand touched his temple, a thin thread was pulled out by magic and then dragged into the basin by William.

Soon, William's entire memory of that experiment began to surface in the basin, from beginning to end without missing a single detail.

The angry wizard, the timid apprentice, the grumbling instructions, the chaotic yet precious laboratory—and at the very end of the memory, the massive explosion that destroyed the entire laboratory.

William also repeated the memory once more. Although he knew that the two professors in front of him wouldn't say anything even if he refused, he was very willing to try something new in the magical world after confirming that his memory was correct. He estimated that there weren't many of these things in the magical world that could reproduce memories.

The magic that exists in memory is far inferior to the magic that is actually displayed before our eyes.

He turned around, opened the door, and closed it in one smooth motion.

Only after sitting down among the prisoners did he finally exhale a long breath—so this is what a magic wand is, this is what it feels like to unleash magic.

Chapter Fourteen: New Cards

Since it's impossible to hire just one person for manual labor, the prisoners at the scene weren't particularly tense.

With only this many people currently available, at most a review would be conducted, and a few more would be eliminated. There's no need for such a fuss—recruiting two prisoners to do hard labor is no joke, is this a recruitment drive by the Ministry of Magic?

It's just that the thugs in the room don't allow it, otherwise these prisoners would be having a party to celebrate.

Just as William was still savoring the feeling of holding the wand, a noise startled him from his wonderful reverie.

[A magical creature has recognized your abilities; you have received a treasure chest.]

What a terrible system.

William muttered to himself, the sense of security he once felt holding the wand was gone forever. With no interest in doing anything else, William simply opened the system panel and opened the new treasure chest.

A pine box with silver trim suddenly burst open in mid-air, and three cards with silver trim slowly flew out of the box and appeared in front of William.

Minerva McGonagall (SR): Even if we expand the scope to the entire world, Minerva McGonagall's Transfiguration skills would still rank in the top ten. She is a true master of Transfiguration. When she holds her wand, please stay away from her.

**Permanent Polymorph:** Tear this card away, and your next Polymorph becomes exceptionally easy, and the effect cannot be reversed.

[Animagus McGonagall (SR); There are only a handful of Animagus registered with the Ministry of Magic, but Ms. Minerva McGonagall has managed to achieve this. So, you should know this: don't mess with cats, and definitely don't try to feed every cat you see with dried fish.]

Animagus Ability: Tear up this card, and for the next 24 hours, you can transform into an animal anytime, anywhere, without the aid of a wand, just like an Animagus. In Animagus form, you are immune to most magical curses.

[Transformation Master McGonagall (SR): True masters excel at turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, not to mention that transformation itself is a great discipline. Humans have limits, but transformation has none. Let's use transformation to achieve a small goal first—for example, get a 1:1 scale Gundam figure?]

Skill: Transformation - Puppet; Tear this card to transform any material, up to a specified mass limit, into a puppet. The maximum mass and combat power depend on the puppet's material and the creator's magical power.

Two cards with the same name but different effects make one wonder if Polymorph Master is a collective name for a series of cards.

But William had no time to complain about that; the three cards he had right now made him want to shout out that classic slogan.

Unfortunately, he couldn't. This three-choice situation truly made him suffer from decision paralysis—should he choose Gundam or transform?

The first one was strong, but its skill effect wasn't very appealing, so William immediately abandoned it. He was torn between the second and the third one.

After much deliberation, he finally reluctantly gave up the third card—he didn't have the resources to build a Gundam right now; he was still in prison, and his wand had been confiscated when he entered the prison. Compared to the unattainable Gundam, transformation without a wand was more practical.

米勒娃·麦格；魔法2、变形术2、学习1、魁地奇1，然后跟着一连串威廉甚至都放弃看下去的技能0

Then came a series of cards that were not yet unlocked.

William exited the system interface, feeling a bit bewildered—why did it suddenly become friendly out of nowhere?

Meanwhile, in the room, the newly arrived prisoner was practically banging his fist on the table with the two professors.

"That's research, it's academic work, it's my normal job!"

His tone was somewhat roaring, showing no restraint despite being imprisoned.

"I admit that the centaurs are unhappy with my research, but that research was done with their consent! The centaurs who are hunting me down because of my papers are not even from the same race as my research collaborators. I don't understand why they are angry!"

"Yes, I know that Hogwarts has a centaur tribe, but I can get along with them and I will forgive their violent acts due to misunderstanding. However, I refuse to give up my research!"

"Alright, Headmaster Dumbledore, I have read many of your papers. Although they contain research on the persecution of magical creatures, such as the study of dragon's blood, I still thought you could understand a researcher's dedication to his work. But I was wrong."

“My partners are trying to get into Azkaban, and I will never give up my research, even in Azkaban!”

He stormed toward the door, then sat down under the watchful eyes of William and his group, without uttering a word.

The slayers were stunned, and it took them a while to remember to bring the next prisoner in—there was no way around it, the current Minister of Magic was so polite to the two people in the room, let alone them, slamming the door was completely unthinkable.

William simply gave up guessing, snapped out of his reverie from the newly drawn cards, and closed his eyes to review the potion he had studied yesterday.

Although a system suddenly appeared, it neither adds points nor provides cultivation techniques; it simply draws cards. Although it seems powerful, it can only be used in crucial moments. Every card you draw is one less you have, and you still have to rely on your own efforts on ordinary days.

The system isn't called Deep Blue, so you can't just use your own efforts to press the auto-clicker on the plus sign. If he doesn't properly learn about the magical world in Azkaban, while he won't starve to death when he leaves, it will be too difficult for him to survive properly in the magical world.

Other wizards at least have a Hogwarts diploma, but if someone like him, who came from humble beginnings, can't even make a living in his specialty, potions, then he really has no other way to survive. Is he going to go back to smuggling after he gets out of prison, relying on the connections he made in Azkaban?

What a joke! He finally managed to travel to an era with superhuman powers. If he keeps jumping back and forth on the borderline between going to prison and not going to prison, he might as well stay in Azkaban. That kind of waste is a crime!

After William had fully absorbed the potion from his memory, he realized that a long time had passed—the best-lit room in Azkaban was now slightly dim.

As the door closed again, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall followed the last prisoner out.

"Alright, that concludes today's review."

Dumbledore smiled and addressed everyone, then turned to the batters.

"Bart, thank you for your hard work today, you and your friends."

"No, no, Professor Dumbledore, we were just helping out with small things."

"Please take them to rest first. Minerva and I have some things to discuss with Bodie, Jill, and this Mr. William."

The three prisoners who were called out were kept behind, while the rest were taken away by the guards with disappointment.

Chapter Fifteen: A Difficult Choice

Once the strikers left, the door closed automatically under magic.

Dumbledore walked over, smiling kindly.

"I think you all have some guesses about what happened this time, and it's probably pretty much what you think."

He gave William and the others an exaggerated shrug and said:

"Although it is very reluctant to admit, we do have a very large shortage of professorships. Hogwarts needs a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor right now, and even if all three of you are willing, that's fine too."

"Three people?"

William couldn't help but ask in a low voice. Although he had only seen one movie, if his memory served him right, the professor in the movie seemed to refer to a specific person, right?

“Of course, three, but actually we’d like more,” Dumbledore said, having clearly heard him, glancing at William.

"Probably because the school's professors prefer to focus on teaching, there are very few news reports about professors outside of Hogwarts—in fact, each subject has a department, and before I became the headmaster, I was the head of the Transfiguration department, and Minerva and I were colleagues (Note 1)."

"So you don't need to worry about job conflicts. Even if you all want to go, Hogwarts still has enough positions available."

Professor, would you like to be hired to come to Azkaban?

William was stunned. He had wondered what such a grand display was all about, but he never dared to think of it as recruiting professors.

In my past life, those universities had all sorts of problems, but if someone had a history of imprisonment, they shouldn't even think about it. Even if everything else was approved, during the public announcement stage, outsiders could destroy the school.

He was so tired of hearing about Hogwarts in the prison that he was sick of it. If the news got out that Hogwarts was recruiting teachers from prison, even the people inside the prison would think that Hogwarts had suddenly become incredibly corrupt.

"So, the curse in question is real?"

The taller prisoner next to William wasn't as surprised. After processing the information for almost two minutes, he frowned and asked the question.

"Yes, and we haven't found a way to break the curse yet. We've only tried to reduce its harm so that it's not fatal, but students still have to leave the school due to various accidents or injuries."

Professor McGonagall answered in a calm voice.

"How serious is the most severe injury?"

"I was in the hospital for about a year and a half."

The atmosphere in the room suddenly calmed down, and the previously heated atmosphere caused by the decision to recruit a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from among the three disappeared.

“I refused. I only have three months left in my sentence, and I won’t risk being cursed to get a job like this.”

“Of course,” Professor McGonagall handed over a piece of parchment, “but please sign this confidentiality agreement first, Mr. Bodie.”

After quickly signing the agreement, the prisoner named Bodie left the room without looking back, leaving William and Jill in a state of great distress.

William could even hear the prisoner named Jill taking deep breaths.

In the end, like the previous prisoner, he chose to sign a confidentiality agreement and left the room with lingering reluctance.

William was torn.

The movie he watched was the fourth installment of the Harry Potter series, and he only remembers two scenes clearly: one is the resurrection of Voldemort, the Dark Lord, whose real name he had never heard in prison, and the other is the death of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor disguised as Mad-Eye Moody.

Assuming the two professors in front of him were not deceiving him and the curse did not have a lethal effect, then the curse was most likely strengthened with the resurrection of the Dark Lord.

If he joins now, he'll only stay for less than a year; at most, he'll spend a year and a half in the hospital. By the time the Dark Lord is truly resurrected, he'll have long since left Hogwarts.

But is it worth it?

Joining Hogwarts would give him a visible resume in the future—a Hogwarts professor who had to leave due to an accident is still highly sought after in the wizarding world.

The Hogwarts Library, as described by the prisoners, is the most coveted treasure he now desires; there is simply no other place in the wizarding world with such a vast collection of books.

More importantly, for the next six months or so, he would no longer have to repeat the daily routine of being randomly chosen as food by Dementors, nor would he have to queue for the sunlight in the cell that never reached his entire body.

"Could I ask if the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is currently in the hospital?"

Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore exchanged a glance, then hesitated for a long time before responding:

“I’m sorry, William, I regret to inform you that he has died, but not because of a curse, but because he made the decision to die long ago.”