From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

'Oh right, I think I opened a treasure chest yesterday? I was too surprised to open it.'

Without much hope, William clicked on it casually, and a super strange, large box appeared before his eyes.

[The Twin Weasleys (R): Is he George, or Fred? Or vice versa?]

Dual Skill: Tear this card apart to draw an additional card.

[Prankster Weasley (R): Filch caught two more students. What? How did you know they were the twins?]

Skill: Mischief; Tear this card apart to set a spell trap. The trap's type is random, and its effect is related to spell power.

[Weasley the Decipherer (SR): This thing is strange. Try this, then try that, and it should work?]

Skill Decryption: Tear up this card to explore an unknown territory. Exploration is guaranteed to succeed, but the duration is unknown and depends on magic power, relevant knowledge, luck, and the difficulty of deciphering the card.

!!!

This thing is a black card!

This was William's first reaction—there were two twins, and the system had stolen one of his cards!

No wonder the treasure chest has a question mark on it; a black card would certainly raise a question mark.

'I could have chosen either of the two I wanted most, but now I have to choose one?'

The candy in his mouth suddenly wasn't sweet anymore, and William started crunching it loudly—how to choose?

He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing the decryption card was guaranteed to succeed and that he would have at least one more chance to choose between two options in the future. He prepared to try out some unconventional tactics.

'Choose the first card, use it immediately, and activate the meal voucher—if it works, at least I won't have to agonize over it; if it doesn't, it won't hurt so much.'

It's a bit of a slap in the face—last time I made up my mind I'd use it as soon as I got the next meal voucher, but now…

'So be it, I've suffered this loss.' Having made up his mind, William acted as quickly as possible.

-

That's it?

As the two cards lay quietly in the card slot, William felt frustrated again—the two cards were lying there safely, but he had no sense of operation whatsoever in the practical application of the system skills.

The card-drawing and meal voucher usage are both within the system, offering no user experience whatsoever.

But the meal vouchers are gone.

"If it's gone, it's gone. I'll just wait for the next meal voucher. Do you think I, a professor, can't do this without the system?"

William comforted himself—without relying on the system, he still managed to organize his students and find that troublesome crown; without relying on the system, he was still a good professor, and the principal and other professors had no objections.

'Even though I have a bit of a hoarder mentality and am reluctant to use my resources, I can still get things done properly. So what if they have a system in Azkaban—I still wouldn't dare to break out of prison, would I?'

"professor?"

Just as William was giving himself a pep talk, he heard a student's timid voice from the side.

"What's wrong, Nancy?"

"Five minutes have passed, and we've finished the questions, but you haven't come in, so I came out to look for you—"

The little girl didn't dare look at William—not out of shyness, but out of fear.

"Look, the students miss you if you don't show up for a little while. William, you need to work even harder in class!"

A dozen minutes later, William's voice, though not loud, rang out again in the classroom, making the entire room tremble.

"You guys! You're in fifth grade, this is second grade material, didn't you even preview this problem beforehand? I'll give you another test this weekend!"

As William spoke, he took the prepared exam papers out of his bag—'Damn, yesterday was too shocking; I should have left them in the office and gone back to get them!'

Chapter 146 The Professors' Childhood Dreams

"Class monitor, please distribute the papers. Remember to submit your papers next week in class. Okay, get out of class dismissed!"

William put down his lesson plan and test papers, completely satisfied—making the chalk write on its own was a truly practical magic trick, and that alone was enough to bring him joy.

But the classroom was a bit strange today. The class monitor didn't take away the test papers as usual, and not a single student stood up.

'That shouldn't be the case. It's only been a month, and they're already thinking of rebellion?'

“Hmm,” William drawled, glancing around at the students. “What’s wrong? Why are you all standing there like idiots? If I remember correctly, your next class is Professor McGonagall’s, isn’t it?”

The students below were a little flustered, their hands fidgeting under their desks, pushing and shoving each other as if trying to find someone to take charge.

Finally, Ravenclaw's Nancy was pushed to her feet by someone nearby. "Professor, um, we just wanted to ask, well, we just—"

Her voice grew softer and softer, almost inaudible.

What do you mean? Am I that scary?

"What exactly happened, Nancy?"

William softened his tone—although in theory he should treat all students equally, this one was the top student.

"Yes, the Ravenclaw tiara, Professor. Everyone's saying you got it—"

William's more conciliatory attitude probably emboldened her, and she blurted out the question in one breath: "There are all sorts of rumors, and we want to hear whether you really won that crown."

'Is the castle's secrecy as tight as a sieve? How did it get so widely known overnight?'

William covered his forehead and chuckled speechlessly—he hadn't even touched the crown, yet news of his receiving it had already spread throughout the entire castle.

It'll probably spread throughout the wizarding world through the parents of these students. After all, it's a Ravenclaw relic, something that even a polymath like Professor Flitwick would love to take back to his office!

"Fine," he said helplessly—although it was theoretically wrong to take up so much of the fifth-grade students' time, he knew very well from his own student days that these curious kids would never be stingy with their time at this time.

Instead of letting them waste their time, it's better to give them an answer. After they've finished eating the gossip, these students will lose interest.

"Because of some strange events, that crown appeared, and I briefly had the right to use it—"

The students below began to gasp quietly, but William ignored them.

“But—please note, in order to protect this precious tiara from Ravenclaw,” William fabricated with wide eyes, “the tiara has been enchanted with all sorts of magical and ancient protective spells—spells so ancient that even Dumbledore had to slowly decipher them.”

In any case, you can't say that Dumbledore planned to destroy the tiara—if Ravenclaw, who had graduated, heard that, he would rush to the school and duel Dumbledore.

“It might take a year or even longer to crack it, and it will be in Dumbledore’s hands during that time.” William first shifted the blame, and then began to make promises. “Of course, if it is returned to me after being cracked, I promise that the first place winner of this year’s OWLs exam can wear it for a whole day.”

"This promise is permanent. Don't think that an O is enough. I can get the score from the Wizarding Bureau."

William smiled and added the final touch to the cake—anyway, if the crown is ruined, it's not his fault; it's Dumbledore's fault, not yours to blame!

"Hey, aren't you leaving yet? Planning to hear the story of the crown? I don't think I'm very good at telling it, but maybe it'll be on the history of magic exam. You guys could research it and write a paper? I have a good relationship with Professor Binns, he'll definitely be willing to help with the approval."

Goodbye, Professor!

The students who were still hesitating suddenly rushed towards the exit, grabbed the papers William had placed on the table by the door, and left without even having to use the prefect to distribute them.

-

"Ha, William is here!"

William was spotted by a group of professors as he stepped into the faculty lounge.

When William sat down with them, he realized that the professors were talking about the crown.

'What's going on today—why is everyone talking about that crown?'

"The Ravenclaw crown—I've been asking about it since I was in school!"

"Who isn't? Especially during the OWLs exam, it's unbelievable! I dream about finding this magical crown in a locker in the storage room and then passing the damn exam with a string of O's!"

"And then what?"

"In the end, all I could do was study like crazy and get seven O's."

……

Why is a dog barking while we're chatting?

William was a little surprised. It was one thing for students to be so obsessed with this crown, but this group of professors who had been adults for who knows how long were now?

“Professor William? Why don’t you say something? Tell us what that crown looks like. When I was in school, the top student in our Ravenclaw class always boasted that he got such good grades because of the crown. I’ll write him a letter and ask him what the crown looks like.”

"Yeah, I've heard of him too, but he's just a Gryffindor kid."

"Did your classmates back then just boast like that? Isn't Hogwarts' extracurricular life a bit too meager? Back in Azkaban, I was always blowing up hypnotic glasses."

"That crown is a bit hard to describe, but isn't it in Dumbledore's office? You can go take a look—just make up an excuse."

There were too many curious professors, and William was too embarrassed to destroy their childhood dreams himself, so he simply pushed the blame onto Dumbledore.

“We’ve already tried, Professor Dumbledore has declined all visits—” The professor who spoke was William, and he was Professor Taylor.

"Your child is so grown up, don't be so childish, Professor."

William thought to himself, "What am I complaining about?"

Just then, the office door was pushed open again, and before anyone could turn around, the newcomer shouted, "Albus has gone too far!"

'Who is this, so arrogant?'

William turned his head with the crowd—oh, Professor Kettleburn.

The elderly professor, nearing retirement, protested with his wooden arm raised to the sky, "Albus wouldn't even open the door for me!"

"What dangers haven't I seen—the magic on the crown is far too dangerous, what kind of excuse is that!"

“Tell me,” the old professor said, clattering along on his wooden legs as he walked into the crowd, “What dangers haven’t I been through! I even had plans to raise fire dragons after I retired, and he’s telling me it’s too dangerous!”

"Hey, little William!"

The old professor exclaimed with delight, "Take me to Albus, let's settle this matter!"

“It’s no use pulling Professor William aside; those rumors are just the students talking. Professor Flitwick is over there,” a professor chimed in, offering advice—after all, the old professor was very popular. “It’s just that Professor Flitwick seems to be in a bad mood…”

Chapter 147 The Old Professor's Dream

Although the story of the crown was widely circulated among the students, the real version was mixed with the others, and even the professors in the castle couldn't tell the difference.

Although Professor Flitwick disdained spreading inflammatory rhetoric such as the tiara should belong to Ravenclaw, he certainly didn't want to tell anyone that the tiara had been given away by Ravenclaw's daughter—not to mention the considerable possibility that Dumbledore would destroy it, which nearly drove the old headmaster to despair.

However, Professor Kettleburn, who was clearly unaware of the situation, smiled and pulled William away without explaining anything to his colleagues.

“Professor Kettleburn, that thing is really dangerous. It’s not that I don’t want you to touch it, but Dumbledore should at least deal with all the dark magic on it, right?”