From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

-

"You have gained the approval (dislike) of a magical creature, and have obtained a treasure chest x1."

William, who was tidying up the last manuscript in his office, casually opened the treasure chest and then covered his forehead.

'Professor Lockhart is so petty. He keeps saying he doesn't care, but he just knocked you out once, is it really that big of a deal?'

However, William said this without much conviction—if it were him, and he were ambushed and knocked down by a colleague without any decent reason, he would definitely feel more than just disgust.

'But I'm definitely not going to be ambushed by ordinary people anymore, ptooey—what's with the flag!'

Lockhart (R): Ah, these school kids are so clueless. Lockhart will definitely be a great person after graduation, so Lockhart has decided to send himself eight hundred Valentine's Day cards!

Skill: Spreading Rumors; Tear up this card to spread a rumor about yourself. The success rate depends on the exaggeration of the rumor, and the failure rate also depends on the exaggeration—gaining attention depends entirely on your effort.

The Sorting Dilemma: Lockhart (SR); Ravenclaw or Slytherin, that is the question.

Skill Choice: Tear up this card. For the next month, your learning progress in the designated area will slightly accelerate, while your learning progress in other areas will slow down.

【Meal Coupon】

Without a doubt, it's a meal voucher.

William still has a question.

'There are still no boxes ahead. Is it because this place isn't like Azkaban where people are beaten, making the level of disgust not high enough?'

He glanced at his wand and fell into deep thought…

Chapter 153 Crown, Crown, Crown

Although the restaurant had already started serving food, a sudden inspiration made William temporarily put aside his thoughts of eating.

A dozen minutes later, he raised his head in disappointment—'The comparisons are still too few, and I can't very well punish students based on my own assumptions, can I?'

William believed that if he argued with Professor McGonagall a few more times and then slacked off at work, he would definitely get a negative card—but what good would that do? Even a fool would choose a one-time card draw over a stable professorship.

"Let's just consider this so-called system a pleasant surprise," he chuckled, disposing of the parchment containing his guesses along with several other papers showing signs of wear and tear. "Even if I draw another hundred cards, I'll still have to write the lesson plans myself, won't I?"

"Let's eat!" William cheered and walked happily toward the restaurant.

-

The dinner table was quite lively today, with several unfamiliar faces that William had never seen before appearing at the table.

Fortunately, Hogwarts spared no expense on meals, and after searching for a while, William finally found a seat—which Adams had reserved for him.

"William, over here!"

Adams lowered his voice and beckoned William over. Before William could even sit down, he said in a very soft voice, "My God, how did you manage not to challenge Professor Flitwick to a duel?"

There is no doubt that this friend already knows about the crown.

“Shh, keep your voice down,” William said in a low voice, considering his options before avoiding the unspeakable parts—such as Dumbledore’s attempt to destroy the crown.

"The Ravenclaw ghost, that is, Lady Grey, whose real identity is Helena Ravenclaw, gave me the tiara."

This was a publicly agreed-upon explanation, and Professor Frivy had no objections.

"Good heavens! I even asked her about crowns before, why didn't I receive one?"

Adams's muttered complaint reminded William of what the lady had said earlier—"Adams, I'm sorry to tell you, but you and the other students were looked down upon..."

-

William had a rather unpleasant lunch – the professors who rarely appeared at the table were all senior professors at the university, and their purpose in being there was obvious.

Although none of the professors tried to say anything during the entire lunch, no one enjoys eating when they are stared at by so many people.

Having barely eaten half a meal, William didn't dare say much, gave Adams a look, and walked out of the restaurant.

“Wow, my God,” William exclaimed, “those professors are terrifying. Adams, you just said they were senior professors, what do they teach?”

"They have all sorts of subjects, to be precise, most of them don't attend classes anymore, they spend almost all their time at school doing research, and their food used to be delivered by the caretakers."

Adams spread his hands, indicating that he wasn't too sure either.

"Is there still this?"

“Of course there are. Not all professors choose to retire. For example, Professor Binns likes teaching, and some professors like research, so they stay at the university.” Adams said matter-of-factly.

“Magic definitely needs to advance, William.” Adams pointed to the library. “Hogwarts’ restricted section can’t all have been donated. There’s only one Hogwarts in all of Britain. If we don’t study it, are we going to rely on the Ministry of Magic?”

William was a little embarrassed by these words—after studying some materials about Hogwarts, he had always regarded it as a vocational school and had never imagined that it was also the only institution of higher learning in the British magical world, naturally undertaking research work.

'You've fallen, William!'

He mentally warned himself again—'Only focusing on learning and excavating ancient magic, completely forgetting that magic can also improve—didn't Dumbledore's cards tell you that? Even someone like Dumbledore is researching new uses for dragon blood!'

'The seventh-grade curriculum could be slightly modified. Also, we could try to find out what new theories those research professors have come up with.'

"You've figured it out now," Adams patted William on the shoulder. "Actually, that poor bastard Singed was kicked out of class because he was the youngest, wasn't he?"

This emphasis on seniority is a bit too materialistic...

“Oh, right, I also saw—” William tried to recall the name, realizing he couldn’t remember it at all, “that one who looked like, well, a fortune teller witch—”

William carefully chose his words, forcing himself to swallow the word "charlatan."

“That’s the Divination professor. I reckon Professor Trelawney would love your guess,” Adams understood the question without a second thought. “But I doubt you’d like Professor Sybil… she predicts a student’s death every year.”

"A student dies every year?" William was startled by this statement—although there were occasional cases of students being recommended for graduate school when he was in college, this curse on him was completely different.

"What a joke. Expulsions do happen, but many of these kids are purebloods. If it were that serious, the school wouldn't be able to stay afloat. Professor Sybil just uses that tactic to scare students." Adams shrugged to express his disapproval of this ridiculous claim.

"Then?" William was still a little curious—after all, the first selection after his release from prison was led by this professor, and he had never met this professor before. Now that he had the chance, he wanted to ask him about it.

“I think I understand what you mean, William. You want to ask if Professor Trelawney is also a research professor?”

Adams waved his hand, looked around, and then whispered, "Don't talk nonsense. We all agree that Professor Trelawney is just here to collect a salary. She talks nonsense all day to maintain her image as a fortune teller. She has absolutely no ability to predict the future!"

So I'm not the only troublemaker at this school?

William's first reaction was ecstasy, but he quickly realized something was wrong—he was just coasting because the school couldn't find any professors, but what about this guy?

"That can't be right, can it? Professor McGonagall doesn't know?"

As a professor who knew a little about the school, William ignored the indifferent principal.

“It’s hard to say, but Professor McGonagall has never liked her.” Adams looked around again before replying, “I remember Professor McGonagall expressing her dissatisfaction with her in her classes more than once. You have to understand how much Professor McGonagall values ​​her classes.”

That's true. With Professor McGonagall's personality, she would never waste her precious class time complaining.

“Right, but we suspect that Professor McGonagall has been keeping Professor Trelawney around in order to get funding from the Ministry of Magic. You should know Cassandra Trelawney, the great prophet. Professor Trelawney is his descendant, a pure-blood certified one. With that kind of status, do you think they can get a lot of funding for the divination project every year?”

Pure-blood certification, the mystical divination classes—even before coming to Hogwarts, William knew how lucrative this stuff was—there were quite a few who pretended to be diviners and ended up in Azkaban…

'It can't be that one scoundrel found another scoundrel, can it?'

If Adams hadn't been there, William would definitely have covered his face in disbelief; this was just too magical…

“I’ll go to the faculty lounge by myself, William. I advise you not to go. Just go back to your office and stay there for the day. Those research professors don’t really like to socialize. They might pretend to bump into you once in the lounge, but they certainly won’t try to ambush you in your office. Once the news spreads that the Crown is actually with Dumbledore, you’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I’ve got it covered. It’s easy for me to explain if you’re not around.”

Adams offered a friendly suggestion—William decided to go along with it.

He couldn't very well wear a sign that said, "The crown is with Dumbledore, don't come looking for me," that would be a direct slap in the face.

According to Adams, those professors would probably try their best to find opportunities to come over alone and create chance encounters to subtly probe, or ask directly and bluntly—William hadn't had much contact with the professors in these castles, but Adams' description gave him a headache.

Explaining each point one by one would take a long time—and I also have to be careful not to speak too hastily, lest it damage the relationship.

'It's all thanks to Adams; my crown was useless, and I'm covered in dust...'

William smiled and shook his head, then walked toward his office—he'd spend the afternoon there researching Transfiguration.

-

'Transfiguration can even briefly create life, but that's just the effect of magic…'

William read the documents, looking completely bewildered…

The concept of creating life is too grand. Whether it's due to his talent or something else, his research on Transfiguration is not as smooth as his course, which has now been renamed Self-Defense Magic. He even has some difficulty understanding the textbook.

'This is a fourth-grade textbook!'

William scratched his head. He had drawn the two strongest cards, one from Dumbledore and the other from Professor McGonagall. The cards clearly showed that both of them had powerful Transfiguration skills. Just looking at Dumbledore's magic, which he had never shown to his students and teachers, to make anything come alive and block, you could tell how helpful Transfiguration was in battle.

'Many forms of dark magic lose much of their power when they penetrate living beings, rather than exploding violently as when hitting a solid, so is the temporary creation of life correct?'

'So, if I wear an insect armor, can I block most dark magic spells?'

'Turning insects into part of the clothing, then creating the clothing that can quickly transform when under a spell?'

'Or, to put it another way, wearing one of those clothes that you occasionally see with a bunch of sparkly sequins—what's it called again? Whatever, you know, those kinds of clothes—and then temporarily turning those sparkly decorations into bugs or something to ward off magic. Is that even feasible?'

……

'What nonsense are you thinking about!' William shook his head, banishing the thought from his mind, quickly jotting it down in his notebook before forgetting about it—he hadn't even learned to walk yet, and he was already thinking about running…

'If you really have that kind of power, you might as well do what Dumbledore did and just block magic with a wave of your hand. Animated objects are always more reliable than turning into a bunch of creatures.'

'Hey, I see. So, what if I carried around a few white mice or beetles with me? Wouldn't that be...?'

"Stop, William! If you're researching transfiguration and raising white mice is really reliable, you might as well not bathe and raise fleas; at least there are more of them and they take up less space..."

The transfiguration research didn't go so smoothly, and a somewhat frustrated William eventually used peppermint candy to suppress his chaotic thoughts.

He casually jotted down his thoughts again and began to delve deeper into the textbook.

-

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a knock on the office door, which made William's already furrowed brows even tighter.

'It's not another crown, is it? Why don't you go find Dumbledore instead!'

"Please come in."

William politely called out towards the door, venting his frustrations through rants.

The door opened with a click, and the person who entered was someone he never expected—Hermione Granger, who had given William a good lesson right from the start of the semester.

'Is this my office?'

William glanced around uncertainly, then finally came to the conclusion: yes, this was his office.