From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"Um, excuse me, if I remember correctly, you are Miss Granger?"

"Yes, Professor..."

This little girl, who dared to jump off the train on the first day of school, is surprisingly ladylike today.

"The second-year courses are not my responsibility; that's Professor Lockhart's business. His office is on another floor. You've come to the wrong place, young lady."

William spoke rapidly; he was already annoyed enough. If the visitor were his student, it would be fine, but in this situation, he just wanted to pass the buck.

“Um, I’m sorry, Professor, Professor McGonagall recommended me to come here. I did terribly in Transfiguration class today, and Professor McGonagall suggested that I come and talk to you…”

The little girl's voice grew softer and softer, but William knew perfectly well that it was just his imagination.

'Poor performance in Transfiguration class? I feel like you're implying something!'

"I remember they all said you were the undisputed number one in the grade, right?" William asked back, then casually rummaged in his pocket—was he here to find the second-year test questions?

Speaking of which, he did set self-defense exam questions for first-year students. Professor McGonagall even asked him for a copy, saying she wanted to refer to it, but there's been no word on it since.

'Could it be that this child is getting too cocky in class, and Professor McGonagall thinks he needs to be given a reality check?'

Otherwise, why would you go to him if your Transfiguration performance is bad? He's not the one who teaches that...

"Go ahead, girl. Have you finished previewing your second-year lessons?"

To make sure he hadn't misunderstood the question, William asked a question.

"Of course, Professor, I had already done most of the preliminary study during the summer vacation."

Hermione nodded repeatedly—after talking with Professor McGonagall, she had become more resistant to the rumors surrounding the crown, but Professor McGonagall still recommended that she come here.

'Is this the test for those who want to obtain the crown?'

"Go for it, Hermione! Let those gossips know that your hard work can't be erased by a crown!"

Before even reading what was written on the parchment, Hermione began to cheer herself up—being talked to for misbehaving because of the crown was embarrassing enough, and now that her best test was coming up, she couldn't let her guard down.

Is the question in Chapter 154 really that difficult?

Although William was already dizzy from the crown, it was quite a piece of news among the students.

The top scorers in each grade naturally became the victims of the crown incident. Just as people focused on top chess players after AlphaGo appeared, the question of whether the crown or the top students were more likely to achieve good results naturally became a hot topic.

'So what if you're first in the grade? Once I win the crown, won't you have to give up your number one spot?'

This kind of talk spread like wildfire among the students—after all, the crown had only existed in legends before, but today it had actually appeared.

Unfortunately, Hermione Granger became the one most affected by this turmoil—after all, she was Muggle-born, academically gifted, a friend of the Savior, and not a particularly likable person.

Even if a professor protects a student like this, they are still likely to face school bullying, let alone the headmaster of Hogwarts who personally engages in discrimination.

Naturally, this Muggle-born number one heard a lot of comments about himself while he was in the bathroom, and they were quite unfriendly.

-

"Ha, let's see what Granger does now. First in the year—can she compare to Ravenclaw's crown?"

"Exactly, look at her, she practically wants to stick to the professor's face all day long, saying, 'Professor, I know this!' 'Professor, I've reviewed it!'"

The woman speaking had a great talent for imitation; she spoke in Hermione's voice perfectly, which made the girls around her burst into laughter.

"So what's the use? How can the wisdom of Muggles compare to inherited magic? A crown can keep that annoying Granger pinned down. How can she possibly be as wise as Ravenclaw?"

This is a difficult topic to discuss, as very few people outside of Slytherin dare to openly support the theory of bloodline within the school.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hermione quickly emerged from the cubicle, continuing to strut past the chattering girls with her haughty expression, leaving the gossip and those guys behind.

But unlike the criticisms of the past, this discussion really made her a little worried—no matter how confident she was, she dared not compare herself to the legendary Ravenclaw.

-

"Miss Granger?"

Even though Professor McGonagall's voice had softened somewhat, it was still incredibly authoritative, making the noisy students around her afraid to say anything.

At the same time, the sound startled Hermione from her daze. She looked in astonishment at the beetle on her table, the beetle that should have turned into a very beautiful button, now dead in a very tragic way—it had been stabbed to death by the wand.

'They're making fun of me again!'

The thought crossed Hermione's mind, and she frantically tapped the beetle with her wand again, this time successfully turning it into a button.

“Miss Granger, we are reviewing metamorphosis, and first-year students can already turn inanimate objects into buttons.”

Professor McGonagall spoke softly, but to Hermione it sounded like a heavy hammer blow.

"Alright, quiet!"

The professor raised his voice slightly and then gave her another beetle.

-

"Miss Granger, could you please stay for a moment?"

After Hermione herself had no idea how a class had ended, Professor McGonagall's voice rang out from the podium.

"You guys go first, don't wait for me."

She quickly gave instructions to her two friends.

She ran into big trouble in class and was even scolded by the professor after class—she simply didn't have the courage to let her friends hear those words of reprimand.

Fortunately, the two boys hadn't noticed anything amiss and managed to fool the situation with a quick excuse in class. Now they're happily discussing Quidditch.

"Miss Granger, you don't look very well today."

Professor McGonagall's words were direct and to the point, causing Hermione to lower her head involuntarily—this was the first time she had been criticized by a professor for her grades.

"Is it because of the crown?"

To Hermione's surprise, the professor uttered the very thing that worried her most in one sentence.

"Go find Professor William and tell him I want you to go to his place."

Without any criticism, Professor McGonagall said this out of the blue.

-

'Calm down, what are you thinking?'

Hermione shook her head rapidly, trying to clear the day's chaotic thoughts from her mind. 'If I pass the exam, I'll get the chance to see the crown!'

She silently cheered herself up, trying her best to banish the effects of that damned crown from her mind.

She knew a few Ravenclaw students—Ravenclaw students were more popular than Gryffindor students.

She had heard from the upperclassmen of Ravenclaw about Professor William's promise that the first OWLs would have the opportunity to use the Crown, but that seemed too far-fetched to her. But now things were different; Professor McGonagall's recommendation had given her a chance to take the test.

"Be serious, this opportunity might have been specially requested for you by Professor McGonagall, otherwise why wouldn't it have gone to other students!"

She scanned the questions with an attitude even more serious than she would for a final exam.

'Hmm, this is easy.'

'This is interesting.'

'This? You can even set a question like this?'

...

As she worked, Hermione, who had been working with ease, slowed down. The rustling sound of the quill pen became intermittent, as if it had run out of ink.

-

'How can a second-year student who's ranked first in their grade have such a solid foundation?'

William, who had been flipping through the Transfiguration book, was suddenly distracted when the accompaniment stopped. He glanced at the exam paper from afar and was shocked—of the three grades he was in charge of, Percy was probably the only one who could answer second-grade questions at this level.

Is it really that impressive? Percy has twelve certificates! Over the years, only a handful of students have achieved that. This kid will probably have at least ten certificates if nothing unexpected happens!

However, with Percy as a prime example, William wasn't too surprised; being first in the grade always puts one at a significant level.

'But what does it matter? This test was designed for first place—Nancy was also at a first-place level, wasn't she? I'll still cry if I have to.'

William silently gave himself a thumbs up—Hogwarts has plenty of academic prodigies, but geniuses are rare. When he set the questions, he followed the record set by Dumbledore back then. Not to mention this kid, even if Percy were to test him, William was confident that he could barely pass on his first try.

-

"This question," Hermione was stuck halfway through the test paper, stunned—the newly renamed Self-Defense Magic course had always been her weak point, and this year Professor Lockhart had changed the textbook again, so even though she tried to study on her own, she was still stuck on the tricky questions.

'Don't panic, calm down, calm down, skip to the next question,' she recalled the so-called secret to dealing with difficult exam questions that she had never used before.

As it turned out, the next question was even more difficult.

'Next one!'

She tried to encourage herself, but then she was stumped by a question that was completely beyond the scope of the curriculum—even with a professor giving a serious lecture, this question wouldn't be easy to answer.

'I still can't do this question...'

Although she should theoretically be looking at the next question, her vision was already blurry.

"What's the use—once she puts on the crown, she'll have to obediently come in second place?"

The girl's voice echoed in her ears, and the daunting question before her brought tears to her eyes.

-

"Bah."

The sudden noise broke the long silence, waking William from his reverie after he had been struggling with a magic demonstration for a long time.

"Da, da, da."

The sound of water droplets falling on parchment was so fast that it was strung together, causing William to look up in surprise at the girl doing her homework next to him—it couldn't be that serious, a fifth-grader would only have red eyes, a second-grader shouldn't be reacting so strongly, could it?

You didn't cry when you jumped off the train last time. You were under magical control the whole way and couldn't speak, but you were still quite energetic. You always had an expression that looked like you wanted to curse. What's going on today?

"Woooo..."

The obvious crying startled William, who quickly stood up, abandoning his initial slow and deliberate manner.

"Don't cry, don't cry..." He lowered his voice, "Let's talk it out, let's talk it out. If the test is hard, just study hard. Let me tell you, fifth graders can't even pass this at first. They're all in fifth grade and they're still like this. It's okay if you can't do it. You don't need to be like this."

William decisively betrayed his student—people make comparisons; after hearing that others were also having a lot of bad luck, their own misfortunes didn't seem so painful.

"No, you seemed pretty strong last time," William began to reflect. "I should have given her a first-grade test; the second-grade one seemed a bit too difficult."