HP: Azkaban's Outstanding Graduate

"Professor, what rewards are given to those who pass the test?"

"A reward?" Sagres hadn't thought about that. He felt there wasn't much of a reward for passing this test, but since a student had asked, he decided to give a perfunctory answer.

“The rune crystal bottle is the reward. Everyone who successfully passes the test will receive one from me.” He waved the crystal bottle in his hand and explained to everyone, “It is enchanted with the Unseen Stretching Charm and the Unprintable Charm. It can be used to hold magical flames or alchemical liquids, and of course, it can also be used to hold food and keep it fresh indefinitely.”

He could even mass-produce these simple alchemical items, since it was just a simple application of runic magic, requiring almost no technical skill except for a few ancient and rare runes.

Nevertheless, its ability to hold alchemical liquids and magical flames already puts it far ahead of most similar items on the black market, and if sold, it would be worth no less than 6 Galleons.

————————————————————

On the first day of the new year, while the young wizards were having breakfast in the Great Hall, the silence of the Great Hall was shattered by the arrival of a messenger owl.

The Daily Prophet's front page headline glowed blood-red in the candlelight—"Dark Magic Combat Training Spotted at Hogwarts? Over Two Hundred Students Hang by a Thread!" The accompanying photo was a snapshot of a Slytherin girl being struck by a troll, even though she was sitting calmly in the Great Hall having a meal.

"What's this?" Ron asked, holding the newspaper with a puzzled look. "Didn't Fred and the others say that Professor Greengrass's practical lesson was a complete success?"

Harry snatched the newspaper, quickly scanned the headlines, and then carefully read the contents of the article.

“That’s utter nonsense! No one was injured in class…” He slammed the newspaper on the table angrily and said indignantly, “Didn’t Professor McGonagall tell us that all the students were protected by a protective spell?”

“They even photoshopped fangs onto the trolls.” Hermione picked up the newspaper and started reading, slamming the glass of pumpkin juice down on the table. She noticed Ron staring at the anonymous interview at the end of the article: “An heir to an ancient family confesses that some professors are turning the school into a gladiatorial arena in Knockturn Alley.”

"Another pure-blood family conspiracy..." She suddenly realized, "This is a frame-up. Why are they always targeting Professor Greengrass?"

“Uh, I heard that Professor Greengrass sent members of several families to Azkaban before he became an Auror…” Ron clearly knew some secrets of pure-blood families, or perhaps they weren’t even secrets at all, “Some of them he even killed on the spot… Of course, those were extremely dangerous dark wizards, and they all had some connection to certain families…”

"You mean, it wasn't just that one time? Professor Greengrass has done many similar things?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

“Yes,” Ron said confidently. “You may not know, but Professor Greengrass became a registered dark wizard hunter with the International Wizarding Federation right after graduating from Durmstrang. Quite a few people have fallen to him…”

"'Dark Wizard Hunter'? I've never heard of that before?" Hermione rarely showed a puzzled expression.

Ron replied casually, "This organization was disbanded last year for some special reasons... and they didn't have many people to begin with, plus the Federation banned related reporting."

"How did you know that?" Hermione asked, somewhat suspiciously.

Ron immediately became angry, feeling as if he had been insulted: "My father was involved in this work, so what? Do you have another question?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything more.

Harry was still somewhat indignant about the news in the newspaper, but he was clearly powerless to do anything about it.

"At first, Professor McGonagall had some reservations about Professor Greengrass's teaching methods, but after this, she seems to have become quite fond of them," Hermione told the two of them, sharing her observations.

"So what? What does this mean?" Ron said nonchalantly.

"This means that Professor Greengrass's teaching methods are flawless, and even highly effective," Hermione said confidently. "Besides Snape, the other three heads of the house all affirmed Professor Greengrass's teaching achievements. Doesn't that speak volumes?"

“What’s strange is that the Daily Prophet dared to write such a report without doing any investigation…” Harry was a little puzzled.

“That’s not surprising at all!” Hermione said. “The Daily Prophet does this all the time; they don’t care what the truth is.”

“Hermione is right,” Ron added, “which is why our family almost never reads the Daily Prophet.”

"Oh, right, the school has a new rule," Hermione suddenly said to the two of them. "Younger students can also audit Professor Greengrass's Charms Theory class. I've already signed up. Do you want to come with me?"

“We already have enough classes to attend…” Ron yelled, “We don’t even have time to rest!”

Harry also wanted to go and see, but he had to attend Quidditch training and didn't have much time, so he was prepared to decline Hermione's suggestion.

"Your answer is the same?" Hermione looked at Harry, who was about to speak, and said angrily, "Humph! Then you can forget about ever seeing my notes again... or my homework..."

Ron's face immediately turned pale with fear, and he quickly waved his hands in denial: "You misunderstood, Hermione. What I meant was that we already have enough classes, so nobody cares about having one more!"

“That’s right! Ron is right, and besides, it’s Professor Greengrass’s class, of course we have to go…”

“That’s more like it…” Hermione snorted. “You know, not just anyone can go. I had to ask Professor McGonagall for our three spots.”

……

Chapter 26 The Mastermind

Meanwhile, in a cellar bearing the Flint family crest, Calbert Flint was gently tapping a stack of parchment with his wand.

“We need more…real medical records.” His pale fingertips brushed over the image of Sagrais lecturing in the crystal ball. “Let Mrs. Nott tell everyone that her daughter’s injured arm was scratched by a troll in class and diagnosed as permanent magical damage.”

Another tall figure emerged from the shadows. "So this is how you get him out of Hogwarts?"

“This is just an excuse…” A hint of disdain flashed across Calbert’s face, but the other party clearly didn’t notice. “The Board of Governors can use this as an excuse to put pressure on Dumbledore, and I will have the Daily Prophet publish the statement ‘dismissing dangerous individuals’ tomorrow, and finally have the pure-blood family members temporarily take their students away from Hogwarts…”

He paused, glancing at the other man. "Cornely Fudge has already sent a letter to Dumbledore. As long as we continue to expand our influence, driving him out of Hogwarts won't be difficult at all. And once he leaves Hogwarts, without Dumbledore's protection... ha!"

“I hope it’s as you say…” The figure emerged completely from the shadows, his tall frame leaning slightly forward as he coldly addressed Calbert, “Otherwise, you will pay the price!”

"Hmph, you should worry about yourselves!" Calbert said, completely unfazed by the threat. "He may be a bastard, but he's not someone to be trifled with..."

“You don’t need to worry about that…” Another gray-haired woman emerged from the darkness, pushed the tall man aside, and whispered to Calbert, “You just need to do your own thing…”

She gently stroked Calbert's collar with her hand, but he took a step back without making a sound. The gray-haired woman's smile did not fade, but a cold glint flashed in her eyes.

"So when are you planning to leave?" Calbert asked coldly.

“I don’t think we’ll leave before he does.”

"You mean you're going to stay on my estate forever?" he asked, somewhat incredulously.

"Where else can we go?" the gray-haired woman replied with a smile.

Culbert's face darkened, but he forced back his anger and turned to leave. "Once he's expelled from Hogwarts, you all must leave immediately!"

The man and woman slowly retreated into the shadows without answering.

Once outside the cellar, Calbert immediately stopped hiding his disgust. He picked up his wand and cast a cleansing spell on his collar, but as if that wasn't enough, he had a house-elf give him a new coat.

“A bunch of filthy creatures…” he kept muttering as he wrote to the editor of the Daily Prophet.

————————————————————

In the principal's office, Sagles calmly held a newspaper.

Dumbledore smiled and handed him a letter bearing the Ministry of Magic's seal. "Looks like we're in new trouble again."

Sagres did not take the letter; instead, he looked at the newspaper and silently memorized the editor's name—Barnabas Gupta.

"The Board of Trustees has currently ordered a suspension of all outdoor activities..."

“Professor Dumbledore…” he calmly interrupted the old headmaster, “when did you start running errands for Fudge?”

“Sagles, you can’t be so harsh on an old man…”

Sagles waved the newspaper in his hand. "You can't just blame me because a dog bit me!"

“I didn’t mean to criticize you at all,” Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Then what's the point of me sitting here right now?"

Before Dumbledore could answer, Sagles tossed the newspaper onto the desk. "Fine, I'll handle it myself!"

“No, Sacramento…” Dumbledore sat up straight, his expression finally becoming quite serious. “As the headmaster, this is what I should do… and you need to calm down now.”

“I’m calmer than anyone else.” Sagres stood up calmly, looking down at Dumbledore. “You may not know this, but I cast a spell on myself every day just to keep myself calm!”

“Nevertheless, I still hope you can entrust this matter to me…” Dumbledore said earnestly, looking into his eyes.

“Professor Dumbledore, you may have your ways, but my years of painstaking pursuit of the true meaning of magic have not been for playing political games with others…” Sagres pointed to the letters and newspapers on the table with his finger: “You should understand what I mean, but these people clearly don’t, so I need to give them a good lesson.”

After saying that, he ignored the other person's attempt to continue speaking and turned to leave the office.

As he descended the spiral staircase, Sagres maintained a calm expression, but in reality, he was extremely unhappy.

While he was in Azkaban, he was promised that as long as his teaching could guarantee the safety of the students, he would be free from interference from these messy review committees.

But this is only the beginning, and Dumbledore has already thrown the question at him.

If Dumbledore truly wanted to resolve this himself, why bring him here to discuss it? Was it to test his attitude? Or to solicit his opinion?

As it happened, he had some minor grievances against those incompetent officials in the Ministry of Magic, so he was going to teach them a lesson this time, so that they would instinctively run far away whenever they saw or heard his name in the future.

Sagres recalled the embellished reports in the Daily Prophet, and he murmured the editor's name, "Barnabas O'Guffey..."

The next moment, his figure vanished into thin air.

Moonlight shattered into silvery scales on the Thames, and as Sagres stepped onto the marble steps of the Daily Prophet's headquarters, a powerful surge of magic swept across the scene.

The heart-shaped wooden door to Barnabas Goughfe's office began to carbonize the moment it met Sagres's gaze, and as his fingertips traced the gilded inscription "Truth Above All" on the door panel, a mocking smile crept onto his lips.

"Good evening, Mr. Gufe." Sagres greeted the editor-in-chief, who was buried in a pile of manuscripts, naturally.

Barnabas O. Gufel ​​looked up blankly, put on his glasses and looked at the newcomer. Only then did he notice that everything around him was turning into charcoal, and the pile of documents in front of him was even engulfed in flames. At this moment, everyone inside the Daily Prophet was completely oblivious to this.

Everyone seemed to be busy with their own things, ignoring this strange scene.

As a wizard, Barnabas particularly wanted to express his feelings with a Muggle phrase: This is not scientific! Of course, it's not magical at all! At least he had never heard of any spell that could do this.

“A self-introduction can probably be omitted, since all the reports about me were written by you personally…” Sagles sat down directly in front of him.

"I just heard that you seem to have some... opinions about my teaching methods."

Cold sweat instantly beaded on the back of his neck. Barnabas O. Gufel ​​jumped up from behind the table, realizing that the protective spells he had carefully set up were completely ineffective.

He tried to escape at first, but gave up immediately. Then he started yelling and screaming down the corridor, frantically calling for help. He then tried to calm the hostile Sagrais. Finally, he even tried to pull out his wand to fight back, but his trembling hand couldn't even cast a single effective spell.

The Daily Prophet's employees were busy going back and forth outside the glass window, but no one noticed him; it was as if everything had fallen into an absurd dream.

Chapter 27 The Flint Family

Sagrais watched calmly as Barnabas did all this, until he gave up struggling, then he slowly spoke: "As a wizard, you only thought of picking up your wand to face me at the very last moment..."

Sagles shook his head. "To be honest, I'm disappointed."

“You…you can’t do this…” Barnabas Guffey stammered. “If you do anything to hurt me, you’ll be taken back to Azkaban by the Ministry of Magic, and this time even Dumbledore can’t save you.”

“Hurturing you? Of course I wouldn’t hurt you…” Sagles said in surprise, “I’m just not very happy with your evaluation of me and my teaching methods…”

He reached into the flames and pulled out a brand-new proof still burning. He shook it, and the flames immediately went out, restoring the half-burnt newspaper to its original state.

“For example, this section…” He pointed to a newspaper article: “Scary teaching methods may lead to the closure of Hogwarts. I really don’t like this headline. How about we change it?”

The letters on the newspaper fell off and rearranged themselves on the parchment to form new words: "Editor of the Daily Prophet Dies Mysteriously, May Have Suffered Horrible Torture Before His Death."