HP: Azkaban's Outstanding Graduate

2. Challenge Rules:

o Only formal duel challenges to opponents ranked higher than oneself are allowed.

Challenges must be submitted at least 24 hours in advance, and the referee and security supervisor will be either Sagles himself or a professor designated by the duelists.

It is strictly forbidden to challenge someone ranked lower than yourself.

3. Protection Mechanism: Each challenger has a "cool-off period" and can accept a maximum of three formal challenges within a week to prevent malicious challenge-by-challenge.

4. Mandatory Reconciliation: Any student who has harmed or humiliated another student under the guise of "sparring" during past "duel craze" must, within three days, offer a sincere apology in person to the victim and obtain their forgiveness before receiving the duel badge. The apology process must be witnessed by a third party (prefect or professor) and recorded.

The announcement of the list caused an uproar throughout the school, which then quickly fell into a peculiar order.

The energy of combative individuals is channeled into legitimate channels of upward challenge.

Challenging the strong and proving oneself under the rule and the gaze of the strong has itself become a symbol of honor and strength.

Those who once bullied the weak suddenly discovered that their "power" was meaningless in the face of true strength, and they also lost their target for venting their anger.

As for the apology order, under the intimidating gaze of Sagres and the rules of the rankings, most of those involved chose to comply.

They find the former victims and, under the watchful eyes of the prefect or professor, they struggle to say "I'm sorry."

Some apologies were stiff, while others were full of genuine shame.

The victims reacted differently; some chose to forgive, while others refused to accept it.

In any case, the cracks eventually began to slowly heal with the public apology.

However, some people always take chances and try to get away with it.

Several students who were confident in their intelligence or had powerful connections chose to shirk their responsibilities or even pretend to have forgotten.

Sagles' response was simple, direct, and extremely humiliating.

He didn't get any points deducted, wasn't put in solitary confinement, and didn't even waste a single word of his time in class.

He sent extremely formal and detailed letters directly to the parents of these students with "powerful backgrounds".

The letter not only clearly listed the specific actions, times, places, and names of the victims of his children, but also included the fact that he refused to comply with the apology order.

At the end of the letter was Sagrais's formulaic, cold signature, and an unquestionable demand: "Please come to Hogwarts in person within one hour of receiving this letter to assist in handling this matter and supervise your child in fulfilling their obligation to apologize."

When several grimacing, pure-blooded parents, in the auditorium in front of all the professors and students, suppressed their anger and embarrassment and ordered their children to bow their heads and apologize to the victimized student, the silent deterrent effect was a hundred times more profound than any confinement.

Sagrass had anticipated this situation from the beginning, because he knew the nature of these young wizards all too well.

He was fully aware of all the duel events, and his days of "pretending to be deaf and dumb" were just him waiting for the right opportunity.

—After making an example of someone, then use rankings to channel influence, use rules to define behavior, use mandatory apologies to heal some of the wounds, and then use public punishment to precisely strike at the stubborn ones.

From then on, the atmosphere inside the castle began to subtly change.

Private fights disappeared, but the passion for challenging others was reignited within the rules.

In the hallway, students were no longer discussing "who taught whom a lesson yesterday," but rather "so-and-so's ranking has risen again" and "Potter's disarming spell was as fast as lightning."

Those students who were bullied and have now received apologies may not be completely at peace, but at least they have genuinely felt a sense of order protected by rules.

Thus, the somewhat out-of-control and malicious "duel craze" finally subsided after the second dueling class, like a flame on ice.

Confinement?

nonexistent!

Points deducted?

That thing is useless!

Sagrais had plenty of ways to make these young wizards submit, but he was unwilling to do so.

He prefers to take a roundabout approach and use gentler methods to achieve his goal.

It wasn't that he was afraid the students who made mistakes would hold a grudge against him; what he wanted was simply to guide these young wizards with outdated ideas in the right direction as much as possible.

……

In the days that followed, the busiest figure in the castle suddenly became the kestrel.

A large number of students flocked to the newly appointed professor, begging her to preside over the duel; and those involved who were forced to settle also requested her to act as a witness to their apologies.

The reason is obvious—her personality and age resonated most with the young wizards. The students genuinely loved this seemingly carefree, even somewhat "unreliable" new professor.

The kestrel itself is also very happy about this.

Whenever she acted as a witness, she would quietly pull the person apologizing aside, lower her voice, and say with a sincere "I understand you" expression, "Leave this to me! But..."

She blinked. "The prerequisite is that you have to genuinely repent..."

At this point, the other party would often feel as if they had been granted a pardon, and would be extremely grateful: "Thank you so much, Professor Lumina! Professor Greengrass is right, we really shouldn't have acted recklessly with only a little knowledge... We know we were wrong!"

"It's good that you know you were wrong!"

Red Falcon patted his chest confidently, "Don't worry, leave it to me! Even if it doesn't work this time, it'll definitely work next time. I'll go and try to persuade them over there..."

"Thank you, Professor Lumina, you are truly the best professor at Hogwarts!"

"Oh, oh, it's nothing!" Red Falcon waved his hand, smiling broadly.

Turning around, she immediately slipped over to the former victim, leaning in with the same mysterious air: "Listen, you absolutely mustn't give in easily! At least make them apologize a few more times, so they'll learn their lesson! Don't worry, I'll definitely 'uphold justice' for you, making them regret it to the core!"

"Thank you, Professor Lumina! Then I'll..."

"Of course you'll come to me again next time! I'll teach you how to do it, and I guarantee you'll be satisfied!" Red Falcon said, adopting the air of a "fellow traveler."

"Thank you so much, Professor Lumina, you are truly the best professor at Hogwarts!"

"Oh, oh, it's nothing!" Red Falcon waved again, his smile still bright.

As expected, forced settlements "failed" time and time again.

Interestingly, both sides in the conflict were filled with gratitude towards Professor Red Falcon.

One side was grateful for her "magnanimity" and "efforts to mediate," while the other side was grateful for her "steadfast support" and "upholding of justice."

The kestrel's tactic of playing both sides and pleasing both sides initially went quite smoothly.

Like a busy and cheerful bee, she flitted through the castle's corridors, empty classrooms, and courtyards, leaving behind a trail of "Oh, it's nothing" echoes and satisfied smiles on both sides, despite their differing goals.

She even took pride in her "efficient mediation," feeling that she had both comforted the victims and "deeply educated" the wrongdoers, achieving two goals at once.

However, there are no secrets in the castle, especially when there is always a pair of eyes watching the enforcement of the rules.

Sagres noticed the anomaly with almost no effort.

The repeated delays in the apology process, the numerous invalid records of the reconciliation witnessing, and the overly "active" figure of the Red Falcon and the almost worshipful gratitude of both sides' students towards her created a highly discordant picture.

This is far from the "healing process" he had envisioned, which would be driven by rules.

It wasn't until Lochteis had learned to say, "You are truly the best professor at Hogwarts!" and "Oh dear, it's nothing!" that Red Falcon began to tone it down a bit.

Chapter 124 Caught in the Act

One afternoon, as the kestrel returned to her office, humming a tune and feeling quite content after her eleventh failed mediation session, she looked up and saw Sagres standing in front of her office door.

The afterglow streaming through the stained-glass windows stretched his tall figure long, almost covering most of the corridor.

What he was holding in his hand was a thick stack of parchment reports that recorded "Witness: Professor Eliza Lumina" and "Reconciliation Result: No Agreement Reached".

The corridor was unusually quiet, the air seemed to freeze, and there was a heavy pressure.

Sagres slowly turned around, his cold gray eyes locking onto the kestrel at the doorway.

He didn't speak, but simply waved the parchment in his hand. The movement was small, but it froze the falcon's smile on his face.

On that handsome but expressionless face, there was no sign of anger, only a calm that seemed to understand everything.

“Professor Lumina, our ‘best professor at Hogwarts!’” His voice was steady, without the slightest hint of emotion. “Perhaps you can explain…”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the recurring signatures and results in the report. "This unique...art of mediation, and its 'significant' impact on the efficiency of enforcing 'apology orders'?"

The smile on the kestrel's face vanished. A hint of panic, caught off guard, flickered in those eyes that always gleamed with cunning.

When she saw Sagres come to her door, she immediately knew the game was over.

Her self-satisfied "cleverness" was completely exposed in front of him.

"Oh, I just wanted everyone to be happy, didn't I?" Red Falcon spread his hands, a bright yet slightly ingratiating smile spreading across his face. "Look how great it is now, everyone's so happy! (￣▽￣)?"

“Is that so?” Sagles said expressionlessly. “I think you’re the happiest person here.”

"I...I just wanted to help you resolve the conflict between them!" Red Falcon's confidence faltered, and his voice weakened. "Now the conflict is almost resolved. Tomorrow! Tomorrow I'll get everyone mediated successfully!"

Sagres frowned even more, his gaze sweeping over her face, which was filled with an expression of "I am innocent": "Your daily workload is no less than mine. Even if you don't assign homework, you shouldn't be this idle, right?"

"Hey—I didn't slack off on this!" Red Falcon retorted immediately, as if its tail had been stepped on. "The students have learned very well! They used the Ironclad Charm, the Barrier Charm, and some anti-charms quite well! You can check if you don't believe me..."

“I know…” Sagres interrupted her, a hint of barely perceptible disdain in his voice, “I know the students’ defensive magic has improved significantly. But I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about you…”

He paused, his gaze falling heavily on the kestrel, before finally letting out a barely audible sigh.

"What's wrong with me?" Red Falcon muttered softly, a hint of resentment in his voice. "I'm doing a great job as a professor, and I'm teaching my students just fine..."

“You’re too idle!” Sagres concluded incisively, while stating his request without room for argument, “Perfect, there’s something I need you to do.”

"What is it?" The falcon immediately became alert and tried to struggle. "I've been very busy lately—"

Sagles frowned again: "Didn't you say you'd have everything settled by tomorrow? What are you so busy with?"

"Uh... oh right! I forgot!"

The kestrel changed its tune in an instant, with astonishing speed, its face switching to a shameless "I'm fine now" expression.

Sagles ignored her performance and gave the order directly: "I want to build a dueling ring next to the Quidditch pitch that can accommodate the whole school to watch. You will come and help me with that."

"Ah—?" the falcon drawled, its face full of reluctance.

"What?!" Sagres looked at the other person calmly, his eyes carrying an invisible pressure. "Unwilling?"

"Yes! Yes!"

The kestrel immediately stood up straight, forcing a lifeless, fake smile, and said in an exaggerated tone, "I've been waiting for you to assign me a mission! I couldn't be happier!"

"Wait for my notification." Sagres didn't look at her again, and turned away decisively.