Harry Potter: Reborn as a Prisoner in Azkaban

"Seriously, what happened today was magical—I thought George and the others were going to be called by the professor, but they weren't." Ron looked confused as he and his two friends squeezed out of the crowd.

He struggled to drag a chair from the corner and then, in confusion, added the second half of his sentence to Hermione, "And you, on the other hand, were called by the professor."

"What do you think happened to make the professor so angry?"

Ron was puzzled—from what he'd heard, only two chickens had died at the school.

"Perhaps someone broke into Professor McGonagall's office?"

Hiss~

Harry's casual guess caused a collective gasp—a few people who had been curiously craning their necks to hear about today's events were now completely startled by Harry's bold conjecture.

Even Hermione, who was still angry about being called by the professor, was so shocked by this daring guess that she retorted.

"How is that possible? Which Gryffindor would break into Professor McGonagall's office?"

Even the most mischievous Weasley twins wouldn't do something as risky as putting a bell on a cat's neck—what mouse would seek out a cat for no reason?

Hermione's retort was met with approval from most, and everyone laughed for a while, but after the laughter, for some reason, the cheerful atmosphere in the common room suddenly diminished greatly. The students who had intended to have a wild time quietly returned to their dormitories after the laughter subsided.

—

"Why did everyone go back so quickly?"

Lee Jordan emerged from a corner of the common room, greeting the others.

They had agreed when many Gryffindors were preparing to party that they would keep a close eye on everyone in the common room, and when the real culprit revealed a flaw, they would turn them in for a holiday.

"How many people did you record?"

"Four—excluding two."

"Five, not excluded."

…

After totaling and consolidating the names and excluding most of those deemed innocent, the list of suspects still had a full eleven people.

"Why so many? That shouldn't be—when it comes to reactions after being caught, no one is more familiar than us, so why are there so many left?"

A group of teenagers who thought they had devised a clever plan were dumbfounded after checking the final list—had their method been wrong?

"No, the method isn't wrong—these people should all have something to hide, but not entirely because of the rooster incident."

Fred suddenly understood. He pointed his finger at the final list and began drawing, "Look, these people might all have made mistakes—like staying out past curfew, secretly raising illegal pets in their dorms, or hiding forbidden toys and books under their beds. All of these are possible."

He rubbed his hands excitedly, "Our deduction is completely correct. Those guys came back from being called by the professor with abnormal expressions, they must have done something against school rules, so the culprit must be among them!"

"But Fred, aren't you just talking about what we did—are we supposed to self-examine first?"

The person who asked was met with a barrage of eye-rolls from his accomplices and quieted down.

"Alright, everyone quiet, listen to me."

George showed everyone the list, "Everyone look closely, this is our final consolidated list. If we keep an eye on people according to this list, we'll quickly be able to eliminate the extra candidates and hand over the real chicken killer, in exchange for our holiday."

"It might seem a bit like betraying Gryffindor, but it's not. We started investigating after the first chicken was killed. In all this time, the other party should have known someone was trying to investigate them, but they still provocatively killed another rooster. This is a provocation to us, and our investigation is just our response to them."

More than a dozen copies of the list were written and distributed to everyone, and they decided to monitor one-on-one.

"Everyone hurry up, if possible, I hope we can submit the final list as an invitation at tomorrow's feast—I bet that would be amazing."

The common room became lively again—this made many students Can't help but explore out their heads to see who was so bold as to gather again despite Professor McGonagall's anger today, especially since everyone had just collectively realized how angry the professor was.

'Oh, it's the Weasley brothers.'

—

"Adams, Adams?"

William knocked on Adams's office door. A muffled response came from inside, and then, Adams, in his pajamas, groggily appeared from behind the opened door.

"It's nine o'clock, William!"

Adams looked resentful—an expression that almost made William think he was waking someone up at two in the morning.

Adams probably realized something was off, and he mumbled, "I have to take care of plants tomorrow morning, so I went to bed a bit early. Do you have something urgent?"

Your "early" is a bit too early.

However, when asking for a favor, it's clearly not appropriate to add complaints, so William suppressed the urge. "I'm planning to hold a feast. Drinks and food are all arranged, but this afternoon Professor Lockhart said I also need to prepare some entertainment. I want it to be a bit more formal, and when I was planning to invite a band, Professor Sinistra said you might have a way—"

"Invite a band? Getting approval for a band to come to Hogwarts is quite difficult. Have you sorted things out with Professor McGonagall?"

Sorted out? The professor was actually very enthusiastic and offered suggestions when she heard I was holding a feast—she even had Professor Lockhart take me through the specific procedures. That should count as sorted out, right?

William uncertainly stated his guess, which made Adams burst into laughter.

"Haha—Professor McGonagall told you to organize more feasts!"

"Huh? What's so funny about that?"

William was baffled by Adams's laughter—he had realized when Professor Lockhart explained things that he might have been a bit too hasty. The preparation time for the feast was too short, but he clearly couldn't just back out on what he'd promised the students, or it would affect his prestige as a professor.

So he was preparing everything with utmost caution, and he was ready for things to go wrong—successfully holding the feast was a victory, and losing a bit of face during preparation was no big deal.

"No, no, I have contact information for a few performance groups. Just send an owl, and I can give you a result by tomorrow morning."

Adams replied seriously.

"Oh, by the way, I'm not very familiar with the Undetectable Extension Charm either. Can you help me tomorrow?"

"No problem—see you tomorrow morning."

Adams feigned a sleepy expression to dismiss him, which made William feel that something was off.

But Adams was trustworthy, so William had no choice but to say goodbye.

Once he had rounded the corner, still bewildered, Adams finally couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Hahaha! Tell him to prepare more feasts—how strict is William that even Professor McGonagall thinks he needs a feast to relax, pfft haha."

Adams, who was doubled over with laughter, finally managed to stop, and then began to scold himself—his sleepiness was completely gone.

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