"Ginny? From the Weasley family? Of course; this hair looks exactly like it belongs to a Weasley."
Hagrid scratched his face, his tone turning helpless. "Ever since those two lads came to Hogwarts, I've been busy dragging them out of the Forbidden Forest. What now? Are they planning to bring their little sister along to form a team?"
"I… I'm sorry, Hagrid. I was just curious about the Forbidden Forest. Fred and the others said it's the most interesting place at Hogwarts…"
William felt a twinge of pain in his teeth at that remark. Those two little troublemakers! It was bad enough they broke school rules to sneak into the Forbidden Forest themselves, but now they were corrupting their sister too?
More work—it was imperative to assign them more work. Not doing so would be an injustice to their illustrious achievements!
Adams, standing nearby, was also visibly furious. "Instigators! Those two had better prepare themselves. And you, Miss Ginny Weasley; you'll be working in the greenhouse this weekend. While the instigators deserve punishment, your blatant violation of school rules is beyond question."
"William, I'll take her to Mr. Filch for registration first. A first-year thinking of running into the Forbidden Forest. The plants alone could kill her!"
With that, Adams quickly escorted Ginny away. Judging by his expression, she was unlikely to escape a lengthy lecture on the way.
With the culprits out of sight, William finally breathed a sigh of relief. He promptly fished a Chocolate Frog out of his pocket. Ever since his experiments with dark magic, he'd made it a point to pay closer attention to managing his emotions.
Thankfully, he didn't send her to detention with me. Otherwise, my office would start to feel like a puzzle-solving game.
As this thought crossed his mind, William finally began to ease out of the anger stirred up by the antics of the absent pranksters. He pulled out another Chocolate Frog and tossed it to Hagrid.
"Thanks, William. But it looks like this year's troubles won't be solved with a single Chocolate Frog. Another Weasley from Gryffindor!"
"Are there any Weasleys not in Gryffindor?"
"Not yet, which makes each one more of a handful than the last."
Hagrid chuckled as he stuffed the entire Chocolate Frog into his mouth. "Oh, another Dumbledore card."
"I've already got five of those. Don't need any more."
"I've got eleven, but when you work at Hogwarts, this card's useless; There's only one Dumbledore."
That remark, laden with a humblebrag, failed to elicit any envy from William. After all, he too was now earning his livelihood at Hogwarts.
***
By the time William finished entrusting the rabbits to Hagrid's care and returned from their idle chatter, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.
The teaching aids for next week's lessons are ready, the papers for the fifth-years are done, and I just need to refine the sixth-years' syllabus a bit. With that, next week's preparation will be complete…
The thought filled William with a rare sense of joy. Even someone as determined as him, who strove to maintain a calm and authoritative demeanor within the school, couldn't suppress a smile. It was akin to the delight of waking up as a procrastinating writer to find you'd sleepwalked your way into drafting 30,000 words overnight.
He unwrapped yet another Chocolate Frog in celebration.
William, you need to exercise restraint—this weekend, two hours of swimming training at the Black Lake!
After settling on this plan, William took a big bite out of the Chocolate Frog and casually pulled out the card. As expected, it was Dumbledore.
No generals left in the kingdom, so every card has to be the most known one?
Which company made these Chocolate Frog cards? Do they want to dominate the market or something?
Amused by his own obscure joke, William munched on the Chocolate Frog as he floated back to the staff lounge, taking advantage of the fact that the students were still in class.
However, to his surprise, the staff lounge was completely empty.
Something's off—where are Adams and Singed? Aphra should be here too.
"Uncle Trickster?"
A figure appeared in the corner of the room, startling William. Who else could it be but Aphra?
"Aphra, where is everyone?"
"Uncle Adams? Auntie Sprout called him away, and then everyone else followed. I snuck into hiding, so they couldn't see me."
Hiding? Wasn't there a spell cast to prevent that?
William clearly remembered that all of Aphra's clothes had been enchanted to make her easily locatable. Maybe they forgot today?
"Alright, I'll go see what's going on. Do you want to come along, Aphra?"
The little girl's face lit up with curiosity, but she held back. "Daddy said I should listen to Uncle Singed, so Aphra won't leave this room."
"What a good girl. Here's a chocolate as a reward. I'll go take a look and be back soon."
Since her parents had raised her so well, William naturally wouldn't encourage her to run off and play. He ruffled her hair fondly before heading out to figure out where the other professors had gone.
***
"Professor William, you're here too?"
Singed greeted William with a wave as he hurried over, but immediately motioned for him to be quiet.
William, having traced their movements through the portraits along the way, drew in a sharp breath. At least a third of the school's professors were gathered here, if not more.
This lineup could take on the Ministry of Magic. Were they planning a coup?
"Keep your voice down, William me boy."
Professor Kettleburn, for once, lowered his voice and made some space for William. With great reluctance, William squeezed into the crowd.
"..."
"Thirty points deducted!"
"An entire thirty points!"
"Hufflepuff finally managed to take the lead, and then, just like that, the gemstones shot up into the air—our prefects are stunned! They searched the entire common room trying to find out who lost so many points!"
"You're catching Gryffindor troublemakers but deducting Hufflepuff's points. If I hadn't personally watched you grow from a first-year to a graduate, I'd have thought you were a Gryffindor professor!"
William recognized the angry voice inside the room; It was Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff House. Normally a kind and gentle witch, she was clearly furious today.
William could easily imagine himself in her position and realized he'd probably be even angrier.
Yes, if the prefects of his house found out they'd lost a large number of points, searched frantically for the culprit, and eventually had to report to their Head of House, only to discover that the one responsible was a former student of their own house, he'd definitely lose his temper.
Picturing the scene, William couldn't help but feel that Adams wasn't wronged at all.
***
"That's the story. Poor Adams got lectured for a whole hour. He's so diligent about deducting points from his own house. It's no wonder he's so unlucky."
During dinner at Professor Taylor's home, the professor chuckled as he shared the amusing events of the day with his wife. Given how much effort it had taken him to fix Aphra's braids earlier, Professor Taylor didn't feel the least bit guilty about enjoying the story.
"Haha, the way you described it makes me want to see it too. I've never witnessed Professor Sprout scolding anyone during my time at Hogwarts. Aphra, what are you doing?"
"Mama, eat some chocolate."
Aphra handed over an entire unopened bar of chocolate, leaving Professor Taylor momentarily at a loss for words. What about my share?
"Ah! A bug—a bug!"
A Flobberworm was sitting right on top of the chocolate. With lightning speed, Aphra snatched it up. "This is my new friend. I met it in the Forbidden Forest today."
Her tone was cheerful.
But soon, the Taylor household was filled with the sounds of a crying child and the professor's frantic attempts to explain.
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