"The feeling of being unable to intervene is truly disheartening—"
Casually holding Dumbledore's gift, William began to assess his weaknesses and areas where he could improve quickly.
Although William knew full well that even with some training, he wouldn't have made a significant contribution in the recent situation—'But I can't keep being completely out of the loop regarding the castle's secrets, can I?'
When life is at stake, William didn't want to be as unprepared as he was now if the curse were to activate.
"Research into magical artifacts needs to be prioritized. I might even forgo learning how to appraise their effects and instead focus solely on detecting curses on them."
"Hmm, memory protection also needs to be strengthened—it doesn't matter if I can't recognize accelerated memories, but at least my memories shouldn't be easily read. I remember Veritaserum has a similar effect, so I can focus on training to identify Veritaserum."
"But that stuff is colorless and odorless, right? Or should I just control my drinks?"
With various plans swirling in his mind and constantly being revised, William began walking towards his office.
"Hey, William!"
Adams greeted him from a distance.
"Hi, Adams, are you done with the greenhouse work?"
"Yeah, I am," Adams hurried closer, looking mysterious. "William, did you hear? Ravenclaw's Diadem has been found!"
My dear Adams, is there oxygen on Mars? Can one cast spells normally there?
However, Adams clearly didn't understand William's expression. He muttered softly, "You wouldn't believe how disappointed those students were during my class this morning—every single one of them was hoping to get the Diadem to pass their exams!"
"I heard the Diadem is with Dumbledore now, and I wonder when we'll get to see it—I bet Sinjid will see it soon, he's a master at alchemy, Dumbledore will definitely, wait, William, what's that in your hand?"
The chattering Adams suddenly exclaimed, pointing at the object in William's left hand, speechless.
'What is it?'
William glanced at his hand, then froze himself.
It was the item Dumbledore had given him—a small handful of messy, uneven feathers, long and short, mixed with tiny downy plumes—it was clear the original owner hadn't taken good care of them.
"Heavens, William, what have you done!"
Adams expressed his shock in a very small but urgent voice.
"You must know what this is!"
"Of course I know, I just didn't expect it to be this."
William's reply was completely off-topic—he was simply too astonished.
It was only at this moment that he truly understood how precious the Diadem, so casually given away by Helena, truly was—so precious that he couldn't even imagine its value.
Dumbledore had given him an entire handful of phoenix feathers, fresh ones, brimming with magic.
Immediately, several potion recipes that required them came to William's mind—all of them, without exception, were the kind that needed more than half a year of brewing.
Another commonality among these potions was that drinking them felt like drinking gold.
Not to mention, there were even a few tail feathers in this handful—those were top-tier wand materials. If William remembered correctly, the old professor had mentioned his own phoenix feather core wand. (Note: Official material.)
This single handful of phoenix feathers alone was a top-tier material William had never dared to dream of before, and such a material was given away so easily by Dumbledore—so, just how precious was the Diadem that Dumbledore held in such high regard?
"Adams, do you know," William Foolishly asked Adams back, and without waiting for his answer, continued, "I once heard a joke that the emperor used a golden hoe to farm…"
"What emperor! William, snap out of it—why would you pluck Fawkes's feathers?"
"Pluck feathers?" William was a bit confused. "Why pluck feathers?"
"Dumbledore's phoenix—you've gone too far with this joke, even if it's shedding, you can't bully it like that!"
"I didn't! Dumbledore gave these to me." William shook his head, denying it. He wasn't taking the blame for this.
"Given?" Adams paused, then slapped his forehead. "Right, why didn't I think of that? If I just asked for phoenix feathers for a potion, I could see the Diadem!"
"See ya, William," Adams said excitedly. "If you need ingredients for potions, come find me. I have most of the herbs for potions. I'm going to ask about the Diadem first. See you at lunch!"
Adams left without looking back.
William stood frozen in place, the phoenix feathers in his hand suddenly losing their initial impact.
'Have I been underestimating the perks of being a professor all this time?'
Since entering the school, William had been striving to be a good professor, and so far, he felt he had done quite well.
But at this moment, he realized he still hadn't done well enough.
'If it weren't for that curse, I, a near-magical novice without a certificate, probably wouldn't even have passed the initial interview, would I?'
'You need to step up, William. Don't always be so lackadaisical, thinking you can get by with rote memorization. You need to work twice as hard on your studies!'
—
'Hmm, this schedule should work.'
After pondering for nearly an hour, William finally drew up a new schedule.
'Thankfully, there's Professor Lockhart, otherwise with seven years of courses, I'd probably have exposed my weaknesses long ago. How could I teach and maintain my strength at the same time!'
William once again thanked his colleague in his heart—sharing the curse, sharing teaching duties, sharing the dissatisfaction about classes (if Professor Lockhart's teaching ability wasn't so terrible, sixth and seventh-year students wouldn't be so happy in class).
'Only the shared curse is easy to target me, but even if Professor Lockhart didn't come, I'd still have to bear it,' William reassured himself, then began tidying up his drafts, preparing to go to the dining hall.
"Professor William, are you there?"
A rather enthusiastic voice came from outside the door, causing William to immediately stop all his internal grumbling—speak of the devil, Professor Lockhart was here!
"Please come in, Professor Lockhart."
"That's wonderful," the door opened in response, revealing a set of gleaming white teeth and a distinctive smile to William.
Professor Lockhart, who had just entered, had an enthusiastic expression, but his eyes kept darting around, giving William an ominous feeling.
He wouldn't be here because of the Diadem again, would he?
Professor Lockhart was a typical Ravenclaw graduate, and an adventurer at that—with those two combined, would he have to make another trip to Dumbledore's office?
'Refuse if I can. At least I can learn something from Professor Snape's taunts, and Professor Lockhart does have substance, but he doesn't show it unless he's writing a book. I haven't even had lunch yet, I can't listen to him brag all afternoon!'
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