"We caught the culprit! It's Ginny!"
The shouts from outside the door caught William a little off guard.
He already knew Ginny was the culprit, but he was in the middle of organizing a capture team, and they just suddenly brought her in?
The prefects also looked displeased—after a month of school, something big finally happened, but before the atmosphere could even build up, it was already over?
Although William was still a bit curious, the most important thing now was to confirm that Ginny Weasley had been caught— "Please come in."
The impatient students streamed in, and at the very end of their procession were the Weasley brothers, triumphantly controlling a unconscious young girl with their wands—her fiery red hair immediately confirmed her identity to William.
'If she didn't drink Polyjuice Potion, it's definitely Ginny. It's a pity I don't have any in stock; perhaps I should prepare some next time.'
Thinking this, William summoned long, soft bandages with his wand—this was the best way to restrain someone without harming them.
"Where's her wand?"
"Professor, it's here."
George pulled Ginny's wand from his pocket, which slightly improved William's impression of this Weasley—mischief aside, just based on his attentiveness, he had a promising future.
"Put it on the table over there. And the other Weasley, please help put this child on my desk."
Percy fumbled for his wand, but by the time he reached the desk, Ginny was already neatly placed on the desk.
"Percy, oh, sorry—" William nodded apologetically, looking at the nearly packed office.
'I should have put learning the Undetectable Extension Charm on my schedule earlier,' he thought, as he shouted to everyone, "Alright, children, you can disperse. Things are mostly over. Thank you for your participation. I will relay the matter to Professor McGonagall. Please leave. The punishment for first-years needs to be kept confidential."
The prefects quickly obediently left. Although the remaining children were a bit reluctant to leave, wanting to gossip, detention was still in William's hands, so they could only leave the office, looking back every few steps.
After securely binding Ginny to the table with bandages, William finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's that?"
He immediately spotted the diadem in George's hand.
"Something Ginny was carrying with her—" George replied cheerfully, "I guess that's why she had to kill roosters for some strange ritual."
He and Fred were quite curious what it was, but William's repeated warnings made them abandon the idea—a blood ritual looked like more than just a prank, not to mention there was a professor keeping a close eye on the matter.
"Excellent, I really want to give Gryffindor some points, but I can't do that outside of class time," William praised the two with a smile, then pulled out a chair. "Put it on there. Although it's not doing anything right now, to be safe, I'd rather not touch it. I'm not sure if I'll be controlled if I touch it."
'There's such a thing?'
The twins exchanged glances, seeing enlightenment in each other's eyes.
"Percy, could I trouble you to find Professor McGonagall? She should be in the Owlery." William turned his head and gave Percy a task.
"Yes, Professor."
Percy turned and left.
"Professor McGonagall?" the two asked in unison, then suddenly realized, "Those prefects just now, did you also ask them to find Ginny?"
"Of course, that was Professor McGonagall's instruction."
"But Ginny only killed two chickens!" Their faces instantly turned pale. They had no idea things would turn out like this.
Although they didn't know what happened, alarming Professor McGonagall was no small matter—if they had known Ginny had caused such a big mess, they wouldn't have brought her here so happily.
"Relax, it won't be a big deal. She attacked Mr. Filch, and she's very likely being controlled. I'll try to persuade Professor McGonagall to give her a lenient punishment."
William gently comforted the two brothers—whether she was controlled or not, he would try his best to prevent the child from being expelled. He had been to Azkaban and knew very well how many people expelled from school ended up in that prison after drifting around.
But he soon realized he had comforted them for nothing—when these two rascals heard that Ginny had attacked Mr. Filch, they looked like, 'That's my sister, alright.'
Well, you win.
William gave up on persuading them and remotely observed the diadem.
By the way, this thing is too shabby, isn't it?
—
"Professor William, it's me, Minerva McGonagall."
The door was knocked very precisely, and Professor McGonagall's voice followed.
"Please come in, Professor."
More than one person entered—Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Mr. Filch, and the Headmaster, Dumbledore.
Only when they had all entered did William notice Percy trailing behind, with almost no presence left.
"Severus informed me that he discovered something quite extraordinary," Dumbledore said in a relaxed tone, as if Professor Snape were about to publish an ordinary paper. "Then I met Percy in the castle corridor; the boy was frantically running towards the Owlery."
Percy smiled awkwardly, continuing to be his invisible self.
But William was now more curious about what extraordinary thing had happened to make Snape choose to inform the Headmaster immediately.
"Professor William, thank you for keeping an eye on this matter from the beginning," Dumbledore smiled. "Severus, would you mind repeating what exactly you discovered?"
"Of course, Dumbledore."
Professor Snape, who had entered William's office with a 'Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has fallen to this level of office' expression, looking around with disdain, finally dropped his disgusted look and responded to the Headmaster.
"Filch's memory has been wiped, and the remaining sparse parts show that Miss Ginny Weasley—" he read the name with a hint of disdain, "—she took a piece of parchment from Mr. Filch's confiscated items."
"Parchment?" William repeated softly—wasn't it a diadem?
"Perhaps it has been destroyed, but that's not the point. The point is that Miss Ginny Weasley did not use any Imperius Curses or similar control spells. She merely used the power of language to make Mr. Filch abandon his pursuit of her misbehavior, and quite naturally so—and this, even I cannot accomplish."
Just narrate, why bother to act like you're humble with the conclusion…
William, feeling a bit annoyed, muttered to himself and instantly fixed his gaze on that shabby diadem—such a broken thing, could it really give wizards such a high boost?
His gaze shifted too suddenly, causing the others to involuntarily stare at the shabby diadem as well.
"This? Albus? Could this be?"
Professor McGonagall's tone was uncharacteristically excited.
"It should be exactly what you're thinking, Minerva."
Dumbledore's voice remained steady, but he had already stepped forward quickly, observing it intently from a few feet away.
"Yes, it is—Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem."
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