HP: Professor From Azkaban

[You have gained recognition from a magical creature. Reward: Treasure Chest x1]

[You have gained deeper recognition from a magical creature. Reward: Treasure Chest x1]

William casually opened the first chest.

[Hagrid the Giant (R): Hagrid, possessing half-giant blood, has endured ridicule in the wizarding world. However, this same blood gives him a significant advantage in combat against wizards.

Skill: Giant's Skin--Destroy this card and consume half your magic power. For the next duration determined by your remaining magic power, you will be immune to most magic. While some consider this an incredible form of magic, its workings remain unstudied.]

[Hagrid the Dragon Keeper (R): Despite the Ministry of Magic imposing various restrictions on the circulation of dragon eggs, this giant with a love for magical creatures found a way to acquire a dragon. Though it came at a hefty price, the moment he obtained the egg, he was overjoyed.

Skill: Dragon Affinity--Destroy this card. For the next hour, dragons will not initiate attacks against you.]

[Hagrid the Magical Creature Keeper (SR)(Special): Feed a bit of this, a pinch of that, and use one magical creature to hatch another. What kind of surprises might that bring?

Skill: Look, a Blast-Ended Skrewt (Passive)--Unexpected mutations may occur when raising magical creatures. ; Perhaps it's better in the dark? If you can't see clearly, just let it grow however it wants.]

After a brief silence, William chose the first card, which seemed to have the most practical use.

Although the special card sounded tempting, William reflected on his own meager experience of feeding fish every three days, changing the water every five days, and replacing them weekly. He decisively gave up on the permanently effective special card.

He opened the second chest.

[Hagrid's Midnight Ride (R): After acquiring Sirius Black's motorbike, this heavily modified yet legally sanctioned item became a prized possession of the giant.

Skill: Legal Overdrive--Destroy this card. For the next hour, your flying tool's maximum speed will increase by half. While it might look like a Muggle contraption, it is, in fact, completely legal.]

[Hagrid the Combat Giant (SR): When Dolores Umbridge from the Ministry of Magic decided to expel the giant from Hogwarts, everyone finally realized how formidable his combat skills truly were

Skill: Unrivaled--Destroy this card. For the next 30 minutes, your wand becomes incredibly responsive, your movements agile, and you gain immunity to most control spells. Your defensive spells can deflect most curses. While you might not be able to defeat ten opponents, taking on six is certainly manageable.]

[Hagrid the Communicator (SR): This mighty giant possesses a level of attentiveness entirely incongruous with his size, especially when dealing with magical creatures. His ability to familiarize himself with a magical creature is so quick it seems almost magical.

Skill – Communication; Destroy this card. For the next month, communicating with a specified magical creature becomes significantly easier. You have a greatly increased chance of learning its language through interaction, with success depending on the duration of communication.]

After some thought, William chose the Combat Giant card.

The promise of adaptability, defense, and agility was too valuable to ignore. Besides, William couldn't shake the memory of his vulnerable days in Azkaban. Anything that could enhance his survival chances was worth the pick.

A difficult choice.

Whether it was the battle-oriented card or the communication-focused card, both were incredibly tempting. Even the speed-enhancing card was a strong contender.

After much deliberation, William reluctantly chose the third card.

"Fighting can rely on others," he muttered to himself. "After all, Dumbledore is at Hogwarts. Besides, I've got an escape card in the deck. If things go south, I can always run. But the communication card? That's entirely up to me. If I can use it to learn a new species' language, I might be able to get a few more chests out of it."

Consoling himself with this logic, William painfully made his decision.

***

Back at the Leaky Cauldron, after sleeping for an entire half day, William found himself completely devoid of drowsiness. He lit a lamp and began reading.

Considering his responsibility to teach fifth-year students, he decided to organize a detailed list of the lesson plans. However, as he meticulously arranged the materials, he quickly spiraled into self-doubt.

Why had he taken on the thankless task of teaching fifth years?

If he'd been a bit smarter at the time, he could've snagged the first-year students. That other professor, Lockhart, would probably have been more than happy to agree.

Now, even though he was only teaching fifth years, he still had to review all the books from the first five years, plus the sixth and seventh years for good measure. Sure, there were fewer classes, but the preparation work was just as demanding!

Frustrated, William grabbed a red pen and marked up the table of contents in his lesson plan book.

Since he had to suffer so much, it was only fair the students shared in his pain. A flood of assignments it would be, all in the name of improving their exam scores.

With this mutually destructive plan in mind, he began drafting his teaching syllabus.

After all, this was his first official job in the wizarding world. If he got fired for poor teaching quality, it would be a laughingstock.

William picked out the textbooks that fifth-year students had used over the past four years from the list he'd been given. He also retrieved his notes on those books to review them more closely.

"It's still not enough," he murmured. "Next, I'll need to track down past exam questions. If I'm right, based on the limited number of professionals in the magical world, the professors responsible for creating the exams can't number more than three. That means there's a good chance I can predict questions from their past papers."

"Each examiner probably has their preferences, and the exam questions are likely to reflect their areas of expertise. I'll need to factor that in when drafting mock tests."

"If I create enough practice exams, I can ensure a higher probability of hitting the actual questions. Borrowing this method from my past life should work just fine."

…

…

Unable to sleep, William threw himself wholeheartedly into preparing the curriculum for his fifth-year students.

Lacking experience and having never received formal training, he knew he couldn't close the knowledge gap in a short amount of time. So, he decided to fall back on a system he was familiar with.

He could deal with unforeseen dangers as they arose, but when it came to the exams, he didn't want to leave anything to chance.

To put it bluntly, if he managed to ensure that over ninety percent of his students passed their O.W.L.s, even if he skipped classes for half the year and hobbled around on one leg, Hogwarts would still be flooded with owl-delivered letters begging him to return as a professor.

"Anyway, considering the previous professors didn't last even a full year, it's certain the students have weak foundations and limited knowledge. The Ministry of Magic, for the sake of appearances, probably won't set the exams too hard. With a barrage of practice papers, getting all of them to pass might be too much to hope for, but an eighty percent pass rate should be achievable."

Late into the night, in the only lit room of the inn, William meticulously listed the gaps between different textbooks and began drafting a rigorous cram plan for all his fifth-year students.

Even the stars gradually dimmed their light, as if unwilling to witness the tragedy that would soon unfold from this room's relentless preparations.