HP: Professor From Azkaban

[Messy Snape (R): The moment you see him, your first reaction is to stay far away!

Skill: Disgust-Destroy this card to make a random stranger strongly dislike you. The effect depends on the power gap between you and the target.]

[Groupie Snape (R): After entering Hogwarts, Snape joined a Slytherin organization, most of whose members became Death Eaters after graduation, to avoid being isolated.

Skill: Follower-Destroy this card to designate a target who will likely develop trust in you. Not as potent as a love potion, but good enough, right?]

[Death Eater Snape (SR): In his first year after graduation, Snape and his fellow organization members became Death Eaters together.

Skill: Dark Wizard-Destroy this card to gain extremely fast learning speed in a specific dark magic spell.]

"Is this blasted system trying to push me further down the dark wizard path?"

William muttered to himself while tossing the third card into his inventory. Probability-based cards were always scams.

[Foolish Ronald (R): Some people master curses before even enrolling in school, while others, born into magical families, try to curse a rat with a ridiculous incantation.

Skill: Used to It- Destroy this card to instantly calm yourself and become immune to negative emotions for a while. The duration depends on your physical and mental state. Pain? Sure, but you'll get used to it.]

[Failed Curse Ronald (R): Ronald tried to curse his enemy, but his wand seemed to have other ideas.

Skill: Backfire-Destroy this card to make a target's next spell highly likely to fail. Success rate depends on the power gap.]

[Emotional Ronald (R): Ronald has lost his temper again!

Skill: Rage-Destroy this card to enrage the target. Success rate depends on the power gap.]

"What kind of bizarre cards are these? Both of them are full of negative effects!"

Muttering under his breath, William chose the first card, the one without a success rate condition. He felt like he was starting to discern a small pattern in card selection.

[Messy-Haired Harry (R): Poor kid, his hair has been chopped off again!

Skill: Rapid Growth-Destroy this card to restore part of your or a target's body to its original state. Wounds caused by dark magic, curses, or magical tools will heal much slower but not stop entirely.]

[Menacing Harry (SR): Break a pane of glass, release a snake, and say a few words; voilà, perfect revenge.

Skill: As You Wish-Destroy this card to enable wandless casting for up to five minutes. Within this time, everything within your line of sight can be manipulated to align with your will. The more changes, the shorter the duration.]

[Meal Voucher]

"First or second?"

After thinking it over, William decided to forgo the seemingly powerful second card.

Many powerful dark magic spells could create irreversible wounds, but if the descriptions of these two cards weren't lying, the first card might even heal injuries that normal magic couldn't cure.

Even though it could only be used once, it could save an arm or a leg in a critical moment; maybe even a head if timed well enough.

Burdened as he was with the curse, William figured he should prepare for losing limbs. Today's encounter with that senior Professor had left a strong impression on him; the Care of Magical Creatures Professor only had one and a half limbs remaining!

Three treasure chests had all yielded negative cards, making William a bit suspicious of the card-drawing mechanics.

He wasn't sure about others, but from what he remembered of the plot, Harry had once revealed the Triwizard Tournament tasks to his competitors to ensure fairness, despite the advantage it might have given him. Whether Harry would darken later was uncertain, but at least from that event, his character didn't seem bad. So why did Harry's cards turn out to be negative?

Considering the information attached to the cards and the treasure chest notifications, William suspected that when someone who acknowledged him showed goodwill, the chest would yield positive cards. Conversely, negative attitudes might result in negative cards.

The real question was; if someone's positive emotions toward me shifted to negative and then back to positive, could it trigger the chest reward again? And what about the reverse?

Would fluctuating emotions allow for double the chest rewards?

How many levels of favorability-based chests were there?

These thoughts floated through William's mind, but for now, there was no way to test his theory. Experimenting with goodwill was courting disaster. Even the most dangerous magical experiments were safer than this.

Regardless of gender, such experiments could result in getting a knife to the throat; this was Britain, after all!

William promptly gave up on the idea of experimenting. Only villains approached emotions with such clinical detachment.

Having made up his mind, William suddenly realized he was hungry.

In his rush to open the treasure chests earlier, he'd only taken a few quick bites. Now that the thrill of opening chests had worn off, his stomach began complaining.

"What are you thinking about?"

A sudden female voice startled him. William quickly turned around, ready to brush it off with an excuse like, 'I was mesmerized by the wall decorations.'

But as he turned, he froze completely.

There was a ghost!

A real ghost, not a fake one; a tall, slender specter floated just a few inches off the ground behind him.

"What were you just thinking about?" She repeated her question from before.

"Oh, I was captivated by the painting on the wall and couldn't help but stare for a while," William replied smoothly, delivering his prepped excuse with practiced ease.

"Liar!"

"I haven't, I really haven't. This is my first time at Hogwarts," William said as he stole a glance at the painting on the wall, refining his lie as he went. "Honestly, I'm just not used to such a lively feast at Hogwarts. I needed an excuse to step out and catch my breath. But then, I stumbled upon this painting."

He glanced at the painting again, ensuring his fabricated story didn't stray too far from reality. He then added,

"Seriously, I've never seen such a; graceful young lady. Just a painting alone is so breathtakingly beautiful, it's almost suffocating."

Good thing it's a young lady. If it were a middle-aged woman today, this would've been much harder to pull off, William thought silently.

Running into a ghost just by picking a random corner to draw cards? Combined with those two cursed achievements earlier tonight, it seemed his luck was at an all-time low today. He found himself missing rice noodles; why didn't Hogwarts serve those?

"You're lying!"

The ghost descended closer. It was only then that William noticed her attire; waist-length hair, a floor-length robe, and a delicate face etched with pure impatience.

"I've been watching you for nearly five minutes! You've just been staring at the wall in a daze!"

"…"

Could the ghosts at Hogwarts 'not' be so nosy?

"It was too beautiful, so I got lost in thought for a moment. That's not so strange, is it? Besides, I'm standing here to avoid being seen by students. It makes it easier to leave quickly if someone comes by," William said, lying through his teeth without blinking.

"Humph!"

The ghost gave up on continuing the conversation, floated headfirst into the wall, and disappeared.