The old man must be blind...
Of course, this doesn't mean William has any dissatisfaction with Hagrid.
Nor does it mean he thinks... well, Hagrid might be a pretty good gamekeeper and Forbidden Forest warden, with his rough brute force more than enough to keep himself safe in the Forbidden Forest; and as a friend, he's quite decent too, loyal and knowing when to advance or retreat...
But as a professor...
Please, he can't even feed an old spider properly, and as a half-giant, Hagrid's definition of "cute" is quite different from normal people. William realizes this very clearly, after all, in Hagrid's eyes, those spiders are the friendly type, he even kept a fire dragon—
Isn't Dumbledore afraid he'll pull out a Quintaped in class one day?
That's... Dumbledore must be blind.
William chose to slyly decide in his mind to cross off advanced Magical Creatures protection classes from his plans.
Hmm... a Charm class, a Herbology class, a Transfiguration technique, an Ancient Magical Text, all things he's interested in, yes, that should do it, after all, he doesn't plan to become an Auror, so even if he only has these few certificates, it's more than enough.
As for Potions... Snape accepting him into advanced class?
That would probably be a sign of a major earthquake.
"...So, what were the two things you wanted to say?"
William frowned, staring at Hagrid—he couldn't figure out the connection in between.
"Uh, because the other professors all have to supervise exams, so Professor Flitwick asked me to ask you—about how to prepare lessons."
Hagrid nodded, first expressing one thing, which William understood. Professor Flitwick was already his old partner, after all, the Duel Club was thriving under their management. With Defense Against the Dark Arts class completely "scrapped," the place where students could truly practice defense and attack charms was left only here—
Recent club meetings really have seen almost the entire school attending, even Professor Sprout joined in for fun.
Because, she heard that William had been encouraging others in the club every day to steal her potted plants from the greenhouse.
Which the accused strongly denied, stating—"Professor, you know me. If I were involved, then you probably wouldn't have a single plant left... No, what I mean is if it were my instigation, then why aren't they using plant dueling?"
So that night, under William's watch, even Neville, who had always been itching for trouble, stopped short of pulling out kale to solve his problems, instead awkwardly blasting charms at his opponents.
And because Professor Flitwick still had his own classes to busy himself with, almost all of the Duel Club, including lesson preparation, was led by William, Flitwick had even become the vice instructor.
So, Hagrid hadn't really asked wrong.
"Tailored teaching, I teach the whole academy, but you're different—"
"Oh, oh, speak slower..."
Under William's exasperated gaze, Hagrid quickly pulled out a notebook from the pocket of his weasel-skin coat.
"For the lower-year students, you can introduce them to the Ashwinder, Crup, Hippogriff—right, if you don't have animals, you can find me, AAA's exclusive magical creature wholesaler brother—"
"Aren't these a bit too simple?"
"...Hagrid, you're going to teach, you're supposed to educate the students, not pull out a fire dragon and burn a couple of little wizards from two Houses alive."
"Okay, what about the upper years?"
"With the upper years, you don't have to be too cautious, just as long as you don't pull out a basilisk and glare them all to death."
"Of course, I wouldn't—"
Hagrid picked up an iron bucket and patted it, after this simple guidance, his confidence was now soaring.
"Acromantulas are also a no-go, it's clearly forbidden to keep those—"
"..."
"Alright, Hagrid, you still have a whole summer to plan your lesson preparations, now talk about the next thing—"
Seeing Hagrid plunge into silence, William waved to interrupt his thoughts.
"Oh, Dumbledore wants you to go to his office this afternoon, says the investigation results are out."
Hagrid paused, slowly returning to his senses, scratching his beard before finally speaking.
"What time should I arrive?"
William nodded, ready to pull out a map—though he could use a Teleportation Rune Stone, but... forget it.
"Uh, about ten minutes ago... I think?"
Hagrid squinted his eyes, beginning to estimate the time.
"Why didn't you wait till tomorrow to tell me?"
"Wouldn't that have been too late?"
"..."
...
"Knock knock—"
"Please come in."
William held the door handle, his gaze wandering around the all-too-familiar Headmaster's Office—today there were a few unfamiliar strangers here.
"William, you're here."
Sitting behind the desk, Dumbledore smiled at William, introducing the old man sitting opposite him to William, "This is the protagonist of 'Wanderings with Werewolves'—Andre Leonid."
Lockhart might have been right in the dream, such an ordinary-looking, even somewhat dark and ugly Armenian old wizard definitely doesn't fit the public's aesthetics, people usually prefer to believe that the person who resolved a crisis is a stunningly handsome man—
The old man's appearance looked a bit haggard, he quickly stood up and offered his hand to William, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, "Lately, I've had the feeling that my memory seems a bit off, but now it seems that wasn't an accident at all, recovering my memory feels really good... Are you the one Albus mentioned who found the truth?"
"Just luck, really."
Seeing William nod in admission, the gratitude in the old man's eyes became indescribable, he raised his sleeve to wipe away tears, repeatedly trying to speak yet choked up, forcing William to turn his gaze to the three people seated on the other side of the room.
"Dumbledore, is that the person we were supposed to be waiting for?"
The man with tea-brown hair, clearly the leader among the three, raised his head, looking at the young figure appearing at the door, he stood up with some irritation, "Since the person we were supposed to wait for is here, let's start the deployment directly—Shackle, take Tonks and go ahead first."
William could feel the sharp, knife-like gaze from the old Auror constantly cutting across him, the glare full of aggression, as he slowly walked past William, with a limp, yet somehow maintaining a presence as commanding as Lu Mingfei's.
"Don't rush, Rufus, we need to ensure that Will... William understands the situation,"
Dumbledore said with a smile, at this moment the other two Aurors had already reached the doorway, they looked back at the few remaining people in the room, and in the next moment, a flash of vibrant color drew William's attention—
The woman named Tonks had turned her hair into a pure pink-gold.
"Hmm, someone with no sense of punctuality—"
Rufus Scrimgeour snorted coldly, it was clear that this old lion had no fondness for William's tardiness.
And William certainly didn't intend to bother with him, he turned his head to look at Dumbledore—
"So, we're going to catch the fraudster who scammed me out of thirty-five Golden Galleons now?"