"Professor."
Lupin stood up from his seat, finding that the force holding him back had finally vanished.
"Remus."
Dumbledore pressed his palm, signaling the man to sit down again, then he turned to look at Fawkes, who was squinting at him. "How did you do it?" The old man turned back to William, his blue eyes full of curiosity.
Of course, William understood what he meant.
"Just a simple blinding technique..."
William casually poured the old man a cup of tea—not simple at all, in fact. To bring Fawkes out of Dumbledore's room, he had used Legilimency to invade the old man's brain when he was off-guard and implanted a "false impression":
Fawkes would always stay on its perch.
The implantation of this "false impression" was successful. The old man didn't notice anything missing in his office until after William got off the train, until he remembered he needed to send a letter, and only then realized the perch was empty.
Then, he went to the owlry to find one of the Hogwarts' owls and followed the little creature across much of the United Kingdom.
For this "blinding technique," William had prepared for two or three months, yet he didn't expect it to unravel so mysteriously in this way... He proposed sending Lupin a letter explaining the situation simply to avoid wasting too much time gaining his trust—
Tsk.
All efforts in vain...
Luckily, he had a Plan B.
At this moment, Dumbledore didn't get the answer, but he wasn't concerned either, merely nodding silently before shifting the focus back to Lupin in front of him. "I assume you two have already acquainted?"
The old man received the hot tea William handed over, and after a sip, couldn't help but wrinkle his brow—so bitter.
"...Should be, somewhat acquainted?"
Lupin scratched his nose, a bit unsure—his knowledge of William was limited to his name, so he chose to ask proactively, "So, Professor, what's the relationship between you two—" he looked back and forth between the two of them.
"Friends."
Dumbledore didn't hesitate. He considered many relationships, but none seemed fitting, given the time element often leads to paradoxical issues—so he opted for a more universal answer, "Also, William will be your student next year—he's a fifth-year student at Hogwarts..."
As the old man spoke, he couldn't help but squint his eyes, his expression displaying a hint of pleasure.
"Of course, you can refuse that lousy offer—the Starry Sky Circus could surely offer you better treatment than Hogwarts."
William interrupted the old man's introduction, "suggesting" to the man with an enticing tone, "Every month... two hundred and fifty Galleons."
Two hundred and fifty Galleons, for the impoverished werewolf before him, was undoubtedly a hefty sum.
The purchasing power of Galleons was not low, equating to a job that paid approximately 1250 British Pounds a month—and he was very familiar with his job role, merely caring for some magical creatures, which he was quite adept at.
"But... I refuse."
"Eh?"
William furrowed his brow; he clearly saw the man was tempted—though he knew even this wouldn't persuade Dumbledore to vacate the professor's position, it was purely to jab at Dumbledore a bit, yet Lupin's response was somewhat unexpected to him.
"Yes, I... don't want to stay on the ship anymore."
Lupin pursed his lips; it was clear he wasn't entirely willing to refuse this job coveted by other werewolves, but there seemed to be some reason behind his resolute gaze and choice.
"I mentioned, Remus is a good kid—"
Though the term "good kid" seemed a bit abrupt when referring to someone appearing in their forties or fifties, it became perfectly reasonable when realizing it was spoken by Dumbledore.
The old man nodded appreciatively, then continued, "But, Remus, I'm here this time to have you stay on the ship with William—"
"?"
Lupin was briefly stunned, then quickly looked at William, speaking rapidly, "So, boss, may I still join now?"
A man standing tall and proud, able to endure and adapt—why turn away from money?
"No, Remus, I mean that for these two months, you still need to stay with William, and when it's time for him to return to school, you can naturally go with him."
The old man shook his head, speaking unhurriedly with a smile.
William nodded in agreement. This was what he agreed on with Dumbledore before the holidays, allowing Lupin to figure out how to get through the two full moon nights himself. Nonetheless, Dumbledore believed William needed to conduct some experiments on Lupin to verify the feasibility of the Homorphus Charm.
If not, then he would need to find a way to supply Lupin with some Wolf Poison Potion—
Indeed, Dumbledore didn't know William had quietly kept a few werewolves captive, having completed the experiments long ago, even conducting control experiments three times, and already written a fourteen-inch paper on the Homorphus Charm, just needing a conclusion to publish it.
Of course, he wasn't planning to publish it so soon because this could practically trigger an "earthquake" within the British Magic Realm.
As for why Dumbledore didn't know about the werewolves—since when not in wolf form, they were indeed conscious humans, and keeping humans captive... well, that would be too insane. Although William kept exposing them to "high-intensity" Moonlight Magic Text, keeping them mostly in werewolf form most of the time.
After explaining the intricacies of the matter to Lupin, Dumbledore finally focused on the sole purpose of his visit this time, "So, I'll be taking Fawkes away first—"
As the old man spoke, he reached out to grab the phoenix on the perch.
"Wait, are you just going to separate the lovebirds?"
William hurriedly stopped Dumbledore's next move, pointing at the drowsy "Pokemon" nearby, "This Thunderbird finally agreed to give it a try with Fawkes, you're headed for a lonely end, anyway. You can't drag Fawkes along with you, can you?"
Indeed, William thought it would be difficult to bring these two birds together, but it turned out so—
Though the problem appeared to be with the Thunderbird, yes, it... had a bit of frigidity.
Tsk, no wonder they were on the brink of extinction.
Subsequently, both William and Fawkes took turns persuading and strategizing, finally getting the Thunderbird to agree to try getting along with Fawkes, which was why Fawkes was willing to go with William without resistance—
Although it belonged to an undying lineage, this phoenix clearly had a bit of... a love-struck tendency?