"This... what is this?"
"The Room of Requirement, my territory—it's also what you thought was the Secret Chamber."
William said casually while waving the map in his hand, "This won't appear on the Marauder's Map, and likewise, without my permission, no one can enter my Room of Requirement—here's rule one: without my consent, don't bring anyone here, or you'll bear the consequences."
William didn't specify the consequences, but seeing the expression on his face made Harry involuntarily swallow—surely, it wouldn't end well.
"Then can I..."
"Yes, go ahead and push the door, you've just been given permission."
Harry, who received approval, remained silent for a moment, preparing himself mentally before raising his hand to push the stone door in front of him.
A deep blue light flashed across the patterns on the door, seemingly evaluating something. After a moment, the light vanished and the stone door slowly opened inward, letting warm sunlight stream in, accompanied by the fragrance of a Magic Potion.
"Meow~"
A white shadow leaped out from behind the door. It hesitated in front of Harry for a moment, but before the boy could see its true form, it turned around and darted straight into William's arms.
"Purr..."
The pure white kitten rolled around in William's arms for a while, finally finding a comfortable position and began purring happily.
"Ah, Mr. Richard, I'm brushing Miss Martha's fur—"
A sharp voice sounded as Dobby appeared from behind the door with a wooden comb in his hand. Upon seeing the boy in front of him, Dobby couldn't help but exclaim, "Harry Potter—"
"Get inside first—"
William pushed Harry quickly into the room, not letting Dobby's shouting at the door attract a bunch of people over.
"P-Po-Potter, sir."
Dobby stammered, setting the comb aside and awkwardly rubbed his hands, "L-Long time no see."
"...Hello, Dobby."
Already somewhat tense, Harry, further shaken by Dobby's attitude, took a deep breath to steady the tremor in his voice.
"Don't block the doorway."
William took out a dried fish prepared for Martha from his pocket—this was just Toby Drake's Half-Blood Kitty from the Starry Sky Circus. Its pure white fur bore not even a single stray hair, its amber eyes looked extremely lively, it picked up the dried fish with its head held high and scampered away.
Upon hearing this, Harry quickly stepped inside, passing through a not-so-long wooden corridor. His vision suddenly broadened.
Pale brown walls enclosed a spacious rectangular room. On the left side, a series of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves made of red wood, looking like they almost held a tenth of the volumes in the Hogwarts Library, made Harry couldn't help but gasp; below the bookshelves was a row of neat cauldrons, with a wooden stick floating above each one, occasionally stirring the Magic Potion being made; and on the other side of the cauldrons were rows of reddish-brown flowerpots, from which Harry could only recognize a few plants by their leaves.
On the opposite side of the bookshelves was a series of neat doors, each door having a sign with a simple drawing. Harry studied them for a long time before barely recognizing that the first door seemed to depict a Niffler.
"...You're back... Eh, Potter?"
A figure tucked away in the pile of books behind the cauldrons lifted its head, limply greeting him.
"What's the matter with you? As far as I remember, I didn't give you any new assignments, did I?"
William frowned, looking puzzled at Cedric who appeared to have lost all enthusiasm.
"My Potions Class essay is gone—I remember clearly turning it in!"
Cedric exclaimed angrily—even though he tried to argue his case, Snape, whose mood had lately been poor, gave him no opportunity to explain, directly threatening to fail him for the term unless he could turn in another essay within three days.
"...Good luck."
William patted Cedric's shoulder, vaguely recalling that Snape had torn up a Little Wizard's essay in front of him before.
"Oh, by the way, I've got a task for you—keep an eye on Kabuda; I want it to recite the entire dictionary by heart over the summer, no, in fact, to transcribe it."
As he said this, William seemed to remember something and fished out the depressed-looking Niffler from his pocket and placed it on the table. Upon hearing William's task, Kabuda only rolled over, its beady black eyes filled with despair and helplessness.
"...Did it do something wrong?"
Cedric's fatigue vanished, replaced by excitement.
"Yes, it's grounded for two months. Plus, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', it needs to transcribe this one too."
"Yes, sir, promise to complete the task!"
Cedric stood up straight, confidently answering—the 'world' had long suffered under the tyranny of Nifflers, but Kabuda, relying on William's favoritism, tyrannized the 'common folk' inside the Room of Requirement. Now that it finally fell into his hands, Cedric couldn't help but smile, reaching out and rubbing Kabuda's deflated belly.
"Squeak..."
Kabuda weakly waved to shoo away Cedric's fingers but to no avail.
...
After passing on these instructions, William led Harry to the other side of the room. The two sat down at a table, and Dobby came over, carrying a tray with teacups, placing two cups of tea in front of each of them.
"Alright, I'm in a good mood, ask if you have anything in mind."
Seeing Harry hesitate to speak, William took a sip of tea and then took out a dried fish from his arms again—this time it wasn't a white shadow that dashed over, but a pitch-black shadow leap down from the ceiling, Norbert, looking thrilled, clung to William's fingers, and gobbled down the dried fish with a howl.
"..."
Harry paused for a moment, not because he had no questions but because there were simply so many questions that he didn't know where to start. After hesitating for a moment, he finally restrained other distractions and asked the most crucial question, "I want to know, that dream—and those things in the dream..."
Dad, Mom, Voldemort...
Honestly, the amount of information was overwhelming, and with the added haze of memory debuff, Harry was having trouble distinguishing if those were truly dreams... including those eleven years in the dream, that complete "normal" family.
"That's a magic spell, tailored by Voldemort's diary for you."
William started explaining the situation to Harry while teasing Norbert who was chasing his fingers, "I seem to have explained it to you once in the dream; your parents are characters extracted from your deep memories and then supplemented using magical powers—"
"Then when I swallowed Voldemort's soul..."
Harry frowned, although the dream had been hazy, he clearly remembered a few key moments.
"Oh, that was real," William paused as if he had just remembered something, "Have you talked to Dumbledore about this?"
"Uh... No."
"That's good, he probably wouldn't agree with that method—"
"What do you mean?"
"That old man... a bit innocent? He used to believe scum like Voldemort could be saved, wanted to promote humanitarianism. If I'd been there, that creature wouldn't have walked out of Hogwarts, I'd have turned him into fertilizer."
"..."
Honestly, Harry was a bit overwhelmed, unsure how to react to William's words.