"So, how did you do it?"
"What?"
"I actually never noticed you, including it..."
Astoria looked up, her light golden eyelashes trembling slightly, as she watched Norbert being fed "snacks" by William. Once her fear of dragons faded, the girl was eager to lift her hand—after all, newborn calves are not afraid of tigers.
But staring at Norbert's lantern-like yellow eyes, she hesitated for a moment and instinctively took half a step back.
"You can touch it, don't worry, it doesn't bite."
William very keenly caught the fleeting emotion in the girl's eyes—it was too familiar. In his previous life, whenever he took his bear-like Ala for a walk, almost every child who saw them would show a similar expression.
So, just like before, he raised his hand and pressed down on Norbert's neck, pushing that huge dragon head right in front of the girl.
Norbert, who was concentrating on a piece of venison jerky: "?"
"Hum—"
Norbert hummed uncomfortably, a hot puff of black smoke snorting out from its nostrils. After multiple eye contact with William and suppressing her instinctive fear, Astoria trembled as she stretched out her palm.
"...It's cold."
A cold touch greeted her hand, with a hint of moisture on the hard dragon scales. Understanding William's intention, the fire dragon did not resist. After half a year at Hogwarts Castle, it had undergone decent socialization training. Knowing it was futile to resist, it folded its wings and leisurely lay on the deck, using its tongue to tackle the meat stuck between its teeth.
Seeing Norbert's behavior, the already bold girl became even more daring, she even wanted to reach out and poke at Norbert's white nostrils, which still bore traces of adolescence—
"Better not touch there..."
William stopped Astoria's next move, concerned that Norbert's size might cause it to sneeze and accidentally break the girl's arm. But noticing the curiosity in the girl's eyes, and that Norbert was not averse to her, his eyes twinkled, and he lightly waved his magic wand.
"Poof—"
With a soft pop, two brushes materialized in the air, "Interested in doing some slav... ahem, this is a hidden experience project of the Starry Sky Circus, you... you can help bathe this Norwegian Ridgeback—" William conjured a water gun while glancing to the side.
He almost forgot the girl's sister... uh, he still couldn't recall the name of this support group member.
"But didn't you mean to say slav..."
Astoria blinked, subconsciously speaking up.
"Ahem, certainly, I mean, of course, you can."
Daphne, taking over the water gun, directly interrupted her sister's speech with the water jet. Truth was, she wanted to speak from the start, but having been overlooked by William, she couldn't utter a sound—unlike her sister, she had grown up with their parents, and having been in school for a few years, she well understood the dread of dragons.
Actually, she had read a book on adventures with fire dragons by Professor Lockhart—although Lockhart's reputation had fallen, it didn't matter, she had long stopped being his fan.
Their Richard fan club even had a "century battle" with those Lockhart dream girls who wanted to "attack" William at the end of the semester's party.
However, due to the holiday, that battle did not last long and ended without a winner.
Ahem...
Thinking of this, the girl instinctively glanced up at William, who was busy explaining some matters about Norbert to them—because he found help to wash the dragon, he was in a genuinely good mood.
"Woo—"
The blaring of the ship's whistle was deafening, signaling a halt, though not an arrival at port, as the distance from London to Dunkirk was absurdly short, even at full speed it would take less than a day. But they planned a week-long sea journey, hence a need to stop here for some time.
The performance had begun with the ship's departure, and after stopping, the stage would be bigger, with people continuing to board via speedboats—Mundungus, whose "main job" was selling some "antiques," knew perfectly well how to cater to those pure-blood "lords'" vanity—such as with an unprecedented grand show.
"Bang—"
The door from the cabin to the deck opened.
They needed to complete preparations for tonight's show before nightfall.
The staff who flooded the deck to work had long been accustomed to seeing William with a dragon; he was known on the ship as a distant cousin of Mr. Derek, and a Legendary Pokémon Master... er, Magical Creatures expert.
Some even greeted William familiarly, given that his presence lessened their workload considerably.
William was not aboard merely to enjoy himself; besides passing the summer vacation time, the most important thing was to help tame some not-so-cooperative magical creatures, like the Chimaera brought over from Greece, which was initially just put on display in a cage. But after William's careful training, it could even go on stage now—
At least, it wouldn't bite off the beast tamer's head publicly anymore.
And the animals that already could perform on stage could now be part of more varied performances thanks to William's "enlightenment."
He first transformed Norbert to the size of a normal bull—the smallest size Norbert could accept—and, after instructing the surrounding staff to keep an eye on it, he confidently handed the task originally his to the two enthusiastic girls while he himself stretched lazily and walked toward the cabin, against the current of people.
"...Sir."
After turning two corners, he ran into Mundungus, whose face was beaming with joy, in his original appearance, greeting William and speaking quickly, "Your marketing plan worked excellently, almost all the show tickets have sold out, and the Galleons we've earned, how do you see—"
"Keep it for yourself, make this place bigger and better."
William patted the man's shoulder. He wasn't good at management, so better leave it to someone more experienced, and besides, he wasn't short of money now, and with the marks implanted, he trusted Mundungus wouldn't betray him—
"...Alright!"
Receiving the trust, Mundungus's face lit up even more with joy. He cleared his throat, composed himself, and lowered his voice, "By the way, sir, Lupin is waiting for you in the office—"
"Alright, I got it, you go on with your work."