"..."
Sometimes, to utterly destroy a harmonious atmosphere, all it takes is one sentence.
Keep laughing, hey, why aren't you laughing anymore?
As his gaze swept across the various expressions of the other three faces, William, the instigator, merely tugged at the corner of his lips, then turned his attention back to the remaining half piece of steak on his plate. It wasn't his turn to explain now.
"..."
Having only caught the words "Black Wizard" and still a bit unclear about the rest, Lupin wisely chose not to comment. Hmm... this apple pie does taste like pie.
"How did you..."
Percival's face bore undisguised curiosity. He looked down at himself, finding nothing unusual. But just as he opened his mouth, he was stopped by Dumbledore beside him.
In truth, Dumbledore's attitude toward William had always been somewhat complex—
As someone who personally ended the second Goblin Rebellion, this "Legendary Wizard" grew up hearing various legends about the young, famous transfer student who "died prematurely" during his time at Hogwarts, even though he later learned that most of those stories were fabricated—
For instance, tales of him leading the Ravenclaw team to win the Quidditch Cup... Wait, did someone actually believe that Phineas Black would allow any house other than Slytherin to win the House Cup or any other cup?
The biased refereeing would ensure the worst result was a tie.
Yet, someone like William, who everyone believed should exist only in history, had abruptly appeared before him.
When the portrait of Headmaster Black personally vouched for him, swearing it wasn't mistaken, he still hesitated... Yeah, right, he simply didn't trust the old man's integrity until Headmaster Jerald joined the discussion and he finally believed that William indeed was the legendary senior from a hundred years ago—
But, when this seemingly teenage boy brazenly admitted, "Yes, I am your senior, and I almost became your professor, so do call me professor," and even put his feet up on the headmaster's desk, Dumbledore suddenly regretted revealing William's identity so quickly...
At least before revealing it, William maintained the basic level of respect a student should have for a professor... at least on the surface.
So after that, William immediately raised his status to be on par with Dumbledore... Although he indeed had a reason to do so, Dumbledore still found it a bit off...
Initially, he planned to cultivate William as a backup against Voldemort, knowing he couldn't rely solely on a somewhat nebulous prophecy.
But soon, Dumbledore realized he was wrong, outrageously wrong, because William was completely in no need of such nurturing.
He was utterly different from the naive and adorable, "sapling" Harry Potter, who needed pruning. William had already been a fully grown adult wizard long before, even capable of taming Fire Dragons and Basilisks alone—
However, due to time travel, he remained young.
And the consequence of youth was insufficient experience and an unstable temperament.
This was Dumbledore's evaluation of William after observation—he believed he was qualified to say so, after all, due to time travel reasons as well, he had lived nearly a hundred years longer than William, and age most often equated to richer experiences.
It's well-known in the Magic Realm that a wizard's peak usually occurs during their most vigorous years. Dumbledore was acutely aware that his own peak had passed, and he needed a successor, but William wasn't suitable yet—
After all, a hundred years ago, Hogwarts wasn't only known for heroic legends.
Ashwinder Legion, Goblin Rebellion, wars often came with bloodshed... To Dumbledore's knowledge, the number of Black Wizards who fell to his "old senior's" hands...
For some reason, William's tolerance for these Black Wizards was almost zero, almost to the point where he couldn't tolerate a grain of sand in his eyes, and this extreme temperament... worried Dumbledore. Once William learned of the deeds of the Death Eaters during Voldemort's reign...
Would the British Magic Realm's hard-won post-war economic and population recovery collapse again?
Moreover, from Professor Jerald's sharing, he learned about the power hidden by William beneath Hogwarts—a power capable of destroying the world.
Thus, while William was still at Hogwarts and still a student, Dumbledore decided to correct William's character, attempting to slightly modify his thinking, at least temper his extremes, which was why he persistently refused William's request to become a professor.
Once a professor, it won't be as easy to manage him as it was during student days—
So, Dumbledore released Grindelwald from prison this time, certainly not because he missed his old flame... Uh, at least not entirely, but because he was fully aware of Gellert Grindelwald's kind of persuasive power, even without magic, and his old buddy happened to be a standard wizard supremacist—
So, use Grindelwald to brainwash William?
Ha, Dumbledore would have to be crazy to do that. What if, on a whim, the two suddenly hit it off and decided to overthrow the British Ministry of Magic together?
... That seemed even more terrifying than Voldemort returning and staging a comeback.
Therefore, Dumbledore preemptively set various prohibitions on Grindelwald, including not allowing him to promote his past ideologies under any circumstance, not allowing him private contact with Slytherin students... not even permitting him to use the bathroom in the dungeons. As headmaster, Dumbledore knew very well that the little snakes were the most susceptible to Grindelwald's influence.
Dumbledore's real purpose in releasing Grindelwald was to influence William, knowing from his understanding of Grindelwald that the latter would certainly make various attempts to contact this special student, William, and find ways to bypass the prohibitions—
And by then, from his half-year of understanding, William would soon sense something amiss, begin to ponder, and develop a wariness of Grindelwald's beliefs. At that point, as long as he seized the opportunity to... ah, appear and guide him patiently, great success would be within reach.
After all, William was already a mature wizard, and changing his thinking required some catalyst.
And Grindelwald was the trigger Dumbledore prepared for this purpose...
Therefore, the reason for releasing Grindelwald was absolutely not because he suddenly realized that even if Grindelwald broke free of the Blood Alliance, regained his magic power, and rebelled at Hogwarts, William could suppress him with force, which made him decide to meet his old friend at the end of his life...
Mm, definitely not that!