"What do you want to do?"
After confirming that Snape was indeed coming for him, William asked, a bit puzzled. It was known that for the past semester, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Snape was avoiding him. Ever since coming out of that dream of Harry's, they hadn't met outside the classroom —
Even in class, Snape had barely had any interaction with William.
And even less afterwards, Snape refused William's application for the advanced class, even though William scored an O in his Potions O.W.L. exam. Clearly, this meant Snape didn't want to see him again, so he thought Snape would continue to avoid him this term as usual.
This didn't affect William much, except that his chances of placing Kabuda on Snape for a bit of treasure hunting would be reduced.
But now... strange.
"...What about that werewolf?"
Staring at William for a moment, Snape couldn't help but take a deep breath. He lowered his voice, seemingly unwilling to be heard by the students on the stairs around them — but indeed, they couldn't hear. With the aura he just exuded on the steps, those little wizards wouldn't dare get close to the two of them.
Of course, whispering and pointing fingers were unavoidable —
For instance, the three people gathered together now.
"— Snape actually dares to hassle William?"
Harry's eyes widened in surprise. Because, during nearly half of the last semester, he followed Diggory to study with William, so he was very aware of the prior rumors about Snape and William's strained relationship —
And based on that, almost everyone agreed on one thing: Snape was just "afraid."
Oh, right, this "everyone" refers to the other three houses aside from Slytherin.
Those little snakes wouldn't admit that their Basilisk would fear a student who hadn't even graduated yet, even though that student had once "tied" with their Basilisk in public.
"I can't believe I missed that scene—"
Whenever this was brought up, Ron's face would show a very regretful expression — no choice, when the first Duel Club was held, he was already lying on a Hospital Wing bed at Hogwarts, and indeed, the whole club started because he and Mr. Filch had been attacked by the Basilisk.
"I think we better not stand here any longer."
Hermione quietly pulled Harry away before he could describe the scene to Ron. She subtly glanced in Snape's direction and made a motion with her eyes — yes, because having stayed on the stairs too long, she noticed that Snape was already glancing at them sideways.
A battleground could engulf the fish in the pond — no matter what, better to run first!
…
"...So, what do you want with Remus?"
William paused, just looking into Snape's eyes. He could see that it wasn't to reminisce — so naturally, he also showed no kindness, because Lupin was one of his few friends.
"Never mind if he's not here —"
Snape moved his gaze away from the young James Potter passing by in the distance; no matter how many times, just seeing that face, he felt particularly annoyed — it had become a physiological reaction, bizarre.
Yet, those eyes...
The confrontation ended, Snape swirled his dark cloak roughly, ignoring the perplexed William, and turned to walk into the entrance hall, disappearing around the Great Hall's corner —
"..."
Is he insane?
It's true, William always felt that those who delved into the Dark Arts had somewhat erratically functioning brains. It seems he was right. Each time he thought about it, he felt extremely fortunate to have mastered Ancient Magic that could regulate and control emotions. Otherwise, with his curiosity, he would somewhat catch a serious illness by now.
Being intercepted at the entrance was just a minor episode. Though not much information was gathered, William also realized that there was a grudge between Snape and Lupin.
But that's normal; he knew early on that Snape had a grudge against James, and James had a great relationship with Lupin during their school years, so this needed no deduction.
For now, however, this had to be put aside. With Snape no longer hindering him, William passed through the grand oak doors, entering the spacious and dimly lit entrance hall, illuminated by flaming torches, a magnificent marble staircase leading up.
But upstairs wasn't the destination; he passed through another door, and a warm feeling permeated the entire space. Transparent raindrops fell from the clouds on the ceiling, disappearing when they touched the floating candles —
Although the Great Hall's ceiling mimicked the weather outside, rain was of course just a "projection," as they couldn't genuinely let students get wet, right?
Passing through the somewhat noisy Great Hall, William reached the Hufflepuff Long Table and sat down. Then he put an arm around a little wizard who was chatting with classmates, speaking in a "gentle" tone, "So, after a summer of not seeing me — you didn't plan to find me on the train either?"
"Cough, cough —"
Engaging in exaggerated boasts with other Hufflepuff students, Cedric froze. He turned back somewhat innocently —
"Isn't it because you didn't finish the homework?"
"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough …"
Probably having the truth bluntly exposed, Cedric started coughing intensely. Seeing William's wryly smiling expression, he could only nod with a tearful and innocent face, "I really tried my best, but the Potions homework still had many ingredients I couldn't find —"
He wasn't referring to the homework Snape assigned, but to the potion-brewing tasks William had given him.
And William had no real intention to blame him. It was somewhat an objective issue; after simply administering a slight punishment, the previously bustling Great Hall inexplicably quieted down, and the next moment, the door beside the teachers' seats opened, and a group of short figures came in line.
Including the guide at the front.
For some reason this year, the person bringing the first-year students to the hall wasn't the usual Professor McGonagall, but Professor Flitwick, who was not even taller than the first-years themselves.
The little white-haired wizard led a group of little wizards to stand before the teaching seats, extending his magic wand to conjure two chairs — oh, maybe the second one should be called a ladder. After reading aloud the Sorting details, Flitwick climbed to the top of the ladder with the Sorting Hat. Given his current altitude, he could place the Sorting Hat on the heads of the little wizards sitting on the three-legged stool —
Then, Professor Flitwick's sharp voice rang out —
"Eugene Beckett—"
"..."
"Slytherin!"
…
"Astoria Greengrass—"
"..."
"... Sly- no, Hufflepuff!"