Next, it was time for a very serious teaching session. Apart from underestimating the abilities of the little wizards, Hagrid was fairly competent as a professor, especially since he had spent almost fifty years of his life around the Forbidden Forest, making his knowledge of Magical Creatures truly masterful.
After all, even many well-known Magical Creatures experts couldn't achieve such close daily contact with nature.
"...Every herd of Hippogriffs has a leader, and this black one here is it."
Hagrid stood in front of the enclosure, pointing to the Hippogriff that was sticking close to William, begging for food. Not just one, but almost all of the dozen or so Hippogriffs were now tightly surrounding William. Only Buckbeak, forcibly brought over by Hagrid, cooperated with the lesson, but his disgruntled expression said it all—
He wanted to have a meal, too.
"Ahem, stop looking at me, listen to the lesson."
William was surrounded by Hippogriffs, only his voice could be heard coming from the middle of the group.
Upon hearing those words, the little wizards, whose attention had mostly been captured, finally turned their heads back to Hagrid, who was gesturing on Buckbeak. After introducing this type of creature, Hagrid led Harry to teach him how to approach these creatures, but did not have Harry ride on it—
The reason being obvious—Hagrid, though rough, could see that Buckbeak's patience was at its limit. If he didn't let go soon, this large creature might turn around and give him a claw or two, which would be quite counterproductive.
Then, Hagrid released the students into the enclosure for free activity. An excitement that couldn't be contained burst from Buckbeak, who leapt happily at William's side, his grey-white head squeezing into the boy's feed bucket.
"Queue up in order, and everyone will get some—pay attention to what the professor said, those who don't follow instructions will be marked as absent for this class."
William emerged from the herd with the feed bucket, transforming into a park square vendor selling "pigeon" food. He distributed Flobberworms from the bucket to the little wizards in line, indicating that they could step up and feed them themselves.
Under the dual supervision of William and Hagrid, almost no one dared to deviate from the instructions, especially Malfoy—In the enclosure, Harry's gaze kept flitting between Malfoy and William. For some reason, his sixth sense kept telling him that there was some kind of "connection" between the two.
No, to be precise, Harry could smell something emanating from Malfoy, something that went by the name "fear."
Why?
Scratching his burning head, Harry became even more confused, ultimately giving up—he had absolutely no intention of asking. To put it more bluntly, he actually hoped William might accidentally forget about him, because he was very familiar with the kind of "cramming style teaching" that was being mentioned…
In the past semester, he had felt the "power" of that kind of teaching on his senior, Cedric—
Let's put it this way, during that time, Diggory barely walked out of that room standing up... although every time William took out a bottle of some unknown magic potion, and after downing that potion, Cedric would be up and about, but...
This TM, seemed even more terrifying, doesn't it?
Getting beaten up constantly, getting patched up, and then getting beaten up again… Compared to entering that kind of hell, Harry would rather attend Potions Class, even though William always gave him a warm feeling, he would still prefer to face Snape's old face.
But unfortunately, according to Murphy's Law, the more you don't want something to happen, the more likely it is to happen. After this Care of Magical Creatures class, Harry received a tutoring notice from William, icy, resolute… and despair-inducing.
...
"...Good luck."
During dinner at the Gryffindor long table, Harry was dramatically sipping a bowl of vegetable broth that he couldn't taste, while Ron, who had been observing for a long time, could only pat Harry on the shoulder, his expression filled with immense "grief"—
Although he didn't know why Harry was like this, it didn't stop Ron from offering a word of comfort.
"Don't say that, it's William's tutoring class—"
Hermione tore the bread in her hand, slowly dipping it into the onion soup in her bowl, staring enviously at Harry, her tone full of yearning, "You know Hufflepuff's Cedric Diggory, right? He learned from William last year and got Os in every subject in the fourth year final exams. Professor Viktor (the Arithmancy professor) even said today that his O.W.L. exams can already be considered prematurely passed, getting Os shouldn't be a problem—"
"You mean that guy who's always with William?"
Ron instinctively turned his head toward the Hufflepuff long table, his gaze stopping at the boy sitting next to William, then, his expression slightly froze, instinctively turning back to look at Hermione, his eyes bulged, "Wait, when did you take Arithmancy, weren't you with us all day today?"
"Ahem, that's none of your business—"
Coughing for quite a while after scratching her throat with the hard bread, Hermione finally squeezed out a sentence.
"Alright, but if you're so envious, why not try going with Harry?"
Seeing that Hermione clearly didn't want to say more, Ron had no intention of breaking the rare bit of easing in their atmosphere and instead, shook his head and switched to a new topic.
"..."
As soon as Ron spoke, the atmosphere around them trembled.
"...What happened?"
Ron's head reemerged, prepared to continue tackling his salted fish.
"I think it's doable—"
Hermione appeared excited.
"I think it's not—"
But Harry's dejected tone said the opposite.
"Why?"
"Uh…"
Harry opened his mouth, confused about how to explain... He couldn't very well say that William has a dragon in the castle, could he?
"What if you went and asked?"
Hermione paused, still a bit unwilling to let go. Ever since coming into possession of the Time Turner, her desire to study had reached its peak. Today alone, she had attended several extra lessons with its help, and if you went to the library, you'd often find Hermione squeezing herself between the bookshelves.
If this was before, she might not have had such thoughts, but now she was thoroughly eager to learn—
"I… alright."
Sighing, Harry got up and walked toward the Hufflepuff long table, had a few quick words with William, and then returned to the Gryffindor long table under everyone's watch, looking somewhat strange—
"What did he say?"
Hermione asked eagerly.
"He said if you have no timetable conflicts, you're welcome to join… even," Harry turned to look at Ron, his expression a bit peculiar, "William said if you're willing, Ron, you can come along with me, too—"