Why...?
How strange, but also... no, it's undeniably strange. Why would a Boggart turn into a Muggle truck? With red and silver paint, glaring horn, and ear-piercing screams... so, is there something odd about this truck?
Despite squinting his eyes, almost getting blinded by the headlights, Harry couldn't see anything special about the truck.
And the sound that just played... what was that?
Harry and Lupin, not understanding the Chinese commercial words, looked completely bewildered. Only William's face darkened a bit—he remembered, after all those years he remembered that night, on the highway with light snow, the big truck with the pedal to the metal, and that phrase, "We are all trying to live hard—"
But why am I afraid of this thing?
Watching the big truck still charging at his head, William waved his hand, and the aggressive Boggart instantly turned back into a cloud of mist, curling up and returning to the drawer, closing itself with a snap—
Fear of the big truck... no, that's not right, maybe I'm afraid of what that truck symbolizes? Just like Lupin once told him, the Boggart would turn into a full moon in front of him because, in the first half of his life, almost all his sufferings came from that cursed Fenrir and the lycanthropy he brought—
However, Lupin mentioned that recently that fear is slowly weakening, "Maybe, now I'd see those Quintapeds?" Lupin said lightheartedly during a chat that day.
After all, that was his closest brush with death recently—
Maybe, William thought his reason was quite similar, his closest brush with death... no, it was almost like embracing death, maybe what he feared was the idea of death itself... though William didn't think he had such an obsession and fear, but...
The Boggart can indeed peer into one's heart.
Perhaps it is because he has been suppressing his emotions for so long, that William himself couldn't quite recognize them for a moment.
Yes, ever since discovering Emotion Magic, William began suppressing his emotional fluctuations when researching Dark Arts, then this transformed into a habit when researching Normal Magic, eventually leading him to suppress his emotions all the time, turning active skills into passive ones, with expressions like "ecstatic" virtually removed from his dictionary.
His greatest emotional fluctuations lingered only at very basic levels like happiness and sadness.
Doing this undoubtedly has its advantages, like never being affected by sudden emotional fluctuations affecting judgment, granting an additional calm Buff—
Or perhaps because using Emotion Magic suppressed his brain activity, it means William is almost immune to spells like the Confundus Charm and Forgetfulness Spell, even the Imperius Curse only caused a momentary daze, of course, this is just the effect of ordinary Aurors' spells on him. Whether Voldemort's Evil Curse could affect him...
He hasn't tried it.
And this kind of magic effectively addressed the common trait of high attack and low defense among wizards in this world, after all, physical defense is manageable, a set of armor conjured through Transfiguration can solve most issues, but against mental attacks most wizards have only Occlumency as a defense, and that is quite simplistic.
Therefore, when he just saw that Boggart transformed into a big truck, he didn't feel the fear he should have felt—whether he feared death, or feared being run over by the truck's wheels into pancakes... or perhaps he just feared the truck itself?
...Probably not.
"...Maybe I should occasionally let loose?"
Realizing the problem with his mindset, William troubledly pressed his fingers against his brow, training this into a passive skill was something he developed when purging the Ashwinder, as those Black Wizards didn't care a whit for "morality" when resisting, Killing Curses, Evil Curses, Unforgivable Curses—
When you're about to die, who cares about morality? Will I end up in Azkaban later?
Even if living there is a fate worse than death, how many would choose death if they had a choice to live?
In that situation, William was after all just a human wizard, though with the aid of Ancient Magic he could completely and unscathedly purge them, it depended on his ability to act as meticulously as a robot—but he wasn't one, he had his own emotions and desires.
So, his choice at that time was to make himself as close to a robot as possible.
The effect was remarkable, albeit the side effects seemed to manifest only more than a year after the battle... no, it was exposed then.
Having made a decision in his heart, William turned his head to look at his two companions—at this moment Harry and Lupin were both looking at him with concern, their eyes filled with care, clearly thinking William was genuinely scared by that Muggle truck, especially Harry, who knew well the fear Boggarts brought was quite real—
For a moment, Harry really thought Professor Quirrell had returned.
Though he couldn't understand why William would fear a truck, it didn't stop him from being concerned.
Because they were friends.
"It's nothing, just thinking about some things—alright, it's getting late."
William shook his head, dispelling their worries, and he wasn't wrong, it was indeed quite late. Although Hermione and Harry came over right after dinner, Harry still played a roguelike game in a dream afterward, and his combat style was particularly slow—
Yes, completely different from Hermione's skillful combat style, Harry somehow developed a "rough and tumble" combat mode. Perhaps because he was awe-struck by the impressive moves William used in his first duel with Snape, Harry kept practicing those steps—
But due to malnutrition growing up, even though they were the same age, he was a full head shorter than his good friend Ron, although he hadn't lacked food or clothes since coming to Hogwarts for over two years, his childhood deficiencies took time to overcome—
So, compared to William's physique, Harry's somewhat awkward leg length kept him from fully mastering those moves, trying to force it only made him seem a bit silly, though it was effective, it wasn't very cool—
But, in fact, there was another reason, as being in the same house and of the same age, along with equivalent strength after some practice, Harry's sparring partner at the Duel Club was often Neville Longbottom, and Neville...
As everyone knew, after William proposed using plants and magical creatures in combat, Neville practically worshiped the idea as heavenly...
In all of Hogwarts, he was one of the few genuinely attempting to connect with those plants and magical creatures, not just buying a pot of flowers from the Weasley Twins, playing with them for a couple of days, and then letting them sit unattended—and, due to certain traits, Neville's progress wasn't slow at all, in fact, he was among the top.
Though he still seemed clumsy in life.