This warm feeling made the boy moan involuntarily, and a hot tear suddenly rolled down from the corner of his eye. But before he could enjoy it, a shadow abruptly fell over his head, and the next moment, Malfoy jumped up from the chair—
"Awake? Class is over, pack up and go back to the dormitory."
Before Malfoy could speak, William, who had noticed the commotion, stood up from behind the podium, holding a teacup and a casual book.
Today's club meeting had already ended, and besides Malfoy, all other students had left. If it weren't for discovering that Malfoy had passed the first-level boss battle, he would definitely have chosen to wake him up—it's also his problem.
Dream Magic, which could originally compress months of experience into an instant, was used by William when he was subduing those Death Eaters. But later, to broadcast the dream scene, he chose to adjust the dream time to sync with real time, and then based on this approach—
So, in fact, he wanted to see how many more levels this young Malfoy could break through in one go. After all, the other party performed well at the last moment, even risking putting his arm in a wolf's mouth to dissect its belly, clearly a ruthless person. Although he reduced the reality of "death," he didn't significantly reduce the dream's pain sense—
Otherwise, how could it be called "real sense"?
However, the other party doesn't quite fit the image in his mind of the pure-blood clan young master.
In his impression, these little young masters always talked about nothing but the pure-blood glory day in and day out. Except for one or two individuals when he first enrolled a hundred years ago, his relationship with those Slytherins wasn't good since William's identity was that of a fifth-year "Muggle" transfer student—
But this relationship gradually became "better" after the sixth-year started.
The reason? After killing Victor Rookwood, during the summer after resolving the goblin rebellion, he managed to overturn a third of the Ashwinder's strongholds, and since then no one dared to mouth off in front of him.
Some guys who used to mouth off even came to the Ravenclaw table at the opening feast and apologized for half an hour in a row.
For this reason, a certain famous Head Black subtly jabbed at him more than ten times in his opening speech, because the apologies took up the time he was supposed to speak.
At that time, William, who had just killed hundreds, hadn't quite come around and nearly fed him a Killing Curse—
Luckily, he realized afterward, otherwise using an Unforgivable Curse in public would have sent him straight to Azkaban, though William had been quite curious about it before. But recently, after catching a Dementor, that curiosity diminished quite a bit.
He was now more curious about what was going on with this Malfoy young master. After all, when he started visiting the Malfoy family this summer, before that, he was still the standard image of a pure-blood family young master, who'd scramble flustered with just a little scare...
But in just two months, such a big change happened—
However, William, though a bit curious about the transformation that happened to him, displayed no sign of it, because now in Malfoy's eyes, his true identity was actually Voldemort, ready to make a comeback, enduring insult and burden, lurking beside Dumbledore.
Indeed, Malfoy was currently the only person in the entire Hogwarts School who outwardly knew he was "Voldemort."
After all, that night at Hogwarts, it was only Malfoy present, and whether the other Death Eaters told their children at home... who knows, but it seems unlikely. Who would want to share such an unpleasant experience at home?
Therefore, to maintain the dignity of the 'Dark Lord,' William stood up expressionlessly, said his piece calmly, and prepared to head for the door. However, as he passed by the dazed Malfoy, he noticed the boy's body suddenly wavered involuntarily.
Hmm, it seems his Dark Lord cover won't easily fall off, as long as he maintains contact with Lucius Malfoy, the head of the Death Eaters.
Lately, it seems like he's either losing his cover or exposing someone else's, so William occasionally worries.
After all, in non-essential situations, he doesn't want to wipe out that bunch of Death Eaters yet. When Voldemort returns to find all his former subordinates dead compared to finding they've betrayed him, the shock is entirely different.
Out of a little cross-time shock for Voldemort, William has painstakingly put effort into it.
"Wait..."
Malfoy suddenly spoke up, rubbing his still-throbbing head, but regretted it before he finished—why did I say wait? Do I have anything to tell?
At this moment, Malfoy desperately hoped William didn't hear his voice, but things didn't go as wished; William stopped, somewhat puzzled.
"What is it?"
No, nothing...
Malfoy really wanted to say that but he knew he mustn't anger this Dark Lord his father always described as mercurial, and although the person seemed amiable now—Malfoy clearly saw him burning a few Death Eaters to ashes without hesitation.
They literally turned to ash and dumped into the Mediterranean.
Moreover, Malfoy even knew those people. Before that, they had come to Malfoy Manor, in some sense even considered his... uncles.
And they just got burned to death like that. Even at home, Malfoy felt he could still smell that charred scent.
"Uh, I wanted to ask... just, just, about the feeling after I killed that elite monster..."
Malfoy stumbled as he spoke, and after racking his brains, finally thought of a relatively reasonable excuse. He then began praying in the heart that the "Dark Lord" wouldn't notice anything unusual about him—after all, even he could feel the tension and abnormality in himself.
Yet he was indeed overthinking it; William hadn't noticed anything peculiar about him—well, to put it more accurately, William considered this reaction normal, given that Voldemort's infamy in Britain even surpassed Zhang Liao's legendary night-cry deterrent in Xiaoyaojin.
The latter could only stop kids from crying at night, but the former could silence a whole group of grown wizards into quiet submission.
Tsk, albeit acceptable, it's still hard to comprehend. After all, Voldemort didn't storm into an encampment of a hundred thousand with a mere few hundred followers, how should it be calculated? Are British wizards just too fainthearted?
Although William didn't dwell further on whose courage was greater, he responded earnestly, "Because I set up save points for you all. Once you defeat the level boss, your bodies will recover to prepare for the ensuing battles..."
"The ensuing battles?"
Malfoy's expression was somewhat puzzled.
"Oh, you lay too long, that troll smacked your head with a club as soon as it appeared."
"..."
No wonder, no wonder upon waking, there was a brief sensation of my head feeling oddly flat... Malfoy subconsciously raised a hand to his head, only feeling relief when realizing it was still round.
"...Is there anything else?"
After waiting a moment without any further questions from Malfoy, William frowned and asked.
"Oh, no, nothing, senior..."
In the emotional fluctuation, Malfoy nearly forgot William's mentioned issue with his form of address.
"Alright then, keep it up, I have high hopes for you."
William nodded, turned to leave but then seemed to recall something, and gently patted Malfoy's shoulder.
You have high hopes for me?
...Should I be happy about that?
Malfoy was a little dazed, and even after William left, he hadn't returned to his senses. He realized he seemed to have deviated from his father's original intention, looking like he was drawing closer to the Dark Lord, but...
Isn't that exactly what he needs?
Yeah! I must get stronger!!!
Once again resolving his determination inwardly, Malfoy finally gathered his emotions and walked out of the classroom.