"Hey! William, where did these little guys come from?!"
Looking at the giant carriage near the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid's face, covered with scars, broke into a smile. He stared at William, reached out to pat the neck of the Abraxan beneath him, and looked towards the back. When he saw the powder-blue carriage, his eyes lit up—
"Let me guess, Castelobruxo? Or Beauxbatons?"
"Why not guess Durmstrang?"
William released the reins and jumped down from the horse. He looked curiously at Hagrid.
"Hey, that group of Black Wizards? Forget it, I know the behavior of the headmaster of Durmstrang, Karkaroff, hmph..."
Hagrid took the reins handed by William, frowned, and snorted disdainfully, seemingly having a strong opinion about the man he mentioned. The two tied up the horses at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, a distance from the Uagadou fortress. The horses looked longingly at William... and the malt whiskey in his hand.
"Should we go to the school gate now?"
Having tidied up everything, Hagrid wanted to introduce William to the status of his new pets—Explosive Snails—but William shook his head in reluctance, seeing the many wounds on Hagrid's face, indicating that they should go back to wait for the other schools and participate in the welcome banquet.
Actually, the key point was that William's Druid Aura affected these brainless creatures as well, and as soon as those damned Explosive Snails saw him, they'd swarm all over. William didn't want to get blasted by those strange things—
"No, let's go straight to the hall—"
William shook his head and looked towards the Black Lake not far away, where a giant black vortex was slowly disappearing.
"Alright, let's go!"
Hagrid tightened the mole-fur coat on him, splashed some clean water on his face haphazardly, and planned to follow William.
"Aren't you going to tidy up?"
"Why should I tidy up?"
"Because the headmaster of Beauxbatons is a beauty—"
"Hohohohoho—"
Hearing William's words, Hagrid let out a bell-like laugh, winked at William, "Don't worry, William, I'm not interested in the beauties you fancy because I'm a half-giant!" Hagrid never shied away from his heritage in front of William.
"You'll regret it—"
William said somewhat "unwillingly," which brought about another round of laughter from Hagrid.
"Then let's make a bet!"
William finally showed his hand, but the Yan Kingdom map was brief, and Hagrid didn't quite catch on. The half-giant blinked, appearing somewhat puzzled by William's distrust, but still nodded, his voice booming, "A bet? About what?"
"Haven't thought of it yet, just a demand, unconditionally."
William smiled as he petted Fluffy, the Three-Headed Dog, whose heads all showed expressions of comfort.
"Alright!"
Hagrid nodded nonchalantly and, after agreeing, chuckled, "At that time, I'll have you take care of those little guys~" Hearing Hagrid's words, William's face stiffened slightly, feeling a bit of regret.
...
"...So, Hagrid, what made you think of... having a Manticore and a Fire Crab mate?"
On the path toward the castle, William finally couldn't hold back and asked this question that had been swirling in his mind for quite some time. He increasingly found that the people around him were a bit off—
A Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who loved cooking and chores, and was a werewolf, a young witch who constantly clamored for a little elf revolution and even founded a "Vomiting" organization for it, a former Dark Lord busy researching Muggle weapons who was recently working on how to make Magic Missiles automatically target using charms...
Now, there's a half-blood giant researching "Forbidden Cthulhu Creatures"...
Tsk, looking at it this way, even he seems too normal, with the occasional research into Ancient Egyptian mummies, recently crafting a batch of "War Machines (Magic Rune Gargoyles)," keeping a werewolf corps, a few Fire Dragons, holding a "Magic Nuclear Weapon" capable of sinking Tokyo...
That's all.
Truly just an ordinary person! So, the abnormal ones must definitely not be my problem!
William, the Zero Generation Dark Lord, Vanquisher of the Goblin Rebellion, Savior of the Wizarding World, Guardian of Ancient Magic, the new leader of the "Death Eaters," Dragon Knight, Master of the Niffler King Kabuda, Richard, declared decisively.
Regarding William's question, Hagrid couldn't explain anything, finally attributing everything to destiny, and William cursed heaven under his breath.
When they arrived at the side door of the hall, the Little Wizards were already seated. Today's hall seemed larger than before, with Little Wizards from around the world mixed together, the original four long tables replaced by three giant round tables, and another small round table set up at the original teacher's table—
It was packed with people, with only four or five positions remaining available—
"What's the matter?"
William raised an eyebrow, looking at Hagrid who stood at the side door in amazement, a smile on his face reminiscent of 'Jing Ke's assassination of Qin's success'.
"How do I look now?"
Hagrid, uncharacteristically, ignored Dumbledore's beckoning gesture and instead pulled William outside the door, his face tense and eyes wide open, his hands randomly rubbing his beard and hair, seemingly wanting to forcibly make these unruly strands smooth—
"Scourgify. (All clean)"
William pointed his magic wand at Hagrid's head, and the man's somewhat dirty hair instantaneously became much smoother. Two small mice frantically scurried away from his neck, and his mole-skin coat transformed, the previously visible peculiar stitching smoothed out, the brownish stripes agreeing to change into black—
It almost turned into a crisp suit, but William stepped back two paces, still somewhat dissatisfied, and he raised his magic wand again.
Then Hagrid's frizzy beard also started to smooth out, gathering into four strands, forming a braided knot under the man's chin. His hair was slicked back, though not as greasy-looking as one might imagine.
"Thanks a lot!!"
Hagrid let out a sigh of relief, looking down at the rose nestled in the pocket on his chest, standing straight somewhat cautiously.
"Great! Very energetic!"
William raised his hand and patted Hagrid's arm, while the latter smoothed out his extraordinarily tense mood.
Thus, the two reentered the hall, everyone's eyes focused on the returning Hagrid (there's no way around it, he's just too large), the latter's face gradually heating up, while the slightly dazed Dumbledore appropriately stood up and spoke to diffuse the situation—
"This is our Magical Creatures Class Professor, a very capable professor!"
Hagrid nodded at the crowd, finally letting his shy gaze fall on Ms. Maxime sitting beside Dumbledore, the other Half-Giant also looked back with gentle eyes, both their faces turning a bit red—
Hagrid had almost been transformed by William, and now everyone at the dining table familiar with Hagrid was staring at him in amazement.
"Who is he?"
As William sat down, Lupin suddenly lowered his voice, somewhat exaggeratedly leaning in to ask.
"Who else could he be?"
William shook his head, not paying further attention to the two Half-Blood Giants lost in bewilderment, looking at the remaining three empty chairs beside him and Hagrid, curiously asking, "Who else hasn't arrived?"
While speaking, William looked around the table, only one person he didn't recognize—
This was a passionate, tall, and skinny middle-aged man with short white hair.
Presumably, it was the principal of Durmstrang, Igor Karkaroff? Hmm... Living up to Lupin and Hagrid's comments, just seeing the flattering expression on his face towards Dumbledore, his "Black Wizard Radar" was already sounding off.
Moreover, if memory serves correctly, the man's name seems to have appeared—on the 'Complete List of Death Eaters' Lucius Malfoy handed him.
Hmm… It's as though after Voldemort fell, he exposed many accomplices, and thus escaped Azkaban?
And as William finished his thoughts, before Lupin could answer his question, the hall doors were slammed open.
A man appeared at the doorway, supported by a long cane, wrapped in a black traveling cloak, everyone turned to look at the stranger interrupting the banquet, who then removed his hood, shaking out long gray hair, beginning to walk towards the staff table.
He walked directly to the staff table, turned to the right, limping toward Dumbledore.
"Ah, it's Alastor—"
Dumbledore greeted happily, but the other seemed not to hear, instead reaching to touch the stool beside Dumbledore, his scarred face, resembling a craggy carving, revealing a hint of wariness.
The man's left eye was embedded with a peculiar eyeball, large akin to a round coin, and notably bright blue.
That blue eye was moving erratically, turning up, down, left and right, completely disconnected from the other normal eye—then, that blue eyeball turned, steadfastly locking onto a certain pale-faced principal.
"Dumbledore, why is he here?!"
Karkaroff's voice was low, even the honorifics for Dumbledore were gone, he propped himself up halfway, glaring at the man standing beside Dumbledore with an unpleasant expression.
While Alastor Moody's expression was somewhat disdainful, his magic eye rotated, looking at William, who, during Moody's entrance animation in the hall, was heads down in food while others were hard-stopped.
"?"
William raised his head, somewhat puzzled, meeting the other's gaze.
"Because he's also a participant in the preparatory work for the Eight-Team Tournament, has nobody told you, Igor?"
Dumbledore asked pleasantly.