"...It’s not like I asked you to come."
William, looking speechless, extinguished the ’fire’ on the old man’s chin with water and comforted Norbert, who knew he’d caused trouble and hid in William’s pocket. "Besides, haven’t you raised a Phoenix yourself? That thing can also set your beard on fire."
As he spoke, William took out a sleeping Fawkes from his pocket.
"This is different... Can you guarantee this Fire Dragon won’t suddenly revert to its original form in the castle?"
Seemingly a bit helpless with William’s ’sophistry,’ Dumbledore smiled and then spoke seriously.
"... Of course," William said unconfidently, "but even if it grows bigger, I can make it small again — rest assured, there won’t be any accidents." The latter part of his sentence was spoken with confidence. If he dared to keep a dragon in the castle, he was sure it wouldn’t cause trouble —
In all the prohibited creatures he kept, the most worrisome one was ironically the harmless Kabuda.
Yes, that Niffler went out gallivanting again tonight and didn’t come back to sleep.
Left to guard an empty room, William decided to ’favor’ another consort tonight — he just hoped Norbert wouldn’t burp under the covers.
"So, now you can go keep an eye on Harry, I won’t do anything out of line to him —" William pointed to the new room Cedric had entered. The Room of Requirement truly lived up to its name; as long as it was William’s request, it could perfectly fulfill it.
"You don’t plan to give me a tour?"
"No."
...
Ten minutes later.
"Fire Dragon, Acromantula, Chimaera... What’s next?" Dumbledore’s face was a bit stiff, and he twitched his mouth, "Basilisk?"
"Not impossible, just not sure if the one at the school died from a rooster’s crow?" William rubbed his chin, pondering the feasibility, "Actually, even if it’s dead, it’s not a problem. It’s not difficult to hatch an egg using a toad, and as long as its eyes are covered, the Basilisk’s lethal power would be greatly reduced —"
"No, no way."
Dumbledore interrupted William’s fantasy about his ’Magical Creatures Collection Plan.’
"It’s okay, we’ll talk about it later —"
William patted the old man’s shoulder, signaling him to relax, "This is my Room of Requirement. Once I’ve sealed the door, the only passage to the outside world is this fireplace; although these creatures are smart, they absolutely cannot learn to use Floo Powder —"
"... Fine, I’ll go check on Harry."
Dumbledore took a deep breath and didn’t say more — though he’d just considered contacting Romania to take the dragon away, the old man eventually gave up on that plan.
The old man stood up and walked into room 17.
William didn’t follow; before continuing to study Harry’s condition, he still needed to gather some necessary items — the boy grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, "Map Chamber!"
......
"Cough, cough —"
Harry coughed heavily twice, the cold air from the Mediterranean incapacitating the boy who played cards every night — he clutched his painfully sore throat and opened his mouth towards Madam Pomfrey in front of him.
"Your throat is a bit inflamed... This, and this, take them on time according to the dosage." The elderly woman in a white coat handed over a prescription to the boy.
"Alright."
After agreeing, Harry got up and left the infirmary — he was already used to the constant appearance in reality of these people matching perfectly with his dream, from the library manager to the various professors —
It’s déjà vu, definitely déjà vu.
He had flipped through the book Hermione found for him three or four times, finally confirming that this phenomenon was a manifestation of déjà vu from his dreams.
Because the boy couldn’t find any other explanation — he can’t actually have traveled into a magical world from his dream, could he?
Too absurd — plus, that dream was gradually becoming more and more blurry, which completely conformed to every rule of dreaming.
... Tsk, thinking about all this won’t help, might as well play cards.
Harry, relying on memory, navigated through a pitch-black corridor, where there should’ve been lights on at this hour, but inexplicably weren’t today — perhaps the lights broke? Harry mused as he quickened his pace until he saw two rows of flames flickering ahead.
"..."
Torches?
Are there such retro lighting fixtures at Smeltings Academy?
The boy instinctively stopped, turning to look behind him — the previously dim corridor was also lit by torches, the orange-yellow light illuminating the dark gray stone bricks under the boy’s feet. He looked down at his shadow, which distorted with the ’dance’ of the flames.
"Is anybody there?"
Faced with a place entirely incongruent with his memory, panic overtook the teenage boy. He instinctively turned to leave, but no matter how far he walked, there was an endless line of torches —
No, that’s... a window!
Spotting a turn ahead and the window at the end, Harry’s initial panic turned into delight. Almost instinctively, he moved closer, but as soon as he stumbled, he crashed through the window and fell into... a room?
This was a warmly furnished room, with a wooden baby cradle in the center, reflecting toys hung overhead. Harry walked dazedly two steps closer, watching a woman leaning against the baby’s cradle —
He couldn’t see her face clearly.
Realizing this, a wave of inexplicable irritation suddenly surged through the boy’s mind. Almost instinctively, he raised the magic wand in his hand... wait, what’s a magic wand?
"Avada Kedavra!"
Harry heard his incantation. The next moment, a deep green light flashed, and the woman, leaning by the bed, leaped up. At this moment, Harry saw her face clearly, and he seemed to understand something.
"No!"
The boy instinctively shouted, but the deep green light didn’t change because of his will. The woman’s body collapsed to the floor in an instant — Harry watched the scene, his head pounding, then he saw "himself" raising the wand again, pointing it at the baby on the bed —
"Wake up, wake up!" came a woman’s anxious voice. Harry, with difficulty, opened his eyes.
"Her... Hermione?" The boy breathed heavily, looking at the girl in front of him, dazed, "Where, where am I?"
The boy turned his head, looking around. He quickly recognized he was at the junction between the hospital wing and the dormitory corridor — this was still Smeltings Academy, so what were all those just now?
"Harry — you’ve woken up." "Hermione" seemed relieved and helped the boy up from the ground, "Thank goodness, we need to find William, where is he?"
"... What, I don’t know, what are you talking about — who is William?" Confused, Harry instinctively blinked.
...
Meanwhile.
Staring at the Harry Potter scaled-up man before him, William opened his mouth, puzzled.
"You’re awake, Lily?"
James Potter looked down at his wife beside him.
"Your mom."
"?"