The small conflict happening not far away among some Little Wizards didn’t attract much of William’s attention.
Even though throwing gloves is considered an act of war both among medieval English nobility and Wizards, the atmosphere and setting are not serious, which means this matter will only become dinner-talk for some Little Wizards when they return home for the holidays.
William lay in the warm sunlight, listening to the wind blowing through the Forbidden Forest, until... he felt the sunlight disappear.
"Oh... hello?"
Grabbing Kabuda, which was serving as his blindfold, William finally saw the Giant who was blocking all his sunlight—alright, probably only Hagrid in the entire Hogwarts Castle could manage that.
"Hello... um, am I blocking you?"
Hagrid sheepishly scratched his head. He put down the large water bucket he was carrying and sat next to William.
"Yes, but now it’s better... What is it?"
William shook his head, put the already fast-asleep Kabuda back over his eyes to block the incoming sunlight.
"Uh, I’ve encountered a problem that can’t be solved..."
Hagrid hugged the bucket and continued, "It’s Argo. Since returning from the Forbidden Forest, it often refuses food, and its spirit becomes increasingly despondent, even ignoring its formerly favorite smoked jerky. I suspect... suspect it’s the Magic’s fault?"
Hagrid’s face turned slightly red, though it was subtle. After all, in his view, William’s help was given without any reward (Hagrid never considered the Forbidden Forest’s Acromantula colony his private property). Now he’s asking for after-sales service, which was naturally embarrassing for Hagrid.
"...What do you usually feed it?"
"Oh, at first, I let it eat with me, but I found it didn’t like it and always wanted to play during meals, so I switched to regular bloody meat, which I confirmed is on the Acromantula’s diet list—what’s wrong?"
By this time, William had sat up, looking at the bucket where the spider was almost starved flat, unable to suppress a slight twitch of his mouth.
"Did I ever tell you that for safety reasons—I’ve removed its fangs?"
"..."
"Probably starving, without its fore fangs to help, it can’t ingest smoked meat, large beef chunks, and during meals ’playing around’ with you... Could it be, just possibly... it’s actually trying to scratch you because it’s extremely hungry?"
"..."
Hagrid’s gaze shifted between Argo and William’s face until Argo’s forelegs trembled and raised. Only then did Hagrid understand William’s words, looking at the weak, seemingly soon-to-die spider, Hagrid was as helpless as a sixty-year-old child—
"Take it to the kitchen..."
William patted the Giant’s shoulder with a solemn expression.
"Ah, but spiders don’t taste good—"
Hagrid, lost in grief, was momentarily out of it.
"...I mean, have the House-Elves make some meat puree for it."
William felt somewhat powerless.
"Oh, oh—"
Upon hearing the reminder again, Hagrid finally realized and prepared to run to the castle with the bucket, but was held back by William at the waist... couldn’t reach the shoulder.
"Don’t rush."
William sighed, holding Kabuda in one hand, while his other hand fumbled continuously in the Niffler’s belly, soon finding a gray stone embedded with blue Magic Runes.
"What is this?"
"Swoosh—"
Hagrid heard the sound of a strap snapping, followed by a distortion of reality, and the two figures instantly disappeared.
...
"Swoosh—"
Hagrid staggered out from the air, through the recent journey, he felt stuffed into a soft pipe, with someone on the other end using a plunger repeatedly pulling, until extracted from the pipe. Given his size, it was clearly an impossible task—
"Ugh—"
William’s face was also not looking good, glancing at the Magic Rune Stone in his hand, now completely devoid of luster, he helplessly frowned.
Long-distance travel seemed to be a bit difficult.
"Mr. Richard—"
A Little Elf named Lack quickly ran up from the side, but before it reached William, it was ’pushed’ by William toward Hagrid, "He will tell you what to do... cough cough, I need some rest."
At Hogwarts, Apparition is impossible, everyone knows, and William is no exception. Therefore, he was always looking for a loophole, and this loophole came quickly—the Apparition of House-Elves is entirely unrestricted by the castle’s Anti-Disillusionment Array.
And conveniently, he possessed a House-Elf of his own—
By observing the Magic flow during Dobby’s spell casting, using Ancient Magic for tangible replication, marked onto a Moonstone. It sounds simple, and practically, it isn’t difficult, given the advantage of Ancient Magic. But issues arose beyond William’s expectations.
This Magic Pattern Stone created through House-Elf Magic seemed to have a rejection reaction for humans, even for short one-way travel, the discomfort and blockage it caused—uhh, to put it simply, William once thought long-distance Apparition was painful enough.
Now it seems, that’s heavenly compared.
Initially, William thought it was due to the Hogwarts environment problem, till he tried once in Hogsmeade and found under controlled variables, that it had nothing to do with environmental factors, the clash came from the House-Elf Magic differing from human Apparition, though effects are similar.
Now on a look—turning back to see Hagrid displaying the spider to the House-Elves, it’s clear, the Half-Giant also can’t entirely avoid this sense of rejection, potentially more severe.
"Whew..."
Noting down this "test result," William stood, greeting Hagrid, "I’ll take my leave now, remember not to feed it dry meat anymore, putting old folks without teeth through such a thing is unbearable."
"Wait, I have one more thing... no, two things."
Seeing William ready to leave, Hagrid quickly turned around, halting William’s steps.
"...What?"
William, about to leave, turned back.
"Uh, it’s like this, Professor Kettleburn is retiring soon,"
"?"
William’s pupils slightly contracted, he somewhat anticipated the upcoming plot, but please don’t ruin it for me...
"Professor Dumbledore wants me to take over as the professor of the Magical Creatures Class..."
"Tut."