The rich aroma filled the living room that evening.
Dinner was quite lavish. The pie was wrapped in golden syrup, with a dollop of clotted cream on the side.
A large plate of fried snow fish paired with fried potatoes was served, each piece evenly coated with almond flakes, crispy but not greasy.
During the last part of the meal, William quickly explained what had happened that morning.
William's father, Roy, sipped on a cup of tea, reading the letter carefully without offering any immediate thoughts. However, his mother, Liana, hesitated for a moment before gently suggesting:
"Dear, this is obviously a prank. You know, when I was young, I received a letter from the Doctor, inviting me to visit the TARDIS and save the world…"
Nine-year-old Annie, sitting nearby, raised her hand and exclaimed,
"Annie also got a reply from Baker Street!"
The little girl sent five request letters to Baker Street every week.
The staff there, probably overwhelmed by this overly enthusiastic fan, eventually sent back a polite response saying that Sherlock Holmes had gone to the Himalayas to study magic and wouldn't be available for a while.
William felt a headache coming on; he couldn't easily explain that this wasn't a prank.
As for magic, he wasn't yet able to freely use the strange powers that had awakened within him.
Father Roy paused, set the letter down, and looked earnestly at his son, saying, "William, your mother is right. There's no such thing as magic.
"You know, after you graduate, I hope you'll attend Eton for secondary school and then go to Oxford for university—not some place like Hogwarts…"
Roy wanted to say more, like how "Hogwarts" didn't sound like a reputable school at all.
And "Albus Dumbledore" didn't sound like a trustworthy name either!
"Dear, why Oxford? I think Cambridge is better," Liana replied, chin resting on her hand in discontent.
"Hey, Liana, I know you're a professor at Cambridge, but... you know, Cambridge is just Oxford's preparatory school."
And so, the two continued their "friendly" debate, while William looked on in utter confusion.
This scene seemed strangely familiar... Wait, wasn't he in a similar dilemma in his previous life, wondering whether to attend Peking University or Tsinghua University?
[tl/n: Both are chinese universities.]
Back then, he had tossed and turned for many sleepless nights over it.
"Annie, what are you doing?" William suddenly turned his gaze to the little girl.
Annie froze in place, holding a fork in mid-air.
It was clear that she had been about to feed her bacon to Boba Tea, the cat.
"Annie, don't feed Boba Tea anymore. It's already had some fish treats. If it eats too much, it'll get fat."
Biologists have proven that orange cats and fat orange cats are two different species. The latter is better classified... as a type of pig.
William wouldn't let his adorable cat, which he fancied would be a flerken, turn into a fat orange pig!
Annie pouted. "But the owl stole Boba Tea's fish treats."
After Boba Tea had assaulted the owl earlier, William had decided, for safety's sake, not to let the bird return to Hogwarts right away.
However... William frowned.
Earlier, the owl had been dragging itself across the floor with its wings, acting like it was severely injured… But now it was tugging on bacon with quite a bit of strength in its claws.
Was it really injured?
Sensing William's gaze, the owl's large, innocent eyes shifted slightly. Then, it loosened its grip, and the bacon fell into the cat's bowl.
It promptly flopped back onto the floor, twitching as if it was paralyzed on one side.
"..."
William rolled his eyes. This creature was clearly faking an injury just to avoid going back to Hogwarts with the acceptance letters!
Boba Tea, perched haughtily on the sofa, gave a disdainful glance at the owl, who was still pretending to be cute, twitching its whiskers as if it couldn't be bothered.
By now, William's parents had moved on from debating universities to discussing international disputes, before leaping to whether Charles would remain the crown prince for much longer.
Finally, they reached a consensus: He likely wouldn't outlive the Queen!
William nodded in agreement from the sidelines. The Queen was a true finals contender—her only real competitor was that ancient gentleman.
...
...
The owl shamelessly mooched food for two days, enduring countless side-eye glares from Boba Tea, before finally leaving with William's letter, albeit reluctantly.
On its way out, it even swiped two packs of fish treats.
Which left Boba Tea fuming.
Though the owl had a penchant for playing the invalid, it promptly delivered a response. However, on this visit, it swiped Boba Tea's favourite cat teaser toy before leaving.
Since William's family was a Muggle family, the school had arranged for a teacher to visit them in two days. Clearly, Hogwarts was accustomed to dealing with sceptical Muggle parents.
After all, not every parent would be comfortable handing their eleven-year-old over to a school they knew nothing about—especially one that proudly claimed to teach magic.
It was akin to encountering a self-proclaimed master from the Green Cloud Sect in China, claiming that he had discovered your child's extraordinary bone structure, labelling them a once-in-a-century genius, and wanting to take them to some mysterious academy for further training... Such people would likely be beaten to a pulp.
However, Hogwarts' teachers weren't very punctual. Even though they had agreed to arrive at 9 AM, there was still no sign of them by the afternoon.
"They must be scammers!" Roy grumbled, sitting on the sofa in frustration.
As a dentist, he had a strong sense of time.
Ding-dong!
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Annie, who had been dozing off on the sofa with Boba Tea in her arms, suddenly sprang to her feet.
The orange kitten that had been curled up on her stomach went flying from the impact.
A few seconds later, a shrill yowl echoed from the other side of the carpet.
"Meoooowww…"
Well, at least now it was fully awake.
Annie ran eagerly to the door, twisting the knob open, finally getting a look at the wizard they had been expecting for days…
She looked up.
And up.
And some more...
"Wow!" Annie exclaimed in awe.
A towering figure nearly filled the entire doorway.
He wore a fuzzy brown suit without a tie. He bent down, revealing a face covered in a thick, tangled beard, but beneath all that, his eyes gleamed like beetles under his hair.
Compared to his bushy beard, the giant's hair seemed smoother... relatively speaking.
It looked like he had used a lot of machine oil or some similar substance to tame it into a ponytail, giving him a very peculiar appearance.
To be honest, William was a bit scared.
This was not how he had imagined a wizard to look. In his mind, a wizard should have at least worn yellow rain boots and capri pants...
But Hagrid… looked more like a giant than a wizard.
In fact, William didn't know much about the world of Harry Potter. He only remembered a few names—Harry, the trio, Voldemort, and Dumbledore.
As for the plot, he couldn't recall much of any details.
If he had been transported into the Naruto or Marvel universe, he might have been able to use his foresight to prepare and avoid some dangers, but that was impossible in the Harry Potter world.
After all, his knowledge of the story was practically zero.
So, should he skip going to Hogwarts?
Yeah, right! Who could resist the allure of magic?
As for the comforts of the scientific world... Only children make choices—William wanted it all!