Harry slowly backed up two steps.
"You don't have to explain. Seriously, you don't owe me anything.
Everyone has their own sense of style. I totally under... understand hahaha!"
He tried to keep a straight face at first, looking every bit the picture of dignity, but he eventually cracked and burst out laughing.
Kane's mouth twitched into a strained, awkward expression that was somewhere between a smile and not a smile at all.
He really needed to check his sanity value as soon as possible, and then get this garland off his head before he embarrassed himself even further.
Once he got back to his room, he grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote a short, blunt message.
I need to learn magic that lets me clearly see my own attributes. Teach me!
.....
He stared at it, suddenly feeling it was a bit too abrupt. After a moment of hesitation, he added one more line at the bottom.
Dear Professor Dumbledore.
He tied the envelope to the raven's leg and gave its warm back a gentle pat. "Fly, raven."
The raven didn't even twitch.
"Did Hagrid buy me a defective one?"
Just as Kane stood there helplessly staring at the bird, Harry pushed open the door behind him.
Seeing Kane and the raven locked in a silent standoff, Harry said, "Maybe it's because you didn't give it a name? If someone told me, 'Human, go deliver this letter,' I'd probably spit in their face."
"A name?"
Kane looked at the pure black raven and thought for a moment.
"You'll be Huginn then. Now, Huginn, please deliver this letter... thanks."
This time, Huginn immediately spread his wings and shot into the sky, heading toward Hogwarts.
"You're calling it Huginn? Should I rename Hedwig? Maybe call her Mórrígan?"
Harry said, glancing at Hedwig in her cage. She immediately shook her head and shot a glare straight at Kane.
"Your owner's the one trying to rename you. Why are you glaring at me?" Kane said, genuinely bewildered.
Dumbledore's reply came quickly. That afternoon, Huginn returned with an envelope in his beak.
Dumbledore wrote quite a lot.
First, he asked why Kane needed that kind of magic and whether something was wrong with his body.
He also explained that since a wizard's power couldn't be measured numerically, no one had invented a spell like that.
Still, Dumbledore taught him a little trick.
Kane could release all his magic outside his body, then draw it back in, which would give him something like a magical version of an ultrasound.
It wouldn't give exact values, but it would let him observe the state of his soul, whether it felt strong and steady or weak and drained.
At the end, Dumbledore warned him that the technique was difficult, and if he couldn't manage it, he shouldn't force himself.
During the Hogwarts opening ceremony, Kane could go to the headmaster's office and learn it directly.
Time flew to September 1st. As for that tricky technique Dumbledore taught him... he learned it the same day he read it. Honestly, it was pretty easy.
With it, he could see three distinct states: his physical condition, his soul, and his magic. His soul roughly lined up with his sanity value.
Whenever his nerves were fraying and he could feel shadow creatures tugging at the edges, his soul appeared dull and exhausted.
Just like now.
After Kane and Harry finally found an empty compartment and sat down, Kane immediately put the garland back on his head and shoved two pieces of chocolate into his mouth.
The past few days, Kane had been reading magic books either in his room at the Leaky Cauldron or sitting on benches in Diagon Alley.
Naturally, his sanity value had never been full. Not even once.
"Looks like I need to upgrade my tech as soon as possible.
Otherwise, with how intense Hogwarts magic classes probably are, I'll enroll in the morning and be chased around by shadow creatures by the afternoon." Kane muttered as he opened his book again.
Knock knock knock.
Harry slid open the door. The boy outside was a familiar face.
"Harry!" Ron said, his face lighting up.
"Ron!" Harry hugged him enthusiastically, then grabbed Kane, who was buried in his book. "Kane, look who's here?"
"What does it matter who..." Kane looked up. "Ron!"
He immediately turned up his energy level to match the moment.
To be fair, he wasn't actually that excited, but it made him seem polite and helped keep the mood going.
Ron grinned back. "Kane! What in the world is that thing on your head?"
"...... It's an accessory. Don't worry about it."
Their compartment gained another passenger, though that didn't do much to slow down Kane's obsession with studying magic.
If anything, it just gave Harry and Ron another person to chat with when they got bored.
Well, okay, maybe it disturbed him a little. Like right now.
"Kane, which house do you want to be in? You know about the four houses, right?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, I know. They're pretty much the same to me." Kane turned another page without looking up.
"How can they be the same? Gryffindor doesn't want cowards, Slytherin doesn't take non–purebloods, and Ravenclaw doesn't like people who can't think. You have to find the house that fits you best," Ron said, shaking his head.
"They're all just ways of telling you they don't want you." Kane finally closed his book. "Still, if I had to pick..."
"I'll go with you guys. It's a boarding school. If you're not in the same dorm as your friends, who are you supposed to talk to after class? That's way too lonely."
Just picturing that kind of loneliness, so different from The Constant, made Kane's scalp tingle.
In a boarding school, with no friends in your dorm, you wouldn't want to go anywhere.
Not the dorm, not the dining hall. Everyone else shouting for their friends while you stand there alone... awful.
Though, to be fair, it was a pretty effective weight loss plan.
"Then let's all go to Gryffindor. I bet we can all get in!" Ron said earnestly.
"Do we choose it ourselves?" Harry asked.
"Um... maybe it's a test? Or something else? I'm not sure." Ron's excitement deflated a little.
What if the test was too hard? What if the houses chose the students and he wasn't picked? Would his three older brothers even matter in that case?
Knock knock knock...
"Come in," Kane said, reopening his book.
"I'm looking for a toad. Oh, it's you three. Do you remember me? Hermione Granger."
Hermione paused in the doorway when she saw the magical young aristocrat who had made such an impression at Ollivanders, sitting with his two friends.
But... what was he doing? Someone from such a prestigious family that the only wand shop in Britain custom-made a wand for him and even paid him on top of it... was studying on the train.
Studying, despite the dark circles under his eyes. And what was she doing? Searching for someone's missing toad?
It was really true what people said. The excellent work even harder than you.
Hermione, honestly, why did you agree to go look for that stupid toad?