Idiots, Crybabies, Residue, Twist

Neville looked at Kane strangely, unable to understand why he was reacting so strongly. Hermione, however, suddenly realized something and covered her face in annoyance.

"How did I not think of this sooner!" Hermione muttered through gritted teeth.

Kane looked at the toad in Neville's hands with utter disgust. Thankfully, the toad was fairly polite—at the very least, it would not suddenly shoot out its tongue and stick it to him.

"We came to thank you. Without you, we probably would have been in serious trouble." Hermione suddenly bowed to Kane like a spring snapping down, then straightened up sharply.

Neville did the same, except he was more sincere. "If you need anything, I can give you whatever I have. Perhaps you would like some of Lucky's slime?"

Well, there was no need to be quite that sincere.

Still, Neville had reminded him of something. After all, frogs...

"Do you mind if I touch him?" Kane asked.

"Of course not," Neville hurriedly said.

"Thanks." Kane did not use his hands. Instead, he let the shadows slowly crawl over the frog's body and seep into it.

Neville stared at the horrifying sight in shock.

No, man, I only wanted you to pet this cute little guy. Why does it feel like you want to kill my Lucky?

As Neville stood frozen, the frog corroded by the shadows turned a sickly green. Red pustules swelled inside its belly, and its eyes abruptly began to glow. Squatting in Neville's palm, it slowly turned around before suddenly shooting out its tongue.

"Ah!"

"Wow!"

The first cry came from Neville. The frog's lick had not hurt much, but it was absolutely terrifying. The second cry came from Kane, because at the instant the frog's tongue struck Neville, Neville dropped an item.

"That's it. But this is enough." Kane instinctively got excited for a moment, then quickly pulled the shadows out of Lucky.

Lucky returned to normal, but Neville looked anything but normal. "Did... did I do something wrong? I'm sorry!"

Hermione also asked in surprise, "What happened to Lucky just now? Was that your doing, Kane?"

"It was only... a hypothesis. Anyway, thank you, Neville. Your Lucky answered my question." Just as Kane finished speaking, Professor McGonagall called his name from the stage.

"But I'm being sorted now. Don't be afraid, Neville. There's nothing wrong with your Lucky. Also, pick up what you dropped." Before leaving, Kane pointed at the brooch by Neville's feet, which the frog had licked off.

"Gryffindor, mate."

Harry and Ron both patted Kane on the shoulder. Kane did not particularly mind. He mainly wanted to be in the same House as his friends. As for whether the cultural differences between the Houses would affect his path of learning?

Absolutely not. If everyone else was a car that needed to choose the right road, then he was a steamroller!

Kane soon sat down on the stool. The instant the Sorting Hat was placed on his head, it let out a cry of surprise. "Hmm, a kind little wizard. Not much ambition, and your grasp of knowledge... is only so-so. Would you like to go to Hufflepuff?"

"Not really. I want to be with my friends. Put me in Gryffindor," Kane replied in his mind.

"Gryffindor, huh? A little wizard afraid of frogs and darkness... Well, while you may fear frogs and darkness, you certainly are not afraid of beating the sole heir of a pure-blood family half to death. Then..."

"Gryffindor!"

As the Sorting Hat announced its final answer, Kane relaxed. Harry and Ron relaxed as well. Dumbledore smiled and raised his cup to him, while even Snape was relieved that the boy had not been sorted into Slytherin.

The entire Great Hall was filled with cheerful energy, except for Professor McGonagall. Gryffindor already had more than enough troublemakers, but she had never seen anyone pull off such a spectacular stunt on their very first day of school...

At any rate, barring any surprises, Gryffindor's House Cup was probably out of reach for the next seven years. Though, she had not seen it before either.

Kane sat at the Gryffindor table as the three Weasley brothers he had met before approached him.

"Congratulations, Kane. Welcome to Gryffindor, the House that represents courage," Percy, the tall and skinny young wizard, said with a serious expression.

"Mm, although that hat was planning to send me to Hufflepuff at first," Kane said with a shrug.

"Courage without losing kindness is a wonderful quality. You will make many good friends at Hogwarts." Percy still wore that smiling poker face. At first glance, he resembled some high-ranking official, or Maxwell when Kane had first met him. Both carried a very... arrogant gaze.

Meanwhile, the Weasley twins finally got someone to undo the Silencing Charm Percy had cast on them. One pulled Percy to the back, while the other casually slung an arm around Kane's shoulder and began explaining his Gryffindor philosophy.

In summary, prefects did not matter. They were merely a privileged class professors used to oppress young wizards. They were useless except for throwing their weight around, so Kane should ignore the position of prefect entirely.

"So the question is, who's the prefect?"

George pointed his thumb at Percy, who was wrestling with Fred. "He's the prefect."

As the two spoke, another burst of intense applause rang out. "We've got Potter!"

Harry Potter made his dazzling entrance, grinning like a silly eleven-year-old as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. Now only Ron was missing. Well, just one minute later, Ron was no longer missing either.

The remaining young wizards were assigned to their respective Houses one after another. Worth mentioning was that Hermione, as well as Neville, who looked timid and rather cowardly, were also sorted into Gryffindor.

Dumbledore stood up at this point and raised his cup. As usual, he first went over some Hogwarts rules, such as not entering the room in the fourth-floor corridor, or one might die.

Do not enter the Forbidden Forest, or one might die. Only then did he finally deliver that genuinely substantial opening speech: "Idiots, crybabies, residue, twist! Dig in, everyone!"

In an instant, everyone in the Great Hall began eating. Harry and Ron excitedly stuffed all kinds of delicious food into their mouths.

Kane did too, but he was thinking about two things. One was how he could give his magic the properties of a frog's tongue. That way, when dueling other wizards, he could hit someone once and make them drop an item, hit them again and make them drop another item. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

The second was what those four words Dumbledore had said meant.

"Are you curious too? About those four words Dumbledore said?" Hermione sat opposite Kane and only asked after working up her courage for a long while.

After all, she had always thought Kane was some high-born pure-blood noble who would surely have no good opinion of Muggle-borns like them, so she had not approached him before.

But after what had happened in the entrance hall, she realized that Kane seemed... pretty nice. I'll try talking to him!

Kane nodded and readily admitted it. "I'm not just curious. Later, I'm planning to ask Dumbledore directly."

After saying that, Kane continued eating. When the feast ended, the prefects of each House were supposed to lead their young wizards to the dormitories, but Kane simply left the group and headed alone toward the Headmaster's office tower on the eighth floor.