The Meaning of Four Words

Perhaps it was due to Dumbledore's prior arrangements. The two stone statues guarding the entrance seemed to recognize him. Even professors needed a password to enter the headmaster's office, but he did not.

Knock, knock, knock...

Kane considered it, then decided to knock first.

The door quickly opened on its own. Dumbledore sat in his chair with a smile. "Let me guess. You ran into a little problem with your magic?"

Kane raised an eyebrow. With a thought, he released all the shadow magic within his body, then drew it back in.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I learned it that very day."

"Truly excellent. Then why have you come?"

"What did those words you said in the Great Hall mean? Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak? Those four words?" Kane asked.

Dumbledore spread his hands innocently. "Every year, I casually say a few words, and many young wizards help explain their true meanings. But in truth, even I didn't know people had attached so many meanings to them. I only said them for fun."

Kane smiled at Dumbledore. He was already regretting coming. Wouldn't it have been better to spend this time having a pillow fight with Harry and Ron in the dormitory?

"What a waste of life." Kane slowly backed out.

Dumbledore sat in his chair helplessly. "I only said it casually. Did I have to make up some profound and mysterious explanation on the spot?"

On the way back to the dormitory, a cat suddenly meowed behind Kane. He turned around and saw Filch holding a lantern.

"Hmm..." Filch looked at the young wizard, who obviously had an unusual relationship with the headmaster, and slowly said, "Curfew has already begun, but since this is your first offense, I'll let you off. Don't let it happen again."

"Thank you, sir." Kane quickened his pace and left the corridor, soon returning to his dormitory.

There were not many young wizards in this year's class. For instance, Gryffindor only had six boys. Kane, Harry, and Ron shared one dormitory, while Neville, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas shared the other.

By then, Harry and Ron had nearly finished fighting. Their once fluffy, firm pillows were now limp and powerless.

The two of them were now using a small cauldron to cook spaghetti in the dormitory.

"Wow, that smells amazing. Is there any for me?" Kane hurried over, hoping to get a share.

"Of course, but you two need to get your own forks." Ron stirred the spaghetti and sent Kane and Harry to fetch forks. When they returned with them, they saw Ron holding the cauldron by himself and slurping down noodles.

"???" Kane and Harry stared at the scene in shock. "So?"

"Mm, it's gone." Ron said as he slurped up another mouthful of noodles.

Kane laughed helplessly and pointed at Ron. "You brat!"

The next moment, shadows seized Ron's limbs, forcing him to stop attacking Kane's portion of spaghetti.

After the second farce in the dormitory ended, the three of them finally settled down. Ron and Harry exchanged a look, and Harry eventually cleared his throat. "Ahem, Kane, you said you were going to ask Dumbledore something. What did you ask him?"

"It was about those four words he used in his opening speech. The nitwit and oddment ones," Kane said casually.

"What did that sentence actually mean?" Harry immediately asked with interest.

"Tell us! I bet it's some incredibly advanced spell!" Ron's eyes lit up as well.

"He said he hadn't thought that much about it at all. They were just four useless words, but every year, bored young wizards like us would study the opening line he made up at random."

Harry and Ron both fell silent for a moment. No matter how they looked at it, that reason did not suit a famous great wizard like Dumbledore.

"Hmm... I don't believe it." Harry shook his head.

"Maybe Dumbledore didn't tell you the truth? Maybe it's some strange spell that protects us, and it won't work if he explains it?" Ron continued imagining things.

"Then I don't know. Maybe you two can go ask him tomorrow?" Kane said, sitting up in bed before suddenly thinking of something. Other people besides him seemed to need a password to enter Dumbledore's office.

Forget it. They might not even go.

But contrary to his hopes, Harry and Ron nodded in unison. "We're going!"

"Good luck." Kane scratched his head helplessly. Perhaps Dumbledore would kindly open the door for them. None of that mattered much to him now.

What mattered most now was taking out his campfire again before midnight arrived.

After so much time had passed, his campfire had naturally upgraded. It had shrunk from a fire pit large enough to roast beggar's chicken into a small light source that could sit on a bedside table.

This was the small campfire he and Harry had made by prying up cobblestones from Diagon Alley's streets in Diagon Alley.

Ron glanced at Kane's bedside table, where the fire was burning...

"Uh... Kane, I think your bedside table's getting a little too fired up," Ron said faintly.

Before Kane could explain, Harry immediately answered the strange question for him. "That's his night-light. Our Mr. Kane Hiss is afraid of the dark."

Kane's face reddened. This was clearly a rule of the Eternal Realm. How could it count as being afraid of the dark?

"It's fine, Kane. If you're really scared, we don't have to turn out the lights at night. We can use the bed curtains instead." Ron was quite considerate. In this regard, he was far better than Harry, who was always so blunt.

Thinking back to the first time Harry had stayed under the same roof as him, Kane had set up a campfire as naturally as ever. What had Harry done then?

For some reason, Harry had thought that leaving the Dursley Household meant he had become a little homeless wanderer on the streets. He had no idea that he was living comfortably at Hogwarts.

Speaking of that, Dumbledore would not let anything slip tomorrow, right? Probably not. Dumbledore was such a reliable person.

With that thought, Kane lay in bed and fell deeply asleep with a happy expression.

As for the remaining question in his heart—how to turn the traits of Eternal Realm frogs into a spell...

Tomorrow's first class was Charms. If there was anything he did not understand, he could just ask the teacher. Why would he not ask a teacher and instead blindly figure things out on his own? Wouldn't that make him an idiot?

And so, Hogwarts entered its second day.

Kane felt as though his sanity had dropped a little more. Honestly, he truly did not want to wear that flower wreath. A proper man like him wearing that thing was bound to look bizarre.

But in order to avoid being chased all over Hogwarts by Shadow Monsters...

How miserable!

"So can't you just take that thing off your head? Everyone in the Great Hall is staring at you." Harry said embarrassedly.

"I'll make one for both of you later. Then you can keep me company." Kane said as he drank some oatmeal porridge.

"Uh, I don't think that's necessary."

"Me neither."

"Um... perhaps I can keep you company?" Neville, who was sitting with Harry between himself and Kane, suddenly said faintly.