Christmas Holiday

Everyone said happy times were short. For Kane, studying at Hogwarts had truly been a happy time, because once he got absorbed in learning, he could genuinely forget that Voldemort was still lurking in the shadows, secretly watching Harry and him.

Before he knew it, that time of study had temporarily come to an end, and Christmas break was approaching.

Well, it was not that sad. At least his grave-digging enterprise was about to see daylight again, and the Shadow Manipulator was nearly within reach!

Maybe. In any case, he just hoped the graveyard Dumbledore had mentioned had enough graves.

Harry was packing the clothes he would take home. There were not many, really. If he had not wanted to forcibly drag Kane back to apologize to the Dursleys, he would not have wanted to go back either.

Poor Harry. After hearing from Kane that he did indeed plan to leave school for Christmas, he naturally assumed Kane was going home with him to apologize. Little did he know Kane was going to dig graves.

Kane had even prepared three whole shovels in advance, afraid they would not be enough when the time came.

Once he had dug through every grave in that area, he would quickly use the Portkey he had gotten from Dumbledore to return to Hogwarts. He would most likely bring Harry along then, assuming Harry was not a masochist.

"Man, I never thought I'd be the only one staying at Hogwarts for Christmas." At Hogsmeade Station, Ron gloomily saw Kane, Harry, and Hermione off. Once the three of them left, he would not even have anyone to eat with.

"Oh, please, Ron. You might lack plenty of things, but you'll never lack friends." Kane helplessly curled his lip. He knew Ron well enough. In all of