The next day, Kane slept until well past noon. As for Harry and Ron, the two of them were still sleeping soundly in their beds.
After sitting up, Kane first tried to piece together everything that had happened yesterday... Hmm.
During the day, he'd eaten a Mandrake, slept straight through until evening, gone into the Forbidden Forest and gotten right up in a Dark wizard's face, fled for his life, gotten played by Malfoy and his friends, and then had Professor McGonagall deduct another ten points.
Kane shuffled over to the little sofa in the dormitory. Everything that had happened yesterday still felt far too surreal.
After thinking it over for a while, he finally decided not to think about it at all.
He'd go see Dumbledore first and find out whether the Dark wizard lurking in the Forbidden Forest had been caught.
The moment he left the dormitory and entered the common room, he sensed something strange in the atmosphere.
Almost every Gryffindor in the room, young and old alike, seemed vaguely uncomfortable. The usual laughter and chatter were completely gone.
When the other students saw Kane, one of the people directly involved, appear, they all wanted to strike up a conversation.
More than anything, they wanted to see what kind of expression he'd make when he found out Hermione was supposedly the one who'd sold them out.
Before any of them could say anything, however, Kane made the first move.
He spotted Neville playing wizard chess in the corner, hurried over, and patted him on the shoulder.
"What's going on? I remember we only lost thirty points yesterday. Gryffindor shouldn't be falling apart over that, right?"
"It's not about you losing points. It's about there being a traitor." Neville moved one of his pieces before continuing.
"You guys lost points yesterday, and Hermione got back to the tower around the same time you did, so everyone thinks she was the one who gave you away. But that's impossible. I believe Hermione, anyway."
"That's it?"
Kane rolled his eyes.
His first instinct was to climb onto the coffee table and shout, Attention, everyone, I have an announcement!
Then he realized that would make him look like an obnoxious attention seeker, so he decided on something a little more dignified.
"Yesterday, Harry, Ron, and I went to the trophy room, right?"
That opening was enough to draw the attention of most of the students nearby.
"When we got there, Malfoy and the others weren't there at all. Filch was waiting for us instead."
"So Malfoy and his lot got caught before we did?" Seamus Finnigan raised an eyebrow from across the chessboard. "Then we didn't come out too badly."
"No. Malfoy played us. Then he gave our location to Filch. And judging by what happened afterward, he sold us out to Professor McGonagall too. So none of this had anything to do with Hermione."
"Uh... the Malfoys are an old wizarding family, aren't they? I didn't expect Draco Malfoy to have absolutely no sense of honor." Two older girls sitting nearby listening to the gossip frowned. "A wizard's duel is practically governed by an unwritten code, and he went straight for the foundation of it."
The Malfoy family might not always conduct themselves honorably, but this was on another level entirely.
It was the sort of behavior that could make Draco's father take off his belt and give him a proper thrashing.
"By the way, where's Hermione?" Kane asked. "You guys accused her of something she didn't do. Don't tell me she's hiding somewhere crying."
After all, the whole reason he'd gone through the trouble of explaining everything was because he didn't want an innocent Hermione taking the blame. Now that he'd cleared things up, naturally he wanted to know how she was doing.
"I really don't think crying is something you need to worry about."
Seamus shuddered.
"When we accused Hermione, she knocked out one of Dean Thomas's front teeth with a book, then used magic to send Sophie Roper to the hospital wing. And now you're asking me if Hermione went off somewhere to cry?"
Please. Don't make Hermione laugh.
"So? Where is she now?" Kane asked.
"No idea." Neville shook his head. "I checked the Great Hall, the study room, and the library. Couldn't find so much as her shadow."
"You falsely accused her. Of course she doesn't want to see any of you. Just apologize to her at dinner." Kane stood up. "Anyway, I'm heading out. I've got something to do."
Now that he understood what was going on, he left the common room and headed toward Dumbledore's office to see how things had turned out.
When Kane thought about it, the whole situation seemed ridiculous.
He'd stolen a Mandrake and the culprit had been found in less than half an hour. If he used shadows to perform magic tricks in the Muggle world, the Ministry of Magic could apparently monitor him practically by the minute.
So if Dumbledore couldn't catch one little Dark wizard wandering around the Forbidden Forest, that would be beyond absurd.
"Hmmmm."
"So you're telling me you didn't set up any precautions in the Forbidden Forest at all, and now who knows how many Dark creatures and Dark wizards are using it as their personal hideout?"
Kane sat on the sofa in Dumbledore's office, staring at him through half-lidded eyes.
"If you're going to scare people, couldn't you at least... put some effort into making the story convincing?"
"Any sensible headmaster who discovered that a young wizard intended to drag two classmates into the Forbidden Forest in the middle of the night would naturally emphasize how dangerous the forest is," Dumbledore explained. "Ideally, the young wizard would abandon the idea of exploring it altogether."
He paused.
"Alternatively, you could ask Hagrid for help. With him accompanying you, your trips into the Forbidden Forest would be considerably safer."
"I was asking about the Dark wizard, not whether it's dangerous for a first-year to wander into the Forbidden Forest."
Kane scratched his head.
He had the distinct feeling Dumbledore was changing the subject, but he had no proof.
"Hmm."
Dumbledore looked at Kane and ultimately decided to tell him the truth.
Normally, telling a young wizard something like this wasn't a good idea. But if he refused to be honest, Kane really might keep venturing deeper into the Forbidden Forest until, sooner or later, he got himself killed doing something stupid.
"No. The Dark wizard hasn't been caught. He's still active, and he'll likely remain so for quite some time."
"Ah. All right."
Kane picked up a piece of chocolate and tossed it into his mouth.
"Let me guess. You're watching the show?"
"Much as I would like to object to that characterization, if one ignores my original intentions and judges me solely by my actions, then yes. I suppose you could say I'm currently arranging a rather elaborate stage play."
Kane leaned back against the sofa, snorted twice, and summoned Maxwell.
"Take a look, Maxwell. There's a headmaster here who deliberately let a dangerous person into his school just so he could put on a stage play. Pretty tasteless, don't you think?"
Maxwell gave him an awkward smile and couldn't help nodding.
"Indeed."
Dumbledore, of course, had no idea Kane was secretly trash-talking him with Maxwell. He was still trying to convince Kane, from the bottom of his heart, to give up on visiting the Forbidden Forest.
As for outright forbidding Kane from going?
The thought had never even crossed his mind.
Young wizards these days were more stubborn than the last, especially the talented ones. Given half a chance, some of them would probably try to solo Voldemort in their first year and call it their Christmas homework.
Students like that could only be coaxed.
The two of them went back and forth for another few rounds, until Dumbledore finally admitted defeat. He simply couldn't out-stubborn Kane.
Dumbledore pinched the bridge of his nose helplessly.
"If you insist on going, then you may ask Hagrid to take you into the Forbidden Forest. If he's with you, I'll feel much more at ease."
Kane nodded.
Hagrid knew the Forbidden Forest better than almost anyone, so there was no one better to guide him to the giant spiders.
With that settled, Kane hummed to himself, casually swiped another two handfuls of chocolate from Dumbledore's desk, and walked out of the office.
Only then did Dumbledore remember that he'd forgotten something.
He'd forgotten to ask what Kane wanted from the Forbidden Forest in the first place...
Still, that probably wasn't important.
Whatever problem Kane ran into inside the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid should be able to handle it just fine.
As long as Kane wasn't planning to attack any of Hagrid's precious giant creatures living out there, nothing should go wrong...
Probably.