Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is not meant to infringe upon copyrights.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In that dilapidated sea hut, Harry spent the most wonderful night of his life.
The next morning, he lingered, unwilling to wake, as if it were all just a beautiful, unreal dream.
In this dream, a giant owl delivered his acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, followed by a giant named Hagrid who claimed to be a wizard and used magical magic to punish his cousin Dudley, who had always bullied him.
He was afraid that when he opened his eyes, he would find himself still in that cramped storage room at home.
If he could, he wanted to stay in this dream forever, never to leave.
Until Hagrid woke him up.
"Wake up, Harry, this isn't the time to sleep in."
Hagrid rubbed his sleepy eyes, opened the window, let an owl in, and bought the newspaper it was carrying in its beak for five knuts.
"What's that, Hagrid?" Harry asked curiously.
"The Daily Prophet, the wizarding world's newspaper, all the wizards read it."
Hagrid stretched and said, "We'd better get going, Harry. We have a lot to do today. We need to go to London to buy you everything you need for school, and we also need to buy two birthday presents."
"Birthday presents?"
"For you and for Kyle." Hagrid said, "It's quite a coincidence, his birthday is today too."
He actually got birthday presents?
Harry's heart skipped a beat, and he almost jumped for joy. But he quickly noticed the other name Hagrid mentioned, blinked, and asked, "Who's Kyle?"
"He's also a young wizard at Hogwarts, but a year older than you."
Hagrid had already put on his clothes and boots. "He's a kind-hearted boy, very friendly to his classmates, and the professors and students all like him very much at school."
By the way, his academic performance is also outstanding. He's the only young wizard in Hogwarts' nearly three-hundred-year history to receive a special contribution award in his first year. If all goes well, he might also be the youngest recipient of the Order of Merlin.
If you encounter any trouble at the school, or have any questions, feel free to go to him; he'll definitely help you. "
As they spoke, the two had already reached the rocks outside.
Harry blinked; he could tell that Hagrid really liked the guy named Kyle, and Kyle was indeed very talented.
Although he didn't know any of those titles, it wasn't hard to guess from Hagrid's tone that they must be remarkable achievements.
"Kyle..." Harry murmured to himself, imagining what the guy looked like.
Since he had never seen a wizard before, Harry subconsciously thought of some television programs about wizards, and combined with Hagrid's appearance... an image quickly appeared in his mind.
It was a boy wearing a pointed hat, dressed in a pure black... or perhaps red or blue cloak, holding a thick wooden stick inlaid with jewels, serious and unsmiling, with a ferret wrapped around his waist...
"Achoo..."
Kyle, who was eating breakfast in Ottery St. Catchpole Village, suddenly sneezed.
"Honey, are you sick?" Chris asked with concern.
"No, I just suddenly feel a little itchy." Kyle rubbed his nose, not paying much attention, assuming it was just from being around too many owls.
He wondered who had leaked his birthday, because from dawn onwards, owls carrying beautifully wrapped boxes kept flying into his room, bringing gifts that practically filled half the room.
Just then, another owl flew in through the open window and placed a large box beside him.
"Looks like you're quite popular at school," Diana said with a smile. "You've received so many gifts."
"Mom, have you forgotten which house I'm in?" Kyle picked up a piece of bread and shrugged. "Hufflepuffs are always the most popular, it's normal to have many friends."
Diana just smiled and didn't say anything.
Kyle glanced at the package beside him; it was from Lee Jordan, and judging from its shape, it contained a cake.
This was one of the things he received the most of; there were more than a dozen more in the upstairs room.
If nothing unexpected happened, these cakes would be his daily food for the next few days, and the Weasley children too.
Ginny would be very happy.
Kyle shook his head with a wry smile and picked up another sausage.
After breakfast, Chris called Kyle aside and said, "We've considered what you mentioned yesterday."
Kyle was taken aback at first, then looked at Chris expectantly: "You've agreed to teach me?"
"Of course, we have no reason to object," Chris said. "But... can you tell us why you want to learn Occlumency?
You know, this special magic is extremely difficult to learn. Even many adult wizards struggle to learn it, let alone a first or second-year wizard like you."
"Because of Oren," Kyle thought for a moment and said, "Back in the Forbidden Forest, I found that he seemed to be able to guess what I was thinking, and that feeling was awful."
Oren was just an excuse.
Occlumency is currently the only known magic that can resist external mental infiltration, and Kyle definitely needs to learn it.
Furthermore, if he wants to understand Horcruxes, he'll inevitably have to come into contact with the Notebook and the Tiara, which also requires learning Occlumency.
Given Voldemort's mastery of soul magic, if he touches those Horcruxes before learning Occlumency, he'll probably be seen through in no time.
In fact, Kyle had started trying to learn this magic last year, but progress was incredibly slow.
Just as Chris said, Occlumency wasn't easy to learn; without a teacher, self-study was extremely difficult. It took Kyle half a semester to barely reach the beginner level.
And this level of Occlumency was clearly no match for Voldemort's Horcruxes.
"Oren?"
Hearing that name, Chris felt a headache coming on.
For over a month, he'd been thinking about this, but aside from the rescue operation ten years ago, he couldn't recall any other connection between them.
Chris sighed, "If you're sure you want to learn, we can teach you."
"I'm sure," Kyle nodded. "When will it start, after you get off work?"
"No, you're not learning from us," Chris said mysteriously. "If it's Occlumency, we've found you the most suitable teacher, and it will definitely agree to teach you."
"A teacher?"
[End of the chapter]