Silence.
The entire classroom went dead quiet.
Harry and Ron, who'd known from the start what was coming, had already covered their eyes. They couldn't bear to watch.
Hermione felt the same way, though she was also genuinely shocked.
She knew Hogwarts wasn't exactly scientific. This was a school of magic, after all. But still, this was ridiculous.
She looked at Kane's innocent expression and finally understood why Harry and Ron had refused to share a table with him.
The other students in the classroom had similar reactions.
Whether Gryffindor or Slytherin, every young wizard was staring at Kane like he'd just sprouted a second head.
"This..." Snape's lips moved slowly.
He'd been Hogwarts' Potions professor for ten years, and he could say with absolute certainty that he'd seen some bizarre things in his time. But what Kane had just done...
He'd honestly never seen anything like it.
"Professor, maybe you could give me another chance?" Kane turned around with a pitiful look. Big mistake. The moment he did, he saw that Snape's face had gone completely white, his lips trembling.
Snape stared at Kane and the frog leg sandwich sitting in the cauldron. Finally, he had to resort to Occlumency, that technique for forcibly clearing all unwanted thoughts from the mind, just to barely pull himself together.
This scene freaked Kane out pretty badly too. If he somehow managed to give Snape a heart attack in the middle of class, the esteemed Head of Slytherin House, that would probably cause some serious problems.
"Professor, are you alright?" he asked quietly.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, and you... get out." Snape said through clenched teeth, barely holding back his rage.
"Okay!" Kane immediately left his seat and headed for the door.
"Take your sandwich with you!"
Kane doubled back, grabbed the frog leg sandwich, and wolfed it down in a few bites.
Just like that, he walked out of the classroom under everyone's watchful eyes, then spat out two frog bones at the suit of armor standing guard by the door.
"I honestly can't tell if that counts as lucky or unlucky," Harry said, watching the whole thing with a sigh. Though despite the sigh, he felt just a little bit jealous.
"What if we did something too, got Snape to kick us out?" Harry whispered.
"If you're planning that, I certainly won't let you succeed. In fact, perhaps I'll give you both detention instead.
I imagine you'd be thrilled to come to my office and sort leeches, if those walnut-sized brains of yours can manage to handle a knife." Snape appeared behind them like a ghost, materializing without warning.
After Snape took another five points from Gryffindor, Hermione felt completely defeated.
She stared helplessly at the empty cauldron in front of her, cleaner than if someone had licked it out.
Not surprisingly, there wasn't enough time left to brew a new potion.
Sure enough, right before class ended, Hermione experienced the novel feeling of losing points for the first time. It was strange.
After class, Harry and Ron found Kane crouched by the door outside the classroom, looking miserable.
The three of them stared at each other wordlessly for a moment. Finally, Hermione walked over and broke the silence. "So, was that some kind of special magic or bloodline ability?"
"Yep, basic requirement for the head chef of The Constant." Kane replied casually, with the attitude that they wouldn't understand anyway, so he might as well say whatever and let them think he was crazy.
"Alright, I guess you don't want to talk about it... I suppose this class had a pretty memorable and surreal ending for me..." Hermione didn't blame Kane in the end.
After all, she'd brought this on herself.
They say when others are scared, you shouldn't get greedy.
Today she'd failed to recognize that bit of wisdom.
When even Harry and Ron, Kane's closest friends, wouldn't sit with him, she'd gone and gotten involved anyway. That was basically asking for it.
Just as Kane was wallowing in his misery, an obvious laugh came from nearby.
Kane looked over. It was a very familiar-looking Slytherin student, watching him and laughing mockingly, unable to stop himself.
"Hey buddy, I seem to remember two days ago I scared you so bad in the entrance hall you nearly wet yourself. Short memory, huh?"
Pol Anrela stopped laughing and walked over slowly. "That was before, when I hadn't figured things out yet.
But I've done my research now. That shadow of yours is just leftover magical discharge from accidental magic.
Once a young wizard gets proper training with five or more spells, the discharge disappears.
I also had my father look into your background. Without that discharge, you're just a mudblood now. And you're calling me forgetful?
Kane Heath, you can't even remember my name. You're the forgetful one!"
"Actually, I never bothered learning it in the first place."
Kane sighed, pulled out the note Professor Quirrell had given him, muttered a couple lines, then executed a lightning-fast strike, slashing his wand sharply upward. A crystal-blue light shot straight at Pol Anrela.
Everyone in the corridor only caught a glimpse of something flashing past. When they looked again, Pol Anrela had already been slammed against the wall by the Knockback Jinx.
In that instant, Pol Anrela only felt that he'd been careless, that he hadn't dodged in time. He should have learned a few more spells and prepared better before confronting Kane. But at least Kane being stronger than him was still within reasonable limits.
As long as he went back and studied charms seriously, got ready for the right moment...
He was halfway through planning his comeback when he lost his train of thought, because he saw Kane's shadow on the wall had somehow crept menacingly right up to him.
"What was that you just said? Something about leftover magical discharge?" Kane continued his quiet threat, hoping to completely break through the guy's nerve so he wouldn't bother him again.
Hopefully.
The shock Pol Anrela felt at that moment, seeing that Kane could still use that creepy shadow, was beyond words. It was like looking up basic facts and finding out reality itself had been lying to you.
"I remember on the first day this guy already got burned by Kane. Why's he stupidly coming back for more?" Harry asked Ron, frowning in confusion but deeply impressed.
"Pure-blood families, you know. Inbreeding. Keep it up long enough, and they get dumb. Look at those Slytherins over there.
Every one of them looks weird. Which one actually looks normal? Only Malfoy's halfway decent-looking." Ron said without any filter, as if he were roasting the entire pure-blood community.
Malfoy, who'd been both insulted and sort of complimented, had originally just been watching the scene in the corridor. Then he suddenly heard Ron's assessment of him...
Fine, he'd admit it. Today, Weasley must have brushed his teeth this morning. His words were surprisingly nice to hear.
While Harry and Ron were busy dragging down Slytherin's average IQ, Kane was laying groundwork for his future peace and quiet.
Like scaring this guy badly enough that he'd never dare come looking for trouble again.
And Pol Anrela, watching Kane get closer and closer, instinctively called out to the one person in their year's pure-blood circle who could actually handle serious trouble.
"Malfoy, save me!"