Hagrid babbled on, talking to Harry.
A massive black boarhound rested its head on his lap, getting drool all over his robes.
Just a moment ago, Harry and Ron had taken bites of the rock cakes completely unprepared, nearly chipping their teeth.
Now, to avoid eating any more, they vied to tell Hagrid all about their experiences over the past few days.
Peeves and his pranks, the awful Filch, Malfoy, and Snape.
Ethan wasn’t paying much attention to their conversation; he was staring blankly around the cabin.
Weren’t those unicorn hairs hanging on the wall?
And some long, thin spider legs?
As well as what looked like the horns of some kind of animal?
He swallowed his spit and asked tentatively, “Mr.
Hagrid, do you mind if I look around?” “Of course not, kid,” Hagrid said with a chuckle.
“But don’t go near that corner.
Those are unicorn tail hairs the school is planning to sell to Ollivander.
And those jars over there are full of Acromantula venom.
Very dangerous.” Ethan immediately abandoned that direction.
Pointing at the woven cushions, he asked expectantly, “Mr.
Hagrid, these cushions look very special.
How many of them do you have?” “Those?
I wove them out of the unicorn hair Ollivander rejected.
They weren’t up to wand-grade quality.” As Hagrid spoke, he stood up and hauled three more out of a corner.
He asked warmly, “Do you need a few more to stack up?” Ethan’s face flushed with excitement as he stammered, “Thank you, I’d love to look at them all.” “Feel free to look all you want,” Hagrid said, happily handing them to Ethan.
He had just heard quite a bit about Ethan from the boys and had a very good impression of the young fellow.
Ethan stared intently at the cushions, a faint light swirling in his pupils.
[Stamina +2, Magic Affinity +1, Spell Resistance +1, Magic +1] A flush of sheer intoxication rose to Ethan’s cheeks.
He was so thrilled he nearly cheered aloud.
Just four cushions had brought him two points of Magic!
Harry and Ron also walked over curiously.
However, looking at the dirty, greasy cushions, they instinctively didn’t want to touch them, yet Ethan looked completely mesmerized.
“Ethan, is there something special about these cushions?” Ethan nodded repeatedly, giving a goofy smile.
“These are made of unicorn tail hair—an incredibly rare magical material!
Unicorns generally don’t like to associate with humans, and they run extremely fast, so obtaining their tail hair is immensely difficult.” Ron stared blankly at the dirty cushions, then pulled out his own wand to look at it, a strange expression on his face.
The core of his wand was a unicorn tail hair.
Hagrid roared with laughter.
“I’m friends with the unicorns in the Forbidden Forest.
I often bring them treats and groom their coats, so they gave these to me.” Both Ron and Harry were deeply impressed.
Ethan didn’t want to peer around rudely, but his harvest was already massive.
He sat back obediently and acted as an excellent listener.
An hour later, the three of them bade Hagrid goodbye.
Hagrid packed a good amount of rock cakes for them; the cakes were so heavy they could easily double as throwing stones.
Back at the castle, Ethan carried his books to the library, deep in thought.
So far, the admission letter, the ghosts, and the unicorn tail hair all possessed “value.” What exactly was this “value”?
Was it magic?
But before coming to this school, he had also touched things with “value,” though he hadn’t unlocked magic back then.
Most of those had given him physical attributes like stamina and strength, though in very small amounts.
Therefore, this “value” should not be limited to magic alone.
Otherwise, wouldn’t every young wizard and professor possess value?
Ethan couldn’t figure it out yet, so he could only bury the question deep in his heart for now.
He borrowed several Potions-related books from Madam Pince and focused on completing the homework Snape had set.
As soon as six o’clock arrived, Ethan checked out a stack of books, dropped them off in the study room, and then hurried to the Great Hall for dinner.
He hadn’t had time to eat lunch, and now he was so hungry he could barely stand it.
“A portion of roast beef, one of fried fish, three large chicken legs, a plate of sliced ham and vegetables, some rice, clean water, an apple, and two strawberry puddings.” Since it was still early, there weren’t many people in the Great Hall for dinner.
When the house-elves delivered his meal, it drew quite a few surprised looks.
It was practically enough food for three people.
Ethan fell to eating busily.
He wasn’t particularly picky about the taste of food, as long as it didn’t taste weird or outright bad.
His most hated snack was Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans—he had heard there were booger and vomit flavors.
It was the classic dilemma of eating feces-flavored chocolate or chocolate-flavored feces.
Which would you choose?
“Hi, Ethan.
You look absolutely starved.” A light, musical voice drifted gently into his ears.
Ethan swallowed his food and muttered, “I missed lunch.” “You only need to go to the kitchens and ask the house-elves; they’ll cook a meal just for you!
Frankly, I still don’t understand how you managed to forget your own lunch just to help others with their schoolwork.
It’s truly mind-boggling!” Another crisp voice rattled off a long string of words, fast and sharp.
Ethan looked up in surprise and realized that Hermione and Luna had arrived together.
Hermione seemed to read his confusion.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she said quickly, “We ran into each other in the library.
We had a long chat about recent events.” Luna tilted her head slightly.
Her dinner hadn’t arrived yet.
She looked at Ethan and asked, “May I have a pudding?” “Go ahead.” Ethan slid the plate containing the pudding to her.
Hermione couldn’t help but ask, “Did you two know each other before?” Luna blinked, immediately falling into deep thought, actually trying to recall if she had met Ethan in the past.
Ethan said, “How could we?
Luna comes from a wizarding family, while my family just runs an ordinary bakery.
Before the Hogwarts acceptance letter arrived, I didn’t even know the wizarding world existed.” The two girls suddenly realized he was right.
They had almost forgotten that detail.
But Hermione was even more perplexed.
She asked, “But you call each other by your first names, and you’re sharing food…
This kind of dynamic makes it look like you’ve been close friends for years.” “You’re overcomplicating things, Granger.
She was hungry, and I happened to have a pudding.” As Ethan spoke, he pushed the other strawberry pudding toward her.
Hermione looked down at it, hesitated for a long moment, but eventually dipped her spoon into it.
“My home is in the hills of Wiltshire, near the village of Ottery St Catchpole,” Luna said, looking at Ethan.
Ethan thought about it and said, “That’s quite far.
My home is on Willow Street in Lancashire.
Although we’re both in the west, it’s a straight north-to-south split.” Hermione looked at Luna in surprise and couldn’t help but say, “I heard Ron mention that the Weasleys also live in Wiltshire.” “Yes,” Luna nodded lightly.
“The Lovegoods and the Weasleys are neighbors.” Hermione was dumbfounded once again.
Ethan, starving as he was, ate and mumbled, “How nice.” After dinner, Luna was the first to leave, and Hermione headed back to the library.
Ethan, now stuffed, decided to take a stroll outside the castle.
It was an early autumn evening, and the weather was delightfully cool.
Ethan looked up at the night sky.
Suddenly, he spotted a broomstick flying silently into the distance, carrying a heavily cloaked figure.
Ethan froze, watching the direction the broomstick was heading for a short while, his eyes narrowing slightly.
The Forbidden Forest?