In the end, under Professor Kasenhis's firm and "logical" persuasion, Lupin reluctantly accepted this difficult yet "glorious" mission.
Meanwhile, Kasenhis—finally free again—welcomed the third visitor to his office that day.
"Professor, you wanted to see me?" Harry appeared before him.
"Yes," Kasenhis said. "That scar of yours—since it hurts and tends to trigger strange emotional reactions—you'll need an amulet."
As he spoke, he casually conjured an enchanting table with his hands and placed two Cursed Binding enchanted books on it.
"Professor, what are you doing?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"Don't worry about it." Kasenhis summoned another enchanting table, then quite literally tossed Harry onto it.
Using the table's built-in enchantment interface, he located Harry's attribute data—and sure enough, there were two soul entries.
After identifying the one belonging to Voldemort, Kasenhis immediately attempted to delete it. But almost instantly, the deleted fragment reattached itself, clinging to Harry's data like stubborn glue.
"What's going on…? Is this some kind of Horcrux-specific mechanism?" Kasenhis muttered, frowning.
"Professor? What's a Horcrux?" Harry turned around and asked.
"Oh, nothing." Kasenhis quickly shut his mouth and gave up—for now—on trying to remove Voldemort's soul fragment. Horcruxes were a complete blank spot in his knowledge. He knew nothing about them, nor about the strange self-protective nature that bound them.
In fact, most people in the world today knew very little about this kind of magic—even Dumbledore wasn't an exception. After all, there weren't many idiots who went around splitting their own souls.
The sample size was… painfully small.
"Professor?" Harry asked, watching Kasenhis, who was staring blankly while flipping through an enchantment book.
"I'm fine," Kasenhis said. He pulled out the amulet he'd crafted from a beacon and a Totem of Undying. One Binding Curse linked to the beacon, another linked to the totem, and both were then bound to Harry Potter's original soul.
"There. Done." He casually took out a thin iron chain and made an oval mount to hold the beacon cube in place. After all, Harry was still a Quidditch player—if the cube stayed sharp-edged like that, there was a very real chance that one day he'd go sliding across the pitch and stab himself in the chest with it.
"So… I can go now?" Harry tilted his head, about to turn to leave—then suddenly paused. "Wait—I feel fast!"
"Mm-hm. That's a minor side effect of your amulet," Kasenhis explained. "I actually talked about beacons back in the third-year class, but later realized it was a bit too advanced, so I moved that lesson to the advanced course."
"Wow! I love you, Professor!" Harry said excitedly.
"Ug.. And I hope you love yourself too. Be careful."
After sending Harry off, Kasenhis barely had time to relax before yet another visitor arrived at his office.
An old acquaintance—Cedric.
"So you're saying you managed to grow your entire future height in just two hours? …Doesn't look like much changed. How much taller are you now?" Kasenhis asked.
"Uh… three centimeters."
"…That's fine. If you're unhappy about it, I can break your legs and give you some Bone-Growing Elixir. Getting taller is easy," Kasenhis said, offering rare words of "comfort."
"It's alright, Professor. I'm satisfied. I'm taller than my dad now anyway," Cedric replied.
"Good attitude. Let's begin. This notebook's yours—use it to design your own unique upgraded skeletal structure. Make sure it has your own touch. I want you to be an excellent student, not just a copy of me," Kasenhis said, patting Cedric on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, Professor… How long did it take you to build your skeleton back then?" Cedric suddenly asked.
"About… six hours?"
Cedric was instantly struck by a crushing sense of defeat.
"Professor, can you help me get a leave of absence? My next class is Potions, and after that it's all easy subjects—Astronomy, History of Magic, Divination, that sort of thing."
"Handle your own affairs."
"Then… can I at least move my sleeping bag in here?" Cedric asked again.
"There's a guest room upstairs," Kasenhis said while flipping through a book and pouring himself a drink.
"Thank you, Professor!"
Unlike Cedric, who was fully immersed in his work, Kasenhis casually picked up a quill and began scribbling notes in his book. His office that day had been a revolving door—first Cedric, then Lupin after Cedric left, then Harry after Lupin, and finally Cedric again once he was done enchanting Harry's amulet.
All in all, it had been one hellishly productive afternoon—he could officially call it "a full day in hell."
The next morning…
Kasenhis came downstairs brushing his teeth, only to see Cedric—who had slept barely four hours on the sofa—already back at it, working on his upgraded skeleton. By now, he'd completed a full set of ribs and six vertebrae.
"Cedric, take a break," Kasenhis sighed.
"I'm not tired, Professor," Cedric replied.
"As your professor, I'm invoking my right to order you to bed. Go upstairs, find a bed, and pass out now," Kasenhis said, pulling out an iron anvil. "Otherwise, I'll help you pass out—physically."
"…Alright," Cedric mumbled, staggering to his feet. His legs felt like lead as he trudged toward the stairs—then thud!—he collapsed flat on the floor… perfectly level.
"Eh…" Kasenhis sighed, wrapping Cedric in a field of force and levitating him up to the fourth-floor bedroom. Then he sat cross-legged on the carpet, studying Cedric's handiwork.
Strictly speaking, the skeleton was impressively well-made—though, unfortunately, there were still a few minor flaws in the details.
Kasenhis studied the framework for a long while, then took out a notebook and pen from his pocket, carefully writing down each of the small flaws he'd noticed, one by one, for Cedric to go over when he woke up.
While Kasenhis was diligently mentoring his student, over in the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore was diligently demolishing an alarming amount of sweets—and at the same time, he pulled out a so-called professor's penalty notice.
This document had originally been invented by the Hogwarts Board of Governors as a "motivational measure" to make the professors work harder. In name, it was a penalty notice. In reality, it was nothing more than a joint "reminder" from Dumbledore and the Board. It carried absolutely zero actual punishment.
However, it did come with quotas.
For example, every semester, at least two professors had to receive one of these notices. In the past, they had always gone to the Defense Against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures professors. But this year was different.
Hagrid was behaving unusually well in front of the visiting schools, and Defense Against the Dark Arts had Grindelwald—a heavyweight who wasn't about to get reprimanded.
All the other professors were performing admirably. In truth, Kasenhis's teaching standard was excellent too—but Dumbledore, this shameless old fox, finally seized on the perfect excuse: his four years' worth of missing lesson plans.
And so, this completely "negotiated" and utterly meaningless "penalty" found its way into Kasenhis's hands. The other copy went to Professor Trelawney.
Kasenhis stared at the paper in his hand, feeling like his entire Hogwarts life had suddenly turned bleak.
Here he was, devoting his time to tutoring Cedric—and behind his back, Dumbledore had stabbed him in the spine.
Fine then!
He'd made up his mind!
He was going to come down with a totally non-lethal—but absolutely terrifying—illness!
He swore it!
_________
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