Early the next morning, when Hermione, Harry, and Ron entered the Great Hall, they immediately saw Kai Adler sitting in their usual spot, head bowed, stuffing something into his sleeve.
It was clear he was feeding Luna.
Hermione's eyebrows rose, and she rushed over, plopping down beside him.
"Where did you go yesterday? Harry and Ron said you didn't come back to the dorm last night, and it's not the time for your… episodes either…"
The girl, who had been questioning him like a rapid-fire cannon, suddenly swallowed the rest of her words as Kai looked up.
Though he was smiling, the faint blue shadows under his eyes betrayed the truth—he hadn't slept all night.
"What… exactly were you doing?"
Her tone softened with concern, and she reached out to touch beneath his eyes.
Harry and Ron joined them, settling across the table.
"Hermione waited in your dorm until really late last night before finally going to bed," Harry said. "Where were you?"
Kai caught Hermione's hand gently, reassuring her with a small smile.
"It's nothing. I was in the Headmaster's office yesterday, researching something. I forgot to come back and tell you."
Hermione blinked. "Is it that thing from the box you took yesterday?"
Harry and Ron perked up. "What box?"
Kai glanced at them and sighed with amusement. "There aren't any classes for a while, right?"
"Yeah," Ron nodded, "we've only got Potions and Transfiguration this morning, both after ten."
"Let's go to the Chamber of Secrets," Kai said calmly.
Unbeknownst to them, two shadowy figures slipped behind the columns of the Great Hall, quietly trailing them.
In the Chamber of Secrets, the trio watched as Kai opened a wooden box and removed several rectangular pieces of parchment etched with spellwork.
"Kai, don't tell me you were in Dumbledore's office because you were punished with copying lines?" Ron quipped.
Kai shot him a look as if he were hopeless.
"Have you been punished too much?"
Ron picked up a talisman curiously. "Isn't this just detention parchment?"
"Chirp chirp!" Luna, perched on Hermione's shoulder, squeaked in indignation.
You fool! This is Master's work!
But sadly, Ron didn't speak bird. He only flinched at the noise.
"Wait… is this a cheat sheet for exams?" he added hopefully. "Bit big for that though…"
Hermione and Harry gave him a deadpan look. As if Kai would need to cheat.
"So what is it then?"
Kai smiled faintly. He handed each of them a talisman and said, "Step back."
He waved his hand, and a black dummy wielding a wand appeared on the far side of the chamber.
The trio's jaws dropped.
"What spell is that?!"
It was shocking. Everything in magic typically followed rules—something flies, there's a Levitation Charm. Something disappears, there's a Vanishing Spell.
But this? This wasn't any spell they recognized.
Ron eyed the dummy suspiciously.
"You didn't hide a miniature figure here and just enlarge it, did you? Fred and George used to pull that kind of trick…"
Kai merely smiled.
This was his greatest discovery from last night: micro-level Transfiguration, the shift from macroscopic manipulation to the microscopic.
In the Old Man's words, it was the first real step to becoming a great wizard.
But he had been warned not to teach it prematurely, so he let the mystery linger.
"Want to know what this parchment really does?" he asked, lifting a brow.
The others nodded eagerly.
"Then stand back from the dummy—don't blame me if you get hurt."
He turned to Hermione. His voice softened.
"In a moment, imagine this talisman is your wand. Channel your magic into it. Then throw it."
Hermione looked puzzled, staring at the parchment in her hand. The delicate glyphs shimmered faintly.
"You're not saying this thing can cast spells, are you?"
Kai smiled. "Try it."
Hermione's eyes sparkled.
He always had surprises.
She stepped forward, funneled her magic into the talisman, and tossed it toward the dummy.
The talisman hung in the air for a second—
Then a flash of blue light surged forth, striking the dummy's wand and disarming it.
"Wicked!" Harry grinned. "Let me try!"
He tossed his talisman—
A burst of orange flames blasted the dummy, scorching its chest.
"Incedio," Kai noted.
"My turn!" Ron said with an exaggerated air of seriousness and hurled his talisman.
It fluttered to the floor.
Nothing happened.
"Er… is this one broken?" Ron asked.
Kai motioned to the now-inert paper. "Check the spell."
Ron picked it up.
"The ink's all faded…" He read it aloud. "Protego?"
Hermione sighed. "The Shield Charm. Honestly."
"I haven't learned that yet!" Ron protested. "It's a fifth-year spell!"
"Is it my fault your wand's rubbish?" Hermione shot back.
Harry, intervening swiftly before another argument flared, asked the real question:
"Wait… this means the talisman can cast spells we don't even know?"
Kai nodded.
Hermione added, "And silently and without a wand—that's advanced magic. Most adults can't even do it."
Harry and Ron stared in awe at the box.
"Where did you get these?"
Kai just smiled. "The Headmaster gave them to me. This is all there is."
Ron blinked. "No wonder you were there all night. You weren't cleaning his office, were you?"
Kai kept smiling. "Of course, exactly that."
"This is brilliant!" Ron ran over to peer inside the box. "Can we keep these?"
But Hermione suddenly closed the box with a firm clap and handed it back to Kai.
"No."
"Why not?!"
"These are like magical crutches," Hermione said sternly. "You'll get lazy and neglect your studies."
Ron grumbled. "Then why can Kai use them?"
"Because he already knows everything!" Hermione snapped. "You can't even manage a proper Vera Verto yet!"
"That's because my wand's cracked!"
"Is that my fault?"
"Enough!" Harry interrupted. "She's right. If we rely on these, we'll never grow."
Hermione nodded with a satisfied hum and turned to Kai.
He smiled wryly and placed the box gently back in her hands.
"They're not meant to replace your training," he said. "But they might save your lives one day."
He leaned in close to Hermione's ear, voice soft.
"And don't forget, your life is bound to mine. If anything happened to you… I wouldn't survive it either."
Hermione turned red to the ears, eyes unfocused.
"Then… okay…"