I was thinking over my future prospects. First thing I need to do is to find a place to live.
Can I ask to live with family of one of the trio? Potter's place is a "no go". Dursley's will be sincerely against having another "abnormal" living with them. Weasley's are also improbable option, because they already have half a dozen of kids or so.
Granger's maybe? I can try them. At least I can ask to live with them for a couple of weeks, until I find some other place to live. If fortunate, they will take a liking to me and dunno, maybe I can live with them.
'System, can you provide me an ID? Or do I have one already?'
[Do you need one?]
'Yes?'
[Is it a survival necessity, and your lives depends on it?]
'Um… well, no. But…'
[Then the answer is no.]
'… Why are you bullying me?'
System ignored my last sentence, to which I bitterly smiled. However, after some thinking I understood that system already provided everything possible to survive, so having ID is really not that important. Apparently, my mindset from past world where not having a passport or ID can be very dangerous has moved to present one.
Now, not having an ID is actually beneficial to me. There is nothing I need ID for. I can make money and provide for myself even without it. Moreover, tracking me will become significantly harder for both government and the ministry.
Anyway, I will talk with Granger about it on our way out of school, in the train.
My second problem is with how much Ministry of Magic can track spells and magic overall. I have no idea how exactly they track magic and especially young wizards' magic. Thanks to saves I can safely experiment and do some limit testing to see how fast Ministry will found out about it and what actions will they take.
In a film, sometimes Potter casted spell and got scot free with it, but other times he got a court invitation for one spell or am I missing something here? Hm… I really need to research that while on summer. Based on that information I will plan my further moves.
For now, I should craft some more artefacts, while I am still in Hogwarts. It's possible I will have no opportunity to enchant items on Summer vacation.
I was unable to learn too many enchantments so far. One of them was cloaking and I already made artefact from it. Other than hiding enchantments, I also researched protecting enchantments.
Therefore, I decided to make a mask with a hoodie, similar to what dragon priests had and enchant it to protect it against physical harm with some protecting charms.
Because it was a full mask, I could add parts to it with other enchantments later to make it stronger or have new effects. Also, I did not know how to work with clothes and such, so I decided to use one of the mantles given by system.
I cut a big piece of cloth from the mantle and started transfiguring it so that it will cover head, neck and shoulders. In area of head I made holes that will be later hooked later to the mask.
Mask itself was roughly cut from piece of a stone. Cut 2 holes for eyes and one long strip for mouth. Using transfiguration, I smoothed it and then molded inner side to perfectly fit my face. Also, I thinned out mask a little, because otherwise my vision was too obstructed on the sides.
Small circles were made out of wood hollowed from inside. I enchanted them for protection. Then I colored the stone mask and hood into dark grey and enchanted for protection as well. Wooden rings I molded into the stone at the inner parts of mask that did not touch my face.
I put everything on and using some transfiguration I put everything together, so that rings were in holes of the hood. And of course, problem appeared. Problem was that mask was just dropping from the face due to gravity, after all this is not a game where mask will stay on you just because you wish so. I disconnected mask from hood.
After thinking about this issue, I decide to make some new wooden rings and put them on inner sides of the mask. Then cut a thin strip of cloth, made holes in it and put it through those rings again. Before connecting rings and cloth I enchanted cloth and then I put a loose mask with string on top of my face.
Then I tightened the string to the limit so that mask will fit me perfectly without falling. Tried moving a little bit to make sure I can comfortably walk in mask. Then I connected it to hood and done. I unequipped it and equipped it again once more. Works fine.
Decided to test it and thrown some stuff in my face and everything was bounced off. Nice!
Though, I must admit nobody will call it a piece of art, cause mask outer appearance just rough stone. However, that gives to it some primordial feel, so it is all good and dandy.
I spent 3 whole days on this, so only one day left until going back. I went to the last dinner and had a great time.
*Day of going*
After waking up, I was all set but to make a visibility that I had a lot of stuff, I already crafted a bag in addition to school one where I put some of my stuff. I honestly did not need it, but oh well. Don't want any questions asked. Boarded the train and I went to sit together with our heroic trio, or actually now it is heroic four, because I saved school with them.
Time passed quick, while having a good conversation. We even played a chess a little thanks to Harry's set, that he gave to me as a gift after saying that he doesn't like playing it anyway. Thankfully, his set repairs itself after a game, so no need to worry about that at least.
We also promised to exchange letters and here I thought it was a perfect moment to say about my situation.
"Well, I don't have an owl, honestly speaking, so I am not sure if we can exchange any letters. I don't even have a home."
"Wait. What?" "What?" "No way"
Their response was quite violent.
"Well, I am an orphan. Plus, you must have forgotten that I am not from England. Usually I live where I work. However, once I came here with my employer and received a letter about Hogwarts and stuff. I was lucky, because employer stayed here until September. I was also able to find a second job and collect enough money to buy all required items, so all in all I was really lucky."
I heard a sob at some point. It was Hermione. I looked at them all and they were sitting there red-eyed on the verge of crying.
"Where you are going to live now?" Harry asked.
"No idea. I wanted to… " I looked at Hermione "Well, doesn't matter. I will try to find some work and then we will see." I quickly said, looking flustered.
"You wanted what? You said before." Hermione was insistent and that was exactly what I was aiming for.
"Well… I wanted to ask, if I can live with one of you. Then I thought that Harry's family are not the nicest people, and Ron's family already had it hard from financial perspective. I did not want to be a burden to you guys, so I thought to ask you, Hermione, but I… don't know, if it's going to be okay with your family" I smiled bitterly.
"I will definitely ask parents about this, don't worry. We can't allow you to be homeless! They will understand your situation, I am sure!"
"Thank you!"
I was honestly touched. She was so sincere, that it touched my heart and made me feel warm. I expected to succeed, but not that fast.
"I am forever in your debt, Hermione!"
She laughed embarrassingly and said:
"That's what friends for, right?"
"Yes" I smiled.
*On the train station*
Me and Granger explained her parents my situation and they agreed to help me, though it was obvious to me that they were a little troubled. It was understandable. After all, if I had a new kid to worry I would also be troubled, to say the least.
We sit into their car and quickly reached their house. I was given a guest room to live and because I had not much stuff, I didn't take a lot of space.
Granger parents cooked some food already, though they expected 3 people and not 4. However, I calmed them down by saying that I did not expect to get food today in the first place, so I made some for myself. Then we all went to do our stuff. Her parents decided to catch up on what happened in half-a-year she was at school.
I decided to not be a bother and have a walk. I mapped neighborhood to the best of my ability, to not get lost in the future. I memorized location of few shops that I can visit later. I spent around 2 hours walking around and then I returned.
After returning, I went to sleep, without checking anything anymore. Was really tired.
Last thought before falling asleep was about how I need to start training my body, because walk around for 2 hours drained me out of energy.
*Progress since last chapter*
『 Alchemy 27 | Sneak 23 | Speech 23 』
『 Studying 29 | Wand Making 26 | Herbology 24 』
『 Magic Channeling 27 | Magic Chanting 22 』
『 Magic Gesturing 22 | Magic Theory 32 』
『 Astronomy 22 | Riding Expertise 21 』
『 Crafting 21 | Playing Games 17 | Enchanting 16 ➔ 17 』