"Question, you say?"
"Actually, it's more of a request. I want to skip the fourth year in Hogwarts."
"Hm?" Dumbledore for the first time in conversation showed a true surprise.
"I decided to visit my homeland. Thankfully, I have enough knowledge and talent to easily pass the fourth year, so I'd like to skip it and next year start in the fifth year, if that's possible."
"Interesting. However, I am curious if what you said is the true reason, or is it similar to the story you provided to enter the school." He said while smiling slyly.
"Indeed, you are a headmaster. You can't be fooled." I smiled and we laughed.
"You have your own reasons to not tell us your story, Mister Magnus. Moreover, you are a student of Hogwarts, so I believe you had no malicious intentions in hiding your past. However, skipping a whole year is by no means a small matter. I can't decide for everyone. May I know the true reason for such a decision?"
"True reason?"
The true reason is tightly connected with my skill growth.
You see, I wasn't as afraid of Dumbledore for many reasons, now. As I previously said, I started understanding him more. Another reason is that he started trusting me more. Especially, after I brought to justice close servant of the dark lord.
However, the most important reason is the following information:
『 Dumbledore 』
〖Recognizable skills〗
〖Magic Channeling 70+ (high chance of it being less than 80. Maximum 81-82)〗
How did I get this information, you ask? Simple. Skill progress. As the system explained, after reaching level 60 in any skill, special perks appear.
My only skill that reached level 60, was magic channeling. After that, I started seeing progress bar under skill. The system revealed that skill reaching 60 enters a threshold of a pinnacle skill. The second perk was that now I can see the level of this skill in other people. If it's lower than mine, I can see the exact number, and if higher I can see approximate level.
Of course, that came with a huge setback. Skill stopped growing by simply reading like before and just stopped at 60. After I improved my studying and got "Unmatched memory", I was able to increase magic channeling by one level, but after that, it stagnated once more.
In this case, the progress bar is extremely useful, because I can see if anything I do helps with improvement. Therefore, I decided that I need more skills and soon. Most of my skills are reaching dangerous 60. But my studying that helps with the improvement of other skills is only 45. That's not good.
Therefore, traveling around the world and learning skills I never knew, studying more languages, seeing new magical creatures and visiting places I never could in my previous life will help in my overall improvement. Hopefully, in the process, I will increase my studying ability, which will help with the growth of other skills.
In addition to this, the school had no obvious benefits left for me to use. Somebody might say that the biggest library in Britain is a good reason, but more than 30% of these books are pure history and other useless information, while another 30% is worthless to me due to high skill levels. So, you can certainly understand that I've overgrown this library. Only 40% is still somewhat useful, but half of that is books from the restricted section and that leaves me with pitiful 20% of possibly useful books.
I mean with greater success, I can just go and buy books in Diagon Alley. Thanks to the basilisk, money's not a problem.
Also, thanks to the "Control" ability, I don't need to worry about magic I do outside. I can feel the magic inside me and around me, which allows me to find and remove the Trace. After all, the idea behind the Trace is that when a wizard becomes of age, it removes itself, so emulating such a process is as easy as breathing to me now.
Anyway, I digress.
In short, the real reason is that I want to travel the world while getting new skills. Even I, grinding freak, become more and more bored of grinding skills I have now. Time to change the pace and have some fun.
"Yes, what's your true reason? You don't expect me to believe, that visiting homeland is your true reason?"
"Well... I just want to change the pace. Magic is my passion, but it becomes tiring, so I just want to travel the world. Plus, recently I got quite a good horse." I smiled and laughed a little.
Dumbledore, obviously understood what I meant and he was okay with the fact that I saved Bucky. So, he smiled and said:
"Is that so? You really don't want to tell me the true reason, aren't you?"
"Not really. But I said you the thing closest to the truth."
"I still can't just let you start the fifth year, without passing any exams. Especially without a good reason. After all, I am not the one who needs that reason."
'That made sense. Even if he is a director or whatnot, he can't randomly allow people to skip years. Hm...'
"Well then, that's a shame."
"You can still continue from the fourth year, I guess. So are you sure, that you..."
I stopped listening at that point and just returned to my previous auto-save and escaped meeting with Dumbledore altogether. After the second take on the conversation with Snape, I apparated to the clearing where I left Bucky.
If I can't continue with Hogwarts, then I suppose it's no big deal. I was there only to keep close to Harry's plot armor and get stronger. Therefore, I have no good reasons to stay with the trio any longer. Thanks to my intervention, Harry should be safe and Voldy should be dead for another year at the very least. The only thing I needed to change was to steal the ring from Dumbledore during the fifth year, so he won't be cursed. But that's not an option and I don't know where to get the original ring, because I don't remember if that even was in a film.
'...'
I paused in my thoughts for some time.
'Actually, why do I even care about all that?'
*Sigh*
'Should I ditch the Hogwarts entirely and go do my things. Helping Harry was never my intention anyway. Why did I even start changing stuff?'
I am confused. This talk with Dumbledore made me think over my reasoning. Maybe, I got too attached to the trio. I changed the story, even though I didn't need to do that for my personal happiness. The Potterian universe was never my favorite read, so changing it shouldn't be a goal. I got entangled in this mess so deep, that I lost my original cause.
I don't need the trio anymore, so I should just leave I suppose.
I sat close to a sleeping Buckbeak and started caressing his feathers.
Then, I suppose it's decided. No! Not suppose. I decided! I am leaving Hogwarts and going rogue. To hell with sentimentality.
But I am going to start my travel tomorrow. For now, I am too tired. I am going to sleep. I took a light blanket with a pillow from my inventory and lied down.
*Next day*
I wrote letters to the trio in which I asked them to inform Headmaster, not to worry about me and that I am leaving Hogwarts for some time. Then I apparated to Hogwarts tower and left all the letters on Harry's bed. Hopefully, he will make sure to give letters out. Then I returned to the clearing.
I removed the Trace from myself and together with Bucky apparated to London. Honestly, that was a difficult ride. I mean, one thing is to apparate short distances, but this time I apparated to London from somewhere in Ireland or whatnot. I was both mentally fatigued and physically exhausted. Most of that could have been avoided if I remembered the place more clearly and was better prepared, but whatever. It worked and that what matters.
Also, hippogriffs apparently don't like an apparition.
Bucky was a little bit offended by the fact that I didn't inform him how bad it's gonna be and started pouting!
'The heck? Can eagles even pout?'
"Well, get accustomed. Sometimes we will travel like this. Here is an apple pie for you."
I expected that apple pie will help him forget the trauma of the travel. I mean this stuff works even on mighty dragons. Of course, it will work on a measly horse. Unfortunately for me, hippogriffs eat insects, birds, and small mammals.
Bucky was looking at me as if I was a dumb one in our pair.
'The heck? They are not half-eagles! These are freaking half-owls! Thank god, I have some snacks I bought for owls. Why? To give to messenger owls, of course. Duh! Quite handy when owls are the cheapest way to commute. '
Anyway, he was happy with the fat rat I've thrown to him, so I once more tied him to a tree on the outskirts of the city and put some masking spells to hide him. Then I started moving towards the city center, where I can buy provisions, clothes, and other necessities I will need during my travels.
Overall, it took me 5 or 6 hours to get all done. Thanks to inventory, I didn't need to worry about where to keep the stuff. That's especially great because spatial artifacts are quite expensive and I don't have high enough Enhancement to create such a thing.
Thanks to speech and the fact that trading is still possible, I was able to raise my speech by one after all the bargaining about the price. I kinda forgot that speech helps with prices.
'I can sell or buy stuff to raise speech fast. Hm... That can be an interesting type of grind of both skill and money.'
I returned to Bucky, who was calmly lying on the grass as if it was making a favor to grass by lying on it. It's such a proud creature, to the point that it looks cute to me. Especially, with those fluffy feathers on his head.
I threw him another mouse and took out the food I bought at a nearby restaurant and started eating. Buckbeak was tearing apart the mouse, while I was digging into my dish. Strangely, even though I have no roof over my head and no clear goal to follow, I felt free and happy.
"Skipping school is the best!"
'Oops! Okay, maybe that part I will remove from my future biography.'
*Progress in skills*
『 Alchemy 36 | Sneak 27 | Speech 35 ➔ 36 』
『 Studying 45 | Wand Making 32 』
『 Herbology 36 | Magic Channeling 61 』
『 Magic Chanting 40 | Magic Gesturing 40 』
『 Magic Theory 57 | Astronomy 35 』
『 Riding Expertise 15 | Crafting 30 』
『 Playing Games 15 | Enchanting 38 』
『 Cooking 22 | Training 24 | Physical Activities 17 』
『 Programming 25 | Dancing 0 』
『 Legilimency 26 | Occlumency 31 』
*The end of Volume 2 is here! Come to discord if you have ideas about where to send MC to travel and other suggestions. Link to discord in the author's thoughts.*