Having escaped famine, I was accepted into Hogwarts

Harry lowered his head even further, his nose almost touching the plate: "I don't know."

Vernon frowned, then quickly snorted, "Let him freeze all night, and he'll be back with his tail between his legs tomorrow. His share will be in the trash!"

After saying that, he went upstairs without looking back.

Harry looked at the plate that should have belonged to Kane, and angrily pulled it away roughly. He then forcefully shoved the food into his mouth, as if the sausage in his mouth were Kane's flesh. His chewing motion was also indescribably violent.

Finally, with a snap, he bit his tongue, and tears and blood flowed out at the same time, whether from the pain or something else, he didn't know.

After finishing his meal, Harry lay sobbing in the small stairwell, his breath trembling as he looked up at the low "ceiling" above him. Listening to the cheerful laughter upstairs, which was devoid of any sadness, he seemed to understand why Kane would rather suffer outside than come back.

Meanwhile, in the motel, Kane, who had been sleeping soundly, was suddenly stung by something strange and jolted awake.

“It’s Charlie!” he murmured.

Chapter Three: You mean this woman's treasure is a master of black magic?

The moment Kane realized what was attacking him, he immediately turned on the switch on the bedside table, and the entire room instantly lit up.

He originally thought the light would dispel the shadows, but to his surprise, it had no effect at all. On the contrary, it allowed him to clearly see the shadows that were attacking him, with twisted and deformed black tentacles extending from all sorts of places where the source was unclear.

"What's going on?" Kane asked, forcing himself to stay calm. He knew Maxwell could hear him.

With a thud, Maxwell suddenly appeared and plopped down on the windowsill: "When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. You can use shadows in the real world, so naturally... umm."

"I know all that. Please get straight to the point. Why isn't the light working anymore?" Kane carefully maneuvered his shadow around the other shadows, but as his shadow tentacles were broken and taken away one by one, he felt himself growing weaker and weaker.

“You used the light of the real world to drive away the shadows of the eternal realm, a great and terrifying authority. You need light that shares the same origin as the shadows,” Maxwell said succinctly.

“Shadow and Shadow share the same origin…” Kane frowned as he suddenly realized something. A ball of shadow solidified in his hand, and then a dark blue flame suddenly burst forth from it.

As this subtle light source appeared in his hand, the tentacles in the shadows instantly retreated.

“Thank me, I made sure you got through your first day out of the nest,” Maxwell said, and then disappeared again.

"Okay, thank you." Kane leaned against the headboard, cradling the Shadowflame in his arms, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next day, Kane stood up, his whole body aching, and extinguished the shadow flames that had burned all night. It was as if the flames were not shadows, but Kane's lifeblood.

The price of burning the midnight oil was that his skin was pale, his eyes were dark, and he had absolutely no energy left.

Maxwell, are you still there?

"I'm here," Maxwell said leisurely, already lying on the bed with his hands behind his head.

"How do I recover?" Kane asked directly.

“Eat something, or wait until tonight. Try your best to tear off the shadows that are chasing you from the Eternal Realm. Whatever you tear off is yours. How much you can tear off depends on your ability,” Maxwell replied.

"Thanks, though it feels like I didn't even ask." Kane walked wearily out of the room, locked the door, took the key, and left the motel.

He found a small stall, spent a few coins to buy two hot dogs, and asked the owner to slather sauce on them. Although corn syrup is an absolute calorie bomb, that's exactly what Kane wanted right now.

After eating two hot dogs, Kane felt a little better, and the shadows on the ground became darker again, albeit only slightly, but enough.

With a casual wave of his hand, the shadow coalesced into a black top hat; it was time for today's magic show.

Meanwhile, in a huge conference room at the Ministry of Magic, two groups of people, from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Department of Magical Accidents and Disasters, were forcibly dragged there early in the morning because of Kane.

Auror Kingsley strode in. He had already gone to the Magic Monitoring Office to get the data on several high-energy magical reactions in London yesterday. Then he waved his wand, and the tip of the wand emitted light, projecting a 3D map of London in mid-air like a projector.

Kingsley pointed to the Plum Blossom Cross Street in Little Huijin District: "Yesterday afternoon at six o'clock, there was a low-intensity black magic fluctuation in the Plum Blossom Cross Street in Little Huijin District for an hour."

Then he moved his finger to a small alley near the Plum Blossom Cross Street: "At 7:12, a brief, medium-to-high intensity black magic fluctuation appeared in this alley."

Finally, there's the poor motel where Kane stayed.

“Starting at midnight, this motel experienced a burst of high-intensity black magic fluctuations that lasted for twelve seconds, followed by low-intensity black magic fluctuations that did not disappear until sunrise.”

“Oh, it seems to be a very strange black magic experiment,” Delilah said, arms crossed.

"That's why we didn't send out all our forces yesterday, but instead held a meeting here early this morning. Although the three dark magic fluctuations yesterday varied in intensity, they were all incredibly pure and determined to be the magic of a single person. In addition, they've been conducting dark magic experiments since dawn. If we had gone there rashly, there's a chance we would have been wiped out," Kingsley said with some helplessness.

"So what's the point of holding a meeting like this besides telling us how powerful this dark wizard is?" a witch whose hair was constantly changing color asked slowly.

"Of course it's useful. You don't think I'm holding this meeting mainly for you, do you? I'm here to call for reinforcements, and mainly to hold this meeting for this reinforcement." Kingsley shrugged casually and looked into the depths of the conference room, where a white-haired figure had appeared out of nowhere—Dumbledore was smiling at everyone in the office, after all, everyone here had once been his student.

The moment Dumbledore appeared, the previously quiet conference room suddenly became noisy, demonstrating Dumbledore's prestige. At that moment, a junior staff member from the Magic Monitoring Office carelessly barged in.

"That dark magic fluctuation, he's started again! On Swan Cross Street!" the clerk said in a panic.

Kingsley's expression was somewhat grim. Swan Cross Street was the busiest cross street in the entire Little Huijin District. If that mysterious dark wizard appeared there and caused some trouble, casualties aside, the memory erasure after the crowd dispersed would be a real problem.

Kingsley looked at Dumbledore: "Albus, we need to pick up the pace."

“Yes, of course. Please come here. I’ll have Phoenix take us… or perhaps Apparition would be better.” Dumbledore said, walking over to Kingsley and placing his hand on Kingsley’s shoulder.

Meanwhile, at Swan Cross Street.

Kane was using the trick of tying a hat with a hairpin to amuse the two ladies. If the script was correct, these two ladies, who had just stepped out of the stretched Cadillac, would easily tip him half a month's accommodation fee.

However, as we all know, scripts are most likely to be incorrect.

For example, in a nearby alley, Dumbledore and Kingsley suddenly appeared, and the moment they appeared, they sensed the heavy aura of dark magic.

"This is going to be a tough battle," Kingsley said, rubbing his wand as if to encourage himself.

Dumbledore, too, calmly drew his Elder Wand. When the two emerged from the alley, they saw the source of the dark magic...

It was a time when a child was trying his best to please two noble ladies.

???

Chapter Four: Brothers, we were cornered at our door and forced to perform magic tricks!

Dumbledore remarked, "You can't judge a book by its cover."

Kingsley nodded in agreement: "Albus, could that black magic fluctuation really have been caused by some kid?"

Dumbledore glanced at Kingsley: "Unsurprisingly, yes. Is there a problem?"

Kingsley suddenly became serious: "This is a big problem. If he were an adult wizard, he would be imprisoned in Azkaban. If he were enrolled in Hogwarts, his wand would be broken. But even you don't know that child, which means he wasn't enrolled in Hogwarts. The Ministry of Magic simply doesn't have any appropriate measures to punish or control him."

“You’ve forgotten one place, Kingsley. That’s what Hogwarts does. I reckon this kid’s acceptance letter is already on Minerva’s desk, waiting for her signature,” Dumbledore said. “And now our task is simply to investigate this young man’s astonishing dark magic.”

As Dumbledore spoke, he led Kingsley slowly toward Kane.

“I don’t think such a good boy, who earns pounds by performing magic tricks for noble ladies using dark magic, would refuse to perform magic tricks for an old man, would he?” Dumbledore said with a smile.

If Kane could hear Dumbledore speaking, he might have changed him, but he didn't hear Dumbledore's words; instead, he heard Maxwell's.

"Two wizards have their eyes on you."

Kane jolted awake and looked up, just in time to see Dumbledore and Kingsley, dressed in strange clothes, holding small wooden sticks, and covered in the words "I am a wizard."

Fortunately, he was much more efficient today than yesterday, and the two ladies generously tipped him a full 100 pounds. With the 100 pounds in hand, he naturally had to pack up and go home!

Kane's quick departure surprised the two noblewomen, but they soon saw a strange, imposing figure in odd clothes chasing after him.

The two noble ladies, who had just been coaxed into a great mood by Kane, were bursting with a sense of justice and tried to stop Dumbledore and his companion.

However, Kingsley simply shook his wand subtly, and the two poor ladies returned to their carriage in a daze.

"Maxwell? See if they're still there?" Kane had hidden in a lively alley this time. Yesterday, Harry was just a novice wizard, and Kane could have easily dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

Today, these two wizards, one middle-aged and the other with white hair, look terrifyingly powerful. We must avoid their sharp edge.

However, he quickly realized that Maxwell's attempts to look behind him were futile, as Dumbledore and Kingsley were right in front of him at that moment.

“Young sir, would you be interested in performing a magic trick for us? I saw you at the Crossroads just now,” Dumbledore asked gently.

Kane sighed inwardly and took the hat off his head: "Of course, please hold this hat with both hands."

Dumbledore readily accepted the hat, but in an instant he sensed its true nature: icy cold and incredibly eerie dark magic.

Even a great wizard in his seventies or eighties might not have as pure dark magic energy as this one. This little wizard, who is only eleven years old... could he be a born dark magic manipulator?

Unlike Dumbledore's contemplation, Kane was diligently working on his escape plan.

Seeing that the two people in front of him had already openly revealed their wizard identities, he naturally no longer needed to hide them.

He simply made his shadow at his feet generate a second black top hat, which slowly climbed into his hand, and handed the second hat to Kingsley.

“Sir, please do as well.” Kingsley glanced at Dumbledore, and after receiving an affirmative look, accepted the hat with both hands.

"Next, please fasten your hats together, and then the moment of miracle will arrive," Kane said mysteriously.

Dumbledore and Kingsley very cooperatively put their hats together, and when they looked at Kane again, they only saw a figure running away at high speed.

The hats in their hands had transformed into a tangled mess of shadowy chains, binding their hands together. One of the chains lay on the ground, preventing them from moving freely.

"Yes, it's an unconscious application, you could say it's ingrained in your bones," Dumbledore commented.

“So it was some unknown dark wizard who disguised himself as this child…” Kingsley murmured.

“What I mean is, this dark magic is probably something this child was born with, using it like breathing... I can’t use transfiguration like breathing.”

After Dumbledore finished speaking, he began to break free of the shadow chains binding him. Overall, it wasn't difficult, since Dumbledore's magic power of over a hundred years was truly too much for Kane's eleven-year-old shadow to withstand.

"Where to next?" Kingsley also broke free of his chains.

"Just a not-so-evil little gentleman. He shouldn't be playing the 'three burrows' trick with us. Let's go to his motel," Dumbledore calmly commanded.

Just as Dumbledore and Kingsley were waiting in ambush, Kane was eating a hot dog while glancing at Maxwell beside him.

"We've known each other for so long, and you never even offered to help me out."

Maxwell raised an eyebrow: "You handled it all perfectly well without me. Besides, this isn't the Eternal Realm, so my authority isn't usable here. Unlike you, I don't know how you managed to blatantly...steal this Shadow Authority."

"Perhaps it's talent. Who knew that after I escaped the Eternal Realm, this shadow would still cling to me?" Kane sighed and took two more bites of his hot dog.

Moreover, the Shadow Authority isn't as useful as people think. The one in the Eternal Realm had a portion of his authority stolen, so it's no wonder he's upset. Just last night, he even had Shadow Monsters hunt him down, trying to take his authority and his life back with them.

Maxwell seemed to understand Kane's distress and comforted him, saying, "You are in the real world, so the shadows of the Eternal Realm that extend here will be weakened, but your shadows will not. This is your chance. Be prepared tonight, and you might just be able to snatch a few more shadows from His hands."

“I understand what you mean. I won’t be in such a sorry state tonight,” Kane said, as he arrived at the somewhat dilapidated motel.

As he took his keys out of his pocket and walked to his room, he suddenly frowned.

He decisively left the key on the ground and turned to leave, but he ran into Dumbledore and Kingsley once again.

“Young sir, your magic show isn’t finished yet,” Dumbledore said gently.