Chapter 3
At the same moment the words took shape, Gabin finally reached his mental limit. The breath he had been holding in his chest slowly exhaled, and his mind and magic were no longer connected to the Lumos spell.
The light spots in front of him, once he lost control, lingered for only an instant before scattering and extinguishing one by one.
But it didn't matter. As long as they had once existed, that was enough.
Gabin's eyes carried a trace of delight.
As someone with mutism, communicating with others was extremely inconvenient. Of course he always carried a notebook, but that didn't feel magical at all.
Now things were different — wand out, words appearing directly. Quick and concise and very cool.
At least that's what Gabin thought.
He also had another layer of consideration, combining some half-remembered ideas from his previous life with what he had learned about magic in this world.
Perhaps there existed — or could be created — an alternative way of structuring spells, one that used written or manifested symbols in place of traditional wand movements.
The symbol would stand in for the usual gesture circuit; the incantation (or its intent) combined with focused power would then produce the effect.
The reality might be completely different, but it was still worth experimenting with.
Although he was mute, if the "language" formed by Lumos could serve the function of a verbal spell's magic circuit and then be combined with the wand-motion circuit…
…then he could cast spells just like a normal person.
Of course, it might fail — just like his earlier attempt to replace spoken incantations with a sequence of precise hand signs to form a complete magic circuit.
Because he couldn't figure out the exact relationship between the gestures and the resulting circuit, that attempt had failed.
But so what if it failed? He hadn't lost much; on the contrary, his understanding of magic circuits had deepened.
And even if this symbol-based approach failed too, hadn't he already gained a very useful side product — the ability to communicate with others without barriers?
After arriving in this world — especially after discovering he was mute — there had been a period when he felt extremely down, convinced that his life would once again be that of a failure, just like his previous one.
But the arrival of that acceptance letter had opened a ray of light into his world.
There really was something as interesting as magic in the world — and the key point was that he could actually learn it, master it.
So what if he was mute? Hadn't he already mastered silent casting of both the Levitation Charm and Lumos?
Even if the difficulty of learning was ten times greater than for others, he would simply put in ten times the effort to catch up and surpass them.
Not to mention he possessed a talent others could not match: his total magic capacity alone was ten times that of others, enough to support endless spell practice.
As long as he didn't give up, even if he could never become a grand wizard like Dumbledore, at the very least he could live very well in this world.
Go see the sights of the magical world, enjoy the kind of life he had never experienced in his previous existence.
As for Voldemort and Harry Potter — Gabin's current thinking was simple: mutual non-interference. That side already had a very complete storyline. If he meddled too much, who knew what unexpected consequences might arise.
In any case, in the end the evil Voldemort would die, and the Boy Who Lived would win the final victory.
Worst case, during those last two years he could just leave and avoid the storm, then come back after everything was over.
With firm goals and a clear mind, Gabin opened the door of the Room of Requirement and walked out.
Today was Halloween Eve. Although he didn't have any special feelings about the holiday here, it was still a festive occasion — at the very least, the variety of food in the Great Hall would be noticeably greater than usual.
Then he saw Hermione sitting nearby with her head buried.
Gabin scratched his head.
Although he said "mutual non-interference," they were still classmates in the same House after all, and he usually maintained an ordinary classmate relationship with her.
Compared to his surface-level relationship with Harry and Ron, he was noticeably closer to Hermione — they could be considered regular friends.
When term first started and Hermione heard there was a mute student in their House, she came straight to him and said that if he ever needed help or didn't understand something in his studies, he could come to her.
There was no helping it — she was just that warm-hearted, kind, proactive, and action-oriented.
On the Hogwarts Express she had even dragged Neville from compartment to compartment asking if anyone had seen his pet toad.
That level of initiative was something even Gabin — with an adult soul — couldn't match.
Unless what was lost wasn't a toad but a kilogram of gold.
Later, after arriving at the school, the two frequently ran into each other in the library. Hermione greatly admired Gabin's studious attitude and felt a kind of joy at finding a kindred spirit.
And so they gradually became friends.
On the surface, it looked as though Hermione was the one enthusiastically taking care of poor, talented-but-mute classmate Gray.
But Gabin also deliberately maintained the relationship with Hermione. As a mute person, he needed to observe other people casting spells in order to learn them.
Of course, part of the reason was also that Hermione really was quite cute.
Who doesn't like an adorable little girl?
Gabin patted Hermione on the shoulder, waking her.
In the original story, Hermione should have been hiding in the girls' bathroom crying at this point, then — when the troll attacked that night — been rescued by Harry and Ron, after which the Gryffindor adventure-and-point-losing trio would officially form.
But perhaps because of Gabin's existence, when Ron said she didn't have a single friend, Hermione thought of him.
Unfortunately, by the time she followed him up to the seventh floor she was one step too late — she didn't see him anywhere. Then, overwhelmed with sadness, she cried and cried until she fell asleep.
"Hm?" Hermione lifted her head and opened her brown eyes to look at Gabin.
Her eye rims were still red; she had clearly been crying not long ago.
Seeing Gabin, Hermione remembered what had happened earlier and why she was here.
She quickly stood up, turned her back to him, rubbed her eyes with both hands, and scrubbed her face like a kitten trying to wake herself up.
Only after she felt everything looked normal did she turn around to face him again.
"Gray, why are you here?" Hermione asked.
She actually also wanted to ask where he had just gone and why she hadn't seen him when she came up.
But she was afraid he would then ask her why she followed him, and why she had fallen asleep here.
How embarrassing would it be to admit she had been cried into hiding by someone's words?
"I was practicing magic over there just now." Gabin waved his right hand; a string of silver-glowing words appeared along his wand.
After succeeding once before, doing it again felt noticeably more practiced.
Silver sparkles reflected in Hermione's eyes. She stared in wonder at Gabin's wand and at the gradually fading words.
"What is this? What spell is that? I've never seen it before."
Hermione's attention was instantly captured by the magic.
"Lumos — I modified it so it can speak for me," Gabin wrote with a smile.
Under Hermione's gaze, he gave a small demonstration: the Lumos light points shrinking, then rearranging themselves into formation.
"Oh my goodness, Gray, that's amazing! I can barely control one lumos spell, but you can control so many…" Hermione exclaimed.
"It's nothing special," Gabin said modestly. He glanced at the pitch-black sky outside the castle and wrote to her "The Halloween feast is about to start. Let's head to the Great Hall."
"Okay." Hermione's expression showed some hesitation, but she eventually nodded.
The two of them walked downstairs together. Halfway down, Hermione suddenly spoke.
"Gray… are we… friends?" Her voice was very quiet, lacking its usual confidence.
Gabin turned his head. Hermione had tilted her face to the left; he couldn't see her full expression, only the thick brown hair and the still slightly baby-fat side of her cheek.
Gabin smiled inwardly. He flicked his wand with his right hand; a silver-glowing word appeared and floated in front of Hermione.
"Of course."