Having escaped famine, I was accepted into Hogwarts.

Chapter 149 This isn't friendship! This is Stockholm Syndrome!

Chapter 149 This isn't friendship! This is Stockholm Syndrome!

"Dumbledore? I heard you wanted to see me?" Kane pushed open the door to the headmaster's office, where Dumbledore was crunching on a cockroach... oh, a chocolate cockroach.

When Dumbledore saw Kane come in, he quickly pushed the plate of cockroaches towards him: "You really should try this. It's a new product from Bee Duke. It has a chocolate shell and a mint filling. It's refreshing and not too sweet."

Kane waved his hand: "Uh, no thanks, my chocolate is mint-filled too."

As he spoke, he took out the Willy Wonka chocolate that Malfoy had presented to him from his pocket, broke off a piece, and looked at the filling of the chocolate with a strange expression.

"What's in here? Why does it feel so... eerie?"

Kane handed a slightly smaller piece of chocolate to Dumbledore, intending to let him take a look, after all, it was the wisdom and experience of an elder.

Dumbledore was truly wise; he recognized the filling at a glance.

"Catnip."

As soon as Dumbledore finished speaking, Kane readily threw the remaining chocolates into the burning fireplace in the distance. Just as he was pondering whether he should stuff Malfoy into the fireplace as well, Dumbledore tasted the catnip chocolate.

"Hmm, to be honest, it tastes pretty good. Let me check the trash can... it's still quite clean!"

Dumbledore, without the slightest air of a headmaster or concern for decorum, picked up the chocolate from the trash can: "In this life, the opinions of others are not important. Of course, I think you agree with this statement, so I don't need to say more."

As Dumbledore spoke, he began to savor the chocolate in his hand, and the feeling of ecstasy even made Kane feel a tiny bit... guilty?

This old man is so poor, yet he loves sweets so much, and I had a piece of chocolate, so I threw it in the trash right in front of him... It just feels like I was deliberately insulting him.

So... is Dumbledore subtly trying to morally blackmail me?

Kane had a strange intuition that Dumbledore had some difficult, abstract, and messed-up task for him to do again.

Clearly, his intuition was accurate. After Dumbledore had eaten all the chocolate cockroaches and catnip chocolates, he finally spoke.

"So, how is Tom doing these days?"

"The training program was very successful. He no longer dares to talk to me about random things, and he has fewer inappropriate thoughts, such as wanting to trade with me on an equal footing."

Dumbledore: "???"

He seemed to remember that when he handed Tom over to Kane, they didn't say that.

Kane noticed Dumbledore's confusion and added, "Don't worry, one day I'll train this Mr. Tom into my little puppy. If I tell him to go east and he dares to look west, I'll..."

At this point, Dumbledore finally couldn't help but raise his hand to interrupt Kane. Although he had experienced all sorts of bizarre events and encountered all sorts of abstract people in his long life, how could someone as abstract as Kane plan such a bizarre thing?

To be honest, this is my first time.

Kane was also helpless. He couldn't imagine what it would feel like to pretend to be a good student and get the secret room out of Tom.

People can't imagine colors they haven't seen before, so it's clear that Kane would find it difficult to pretend to be a nice guy.

We can't just hand this book over to Neville.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, slumped back in his chair, utterly exhausted. He was currently pondering how to get Kane to willingly agree to such a slightly embarrassing thing, and of course, how to make himself less embarrassed.

After all, he had already simulated the method he had anticipated...emmm...

Why don't you ask him for help yourself?

For Kane, this was probably the most enjoyable day of his Hogwarts studies.

Because Dumbledore made a very sincere request to him, and took out his three mint chocolates, real mint chocolates, which were his most treasured possessions.

"Oh, Dumbledore, I'm almost embarrassed to accept this," Kane said, beaming as he put the chocolate into his little pumpkin.

"So, you've granted my request?" Dumbledore said, looking at the little pumpkin with a big tongue sticking out behind Kane, with a hint of regret.

"Don't worry, it's just a secret room. I'll definitely help you find out where that thing is."

Kane readily agreed, and for a moment, an eerie atmosphere filled the entire principal's office.

After some time, Harry, Harry, and their two companions returned to the Gryffindor common room, looking utterly exhausted from Snape's torment. There they saw Kane lounging comfortably on a small fabric sofa, legs crossed, looking around at two books.

"Reading two books at the same time? Won't you develop a split personality?" Hermione walked over curiously, just about to see what Kane was up to, when he subconsciously slapped the Shadow Codex and Tom's book together face to face.

Suddenly feeling bullied for no apparent reason, Tom instinctively wanted to swear. Hermione, seeing Kane's strong reaction, sighed helplessly, "So sensitive? By the way, this book wasn't given to you by Dumbledore again, was it? Can't you even take a look?"

"That's absolutely right, you can't even take a peek." Kane said, closing the book with Tom's book and sitting down in a seat where no one could stand behind him or see Tom's pages. He continued talking to Tom in the book.

Thanks to Dumbledore's earnest advice, Tom is now truly experiencing what it means to be treated like a human being, something he hasn't done in a long time.

Although it still couldn't compare to the treatment I received from those three wizards, big and small, it was much better than being tortured like a dog before.

They're finally living a normal life.

Thinking this way, even the words that were constantly being entered into the book seemed quite charming to Tom in the book. In fact, this little wizard wasn't so bad, was he?

Is it possible that he wasn't a bad little wizard? Or that his childhood experiences simply gave him a set of armor to fight back?

Actually, I wasn't tormented by him; it was just that I liked to spin around in circles.

Poor Tom, being only in fifth grade, lacked strong willpower. If there had been another character in the book, even a seventh-grade Tom, he could have easily woken up little Tom with his scolding.

Merlin, my poor child, this is not a damned friendship, but Stockholm syndrome!

Tom, who had been turned into a fool by the Shadow Codex, was unaware of all this. He thought Kane had changed his ways, become kind, and that he had won Kane's trust.

Until this day a week later...

Kane, who was in the dormitory, finally finished looking at the enormous map of Yan State and asked a question that would completely wake Tom up.

>